There’s many people in my life that I see on a daily basis. I smile at them. Sometimes we exchange greetings. On the rare occasion I even know their names. They’re not friends, but they are not complete strangers either. Or at least I don’t consider them so.
I saw this posted at my nearest train station.
This post is for all the not-so-strangers in my life. The morning coffee girl who knows my order before I say a word. The Santa Clause-like train conductor – who I think is named Stan – who greets me every morning. The man who owns the golden retriever who Teddy thinks is his best friend. It’s the kindness of these people that give me the positive energy I need to start my day. Thank you.
On Saturday, I went to Edgefest at Downsview Park. The weather was 30 something degrees, but your touch hit the mark.
I met you next to a super delicious stand, that sold me this sandwich of pemeal bacon:
You were pale, yellow and cold. Your flavour was bold. We met 3 times that day. What the hell am I talking about? It was a $6 lemonade.
I blame the poem above on the 37 degrees weather Toronto’s experiencing today. It made me miss this delicious (but super over priced) lemonade. I don’t have any pictures of it. I also have no idea if the vendors have a store outside of Edgefest, but if anybody knows I’d love for you to help me solve this missed connection!
Today is my little sister’s 22nd birthday. I remember like it was yesterday when we used to pile all our stuffed animals and jump in them. I can’t believe that I have known a single a person for 22 years but I am grateful to have.
I learned about the Yellow Griffin from their tempting ads mentioning their huge variety of burgers that they’ve had up occasionally in subway stations for the past couple of years. Last week, I finally decided to visit the joint. It’s a pub style joint, but there’s always a top floor where you can book parties. Their menu has an offering of over 35 styles of burgers which you can get with beef, chicken, lamb, bison, veggie, turkey or even salmon patties.
I ordered the New Mexican with a regular burger patty. On top of it sat guacamole, santa fe salsa, tobasco sauce, diced sweet potatoes, peanut butter, chopped coriander. I thought I’d try something other than the heart-attack inducing burgers I usually order. I chose sweet potato fries as my side.
The patty was pretty huge. The burger had a lot of flavour. The peanut butter blended really well with everything else, which was surprising because I thought it would be really strange. It was also texturely interesting with the sweet potatoes (that were almost like a mash) and the salsa. The fries were crunchy and addictive.
Nash ordered the Hold the Port, which had a giant portebello mushroom and blue cheese. These 2 ingredients both have strong flavour on their own but together they marry so well. I stole a bite and I tasted the mushroom first, but when my tongue finally touched the blue cheese it was awesome. His onion rings were also delicious, kind of wish there were more of them (it didn’t come with that many) that I could steal.
Service there was slightly awkward, but we both enjoyed our food and will definitely be back to try the other burgers!
I haven’t written here in a while. I was busy attending NXNE last week and catching up on photo editing this week. However, I looked at my WordPress Dashboard today and there was a striking amount of people visiting in the past week or so. I honestly light up when I even know 10 people read this, but the past little while have been in the 400-500s.
I started to ponder, what you all must be like and came up with this list of people who I think read this blog:
Trolls
You people search the internet for random things. Some way or another, your quest to find junk landed you here.
Dog Lovers
My bichon is obviously the most adorable thing in the world. I assume 90% of you follow this just to look at cute puppy photos. Food Lovers
Maybe you’re a food lover, and you are here for the delicious photos of food. I’m not sure if my recipes are well written enough to warrant anybody following them, but I am going on an adventure to eat all sorts of things! Adventure Time Fans
I’ve only ever had one post about Adventure Time, but it is the top Google search of all time here. My Best Friends
Thank you for visiting, just because we’re BFFs. I know you probably think all that on here is terrible, but you’ll come back anyway.
If your closets and drawers are bursting like mine were, that would be a good enough reason to reach into them and see what things you can donate to the closest shelter. Believe me, it’s hard sometimes to chuck something. There are memories attached to them or even the tiniest feeling that you might use that tied-dyed shirt for something.
However, if you want to do some cleaning, here are some reasons you should throw out that piece of garment.
1. They are broken. Maybe it’s the hole in the armpit, or zipper that won’t zip. And you won’t find the lanyard of that sweater. It’s been eaten by the dryer. 2. There’s a giant stain on it. No matter how many times you put it through the wash, it isn’t coming out. 3. They belong to somebody else. Perhaps it’s an ex’s shirt, unless you’re actually going to turn it into a dress, I’d burn it or give it to someone in need. 4. They are too big for you. If they’re too big, you’ve probably lost a ton of weight and throwing your larger size clothes away is the last step of the process. There is no need to turn back. Or maybe you bought some clothes on boxing day last Christmas that were a bit too wide. I bet you don’t wear them. 5. They are too small for you. Face it, we all grow up. I have grown out of pants. My high-burger diets probably don’t help, but I’m pretty sure the dryer magically shrinks them by an inch every time just to mess with me. Make sure you have clothes that are right for your body type. 6. When was the last time you wore that? If it hasn’t been since Halloween, maybe it’s for a reason. If you’re going to keep things that are to be used as costumes/props, don’t keep them in your closet. 7. They are no longer in fashion. This rule doesn’t need to be followed as closely, as things do come back in fashion once in a while. However, if they aren’t following current trends, why not just hide them away in a while? They can be a treasure chest to come back to later when you’ve forgotten about them.
It’s nice to make room in the closet of our lives. I no longer how to stressfully shuffle through a puddle full of stuff to get to the things I want. Plus, it makes room (and an excuse) to do some more shopping again!
I’m not ashamed to go eat a burger alone. It’s quite a normal occurrence during busy times. Burgers are bunned happiness. Who has conversations with someone while eating a burger?
Anyways, this week was Burger Week in Toronto so of course I would participate. I chose Burger Bar because it happened to be the closest joint to the Supermarket, where I was going to see a show afterward. I headed there after work and starving. I had actually been to Burger Bar once before with my best friend 2 years ago. It wasn’t the greatest experience because her patty was bloody and under-cooked. I figured if the place still existed than it must have improved, so I gave it another chance.
I wandered in and asked for a table for 1. Either the waitress was loud or being a jerk, but she made me ask like 10,000 times. I finally sat down at a table (with no menu) and 15 minutes later a waitress came up to me and asked, Are you just sitting here? I was starting to get irritated. WHY THE HELL WOULD I BE JUST SITTING HERE IF I DON’T WANT A BURGER? but I replied, “Um, no, give me a menu.”
I decided to just stick with the Burger Week special as it was only $5. It was a local beef burger infused with hops and chipotle aioli. I felt I needed to calm down so I also tried to order a drink off the placemat, but apparently you can’t order the drinks on the placemat….
Why put these on all the tables, when you can’t order them?
I watched as a group of 10 people tried to do the same. Even though one waitress already took my order, another kept asking me if I was waiting for someone. I told her NO 3 times. FML, I just wanted to enjoy a burger alone. Oh yeah, I waited almost 20 minutes for said burger and it looked like this:
I was so hungry, I took a bite out of it before I took a picture.
Wrinkly bun, small as hell. It was okay I guess since I ate it fast (or I was just fuckin’ hungry). I guess I can’t expect much for $5, but I WAITED 20 MINUTES. They were lucky I gave them another chance, but I don’t think I will come back to Burger Bar EVER again.
As for eating burgers alone, luckily there are plenty of other places to do that in Toronto. My favourite being Gourmet Burger, where people and environment is friendly and the burgers are delicious.
My period of computerlessness only lasted for mere few days. I didn’t expect Dell to ship my laptop back so quick and in tip top shape. I survived the past few days with my iPad and iPhone and blogged occasionally from work when it wasn’t too busy. I was surprised how efficient I was at music blogging when I had a limited time frame to do it.
In addition I also realized the following:
– I had to cut my nails so I could type on a screen
– I don’t have anything that can read SD cards
– texting has made me a better typer on my phone than my iPad
– I alwaysforget to hit space onthe iPad
– Google + is actually really pretty
– nights seem darker without a laptop’s eerie glow
I am sending my laptop in for a makeover. Although I do have a decrepit backup laptop, I am going to challenge myself to live on just mobile devices for as long as Ursula is still in the shop. Yes, my laptop has a name.
Perhaps this is what the future will be like. I don’t think there is anything my laptop can do that I can’t find a way for one of my devices to. I have a first generation iPad and an iPhone 4S. One day in the not-to-distant future it will only get easier. The biggest challenge will be maintaining my script heavy music blog.
As long as I can blog, all will be merry. I will keep you updated on the journey.
Tiana Feng 