Are We THERE Yet???

Ugh, I hate this. I hate moving! Or rather, I hate the sorting, packing and living amidst the chaos of half-packed boxes that goes hand-in-hand with moving. I'm also starting to really resent my job because it's really hard to pleasantly work in a quiet little bookstore while you know that you could be being way more productive at home, actually doing something!

Okay, so I'm writing on my blog right now and not actually "doing" anything. Point taken. But, I've been up for hours - doing the usual, sorting, packing, preparing for another day of moving preparations. Today, Devon will spend the day with me. In a few minutes I will head out the door to pick up a cargo van that I've rented for a few hours from Autoshare (Yay Autoshare!) so that I can bring the couch that I am giving to Thea and her roomates to their place. I will pick up the van, then Thea, then we will meet Devon at my place, move the couch together to Thea's place and then Devon and I will spend the rest of the day doing (at least some of) the following:
- getting more boxes
- dropping off some of the many garbage bags of stuff to give away that I have already assembled
- sorting more
- packing more
And, let's be honest, whining more (that would be me whining, and Devon listening sympathetically, I hope!)

But first, dear readers, I thought I would share this little list with you... What follows is a list of what I found to be a rather entertaining representation of me, over the last year...

WHAT I FOUND ON MY NIGHTSTAND, OR THE FLOOR, NEXT TO MY BED:
The Following Books:
- "One Year Off" (The true story, told through emails, of a family with three kids who sold all their stuff, and took one year off from life to travel the world. I read about 3/4)
- "The Book of Laughter And Forgetting" by Milan Kundera (I read it, but it didn't make it back to my book shelf, apparently)
- "Hey Nostradamus" by Douglas Coupland (Also read the whole thing)
- "Watership Down" by Richard Adams (I'm almost finished it, but I keep putting it down to read other books!)
- "what matters most is how well you walk through the fire" a book of poems by Charles Bukowski
- "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron
- "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire (An AWESOME novel, for adults, the hit Broadway musical was based on this book - sooooo fantastic. My latest read. The best christmas gift I got this year. From my friend Mark)
- "The Organic Entrepreneur" by Maxine Hyndman (I'm workin' on this one...)
- "From Option to Opening: A Guide to Producing Plays Off Broadway" (Awwww, I sure meant well with this one...)
- "Best of Best Women's Erotica" (A great Xmas gift from year's past from Devon - The inscription read that if the city was my boyfriend, I needed some company at night in my own room. Heck yeah!)
- "The Places That Scare You" by Pema Chodron (Also a great book. I revisit it often)
- "Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking" (No Comment)
- "The History of Vegas" short stories by Jodi Angel (Some depressing short stories. I think I stopped reading them)
- "The Beautifully Worthless" by Ali Liebegott (Some depressing poetry. I think I also stoppped reading this)
- "Between Myself & Them" Edited by Carol Krause (A great collection of writing about disability & difference, featuring an essay by my good friend Thea)
- "The Same Woman" by Thea Lim (One of THE BEST novels written by a young canadian woman... in my biased opinion)
- "Selected Poems y e.e. cummings" (I like cummings, and Bukowski. It's good to keep 'em nearby, I think)
- "Moral Disorder" by Margaret Atwood (I liked it)
- "Girls Speak Out - A Personal Guide to Self-Esteem" (A thoughtful gift from Tracey last summer, inspired I think by my ideas about creating some new workshops for teens... A good reference)
- "The Language of Letting Go" by Melody Beattie (I borrowed this long ago from Mark, but I don't really feel like giving it back. I like keeping it close by, as a handy inspirational tool)

AND... In addition to all those books, I also have:
- My "Soul-O Theatre Workshop (Creating Your Own One Person Show)" Workbook
- my hand-held recording device
- THREE journals (not including my dream journal)
- kleenex
- 1 pen
- 1 pencil
- earplugs
- "Heat Rub" for sore muscles
- aromatherapy spray to help me sleep (doesn't really work)

I swear, it didn't look like that much!

I think this list is very representative of me... But maybe I need to think about clearing the space around my bed, and maybe I will free myself up to actually SLEEP more when in my bed... ???

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.

Like A Proud Mama

From now on, if ever you run into me and I am with my good friend Thea, I am going to turn into one of those impossible-to-curb, over-the-top enthusiasts. I will introduce you to her and say "This is my friend Thea. You know, my friend who wrote and published the novel." But it won't stop there. I will likely make her show you the tattoo on the back of her neck that matches the one on my forearm (that I designed specifically for me and her and our friend Tiina to get) and I will tell you about how we are BFF's and how proud I am of her; How hard she works, how smart and sensitive she is, what an incredible and inspiring person she is; How proud I am of her, and... How Proud I Am Of Her! And you might be tempted to say, "I know all this already Meghan, I read your blog" But it still won't stop me...

So, check it:
Thea's Book Launch @ Women's Bookstore in Toronto
Friday, April 13, 2007
(If you're COOL, you'll be there)

MEANWHILE, IN PRESENT-DAY NYC...

This morning I had the absolute pleasure of meeting up with my friend (and interestingly enough, Thea's ex-boyfriend) Kurt for breakfast followed by a stroll through Central Park. Oh my goodness, I actually just wrote about my stroll through Central Park - I love it here so much!!!

When Kurt and I parted ways midday today, I made a quick pit-stop at the Apple Store (a very cool space - maybe you can find pics of it online if you google "Apple Store in NYC") because I forgot my ipod charger in Toronto, then I subway-ed myself back downtown, where I got off the train a few stops out of my usual way (an exploration tip from a new NYC friend of mine) and walked home through the West Village.

THE best thing that happened to me all day was when some 10 or 11 year-old kid shoved a flyer into my hand on the Avenue of Americas. In photocopied, yet authentic handwritten child-writing it read:

BUY FAIR-TRADE
COFFEE Buying Fair Trade
-----------------------------------------
Products will help farmers have
better lives with a living
wage. What is Fair Trade? Fair
Trade Coffee is coffee grown
by farmers and bought by
us at a fair price. Just asking
for a cup of fair trade coffee
could be helping lots of farmers
have better lives, and it tastes
no different. Fair trade coffee is
actually in most cases more
organic. Just something to think
about as you're drinking your
triple mocha latte-chino. Nah,
just joking. Help farmers, buy
Fair Trade.

Okay I am seriously going to give up my Starbucks habit. I promise kid, I promise.