One Full Day

Yesterday was a DAY. A long one, a busy one, a tiring one, an inspiring one, a confusing one, a conflicted one… One full of good feelings, great feelings, not-so-great feelings and a lot of figuring things out…

Although I only went to bed a mere 3 or 4 hours earlier, my day yesterday began around 8am, as I opened just one eye to reluctantly peer at the orange numbers on my digital alarm clock. I prayed briefly for some miracle that would keep me from having to leave my bed at all that morning, let alone at that moment… But alas, no miracle, at least not that one.

I had only just gotten out of the shower when my phone rang – and it was Tracey. It was still a good 45 minutes earlier than I expected her to be at my place (for the first reading of her newest play) so I answered hoping this wasn’t one of those “Surprise! I’m totally early and standing outside” kinda calls. It wasn’t. Well, not quite… She was about 20 minutes away, and still very early. Ah well, she was probably nervous and excited.

She had invited about 10 or 15 of her "nearest and dearest" over to my place for an 11:30am reading of her newest show - Two in the Bush! For which I am the Artistic Producer (as well as choreographer, and... as the play stands right now at least... I have a little cameo appearance in the opening dance number - oh my!) Guntar had generously granted me permission to use his studio/dining room/living room space (what? did you actually think I was gonna host a reading of a play in my semi-basement apartment?!?!), and it didn't take much for TES and I to set up a little audience seating area, pop the veggie lasagna into the oven to cook and wait for her incredibly punctual guests to arrive.

The reading was lovely. I loved it, the audience loved it. It was very, very good. Not quite perfect, but likely on it's way to being practically perfect! I truly feel honoured to be such an integral part of such a genuinely inspiring and uplifting project. Yes, I am very, very proud.

After the reading I hosted (literally - my recently brushed up serving skills paid off!) a cozy little lunch gathering in our beautiful jungle of a backyard garden. I mixed up salad, plated up lasagna and served people (carrying 3-5 plates at a time!) while TES listened to and took notes about their feedback for her show. It sounded very productive. TES and her mom were the last ones to leave (around 2:00, maybe?) and I had just enough time to do the dishes and some other much-needed cleaning, while thinking to myself "why couldn't I have found the time to do this before I hosted the lunch party with actual grown-ups?!" Ah well, so it goes.

I had a 3:30 meeting at Real Food For Real Kids - to further devlop our plans for the new "Body Detective" nutrition/health workshop that I will soon be delivering in schools and daycares. It was an okay meeting. I met some new volunteer workshop facilitators and they seemed quiet and maybe a little bit turned off (or just overwhelmed?) by me. As I made my way home after the meeting I tried not to let that get to me. I found myself getting into quite the mental rut and I kept having to ask myself what is really bothering you right now???

After some very much-needed (though brief) "check-in" time with Alison I was off again (maybe I spent a little too much time with Ali because I found myself running down Queen street in order to make it on time) to see the Peace Theatre's Youth Leaders Theatre Project (YLTP) perform as the opening act for the preview performance of this year's AMY Project show - I AM HER. For those of you who may not be aware, the YLTP is a theatre program for teens that I started last fall at the Children's Peace Theatre. And the AMY Project is an incredible theatre program for at-rish girls run by my friend and hero (and actually a sometimes co-worker at the Peace Theatre!), Claire. Claire is an incredibly talented actress, but is also very gifted as a director and teacher with young people. She started the AMY Project two years ago - it stands for "Artists Mentoring Youth" and pairs each young female participant with a professional artsist of their choice to act as their mentor as they collaboratively create an original theatre piece with the other girls, that is directed by Claire. Last spring I was their stage manager, so I know many of the girls involved in that program too.

What a night! Talk about being reminded of what you are passionate about, what really matters to you, and what you are good at! It was wonderful, and inspiring, to see so many of the youth that I once worked with, continuing their work on stage. And it was even more wonderful to see them all after the show and see how happy they were to see me. It was very "affirming"... And I had this moment when I realised that yesterday had been such a gift of a day... Providing me with a range of experiences (both positive and not-so-positive) that helped me figure out exactly where my greatest passions are, and what I really want to be spending my energy on!

And on that note, I must get going... To spend some more much-needed "check-in time" with my best friend, then to the Opening Night Gala Fundraiser for the AMY Project, and then to meet up with my newest good friend, Laura, whom I work with at the restaurant.

So, uh... ciao for now!

(I think the fact that I actually just typed that is SO hilarious that I'm not even gonna delete it. Even though I know I should because of it's unbearable cheesiness. Oh my)

Whatz Good?

Recently, on my MySpace page, some guy who runs the Toronto Rap Project left me a comment that started with "Whatz good?". It totally reminded me of the teens that I worked with last year. I love it. I love being all up on what the kids are saying these days, albeit apparently to the amusement of some of my friends. Yesterday I answered the phone (knowing, of course, that it was one of my best friends, Alison, calling) and said "whaddup" - she promptly burst out laughing and said "I love how you answer the phone like that all the time now. I don't even think that you realise you do it all the time now!" More laughter. Whatever. Itz all good.

So, tonight is our One Night Only Special Engagement in Toronto!!! The Burning Bush show I mean. We were invited to be the show that gets remounted for one night only for the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival Fundraiser at the Diesel Playhouse tonight. If you're kicking 'round the T-dot today, you should look into getting tickets to come see the show - I guarantee you won't regret it! (For tickets, call: 416-966-1062)

So I'm excited. It kinda seems like the perfect way to wrap up this first leg of our "world tour" - to have one last show in our "hometown". And it should be fun.

So I'm excited, but also a little groggy at the moment. I just knocked over my glass of water with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Damn, that sucks. Why was it so hard for me to get out of bed this morning? I don't know... Maybe I partied too hard this weekend...

But it was Thea's book launch party on Friday, so of course I had to party it up big time!!! Oh, it was truly a fantastic night, and I was sooooo proud of my girl. And the book is really good too. You should order it. And read it. And let me know what you think of it. I have a link to the book's myspace page over here on the right, just click the one that says "you WISH you could be her friend".

And yes, I realise that some, super-savvy bloggers, know how to put a link to a website directly in to the body of the text of their blog. Aka HERE. But I don't know how to do that. So get over it, and use the links to the right here. And definitely read Thea's book, it's called The Same Woman, and was published by Invisible Publishing. Tres Cool.

Alright, so I'm still excited for tonight's show, though perhaps a little tired at the thought of this afternoon's tech/dress rehearsal - oh, how I love the last-minute-ness of things! And I'm still a little groggy, but I'm gonna go get dressed and go for a run now. I have a 10k to prepare for now. Oh my.

No, I've never done a 10k before. Or a 5k. Or even any kind of organised run. But something posessed me to say that I was gonna do exactly that. On May 6th. With my friends Eleanor and Alison. But thank you Alan for coming up with the best team name for us, ever...

She's Got Legs

Yesssssss! Alright, that's it for now folks.

Overnout.