high voltage

Wednesday, June 24th: I got my hair cut at this place that was having a promotion, but the service was meh...the stylist had trouble cutting my hair so that it was even on both sides, so I definitely won’t be giving him any referrals. I then prepared dinner for Meg and I...roasted garlic parmesan asparagus and pasta with sirloin beef strips and a rose sauce. It was delicious and so filling!

Friday, June 26th: Meg’s birthday! So much fun! I made a white chocolate raspberry oreo cheesecake for the occasion, and despite it being my first attempt at cheesecake, the feedback was excellent. I’ve saved the recipe so I can make it again (though it’s fairly expensive, as many of the ingredients aren’t always lying around one’s pantry/fridge). I got a hot red dress for the occasion, which I will likely be wearing for my birthday too. The chosen bar was actually decent, as far as top 40 bars go; at least the bathrooms were nice, and they played Thriller and a whackload of other MJ songs (I know, this ongoing memorialisation is getting old but I do like a good MJ dance now and again).

We didn’t get nearly as much sleep as we required that night, so the next morning, we stumbled, tired and hungry, to the distillery district to meet my parents and aunt and uncle for breakfast at the Mill Street Pub. An omelette has never tasted so good! We had to drop Meg’s friend off at the bus depot, and afterwards, walked to Kensington Market to enjoy a cool drink in the shade while waiting for our rents to finish touristing. Our groups met again at a wine tasting held in Nathan Phillips Square for the Jazz Festival, before Meg and I headed out once more, to change and liven ourselves up a bit. The fams met once more at Avli, a Greek Restaurant just off Chester and Danforth. It was delicious. Tired, but not yet wanting to pack it in for the night, we decided to try finding a patio; well, it was impossible for such a nice Saturday night, and after trying Milestones, Jack Astors, and Imperial Pub, we settled for indoors at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Sunday Morning, I woke up early (what? 9am is early for someone who doesn’t have a job!) and met my parents at their hotel. From there, we went to our first Blue Jays game. We got free ballcaps when we entered, and many free Gillette samples upon exiting, and were gouged out our ears for snacks inside. Fitting, I suppose. Mum wanted to hit up Chinatown, dad and I walked slowly, bored at watching mom buy cheap knickknacks and consider buying 6 t-shirts for $10. I wanted to go to East Side Marios for dinner, as I hadn’t been yet. We were not impressed with their service, but you can’t argue with bottomless breadsticks and salad.

Monday, June 29th: The rents wanted to go to Niagara Falls, so we caught a bus around noon. We ended up getting great weather (in jeans, I was quite warm for the majority of the day). The Falls were nice to see, the rest of the town was kind of dumpy-looking. We didn’t look at a lot of the tourist attractions though, so I have something to see when H comes to visit! We didn’t eat before catching a bus back to Toronto, and as a result, our stomachs were growlin’ something terrible. Luckily, we stopped at the most awesome Chinese Restaurant on our way back to the hotel...it was seriously 5-10 minutes from ordering to getting our food, hot, fresh, and delicious. The service was excellent and I’m thinking my dad tipped big that night.

Tuesday, June 30th: I actually got my parents into H&M! Haha, my dad bought like, 7 shirts (he really can’t resist a good price), and mum bought some stuff too. We dropped off their purchases at the hotel, and off we went again. We hit Queen Street West before stopping at Jack Astors for lunch. From there, we walked to King Street and took a streetcar yet again to the distillery district. We were able to do a bit more walking around than the previous visit, and also saw two different wedding parties taking pictures. It was a pretty location for the shots. Mum bought some flowers/plants, and then we took a walk to St. Lawrence Market, which I haven’t been to since our last trip to Toronto back in...Grade 11? Yeah. Finally, I left my parents to their own devices and went home to get ready for the Jamie Cullum concert.

Opening act was kind of boring; they were good, just not at all into plainly instrumental music, especially jazz. Jamie was fab! Just as I imagined he would be (and, living up to the recorded performances I’ve seen on tv and youtube. I hung around after the show to try to meet him and it paid off. He mentioned during the show that this would be his last performance of TwentySomething because he was turning 30 in August, and he mentioned to someone around me that in fact, his birthday was on the 20th. I told him my birthday was the same day as his and he gave me 2 cheek kisses, which I handled awkwardly because of my non-british ways and plain awkwardness. Still awesome, though.

Wednesday, July 1st: Canada Day! Also, my parents’ last day in Toronto. I helped them bring their luggage to my house at checkout time, met Meg for a quick lunch together, and then we all headed off to the airport to see them off. All in all, it was a good visit. I think they both enjoyed Toronto. At last, Meg and I headed to Mississauga for their Canada Day celebration. We arrived a tad early, as we really only wanted to see Sloan, but it gave us a change to just hang, check out a bit of Mississauga, and get a good spot (nearly at the front, centre) for Sloan. They were great, but just stuck to singles. The fireworks were spectacular, I guess to make up for the nearly 20 minutes of shoddy music they played. We nearly got stranded in Mississauga for the night, too, when they didn’t send enough buses to get us back to the subway. Lots of angry people, including us. ½ hour later and we wouldn’t have made the subway!

Weekend involved...not sure? Karaokee with roommates x2, watching Grandma’s Boy with commentary with Meg on Sunday, and catching up on Weeds episodes (I’m almost up to date—it’s so good!).

Monday, July 6th: JET!!! Gah! They were fantastic! Meg came with me and we had an awesome time. To quote Meg’s facebook status, “Jet concert = four dirty Australians and one very happy girl”. Well, make that 2 happy girls. They played Timothy, which I didn’t think they ever did live, I met them all after, and the super nice Irish/Scottish roadie gave me lots of guitar picks with which to make earrings...whoot! I also made friends with a pair of sisters, who I hope to hear from soon (they took a picture of me with the drummer as my camera decided to die after only one band picture)

Since Monday, I’ve been biding my time until HP#6 comes out in theatres. I read books #1-6—just finished the last one an hour ago—and will likely take’r easy this weekend. My one knee is hurtin’ a bit so I put a pause on running, so it’ll be guitar time this weekend. I also work tomorrow (yay, money coming in!) and it’s 7-11 which should mean free small slurpees? I shall see.

And there you have it, Hoho.