The Art of Compromise

After an extremely long week at work I hopped on a late commuter train to spend a blissful weekend with my parents and our spoiled (but worth it) Pups.

Not surprisingly I was eagerly anticipating a frosty beer. Ok fine, on the train its luke cold at best. Regardless, beer was the reward at the end of a particularly dark tunnel.

As the Train Attendant (ummm… I’m not sure if that’s a thing) wheeled the cart towards me I prepared both my crispy ten dollar bill and my appetite to be whetted.

Turns out I was in for some disappointing news. Beer, as was requested, was sold out in all varieties. Let’s face it, if they had Coors Light left I’d still consider it sold out.

I sat and pouted for a bit but the lady eagerly offered me other options, to which I continued my pouting, until she landed on the magic backup option – brown liquor.

So here I sit, enjoying my Friday Compromise – a Scotch and Soda.

Happy Friday Everyone 🙂 and a belated Thanksgiving to my American friends.

And Now for Something Completely Different: Uplift!

I usually reserve my postings on this blog to either laugh, rant or just plain old review the events and situations that happen in my daily life.  While I’ll be the first to admit it is the epitome of a narcissistic venture to expect other people to be entertained by the happenings in my existence, I enjoy the experience of story telling nonetheless.

Outside of my seemingly vapid and purposeless ramblings, I do subscribe to charitable work and volunteering as a crucial part of my life and what makes me who I am.  I picked up the volunteerism bug from my Mother and have always enjoyed it as an aspect of my world, however small of a fraction it may be.  Some people, however, have an aspect of Charity, Volunteerism, Activism, Social change, just general ‘Do Good’ness or whatever you want to call it so deeply woven into the fabric of their lives that its one of the first things you notice about them.  My friend Nisha (sometimes referred to on here as Brown Squirrel) is one of those people, and its one of the many things I love about her.

Nisha and her Partner have just embarked on an exciting project that seeks to draw attention to issues throughout the globe and, more importantly, to introduce us to the Changemakers that are spending their lives trying to address those issues head on.  Instead of spending more time describing what an interesting and amazing little human my friend is, I implore you to take a few minutes of your day and visit her Kickstarter page where you can watch a short but engaging video that describes their project and their fundraising goals.

Uplift Kickstarter Fundraising Page

If this grabs your attention, please share with your Social Networks or throw some of your hard earned dollars their way!  If you happen to have $500 spare dollars, I can confirm that the Dinner Party or Skype chat will be hugely entertaining.

Goodluck to Nisha and the rest of the team at Uplift!

SisterFest: Almost Birthday Fail

Best laid plans, or not so much …

As my Sister’s 35th birthday was landing on Thanksgiving weekend, I planned well in advance for the two of us to have a night on the town together a la Cirque du Soleil! I actually ordered the tickets in July using Aeroplan points and arranged fancy pants VIP treatment. Needless to say we were both pretty excited.

Being that I’m an exceptional planner, it was not exactly expected when as we attempted to enter the Grand Chapiteau we were informed that our tickets weren’t for that evening – they were for the prior Friday. Fail! My jaw hit the floor and we shuffled over to the box office to see what, if anything, could be done.

Box office is maybe a generous term, considering that Cirque is a traveling show and all facilities are mobile. Thusly, we stood in front of a mobile ticket booth as I told my sob story. Thankfully the Customer service woman was helpful and determined that not only were my tickets not for the day I had purchased but they weren’t even in my name. Thanks Aeroplan, so glad I paid that extra fee so you would make my reservation for me. Bunch of jerks.

In the end Cirque issued us re-invitation tickets for another night, including the VIP addition! Extremely pleased with how helpful they were, minus a couple of points for it taking an entire hour and us standing outside in the rain during the process.

Thankfully Sister was manning the phone during this time and got us a reservation nearby at Gilead Wine bar, so libations and sustenance were not far off. Dinner was wonderful and we were able to salvage an otherwise awkwardly cancelled evening.

Entertainingly, our dinner was at a restaurant that sat directly across from some modern town homes that had giant glass windowed kitchens. Throughout dinner we were able to semi-creepily be amused by the goings-on in the various kitchens.

The most interesting events occurred in one particular unit where a handsome (from a distance, at least) man carefully made what I could only imagine to be the most delicious popcorn. He had one of those fancy popcorn makers with the red bottom and large glass top, which he placed in front of a large white bowl. Once the popcorn was popped, he slowly poured butter over the bowl and then added THREE further toppings – two shaken, one more poured. He then carefully tossed the ingredients in the bowl with two wooden spoons!

I was far too intrigued by the whole process, but the waiter stopped by and admitted that we weren’t the first guests to be mesmerized by the popcorn routine!


Despite the giant clusterfuck that our evening began as, we managed to have a great night out and had even more birthday goodness in the weekend – which is another story.

The Cost Of Bravery

Thanks to a cleanse I’m currently wrapping up I’ve been riddled with extra time and energy. Not to say that I normally sloth about (Au contraire, I’m usually a hub of activity), but I tend to zone out on week nights if I actually find myself at home.

Normally when I get home after work (if I go home and not out somewhere, that is) I spend my evening eating, relaxing and preparing for the next days activities. Last night, however, I had ants in my pants so I figured I’d put my energy to good use and clean our two common bathrooms. As they say, Idle hands are the devils playground.

I set about cleaning with my Perfect Housewife gloves on and my trusty cleaning products at the ready. All went without incident on the main floor so I made my way to the basement to finish up.

While reaching for the toilet brush, I noticed a bit of a spiders web and a few minutes later saw the tenant crawling up the wall. Armed with a protective glove, I thought I’d man up and handle the situation myself – instead of just repeatedly bugging one of my roommates to kill it for me.

Glove on. Kleenex balled up. I am ready.

I squash the intruder and quickly go to drop the Kleenex in thee toilet but Sacrebleu! the glove was wet and the Kleenex was stuck to it! Sheer panic ran through my body as I frantically tried to separate the hopefully dead spider from my gloved hand.

I finally free myself from my (dead) tormentor and take a moment to catch my breath.

Bravery is exhausting.

Gallery 501

I feel like such an Artiste!

I joined some colleagues this evening at an event called “Paint Nite” – which is, well, pretty self explanatory.

You choose which night you are going to go based on the painting you’d like to end up with. We chose the Toronto skyline, and I sincerely doubted it’s Easy rating.


The instructor guides you through the evening in a relatively easy to follow step-by-step manner. Easy to follow ended for me when any variety of creativity was involved. Making randomly shaped buildings proved especially taxing. The instructions for our painting included lots of reflections in the water and highlights on the buildings from the sunset – that seemed entirely too difficult so I finished with my wonky CN tower.

Et Voila! My strange looking Toronto on its 501 Streetcar Gallery Tour through the heart of the city.


If I end up keeping it, I’m pretending a little kid did it.

None Shall Pass

Nothing beats a giant commuting clusterfuck on a Wednesday morning!

While bobbling along on the streetcar this morning, I noticed that the traffic seemed a bit heavy. Shortly after that thought, the streetcar driver came on the horn to first ask everyone near a window to ensure theirs was open and secondly – which really should have been firstly – that something was blocking the road ahead. He then added that if we were in any kind of hurry he would suggest getting off and walking.

Not an awesome sign.

I get off the streetcar and see a chain of other stranded streetcars waiting ahead of me – definitely a sign to try a new route. As I pass through Leslieville and approach the train bridge near Degrassi street (yes, that Degrassi) I see a Fire truck clearly blocking the road.

This set up is clearly blocking the actual issue, and I can’t help but start laughing when I see what the actual problem is. Some silly truck piled high with some metal structures clearly didn’t quite fit. Kudos to the driver for almost making it before his cargo started to fall off.

Sorry for the crap photo, I was laughing and surrounded by uniformed police and firemen – so I was clearly distracted

So here I am, finally on another streetcar route and only lost about 20 minutes, and gained a pile of humid morning sweat. I should have just got to the gym this morning!

That Would Buy a LOT of Popcorn

After a busy weekend of racing around the woods at Warrior Dash, D and I decided to cap off our weekend by seeing a movie at the new Cineplex VIP theater at Yonge and Dundas. The tickets are more expensive but they gain access to a smaller theater with large arm chair style seating and, most importantly, in-seat Food and Beverage service.  Beer, in the theater, brought directly to my seat? YES PLEASE.

So we avoided cottage traffic and toured down Airport Road lazily back towards the city eventually arriving at the theater with just enough time to find out seats and place our food and beverage orders with the waiter.  He was very friendly and carefully repeated our order before tallying everything up.  He handed me the credit machine and I went through the familiar sequence of button pressing.  When he asked if I wanted my copy I said absolutely not, those things always end up bunched up at the bottom of my purse!

Our beverages arrived shortly and the movie was about to begin.  All snuggled into my favourite sweater, in a big comfy chair, bird-sipping a beer (apparently that’s what my Mom says I do) and about to watch a comedy – what a great Sunday evening after an adventurous weekend.  This arrangement is very similar to the Gold Class theater experience I enjoyed in Australia, but not quite as awesome – the seats in Gold Class were unreal.

Our waiter suddenly reappears and hands me a copy of the receipt.  He then explains that he went ahead and voided the transaction as he assumed my almost FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR TIP was likely accidental.  Holy hell, accidental for sure! I like to think that I’m generous, but a 992% tip is a bit unnecessary – it was only two drinks and entrees!

The curious bit though is how that happened, neither the dollar amount nor the percentage of the tip bear any resemblance to my pin number or to what I would normally tip in this situation.  Thanks random Cineplex dude, while I’m confident I could dispute the charges had this actually gone through, I’m happy that he had the mindset to correct my fault right away.  Hopefully my 20% tip wasn’t a bummer.

 

Let Your Fun Out!

Sometimes working in the heart of the Financial District is awesome. Sometimes, not so much, but today I will focus on the awesome.

Summertime brings out all sorts of Interesting marketing campaigns in downtown Toronto – get out there and meet new customers while us office dwellers actually spend time out doors during the nicer summer months, right?  While some tactics are more commonplace, like the free sample handouts (8 Belvita Breakfast Cookies and counting!), others are more inventive and eye catching.

I had a bit of a double header last week in the the marketing slash free stuff category.  First off I received an email from Uber  indicating it was their second annual ice cream day.  For those that may not know Uber, its an App that lets you set up an account, order taxis and provides you with information on the driver (like their name and phone number), where the cab is exactly located and automatically charges your credit card when your ride ends. Given that I love to take cabs (read: lazy as hell) and never have cash on me, this App lets me hail a cab with ease avoid the hassle of them not wanting to take credit.  For whatever reason (probably the built in tip the App suggests) Cabs seem to like working with Uber. So, totally Win Win.

What makes Uber even more awesome is that they are totally committed to experiential marketing in the best possible way.  The company frequently offers up promotions that mostly have nothing to do with taking a cab, but offer you a chance to experience their service while doing or receiving something fun.  Today, for example, as of 11am you could open up your Uber App and order an Ice Cream truck, on demand.  Other promotions have included Poutine delivery during NXNE here in Toronto, Rose delivery on Valentines day, and my favourite Kitten play time in a few cities.  They even have Uber Boat taxis up in Muskoka now, and recently started delivering Grand Electric Tacos and Steam Whistle Beer, by boat. These guys are awesome.

Sorry, I seemed to digress a little there.  So at 11 am, I opened up my Uber App, ordered some Ice Cream and grabbed some coworkers.  The truck showed up as promised and passed out 5 freshly swirled cones and typical Uber swag – sunglasses (Hey Uber, time to change this up! I could outfit a small country in your fake wayfarers by now!).  This was already a quick and fun break from the office, but then we saw this:

I had noticed the strange blow up tent thing a few days ago, but was never close enough to check it out.  As we had some time to kill eating our cones, we decided to see what the KD Fun Shop had to offer.  The idea is that you browse around the shop, select an item and then go to the checkout to pay – but this store doesn’t accept money, it accepts FUN. Each item has a sticker on it that outlines what type of fun you must have in order to ‘buy’ your item.  If you wanted a set of Kraft Dinner bed sheets (for serious, that was an item) you had to recite a KD rap.  Maybe you were interested in a KD Tshirt that turns into a Horse Mask if you pull it over your head? That’ll cost you a Robot Dance. I ended up selecting a pair of ‘Funderpants’ and had to crack out my best Chicken impersonation.  Fun? Yes! Professional? Maybe not.  Sadly no one snapped a photo of my excellent performance.

While a bit on the cheesy side, it was a fun way to kill fifteen minutes, get a hilarious novelty item and a free box of Kraft Dinner.  Well done guys.

I even found an excuse to don my brand new KD Funderpants at the Warrior Dash!

Intruder Alert

Who says Guard cats aren’t a thing?

Prince William was doing the rounds this morning and in place of the usual squirrels, he found the neighbourhood tomcat Bean sitting sentry. He kept an evil eye on Bean and made little angry noises until the much larger feline left the vicinity – presumably of his own volition (just don’t tell Billie that).

Clearly the homestead is safe and sound and we can all sleep well at night.

I’ve Got 99 Problems, and a Hip is Definitely One

What am I, 90? Seriously, who has a bum hip at 31?

To be fair, I was technically born with a bum hip as I suffered from a congenital hip location at birth.  One of our family dogs had a dislocated hip when I was younger, Dad likes to say it “runs in the family” – Hilarious, I’m sure.  Thankfully I was lucky enough to have the Miracle workers at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, led by the Late Great Dr. Robert Salter, ensure I was a fully functional biped.

All seemed well in the joint until last Winter during the beginning of my Half Marathon Training.  All of a sudden I couldn’t put my left boot on – you know that motion when you bring your lower leg up inwards and sideways so its easier to slip on a boot or a sock?  Yup, couldn’t do that. Thankfully with the combo of rest and lots of Physio, Massage and Chiro I was able to finish my training and run my Half Marathon – Hooray!  The immobility seemingly disappeared, but decided to make a reappearance at the end of summer and this time it brought pain and general discomfort with it to the party.

The second round of assaulting my body with all forms of paramedical services alarmingly was of no help – if anything, I seemed to be getting worse.  I trotted off to see a Sports Medicine Doctor and was promptly ordered an MRA – which is just a regular MRI but with a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad needle beforehand.  Hooray Health Canada, I had my free MRI and associated ‘with contrast’ scary needle procedure booked and completed within a month – keeping in mind this isn’t a medically critical issue.   I love Canada.

To jump to the end of the story, it turns out I have a tear in the labrum of my left hip joint.  Sparing you a detailed anatomy lesson: where my leg bone meets my hip bone, there is a soft thingy that helps them connect, its torn.  The tear causes irritation, which causes inflammation, which then irritates and and inflames everything nearby.  Boo.

So that’s pretty much where I am today.  I know there is an issue that might involve surgery, but it requires a very specialized doctor and I’m pretty far down the list of urgency.  Canada is still awesome, but I’m likely not going to hear from the Surgeon to even have a consultation until the summer and the request went back in November.  In the meantime, I get to spend a ton of time with my Physiotherapist (thankfully she’s fun), which means lots of Ass-upuncture (I’ll spare you the photos, this time) and really just hoping the problem will go away on its own.

Oh, and it hurts more when its cold.  I really am 90.

Bonus points: Apparently this is exactly the same injury Lady Gaga had last year and has clearly recovered well from surgery.  I’ll take what I can get.

In unrelated news – I was invited to join in on a preview of a Brand new GoodLife Fitness Club this week as part of a Blogger event and wrote a recap of my experience for the great people of I’m Fit Possible, check it out!  It was a great night and an excellent opportunity to meet up with some other Bloggy Ladies including Sarah from My Mostly Healthy Life, Tara from I’m Fit Possible, and Krysten from The Misadventures of a Darwinian Fail.  We managed to grab a group shot at the end – clearly after I’d switched back into my new winter boots!

Myself, Tara, Krysten & Sarah