Check please

When I booked my trip to Toronto I had three things on my "must do" list. 1) Attend Vince's birthday bash, 2) Attend a taping of the show The Hour with George Stromboulopoulis and 3) Visit the Abercrombie and Fitch store and bring home the delicious scent that convinces me to shell out obscene amounts of money for average quality made in Philippines cotton apparel. I was successful in checking off two out of three.

You already know I made it to Vince's party--that one gets a big BMO building sized check mark. Today was my last chance to take care of the rest of the list. Here's how it went.

The Abercrombie store is in Eaton Centre downtown. Chris and I briefly visited it on Saturday and I thought that I had succeeded in determining which of the five fragrances was the one I wanted to cozy up to on a hot summer night. The problem was, the cash line was crazy long and Chris and I were due to meet up with Vince. So I carried my little sample stick with me and pulled it out once in a while as we made our long and disoriented trek back to the apartment. I knew I would be going back to the mall today and figured I would pick up the scent and then make my way over to the CBC studios for George's show.

The first challenge was getting downtown. I had to make the trip solo today as Vince was A) sleeping late, and B) working on his paper. I looked up the subway online to see if it could give me notes on how to get from here to there. Winnipeg has this great online thing called Navigo--you enter your start address, your destination, and the time you want to be there by or the time you want to leave by, and it will give you the buses and walking routes you need. Toronto apparently has nothing like this. In fact, they have one of the saddest websites I have ever viewed. I went back and re-googled a few times because I just couldn't believe this was the official site of the Toronto Transit Commission. Going from memory and the sketchy systems map, I thought I had figured out where to go and what to do. Thankfully, Vince got up just before I left and he corrected me on a small but important detail.

I found my way to the subway fine and got off fine. It took me a bit to orient myself once I was above ground again but I eventually found myself staring at the doors to Eaton Centre (side note, I think it's interesting that in cosmopolitan Toronto they still call it Eaton Centre while back home Eaton's Place was renamed City Place after Eaton's unfortunate demise. Maybe Winnipeg's the fool here, not sure.).

I went straight to Abercrombie. I realized that I had left the official sniffing stick in the pocket of my other jacket so I would have to re-sample all the scents. I collected new sticks but then stuffed them all in my pocket and headed back into the mall. Trying to discern the correct scent in the store was impossible given that the store already smelled. I knew that I would have to take my nose into a scent neutral zone, sniff again, and make my decision. Once again, I browsed around the mall and stopped once in a while to do a sniff test. Fierce, the latest scent was definitely out. While I knew that it was what they use currently in stores, I wasn't crazy about it and I wanted whatever they used pre-Fierce. I seemed to have it narrowed down to Proof although I couldn't be entirely certain as I didn't get a good spray on the stick because the bottle was pretty much empty. I went back to the store to take another sniff at Proof and make my purchase. On a Monday afternoon at 2:40 pm, the store was suddenly packed with 15 to 18 year olds and once again, the cash desk was lined up into women's t's and tanks. I had to march myself over to the studio and I hadn't even consulted the map yet. So I once again postponed the purchase until after the show.

I booked it over to the CBC--it was I don't remember how many blocks south and west of the mall but I did it in about 15 minutes, no thanks to the doddlers and cyclists on the side walk. THIS IS TORONTO FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Doesn't anyone have anywhere to be in a hurry?

At approximately 3:05 I made it to the studio. I was sweaty, my hair was wind "tousled" and I smelled like cheap store-brand men's cologne but I had made it. I was going to see George!

***

"I'm your boyfriend, George Stromboulopoulis..."--George's opening line to today's show.

Vince and I were seated in the back row of the middle section of the studio. To our left and occupying two front rows was a group of marines from Halifax. That's right girls, I was sitting in the same room as George Stromboulopoulis and a troop of men in uniform. Does it get much better than that?

Before the show and during breaks George happily entertained questions from the audience. After the show the taping crew and the producers left and they turned off the studio lights but George stuck around to talk to anyone who wanted to chat. He was frank, honest and unpretentious. I admire him because I think he's a talented and dedicated professional.

After questions, he posed with anyone who wanted a picture. Vince and I were the last people to get pictures. I was shaking a little but I think that was only because I was cold. They seemed to turn off the heat too when they turned out the lights (or, more likely, the studio lights are the heat source). Vince had never seen the show before but he had a bunch of questions for George. All I could do was stand and nod. This is why I couldn't do journalism. I wasn't star struck, I was just shy and my mind went blank. We got our pictures, shook George's hand, and then it was over. Give me another check mark please.

After we left the CBC, Vince headed back to the subway so he could return to his work. I wanted to give Abercrombie one last shot.

This time I found a fresh tester bottle of Proof and got a good spray. I also re-tested two of the other scents, just to be sure, and then headed back into the mall for a better sniff.

None of the sticks smelled right. I put them away and figured I just needed to give them time for the alcohol to dry. I tried again a few stores later and still no. I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed until my eyes were watering and I started sneezing but I could not find the one that I wanted. I left the mall in defeat.

One last dig at riding the subway. I figured that to go home I only had to follow the same route I had taken to get there, but in reverse. I had taken a southbound train down, so logically I thought I would take a northbound train home. HAH! Not so! The Younge-University-Spadina line (the "yellow" line) is U shaped. The Bloor line runs east and west across it. To get to the other side of the U, I was supposed to take another southbound train (which goes south to the bottom of the U and then heads north). Luckily, I was able to transfer from the northbound train to the Bloor line and end up at my destination. Confused again? It would be better if I could draw you a picture. I'm still on the fence about taking the train to the airport.

Pictures here
The show here

See you all at home.

I wish I could let my fingers do the walking but instead they'll do the talking

As mentioned in the last entry, my Saturday night ended on Sunday morning when my head finally hit the pillow at 5:30. Being a morning person, I just can't stand sleeping the day away so at 9:30 I was up again. It was a bright and sunny morning--finally--and the city was coming to life. Actually, it never really seems to go to sleep. The traffic noises at midnight are pretty much the same as the ones at 9 am. This would be one of the bigger differences from Winnipeg.

While everyone else caught up on their sleep, I organised my pictures, sent some e-mails and blogged. I realized that every day when Vince goes to bed I am on the computer working away, and then when he gets up he finds me again on the computer, working away. He must be wondering if I sleep at all.

Once the guys were up we headed out for breakfast at Over Easy on Bloor. I don't remember what time it was, one-ish maybe. The service was almost non existent and my four hours of sleep did not reset my level of patience to full supply. Our waitress seemed like a fun character--big blonde hair and addressed everyone with "hunny" but I bristled when she excused something she did by saying "I just got my hair done yesterday, too much peroxide y'know". I have no tolerance for dumb blonde references but I just rolled my eyes and muttered something in response.

After breakfast we hopped the subway and headed to West Bloor where Chris wanted to check out a cycle shop. Chris is big into cycling and participates in triathlons (well, he did until he did something to his leg which now impedes him from running). He didn't have an exact address for the store but knew the name and that it was supposed to be three blocks west of the subway station.

Since our scavenger hunt on Saturday for a BMO bank machine, I had taken up a game of I spy the BMO. I spotted one on the way to breakfast and another one on the way to the bike shop. I saw it again after we turned around and back tracked because we seemed to have missed the shop. We had barely started our day and already my feet were sore. I could also feel blisters bubbling. I wasn't about to complain though, I just followed along behind the guys a few paces and enjoyed the sunshine.

After checking out the bike shop (the name had changed from Cyclepath to Sweet Pete's--I call this change from clever branding to lame anti-marketing) we jumped back onto the subway and headed downtown to catch a ferry to Toronto Island Park. The ferry is only $6.00 to ride round trip and the island is full of things to do and see like beaches (including a clothing optional beach), boating, canoeing, disc golf ( Frolf, as I like to call it) and more. When we arrived we had apparently just missed a ferry going out. This meant standing around waiting for the next one 20 or 30 minutes later. I slipped my feet out of my shoes and hoped that I would soon get to dip them in the lake and walk barefoot along the beach.

The ferry ride was very enjoyable. It maybe lasted 10 minutes but it felt great being out on the water and motoring away from the city.

When we arrived at the island we decided to take the boardwalk around and maybe see if we could rent a canoe. I was very excited about the possible canoe excursion. A) It's canoeing and I love to paddle. B) It would mean sitting and using my arms to propel us in motion, not my poor feet!

The boardwalk was a bit of a disappointment. I had pictured something like we have at our Manitoba beaches--cedar planks of wood that meander alongside the beach. While there was a small beach at the beginning of the walk, most of it just followed along the water with a cement barrier in between. The other side was grey bush--no leaves out yet.

Where the boardwalk ended we spotted a Frolf hole. Vince had a mini (and I mean, mini) Frisbee so he and Chris decided to try it out. I once again took the opportunity to to take my shoes off and let my feet feel the ground--cool and cushy grass this time.

Next stop was a pier which was actually surrounded by beach. I was sad to see that the sand was dark and dirty and all the snack shops were still closed for the season. It was a beach, yeah, but it was probably three weeks away from being a fun hot spot.

After the pier we considered our options. We could keep walking around (there was a hedge maze nearby) or we could find the canoes. I of course voted for the canoes. Despite the fact that nothing else in the park was open I still had my hopes up for the canoe rentals. My hopes were crushed when we discovered that the boat house was also still boarded up and deserted. On to the hedge maze it was. The maze was actually neat and the smell of the cedar trees was refreshing.

After the maze as we walked along and again discussed our options, one of the guys asked how my feet were.

"Okay," I replied in a soft whimper. More emphatically I announced, "I just want to go back, find a patio, and drink margaritas." Vince tossed around a few other options for food but I was firm. I wanted a patio and I wanted a cold drink, maybe some nachos. I was tired and I was in pain. This was my idea of comfort food.

Back on the mainland, we walked to Jack Astors. They had a patio and it was even heated so everyone was happy. Drinks were surprisingly cheap, service was mostly good (at least 80% better than breakfast) and the nachos (yes, I had nachos again) were great. I told the guys that I could have sat there all night. I was feeling so much better--happy, and relaxed again. But of course, it could not last forever as we had to get Chris back so he could catch his flight home.

I was worried that I would compare this trip to San Francisco and that it wouldn't measure up. It was completely different, but it was still great. It really has nothing to do with the location, it's the people that make the memories.

More pictures here

Wait, I've done this before, I know what to do!

Last night my purpose for the trip was fulfilled as I joined Vince in his birthday celebration. The evening started out with Vince, Chris and I taking the subway to Eaton Centre for dinner. We were meeting Jon there, a guy Vince worked with at Google last summer. I also remembered him a bit from when I was visiting San Francisco. I decided that he seemed taller than I remembered. Like all those Google boys he's smart, sweet and funny--a great addition to our evening.

Vince had suggested that we eat at Richtree Market (formerly known as Marche). It's a different kind of restaurant, kind of fancy cafeteria style. There are a bunch of different stations--a pizza station, seafood station, grilled meats, sushi--where you place your request and then carry your selection(s) back to your table. Your order is kept track by way of a swipe card you hand to the chef at each station. The place reminded me of Google, except that it wasn't free. It even had colourful flags and with Jon and Vince there it was a weird little sense of deja vu. Actually, the more that I think about the night, the more similarities and parallels I find, but that's not important right now...

After a great meal and fun conversation we walked to the club where Vince's party was at. I took some pictures of the BMO buildings along with the Canada Life building for some good people back home. I remember laughing, but I don't remember why. Ah well, it was just the warm up to a fun night.

Vince was actually only part of the reason for the party. The party was actually a fundraiser for his volleyball team as they're going to a tournament this summer in San Francisco. They rented out a room in a club, hired a DJ and charged a $10 cover. They expected about 300 people.

Vince was a pretty popular guy. It was great seeing him having such a good time. I also had a blast dancing the night away. I felt short in my plain ballet flats but I knew my feet would thank me later for not wearing the heels.

We left around 3:00 a.m. and met up with the rest of Vince's team for some late night Chinese food and then stumbled back into Vince's apartment around 4:00. I wasn't sleepy at all really so I downloaded some pictures and sent some e-mails. I stepped outside just before turning out the light at 5:30 to grab a picture of the city. There was already a glow on the eastern horizon. The cold pavement of the balcony felt so good on my tired feet. I remember doing the same thing two years ago when I was last here. I wore the heels that time. I've learn a lot since then.

Saturday was probably my favourite day so far. The experiences were the perfect mix of the new and the familiar.

More pictures here

Get lost tourists!

Today Chris arrived around 1:30. Vince was out at volleyball and wasn't expected back until 4:00 so we decided to find our way down by the bay (sing it with me now, down by the bay...down by the bay, where the watermelons grow...). I packed my map (thanks Amara), camera, hat and an apple before we headed out to try the subway.

Chris figured out what we had to take and where we had to go. I just went along with it.

"How do you know this is the yellow line?" I asked.

"Because the line on the floor is yellow."

"Oh," I said, but still wondered if it was a design choice and not a helpful clue. (Note, Chris is in fact, full of crap about the yellow line. None of the other subway lines have a matching floor.)

We got off at Union Station where I found a Sweet Factory and posed for a picture. I worked at The Sweet Factory in the mall when I was in high school. Not long after I left, it closed down. I'm telling ya, weird things happen when I leave a company.

After the Union Station we found our way to the CN Tower. We went beyond bending over backwards to get a picture.

Next we headed for the water. It was a cool day but I expected to see more people out and about. I guess it's not tourist season but, really, where was everyone on a Saturday afternoon? We took some more pictures. Chris has done some modeling and I am just a clown, so the afternoon became more about finding photo opportunities than actual sight-seeing.

We didn't really set out with anything to see or do for the afternoon. Chris said he wanted to find a Bank of Montreal and I said I'd like to get to Eaton Centre and find the Abercrombie store. After consulting a map, we found that we generally had to head east of the tower so after a pit-stop at Starbucks for a Grande Cinnamon Dulce, extra hot (it was cold enough that I could see my breath) we wandered further and stumbled upon the financial district. I don't know why, but I get excited about Bay Street. I would put it in the same category as Rodeo Drive and Route 66. Just standing there I felt like I was in the middle of something very big and powerful. We kept walking as we still had not found the bank. We saw every other major bank, but no BMO. I pointed and laughed when I spotted the BMO logo on a four storey building.

"No wonder we couldn't find it, your bank is the smallest building on the block," I said. Then Chris directed my gaze upwards to the top of a very tall sky scraper where the BMO logo also appeared.

"Oh." (Note, Vince informed us later that the BMO building is the tallest one in the city. My response was another big "Oh.")

We captured a few more photos and eventually found Eaton Centre. I popped into Abercrombie and took a cologne sample that smelled just like the store.

At 4:00 we decided to make our way back to Vince's place. We took a bit of a different route home and once again, I trusted Chris when he explained where we would get off. I'm not incapable of riding a subway system, it just takes me a bit to feel comfortable with one. I did a decent job on my own in San Francisco with Vince's instructions. Anyway, Chris said we could save a transfer if we rode to the Spadina stop instead. It sounded right. When we got up to the street level though things looked not so good. I checked the number of the house beside me. It was 66 Spadina. Vince is at 666.

"Well, good thing it isn't raining," I said to Chris as we started to walk up the street. When we arrived at Casa Loma I started to suspect something was not right. I took a picture and then took out Amara's map.

"Maybe Spadina is a road and an avenue," Chris mused.

"It is!" I groaned. "Look, Spadina Avenue ends, and then it turns to Spadina Road. Vince is on Spadina Avenue." The road and the avenue are the same strip of road, but we had walked north in the direction of the ascending numbers of Spadina Road; Spadina Avenue was numbered in the opposite direction. Confused? Well then surely you can appreciate how we got turned around.

On the way back more hilarity ensued with photo ops. Getting lost was the most fun thing we could have done.

More pictures here

It's actually 5am as I write this. We got home from clubbing around 4. More on that tomorrow.

Day 2 of AWOL in T.O.

Okay, so while it seemed like a cool idea at the time to do the photo journal thing, it turned out to be way more work than just blogging. So here's today's journal entry:

Friday, April 27-07 Happy Birthday Vince!

8:25 am--Brain is running at full speed, can't sleep any more. Let's go take a peak outside. Boo. It's wet and grey. So far the plan today is Vince and I are supposed to go for lunch at 11 and then meet up with some of his friends for sushi at 5:30. I'd like to explore Bloor a little more today. Tomorrow I'll have Chris with me to walk around. Sunday, well, we'll see how lively we feel on Sunday. Monday I want to explore around the harbour. At the very least I'll hit the Abercrombie before the show. I think today and tomorrow will be "shop for everyone else" time. Oh, I just heard the people across the hall head out with their dog. I miss Schmo.


10:41 am-- Oh crap! I've been looking at the laptop clock all this time and it's still on Winnipeg time. I'm supposed to be doing lunch @ 11 and I'm still in my glasses and PJs. Noticed this morning as I was looking at my journal pics that I wrote I was drinking "Strombo". Clearly I have George on the brain (wait till Monday, Jill) because it was actually Strongbow. Anyway, better go get ready.


5:05 pm--walked up and down Bloor today in search of stuff to bring home for the people who requested it. Didn't find anything for myself but I wasn't really in the mood. Did stop in a shoe store. Everything was 80% off. Tried on a beautiful pair of boots for $89 but they didn't quite fit right (good thing anyway). It was drizzling mostly and I didn't have an umbrella (forgot to pack it). Got an e-mail from dad telling me he missed my happy face this morning. Aw, Dad. He must have been being sarcastic though. My face isn't that happy at 5:45am.

ajillstory skips town

Today I got on a plane, left sunny Winnipeg behind and touched down in Toronto for a six day escape. What possessed me to get up and go? I present to you a few different theories:

a. Job interview with The Agency, Toronto office.

b. Secret internet love rendez-vous.

c. Plan to meet up with Vince and elope.

The answer is of course d, none of the above (although Vince has given me a key to his apartment, heh. That one was for you Rob, beat you to it). About two weeks ago I mentioned to Vince that his birthday party was looking very tempting. He wrote back that it would be cool if I came out. So I checked flights, booked the time off, and well, here I am. I was feeling very jet-setter that I decided on a whim to fly out for my friend's 26th birthday party until I found out Chris was coming out too in even more of a jet-setter fashion--he's flying in Saturday morning and heads back Sunday evening. It should be fun!

Summary of the day:

Got up early. Couldn't sleep in. Assembled a flying outfit. On Amara's advice I wanted to pick out something impressive so I would look like I was someone important with some place to go. I decided on dark jeans, white t-shirt, black jacket and my favourite floral heels.

The rest of the day I kept notes in my journal. Instead of typing them out, I'll just post them here.

Got an e-mail from Abby today. Apparently someone in the department left rather abruptly. I swear, every time I have this weird effect on work places. Last time I went away someone on my team resigned. It's happened with other places too.

Anyway, stay tuned for more jillstory adventures in T.O.

My work slogan

Another fabulous day at Good Wooden Leg inspired this graphic.




*Please also don't shoot the artist who creatively assigned me the title of "Messanger". Passionate as I am about spelling, I think pushing mess and anger up together works appropriately here.

Not again

My friend Joanna is on a Man Quest. She's been doing the online personals thing for while now and has had many nibbles, but no real catches. I've listened to countless first date stories and giggled with her in excitement about the latest find but they all end up going sour just when things seem to start getting good.

I stopped by this morning to see her and ask how her Friday night date went. I think I was as excited about the guy as she was. This one seemed good. He was sweet, smart, geeky cute and had promising job as an assistant prof at the U of M. He would send her sweet little text messages throughout the day and he was all about being a gentleman when they went out.

Friday was good, she said. It was so good that they met up again on Saturday too. He was in the neighbourhood on Sunday and dropped by but Jo immediately noticed a change. She asked him what was up and he ended it for reasons he probably figured were honourable but really just showed a slimy side. I couldn't believe he was another one of the dumb ones.

But Jo just keeps on going. She's got another first meet lined up this week. This one cooks.

"I don't know how you do it Jo," I told her. "I admire you. I don't have the patience for that stuff."

"You'll want it enough some day," she said with her five extra years of wisdom. I just shook my head. A while ago I told a friend, "At this point, I think I'm just going to see how long I can last. I'm going on a man diet." (I am fully aware that at 25 I'm still pretty young to say I have reached any kind of point, but that's beside the, er, point. . .)

This last guy of Joanna's actually was giving me hope. The fairy tales were starting to seem more possible. But that story is over now and I'm thinking wow, there are a lot of toads out there.

Keep it up Jo, don't let my rant discourage you. You deserve something great. Good things come to those who wait, right?

This is my fairytale

"Ronald," she says, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."--The Paper Bag Princess

Happiness is not a fish you can catch

I wasn't going to post but I always hate leaving my blog on a down note so I decided to throw in here a sort of list of things that made me happy in the last few days. It's not a story or a point (which is why I wasn't going to blog at all, I simply don't have anything to say right now. I don't see that as a concern, I just like to take time to stop and listen for a bit instead of reflect on myself and my world) but here we go, in completely random order:

1. Last night I watched TV with my sister and we laughed together. We watched Engaged and Under Age followed by The Hills and then The Hills After-Show. Pure mind numbing trash but good times. Can't explain it much past that.
2. Took Elmo for a walk the other evening just as the sun was setting. It wasn't even cold. I was outside, listening to my favourite songs, grooving down the bike path not caring at all how ridiculous I looked because there wasn't a soul around (try to walk properly to something like Walkin' on Sunshine without wanting to pretend like you're in your own little music video.) Music. Sun. Outside. Dog with cute waggly tail that sticks straight up and who zigs zags around with little regard for the boundaries of cement and painted lines. These things light up my world.
   
3. This morning my radio came on as per usual at 5:25 and I frantically had to search for the remote and then the volume button before I woke the rest of the house up. After that exhilarating routine one of my favourite sweet songs came on so I rested my head back down on the pillow (the new and perfect one I had just bought the night before) and took an extra five minutes to dream a little longer. You can't take that away from me.
   
4. I remembered to watch The Hour tonight with George Stroumboulopoulos. I really enjoy the show and George makes me happy. I remember watching him on MuchMusic. Rick (The Temp) Campanelli was cute, but George was smart.
   

Here's something fun I found just now. It's an obit generator. What a great way to go!

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Big sister/Little sister

"Are you ready to go?" my sister asked me. I was on the computer collecting the stats on the Red Shoe House website and talking to Mike about house stuff. My hair was pushed back with a stretchy headband and I was wearing my white-ish polar fleece Gap hoodie with some mysterious and random dirt on it. No, I was not ready to go.

I checked the clock, it was 7:46 and Tracy told me to be ready to leave at 7:45. "Sorry! I lost track of time!" I apologized and quickly said goodbye to Mikey.

I could feel her rolling her eyes. "Are you going with your hair like that?"

I pulled the headband off and felt the top of my head for rogue locks. I attempted to pat everything down and put it in place. Thank God I have a hair appointment on Tuesday. "I better wear my hat," I told her as I followed her upstairs.

I grabbed my jacket and quickly searched the usual places for my pink cap--no luck.

We were going to the airport to pick my aunt up. Tracy was driving but we took my mom's car because it would be easier to load the luggage into than the Sunfire.

I got in the passenger side and pulled down the vanity mirror.

"I look like a bird," I laughed, as this seemed the most appropriate description for the plume of blonde hair feathering out of the top of my head.

"I told you to be ready," Tracy chided me.

"I know."

The airport was busy when we arrived. "Spring break," Tracy said. I noticed that the people walking around were either tanned or carrying ski bags. I wished I was one of them.

We didn't know where to stand and not get in the way. It didn't matter though as 10 minutes later the place was pretty much empty. There was a lot of unclaimed luggage hanging around. Tracy said it was probably sent to the wrong place--another symptom of the end of spring break.

"Somebody lost a boot," Tracy pointed out the lonely sole without its mate going around the conveyor belt. I took out my camera and took a picture.

"Jillian! What are you doing?"

"Taking a picture of the boot," I said. My family uses my full name when they are exasperated with me, which happens a fair bit. I used to imagine that when I started working in the real world I would only go by my full name. I had visions of the Jillian B@rr0tt name plate on the door to my corner office with floor to ceiling windows. I would have a fabulously posh job and a fabulously posh fiance named Avrey and only he and a few close friends would affectionately call me Jil (yes, I think there could be only one "l"). At a corporate function or charity event Avery would say things like, "I'm taking Jil to Naples in September, she's never seen the fall foliage". I would be charming and graceful and life would be lovely.

"Jill, stop it," my sister instructed. "That's weird. People are probably wondering what you're doing taking pictures of them. I know I'd feel weirded out."

I put the camera down. I actually wanted to take a picture of her too but if she saw that she'd probably strangle me with her pashmina scarf. She looked like she was ready to jet off to Paris. She was wearing her white patent leather kitten heels (that I picked out for her and made her buy), dark wash skinny jeans and a black wool coat. I on the other hand was wearing my very worn and tired brown hikers (I'm ashamed to admit, they are probably my favourite pair of shoes and I cannot bear to part with them), faded soft blue jeans with tattered cuffs (I can't believe I want to pay $80 American for a pair of Abercrombies with the same look), and my black windbreaker/green vest combo. You already vaguely know what my hair looked like. I was also sans makeup because I like to let my face breathe when I can on the weekends.

My sister graduates this summer. She already has her job lined up in the Children's hospital which will pay to start more than I make after two raises at one of the city's largest companies. She smiles when she says it, but she keeps telling us she's going to find a rich doctor to marry. She doesn't have the easily abbreviated name, but she will likely have the lifestyle I used to dream about. She definitely deserves it; she's my little sister, she deserves the world.

Our days left together in the same house are numbered. I guess I just realized that. I have a lot of catching up to do.