We're getting married tomorrow!

We're homeowners!

After a week of running around with our heads cut off, we are finally homeowners. We officially received the call at 3:30 today from our lawyer telling us that the house had closed. I would have normally been more excited but I had so many things going through my mind at that moment it was just another item that could be checked off the to do list. I was in a Grand and Toy at that moment actually buying a new folder to hold all of my papers so I could organize myself. We spent last night doing our pre delivery inspection which I have to say after a long day's work, doing an inspection is not on the top of my wish list. So I went through pretty fast. It still look over 2 hours though.

Today we picked out our wedding bands and some more boxes from my office so that I could finish packing. We attempted to choose curtains at Sears but as soon as we walked in, we were overcome with extreme exhaustion and walked out after about half an hour.

Its definitely an exciting time but man, I am soooooooo tired...

Happy Birthday Mom and Charlotte!

Today we celebrated both my mom's and Charlotte's birthday's at my brother's house in Scarborough. It was also going to be the big "first" meeting of Gerwyn's mom and my family and I'm happy to report that everything went very well. Gerwyn's mom got to meet and chat with almost everyone and Char impressed us all with her icing scraping and licking skills as you can see by the lovely photo above. Carol made her an Elmo cake and used the brightest red dye possible (I think it was a whole bottle's worth,) and so Char's lips ended up looking very luscious afterwards. Luckily we stopped her before she got any on her pretty dress. As per our usual family parties, G's mom got to watch (and participate) in our pigging out and then my uncle passed out on the floor, this time joined by David. Like father, like son. Another fun family party with a special guest. We look forward to welcoming both G and his mom to many more family gatherings in the future.

Dinner at Sarah's

After recovering from the previous night's festivities, I headed to my friend Sarah's house for a highschool reunion with our friend Cybele who was in town from Germany. Sarah made a lovely dinner of roast chicken and vegetables and we also pigged out on Sandra's baklava that she brought from one of my fav Lebanese bakeries. It's been so long since we all caught up and it was great to have Cybele back. Later in the evening Dora joined us and it was just like highschool again. We were just missing the cards so we could play Scum. (I think I was always the Scum.) I'm glad that Cybele chose this particular time for a visit home since now she will be able to come to my wedding. Woo hoo!

Staggette Part 2

After a very filling and very inebriating dinner, the girls all piled into the car and headed to Staggette Central, aka: the time honoured tradition of the Strip Club. This one was called Klub Kave and was recommended to us by Saadia's husband who writes about new clubs opening in the city for the Star. I was hoping to get off easy with just dinner, but my bridesmaids wouldn't let me off without a little retribution for their own parties and so I was dragged up on stage, experienced my first "lap dance" and "hand fed" a very interesting shooter by a scantily clad waiter wearing only a bowtie. Although we weren't allowed to take any photos, Hanna managed to sneak one in and as you can see by the photo, I am desperately trying to distract myself with my $5 bill (I folded it over and over again, if only I knew origami!) while waiting to be "violated" by "Black Magic". All in all, it wasn't THAT bad, once the guys saw me cover my eyes and coil in fear, they usually took it pretty easy on me. Even my lap dance (which was also performed by Black Magic,) was pretty tame. A few slaps of his ass (which was rock hard by the way, Sally was trying to hand me a quarter so I could bounce it off his butt,) and a little gyrating, it was over and I was left relatively unscathed.

We ended the evening just after midnight, which sounds like it was early but I wanted to get out of there before the boys got too aggressive and after all those drinks, I was ready to pass out. Unfortunately by the time I got home, there was no way I could lie down and spent the majority of the night sleeping upright on my couch. (I woke up at 3 am to move to my bed in my famous "pillow stack" position. One which my old roommate Saadia is very familiar with - she often saw me sleeping like that after a night out. You stack the pillows up on top of each other so that you are essentially sleeping in a sitting position and as you progressively feel less drunk, you remove a pillow one at a time until you are fully horizontal and can finally sleep in peace. That happened at about 8am.)

Thankfully no portion of the night was spent on the bathroom floor. Unfortunately I couldn't say the same for Gary. Per the photo above, you can see how I found him the next morning. Guess I wasn't the only one who had had too much.

It was a hilarious (once in a lifetime thank God,) night out and the perfect ending to my staggette. Now I'm ready to move onto the main event... the wedding!!

Staggette Part 1

Last night my bridesmaids threw me an amazing staggette. The night started with dinner and games at Bar Italia. After some "tough talk" by Sally, we ended up in their private room on the second floor and got started on a couple of games, the "penis ring toss" which Carol won and the "nude portrait" which Hanna won due to her very detailed, medically correct drawing. Somehow I ended up with one (or 5 ) too many shooters and by the end of dinner, I could barely make it out of there. I tried to convince our cute waiter to make the drinks weaker but apparently he didn't go for it since I was totally hammered by the end of the night.

Although I had picked out a special "staggette" outfit including sequin leggings, the girls insisted on a few improvements and added a blinking tiara, sash and dangly penis boa. What's a staggette without a few penises right? We also enjoyed the presence of "Gorgeous Gary", our anatomically correct latex blow up doll. Just like my shower, it was so different to be on the "other side" of the event. It was so much fun to celebrate with all of my best friends and family (but a little embarrassing for them to watch me in my downward spiral to Drunktown.) Thanks to my bridesmaids for throwing me the perfect staggette and to everyone who came out and made my evening so special.

Vitamins

I have never been a big fan of vitamins. There is something about them that seems so unnatural. When I was young I remember watching an episode of the Flintstones where Fred travels to the future (I think this was when they introduced the Jetsons) and he orders a meal in a restaurant only to find that a tiny pill arrives on a plate. Ever since then, seeing a vitamin, reminds me of this. A time in our future when our meals will become tiny pills to be swallowed whole. It just doesn't seem right. Food was meant to be enjoyed and you're supposed to be able to get all the vitamins you need from it. Not to mention that vitamins are better absorbed through food vs small concentrated pills. But I guess with pesticides, factory farming and mass production, our food has become less nutritious and the most important part of it (the vitamins) get depleted. And so, when I went to my doctor's appt today, I was not surprised when he said, "you need vitamins!".

So today I finally bit the bullet and purchased 3 bottles of Calcium, Vitamin D and Folic Acid. I took my first dose today, (I specifically requested small or chewable pills since I just can't seem to swallow the big horse pills that are the norm,) and as I suspected, it was rather unpleasant.

We'll see how long I can keep up with this new routine. I'm still not 100% sold on this whole "Vitamin" thing...

Packing!

The time has finally come, I've bitten the bullet and started packing. Its been very sad and I hate coming home and seeing boxes everywhere but its something that has to be done. (Only 2 weeks left!) With the help of a few friends, I've gotten my packing face on and have accumulated a nice pile of boxes in my front foyer. Seeing all these boxes around me makes me feel like I am at an "inbetween" stage in my life. I feel like I don't have a "home" anymore and I think this was part of the reason I've put it off for so long. Slowly, this place that has been so cozy and comforting for the last 5 years is being emptied and becoming vacant. Although I am very much looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life, I will probably spend the next 2 weeks saying goodbye and mourning the end of this chapter.

Scrapbook!

Saturday I had the pleasure of going to a bridal shower thrown for me by my lovely bridesmaids. We played games, ate treats and had lots of laughs, it was everything a shower should be. And no spending hours watching me open presents, woo hoo! I've attached a few photos of the scrapbook so that my family who couldn't be there can see how it looked, Sally did a beautiful job. Thank you so much to my amazing bridesmaids and also a special thank you to my friend Kim who came all the way from Burford just to spend a couple of hours at my shower. Yet again, I am reminded how very blessed I am to have such wonderful friends.

Boo!

When I was in university, our friend Adrian always threw a Hallowe'en party at his mom's house. I think I only went to two of them but they were always packed with people and lots of fun and games. This year Age decided to throw another party at his own new townhouse (well, new to me anyway.) For some reason I expected to see all the same people from his old parties but to my suprise I barely knew anyone! (I guess my mind is still in university.) It was interesting to see the contrast actually, there was a ton of fancy food that people had brought (instead of just "chips and pizza") and Age even had real games prepared! (See "halloween pictionary" above.) It really was an "adult" party. The final tip was when people had to leave to take care of kids or get up early the next day. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised, it has been over 15 years since university. I guess the last time I was at one of Age's parties, I WAS in university so the contrast was interesting to say the least. However it was still a ton of fun, and nice to catch up with some friends you don't see very often and I'm pretty sure this time, there was no broken glass or destroyed furniture to clean up.