medley

Yup. I'm back. Mind you - it's not that I haven't had much to say. I always have a lot to say.

It's been a while cause i honestly just DON'T have time. I try to avoid internet on the weekends, cause i'm planted in front of a computer for work day in and day out - and want to spend the rest of my time enjoying living.

It's summer, it's wonderful. It's my last full summer here. I'm soaking it up...but on the other hand I'm grateful it's my last summer here, cause this smog - I could do without. No offense to the city...it's a 'trying to keep my lungs healthy' kind of thing.

Last night, my university friend Sandra Elizabeth Leonardi wed long time boyfriend Robert Garcia. Congratulations to them both. It was a wonderful wedding and reception. It was soooo great to see the girls from the 'swine house' all together again, dancing to old 'time square' songs and the classic Thong Song. Woman, you looked amazing!!! Rob's a lucky man.

Oh - and I won the centrepiece. The lush that I am, ending up with the red wine bottle...

You know when you miss people in your life - but you don't always remember until you're all together again. At one point on the dance floor, when Sandra came to see us, it just hit me - how much I missed being with these girls. When you live together in residence for so long, and you're so used to seeing one another - it's just strange when it all ends. And worse, when you realize it's been FOUR years since we graduated, since we've spent nights sitting in each other's rooms talking about everything, or entrusting one another to make the simplest jiffy pop popcorn (burnt jiffy pop popcorn is narsty - and i'm not going to point fingers - but...).

Time flies.

I'm almost 27 years old. I have vivid memories of my youth.

Facebook. Here's what i love about the thing - when your friends post OLD SCHOOL pictures of you when you were like 12. And one look can bring you back through so many different memories.

Random. I had a squirrel run over my foot TWICE. He was trapped at the sutra tiki lounge - where a large group of us had gathered to celebrate Luke & Lisa's marriage (they were married in Cuba and hosted a fantastic little party for friends who were unable to attend the Cuban adventure). Sitting in the back enclosed area, the lot of us were the obstacle course for a very stressed out and trapped squirrel. The first time I felt a fluff over my foot and when I looked down I didn't see anything - and the ladies around me were shrieking. That's when i thought it was a rat and thought 'EW - not on my foot'. But it was only a little wee squirrel. Poor guy.

Playing guitar hero at work, the day before the big screen tv was sent packing. We were visited by two law enforcement officers - as there was a B&E called in by our security. There's more to that story. It was a strange night.

Winsor Pilates sent me fantabulous new DVDs. I've found a new interest in the exercise.

I got a 105$ parking ticket within the last month. You think you can park places cause there are 25+ other cars around you. A plethora of cars is not enough to determine if you can park in a location. It just means that the city has found a way to score $2500+ in one sitting. That parking officer must have met some kind of wonderful quota that day.

Rollerblading through the CNE grounds. Exploring the BMO field. Fun times.

Doors open toronto. I finally attended.

Cottage next weekend...uh, for a day - almost 24hrs. :)

A baseball story for my parents. See, when I was growing up in North Bay, it seemed as though all my friends lived near their extended family. Which was great - for them. Sad - for us. I always felt that I missed out on hanging out with my family and doing those big group outings together. Maybe that's not how other people see it - but as the outsider seeing my friends so close to their extended families - i definitely missed that.

Funny enough, here in my mid-twenties, i find myself hanging out with my grandparents in the city of Toronto. Not missing out on things that I always wanted - going to baseball games with my grandparents. I have to say - that we did travel around a great deal to visit family - and it was great. I'm very grateful for those times. But there's something so funny about being 26 and going to the games with your brother, and grandparents. I love every moment of it.

So the Yankees. They decided to come to Toronto to play a series. And my grandparents made the treck from Ottawa to check it out with my brother and I. Fun times. That's right popcorn eating, pizza snacking, quality time talking.

Mike and I made it out to two of the games with my grandparents (they attended all three games). The first night - we sat in the 100 level between third base and left field. I have never sat so close. We were in the fourth row - but by the end - had moved to the front row. Such a different view from there. The second night we sat up in the five hundred level between home and third base.

Side note - i've gone to three games now - and all three were attended with an open skydome.

Okay - back to the second night. There was a group of younger high school students in the rows in front of us attending the game as well. Probably from out of town - as they had a few chaperoning parents with them. Well, they were loud. So I thought - this is going to be great - we might get onto the jumbotron. Cause these kids wanted it bad - so they were very loud. Fun times.

When the cameras would start filming the crowd - i got ready with my camera to see if even our legs would make it into the shot on the jumbotron so that we could email our parents to let them know we finally made it onto the screen (after all these years of trying...). On one round - I finally spotted the group of kids in front of us make it onto the big screen. I took a snapshot of the jumbotron. Zoom in on the picture.

SCORE - my brother and I made it in the top left corner of the screen. (circled in red)


I'm a nerd - I get excited about this. More so just to tell my parents. Cause they always watch games we attend to see if they ever see us. Because they do sometimes broadcast crowd shots during the games. So yay - mission accomplished. We made it onto the jumbotron. woooo.

Now - if you all know Seinfeld, you know the ongoing thing with Georges and his boss Steinbrenner from the Yankees. Well, Ace, the Toronto Blue Jays mascot, was filmed in a few skits which involved him listening to Steinbrenner in his office. They were funny. ANYWAY. My brother is a Seinfeld fan, so I wanted to snatch a picture of the skits on the jumbotron. My mad photography skills provided me with this fancy shot:

I'm thinking - perfect. This is kind of what I was going for. I'm looking down at my camera checking out the shot. A moment later, my brother was like 'oh look, that's funny'. I didn't know what he was talking about...

A moment to make your parents proud.

The gang on the jumbotron. Lucky for me, they stayed on us long enough for me to take a picture. :p Check out my grandparents' facial expressions. So wonderful!!!

Wurd.

Thanks Grammy & Grampy for the good times at Skydome.

There was a freak storm last friday. Dramatic Toronto humidity meets a cold front. Whamo - hail, pouring rain storm, and tornado threats. Good times. It snowed in North Bay. Uh, june?


Happy Father's Day to my dad, my grandfather...and to all the old & new dads out there.


Today, we celebrate our nine months together. :)

More to come...