Well the universe is shaped exactly like the earth (or thoughts on mix cds)

I remember the fall I was 15 begging my mom to buy a new computer (given how reliant everyone in my family now is on the internet/their own computer it seriously astounds me that all through high school we had one computer for the whole house) that would be compatible with an external cd burner so that I could start making mix cds. A friend had recently shown me Napster and I was so excited about the idea of getting songs on Napster and then using them as tracks on a mix cd. After getting tired of my pestering her, my mom did buy a new computer, I put Napster on it (and proceeded to download Bon Jovi's Always and listen to it over and over - I swear, even then, my music taste was better than that but I still do like that song), got a cd burner, and began making mix cds. A tradition that continued until very recently.

Before I ever made mix cds, I was really into making mix tapes. In the late 1990s, the height of my mix tape making, the process of making a mix tape involved multiple steps. I used the stereo in our dining room (which we still have although rarely use now) to tape songs off of the radio on a blank tape, tape songs from cds onto a blank tape, and tape songs from other tapes onto a blank tape. It took some time (especially timing it right so as to be able to tape songs off the radio) but it was worth it. It was also so fun! I always loved choosing songs and trying to figure out the order I wanted the songs to play in. Plus, the cool thing about mix tapes were that they had two sides. I made a lot of mix tapes for friends and they always liked them. I remember one friend telling me that her older sister listened to the mix tape while she painted their living room and I felt so cool that a cool older sister liked the tape I made.

By the year 2000, I had made the transition to making mix cds with my shiny external cd burner. I made mix cds for friends on a regular basis through the rest of high school, university and after that. I loved making them and some friends very kindly said I had a talent for doing so :) Further proof (not to brag these compliments/stories just make me smile) is that I made a cd for my brother once and his then girlfriend (now wife) L. heard it, took it, and then played it a lot at her apt and her roommates all loved it too. In the fall of 2006 I made a mix for my friend D.  who was a PhD student I knew through my friend K. in Berkeley and was that fall starting a new job as a professor at a small college in a small town in Pennsylvania. D. told me he played the mix I made him at a party he had and multiple people asked him about it. He said (and I quote) "I relished telling them, fuck off [my first name] made it for me!" :) The only person who hasn't liked a mix cd I made for them was N. (I made him one during university) mostly because he said he didn't like Ben Harper, and I had put at least one (maybe two) Ben Harper songs on the mix. To be honest, N.'s rejection of my mix cd talent still bothers me to this day. I think it's because I pride myself on having a good sense of the types of songs/music that my friends would like. I must have genuinely thought N. would like the Ben Harper song and it irks me still that he didn't! This sounds so cheesy but figuring out which songs go well together is a bit of an art form, and one which I am good at 99% (N. being the sole exception) of the time.

One of my favourite part of mix cds is writing liner notes to go along with it. The first time I distinctly remember writing liner notes (or at least calling them that - I may have included written notes with some cds I made for friends in high school but I don't think I did) was in June 2004 when I was taking a summer course at Berkeley. I made a cd for my brother and I decided to include notes explaining why I had put the songs I did. I had so much fun writing notes about the songs (sometimes I would just include little facts about the band or a little anecdote about the first time I heard it) that I have since written liner notes for every mix cd I've made since then.

Example of liner notes except mine are always handwritten 

Whenever I think about making mixes for someone, I think of that scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack's character is making a mix for this woman he just met despite having a live-in girlfriend. I remember seeing that movie as a 16 and then 17 year old and wanting a relationship like John Cusack and his girlfriend Laura (her name in the movie). Even though for most of the movie their relationship was on the rocks, there was this one scene where they were both lying in bed reading and I remember thinking "One day I would love to have a boyfriend I could lie in bed with while reading."

This is an image of the exact scene I am talking about! 

I like giving mix cds a name. Usually the title wouldn't be that exciting just "Insert first name's Mix CD!" but sometimes cds I made had names. S. once made me a cd which she called Rainy Day Mix because I was so sad about G. turning out to be such a loser. I loved the title so much that I made her a cd titled (creatively I know) Rainy Day Mix Volume II. and then a year after that I made her another one called Rainy Day/Dreaming of Spring. (I actually have all three still in playlists on my itunes and I was just listening to Volume II. and was reminded of Modest Mouse's Third Planet and how much I like that song (and that's where the title of this post comes from). S. and I also made soundtracks of our time at Berkeley in May 2006 when we graduated. We burned two copies - one for ourselves and one for the other. I still have both of them saved on my itunes to as "my name: The Berkeley Years" and "S.: The Berkeley Years." I have made for and received so many from L. over the years too, many ofwhich I have as playlists on itunes too.

Mix cds are not the same anymore today what with most people listening to music digitally and not through cds. I haven't felt the same desire to make mp3 mixes over the past few years. Even though I have had itunes since 2004, I just feel like it's been different the past few years and that almost everything is digital now. The last mix cd I made was for D. last spring. I really enjoyed making it but I haven't made any since. D. made me a mix back but he just sent it to me as mp3 files over drop box. I really liked the mix and it didn't feel any mix-like or any less special because I never held an actual cd in my hands but as I am writing this I am thinking it maybe did make me feel a bit sad there was no cd. I think how D. made my mix is the way of the future, but I'm not sure I'm ready to embrace it just yet.

This is in High Fidelity too - it's when he's testing out songs for the mix tape he's making

The romance of rooftops

Rooftops have intrigued me and appealed to me since I was 17 and in Manhattan at the end of August 2001. (One day we went down to lower Manhattan and I remember that the World Trade Center was a fact of life, just there - seemingly viewable from all over. A few weeks later, on 9/11 and in the days following it, I kept thinking back to how we had been in New York so close to when everything changed. I wondered if I would have taken more pictures of the towers or done something differently if I'd known they wouldn't be there anymore less than a month later.) My parents and I were staying at a hotel in mid-town, on a fairly high up floor. We had a really nice room with multiple windows, and through one of them I could access a sort of balcony/fire escape. I think we were there about 3 or 4 nights and I climbed out on to it every night. I could see the Chrysler Building which was so cool and one night, at an apartment building across the street I could see some people having a dinner party on the roof of their building. It looked like something out of a movie - there were bright white christmas lights and what looked like a big table with people gathered around it. I was in awe. It looked so romantic and lovely and fun. I wished I were there, eating on that rooftop too. From that moment, I loved rooftops, despite never having gone on one.

Fortunately that changed in Berkeley, where so many of the apt buildings and co-ops on Northside had accessible roofs. I went on multiple rooftops in Berkeley over my time there but two will always be tied for my favourite. The first is the rooftop of CZ, a co-op on Ridge Road, which I love because of two different memorable nights I spent on it - the first in September 2002 and the second in October 2003. Both times/events/scenes were like something out of a Hollywood movie. And both times I felt so happy and lucky to be on a rooftop. My other favourite rooftop was the rooftop of my beloved Hilgard apt building. Whenever someone would come over to my apt, I would always take them up to the roof.  From both the CZ and my apt building's rooftop I had amazing views of the Bay Area. I could see the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the lights of Berkeley and Oakland, the Oakland docks in the distance, and the San Francisco lights and skyline across the Bay. Both rooftops, at the risk of sounding so overly cheesy, were magical. The views of the sky, of the city lights, the Bay - just writing this and thinking about them make me miss the rooftops and miss the Bay.

Berkeley and the Bay at night

Rooftop of CZ

Another thing I love about rooftops are the conversations that take place on them. In addition to many fabulous conversations on the rooftops mentioned above, when I went back to visit Berkeley in November 2006 I stayed one night at K.'s (and formerly L.'s but she had moved out by this point) in the Rockridge neighbourhood of Oakland. In the four months since I had been gone, K. had discovered she could climb out one of the upstairs windows and sit on the roof. It was different from being on a flat rooftop. Here, we were more on the side of the roof - sitting on it as it sloped down. But K., L. and I had a lovely time that night sitting out on the roof (how I love November in California!) just talking for a long long time. In the same vein, I have loved - since I first heard it in October 2003 - the PJ Harvey song "You Said Something". I was hooked from the first line "on a rooftop in Brooklyn one in the morning." And I still like the song all these years later.  

Toronto has cool rooftops too. N.'s aunt and uncle can apparently access the rooftop of their building on the Danforth from which you can apparently, according to N., get a great view of the skyline and downtown. Ever since N. told me about that rooftop I have wanted to go to it but the one time N. was painting his aunt and uncle's apt and therefore could have invited me over and taken me to the roof, he didn't! Annoying. I still wish I had gotten to go on it :) L.'s old condo building in Toronto had a rooftop patio which was also really cool. Maybe one day I'll get to live in a building in Toronto with a roof!

I told this friend L. (yet another L.!) I had in Austin about my love of rooftops and she told me about this short story by an Indian writer named Anita Desai called Rooftop Dwellers. I read it and loved it. It's about a young woman living on a rooftop in Delhi and about the community of rooftop dwellers she became a part of. I don't remember too many details but I do remember the main character being able to see so many other rooftops, and by extension so many other people living their lives on neighbouring rooftops, from her own front door. It was a very good story.

Rooftop dwellings in Delhi

I also like vistas of rooftops and Paris is the best for that. I love the view of Paris from Sacre Coeur in Montmartre mostly just because you see all these distinct Parisian rooftops. And though I know those roofs aren't made for rooftop patios or rooftop dinner parties, they are still very beautiful. But overall I would prefer a roof I could go out on over the roofs of Paris.

Rooftops of Paris with Sacre Coeur in the background

Well I know we should take a walk but you're such a fast walker

I love walking. I will almost always choose to walk somewhere over taking the bus/subway/car if I can. I just love it. I have always loved going for walks in the places I live. I used to take such amazing walks in Berkeley. I remember in June 2004 when I was taking a summer course and a lot of my friends had gone away for the summer I used to take long long walks by myself high up into the Berkeley hills. It was really really pleasant. I read somewhere recently that you should try to take 10,000 steps a day - the article even said to get a pedometer so you could keep track. I had no idea how far 10,000 steps is so I just googled it and it said that 2,000 steps is about one mile. So I need to walk about 5 miles a day (I wish it were in kilometres! I am bad at transferring between miles/kilometres and celsius/fahrenheit!) a day. When I was in law school, I definitely met that target because the walk between the school and my apt was fairly far. But I'll need to work harder to meet it in the future.

I also read somewhere that children who walk to school (I can't remember if the article gave a distance) do better in school (who knows if this is true...) than children driven in a car because they have a chance to be outside and to start their day being active. I know that I loved walking to school be it at Berkeley or McGill just because it was nice to have time every day to listen to a podcast, to be exercising, to be outside, to clear my thoughts, think, reflect, etc. Walking is a great way to start your day! That said, in high school my mom drove me every day, and I did just fine. So I don't think there is necessarily a correlation between walking to school and doing well. The new apt D. and I will be living in when I start my new job is a 5 minute walk from where I'll be working. At first this seemed like a downside to me because I love walking so much and it's an easy way to get some exercise in. But then my mom reminded me that it's not ideal to show up at work sweaty, which is how I would often show up at McGill :) This just means I am going to have to go for long walks either before or after work (or both). I am also thinking seriously about getting a dog sometime soon. One of the main reasons I'd love to have a dog is that I would love to go for walks with her. I visited some family friends in Florida once who have the most lovely golden retriever named Skyy (named after the vodka). They lived about a 10 minute drive from the beach and R. would take Skyy for long beach walks every morning. He said it was great for him because it got him to exercise and Skyy loved it. Although funnily enough since she is born and bred in Florida (although she was from Tampa which isn't right on the open ocean or gulf) she didn't like going into the ocean. But yes I'd love to have a dog with whom I could go for long walks.

My favourite way to explore cites (new ones or ones I know already) is by foot. Taking the subway in new cities can be interesting but walking is, for me, always a better experience. I love seeing different neighbourhoods, different shops, etc. all by foot. I get the chance to hear more, see more, and feel like I am a part of whatever city it is I am in. Walking on beaches is another thing I love to do whenever I have the chance. Walking right next to a body of water is very pleasant.

I am glad more people are taking walking as exercise seriously. When I taught English at Air France I remember with one group I had the students talking about what exercise/sports they liked to do. One of the students (this really nice woman who had an Italian boyfriend she was about to go on a holiday to Sicily with! I remember this so clearly because I have wanted to go to Sicily since I was told blood oranges grow there) asked me what exercise I did. When I told her I walked she laughed and pressed me to tell her what other "real" sports I did/liked. So while I did try to defend walking as a form of exercise, I also quickly said swimming just so she would be satisfied. But yeah, walking is exercise! And it's cool that more people are starting to notice that. I don't want to get all my exercise from walking but it is a form of exercise, and one that most people can participate in!

Being a Fan

TEAM CANADA Hockey fans!

When I was 16, I bought this cheesy little book called The Fun Book! 102 ways for girls to have some in some bargain bin at some bookstore. It had lots of suggestions, like rent a convertible for a day and tie a scarf around your hair while you drive (preferably beside the ocean or a long desert highway), and go have a drink in a hotel bar. I couldn't rent cars or drink in bars then but they seemed like cool ideas for when I was older. Now that I am older, I haven't rented a convertible, and while I've been to a few hotel bars it's not a regular habit. They still seem like cool ideas though. One of my favourite suggestions in the book was "Be a fan" - complete with a really cute illustration (the book had really good illustrations) of this curly haired woman wearing a team jersey and watching sports on TV while cheering. I loved that one then because I was a big sports fan in high school.

Here's the book

In 2000, 2001 and 2002 the Toronto Raptors basketball team were good enough to make the playoffs. So many of my friends liked the Raptors. It was always fun to get to school and talk about the Raptors game from the night before. And I was lucky enough (thanks to my dad) to get to go to a lot of games, including a playoff game in May 2001 when the Raptors were playing (and that game beat) the Philadelphia 76ers. Going to games was always so much fun! That year the Raptors heartbreakingly lost Game 7 in Philadelphia at the buzzer and I was crushed. The next year, if I remember correctly, they lost in the first round of the playoffs. But those years of cheering on the Raptors were so fun! Now they haven't made the playoffs in years and aren't that good anymore but I still do like them and hope they will get good again. I definitely know the best players from the early 2000s way better than I know or care about the best players today. I obviously loved Vince Carter (we all did and we were all sad that  he ended up leaving the Raps) since he was a Raptor but I also loved Chris Webber (C-Webb) of the Sacramento Kings. He was the best!

C-Webb

In terms of Toronto professional sports teams, I like the Blue Jays and Raptors best (it's a tie).  My love of the Jays stems from the early 1990s when they won the World Series twice (1992 and 1993) and were awesome!! Last year and this year, mostly thanks to my dad who is a big Jays fan, I have gotten back into them. I like watching the video replays of the game highlights that they win. Last year, my parents, D. and I went to two games (the Jays won both times) which were a lot of fun. I was (and definitely still am) a fair weather Leafs fan. I only ever care when they are in the playoffs.When I was in high school they made it as far as the conference finals a couple of times and that was  exciting. But I have just always preferred baseball and basketball.

The three outfielders do this every time the Jays win!

But in addition to baseball and basketball, I really like professional tennis. Tennis also one of the few sports where professional women players get as much attention as professional male athletes do, which is awesome (it's just sad that doesn't happen in more sports.) My all-time favourite tennis player is Steffi Graf. I also really really like Andre Agassi though and I love that they are married! I also really like Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal. Tennis can be a really exciting sport to watch. I also like how it's an individual sport. Team sports are cool but there's also something neat about competing for (and relying only on) yourself.

Steffi

Serena and Venus

The worst part about being a fan is that it is so hard when your team loses! I especially feel like I can't take it when the team/player I like starts to lose. I remember when I was a kid and Steffi Graf was still playing tennis. I would start to watch the final of whatever grand slam tournament it happened to be and if she started to lose I wouldn't be able to handle it and would just off the TV and run upstairs. This year's Jays have so far in the season been a disappointment. They just cannot get to 6 games below .500 (at least so far) and that's bad! That's terrible in fact. They keep plateauing out at 7 games below.500 and it is really frustrating! If I am watching a game or checking the score and they are losing, I just turn off the computer and decide not to watch. Then I also try to avoid The Toronto Star's website because they always put  the Blue Jays score right on the homepage. It's nice to be surprised though. For example during last year's women's US Open tennis final, I saw that Serena Williams was down in the final set and it looked like she was going to lose. So I turned off the computer and figured she had lost. The next day when I went online, I saw a headline about Serena's comeback and to my happy surprise discovered she had actually come from behind and won. So that was nice! But yes, normally the way I deal with it when my team/favourite player loses is to pretend the match/game didn't happen :)

In some ways it's embarrassing that I care (it's embarrassing that anyone does) when my team loses. But on the other hand, I guess that's what makes it so much more fun when my/your team wins. There's this line in the song 11th Dimension by Julian Casablancas where he sings "Where cities come together to hate each other in the name of sport." I read an interview with him where he said he was thinking specifically of the Philadelphia Phillies and the NY Mets rivalry and how Philadelphia and New York supposedly hate each other because of that rivalry. Julian Casablancas also said in this same interview that he is a Mets fan which I love because I feel like most celebrities are Yankees fans so I think it's cool he prefers the Mets. But anyway, I get his overall point that cities hating each other because of sports is ridiculous. But I also think it's pretty confined to that one sport. In that, people from Philadelphia hate Mets fans and hate NY in regards to its association with the Mets but can have other objective opinions about NY not based around baseball. Maybe for some really intense diehard baseball fans it's a different story and they'd disagree with me, but I'd still like to think most people would be able to separate their sports and non-sports feelings.

So to conclude, being a fan is a good way for girls (and guys) to have fun. But it's also difficult at times. For now, I will just hope that in June the Jays can finally make it to 6 (and hopefully 5-4-3-2-1-0) games below 500, and that the tennis players I like win the French Open.

The Intriguing World of TV Spies

Recently I've watched a few different TV shows about spies and have been thinking quite a bit about the things that go along with being one. My aunt, uncle and I went to the Spy museum in DC back in the fall of 2006. It is a really cool museum. Unfortunately I don't remember that many details of our visit but I do remember reading a story about this couple (it's all a bit hazy so I can't remember everything) where the man was a Russian spy and his wife didn't find out until after he died! It must have been just so crazy to find something like that out after your husband dies. The next time I go to DC (and I do really want to go visit L. there) I will for sure go to the spy museum again.

D. and I started watching the show Homeland this past fall (we watched both season 1 which had aired the previous fall and season 2 which aired this past fall) and I am really into it! It has really sparked my interest in the CIA. I added some books about the history of the CIA to my Amazon wishlist and I look forward to reading them at some point. Claire Danes' character is an analyst - not a spy - as are most of the people she works with; so even though they are not spies I still think it works to talk about that show here. D. and I watched half (to be honest the movie was a bit slow and we just never went back and finished the whole thing) of the movie Fair Game which is based on that CIA spy Valerie Plame who Dick Cheney outed as a spy. Both Plame and her husband wrote memoirs about the incident (both of which are on my Amazon wishlist as well) which I am curious to read. Plame, unlike Carrie (Claire Danes' character on Homeland) was a spy, and thus could not tell her friends or family (including her husband and kids) about her assignments, where she was going, etc. Her friends didn't even know she was a spy or worked for the CIA. Spies had always seemed glamourous to me. (I imagined tall attractive people in trenchcoats walking down dark rainy streets.) The idea of continually getting to try different personas and be someone you're not at first seemed appealing. But when I think about it, not being able to tell people who you really are and what you really do seem like really acute downsides.

I imagined spies wearing trench coats like this.

Another show I've just begun to watch in the past few months is The Americans. I have long been fascinated with Russia/the Soviet Union and the Cold War and this show is all about that! It takes place during the early 1980s in Washington DC and is about a seemingly all-American couple named Elizabeth and Phillip who are actually secret KGB spies. Elizabeth is played by Keri Russell who I have loved ever since she played Chloe on Malibu Shores way back in the day. (Side note: the movie Salt with Angelina Jolie also deals with Russian spies in the USA and it is a really good movie!) The show is really interesting. In addition to all their spy work (which involves wicked disguises. Elizabeth and Phillip are constantly trying out different wigs, glasses, etc. each episode) the show raises a lot of interesting questions. Elizabeth and Phillip have two kids - Paige and Henry - who don't know their parents are really Russian. Elizabeth and Phillip are pretty different. Phillip seems to like living in the US a lot, while Elizabeth is completely devoted to Russia and her job as a KGB agent. Despite her hatred of all things American, Elizabeth convincingly plays the role of perfect American wife and mom. It's fascinating. She also doesn't seem to get stressed (or at least show her stress) by living under false pretences all the time. While she seems to genuinely care about her kids, it's clear that the KGB and Russia come first which is really interesting. Neither Elizabeth nor Phillip seem to give much thought to how their kids would feel if they were ever to discover that their parents were actually Russian spies which to me is crazy. Their poor kids would have their lives totally upturned if their parents' real identities were ever discovered!

Some of Elizabeth's various disguises. 

Keri Russell on Malibu Shores!

Two other interesting things I've noticed from The Americans: 1. KGB spies are trained really well and are amazing at hand to hand combat! It's always really interesting to watch how good Elizabeth and Phillip are when physically fighting others. 2. The show gives viewers lots to think about in relation to the role of women in early 1980s society, and in traditional male spheres like the FBI. Women are subjected to sexual violence - or feel the need to use sex in order to get information - on a regular basis. I'd like to think things have changed in the 30 plus years since then but the answer is probably that they have not changed enough. 


D. and I have also been watching this funny TV show called Archer recently. It takes place during the 1970s (except they have cell phones and the internet) and involves a spy agency called ISIS. The show is a comedy though, and is also animated. It is very funny. I always used to hear D. watching it and wondered what he was watching and laughing at. So I watched a few episodes with him and thought the show was actually really funny. We started at the beginning and are now in season 3 (there are four seasons and it's still going) and it's actually a really funny show. I love that they're spies/secret agents but my favourite character is the HR person at ISIS, Pam. (It's hard to pick a favourite though - all of the characters are pretty funny!) Mallory Archer, the head of ISIS, also  has been having a secret, many years on-going affair with the head of the KGB which is really funny too. Watch it! It is a light-hearted and fun spy show.

Here's Pam!

So far from my previous view of spies as alluring, attractive people in stylish clothes who jet set around the globe, these shows have shown me that the life of a spy can be difficult, amusing and at times seemingly mundane. Regardless, all of these shows reinforce the fact that shows about spies in any form are still a lot of fun to watch.

Simply Smoothies

When I was a teenager, one thing I liked about visiting the US was getting to go to this smoothie chain called Jamba Juice. When I would occasionally get them I thought they were really good. I love berries so much and since berries seem to be a key ingredient for smoothies have also always liked smoothies. There is a Jamba Juice (or at least there used to be) in Berkeley on Bancroft right across from the main entrance to UC Berkeley and sometimes during my first year I would go there for a smoothie. I started to think after a while, however, that Jamba Juice's smoothies had a somewhat generic and manufactured taste. They tasted kind of like the ingredients were not all that natural. They tasted (to me anyway) like they sugar in them instead of just letting the berries sweeten the drink.

During our first year at Berkeley, S. discovered Brewed Awakening (primarily a coffee shop) and its fabulous smoothies. We used to go there regularly for smoothies. I can't remember which flavours I liked best anymore but I know I always got the berry ones. Brewed Awakening's smoothies tasted "homemade" and were made with natural ingredients right in front of you. S. and I always had a lot of fun going to get smoothies and then going for a walk around north side.

When I spent five lovely days in Aix-en-Provence in early July 2008 doing research, I found this little stand that made juices/smoothies. It is sometimes hard to know the difference between a juice and a smoothie. Are smoothies supposed to have milk or yogurt in them? Maybe. If they are, this place made juices then because there was no dairy in their products. I really liked the drink I got there (and I went almost every day of my visit) and observed the recipe closely so I could make it on my own. They made the juice like this: ice, an entire banana, strawberries (cut up) and/or raspberries, a glass of water, and the juice of an entire lemon (this part I especially liked because I love using a lemon squeezer). I loved the juice so much that that whole following year in Austin I would make that exact juice almost every day.

My brother A. makes smoothies with almond butter. I can't remember what else he put in the smoothie but I think blueberries and maybe yogurt? I should ask him. In any event, almond butter seemed like such a unique and delicious option for smoothies. Almond products seem like a good addition to smoothies in general. Since moving to Montreal, I have fallen in love with this smoothie place called  Liquid Nutrition. In my opinion, it is the best "chain" smoothie place ever. I am super excited because I just went to their website and discovered they now have two locations in Toronto. They are both way downtown (so not near where I normally go) but still so cool! I'm happy! I think the company started in Montreal and now is trying to expand. In any event, they have a location on the McGill campus and I go there all the time. Their smoothies are delicious and never taste manufactured or fake. They taste like they are made with real ingredients. My favourite smoothie is called "Douceur" (it's called Sweetness in English but I always - even if ordering in English - just ask for the Douceur because they only have their menu up on the board in French). It used to be called La Vie en Rose which is a better name, but they changed the name (but not the smoothie) maybe a year and a half ago. I once tried another smoothie there which was also good but I can't remember what that one was called. I probably only had it 3 times whereas I've had Douceur so so many times. Douceur is made with banana, strawberries, raspberries, (maybe blueberries too?) honey, ice and almond milk. Typing this is making me want one so badly right now. Liquid Nutrition also sells a lot of supplements and things like that. I've never tried any of those things. I had had their muffins a few times - which were just okay - and a sandwich there once - which was also not amazing but fine. They are primarily a smoothie place and it shows. Anyway, I just love the Douceur smoothie and I really recommend going there if you have the chance.

Secret ingredient

When I moved back to Toronto in the summer of 2009, I had to get a new blender (I had left my previous one in Austin) and I didn't like it as much as my old one. Maybe this was all just in my head but I felt that same drink I used to make in Austin just did not taste as good at all. After trying a few more times, I stopped making it and haven't made them on my own since. I could easily make the Douceur at home but I don't. It probably wouldn't taste as good as the Liquid Nutrition one but still. I should try! I really should get a blender and get back into making them. First, because I am positive there will be no Liquid Nutrition where I live next year and so if I want a Douceur I'll have no choice but to make it; and second, because as almond butter or almond milk attests, there are so many possibilities for smoothies I need to explore!

Thoughts on Texts & more importantly Emojis!

My favourites are all in the first row: the two with blushing cheeks, the winking one and the blowing a kiss

I've never been - and am still not - that big a fan of text messaging. I prefer sending emails to texts because I can type on a computer keyboard much faster than I can "type" on a phone. I have gotten used to them now and I understand their utility but I still don't love them. So many people I know love texting though and send texts all the time! Maybe one of the reasons I've never wholeheartedly embraced texts is that my phone plan didn't have a texting option when texts first caught on. I think the first text I ever received was from A. back when we were both at Berkeley and I was so confused to see a written message from him on my phone :) Wait, it just occurred to me that I would occasionally text in Santiago. So A.'s text wasn't the first I ever received. Texting was pretty popular in Chile. I remember L. remarking once that texting was way more popular in other parts of the world than in North America (that has changed I believe!). So correction: the first text I received in North America was from A. Regardless, as that last year at Berkeley continued on, more friends started to send me texts and it was frustrating to be unable to text them back!!

When I lived in Paris in 2007, my cell phone came with a text option (texting - called either "textos" or SMS -  was really popular in France) and I got more used to sending texts. My British friends C. and S. texted a lot and would always end their texts with an "x" which I really liked. When I came back to North America, and then ended up in Austin, I made sure to get a cell phone with a texting option. I didn't send a ton of texts but I definitely sent them fairly regularly as it caught on more and more. What was super frustrating about that plan though (my carrier was Verizon) was that for some reason whenever I went back to Toronto, my phone refused to send texts. E. had the same plan as me (she lived in NYC at the time) and when she came back to Toronto she could send texts. No fair :) I even called Verizon and they weren't particularly helpful just telling me that they weren't sure why some people could send texts when in Canada and others couldn't.

My pre-iphone phone looked like this. Texting is hard on one of these!

When I moved back to Toronto and got a cell phone with Koodo, I was happy to see that texting was included with all their plans. However, I soon learned, much to my annoyance, that I could not make smiley faces like this :) on my phone. So annoying! Those smiley faces are much more useful than I initially knew they would be. I feel like they could change the whole tone of a message (tone in general can be so difficult to convey over text) in an important way. I can think of countless times when I wanted to put in a smiley face but couldn't and was frustrated!

Finally, at the beginning of last November, so five months ago, I got an iphone. Besides it being great that I can now check my email from anywhere (I especially like checking from bed when my laptop is in the other room) and that I have cool apps like a flashlight app and UNO (which D. and I play a lot!), and that  texting is much easier now that I have a keypad vs. having to type everything with my thumbs on a regular number pad like on my old phone, the hands down main reason I love my iphone is because of the emojis. They are so much fun! Emojis are Japanese which is so unsurprising to me because the Japanese are just so great at things I like like stationery and stickers and clothes and cool kitchen supplies and loving French culture and so of course they'd be great at emojis. I now try to use emojis as much as possible. D. and my mom also love them and so I can use as many emojis as I want when sending them texts. Emojis just add so much to a text. They make them cuter and more fun and sweet. And easier! Why type "I feel like a glass of wine" when you could replace "glass of wine" with an emoji of a glass of wine? My very favourites (and most used) are the blushing ones, the one blowing a kiss, and the one with the sunglasses but I seriously love all the emojis. I love the hearts and the lips & all the random ones. I hope you can use emojis too, and if you can't just enjoy looking at all these pictures. And, be sure to click on this link which features drawings of all the emojis. Super cool!

Here is a screenshot from my very own phone! You can see all the emojis I recently used. You can also see that I asked D. if I could post this on my blog and he obligingly said "Of course"  :)

One of my most used

So this is another screenshot from my phone. See the bubble with the dots, it means D. is writing something and is about to send me a text! In my recently used, you can see more of my favourites like the bathtub, the pink heart with the bow (I think that's my mom's favourite one) and the sunglasses one! 

I included this one to show all the variety: there are animals, flowers, foods, fruits, etc. etc.