Wee bit o' Irish in town

Just when I think life is a bit ho-hum, I need not look further than the local transporation system for amusement and reminder of St. Patrick's Day.

I almost forgot it about this holiday until I happened to be at St. Patrick's station. Actually, the station name wasn't what triggered the holiday. On the subway platform was a guy holding two placards and a plastic bag. One of the signs read 'Bad Cop, No Donuts'. "I thought that was kinda funny," he bragged a thick Irish accent akin to Brad Pitt's in Snatch. The elderly lady standing on the subway platform listened politely. The guy asked if she knew where the protest was being held. He went on about how he was badly mistreated by cops and wanted to join the protest. "They had a boot on the back of my head," he recalled. He muttered more details, but I couldn't quite understand him.

"I'm from Ireland and I thought I would stop by St. Patrick Station since it was St. Patrick's Day," he explained to the elderly woman. The woman, who happened to be visiting from out-of-town, apologetically said she didn't know where the rally was and suggested maybe she knew where it was (as I happened to be standing beside her at that point). I hemmed and hawed, not sure what to say. After the affable Irish guy figured he couldn't pump any useful information from us, he said "God bless, lassie," and headed up out of the subway station to search for the rally somewhere in Toronto.

surprise gift

Today, I got a gift delivered from a friend of a friend. It was inside a shoebox. And it was rather light. So when I finally opened the tightly taped box, inside, to my surprise, I found this ...



Funny thing is I remember telling my sister, who is also a good friend of this person who sent this gift to me, that I didn't really want to knit because it would reinforce the librarian stereotype!

I'm grateful for the gift and may try knitting again. Haven't picked up knitting needles since I was a kid. Should be interesting. Not sure what the first attempt/project will be. Perhaps a scarf would be a safe endeavour.

Christmas shopping frenzy

It's been nine weeks since scissors have touched my hair. So, I found a *somewhat* reasonable hair salon nearby. It was a bit higher end then my usual beauty salon I frequent. In less than a minute, the hairstylist had sized up the characteristics of my insane hair type. Very impressive. She was very quick! I think it was worth it, in the end.

Afterwards, I dropped by Indigo (as it was just a few steps away) to browse books, but then decided to leave promptly when I saw hoards of people lining up at all the cashiers. Christmas is quickly approaching and the weather here is quite mild ... thankfully I'm pretty much done.

I'm even done Christmas cards too, much to my surprise. Usually cards are slashed to 50 per cent on boxing day. This year, I noticed stores are actually discounting the cards before the season (much smarter, so people will actually buy more ...)