WOW, I hope some of you got to watch that stellar leafs game! OK, not stellar, since the Eagle is what saved us, but still we won! woo hoo! What's that, 3 or 4 years of beating the Sens in the playoffs in a row? Ouch! :)

What a great bday present eh? Sweet juice! Yep, that's right, it's my birthday, ladies and gentlemen! ...

24 I AM ladies and gentlemen!

Well, my Birthday is actually April 21st, but this is close enough!

Other good news
ALSO, i just won free tickets to see DAMIEN RICE on Friday! WOO HOO! I already have tickets, and they're actually better, but with winning this contest I get some cool deluxe DVD stuff as well as a "chance" to meet him. Who knows what that means. I'll have to follow up with them to see if that means "meet him like everyone else by waiting after the show and grabbing him when he comes out" or actually going backstage. I'm sure he's pretty cool and easy to talk with, given that he's not some mainstream pop idol or anything.. 'course, to my dismay it could be another "OMGOMGOMG IT'S John Mayer and he's playing MY SONG!!" experience*

Reconnecting...
I am in the middle of planning a few get togethers. If anyone is free, i'd love to catch up with what's going on with your life , as well updating y'all as some insane things going on w/me.

For example, on Wedesday i'll hopefully be heading down to see the next release of the Pontiac Quarterly Magazine (see my March 20th entry entitled "Happy St. Patrick's Day!"). If you want to come out (to this event or set something else up) please contact me!

Yes, i know i'm getting old. Sh!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"

*Basically I strolled into the JMayer show thinking it was a medium-sized gig @Kool Haus, but it turned out I was among a sea of screaming 16 year old girls. Think conflicting parfume. Think high heels. Think giant hooped earrings. Think cellphones. Think thinking,"Am I getting old to go to gigs?" repeatedly for the first few songs.

So it's been awhile since i've written. Well, last week I spent the long weekend in the lovely place known as WHITBY! Woo hoo! Course, it was to visit my boyfriend's place of residence, parents away for the weekend.

Whitby is a fusion of all the other surrounding Toronto cities. It's a mismash all the elements of a small town: a whack of one way streets, a beaming fast food district off the highway, communting residents, reliance on 1992 daimler chrysler automobiles, white blue collar workers and of course pockets of skids. I kept thinking I was in Waterloo-no, PTBO-no, Belleville, no-Oshawa :) Unfortunately I wasn't there long enough to see if there was a popular local breakfast shop or the local Wong-Ping Chinese restaurant, but i'm sure there's got to be some! :)

Nonetheless, it was a nice town. The air was quite fresh, and the people seemed nice. I didn't really get to socialze much with them, but i'm sure they're nice people (they better be or else the yellow man might kung fu you to death!).

I spent most of my weekend at my bf's place. It was a great spaceous home, with sparkling white rugs (how do they maintain that? it's a mystery to me!), killer kitchen and music/living room. What else can i say? We watched "Motown" and "Lost In Translation." I highly recommend them!! It's all about the funk brothers! :). It was a great change b/c he doesn't have a TV at his apartment.

We also made a KILLER African spiced porkchop with assorted grilled vegetables and brown rice... Delicious indeed!




Whitby at night was nice a quiet. I like driving at night, for the first time my bf got to drive me around! It was great! I've been driving way too much lately, so it was nice to be on the other side of his car.. Plus, then i can take annoying shotgun pictures! (below)



Overall I had a wicked time in Whitby. It was so nice to cook in such an amazing kitchen (totally my mother's style! Warm yellows and blues, faux stone tiles and stainless steel and art deco. What more could my mom have asked for?

Anyway, I hope to update about some of the other recent happenings in my life soon. Work has been INSANE, and infact i don't think i've ever worked as hard at a job in my life. I don't know if ican last at this pace, so soon i hope to find some balance and get in the groove.

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"

The past few weeks have been INSANE, with work piling up and up and up. I hope to get the hang of things soon, and realize that it's just part of getting used to the job.

Last weekend I went to a swing night! No, not the "swingers" night you'd see on the O.C., but swing dancing! My superboyfriend (SBf) enjoys swing dancing, and he took me out with some of his friends to one of their special events (of which I can't remember the name of). It was out by Ossington and Bloor, in what looked like an old converted chapel. Nonetheless, when we walked in I saw a group of guys very well dressed in black suits, white ties and top hats -- It was the swing band! They were warming up for the night. There was a beginner's dance that was just finishing up when we walked in. Once that was complete, everyone started entering the main hall.

The main hall room looked like an old gymnasium, with barely functional plastic ceiling fans, inaccessible windows and hardwood floor paneling. The band got right on and started playing almost immediately. Apparently this was a very busy night because there was a live band. I couldn't see this being nearly as great an experience without the vivacity of a live band -- Of course, I may be just a *bit* biased!

Diversity Dancing
There were so many different types of people there. Whether it be white, asian or latino, old and young, gay or straight, this place had almost everything. It was kind of like a club called El Convento Rico, but gone swing rather than latino. Although there were clearly gay people in the building, the sight of 2 gay guys dancing still did turn heads.. But I guess that's to be expected unfortunately. Still, it was quite accepting (at least tolerant) of everyone.

The music was GREAT. They played the catalogue of swing songs that I knew (i.e. the top 40 of swing), including Jump Jive and Wail, which was amazing to watch! The dynamic between the partners was electric; when 2 people were swing dancing, they knew each other's moves and it was like they were connected. Incredible. I also liked how people changed partners quite frequently, often asking people sitting down if they'd like to dance. You'd think that they'd be a big awkward at first, but most of the time they danced like they knew each other!

One of the main reasons why were there was because my SBf was performing. He and a friend choreographed a 3 minute piece to a swing tune called "trucking". It was great because everyone crowded around in giant 1/2 circle to watch them perform! It was also someone's bday, and for a duration of a song the woman danced with a slew of guys, one after another. There was a connection knowing which guy would be next in the sea of people, so no one would step on each other's toes (no pun intended). She must have dance with at least 7-8 guys in that one song!

Oh, I also got to meet one of my SBf's ex-boyfriends. That was fun indeed :). It was great to put a name to the face now at least to one of his exes. His ex also introduced me to his new bf, which I spoke a fair amount with because he chose not to dance as well. It was also funny because I found that this ex was totally looking me up and making and assessment, and dare I say perhaps an ounce of jealousy? :)

You're all wondering, did I dance? Some of you may know that I do like to dance at clubs (whenever I can actually go), but this time I passed on the opportunity. I guess I didn't feel comfortable yet (i.e. dancing with another guy in a public space and dancing to a type of dance I've never danced to), but perhaps in the future I will. It was just more fascinating watching all these people enjoy this night out and observing a new sub-culture to me. Plus, I was great watching my SBf dance with all his swing friends!

Take care,

RE

"Jack and Jill went up the hill to get a pail
Jill stayed up, she wants to learn how to jive and wail!!!"