Goodbye 2015. On to 2016: Better, Smarter, and Full of Potential and Possibilities

There was supposed to be more time in this day to write this post, but as with most days this year something came up, or there just wasn't enough time in the day, or, as was more likely, blog posts were running through the brain as the body lay all warm and comfortable in bed. Thoughts, feeling, emotions, words, unable to escape into the internet and land here where they wanted to be because life gets in the way (or a comfortable bed).

2015 was an amazing year - amazing good and amazing bad - full of achievements...like graduating from University with academic honors (magna cum laude), having the opportunity to spend several weeks traveling to a few locations in Canada, starting a new career as a self-employed contract worker, growing a great garden and learning more about the ins-and-outs of that hobby, and while we only completed one painting this year, there is confidence that will pick up when our new studio space (dubbed on Instagram [Yes, this year we "finally" got an Instagram account] and Facebook as 'Frankie's Lady Cave).

It was also a year full of seeing friends, like Club Nette (Skittles, aka, Annette Ford) and Synthesised (Cliff) in Toronto at the 2015 Toronto Tweetup (as well as a slew of others who just won't appear here - but shout out to Blonde Calamity!...sorry everyone else).
And then there was the summer house guests like Cool _Jesse (Jesse) and Synthesised (Cliff). And a road trip to Minneapolis to the Minnesota State Fair where we hooked up with Pudding Boobs (Kim) and had a great night of drinking and catching up.
And then in October, Father, and Baby Brother and his wife came to help put up a large portion of the new garage we're building (well, at this point James has been doing most of the building while we feel useless ...at least until the electrical, insulation and drywall is ready to go up, those we can mostly do solo), and Mother and Angry Brother came too. It was the first time the entire immediate family had been together in such a way in over ten years, since the car accident. (current memory cannot recall if every member was accounted for on Baby Brother's wedding day, but if they were it was certainly not in such an informal familial way).
Dad came two weekends in a row and it was really nice spending that time with him. It was great fun cooking for everyone and connecting with some members of the family we haven't gotten to see much over the years. Baby Brother has turned out to be an amazing man of strength and intelligence and wit (he's a grade A smart ass, and we love it), and he and his wife are perfect for each other in ways that are undefinable.

But

The year was also not so great, as the death of our dog came quickly around graduation time. We lost massive hours at a job we were working at and got denied a more permanent position (such is the bureaucracy of a University in this day and age)
Then later in the year the most tragic of all, the sudden death of Club Nette (Skittles, aka, Annette Ford). Nothing has felt the same since, like there's a considerable amount of air and light missing from the world, the sun only shines half as bright. Given our peppered past of people who have suddenly (and not so suddenly) died, like the first boy we ever liked, cousins, uncles, grandparents, friends...we thought this would be easier to get passed. It's not. It was a massive hit to the heart and soul.

From a mental health perspective it's been up and down a lot, definitely some bad, but there's never enough time to write when the mood strikes to define the bad, or work through the bad like we used to - luckily a trunk full of culled coping strategies over the past couple of years mitigates the harm, pushes it back for some reprieve.
Physically we've managed to stay in pretty good shape - though after the death of Nettie there was a severe uptick in alcohol consumption and we've been working on getting back to better levels because alcohol will straight up fuck with your metabolism and any weight loss attempts. During a full physical (EKG and all) the doctor guessed that we must run because of the low resting heart rate. Not really sure if that means healthy, or is just a symptom or catalyst to the poor circulation. In any case, despite the extra pounds we're as healthy as they get. And the plan is to continue that into the new year. The greatest physical achievement this year was establishing a top run time (of an average of 7.04 mph for 30 minutes) - a run time we have not been able to near in awhile even after being in the gym 3-4 times a week, even when traveling. But that just gives us a goal. In addition this coming year at least one 5K, and maybe a 10K, is planned, which has been sort of a bucket list item since losing a massive amount of weight about 11 years ago and keeping most of it off over the years. It's not really a new year resolution, because those beg to be broken, rather a desire, a goal, a hope, that if doesn't happen, doesn't happen, and there will always be the next year.

This coming year is pretty scary, as uncertainty being self-employed causes much undo stress, but if it continues on the path it has been on it will be amazing. This new venture affords plenty of free time for painting and reading in the winter, and gardening and painting and travel in the summer, and cooking all year round. Plus it brings in more money than we've made at any point in our life...jutting us into a new tax bracket. (also scary!)

The non scary part of the year will be when the garage is complete. This project has taught patience this year, as the hope was that it would be fully complete by October. Unfortuntaly the concrete didn't even get poured until then, and then before anybody knew it there was cold, and snow, and the challenges of building a huge structure (and James is not familiar with how things are built in the USA, as building in England are put together differently).
Plus the garage is massive a massive project. In-floor heating, multiple access doors,six windows. a 34 x 24 structure with the back 12 x 24 space (Fankie's Lady Cave) serving as a painting/writing studio, and workout/yoga space, a gardening space (until the garden shed is built), a hangout space, and a guest area for the friends we've made on Twitter so they can have a nice space to relax and sleep while visiting. There are new visitors planned for 2016 too, so hopefully this all gets done in time! :-)

Before the garage

After the garage (34' x 24')

Meanwhile, all year there have been so many topic we would have liked to write about. 2015 was CRAZY - especially in politics and social issues, and we're always paying attention (thanks to social media it's hard not to), but then sometimes it seems like it's all really been said by everyone, because, well, it's the internet and it probably has all been said, or said faster than someone with a job, a spouse, and hobbies has time to compete with. Writing just falls to the back-burner (hence the scant few blog entries here this year compared to other years).
The one thing that's disappointing about classes being over, having graduated, is that it's harder to sit down and write with no grade or deadline looming over the head as motivation. If there's anything we can be hopeful about for 2016 it's that we can get back into writing, and not just sloppy shit like this blog post, but quality content like the academic papers we've shared with you here over the last few years, or travel entries.

2016...it's peeking right around that corner, mere hours away...full of possibilities...full of potential...potential sadness, potential happiness, potential success, potential failure...how you look at those things, how you act on those things is up to you. Make the better decision, the smarter decision, the healthier decision, and just try, day by day, to be a better you, inside and out. No, it's never easy, but what else do you have to do but try?
Don't let the rampant hate that saturated 2015 via social media and mass media and the internet in general leak into 2016 and overtake it. Hope for better, strive for better, be better.

Happy New Year, family, friends, readers, lovers, haters...May 2016 bring you all that you deserve.

She Was...

It was about three years ago, just before the London Ontario Tweetup, that we tried to cajole her to come meet us with promises of hiding under tables and eating Skittles and drinking vodka with her. That year she thought about it but ultimately declined. There was anxiety.

The following year, the first Toronto Tweetup, we mentioned it and then didn't talk to her about it again...and she came! We grabbed her and held her and marveled at the physical being that was her. You know how it is, when you finally meet a friend face-to-face.

The whole "being at the Tweetup" didn't last long. Ultimately we ditched the whole thing, along with James, Nettie, and Cliff, and took off on adventures on our own. (You can read about it here: http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2014/06/choose-your-own-adventure-tweetup.html)

That weekend, sometime after 2am at a hero Burger on Queen St, eating Skittles off of the table, we're pretty sure this is when Nettie officially became The Skittles. Officially.
We've never spent time with her where she didn't have bags of them stashed in her purse (or where she was stashing them in ours *smiles wistfully*)

It's a 2:00am skittle frenzy happening here. pic.twitter.com/GbDWWJeyRJ

— ClubNette (@ClubNette) June 22, 2014

Skittles (@ClubNette) loves the weiner. pic.twitter.com/ellXHowU26

— Just Call Me Frank™© (@JustCallMeFrank) June 21, 2014

Shortly after last summer's Toronto Tweetup we got a message from her saying she would be on her way through the area, off to visit family in western Canada, and could she swing down for few days visit with her man (Don) and Goo (her son), and then stay again on her way back home. This was an obvious treat having seen her not that long ago, so we said yes.

She ended up being here the hottest parts of the summer, and our house has no air conditioning. We ended up spending sweltering days together lounging on the furniture, her with her notebook and pen, Goo with his digital games, just existing comfortably.
Honestly it was so comfortable having her here that we don't even recall how we passed all of the time - it must have been close to six days total - aside from eating home cooked meals, hanging out in the backyard around a fire, and all the excitement that comes with having an autistic (eight year old?) boy in the house for the first time (it was a learning experience!).

Food porn from casa @JustCallMeFrank pic.twitter.com/2rwjvlgqAw

— ClubNette (@ClubNette) July 11, 2014

The Skittles in our backyard (a.k.a. @ClubNette). 💚 pic.twitter.com/wSCZQ0WhK7

— Just Call Me Frank™© (@JustCallMeFrank) July 21, 2014

Except for one night.

The day had been beyond hot, the air still, unmoving and clinging. You could tell something was brewing, the air had that feel and the environment had that pallor all through the day, turning that strange yellowy green that it does on hot summer afternoons right before something fun happens. You could see pregnant dark clouds inching their way in from the west, eventually they got so close we walked out to the end of the block to marvel at them, which is pretty much the west edge of town, and to see the first pulses of lightening. And then suddenly you could see a wave of dust forming, rolling closer, and the wind all of a sudden just went nuts. This area of the county isn't exactly a stranger to tornadoes. Screaming with excitement and getting hit with the first drops of rain, we all turned and ran for the safety of the house.

We got into the house and the wind kept picking up, the lightening got stronger and closer, the thunder boomed. Then the lights went out. We lit candles and discussed playing board games and pondered at other ways in which we could pass the time. By this time the worst parts of the storm had skirted the town, as it usually does, and we were left in the center of walls of lightening, ominous clouds and considerable wind, because the heat of the day was still contained in the house, and the candles were adding to the stickiness with every minute, we came to a conclusion.

Let's go out and chase this thing around the countryside. It was bound to be cooler anywhere but here.

We all piled into the 4Runner, buckling Goo (her son) into the center of the backseat telling him that the adults were going to do something very silly right now. Chasing storms in the Midwest isn't exactly the safest activity, kids.

And we drove around for what must have been an hour, stopping so Nettie could jump out and take pictures here and there (she loved to take pictures), like at the graveyard at the edge of town where she took some great photos, and speculating on where to go next for great views.

It was a great summer, and that is a favorite memory.

This past June Cliff and Nettie agreed to have a sort of reunion and go the the Toronto Tweetup again. So we went, James happily in tow because these are a few of his favorite people.

We made them dinner at the AirBnb condo we rented downtown, a four course meal with ingredients sourced from St. Lawrence Market. Of course, we all agreed to make an appearance at some of the Tweetup events, but ultimately we ditched everyone (again) and went to other places, quieter places, to drink and talk about music and politics and life and this and that and everything.

The next day we woke up and met for Mimosas at Cliff's hotel room (a tradition) and then walked to the old Distillery District to try out artisan chocolate and eat fancy Mexican food, and walk from floor to floor of the Case Goods Warehouse and Cannery Building critiquing the art that graced the walls. Sometimes critiquing with knowledge and expertise, sometimes with silliness.
That night we walked around town in the dark trying to find random art parties, talking, enjoying each other's company.
The next day, Sunday, we had brunch at the AirBnb condo and sat around, more talking, laughing. We signed the painting we had created for Nettie, which she inspired with her words, and sent it off to its new home.

Rhyming tortured with whore bird. Talent, I know. Grandma is so proud.

— ClubNette (@ClubNette) July 31, 2014

People must have thought us supremely antisocial whenever we were at Tweetups together, or maybe even rude, but the thing that made this little group of friends great is the independent streak they recognized in each other, as well as shared passion for writing, arts, and a common intellect (though, Nettie was always so much smarter when it came to many things).  We were fast friends from the start, through the years on Twitter, where we met, and the time spent together in the non-digital world.

To be honest other than the times we'd hang out in person there was very little communication, digital or otherwise. And never phone calls. Just random message that said things like "<3 love you ^_^ drive by affection". We understood each other, the exhaustion that socializing tended to cause, the time that living in your own head, so to speak, and being creative, took up.
We enjoyed each other's company from sun-up, to almost sun-up again, whenever we spent time together. And it was a satisfying friendship that we were looking forward to experiencing for years to come.

We were just on the cusp of planning a trip to Viva Las Vegas in April, calendars had been marked, hearts had been sent.

She was amazing, super smart and fun, and full of complexity. And such a patient mom with Goo.
And the way she could spin words; she had such a talent and love for writing, like writing was the only way she knew how to breathe. She paved her own path with words. She truly was a renegade soul.

She was one of the few people we've known that felt genuine.

This last Saturday she passed away in her sleep, just shy of a week from what would have been her 33rd birthday.

Nobody can explain it.
The autoposy rendered inconclusive results. The tox screens will take nearly half a year for anything to be discovered. But like Cliff said...at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what the tox screen says.

It's completely unfair that she's gone. And waves of disbelief will ripple alongside those of grief for years.

Our heart aches for her husband and Goo. Especially Goo. Sometimes it seemed Nettie and he had their own special language. It's hard to imagine the confusion he is going through right now. Hearts ache for Nettie's entire family, friends she had that we didn't know, everybody whose life she touched. And she did. She touched many.

She was just embarking on a new adventure of marketing her writing and her art. You could just tell she was excited by all the prospects of the future, the possibilities, the people (in her own introvert way).

She will live on in the ones and zeros of the digital world, her art and her words live here. Whenever we find ourselves missing her, wanting for her words, the beauty she created, we can find her in the volumes she left behind, the volumes of herself, raw and gritty, beautiful and light.

She was wrong when she said she wasn't a firework yet. She'd always been a firework. But the kind that's safe to hold onto...full of promise and beauty and sparks.

(From her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/ClubNettePrintShop?ref=search_shop_redirect)

Sweetheart. You have been imprinted. We will never forget you. <3

Choose Your Own Adventure Tweetup

This past weekend was Tweetup number four on the roster of attended Tweetups. It's likely to have been the last (98% sure it is...ya always have to maintain some wiggle room).

After a great time at the Detroit Tweetup in 2012, the appetite for Tweetups was whetted. What followed was a fairly disappointing one in 2013, which took place in Minneapolis, then shortly following that a fun one in London, Ontario where we got to see @CanadianCyn again, and meet her sister @CanadianCheri. We met some other nice people at that Tweetup, but considered it to be a potential final Tweetup tadoo because of the general experience. When the Tweetup for the following year was starting to be organized by Cheri, and Cyn said she was going to be there, and it was slated for Toronto, Canada, we marked the calender.

But then something came up and Cheri handed off the undertaking to @ArrogantTwat and @BlondeCalamity - who turned out to be a great host and hostess, and made people feel welcome. They deserve many thanks for their effort.

Tweetups can be a mixed bag. For the truly awkward, they can be...truly truly awkward. Especially if you aren't part of any of the Instagram and KIK "cliques" that develop on Twitter and then go behind "closed doors" to...do and talk about whatever it is people in cliques talk about. Create joke formats for Twitter and talk about other people...maybe? Sext? Share boob and food pictures? Who knows. Ultimately if you attend one of these functions and you don't have "connections" you could find yourself out in the cold, awkwardly speaking. It's not a big deal unless you make it a big deal though.

The first night is usually the most friendly, as most everybody makes attempts to introduce themselves/meet the faces behind the accounts. That's fairly short-lived, depending on how loud and busy the venue is. The first venue for Friday night of the Toronto Tweetup was the Bier Markt near the St. Lawrence Market in Old Toronto, across the street from the hotel where a portion of the attendees stayed. Drink prices were decent, the food...well...who eats the first night of a Tweetup?! (James did, and whatever it was looked great, and the tiny bite sampled was pretty good). The drinks were reasonably priced (for Toronto), at about $6.50-7.00 each for a Gin and water. The band that night was amazing. Aaaa-Mazing. (Not sure who it was though)

The most memorable part of the night was meeting @BlareBare's friend...The Serial Killer. Okay, so he probably has an actual name.

Javier Bardem

He isn't really on Twitter, and he was at the event as designated driver for Blare. He was off standing by the entrance, watching the soccer (football) [World Cup] game across the tops of the heads of all the drunk people...looking like a creepy guy. Think Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men...

So, we walk up to him and ask him what he was doing (and then he tells us about being there for Blare and watching the game - also, he doesn't drink).
Then the conversation goes something like "I'm gonna be honest with you. Some straight-up Twitter honesty. You're standing over here looking like a serial killer and it's kinda creepy".

We go on to tell him that he should mingle, and have a good time, maybe get closer to the TV. Maybe talk to some of the liquor lubricated Twitter ladies. He took it well and went off into the crowd. After that he seemed to have a good time, and even went to the second night's event which he hadn't planned to do.

Around 12:30-ish we skipped out to go to try to find something to eat. When Skittles (@ClubNette) asked if she could come along, the answer was a resounding yes.

We have been following Skittles on Twitter for years now, and her us. She writes poetic and intriguing Tweets and when we tried to get her to come to London last year, promising to hide under tables and drink vodka and eat Skittles with her, she passed. But this year...this year she collected all of her braveness and as soon as she walked into the bar, we screamed her name and enveloped her in a giant hug. It was like insta-friends.
(As a side note, her nickname officially became "Skittles" at the Toronto Tweetup, thanks to James and us)

So we grabbed Skittles and @Sythesised, who we met at the London Tweetup last year, and have become very friendly with, and went off to do our own stuff. We wandered around a bit in Old Toronto, breifly played in a fountain, got lost, made jokes, had a lot of laughs, found some food and got to know each other.

The following day we took Skittles and James to St. Lawrence Market (we'd been to Toronto about five years prior and became familiar with the awesomeness that is the market) where the lot of us wandered around, looking at food, mesmerized, drinking delicious Italian coffee. James bought a bit of obscenely expensive unpasteurized cheese (because unpasteurized cheese is not available in the states), and we bought a raisin butter tart so James could sample the greatness that is a butter tart...and then the food mecca was discovered.

Bacon!
For $8 you can get thick fresh sliced bacon (your choice of from which part of the pig) on a perfectly moist roll. It was nearly a religious experience.

Bacon selection at Carnicero's in the St. Lawrence Market

After that we met up with the Tweetup at a sports bar downtown. We didn't stay long...because of the awkwardness, but did get to meet and have a chat with @stranded_in_to and @MrsStranded. A very lovely couple.

The plan was to go to the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, so off we headed. All in all, from the Market to the museum, it was a two and a half mile walk. It seemed like forever. And then the museum was closed. The disappointment was brief, as they appeared to be setting up for an event, and one of the men there invited us to come back later that night for an opening of Over The Rainbow: Seduction and Identity, which was featuring late hours, staying open until 1am.

So we headed back to get ready to go out for the night. A few stops in shops on the way, a designer label consignment shop, and a store dedicated solely to socks.

We took a side street after seeing some graffiti and stumbled upon an entire alley full of graffiti artists working on a project for the North by Northeast art project. Score. It was some of the best graffiti art you could hope to see, the alley smelled of fresh spray paint, and it was full of shirtless artists. 

Finally, about half way back, we boarded a trolley, and right at the stop we got off at was this amazing place called Craft Dogs, which makes handmade small-batch wieners with awesome seasonal and fresh ingredients. Who can pass that up?! If you go to Toronto, you have to try their wieners.

It was a nearly perfect day.

The Mennonite Smokey
(pork shoulder, cheese curds, apples and sage)
fancy mustard, smoked tomato ketchup, spicy corn relish, kraut

Later we headed off towards the Tweetup venue with Skittles on the trolley, and James stayed on and went to a rugby game that was taking place in the city. We ended up missing our stop, and had to backtrack, which was the whole point of taking the trolley...to get to the venue quickly. Fail. At this point it would have been quicker to walk. We got a half a block away and got intercepted by a cab going to a stand-up comedy Twitter event at
Theatre Passe Muraille, and they cajoled us (with lies) to squish into the back of the cab.

We got there...the awkward girls. Synthesised was nowhere to be found, so we stood around awkwardly, like awkward girls do. The people who had convinced us to get into the cab were off doing something, and the people we were left with...well...let's just say...not everybody on Twitter is as friendly or nice as they may portray themselves.

They weren't letting people into the venue site, so we kinda wandered a bit with Skittles, standing on the fringes...

It didn't take long to start conspiring. Peeing was something long overdue, and so the decision was made that when people started going into the theater, we'd run away to go find a bathroom and head back to hang out with all of the other people (who we had been mislead to believe would be where we currently were), which was just under a mile walk. So much walking!

Finally we go to the bar, stood in line and joined everybody. It was loud and hard to hear people talk unless you were just about sitting in their lap. We stayed probably an hour or so, James showed up and off we went, the same little group from the night before, to the gallery opening.

The art for the opening was from the collection of Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex, who have the second largest Andy Warhol collection, among other interesting and stunning works, like this one by Andy Fabo...

We got what amounted to an amazing personal "tour" from Brett Despotovich (hereby nicknamed Dapper Man by Skittles), Head of Gallery Operations and Visitor Services and artist (http://brett-despotovich.com/). Brett was very interesting and provided some interesting information on various pieces of art and portraits, including Richard Gere's penis.

We closed down the gallery, admiring the eclectic mix of pieces as we walked out, each getting a hug and kissed on both cheeks by Brett, and an invitation to come back the following morning.

Ever the adventurers, the group of us took a stroll through Trinity Park on Queen St, then stumbled through the alley from earlier in the day, emerging in front of Hero Certified Burgers. Certified, as in 100% Angus beef - hormone, antibiotic and gluten-free (of course, the buns aren't gluten free). Magical. This is another place you have to try if you make it to Toronto. 

We cabbed it the rest of the way back to the hotel, and everybody took out their respective contact lenses, put on comfortable clothes and then we sat around and talked until 4am.

The next morning we met in Synthesised's room for coffee and Bailey's and Mimosas, and then went back the the gallery for a talk by Andy Fabo...which we actually missed because of the drinking. The day slowly came to a close after lunch at a local pace called Eggsmart; Synth had to go pick up his daughter and Skittles had to catch a train at about 4pm.

The rest of the day was just us and James, wandering around down by the lake, then to the CN Tower, a nice dinner at Fionn MacCool's and then relaxed in the room and got ready for our 7am bus departure.

Despite the horrific experience getting to the Tweetup: an hour drive to the airport, flight cancellations which forced us to get to the airport over six hours early to try to get an earlier flight, delays involving sitting in a plane on the tarmac for an hour in Chicago, luggage that got sent on the wrong place, getting into the motel room after nearly fourteen hours of travel only to get four hours of sleep before getting on a bus for over three hours to get to Toronto, and then a mile walk to the hotel...it was totally worth it.

All in all the Tweetup was what we made it. It was a choose-your-own-adventure experience. Sometimes Tweetups are just a good excuse to travel, to have new experiences that have very little to do with Twitter, and forge great relationships with great people, even if it is a select few who understand what true awkwardness in social situations feels like...and everyone involved can appreciate the mutual awkwardness. 

And the best outcome? Skittles is coming to visit us in a couple of weeks! This adds the third person met from Twitter to be a house guest at Chez Frankie. She is included in a small group of people who we consider friends, many of who we have met at Tweetups, or through a stop on the way traveling to Tweetups. 

Not all Tweetups, or social events originating from social media, are going to be positive experiences. It's like life. Take the good parts and make something of it, and you'll find it's worth going out on a limb. You just might meet some fellow awkward adventurers.

The Adventurers <3

The Other Girl: A Travel Journal: Canada to Berlin

Yeah, this said something else until drunk us got our hands on it. We deleted it...so, you know, later sober us can just suck on a wine cork.

We were ill this morning/afternoon, but...well...Fuck Face gave us the drinking signal and even though it was a half hearted "Sure" (he ever said "That sounds like a pity agreement"

), we went out anyway, he Whatever. Who cares. owed us drinks from a couple of weeks ago anyway.

Here's a travel journal entry from The Other Girl...this is her week, or a couple of weeks, or whatever...

We're drunk. We're not gonna explain her...there is shit written all over the place here about the worthless cunt.

She, and most us, took a vacation with Significant Other (you haven't heard a lot about him...yet) back in October of 2009 for almost the entire month - hitting up places like Toronto, Germany, Amsterdam and Egypt...here is what SHE wrote about it; and thank god she did or we probably would have forgotten. If we didn't have this record all we would really remember is driving fast on the Autobahn and being sick to our stomach in Egypt from sadness and pollution (it's a poor, pollution ridden, mostly sad place...Cairo)...anyway...this is the first leg of the trip...

The only thing we did to change this was remove proper names...everything else is exactly intact and unedited...

--------------------------------------------

Original blog post date: 11.09.09

Toronto to Berlin, Germany: October 5 - 8, 2009

As most of you may know [Significant Other] and I started our adventure by heading to Toronto to visit his brother, we had a great time and wished we could have been there longer but made use of the time we had.

October 5th - Monday After we landed in Toronto we went to find some food and ended up at the La Petite Dejoune (spelling may be incorrect) where I had the best Belgian waffle ever, following that we heading to the art museum, which was closed because it was Monday, so we walked around Chinatown and Kensington (the hippie district) which was a lot of walking. For dinner I made "steamed" broccoli, pasta sauce and gnocchi, [Significant Other] made baked squash, we had an enjoyable evening with [Significant Other's Brother] as he had to work the next day.

October 6th - Tuesday [Significant Other] and I had the day to ourselves so we started off by going to St Lawrence Market, which I can only describe as amazing, if I lived in Toronto I would want to live near it so I could shop there everyday. They have stalls/shops with fresh fish, meats, cheeses, produce, baked goods, little restaurants/cafes...wonderful! My luggage (biggest suitcase) decided to break that morning (zippers both broke and ripped near the metal) so I had to buy a new case - went to Bently at Eaton Center. After dropping that off at [Significant Other's Brother]  apartment we walked to CN Tower but decided not to go up b/c I wanted to wait till we could do the stuff with [Significant Other's Brother]  so we walked to Little Italy b/c I wanted a pastry and [Significant Other] figured that would be the best place. Let me just say it was a lot of walking that day and we bussed it back from there to [Significant Other's Brothers]. That night [Significant Other's Brother]  took us to Copa Cabana, a Brazilian restaurant that is just amazing, waiters circulate with huge skewers of meat, at least 12 different kids, from chicken, to pork to beef... there was almost nothing they didn't have. [Significant Other] was really thrilled with the beef stuffed and oozing cheese, lol. My favourite things were deep fried bananas, and roasted pineapple ... and the corn bread muffins that rival my own, they were unbelievable. That pretty much concluded the day for us.

October 7th - Wednesday I made us breakfast and [Significant Other]and I went walking while [Significant Other's Brother]  had an appointment, we met up afterwards and went to Bonjour Brioche for lunch - another great meal! I had a Fig, Caramelized Onion and Gorgonzola Tart with a tasty green salad and chunk of baguette. It was great, though maybe a little to much Gorgonzola for a person who isn’t a huge blue cheese fan (me). We headed back to [Significant Other's Brothers] (after [Significant Other] and I went to exchange some CND for some € at €1.00 to about 1.66 CND - not very good - that’s about 626 € for 1000 CND) - we headed to the airport and the day proceeded - we flew out a little late b/c of some winds which caused a line up for flights b/c they all had to fly out the same direction....a little over 7 1/2 hours later we landed in Zurich to wait over 4 hours to the plane to Amsterdam.

- I know you all want me to get to the good stuff (i.e. EUROPE stuff) but my computer time is almost up, [Significant Other] is bored and drinking beers and we have to be up at 6:30 am to drive to Munich - about a 6 hours drive. It's about 9pm and I want to go find some strudel! 

October 8th - Thursday The flight to Zurich was extreemly tubulant, it felt like i was on a train for half the trip (and it was a bit scary!) I didn't sleep at all on the flight despite the fact that it was late...[a friend] was right, I was probably too excited. Flying into Zurich was amazingly beautiful...breathtaking...on my list of countries to visit if I ever travel to Europe again. So green and lush and spotted with little communities, I tried to spot the Alps but I don't know how close we were.

We arrived in Zurich at about 8:30 am EST (1:30 am CST) and grabbed a bit to eat. I had a lox (salmon) sandwhich with capers and red onion on Challah bread after searching all over for something with eggs. Even Burger King didn't have eggs for breakfast! (I know I was warned but it was hard for me to believe until I got here!) [Significant Other] had beer!

The wait for on our layover was tough b/c we were tired but didn't want to sleep for fear of missing our flight but on the 2 hour flight to Amsterdam I slept almost the entire way, much needed seeing as how we (I) still had to drive to locate our rental car company. I picked a location not at the airport for financial reasons and turns out it was a good idea b/c the traffic in Amsterdam is CRAZY! Bikes and buses and cars all jammed into the streets and it didn't seem like there was too much rhyme or reason to it all. It took us awhile to get from teh airport to the train station and being exhausted and edgy didn't help. Once we got out of the city it was smooth sailing...until we hit Hannover.

The Autobauhn is crazy, fun and suprisingly easy to be on with speeds ranging from 80km to 150km, I was passed once when I hit 160km. [Significant Other] slept a bit on the way which was good b/c my driving makes him nervous sometimes (I don't blame him). I know if he was driving I would have been scared too but luckily you have to be 25 to rent a car here...one more year to go! I may have been scared too if I knew my driver was going on an hour and a half of sleep in 30 hours and after 13-14 hours of traveling already. Luckily German roads are very well maintained and built (meanwhile the road systems and signage are wack...yes, I said wack, lol) The car I am driving, an Opel Corsa, handles really well but picks up speed slow, only goes to 200km, doesn't have exhaust (don't understand this) and seems to be choking us with gas fumes inside the car about 1/3'd of the time...we can even smell the windshield washer fluid very strongly when I wash the windows...I think 'Opel' means 'Ford' in German:P

We traveled about 400km that night and ate up about 3/4 tank of gas....I have'nt worked out the milage yet but I think it's crap and at €1.30 liter (2.19 CND/liter or 7.20 USD/gal) a liter that wasn't good news.

We got lost for about two hours in Hannover trying to find our hotel in the dark ... the city was impossible (as you will hear is a running theme in our experiences) and reading my journal entry from that night I clearly did not understand that I was going to be in for more fun like that!

It was a stressful day altogether with minimal yelling and cussing by both, lol. Oh the fun that's been, but luckily [Significant Other] is the bestest boyfriend ever and is very forgiving.
-----------------------------
That was it for the first leg....apparently it was fun. There are not any good pictures from this portion...and those of us...well, you can't see us...so you're S.O.L...


We're done with this entry.  We'll talk to ya'll tomorrow.