been a while...

I feel like this blog is like a good friend you've known for years. The kind of friend where you may lose touch, but once you start talking again it's like no time has passed at all. I am writing this post in Arizona where it is 8:33am (11:33am Eastern time). While it's not deathly early, the sun is shining which I am quite pleased about. I found myself coming here on Wednesday to a cool and rainy day. As it's been cold and rainy in Toronto for the past month, you can imagine how defeated I felt when there was no sunshine. Luckily, the sun started to shine yesterday and I am looking forwrad to more sunny days until I return home. I am just so much happier in the sun! I love it.

a new year...

A new year is upon us. A time for new resolutions, new goals, new dreams. Why is it that most of us lose sight of these new beginnings we promise ourselves one, maybe two months into the year? It's too bad, really. I am trying to not fall into that trap and will try and stay positive all year round. Sounds easy enough, but I know it's easier said than done. It can sometimes be difficult to be positive and happy, especially when your day starts with a horrible commute to work or school (yes, if you haven't noticed TTC is an integral part of my work week). I have realized something... I have dreams and goals that need action taken in order for me to achieve them. I can't sit here and hope that these things will just happen naturally. I need to take charge of my future and do something abou it. It almost seems like a no-brainer.... But I know it's easy to get discouraged. Easy to stop caring and to stop trying hard. Easy to just settle for a B when you know you're fully capable of attaining that A. This mindset can be distinguished as follows: one part procrastination, one part laziness and one part of seeing that the end result is so far away and beginning not to care and lose motivation about it because it seems it will never come... Thus laziness and procrastination prevail. It is unfortunate, and it becomes a vicious cycle. This year is the year I try to break that cycle and stay positive and happy- because thoughts become things. So. New year, new resolutions. Let's just hope people on the TTC resolve to have more showers this year so my commute keeps me happy.

the same...

It has been a while since my last blog writing. I find myself wondering what to say as one million and one things race through my brain. I can honestly say... Not much has changed. The people in Toronto on the TTC are still smelly (although it's getting better because the weather is getting colder). I still hear people talking to their pets in baby voices. People are still walking slowly on the TTC platforms- and everywhere, for that matter. People are still horrible drivers (I haven't mentioned this before but do I really need to?). CHANGE. This is what we are in need of as a people. NEW. New things in our lives (well, mine at least). New clothes, new shoes, new hair! Don't be afraid to embrace change. It's good for you. I know I haven't embraced much change with my hair over the years (it's really hard to do crazy things to curly hair because it looks awful when it's short). But something happened to me.... to make me feel like I needed a change.

It was the summer of 2005. I was in line for Top Gun and I had my hair in a high curly ponytail. In front of me was a girl that looked like an old friend I hadn't seen since summer of 1997 when we were still in elementary school. She finally saw I was behind her and said, 'OH MY GOD! I haven't seen you in forever and wasn't sure if it was you! But as soon as I saw that hair in that ponytail I knew it had to be you. You haven't changed a bit!'. THANKS A LOT! I haven't seen you in forever and the best compliment you can give me is that I look the same as I did when I was 10. I was stupefied. I vowed from that day on I would never again be remembered as the girl with the puffy ponytail.

lost blog... and now found

I had abandoned my blog temorarily. Although not intentionally... I had forgotten I had one at all. It has not become part of my everyday life- like the phone calls and texts you send and receive to/from your best friend daily or boyfriend. Or how I know when I have to take a shower (yes, after smelling people all day on the TTC I have become very aware of cleanliness and have taken a liking to bathing quite often) that instinct has not yet grown for my daily blog writing.

I could tell you what I do everyday, but that would just bore you. I could write about world and social politics and how it affects my life... but I'm really not in the mood for that. Right now I find myself in a different setting than home- cottage country, if you will. I used to not want to come here as a child, but now I cannot wait to get away. And here I am. Funny, isn't it... How we don't like things when we're younger and then we love them when we're older and vice versa. I find that with certain foods as well- like cucumbers. I used to not like them growing up and now I really don't mind them at all. And coconut! I love more and more everytime I eat something that has the delightful taste of it. I suppose our senses, tastes for fashion and palettes mature with age as everything else does. Isn't it funny how we used to dress back when we were in elementary school (think: grade 6) and we thought we were so cool but when we look back we were such nerds?! Maybe we really were cool... But I don't think puffy, frizzy hair, loose sweatpants and overplucked eyebrows were ever cool.

ttc again... it never stops

Why don't people move their butts when they're walking on the train/platform/up the stairs/in front of me? I always seem to find myself in a hurry. Even when I am not in a hurry I still am. I always hustle my way out of the subway train or bus or streetcar and walk as fast as I can away from the station/stop. I move it up the stairs and feel like yelling when the person in front of me is taking their sweet time walking. MOVE IT PEOPLE! Some of us have places to go and people to see. This is the frickin' TTC- it is not a walk in the park. Please be considerate the next time you feel like sauntering down the station and it is rush hour (or any hour) and just don't do it.


I was on the subway yesterday (and today and everyday for that matter...) and the train was packed except for one seat which was taken up by a middle aged woman taking up 2 seats. She just had to take up 2 because she decided to clip her toenails in front of everyone and needed the extra space. I found this to be quite disgusting. I think this lady took the saying 'if I wouldn't do it at home I won't do it here' qute literally, as this is something you should ONLY do at home and not on public transit. I was told that it is in fact a bio hazard, and one word to the driver about this could have had the train evacuated. If you ever see this atrocity please inform the property authorities and have the culprit shamed!

doggy baby talk.

Why do we talk to dogs, especially puppies, like they are babies? Whether or not you talk to them like they are babies, I really don't think they know the difference. I went to Pet Valu with my little dog Pucci, and the first thing the salewoman did was run up to her and say, 'OH! You are so KKEEEYYY-UUUTEE! What's your name?'. Okay lady. Do you really think that she will appreciate your shrill voice when emphasizing how cute she is? (I just had to write it like that for you to understand how she said it). And do you really think she is going to tell you her name??? The funny thing is she waited for the dog to respond and then she asked again! When I told her the dog's name she asked the pup 'Is that your name? Pucci?' Yes lady. Lke she's going to look at you and say 'Yes, it is my name. Sorry for not introducing myself properly'.

smelly people

Why do people on the subway smell? It is bad enough being crammed in a tight train and having to touch people because you're so close. But to have them smell is just awful and almost torture. I find myself trying to smell myself without anyone realizing what I am doing because maybe this smelly person is me? I try to sniff my underarms and then brush my chin on my shoulder to make it look like I am just trying to scratch my shoulder but can't because my hands are tied up. It usually doesn't work... So I find myself trying to get an opportunity when no one is watching to put my hands under my shirt in my armpit and then smell my hand. No matter how much you think no one is watching you, someone is ALWAYS watching. You may not notice at first, but they're there all right, watching your every move... And they watch you do whatever it is you're doing and they secretly laugh at you (believe me, I know- for I am one of these people). After all this trouble I find out that the smell is not coming from me after all (didn't think it was anyways). If someone smells, how come we don't tell them they do? If a friend had a piece of spinach stuck between their 2 front teeth, why is it we don't let them know? Maybe we're embarrassed for bringing it up and to avoid that awkward moment we just say nothing at all.... I ask myself: is it rude to tell people that they smell? Is there a polite way to tell someone that they stink to high heavens and need desperately to take a shower? They say if someone has bad breath to hint at it with offering breath mints or gum whenever possible instead of just being blunt and saying nicely 'your breath is smelly'. It would be pretty awkward to offer someone deodorant, I must admit... but I think they would get the clue.