D2

November generally consisted of: making an upsetting decision to stay in Toronto, apartment hunting, helping design my mom's shop, freelancing at Levitt Goodman Architects for a competition, starting full time work at Giannone Petricone, being in a 1m radius of Bjarke Ingels, tasting Copenhagen again, feeling like a real adult at a gala at the ROM, and...proceeding to buy shoes after my first paycheque. Aha! Being paid for the first time in over a year feels pretty good, I'd say.

I had to make a quick decision to take a job in Toronto after my old office in Honolulu couldn't guarantee me a job for the year. The weekend in Montreal was tough having this on my mind, and I was constantly thinking about the uneasy prospect of being away from Mark (and Hawai'i) for another year. I still don't know if I made the right decision, but hopefully things will turn out for the better.

It's been nice to be able to spend so much time downtown and get to know the city again. I've been sampling the local coffee shops in my area, and I have to tell you that the cappuccino at SENSE APPEAL (Spadina/Adelaide) is definitely the best one I've had in the city thus far. You don't get it until you've been here. THOR (Bathurst/Niagara) and LITTLE NICKY'S (Queen/Peter) come at very close seconds. The ginger cookie at Little Nicky's is absolutely perfect. Thanks AJ! Photos from BlogTO.

The festivities and activities round up for the month --

x Apartment hunting
x Strange (and long) days at work
x Long-haul subway rides
x Morning dew
x Giana Factory @ the Drake
x ROM Gala
x Brunch @ Henhouse
x Cool Copenhagen @ the Drake
x Dufferin matter
x Flower shop biznazz
x More apartments
x Grandpa's birthday dinner
x King Street gallery hop

(First studio apartment I saw. Looks gorgeous in photos, but smelled so rotten in real life.)

Oh, and it snowed today. Whee! Toronto, November 2010.