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My apologies for the continued lengthy absences between posts, but I’ve been busy doing nothing and waiting for it to flippin’ warm up in Toronto.  Also, I like to keep you guys waiting with bated breath.  Seriously, though – how can I have any Canadian adventures when it’s already June 9 and only 18C/63F outside?!  I trust that all of you “pahtay people” have been busy either a) trying to warm up like me or b) searing your brains in the heat and humidity, and therefore *also* do not have any adventures to report.   Of course, if you do, do me a favour and just keep them to yourself, k?  It makes me feel heaps better thinking I’m not the only one sitting at home watching 30 Rock reruns and watching the sailboats go by.  A-hem.

As some of you know, I recently moved house in Toronto  – literally around the corner and 11 stories up. Because I have so much more time in the elevator now that I’m on a higher floor — you know, like seven more seconds –  I have been able to really soak in the juicy details of my building’s elevator cars.  And I noticed a really odd thing about them: there are no floors with the number “four”.  No four, no fourteen, no twenty- four, no thirty-four. 

We all know the taboo sacred power associated with the number 13.  The reason I know about this number goodness is because I was born on the 13th and turned 13 on Friday the 13th, so it just happens to be my lucky number.  It can’t be all bad, though – it’s a lucky number in tattoo culture and a lucky number for the Mexican Mafia.  So, of course, it must mean something. 

But I digress.  When I noticed that my building had floors with three’s (without a 13th floor, naturally), but no four’s, I became concerned.  Had I somehow missed this number’s superstition?  Should I have been avoiding floors with fours all this time?  I mean, isn’t a “four-leafed clover” supposed to be a lucky thing?    I just don’t get it.  I ride the elevators every day, of course, and every day I just shake my head in utter confusion. 

Last weekend, I was tooling around town in the Zipcar I’d rented with my gobs of disposable income (!) and because I really, really, really wanted to become an advertiser for Goodlife Fitness and the Toronto Marathon for the weekend (!), and passed this billboard on Lawrence near Victoria Park.  I did a double take and zipped myself around (heh) so I could take its photo. 

Who in their right mind would vote “NO” to excitement?!!  And even if you wanted to, why would you pay to advertise it?!  Once again, colour me confused.  I wondered if it was one of those coy little advertising campaigns that tease you mercilessly until they finally reveal all of their marketing genius.  (Bonus points if you can figure out the brand without looking at the brand name at the top – heh!)  Considering the paper was peeling off of this particular billboard, though, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the coy little advertising ploy is not in play here.  Weird.

The last odd thing I saw this weekend was also automobile related.  I pulled into a parking garage in Liberty Village and saw these most bizarre vehicles with license plates that said “S Cargo7″, as in “escargot”.  (I know…I didn’t need to say it).  There were about seven of them in different colours lined up in a row.  Was it a truck?  Was it a car?  Was it a plane?!  I’d never seen anything like them and they instantly made me think of the work of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi – sort of oddly spaced, stretched and distorted into places where the human brain doesn’t normally go!

Happy Summer, everyone!

Photo courtesy of peo pea on Flickr

A quick reflection on this feat includes 175 years of growth and change: from the nickname “Muddy York”, so named because of its unpaved, swampy streets; to “Toronto the Good” (my personal fave) named for the city’s reputation as a stern Protestant outpost in a young country; to “Hogtown”, “Hollywood North” (no, Vancouver, that isn’t you), “T.O.”, “T.dot” and after amalgamation, the “Megacity”.

Toronto is now Canada’s largest and most diverse city. Over 100 languages are spoken on the city streets. It is the economic engine of the country and one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the world. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, i.e. a subway that actually goes somewhere, real automated banking machines, and more 24 hour restaurants, thank you very much. But overall, Toronto has a true grit and an undying spirit that makes it, I think, one of the best places on the planet.

And now, I give you 175 reasons to love Toronto, courtesy of the Toronto Star. I could likely come up with 175 more. Scratch that. I could likely come up with 1,075 more.

Happy Birthday, Toronto! I love you.

As you all know, I have a major crush on Canada. I just couldn’t love it any darn more. I am seriously considering chaining myself to the Canadian flag pole at the border on March 31, 2010. The RCMP‘s are going to have to push me across, I swear.

However. Because I am not a citizen or permanent resident of this fair country, I can’t seem to get a credit card. I have been a homeowner for six years. I have had credit cards in my name since I was 16 years old (so, like, five years ago). Granted, in the States. The Canadian banks, however, consider me to have zero credit history and therefore, will not lend me any money. The banker I was dealing with actually told me that they don’t lend to people who only have work permit status, because they “might just pick up and leave the country without paying their debts”. Right. Because everyone can just pick up and LEAVE THEIR JOBS!

Look, I totally grok what they’re saying, but at least check my US credit history. I have an income after all. Give me some kind of benefit of the doubt. Something.

Don’t worry, Canada. We’re just on a small break — it’s not permanent. And, I hope you know that despite this small setback, I still love you. It’ll all get better…once you give me some damn credit!

Lucky for you guys, My Canadian Adventures will live on for another year. I officially leased out my condo in Houston today, so I (very happily) get to stay in T.O. – yahoo!

Canada, get ready for another 13 months of adventures with a Texas girl who has a giant crush on you (swoon)!

I’m returning to the scene of the crime. I’m “fixin” to head back to Texas, y’all! You may have already heard, oh, once or twice by now, that I’m staying in Canada another year (!). I’m really only just slightly excited about it much (yippee, yahoo, woo hoo, wahoo, backflips, handstands, pogo sticks, bouncy balls, lollipops!!).

What spine-tingling fun will I be having in H-town, you ask? Check it: Mexican food! Margaritas with salt! Celebrating my parents’ 41st wedding anniversary! Target run in a currency worth something! Breaking fingernails from packing up my condo! Shoving all my worldly goods into a 10×10 air conditioned box! Finding a renter in tanking economy! Wait a minute…..

(P.S. if anyone wants to come hang and help me pack, there’s liquor in it for you. We might have to drink out of yellow Solo cups, but it’s free. We can work our way from business drunk into lampshade-on-the-head drunk. Just be careful with my stuff.)

I’m getting my iTouch all charged up and ready to go with some tunage to get me through the week o’hell, er, I mean fun (sorry mom). I’m adding a snippet of the playlist that I’ll be rockin’ out to while enduring splinters from the eleventy-thousand cardboard boxes I’ll be packing. Thanks to a pretty fantastic Canadian radio fan I know, I’ve been listening almost exclusively to CBCRadio3 lately (except in my car where I am still (Sirius)XM loyal, but quickly losing patience. Come ON – Huey Lewis has no place on the 80′s channel. Or any channel for that matter). CBCRadio3 is a nationally broadcast Canadian radio station that rocks all Canadian music by all Canadian artists all the time. Rock, pop, hip hop, alternative, electronic – if you like it, they’re playing it. The best part? Their streaming is gratis. I think it’s quite possibly the world’s greatest radio station. People – stop listening to Britney, Taylor Swift and flippin’ Uncle Kracker and do yourselves a favour – check out some good music.

A’hem…without further ado, my playlist, set to the tune of “Smack My B*tch Up” but entitled “Pack Yo Sh*t Up”.

1) Help, I’m Alive – Metric (I am so digging this song right now, I can hardly stand it. Get the acoustic version free on their website)
2) Some Are Lakes – Land of Talk
3) The Reptiles and I – Shriekback
4) Hands on Fire – The Stills
5) Land of Giants – Hooded Fang
6) Sonnet – The Verve (this song makes me happy like a schoolgirl getting felt up under the bleachers)
7) Mr. Wendall – Arrested Development
8) By Your Side (Naked Music Remix) – Sade ft. Miguel Migs
9) We Are the Hunters – The D’urbervilles
10) Everything Counts – Depeche Mode
11) 14 Forever – Stars
12) Rushing – Moby
13) Ebow the Letter – R.E.M.
14) Until the Night is Over – Timber Timbre
15) 100 Days, 100 Nights – Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
16) Queen of Hearts – Juice Newton (aw yeah! Flashback!)
17) Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
18) Never Let Me Down Again – Depeche Mode
19) Where Do I Begin – The Chemical Brothers
Tie for 20th place:
20a) Jesus on the Radio – Guster
20b) Closedown – The Cure

Talk to you guys next week. Big Texas-sized hugs!

Side note: total shout out to Continental Airlines. I was scheduled to fly through Newark to Houston on the same type of prop plane that, very sadly, went down in Buffalo last week. And, there is supposed to be a rain/snow mix the day I leave. Ugh. I’m not usually a flying wimp, but I was having serious heart palpitations about getting on that plane. I called Continental and asked if there was anything they could do because, honestly, I would have been totally devoid of my sangfroid had I been required to fly on that plane in the snow (I know, I know…I live in Canada.). To my surprise and delight, they were more than accommodating and to boot, super cool about it. They changed my flights to non-stop jet service without – shock of the century – ANY ADDITIONAL FARE CHARGES OR CHANGE FEES. Continental: thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys rock. This is why I love you so.

As an American living in Canada, I can certainly relate to this article, although reading it was a definite palm-to-forehead moment for me.  D’oh!

Reuters Board in Times Square

PR Newswire in Las Vegas

The Original

Shane Battier and me

It’s not really that great of a photo, imo. Still, it had eyeballs gawking at it in two of the hippest cities on the planet. I expect to get a call from National Geographic any day now because, clearly, my time has come. Don’t worry — I promise not to forget the little people (grin). And just think…it all started with a pink Le Clic.