My Birthday Adventure

WARNING: STORES THAT CLAIM TO BE OPEN 24 HOURS, HAVE OPEN DOORS, LIGHTS ON AND MUSIC PLAYING AND NO SIGNS TO INDICATE THEY ARE NOT OPEN MAY, IN FACT, ACTUALLY NOT BE OPEN.

Whew...glad I could warn you in time.

Thursday night we ventured off to the T-dot for my birthday. (T-dot = Toronto for those of you who aren't familiar with our ghetto slang). First we hit dinner at this upscale italian restaurant, then we hit the Mod Club. After we hit it, we actually went inside. BAHAHAHA. Ahhhh....*cough*

On the way to dinner, we walk past some creepy old Toronto guys in a truck who roll down their window to talk to us. It went like this: Guys: "Helloooo." Me: "Goodbyyyye." Diana: "Lorraine, don't be mean!" Me: "You're right...we'll probably get shot doing that here..." Diana: "Shhhh!!" *looks around cautiously* Me: "Hehehehe."

At the club, Diana got hit on and informed the guy she had a boyfriend and pushed me to him instead. Clearly he wasn't happy with this alternative as he turned away not long after. As I was complaining about this Diana decides to prove me wrong by bringing a random drunk guy sitting near us into the equation who previously said to us, and a I quote,"I am like a spider".
She asks him "she doesn't think she's pretty, don't you think she is??" Drunk guy rambles on, and keeps trying to get me to dance with him. I whisper to Diana that drunk people do not count and politely decline as best as I can.

Off we go to the car and make an effort to find water and washrooms. Dominion we think should solve both of these problems. The automatic door isn't working, but some guy comes up next to us and pulls the other door open, walks in, and we follow. We quickly note the lack of washrooms, which is not welcoming news for Dave who is on the verge of wetting himself.

We venture to the water bottle aisle where a cop soon approaches us; "Have you seen any staff working here?" Us: "No...not yet..." Cop: "Well, there's a good reason for that, we think the store is closed." (I suppose by this time in the morning it's technically Good Friday). We start laughing our asses off and he's laughing a bit too, and tells us to stay put while he tries to contact a manager. Meanwhile another officer has rounded up the first guy who came in and we all stand around together like herded sheep...at this point I don't even care if I get arrested just cause it would make a hilarious birthday story. He takes our ID's but I don't have mine on me, he says he'll take my word for it:

"Birthdate?" "Today, 1985."
Dave: "Can I leave for just a second to find a washroom?" Officer: ".......no."
Other guy: "I'm not giving you my ID, I haven't done anything wrong." Officer: "Well we're going to have to arrest you for breaking and entering then." I think to myself: It wasn't breaking and entering...aren't we really just guilty of entering??

The cop tells us we were caught on camera by CTV news. I didn't get to see it. But man would I kill to have a copy of that clip. They also caught a lady stealing a bouquet of flowers. Come on, if you're going to steal something at least make it good. I wish I'd grabbed a bag or something as a souvenir. They let us go not long after and I giggled all the way home.

Lesson learned: If the first door is locked, the second one probably should be too.

My ipod Adventure

Sometimes I buy things to make me happy. It never really works, but it's better than using drugs or sex to make me happy. Or IS it...*scratches chin*. I don't do the typical girl thing and buy clothes or shoes though, although I really should (I'm outgrowing all my clothes, which is sad cause I haven't grown any taller since grade 9). Instead I buy things like cd's or new gadgets. In fact, this new gadget should eliminate me having to buy cd's at all. Which is kinda sad cause I still like looking through them at the music store and finding a good buy for like, $10 or something. But yes, I invested in an ipod nano.

Do I really need an ipod nano? Probably not. Did I spend a ridiculous amount of money on it wiht it's accessories? Yes. Do I feel happy? Meh. I'm actually more pissed off at myself that I got swindled into buying things I wasn't prepared to buy. I should have just stuck with the ipod nano; instead I got suckered into a crappy mp3 holder that isn't even fit for the nano and new earphones ("I promise you you'll be back if you don't buy them now, and I can only give them to you for half off if you buy them now") WTF, I'm smarter than that! F'n shady salesman...he wasn't cool at all. In fact, he tried to rip me off by $8.00. You see, it was EHR's birthday sale so you get to pop a balloon with a discount in it, and if you mention Todd from the Dean Blundell Show's name you get to pop two balloons. Well, this salesguy didn't want to let me pop ANY balloons. "I'm already giving you half off on the earphones!" Ooooooo a whopping $25 bucks off a $400 purchase, you're a real saint there asshole. Thank you so much for ripping me off and then denying the discounts I'm entitled to if I spend over $100, which I am clearly doing. So I insisted on the ballons, won $8 off, which he coincidentally "forgot" to take off the bill. ARG.

So Todd from the Dean Blundell Show is there as well doing promo stuff (very nice in real life, much taller than I thought even though I've met him once before...) and I'm chatting to him and complaining a bit...he's like "that's ridiculous, come here..." and leads me up to the front of the store to talk to one of the guys. "This uhh...*looks at me* lady here was supposed to get $8 off her purchase, can you make sure that she gets it?" And I did...in your face salesguy!!

So now I have another gadget that I can get pissed off with when it doesn't work how I want it to (and I already have). And another purchase that I can feel guilty about wasting my money on in the pursuit of material happiness. Maybe I should just become a monk.

The Pre-Birthday Blues

I distinctly remember waking up one birthday morning and getting so excited that it was my birthday that I started jumping on my bed. That was last year. No just kidding...I was probably 7 or 8. But the thing is, the excitement of birthdays tapers off more and more every year. Last year I spent the majority of the day being depressed that I was another year older and still hadn't accomplished anything close to what I wanted to by now.

I think I take my birthday too seriously. For a long time I wanted to make a huge deal about it...get all my friends together and do something big and exciting. The downfalls of this are my birthday is in April, prime time for exams, and it's hard enough to get my friends all together in one place at one time. A few of my close friends are still just below the drinking age which also limits places you can go.

So last year I decided to just let my birthday pass me by. I didn't want to hear about it, I didn't want anything to do with it. The only way I acknowledge by birthday is by allowing myself to be selfish for that day lol. I can eat chocolate and other sugar-fat filled things guilt free. Why? Because it's my birthday!

Another thing is, I always want everyone I see to wish me a happy birthday, like at work and such. However, what can you do, go up to them and say "Guess what, it's my birthday, wish me happy birthday!!" That seems awfully self absorbed and I don't want to be like that. So I sit quietly and do my work as if it's just another day. Cause really.....who cares.

I've always wanted a surprise party too but never had one. That's ok. I know they're rare. But it would be pretty cool...who wouldn't want people to go to the trouble of throwing them a party without them knowing. We threw my dad one this year and he loved it. Maybe when I turn 60 someone will throw me one. As for this year...the milestones are running out...I can drive, I can vote, I can drink in Canada, and as of this birthday I will be able to drink in the States. You know, cause I go to the States so often to drink and all. I think the only milestone left is being able to rent a car, which I think is around 24. Won't that be an exciting birthday.

Anyways...April 13...don't forget to not wish me a happy birthday. Thank you.

Canadian Idol...?

What do you guys think??

I was interogated for 10 minutes yesterday about whether I was going to try out for Canadian Idol or not. "You should, you should, just go and do it!" Me: *quivering in proverbial boots*

It's not so much that I don't think I'm good enough, although that is a huge part of it...it's the paranoiya of ending up on the "worst of" show. I would die. Knowing me and how flustered I get under pressure I would say something ridiculous or not resembling english at all, or just fall flat on my face. Literally...I mean, walk in there, trip, and fall flat on my face. It's me, let's face it...it would happen. Also that and the fear of making it to the judge's round and them tearing me apart to the bone...there's probably not too many things more humiliating than being berrated by professional critics on national television. International television I should say...

Those fears aside, there's the more realistic fear: going and not even making it past the first round. "Sorry...you don't even pass the 'can you carry a molody' test". Although that wouldn't really be the worst thing to possibly happen...I mean it's not like it would crush me...I've won scholarships (ok ONE scholarship) for singing before, and got a 90 (first class honours with distinction) on my vocal exam...so I guess I have to be somewhat ok-not-terrible-y?? Bahhh....I'll also have to take time off work...but half the people that push me to audition are from work, so let's hope they don't mind covering for me lol...

My dad of course is ridiculously supportive convinced I could make it into the top 10...I told him he was biased and his response was "absolutely". There's nothing like a parent's blind faith in their child.

Auditions are the end of April. Hopefully I'd get to meet John Dore...he's dreamy.