Signs of summer: Now that the windows are open, at this time everyday while working from home, the smell of eggs and bacon comes through the window from the restaurant below my apartment and it’s kind of a comfort thing.

I absolutely love getting up north and escaping the concrete jungle on weekends in the summer. But I absolutely love taking advantage of weekends where there is no concrete jungle escape. So about the last one…

There are far too many choices on the Saturday/Sunday shuffle in the city. This is a trigger for my extreme case of FOMO. (That fear of missing out thing… and my continued case of trying something new. Crossfit started this past Sunday!) This past weekend some friends and I chose the west end, specifically the Dundas West Fest. Street festivals are kinda sorta maybe my favourite summer thing to do in the city. You really don’t feel like you’re in the city; visiting vendors, the smell of BBQ that takes you back to swimming in your Grandparents backyard as a kid and a few cocktails with friends at a fold up table curb side, people watching to end the day. I like it that way. While sipping on a dark and stormy, visuals of acceptance stood out in the little fenced off patio where we sat and it was so refreshing. People expressing themselves through laughter and clothing layers and love with no labels. Being able to be completely yourself and accepted is one of the biggest highs. Being loved for being perfectly imperfect. In a field where you’re ‘judged’ for your looks and presence and what comes out of your mouth daily (which I chose to be a part of), I crave what I absorbed on Dundas West some days. This morning I read this saying on instagram and it’s bang on –> Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide. SO TRUE. It was nice to hide this past weekend. And when we all had to move inside the bar at sundown, everyone picked up their own table and chairs and helped carry them inside to put away and that was super cool to me. It’s just a little thing but they all add up. -k