It's September in Toronto.  That means two things for me.  School is back on and the Toronto Film Festival is about to start!  Today tickets went on sale, so early this morning I went and lined up outside of the Manulife Centre.

After finishing work at about 12:30am last night, I had resolved myself to staying up rather than sleeping and having to wake up early.  Of course this didn't work out, as I took a 2 hour nap sometime in the middle of the night.  I awoke at 4am, donned my clothes and departed.  This morning I braved both nerds and mother nature.  Between the obnoxious cackles from the gaggle of hardcore film nerds that surrounded me in line, to the thunderstorm which decided it would be fun to rain on people lined up at 5 in the morning, it was not a pleasant experience.  But after 2 hours of standing in the rain, being enraged by really nerdy nerds, the box office opened and the line began to move.  I'd picked out my movies earlier that morning and was ready to buy my tickets.

In the future, when I crack a joke about having insufficient funds after waiting in line for 2 hours... please remind me of this occasion.  I neglected to check if the bank had cleared the hold on the personal cheque my room mate had given me for the rent.  Had I checked, I would have quickly discovered that I had $14 to my name and not the $126 required to by my tickets.  It was totally my fault, but in the future; where insufficient funds will be a thing of the past, I will ask that my roommate kindly give me the money via one of those dandy, holdless interac email money transfers.

One word can sum up the way I feel right now, and that word is: Argh!

On my way home I stopped by the ritzy Yorkville coffee shop that my brother works at.  He'd run into me waiting in line on his way to work that morning, and I said I'd stop by after I got my tickets.  Well, as you know I didn't get my tickets, but I still stopped by the coffee shop.  I don't particularly care for coffee most of the time, but after that kind of crushing defeat(and the 2 hours of sleep) I really needed a dose of caffeine.  I didn't get my tickets, but at least I got a coffee and had a very awkward conversation with a strange rich man about what a hassle it is finding Euros in your pants pocket when you're looking for Canadian money.

Now I have the pleasure of writing to you dear reader while I wait for the bank to open so I can kindly ask them to remove the hold on my $300!  And after that I shall return to Manulife Centre, hopefully before all the tickets are gone.  Then the sweet respite of my bed will be my home until I work this evening.

- Will