The Birthday Blitz

It was quite the glamorous stretch this past weekend. It's an energetic scene in the city and, when paired with a cool crew of arts kids, well -- it's impossible to not feel charged. I spent two late evenings in Toronto celebrating the birth of two close friends and I am raring to go for the next round.

I'm sensing a point-form rundown, folks:

Friday, January 15/2010: Mr. Shirreff's 24th

• 5 pm: Met with The Advocate at Bathurst/Bloor for our own mini adventure prior to the shindig. Made the first visit to The Beguiling, the hub of Toronto's comic book scene. I was floored by this place. I mean, the rumours are true -- the second floor was wall-to-wall manga, people. The Advocate and I were prepared to set up camp and live there between the stacks of graphic novels and other goodies. Managed to resist buying... well, everything. Trust me, it was tough.
• Approx. 6:30 pm: Headed over to Future's for a dinner of cheesecake. SO GOOD. As we sat down, The Advocate realized she was taking me on one her patented First Date Excursions® (includes cheesecake, fine conversation, and a trek to the BMV). Scared The Advocate with that pesky adult logic I've developed in the past few years. I know, where the heck did THAT come from? Serious, though, it was a great location and I had a difficult time deciding which cake to try. Darn, guess I'll just have to go back.
• Approx. 7:30 pm: Arrived at the BMV to browse books, film, and music. Also encountered more manga (very appreciated). All those endless stretches of new and used books wore down my resolve -- I picked up two. Very Bad Poetry (collection) and Once Upon A Time In The North by Philip Pullman. The Advocate was a rock and avoided the allure of all those titles. I was impressed. Cashier laughed at the Very Bad Poetry title -- boasts the WORST poem ever written in the English language. Need an ego boost for your own writing? Well, there it is.
• Approx. 9:00 pm: Arrived at Molly Bloom's, decidedly late. I think books are a justifiable distraction, though. Our birthday boy was in fine form once we arrived -- the kid was already starting in on shots and beer to ring in that 24th year. Folks were trying to force disgusting shots on him, but Mr. Shirreff persevered. Worst Shot of All: Beer and relish. *Shudder* NO GOOD.
• Met The Advocate's gentleman friend. He is every bit as fabulous as the lady's let on. We recited/sang scenes from Labyrinth, so, um, my approval is complete. Those kids are too cute, I tell you. All I need now is a nickname which I will consult The Advocate over.
• Impromptu Coming Out: C1 showed up later in the evening. We were chatting about the dreaded Plenty of Fish site and I thought, "Well, I'd like to share those horror stories, too -- might as well tell her." She seemed chill with it, as did The Advocate's boy. Again, we're an arts crowd, so it's a liberal group. I love that I'm relaxed enough with myself now to treat it as a lack lustre bit of information about me.
• Parted ways with The Advocate and her boy after a street car ride, sang "Magic Dance" in hoarse voices. Definitely a magical evening, was quite serene on the subway ride home.

Saturday, January 16/2010: Ship Sharp's 24th

• EXCITEMENT ABOUNDS! She is the first of our tight collective to turn the big 2-4, so we had to celebrate in style. Alas, though -- the lady suffered a migraine earlier in the day and was still on the mend as we headed out the front door. She's a trooper, I tell you. (But that's why she's Ship Sharp)
• Surprised Ship Sharp with ALL of our MSN scripts from back in high school. That's about 340 pages worth of writing, in case you were curious.
• Tori arrived whom most of us kids haven't seen since high school. She was gracious and drove us into Toronto. Definitely amused by her firm, though panicked, GPS narrator. I feel I need to find more topics to gossip about, I don't have the gossip. Perhaps that's a New Year's resolution all on its own.
• End Destination: Super Market. Encountered Napoleon as we pulled up out front -- the gentleman has quite the distinguished goatee now. Lord, quite the blur after that. We were in a haze of delicious Thai dishes, smooth beers, and great company. I totally ordered a beer called Amsterdam Blonde because I'm a lech, apparently.
• Discovered that we were ALL channelling a Captain Jack Harkness vibe that evening. Hypothesis: Proximity to funk beats and a dance floor --> The 2010 Captain Jack Off. Oh yes. I kid you not.
• MUCH LOVE for the Kyles -- Kyle C. has decided I'm a cool lesbian and wants me to befriend one of his closest friends (who is just working through her own coming out, really). I'm still quite new to the scene and would love to make friends with queer girls. Ah, it was so great to catch up with those boys. I haven't gotten the chance to talk queer issues with a crowd for SUCH a long time, it was a refreshing scene. And yes, "Mo Money Mo Problems" came on and the Kyles told me the "I'm coming out!" lines were all for me. It's ridiculous how sweet those two are and I get the impression I'll be hitting the queer scene with those two and the crew in the near future.
• I think it's been decided by us ladies, too, that more outings to Toronto are DEFINITELY called for. We need to pull Ship Sharp onto the dance floor when she's feeling 100% healthy.

***

I think I'm finally at the point where I'm investing in myself and the happiness of others more. I'm conscious of the fact that I'm becoming more honest with those closest to me and it's a liberating sensation. I'm definitely in an optimistic head space at the moment and I'm looking forward to 2010 even more so.

Toronto -- you best prepare thyself.

(Last) Weekend Updates

Lazy Summer, izzycarasmillie

At last -- here it is. I find myself in the throes of summer as I write this.

Weekend plans? I GOT 'EM.

Friends returning from their adventures abroad? OH YES, IN DROVES.

Optimism returning? YOU BET.

.... Hence my blogging negligence. Granted, I can't be too apologetic considering May, June, AND July were write-offs. I took advantage of nothing mainly because... well, there wasn't much going on. But now, late summer is unfurling before me and I am excited to say that life is turning around.

I've been meaning to update about last weekend for this entire week, so I thought I should elaborate a bit on that front. Most of my time was spent at the gym or watching the first season of Heroes (which I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE NEVER WATCHED BEFORE LAST WEEKEND), but Monday was chock full of summer-y goodness.

That's right -- Ontario residents were blessed with a Civic Holiday on Monday, August 3 and, so, I was liberated from the beige life of the office. Dad and I headed down to the Kelso Conservation Area to practice our canoeing skillz. And, apparently, everyone else in the area decided upon the same thing. We spent about... maybe half an hour trying to get IN to the parking lot and then we spent another half an hour waiting to rent our canoe. 

It was definitely worth it though, let me tell you. 

We spent an hour on the water getting familiar with the paddles (it's been a while for us both) and just generally exploring the little inlets across the lake. Our plan is to work ourselves up to the point where we can cruise down the Grand River on one of their tours. Haha, after reading that paragraph, all I can think is, "GOD... that sounds so freakin' Canadian." All we need to do is portage a little and we are SO THERE.

Anyhow, all Canadiana aside for the moment, I met up with Ms. Chantal who is BACK HOME SINCE LIVING IN JAPAN FOR THE PAST YEAR! It was so surreal to return to our usual haunts after an absence of 365 days. It's amazing how easily you can fall back into familiar routines, though. Chantal even commented that by the time she reached her neighbourhood after her flight, it was like she'd never been gone in the first place. Weird how the memory functions.

Anyhow, I brought over a special 'Welcome Home' gift of champagne and Turkish delight and she gave me some cute/delicious souvenirs from Japan and from her short trip to Thailand. After that, we headed over to Boston Pizza for some "real pizza," as Chantal now calls it. (Yeah, I know Japan's not famous for their pizza, so, Chantal was definitely excited for the Real Deal.) I know she and I have been reflecting on our friendship as of late -- I mean, we've know each other since we were 14 and now, we've been to Japan and back and are planning a European extravaganza for next year. (Oh, yeah -- P.S. I went to Japan in March to visit with Chantal for 2 weeks.... that's an important bit of detail there, I do believe). It's amazing to think about your connection with other people, just to see how much you've accomplished together. 

Look at me getting all sentimental. I blame the gorgeous weather for all this.

AND, side note: We had quite the hottie spotting while at Boston Pizza. Her name was Jessy and she was our waitress. I've been out to Chantal for a year now, but I've only ever talked about female celebrities I have crushes on. So, to acknowledge the fact that I check out women around me on a regular basis was... well, perhaps a revelation to her. 

Mmm, Jessy... she had a crazy accent. I couldn't place where she was from, which leads me to believe it was a South African accent. (It's my default when I can't pin down an accent... and it seems to be accurate quite often). Chantal and I were chatting a bit about where I was in the coming out process and a bit about O'Neill, so I think Ms. Jessy overhead the fact that I'm a gay gal. I noticed she was making eye contact with me quite a bit and she randomly came over to ask me specifically how I was enjoying my multigrain pizza crust. I know, specific, right? And she kind of ignored Chantal a little which was hilarious to reflect upon.

BUT -- to end the experience, she wrote little messages on both of our receipts, right? I looked at mine only to find she'd written "Thank you very much! XO Jessy". <-- THAT'S AN 'XO,' people. I gloated over that one. Chantal pouted over her lack of an 'XO' and slyly said, "Maybe Jessy thought you were pretty damn hot!" I might have go back there -- AND SOON. Oh, ego boosts, how I love thee.

We caught the film Fifty Dead Men Walking and it was shocking, brilliant, amazing, and randomly funded by Canadian sources...? It details the story of Martin McGartland, a young man from west Belfast who was recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA during the 1980s. He managed to survive his capture/torture at the hands of the IRA by throwing himself from a tower block window. And he's still in hiding as we speak. It was an excellent movie, I've got to say. But yeah, it was funded not only by Canadian sources, but by QUEBEC sources, if you can imagine it. Random indeed, but I'm glad they did.

... And here I am, standing on the brink of another August weekend with a few odd plans and a desire for improvisation. We'll see what I make of it.

P.S. -- I also have a LOT of blog updates to catch-up on. Prepare thyself for a deluge of comments.