Sprained ankle

I was out of town last weekend and had an amazing time (I'll be posting about my trip in due course). It was so good that I managed to sprain my ankle. With all of the activities, sports and shenanigans that I've subjected myself to in my lifetime, I'm surprised that I haven't injured myself more often.
Anyway, the injury didn't happen at the best time as I couldn't hit the dance floor the next night with the same vigour that I would have liked (my foot was so swollen, it was spilling out of my shoes). Nonetheless, it didn't stop me from shoving my swollen ankle into my skates to enjoy the frozen Lake Louise and ski the big mountains that we lack in Ontario. Actually, it might have done my ankle some good being locked in rock solid boots for a little while.
Anyway, I'm recuperating and completely frustrated that I'm forced to stroll at a leisurely pace when I'm trying to catch up on all the work that's been piling up. This one was a pretty bad sprain and I hate to admit it, but maybe it will take a little bit longer to heal because I'm just that wee bit older than the last time I hurt myself. I definitely didn't bruise like this the last time. It's kind of entertaining to look down and see little sausages for toes.
I've been going to a Chinese herbal guy who's been putting that brown pooey gunk on it. I love the smell and it seems to be working its magic. The swelling has gone down and the bruising is not quite as impressive as it was before. It did match my dress quite wonderfully, although I did put makeup on the matching bruised knee to mask the damage.
I'm going to start strengthening exercises to get my ankle back in tip-top shape as soon as possible. There are a couple events coming up for which I want to be in top form.
I had originally posted some pictures of my ankle on here, as I thought they were quite impressive, but have since taken them off because I figured that I'm the only one who really cares about how cool injuries look. I have to remind myself that I'm a little weird.

Completely sucked in

I'm watching the current season (20!!!) of Survivor. I'm in the middle of watching last night's episode and the voting on the Villans' side. Holy toledo. People are impressive.
Please don't judge me, but this reality TV show is amazing! It really is the best of the best going head to head on the Villain side.

Time change

I could have used an extra hour of sleep last night. It was tough getting up this morning and I had commitments which prevented me from being able to turn off the alarm.
Of course, I remembered that I needed to switch the clocks last night before I went to bed. That lost hour sucked.
This morning, on the subway, two separate girls standing beside me didn't realize that the time had changed. One was from out of town, so I can sort of sympathize. The other, well, her excuse was that she lived by herself. She seemed to say something about half of her gadgets changing their time automatically, and so she had been a little confused. But then she asked me a seemingly honest question of "how are you supposed to know to change the time?"
Being someone who doesn't really read the paper, nor watch TV, I still had many sources that told me about the time change. I guess some people really live in a bubble.

Happy Pi Day!

Wishing everyone a wonderful day filled with pie and irrational behaviour.
I picked up a mini peach blueberry pie at the market yesterday, so I'll have that for dessert tonight. Yum.

New York (September 3rd - 7th, 2009)

This was my second trip to Manhattan. I was hoping that this city would be my Paris of my Swiss experience, but I don't seem to make the trip out as much as I would like. Anyway, this time around, I didn't need to do the uber-touristy sites, as I'd taken care of those on the first trip, so it allowed for more important things. Like cupcake eating.



Other than that, here are some of the sights and sounds that we took advantage of in the city:

No, we didn't stay at The Standard Hotel, but we did have lunch at the restaurant. It was quite nice, although we seemed to be tucked into a strange corner. It was quite busy and we had demanded to be sat on the patio. The decor of the place (restaurant and hotel) was really nice. Trendy. I should have expected as much being in the Meatpacking District. The whole area is wonderful. A place to spend more money then I can part with at this time in my life, but it's still wonderful.
Since the last time that I went, they opened up The High Line. It's like it was made for me. People watching, relaxing, soaking up the sun. In my crazy travel sessions, I walk so much that I always need to find somewhere to sit to let my feet and back recouperate. The High Line is the perfect place for this. Some of the chairs were on wheels. On the
railroad, you know? So you could turn the loungers into couches and such. Everything about this place is great. Even a stadium seating set up to watch cars if you're tired of watching people. We also spotted a celeb here, but of course it wasn't me that did the spotting and I'd actually admired his suit jacket before being told that he was someone famous. Shows how much I know.

Following all other tourists in the city, we went into the M&M World. So many candies and I didn't buy any. How impressive. Needed to save my money and cavities for cupcakes. This city is



a commercial, money-making machine. That's all I have to say.
Another tourist trap, the Toys"R"Us. There's a massive ferris wheel in the store. For some reason it seems a whole lot more impressive than the Fantasy Fair at the Woodbine Centre


New York's finest hard at work? Times Square is is a busy busy place, so maybe they were just waiting for something to go wrong. As we were wandering around the area, we stumbled upon a little girl who was in tears. She was lost. In fighting the crowds, she got separated from her older brother and of course, in an area like that, what's a little girl to do, but cry? Luckily, through the help of good samaritans, some luck and a cell phone number the two siblings were reunited.

I knew that getting tickets for the opera at the Met would be impossible, but a night under the stars watching opera on the big screen is a close second. I can't beleive how busy it was. Have something like this in Toronto, and I'm not sure that the turn out would be so big. That's one thing that I love about Manhattanites. They really seem to appreciate the arts. This picture doesn't even begin to show you how many people were there. I'm pretty sure that they said that there were ~1000 seats, and then there was the large group of people who enjoyed the show from the comfort of the concrete floor. My tush was numb be the end. But it was worth it.



Seems like food was a theme on this trip. Dylan's Candy Bar was impressive, yet I still didn't spend a penny there. So much candy.




Continuing on the food theme, we went to Serendipity 3 for dessert. We were already stuffed from lunch, but I HAD to go so, in we went. The portions were so large, and when there's good food in front of me, I just can't say no.
It's a problem. I got the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, which
overflowed in the cup/bowl. Does anyone finish that thing on their own? I had a little bit of lactose overload at that place and felt ill afterwards. I would have liked to see the $1000 sundae in person, but no one ordered it while we were there. The place was packed and we only got a chance to sit down after putting our name on the list an hour earlier. We had planned to eat lunch there, but ended up using the hour wait to eat somewhere else down the street to return for dessert. It's a really
cute restaurant, but maybe more of a tourist trap than I like to admit. It's not so over-laden with tourists that celebrities will still go there, but I wonder what the break down of the demographics of patrons is. There are some famous celebrity patrons who call themselves regulars. I want to find a restaurant in Toronto that I can be a regular at. I'll work on it.


One part of the city that I haven't discovered much is Central Park. This time, I found the Alice in Wonderland statue, another popular tourist site and spent awhile there waiting for a perfect picture opportunity. It was more amusing to watch the interactions
and personalities of the different people who were there and their conflicting priorities. I need to go back again next time to get a better shot of the statue. I should look into the new movie that came out and find out if it's worth seeing.


Wandering the city, we stumbled upon a huge Brazilian celebration. The set up reminded me of Fete and I thought about getting food there, but it was a big too crazy and nothign really stood out to me. There were so many people on the street and vendors everywhere. I guess there's always something going on in Manhattan. I'm looking forward to the summer in Toronto when there are festivals every weekend.

Another food stop on our trip was at Jacques Torres. I was reaching my sweet quota by this point, so I only has one little square. The Love Bug was a "key lime ganache kissed with white chocolate". How cute. It was tasty (of course). I didn't get any cavities on this trip, but I wouldn't have been surprised if I did.

West Side Story

While in New York, we went to see West Side Story. We were deciding between Billy Elliot and this one, but after many failed attempts and waiting and long line ups to get tickets to Billy Elliot, we decided to enjoy at least something and quickly got tickets for West Side Story before it was too late. As the show was quite popular, we didn't have the best seats in the house, but it worked out in the end.
Sitting the last row of the balcony, we realized that the section was only 1/2 full and so we tried to fanagle with the ushers to sit in the lower sections if no one was going to show up. They weren't biting.
Partway through Dance at the Gym, there was some strange technical glitch and all of the performers left the stage in varying amounts of character. Before the ushers knew what we up, I bolted to a lower section. The disruption was so long that everyone else got the hint and moved forward much to the ushers dismay. I don't blame them for trying to do their job, but we theatre goers want a good view!
Anyway, the show was great, of course. West Side Story is one of my favorite musicals, so just watching them go through the motions was enough for me. We weren't the biggest fans of the performer who played Tony, but the rest of the leads were well done. Anita was great.
I was intrigued by the choice to sing I Feel Pretty in Spanish. I wonder what the rationale behind it was.
Anyway, a good show, and I'm looking forward to my next trip out!

- header picture courtesy of www.broadwaywestsidestory.com

McQueen Fall 2010

Wowsa. RIP.

On the inside looking out

The traffic going west on the Gardiner is dreadful, but drivers can look at the beautiful colours of the sunset and admire the calm of Lake Ontario.
I'm slowly making progress on a mammoth paper and although I haven't been outside, feeling the warm sun shine through the windows has been a close second.
I've gone through lots and lots of orange juice today and hopefully shock of excessive vitamin C will kill this cold once and for all.
If I can just get through the next 40 hours (and do everything that needs to get done in a satisfactory manner), I will be a whole lot happier.

On a roll

Third day of 10+ hours of sleep.
I had pulled myself away from my computer, ready to do some reading, and then physically couldn't keep my head up so flopped onto the bed.
Thankfully, after about an hour of sleeping, I realized that I probably wouldn't be moving anytime soon and managed to get up to take my contacts out.
This cold is ruining me.
I was only awake for 7 hours yesterday. Most people don't even get that much sleep in a night.
I think I'm in for a rough rest of the week.

Slept in again

I can't even put the blame on the Olmypics anymore. I had planned to go to today's edition of the free concert series at the Four Seasons Centre, but I couldn't get myself together in time.
Well, I guess, technically, I could rush over there right now, but I'm so apathetic that it's not going to happen.
I hate being sick.
I really hope 2 days of 10 hours of sleep each night are working to battle this cold.
I have too much to do.

Blame it on the birthday boy

Is it acceptable that I started my day rather late because the radio station my alarm clock is tuned into is playing Chopin all day? It was almost three hours that I lazed around before forcing myself to get up. Chopin is so wonderful.