I loved your son for his sturdy arms.

2006-03-10 at 2:29 p.m.

So I went and found myself a boyfriend. We met for the first time on Sunday. My birthday. He's two days younger than me. Isn't that incredibly sweet?

He came with the most fantastic gifts: a drawing which reminds me so much of Klimt's 'Life and Death,' a mixed cd, and a crane made from rice paper with the lyrics of Josh Ritter's 'Baby That's Not All' ("fold yourself against me like a paper bird..."). Yeah, wow. I knitted him a scarf.

We spent the morning in Little Italy, at Soundscapes, lunch of ice cream at Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe, walked through China Town, down on Queen Street, and then watched the little kids skate at City Hall.

We met Kim and her boy Paul, who I shall now refer to as Hot Paul (because he's hot, obviously). It was a weird situation, the only people who knew eachother being me and Kim. We were freaking them out with our likeness to one another.

We went for a birthday swing on the secret swing at Queen and Spadina. It's down an alley of homeless people and general scariness. Down this alley, you turn into a much smaller alley, more like just a space between two buildings and find this, kind of a mystical and strange urban art installation:

See the two bars that have been pulled back at the lower right? Well, that's how you get in, hunched over and being careful not to poke your eye out.

Here's me on the swing and a funny picture where it appears that Tommy is cupping my bum.

I don't know how apparent it is, but the alley tapers off to a pile of garbage at the end. This means that when you're swinging, there's an ever present danger of you getting wedged between the walls. And you also come very close to hitting the pipe on the right. It's very terrifying and very fun.

Here's Kim. This was her second time here so she was braver than the rest of us and went so high, notice how she's not even in the second picture:

We made the boys hold our purses. I don't know if you can see, but there are several dozen metal tea-light holders all over the ground. Kim, thinking she is the authority on all equipment medical, said it was for sterilizing needles. I said, it's for heroin! I was declared winner despite my little knowledge of drug paraphenalia.

After this we walked through the Toronto ghetto up to Bloor for Strongbow at James Joyce. We were planning on watching the Oscars at the Bloor Theatre but decided to avoid the movie snobs and just watch it at the pub instead. This meant we could laugh at the ridiculous acceptance speeches without being shhh'd. Plus there was nachos and Irish Potatoe Boats.

He has those lovely freckly, skinny, Glen Hansard arms that I admire so much.

They make me swoon.

speaking at length + speaking in lines