Toronto Update #2

Hi, Everyone! I'm back!

So good to be back in Blogdom. I missed you all so much! I'll have several proper posts about my trip, but I'll give you another rundown:

* surprised my sister's former roommate, whom I didn't tell about our trip. She's the manager of a bookstore, and we moseyed on in, she looked up at the new customers, and there it was - the Surprise! It was fantastic! She surprised me back a few days later when I was riding the subway and someone stood in front of me. I looked up from my book - Surprise! There she was on my same subway car. The law of averages on that one alone is good for a jaw dropper.

* Brad and I spent an evening at a bar with his brother Jeff, who is a kareoke DJ. Had a blast, starting of course with my double shot of Glenfiddich neat. I got up for three songs through the course of the evening, and Brad sang two. Jeff sang a couple himself, demonstrating an impressive octave range.

* met up again with my sister's roomie for coffee. She was being stalked by Steven Page from the Barenaked Ladies. At least, he showed up in three places we went to in the course of an hour.

* visited my friend Donna, whose daughter was my little charge when I worked as her nanny 20 years ago. I lived with them and became extremely close to her and her brother Dave, who was later my roommate. Donna is an exquisite baker - we had cookies sprinkled with edible gold.

* had dinner at his sister Karen's and made plans for the upcoming 50th wedding anniversary

* met up with the woman who stood up for Brad at our wedding. We called her the Attendent of Honor on the program, but really she was the Best Man/Woman. She's a singing turbo boxing lawyer. Did I mention they met at The New School of Drama?

* had dinner with Brad's old friend from the Imperial Six Cinemas. Her 12-year-old son decided all on his own that, since we were coming for dinner, he would wear dress pants and a white shirt. What a sweetie!

* went back to Brad's sister's for a marathon prep afternoon, where she assembled 8 lasagnas and we scanned 80-plus snapshots of their parents' married life for a slideshow

* the next morning I helped my mother-in-law clean and set up before the guests arrived. The 50th Anniversary bash was a crazy crush of people! A wondrous time was had by all!

* the next morning I met my very, very good friend Lisa - my war buddy from the retail trenches of Simpson's Children's Shoe Department - at the GO Train, and we spent the day together. Which sounds like a WHOLE day but felt like a mere hour. Sniff. A teary goodbye later that night, I can tell you.

* our last day in Toronto, we hopped on the Queen streetcar and headed downtown. Met our friends Rick and Andrea for second visits - how decadent. Noticed we kept wandering into bookstores. It's a sickness.

* my wonderful brother-in-law Jeff drove us to the airport for an 8:00 am flight. My totally sweet auntie picked us up at the airport and brought us home to a flipped-out-with-joy dog. My mom and gram were SO glad we didn't decide to stay in our beloved Big City (because they understand how much we miss it. Probably guessed that everyone kept asking us when we were moving back...)

* my sister came over after work and we ordered take-out pizza and had a great visit over dinner.

And now, the couch and the comforter beckons. Time to curl up with my dog who I missed so terribly. Brad is watching his obscure DVDs he snagged in TO. And for me, it's nighty-night.