a popular attraction still

best way to spend labour day off: traipsing through the cne at night with one of your best friends.

the evening started in two good ways: 1) boozing at amanda's downtown apartment while watching bad reality tv (the drink of choice being, of course, a concoction of our own making years ago: the "mandacait", a combination of peach schnapps and cranberry juice), and being handed free unlimited midway passes by some stranger while waiting in line at the ex. no entry fee? score!

although suspicious of free goods, they turned out to be legit, and so amanda and i were set loose in the cne. we tried to get into the casino to gawk at the poor fools being parted from their money (the casino ended up being closed - an hour early, mind you - when we went back later) before getting sidetracked by the arts & crafts hall, where we ran amok oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over things while attempting to keep tight reins on our wallets. we both fell in love with pylon's "string dolls", and agreed to get a matching pair of our mutual favourite, "dark boy" (he's the last one in the first row here). so freakily cute! seriously, those things were to die for. i wanted to buy a bunch - for myself and as gifts - but at $11 each, uh, one would have to do. (my dark boy is currently attached to the zipper on my shoulder bag, where he will stay and look adorable)

we even did traditional cne junk food, ice-cream waffle sandwiches and caramel apples rolled in peanuts; stopped just short of a bucket of mini donuts. even poutine was under consideration at one point, though amanda ended up getting some french-fry concoction with sour cream, grated cheese and green onions. (i played it safe and stuck with falafel)

thankfully, there was no vomiting on the midway for us, since we were both kinda killjoys when it came to that sort of thing -- amanda wouldn't go on any "spinny" rides, and i refused to set foot on anything that went a) up in the air and/or b) upside down. plus we were both too smart to waste our money on carnival games - i argued that any stuffed animal i won would just have to be donated to goodwill by the end of the month anyway - so we ended up doing a lot of walking, talking, and looking at things, which did us well. we're easy like that.

here there be photos!


amanda and i walking the midway in the early evening. trendy downwards myspace bff shot!


sign: "physically or mentally challenged guests may find this ride unsuitable." i am saddened by this.


amanda, plus a pair of giant cartoon hooters. is nice!


nighttime midway on the horizon, walking back from the casino area. i'm a sucker for things all lit up after dark.


upwards angle shot of the ferris wheel, one of the gazillion midway rides i would not set foot on. (the last time i did so - and it was a tiny ferris wheel - i ended up screaming so loudly after one rotation that they stopped the ride to let me off)


amanda and i showing off our matching dark boys, being cool beans.



excitable double-chin alert!


quoth amanda: "you can't look emo on a merry-go-round"


taken at the photo booth in bathurst station on the way home. we're retarded.

last night was also delivery time to amanda's place, as she's been the recipient of a number of music-related memorabilia that i've been getting rid of before my move. this includes: a six-foot tall moist uk subway poster from 1995; sean kelly's first acoustic guitar, smashed to bits by a drunken neil leyton (i had it mounted on my living room wall as an art piece); and the infamous "alimony lamp".

amusing little story behind that last one: see, a couple years back, i was dating a musician. that's hardly anything new for me these days, but at the time, it was one of my first occasions of legitimately dating someone in a rock band -- and, moreover, this particular musician was a former member of a 90's indie band that was one of my absolute favourites. i'd actually had a band photo with his 25-year-old self on it pasted up on my bedroom wall for some time before we'd ever met. (from this information, one could assume that there was a bit of a creepily large age gap betwen us, and one would be correct -- he was 32 and i was 20) so, you can see how this would be a huge omgwtf deal for me. it was also kind of a testament to how much my life was slowly becoming like a surreal tv movie. hello, entirety of 2005!

anyway, so of course said musician broke up with me, broke my heart, it took me the better portion of a year to forgive him for it, etc. etc. but the week before he dumped me over the phone (was still in love with his ex, couldn't do another relationship at this point in time, blah blah fucking blah), he'd picked up a gift of an oriental hanging lamp for me. then, of course, came breakup time, so i never received my lamp (nor was i really thinking about it much in between crying so hard it felt like i was being kicked in the ribs). after the initial few months of icy excommunication passed, we were once more in contact, though that was more due in part to the fact that he'd just joined one of my beloved local indie bands (and so i couldn't avoid him even if i tried). then the whole issue turned to the fact that he still had this lamp of mine, and that i "should come by and get it sometime", and i of course kept taking that to be some ploy to get me back in his bedroom, and even kind of doubted the existence of said lamp. but the lamp actually did exist, and i did finally get it, although it was after i eventually fell for the aformentioned possible ploy. he was pretty. i was weak. bah.

so the lamp's been in my possession ever since, hanging from a hook on my ceiling, and it's actually pretty nifty when you turn it on (the bulb is inside, so the entire lantern lights up and glows red). alas, it's one of those things that i know i can live without - and trust me, that sums up pretty much everything i own, no matter how much sentimental value - and so i've since bequeathed it upon amanda who, upon seeing it, exclaimed, "oh my god, is that the lamp??" so yeah, the alimony lamp (nicknamed as such ever since i wryly referred to it as "the last of the alimony") is now in her possession. fab.

okay, it's now four minutes past midnight and i'm crashing out.

p.s. girl on the subway last night got mad at her boyfriend when she caught him checking out my ass. haha

[ music | missing persons, "walking in l.a." ]