*looks at the keyboard, than looks at sore right arm* Ok... I'm going to do this... just not all the typing at once... *looks up at the screen and smiles, knowing it's time*
Hi everyone!
And welcome to my novel of how Toronto Con weekend started. Starring in this Novel is Zip, Mily and Fae (Please also check out
Fae's view of Toronto con). Co starring is Peter Laird, Jim Lawson, Steve Lavigne, Eric Talbot, Michael Dooney, Scott McNeil and Kirby Morrow. This true story is being told by Ivey... um, yeah that's me. *takes a deep breath and begins to tell story*
It all started Thursday morning August 25th, as I got the rest of my stuff packed in the bug, and printed up the maps to go to the convention. I was really disappointed that I didn't have enough ink to print up the autograph pictures I made of Kirby... the ones that I did print up came out pinkish... *baps the printer* It seemed a bit stressful trying to get things together and I really did not look forward for the LONG drive by myself. So I closed those thoughts out of my head and finished packing the car. At this time, my arm was it's normal... complaining self... just in the background enough to where I knew it was there... but not like it was last winter. I jumped in the car and headed to Toronto. Through Michigan I stayed on the phone with any friend that I could get on the phone, though as I reached the bridge to go to Canada I sent out my last call to my mom and dad telling them, that I'm in Canada so I won't be able to call them till I get a phone card.
Going to Toronto was easy for me, I took 696 to 94, which brought me into Canada onto the 402, I would go from that to 401 which would take me right into Toronto. I had my maps ready when I finally reached Toronto, didn't seem to take too long getting there this time around. Though there's one problem with the map I have, it gives the name of the street for the exit I want, though it doesn't give the exit number. I did not realize that the street I wanted had more than one exit. I got off too early and got a detour of Toronto, where the streets were packed, the right lanes were jammed with parked cars, and buses and taxis were everywhere. Though I kept a level head, knowing I'm heading in the right direction and I'm on the right road. It took about an hour or more on that road, because of the stopped up traffic, though I did find my turn off and was able to keep up with the map from there till I bumped into my next problem... one of the streets I was suppose to make a left turn on, Dundas st, had a no left turn sign. Easy enough, I went down about a block and did a U-Turn. Than made my right onto Dundas st.
I finally got to the Marriott, which was only a block away after I made that turn onto Dundas. I turned in and found the parking Garage and this is when my stomac did a few flip flops... $19/night parking! Oh yeah, that hasn't gone too well in my head... I parked the car down there and decided I'm going to have to see about getting help, if I couldn't get help I'd park the car else where and either walk or take public transport back to the hotel. Feeling sick about that, I walked off and looked at the street the hotel was on... Bay st. I didn't see any stores, just a bunch of really tall buildings. I walked down pass the next building up to look around over there... still not seeing anything. The building next was the Bell Towers, I went into them noticing they have stores inside... and found a small store that had what I was looking for... phone cards. I ended up having to buy two phone cards. One for pay phones and one to use in the hotel room ($10 worth of cards) than went and called home to let everyone know I was ok. After getting through on the phone calls I walked back to the hotel, and asked the Front desk if they have a street map and anything in town free to do.
The lady at the front desk showed me where I was on the street map and told me to take Bay down to Queens street and there's stores I could look through on there. She pointed out where some good stores were. Leaving there I felt a bit weird... I ask for free stuff and I'm pointed towards stores? What good is a store when ya got no money... so I just decided to do some sight seeing now that I have a street map in hand, and figured I'd take the rout she said. I walked down to Queens st and noticed a LOT of people outside with hats and signs asking for money... more so than I've noticed anywhere else, which surprised me. I thought NYC would have more people asking you for money. Though as I walked around, a lot of them did come up to me asking for money... I'd try to tell them I don't have any and they treated me like I was lieing.
Though if I did have money, I do think I would tell them the same thing. I don't have an income true, and as of now my doctor still says I can not return to any work. So yes, I'm in a boat next to what they are.... though I got family helping me out, I'm signing up for state help with an income, and I'm still everyday looking for some type of job that I can do... and building up hope for the future on things I know I would be able to do. I prey that it'll never come down to me being on the streets asking people for money. I don't think I could ask STRANGERS for help like that. If it's a friend that I know I can pay back, that's one thing... but begging and growling at people you don't even know to try and get something from, I can't and won't deal with that.
Being alone with no cell phone did get me to want to talk with people... so the people who were more polite about being where they were... I would say hi too. One guy had 3 pet rats on his arm, and 3 ferrits on leashes tied to a fence near him. I tried to say hi to him, though he seemed to have a lot of friends who knew him. I wanted to comment on how my brother raises rats, and how we use to have ferrits. After I walked another block from there, I bumped into a lady sitting down with a young dog. I started to talk to her the dog was only five weeks old.. and belonged to her brother. She's not homeless herself, though she goes out and collects money to help with the problem. I thought that was really nice of her to spend her time helping people like that. So I stood around and talked to her, while talking her brother showed up and told me of a place that is free where you can see plants from all around the world there. That sounded like a good stop for me, so I had him show it to me on my map. It was a long walk away, so I said my good byes and headed out to check this place out.
I stopped by the car on the way to check out the new place, and filled a back pack with some drinks and cheeze its so I could have something to eat while walking around. Than looked at my map, I needed to go one block east of bay st, and take that north. The block I had to go too was Young st. I went out the back of the hotel, which faces South to the Bell Towers and turned east... and had to cut through some doors to get to Young st... though found a detour... the doors I cut through lead me into a Mall! There's a Mall in the back yard of my hotel?! So I had to do the one thing I always do when I go into a mall, find the toy store and check it out. After looking it up on the map of the mall I went down and found "Toys, Toys, Toys" Sure enough they did have TMNT toys.. the normal ones I see everywhere... mainly the Mutations. I wish I could of got them though, because the packages are different in Canada with both English and French on the packages. I walked around and saw TMNT coloring books I didn't have, and even found really cool Kermit puppet, which I tried on with my left hand... his mouth was perfect I could make him talk real well... he was $15. Though I couldn't spend any money... not knowing the parking price... so I put everything I found back where I found them and finally headed out onto Young st.
I'm no stranger to Young st. Last year when we went to Toronto Con, my mom and dad took me down that road everyday... it was the rout from our hotel to the convention center. So it was nice to see some of the stuff I remember from last year like "Sam the Record Man" store, which really stood out. Hard Rock Cafe, which I thought we might do one night for dinner. I had to walk like two miles down this road, which got me to realize something I never realized about Toronto before... how many adult stores there are there. Even theatres that had age limits on the front of them... showing they were for adult movies only. This did kind of shock me, cause I'm not use to that even in the Detroit area. Most people protest if too many of those stores and threatres try to come into areas. I remember walking a protest line when I was a young child... I think I was in 3rd grade. Protesting an adult threatre from coming into town.
I finally got to the street I needed, Gerrard st. and took it too the church I was told the place was behind. Behind the Church was a nice park, there were people with their dogs and just sitting around. Sitting looked like a good idea, though I wanted to try and do something while I was in town... and sitting wouldn't be the thing I'd want to do for memories. I walk towards the building, and a dog caught my attention it was so excited getting to meet me. I stopped and asked if I could pet the guys two dogs and talked to him for a minute or two before going on my way. Once I got up to the building, I saw a lady looking in the window of it... and we started to talk. Seems she's a part of this place, and told me that they closed at 5pm (it was 5:30 at the time), and recommended that I come back. I told her I wasn't sure I'd be able too that weekend. She was heading my way so we walked and talked a bit, as she tried to think of other free things to do, though by this time I'm getting tired and noticed the sun was starting to set so when I split off from her I headed back to the hotel.
On the way back down Young St. I noticed a sign that pointed up stairs to a comic shop so I checked it out. Sure enough everyone there was talking about the convention coming up. I looked around not being able to find anything TMNT... and I did search. I finally gave up on my hunt and asked them, they said they're sold out of everything besides for a few back issues. This place seemed more like a Manga store than a comic book store, I know a ton of my friends that would freak over this place. Now a lot of people say to me isn't a Manga a comic? True it is... though it's a Japanese comic, you won't find your normal comics in Manga format too often. So when I speak of Mangas, I see them on a different level of entertainment. Like anime isn't a cartoon to me, it is it's own form of entertainment. After hanging out there for a bit, I left and went back to the hotel to sit in the lobby.... it's now going on 7pm.
While sitting in the lobby I realized just how long this was going to be of a sit and I was starting to fall sleep there. I figured if I'm going to be paying $19 for the night with parking, I might as well just go down and sleep in my car for a little bit. That's almost as much as a cheap motel any how. So I went down to the bug and slept in the front seat till around 8:30pm. I came up stairs and talked to a lady in the lobby till her family took her for dinner... than just waited... I kept looking out the window. Around 9:30, I noticed Fae show up at the front desk with someone else with her. Knowing she was traveling with Zip, I knew who she was. I went up behind Fae and gave her a hug... think I took her by surprise
They checked in and got three hotel keys, than we took their stuff up to the car. Next we sat around talking a little, and finally went after my stuff which was down in the bug. I explained the problem with the parking to them, and promised to pay Fae back. We finally got all of my stuff up to the room, than finally came the topic of food... yeah I believe this was a little after 1am. Hehehe yes we were having fun. We walked down stairs, as Fae and Zip headed towards the door I went up and asked the Front desk where there was a place to eat, and he told me of a bar on Elm st. (I was thankful my hotel wasn't on Elm street or there would of been to many Nightmare jokes
). Fae, Zip and I walked over to the bar.
Once we got in I was thinking I'd get something to drink and that was it, to keep my bill under $10. Though I saw Mosseral sticks and that made me question what I was really going to do. I decided not to get food and to get a drink so I ordered a Strawberry Daqurie... though they don't have them, so that made my choice much easier... I ordered the mosseral sticks... and asked about the price of a cherly temple... which was just over my limit of funds so I said I'd just take a water... though Fae stepped up and offered to get that for me.
THANKS FAE!. When the food got there we ate and talked... I started to notice a guy across the bar that would laugh when we would make a joke, and seemed to be listening in on what we were talking about... sure enough he was. He started talking to us from across the bar, telling me I got a strong Detroit accent. Than he moved to the table near us.
We nick named this guy our "Drunk Flirt", cause that's what he was. He was sitting there with an order of Fries to go, talking to us. Making comments about how our accent is different.. and I noticed each line that he used to try and compare was a pick up line. I decided to do my own joke, as an inside hint that he's not getting any where with us... by mentioning how violent I am... and how I use to teach Karate. Of course I didn't say it in a rude or threatening way... I did it in a way to where he'd know if he tried anything with us though, he wouldn't get anywhere. Fae finally stood up and started to get ready to pay her bill... He asked "Are you leaveing?" Her reply was "We're leaveing." Heh that was the final hint that we were not interested... than we paid our bill... on our way out I noticed he already left even. So he was no threat and really I enjoyed the good laugh... it never hurts to talk with people... and there was no bad memories made of this. We walked back to our hotel joking about our Drunk flirt and going over the stupid pick up lines he was using... "Want me to walk you to your car to help start her up?" was one of the lines... heh I know at first someone didn't get that pick up line... and was confused by what he was saying... I forget who it was (Ok not really but don't want to embrasses anyone
).
Once we got back to the hotel we talked a little bit more, took some pictures and headed to bed.
Thursday night pictures!
Zip is our local Donatello, and here she is playing with Fae's Camera on the bed that Fae and her shared.
Though she wasn't haveing a good time with that Camera as she asked Fae how to use it.....
Of course Fae made a comment about how non Donny like it is, to not know how to work a camera. So Zip gave Fae this wonderful look that I just happened to catch while taking the picture. I love how it turned out.... cause it really did catch THE LOOK mc_lol
(I'll post later about what happened on Friday, August 26th.)
