and life continues to move forward...

Saying good bye/so long/see you later is never easy...

So a couple of days ago I met up with a few of my friends down town t.o. to say good buy to one of our "group". Having been friends since first year uni and now moving on in separate directions is both exciting and poopy at the same time. I have to say tho, my friend, starting her PHD at 21 is absolutely AMAZING!! Ellie, I hope you have a safe move and I hope to make it to Philly to visit you!!

Adriana and Ellie

Julia and Steph (Me)

My own life seems to be moving forward in baby steps... I finally am getting more consistent 'day shifts' at work, and am getting more creative tasks and responsibilities. I am also get recognition which is nice - do I hear "super star of the month", I think so :P aha. This is great for now, however that European job would be so welcome now!! I'm still on the hunt, and need to get more engaged in searching again... after a few months job hunting can be make me so unmotivated, but I need to get back at it.

The BF is still working on the cruise ship thousands of miles away... che palle is all I have to say about that. MI MANCHI BELLO!!

Well, nothing too exciting for now... need to return a pair of shoes tomorrow. Winners is starting to get worse quality of clothing and it's so easy to stare at the clothes for so long that you eventually choose the best of what is there... but which is still sub-par, and so RETURN!

Anywho, ciao for now!!

Stephanie

RIB FEST!!!

Howdy From Rib Fest Y'all!!

TORONTO RIB FEST 2011 - 03 July 2011

So I just got back from having a grand 'ol time at the Toronto Rib Fest with my brother and his girlfriend (whom I met for the first time today). It was a lot of fun. We had beautiful weather and the food was AMAZING. We choose ribs and chicken from Billy Bones BBQ, the 1st place sauce winners of last year, and they did not disappoint:

BILLY BONES BBQ!!!

enjoying their delicious meal, couldn't even stop eating to take
a picture - it was just that good!

My ribs and chicken... partially consumed already. mmmmmm.

It was my first time actually eating ribs at rib fest and so I was pretty excited to dive into these babies, and I must say I ate them with quite a bit of class - not a single drop of sauce got on my clothes.


Do I Hear Mississauga Rib Fest Calling (July 14th-17th)?

Thanks for a GREAT TIME Guys!!

Ciao For Now!!

Stephanie :)

Kicking My Butt Into Shape with a side of RAGE!!

HEAR MY RAGEEEE!!!

Okay so what will follow this next little angry outburst, I still feel I should post. HOWEVER, that was this morning before I got to my gym...

How I feel now...

Literally a week ago, last Saturday, I went to the gym worked out hard and all was fine and dandy. Then I got sick and had to take a week off of working out to regain my strength. This morning I felt FANTASTIC and was super excited to make it to the gym during the short Sunday hours. So I choose a cute gym out fit, tie up my shoes and ride my bike to the plaza. Side note to my self *oh the circus is in town* as I lock my bike up to the post. I walk through the doors of the mall and boom I see the gym's doors closed. I am slightly discourage but I walk up to them anyways to see if this is some Sunday thing (who knows, it's my first time to the gym on a Sunday!). I open the door and start talking to the front desk lady. Nope, turns out this is not some "Sunday" thing, the gym is closed for renovations... FOR TWO MONTHS!!!!!! So you would think I would have known about this in advance, right? And no, I highly doubt they would only know one week in advance that this would be happening. I am ANGRY. No signs, no information posted, I even talked to the ladies at the front desk my last few visits and they didn't mention anything!! My options are now: (1) Put my gym membership on hold for two months (any person with common sense would know that if you want to stay in shape discontinuing your exercise regime will surely not help this) OR (2) I can bike ride an extra 20 minutes each way to go to the other premier fitness gym. oh did I mention it's up hill to get there AND I work at 7:30am three times a week? Well it seems my number of workouts each week have certainly been curbed as I do not see how I will have the time to make this trek, and I am most certainly not going to take public transit to make it faster as that just seems counter intuitive. PREMIER FITNESS - FEEL MY ANGER AND FRUSTRATION

How I felt this morning...

So I finally joined a gym, thanks to Livingsocial deals (Groupon also had a similar deal) I got an amazing 4 month offer for premier fitness and joined one of their mademoiselle clubs. Over a month into my membership I have gone through my fitness testing and minus a small bump in the road from a cold I'd say I'm well on my way to a more active and healthier lifestyle. I feel GREAT! Yes, some of you who know me may insert a sly "FEEL MY ABS" jab at me, but seriously you should because these come only from dedication.

I would definitely recommend premier fitness gyms, and for women their mademoiselle clubs. Excellent facilities, friendly and helpful staff, and some of their classes are quite enjoyable. So far I have tried two Zumba classes, I wanted to find out what all of the craze was about. First time I was not a fun, but the second time around with a different instructor I had a great time burning calories while shaking my boot-ayyy - ladies, if you need some motivation to work out I highly recommend these types of classes.

I have committed to not only going to the gym, but I am throwing a bit of European lifestyle into play and biking pretty much EVERYWHERE I can. Biking uphill to work everyday, now THAT is a good workout. I will say that biking has to be one of the most dangerous things you can do around Mississauga, and I should really invest in a proper helmet (yes, I know - tisk tisk for not currently wearing one). Not only are there very few bike friendly areas, but cyclists don't even know how to use these bike lanes properly! Cyclists are still vehicles and should go in the same direction as traffic, not against it. Breaking this rule is not only highly dangerous for yourself but for oncoming cyclists who have to try and swerve around you. Cyclists aren't the only ones to blame for the dangers on the road, I have also almost been hit numerous times by vehicles failing to stop at stop signs or by individuals failing to see if there is other oncoming traffic before making a left hand turn into a parking lot or lane way. MISSISSAUGA NEEDS BIKE EDUCATION!!

Well that is all for now!

Ci sentiamo,

Stephanie

side note...

Just for your amusement... this is how we felt during some of the Canada Day performances:

no additional words needed.

LONG WEEKEND X2

Ciao a Tutti!

It's been over a month, I KNOW, I have somewhat failed to update. However this is my second wonderful long weekend in a row and now have some time on my hands. 

This past while I have had some time to take in what has been going on around the GTA, catch up with some old friends and get my active living health kick on a roll (so stay tuned for a few more posts soon!!).

First of all I want to say HAPPY CANADA DAY (slightly belated) to all of Canada. 

Wave Your Flag :)

Yesterday was fantastic with so much jubilation and celebrating. I celebrated in Mississauga taking in the diverse cultural mash-ups and the free concerts by some proud Canadians! Although, not all performances were as pleasing as others to the eye's and/or ears (break dancing and albino zebra mash up... say huh?!), they surely were done in the spirit of the day! If I have you on facebook, check out my Summer 2011 photo album for further comments on the performances. I do want to make a shout out to Shawn Desman - YOU WERE SUPER SEXY AND FABULOUS! just saying, he totally was. He had a great performance and was definitely a great opening act for the gorgeous fireworks display. Thank you city of Mississauga, it was a great evening. Here is a short photo summary of the evening (sorry I'm missing a few of the performances):

Korean Drumming and Hula Dancing

Tai Chi

These Kids Wear Crowns ''JUMP START!''

Fefe Dobson

Shawn Desman

Fire Works

A Jazzy Saturday It seems I've been on a bit of a adventure kick lately. Last weekend I took some time to experience the Jazz Festival that has been livening up parts of Toronto. It's still going on and I highly recommend it. Saturday evening the distillery district was bursting with diversity as we caught two amazing performances by Les Doigts de L'Homme.I have been a fan of jazz for a while listening to the oldies like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, loving Michael Bublé's spin on some Frank Sinatra Classics and have taken in a few other more modern Jazz artists. This, however, was my first exposure to Gypsy Jazz (a.k.a. Jazz Manouche). I LOVED IT. I was completely captivated by the string work; a very talented group and a very interesting genre which I look forward to continue exploring (any musical recommendations are highly welcome!). The watching of Chocolat promptly followed this jazz adventure and jazz manouche continued it's hold on our hopeless romantic hearts for the rest of the weekend. *sigh

check out their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lesdoigtsdelhomme

What have you all been doing to experience your cities? Canada Day? 

Ciao For Now!!

Stephanie

Ps. Excuse the poor quality of photos... my X10 is still not fixed.

Che bel weekend!!

Ho avuto il primo weekend con tempo bellissimo! Finalemente! Ho potuto lasciare la finestra aperta alla notte e ho fatto qualche cose all'esterno. Sono andato in bici per la prima volta questa primavera e ho avuto due serate belle con amici (grazie mille grace e ryan per cena e crepes domenica sera!! Dovete venire a casa mia la prossima volta) . Domani dovrò lavorare ancora, e questa settimana cominciarò cercare un lavoro in europa. Avete qualche suggerimenti per la mia ricerca? (per favore!!) ohhh italia, mi manchi tantissimo! 

My job search in Europe will be a bit of a challenging one, and hopefully I will be able to learn and pass on some helpful information for others who decide to go live/ work abroad. Luckily, authorization is not a problem for me since I have my European passport... it just comes down to: conoscere le lingue e trovare un lavoro. Both of which I need to work on. Therefore time to study and job search!! 

I’ll update soon :) and hopefully have something interesting to share!

Ci sentiamo,

Stefania ;)

xxx

Ps. It's 2 days into using my old phone, and it is not as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, in someways I actually enjoy it!! The sms-ing is so nice with actual keys instead of touch screen, not sure how I will go back. I suppose the internet access and other functions will make it much easier than I think right now (might have something to do with convincing myself that it is not all that BAD having to use my old phone)

A rant on technology services...

Oggi, ho alzato e ho visto che è una bellissima giornata! c'è sole, fa caldo... and then I went to turn on my phone - kaput, no battery, wont turn on. Fantastico! so I went to charge it and guess what, the charger wont work. I try a different charger - no luck, after an hour of freaking out and trying to get it to work I realize my phone really is broken. That means its time to make a phone call to rogers... now I don't know about you, but I hate going through the process of listening to the automated voices, pushing all those damn buttons and going in circles in digital limbo. It frustrates me when I need to find my bus information (Mississauga transit isn't too bad, but greyhound! mamma mia that one is frustrating), it frustrates me when I want to call into my own work, and it certainly frustrates me now when I just want to get my phone fixed. I may now slightly understand the intimidation of live video agent at work, however I argue at least you are talking to and see a real person. Anyways, so I finally get through, tell them my situation. Great, but then I have to go get "daddy" on the phone to authorize anything... do I sound like I'm 5? 10? even 15?!  I'm over 20 and I just want to get my phone fixed, not change any account settings, just get my phone fixed and I have to get my dad to authorize it! Okay fine, get dad, dad authorizes, and steph gets back on the phone. Rogers guy, "you need to take your phone into a rogers store they will ship it out to get fixed, it's going to take at least 7 business days". Well dang nabbit! My brother called in a month or two ago with a broken phone, needed no "daddy" authorization and got a new phone sent to him in two days. This was seriously frustrating. At least I have an extra phone to use... something about using one of their loaner phones sounds sketchy. I mean other people (who you don't know) have held that phone up to their face, put it who knows where, and have done who knows what with it! So I will be reverting back to my old sony ericson W810i for probably two weeks while my lovely x10 gets fixed... the likely hood of people getting a hold of me is zero since this phone is old and doesn't hold charge very long. This cannot be a good sign for my job search!

Hopefully the rest of the long weekend goes better!!

Ci sentiamo,

-Stephanie

BACI ;)