New Times With The Old Gang

So...

Friday (Dec 21) was Winter Solstice - the longest night (and thus, the shortest day) of the year. We celebrate Solstice because it is the moment when the earth begins to turn back towards the sun, and very incrementally the days will actually begin to get brighter. We celebrate it because we are celebrating the fact that we have just been through the darkest time of the earth and are now ready to slowly begin facing the sun again. Or more specifically, I celebrate Solstice. The rest of my friends are celebrating the fact that our very good friend Tiina is briefly back in town from Halifax. Also something worth celebrating, in my opinion.

So here are some pics from a little get-together that Alan hosted that night for a group of us that used to be quite "The Gang" a few years back...

Below, L to R: Kurt (blurry because he's moving to get out of the pic, I think. And in town from NYC for the Holidays!), Thea (blurry because she's moving and trying to give Tiina bunny ears. That's Karma for ya), Tiina and Alison, and... oh my, I can't remember the name of Thea's friend who is seated in the lower right-hand corner. I am a jerk. Damn. Sorry !Alan, Tiina, Thea (pronounced TAY-yah, BTW) and Alison...

Below: Not the most flattering picture of any of us, but I wanted to include it because it's one of the only pictures that captures (if even only in fragments) some other key members of "The Old Gang"; L to R: half of Rob, Me, Someone's Finger (my guess is Tiina), Alan (aptly enjoying a beverage), Sandi and a wee bit of Jeremy
It's Johnny Hall! Here's a special shout-out to you my friend; Because reading your recent comment on my blog post about my upcoming move to The Junction made me smile BIG. :D
Kurt, Tiina and Thea... Being the usual, krazy kids!
I don't know why Thea always feels compelled to make these funny faces in photos... (Alison looks excited though. Although I think perhaps here she's just feeling crazed about the fact that it's getting late and she still isn't packed and has to be on a plane to fly home to Winnipeg the next morning at some ungodly hour)
So that was Solstice Night. Otherwise known (to pretty much everyone else at the party as "Friday Dec 21st - the night of the party celebrating Tiina being in town!")

Last night, after I finished a surprisingly lovely day at work (I say surprisingly because it was December 23rd and I work in a retail store - but although business was "steady" yesterday it was never chaotic, and no one was christmas-crazy or anything!), I had plans to meet up and spend the evening with Tiina & Thea...

Thea wanted to watch Elf. I'm not sure that Tiina and I really wanted to, but we laughed at ourselves during our pre-get together Sushi dinner about the fact that we can generally be resistant to anything these days (oh, how we've gotten cantankerous in our old age)!

So, we watched Elf...

While we watched Elf, Thea wrapped presents...

She was well prepared with her "Present Wrapping Tape"

And Tiina taught me how to knit!

Lookin' good Thea!

It was just a super-fantastic night. And now it is the morning of December 24th and I am wrapped up in bed with my laptop, listening to CBC radio as I do laundry in preparation to be away for the next few days... I shall be heading to Oakville this afternoon to spend the night with Holly & Paul, then tomorrow we shall drive to Kingston to visit Holly's family and Robin will drive there from Vermont so I will get to see her too!

But before I sign off for "the holidays", here's one final wierd story I want to share with you: I woke up this morning, in my bed which is in the lower, basement part of my apartment and I was FREEZING! Like, really, really cold. This may not sound wierd to most of you, but it was very out of the ordinary for me. I've actually never found it even a little bit "chilly" in my place, so the fact that I was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING was kind of strange. I thought about texting my friend, upstairs neighbour and landlord, Guntar, and asking whether the heat was broken or something. When I finally got up the courage to get out from under my covers and go the upstairs part of my apartment (technically the rear half of the main floor of the house I live in), where my kitchen and bathroom and entrance are, I saw that my door (which I guess I had forgot to lock behind me when I came home last night) had blown open in the middle of the night! No wonder I was freezing! I think I heard on the radio that it's minus 2 degrees out right now! I wonder how long it was open?!?! Crazy huh?

Well anyways, I better go have a shower and pack a few things.

So, This is Triple M, signing off for "The Holidays".

Merry, merry. Or whatever.

Namaste.

El Falifax

If I am allowed to give New York City the title of "City that I want to Move To" then I can easily declare that Halifax is my Favorite Place To Visit! I love it here - and I always have. Ever since my first visit here, back in a cold and snowy February, in the year 2001 (I think), I have always enjoyed myself immensely in Halifax. Part of that is probably because I have always come here to visit one, if not more, of my best friends who live here...

Presently, Halifax is home to my friend Brad (the only original Nova Scotian of the bunch), who is pretty much the reason I am here now. Although Brad is mainly a film producer, he happens to be working for a man who is helping to finance Halifax's first ever Chutzpah! Jewish Cultural Festival (yes, apparently there are Jews in Halifax. Aproximately 13, if you count Brad who is lying). Thus, another free trip for Tracey and I to go on "saving souls, one lap dance at a time," with The Burning Bush show. Yipee! (I'm serious. It is truly fantastic to be here)

So anyways, Brad and I have been friends for a long time. One of our favorite, redundant, things to talk about is the fact that we are pretty much each others' oldest friend... Well, the oldest friend that either of us still has in their life on a regular basis (Brad comes to Toronto a lot too, so I get to see him quite a bit). And people often ask us if we are brother and sister, which I used to find totally unbelievable and a little creepy, but now I embrace it. And I can sort of see it too. And he is pretty much like a brother to me. I love him dearly, but he can also frustrate the hell out of me sometimes... You can really only be truly frustrated by those you truly love... At least he's quite good looking, so I'm flattered that people see a resemblance.

Anyhow, so thanks to Brad I'm here. And thanks to my lovely friend Devon and her girlfriend Pam, I have my very own bedroom in their stylish and roomy apartment in the North End. Also, I have had two of the best showers of my life here over the past two days. Devon and Pam have so much cool sh*t! I swear, I must have spent like 25 minutes in the shower just browsing... Looking at all of their unique and nice smelling body scrubs, shower gels, shampoos and conditioners... We also had a really nice night just chatting last night, after we got home from having dinner with Tracey and her friend Mike, at a very tasty organic restaurant downtown called The Wooden Monkey. But I guess that's what Best Friends are good for... late-night chatting over a bottle of red wine when you don't feel like doing anything else. Devon was my director (aka Godsend) for my one-woman show that I did at the Toronto Fringe Festival this past summer, and I actually hadn't seen her since she lived with me for that month back in June/July 2006!

And the last of my nearest and dearest who is here in El Falifax (as her two-year old niece called it when she first moved here), is my friend Tiina, whom I will be meeting later today for Brunch. Alas, not my favorite meal as I don't eat eggs (I'm a much bigger fan of Dunch), but at least it's better than straight up breakfast, which is almost always egg-centric. (Ha, funny term!) Tiina is special. We have matching tattoos. 'Nuf said.

So yeah, Halifax. I love it. It's small enough for me to know it well. Just big enough to have some cool spots to hang out, and party, and some cool events happening now and then. The people are pretty much as friendly as you would expect. And three of my best friends live here. I have always had a great time in Halifax, and I'm sure this short but sweet trip will be no different. It looks like the sun is shining out there again (yesterday was a lovely Spring day!) and if you ask me, you just can't beat a city where you can almost always see the ocean...

*sigh*

Time to go enjoy the day...