TV Recap-Why am I Still Watching America's Next Top Model?

I watch way too much tv.

Currently on my roster is Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives, Americans Next Top Model, Glee, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Community, Grey's Anatomy, Survivor and Being Erica.
This year I have added the new Person of Interest show, Pan-Am, and possibly the new sit-com New Girl.

That is 14 hours (ish) of TV. Wow. That doesn't even count the shows I tune in to, but don't watch consistently.

 I don't let TV take over my life though, I watch most of them on CTV.ca or globaltv.ca, so I skip the commercials, and if I miss a bunch of episodes, I am ok with giving up a few shows. Normally I am about a week behind on TV watching.

That all being said, I may throw in some little TV recaps to this blog now that the new seasons have started.

First off, America's Next Top Model Ep 2. (Spoiler Alert)

I actually don't really like America's Next Top Model any more. I am kind of sick of Tyra, and some of the aspects of older seasons that I loved have disappeared. It use to be about amazing photo shoots, and runway lessons, and you know model stuff. Now I find that it has turned into America's Next Tyra Banks. Especially this season. But yet for some reason I still watch it.

They have brought back a bunch of "fan favorites" and are getting them to model/act/host/be famous. Some of them are pushing 30, which in the modelling world is old, so they aren't kick starting anyone's modelling career. Heck, most of them are already successful models because of their first time around on ANTM.

This episode was they got ty-overs, yes they were called ty-overs, and yes a little definition popped up and said Ty-overs: Tyra inspired Makeovers. Seriously, why am I still watching this show? So they all get their hair coloured/chopped/cut etc and of course people freak out...didn't they realize by signing up to do this again that they would be madeover, that is kinda  a highlight of ANTM.

Beyond all that, the thing that really irked me the most was that this branding expert comes in and gives all the girlies a word to be their brand. Some of the words were ok, like Candid, and Daring, whereas others didn't make any sense to the girl they matched up with. For example, there is one girl, Kayla, who is a lesbian, and really is proud of that and wants to be the first lesbian winner of ANTM. So the branding guy asked her what her word is and she said "LGBT" (that is 4 words, but I will let it slide) and the branding guys says "that was ground breaking 5 years ago, but it isn't really a big deal any more" How insulting on so many levels. So instead of giving her a good word, like umm I don't know PROUD, they give her Free. She didn't do well in the photo shoot (posing with Hot Dogs, seriously) because she was confused of the word. How does one be "free" while posing with a hot dog?

Side note they gave another girl proud and this was her photo was awefuuull. Take a looksie here to see them all. I totally agree with this recap/slideshow. Kayla almost went home this week because she didn't get her word, but only 2 of the girls actually posed like their word.

So overall, I am really only watching this season because some of the chickies I liked from previous seasons are back, however that last episode put a funny taste in my mouth, not just because they were posing with messy hotdogs. Perhaps ANTM is getting crossed from my list this year, we shall see!

Weekends

Weekends go by way too fast.

It's already Sunday...noooo!

This weekend was pretty good though. Started out a day early on Thursday night because I had an "Earned Day Off" on Friday. My company gets everyone to work an extra half hour every day so one Friday a month we get a day off to do errands, relax, get extra work done etc. Everyone loves the EDO.

On Thursday I got together with some people from work for our first Book Club meeting. It was nice to get together with other engineers in training outside of work. We are planning to meet every month and try a different restaurant every time. Good food and books, I love it already! We went to this great little cafe in Etobicoke called the Yellow Cup Cafe. Great food and fancy lattes, and a great atmosphere. Totally recommend it! For the bookclub we are reading Mister Pip. I misread the email and thought we were suppose to have the book done on Thursday, but then realized on Wednesday that it was only a kick off meeting. By this point I had most of the book done! Oh well way to be a keener.

After that I came home, went for a run/walk with Mike, then crashed asleep embarrassingly early. I started of Friday by watching some America's Next Top Model, this season is a all-star one and it is going to be epic. Then Mike and I went out to lunch at Khao San Road (Thai food, Spadina and Adelaide) to celebrate the EDO. While we were there, the people sitting beside us ordered too many appetizers and gave us one, for free! I felt kind of weird taking it but they insisted, and after I overheard them talking about their upcoming trip to St. Barts I didn't feel as bad.

After that we headed to Rogers because I needed a new cellphone. My contract was up and it was time to upgrade. I was thinking to get the phone I wanted (some sort of smart phone) it would cost me around $150. But because of a promotion going on, I got it for $0 dollars!!! Wooo free stuff! It is a Samsung Galaxy Captivate that is an android. Yes I just had to ask the BF what it was called. I just know that it is pretty and can surf the internet, and is faster than my netbook.

After a few more errands we came home and proceeded to watch 3 movies back to back on netflix. Super productive evening. Saturday we got up did some groceries/gymage and then went out to dinner for my Aunt's bday supper (The Big Slice, cheap but delicious Italian food, St. Clair and Dufferin) . After supper we stopped by their house and my aunt gave me a "hand me down" brand name purse....legit brand name....LV brand name. I was ecstatic. In return (really doesn't even come close to the value) I am doing some free babysitting this afternoon. After the dinner Mike and I came back to our apartment and helped some friends assemble Ikea furniture and drank some wine. It was a great evening.

I am thoroughly enjoying that when I come home from work I don't have to do anything extra. No homework, no extra-cirriculars, just what ever I want to do. So on Friday it was totally fine if I watched 3 movies, just because.  I think I am going to need a better hobby than that though. Mike is back to school now and his homework will be starting soon, so I am going to need to find a way to keep myself busy so I won't be a distraction to him. Perhaps I will take up drumming...just joking!!!

A blog post about blogs

First of all I realize it is really silly to have two blogs and only post once in a while in both. So after October 2nd (when the Totally Typical Weight Loss Challenge Round 2 ends) I will be combining my posts to this blog. I still will blog about fitness and good food, because that is a major part of my life, just simplifying my life a little, and the life of my 30ish readers :).
Second of all, on the above mentioned TTWLC site I am going to be posting some awesome recipes and food photos soon!!

In other blog news, the main reason why I can't get around to blogging more often is I am having major computer issues. My laptop died when I had one term of school left and I didn't feel like investing in a big laptop so I went cheap and got a netbook. It worked well until I did my senior project on it (last december) ever since it is slow and can be very fussy about the internet. This makes blogging/reading blogs/going on FB very frustrating. Today, knock on wood, it is being pretty good! 

So with all that being said, I thought it would be fun to do a quick review of some of the blogs I read (this is only the regular posters, I follow some more, but they seem to have disappeared. Sad face.)

Life Category:

Bower Power- Katie Bower writes hilarious posts about her son Will (sooo cute), home stuff, and life in general. This could also fit in the Home decor/DIY category. I found out about her blog from Young House Love..see below. 

Girl Meets Life- Gracie is a 20 something who moved to NYC. I like her blog because her situation is similar to mine, new big city! Her posts are mostly general life stuff, but I totally dig it.
Two Cups of Happy- I actually know this girly! She and I went to High School, and I totally used her "Blogs I follow" section to find some of my favs. J has good taste! She blogs about a great mixture of things, food, decor, fashion, life so it is always interesting to read!

Georgia's Trying Something New- I also kinda of know this chicky. She is dating one of my HS friends. I think her blog is hilarious and I like her fitness posts. She lost a whole bunch of weight since January and is pretty inspiring. 

Food Category:

Whit's Amuse Bouche- Not only is this blog hilarious it also features AMAZING FOOD!! I think her blog summary is the most humourous "Amuse Bouche is your one stop shop for all things food, wine and entertainment related. Unless you're Emily Post. Then, you'll probably be horrified." Bahaha!

Fitness/Healthy Food Category:

There a whole bunch of these and they all kind of blend together but individually amazing. 

Follow my Fitsteps- Natalie is a fitness instructor so she knows her stuff, she also posts great pictures of food for healthy meal ideas!

Hungry Healthy Hilary- Hilary is a Canadian (Ontarioian even) food blogger. Yay! Also writes about her fitness journey (she also lost a ton of weight and runs marathons now!) Lots of pictures for food ideas!

Real Food Katie's Way-Katie is another Canadian food/fitness blogger! Her husband (or BF I can't remember) doesn't eat a lot of healthy food so I enjoy her recipes that sneak in healthiness. 

Home Decor Category:

Young House Love- I have to say, they had me at hello. This blog is amazing, and so popular that Sherry and her husband John blog full time. Yep, it is that awesome. They do amazing and cheap and non-pretentious home decor/DIY projects. They also have an adorable baby. A must read!

Travel:
Coast to Coast: A Motorcycle Odyssey- No I am not secretly into motorcycles, but this blog is by my Step- Uncle (my grandfather remarried when I was nine, so I got a bunch of step uncles and step cousins through my step grandmother, who are all awesome!) He is traveling from Vancouver to Cape Cod, then on to Nova Scotia, the Gaspe and back across Canada, all by himself on his bike. He is also a really good writer, so this blog is like reading chapters of book!


Birtt in Gambia- Another actual friend of mine who has moved to GAMBIA for 5 months to basically teach environmental engineering. Super awesome. She is blogging about her time there, and just started so if you want a new blog to read, this would be a great one because there aren't a million posts to dig through (yet!)


And that is about it. I use google reader to collect all the recent blog posts, that I way I can skim through the new ones without going to all the individual websites. It also tells me when new stuff is posted!


Any recommendations for me to read!? Anyone else got a blog on the go that I should be reading!?

Adventures in the House of Commons

This past weekend I had to fly back to Halifax/Bathurst for a few reasons
1. To visit the famjam and the beach...I had this revelation halfway through the summer that I wasn't going to see the beach and this made me very sadface. So a plan was hatched. And it was good timing because...
2. I had to move my furniture out of my Halifax apartment and officially move out.

Some background about our lovely apartment. I have been on the lease for 3 years. When I first saw the place I fell in love with the bright sunny kitchen, and the old crown molding, the old school stain glass window going up the stairs. However, it was a student apartment, perpetually dirty, a little bit run down, and with a landlord who was hard to get a hold of but would show up out the blue to "check something out" without notice. Between co-ops and different roommates, 14 people have lived there in the past 3 years. It became a place where furniture came to die, mini fridges were collected, and random stuff appeared as people moved out.

Needless to say I was very happy that August 31st was my last day on the lease.

So since I could only get 2 days for vacation I had to wait until the 1st to move my furniture out. I emailed the new girls and asked  begged them to have some compassion for my situation and let me move out the first. One chicky..lets just say D... responded quickly and said sure no problem, as long as her one room was cleaned out it would be fine. Done and done. Got the subletters to take care of that...had all my ducks in a row.

So on the 1st Mike and I arrived early at the apartment, D's room was clean, the subletters had cleaned the place, and we were going to spend the day selling all of our stuff via kijiji and a "yard" sale in the kitchen. Well that was our plan. Only small issue was that the subletters had a problem with there new place and could only move out there stuff at 5:00pm, but it was all in the back bedroom away from the girls room.

Around 10:00 am, I meet D and her dad. They storm in, already cranky for who knows why, and the dad proceeds to freak out about how the cable box works and how he can connect his TV. After that ridiculousness I went into the kitchen with Mike, and we were in shock at how rude this man was. Next thing we know D has decided that even though her and her roommates have pre-chosen rooms, she is going to take the bigger room because "it just isn't fair for her to have the small room"...so glad I am not her roommates (this is the 1 story I am going to tell about D being a spoiled brat..that would be a whole other blog post). Then D and her dad disappeared to the car for about 30 minutes, he was ranting on the phone with someone. At some point D says to me "Oh don't worry about my Dad, he is always like this. He is a lawyer." Well I am an engineer but I don't go spouting equations out of my mouth all the time....anyhoo...

Next thing I know, my landlord who I loved and respected so much appeared and yelled at as politely told us  to dump everything on the lawn, even the subletters stuff. Lovely man. After telling him that we had made an arrangement with D he sure changed his tune. "Oh well then" he says "it is between you and them."

Next thing you know, we are in the porch of our apartment, me, the landlord, D's Dad (both who are like 6 ft tall next to my 5' 2") pretty much yelling at me because I haven't moved out.  Side note--we weren't in the way of her moving in at all. Once I mention that D and I have an arrangement via EMAIL (hard evidence, just sayin) that seemed to have cool the fire. Then the landlord mentioned something about compensation for the day's rent, and the dollar signs went of in Daddy's head. Suddenly here we were...new grads with like NO MONEY...possibly paying rich lawyer man, and his lovely daughter with the stolen room and the bedazzled blackberry.

He didn't ask for the money right then...and later in the day I think I hear his daughter trying to convince him to not take the money because I had been nice to her via e-mail answering questions about the apartment and whatnot..great I think, I am saved $50.

The day calmed down after that, but it was still tense in that little 3 bdrm. Finally as the day is drawing to an end...D comes in and asks for that all mighty $50.  I was soo mad...so so so so so mad. But what can I do, I am but a lowly child compared to Daddy. So I forced a smile on my face, handed the girl her money, and walked away.

I got kind of upset on the way home because I thought of what my dad would have done in the same situation...even if he was stressed, even if we having his worst days...he would have never taken the money. Never. I can't think of anyone who would.

After we arrived back at my boyfriend's families house and told them about my peachy keen day...I decided to google this man, just to see if he was a prominent lawyer. I knew what town he was from...lets just say a major city in the Maritimes, and I knew his last name, and I knew he was a lawyer. With those few key words suddenly his picture appeared. But instead of his scowl he wore all day in this picture he was smiling...he was smiling because it was his campaign picture for the 2011 election, in which he won the seat for his riding representing the Progressive Conservative party of Canada.

Thats right, this man was not only a lawyer...he was a freakin MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.

Icing on the cake.

It ruined my day, but even writing this blogpost, I am over it. More so like I am just retelling the story. I am not going to seek major retribution for this...considered writing a letter to the editor in the above mentioned place, but it so isn't worth my energy. I heard from my friends who live in this town that everyone already knows he is a jerk, and it was a big shock that he won the election. So it is not even a great news breaking story.

And because I have at least some compassion for people I have tried to keep this little rant as vague as possible, because I am not looking for revenge, just wanted to point out that it was really not cool.

 The rest of my vacation involved a relaxing trip to my cottage, lying on the beach, hot tubbing, and a few glasses of wine. I came back to work relaxed, furniture sold, Halifax apartment keys thrown into the ocean. Ahh bliss.

And with a great story to boot...HA.

City Chase

Ok so if you know me/follow along to this blog you know that I like the amazing race. Look I mention in this post…and in this post…and in this post. I have been avid fan since season 2. Which started when I was 13. Wow I totally just realized that I have been watching the amazing race consistently for 10+ years, Crazy! (Related note…season 19 starts soon!!!!)

Alas since they do not have a Canadian version of the show I will never get to live my dream to be on it.

But this past weekend I came pretty close! Mike and I were participants in Mitsubishi City Chase Toronto, basically an amazing race-esque chase throughout one city. It is a Canadian thing that started in TO in 2003, and now is an international event. The money raised from the event goes to a charity called right to play which provides children in developing countries sporting equipment (like soccer balls and sneakers). The basics are that at the beginning of the race teams were given a list of 35 chasepoints that are all over the city, you have to complete 10 from the list and travel using your own two legs or city transit (they gave us a pass for the day). First one back wins.

The Championship is in Halifax! 

Here were some of my highlights

Goodlife did a zumba ensipred work out to warm up, and the main chicky was fabulous! The theme of this race was the 70’s so it was set to 70’s music. Next one of the organizers came out in full 70’s costume to go over the race details, and we learned the secret handshake…spoiler alert, you had to turn to a stranger and hug them for 10 seconds, super not awkward at all! 

Then a guest chaser, this older man who runs a crazy amount of marathons for Right to Play, gave a little speech. After that the 70’s guy came back and said “Your clues sheets are at Union Station or the Rogers Centre….go” and everyone took off!

Mike and I ran to the rogers centre to get our clue sheet, along with half of the 500+ teams. We quickly started figuring out clues, and once we got a few we headed to our first stop, solving on the way as we walked. We decided to go to Centre Island Ferry terminal for a chasepoint having to do with acting. On the way there we found 2 more chase points, a kayaking/trust your partner thing at Peter’s Basin (1), and Strip Jenga (2) (it was not as scandalous as it sounds.) 

For the acting one it was actually a charades based game, where there was one team acting out a 70’s movie or tv show. All the other teams there got to yell out guesses and whoever got it right got to go next. From the lifetime of charades training (aka Crainium) Mike amazingly guessed the clue right when we got there, and we got a team to guess ours super fast as well! Huzzah! (4)

After all the waterfront business we streetcar-d over to Ontario Place, did two more chase points (A 4 person ski walk where we worked with an amazing team so we got done really fast (5), and a match the picture to the OP attraction one (6), which we guessed at, and happened to get it right), then we ran to the inukshuk near OP and did a rock painting challenge (7). We went back there on Monday because I think I lost my water bottle there, and they still had all the painted rocks chillin, so I took mine home.

Notice my super sweet 70's inspired hat :P

Tadaa! It is a squirrel…obviously. By this time we had 6 done and it was only 12:30. We were feeling pretty good. The only problem was that the chase points were divided up into sections..you had to do 3/5 for the 1^st section, 3/6 for the 2^nd section, and the other 4 you could choose from the rest of the clues. We had all 4 optional ones done, so we had to be picky about the mandatory ones we did.

Next we walked up to King and Liberty and did a car pull challenge (had experience with that one!) then took the Dufferin Bus up to Bloor. On the bus we checked the twitter feed from the chase and found out that the winning team had checked in at 12:38. I still don’t believe it! Next we took the Bloor Subway line to Christie park for the Colombia Obstacle course (8) sponsored by Colombia…shocker, and then we continued on the subway up to St.Clair/Spadina and did surprisingly decent at the tightrope walking challenge (9).

Now we only had one left. And we had heard what it was all about. The chasepoint was called “Pick Your Poison” and the clue alluded to something gross. So we asked some other teams we ran into about it, and they told us that one person had to eat a live meal worm, and the other had to put their hand in a box full of the worms and pick a marble, whatever color the marble was corresponded to a different animal, Tarantula, Giant Lizard, or Snake. So Mike and I decided that he was going to eat this live worm thing (I could eat pretty much anything but the alive thing freaked me out) and I was going to hold the creature. One girl told me to pick the blue marble because that was the lizard. I could totally deal with holding a giant lizard or a snake but I have a mad fear of large spiders.

So we get to the chase point, and Mike noms the worm, and I reach in and grab a blue marble. I’m thinking great where is this giant lizard, then the guy starts handing me the tarantula and I was like whoa whoa whoa, this is supposed to be a lizard. But because these poor beasties were being bothered all day they were giving the lizard and the snake a break, so my only option was the BIG HARRY SPIDER.

But I went for it…no fear…I held out my hand and closed my eyes, and the spider crawled on my hand and was surprisingly soft and fluffy…like a cat or a dog fur feeling. So I was just about to open my eyes when the guy took it off my hand, and I was shocked that I only had to hold it for about 7 seconds (10). It was pretty cool to face my fear of big spiders, and find out they aren’t too bad at all!

And with that adrenaline rush we hoped on a Subway to the finish line and clocked in at 5:20. Not bad for 1^st timers! We checked the results later and we came in 131^st out of 591 teams. We came in just before the super intense marathon runner, which I think is pretty good!

At the after party we got to meet some of the other teams, and they gave out door prizes, and the awards for the top 5 teams. The 1^st team told everyone what chasepoints they did and what route they took, and Mike and I have started strategizing for next year!!! Looking back we would have skipped Ontario Place, and stuck to the main transit lines more.  It was an awesome experience, and it only made me want to go on the amazing race even more!!!

Cheap Weekend/Vs Expensive Weekend

Did you ever have one of those weekends where the stars align and you have a whole lot of fun without spending a lot of money? Or have you ever had a weekend were the stars align and you get to do some amazing stuff, but you spend a ton?

That is what happened to me the past two weekends.

Some background…

I am mildly always concerned about money. I worked as a waitress in highschool, raking in the big bucks with tips, but yet I would save most of it for school. Yes I would splurge now and then (the yearly music department trips were really just a shopping spree) but I have always been conscious with my money. Spending large amounts of money makes me really nervous, even though I know my budget. Prime example of this was when I went to IKEA and bought everything I needed for the apartment, as the cashier was ringing in each item and the total was going up and up and up (still way under the max I had set) I almost had a full blown panic attack. The BF can attest to that.

Anyway back to the point, even though I have a good paying job, I am living in an expensive city, and my budget doesn’t have room for a whole lot of lavish splurges. My dreams of graduating university and buying a whole new wardrobe and a fancy smancy camera were slightly unrealistic.

So the BF and I have been trying to save money as much as possible and that includes finding some cheap/free stuff to do on the weekends. The counter argument to living in an expensive city is that there is a TON of free stuff to do.

2 weekends ago was our cheap weekend…

Friday Night-

·         Ontario Place- Free admission-thank you CTV for sponsoring a summer of free admission at OP)

·         $5 each for a log flume ride at Ontario place.

·         Free Sloan concert- part of the free summer concert series

Saturday-

·         Movie Matinee- Cheap tickets since the company I work for has a corporate rate with the movie theatre! $8.50 each

·         Snacks- Ok this wasn’t that cheap, movies are way more expensive here than in Halifax

·         $3 each subway ride to Taste of the Danforth

·         Free entertainment- walking around seeing the quails.

·         Not so free- sampling the food, and having a greek food supper, buying 2 shirts at a sidewalk sale. Still cheap though!

·         $3 each subway ride back home

So compared to that weekend-this past weekend was a BIG OLD SPLURGE

Saturday was CITY CHASE which has its own whole post coming up next. That was $150 total, and worth every penny. It was amazing…see the post below.

And Sunday was the Rogers Cup. The BF loves Andre Agassi, and he was playing in the legends cup before the women’s finals. So we went! I don’t know how much the tickets were but they weren’t cheap, but it is kinda a once in a lifetime thing for Mike to see Andre play, so we had to go! 

We had good seats, we saw two great matches – the first (the legends game) was funny and more laid back, the second was Serena Williams vs. Sam Stosur, and was SUPER INTENSE. Fun to watch! 

And even though it was threatening to rain the whole time, it held off until the end, and we were drenched with a thunder storm on the way back to the car.  Unfortunately because we were there all day we had to buy food there and that was whole bunch more money. Water was 5 dollars a bottle blech.

Definitely couldn’t spend like that every weekend!

As much as I hate spending money, there are some experiences that were totally worth it (Trip to NYC, Rogers Cup, Travelling to visit family etc). I almost didn’t do city chase because of how much it was, but I would have totally regretted sitting around on Saturday, knowing that I could have been out there having fun! I guess that is why I save, so that I always have enough money to have the opportunity to do stuff like that and not be stressed about paying off my credit card at a later date J

Awkward Silence

I really need to blog more. I have a billion ideas about what to write and then I forget them all by the time I get to write the post!

One of the things I have been thinking about lately is this big old change that has happened to my life. For the most of the time it is excellent..great job, great apartment, great boyfriend and cat, etc. 

But there is one thing I am realizing in this little adventure. I am actually kind of shy. Those of you who know me at all may be shocked by this, but it is true. It is the weirdest thing, I can get up in front of 1000 people and give a speech without any nerves, but yet meeting new people makes me anxious. I know that I got involved in University to give me an excuse to meet/talk to people. It was my odd icebreaker to tell people about events for council, I know I am weird. 

But now without that safety net I am not sure what to do! It is super annoying that there are tons of people my age at work and in the area where I live, but yet I don't know how to communicate. Ahhh..the socially awkward engineer in me finally shows up. 

I have heard different suggestions for meeting people...join a gym, join a church etc. For one, no one really chats at the gyms here, and I am not really a hard core church goer, and it would probably be a bad thing to fake that and join a church group. 

Maybe it is the East Coast Friendlies vs City people stereotypes that is also throwing me off. I haven't really attempted to make small chat, but I envision it going like this. 

Me: Wow crazy weather today

Stranger: Yep. (Stares at me like I'm a crazy person)

Me: (Awkward silence)

And that's about it. 

Thinking back to the last time I was meeting new people I was in 1st year of university. Most of my really good friends I met only near the end of first year, and even into second year. I'm just being impatient. I am sure we will meet people who are normal, or even slightly nerdy. And maybe we will even talk about the weather!