Toronto, Day 2

[maradydd]

I woke up several times on Saturday morning only to decide that it was too early for rational people to be awake, but finally decided to leave blissful sleep behind around noon or 1300 or something like that. We had two missions for the day: costuming and a visit to North Bound Leather, home of the most gorgeous trenchcoats known to man. letoamswas hosting an aliens-and-FBI-agents-themed party later that night, and my recently-dyed hair was about the right shade and length to make a decent effort at Dana Scully, but at home I didn't have anything especially Scully-wardrobe-ish available, so we planned to hit secondhand stores for something suitable. enochsmiles also volunteered his tan trenchcoat for the cause, and had mysteriously acquired a six-pack of blue nitrile gloves by way of a thematically appropriate prop. (prysmicdork had suggested arming him with a flashlight if I could talk him into going as Mulder, but the potential combination of "Is that a flashlight in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" jokes and rubber gloves proved too troubling, so he went as an MIB instead.)

Thus, off we headed to North Bound. After some trial and error in which it was demonstrated that my shoulders are far too broad for most styles of women's sleeveless tops, one of the employees pointed me at a halter top which was almost, almost perfect. However, they do free alterations on anything purchased there, so one of their tailors measured me for the necessary changes and said it could be ready by 4pm. We hadn't yet had lunch, so after a little more shopping, we departed in search of food. enochsmiles spied an Ethiopian restaurant, and I'm always up for culinary adventures, so that's where we went.

Ethiopia House wins my award for best-smelling restaurant ever. Frankincense lingered in the air, mingled with the aroma of spicy beef. We took a quiet corner table, and I ordered a beef-and-injera dish, while enochsmiles went for a lunch entree involving beef tartare. The nonstop conversation -- seriously, over four days of constant company we never ran out of things to talk about -- took a turn for the giggly and delighted on my end, and enochsmiles insisted on making me blush by pointing it out a lot. (Look, I'm 5'9" and built like a quarterback. Referring to anything I do as "cute" is really rather absurd.) This was not at all helped by the extremely strong Ethiopian coffee we ordered, which came with a crackling censer full of frankincense, a massive bowl of popcorn (?) and a small dish of melted butter to use in place of cream. (I later learned that butter tea is popular in Zimbabwe, so perhaps this is a common practice in hot places without much refrigeration infrastructure.) An hour and a half later, we departed, wired to the gills, so that enochsmiles could get a haircut and I could retrieve my new halter top.

I stopped at a few secondhand shops along the way, but didn't find anything resembling a Scully-ish waist-length three-button blazer. I fared much better at North Bound, however; the top literally fits me as if I had been poured into it, but is tasteful enough to be worn casually or under a nice jacket. I wore it out under my sweater, my steps bouncing as I walked.

(Yeah, I know I'm being uncharacteristically girly here, but it's so rare that I find clothing that actually looks attractive on me, I'm still excited about it. Deal.)

I also retrieved some hairspray for the costume on the way back to meet enochsmiles. Unfortunately, we didn't find a secondhand shop with a suitably convincing jacket or blouse, so I reluctantly decided to go with my sweater and the trenchcoat, and trust hair and makeup to get the character across. I think it worked reasonably well, though I wish I'd remembered my own camera in order to get a photo of costume-with-coat.

Dinner that night took place at a fusion Thai/Japanese place, excellent but for the two underdone skewers of chicken satay we received (but made up for by the waitress putting the entire satay order on the house). Then it was off to letoams' abode via subway. Alas, Toronto public transit did not sport nearly as impressive a panoply of costumes as did the DC Metro last Halloween -- I will never forget the drag-queen version of the US women's synchronised swimming team, not even when I am old and senile -- but we did see some interesting ones, including a pair of women in matching superheroine oufits, sporting pink capes marked "J" and "K". We couldn't figure out who they were supposed to be, and asked when we approached them at the turnstile. Turns out they'd made up their own superhero characters sans names. I heartily endorse any city which has its own nameless matching superheroes, guarding the sanctity of Halloween for the populace at large.

At the party, I was glad to see several other people I had met at CodeCon -- sadly there wasn't much time to spend with them, as some folks had to leave early and about half the others got embroiled in a contentious debate about religion which lasted several hours. I figured out fairly quickly that it wasn't so much a discussion as it was people soapboxing in the intent to demonstrate the supposed superiority of their point of view, and ended up in the other room (which had a nifty laser display on the ceiling, courtesy the catalogue of ThinkGeek) with chocolatecoffee, enochsmiles, glowingwhispers and letoams, talking about music. I inflicted Jonathan Coulton's cover of "Baby Got Back" on them, along with the ever-popular "Mandelbrot Set", and glowingwhispers and I duetted on several Killers tracks, since everyone else was unfamiliar with them. All too soon, though, it was nearing 3 AM and my nuclear conversion to pumpkin DNA was already in progress, so we bid the partygoers adieu (including the ones still involved in the religion debacle) and cabbed it back, a relaxing end to a delightful day.

(Continued next post.)

Comments

[ivy]

I love North Bound. When I sold my house, my one indulgent purchase and gift to myself was one of their fantastic leather trenchcoats, custom fit. Swoon. We loves it, precious. If a mugger demanded my laptop or my coat, I'd have to seriously think about it. I'm hoping to get up there with Cull again before he has to return to Oz... I want some leather opera gloves, and I just want to dress him up in general. North Bound has about as much "go to Toronto" pull as visiting any given friend of mine that lives there. [grin] But Toronto is also full of fantastic people, who are (IME) kind and hospitable and generally polite. (Do you know stillvisions? He's a crypto geek at U of T.) I've never had a bad time there.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

my one indulgent purchase and gift to myself was one of their fantastic leather trenchcoats, custom fit.

enochsmiles was fairly bouncing up and down as he divulged his plans to do the same as a PhD graduation present to himself. *grin*

Do you know stillvisions?

Nope, though I know he's friends with several people I know, so I reckon it's only a matter of time. :) This was my third trip to Toronto, and they just keep getting more and more fun. Most of my friends up there are the writerly sort, e.g. cristalia and Karin Lowachee, but I'm starting to get acquainted with the cypherpunks as well.

[ivy]

Oh, brilliant. enochsmiles, you'll look fantastic. I can't think of a better way to reward yourself for degree completion. [grin]

Y'all aren't going to be there third weekend of January by any chance, are you? (That's when I was thinking of going with Cull -- the weekend after Shmoocon.)

Also, thanks for the book recommendations; I'm a big fan of fantastical short stories, particularly of the modern-faery-tale sort.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Hm. That could actually work out; I've promised an MIT-affiliated friend that I'll play on his team for next year's Mystery Hunt (http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/), and if Shmoocon is the following week I suppose it wouldn't hurt to go to that. It's all cash-flow and free-time dependent, naturally -- if I'm starting a new job there won't be much free time, though if I stick around in Iowa there may not be much cash flow. :-/ But I like the idea, and will definitely keep it in mind!

And if you end up liking Charlie's short fiction, you'll likely also really enjoy his novel, The Prodigal Troll -- it's sort of like Edgar Rice Burroughs meets fairy-tale fantasy.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

enochsmiles, enochsmiles, enochsmiles, enochsmiles, enochsmiles?

*giggle* *grin* *hugs!*

-Ogre

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

*blush* *hugs back*

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

*giddy*

I can't even properly describe how happy hearing about y'all makes me. :)

-Ogre