Toronto days 3, 4, and 5
Dec. 4th, 2007 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassOkay, so I've been a bit behind in the updates. I blame this on, first, being extraordinarily tired, and second, on actually having lots of people to spend time with and thus little time for the computer. (Though still enough that Marc can make jokes about the internet being my crack.)
So, backtracking a little, here's a recap:
Saturday morning was spent lazily, until Marc and I went off to meet Jess at the Bata Shoe Museum -- a place of some fame in Toronto, but which neither Jess nor I had ever visited before. Despite Marc's hesitation, the museum turned out to be pretty interesting, more a history of shoes than a history of fashionable shoes. We saw the main exhibition, then some temporary ones (Native American shoes; Roccocco shoes; and "Treasures of the Museum"). Final verdict: interesting to see once, but I likely wouldn't go back unless there was a special exhibition that really interested me.
From there, we walked all the way over to the Red Tea Box, on Queen near Bathurst. On the way, we made fun of the signs outside many Chinatown shops, and generally tried to avoid thinking about the fact that it was supremely cold and windy out. We eventually arrived at the Red Tea Box and had some wonderful tea, soup, and cakes (SO rich, SO tasty!).
Thence, we took the streetcar up to Bathrust Station, where we encountered an extremely rude bus driver, who pulled away from the station as I was running beside him trying to flag him down to stop. Ugh. By this point I was tired to the point of being slap-happy, which I'm sure caused a great deal of embarassment for the people around me (though not for me -- I was that out of it). When we finally reached our stop, I was so cold I was shivering. Not a good sign.
Thankfully, my aunt cooked us a very tasty dinner, and we had a lovely time eating and chatting until the late hours of the evening, whereupon I collapsed into bed.
On Sunday, Marc had planned a breakfast get-together with Mike downtown. I had been planning on driving, since I wasn't sure how late our evening activities were planning on going (but fairly certain they would take us past subway closures). So, of course, we woke up to a snowstorm. Obviously. Because Gaia hates me.
We drove downtown through traffic going a mighty 30 km/h, eventually parked (pausing to help someone's car out of a snowback), and met up with Mike. We headed over to Mel's "Montreal" Deli for breakfast. I was too afraid to try the bagels, so instead I had eggs and toast, with a side of gamer-geek conversation. It was, in short, lots of fun.
From there, I walked all the way back to my car and then drove up to Andrew's, the GM of "I Kill It and Take Its Treasure," the game I was in back when I was doing my M.A. It actually would have been faster to walk, but I *did* have the car, so needed to accommodate it.
The game, which lasted from about 2 to 11 pm, was lots of fun. Marc was playing a fiend disguised as a tactless, impatient lore-master (and did a masterful job of it, too), whereas I began the day playing a snarky pirate-captain (the younger brother of my former character) and finished the day playing an extremely powerful enchantress, possessing my former character's body. Lots of conflict for the PCs, which was just the way they (and we) like it.
My "jaw on the floor" moment came about midway through the day: way back in 2006, I'd used snippets of information the GM had fed my character to write a "traditional" song called "The Lay of Ideld." I even recorded it as an mp3. But in the intervening year I had, for the most part, forgotten all about it. So during the game yesterday, someone started quoting a line, and absolutely everyone at the game chimed in and recited two full verses. I was utterly floored. If only I could get people in the SCA to do that, I'd consider my life to be complete on a whole new level.
The frustration of the day, of course, was that we finished gaming before the subways closed, and thus I didn't need to bring out my car in the first place. I didn't know that in the morning, but it was highly frustrating in the evening. We got home okay, though, so I can't complain (too much).
Monday, Marc and I woke up early. My uncle had warned us of the huge snowstorm in Montreal, but it didn't look like it was going to let up for a few days, and we decided to take our chances. Before we left, my aunt gave Marc a few pairs of snow-shoes she had but wasn't using, and I found myself the proud owner of seven new types of tea from my aunt's tea cupboard (making my total now a mighty 24 types). Oh, and did I mention my aunt's knitting me a new hat and scarf? She nearly had the hat done yesterday, but needed to make some adjustments. So cool!
Anyway. We hit the road around 10 am. Driving was fine for the fist 45 minutes or so. From there, it was snow the whole way back. At times, the snow on the highway forced us down to a single, slow-moving lane. All things considered, it could have been much worse, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. Marc and I went through a whole bunch of CDs in an effort to stay away through the monochromatic landscape. I was already tired from five poor nights of sleep, and I'm amazed I was as conscious as I was.
We arrived near my house at about 5 pm. As I was dropping Marc off at the metro around the corner, I got stuck in a huge snowback and he needed to push me out. Many, many, many thank-yous to him for that. I got home shortly after, unpacked, and collapsed.
And that, dear readers, was my time in Toronto. I'm glad I got a chance to do so much, though I could have done without the obnoxiousness of the drive back. But now I'm home, with practically nothing on my schedule other than Tuesday afternoon sessions at Dawson, a dentist appointment, and a bunch of holiday parties. That's it for now!
So, backtracking a little, here's a recap:
Saturday morning was spent lazily, until Marc and I went off to meet Jess at the Bata Shoe Museum -- a place of some fame in Toronto, but which neither Jess nor I had ever visited before. Despite Marc's hesitation, the museum turned out to be pretty interesting, more a history of shoes than a history of fashionable shoes. We saw the main exhibition, then some temporary ones (Native American shoes; Roccocco shoes; and "Treasures of the Museum"). Final verdict: interesting to see once, but I likely wouldn't go back unless there was a special exhibition that really interested me.
From there, we walked all the way over to the Red Tea Box, on Queen near Bathurst. On the way, we made fun of the signs outside many Chinatown shops, and generally tried to avoid thinking about the fact that it was supremely cold and windy out. We eventually arrived at the Red Tea Box and had some wonderful tea, soup, and cakes (SO rich, SO tasty!).
Thence, we took the streetcar up to Bathrust Station, where we encountered an extremely rude bus driver, who pulled away from the station as I was running beside him trying to flag him down to stop. Ugh. By this point I was tired to the point of being slap-happy, which I'm sure caused a great deal of embarassment for the people around me (though not for me -- I was that out of it). When we finally reached our stop, I was so cold I was shivering. Not a good sign.
Thankfully, my aunt cooked us a very tasty dinner, and we had a lovely time eating and chatting until the late hours of the evening, whereupon I collapsed into bed.
On Sunday, Marc had planned a breakfast get-together with Mike downtown. I had been planning on driving, since I wasn't sure how late our evening activities were planning on going (but fairly certain they would take us past subway closures). So, of course, we woke up to a snowstorm. Obviously. Because Gaia hates me.
We drove downtown through traffic going a mighty 30 km/h, eventually parked (pausing to help someone's car out of a snowback), and met up with Mike. We headed over to Mel's "Montreal" Deli for breakfast. I was too afraid to try the bagels, so instead I had eggs and toast, with a side of gamer-geek conversation. It was, in short, lots of fun.
From there, I walked all the way back to my car and then drove up to Andrew's, the GM of "I Kill It and Take Its Treasure," the game I was in back when I was doing my M.A. It actually would have been faster to walk, but I *did* have the car, so needed to accommodate it.
The game, which lasted from about 2 to 11 pm, was lots of fun. Marc was playing a fiend disguised as a tactless, impatient lore-master (and did a masterful job of it, too), whereas I began the day playing a snarky pirate-captain (the younger brother of my former character) and finished the day playing an extremely powerful enchantress, possessing my former character's body. Lots of conflict for the PCs, which was just the way they (and we) like it.
My "jaw on the floor" moment came about midway through the day: way back in 2006, I'd used snippets of information the GM had fed my character to write a "traditional" song called "The Lay of Ideld." I even recorded it as an mp3. But in the intervening year I had, for the most part, forgotten all about it. So during the game yesterday, someone started quoting a line, and absolutely everyone at the game chimed in and recited two full verses. I was utterly floored. If only I could get people in the SCA to do that, I'd consider my life to be complete on a whole new level.
The frustration of the day, of course, was that we finished gaming before the subways closed, and thus I didn't need to bring out my car in the first place. I didn't know that in the morning, but it was highly frustrating in the evening. We got home okay, though, so I can't complain (too much).
Monday, Marc and I woke up early. My uncle had warned us of the huge snowstorm in Montreal, but it didn't look like it was going to let up for a few days, and we decided to take our chances. Before we left, my aunt gave Marc a few pairs of snow-shoes she had but wasn't using, and I found myself the proud owner of seven new types of tea from my aunt's tea cupboard (making my total now a mighty 24 types). Oh, and did I mention my aunt's knitting me a new hat and scarf? She nearly had the hat done yesterday, but needed to make some adjustments. So cool!
Anyway. We hit the road around 10 am. Driving was fine for the fist 45 minutes or so. From there, it was snow the whole way back. At times, the snow on the highway forced us down to a single, slow-moving lane. All things considered, it could have been much worse, but it certainly wasn't pleasant. Marc and I went through a whole bunch of CDs in an effort to stay away through the monochromatic landscape. I was already tired from five poor nights of sleep, and I'm amazed I was as conscious as I was.
We arrived near my house at about 5 pm. As I was dropping Marc off at the metro around the corner, I got stuck in a huge snowback and he needed to push me out. Many, many, many thank-yous to him for that. I got home shortly after, unpacked, and collapsed.
And that, dear readers, was my time in Toronto. I'm glad I got a chance to do so much, though I could have done without the obnoxiousness of the drive back. But now I'm home, with practically nothing on my schedule other than Tuesday afternoon sessions at Dawson, a dentist appointment, and a bunch of holiday parties. That's it for now!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-05 03:46 am (UTC)