It Was Supposed to Be the Unsinkable Station...

WHAT A DAY!

I mean seriously: this is the kind of stuff that only happens to me.

This morning I happily went on my way to working thinking, "It's Friday!" I got off the GO Train at Union Station, walked on through to the TTC and was about to get the subway up to my office, when I realized I didn't have my wallet. I went through my bag about 4 times, but it was NOT in there. I started to panic. I called my husband at home, who, although annoyed with me for panicking, calmed me down somewhat and agreed to call The Real Canadian Superstore where I had stopped the night before for a few groceries. Sure enough, I had left my wallet there, some EXTREMELY kind person had turned it in, and they had it. Phew.

However, I was still in downtown Toronto, an hour's train ride from home, with no cash, no cards, and no ID. Great. Obviously I couldn't hop the subway up to work. I was going to have to walk to my office, then figure out what to do from there.

But here's the thing: it was POURING rain. Like, not happy little April showers that somehow ended up waiting until June 1st, but a torrential downpour. Great. This is why my 11-year-old daughter is in my good books today: before I left, when I left the umbrellas for her and her sister, she told me, "Well at least wear a coat with a hood." I was DAMNED thankful for that hood while I was walking 25 minutes or so up University Avenue.

I got to work, where one of my coworkers kindly loaned me $20 until Monday, and although I was still having that uneasy "I don't have my wallet" feeling, I was much better.

Then came the news after lunch that the TTC portion of Union Station had flooded, and the subways were closed from Osgoode to Bloor - so essentially most of the downtown loop. I was going to have to walk back down. Ugh. (I normally do walk in the afternoon, but not in weather like that!) I was very happy when I got out of my office and found out that the rain had stopped momentarily, but WOW, there were a LOT of people on the streets, not to mention news vans, police cars, and a screeching fire truck that I still don't know where was headed. I was SO glad to get on the train and start heading for home tonight!

But, since I've been home, I've been looking at the photos and videos of the flood. Wow!

I've also been loving the memes that I've been seeing tonight. Some of them are absolutely hilarious.

Nuh nah, nuh nah.. nuh nah nuh nah nuh nah...

Rose and Jack try to escape Union Station: "I'll never let go!" "I'm the King of the Subway!"

And my absolute favourite:

Mayor Rob trying to help disperse the water!

I should mention that I don't know what geniuses created these, so I can't give credit, but whomever you are, you're brilliant!

10 Things for Lindsay Lohan to Do While in Toronto

In case you didn't hear, Lindsay Lohan was FINALLY released from formal probation last week, afer what the judge called "the longest DUI case in history" (this all stemmed from a DUI in 2007!) and now she just has to stay on the straight and narrow, without any brushes with the law, for the next 2.5 years.

Shortly after her probation hearing, a work permit was quickly issued for Lindsay to begin work on her new Lifetime movie - a biopic of Elizabeth Taylor.

I'm not going to even get into how queasy this makes me. Instead, I'm going to focus on all of the fun things that Lindsay could do in her down time whilst in Toronto, rather than getting into trouble and ending up back in a courtroom!

10. Check out a Jays' Game Men, tight pants, balls... need I say more?

9. Casa Loma She'll probably need a very understanding tour guide, though, when she keeps asking where the Prince is.

8. Check Out the CBC Museum Check out all that the history of Canadian television has to offer. Also, if you hang around long enough, Strombo might interview you, and maybe they'll even offer you your own show!

7. Visit Queen's Park She spent time working at the LA County Morgue. She should feel right at home.
 

6. Hit the Beach at the Toronto Islands Lindsay's not fond of keeping her clothes on, and neither are most of the other people at Hanlan's Point. It's a match made in heaven!
 
5. Visit MuchMusic They both used to play music, so it should be a natural fit!
 
4. Take in the ROM The Royal Ontario Museum has some of the greatest collections in the world. Plus, the mummies there are probably considerably more maternal than Dina Lohan.

3. Go to the top of the CN Tower After all, what better way to see our fine city? She could even try the Edge Walk. Of course, she'd have to pass a sobriety test before going out to see the view, but that's nothing new for LiLo anyway.

2. Shopping in Yorkville That man following you, Ms. Lohan? Oh, that's just Vincent. He's just there to ensure you find everything you need (and pay for it on the way out...)

1. Go to The Courthouse Because if she's looking for a place that she can relax, why not go someplace familiar?

Why Do I Care?

I haven't lived within the boundaries of Metro Toronto since 1998. The last Toronto election I voted in was also the FIRST Metro Toronto election after the "megacity" was created. Since then our family has moved around, but for the most part we've been within the boundaries of the Greater Toronto Area (some "greater" than others).

So you might wonder why I care about who was elected Mayor of Toronto. Here are a few reasons:

1. I may not live there anymore, but I really do love Toronto. I love wandering around downtown. I love Queen West and the Beaches (wait, the Beach?). I love the entertainment district and all of the mega-musicals put on by Mirvish Productions and Dancap, among others. I love the smaller theatres like Passe Muraille, the Factory, Soulpepper and CanStage. I love the fact that I can walk all over downtown Toronto in the middle of winter without a coat using the PATH system. I love watching baseball games at SkyDome (I will never admit that it's no longer called SkyDome, so don't even try to make me.) I love the Toronto Islands. Most of all, I love the people - well, most of them, anyway. So I don't want to see a loudmouth politician screw up "my" city. I also don't want any Lastman-sized international embarrassments (African cannibals, anyone? How does that compare to wanting someone's wife to be go over to Iran and be raped? Hmmm...)
2. The truth is, what happens in Toronto affects the whole province to a certain extent, most notably the 905 area (for those not familiar with Toronto, this is a horseshoe-shaped area outside of Toronto thus called because of their "905" area codes.) If not a majority, then a lot of 905-ers are commuters. We may start our mornings in Oshawa, Pickering or Mississauga, but we spend our days firmly in the 416. Gridlock and public transit are issues that don't just affect Toronto residents. 
3. Again, because so many 905-ers work in Toronto, if you mess up the economy of Toronto, you mess up the economy of a much wider area. Even if you don't take into account the commuters, products and services are regularly traded amongst the cities of south-central Ontario. The economy of the country's largest city has a ripple effect across the whole area, at minimum.
4. I was talking to someone last night who works in social services in Toronto. The look on his face when told Rob Ford was elected said it all. Outside of the Great Depression, this may be the worst thing to ever happen to the poor, under-privileged, and mentally and physically-challenged people in Toronto's history.
5. Why is it that the right wing is so against funding for arts organizations? My guess is that most of them can't read a book or have the attention span to sit through a play, but that's just my (somewhat biased) opinion. Arts organizations in Toronto are surely quaking today. Hopefully many of them have been making plans based on this possibility, because they can be sure sure to lose most, if not all, of their funding if Ford gets his way. It amazes me how people think this is such a huge waste of their tax dollars. Do you know how much Toronto currently spends per capita on the arts? THIRTEEN DOLLARS. Yes, that's right: $13 of your hard-earned money goes to support the arts. How much do you spend on coffee in a week? Or on take-out meals? Or anything else. You can't afford $13 per year to support thousands of artists and workers in arts organizations that bring in millions of dollars to Toronto's economy not only through ticket sales, but through hotels and restaurants as well? An article in the Star says that Pantalone and Smitherman both hoped to raise that spending to $25 per year. San Francisco, to compare one city to another, spends $86 per year on the arts. Yet Toronto, for example, is the third-largest centre for English-speaking theatre in world, behind only New York City and London.
6. Toronto will host World Pride Day in 2014, just a few months before the next mayoral election. Can anyone picture Rob Ford riding on a float in the Pride parade? Me neither. With the cuts that he surely wants to make to their funding, the entire experience will likely be embarrassing. However, I have faith in the Pride Week organizers, and I'm sure they'll find a way to get around the whole "bigoted mayor" thing.

I am not completely terrified of Rob Ford as mayor - just yet. I admittedly do not know much about those who have been elected as councillors, and so I don't know how much of his mandate he will really be able to pass. It could be - as many have speculated - that we'll have gridlock until the next election. Not that four years of a stalemate is a good thing, either, as we've seen in our years of minority federal governments, but at least it may mitigate the damage Ford will likely do. With any sort of luck, we can all just look back on the Rob Ford experience in four years as an amusing anecdote, and let the grownups go back to running the city.

An Evening in Yorkville

I used to work at Bloor St and Avenue Rd in Toronto, but that was a long time ago. It's been over six years since I spent a lot of time down there. If this tells you anything, I can count on two hands the number of times I've ridden the subway since we returned to Canada in 2008.

Truthfully, I preferred it when I worked further downtown. At least there I could afford to shop! In Yorkville (as the area around Bloor and Avenue is called) the stores are more Chanel and Versace than Wal-Mart and Dollar Giant. Being near the Eaton's Centre was great. I liked being within walking distance of the SkyDome (you can call it the Rogers Centre from now until Kingdom come, but it will always be the SkyDome to me!) and the Mirvish empire known as the "Entertainment District". I just love the feel of that area of Toronto.

But that being said, the one time of year that it's cool to be in Yorkville is during the Toronto International Film Festival, commonly referred to as "TIFF." During TIFF the entire area changes and starts dripping with celebrities. My big story from TIFF was always in 2002, when I saw Nick Nolte eating lunch at an outside cafe outside the Club Monaco store on Bloor. I went back to my office and was talking to a coworker who also saw him, and we both agreed that he looked like one of the homeless guys who sleep on the back ledges of the Club Monaco store. A few days later a certain famous photo of him was taken:

Tonight, for the first time in seven years, I wandered around Yorkville during TIFF. I was only there for about an hour, and it was the wrong time of day for celebrity-spotting. In fact, the most exciting thing I saw was - I think - Jon Hamm. And I've never watched Mad Men, so not all that exciting for me.

So, I had a lot of time for observations, and here are the ones that I remember:

1. Walking around Yorkville during TIFF, everyone looks like they could be somebody. 90% of them, aren't.
2. There are a lot of Escalades with tinted windows during TIFF.
3. During TIFF, I think that the population of Toronto (usually around 2.5 million) becomes much closer to the population of New York City (around 8.5 million). Seriously, I have not seen so many people crowded on to one section of sidewalk since the last time I was in Manhattan.
4. No offense to my American friends, but it is SO easy to tell the Americans when you're walking around Yorkville right now.
5. I don't like cigar bars. This has nothing to do with TIFF, but I just didn't like the giant cloud of smelly cigar smoke that got puffed into my face.
6. I did not see Ben Affleck. Despite being told that he's a jackass, I'm still disappointed.
7. I also did not see Ben Mulroney, despite hanging around a building with ETalk logos all over it.
8. I do miss being in Toronto. Hopefully as my kids get older it will be easier for me to just go and hang out again the way that I used to. Roger Ebert has made me a fan for life with the way he's been tweeting Toronto's praises in the past couple of days.

So that's it! My random thoughts after a brief evening in Yorkville. Anyone else have TIFF experiences or thoughts to share?