We were pounded by a snowstorm. That was fine. But my fridge was empty and nothing in the known universe was open. Except Blockbuster.
1. Tostitos bite-size Rounds (surprisingly natural)
2. Tostitos salsa, medium (quite healthy, actually)
3. Dole orange juice (the only juice they carried)
Foodgroups in themselves, really.
1. A day wandering Kensington Market:
Market. Touch-ing exhibit. Helvetica film documentary DVD.
2. An evening at a houseparty:
Wine. Chopping vegetables. Turquoise ski pant advice.
3. A late night journey home:
Snow. Hailing taxi. Complimentary corporate cab chit.
1. Trekking through freshly fallen snow with the boys early on Sunday morning in a city hugged by the white blanket of winter.
2. Journeying through carol-filled hotel foyers and salons packed with young children wired on chocolate milk and sugary sweets.
3. Laughing through lunch as Lukas repeatedly offers me a green-coloured shortbread cookie wreath, dipped in bright yellow mustard.
1. Playing Animal Yoga with my nephews after lunch. ‘Be a tree!’ [Stand tall.] What else? ‘I know! Let's be turtles!’ [Get down, curl up, tuck head into shell.] ‘Let's be bacon!’ [Lie down flat on back. Sizzle as frying pan heats up.]
2. Walking with my brother in the late afternoon. Walked right into the nail salon, where my hands and feet got some much-needed tender loving maintenance.
3. Biking with my Toque eastward at sundown, facing a full moon and a warm wind. Biked right into Izzy on Bloor Street, where we got some much-needed Linner.
Random 1. It was quite warm outside, so I biked (again).
Random 2. A girl at work swiped me in with her passcard.
Random 3. Leftover mini-cheesecake, coffee bean on top.
AND my brother called me tonight. Myliu, broliuk!
The city was steeped in fog so thick you could scoop it up in your palm like bubbles in a bath. When it lifted, rays of sun hit the skyscrapers like daggers piercing through sheets of snow. She returned at night to tuck us back into bed.
Babe 1: The school President introduced herself to us at an alumni reception.
Babe 2: Jung took nice photos of us at Toronto's second annual Nuit Blanche.
Babe 3: Rhonda supplied two bottles of red wine, and the cups for us to sip from, for wandering through the streets and sitting in the park all night.
1. Over the moon: one beautiful letter from one beautiful boy.
2. Under the moon: rain drizzling down, smiling all the way home.
3. By the glow of the fridge light: late-night leftover lasagne.
1. J emailed me a job I might be interested in.
2. A emailed me from England, newly settled.
3. G emailed me from Madrid, newly re-settled.
And I got to read all those emails in the sunshine, in my bathing suit. Don't go, Summer!
1. Urban Beach: Chilling outdoors at hTO.
2. Gluteus maximus: It's-about-time massage!
3. Motion: While the West End slept, propelling through darkness like oxygen through blood. Late-night biking through empty streets and dark, warm, windy pockets.
1. Empathy: A friend, also hung over, listened.
2. Sunshine and Ice: Hot weather, cool pool water.
3. Silence: Peace and stillness, in contemplation.
If I could name today, I'd call it Rejection. Among its lights:
1. Waking up to the September cover of National Geographic magazine. Look at his eyes!
2. Jung and Benson met me in Kensington Market (where the incredible Nunca Antes, Brazilian Maracatu drummers, performed).
3. My wonderful friend Audra listened to me spilling my heart out from a payphone booth, folding bike parked outside, cell phone dead.
And I kept biking and biking, all the way home...
1. Arriving: to a new job, boss greeting me with a hug.
2. Sharing: men's washroom, door being guarded for me.
3. Biking: relaxed, buzzed, on a warm evening, across the city. My friend A answers her phone and invites me in when I spy her silhouette en route.
I love this dresscode: ‘Don't show your bits.’
1. ‘All the world's a stage’ – A woman was pacing through the streets calling out over and over, ‘Romeo!’ I'm not making light of it; it was beautiful.
2. ‘And all the men and women merely players’ – There really are good-looking gardeners all over suburbia.
3. ‘They have their exits and their entrances’ – I left the house late; I arrived at work early.
‘AND...
...one man in his time plays many parts’ – Thanks to my dad, who scanned Sunday’s Letraset. I added some colour and am quite pleased. Click here to view the result.
Bus station, 8:30 a.m.
HAMILTON, Ontario
1. As I'm eating crackers from the snack pack D prepared for me, a little sparrow hops over and says good morning. So I feel really special and share my crumbs.
2. Not a minute later, my new friend disappears, only to return with five others. They're really adorable. I keep feeding them, though I'm starting to feel like an old man on a park bench.
3. You can probably guess what happens next. They go away and come back with twenty of their best friends. I don't know how to feel, to be honest. They're crossing the line a little... but it's fun talking to them. (I hope all the people staring at me are having fun, too.)
Lo and behold, when I walk over to the bus, they all follow me.
It's awesome.
1. Learning: Portuguese people brought the ukelele to Hawai'i.
2. Reading: a thick, heavy memoir at the bookstore for only $2.
3. Blue Moon Beer: post-gig, a home brew ale on a back patio.
I'm told it was the second full moon this month. I'll toast to that!
1. Having a nice chat with one of my dad's friends.
2. Continuing to read one of my unfinished books.
3. Enjoying even more sunshine. With only eight precious weeks of summer, I will be a Tannasaurus Rex!
1. Tanned Canadian Bacon: Since summer officially arrived four days ago, I'm finally getting some colour on my white heiny.
2. Rustling: Midnight bike ride through the dark, windy 'burbs. All quiet but for the leaves in chorus and the quiet roar of the distant freeway (as opposed to the ocean rumbling off a Cuban beach).
3. Shalom! Voicemail from a long-lost Somebody. Or Nobody. I don't really know who he is... but everyone can have one international man of mystery to call their own, non? Oui?
1. Lazy day poolside, discussing the pros and cons of sunscreen.
2. Viewing some great shorts at the Worldwide Short Film Fest.
3. Stirring. Happy that someone moved me on the inside. It doesn't matter if we never meet again. What matters is that even for the broken and the jaded, there is always hope in matters of the heart.
1. Daiva took me on a full-day city bike tour. We biked it all, bottom to top. It was fabulous.
2. There is South Beach - and there is North Beach! And then some. And they are clean! Chicago is one of the world's most beautiful lakefront cities.
3. We rested at a Lincoln Park lookout point. Ice cream, ice cones, sunshine, text messaging and camera phones.
Funny, I wore a t-shirt all day that read ‘C-L-E-V-E-L-A-N-D’ . . .
