The Land of Sarnia

This past Easter weekend I visited Sarnia, Ontario (the hometown of my Mom and where my Grandparents still live). I have many amazing memories of this town while growing up since I spent many holidays and summers there. Going to visit again always makes me nostalgic, but it also feels great to create new memories in Sarnia and this weekend we certainly did just that! It would be far to lengthy (not to mention boring for those who didn't participate) if I wrote about all the reasons why it was memorable, so I'm just going to tell you about the few things I took pictures of.

I drove from Toronto to Sarnia with my cousin Jess and her boyfriend Shawn. We arrived just in time to take part in the egg colouring that my cousin's Sam and Joel were doing. 

Then we met up with the rest of the family at my Grandparent's house for Easter dinner and got to meet my cousin Dylan's boxer puppy, Miles. Very cute!!

This is probably the first picture us cousins took together since we posed at the Dollar Store with Ticker's in 1995. 

My nephew Owen brings a new source of fun in Sarnia. Here he is very interested in the lemon angel food cake my grandma was baking.

Sadly, since we arrived in Sarnia late Saturday afternoon I missed out on Owen's trip to Canatara Park and the animal farm. At least I get to feel like I was there from this picture my sister Erin took. Owen loved the slides and learned to go down them by himself. Note: awesome E.T. shirt from his Aunt Katie. I wish I could find him a Mac and Me shirt. (I think I should just make him one since there's no chance anyone other than myself would make one).

No Sarnia trip would be complete without a trip to Coffee Lodge (BEST COFFEE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!) and fries from the under the bridge (preferably Albert's, where there is a hose to spray on your vinegar). I bought 3 pounds of coffee at Coffee Lodge to bring back: Dark Roast (the classic), snickerdoodle ("tastes like Snicker's bar" - random, uninformed, teenage employee) and tiramisu. What a way to indulge. Not to mention all the yummy easter chocolates. Good thing the weather is getting warmer and I'll be walking/riding my bike more.

Some major events are happening next week: The Royal Wedding (Wills & Kate), UFC in Toronto for the first time, the federal election...oh, and my birthday! Hmm, what could my next entry be about?

West of Zanzibar and Video Game Wrestling

I haven't updated in a couple weeks. Not because I've lost interest in my blog already. I've just been very busy. All my net time has been taken up by something else, which I will update about in a later entry. For now, let's just talk about last weekend. 

It was a Toronto Underground Cinema weekend. Of course, I still attended Trash Palace (as I pretty much always do on Friday), but Saturday night I went to see Tod Browning's, West of Zanibar at the theatre. 

The 1928 silent film had a live score by Toronto punk rock band, Fucked Up. I knew absolutely nothing about this band going to see this screening, so I was incredibly surprised by the almost (if not) sold out theatre. It was pretty obvious that Fucked Up brought the audience, since everyone looked pretty hipster and would a Tod Browning film really attract that many in the city? 

But I'm glad I went in with no knowledge and little expectations. At some points it felt like it does when I put on an old, crazy movie, mute it and play it to my own music. Then some parts really added to the film. For me, their interpretation was hit and miss, but regardless, it was a really neat event to attend.

The next night was also a very unique event. Video game character wrestling!

Disclaimer: I like video games, but I don't like wrestling. This is somewhat ironic because my boyfriend doesn't like video games, but LOVES wrestling. So really it was the video game element that brought me to see Wrestle Crisis Deluxe. Oh, and my boyfriend was the mc and gave me free tickets.

I don't know what to say about this event, other than it was hilarious. Most of the costumes were pretty shitty (the masks kept on slipping and I felt horrible for the wrestlers inside who couldn't see what they were doing). Regardless of costumes, the wrestling was impressive. But the best thing about the show were the fans who got so into it by cheering, chanting and heckling the wrestlers.

My favourite part was when Elmo wrestled Darth Vader (Uh, what video game was Elmo ever in?!). Everyone cheered for Elmo to win, but I was the opposite. I had a blast booing Elmo. Man, Super Grover would totally kick all of their asses.