Guess what?!? For the past 10 days I have been, and moving forward I will continue to be, an official resident of the city of Toronto. I haven't truly lived here since 2005... it's pretty wild how time flies. 5 years in Waterloo, 2 in Port Hope, and now I'm back... and I couldn't be happier!
At least, it will be upwards soon... temporarily I'm living at my parents' place, and likely will be until September. It's a pretty sweet gig for the meantime, and I'm grateful that I have a place to stay.
So how have I enjoyed my time back in the city??? FULLY. The weekend I moved home just happened to be: Toronto Pride + the Canada Day long weekend + my sister's 30th birthday. Does it get any better??? On June 30th, once all the moving craziness was done, I spent the evening celebrating 3 decades of my sister's life at the historic Lambton House (built in 1847) in the west end of Toronto. She rented out a room at this great venue for a private party with a bar and her own DJ. It was awesome - great music, great friends, quirky drinks (including "The '82" and "The Extra Dirty 30"), a dress code theme ("indie darling"... I was inspired by Hannah from "Girls"), and generally a lot of fun!
On Sunday, July 1, I woke up, showered, wore my finest combo of Pride and Canada Day-appropriate clothing, and headed down to the Church-Wellesley village to celebrate the gorgeous weather and the special day. 3 friends and I started the day off at Lola's Kitchen, which I believe I've mentioned before. We were lucky enough to get a table on their patio and we took our sweet time enjoying many summery drinks (mimosas, Caesars, sangria, and watermelon spiked lemonade), their delicious food (I had the day's special: grilled cheese Benedict - delightful!), and the perfect combination of summer sun and heavenly breeze.
Once we finished, we headed down Church St. from about Charles all the way to Carlton, checking out the vendors, people-watching, and generally taking it all in. We crossed Carlton, down the subway stairs, and up to the corner of College & Yonge, and found a good spot to watch the parade out front of Hoops Bar, just north of College on the west side of Yonge. It was a great spot to watch from, and despite feeling complacent about Pride every year when it comes around, once again I was overwhelmed by my own pride while watching the parade - pride for my city, my community, myself, and the amazing people I saw marching for various causes, all in the name of acceptance and gay pride. Yes, I may be proud all year long, but what's the harm in marking a day to celebrate it in particular? Nothing. In fact, it's wonderful!!!
After about an hour or so of parade-watching, my girlfriend and I headed back up to her house for a Canada Day BBQ. We ate snacks, drank beers, watched the Jays' game, sampled some delicious summery cocktails her sister put together (all tea-based... very cool), and then dug into the feast -- home-made burgers, corn on the cob, salads... TO DIE FOR. Kudos to Steph for all her labour. It was very well-received.
THEN we had the holiday Monday, on which we celebrated my sister's birthday again: the family edition. We had a great little lunch in the backyard and then went to Canada Square movie theatre to watch "Take This Waltz", Canadian director Sarah Polley's second feature film, starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby, and Sarah Silverman. I don't want to go into too detailed a review of this film. My feelings about it are complicated which makes me feel like Sarah Polley did exactly what she intended, which I respect and appreciate. I loved how unashamedly she highlighted Toronto - it was such a thrill seeing the city displayed without trying to pretend it's somewhere else, presumably in the states. The acting was really incredible, and there were some extremely powerful moments. Overall I liked it and I'm glad I saw it.
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I'm working part-time from a home office in Toronto which has been a great new routine to adjust to and I'm finding it to be a very productive situation. I saw some apartments and actually applied for one yesterday (stay tuned!). Then on Friday night I went to Mississauga for the evening with some of my very besties and had a very chill time, eating Thai food and watching "The Comeback".
Saturday morning I woke up relatively early, my sister picked me up from my friend's in Mississauga, and we drove down the 401 + the 402 to Sarnia, ON, my mom's hometown, and where some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins live. We spent 24 hours at my uncle's place, which used to be my grandparents' house, so I've been there many times before. He's done some incredible work on the interior and it's so amazing to spend time there, filled with memories of the time spent there as a kid, but then to be surrounded by a beautiful variation on the place I've known so well. We arrived around 3:30, spent some time relaxing and catching up with my aunt and uncle, and then my aunt tucked me into the hammock where I read Mockingjay and took a snooze. [Aside: I'm finally getting back into Mockingjay. I'm determined to finish it this month and move onto something totally new.] After a snooze and a shower, I joined more family and friends for a perfect summer dinner: BBQ'd ribs. It was a delicious meal with fabulous company and I went to bed fully satisfied and fell fast asleep with the sound of the waves in my ears.
Sunday morning we woke up early and after some breakfast down by the lake, we took 3 dogs (my sister's, uncle's, and aunt's) for a long walk down the shore. The combo of sun and breeze was delicious and we took our sweet time walking. When we got back to the house, I went for a swim. The lake was more wavy than you would imagine, and I felt like a kid again - turns out 15 years later it's just as fun to jump into the waves as it was before. After that we had sandwiches by the beach, a little more reading and sunbathing, and then we packed up the car and headed back to TO.
So - needless to say, life in TO is off to a wonderful start! I can't wait for whatever comes next...
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