Glimpses of Hali

Below are two pictures that TES sent me from our uproariously fantastic show night in Halifax. Below is a pic taken in the lobby, post-performance... And I have already mentioned, more than a few times, that our show here at the Chutzpah Halifax Festival was one of our best EVER, right?

Above, L to R: Devon is exhausted from working 24/7 on her Directing application to NTS; Tracey with her post-show glow on; I'm loving Chutzpah Halifax (but apparently not as much as BRAD is!) and Brad's friend Krista is just warming up for the night...

A few hours (and drinks) later at the Economy Shoe Shop - no, we didn't go shopping, this is a Halifax bar/restaurant... Me,TES & Brad are still glowing...

And now, after all this "world touring", I'm on vacation!

Will be back in T.O. this Sunday - briefly, before I take off for my road-trip to Vermont!

XO,

Points of Clarification...

It's Wednesday morning and I'm still in Halifax.

Oops, I guess I forgot to leave!

Actually, we changed my flight last night, so I won't be flying "home" to Toronto until Sunday. Extending my stay in El Falifax is very typical Meghan.

Also, I feel bad about my vague dis of the Chutzpah Halifax Festival "staff & organisers" in yesterday's blog entry that pretty much just came out of my own stresses and issues... The festival continues to be GREAT, and I am still so thankful to Brad & his boss for bringing me and Tracey and The Burning Bush show to Halifax!

Alright, now that we're clear on that, I am going to go take about 7,000 Advil because... Surprise, surprise... we drank tonnes of wine last night...

"Hooray"

Better Than T.V.

It's Day Four for me here in El Falifax, and I leave tomorrow. It's been short, but incredibly sweet. Tracey flew back to Toronto this morning actually, but I'm glad I was able to swing one extra day here. I am going to make dinner for my friends here tonight. Brad has graciously offered up his place for this get-together, which I guess means Brad & I will be making dinner for my friends tonight. It shall be a lovely and perfect conclusion to a lovely and practically perfect trip.

I say "practically perfect" because I'm not gonna lie. Although our show last night was INCREDIBLE (and I mean that, it was probably the best show we've ever had!), and it made the stresses of the day totally worth it, my day yesterday was... stressful. I am well aware of how tacky it would be for me to elaborate and go into detail about this, so I absolutely will not. But suffice it to say that perhaps I was spoiled post-New York and had unfair expectations of what performance festival organisers and staff should be like... That being said, I shall never look a gift-horse in the mouth and act ungrateful for all the heaps of eleventh-hour hard work and hospitality that my friend Brad & his colleagues put in to making The Burning Bush show at the Chutzpah! Halifax Festival a smashing success! Mad props all around!!!

So, although the experience of our tech rehearsal earlier in the day left something to be desired, sheer determination on the part of all involved prevailed and the experience of the actual show was truly spectacular. Phenomenal. Exceptional. Inspirational. In short, TES and I loved every minute of it, and so did the audience. We also found out that our audiences in NYC loved us a lot as well. Today we got the news that The Burning Bush won the audience choice award for it's venue at the FRIGID Festival in NYC! Woo Hoo!

And as far as the rest of my life goes, that's been pretty great too. Though I'm starting to find myself thinking "yeah, what else is new?" everytime I make that statement! Yes, I am a lucky girl. And as I packed my suitcase yet again this morning, while watching some of my favorite episodes of Sex & The City on DVD, I was reminded of my oft-made statement that "My Real Life is Way Better Than T.V." And I truly believe that it is.

As I walked home from the bar last night, down the silent Monday night streets of Halifax's North End, I found myself once again "bargaining" with The Universe, and it went something like this...

I promise to keep giving...
to keep giving all that I have to give...
to people, to the world... whatever...
I promise to keep giving as much as I can...
If what I get in return, is this kind of greatness...

My life is pretty kind of great these days,
Pretty Kind of Great.

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...

Apparently, Canada Wants Me Back

I guess Canada was worried that I wouldn't come back?
(So they sent an ambassador to meet me at LaGuardia Airport the other day)
PS - For any of my New York, or elsewhere-based non-Canadian readers, the above photo is of Tracey, Me, JEAN CHRETIEN(!!!) and Tracey's mom Jodi. Jean Chretien is a former Prime Minister of Canada, and my personal favorite of all those who have been Prime Minister in my lifetime, FYI.