And I'm proud to be an American!!

I think I sang that song about 53 times yesterday as we were driving back from Toronto. Don't get me wrong, I had fun doing the normal touristy stuff that we all love so much, however I have compiled a list of the top 5 annoying things about Canada that may make you rethink visiting...

1. Prices.

Despite the exchange rate being almost the same in both countries, the prices were OUTRAGEOUS. Just to take the elevator to the top of the CN tower cost 27 bucks a pop. 27 bucks to ride an elevator and look out a window while being over crowded by hundreds of people that didn't speak English. Another outrageous expense... booze. Thank goodness we didn't go out to drink at all, because a miller lite draft cost 6 bucks. SIX!! And after driving around the ghetto for I kid you not, an hour and a half to find a liquor store that was 5 minutes from where we were staying, the cheapest bottle of vodka we could find cost 25 bucks. That exact same bottle here cost $11.99. I looked it up. That's more than double the cost!!  We tried to eat at Denny's thinking it'd be less expensive...oh no my friends, nothing on that menu was under 10 bucks. FOR DENNY'S! You'd think we were sipping Patron and Grey Goose and eating filet all weekend if you checked our bank accounts post trip.

2. People.

And people think Americans are rude. It's not like we had on Hawaiian shirts, tube socks, and fanny packs. We looked just like everyone else (not that it should matter anyways). No one supposedly knew where anything was when we'd ask. People let doors slam in our faces. No one was friendly despite how friendly we were. I asked a man in a store how to get to a street that was about a block away and he wouldn't even look at me. The whole country was like that. Even the lady that ran the bed and breakfast knocked on our door Monday morning and said, "You leave at noon." We explained we were originally told we could stay until two. And she was like "No we have people coming at noon, you leave now." Nice.

3. No one tells you how different things are.

You think Canada is a mini America. Wrong. Half the country is Asian. Half the country doesn't speak English. (good thing I know un petit peu Francais) They do things way differently there. Even driving on the QEW (their interstate) was different. Everyone drives like 80 in the slow lanes. Stores close at 7 even on a Saturday. And the liquor store is called the LCB (liquor control board) The selection is just as bad as the prices and the stores are few and far between. Little things like that that someone might not think about before visiting. Take into consideration.

4. Public Transportation.

No map is going to help you with this one. There are THOUSANDS of buses and no one helps you figure out which one to take. We tried one time to take a bus to the CN tower (after reading the bus line for like 10 minutes we swore we had it figured out) and while we were waiting some guy heard us talking and said, "That's not going to take you to the CN tower, you should walk instead." The CN tower was miles and miles away and it was raining. Needless to say we didn't make it there that day. Half the subway line was down for construction. And the taxi's were way too expensive. So we walked everywhere. I mean all over the city....because there's no parking anywhere either.

5. THE METRIC SYSTEM.

This one is more America's fault. Why are we pretty much the only place that doesn't use it?! Because let me tell you, when someone says, "Oh yeah that place is about 6.27 kilometers away." You might as well be telling me it's 100 miles away. I can't tell the difference. When I see that the speed limit is 100 kph, I'm thinking, isn't that a little excessive? ...not when it translates to about only 65 mph. When you tell me it's 15 degrees out, I'm going to bust out my Northface while everyone else is wearing flip flops. I see that gas is 1.83 bucks a gallon, AWESOME. Except it's per liter. Ahh what does it all mean?!


Despite all the headaches, frustrations, and confusions, we did still have a good time. Also, I need to make it clear that I'm comparing an international city to Pittsburgh. We all complain that gas is too much and parking's crazy expensive. Trust me people it could be way worse. I'm definitely glad to be home.

Both pics from the CN tower

Favorite part of the trip. And you can see America from here!

News and Junk :)

I will officially be transitioning from my administrative assistant job to an HR specialist position in a few weeks! I'm so excited, hoping I'll finally get some respect at my job, but I'm also really nervous. I will have a ton of new responsibilities that I'm totally unfamiliar with. I will be responsible for hiring and firing and interviewing people. Security guards to be exact. And as my friends have told me, I'm not the least bit intimidating.

I may have an attitude on me, but apparently I couldn't scare an ant if I tried.

Which brings me to my fiasco of a day yesterday that I will now recap. Ants. and Cars. And sleep deprivation.

1. Ants: So I come home Sunday morning to find a stray ant or two in my kitchen. Okay, no biggie, I'll kill them and move on with my day. Monday; more ants. Still not that many, but they're still hanging around. So I kill what I see and buy some ant gel that's like poisonous bait that the ants will eat and then take back to their ant relatives. Tuesday; ants are still there. Um excuse me, this ant gel is supposed to work within 24 hours. Rude. So I go back to the store and buy ant traps, confident that these suckers will work. Yesterday; I come up the stairs from the basement holding S while she's screaming her head off due to a combo of teething and hunger and what do I find? Those little a-holes are ALL over the place. Apparently instead of the ant gel and bait killing everyone, they've multiplied to like 30. And they're covering my cabinets, on my counter tops, on my Gram's old desk that I use for storage in my kitchen...everywhere. So S wants down, I'm obviously not going to let her get attacked by them so I take us all upstairs. I frantically call everyone in my phone about what to do. My landlord isn't answering (surprise), my mom doesn't really care, A doesn't answer either. I'm like eff. What am I supposed to do about this. Meanwhile S is still screaming, and I'm freaking out. To make a long story short, my mom finally came over to take care of S while I sprayed the whole kitchen with this poison free ant killer, and my landlord FINALLY called me back to let me know a pest control guy was coming this morning to spray the place (which he did thank heavens) So we'll see how bad it is when I get home.

2. Cars: Well my car actually, I only own one. And I don't really even own it. I digress. Anyway, it needed to be inspected. It didn't pass (again, surprise.) I find out it needs like a grand of work which the dealership informs me that my car isn't even worth that much for a trade in. (which I'm skeptical about because I Kelly blue booked it and even in the condition it's in is supposedly worth 3 grand) So I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to either pay for the repairs or buy a new car...I can't afford to do either at this point. Fantastic.

3. Lack of Sleep: this one made my day yesterday a whole lot worse than it needed to be. Everything always sucks more when you're tired. For some reason, S thought it would be a wonderful idea to wake up for the day at 4am. I however, disagreed with that decision and tried to get her to go back to sleep until 6:30 when she finally did. Great right? I wake up for work at 7. F.

BUT all of that is fine now (not really) because I slept great, got my house de-anted, and took this new job.

And I will be in Toronto in roughly 48 hours. So if anyone actually reads this blog and has some inexpensive/fun ideas of stuff to do while we're there, feel free to comment :)

It's been about a century. I know...

Holy cow has my life been busy. Let's see, there were about 45 holidays since the last time I posted. 

Including this one...

 And this one.

 

And this one.

 

Oh wait, that's just S being a diva. That's not a holiday...that's everyday. Godloveher.

Aaaanyways. Not much has changed since the last time we chatted. Still separated from A, still working at the same place, and living in the same place. However, I am moving back (I hate that part...back) to my mom's apartment building (not the same apartment, thank goodness!) because my slum lord, I mean landlord REFUSES to fix anything; including replacing all the windows that aren't properly sealed, don't have screens, and don't even open, fixing the leak in my basement/garage when it rains, he refuses to repaint although the place desperately needs it (because it hadn't been repainted before I moved in) and now I have an ant problem in my kitchen. So my new rent will be higher, but at least I'll know that the maintenance people will take care of business LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DO. I'm sorry but if you can't handle repairs to your property, then maybe you shouldn't own property and rent it to other people. He literally told me that he'd rather buy his daughter a swing set than spend that money giving me working windows. COME ON!

So besides moving in a few months, I'm desperately trying to figure out a way to get some new furniture that won't cost me an arm and a leg. All I've got right now is Pinterest telling me 50 different ways to makeover the stuff I already have. And you know what, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. One of these days I'm going to start putting tutorials up here of some of my craft projects.

Like these bad boys.

And anything else you want me to talk about...you just let me know ;)

Steph and Will's Wedding Video Blog

These lovely (and not embarrassing whatsoever) videos are from my friend Steph's wedding this weekend.

Featuring myself and miss Katie Kelly.

Please, feel free and have a laugh at our drunken expense :)

Disgruntled postal workers are well, disgruntled.

So due to my recent break up, my mom suggested we take a fabulous trip to the beach with my daughter for a little getaway. Great idea, mom!

What do I need to pack, hmm let's see, clothes, baby stuff, bathing suits, shoes...

Wait...bathing suits? Hold the phone. Do we realize I had a baby 11 months ago? I've only been to the pool twice this summer so squeezing my now completely different shaped bod into one of my old suits sufficed for the short time I had to be seen in public. But now I'm single. And going to the beach. Eff.

What does this have to do with the post office? I'm getting there.

Let's talk about my boobs real quick.

I used to have cute little perky boobs that fit nicely into those little skimpy string bikinis. My now post-baby, saggy, whole cup size bigger boobs are saying "uh uh sister, not in this lifetime" to my old bathing suit tops as they spill out all over the place. Not to mention my daughter could easily pull me right out of my top if I'm not glued into it.

So this brings me to finding a new bathing suit suitable for the beach and potential sexy men that meander said beach. Ok cool, I'll just go to the mall for something cute that's not in the shape of a triangle. But wait, it's September. Do you know how impossible it is to find a bathing suit right now? All that's left are size XXXS in all unmatching patterns.

Crap.

Ok cool, I'll just go online and buy one from Victoria's Secret. I find a cute one, lots of underwire, perfect. I order it, it comes early! I try it on...it's too big?! What? Of course that's what happens when you order something you can't try on.

And so here we are at the post office...

I box up my bathing suit that I have to ship back because for some reason the store won't take it. I go over to the post office on my lunch break and wait in line FOREVER because the 2 ladies working are busy chatting it up with the customers in line ahead of me, like no one else is there, WAITING or anything. I finally get to this postal worker with long grey hair that clearly doesn't want to be at work. Join the club lady. Anyways, I wanted to make sure I didn't have to pay for postage and whatnot and before I could even ask the question, she takes one look at the label I stuck on the box (that VS sent me in case I had to return) and says, "Shame on you, this goes to UPS." Actually she yells at me, like scolding me in front of all the other customers. So I'm totally embarassed at this point because I've never sent something back and how dare I take it to the wrong place.

Rude. (my mom said it's a good thing she didn't have a gun on her, because disgruntled postal workers are likely to do anything.)

I walked down to UPS (thankfully there was one nearby) and they VERY NICELY took my package, told me it was fine, and gave me a recepit.

I know who I will be mailing my stuff through from now on thank you very much.

It's official!!

http://aiminglow.com/2011/08/aiming-low-mailbag-ikea-store-of-comfort-confrontation/

Amen Sister.