Geeky Cat Miusings

The summer of 2011 I experienced my first photo scavenger hunt! I met the group and organizer on the big rock in Yorkville where we were divided up into groups of four people. The only criteria for the group selection was that each group must have one member who is familiar with the area. The groups were randomly formed and I was hooked up with three rather good looking men. Boy was I lucky! I mean I really felt special in this whole process, rather like the princess and these knights would do their best to make me shine. Somehow the synergy was just right and we struck a creative chord making the process enchanting and the photograph taking imaginative. Here I’m being proposed to and quite obviously blushing. I accepted his key ring :-*>

We were provided with a list of items to find within Yorkville and were given 1.5 hours to find the items and take a creative photo of our find. Here we find a popular salsa dance club called Babalu. It seems natural to have us dance for the photographer. I could feel the urge for dancing grow in me that day.

Somewhere under the rainbow…rainbows bloom.

We find the clothing store called Rainbow and we make a rainbow shape with our arms.
We are a colourful bunch and I’m not just referring to my colourful dress.

Here we resuscitate a patient in spirit of the old Mt. Sinai hospital which used to be located in Yorkville. In 1923, Toronto Hebrew Maternity and Convalescent Hospital was opened at 100 Yorkville Avenue and a year later the name was changed to Mount Sinai Hospital. The facade of this building still stands today.

Like I said, these guys make me feel like a princess. Here my shining knights open the door for me. I’m glad I wore my colourful Buddha dress (for the colourful image boost) with my flip flops (for comfort).

Small dress with big impact.

Will the real psychic please stand up? We don’t know what the psychic in Yorkville thought of us as we pose for our own psychic shot, but he knew that we were coming. Right?

What a fun event this was. I hope to experience another one in 2012!

she’s collecting scars
a lifetime habit
looking at stars
not noticing the thorns
digging into her flesh
…until the damage is done
slowly healing but never healed
a new scar breaks her starry dreams
out into the fields she goes
hiding scars underneath her sleeves
she’s collecting scars

~A poem I wrote on June 7 2011

I had one incredible Christmas vacation enjoying the pleasures and excitment New York City and surrounding areas have to offer. To cut to the chase, here are
the pictures.

One of my favourite spots is the High Line Park built on a section of the former elevated freight railroad of the West Side Line, along the lower west side of Manhattan. The High Line was built in the early 1930s by the New York Central Railroad to deliver freight to warehouses. When I looked at the map of the park I thought it started at 34th Street. When I couldn’t find the entrance, I kept walking south until many, many streets later, I found a stairway going up. When I visited NYC, only section 1 was completed but when all sections are complete, the High Line will be a 2.33km-long elevated park, running through the West Side neighborhoods of the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen. The view of the city is beautiful and not to be missed, especially the city lights at night. The combination of wild plants, lawn furniture, and art makes this a perfect place to discover the lesser known parts of Manhattan.

Look at this beautiful slide show of the park and these images of the old freight line.

I hope everyone had good holidays, or at least survived them reasonably well. Mine were a bit maddening but overall quite nice and I enjoyed the good company. It was a beautiful experience having a friend cook my birthday dinner. Aside from other things she made a tempeh dish and that reinforced my plan to start cooking with tempeh. Recently, I also tried some North Vietnamese cuisine at Hanoi 3 Seasons and Spanish food at Coca. Both were delicious and inspired me to try more international cuisine for 2009. I have also been cooking a fair amount because I have the whole week off - Hurrah!

I ended 2008 with a good belly chuckle at the Comedy Extravaganza at Massey Hall. I had a late night but now that I have rested up a bit, my mind can think about New Year’s resolutions.

My New Year’s Resolutions:

• To stretch for at least 5 minutes a day. Of course it is preferable to do more but I will have to keep it very modest to start with.
• To visit the Best Cafes in West Toronto as listed in Blogto. I kind of cheated because I have tried a few already in 2008; but getting a head start on goals is a good idea.
• To cook at least three dishes with tempeh because a nutritionist friend of mine said that is much better for the health than tofu.
• I will do a 20 km hike. The longest hike I have ever taken is 15 km. I did not experience too much stiffness so I think 20 shouldn’t be too taxing.
• I will go to Rouge Valley. It is just one of those things that I have never done even though the valley is local in Toronto. Now that I belong to two hiking groups I should be able to achieve this goal.
• I will take one hot yoga class. Sounds good with this chilly -20 weather we had on New Year’s Eve.
• I think I’ll take some dance lessons. They start this Saturday so I don’t have too much time to back out <>.

Winter is upon us and I am feeling very chilled. This weather is hard to take for someone who thrives at temperatures above 25 degrees. Darkness falls around 4:30 so I don’t see any daylight. When my work day is done I long to get home and cover myself with a warm blanket and a cat or two.

I have seen some great shows lately: The Sound of Music with its catchy tunes and its must see mountain; Legoland and its twisted characters, A Christmas Carol with its ominous ghosts promising us bad dreams if don’t propogate the spirit of giving. I saw a live concert by Sondre Lerche who sang songs for the movie “Dan in Real Life” and I tried very hard to remember the story line.

I had some wonderful meals this past month, the most memorable was at Live at Dupont and Spadina, a place that specializes in raw food. Their combo plate is delicious — a must try. Pizza, macaroni and cheese, stir fry, I can’t remember what else. I have a hard time finding their website.

I love the atmosphere at Madeleines Cherry Pie and Ice Cream. It feels very old world — I just wanted to stay there and nobody seems to want to show you the door out either. Try playing their gourmet trivia pursuit game while you nibble on some lavendar biscotti.

Taste Cafe is a hip joint in Parkdale. A great place to sample different cheeses. It is run by three brothers who are friendly and a bit theatrical. If you like surprises, they will offer to bring you a sample of mystery cheeses and wines that complement the cheeses. After you have tasted it all they will tell you what you have just eaten. It is a surprise and it is fun.

My wallet was stolen on the TTC last week and I placed a call to the police to notify them so that they have a record of the incident. A police officer returned my call two hours later, when I was out at a house party. Since I was a party and a little noisy, I found a quiet room to discuss the incident. The constable asked me to list all the items in my wallet. So I did and when I mentioned that my work id was also in the wallet, the constable asked me what is my employee id. I said I did not know it off the top of my head but that I had it written down at home. She gave me heck for not knowing it! She said what person does not know their employee id. She went on about this for some time. I thought that was very rude of her to insist that a normal person memorizes their id number. Why do they always make victims feel even worse by the way police treat them?

The party was fun and someone read my palm and said I like to dabble in the arts. The hostess had a name book that claims people develop specific characteristics based on their names. The book claims that people (usually girls) named Diana tend be very shy in childhood but become more fun and outgoing as they get older and develop the ability to make fun of theirselves. Interesting.

The week was pretty busy ordering new cards and trying to get everything back in order. The combination of coughing a lot, carrying heavy bags, and stress has made my back very tense and sore. I went for massage therapy and only experienced minor relief. For various reasons I haven’t been feeling so good. But fortunately this weekend was fabulous! Here are a few thing I enjoyed:

I went for the first time to a Live from the MET screening at the movie theatre. It was great to see the opera singers close up and see the passion in their faces! I would highly recommend the experience to opera lovers.

The Black Rider is a great gothic musical playing at the Tarragon Theatre. It is a very interesting and dark collboration between Tom Waits, Robert Wilson and William S Burroughs. A young man makes a deal with the devil to woo a beautiful young woman, but as always the bargain proves too costly. The recurrent themes of impending death are very well complimented by gleeful black humor. A perfect show for the Halloween season.

Another perfect outing for the season is the ghost walk. I have taken several ghost walks this year: Hamilton, Niagara-on-the-lake, Halifax and Toronto. I joined the Genova Tours ghost walk yesterday and found it to be excellent. We went through the dark streets and walkways of Toronto learning about our interesting history, spiced up with stories of bloodshed and hauntings. You may have been downtown during the day but the buildings of downtown Toronto must be seen at night. They take on a diffent ambiance in the dark, especially the gorgeous gothic buildings at the University of Toronto. Seeing the mark of the ax on a door when a man tried to murder another was chilling enough, but to see the aforementioned man’s face in the form of a gargoyle…..

Some how I was able to still enjoy myself at Nuit Blanche after someone stole my wallet. I was still upset about it and thinking about it quite often but it was good to be out and doing something fun to keep me from ruminating about it every minute. The yummy pizza gave me the energy to walk around the city on that fairly chilly night. I came very close to trying the pizza with blueberries on top. I think I’ll go back to Magic Oven one day and give the blueberry pizza a try.

What was notable about Nuit Blanche was that everything looked better in the brochure. Much better. I’m not talking about little touch-ups to gloss over imperfections. The brochure photo promised that we would be able to walk through a wooded forest that was growing beneath a typical acoustic office ceiling, under the unwholesome glow of florescent lighting. In reality the ceiling was placed in an alley way and there was office refuse under the ceiling. Mounds of old computers and manila folders were littering the alley - deliberately set there to make the participant think about the work environment and the amount of trash generated there. What if we were forced to keep all our trash? Our work places and homes would be very crowded and we would be forced to reconsider our buying habits. Most of us couldn’t live with piles of things everywhere — though I have met a few people who could and do.

Some people are saying there is no art in Nuit Blanche. If you are looking for paintings you should probably visit a gallery. This is art and it does generate some thought and it is fun. You need to think about what you see and share those thoughts. You can make fun of the art because that it part of the whole process - by making fun of it you learn more about the art, the concept, and yourself. Make sure you go with someone fun because Nuit Blanche is best shared.

The lines at coffee shops were very long making it difficult to get a good cup of coffee. It would be great if there could be coffee vendors on the street. I would also have bought a scarf if there were a street vendor selling them.

The funniest experience at Nuit Blanche for me was the trash can. Hoards of people were gathered on the sidewalk peering into an ordinary three receptacle bin. Inside the bin was dance music and coloured lights, reminiscent of a dance club.

The most thought provoking experience was the Waterfall at the Ontario Power Generation Building. A giant quilt made from recyclable plastic water bottles was suspended on the side of the building. It looked like a waterfall from afar but as you got close you realized that it was made of water bottles — they once had water inside of them. An interesting perspective on the state of today’s water and our usage the resource.

Just a quick reminder to everyone that October is National Sarcastics Month. I wrote about it last year, so I won’t repeat myself.

Here are a few for you to power you up:

I’m so sorry about not writing my blog for more than a month but I find that time is very limited and so I have to choose what I can do and what I can’t.

Some quick highlights of the past month:

I have had a cough for more than two weeks and I can still feel a little tickle in my chest, but I am mending. I know that I will heal more quickly if I take proper care of myself and so I must restrict my late nights and try to get to bed at a decent hour, regardless of what excitement the night holds. Of course staying out late Saturday night is alright…

In September I went to Buffalo and visited the Albright Knox Art Gallery. The Op Art exhibit was beautiful! I was awed by the clever effects of Op art and would like to see more of it. Buffalo looked very nice too. Many people say it is an unimpressive city but I saw some beautiful houses there and would love to take some walking tours. I also had a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin D. Martin House Complex — an interesting house by an interesting man. But I would not want to live there. That is the beauty of travelling.

I had my first Russian sauna. It was very hot and hard to tolerate for long periods of time. As people lay on the benches they hit one another with bunches of dried branches and leaves from white birch in order to improve the circulation. When it is cold outside people run in the snow to cool off. Apparently this is great for the complexion but I would rather have a bad complexion than have to endure the cold.

Listening to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglová at Massey Hall. They sang such beautiful songs and “Falling Slowly” just makes me dizzy.

I am the lucky recipient of some 30 pounds of gum. Long story. Come trick or treating at my house to get your share.

I went clothes shopping — I can’t believe that I haven’t been clothes shopping in a year. My wardrobe needs updating. Hello snazzy boots!

I went to the Polish, Ukrainian, Art, and Junction festivals. I was not terrifically enlightened by any of these, but they were nice outings and I had beer ice cream

What a gorgeous day it was on Saturday! It was a perfect day to go to Parry Sound. It is a long trip up there so the first stop after securing boat tickets is at the Bay Street Cafe for a delicious lunch while gazing at the beautiful lakeshore and watching our boat arriving at the port.

Here I am on the Island Queen taking a cruise around Parry Island admiring the beautiful cottages on the rugged islands of Georgian Bay:

There are 30,000 islands but I only saw a small portion of them.

Parry Sound has Starbucks!!! Coffee break after tour.

And then down to Midland we go, listening to Tom Waits sing/talk in his rasping drawl.

The murals of Midland are one of Ontario’s largest and most beautiful outdoor galleries.

There are 34 murals in the downtown area. They are all within walking distance and beautiful to see.

See more photos from the day trip.