Look, Ma! I’m Riding the TTC!

When you live in Unionville, you have two choices of transportation if you work in downtown Toronto: drive, or take the GO. Oh, wait, there’s a third option: take the TTC.

But taking the TTC means driving to a subway station and finding (paying for) parking. Sadly, the drive and parking make this option take twice as long and cost twice as much. I suppose TTC is a good idea if working in the downtown core where parking is unreasonably priced, but I don’t work in the downtown core.

7:25AM I’ve been awake for over an hour now. Normally, I’d still be in the shower. Today, I’m taking the subway with my sister. She will drive to the station, pay for parking, then ride down to the core. I’ve got to go further and take a shuttle bus to work. I’m not happy my car is in the shop for touch-ups before it’s returned for inspection and returned. I’ve eaten breakfast and am watching sports highlights while my sister eats and watches House. We’re leaving in five minutes. This is way too much time spent out of bed…

7:37AM My sister’s now driving us to the subway station while I criticize her driving and Tweet in the passenger seat. One positive side to this is we get to take the HOV lane…something neither of us can normally do. I’m a little nervous about not being the one driving, but I’d rather sit back and think about how pleasant my commute will be… And it just hit me that I could be at work by 8:15AM if I drove all the way right now…

9:20AM I’m finally at my desk. As I suspected, it took an extra hour to get to work via TTC. How ridiculous is that? There were delays all the way from York Mills to St. Clair. As I got to the Front and Bay intersection, I watched the shuttle bus leave its post. I had missed it. Instead of waiting for the next one, I decided to walk all the way from Union to CQ. Stupid? Probably. Now I’m sitting at my desk disgusting and unhappy. At least it’s Tuesday. If I don’t get my car tonight, I’m working from home tomorrow. Just sayin’.

Now I’m sneezing profusely. Watch, I’m going to catch another cold from this.

You can call me spoiled. You can call me a brat. I don’t care.

I have two cars and I can drive neither.

Never again.

spaghetti & coworkers

With the last few weeks at (and out of) the office being nothing less than immense stress and anxiety, the department lunch scheduled for Tuesday was impeccably timed. The entire Interactive team made our way through the cold from CQ to The Old Spaghetti Factory. Must have been quite a sight for anyone driving by to see a group of 40 people walking in twos as though we were kindergarten students with a strict buddy system. All we were missing was a rope that had us all attached to each other in case one of us gets lost (or ‘napped).

I, of course, ordered spaghetti and meatballs with strawberry lemonade (basically my boyfriend’s exact meal last time we dined here.) He clearly has better taste than I do. The lunch was long (slow service due to the number of meals) and loud (there was a whole school of kids a partition away.) By the time we returned to the office, we had all committed carbicide and were ready to go to sleep. Imagine how zombie-esque I was when I had to conduct a series of interviews half an hour after we left the restaurant. Yikes!

No more pasta for me for a while. And no more dining out. Too much of that lately!

By the way, did you notice my new Dior shades in the first photo? They are my new major purchase. My new love! Just as Galliano leaves the beautiful world of CD, I step into it. Sigh!