100 Hours

Another Lazy Sunday mission: accomplished! Today's was easy enough as I worked a shift @ the shoe museum, but what makes it truly exciting is that now I have worked 101 hours @ the museum and I will be recieving my reciprocal card in short order. With this card I will be able to visit most of Toronto's museums and attractions for free [and in some cases bring a guest, also for free]. Once I get it, I am planning on making weekday tours of any and all museums and attractions that I haven't been to yet. I'm not sure how many there will be - as I have lived here for 11.5 years, but I know there are some hidden gems out there. What a great time to be an unemployed elitist! For the most part though, I was just tickled with reaching the 100+ hour mark for volunteering. Although it doesn't seem like many hours, I do have a sense of accomplishment - and it's nice that the museum appreciates its volunteers [and yes, there are other incentives to stay on @ the museum, but I would stay anyway - I haven't volunteered anywhere else that treats people so well - it's like you are really part of the team...so many places that have volunteers treat them like meat bags].

But I have discovered some un-incentives to the whole Lazy Sunday thing. They pretty much all revolve around the TTC. On the weekends, people completely forget how to ride the subway [hint: it's not hard] and Sunday service is every 10 minutes [as opposed to less than five minutes between trains]. But yes, people bring all of their kids [and like, some extra kids] and they swing around on the poles and are encased in gigantasaurs rex push chair things and they scream and it's all very obnoxious. People also tend to have excessively loud conversations about things that are excessively personal while riding the rocket on the weekend [if I can hear you articulate every word while I'm listening to my MP3 player @ a level Joseph assures will deafen me, you are too loud - I have noise isolation earphones, so I'm sure I'm not too loud]. Also, these conservations tend to be rather squicky, so thanks for sharing, stranger. It seems that only the weekday chumps heading to/from work have the whole subway thing down to a science. They don't talk or are quiet and they are content to remain seated with dour expression. It may not be lively, but I like it.

Today's public transit exuberence was worsened by the St. Patrick's Day parade, which started @ noon. Please note, St. Patrick's Day, is, of course, on Tuesday, but people will be too busy working and/or being drunk to deal with anything as complicated as parade viewing. I got to see/hear/smell most of the parade from my perch @ the museum...but as a rule, I rather loathe parades. I just don't get the point - watching things go by...too loud music [and always, always, always bagpipes - it doesn't matter what the theme is, there will be bagpipes and I hate them]...too creepy clowns - just, ugh. This one seemed rather lackluster - but I'm not sure how large the Irish contingent is in Toronto anyway. And while I don't loathe St. Patrick's Day, I just don't get it either. Why does everyone celebrate it? I would rather celebrate some other country's day [I've always liked Cinco de Mayo because it has tequila]. Luck of the Irish, I guess.