Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Raised To Be A Total Retard
I was just re-reading the below entry -- "fell out of bed", "dry-heaved grappa all night". Great god, that's not very ladylike.
I was just re-reading the below entry -- "fell out of bed", "dry-heaved grappa all night". Great god, that's not very ladylike.
I'll Take Chicago
We started our trip running very late to the airport on Friday morning. Basically we were about an hour behind schedule. But we still checked in ok and they hustled us through immigration really fast. We checked our bags and somehow they made it with us to Chicago. It was easy to take the El into the city. Quite a bargain for $1.75.
We arrived at our hotel around 9:30am... they had a room for us. It was a lovely hotel, right around the corner from Morton's, at Wabash and Wacker. We had a north-facing view of the river.
We walked and shopped the first day. We stopped in for lunch at Giordano's. I had a 10" deep dish stuffed Chicago style, whatever you want to call it, pizza. It was totally gross, like eating 2 lbs of cheese... but I loved it. I only ate 2 pieces but we carried it around in a bag for the rest of the day and managed to eat one more piece later (for breakfast the next morning! Cold!).
The concierge made us reservations at Fulton's On The River. We had a lovely time... again, doggie bags were brought back to the hotel. It's all about the food in the U.S.
The next morning we had coffee brought in by room service and we ate some of our leftovers. Unfortunately most were thrown out though. We walked over to the corner where we thought our concierge had made us reservations for an architectural boat tour. It turned out we were about a block south. Chicago is weird, it's on several levels. We walked down some stairs adorned with wrought iron and basically found ourselves underneath the street. Immediately some bummy-looking guys started shouting at us and walking over to us and we knew we were in the wrong place. Totally weird and creepy. You can drive and park underneath the streets in Chicago. Closer to the river we found the right stairs.
The boat tour was fantastic. All I can say is thank god I wore my lambskin coat. I even turned up the mink collar. Fur in general is very unlike me... but I was grateful for it's warmth this past weekend. The tour was fascinating. And windy. After that we shopped (this time returning to some stores and buying a few things). Then we dropped off our bags and went to have lunch. I had a "Chicago style hot dog" from the grill. It was amazing. I think I had a snooze in the late afternoon before getting ready to see my girlfriends whom I hadn't seen in 20 years...
To take the edge off I had two glasses of wine. Then we took a cab out to Wrigleyville. Then we were a little early so we had drinks in the adjoining bar of the restaurant. I was a little smashed when I saw my friends. Then I had a whole bottle of wine... then we went to a neighbourhood bar and had another drink. My fatal move was to have a dirty martini at this point. I also bummed a camel light off our waiter. What was I thinking.
We talked forever about the private school we attended together and how shitty it was in those days... the few nice people we encountered there, our lives, etc... at 2am I noticed they were really yawning. We took a cab back to my friend's place where I dropped them off and then I continued to my hotel.
Nick was really worried when I didn't get home until 2:30am. I was pretty loaded. I also fell out of bed.
The next morning I was hit with the worst hangover of my life. I can say this with absolute certainty. There are two times that come close. Once was a 3-day hangover I sustained in Halifax. The other was a day-long hangover I had in Italy in which I was traveling to Slovenia very early in the morning. For that one I had been dry-heaving grappa all night. Anyway, they PALE in comparison.
I could not move. I could not seem to get out of bed, even to pee. I took about 6 advil and 3 pepto bismal pills. I drank about a litre of water. I tried to get going but I just couldn't. Finally when Nick was up and dressed I made myself get up and dressed and I packed. Pulling on my jeans really hurt. Somehow we got out of there and went in pursuit of breakfast. We decided to go to this place - Dick's Last Resort. They do a huge Sunday brunch with live music. It's kind of a crazy party place... I just wanted a cup of tea and to die in peace. After that we did a lot more sightseeing. We went to Navy Pier and Millennium Park. That was huge walking people. Mama was tired. We took the El back to O'Hare. I was so looking forward to another Chicago style hot dog. This time I got one steamed. AWESOME. I also bought popcorn and had 2 cokes. The coke really helped my hangover.
I started to feel straight finally when the plane was landing in Toronto. It was great to get home. Note to self - it's cheaper to park at the airport over the weekend than to take limos back and forth. I'm glad that's what we did.
We're returning to Chicago for sure... I liked it so much more than New York. The people were so friendly and it's so easy to get around on the subway and on foot.
We started our trip running very late to the airport on Friday morning. Basically we were about an hour behind schedule. But we still checked in ok and they hustled us through immigration really fast. We checked our bags and somehow they made it with us to Chicago. It was easy to take the El into the city. Quite a bargain for $1.75.
We arrived at our hotel around 9:30am... they had a room for us. It was a lovely hotel, right around the corner from Morton's, at Wabash and Wacker. We had a north-facing view of the river.
We walked and shopped the first day. We stopped in for lunch at Giordano's. I had a 10" deep dish stuffed Chicago style, whatever you want to call it, pizza. It was totally gross, like eating 2 lbs of cheese... but I loved it. I only ate 2 pieces but we carried it around in a bag for the rest of the day and managed to eat one more piece later (for breakfast the next morning! Cold!).
The concierge made us reservations at Fulton's On The River. We had a lovely time... again, doggie bags were brought back to the hotel. It's all about the food in the U.S.
The next morning we had coffee brought in by room service and we ate some of our leftovers. Unfortunately most were thrown out though. We walked over to the corner where we thought our concierge had made us reservations for an architectural boat tour. It turned out we were about a block south. Chicago is weird, it's on several levels. We walked down some stairs adorned with wrought iron and basically found ourselves underneath the street. Immediately some bummy-looking guys started shouting at us and walking over to us and we knew we were in the wrong place. Totally weird and creepy. You can drive and park underneath the streets in Chicago. Closer to the river we found the right stairs.
The boat tour was fantastic. All I can say is thank god I wore my lambskin coat. I even turned up the mink collar. Fur in general is very unlike me... but I was grateful for it's warmth this past weekend. The tour was fascinating. And windy. After that we shopped (this time returning to some stores and buying a few things). Then we dropped off our bags and went to have lunch. I had a "Chicago style hot dog" from the grill. It was amazing. I think I had a snooze in the late afternoon before getting ready to see my girlfriends whom I hadn't seen in 20 years...
To take the edge off I had two glasses of wine. Then we took a cab out to Wrigleyville. Then we were a little early so we had drinks in the adjoining bar of the restaurant. I was a little smashed when I saw my friends. Then I had a whole bottle of wine... then we went to a neighbourhood bar and had another drink. My fatal move was to have a dirty martini at this point. I also bummed a camel light off our waiter. What was I thinking.
We talked forever about the private school we attended together and how shitty it was in those days... the few nice people we encountered there, our lives, etc... at 2am I noticed they were really yawning. We took a cab back to my friend's place where I dropped them off and then I continued to my hotel.
Nick was really worried when I didn't get home until 2:30am. I was pretty loaded. I also fell out of bed.
The next morning I was hit with the worst hangover of my life. I can say this with absolute certainty. There are two times that come close. Once was a 3-day hangover I sustained in Halifax. The other was a day-long hangover I had in Italy in which I was traveling to Slovenia very early in the morning. For that one I had been dry-heaving grappa all night. Anyway, they PALE in comparison.
I could not move. I could not seem to get out of bed, even to pee. I took about 6 advil and 3 pepto bismal pills. I drank about a litre of water. I tried to get going but I just couldn't. Finally when Nick was up and dressed I made myself get up and dressed and I packed. Pulling on my jeans really hurt. Somehow we got out of there and went in pursuit of breakfast. We decided to go to this place - Dick's Last Resort. They do a huge Sunday brunch with live music. It's kind of a crazy party place... I just wanted a cup of tea and to die in peace. After that we did a lot more sightseeing. We went to Navy Pier and Millennium Park. That was huge walking people. Mama was tired. We took the El back to O'Hare. I was so looking forward to another Chicago style hot dog. This time I got one steamed. AWESOME. I also bought popcorn and had 2 cokes. The coke really helped my hangover.
I started to feel straight finally when the plane was landing in Toronto. It was great to get home. Note to self - it's cheaper to park at the airport over the weekend than to take limos back and forth. I'm glad that's what we did.
We're returning to Chicago for sure... I liked it so much more than New York. The people were so friendly and it's so easy to get around on the subway and on foot.
Monday, November 14, 2005
But Oh How I Wish It Was Radio
I was interviewed by the CBC for the CBC Sunday program. It's a piece about Coronation Street fans in Canada. It was ok but was I ever nervous. I'm not even going to tape it... we'll be in Chicago that weekend.
I was interviewed by the CBC for the CBC Sunday program. It's a piece about Coronation Street fans in Canada. It was ok but was I ever nervous. I'm not even going to tape it... we'll be in Chicago that weekend.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Creative Mammories
This weekend I participated in a "crop", that is, a weekend-long scrapbooking thingy. I got hooked into scrapbooking a while ago. Me, Martha and Mary Catherine like to do things together and long story short, after our failed book club we decided to get into scrapbooking. Martha had a client who sold the stuff so I volunteered to hold the "party" at my house. Our consultant came and got us started. The party was lots of fun... Martha has a lot of "stuff" already, and Mary Catherine and I bought kits to get started. We all signed up for "the fall crop" which was this past weekend.
After work on Friday I bolted some beers and natchoes with co-workers and then bolted home to get my scrapbooking stuff and then bolted over to pick up Martha at her work and then we bolted up to St. Cuthbert's church hall for 7pm.
The church hall was fantastic. It was all set up for us with the church tables. Each person got a quarter of a table to spread out and scrapbook. All along the walls of the hall were the supplies and cropping stuff to borrow and use, plus all kinds of stuff for sale. I did buy some more stuff...
I worked pretty hard with Martha on Friday night. I did two pages. That took me from 7pm - 10pm. People walk around, gab, snack, organize their stuff. Let me tell you, this activity is very, very social! And people have way, way, way more supplies than me or even Martha (who didn't even bring all her stuff). They have literally bags of it. The lady on my left had thousands of stickers that she was organizing. It took her 3 hours to organize her stickers.
On Saturday I headed back for 9am. Mary Catherine joined us on this day. MC tended to create pages very quickly. I was somewhat slower, and Martha was the slowest. People had thousands of photos - rolls and rolls and rolls of film. I only brought a few photos that I already cropped plus a few old photo albums that I was planning to scrapbook.
MC made us lunch, it was awesome. By 2pm I was running out of steam even though the event lasted until 5pm. Man alive, I do not have the stamina for it. I did 5 pages total and I love them.
This weekend I participated in a "crop", that is, a weekend-long scrapbooking thingy. I got hooked into scrapbooking a while ago. Me, Martha and Mary Catherine like to do things together and long story short, after our failed book club we decided to get into scrapbooking. Martha had a client who sold the stuff so I volunteered to hold the "party" at my house. Our consultant came and got us started. The party was lots of fun... Martha has a lot of "stuff" already, and Mary Catherine and I bought kits to get started. We all signed up for "the fall crop" which was this past weekend.
After work on Friday I bolted some beers and natchoes with co-workers and then bolted home to get my scrapbooking stuff and then bolted over to pick up Martha at her work and then we bolted up to St. Cuthbert's church hall for 7pm.
The church hall was fantastic. It was all set up for us with the church tables. Each person got a quarter of a table to spread out and scrapbook. All along the walls of the hall were the supplies and cropping stuff to borrow and use, plus all kinds of stuff for sale. I did buy some more stuff...
I worked pretty hard with Martha on Friday night. I did two pages. That took me from 7pm - 10pm. People walk around, gab, snack, organize their stuff. Let me tell you, this activity is very, very social! And people have way, way, way more supplies than me or even Martha (who didn't even bring all her stuff). They have literally bags of it. The lady on my left had thousands of stickers that she was organizing. It took her 3 hours to organize her stickers.
On Saturday I headed back for 9am. Mary Catherine joined us on this day. MC tended to create pages very quickly. I was somewhat slower, and Martha was the slowest. People had thousands of photos - rolls and rolls and rolls of film. I only brought a few photos that I already cropped plus a few old photo albums that I was planning to scrapbook.
MC made us lunch, it was awesome. By 2pm I was running out of steam even though the event lasted until 5pm. Man alive, I do not have the stamina for it. I did 5 pages total and I love them.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
I Walk The Mall
Yesterday I took a vacation day. I considered going to the Hadassah-Wizo Bazaar but felt like that was a better event to do with a friend, even though I've been wanting to go to it since high school. Instead, I drove up to Vaughn Mills Mall and walked. I walked probably 10 km. I think I did between 8 and 10 circuits of the mall, and I was not the only one. There were plenty of mommys walking with strollers, not shopping, walking. My intention was to do some Christmas shopping but instead I just bought some stuff at Olsen and H&M.
Then I went down to the Paramount and went to a matinee. I saw A History of Violence. Needless to say, it was violent. Then I went home and had a quick visit with the doggie, and then I went to see my massage therapist in her new digs. She worked on my back, neck, shoulders, arms, head and best of all face. It's weird but the face is my favourite part of a massage now.
Then I poked around Book City and strolled around Bloor St. Then I came home. Nick was at The Super Furry Animals (a Welsh band... Rings Around The World is a great song...). It was a beautiful warm sunny day. I totally felt like I was pipping off work, even though I wasn't.
Yesterday I took a vacation day. I considered going to the Hadassah-Wizo Bazaar but felt like that was a better event to do with a friend, even though I've been wanting to go to it since high school. Instead, I drove up to Vaughn Mills Mall and walked. I walked probably 10 km. I think I did between 8 and 10 circuits of the mall, and I was not the only one. There were plenty of mommys walking with strollers, not shopping, walking. My intention was to do some Christmas shopping but instead I just bought some stuff at Olsen and H&M.
Then I went down to the Paramount and went to a matinee. I saw A History of Violence. Needless to say, it was violent. Then I went home and had a quick visit with the doggie, and then I went to see my massage therapist in her new digs. She worked on my back, neck, shoulders, arms, head and best of all face. It's weird but the face is my favourite part of a massage now.
Then I poked around Book City and strolled around Bloor St. Then I came home. Nick was at The Super Furry Animals (a Welsh band... Rings Around The World is a great song...). It was a beautiful warm sunny day. I totally felt like I was pipping off work, even though I wasn't.
