An unusual day

I had a busy day on Tuesday. I’m pointing it out because it’s unusual. Normally I’m busy in a time-wasting, time-flying sort of way. I usually read the job ads and the obituaries and take care of my pets and walk to Loblaws and pick up a few groceries and walk to Value Village and look for deals and play a few games of Word Twist and Scramble and Bejeweled and look at fabrics online, and poke around on Etsy, and the next thing I know, the day is over.

I should point out that I’m an active player on the iPhone App, Foursquare. If I visit the same places often enough, and check in on my iPhone, I can become the mayor. Currently I’m the mayor of Loblaws, Fabricland, Value Village, Macs Milk and the Royal Bank. (Which is nothing. GC is the mayor of 11 places, including the library, the liquor store, two Thai restaurants, a village and a park.) People can steal mayorships away from other people. You have to check in regularly to hold onto them, so I try to visit all my places every day. These things take time. (There is absolutely no benefit to being the mayor, by the way. I have no idea why it matters to me or anyone else who plays.)

So. Back to Tuesday. First I had to go downtown and sign my security certificate with an employment agency. Then I stopped in at Mags and Fags and looked at the quilting magazines. In one of them I saw that somebody had quilted a cozy for their Smart Car. Then I went even further downtown to a meeting about homelessness. After that I dropped in briefly to the downtown library because I hadn’t been there for a long time and I missed it. Downtown has changed a lot, by the way, since I used to work there. Some stores and restaurants have disappeared, others have sprung up, and more condos are being built. (The more things change, the more they remain the same.)

At 5:30 I met GC at the Code Factory for a wine and chocolate tasting that was sponsored by the IABC. We had been invited by MediaStyle. We had no idea what to expect, other than wine and chocolate. It turned out to be kind of a networking opportunity, which isn’t my strong suit, but I did collect a couple of business cards and some good job searching ideas.

I finally met Ian Capstick, the event’s host and the main guy at MediaStyle. He reminded me a bit of Alex Munter and Andrew King, in that he looks like he’s about seventeen years old but is way more savvy and accomplished than would be possible if he really were seventeen. I liked him, and not just because he gave me free chocolate and wine – that was just the icing on the cupcake, so to speak.

GC and I sampled deeply of the Camino 65% Orange Dark Chocolate and Berringer’s Cabernet Sauvignon. Yummy. They showed videos of local sommeliers explaining how they selected the wine for each chocolate, and there were tasting notes too. That’s why I know that the reason it was yummy was because the hints of fruit in the wine complimented the orange and citrus in the chocolate splendidly.

Other obligations (notably The Dog’s insulin shot) cut short our chocolate and wine tasting, so we didn’t get to try the Camino 80% Extra Panama Dark with the Southbrook Frambroise, or the Camino 71% Bittersweet Dark Chocolate with the sweet and smoky flavoured port.

It was kind of good to get outside of my comfort zone for a bit. Sometimes I feel like I’m growing roots here on my couch.