I’m Canadian. I am supposed to know an awful lot about hockey. The reality is, though, that I know the bare minimum. I know the basics about the rules, enough to get irritated when people are playing badly and to know when a game is exciting. I barely watch hockey, though. Olympic hockey? Oh yeah, I’m all about that, but it only happens every 4 years. I do also have a sort of irrational attachment to the Maple Leafs. They are the Toronto team, but, you know…. The attachment is irrational because I hardly ever watch them, I’ve never been to a game, and I don’t have enough interest in the team to really pay attention to who is playing for them unless we’re doing well in the playoffs or something. Which brings me to the second reason why my attachment to them is irrational: They mostly suck. But still, I have a fond place in my heart for them. I occasionally wear a Maple Leafs shirt and my girl does too. I like knowing when they’re doing well and feeling a little sad when they’re not. I don’t often browse hockey websites like this NHL Forum but it’s not a bad way to keep up with the games and the buzz around players and teams and such. It takes less time than actually watching a whole game to go to a website and look around at what’s happening. The boards over there are actually sort of hilarious as well as being informative. There’s a whole thread about everything that’s Bryan McCabe’s fault – one of the Leafs players…. The list includes girls who wouldn’t put out, snow, vegetables, and war in Iraq. Also hilarious? The guys who whine about the thread being pointless and that McCabe gets too much grief.

*sponsored post*

It’s the perfect food when it’s cold and rainy, and you go over to your friend’s house to study and she takes you out for a delicious lunch, like today. And somehow, it’s still perfect on the steamiest of summer days. I love that it’s so easy to find amazing, delicious Indian food around here. I really want a good recipe for matar paneer, but neither of the girls are all that into Indian food, and it’s silly to just make it for myself. Which is why getting to go out for Indian food with somebody is extra awesome.

In other news, without my girls here, it is so hard to get to sleep. I basically have to read myself into a coma. It’s no fun.

I was away for a few months over the summer, and it has reaffirmed for me how very much I love this city. Growing up I never would have thought, in a million years, that I’d enjoy living in a city. I think part of the reason Toronto works for me is because it is more like a collection of neighbourhoods than the concrete-paved wasteland big cities usually make me think of. We walk easily to one of many parks and playgrounds, to the little produce stalls, to a big grocery store, to the library, to a bookstore, to coffee shops, to diners, to (or, mostly, past) fancy, trendy restaurants, to playgroup. And while many collections of amenities like these exist in many, many other places in the city, the neighbourhood does have its own distinct feel. While most people passing through see some bars and clubs and upscale condos and dismiss it as yuppieville with a few families thrown in, it’s honestly very different from that. Huge numbers of kids live around here. Housing varies a great deal in style, cost, etc., which means broke students and small families (raising hand) and newer immigrants live near comfortably wealthy families and young professionals. It’s not the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in the city, but umm, compare it to anywhere I was this summer in the US, any of the big cities, and we’ve got them beat hands down. I love the contrasts in this neighbourhood: The baby boutique stocking Burberry everything and fancy little handmade French lace dresses half a block from the cheap and awesome Chocky’s where I can get a huge bag of kids basic socks for $5. The Tim Horton’s two blocks from some of the fanciest restaurants in the country.

What I hate? Parking. It’s a freaking nightmare around here.

In the last week, I’ve met the following umm… interesting?… people on the bus or the subway:

The lady who knew which stop I was getting off at the minute I got on, and shouted and talked to me about it the whole way. That was weird, because it was not my regular stop, so she couldn’t just have seen me get off there before.

The guy alternately weeping into his hands and peeking up with a smile to see if anybody was paying attention.

The lady yelling at the top of her lungs at everybody to get up and give her a seat when the train was half-empty.

The guy who kept smelling his hands and then rubbing discarded newspapers on them.

This summer was full of amazing things and I did have a lot of fun. I saw some lovely places down in Texas and on the drive down. But it is SO nice to be back here. I like holding hands with my wife in public and getting basically no reaction beyond the same vague looks other couples get. I like walking to get places. I like seeing my parents and sisters again. I like this city. I like that the chances of any given person having a gun on them is far, far less here.