Playing the lottery

Canada's Biggest Lottery

My first real introduction to lotteries was in the Babysitters' Club (BSC) Super Special #5 California Girls! which I read as a kid. The babysitters win the lottery in the amount of $10,000 (I think... I don't have the book in front of me to check (it's in my house in Toronto but I do own a copy :) ) and decide to go on a trip with Dawn, my favourite babysitter who is originally from California, to California. I don't remember much more about the book - winning the lottery was only the premise for them going on the trip and wasn't a part of the rest of the book -  but when I was thinking about this blog post one of the first things that popped into my head was when the BSC won the lottery.

I go through phases with lottery buying. M.'s partner N. says that he only buys lottery tickets when he's really happy or really sad. His rationale is that when he's happy, it's a good time to play because he's in a good mood, feels optimistic and maybe he'll actually win. When he's really down, playing seems like a good idea because maybe he'll win and then feel way better and if he loses, well everything else is going badly so why would he win the lottery? The reasons I purchase lotto tickets changes. I know my dad occasionally buys a ticket, especially when there's a big jackpot, so that's how I originally got in to buying them too. I also started buying tickets more regularly once I met D. as he liked to buy them. For a while there in the winter of 2012 I think we were buying Lotto Max tickets almost every week just because the jackpot was so high. After weeks of losing - or occasionally winning a free ticket but nothing more, no jackpot for us - we stopped playing. This past fall, however, our lottery buying came back with a vengeance. It was sparked by Lotto Max having a huge jackpot that started at about $40 million and just kept growing until it was $50 million. Unfortunately, again, aside from two free tickets, we haven't won the jackpot. 

Lotto Max and Lotto 649 are the two big lotteries in Canada. Lotto Max's draw is every Friday night and 649's draws are Wednesday and Saturday nights. I always go for the quick pick and just let the machine choose my numbers. D. usually does too but one time he picked his numbers and used a combination of our birthdays, and my niece E.'s birthdays. Sadly we didn't win with that either, so now he's back to letting the machine give us numbers. Until a few weeks ago, my lottery buying was limited to Lotto Max and occasionally Lotto 649. Then a client I saw at work told me he had won $75,000 (the top prize) on a $3 Lucky Horseshoe scratch ticket. A few days later, I found myself buying a scratch ticket for the first time. I figured since there was a relatively recent winner of the top prize in Lucky Horseshoe I should try something else and so I picked Cash for Life. You can buy Cash for Life scratch tickets for $1, $2, $4 and $10. The best prize out of these tickets is, respectively, either $100, $200 $400, or $1000 a week for life. I am embarrassed to say that over the past two weeks I've probably bought about 6 tickets - a few $2 ones, a few $1, a few $4 ones and D. bought me one $10 ticket on my birthday. For all that scratching, all I've won is $3. I got $1 from a one dollar ticket and $2 on a two dollar ticket. D. says I look like I'm having so much fun when I scratch tickets and I do enjoy it but I am annoyed I haven't won more. These tickets always make you think you're so close to winning - you have to get three of the same thing in a game to win it; I've gotten two LIFE symbols so many times but the elusive third one is probably only on 1 in a million tickets or some other really bad odds - and then you lose. Twice I've thought I won $1000 (which I'd gladly take) only to realize that I momentarily mistook $100 for $1000 and I didn't win. I was worried buying lotto tickets has gotten out of hand so I've told myself I can now only buy tickets once a month. Writing this paragraph has made me want to go out and buy a scratch ticket so badly but I am going to resist :)

So addictive!!

I've long fantasized about what I would do if I won the lottery, even at times when I wasn't buying lotto tickets. Back in August 2009 when I had just come back from a trip to South Africa, I decided that if I won the lottery I would take all my friends and family to the exact same amazing lodge in South Africa I had just been to for a safari. I'd rent out the whole lodge so that everyone staying there would be my favourite people in the world. We would go out on the jeeps in the morning and the evening to see the animals, eat long leisurely meals at night, and the rest of the time just relax. I even went so far as to make a list of who I would bring :) 

We'd go out and look at the animals

And stay here!

While I would still consider doing this if the jackpot were big enough, now I am much more practical (and perhaps boring or realistic) about what I'd do if I won. I honestly can't even fathom what I'd do with a jackpot like $50 million. (I read an article recently about a lawyer in Saskatchewan who won $14 million in the lottery. He said he's going to keep working and just carry on with his life. I'd definitely keep working too but it'd be so amazing to know you would never need to worry about money ever again.) I'd be thrilled to win $10,000. I've thought more about what I would do with that amount of money just because it seems more reasonable and is easier to manage. D. thinks people in small towns have a better chance of winning Lotto Max - he bases this on that Lotto Max winners are often from small towns or suburbs as opposed to being from Toronto, Montreal, etc. - so he wants us to keep buying our tickets where we live now and in other small towns in Ontario.  All I can do is keep hoping that one month we will win.

D. and I would kiss like this for the camera if we won... not :)

Like a river in Toronto

The Marne river by Cezanne

I realized after I had already put up my last post that I should have included rivers as I have lots to say about them too. So this post will be about them.  I most love rivers in cities but rivers in the countryside are very nice too. Beaupreau - the little town in France where I went on exchange back in the winter/spring of 1999 - had a little river which ran through it and sometimes I'd go to the grounds of the castle (Beaupreau had this very nice castle with lovely grounds anyone could go to. I never went inside the castle, however, and I'm not sure anyone could) and sit on the banks watching the river. During this time I was listening to Natalie Merchant a lot, particularly her song Where I go which talks about sitting and watching the river flow by. I liked knowing I did that too.

Beaupreau's castle and the little river

My friend F. who I met when she was in an English class I taught in Paris lives with her husband (and now twin daughters) in a little town outside Paris called Le Perreux-sur-Marne. It is easily accessible by RER train from Paris and I've gone to her apartment several times since I first met her in 2007. Their place is a fairly short walk from the Marne river, which is a tributary of the Seine and a lovely river in its own right. After we'd eat a big and delicious lunch, F., her husband S., our other friend G. and I would all take a long walk along the Marne river. In the summer (the only time I've ever seen the river) it is a really pretty greeny colour. The whole setting was very peaceful and idyllic and it really instilled in me a new love of country rivers.  

The Marne

My favourite river in the world is the Seine, mostly because it goes through Paris. I like rivers going through the middle of cities because I mentally map out the city and consider its various neighbourhoods based on which side of the river they are on. The Seine is a lovely river to walk beside; and while it is usually a brown or grey colour I still think it's perfect. The Thames river in London is really cool too. I also think it's good for walking beside and I like it's location.  One river I wish I knew better is the Danube. When I was 16 I went to Budapest with my parents and the Danube river flowing through the city dividing Buda and Pest was pretty, and reminded me of Paris in the sense of the river demarcating the city. I hope to go back one day and walk along its banks.

The Danube & Budapest

Toronto has two rivers - the Humber and the Don - but truth be told I often forget about them. I think it's because the Humber is in the west part of the city and the Don is in the east and I guess I spend most of my time in the middle. E.'s parents used to live near the Humber river and so I think we went there a few times back when we were 13 but I haven't been there since. A few years ago I saw some pictures of hers she had taken by the Humber river on New Year's day and they were really pretty and cool. There was lots of snow and the river looked really nice. Just before leaving Austin in June 2009, I went to see the Scottish band Camera Obscura. During one song they played which was off their new album and which I had never heard before I was pretty sure the singer was saying something about a river in Toronto and I both thought that was cool and kind of odd. Mostly just because in terms of bodies of water, Toronto is associated with the lake, not its two rivers. But alas, when I got home that night I did some googling and sure enough, the line from their song Forests and Sands was: "If the blood pumping through my veins could freeze like a river in Toronto then I'd be pleased." While odd, I do think it's cool they wrote that line; although true be told I am not sure the rivers actually do freeze the whole winter or even some of the winter. In any event, maybe given that I do like rivers, I should try to walk along the banks of the Don and Humber sometime.

The Humber River in Toronto - it looks so pretty!

To sum up my thoughts on rivers, I do prefer the vastness of lakes and oceans. I like how with oceans lakes, all one can see out to the horizon is water and I love how the water colour reflects the sky. It's nice to be able to easily see across to the other sides of rivers though, and they can be very pretty. They are also great for going for walks along. Plus, as I will talk about in my next post, I love bridges that go over rivers and I love cities with rivers, Paris most of all.  

So idyllic. 

Lakes & Oceans

This is an ORK poster which I really want. I love it. 

Having grown up on Lake Ontario (although truth be told I didn't see the lake all that often - which is part of the reason I'd love to live near the lake or in a condo with a view of the lake when I move back to Toronto but I digress...), my loyalties have to lie with that lake. Of the Great Lakes it is my favourite. But Lake Huron is a very close second. I first loved Lake Huron when I went to this camp on the Bruce Peninsula during the summer of 1996. The camp would take us swimming in Lake Huron and I also got to go out sailing on the lake once and it was a really exhilarating experience. One of the counsellors who was an experienced sailor took us out on a windy day. The water was quite choppy but it was so much fun. I've only seen Lake Michigan briefly and while I have seen Lake Erie at least a few times, it never made much of an impression on me. I am sure it would though if I were to spend more time near it or see it from a high up vista and be reminded how big it is. It is Lake Superior that I most want to see. It is the largest and deepest of the Great Lakes and I really want to stand in front of it and hopefully swim in it one day.

Sometimes I stop to think about how Toronto is on a Great Lake and it makes me really happy. Every time I see a map of North America I am always reminded and amazed at how big the Great Lakes truly are. I love how all of the Great Lakes (well mostly I am thinking of Ontario and Huron but I am sure it applies to the others too) look like the ocean. My dad belongs to a golf club in the east end of Toronto located on these cliffs overlooking Lake Ontario. I love going there because the view is so lovely and because Lake Ontario looks exactly like an ocean. Back in March 2010, C. came to visit me in Toronto and we went to the Beaches and sat on a bench along the boardwalk and looked out at Lake Ontario. C. is a born and bred Californian (I feel like this fact is an important one because C. has lived next to the Pacific almost all of her life and so knows what oceans look like) and she remarked that the lake looked exactly like the ocean. Perhaps the best part about living in Owen Sound right now is its proximity to the Lake Huron coast. Even more so than with Lake Ontario, I think Lake Huron looks like an ocean. With Lake Ontario, depending on the day/weather, you can sometimes see across to New York state on the other side. With the part of Lake Huron I've been to, even on the clearest of days, you can't see Michigan. Throughout September and part of this month too, D. and I have been going to Sauble Beach on Lake Huron (the second longest fresh water beach in the world after Wasaga Beach which is on Georgian Bay) on a fairly regular basis, and I have seen the lake be much like the ocean in that it has different moods. A few times we were there it was very choppy and the waves were really big; other times it was calm. All times it was only the lack of the scent of salt in the air that convinced me I wasn't standing on the shores of an ocean.

Another thing I like about lakes is that you can refer to a specific lake as "the lake" in the same way we say "the city." Except for in this post, I never call Lake Ontario anything other than "the lake." That's just what it is, and I'm sure that's the same for anyone who lives on lakes. K., who grew up in Penticton, BC which is on two lakes, told me once that she likes lakes more than the ocean and I was shocked. How could anything compare to the ocean? But now, I kind of get it. Although that's mostly because Lake Huron reminds me of the ocean. I'd still take the ocean over a lake though, and most definitely I prefer oceans to small lakes.

Instead of Lake Huron, this looks like it could be somewhere in the Caribbean! 

I like the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans equally. Back when I lived in California I probably would have said I prefer the Pacific but I have been to so many cool places on the Atlantic ocean that I like it just as much. I love the way the ocean's colour depends on the sky, I love how it is sometimes calm and sometimes choppy (I could sit and stare at the ocean and its waves for days), and I love sea breezes and the smell of salt. Some of the things I just listed apply to the Great Lakes too but the big thing oceans have over lakes, even the Great Lakes, is their size. Sometimes the size of the ocean, especially the Pacific, can be intimidating but I mostly think it's the size that makes oceans so wonderful. I love how you can't ever see the other side of the ocean. In March during my first year at Berkeley, so back in 2003, I spent the night at N.'s house in the Sunset district of San Francisco before going home for spring break the next day. N., her brother S. and I went out to Ocean Beach at night. It was dark so we couldn't see well but I still loved just smelling the salt air. I remember we talked about how if we just kept going west from there, all the way across the Pacific, we'd hit Japan. That distance is both exciting and slightly terrifying in its vastness.

The vastness of the ocean...

The last way I want to compare lakes and oceans is in terms of swimming in them. One of my favourite  (although I find parts of it so frustrating) books is Ann Patchett's Patron Saint of Liars and I remember the main character lived in LA for a time and loved to go swimming way out in the ocean at night. (Interesting side note: I was happy to discover when I read Ann Patchett's memoir Truth & Beauty that she swims lengths regularly). I'm scared to swim in the ocean at night (the possibility of a shark attack and also how the infiniteness of the ocean seems magnified in the dark) but I love swimming in it during the day. I love floating on the surface and being carried by gentle waves, and I like smelling the salt (and I like the curls that form in my hair when I've been in the ocean and let it air dry) and I like wearing goggles and diving beneath the surface and sometimes seeing little fish. Swimming in lakes is fun too and can feel refreshing but, oddly enough since you'd think salt might leave some sort of salty residue on my skin, I more feel the desire to take a shower coming out of a lake than out of the ocean. My favourite part about swimming in the ocean or a lake is the feeling that you're in something natural and timeless (this sounds so crunchy but it's true) and that's a feeling you just can't get in a pool.

One final shot (courtesy of D.) of Lake Huron from Sauble Beach.

The wonders of wine

My parents have always drunk wine and so while I would have the odd sip growing up, it actually wasn't until I studied abroad in Chile in 2005 that I really began liking wine. Chile has especially good red wine and I started buying it - and drinking it - regularly. When I came back to Berkeley for my last year of undergrad, I enjoyed buying wines from Chile or Argentina if I were having people over. When I lived in Paris in the winter and spring of 2007, I discovered the wonders of rosé. I absolutely adore rosé wine (especially from France, but most will do) but I love red and white wine too. During the dark, cold months I crave and drink red wine. I drink more white and rosé in the warmer, lighter months; however, this summer I found myself drinking quite a bit of red so who knows? It's really impossible for me to say which I prefer. I think I like them all equally, even if I do drink red more than the others. Here are some of my favourite kinds of wine. For white, I love sauvignon blanc both from France and from New Zealand. I also love Vouvray (from France) and Sancerre (from France again). I also like Italian pinot grigio and I always like pinot gris whenever I have it. For red, my favourites are Malbec (from Argentina), red wine from Sicily (I don't know if red wines from there have a name but they are very good) pinot noir (from anywhere but especially French ones) and cotes du rhone (France.) I am happy to try and drink many others though. I am not at all a wine expert nor do I know a lot about wines beyond the main wine regions of the world, their famous varieties, etc. I can definitely not identify different ingredients (like when people say "this tastes like it has a hint of strawberry, etc."); although I do like reading descriptions of wines when they say things like that. I mostly just enjoy drinking wine and visiting vineyards.

A selection of roses for you to try :)

On Labour Day weekend this year, to celebrate D.'s birthday, we went on a wine tour in Niagara-on-the-Lake which is an area near Niagara Falls and the main wine growing region in Ontario. We had a great time and the wine tour was so fun! The tour consisted of a van, and a nice driver who drove us to four different wineries over the course of an afternoon. We had a long and big tour of how they make the wine, etc. at the first place and then just wine tastings at all of the subsequent wineries. I had never been a big fan of Niagara wines before but I think that's just because we weren't tasking the right ones. Our favourite wines from that day were the rosé from Ravine Vineyard and the riesling from Between the Lines Winery. I never liked riesling in the past because the ones I had were all from Germany and all were just too sickly sweet. The owners of Between the Lines Winery are German and the man giving us the wine tastings explained that the LCBO (liquor stores in Ontario) only carries sweet rieslings but that they don't have to be that way. The riesling I had there was truly delicious. Wine tasting is such a fun activity. Vineyards are beautiful places - they always seem green and warm and inviting. And since I love wine, it's a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. I've been fortunate enough to visit some vineyards around the world and I have always had a wonderful time.

When L. and I studied abroad in Santiago, Chile we took a bus over the Andes en route to Mendoza, Argentina (literally crossing the border in the middle of the night - the Argentine border control officer stamped my passport with the day before's date because it was around 2 am and I guess he hadn't updated his stamp yet) which is the most famous wine region in Argentina. It was the first weekend of March - so the equivalent to Labour Day weekend here - and the weather was perfect. Mendoza is a lovely city and the surrounding countrysides and vineyards are gorgeous. L. and I went on a wine tour which was lots of fun. Ever since that trip I have been into  Argentine red wine - Malbec is the type of wine grown near Mendoza - and I hope to one day go back there.

Early last January, my parents and I visited Marlborough the famous wine growing region near the top of New Zealand's south island. Wine regions are just gorgeous everywhere! Marlborough was sunny, green, and just all around mesmerizing. I loved it there and wished we could have stayed longer. We went for lunch at this lovely vineyard which had a great restaurant. I love the distinct taste of Marlborough's Sauvignon blancs (I love French sauvignon blancs too but I find NZ's very interesting) and it was super cool to actually be in the region where they are grown. So yes wine tasting is a very pleasant way to spend a few hours. I'd love to go wine tasting in Italy and France too and hopefully one day I will.

Here is a picture I took of a vineyard in Marlborough. A perfect day.

When D. and I lived in Montreal, we would usually buy fairly cheap red wine (close to $10 or just over) from Chile. There was also this good Italian red from Sicily that was amazingly under $10. I would spend more on rosés and whites but I still tended to look for the cheaper wines. Maybe it's because I am now getting paid or because we are used to the excellent (and more expensive) French and Italian wines my dad usually buys (and kindly often gives us a bottle of), but since the end of June and showing no signs of stopping we've been drinking almost exclusively French or Italian. As exemplified above, I know and love wines from all over the world. But I do have to admit that France and Italy probably make the best wine in the world. So while during the long winter months (that are creeping ever closer) I will likely still end up buying some wine from Chile and Argentina, for now I am enjoying this French and Italian kick. 

How I love France & its wines

One more of Marlborough... 

The City

Note to readers: For most of the past (almost) five (a long time!) years, I have written on this blog at least twice per month. I really appreciate you reading it! This month, however, was very busy (this whole summer has been good, but has gone by quickly and has had a lot of adjustments: new job, new daily schedule, new place to live, etc.) and writing this two blog posts was unfortunately not possible this month, and perhaps won't be happening in the fall. I still love writing, and I want to keep this blog. I am just unsure right now whether I will be writing once or twice per month from now on. I will at least be writing once per month.

Now, moving on to my topic this week - "the City." I have wanted to write about this for a long time. I remember once when I was a young teenager (13 or 14) I was outside of Toronto in some small town in Ontario on a school trip and I said to a friend "I just want to go back to the city." I have always been a city girl, but the older I got the more I realized that the meaning of 'the city' is relative. I imagine that to the surrounding areas/suburbs/further out more rural towns of bigger metropolitan areas or cities, that main city is "the city."

I guess it was probably the show Sex and the City which first made me realize that just because I referred to Toronto as "the city" it wasn't the only "the city" around. Even though I am from Toronto and prefer it to New York, I still have to say that New York (Manhattan) seems like the quintessential and ultimate "the city". The skyline, the density, its fame around the world, its distinctiveness from Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx - for all these reasons  I just feel like the term "the city" really matches New York.

The boundaries of "the city" can also be hard to tell. A few weeks ago I was speaking with a client who told me he had a lawyer from "the city". Given that we were speaking in a courthouse approximately 2 hours 15 minutes northwest of Toronto, I wasn't positive Toronto was the city he meant. So I said "you have a lawyer from...?" and he said "Toronto" in the tone of voice that slightly implied I was an idiot for not knowing that "the city" = Toronto. I always thought it was only people who actually lived in Toronto or in the close suburbs (close is not 2 - 2.5 hours away) who referred it as "the city" but I guess I stand corrected, at least in the case of this one man.

In June 2006, my last month in Berkeley, S., K. and maybe L. had all read or were about to read John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley about his road trip across and around the United States with his dog Charley. I thought it sounded good then but I always have a long long list of books (and literal piles of books) to read and that one hasn't yet made it to the top of my list. S. told us that John Steinbeck wrote something about how when people say "the city" they really mean San Francisco. It's true that most people in the Bay Area think of and refer to San Francisco as "the city."(Although what about Oakland? It's on the Bay too and it's also a city!) But I never liked calling it that, mostly because I think that in each person's vocabulary there should only be one "the city" and for me it was Toronto. I also don't think there is just one "the city" in the world, despite what I wrote above about Manhattan. I do think that was probably the original but I think it's great our world has so many amazing cities that are all worthy of being known only as "the city."

I love full (or almost full) moon shots

The phrase "the city" conjures up excitement, tall buildings, lots of people, many different neighbourhoods - all things I don't find (and consequently miss a lot) in small towns. I have now lived in a small town for 2 months and it's pleasant and nice in a lot of ways but do I miss "the city".

What to make for lunch

I love lunch. I am always so hungry in the middle of the day so it comes at the perfect time. I also like typical lunch foods like sandwiches and salads, and going out for lunch is one of my favourite meals to eat out. I have never loved (nor, until recently, been particularly good at) making lunches. Luckily for me, my mom made my lunch until I was 18 and graduated from high school so I never had to make it then. I can't really remember what I did for lunch in either Berkeley or Austin but I know I didn't often eat big lunches or I would go out for lunch with friends. I rarely made lunch. Throughout my first two years of law school I ate relatively little at lunch. I'd have an apple, two mini light babybel cheeses, and an energy/power bar. In retrospect I can't believe that's all I ate but at the time I didn't want to buy (and there weren't good places) something every day and I didn't want to make lunch. Plus, I felt that eating less at lunch let me justify eating more at dinner.

But then last fall, I accepted that I was always really hungry at lunchtime, I no longer liked energy/power bars (not sure what exactly turned me off them but I don't like them anymore), and an apple and two small cheeses was not enough. Around the same time, D. and I decided we needed to start making lunch. For a while I emailed friends for lunch suggestions and did some googling (I googled: easy lunch suggestions) and we were really good about making lunch. We settled on turkey wraps (very good and easy to make: just a wrap, lettuce, corn, tomatoes and turkey) and were quite diligent about making them for a few months. Our good efforts then kind of trailed off (making lunch every day - though it sounds like it should be easy - can be hard! especially when lunch can be bought) but have started again since we moved at the end of June. Eating a proper lunch (so more than an apple and two babybel cheeses) is a necessity at work. I feel like I'm even hungrier at lunch at work because I'm usually running around and/or in court all morning. (While writing this post I also realized that when teaching English in Paris I would eat lunch every day too. I think working in the sense of interacting with other people expends more energy (and thus makes me hungrier) than sitting studying for school the way I did the last three years.)

The last few months before I left Montreal I went to this cafe called Resonance regularly. It was really close to where I lived, had a relaxed and nice atmosphere, and had really good food. I particularly liked their chili and also this sandwich they made which they called "The Thai." I liked it so much that I made note of all the ingredients (there weren't a lot) and decided I would start making it once I left Montreal. I am happy to announce that I have done just that. I am the type of person who once I like something, can eat it over and over and over again. (I can do this for breakfast and lunch - for dinner I prefer to have a few different options, but even then I usually eat one of five different options each night). Therefore, I have eaten my version of the Thai sandwich every single weekday in July. I plan on continuing to eat it in August too, and will probably eat it until I get sick of it and just can't eat it every day anymore. It's not that odd for me to eat the same thing every day for lunch as back in high school, I would eat the same lunch (that my mom so nicely made me) every day: a peanut butter sandwich on a bagel, cucumber slices and an apple. I think eventually, maybe in September, I'll have to come up with something else for D. and I to eat for lunch. Maybe we'll go back to turkey wraps? But in the meantime, I have always wanted to take pictures of each step as I was cooking, like they do on food blogs. And now I'm doing it!

Here are all the ingredients: almond butter, snack size dill pickles,  sriracha sauce and coconut flakes.

First put almond butter on both pieces of bread. 

 (One thing Resonance did that I have not yet tried is make the sandwich on all different kinds of bread. So sometimes it was served on a baguette, sometimes just plain whole wheat bread, etc. I have only ever made it on whole wheat or multigrain bread.)

This picture encompasses two steps: first, put the sriracha sauce (I only put it on one piece but if you really like hot sauce put it on both) on one piece, and then cut the pickles in half and put them on one piece. 

Last sprinkle the coconut flakes over both pieces.

And finally put the sandwich together and cut it in half. 

It doesn't take long to make this sandwich and it is delicious! Enjoy and happy lunches!

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