do you strike those years from the record?

Update, Update! I actually had my blog open in a tab yesterday and was going to update, but then got side-tracked by the goodness of Empire Records and attempting to find the CTV clip with Chris Murphy (of Sloan) in his blue cast--he was involved in a hit and run with a drunk driver and broke his collarbone, but apparently he still had his goofy grin in the short clip. Oh well.

July 11th, aka 7-Eleven Day, aka Free slurpee day was awesome! Got 4 free slurpees at 3 different locations in Toronto! Slurpees really aren't a big deal here...the Centers of the Universe prefer starbucks and smoothies to sweet, icy cups of heaven. Their loss. Had someone call me "Sick" at work because--and this is SHOCKING--but the two lowest price levels sold out and thus the cheapest Argos ticket was something like, $60. You know, people, sometimes this happens on GAME DAY for a SEASON OPENER. On another note, GO BLUE!

I spend literally days reading Harry Potter books 1-7. It was my full time job for a while, and surely, if I had an employer, I'd be getting gold stars at how quickly I turned those muthas out. Finally it was time for the movie! (SPOILER ALERT) Mixed feelings about it, really. I understand they had to cut some events out and thus add other ones in to make the storyline work, but if Heath was correct in why some events were changed in #6 (like not so much of a focus on Charlie getting injured, no fight, and the burning down of the Burrow, thus to be able to cut out the wedding in #7), I'm frustrated...what was the point in making #7 into two movies if you're going to cut out such a large and exciting part of the book?
I was also shocked by the absence of any costume wearers...I wore my Hives guitar pick earrings that have a Hogwarts-like Crest, and used colour-changing nail polish, but I only saw one Griffyndor scarf!

Friday, July 17th - The Arkells at Sound Academy! It was a win-to-get-in event and it was packed! like, 2000 people or something. I brought 2 roommates and one of their friends and all of them had an awesome time, even though it was their first time seeing them: that's always a good feeling. They covered "Tears of a Clown" and I was meaning to ask them why they would choose to cover such a song (odd, because Inward Eye covered it too) but when I met them, all I remembered to say is "Come back to Winnipeg!!!" Seriously friends, this is a good-time band, fully danceable and better than Sing-Along Songs and Kidsongs (remember that show?)

Monday, July 20th - The Ticketmaster summer party: Since I missed the Winnipeg one, I thought I ought to attend the Toronto one. It was a lot of fun! They had great food, everyone was really nice, and I won a $50 gift card to the same restaurant we were at (Alice Fazoolis), whahoo! Afterwards, I walked over to the Horseshoe Tavern to see the Datsuns, a New Zealand band. They were really good, I only wish I had known the songs better. The guitarist was wearing essentially a Canadian Tuxedo, Rock Star Style (tight jeans, tight jean shirt), the other guitarist had longer hair than anyone I know, and the singer/bassist was crazy and came out into the audience and had us all on the ground (good thing I was wearing my skort!)

Tuesday, July 21st: Not so fun. I was up at 9am registering for classes...or trying to! One of my classes got cancelled so it screwed up my entire schedule, I had a lot of courses to change around, and keep in mind I had, up to this day, been sleeping in until at least noon everyday. 2 calls to the university later, I got everything settled and promptly went back to bed.

Friday, July 24th: Met Meg for dinner at Alice Fazooli's, courtesy of Ticketmaster! It was delicious and we figuratively had to undo one notch on our belts. However, that did not stop us from pigging out on snuck-in candy when we later saw 500 Days of Summer. The movie was cute, and of course, co-starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt so it really can't go wrong, but well, i had mixed feelings about it.

On Sunday, July 26th I went to see Great Bloomers at Sneaky Dees and finally bought their album (which is excellent, Rach can't wait to get home so you can rip it/love it too!). It was only an opening set but it was still excellent. I also can't wait to see them in Winnipeg on August 13th (announcement: all Winnipeggers, you should be seeing them, GREAT BLOOMERS, LO PUB, AUGUST 13TH)

The following week was pretty uneventful. The most exciting thing was going to Karaoke on Thursday and getting hit on by a drunk old man, to whom I finally said "I'm sorry, but the age difference between us is making me really uncomfortable and I think you should go over there," pointing at his seat at the bar, and he left. Sang Foo Fighers, Jet, and AC/DC which proves if I'm going to make it as a singer in this industry, it's going to be as a male singer, as I seem to dislike my own kind.

On Friday, Meg and I went shopping (yay for holiday hours) and I found my first pair of ass jeans since junior high! they are fab-u-lous! I first went into Jean Machine and asked the sales person for a pair that fit me right, for under 70 bones, and he said "can't help you". I quickly picked my jaw up off the floor and booted it to Bluenotes, where I paid a cool $40 for a yummy pair of dark boot-cuts. Seriously, how do the unemployed afford jeans?

Saturday, August 1st: Heather arrives in Toronto! Excitement ensues! I showed her a bit of Bloor West (Honest Eds, really) and then we took the Spadina Streetcar south so she could see Chinatown. We walked into Kensington Market from there, and each bought a dress that we wore later that night (see below for details). We took in Queen West from Spadina to Yonge, checked out H&M, and then bought groceries to make dinner: and what a feast we had!

That night, we dolled ourselves up and headed to Sneaky Dee's for their monthly Motown Do-Wop Dance Party. Though it was a late start (I think Torontonians are notorious for coming to bars late) it was SO MUCH FUN. Much better than Modernized or Mod Club in Winnipeg, all our favourite artists, and everyone dancing their hearts out.

Sunday, we ended up sleeping in a bit, as we were tuckered out from little sleep and lots of activity. Heath and I hit up Eaton Centre and I think that's the longest I've ever shopped for...we were there for like, 4 hours? I bought a beautiful bathing suit for my minneapolis trip at the end of the month, and Heath bought...bottoms. lots of them! We decided we needed to replenish our carbs and went to East Side Marios and gorged ourselves with bread, salad, artichoke dip, and pasta. It was glorious! We decided to stay in that night, and watched IT Crowd and So I Married an Axe Murderer. (whoooa-man! So Love-Ed?) Hahaha.

Monday, August 3rd: Yay for the Ferries running again! Heath and I went to Toronto Island, where we got great weather! We didn't wear our bathing suits (odd, since we had so many of them), but we sat on the beach for awhile, where H stuffed her bag with rocks and I got my crotch soaked (*shakes fist at waves*). We were going to rent paddleboats but the rental place was closed, and we didn't feel like biking so we just chilled. We walked along the waterfront when we came back downtown, and took some pics on the wavy bridge (it is steep!) Our massive walk deserved more carbs (pasta leftovers and Lays), and we watched more movies (The Wedding Singer, High Fidelity) before calling it a night.

Heather's final day here, we started the day off right: breakfast sammies from Tim's. After that, we were off to the Hockey Hall of Fame....not my idea, but Heather wanted to see it. It was enjoyable, fun to see all the coaches' pimpin' hats, haha, and everyone saw what a terrible goalie I made in the interactive section. It was really cute to see little kids get so excited upon seeing the Stanley Cup [Replica, Heath tells me] and all the other hockey memorabilia.

Afterwards, we decided to take'r easy and see Funny People. It is literally the funniest and saddest movie combined in one. Go and see it, peeps! Yay for $4 Tuesday Movies, too.

We scarfed down dinner and left for the airport and for some reason, mixed up flight times and left waaaay to late and ended up running through the airport (I took off my flipflops for speed and safety purposes), arriving at the Air Canada desk 5 minutes before expected departure time, only to find out the plane was leaving an hour later, at 10pm. Proceeded to wait in a useless line for 10 minutes before finding out we were supposed to be in a different line--thanks, Air Canada, for your lack of proper signage and unhelpful employees! An electrical storm meant her flight didn't leave until after midnight, poor thing...hope you got to catch up on sleep tonight, H, in your glorious giant non-squeaky, non-spring-y bed!

Today I actually did laundry (yay, I have clean underwear again!) and returned library books and such. I am continuing to pack but ultimately cannot pack my final, 50-pound suitcase until Friday, as I need my bedding, toiletries, clothes for 2 more nights. Still questionable on whether or not everything will fit in said suitcase, but (yay for me), Heath took one of my suitcases home, so if need be, i can bring a shopping bag full of whatever as a carry-on bag.

I am really excited to be going home. Yes, I liked living in Toronto and living alone, and being close to Meg, and going to lots of events, etc, etc, but I miss my family and friends back home. Talking on the phone is not enough: I like to be physically close to people!

Some things I learned/confirmed this summer:

-I can cook: I can make a mean cheesecake and perogies with a low breakage rate
-I miss dad's jokes. I mean, they're still funny via e-mail, but nothing if I can't reply "oh da-ad!"
-NO REGRETS. I was pretty mopey on my own for the first half of the summer because my trip didn't really turn out how I had planned. No job, not even one that paid minimum wage (besides one day a month at TM). Not a lot of friends besides the one in my house. Borrowing money from pretty much everyone I know. I kept half-wishing I had stayed in Winnipeg for the summer. I could've been working 2 jobs, spending loads of time with my honey, chillin' with my sisters, actually saving money, but I really don't regret coming here: I got to see Jet (who I NEVER thought I'd see), I got DOUBLE-CHEEK kissed by Jamie Cullum for crying out loud, met a few people, got a lot closer to my cousin, who up to this summer I didn't really know as she bonds more with my sisters than I, had a few nice visits from family and friends, and finally, I actually miss Winnipeg.

Now, it's time to end this entry and clear off my bed so I can get some sleep!