from a land in a blog far away

Hello girls and boys, it’s time fer a blerg post. How this will go, nobody knows.

A truly cherished and (supportive) friend of mine read the last one and said although it’s all over the place, my writing and stories do have cohesion and it is something totally unique to me, and good but awesome. Made me think okay I will try to be a little more cohesive which can be trying as time has passed and in the present, where we are now, looking back at the pictures of rocks and boats and food that I took, how do you piece that together in a not boring way?

I get so bored so quickly and would rather talk about the here and now but I also grapple with guilt about leaving out the fine details of a minute, or an encounter, I previously experienced and felt was so profoundly significant at that time. This must be some form of obsessive compulsive disorder I’ll be diagnosed with later down the road, get medication for and be like, why didn’t I do this earlier in life and save myself from myself? Like extreme sentimentality. That’s why I blog and collect, and I hoard experiences.

Okay hear me out, I know GOOD VIBES is like the worst saying by now but it’s such a cute shirt. My style errs on the side of tomboy vsco girl (yes also puke) normcore beach babe and in the winter time hipster hobo chic, in autumn it’s rocker tomboy tight pants all legs loud toques like too many layers but in any event this shirt makes waves, it draws the eye so if you’re any kind of self conscious and walking across a busy city pretty much every single person is turning and looking at you. GOOD VIBES BRO. We also convinced someone I owned my own sex toy shoppe so there’s that hahaha.

Went to Haliburton saw every place from my childhood summer holidays was nostalgic AF I ATV’d stand-up paddle-boarded the lake infinity times tanned etc and so forth was a good week then we stayed at a resort for one or two nights then hit Wasaga on the way back and stayed there for two nights once you’re away just stay away and play eh. The summer before I had spent in Muskoka pretty much every single weekend and that ship has sailed so THIS summer I was gung-ho to “better” last summer. I think I nailed it.

You’re doing great Sweetie! Thanks for the pic mom lol. I put this on my tinder profile you can imagine the greatest hits in form of messages it received from matches. It’s good these guys hang themselves, red flag themselves, at every juncture. Defending it too like I am kneeling on a board in a bathingsuit in a heatwave don’t slut shame me. Then I knock it out of the park and say my mother took the photograph. Anyway.

Jamie visited Toronto for a few days this summer. I think it rained BOTH times we went down to the pool but it was fun still, hotel people watching is kind of awesome. Holy shit I just remembered this throuple we saw in the pool I will omit all physical details but let me just say this: GROSS. Moving on. Okay going back, watching other people watch them too was hilarious – the facial expression reactions – very much priceless.

Now could this have been in May or June? Was it hot enough in May yet for this sort of thing? I know that it was a hot ass day but anyway I invited someone on the boat that caused some drama it was actually the perfect storm recipe I don’t want to out the two parties involved (huge sigh) but yeah now that person isn’t allowed on the boat ever again and I’m gonna get a harder vetting in the future for people I wanna bring on my uncle’s boat which sucks because have been bringing peeps on that thing for more than ten years now or something. The friendship is severed too fully canceled and next time I will read the room better as have given this person a second chance before, they were morning wasted on tequila, had gotten stood up, I should have known better. Boat drunk is real BRO.

This is that bar/resto at Union station I think called Union Chicken wasn’t gonna plug’em but there ya go. I am glad there are places now in the train station you can eat and chill and kill time it’s deadly though because once you buy your ticket you can wait out 4 trains before it expires and then you’re like $130 later from champagne and shit I mean I only did that once I bumped into my friend who commutes to PC and I was heading to Burlingtron and we got smammered obvi. Look at the winter coat I am rocking, it’s only a matter of fucking time til we are bundled up again and I HATE ITTTTTT.

At Nana’s you always have to selfie in her floor to ceiling mirror. I think we were heading to… I don’t even remember all I remember is whipping through the house like this and Nana almost dying from my naked-tannedness. My nana can never not comment on my body or my appearance I just try to glam and/or blonde it up as much as possible to protect myself lol.

This was a boat ride to remember however good God the winds and the waves every rod got tangled it was 10/10 messy no one could even drink we were so nauseated from the rocking boat I can feel it still now and we almost lost a few of us out the back of the boat on the way out to water from how my prankish uncle rips that thing my mom will tell ya. There are videos where I am screaming my head off and everyone is holding on for dear life I mean it was thrilling but also terrifying too. My family is insane what can I say.

Do you think we can get through this post starring 100% pictures of me only? Definitely right. Speaking of boozing I’m not boozing right now and seeing how long we can go I think I’m over the hump of how boring it is to be alone with my thoughts sober or even being able to have thoughts but I don’t want to get into it right now so. Talking about it can be as boring as the act of it is.

I love this piece. I don’t want to say mural because it is obviously a blown up photo so I don’t know what you call it in actuality.

I think that is the last time I wore that teeny red kylie kendall backpack I have moved on to fanny packs now and my mom and kev have both copied me LOLLLLL.

Okay one other person can be in this post and that’s my brother and if you ever fuck with me he will tune you up real good. I actually told an ex that and it pissed him off so much he went lethal and wanted to fight my brother and I am like yo relax I am sorry but it’s true my brother will win then we had a fight about it and I learned never warn anybody just let it happen when and if it needs to happen.

When you’re mid-thirties it’s not conceited to pose all dreamy and such it is an achievement and this contains zero filter so yes I am into it.

This one has filter yes duhhhhhhhhh but it doesnt mean that I don’t look like this omg who cares I am running out of steam now.

So BYE that was enough tea spilled today.

I feel as though I’m coming out of a fog

…and like myself again. It feels good to be back but where that is, who knows who cares I have done a lot of pretentious self-reflection self love self care weird fucking things this summer I dunno. I isolated myself. I took’er easy. Any way I will be working my way backward through my phone of the things that are still there on it that I did this summer and the thoughts that I had while doing them and that will be that. In the blink of an eye the season t’was over but it’s not officially done until sept 21 So. There.

Oh my god if you saw the set-up I am dealing with right now to get wifi into my own apartment you would die I am trying so hard not to be a bitch and just roll with it but add loud hammering into the fold louder because my door is wide open to get the signal using a stool as a table and my shoe rack as a mouse pad rest even moving it a fraction to the left cuts it off so where I thought I was on easy street before on my micro-kitchen counter…I download netflix movies from my account so that I can binge them in bed by nightfall I am too annoyed and embarrassed to show a picture here I sent one to Marie and she was like girlllll get Rogers I didn’t want to get into it here! but maybe the secret to maintaining an audience (like women in China livestreaming do) is to complain and share every fucking mundane thing that I roll my eyes at other people sharing on Facebook and yet… read every goddamn bit of it myself.

I have been back in the city a couple weeks now? Going on week 3? I spent a month abouts in Burlington, from Wasaga, to Oakville and all I had packed were bathingsuits and one pair of shorts that I wore all summer LMFAO… anyway we will get back to that. But anyway since I have been home in Toronto NO WIFI. The Super was my wifi hookup and he moved out. I refuse to spend one more fucking dime on anything period in this city if I can help it especially since there is pre-existing wifi in our building already this whole time unbeknownst to me, and a strong signal at that if you can bloody reach it, or speed, at least when my door is open and I am perched over my laptop like an arachnid from District 9 (look it up) my fucking back is killing me bruh.

Now I can bundle my phone package with internet right? Wrong. But then the guy at rogers is like wait I can get you a good deal. Brother man fuck you. Don’t act all back door special with me I have had my account since I was 19, I am 36, do the math I am paying you way too fucking much already. Even if I bit the bullet we still need to figure out where the fuck to install it in this old-ass building. Why the hell would I even go get my own modem when it’s already here and we just need an extender on the existing modem down the fucking hall from me I can see right now I am legit on my last nerve — fix this yesterday. Was told will just go by the computer store on College 2 weeks ago and it hasn’t happened I am beyond pissed. I am also SICK of having my door OPEN – it isn’t safe. Maintenance dudes keep looking in AT me too as a bonus while I am typing here on a stool. I will probably delete this but I needed to explode. I am annoying them they are annoying me. They can hear my same twenty songs I play over and over.

Other than that I am doing great and very happy ahhaha sorry! Not lying.

I am glad with the things in my life that I do which make me happier at a later point in time when I look at my photos and in the moment I have this obsessive compulsion to capture and hoard experiences and then self-reflect maybe share a fraction of my adventures later on I have been doing this for the majority of my life it is my truth and it’s how I sought to attract my tribe, anyone, who would listen to and see me.

I see poets as roving packs of magic creatures, demented, lovingly so besought by their wariness and experience I eat it up. I fill my head up with so much fantasy to self-preserve and contain my way, in which I need to constantly justify my nature? Truth be told I am comfortable in who I am, arrogant, and also afraid. It is an adrenaline at your backside. Think twenty minutes of anxiety every twenty minutes and that is how I live.

you have to make amends with everything before you can suffer nothing before you can be everything you ever wanted to be.

We’re always thinking of little schemes and ideas for me to hone my talents which are so fucking good like a how to online date thing where I tell newbs what to watch out for because let me tell ya I have been a bible of wisdom for my squad in their new time of swipings prime of recent.

I just have this life I dreamt of before when i was so enamoured by hipsterism kooky aesthetic and am now trapped by it because living in Toronto is so expensive when I leave this place they will slap paint on and charge $2000 for it so I am like fighting the man and the power and everyone always anywhere anytime.

I need my mister dress-up lifestyle I look to other institution peoples like myself in Toronto, how they are fairing, and some have all become lampoons of themselves by design, by necessity, and by need to survive. We all have had our own successes, failures, fall-backs. BUT most importantly COMEBACKS and I am here for it! I so support my fellow Toronto celebs my music industry pals who helped MAKE ME. ILU 4EVR #Gratitude #blessed.

NOW on to my next annoying topic to rant about which is purely self-inflicted toxicity of my own actions embedded deep within a place of my disgusting vanity and vulgur as it is I find it hard to justify looking pale in the winter time I am only angry at myself for not freezing my account for two months of the summer such waste throwing money in the garbage and tanning salons are crooks in the bests of times you have to show up and do paperwork like a gym like uhhm no one has time to even consider the sheer terror of that.

Perhaps you find what I find in this blog style vein of an art-form to be antiquated, outlandish out of style but it is normal to me. I never knew but of anything else and to even fucking second guess it is a travesty.

How greedy with your time are you? Because I am so far gone indulgent with mine I was JOMO before that ever existed like putting your state of being in a physical valium existence this is what Netflix does to us today it’s just too good too easy to watch through a cinematic lens parallel to our facebook landscape connections to those we knew years ago.

And getting back to basics of doing irl things is utterly amazing. As an adventure thrill-seeker you fill the chambers of the void with constant doing the older you get because you finally know and fear and realize how limited time truly is.

Nothing makes me feel more emotional, more poetic, more depressed, than autumn. If it were a person I would punch it in the face, buy it drinks, and ghost it. Because you know what comes next. Sacrifices are fun and all unless you’re the cat on the pyre. Winter is LONG. I think the majority of my blog posts are about how much I fucking hate winter. Wow.

I’ll just take a sec to switch gears here and breathe.. LOL.

Nothing bothers me but everything makes me insane.

Relate?

I come up with these lines all day long I wish I would just write them down make a set out of them. This is the start. This is a preclude to a podcast.

the things that you admire, inspire, and you let shine out through and you remember that moment again and what it reminded you of so sweetly, to begin with.

If you want to go somewhere from 1909 go to Allan Gardens. Bring a b cup, a marie antoinette glass (coup glass) cos she had b cup sized tits ha ha I love that!

Took in two softball games ate shawarmas it was lovely.

It got cold though. Made do.

All in all a great summer it has been. I went all over and was a beach bum as much as poss.

SO here is the story of my Christmas blanket. Since nobody asked. Two Christmas parties ago I was a marketer for an agency and I lost my receipt for all the Christmas crap I bought for the Christmas staff party and they were like Raymi we can’t reimburse you for that so I was like fine THIS BLANKET IS MINE NOW plus all these elves. lmao.

I left behind lots of shit there is no love lost I just think it’s funny. I bought it for this couch we had in the office Tess suggested I cover it up with something as a last ditch effort Dollarama came through. Those girls loved me Valentines day Easter St Patricks Christmas Canada day Halloween those were good times sigh. I’d go to Dollarama her beside my place before work and pick out fun ass things to put together on display for instagram and clients and candy for the team for morale.

See that bee.

They were everywhere.

I went to pee and came back with crayons and we had a colouring contest had a girl impartially judge who was better and we won against my boy Troy sorrryyyyyyyyy we only had three colours to work with.

Love this beach, bish.

We found a discarded bubble disc I have no other way of knowing how to describe it but anyway it was essentially a frisbee so we tossed it back and forth until it broke for a good 20 minutes I stood on top of the rock formation because it was the last place the sun was hitting and it was such a perfect game of frizz I felt like an Olympian all these moments I shotgun to my heart to get me through winter my least spirit animal.

So happy to live so close to here.

and to here.

So centrally located to many places it’s why I live where I live and I take it because it’s a gem and when I lived in the beaches I felt the same melancholy temporariness that it was living anywhere in Toronto but I am grateful for what I have right now so that’s that! It’s fucking cool it’s unique it speaks to my eccentricities my lone wolfism fuck yeah no roommates.

Oh lord I uploaded way too many photos than actually wanted to deal with so lets to be continued this never-ending story for now thanks guys see ya.

Eloraymi

Hey pals! Just trying to get back into the groove of blogging (writing about myself tirelessly) again and regain some semblance of a regular schedule here. I mean, I adore bonbons and Netflix a lot but as a capable and intelligent young(ish) woman I’m aspose to just produce MORE and offer up milestones plus all the horseshit that comes along with the “rat race” like the rest of ‘em. Gag me.

The sooner you realize that no one gives an actual shit about what you do, the happier we will all be. I mean, they care about what I am doing lol but I mean in general the collective spinning of wheels in the pursuit to showcase an exciting rapid pace life to fill the endless void of attention-seeking neediness about the things you don’t actually care about in a moment that is wiped away 24 hours later from your instagram stories WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT.

You shun me I shun you back. I do not find you interesting. As the years pass it just gets more laughable to me. I have been more of a spectator rather than participator these days. I mean I am addicted to my social media as much as the next gal, but I enjoy going dark. But do I just say that to make myself feel better? no. I have consistently towed toed a line of caring and extra not caring and just indulging myself with my own interests. Every one knows when you’re fake-excited so just stop.

When I sit down here to write I have a few general talking points floating around to get to from months of accrued thoughts overall — from so much time containing them. No output makes me a lunatic, likely. If you can’t spit it out where is the therapy in that?

I think some people need to do a lot. They need to be needed but mostly need to be SEEN as busy. This summer it hit me that I don’t want any of that. Where people think they’re not doing enough I am over here of the mindset FUCK THAT I want to do as little as possible instead. Doing too much how about doing less. You’re doing too much bro. It was just a funny thought that I had. I also like being a bumpkin going off the grid because Toronto is toxic to me it’s like a cousin you will always be related to and have in your life and I think I am just preparing myself for working my ass off again, biding my time with it. Also there’s those who need to show their time off as a trophy like you’re STILL doing the thing that is wrong for you if you’re gloating about the thing.

I just need to be free and feel unencumbered from absolutely everything we can’t escape who we are we just have to embrace it. Summer makes me feel freedom the most that’s why all the pumpkin spice cunts can literally shut the fuck up I don’t care about your fashion which you only like autumn for so you can cover up your body. Fall is claustrophobic and short, winter is long and even more so stir crazy makings-of so as Canadians WHY are you stupidly celebrating this fucking shit!

I try to live out loud, play, be crazy and free-spirited as hard as I can because typically most of the time I am super majorly depressed. In a sense. The balance is there you just see the fun parts. I know many people like this and in some the youthful spirit doesn’t extinguish, ever, and I should hope not so. One friend of mine says she is the saddest and most fun person and is constantly playing and having fun to compensate. She is also a stand-up comedian and we all know how depressed comics are, so, but yeah we were discussing this together and I said I had a line I was going to drop in my blog about how normally we are very depressed people so this is why we laugh and play to attempt happiness for ourselves. I have this one nasty fucking bitch who has been stalking me for over 15 years online and I noticed a few shots she took at myself and my mother for a week’s vacation this summer like for someone who has been haunting my life for so long you would think they’d get it by now, how I operate and why I operate.

My hair grew ten sizes that day!

Anyway when I write these things I feel great I feel relief then I feel exposed and then I forget half the things I said and then I panic about the things that I did. I blogged two days ago for the first time since May and my traffic exploded. It was very validating but then I was like I bet no one even read it and it was the picture I used on Facebook that made these idiots come in droves. The point is don’t let your mind eat itself like that. Just do your thing and know that it’s appreciated and for the other half hate-watching for sport, hi sweetie!

My body image is doing great right now thanks fam. I mean, I have fully let myself go a little but it’s ok I am okay the world keeps spinning. I used to be so hyper focused on my looks my fat ratio and what with being a blogger and having to show pics of myself looking as lithe as possible from all angles, I just, got over it. Not saying I don’t have issues but in the above photo it’s not the most flattering but I look pretty cute and I’m smiling plus happy so that wins. I still get trolled and I bet I’ll get some nasty ones on this post “who cares about what a fugly old washed up cunt has to say” I can put money down on it, the internet is a vicious place it can be ego-shattering if you let it. Also, you let in all these creepy people too when you open up and expose your life. I try to share as much as I can up to a point. I am guarded and protective of certain areas because its blown up in my face before so fool me a billion times no more.

I love it here. I stuck a jr. mint up my nose in Elora as a teen to make my brother laugh and couldn’t get it back out again thus it melted and burst in my nose and down my nasal passage and burnt terribly. I cannot stand chocolate mint as a result or junior mints ever again. This story is a family classic and I mention it because it happened in Elora so I think about that when I think of Elora.

This is Fergus, it’s just as gorgeous. River p0rn everywhere.

There is a bar called the goofy newfie over-looking this so you must check it out.

This summer I have really embraced my hick side. Like. Full on, no irony, straight-up yeehaw listening to country music even and shit! I went to a trailer park for a baseball tourny and slept in a tent that was a most wild long weekend oh Christ but anyway the city is too much city sometimes and I have always been addicted to escapes. I am like a dog if you don’t take me for car rides I will pee on the floor. Essentially.

I LOVE IT.

Oh hai.

Obviously someone from Ontario had to have the big dix plate who okayed that?

Crushed this burg so hard on the way back.

Our waitress was such a salt of the earth pleasure to converse with and told us how to get to the quarry. She said she hadn’t been since she was 17 years old when she jumped off the cliff because she was in love with a boy (said his name I forget) waiting for her below in the water but the way it just came right out of her like that and how it didn’t work because he didn’t become her boyfriend in the end. I wished my mom was there she would have talked this woman’s face off.

Okay that’s my cue gonna hit the w33d store and drop off a painting at a fancy hotel yes I am interesting like that I have big name art collectors flying in to pick up my art lmao.

Cheryl also owns my Saddam painting. Before the economy tanked years ago when I was more of a household name, people bought art, so I made art and I sold art.

Goodbye Evita Peron (as played by Madonna) you will be missed but enjoy your new home!!

Tomorrow is 9/11 anniversary I usually say something about it as I lived there when it happened and I am still fucked up from it and also fucked up from hearing people’s modern day conspiracy theories about it and getting in fights with them about how stupid and insensitive they are but anyway I will be spending the day with someone special and I won’t be alone and for that I am grateful. Sayonara for now xo.

Summer of Raymi

Haaaay m’f’ers, Captain Canadurr back hurr again to rap with ya a (hot) minute. I’d apologize for my absence but that’d be full up lyin’ I mostly just apologize to my damn self for slagging and lagging BUT I figure it would be okay to bide my time in a re-emergence. It’s quite alright I’m a pariah and I know it, its always been my bag of tricks.

So, in no particular order here’s some beauties from my phone from the distillery over the weekend. Everyone says how much the summer flew by and boy did it flew. I’m going to dump a bunch of highlights here before I accidentally delete them all (and I want you to love me again) like my phone started doing earlier today…. WHAT PANIC!! Enjoy, hold on tight.

Love a black light.

Imagine the flavour of the corn tortillas jammed with onions and this sliced up steak ahh gadd beside a fire and open air patio…

With this above your head. I personally love that shit.

Ahi tuna ceviche with watermelon.

I have much history with this corridor in the Distillery but it has been a moment since reacquainting myself to the light box display of ancient boozes that are just so endearing and far-off fantastical fantasy-making.

In fact I feel fortunate to live a 5 min walk from this runaway from modern life reality attraction.

With cute art installation crowd sourced projects everywhere abound.

OOOOoooh shade.

beauty. enchanting, how so.

Kinda wish was posting about Elora right now but will have to wait til next post.

Still very cute Toronto.

whoops I’d say this doesn’t happen all the time but, it does ha-ha.

Lora..luh luh luh luh …Elora. til next time thanks for stopping in.

what up my b

Drop everything and pay attention to me listen to me. Okay good you already did that. Did you know that the last time I blogged here was in December? Yeah, that’s the longest drought my homies but why is today so special? Well I have an abundance of self confidence is one. It comes, it plateaus. I’m ambivalent. Cocky. I gave up. Nahh. I finally got my hair done, which helps a bunch then I got more sun on my skin, likin’ how I am looking but namely the Vitamin D for sure saves the day creatively speaking. If I am bummed then I do not feel like opening up, exposing myself, or being seen. Enough time has passed here. I wanted to only ever be a writer which is something that has quarreled with my alleged narcissism. Or self worth, my value. Yeah, yeah, I know my voice is strong and clever and I have a mania to my thoughts that seems to never end I can turn a phrase BUT some of me the past little while was like SO FUCKING WHAT.

Not really, let me explain. I did a lot of input and very little output. I have given myself a lot of time to think and think I do. Then the ideas pile up, stifle you so much so that you don’t know where to begin. You fall out of love with yourself and start to think like everyone else has too because you don’t throw your hat in the ring anymore. More than half the work is just showing up and not to say that a lot of people’s “work” at social media wind-baggery isn’t decent or anything just saying SOooooo much over-saturation, no fucking substance, nothing new, or clever. Or I have just been over-consuming out of boredom (yes) and there are just too many instagram-dominant ventures taking over I don’t even know what I am fucking doing anymore there.

When people say I could do that — but, you didn’t lmao. I get it, I get it.

All I ever wanted was to write books and be this dweeb inhabiting a charming world so I sought out to do a lot of fun things, pursue shit, be adventurous, so I’d have things to say and to write about. I did that, but things didn’t turn out the way I thought. I get gigs and I’m privileged. I have opportunities and I also am verrrrrrry much so an under-achiever like, I’ll get to it eventually because I know my talent is that good. Or that thing will happen then somewhere along the way things will fall into place. The lazy man’s route. Which is much encoded by fear. Fear of doing nothing, becoming nothing, and quitting on yourself. Wait. I meant that I don’t like to worry about things so then I distract myself therefore I cannot worry about things. I have been protecting myself my whole life and lately I have been selfish with, myself and my time. I have played the role of observer and it makes me feel like a hot fucking waste. Good job, you did nothing.

Do I want to be an influencer in this day and age? Yes. But it’s not my bag, baby. It’s not. All that crap got in the way of the magic here. I do understand that flogging for $ is hella part of it but I am so mentally exhausted that once I do THAT post I am SPENT for any of the extra superfluous crap that I excel at — selfies navel-gazing food I ate tv I watched in between the lines gossip and humour. It’s probably because I never evolved to update certain skills, platforms too, and from burning myself out after 18 years of blogging. I have adopted a fuck it these people can wait mentality. I still want to be bigger than I am and better but there is a huge turn off in over-achievers or their racket is too good and believable. Always self-promotion and selling. Like fuck off shut up!

I think part of the problem is I don’t know what I want and I don’t know what I don’t want and I think I have this abundance of time. I was told I don’t have enough anxiety. What??? Not no more, bud. Anxiety for me works personally like the fire is lit and I now see that I am the last one to figure out that I am a loser and the abundance of time was a lie. I am just opening myself up and being vulnerable now, for once. It feels good. It feels good to talk shit and deflect then sneak in the parts that scare you the most. I don’t think I know one person who has it all figured out, do you? Even the perfectionists are unhappy. Actually tbh, they’re the most unhappy of all because they can’t enjoy what they have they are always looking to the next thing and crap to control.

Wow I’ve said a mouthful. I uploaded all these pictures from the last few days, or began to and the download process did not jive with my attention span so I wrote all this instead. I have fallen out of love with this art form in that the painstaking focus I used to grant it is harder now. Everything changes. Everything.

Picture me taking a bow.

and scene.

heard u were lookin for me

Hello its been awhile. Thirteen days, to be exact. Which is a short while if you consider my infrequency yadda yadda ya. I’m ready if you are.

I felt like I was in the mood to blog yesterday and today but now here I am and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Hey is that that “cell phone charger” purse everyone made fun of Kim Kardashian for not too long ago? I think it is or something thereof and now I want it… so small and compact, for all the clubbing that I do not do.

One Christmas, two ago, I showed up to my Nana’s wearing this and my mom was wearing a red plaid shift dress too. We have had this happen many times over the years it’s a cosmic like mother like daughter thing, with no prior planning or talking, it just happens.

This post is just an old fashioned smattering. Blogging for the sake of blogging. Blog and telling. Honestly, the good things that happen just from pressing publish here sometimes y’all might just try it for yourselves huh? Talk less shit and do more shit.

How to make friends: buy some.

Hi girls.

Bedridden all weekend basically movie after movie bender. We went out for Mr. Greek Sunday early night and it was DEAD. The soup sucked. The salad, okay.

I don’t mind the post apocalyptic vibe after watching infinity end of the world movies this weekend. This setting would be trashed if that were real. I know they hooked it up with Dollarama decorations as there was one in the parking lot and I used MY BRAIN.

Looked normal but was bland. Needed soup all the same ah suppose.

Not the best foodie photo in terms of subject.

On my walk home the other night. This store always has a cute display alack I’m not into clutter I have enough but I appreciate the artwork. We are drawn to things that remind us of things we once experienced or owned, another time period.

I’m blessed I don’t have a sweet tooth. I love photographing sweets though, decadent, colourful, darling confectionaries that they are. I can’t walk by a Fortino’s bakery showcase without getting whiplash on my phone camera arm capturing those bad boys fast enough. Stay tuned on this though I just recalled something I have coming down the pipeline for y’all regarding dessert.

I think this is the Kylie lipstick app. It’s basic. I dun curr.

My NEXT post will be about the ADVENTURES OF RAYMARIE. Get it? Marie and me? BYE BRANGELINA.

Big appreciator of the Burlington sunset game. It’s always gorgeous from the vantage point of this parking lot. It is the best I don’t care how much suburban shit is in the way.

Oh hi there you’ve been indoctrinated into the Burlington town club :).

I do it’s true. It stems from year’s back during my early hey day of emo selfies gazing into the lens trying to out-stare myself. I am the subject, I am the artist gazing back at. Some people have resting bitch face, me? Stoic. Because my mind is sizing up everything before me, calculating shit I is busy guy. I also admire the vacancy a la editorial aesthetic.

I love Toronto. You get to go on a magical Christmas adventure everywhere you turn.

Last week Monday and now she’s back in Mumbai honestly one of my greatest lesser known lowkey pals, cos of that whole doesn’t live here thing but we’re all huge fans. Come back soon!

Nostrils check. jk. I was just so tired-looking this day it seemed to be the only flattering angle to get me at. I worked at wework this day because a mystery package arrived of beautiful psychedelic lipsticks and sometimes the universe is like Raymi here, you need some more disco in your life and you are like yasss bitch!

This lipstain stays on hours so I don’t have to feel naked lipped like I normally am. It’s all in the details.

Yesturrrrrrday and I am okay with that.

Always take several variations of the same picture so as to ensure pissing off everybody.

Got these for my Dad lol. We should live in a society where we get paid for a brief review of every item we ever buy as to always be making money back. I’m not wrong. Like, if you wanted to know my thoughts about either of these things? You gotta pay for that even if it’s a shit review you get paid oh the things I would say about this grilled chicken pasta lean cuisine CRAP A LA CRAP right now. There is my brief review now put $1 into my account thanks bye hahaha.

Nana’s tree on fleek. Always is. Oh but if this tree could talk lol.

Sure I’m down you know it.

Work hallway.

Wedge salad I can still taste, think about, and will eat again.

This is the other bathroom at work it took me a few weeks to even discover. The other one is hella drab so I was like SWEET RELIEF when I discovered this one.

Oh hi there she is!

We shared mussels, the special. Two orders. Patrick from work was there too. It was a very chilly night.

And yes I was as I feel like I do nothing mostly, which is fine I don’t feel the burning sensation to show a non-stop cocktail party lifestyle full of fabulous shit I much enjoy the mundane simple pleasures blah blah but I do like to go out a wee bit to balance it out, the cold weather makes me feel claustrophobic from hibernation at times which makes Toronto ideal because there are just so many various pockets of entertainment for you to explore when you start climbing the walls.

Alright I get it, you get it? Have a good one!

It’s my Blog’s Birthday

First of all, Happy Birthday Dad. Thank you for tolerating me for the passed 19 years congratulating myself on YOUR birthday each November 28th and how fucking annoying that probably has been for you (coupled by moments of pride of course maybe hopefully).

Secondly, today is the day 19 years ago (in the year 2000) at the age of seventeen I started up LIFE HAPPENS TO RAYMI and began manipulating my way through the world wide web. I knew I wasn’t pretty enough alone to snatch your focus. I knew I was an egotistical big mouth and figured a steady systematic stream of daily, hourly, blog rants, showcasing my amusing insights and witty insults would amass a following. I transferred my popular “brand” from the VICE message board forums to my own little blog and the rest is HERSTORY. I didn’t care about grammar. I adopted my own style and my voice evolved over the years, people “got it”. I predated trolls, got good at fighting them, then good at fleeing them.

Things I did and shared online weren’t commonplace back then. Yes I paved the way. Yes people cared. No I don’t have a big ego (as much) anymore. Would I do things differently? Yes of course, who wouldn’t? Yes I am aware of my bitchy persona, half-hated, emulated. Everyone hates everyone on the internet, social media. It’s a game. Everyone is phony. Everyone talks shit. Facebook is so out of control I bet many can’t remember a life without it or that it outright conquered blogs. I remember when I used to blog more frequently alongside Facebooking and twitter all that, someone I knew was like BUT how do I SEE YOUR BLOG THOUGH??? People forgot that the web is wide open and that you can navigate outside of Facebook. The simple act of having to click a fucking web address is foreign now. The world has gotten a lot dumber, and how.

This blog domain expires in two months yes I’ll renew it. How insane would that be to just be like, bye. Very. Yeah I know I seldom update and that I have said I would more and then I don’t. Life gets busy. I know journaling, diarying, is good for my mind which is what started this beautiful mess in the first place. Yes I know I waste my talent and that when I write, when I speak, people listen and they like it or at least are entertained by it and I can write circles around ya and I’m funny and sharp and quick and and and… so. This is another check-in reminder that we still here and I am honouring this milestone today so thank you for being a blog nerd fan girl boy for all these years still that was good on you.

We’ll be in touch, til then take care all the best. Your pal Raymi.

ps. do you know anyone who has blogged as long as me? I don’t. #First #Swish.

Forklifts & Vodka

Raymi the Minx on a Masterlift forklift at Maverick Distillery

Forklifts and vodka don’t mix, except at Maverick Distillery where a propane-powered Masterlift forklift moves crates full of spirit in their warehouse.

In October 2018, I put on a couple different cocktail dresses and posed on a forklift for some fellas making a print calendar filled with pretty faces.  We shot the scene in the warehouse foyer between the factory and the loading dock.  I had choice and could wear Maverick’s uniform or my own smock. Now I look at these pictures and wonder, what month I will be?

Raymi Minx photo shoot Maverick Distillery, Masterlift forklift

Every model is the cover story for thirty days in Masterlift’s 2019 print calendar; every photo hopes to show an interesting person doing curious things on or near their heavy equipment.  Here I am backing up their big ass forklift.

Most forklifts are made with heavy rear-ends as a counter balance.  Lead weights at the rear of the truck counter the load on the forks which is so the rig doesn’t tip forward when you go bumping through the warehouse. This truck has a tall loader – you can raise the forks up over sixteen feet, and it can lift over 4500 lbs of stuff on a single pallet.  It has lights, a backup beeper alarm, and lots of handy mirrors in which forklift drivers can check their appearance anytime, even when they are driving.

Raymi on Masterlift forklift at Maverick vodka distillery in Etobicoke

We shot during business hours, and there were people working for real all around us.  Warehouse staff were getting ready for a shipment going out at noon.  They were packing bottles into cases and then Saran wrapping the stack to make cubes for truck n trailer transport.  They used the lift to make a pallet train on the locking dock. Stacked in columns over twelve feet tall, these square pillars of alcohol are Maverick Distillery’s stash, perilous towers of corn mash, tall pillars of cash, one wrong move and smash. Did you know that having more than five drinks in one sitting is considered binge drinking?

At Maverick there’s a hard line between being a professional forklift operator and an experienced forklift driver. Did you read the safety manual? Did you do a circle check?

Which is more popular in Ontario LCBO Stores, Whiskey or Vodka?

Now some little known facts about whisky and vodka in Ontario (courtesy of the LCBO 2016 /17). Whisky is the largest percentage of spirits sold at LCBO (31 per cent of sales) which equals approximately $703.4 million dollars worth across the province.  Vodka is the second-largest segment (23 per cent of sales) at $514.4 million.

Maverick makes vodka from Ontario corn, and has already won top awards for its product at tastings and spirit competitions around the world.  Showing up and winning acclaim at their beverage award shows was how Maverick Distillery expanded to sell vodka in countries like Columbia, Australia and Japan.  And the journey to get there starts here in this loading dock, with this forklift.

Burt Reynolds on a forklift in Smokey and the Bandit

And then it was over. Raymi left the building.

Raymi the Minx at Maverick Distillery for Masterlift calendar

On that day Maverick vodka was served shaken and stirred.