Posts Under City Living Category
I really, really wanted a chocolate bar Thursday afternoon at work. I was tired and hungry and having some serious chocolate, candy, ooey, gooey, goodness cravings. I even was in front of the vending machine, money in hand – but I resisted, ate a banana instead, and headed home from work.
Except, I get irritated while driving pretty easily – especially during rush hour, especially when people are driving aggressively. Seriously, there’s a %*^# ton of traffic, cutting me off or riding my ass is not getting you to your destination any faster. So I’m driving home and encounter a jerk off, aggressive cab driver that WILL NOT let me merge in front of him – when there’s plenty of space to do so – at a red light (looking at you, Co-Op cabbie #2322). I even try to get his attention, and he looks RIGHT AT ME before giving me a literal s#^! eating grin and pulls up slowly the entire time. He then GETS THROUGH THE LIGHT, CUTS ME OFF, and slams on his brakes almost making me hit him. Yeah, way to go buddy. This is after he caused me to miss my turn by not letting me get in front of him; than I get lost, and take an extra 30 minutes to find the 401 and I’m hungry, tired, and cranky – so I impulsively pulled into a Tim’s, grab a doughnut, and scarf it down… then immediately feel bad about it.
I’m on my way to my Booty Camp Fitness class, so I rationalize I’ll work “extra hard” at boot camp.
Sitting on the 401 in Toronto traffic by pqholland
So there I am, in my ’97 Chevy Lumina putting along (yes, putting – you don’t do much else during rush hour except stop and go, never “going” much faster than 40km/hr!), and chatting to a friend (relax, via a bluetooth speaker phone!) when traffic speeds up a touch so I go to accelerate.
Only, Chevy Lumina decides she doesn’t feel like it. In fact, as it turns out – she doesn’t feel like doing much, including moving.
Yeah.
Let’s recap: Rush hour. Traffic is speeding up. I’m in the express (not collector’s!) heading home, and my car. stops. moving.
So, I swear, exclaim something to the effect of “I have to call you back my car just died!” and hang up on my friend (who probably freaked out in hindsight) and swore some more.
Now, my old car – a 1990 Mercury Topaz – used to stall. A lot. Including while I was in the middle of making left turns (that was her FAVOURITE time to stall, actually, but that’s another story).
So needless to say, I know what a stalling car feels like, and how to git’er running again. This, however, was not like any stalling car I’d ever experienced.
I try starting her.
Nothing.
Try again.
Nothing.
Start to hyperventilate as cars are honking at me and ducking out from behind me to get around, whizzing by at near 100km/hr now, and some are even SLAMMING ON THEIR BRAKES behind me when they realize I’m not moving. I put my 4-ways on. Oddly, only one of the arrows – the driver’s side – is flashing on the dash. Mental note.
Realize my car is still in drive. Put in park. Try to start.
Nothing.
This goes on for a good five, six, seven minutes – she’s not even turning over, I’m clicking the keys and there is literally NOTHING. No ding, no click, no egine noise. Just nothingness and the wind of cars whipping by me.
I get hysterical.
I mean, I’m stuck ON THE FREAKING HIGHWAY. During rush hour! Alone! It was pretty terrifying. So I start borderline having a panic attack, crying and trying to figure out ETF to do - call the cops? A tow truck? Get out of the car? Stay in? Close my eyes and hope it’s a bad dream? When suddenly, I start LAUGHING. Because the thought that the car is exacting revenge on me – teaching me a lesson – for eating that damn doughnut by making me miss boot camp crosses my mind, and I find that HILARIOUS.
So now I’m crying/laughing, and try turning the car over one more time.
IT STARTS!
I can hardly believe it, but decide not to take my chances with it dying again while I rejoice and move that sucker like I’ve never moved before to the shoulder. Park, four ways, turn off, call parents crying. Mom thinks I was in an accident at first because I’m so upset when I say “Hi”, and is relieved to find out I’m okay, on the shoulder, no accident, etc.
Anyway, while my mom is figuring out where I am and my dad is working on calling a tow truck (gotta love parents), one arrives – apparently a good Samaritan had called in my dead car to the OPP and it had gone out on the radar since I was in a high volume, high traffic time and considered a priority to GTFO the highway.
The (very nice!) tow truck driver can tells I’m freaking, and jokes with me to lighten me up, reassures me I’m safe now and he’ll wait for me to talk to my dad about what we’re doing and if I need a tow, and even jokes with me about how I’ve chewed my nails down to stubs from nervousness (good eye, Mr. Driver!).
So he gives me a good deal, and we get my poor baby all hooked up to the truck to be towed from basically Scarborough to Whitby. While the guys were dealing with that, I tweeted/facebooked my frustration.
One of my girlfriends works for a company that provides all the traffic news for stations traveling across the GTA/Toronto (etc):
Friend: WHERE ARE YOU ?! I AM TOTALLY WATCHING A COUPLE OF PPL THAT COULD BE YOU RIGHT NOW!
Me: I’m moving now but I was in the middle of the eastbound express between Markham & Whites Road-ish for about 5 -10 minutes until I got it started and moved to the shoulder
Friend: HAHAHAH oh man, yup, we were just watching you! hahah
Yeah, I’ve got friends in high places – literally. Pretty funny she was watching (and presumably broadcasting) my plight.
So I get the car towed to my dealership/shop, yadda yadda, the rest of the story is pretty routine and un-interesting (although the driver was from Porcupine, just south of Timmins where I lived so we had a good chat about that!); but alas, my poor Chevy Lumina is dead. Toast, done, junk, scrap metal, not being revived. The head gasket went, and it would cost way more to fix than the car is worth.
She served me well though (and we knew she was on her way out - weren’t sure she’d make it through the winter with a long commute, but I wasn’t QUITE ready for it to happen, financially and otherwise, since I was planning to save for a newer car over the next few months) and I would have, y’know, preferred if she had died like… in my driveway? Or even on a normal road (not highway)? But she got me through 2 years of post-grad school, a year living in Timmins (with FREQUENT drives from Toronto to Timmins and back), an entire, harsh, Northern Ontario winter, and a whole year at home freelancing, traveling to and from Toronto, to the Boy’s (45 minutes away from me), etc.
We had a good run, but still, I’m bummed.
I will miss my Chevy Lumina, and her sweet sunroof, faux-leather interior, taped-up passenger side headlight (haha, yup – see above photo ;), ripped center console arm rest (the rip was actually the perfect elbow dip) and ample storage space. Seriously, she was like a storage locker to me at times.
And, y’know, I’ll miss having a car in the meantime too.
- RIP Chevy Lumina :(
The 40-foot tall tree in Trinity Square
I recently heard about the Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery District, which is taking place from December 3 – 12. The market is the City’s first ever European-style Christmas Market, lining the streets of the Distillery with wooden booths selling local crafts, baked goods, and Christmas ornaments. Christmas Markets originated in Germany in the early 1400’s, and are held in the weeks leading up to Christmas in various cities worldwide: and Toronto can now be added to that list.
Being a big fan of the Distillery District – and of really tasty hot chocolate* and good gingerbread – I braved Wednesday night’s frosty, windy weather to check it out. I arrived around 4 in the afternoon – and I wasn’t even sure the market existed at first, as there were not too many people in sight as I neared the area. As happy hour approached however, more people trickled in, choirs took to the stage singing carols, and teenagers dressed as elves jumped around cheering, clapping, and giving directions and information to those who required it.
The market is aiming to become Toronto’s newest holiday tradition – and this year, it received a $75,000 grant from the provincial government (through Celebrate Ontario) to help fund the event, and hopefully, make it a success.
The Christmas Market is family-friendly earlier in the day: kids will be delighted by the ferris wheel overlooking the Distillery, the bright lights, crafts, music, and Gingerbread play house. As night draws near, the breweries and restaurants open heated patios and beer gardens with roaring fires, serving beer and mulled wine as they entice the older, after-work crowd to come by. If it’s cold out, there’s also hot rum based drink options available. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention – the ferris wheel runs until the Market closes at 11, so all the kids-at-heart** visiting can ride it as well.
*shout-out to Soma, I had their Classic Dark (always great!) and the boy tried the Mayan (it’s good, but not really chocolate-y)
**old but needs an excuse for squealing like a schoolgirl and pointing at a ferris wheel
More photos on my flickr account:
As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now – the City of Toronto voted in favor of introducing a mandatory fee on those pesky plastic bags you get when you shop back in December.
The new bylaw came into effect Monday, so officially if you’re shopping (and need – or want – a plastic bag) you’ll be charged a minimum of 5 cents for every bag you take home.
Personally, I’ve been using reusable shopping bags for a few years now – mostly because I was sick and tired of having the plastic ones lying all over my apartment (and was out of space to store them). The reusable ones are convenient, fold up nicely, and can hold a whole lot of stuff. However, many of them are also pretty ugly. I mean, who wants to carry around a bag plastered with close-ups of fruit guts all day?
I’ve dug up some alternative options to the reusable bags being offered by grocery stores, most of them made by local crafters and artists.
goodEGG Industries is an online store focusing on handmade crafts and goods. The shop is run by a duo of Toronto crafters, and offers a wide selection of Canadian-made items, including a slew of totes and shopping bags for a decent price.
Karissa Cove is a local artist who designs totes (among other things) that she sells on the online site Etsy.com.
Delight is an American company – but I had to include them because they sell really nice looking, reusable shopping bags (just like the ones you can snag at the grocery store, only with funky designs). Not only are their bags awesome, they’re also available in quite a few of Toronto Shops (including Bergo Designs in the Distillery District and Rolo in Yorkville.
And, for those of us who are eco-friendly and interested in taking your reusable bags a step further (and cutting down on your produce bags during your shop), Kootsac (located in B.C.) offers a handmade, reusable alternative to the throw-away plastic bags available in grocery stores.
.
What do you get when you combine local self-publishing artists, a love for zines, and a cat? You get mishmish.ca, a brand new website that launched on Thursday night inside Jamie’s Area (which is a relatively new multi-purpose space located in Kensington Market). The site – named for Mish Mish the cat – is the brainchild of local artists Laura McCoy and Jesjit Gill, and sells zines, comics, posters, and art books. The launch party had a wide array of things to look at and listen to – there was a DJ, poetry readings, music performances, and of course, a number of cool zines and prints to admire.
Attendees were treated to the eye candy of various artwork, such as the poster by Andrew Zukerman (center)
McCoy and Gill tell me they snagged the idea for Mish Mish from two similar websites, which are run out of Switzerland and New York. McCoy hopes the website will encourage more people to self-publish, at the same time as providing an outlet for zines to be sold year-round. “There’s really no permanent place for this sort of thing”, she adds, “And there’s not really much space for zines on the internet”. The site currently is home to roughly ten artists, though McCoy says they’re planning on expanding. “We’re accepting submissions from anyone,” she told me, though submissions will be reviewed. “We just sell stuff we like by people we dig,” the website quips – so if the duo likes what they see, they’ll house it on Mish Mish. And I’ve got to admit – some of the stuff they’re offering is pretty cool.
I love the tees on the far end - it's too bad they didn't come in girly sizes.
One of my favourite items was a set of really sweet, screened baby blue tees. McCoy tells me they were printed by artist Peter Kalyniuk, who has been self publishing for a decade. His work is available on the website – though sadly, the t-shirts are not – and there are both other established names from the zine world and work from newer artists available for purchase. Currently the site has about ten different items offered, but I’m assured more features will be added soon – such as a virtual poster room for your viewing pleasure. “We’ll probably end up breaking the rules and selling music soon too,” McCoy tells me with a laugh.
.
Prices run anywhere from $2 to $20, solely dependent on the printing process (for example, whether it’s photocopied or screened). “It’s really not about making a profit,” says McCoy, “it’s about getting our work out there”.
