Torontonians, rejoice! The hot hot heat we've been asking for all year is finally here. And it's here with a vengeance. As some one who took environmental studies in university, the extreme heat worries me...global warming after all is taking it's toll on the planet. But as a shameless hedonistic twenty-something I have this say: this weather is awesome. Toronto reached the hottest it's ever been in history, and with the outdoors feeling like 50 Celsius, many of us are stripping down to what we normally would wear on the beach. Yes, it's super hot and sweaty outside. And yes, being exposed to the sun for more than a couple minutes leaves even the most poised and eloquent of us all looking like rotting ice cream cones...but there's no reason to trot along Queen West with your ass cheeks hanging out. A little note to all you melting minglers out there: keep it classy bitches. (You too, male bitches.)
I know guys. I know. It's hot. We all know it's hot. And some times it's easier to throw our shame aside in favor of feeling a little cooler. But after witnessing what can only be described as hooker-esque styles on the streets today, I felt it necessary to log on, start a new post, and devote it to explaining why ass-shorts and a bra is not appropriate for anyone to see aside from your boyfriend, and perhaps if you really a prosty, your clients. It's all about balance when it comes to staying chic and lovely while still cool enough to walk between air-conditioned store to air-conditioned store.
Crop tops are wonderfully trendy right now, but please, wear them with a graceful maxi skirt instead of a mini. Crop top and a mini in the day time? Unless you're trying to look like a Spice Girl, I wouldn't recommend it. It seems as though the length of shorts has gone from long, to short, to whoa, to ew in the past couple years. I mean honestly, I've seen more bum cheeks in the past week than I have in an entire uncensored Snoop Dog video. I have a nice ass. Doesn't mean I want to show it off all the freaking time. A well-tailored pair of paper-bag shorts (like these) or even short, cute, cut-off shorts (like these denim ones) are perfectly adorable, sexy, and do not require the population of Toronto to know how, exactly, your ass looks when smushed into shorts too tight to breathe in. I partially blame American Apparel for this trend...just because it looks super hot when their models loll around half-naked on all white backgrounds doesn't mean you should buy their disco shorts and wear them out. Just sayin'.
Men, you're not off the hook either! No matter how ripped, tan, and chiseled you are, walking around anywhere that is not remotely beachy with your shirt off just looks...douchey. Like, tres douchey. Especially if you're doing that over-compensating male thing where you hunch a little and walk with your arms in front of the rest of you. It's cute on apes, it's douche-tastic on you. Muscle shirts are tolerable I suppose, if it's going to be this hot, and when paired with tailored shorts and loafers is borderline charming. It's when I see dudes wearing tanks with more cleavage than girls at clubs that I start to giggle. Muscles or no muscles, it looks silly.
It's a scorching 30 plus degrees right now as I'm about to head out for a patio to start my night, just another hot hot night for us hot hot twenty-somethings. Clearly the hottest of us all are ones with confidence. And an understated one at that. No need to show it all off when you know you've got it. Crop top? Yes. Now pass me my maxi.
x
Friday, July 22, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Hey babies hey babies hey -- OMFG
I was enjoying a martini and miso black cod at an upscale sushi restaurant in my dear city one night a little bit ago with some girl friends when our meal was disrupted by a scream. All of my well-heeled and glittery-dressed gals and I turned our coiffed heads from our $50 meals to see a child, maybe about five years, wailing and running around the restaurant with what looked like chocolate smeared on his face. While one or two of my friends oohed and ahhed over the cuteness of the little tyke, I winced and sighed. I mean, what kind of parents bring their kids to a trendy restaurant at 10pm on a weekend night? I don't care how cool and hip parenting has evolved to be over the past decades -- there are just some places children are not meant to go.
I paid $20 a drink to enjoy the pretentious atmosphere of classy Toronto dining I'm used to when I head out for the night... and that atmosphere does not include messy-faced toddlers. This incident pretty much sums out how I feel about ever having kids now, or anytime soon: there's absolutely no way. I'm admittedly too selfish to give up any of my lifestyle and care for some one else. (Well, except a boyfriend at the moment.) Also, I can barely take care of my myself...goodness knows what would happen if I had a child. However, some of my friends, of similar age to me (read: still young) have expressed that they are ready to settle down with one person, have babies, and spend their lives caring for them. One girl friend of mine was explaining her desire to do so the other night while we were out, and I don't know if it was the four vodka-Redbulls I had throughout the night, or the three shots I'd downed, or the beer I was sipping on, but I started to feel claustrophobic and it wasn't even my life she was describing. Being tied down to anything that involves commitment (other than love..) just makes my skin crawl. Perhaps it's the responsibility of it all, but I think I can safely say there will be no little Sheilakins running around any time soon.
I realize this all makes me sound terribly anti-child. That's not the case at all! I think babies are adorable (as long as I don't have to take care of them for more than a couple minutes) and that children are cute as well. Heck, I even spent a summer when I was fifteen being a camp counselor! Mind you, it was a pampered rich kid day camp in my area and as counselors we really didn't really have to do much other than shuffle the kids from supervised activity to supervised activity...but hey, I was still surrounded by them 24/7!
When I think of how wonderful my childhood was (no less than three trips to Disney World, travel all over the globe, caring parents who listened to whatever my siblings and I had to say and many other precious surprises, to say the least) I know that I want to be able to give that, and more, to my own children. And right now, living the (relatively) carefree and a lot of the time careless life that I live...well that's just not an option. Not to mention my parents being the most amazing and ridiculously functioning team in the world (seriously, they could run a country together, that's how seamlessly efficient they are) I guess subconsciously I won't even consider having kids until I feel I'm in a union as solid as theirs. I mean, at least I know I'm selfish, unfit to provide and unstable right now! Teen Mom on MTV might be shits and giggles to make fun of, but imagining being in such a sad situation in reality is terrifying. No money, sketchy babydaddy, and poor living standards? Ugh, hand me a condom.
Of course life has its moments that cannot be planned, but having children definitely is not one of them for me. While I admire that some of my friends already know what they want in life, I feel as though I haven't even seen, or experienced enough of the world to decide when, where and who I want to settle down with. Children, schmildren -- they can wait. What can't wait, to me, is the world. And perhaps after I see, do, and live everything I've felt I need to, I'll be ready. But until then, they should really stay out of my upscale dinner parties. x
I paid $20 a drink to enjoy the pretentious atmosphere of classy Toronto dining I'm used to when I head out for the night... and that atmosphere does not include messy-faced toddlers. This incident pretty much sums out how I feel about ever having kids now, or anytime soon: there's absolutely no way. I'm admittedly too selfish to give up any of my lifestyle and care for some one else. (Well, except a boyfriend at the moment.) Also, I can barely take care of my myself...goodness knows what would happen if I had a child. However, some of my friends, of similar age to me (read: still young) have expressed that they are ready to settle down with one person, have babies, and spend their lives caring for them. One girl friend of mine was explaining her desire to do so the other night while we were out, and I don't know if it was the four vodka-Redbulls I had throughout the night, or the three shots I'd downed, or the beer I was sipping on, but I started to feel claustrophobic and it wasn't even my life she was describing. Being tied down to anything that involves commitment (other than love..) just makes my skin crawl. Perhaps it's the responsibility of it all, but I think I can safely say there will be no little Sheilakins running around any time soon.
I realize this all makes me sound terribly anti-child. That's not the case at all! I think babies are adorable (as long as I don't have to take care of them for more than a couple minutes) and that children are cute as well. Heck, I even spent a summer when I was fifteen being a camp counselor! Mind you, it was a pampered rich kid day camp in my area and as counselors we really didn't really have to do much other than shuffle the kids from supervised activity to supervised activity...but hey, I was still surrounded by them 24/7!
When I think of how wonderful my childhood was (no less than three trips to Disney World, travel all over the globe, caring parents who listened to whatever my siblings and I had to say and many other precious surprises, to say the least) I know that I want to be able to give that, and more, to my own children. And right now, living the (relatively) carefree and a lot of the time careless life that I live...well that's just not an option. Not to mention my parents being the most amazing and ridiculously functioning team in the world (seriously, they could run a country together, that's how seamlessly efficient they are) I guess subconsciously I won't even consider having kids until I feel I'm in a union as solid as theirs. I mean, at least I know I'm selfish, unfit to provide and unstable right now! Teen Mom on MTV might be shits and giggles to make fun of, but imagining being in such a sad situation in reality is terrifying. No money, sketchy babydaddy, and poor living standards? Ugh, hand me a condom.
Of course life has its moments that cannot be planned, but having children definitely is not one of them for me. While I admire that some of my friends already know what they want in life, I feel as though I haven't even seen, or experienced enough of the world to decide when, where and who I want to settle down with. Children, schmildren -- they can wait. What can't wait, to me, is the world. And perhaps after I see, do, and live everything I've felt I need to, I'll be ready. But until then, they should really stay out of my upscale dinner parties. x
Monday, July 11, 2011
Social party networking...OMFG
What are we looking for when we go out? When I was 15 it was a bouncer who I could wink at so he wouldn't know my New Brunswick ID was totally fake (thank you, sketchy "souvenir" shop on College Street) but now, nine years and countless nights out later, what is there left to do?
My group of friends are all around my age (mid-twenties), have all been out and about a ton, (in Toronto, in other cities, drunk, sober, on drugs, not on drugs, dirty underground things, upscale celebrity things, you name it and we've probably done it. Twice.) and are now we're all....well a little bored. The scene here in my darling city is a little conservative to say the least and the industry players usually don't travel outside of the safe, but overly-gentrified areas (King West, blah blah blah...I might suffocate from familiarity the next time I'm out on King West.) and usual crowd (suburban folk make up the majority). Sure, I could go venture to something entirely new and go out in, say, Ossington, where things are decidedly more hipster, but are there really no options other than mainstream ginos and not-so-indie hipsters? Surely.
Location be damned. It's not about where but who that makes a quality party now. It seems as we grow older, our mindset changes from not just the seeking out of a good time, but a good opportunity as well. The busiest parties, events, hootenannies, shindigs and what-have-you in Toronto are the ones where attendees know the mingling crowd will be one of a professional standard. And I'm not talking about the late-night girl professionals who work the King West crowds. (Ha.) Rather I'm talking about the people in this city who are creating business opportunities by pursuing their passions, and thus creating opportunities for others as well. Magazine launches, after-work corporate happy hour-esque mixers, big name charity galas and social media unveilings guarantee a like-minded crowd; if your current train of thought is business-savvy, ambitious and determined. They also happen to make the best, and even (at times) craziest, parties. Money, brains, and a young, handsome group of the city's top folk ensures that the party is not only marketed to a tee, but that it's planned to one as well.
Gone are the days where the most talked-about rager happened spontaneously in so-and-so's grimy after-hours space filled with dirty-yet-pretty rave kids, a plethora of drugs and un-posed-yet-posed Polaroid photos....we're in our mid-to-late twenties now and want to go places where we don't have to worry about scandalous pictures leaking onto Facebook. (Well, on most nights anyways.) What sells nowadays are ideas, ideas, and more ideas, and meeting with idea-producing individuals in a schmoozefest of an atmosphere is, well, ideal! Perhaps it's also because as we get older more of us are in relationships too which hampers the idea of going out and getting crazy. Just because we're in relationships doesn't mean we don't want purposeful partying as well! It's just that the purpose is making business connections instead of, um, physical ones, to phrase it politely.
So I guess the answer to what we're all looking for after a certain point when going out is to better ourselves; through social savvy and essentially selling the ideas we have to others in hopes to collaborate. Add chic martinis, out-of-office haute attire, good beats, & a beautiful venue and you have yourself the new coveted party scene for twenty-somethings: the social network event. Zuckerberg may have put it online, but the rest of us are keeping it going in person.
x
My group of friends are all around my age (mid-twenties), have all been out and about a ton, (in Toronto, in other cities, drunk, sober, on drugs, not on drugs, dirty underground things, upscale celebrity things, you name it and we've probably done it. Twice.) and are now we're all....well a little bored. The scene here in my darling city is a little conservative to say the least and the industry players usually don't travel outside of the safe, but overly-gentrified areas (King West, blah blah blah...I might suffocate from familiarity the next time I'm out on King West.) and usual crowd (suburban folk make up the majority). Sure, I could go venture to something entirely new and go out in, say, Ossington, where things are decidedly more hipster, but are there really no options other than mainstream ginos and not-so-indie hipsters? Surely.
Location be damned. It's not about where but who that makes a quality party now. It seems as we grow older, our mindset changes from not just the seeking out of a good time, but a good opportunity as well. The busiest parties, events, hootenannies, shindigs and what-have-you in Toronto are the ones where attendees know the mingling crowd will be one of a professional standard. And I'm not talking about the late-night girl professionals who work the King West crowds. (Ha.) Rather I'm talking about the people in this city who are creating business opportunities by pursuing their passions, and thus creating opportunities for others as well. Magazine launches, after-work corporate happy hour-esque mixers, big name charity galas and social media unveilings guarantee a like-minded crowd; if your current train of thought is business-savvy, ambitious and determined. They also happen to make the best, and even (at times) craziest, parties. Money, brains, and a young, handsome group of the city's top folk ensures that the party is not only marketed to a tee, but that it's planned to one as well.
Gone are the days where the most talked-about rager happened spontaneously in so-and-so's grimy after-hours space filled with dirty-yet-pretty rave kids, a plethora of drugs and un-posed-yet-posed Polaroid photos....we're in our mid-to-late twenties now and want to go places where we don't have to worry about scandalous pictures leaking onto Facebook. (Well, on most nights anyways.) What sells nowadays are ideas, ideas, and more ideas, and meeting with idea-producing individuals in a schmoozefest of an atmosphere is, well, ideal! Perhaps it's also because as we get older more of us are in relationships too which hampers the idea of going out and getting crazy. Just because we're in relationships doesn't mean we don't want purposeful partying as well! It's just that the purpose is making business connections instead of, um, physical ones, to phrase it politely.
So I guess the answer to what we're all looking for after a certain point when going out is to better ourselves; through social savvy and essentially selling the ideas we have to others in hopes to collaborate. Add chic martinis, out-of-office haute attire, good beats, & a beautiful venue and you have yourself the new coveted party scene for twenty-somethings: the social network event. Zuckerberg may have put it online, but the rest of us are keeping it going in person.
x
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Online Dating -- Yay or Nay? OMFG
It's official: romance is dead. Okay, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but it seems as though in today's modern world, the notion of good old fashioned romance is just that: old fashioned. With our lives becoming busier than Charlie Sheen's bed during a bender, there's little to no time left to wine, dine, and woo that special somebody. Actually, there barely seems any time at all to meet that special somebody! More and more friends of mine have turned to online dating in recent years complaining to me that after school is over, there really is no decent place to meet people of interest aside from the workplace. (And even that's a no-no...there's no need to shit where you eat, kids.) Have we become so cynical in finding love that online dating, essentially a formula to matching one person with another, has become the norm?
The stigma once attached with cyber cruising is minimal if not totally gone (read: it's not just for fat, lonely losers and the creepiest of the creepsters anymore) and now it's not unusual for pretty ladies with crowded professional lives to approach dating as they would their careers: with method and calculation. Why take the time out of an already exhausting schedule to meet someone when you can get a service to weed out those you're not compatible with? Exactly. Many of my beautiful and intelligent girl friends have turned to Lavalife, Plenty of Fish and what-have-you to go on dates with potential boyfriends. (Note: only 2 of my girlfriends have ended up with stalkers because of it. Be weary, ladies and gents.)
It's all well and dandy and makes perfect sense to find a mate based on questionnaire-like compatibility tests....but what about the zsa zsa zou? Telling the story of how you met just doesn't sound as charming and ravishing when you say: "Online." There's no mystery, no sense of destiny and definitely no initial butterflies when you're clicking through one picture after another and reading tag lines such as "I enjoy long walks on the beach.." (Okay, who doesn't?) My boyfriend and I met doing a fashion show together where he literally swept me off my feet; while I was at the end posing, he ran down and threw me over his shoulder with playful showmanship. Cheesy? Maybe...it was an Ed Hardy swimwear fashion show after all (that's usually a detail we purposely leave out, for obvious reasons) but definitely a romantic little anecdote that makes me smile every time I remember it.
Romance has been slowly fading ever since I can remember anyways....I mean women nowadays are so romance-starved I mildly swoon if a gentleman even bothers to open a door for me. But with lives on the go-go-go and coupling-up taking a backseat to careers and opportunity, perhaps a practical approach is of smart logic. Perhaps. But for the hopeless and lovey-dovey (i.e. yours truly) approaching love will always have nothing to do with logic....Carrie said it best when breaking-up with the Russian in Paris: "I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." Amen.
x
Sidenote: Online dating may not be romantic, but this is downright embarrassing: learn from Ted darling blogees... a little snippet from How I Met Your Mother!
The stigma once attached with cyber cruising is minimal if not totally gone (read: it's not just for fat, lonely losers and the creepiest of the creepsters anymore) and now it's not unusual for pretty ladies with crowded professional lives to approach dating as they would their careers: with method and calculation. Why take the time out of an already exhausting schedule to meet someone when you can get a service to weed out those you're not compatible with? Exactly. Many of my beautiful and intelligent girl friends have turned to Lavalife, Plenty of Fish and what-have-you to go on dates with potential boyfriends. (Note: only 2 of my girlfriends have ended up with stalkers because of it. Be weary, ladies and gents.)
It's all well and dandy and makes perfect sense to find a mate based on questionnaire-like compatibility tests....but what about the zsa zsa zou? Telling the story of how you met just doesn't sound as charming and ravishing when you say: "Online." There's no mystery, no sense of destiny and definitely no initial butterflies when you're clicking through one picture after another and reading tag lines such as "I enjoy long walks on the beach.." (Okay, who doesn't?) My boyfriend and I met doing a fashion show together where he literally swept me off my feet; while I was at the end posing, he ran down and threw me over his shoulder with playful showmanship. Cheesy? Maybe...it was an Ed Hardy swimwear fashion show after all (that's usually a detail we purposely leave out, for obvious reasons) but definitely a romantic little anecdote that makes me smile every time I remember it.
Romance has been slowly fading ever since I can remember anyways....I mean women nowadays are so romance-starved I mildly swoon if a gentleman even bothers to open a door for me. But with lives on the go-go-go and coupling-up taking a backseat to careers and opportunity, perhaps a practical approach is of smart logic. Perhaps. But for the hopeless and lovey-dovey (i.e. yours truly) approaching love will always have nothing to do with logic....Carrie said it best when breaking-up with the Russian in Paris: "I'm looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love." Amen.
x
Sidenote: Online dating may not be romantic, but this is downright embarrassing: learn from Ted darling blogees... a little snippet from How I Met Your Mother!
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