Baby's First Garden!

It was SUCH a beautiful day today here in Toronto! I awoke this morning (after a rare 'good sleep night'), lounged in my sunny bedroom for a while watching a documentary film on my laptop while laying in bed, followed by some invigorating sun salutations (yoga) and pilates. (Sorry, just had to brag about that. Don't worry, Laura already made fun of me and my "perky pants" self this morning for that keen-ness!)

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with myself on this irresistably sunny day. So when Laura invited me to join her on a field trip to the garden center, I though, "sure, why not?" I've never really gardened before. (Save for those days as a child, when I used to play in the dirt while my grandmother tended to her huge vegetable garden!) So I was excited about this new adventure!

And gardening didn't disapoint me. I feel totally satisfied with the dirt under my fingernails and the (perhaps not blatantly visible) progress that we made on the beautification of our front yard today! Do what you will with the photographic evidence:

Our front yard, PRE-gardening.

(I swear, the previous owners of this house must have NEVER raked the leaves... There were layers, upon layers of leaves to deal with before we could even think about gardening. We filled SEVEN giant, oversize-garbage-bag-sized garden waste bags with leaves and mulchy-ness!)

MID-GARDENING MAYHEM:

Featuring: My Ass

And Henry meets his first worm:

"Worm Learning" - Awwwwwww!

Finalement,
The Saturday Afternoon Gardening Adventure concludes...

And quite frankly, I don't care if you're impressed with us or not. 'Cause I sure am impressed with the work we did today! AND, I'm super-excited to return home from St Louis at the end of this summer and find the lilies and gladiola that I planted today in bloom!

But until then,
I'll just enjoy the immediate gratification of the pansies we potted today:

Me & the fleurs.

SpRuNg!

Spring is totally here. Just TRY and tell me that it's not. I don't care if that damn dirty snow is taking it's sweet time melting outta sight. No one can deny me the joy that I feel now that it is actually light out when I wake up in the morning, and now that I had to take my jacket off while driving today because the sun was so warm beating through the car windows, and now that there IS that umistakeable feeling in the air... the egde of J-O-Y that is stirring within us all, as we celebrate the EXIT (of) WINTER.

And I too seem to be sprung from the existential captivity of the soul that winter seemed to have me trapped in... I'm all settled in to the new digs, loving life with the new roomies... I even hosted an easter dinner, which I COOKED, all by myself, including A TURKEY!

Don't believe me? Check out the photographic evidence:

Step One: Get over your fear of the dead bird.

(Cooking Fact: Recovering Vegetarians are not ideal candidates for cooking dead animals. Even tasty bird ones. It's true.)

This is not fake at all, despite the Swiss Chalet jokes we cracked all evening, this is the real deal; I cooked that dead bird!
(Another Cooking Fact: Meat-eating roomates come in handy when you have no idea how to 'carve a turkey'; Just hand them the knife and ask them to make that cooked dead bird into sliced dead bird - mmmmmmm!)

The Best Part: The People
Ah, such good times...
Seriously will go down as one of THE best memories of my entire life, seriously.

And in other news, the rest of my life, outside of my home, seems to have totally picked up lately... I'm loving my part-time afterschool teaching gigs, and my volunteer Tuesday nights with the teens, and I'm excitedd to announce that a few weeks ago I auditioned for, and was cast in a kids show that will have me performing in a Six Flags Amusement park in St Louis, Missouri for June, July & August this summer!

Yeah, St Louis - the city I never knew I would be excited to spend time in!

But I am excited. Very. And I'm also falling more and more in love with my neighbourhood (the historical "Junction City" neighbourhood in West Toronto). And I'm working on creating a new one-woman show that I am hoping to perform and tour in 2008/2009... And my roomate Laura and I are also plotting to open our own business in the neighbourhood, maybe even in late 2008... we'll see... dum da dum, dum dum...

Oh yeah, I've also (THANK G-D, becauseIdesperatelyneedthemoney) got a temporary, eight day gig as a driver for this 'REEL Canada' film festival, through my roomate Louis. 'REEL Canada' brings Canadian films in to Canadian high schools, like a one-day film festival, including guest speakers and workshops... And it's MY job now to pick up and drop off those special guests. I've only done two days now, but it's been pretty fun. I get to meet some interesting people, and I kinda love being around teenagers in these high schools all day too... :)

Well, that's all for now kids.
I promise to try and update more frequently in the coming days/weeks/months...

But until then, get away from your computer and go play outside!

Happy Spring!
XOX

Embracing My Uncoolness

Okay, so believe it or not, I do actually have some rules for myself and this blog. These somewhat random (and often made up as I go along) rules include, but are not limited to: Being only as honest in writing here as I could bear to be in speech in real life. This means I don't intend to use this space as a place to whine and complain and criticise specific people in my life. (Because I have a telephone and the trusted ears of my best friends for that kind of stuff, thankyouverymuch). I'm pretty sure that I've also never mentioned any place where I work by name, which has been intentional. Furthermore, when I do venture in to "complaining" territory, especially about work, I attempt to accept ownership for my feelings of frustration. Because really, I don't think anyone really does anything to us that we don't let them do... to a certain extent. (You gotta take that one with a grain of salt, because there ARE manipulative people out there to whom some of us really are powerless and susceptible. Okay, moving on.)

So, I guess that's the bottom line of my rules really: whatever I write on here, it is about me - the events of my life and my thoughts and feelings about them. And a very big part of this blog is me sharing these anecdotes with the intention of accepting total responsibility for the shape and feel of my own life, when it is awesome as well as when it is not so awesome.

But I have to say I think my life is pretty awesome right now. I'm love, love, LOVING my new living sitch. "Baby" Henry and I are definitely becoming buddies, and I'm also totally loving my adult roomies. (After I typed that sentence I just took a sip of the hot chocolate with Khalua that my roomie Laura just made me. Yes folks, I have moved to heaven. It's in The Junction. On Vine Avenue. Sigh.) I've also been spending quite a bit of time lately enjoying the company of many of my super fantastic friends, with whom I'd fallen out of touch over the past few months/years/etc (for some reason or another).

In fact, just last night, I went out with some girls I used to work with at The Restaurant. It has been months since I've seen most of them! It was soooo great! It was the lovely Beverly's birthday, and my friend Laura (not roomie Laura) had a group of us over to her place before we hit the bar. Now, another one of my rules for this here blog is not to record anything to "incriminating" about myself, or to make myself seem like some great big out-of-control party girl. Which I am not. Really and truly. So far from it. However, I do know how to have a good time, and sometimes a little gin helps the fun move along... ya know what I mean? Anyhow, so here I am, throwing caution to wind, and about to tell you about some of the ridiculousness that I perpetrated last night...

Originally, I didn't intend to join the girls at the bar, but of course, after a few "pre-drinks" at Laura's I was easily coerced into joining the bar festivities. And I brought the fun. Big time. Somehow I also brought the drunkeness. Alas, also big time. Now, I wasn't such a mess that I don't remember what a dancing fool I made of myself, so I guess that's a good sign.

Anyhow, once the night at the bar ended, Laura and Beverly decided to put me in a cab and send me on my merry way home. But just before they did that, the noticed that I had pulled my phone out of my pocket...

"Meghan, who are you calling? Meghan? Meghan? What are you doing?!?!"

Imagine them reaching towards me in slow motion to grab the phone from my hands, in a last-ditch, good friend attempt at preventing a drunk dial.

"Meghan - Nooooooooooo!"

They were too late. I made the call. I totally called the boy that I like right now. Oh. My. Gawd.
(Yep, here's another blog rule-breaker - making reference to my romantic life, which yes my dear readers, I do have! I've just made a pointed effort up until now not to write about it here on the interweb for everyone and their dog to read about. Ugh, as if.)

Ok, so I drunk dialed the boy that I like. (Um, actually I called him twice. Oh my, oh my, oh my...) And then I got home. Finally. Unfortunately, I had told Laura & Louis that I would be staying at friend Laura's place, so they had put this security latch thingy on the door (my friend Kevin called it "the old lady door lock" when I told him the story today). Being the drunken genius that I am, I tried sticking my hand through the door to unlock it... Obviously, if it were actually possible to unlock the door that way, there would be no market for these latches and no one would have them. Duh.

The next thing I know, my hand is stuck.

My hand is stuck in the front door of my house, where my roomates are sleeping (one of whom is under the age of two years) and it's after 3:00am. OH MY.

I ended up having to call the house and thank god Louis had fallen asleep on the couch and so was downstairs to hear the phone ring and let me in.

Yes, it was hilarity. And yes, oh yes, I am so un-cool!
But at least I'm entertaining, no?

Where The Journey Takes Us...

We're back in Toronto. Sarah and I drove "home" from Burlington, Vermont yesterday, and in less than an hour I will wake the princess one last time so that she can shower and dress and prepare to get on a plane to take her to her home in Vancouver later this morning. When we called Robin last night to let her know that we had arrived safe and sound in Toronto, she confessed that after we left yesterday she cried a little. And I think I know exactly what she was feeling. Something will definitely feel empty when Sarah leaves. And this trip will be over.

It was a GREAT trip though! We wandered the adorably quaint streets of "downtown Burlington" (well, Robin and I wandered alongside Sarah, who shopped, of course); We went out for an amazingly fresh sushi dinner with Robin's fella Ethan (I'm a big fan of this guy!) followed by "Thursday Night Trivia" at some bar that Robin and Ethan go to every Thursday night with their friends; I went to school with Robin and met one of her students that reminds her of "high-school Meghan" (while Sarah shopped some more); We went to the fantastic store "Cheese Traders" and came home and made fondue and drank red wine and piled on to Robin's bed and had a girls night in and watched the movie "Stick It!"; We hid easter eggs for each other and had an easter egg hunt; We went and got pedicures (my first time!); We cooked a delicious "easter dinner" and had Robin's friend Erin over before we went out on Saturday night to "Retronome" for 80's dance night!!! In short, it was a blast. Sarah will email me pictures soon, I'm sure and then I will share.

So yeah, it's a wierd, wistfull feeling that I'm feeling now... I keep marvelling at the journey that life has taken me on over the past few months, and how I never would have imagined that I would (or that I COULD) be where I am right now... Which is very happy to be home in my Toronto apartment, preparing to make a decision about whether I can go away and work in Europe this summmer or not (and leaning towards not) while thinking about my plans to move to New York City in the Fall or Winter. And best of all, just totally grounded in my own feeling of "no matter what happens it's going to be okay-ness"!

So far, my journey in 2007 has taken me down to the deepest, darkest depths of my memories and feelings, and then back up towards the light again... My work has taken me on a trip to visit my past, my "hometown" of Vancouver, where I visited the life I left behind and struggled with the realisation that I have truly moved onward... Then my journey took me to New York City, where I glimpsed my future, and met my "best self" (I think)... I then travelled east, to Halifax, a place that I have visited frequently over the past 5 years, and often in times of tribulation and transition. In Halifax I visited with some of my best friends from my university years, and was reminded of who I was, who I am and who I have always been. And then finally, this road-trip to be re-united with the two women without whom I'm not sure I would exist at all... Words cannot describe how special it was to spend time in the year 2007 with my two best friends from high school, Robin and Sarah, and though so much has changed... in most ways, our friendship hasn't changed at all.

And between it all, there has been Toronto. The life here that I have made for myself. The people I love dearly. The friends I love to care for, and those whom I let take care of me. The friends I love to party with, laugh with, chat with, drive with, dance with, drink with, talk with, cry with... My beautiful apartment, and the lovely backyard that is waiting for spring to finally arrive so that it can flourish into the beautiful garden that it is. It's nice to be home.

And who knows where the journey will take me next?

For now, it's going to take me downstairs to wake Sarah and then out the door and down the street to Starbucks to fetch her some coffee. 'Cause I know she needs it in the morning and I don't have a coffee maker. But most of all, because when you love someone, and they've been your best friend for this long... you want to do things like this. Because you can.

PS - Sarah and I randomly rented the movie "You, Me + Dupree" last night and laughed our asses off. It was surprisingly funny, and joyful, and I looooooove that Owen Wilson. Hotness, Adorableness & Humor-ness = Owen-ness. Watch the movie. You'll get the joke.