Christmas with the Stanleys

The lovely Stanley sisters newish apartment on Queen.

loved the tree

Party people

Alex and Aidan

roaring fire!

I love fireplace TV! I was mesmerized like a baby.

Fernanda!

two of my oldest friends in Toronto.

So festive

all us girls!

The girls' place is above a hardware store and we took full advantage by dancing up a storm.

LSATs Take That

Yesterday, after three or four months of prepping I took the LSATs for the first and hopefully last time. I wish that I could have taken pictures at the test, they were very strict about cell phones in the test room. But if I had been able to I would have gotten some good ones. Like the brown haired girl who took the exam in her tube top. I'll just say that I wore gloves and my hood for the first two sections of the test. Also there were lots of prom curls, which i found odd at 8 am. Neurotic kids with fifteen pencils, that sort of thing. Anyway, so glad the test is over and so last night Sharif and I went out to celebrate.

First stop the Burger Bar to watch the Leafs get annihilated.

They have spiked milkshakes on the menu, how great is that.

The most massive brownie ever. From there we went to The Abbey to sit on Lauren's bar for a while.

Lauren in her sexi new ski jacket. Thanks Marsha

Sharif and me

just dance

The Abbey's disco cover band. Yes Sir I can boogie

We all parted ways after this. And I proceeded to leave all my important cards behind. Thankfully I got them back this morning. Otherwise LSAT celebrating would definitely have been a bigger bummer than the LSATs themselves.

How to Look Good Naked 3

Thursday I went to my third shoot for HTLGN - Canada. It has been awesome doing more television this fall. And it's fun, because I have always liked the British version of this show and it is neat getting to experience the Canadian show first hand.

Look how tan I am compared to all of those girls, geez get some sun ladies. This was my first time doing a line-up segment. And let me tell you that it was definitely a little challenging. We basically stand around, pretty much without moving for almost an hour while Zane and the young lady featured talk about us in our underpants!

From my perspective

This was my second time working with Zane; he's the presenter. Zane was also there the day we shot the opening. It was nice to actually get to see him interact with the featured girl. And he's been doing these now for a few months so he was totally comfortable with what they were shooting. I thought he seemed relaxed and supportive and very patient. I think it is going to be a good show.

Patrick my favourite PA.

Love is a verb - what a line, eh?

It's Christmas Time in the City - "The City"

11:15pm departure from TO

Got into NYC at 11 am which was two hours late. But no big deal, cause i had an appointment at the Indian Consulate which wasn't till 2:20. But I had hoped to get to Robert Miller to see Paul before the gallery opened. Instead I met up with Virginia. We went to the ICP to take a look at their latest show. The image below is by Mickalene Thomas.

Isn't that awesome. By far one of my favourite images. Virginia suggested that we be sneaky and leave my bag in the coat check, genius. From there we went to the Morgan Library, which i had never been to. And never would have even thought to visit. But it was amazing. We couldn't stay long because I had to get to the Consulate. Virginia walked me up. Compared to the ordeal at the consulate in Toronto, (I had to fight back tears, and was an hour and a half late for work,) the NYC version was painless. I walked from the Consulate to Robert Miller Gallery, to see Paul and the current show. I'm glad i did cause it turned out to be the only time I got to see Paul during my whole trip.

Before heading out to CT for the holiday, I went for dinner at Celsius. Every year at Bryant Park they put in a temporary ice skating rink and accompanying bar and restaurant. This year it's the Canadian run Celsius. Both Joe and Jeff are working there this Christmas. The mac and cheese was really good, and the place is pretty impressive considering it is fully functioning and was built in two weeks or something nuts like that!

The view of the skating rink from the top floor of Celsius.

Heading back to NYC from Stamford a few days later.

Grand Central

Grand Central from Lexington

You can always spot a Mies

Heading back uptown to get my passport and Indian Visa

Yeah!!!!

Can't get over Grand Central. My grandfather used to work on top of it in the Met Life Building

Saks Fifth Avenue, all dolled up for Christmas. Surprisingly the crowd was pretty thin for Black Friday

One of the windows at Saks

Macy's at 34th

O hello there Santa. For Christmas I would like; a near perfect LSAT score, to have my debt wiped out, and the Olympic Sweater from the Bay, you know the one that The HBC stole the design from the Cowichan for -that one.

After wandering around the City for a while I went to meet Shawnte and Leslie at 77 Warren, Sean Avery's new downtown sports bar. I got there before the other girls and was not disappointed. I asked one of the bartenders if they had the Leaf's game on, and they sat me in my own booth, with my own TV, and put the game on for me. Guess nobody else wants to watch the Leaf's hey?

Leslie, Shawnte and me

They give you a vintage hockey postcard with your bill. And they have Canadian on tap.

Shawnte is sportin' the TD. ANd she's got fierce nails too. We went our separate ways for the night, but Shawnte and I made plans to go to a show the following day.

I got up early and went to wait on line in T Square to get Joe, Shawnte and I tickets to RAGTIME!!!! We probably should have seen something I haven't seen a million times (cough cough, Next to Normal) but I couldn't help it. Ragtime is my favourite. And it was unreal. I started crying during the opening number. And pretty much didn't stop.

Virginia's favourite burrito place. Got to love that. Two of my favourite icons

We went to some place called Posh. Not sure how the black light fits the name but it was fun.

My New York posse - minus Paul :(

My sweater looked pretty awesome in the black light

bathroom hooker

Joe and I had a late one. I almost did karaoke. Thankfully we called it a night before I got that far. Fast Car might have been a downer

More Toronto influence in NYC. I was supposed to be on the 11:45am bus from Port Authority to Toronto. But there were so many people that I didn't end up on a bus until 2:30. It was the ride from hell - traffic, crowds, a disgruntled bus driver, near mutiny and several wrong turns, and we weren't even in Syracuse yet. We were supposed to be getting a direct bus to Buffalo, a local but direct none the less. Instead we got deposited in Syracuse for a 3 1/2 hour wait. I had to wait again in Buffalo for the Toronto transfer. I think I got home around 6:30 am. Slept for two hours and got up for work. But it was worth it.

The outdoor atrium at the Fort Erie border crossing. It was sort of beautiful. But maybe that was just the elation of being almost home.

Jim Croce - Operator

I would always jam out to this song when it used to come on KOIT 96.5 back in the day. Yea I loved lite rock with less talk, and proud of it! And then there it was, playing, while I was distracting myself with studying and cleaning. Sometimes a song just says everything, you know?