Life in TO

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!

Was it hard to leave Port Hope?  Not really.  My two years in PH were formative and important and happy and satisfying, but the time was right to make the move, and I was just flat-out excited when moving day (June 30th) finally came.  But it's important to note that I really did love my apartment in PH and it was somewhat sad to say goodbye to that great place, but onwards and upwards!!!

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...

Birthday Week!!!!! / Discovering T.O. #7 / Port Hope Showcase

Last Monday, May 28, I turned twenty-five years old.  Quite a milestone, really.  I keep wishing I had some sort of letter from my younger self to my 25 year old self to see what I was expecting / hoping for.  The truth is though that it doesn't matter.  I couldn't be prouder of who I am and where I'm at in life, so letter or no letter, I'm one happy 25 year old...

...made happier by the fact that I had the most wonderful series of mini-celebrations of the day of my birth.  I'd like to tell you about them.

1) The Beamish House: locally just called "The Beamish", unfortunately this great pub and restaurant doesn't have a website.  Once a year the school that I work for throws a huge reunion weekend for its alumni celebrating 5, 10, 15, and so on reunions.  The weekend peaks with a dinner on the Saturday night on campus followed by an evening of debauchery, traditionally at The Beamish.  This small, quaint pub is taken over, and although its interior doesn't have much space, its patio is sprawling.  It's a great night, and two of my besties ventured out to Port Hope to enjoy the evening with me.  This was on May 26, but it kick-started birthday celebrations in just the right way.  Before they headed back to the city the next day, we indulged in the classic greasy spoon breakfast at Dimitri's in Port Hope.  I had the Grand Slam breakfast.  It may not have dill-infused hollandaise sauce drizzled all over it, but it did the job.

2) Jim's Pizza & Pasta: this is another classic Port Hope establishment that I highly recommend.  The truth is that this wasn't particularly the highlight of birthday celebrations, but I find that restaurants are a good anchor in this blog for other stories.  The real highlight was having my girlfriend come to PH on May 27 to have dinner, chill times, and then be there with me first-thing on my special day.  That said, grabbing dinner at Jim's Pizza is ALWAYS a delight.  This is my GF's favourite spot in Port Hope, and we always each get the pizza & salad combo.  With this combo, you get a small, 4-slice personal pizza with any 3 toppings you'd like PLUS a huge serving of delicious Caesar salad (Greek is also a choice, but I mean, really).  After our delicious dinner we bought some snacks and went home for a viewing of "Best In Show".

3) My Special Day itself: the authentic birthday day was no exception to the fun already had.  I woke up with the GF and opened a gift from her and from other family members who had sent theirs in advance.  Then I made us breakfast (she would've made it, but she likes the way I make eggs best!) and we lazily enjoyed the morning (I took it off from work), and then I drove her to Oshawa where she took the GO train back to Toronto.

I had a great day at work, complete with cheesecake shared with my colleagues!

When the work day was done, my Mom and sister came to Port Hope to take me to dinner.  And what a dinner it was!  We ate at Trattoria Gusto (finally a PH resto with a website).  I've eaten here 3-5 times before and it's very delicious.  I find that's a bit of an anomaly about Port Hope - not a lot to do, but 3-4 incredible restaurants!  We went all out, sharing a beet salad, calimari, and carpaccio to start, and then for my main I had the chicken parmesan, which was succulent.  We finished it off by sharing a decadent, rich brownie with a candle on top.  It was fantastic!!!

4) Old school gay village celebration: Even though I'd had my fair share of celebrations, I wanted to do it up right with a night out in Toronto, which went down this past Saturday, June 2.  I hemmed and hawed over how I wanted to celebrate, and it dawned on me - when was the last time I had a night out in the Church & Wellesley neighbourhood a.k.a. the gay village in Toronto?!?!  I came of age in that neighbourhood and came into my proud, gay self, and I have great memories (nostalgic already?) of drag queens and dance parties, so I thought - it's about time I go back.

This evening started with appetizers and drinks at Smith on Church St.  I'll be very honest with you -- I didn't really do my due diligence on Smith.  I basically looked for a restaurant in the village that had a few classy-looking/sounding appetizers and said, why not?  Full disclosure: all it took was seeing that Smith had a charcuterie board.  Charcuterie = class.  Thankfully my lack of research didn't result in 11 friends and I dining at a dive.  Smith had us seated at a long table set for 12 upstairs at the restaurant, with a big window, a fireplace (too hot for that though), and a view of the goings-on of Church St.  It had a great vibe and the drinks and food were great!  For the record, I did order the charcuterie board and I loved it.  I didn't look to see what was on it, but I did eat cow tongue and I enjoyed it!

After 3 lazy hours eating and drinking at Smith we head off to Zelda's new location on Yonge St. for a drink.  I ordered the "Proud Mary" (for its name only) and we left shortly after that.

Where did we go?  Where else does one go when they want an old school gay village celebration?  Buddies in Bad Times.  Buddies has such great music and so much sweaty and fun dancing on Saturday nights, and this past Saturday was no exception.  We danced and drank and had ourselves a great time until about 2:30 when last call was made and it was time to catch the late-night Yonge bus home.

Being 25 is off to a fabulous start, and many thanks to the friends, family members, and Port Hope/Toronto establishments that made my birthday celebrations so special!!!