tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16416666884162040182025-10-13T00:33:34.376-07:00Still alive and on the runAmy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-89578461103357061802015-06-30T07:21:00.000-07:002015-06-30T07:21:07.116-07:00

Being back in the desert stirs up many fond memories of my time spent in South Dakota, which is strange, considering the landscape looks nothing like South Dakota and I'm pretty sure Palm Springs would beat Pine Ridge in a heat wave contest every time. All the same, South Dakota is where I did most of my dreaming, before I got to the point where carrying out dreams became difficult, and yesterday

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-60074526110098307312015-05-31T16:58:00.002-07:002015-05-31T17:14:13.772-07:00

Every once in a while, someone casually asks me why I stopped blogging, and if I'll ever start again. I find this both endearing and shocking, since I generally assumed no one was reading anyway (unless of course it's my mom saying this; she even sent my blog posts to my brother sometimes, like a truly devoted fan. Thanks, mom.). The reason I usually give for putting the blog on hold is somewhat

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-78221146915393519772013-08-24T17:20:00.000-07:002013-08-24T17:32:11.202-07:00

You know those tv shows and coming-of-age stories with the weird nerdy kid trying desperately and failing miserably to be cool? And the synopsis on the back of the VHS tape always promises it will be a timeless classic because everyone remembers a time in their childhood when they were that person? Yeah, that wasn't me. Some people are born cool, some people try desperately to become cool, and

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-67353926213552387422013-07-16T20:22:00.002-07:002013-07-16T20:22:47.912-07:00

One of the dangers of returning from abroad is you* never know what you'll* remember about how life was before you* left. For instance, it appears that my memories of how life was in, say, January, have trumped the memories of how life was in May when I left. For instance, I remember having specific drawers in which I kept specific articles of clothing, but it appears closer to the end of April I

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-70064253672207055282013-07-10T16:51:00.000-07:002013-07-10T23:42:14.872-07:00

There's something about being abroad that makes it almost unthinkable to return to life the way it was when you left it. I'm speaking as an unmarried 20-something with no assets to speak of*, so maybe if I had a house or a partner or a dog I would feel differently, but having virtually no obligations**, halfway through my Europe travels I sort of decided to...well, to quit the job I've had for

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-86385551865774654522013-06-28T10:37:00.001-07:002013-06-28T10:37:16.942-07:00

I'm not gonna lie, the amount of times I've walked past a postcard stand and considered just sending postcards to my friends, family, and boss saying I won't be coming back number in the...well, every time I walk past a postcard stand. If everyone I loved could just start living in other countries, thusly removing the incentive to stay in one place, I would really appreciate that. Amsterdam

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-36912633838237877362013-06-24T03:09:00.004-07:002013-06-24T03:09:57.568-07:00

When I was a child I was terrified of many things, like getting splinters, eating anything that might have a vegetable hidden in it, and coming in contact with any kind of insect ever. As a totally mature adult I've managed to establish an indifference to splinters and an appreciation for all vegetables (except for celery and usually tomatoes), but I don't think I'll ever be okay with having bugs

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-75213012797829777902013-06-23T05:29:00.000-07:002013-06-23T05:37:08.235-07:00

This may just be the 3.5 hours of sleep talking, but I am going to marry Salzburg. I would be happy to just live in the café I'm sitting in right now. It has delicious food and an excellent demonstration of how to use disco balls as subtle decoration. That's right. Subtle disco balls. That's all I really ask of life--unassuming sparkles and lights. Also, the streets. So empty. You can walk down

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-77896177609816531212013-06-21T11:38:00.001-07:002013-06-21T11:38:15.685-07:00

Finally we are out of Venice. I've got to say, Venice was not my favourite--partially because of our location, but mostly because Venice seems to have been excessively touristified. Is s a great place if you want to huy elaborate carnival mask, or an 18th century style wig, or a Fendi purse, or an €80 gondola ride. I have a strong suspicion no one lives there except people involved in the tourist

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-40128104722549471952013-06-17T05:54:00.001-07:002013-06-17T05:54:36.000-07:00

In Venice...more or less. We* arrived at our lodgings and realized we had booked them on the mainland in Mestre, a 20 minute bus ride from Venice. We thought back to the night several months ago when we crowded around my laptop and spent over an hour trying to book a good hostel in Venice, and wondered how on earth we managed to not even book IN Venice. At first we were both so annoyed we

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-12671033414718403012013-06-14T10:03:00.001-07:002013-06-14T10:03:37.302-07:00

I am in Florence and back in a place where I can get Wifi. We spent the last 4 days in an apartment in Nice, which was fantastically roomy and had 2 balconies with a view of the mountains and palm trees and an old-style cage elevator that scared Reba so much she wouldn't take her luggage into it for fear of breaking it with the added weight. I discovered my phone wasn't getting WiFi after I got a

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-74393863436994163112013-06-08T11:59:00.000-07:002013-06-08T12:01:54.404-07:00

60% humidity and 28 dégrées. I was not made for this sort of weather. But we ran into a bunch of Australians on the street the other day who weren't made for this place either. They had on jackets over sweaters over tshirts with toques on. We were in sun dresses. The one with the most layers asked us if we weren't cold and then reminded himself we were Canadian...i suppose they don't come from

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-14192822170684378732013-06-05T01:31:00.001-07:002013-06-05T01:37:50.495-07:00

I could have stayed in Spain forever (Barcelona in particular) not least because I could understand some of the language most of the time, and they put more effort into the design of a sidewalk than Winnipeg does into the design of its government buildings. I also just felt comfortable there, for all that ordering food was quite intimidating and we never did manage to get them to give us separate

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-81247024855657629922013-06-01T23:47:00.001-07:002013-06-01T23:47:43.904-07:00

We arrive in Barcelona and catch the metro to our hostel. Everyone is packed into the cars, our backs to the wall to avoid assaulting people with our backpacks (and to discourage pickpockets), and the train has just begun to move when there is a great commotion in the next car and someone pulls the emergency brake. We jolt to a stop and there is furious banging on the glass door and a man

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-64617204298882619212013-05-30T03:27:00.001-07:002013-05-30T03:27:18.631-07:00

For most of my life I´ve been a notoriously early riser, and the whole thing can be blamed on one incredibly traumatizing incident that occurred when I was around the age of 6. My family had been visiting my aunt and travelled home by train, which took several days. After the first night spent on the train, I woke up rather late, and an absolutely horrifying thing had happened. My family had

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-85197320356819031312013-05-30T02:17:00.001-07:002013-05-30T02:17:18.042-07:00

I know it is the job of a sitcom to make incredibly mundane events seem like hilarious adventures, but I still haven´t gotten over the fact that in real life, most flights, weddings, and attempts to order soup tend to go off without a hitch. Other than confusing my travel mates by becoming overly excited about buying a zebra print neck pillow, and getting loopy towards the end of the 22 hours we

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-20497583936870695532013-05-26T15:58:00.000-07:002013-05-26T16:23:00.539-07:00

For me, the excitement of traveling has always been linked to an excessive willingness to sacrifice comforts along the way. This determination to experience hardship usually begins in the preliminary packing phase of trip preparations. I shove everything I need into a bag, decide the bag is too bulky, and convince myself that my trip will be ruined if I insist on bringing more than the barest of

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-53794043053293349572012-12-03T17:34:00.002-08:002012-12-03T17:34:15.450-08:00

Today I discovered the Other Amy (my arch nemesis) used to operate under the email address I am using now. I've started getting emails from people asking how it is in Toronto and trying to track down old friends from the days when she was young and less capable of muscling me out of everything that is mine by right (example: a gym membership with the correct birth date and an ID photo that

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-15476842622500560162012-11-15T08:06:00.003-08:002012-11-15T08:06:50.614-08:00

The perks of living alone: -There is no such thing as an inappropriate time to take your clothes off. -Anything in the apartment can be a dirty laundry hamper. Here is my rocking chair hamper, my patio table hamper, my 4 chairs from the biology department hampers, and my floor hamper -Any hour is Guilty Pleasure Pop Music Being Played Embarrassingly Loud hour. -I can use the same knife for the

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-65476960919657728172012-10-28T22:53:00.000-07:002012-10-28T22:58:21.865-07:00

No cause for ceremony or explanation there. Things I have learned this month: 1) Don't blog about the hilarious time you met a drunken stranger dressed up as a zombie stripper, if you later realize you want to be friends with said drunk zombie stripper and then have to pretend she wasn't the main focus of your blog this month. 2) If you host a last-minute Halloween party and invite all your

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-32027409794120792592012-10-14T13:47:00.003-07:002012-10-14T20:01:37.308-07:00

I was walking back to the Village from a church celebration on a Saturday night during the zombie apocalypse, wondering how far the undead minions had spread from their original nest on Osborne, when I suddenly ran into one. It was a darkened street corner just before River intersects with More of River to become a 5-lane death street, and there was a six-foot-tall creature of the undead who may

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-57920609408794505182012-09-03T13:32:00.000-07:002012-09-03T13:34:37.050-07:00

It stands to reason that as soon as I commit to blogging on a weekly basis I'll disappear from the blogosphere for 2 1/2 months with no explanation or hint as to when I will return. Where have I been, you ask? Having a grand adventure, you hope? But of course! The grand adventure began when I suddenly found myself in possession of a lease on an apartment, right after committing myself to being a

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-5119352463260674622012-07-19T08:12:00.002-07:002012-07-19T08:30:07.420-07:00

This post was going to be a public service announcement about a common (I thought) danger one encounters in the cake-decorating industry. But then I ransacked Google to find a photo of said danger to go with the post, and realized that, judging from the lack of pictures, I am the only one that this happens to. I've managed to do it several times now, though, so I'll just tell you about the most

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-9296622987240981072012-07-11T11:25:00.003-07:002012-07-11T11:25:56.914-07:00

I have this ambition that some day soon I will move out of my rent-free bedroom in my parents' house and suddenly 90% of my income will be devoted to rent, groceries, student loans, and the essentials to make me feel better about the fact that I'm broke all the time (such as brightly coloured hair dye). And maybe I'll put the last 10% into a savings account, if I'm smart. In order to prepare for

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641666688416204018.post-69154304943062588062012-07-10T14:30:00.000-07:002012-07-10T14:38:16.318-07:00

I ended up at the all-famous Folk Fest for about 12 hours this weekend. I hadn't been to Folk Fest in eight years, as summer is a time when I am constantly broke anyway and if I'm spending money on anything (other than booze) it's the Fringe Fest, not the Folk one. But I have a friend who has this bewildering talent for winning to tickets for things, and I am all for the cheap and the free, which

Amy @Coffee Tuesdayshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02597719096975992204noreply@blogger.com0