Survival

Ahhh, the madness is over. Still a little hard to believe, actually. This was the most brutal one yet. I feel like I've said that every time, but after 5 - maybe 6? - 80-100 hour weeks, I feel pretty confident it's true this time.

So now I'll have some time to get to know Toronto and hopefully some new people. But first, I'm really looking forward to my trip home to LA. I can't wait to see everyone (!!!), get some sun, and to be back in a city where I know exactly where to go for whatever I need. And then the weekend after I get back (easter), I'm going to Indy to spend the 3 day weekend with my parents. But I swear, I do intend to get to know Toronto....eventually...soon!

What did I do with my first day all to myself in a long while? Slept in - had a momentary freak out when I looked at the clock at 9am and thought I should be at work - but then went back to sleep. Cleaned up my apartment a little (still needs some work though), went to the gym, met up with Julio, Julia and Greig for a delish Tex-Mex lunch. How wonderful to talk to live people! Not at work! While drinking sangria and eating yummy food! And it was a gorgeous sunny day (still a little cold but the sun was great!) so we walked around a little bit after lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and picking up the odds and ends I'd been missing for the past month. It was great to just have an afternoon to walk around my own neighborhood. I still need to explore the 'hood some more, but I've decided I'm really happy with my choice of apartments. Even though it's smaller than I was hoping, the location is really excellent. And the fact that I was able to move right in without needing any major furniture or decorating...that proved to be way more essential these first two months than a little extra space. With my work schedule this past month, I would have still been sleeping on the floor and using a box as a table. It would have been pretty grim.

The kids at work have been having a lot of fun nights - which I hope will continue now that I've got nights I can actually go out. But so far I've missed go-karting, a night out at a superclub, an insane sounding night at a vodka bar, a concert (I had a ticket to see the Ting Tings but couldn't make it to the show), etc. But the good news is that these fun things all exist here and I will get to enjoy them all soon. =)

I don't have any recent pictures, but here are a couple from my plane ride from London to Toronto when I first moved over... It was a gorgeous clear day and the captain pointed out that we could see Greenland's gorgeous glaciers: