Thursday, July 05, 2007

Canadian Romance Blogger Meeting, part III (aka Toronto trip)

So, last time, I stopped the recap on Friday night, when I fell asleep while Ames and Kristie were watching the Fifth Element...

Now it's Saturday morning and I opened my eyes at... 6.30 :( Now, Ames has been very adamant, she wants to sleep in today! So that means, she doesn't want to wake up before 8 or 9am... Hmmm... all right, so back to sleep ^^; Now see, I've never been good at sleeping in... don't ask me why, perhaps habit or something... but usually, the latest I sleep is 7.30am... even on week-end. If I'm tired, I'll just fall asleep earlier at night... So this was real hard for me!

So I try to go back to sleep... and open my eyes at 6.45... 7.05... 7.25...7.55... all right, that is enough!! LOL :P Still too early, so I figured a little music wouldn't hurt and I go look for my mp3 player :P At the same time, I peek out of the window to see the weather outside... It was so dark in the room because of the curtains, it sesemed to me it was gloomy... but turns out it's a really sunny... So the music helps as I go back to sleep and wake up at 8.55... Yay!! But then, Ames and Kristie give no sign of waking up! For a moment, I did think of going to Lacoste on my own and go buy some shirts for my sister, but I got lazy... and figured, I'd go later in the day... So once again, close my eyes... and open them at 9.30... Still no move by Ames or Kristie, but now, I really can't do it anymore... Also, Cindy said they would be in Toronto around 10-11am... so I decided to give my roomates a little nudge and open the TV LOL :P Now, you have to understand, in the past few years, I've really become a fan of tennis LOL :P an although there was no major tournament, there was the Eastbourne tournament which is to prepare the players for Wimbledon and so I was wondering if my favorite player, Justine Henin, has won... so since Friday night, I have been watching the sport channels... but all they would talk about was the hockey draft and baseball... booo!!!

Now it's 10am and Kristie woke up! Yay!! and cell phone ringing! Oh no, Cindy is here! but no, turns out she and Bob just left and should arrive in Toronto in an hour... so this gives us an hour to prepare :D Just before going down, I'm debating whether I should take my purse (which is a small backpack) or my big school bag... hey, we're going bookshopping! Finally, I choose my purse. So at 11am, Ames, Kristie and I were waiting in the lobby and Cindy and Bob walked in at 11.15!! Seriously, Cindy and Bob were so much fun :D From here, you pretty much know what happened from Cindy and Kristie's posts :P So I'll go fast... we went to eat breakfast first, although we walked by the World's Biggest Bookstore (WBB) and got all excited... Bob was really amused LOL :P So after breakfast, we came back to WBB... and it was pictures time. So yeah, Cindy wanted a picture of us in front of WBB and Bob wanted one of us, holding the door handles, ready to rush in :P I was really ready to rush in ^^; So Cindy, Bob, Ames and Kristie took pity on me and let me in LOL :P Now, I have to admit, I didn't really explore the store, just went straight to the romance section. WBB is affiliated with Chapters/Indigo and though it might not be the world's biggests bookstore anymore, Kristie was right as they had lots of "old books"... the ones that I definitively can't find in Montreal... and the bonus? They had the buy 3, get the 4th book free sale!!

So the first book I picked up was the new Kelley Armstrong... then, the second book I found was His every Kisses by Laura Lee Guhrke! Happy dance!!!! And I just went on and went on and went on on finding books :D It helped that Kristie and Cindy were there, cos they gave lots of suggestions :P Seriously, it's really awesome to be shopping with other romance lovers. While we were at WBB, I got a phone call from my sister... So guess what she told me? Do not go to Lacoste! I went with Dad this morning and bought 11 shirts! I'm on a major guilt trip! To tell you the truth, I was quite relieved to hear we wouldn't have to go to Lacoste LOL :P Then, I talked to my mom and she asked what we were doing and I told her we were buying books... and guess what she said? Books, again? Don't buy too much. Now, do anyone else see the irony here? My mom said, Don't buy too much... How unfair is that?!?!?!? when my sister has just bought 11 Lacoste shirts?!? at at least 50$/each... anyway, I just thought it was unfair LOL :P

Anyway, back to WBB... now, the reason why Kristie, Cindy and Ames were laughing at me so much is not only the number of books I found, but how I carried them ^^; See, I've developed this habit of piling up books in my hand... So I'll extend my arm down to my thigh and use my hand as a platform and just pile up the books :P but I'm not really tall... and at the 12th book, I was running around with books piled up to my chest. Finally, I had to put them down while going to explore the fiction and fantasy section. In the end... how many books I bought, you ask? 17 at WBB :D but you know, I had the slowest cash register! First, the lady looked at me as if I lost my mind and then, started ringing the books... I was the first one at the cashier, but end up being the last one with my bags... Afterwards, we went to DMV used bookstore and decided to return to the hotel to leave the books... It was really needed it and at this point, I really regretted not taking my school bag, so back at the hotel, I didn't make the same mistake :P

Afterwards, well you know what happened... we walked up Yonge street, first in the wrong direction, because I was sure that there was a bookstore down there... but when reviewing the list, I couldn't find it... so we turned around and walked up Yonge street... Now, remember that Ames and I walked that street the day before... and we knew that there were many bookstores... but somehow, they seemed so far away :P Finally got to two or three before we ran into the Lesbian parade. The good news is that we didn't get separated by the crowd. At around 3.30-4.00, Cindy and Bob decided to go back... so it was goodbyes :(

Cindy and Kristie said that Ames and I were big shoppers and had so much energy LOL :P I wouldn't say Cindy and Kristie were wrong, but I'm not that much of a shopper in real life... It's just that in Toronto, I was ON A MISSION LOL :P My goal was to get to as many as UBS as possible :P So perhaps I did push a little bit ^^; Sorry ^^;

So after our (Ames, Kristie and me) break at the internet cafe, we continued a little bit and found more UBS and bought more books LOL :P then, we all agreed to take a cab back to the hotel :D I think it was about 5pm... We took a break, looked at the books we bought... it turned out that I wasn't the one who bought the most books!!!! Kristie was leading with 25 books! and I think I had one less, so 24!! Who would have thought!! Then, we read a little, before going out for supper. At this point, you must know that we were all tired, but poor Ames, her foot really hurt and she was definitively limping :( We had a nice supper... and at the end, we realized that we were just in front of WBB!! LOL :P so we went back... You know, just in case we had missed something or the workers had put out new books LOL! and it was a good decision, since there we all came out with more books :P On our way back, we hoped that Indigo in the Eaton Center was still opened, but it wasn't. Again, we went back to our room, read, watch tv... Men in Black was playing. At 9pm, I asked the girls if they wanted dessert, because I was starting to fall asleep and wasn't going to last much longer LOL. So we went down, got dessert (yummy... Kristie and I got brownies with ice cream... while Ames had cheesecake)... It's then, I realized that I got a missed call... and I started to worry, cos I knew it was Chantal calling... since I've emailed her when we were about the internet cafe. The problem is that I didn't have her number to call back and no, I don't have the number display... Ames said not to worry, that Chantal would call back... all right. Once again, back to our room... I think we read and I fell asleep, once again LOL :P

So that's it for part III :P I'll try to put up pictures tonight and the rest of the recap tomorrow:P

Canadian Romance Blogger Meeting, part I
Canadian Romance Blogger Meeting, part II