I spent a good part of today at the ROM. The permanent Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece galleries are closing on Sunday as part of the renovation program currently going on. From what I understand, they won’t be opening again for at least eight months, but possibly as long as a year and a half. Since these are my favourite places to visit, I am actually quite crushed. After taking a couple of free tours of other areas in the museum, I took one last walk through the Egypt exhibit to say goodbye.

I was also very excited today, since I got to talk to two different ladies at the ROM about volunteering. Since I love the museum so much, I thought it would be the perfect thing for me to do. Then I came home and looked up some more information on the internet. It turns out that you must be a member of the museum to be a volunteer, and that costs C$89 a year. Sadly, I can’t afford that right now. And besides, I have a membership to the Canadian Natural History Museum, which gives me access to the ROM, so it hardly makes monetary sense to double up on memberships. So, no volunteering at the ROM for me.

Observations from my day out and about:

• Saw a guy wearing an “Impeach Bush” t-shirt. I’m not really sure what the point of it is since we are in Canada! Of course, he was also wearing a Marijuana Party button, so… (Yes, we have a political party called the Marijuana Party. They don’t get many votes. I think their supporters generally forget to vote…)
• Pigeons will eat onions. Who knew?
• Just because a store says it has 150 Tarot decks doesn’t mean they actually do. And for some reason, independent stores seem to feel that they can charge more for items. (C$50 for a deck that isn’t out of print and can be bought from the artist, with a book, for US$25? Hardly seems right.)
• Movie filming is a fact of life in Toronto. Look for Bloor West Village in the upcoming movie The Perfect Man. Sadly, I wasn’t in any of the shots.

I almost find it difficult to believe that May is coming to a close. Time seems to move faster the older one gets. I remember that, as a little girl, April, May and June just crawled by. It felt like my birthday would never come, and when it did I knew that it would be forever until school was done for the summer. Now, spring is done in the blink of an eye, and only summer lingers. (Mostly because the heat is often unbearable.) I am glad, though, that I have taken some time this month to literally stop and smell the flowers. It will still be sad to see my favourite month end. But, tomorrow I am spending a few hours at the spa, so it will be a luxurious send-off. 🙂

And just a thought about gas prices… Americans are currently paying an average for US$2 a gallon for gas. After a little conversion magic, I have discovered that here in Canada we are paying an average of US$2.65 a gallon. Something to remember the next time you pull up to the pump. (Here is an interesting, but slightly outdated, link from the CBC with average gas prices per litre in Canadian dollars. There are approximately 3.8 litres to a U.S. gallon.)