start and finish

Pic from here

Y'all I just got back form an epic trip to Dallas.
My goodness it was so fun and just flew by!
A catch up post will come but first I wanted to give you the juicy gossip of how I started and finished my trip in a similar manner. 

• What I thought would be a smooth trip became...

A nail in the side wall of my tire and an emergency car switcheroo with my parents to catch my flight (on the way there).
My expected 4.5 hour journey became 8.5 hours due to some kind of border delay ridiculousness (on the way back).

• I was hungover BADLY on the way there and back.

On the way there because I had dinner with MrTrader and a bottle of wine and beverages at a bar later (the Friday night on the way there).

I went to Weber's in Ann Arbor and met up with Will and his crew who were out.  My flight landed at 10:45pm and I thought it better to stay at Will's for the night instead of driving home (on the way back).

In the interests of being honest I suppose I can tell you also...

On the way there those late night drinks with MrTrader turned into a sleepover of the randy sort.  Only y'all I so was not prepared for all that to go down.  I'm talking I wore black tights in lieu of shaving my legs etc unprepared.  I'm talking first day of my period unprepared.  I'm talking probably worst way to ever ummm "start" things off.  I literally thought I would not hear from him again but we exchanged a few texts during the week when I was in Texas AND we have date #4 on the calendar for tomorrow.  Maybe he was just as drunk as I was?!

On the way back...well everyone in grad school assumed Will and I hooked up...so that happened after one too many drinks and before I knew it things...happened.  But don't worry I made things sufficiently awkward in the morning when I was shy and embarrassed and naked didn't know how to handle the situation.  Will called me out for being awkward.  

So I oddly started and finished my trip in an awkward, slutty, hungover and very embarrassed fashion.

Drag Queens, Ships and Burritos

So last Saturday it was E's birthday (from the Canada Crew).
I mentioned before that S and E live on a ship.
So that's where we started the celebration.

Before heading off to El Convento Rico.
A packed bar.
Known for it's drag queens.
And we danced and laughed our night away.

Pic from here

At the very end my date from the night before showed up.
And I was stunned that he would come all the way across town.
To a drag queen bar just to have a drink.

After we headed to Burrito Boyz for late night Burritos.
And it was nice even if the burritos kind of suck compared to Dallas.

Pic from here

I ended up spending the night on the ship which was super fun.

My blurry iPhone shot from the ship when I headed in that night.

And it was a fun Saturday night.
Which I desperately needed.

Making Friends

So tearing myself from MrKent Saturday morning was a necessity.
I need to keep the push on for making more friends.
And Laurel had invited me with 3 of her girlfriends to the beach.


Yes Toronto has a beach.
I was still shocked about this when MrKent and I went on date Thirteen.
So with a quick trip to the grocery to pick up a veggie tray and some cookies.
(I know I know ultimate lazy expense but I was pressed for time for staying in bed much too long!)


It's in the area known as The Beaches.
And it is on Lake Ontario on the more Eastern side of Toronto.

Pic from here

So I headed down to the beach.
Just a tiny one.
That gets very crowded.

Pic from here

And there is a boardwalk.
Filled with people walking their dogs.

Pic from here.

And there is beach volleyball if that's your thing.
And if it's not...it at least usually supplies a little bit of eye candy.
MrKent plays beach volleyball so you understand my peaked interest ;)

Pic from here

We lay out in front of these beach houses.
Seriously they are the cutest ever and have a San Fran vibe don't they?

Pic from here  This link also gives you interior pics of the house...GORGEOUS!

So we had simply a lovely afternoon of cucumber sandwiches.
Brie and Prosciutto and my contribution.
And girl talk which was super duper fun.
I'm really excited to get to know another group of fun ladies.


They invited me to their British ExPat Pub Quiz that night.
Of course I jumped at the chance!
So we all headed home to freshen up before I headed back downtown to Scallywags.

Pic from here.

And though I'm not typically a pub fan.
The company and the fun made it great.
Especially because we WON the whole entire pub quiz!!!!


I would like to think I contributed at least a little bit when it came to the science questions.
Though I was hopeless at History and Literature and British TV theme songs.
Check out the loot we won!
I didn't know what half the things were but my Brit friends were rather excited...

 It took us all of two seconds to break into it all!

So excited to hopefully get to know this new group better :)
And hope to go on more of their nights out for sure!
And with the night coming to a close...
I felt a little more bold 
And decided to give MrKent a call...

Friday Night Shenanigans

So Friday right after work I bolted home.
Then headed for Val's new place downtown.
She made the leap and moved from a two bed apartment in Bloor West to a new AMAZING downtown one bedroom.


She had only been there less than two weeks but seems pretty settled into it.
We opened a bottle of wine and decided to make dinner before heading out downtown.
We made a pasta with shrimp/lemon/wine/oregano.
I should have taken pics but I'm not quite there with these things yet.
Mostly because it's not like I'm going to say "it's for my blog".


So we have a great dinner and then get dolled up to head out on a Friday night.
First we headed to Brassaii 
(the same place I went for Brunch with Will and the boys in this post).
Which is interesting that it goes from a club into a chic brunch place in just a few hours.

Pic from here

It was a very cool place.
But a tad too clubey.
Even though we were dolled up we were more in jeans and cute tops versus other women in teeny tiny minis with sky high heels.
It was a little more "meatmarket" than we prefer so then we moved on.


We literally just walked down King West until we found a place that looked interesting called Spice Route.

Pic from here

A much better atmosphere.
So we settled in had a couple of Gin & Tonics (my new fav drink), before calling it a night at around 1am.
So great to take an $8 cab home versus $60+ from my place.
Val definitely has an amazing cool new place and I am super duper ridiculously jealous 
(ie. I'm dying to live closer to the action).

Pic from here

It was also a great night because I shared a few texts with MrClarkKent though I tried not to be "that girl" that stays huddled with her phone because of a boy.
I debated playing coy like I MAYBE was on another date etc.
He asked me what I was up to that night...I first replied with "Shenanigans" being all coy...before relenting and telling him about our girls night...
So with him I don't think I'll play games (though I am sticking semi to TheRules).


Another weird thing happened last night that I sort of brushed off but lingered with me.
As things tend to do.
And it made me think back to something I HAVEN'T mentioned since my trip to Ottawa (that I wrote about here).


So first the story from Ottawa that I never mentioned...(read here).


So Friday night as we were cooking dinner.
It went down like this...


Val: wow you can REALLY smell this cheese in the fridge
Me: Fun!  Cheese is great.  Did you go to somewhere new to get it?
Val: No just the grocery store because Jane and her husband are coming by tomorrow...(she pauses)...
Me: (thinking INSIDE my head- ummm weird Jane is in town from Kingston (3 hours away)...and didn't text or anything...)
Val: Yea so did she message you?
Me: Nope
Val: Yea her brother had their baby and she is going to be in town so I offered for her to stay over tonight but they are staying with her husbands inlaws...so they are going to come by tomorrow afternoon because they haven't seen my new place.
Me: (thinking INSIDE my head because I have zero balls- Jane STILL hasn't come to see my new place.  She drives by it as in you can SEE it when you drive by, each time she comes to Toronto from Kingston.  They drive 30 minutes OFF the main highway to get to Eva's house.  Val lives more than half an hour off the main highway too!  But still no bother to even come here.  Nevermind THAT no mention that you are even here in this city at all...F*CK!)...what I actually said was..."cool"


And we moved on to another topic.
Maybe Jane and Eva are just over with their friendship with me.
Maybe if I actually had the guts to say something I would figure it out.
But I don't.
Because the pain of that actually being true or me being faulted for whatever it is...
doesn't seem worth it yet.
How strange because Jane had messaged me a week or so ago 
(to which I IMMEDIATELY replied by the way) 
where she invited herself along to Ottawa for the long weekend in May if I go.
To which I said of course to.
Because I cannot bare to exclude someone...apparently even if they do the same exact thing to me.


Would it be that hard to include me over to see Jane and her husband at Val's Saturday afternoon?
Would it be hard for Jane and her husband to stop by for 5 minutes to check out my new place on their way out of Toronto?
I already know the answers to that.

And with that I just turned this semi fun post.
Into a b*tch fest.
Fan-f*cking-tastic.

Random Picture Post!

Want some random pictures?
Good...hear ya go!

Sometimes I totally have a bachelor pad fridge...just saying.

Seriously.

St. Paddy's Day Beer...I remember they used to use these like puck shaped things when I was younger...now a drizzle of green dye that looks kinda gross!

My St. Paddy's Day go to...Midori and Sprite...and not just because KimKardashian is Midori's spokesperson either I like the taste.  Yummy!

Me and Will at St. Paddy's Day.  @SoMidwestern...he's wearing a nice jacket eh?  And you better believe I wore a dress and pearls to St. Paddy's day :)

Outfit for date#1with MrMD read here if you missed it...I LOVE this outfit...I feel cute in it :)

Random outfit pic...with my spring jacket.  It's my fav I love the bubble hem.

Outfit sans jacket.  I was on my way to a sorority meeting.

Shoes from outfit above...I LOVE bows!-Anne Klein 

A few weeks ago it was so cloudy but this has got to be the coolest pic with the CN Tower...I didn't take this though.

Same day the view from my 26th floor condo...so foggy.

Quinn's babygirl...seriously how cute is this!

Pic from my casual Sunday outfit for the seminar I was stuck in all weekend.

Totally random I know but I kept meaning to share these pics!

The Official May 24 Weekend Update and probably my longest post ever!

Okay this will probably end up being a super long post.
Hope you don't get bored haha.
Oh yea and I totally left my camera at home so I did my best to scour the net for pictures because I always like a story with pictures.
I'm already rambling and I haven't really officially started...


So I had planned to go on this trip not that long ago (read here).
Then midweek Val had thought of throwing Eva a last bridal shower with just theGirls.
A LuluLemon shower...in Toronto.
So because of my non refundable train ticket this is what my travelling looked like between Thursday and Tuesday.

Friday


I got up at 6am to shower and be ready to catch the 7:30am train.
The yellow line on the map.
So I get on the train and I half dozed to Toronto...I do like to take the train I just wish it was a little cheaper...I'm sure in the USA I could use the $250 for airfare but alas not in Canada
(flying is so super duper expensive here...a flight to Ottawa would have been more than 3 times the cost of the train!)

Here is a train departing from my home town station.
I switch over in Toronto to a different train to Ottawa.
I love Union Station in Toronto.
It has such an urban cool New York vibe to it.

As the trian departed for Ottawa I started listening to The Hunger Games on CD and OH MY GOSH I was hooked! Seriously I became quickly engrossed in the story.  And now I'm practically obsessed about when these movies will finally come out.

It was also nice to not have to read on a moving train which might make me feel a little trainsick(motion sickness=not so awesome). 
I arrives in Ottawa in the afternoon and I thought their station was so super cool!

Fun fact: the Ottawa station is used in Jake Gyllenhalls movie Source Code due to it's "futuristic look"

Brooke picked me up with her adorable daughter who is 5 and a half and who I adore.
We went to their place and made a quick dinner of salad and pizza and settled in for a quiet night (because we had a big drive the next day!).
We watched Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings which brought me back to last summer when my dad and I would watch every Friday together (ugh yucko feeling in pit of the stomach).
Then we made a key lime pie that was super simple.
Ingrediants: gram cracker crumbs, butter, condensed milk and lime juice and lime zest...thats it.
It bakes for less than 10 minutes (well after we set the crust)...so it was an easy task to do quickly.


Saturday


We woke up pretty early to head into Kingston first to pick up Jane.
We met her at LuluLemon where we proceeded to shop like crazy for Eva's shower that night.
We had a blast picking out things we thought she would love...from panties to yogatops!
The ladies in the Lulu Store LOVED our idea for a Lulu Bridal Shower.

This is the Kingston store and I guess they have blog artists that write different posts of the LuluLemon website which is really cool.  The staff at the Kingston store were all super friendly and helpful.  And I was so good of not picking up the zillion cute clothes I loved there.

Then we went to the mall to pick up some shoes for Brooke.
It is funny going to that mall because I went there a few times in Uni when I was visiting the girls in Kingston.  So it brought back some great memories though it is such a tiny mall.
We bought some cute shoes ...and yes that was me starting to crumble with self control haha but we were in a shopping zone.
I couldn't resist a pair of neutral metallic ruffle flats!
Especially since my favourite neutral metallic flats had become unglued due to the humidity in Singapore.
So that was my justification haha.
Then we were hungry and decided to get some (unexpectadly fresh, delishious and made to order) mall sushi.

Before we knew it we were on the road for the TDot (about a 3 hour trip).
Continuing on the green line on the map.
We got there just in time to wrap the gifts and get ready for Eva's arrival at Val's place.

And what a fun evening we had.
We had awesome appetizers of chips/homemade salsa & guac and wine (because you know that goes with chips and salsa right hahaha).
Then for the main course we had green beans, chicken breast stuffed with brie and apples (sorry I didn't get a picture) but let me tell you it was amazing...the girls are great chefs.
Then for dessert we had Eva's fav (peanut butter chocolate cheesecake) and the keylime pie Brooke and I made the night before.
It was close to 10 or 1030 and we were debating to go out or stay in.
The girls and I came to the conclusion to go out because we figured if we stayed in Eva would justify going home (to do wedding stuff early) instead of staying over so we HAD to kibosh that idea!

We walked (it was actually okay not super cold out) to Bloor Street West area in Toronto which is an awesome area with tons of restaurants and bars and great patios.
We headed into the Swan and Firken

(Eva loves pubs! and oh yea she loved one of her Lulu tops so much she wore it out to the pub.)
We quickly ordered two pitchers of sangria (a white and red) and loved our amazing bartender Shaina.
We were just having a chat and enjoying ourselves waiting for a seat on the upper outer patio.
When Jane and I both catched a glimpse of this shot.
It first caught my eye because it was pink...and a boy had ordered it.

Any guesses on what it was???
Yup it was totally Pepto B as in the nauseaheartburndiarrhea Pepto B.

We immediately both burst into giggles at the realization.
The guy totally caught us and said "don't make fun of it my guts are killing me".
Which then we chatted with him (Shawn) for a bit.
Then we moved on to our own conversations again.
Deciding what to order next for drinks and debating if we wanted food.

We finally got seated on the patio and ended up next to Shawn and his two friends.
So they quickly joined tables and the 8 of us quickly made friends and great conversation until closing.
We all agreed it was nice to be able to have fun flirty conversation but without the actual pickup things happening.
At the end of the night one of Shawn's friends Andre asked for my number (score!  I guess our conversations about Britney Spears were good bahahahaha).
And when he stood up to give us all hugs I realized he was 6'10" against my 5'3.5" self...it was a little hard to hug him haha.  But I love big tall guys!
We then walked home and all agreed it was a fab way to spend Eva's last "single" weekend.

Sunday
We got up and lazed around a bit.
Eva had to leave to go with her fiance to finish up some last minute wedding stuff.
So Brooke, Jane, Val and I headed out for a greasy spoon breakfast on Bloor Street West again.  We walked until we found one that looked good and it was packed because it was super good!

After we had a nice lazy brunch we decided to go see Bridesmaids together.

Which we all were laughing out loud so darn much.
I'm pretty sure we annoyed the people around us but it was too darn funny.
And a great way to spend the rainy afternoon.
Seriously so good and funny but also raunchy and disgusting...you definitely would not want to watch it with your parents (well if they are like mine and HATE movies like The Hangover and The Fourty Year Virgin).
The funny thing is I totally LOVED the bitchy character.
She had great style and I could understand what she was trying to do in a sense.
I totally sympathized for her.

All the girls laughed at me for this and rolled their eyes...but I was like SPOILER ALERT!*** "guys seriously the shower she put on was amazing...and really puppies in pink berets as shower favours...GENIUS!" 
Jane goes "you WOULD totally love her Teagan...and for the record we will never give puppies as favours for your bridal shower...but I guess sometimes people judge those types of girls and in the end her heart was in the right place".  SPOILER ALERT ENDED***

We then dropped off Val because she needed to get some work done and we headed to Yorkdale mall which is where Taylor and I shopped when she was here in January (read here).
As I was shopping for accessories (for this dress here) I couldn't find anything...and the more I was growing frustrated.

So Jane and Brooke suggested trying on some dresses and starting picking out some they thought would look great on me (seriously do I have the BEST friends ever and they totally acted like my personal shoppers! I felt so spoiled).
So we decided on a dress for the wedding that would be fun to dress up with accessories (I had spotted an AMAZEballs (I think that is a Bethanny Frankel word) Fascinator earlier!
I felt so MUCH better after choosing a new dress and accessories for the wedding and was more excited.
We grabbed a quick dinner at the mall (burgers and fries not so healthy but pretty good tasting).
Before meeting Eva in the parking lot to get rid of her new lawn mower taking up Jane's Trunk.
Eva had been at the mall buying groomsmen gifts with her fiance (haha who obviously had left it until the last minute).

Then we headed back for Ottawa via Kingston (the lilac line on the map).
We got into Kingston at 9 and still had to head to Ottawa so Brooke and I went to pick up her daughter from her parents home in Kingston.
Waking up a 5 and a half year old to put in a car...not so smart.
And she had a (perfectly justified) tear filled tantrum...we both felt so bad.
But we hunkered down and grabbed coffees and made it into Ottawa just before midnight exhausted.

Monday (Victoria Day Holiday)

We got up and had some breakfast at Brooke's place and then picked out what to do.
First we headed to the Tulip Festival.

Given it was a holiday the park was packed with families who had the same idea as us.
Here is some information about this years Tulip Fesitval.

The theme for the 2011 edition of the Festival is Kaleidoscope – A celebration of spring awakening through colour, culture and community. The Festival will run for 18 days, from Friday May 6 through to the end of the Victoria long weekend on Monday, May 23. In partnership with the National Capital Commission (NCC), the official gardener of the Canadian Tulip Festival, Major’s Hill Park will feature must-see extraordinary kaleidoscopic tulip beds. Children and family oriented activities will abound, and the International Pavilion will be back! Always an extremely popular destination, Commissioners Park and the Tulip Route along the Rideau Canal, will feature more than 300,000 blooms of 50 varieties of tulips. Notably, Malak’s bed and various other breathtaking multi-colour tulip beds to be displayed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and along the shorelines of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, promise to be, as always, spectacular by nature.

We also definitley managed to sneak in a great Canadian snack of Beaver Tails.
Brooke's daughter was super excited about that (and so was I) though I did tease her asking her how all the Beaver's are supposed to swim if we eat their tails...the patient 5 and a half year old explained they weren't real duh!  I can't remember the equivalent in the USA but maybe it is like elephant ears or something.  In Canada they are "a Canadian pastry made of whole-wheat dough, shaped like a much-respected national symbol: a beaver's tail. Cooked in canola oil, they are served hot with a variety of toppings like cinnamon and sugar, chocolate hazelnut, maple butter, and apple cinnamon".  When President Barack Obama's came to visit to Ottawa "the Beavertails chain will make a special ObamaTail: the same base topped with cinnamon and sugar, a whipped cream "O," chocolate sauce, and some maple".  Which I think is a super cute idea! 

Brooke and I had a good laugh because her daughter had cinnamon and sugar EVERYwhere after eating it even behind her ears!  Then we headed to the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology.  Brooke's daughter could barely stay in her seat she was bouncing with excitement. We had so so much fun there.

It totally doesn't look like much from the entrance but it is filled with so much family fun stuff!

There is a periscope inside.

With a view of outside!

We thought the Titanic model was really cool!

Brooke's daughter's favourite part of the museum was the Crazy Kitchen which is a very skewed room.  I'm not sure how to explain it but we had to walk through it twice becuase she loved it so much!

An old snow machine (well it is a Canadian museum!)

The trains for fun to look at too.

This was some kind of electronic exhibit and there was a dark three story tube slide that Brooke's daughter was dying to go down...except was too scared to go by herself so I sucked it up and went with her but it was so NOT made for grownups.  Part of it found me scooting my butt along with her in my lap just to keep going and I was totally in a dress so thank goodness it is a solid black plastic tube!  But I definitely won't be doing that again!



We headed home for a quick refresh before heading out to dinner at KS on the Keys.
The restaurant was really great.

It is their new location.

We loved their light fixtures...I know we are nerds haha.

They are famous for their pizza.  We both wanted actual food but it didn't stop us from ordering a pizza to go for a late night snack.

So for dinner I had an amazing lambrack with mashed potatoes and roasted greens.  Brooke had a Thai curry that was delish and her daughter had chicken fingers and fries (kiddo friendly).
We went home got her daughter tucked into bed and then settled in with a bottle of wine and the pizza to watch the premiere of the Bachelorette.
Which was so so good!  I'm going to have fun watching that series for sure.

Tuesday
The next morning I got up and took a cab to catch the train to my home town.
I left Ottawa at noon and got in at 930pm.

Is it bad that my heart sunk when I realized my mum came with my dad to pick me up from the train station?
I just had a feeling of dread.
I had just travelled 9 and a half hours and I didn't want to be badgered.
Which definitely came.
And I tried in a half defeated half tired voice explain that THIS is why I don't talk to my parents about things because they immediately are negative and come up with only worst case scenarios.
And my mum told me again I wouldn't survive in Toronto if I moved there and I would be cut off (again) from any kind of help...but if I opened an office in my hometown it would be paid for.
I just told them (again) my hometown makes me miserable and I'm leaving one way or another.
Then I closed my eyes and leaned back to ride in silence the rest of the way home.

And that is how I ended my super fabulous trip in the most stressful way possible.

Pictures from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,