blogto - how can you snub SWAN on this list?

blogto - we are usually on the same wavelength but how can you snub SWAN on this list?
their huevos coupled dirty dark potatoes and their hangover murdering java is definitely worthy of company listed on your best rancheros of TO... http://bit.ly/dBbKVF

you know whats the bomb? this city! that's right TO, i'm talking to you!

i may have been born and raised in our nations capital, but its the provinces capital that has my heart.

TO i love you.
as a token of my affection and in an effort to continuously fuel this lovefire, i have a weekly ritual/ date with this city booked into my calendar.
every saturday when i awake to a full weekend on my plate i GMST and head out to the st lawrence market.


(meat shop picture)
beyond the obvious need for local produce and all things tasty, this trip, 45 minutes on hoof in each direction, is primarily an excuse to see whats new on the streets of my favourite ville.
i call it "checking it out with a weekly check in"

a key component of the weekly check in is route variance.
every saturday a new maze is woven across the core of the city as i meander eastward.
no matter the route, there is one consistency:
the evidence of 905ers gone by mark the cityblocks from bathurst to university on every avenue from queen south.
the silence they have left behind fills with smiling locals. urbanites taking back their city for the daylight hours before the next swarm funnel off the gardiner and DVP.

eventually i merge into the denser pedestrian traffic radiating in all directions from the market.
the buzz of those recently fed and watered at a handful of local brunching venues as they excitedly scurry into the market building makes me smile.
we dont need to come here for our produce. we dont need to pay more (sometimes double) for our olives and antipasti.
we come here because we can. because this city offers us tourist-like entertainment and services every day. because the st lawrence market and nathans phillips square, high park and little italy, kensington market, trinity bellwoods, the danforth and queen west, queen east, and the beaches are gifts our city keeps giving and we use our precious spare time to take them in.

an hour later i emerge onto front st. arms weighed down by overpriced produce and an unnecessary load of jams and jellies (considering i dont really eat bread) i sigh with satisfaction.

on the walk home i pass a woman preaching about the end of days and daring armageddon to "just try". but as i approach her preaching slows and stops. as she falls asleep standing up.
and it warms my heart.


until next week... XO XO TO

its all on your head

approximately 25 years of voluntary hat trying on is enough.
it has just occurred to me that this is a potentially life altering experience.

sitting in front of one of those canadiana scratchy wool toque kiosks and the fourth person has just picked up the (evidently popular) navahoe patterned hat and put it on their head.

there is something especially intimate about the hat trying on experience that gloves and shoes test runs do not provide (and i am not referring to the unique kinds of fun that a head can leave behind - dandruff, lice, and other things miniscule and near undetectable..)

i am thinking about the hair.
a single straggler left behind for the next unsuspecting wearer.
each one of those last three people may have walked away with a strand of that first womans locks.
and its now a part of their life.
coincidentally this new addition came into their life at the same time that they had been entertaining some suspicions that their partner was sneaking around. one misplaced hair in this kind of testy water could lead to potential disaster.

how does one explain a hair they have never seen other than complete denial?
and how does one, already suspicious of infidelity, take blatant denial as a valid response to a straggling ringlet of gorgeous red hair on the floor of the closet or lying on a bedroom pillow?

all of this could be avoided by simply avoiding the hat in the first place.
so in the interest of keeping thing uncomplicated.
i don't try on hats anymore.

that or i give up monogamy....
stay tuned there.