The story of the American Apparel sale and the greatest store in the world

Hiii, happy late Thanksgiving. On Thursday I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving until Mom called me in the evening and told me.

Yesterday I went with Kara from 3rd floor and her boyfriend Indra to a huge American Apparel rummage sale. It was a much bigger deal than I thought. To get there we took the subway to King and walked through the theater district and a place with a bunch of restaurants with people standing outside saying "bonjour, miss." We knew we were at the right place when we saw the massive lineup:

It was really, really long. Longer than it appears in the photo. Like Target on Black Friday. Holy crap, we said, that is a very long line of people. But we got in line anyway. We stood around for awhile and eventually I ran up to the front to scout it out. It was in the basement of this building, and apparently inside there was also some woodworking thing going on. I asked some girls who had just come out with shopping bags how it was. They said they had been there since 9am and it was crazy inside, people pushing and grabbing stuff and buying things and then re-selling them. But the prices were amazing. I went back and reported to Indra and Kara. We waited for awhile longer and noticed some people getting discouraged and leaving. Kara and I devised a brilliant plan. We decided to run up to the front, and then walk back along the line slowly, talking loudly about how apparently there's NOTHING good left and everything cool had been taken. The people will surely drop like flies, we thought. So we went up to the front. It was kind of a cool building and we decided to check out the inside a bit before carrying out our plan. There was no one at the door and we just walked in. We checked out the woodworking thing and admired some lovely drawer handles. There was a sign for the sale pointing at the basement stairs. We peered down, thinking there must be some kind of security or something, it wouldn't be that easy to get in. Some girls came out with shopping bags. I knew there was some kind of ticket system going on so I asked if you needed a ticket or something to get in. They said no, as long as you're in the building you're good-- they were taking tickets at the door. Whaaaaaat? We went down to the basement and we were in. Kara texted Indra and he came and joined us. We considered going back and waiting in line cause we felt kind of guilty, but we didn't. The cheap hipster clothes were calling to us. It was crazy and most of the good stuff was gone, but I ended up getting two jackets, gold and silver ($18 each), red tights ($2), yellow tights($2), and the comfiest gray sweatpants ever ($10). Including tax, it came out to $56.50. The regular price of ONE of the jackets is $62. Woot! In fact, I added everything up, and if I had bought that stuff at normal price it would come out to $194 plus tax. I didn't take any pictures in the basement, but I found this one on a Toronto Tumblr blog. It looked like this, except EXPLODED, with a million people.


After that we walked to Kensington Market for MORE SHOPPING. We went to Blue Banana Market, which is the coolest store EVER. It is amazing. They have stuff from lots of different sellers, from local designers to Paul Frank. It's giant inside, plus there's an upstairs. It's like the best of Etsy plus non-pretentious Urban Outfitters, combined with a candy store and multiplied by a million. It is everything that I love, in one store. Some things are expensive, others are super affordable, and there is SO MUCH STUFF. If any of you ever visit me, we are for sure going there. Because it is amazing. I will definitely be doing some Christmas shopping there.

Random News

Today has been very productive. I got up at 10:30, which is extremely early for a Sunday, went for a run, bought toothpaste and shower gel (on sale!), took a shower, had breakfast (lunch), went to Pratt library with Rifqi and studied Arabic for four hours, went out to sushi with Rifqi, Naufil, and Kara, practiced violin in Marg Ad for an hour, and helped Rifqi clean his "fish bowl" (tupperware... he does have a legit fish bowl, but there's a male beta in it named McLovin and McLovin kept biting the two female betas he got... so we transferred the females to a tupperware container). And after I poast I'm going to do some more Arabic. Because there is always more Arabic to do.

I just opened two of those tiny packs of Skittles and neither of them had any purple ones in them! wtf?! Oh well, everyone knows the red ones are the best anyway.

The day before yesterday I saw the hugest Burwash Bug I've ever seen. Running across my floor. It was not okay. I've seen little ones, maybe an inch long, that are creepy but easy to smush and be done with, but this one was like the one in the picture. HORRIFYING. About three inches long, with a million creepy-ass legs and running waaayyy faster than any bug should run. I screamed and Rifqi smashed it with a shoe. Yay Rifqi!

Also the day before yesterday, I went to a Mario party in RJ (one of the residence halls) and destroyed people in Super Smash Bros (N64 version) and diddy kong racing, which is like Mario Kart but lamer. There was also guitar hero but only one guitar, and ddr but only one dance pad. :\
Afterwards I went back to the south house common room with some people and we watched 10 Things I Hate About You. I've seen that movie a million times, but this is the first time I've figured out why it's named that. It's actually pretty obvious. Anyway, Naufil kept saying "oh my god Erin that girl is EXACTLY LIKE YOU!! AAhahahahahhahaha!! She's such a bitch!!" The fire alarm went off at about 2am. This happens waayyy too often. But we all hung around outside for awhile, and then came back in and finished the movie.

I don't really have any pictures of anything good right now, but I don't like doing picture-less posts. So here's a little shrine dedicated to my favorite cat, who the Claires apparently saw today because they are in Corvallis and who I miss very much.

Pretty Houses

Traditional Japanese houses are SO BEAUTIFUL. I love the sliding doors and big open spaces and mats and floor-to-ceiling windows. My ultimate goal is to live in a house like this. Think of the natural light!







I think Totoro actually originally made me start liking Japanese houses. The house in that movie is awesome. Off the chain, if you will. And guess what! They made a REAL ONE.

Speaking of Totoro, peep these cute Totoro cupcakes.



Click on them to go to their websites, because they are pretty awesome.

In other news, I am pretty much better now, I still have a pretty sore throat but I can talk and swallow things again. Less than a month till winter break!
I went and saw the movie 2012 a few days ago with Rifqi and a few other people. I have mixed feelings about it.
Cons: extremely depressing and traumatizing, two and half hours long, some really lame lines especially near the end
Pros: John Cusack, really good special effects, not boring
We were going to see it at 10:40pm, but that showing was sold out so we hung around in Dundas Square for awhile and saw it at 11:15. They have winter decorations up now, I thought they were kind of weird but kind of pretty.
And here's a lovely washed out by the flash photo of me and a stoned looking Rifqi.
Lawl.

pictures pictures pictures

As most of you probably already know, I have been sick for the past week. And I am still sick. Last night however I finally busted out a fever and so this morning I went to the student clinic and they gave me muchas drogas (they don't really give a damn if you don't have a fever). Soooo hopefully I'll start to get better now?
Anyway, not much has been going on recently except for a whole lot of bedrest and cough drops, so this is a post about the past, not the present. Basically a huge pic-drop of photos that make me a bit nostalgic. I'm too energy-zapped to write anything else so here you go:




















Goooooooooooodddd tiiiiiiimess. I'm going back to bed.

Halloween

Happy November! Look how pretty Con Hall looks with all its ivy turning fall colours. That's where I have sociology! It's supposed to snow on Tuesday. But it might not. I'm pretty sure the REAL snow won't get here for another few weeks or so. Then it won't go away until April, or so I'm told. Good thing I have a badass coat and winter boots now. Also, since Halloween is over, it is officially the Holiday Season! Yaayyyy!

Right now I'm in the Trinity library. Technically Trin is Victoria's rival college, but they sure have a nice library. Naufil and Kara are sitting studiously at a table, but all my tests are over now, so I'm lounging in an armchair and blogging. Ohoho. But after this I'll prolly go over some Qur'an stuff. :/
Last night was Halloween. I spent it with Kara, Elise, Abby, and Paula, who are also from South, Abby's boyfriend, and Paula's friend Ryan from Hamilton, who is a cool drummer guy. We didn't really feel like, uh, playing chess, so we went to dinner and then went trick-or-treating in the expensive Annex neighborhood. Margaret Atwood and Rachel McAdams live in the Annex, but we didn't see them. We may have knocked on their doors though. I guess they're not fans of giving out candy on Halloween. :/ A lot of people did give us candy though, and it was super awesome. Then we went back to res to sort and trade candy, and Abby and her boyfriend left. Then we watched Psycho and The Night Of The Hunter, which is this super, SUPER weird film noir. Mattresses were dragged upstairs to Kara's room and we had a slumber party, woooo! We were all still up at around 3AM, when the fire alarm went off. I think someone in Gate house (next to South) pulled the alarm, or a bong got tipped over or something. So we went and huddled around outside in the cold until the firemen came. Then we went back up to Kara's room and fell asleep in a sugary Halloween candy haze.

It was overall a very successful night. I also wanted to throw in this picture for Marinna of a "Charlie Chaplan" costume that I found at the store in Kensington market where I went to find my Halloween costume.