On the bus home tonight, a woman was standing in the aisle near the front of the bus. Nothing to get excited about - she is holding on to a pole on either side of the aisle so that no one behind her can get past without having to ask her to move. Her handbag is over one arm, which happens to be right over me. As her arms slide lower on the pole, the dangling handbag comes to a rest on my lap. Irritated, I push it off. She remains oblivious to all this. Moments later, she shouts out "That food really STINKS! I hate that stinky food, it stinks, the smell stinks" No one is eating anything and nothing smells. Then she shouts "I'm very constipated right now and that stink doesnt help! It stinks". Ah Friday night on the TTC

Well, here it is. it’s 7:51am as I type this, but I’ve been in the building already for a good half hour already. Why Siobhan, you ask, since you don’t start work until 8:30? Let me tell you why. The alarm went off this morning and as usual, I ignored it a couple of times. No biggie. Then all of a sudden, it was 7:48 and I hadn’t even showered, so I did the mad dash out the house – hair wild, eyes still a bit smudgy with yesterday’s mascara, etc. I fumble with my house key, hoping a bus doesn’t zoom past as I attempt to lock the door without being able to see it clearly (as my eyes are closed). A bus comes along as I head towards the stop, so I jog over to it, wincing with every footfall on the pavement (body is not prepared for the impact of running first thing in the morning). I hop on and we speed up to the subway station. A train comes quickly and I make my way towards work in a daze. I pulled out my book to read but I didn’t get very far and then I arrived at my stop. I notice that there aren’t very many passengers (not an abnormal amount but few enough that I am aware of it). As I pass the clock in the little convenience store, I look at it and it reads 7:20. I think, Phew, I’m 10 minutes early, then I look at it again, and I say out loud “Noooooo, 7:20, I’m fucking early, I’m an hour and 10 minutes early, fuuuuuuuck”. I suppose if I heard someone say that I would have laughed but it wasn’t very funny to me. The alarm clock must have been an hour or more ahead – argh! I stumbled up the escalator and into my building, praying that the cafeteria would be open so at least I could get some food and sleep for a bit. It was open so I slouched in, sat down at a table and rested with one hand under my chin. But I couldn’t really sleep in my new company’s cafeteria, could I? Especially since there were employees coming in who apparently start work at that ungodly hour. So I ate a bowl of fruit salad and made my way up to my desk. Once there, with my hot chocolate in tow for energy, I sat down and began writing this little anecdote for your reading pleasure.

Gosh – sorry for the lack of updates since my good news last week. Well I started my new job last Wednesday and things are going well. I am very busy learning all the things I need to learn and sampling all free food that the cafeteria has to offer (yes, all breakfast, snacks and lunches are free for me at my new job – woohoo!) Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all busy, tiring days and I pretty much came home and flaked out. Saturday I ventured into Yorkdale mall to meet up with my parents as they were passing through Toronto – what a nightmare that place is! Saturday night I saw a great band at the El Mo – which looks great! I hadn’t been there in years and the new décor on the first floor made it into a cosy little venue. The band I saw were called Simeon Ross (I think it’s the lead singer’s name…) and I was duly impressed. I even bought a CD. Sunday night Jay and I went to see Supergrass at Kool Haus, and The Coral opened up for them – it was a good show, the sound was decent as long as you stood in front of the stage and there was a nix mix of people there – the only flaw was that it was Sunday night, we were both tired out from the week, it was Sunday night – you get my drift? There were 2 kids next to me (I say kids – they looked about 15 but they had wristbands on so they were likely around 19) and they were sharing a cigar between them. One guy would light it up, puff away for a couple of minutes, pass it to his friend, he would look at it, smoke it, look at it again, then they would put it out for about 10 minutes, then light it up and begin the ritual again – aside from the smell, it was amusing. I don’t know what they thought they looked like, or who they were trying to impress but it was funny.