the good, the bad, the candy (i had a clever pun in mind, but i forgot it. so. instead.)

so. i've decided on my least favourite street in toronto. down with yonge street!!! curse you yonge street!

first. i was all a-ridin' down this above-named street. on my way to assisting sarah for a fitting for sears. (fun day. but that's not the point!) as i go through an intersection, my stylist-kit decides it's gonna spring open. not fall off the bike, mind. just open. and pour all its contents onto the road. boooo! so i stop. and i'm picking the things up, and there's some nice people helping me. but the traffic stopped at the red light - who can see me there picking up picking up - decide they can't wait even a second when the light turns green and they ZOOM towards me. so i step back. and one of my tide sticks gets run over. sigh. there wouldn't have been any casualties except the clear nail polish. thanks a LOT yonge-street-cars!

and THEN. while i was doing the sears-thing. someone. tried to steal my bike basket. but my bike basket was locked to my bike. so. instead. they just broke the basket-mount. (which didn't make my basket anymore steal-able. so it was POINTLESS!!!) ugh. so i had to buy a new mount and it was expensive. so. down with yonge! curse you yonge!



i bought a LOT of candy and even some chippies to make myself feel better. mostly, it worked. and also made me feel a bit dehydrated.

BUT! don't worry. toronto is still doing great. because yesterday, after yoga (which was WAY better than the last class at this studio where i thought they were STUPID...) i saw a KITTEN!!! okay. a small cat. but she was hecka friendly! and let me pet her lots. and she had a pretty pink name tag. hip-styling cat.





and then i had some more candy for dessert. so...

dad! are you in your office? can you turn on the printer?

i hadn't thought about how i was gonna print my resume... my printer will get here in september. shooot! so, um, i'll just send them to print on your wireless printer, yeah? and then you can rush courier them to me, yeah? sigh. fine. i'll find somewhere to print them. cause. check out this fancy map-and-list:





this week is application-fest!!!!!!
special thanks to ohmi for the restaurant guide which is helping me find places in my neighbourhood-ish that look worthwhile.

know who i love? greyhound parcel courier. holy heck. they're the best. why why WHY did i ever ship with anyone else? my two-tubs-and-one-box were hecka cheap to send station to station, and arrived in toronto on monday or tuesday... so. i think 6ish days, weekend included. and THEN! when they called me to tell me it had arrived, the nice phone-man said to me 'oh, did you know you can have it delivered to your door for $6.30?'. ummmmm. what?! that's freaking awesome! so deliver it to my door they did. for WAY cheaper than the taxi-back-from-the-station would have been. like, one million less! or. nearly.



d(el)orian news!

first the good news. he got a basket and a rear rack this week! and we're all pretty excited about it. i mounted the basket ever-so-slightly left leaning, but that's easy enough to fix. check it:





yup. he looks hecka swank.
and with the arrival of my greyhound parcels, i got my lights, bell, and helmet! suuuuper.

but the bad news. i also bought some pannier. and. they. SUCK! man. they're the worst. i rode home with them on, and they got in the way of the pedals, AND they messed up my rear shifter! for reals! 3 and 5 are super sketch now, and 4 is completely dead. boooo hisss! and they are crazy hard to get on and off the rear rack, and they didn't stay closed while i was riding. so i will be returning them. with some angry words. and making the techies fix my shifter. with more angry words. LAME dude!



don't buy these!!!
i should've listened to mel when she was all 'i'm so glad marc talked me in to getting the expensive, good pannier, instead of the cheap option...' stuuupid cheap option. jerk!

but that's okay. it'll all be alright. once the angry words are said.

and look:



this dude was kickin' it with d(el)orian the other day. how nice!

this morning, when i woke up and opened my curtains, what did i see out the window but this:



so i invesitgated...



heck yes! so off i went. and found me a sale!



and bought some cheap-as-free books! and the money they raised is going to go to a women's shelter charity.



william goldman! author of the princess bride!!! how excited am i about that. and franny and zooey! i've been meaning to buy this for ages. and they put the books in:



which is awesome, except that it makes me really hungry. i have to find out where toronto's bulk barn is.

and finally. it isn't pie minister, but it's pretty good:

DELORIAN!!!! maybe?

okayokayokay! very important!

i got a bike!!! and he's great. oh man. but i need to finalize his name. so i need your votes. i THINK i want him to be named 'dorian', also known as 'DELORIAN!!!!'. because. well. he's grey. but i also am a little taken with 'elliot'. i feel it suits him rather well. too. so. thoughts? here he is!



i need to raise the seat a bit... i think they lowered it after i test-rode when they did the final check-up, which is weird, but no big deal. a bit about him. he's new. (i got very quickly fed up with the craiglist/kijiji ads either being sold already, or being in burlington or (my favourite) 'not feeling comfortable letting me test-ride the bike, but i can look all i want.' ummmmm. no. thanks. i will not buy a bike i am not allowed to ride. that's ridiculous.) steel-framed, so he's pretty heavy, but i was too cheap to go for the alluminum option. also those ones were baby blue, and i prefer the subtlety of the grey. anyways. skinny tires though! he's 19", which is basically as big as anyone had. which is funny. guess i'm taller than your average cruiser-riding female. 21 speed, i do believe - complete with shimano shifters. yup! now, i wanted more rounded handle-bars (they help with the me being tall thing...) but knowing what i know about bikes now (thanks travis!) that's something i figure i can do eventually... keep an eye out for an approriate set of handlebars, and install them myself! or with bryce and brian's help? also, one day i'll probably put on a kickstand and some saddle bags or baskets. for now, though, i figure i'll ride him for a while and see what i feel i need.

so that's that. i'm out of shape on the bike. mel schooled me. ow. legs!

the story of the photoshoot i assisted on in cobourg is a long hilarious one, so i won't tell it all right now. i'll say this much:

- i got picked up at 6:30am, and got home around 8:30pm. wowsers. but loved every minute.
- we were shooting some beautiful, designer furs. some amazing pieces.
- we did 10 looks. amazing.
- sarah had myself and another stylist-assistant named marissa. she was awesome and super fun to work with, and we got along great. hopefully the beginning of something cool-beans.
- there was a pile of hilarious cobourg-characters who drove out on the pier just to chillax their saturday away. jim was our special favourite. bonkers. beat up old white convertible. blaring music. brown velourey pants with suspenders... a whole lot of character. i will draw him into a graphic novel one day. cody, the photographer, made buddies with him. awesome jim moment:

as our model - steph - was hanging off a ladder right off the water, in a VERY expensive fur, jim decided to dive off the pier into the water right in our shot, splashing the model.... then, of course, he needed the ladder to get out, so steph had to climb out. and jim lost his pants. there was a moment of great terror and shock from all of us on the pier. 'oh no, oh god, oh dear... keep the children away!' somehow he found his pants underwater, and wrangled them back on with the suspenders and climbed out. cody says to him 'jim. now was that necessary?! jim. buddy...' the coat survived, thank heaven, and we got the shot and everything was great.

photos!


what?! a fur tuxedo jacket with tails? yes.


natalie touches up steph's makeup.


marissa and i where in charge of travelling into cobourg-proper and buying lunch for everyone at subway. (not for paying, mind.) here's us taking the order. man oh man did we overwhelm that poor little subway. 7 orders at ONCE?! whoa.


the crew looking on. natalie (hair-and-makeup), marissa (other-stylist-assistant), sarah (stylist), isla (dog), jamie (photographer-assistant).


the infamous ladder shot.


jim and cody hanging out.


another coburg miracle. someone just drove up in this truck. so we asked if we could use it. because. it. is. hilarious! it said 'hotwheels' on the back. for reals.

in other news. i went to a concert with mel yesterday - ingrid michealson. it was all ages and we felt old, and the bouncers took away my twizzlers and coconut water because i 'might throw them at the stage'. not pleased! (but then after the show i got them back. so. ALL IS WELL WITH THE WORLD!) the concert was rad. made me feel like i was on the oc in the old days. member that, chris? member?!



and. today sarah and i ran around town (except in her car, so not actually running...) and returned a bunch of stuff from shoots to showrooms and stores. as i learn more about how that works, i'll tell you all about it! but for now. it was a lovely day. and the best was when we turned a corner and saw a massive billboard that she had done. we were taking pictures of it, and the pedestrians nearby had curious looks on their faces, so she called out the window 'i did that!!!' and they all looked a bit uncomfortable, and didn't acknowledge us, and we laughed a lot. also i really love the crane in the way. she didn't do that...



don't worry. soon my life will be boring again, and i won't write novels on here anymore. ahem..

i guess i live here

no one freak out. but. i'm in TORONTO! oh. HI toronto. hi. thanks for having me!

so far it's been pretty good to me. my landlord is a bit kooky, but nice. (due to traffic, i did have to sit on the porch for a little over an hour, waiting for him and the key. but it was nice and muggy out. and it didn't rain on me. so. no biggie.) melanie (!!!) came over as soon as she was done her working-at-a-job, looking all lovely on her bicycle, and with goodies in her pannier!

what goodies, you ask? wine! cooookies (amazing, gluten free, fancypants, cashew cookies)! tea! dark chocolate with coconut RIGHT INSIDE IT! we drank the bottle of wine and ate a little, then headed out down the street to a pizza place called 'magic oven'. i think it is magical because it has vegan cheese, and apparently celiac friendly crusts too, i think. now, i'm not vegan, but i'm always impressed when i CAN eat something like pizza with cheese and be doing so in a vegan-friendly way. nice. also, their tofu fingers were super-rad. after dinner there was a shoppers stop and some more chats, then mel headed home for the night. BYE MEL! SEE YOU MONDAY! BECAUSE I LIVE HERE NOW!!!

this morning i woke up a little after 10, then decided to go back to sleep. man. this rules. got up again after noon, had some cookies, put on some sun screen, and headed out. west on dupont. to the loblaws! a good sized store, although there's no housewares like in superstore, so i couldn't get the hangers, nail polish remover, and towels i needed. i did get swiss char though! and cherries! and other things.

back to the house. drop off. then a proper adventure walk, south on spadina, then west on bloor. found me some 'honest ed's' - hilarious bargain-shopping a-la army and navy, but with way more flashing lights and funny signs. like. 'don't just stand there! buy something!!!' or 'squirrels come to honest ed's. the prices are so goo they think he's nuts!' i got hangers. super!

i found a cute little bike shop on bathurst. test-rode a sweet cruiser. it was rad and i liked it a lot, but it was a touch too small for me, the tires were a bit wider than i'm hoping for, and it was marginally out of my desired price range. but super fun to be on a bike like that! i love the lazy upright position. and man. a lot smoother than the mongoose. no offence. to the mongoose.

anyways. that's enough for now. take a look at some pictures! (and tomorrow i'm going out to help on a photo shoot with sarah jay, so i'm sure there'll be lots of excitement after that. and more pictures. wooooooooo!) OH. and. it is hot. here. and it wasn't even THAT hot a day. yup. everyone said it, but i didn't know for sure - hot humid hot heat. fun.


i bought this guy today for the bathroom. cause. there were no shelves! and no towel rack! no space for anything! problem solved.


here's our (my) rooftop patio. it seems to have been blustery.


kitchen!


foodstuffs!


my closet (which is nice and big! room enough, maybe, for most of my clothes!)


the other side o' the bedroom. now... the room isn't SMALL, but it ain't huge. i am standing in the closet to get this picture.


what do you do if your tall mirror isn't tall enough when it is on the floor? you put it on your two small suitcases! and then you don't have to find somewhere for same suitcases. two birds!


honest ed's


maybe i should try to move in here come september? i like good design. but the sign is kinda tacky... so... ummmmm. how does that work?


these were just sitting there. next to maybe stacked boxes of bounty paper towels. just. outside. with no one around. like 'please take! sample!'


i like my loblaws. it has a bike parking lot. rad.