Listening to:

Monday, I had lunch with Lara behind Roy Thompson Hall. Tuesday, I skipped lunch to wander around near the Eaton Centre, then went to Jessa's for dinner (and to have her cater to my new obsession by letting me watch tapes of Season One). And can I just tell you one thing about Jessa's mum? She is the best. cook. ever. And I don't know how she does it, because she never does anything really complicated, and yet she manages to make everything seem so fancy and rich and delicious. I thought maybe she just liked to play down the complexities of her cooking, but now I think it might just be that everything tastes wonderful in their house because I like Jessa and her mum so much. Anyway, Wednesday, Lara and I met after work then drove to the gorcer's for food to bring to a makeshift picnic at a Shakespeare in the park thing we were going to with Cait. When we got there, though, we realized it was a really small event, so the actors would have been distracted and annoyed if we talked or ate during their performance. Instead, we opted to have a picnic outside the staging area, along Philosopher's Walk behind the Royal Ontario Museum (seriously, how metropolitan are we? we are so cool). After a lengthy and yummy picnic, we drove around town searching for an LCBO, found one and bought out their beer section and their vodka, then went to Caity's to watch silly old Queer As Folk. And today, how unexpected! I met with Lara for subs at King and John. Oh, what an exciting life I lead. Culture! Fine dining! Silly television shows! How fabulous!

Actually, now that I've written it all out, I realise that all I've really been doing is eating out. No real culture, just a lot of food. Huh. Well, whatever. It's been a delicious week.

Just a little note late in the day: the gossip around the office today (well, not really gossip, the small talk) is about the SARS concert, most specifically the fact that before Justin Timberlake's set, people threw water bottles on stage and booed him. Which, hey, makes sense to me. The people who attended were there to see The Guess Who, The Stones, etc, and Justin Timberlake really didn't fit into the feel of the rest of the performers. On the other hand, I can see how he couldn't not do it, since he'd be in Toronto anyway since his Justified tour (don't I feel dumb for knowing the name of his tour) stops here tonight (i.e. the day after the SARS concert), so if he didn't do it he'd be labeled uncaring and the like.

The interesting thing is (you knew I'd get to it eventually) that despite the excessive coverage the concert received, I could only find one passing reference to the incident that fueled the office's dirty minds all day. Here, they mention it, but then immediately reject it as a fluke. It makes me wonder if the newspaper's spin (while admittedly not impartial, like, duh) is a bit more pointed than usual in covering this story. It's like they want to present everything as absolutely sunshine and roses so that everyone would be like, "Oh, that Toronto, Canada, it's just so nice and polite, and clean" and blah blah blah. But really, we're just as violent and rude as anyone you meet on the street. It's like we're consciously trying to present ourselves as the stereotype of being orderly and respectful. I wonder if Switzerland tries as hard as us to make themselves seem impartial. Or if England goes out of it's way to seem stuffy. Or if the French get together once a year and decide whether everyone still thinks they're sexy and smoothe and just rude enough to make you think, "hey, is that guy in the stripey shirt coming on to me, or insulting me?"

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