I am happy

I don't even know why I'm blogging right now because I'm just so happy and perky and dear god, possibly bubbly, that if I wasn't me I'd want to smack me.

Friday I drove down to Toronto with two girlfriends. The drive was smooth, the traffic was surprisingly good, the conversation was wide-ranging and low-filter and exceedingly off-colour and entirely restorative. We checked in to the hotel and walked out to look for some place to have dinner. We started noticing that most of the people holding hands were of the same gender, and then we saw a man in a leather skirt, and then we saw all the rainbows on the street signs and we thought.... this is going to be awesome! Gay waiters are the best. They tell you how gorgeous you are and call you My Lovelies and laugh uproariously at your witty banter even if it's not that witty.

We ate here. So. Good. The waiter was fabulous. The food was amazing.

We walked back to the hotel. It started pouring just as we were about to cross the street where the front doors were. We had some drinks and talked some more and went to bed.

Saturday Janet's friend came and took us to the Distillery District, which is charming and cute and fun. We bought some stuff at this shop where the woman makes everything in one size and then you try it on and she resizes it for you while you wait, which, come on, that is SO INSANELY COOL. And we bought fancy chocolate at Soma, because, duh, chocolate. And we looked at cool art. And Janet's friend bought Fluevogs and Collette and I didn't and then thought about going back the whole way home and then resolved to go to Montreal and buy Fluevogs at the earliest opportunity. And there were weddings, and the girl in the Fluevog store was delightfully bitchy about how many ugly wedding dresses she sees. And there was a group of people on Segways that I took a picture of with Collette's camera because when I was at home packing I found my camera but all of the memory cards had mysteriously disappeared from the place where I keep the memory cards and there was only one left and I had to leave it for Matt to record Eve in her very first singing recital because had agreed, against all odds, to sing in public and I WAS MISSING IT, and I kept saying all weekend I was going to buy a new memory card but instead I just took pictures with Collette's camera but now she's mean and she WON'T SEND THEM TO ME. Anyway, Segway group picture forthcoming. Oh wait, but we had the most amazing lunch at the Mill Street Brew Pub, where we were under a glass roof but we could look out onto the open-air seating, and the light was beautiful, and I felt like I was back in St. Lucia, and there was a grilled cheese with pork belly on the menu, and I don't see how you can order anything else when there's a grilled cheese with pork belly on the menu, although my friends managed to. It was sublime.

As we were about to go back to the street car, it started pouring. We hid in the Fluevog store and nuzzled the shoes until it stopped. We caught the street car and subway back to the hotel. Just before we got there, it started raining again.

We had a rest and washed up and then I walked across the room to look at the clock, saying "when should we....holy fuck you guys, it's quarter to six!" And then there was a flurry of "holy shit! What? Are you sure? What the hell happened? Did we black out?" and some high-speed dressing and make-upping. We went down to the theatre district. We had a light dinner at some Asian place after running the gauntlet of people on the sidewalk thrusting menus into your face trying desperately to entice the theatre crowd and I had to whimper STOP PRESSURING ME to one woman who was bound and determined that we were going to have STEAK AND SEAFOOD BITCHES. I had red curry chicken but really I could have just slurped up the sauce. Actually, when I was done, Collette slurped up the sauce. It was really, really good sauce.

We only had to walk down the street and across to the theatre. Naturally it started to pour rain.

We saw The Book of Mormon. I didn't know anything about it other than the South Park guys wrote it and it's about Mormonism. I learned a couple of things I didn't know, such as that Mormon mission partners are never supposed to be apart other than to go to the bathroom, and that Mormons don't drink coffee, and that "I have maggots in my scrotum" is a real conversation-stopper in almost any situation. Collette and I loved it. Janet was underwhelmed.

The next morning we got slightly lost looking for the Golden Griddle. I was just about to go into the Hasty Market to ask for directions when we realized the Hasty Market sign was hiding the Golden Griddle sign. Just as we were about to get back to the parking garage, the charming whore of a sky dropped one more load of water on us. It was a theme.

We drove home. We still hadn't run out of things to talk about. It was one of the most perfect week-ends I can remember. Yesterday I had lunch with Kim (who's visiting from her moved-away city of Winnipeg) and Patti and Lynn and Pam and Susan. The weather right now is cool and sunny. The pinched nerve in my neck is starting to release and I FEEL LIKE DOING STUFF. Tomorrow I'm keeping Eve out of school to go to the art gallery with Kim. I feel like the universe is giving me an early birthday present. Existential cupcakes for everyone!