Normally I update after the weekend is over and it may appear that this post occurs just as the weekend is starting, but in fact my weekend is ultra long due to Canada Day being on a Thursday and the fact that everyone (myself included) decided to take Friday off. And a lot has already happened this weekend so I figured this would be a good time to update. This week has been crazy and really fun.
Monday was the federal election and although I signed up to vote by mail (since I am in Toronto and away from my home riding) they never sent me the voter kit and so I had to vote in my Toronto riding (As an aside, I later found out that Elections Canada had called me at work to tell me that they needed a copy of my driver's license in order to verify my identity for voting by mail even though the guy who told me how to submit the form said that I didn't need to. Unfortunately for me, I have been working downtown for a while and did not get the message until after the election). So, to return to the story, the local returning office (in North York) told me that all I had to do to vote in my Toronto riding was to show proof of residence and register at my polling station in Willowdale (my riding in Toronto). So I went around 7:00 with my lease and with Matt and Adrienne to vouch for me if necessary and got in line to register. When I finally got to talk to the registration lady I was told that I was not allowed to vote here and must go vote in my home riding. They didn't even look at my lease or anything. This seemed strange to me since the returning office had made things quite clear, so I kept trying to explain to them that it would be impossible to get to my home riding before the polls closed and that I was told that I was allowed to vote in Toronto. Eventually one of the ladies got fed up and essentially gave me the boot and told me that they were too busy to help me. So yeah, no voting for me. By that point I felt that I had put an honest effort into it and so I went home. Then I went swimming which was quite tiring but very excellent. I'm going to try to do it regularly.
Tuesday was wing night with Jeff, Brad, Jen, Matt and Adrienne and that was pretty cool. I had the suicide wings which were of the perfect spiciness and were much more tasty than the hot wings I had the last time I was there.
Wednesday was the big day for the summer, the Dave Matthews Band concert, and it was really really good. I left work at 4:00pm so I could get home to meet Mike (who found his own way to our house) and Matt and then head down to Molson Amphitheatre. On the way we met some guy who was also going and we chatted with him a bit on the way in. Matt and I were on the lawn (cheap, haha) and Mike had a really nice seat in the 200 section. The concert was amazing, all the members of the band are insanely talented and there were a lot of solos and things. After the concert we met up with Mike to go home, but it turned out that the person Mike was sitting beside was actually like some sort of disturbing copy of Mike (the guy works as a coop for Alias, is a student at Waterloo, likes DMB, likes Jazz, plays the sax, was student council president, was involved in OSSSA, etc, etc) and so the guy gave us a ride home. Getting a ride home after a concert at Molson Amphitheatre is most excellent because, although it takes a while to get out of the parking lot, it takes even longer to get a street car. So that was pretty sweet. After getting home we went out to get food near our house and the only thing open was a place called John Anderson's. I had the biggest chicken souvlaki ever and ended up being really full until like 3:00pm the next day.
In the morning on Thursday Adrienne, Matt, Mike and I went downtown to check out Mike's apartment for the Fall and it was really nice. It's in one of the high rises near the Skydome/CN Tower and it is clearly meant for real people and not students. But the guy who lives there is trying to get some extra cash by renting out the spare room, so Mike found what may be the sweetest apartment in Toronto (based on the price/goodness ratio which is $650/amazing). The place has hardwood floors, nice kitchen stuff and a really good view of the CN Tower. The building has a workout room, exercise pool and massive patio on the roof, and it has pool tables, plasma TV's and Internet stations on the ground floor (all free to residents of course). It is also downtown which makes it extremely useful. After seeing the apartment we went to Nathan Phillip's square to catch some of the Jazz festival and we saw the Mayor talk and listened to a few songs from one of the bands. It was really cool and it would have been nice to stay longer, but we had like a billion things to do. So, we went up to York Mill's to pick up Mike's girlfriend and then went to see Spiderman 2 with everyone plus Adrienne's friend Tess. The movie was pretty good, I enjoyed its acknowledgement of its corny roots. It was also clearly set up for a sequel. After the movie we went downtown to go to Salad King for supper but they were closed. Kinda weird for a restaurant to close on an almost certainly profitable day but whatever. We went to Spring Rolls instead which is another Thai place and it was very good. Another place I'll have to go back to. Then Mike and Kristen and I went to see some more Jazz and then the fireworks and then went home.
Today was not as exciting; I just got up in the morning and got on a bus to go home which is where I am now. I'm writing this on Kim's new laptop which I have spent the day fixing up.
I don't know what I am doing for the rest of the weekend but I think I have had enough fun for a while so I will probably just sleep.
