My Conundrum
So I haven't written a real blog in ages. See the problem I face is when I have time to write it means really I've been a lazy ass and I haven't been doing anything or observing enough to feel passionate about writing. I mean really, do you want to read about how I woke up, went to work, worked *can't discuss work in intimate details, although if I could I would write for hours. Came home, made dinner, went to the gym with Ker, watched C.S.I.... again, then went to bed, had some hot sex* *just seeing if you were still reading. Then did the same the next day.
So what I'm saying is, if I'm not blogging it means I'm out there LIVING hehe, oh living, it's so random.
It was Kerry's birthday last Friday. I was of course... last minute Sarah on Friday at 2pm picking my staff's brains for places to go on Saturday night because the plan was I had a suprise... .haha....... surprise, I had no plan. So then Joanne got talking about a comedian that she had seen the night before who was super funny and that he was at Yuk Yuks on Saturday night too. His name was Dan Quinn... hmmmm Dan Quinn the name was so familiar.
Thus started the random spiral of events. I had met Dan Quinn a couple of years back in Vancouver when he had tried to pick my friend and I up after a concert. Nothing transpired except he got us into SkyBar in Vancouver (there's a dresscode, we were not at all dressed close the dresscode). So he was like, yeah I'm a famous comedian, I can get us in. So of course we got in, but my friend and I were like... who the hell is Dan Quinn.... He disappeared and we had a super night which is another story.
Which takes us to Saturday night. We had some wine, headed to Yuk Yuks in a taxi* *I've never taken so many cabs in my life, but honest to god we were not going to walk in the rain and insane wind, and if you know me, you know I'm cheap and I will walk to the ends of the earth and always hunt down sketchy free parking, so when I say insane frigid wind, you have to believe me.
We got our tickets and then had appetizers and appetizers galore with wine at Milestones... mmmmmmmmmm. Got back to Yuk Yuks and only seats left were right under the mic. Hehe, so fun. My face hurt so badly from laughing for 2 hours straight. I know that if I ever have a depression episode (no history thus far but who knows right?) I will go to comedy clubs to laugh my ass off until I snap out of it. Although I hear that you can't just snap out of a depression, but if I were a doctor, I would prescribe comedy clubs 3 times a week, exercise, sex, and no trans fats.
Dan Quinn was hillarious and as the night went on his jokes got dirtier to the point of targeting Ker and I for one of his last jokes which included asking me if I suck Ker's balls. Awkward blog silence.
We walked from there and in the insane frigid wind *drunk... so now my blood couldn't freeze so I could walk. We went to a tiny bar on Spadina inbetween Richmond and Adelaide called Wide Open. Ker and I had walked past it a lot when we were sober and out for city walks *which we used to do a lot of before the insane frigid winds of Toronto came out.
So we go in and love it immediately, you know when you've found your local and this is it. Unpretentious, maybe seats 20, maybe stands 50... live band, no one wearing stupid haloween costumes (I hate haloween). We ordered drinks and then ended up doing shots with a couple who recommended "harley davidson shots". Jack Daniels, Frangelico and hmm something else, I don't remember. We got talking to them, actually Ker started a heated sci-fi debate and I just remember wondering how we got to talking about the bible translated into Kling-on... god. The bar owner came in and started dancing, he knew our new friends Jennifer and JP. I went to the bathroom and when I came back they all turned, looked at me and from there it was a blur of art talk, agreements, bets and handshakes. Ker had talked me up while I was gone for 5 mins. When we walked out of that bar we had bet $100 we couldn't produce a 24 photo exhibit in 3 days... and agreed to have the art hung on Wednesday.
We laughed about it all the way home, then had hot sex* haha* you're still reading. Then woke up Sunday morning *SHIT we have an art exhibit to do. My head hurt. Long long story short, we did it. Actually a big thanks to Ker for hanging them yesterday with chains and S hooks and his mad standing on bar stool skills.
We went for drinks with our friend David later on and realized that knowing the bartender pays triple fold, and today. My head hurts.
Night Shooting
This is down on the boardwalk in Toronto just off of Queen St. East.
Just an idea *ping
This blog is for my fiance Kerry who left today at 2pm to drive North to Barrie for work meetings.
It really is dangerous to leave me by myself with no cable in an unknown city. Let me re-iterate that, not dangerous in the self-harming way, more in the self reflection and indulgence way.
I haven't been in this condo by myself yet for this long so I went for a walk by the lake and then ended up at Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) where I intended to buy toilet paper. This is the part where I actually explain the title. Fortunately for convenience sake and unfortunately for my bank account this SDM is brand new. I observed some life lessons during the 30 minutes I was encapsulated in consumer bliss.
I came to the conclusion that women have to make more choices in everyday life than men. It's true that as women we choose to choose, however we are also given more choice and required to decide more frequently than men. Let's take hair conditioner for instance, men generally speaking look at price first, quantity second and smell third... purpose is purpose and regardless of their hair the conditioner is just something they use.
Ok, so because I'm a woman I'll generalize my choice process by speaking for all women. Firstly I look at the bottles, which colour appeals to me most. Then I look at the brands... reliable brands that do the job or, the exciting brand I've never tried. Let's face it, if I'd tried every brand of hair conditioner that would just be outrageous. It's quite the commitment depending on the size of the bottle and the length of your hair. Really, what if it sucks? Then you're stuck with a conditioner that you will try to hint that your significant other or roomate use. They will, they'll realize it sucks... or if your other is male, he will use it anyhow, but at a pace that a 2 year old would eat broccoli.
Back to my point, so you find the bottle you like, the colour you like, the brand you trust. That leaves the smell. It's strange how some conditioners can smell great in the bottle and crap on your head, or not at all when you let your hair down and expect to smell yummy $5 a bottles worth of frangrant bliss. Now another thing I failed to mention is ingredients.
What the hell is in hair conditioner? Even if it says on the bottle that it's "Honey Nut Conditioner" do you really think there's honey and nuts in that bottle? That's where my shopping trip started to get longer. I was then not just looking for a conditioner, I was looking through the ingredients for one that actually had the very "thing" stated on the front of the bottle, listed as an ingredient inside the bottle.
So for interest and research sake, here is what is in Life Brand "Honey Nut Conditioner" in order:
- Water
- Stearalkonium chloride
- Cetyl Alcohol
- Hydroxyethylcellulose
- DMDM Hydantoin
- Parfum
- PEG/PPG-18/18
- Dimethicone
- Benzophenone 3
- Citric Acid
- Bertholletia Excelsa
- Yellow 5
- Red 4
- Violet 2
So I researched some of these ingredients and now I'm scared to use conditioner. *pout I'd include links to the toxic reports on the chemicals above however I think you'd read them and be scared too. Really I'm doing you a favour by not including the ones I found. This really is a trainwreck.
I'll get to the point. In order to make decision making easier I think that stores in the future could do a lot more to help out their consumers. For instance all I wanted was toilet paper, easy decision:- more paper for least dollars. I didn't want to stand and do the math in the aisle, hmm well if Royal has a 12 pack and each roll costs .34 cents. My god it's a grade 10 math exam. Can we not make this easier?
I think I had a point somewhere.
The Sunday Morning after
I honestly hope there's calm after this because the last 7 weeks have been a rollercoaster ride! I'm happy I haven't lost my mind, I'm estatic that I've dealt with stress by seeing the humour in the situation. The irony, the beauty and raw human nature and emotion.
Since July 20th I have:
- Purged and packed all my belongings into neat labelled boxes and shipped them to Toronto
- Unpacked damaged boxes and cursed the moving company
- Learnt 20 new partner (staff names), likes, dislikes, scheduling concerns/preferences, life events, passions, phone numbers
- Learnt my new phone numbers and address
- Moved into a small but amazing condo with my fiance (who has been incredibly supportive through all this)
- Navigated through the TTC (toronto public transit system)
- Connected with my regular customers, memorized their drinks.... grande 2 pump sugar free vanilla, lactaid, 1 sweet and low, no foam, extra hot latte.... ( x 7,000 customers in a week)
- Memorized street names, Starbucks locations and store manager names
- Went to V-Fest, Ben Harper, Hawksley Workman and possibly more ear drum killers! Yahhh!
- Lived through Toronto International Film Festival without having time to go and see a film... but I got to hear about them ALOT
- Was asked countless times which stars I've seen.... to which I replied with fictious stars and stories. No, no I didn't I told the truth
- I saw Angelina Jolie and baby on Bloor street when I was going to the bank. When people ask what was she like, I reply... like a regular person, walking around with a baby strapped to her chest, but with a big old gucci bag... or at least whatever it was one of those bags
- I prepared my store for an impromtu visit from the man who started it all. Howard Schultz, chief global strategist and founder of Starbucks Coffee Company
- Met Howard Schultz as he toured my store, he's awesome
- Oh and finally, this one has been my sanity amongst this madness... I'm a stepmum and I love it! Kendra is a sweetie, Ker and I are so lucky
- Booked a 5* all inclusive vacation to Mexico with Ker. Going to meet up with the parents *grins, no really it's a good thing
All in all, life is amazing and I have it all in perspective.... I think I'm finally on the down side of this learning curve.
