Back from Toronto, back in school...
Hello hello!
Reading week is finito and I am left wondering, confused, where the hell it went. Oh well. I am feel slightly rejuvinated.
Now we shall do a short picture-thing in a cut!
Now, for anyone around here you know the little snowstorm Eastern Ontario got. Man oh man -- you'd think Toronto got hit with WWIII with how they react to the snow! Headlines on the papers the next day, ~350 accidents from noon - 8PM, etc. It was an Ottawa run-of-the-mill snowfall, really!
We had been driving, saw a few teeny snowflakes hit the window... then Lisa and I looked further ahead and saw the white curtain, impossible to see through, up ahead. Let's just say that TO doesn't really know what to do when it snows. Their plowing system and roads just aren't cut out for it. At any point the highway curved, it curved on an angle. At a couple points it was impossible for Lisa to keep the car in one of the middle lanes and, with her fighting with all her might, we slowly slid into the far right lane. Thankfully there weren't many other drivers around. It was mental!
And this picture just makes me laugh. It was when we were trying to find our way to our hotel's parking (we circled twice before I ran in and they told us that first we'd check in, THEN get a swipe card for the underground, heated parking) and drove over a sidewalk to get into a parking lot and turn around. We didn't know it was a sidewalk. Seriously. And here was this guy, walking his bike along like it was nobody's business.
Personally, if I heard we were getting just under a foot of snow that day, I'd take public transit. Just a suggestion.
Lisa has the good pics of us together, but this -- right here -- is reason # 2562 why I don't shop at The Gap.
A horrendous picture by all standards, if I do say so myself. I was trying not to laugh and take the picture as quickly as I could before sales reps came to ask us to leave and stop mocking their merchandise.
And here I am on the last day, just before we left the city, for a quick photo-op with a Phantom sign. The tickets (funny story with those) had teeny print that said cameras might be confiscated, so we didn't risk bringing them.
So -- onto the funny ticket story! I am ashamed, really. Nearly cried.
We left our hotel only 20mins before the show started for what would likely be a 20-25 minute walk. Dinner had run a little late (amazing Italian restaurant with homemade tiramisu!), and so we were running (literally) late. I had the tickets in my pocket, with the map (though we only had to go down two streets). Frequently I checked to make sure they were still there, and frequently they were, which I always alerted Lisa to.
But around six blocks from the Princess of Wales theatre... they weren't there anymore. It was a very windy night and they might have slipped while I took my hand from my pocket to push my hair from my face or, worse, someone stole them from my pocket.
Lisa and I frantically searched the freshly snow-covered sidewalks (which hadn't been plowed and weren't plowed till the very early AM -- horrible plowing service) for the white tickets in their white envelopes. We walked halfway back to our hotel, past many spots where I commented, "I remember checking them next to the church and they were there!" We ended up running back to the hotel, getting the receipts and driving back to the theatre. It's about ten-past start time. Yea. I had nearly begun to cry in the car.
AND THEN the almighty Jen strikes again. We're pulling out of our spot, the tickets are atop her wallet, atop the dashboard. Me, not wanting them to fall somewhere not-grabbable, go to reach for them. My finger touches them and swish... they fall between the dashboard and the windsheild.
If Lisa was a bomb, she'd have detonated right there. But she was quite calm, while I was holding back frustrated tears, and said, "Well. My credit card is our last hope."
Not knowing where we'd park, or if they'd even let us in, we drive back pell-mell and I run in like an Olympic runner with the flame and begin telling our story to anyone who'd listen. A couple 'talk to that person in that booth's later I had new tickets in my hand.
Lisa and I, seeing that the theatre parking was full, went to an outdoor $10 parking lot. We couldn't get in to it for a while, the car stuck in the snow (see? Horrible plowing service) and all. We get there and they only accept cash, o'course. Lisa ran across the street to a bar, took out some money (which I said I'd pay in full) and we were off.
We missed about the first 25-30 minutes of Phantom, the sole reason we decided to go on a trip. Our usher, a very nice young lady, told us the beginning as we waited for Christine Daaé to finish singing her song, which we watched on a lovely plasma TV.
By the intermission Lisa seemed to be in good spirits, though both of us felt foolish that we could have kept walking to the theatre to begin with and get the tickets using her credit card... But we know now, eh? And now so do you! So don't be idiots, eh?
Perhaps when I get Lisa's pics I'll post one or two. Who knows.
We spent the next morning/early afternoon, legs cramping from all the running and slipping in high-heeled boots the night before, at the Eaton Centre. Forgot how huge that mall is. After browsing and whatnot, we headed back to the hotel with no idea as to what we'd do. Lisa had some leftover pasta from the night before, so I grabbed some takeout from the restaurant attached to our hotel.
Lisa, afterwards while we waited, pointed out that on Fridays (between 4&6) the bar would have free appetizers. It was about quarter-to four. We stayed there until 6:30, my lunch at my feet in its lovely take-out bag to be put in our mini-fridge and eaten the next day during the drive home.
We met some really, really nice folk (a few young'uns from Michigan, up for the weekend to get drunk, basically). The bartender was really cool, and we have now friended him on facebook :D Awesome.
I'm going to stop there. There are so many tiny details I could get into, but I really don't feel like it at the moment. I'm going to go and read. Should be studying, but I feel like some Gaiman.
Happy March!
Jen
[mood|
cold]
[music| Jackson 5 - Dancin' Machine ]
Reading week is finito and I am left wondering, confused, where the hell it went. Oh well. I am feel slightly rejuvinated.
Now we shall do a short picture-thing in a cut!
Now, for anyone around here you know the little snowstorm Eastern Ontario got. Man oh man -- you'd think Toronto got hit with WWIII with how they react to the snow! Headlines on the papers the next day, ~350 accidents from noon - 8PM, etc. It was an Ottawa run-of-the-mill snowfall, really!
We had been driving, saw a few teeny snowflakes hit the window... then Lisa and I looked further ahead and saw the white curtain, impossible to see through, up ahead. Let's just say that TO doesn't really know what to do when it snows. Their plowing system and roads just aren't cut out for it. At any point the highway curved, it curved on an angle. At a couple points it was impossible for Lisa to keep the car in one of the middle lanes and, with her fighting with all her might, we slowly slid into the far right lane. Thankfully there weren't many other drivers around. It was mental!
And this picture just makes me laugh. It was when we were trying to find our way to our hotel's parking (we circled twice before I ran in and they told us that first we'd check in, THEN get a swipe card for the underground, heated parking) and drove over a sidewalk to get into a parking lot and turn around. We didn't know it was a sidewalk. Seriously. And here was this guy, walking his bike along like it was nobody's business.
Personally, if I heard we were getting just under a foot of snow that day, I'd take public transit. Just a suggestion.
Lisa has the good pics of us together, but this -- right here -- is reason # 2562 why I don't shop at The Gap.
A horrendous picture by all standards, if I do say so myself. I was trying not to laugh and take the picture as quickly as I could before sales reps came to ask us to leave and stop mocking their merchandise.
And here I am on the last day, just before we left the city, for a quick photo-op with a Phantom sign. The tickets (funny story with those) had teeny print that said cameras might be confiscated, so we didn't risk bringing them.
So -- onto the funny ticket story! I am ashamed, really. Nearly cried.
We left our hotel only 20mins before the show started for what would likely be a 20-25 minute walk. Dinner had run a little late (amazing Italian restaurant with homemade tiramisu!), and so we were running (literally) late. I had the tickets in my pocket, with the map (though we only had to go down two streets). Frequently I checked to make sure they were still there, and frequently they were, which I always alerted Lisa to.
But around six blocks from the Princess of Wales theatre... they weren't there anymore. It was a very windy night and they might have slipped while I took my hand from my pocket to push my hair from my face or, worse, someone stole them from my pocket.
Lisa and I frantically searched the freshly snow-covered sidewalks (which hadn't been plowed and weren't plowed till the very early AM -- horrible plowing service) for the white tickets in their white envelopes. We walked halfway back to our hotel, past many spots where I commented, "I remember checking them next to the church and they were there!" We ended up running back to the hotel, getting the receipts and driving back to the theatre. It's about ten-past start time. Yea. I had nearly begun to cry in the car.
AND THEN the almighty Jen strikes again. We're pulling out of our spot, the tickets are atop her wallet, atop the dashboard. Me, not wanting them to fall somewhere not-grabbable, go to reach for them. My finger touches them and swish... they fall between the dashboard and the windsheild.
If Lisa was a bomb, she'd have detonated right there. But she was quite calm, while I was holding back frustrated tears, and said, "Well. My credit card is our last hope."
Not knowing where we'd park, or if they'd even let us in, we drive back pell-mell and I run in like an Olympic runner with the flame and begin telling our story to anyone who'd listen. A couple 'talk to that person in that booth's later I had new tickets in my hand.
Lisa and I, seeing that the theatre parking was full, went to an outdoor $10 parking lot. We couldn't get in to it for a while, the car stuck in the snow (see? Horrible plowing service) and all. We get there and they only accept cash, o'course. Lisa ran across the street to a bar, took out some money (which I said I'd pay in full) and we were off.
We missed about the first 25-30 minutes of Phantom, the sole reason we decided to go on a trip. Our usher, a very nice young lady, told us the beginning as we waited for Christine Daaé to finish singing her song, which we watched on a lovely plasma TV.
By the intermission Lisa seemed to be in good spirits, though both of us felt foolish that we could have kept walking to the theatre to begin with and get the tickets using her credit card... But we know now, eh? And now so do you! So don't be idiots, eh?
Perhaps when I get Lisa's pics I'll post one or two. Who knows.
We spent the next morning/early afternoon, legs cramping from all the running and slipping in high-heeled boots the night before, at the Eaton Centre. Forgot how huge that mall is. After browsing and whatnot, we headed back to the hotel with no idea as to what we'd do. Lisa had some leftover pasta from the night before, so I grabbed some takeout from the restaurant attached to our hotel.
Lisa, afterwards while we waited, pointed out that on Fridays (between 4&6) the bar would have free appetizers. It was about quarter-to four. We stayed there until 6:30, my lunch at my feet in its lovely take-out bag to be put in our mini-fridge and eaten the next day during the drive home.
We met some really, really nice folk (a few young'uns from Michigan, up for the weekend to get drunk, basically). The bartender was really cool, and we have now friended him on facebook :D Awesome.
I'm going to stop there. There are so many tiny details I could get into, but I really don't feel like it at the moment. I'm going to go and read. Should be studying, but I feel like some Gaiman.
Happy March!
Jen
[mood|
cold]
[music| Jackson 5 - Dancin' Machine ]