An Update About My Good Life

Wow. Life (and Facebook) have really kept me from my regular blog posts lately!

Well, just in case there is anyone out there still reading and wondering what I'm up to these days, how I am doing, etc... Here I am!!!

Last weekend I had my first of four training shifts at the bar/restaurant where I've just been hired. It's a 24-hour restaurant (which is pretty unique in Toronto), but it's also a pretty cool place. Downtown. Good martinis. And as far as I can tell, cool staff who seem to be happy in their jobs - bonus! Anyhow, my first shift was from 8pm until 7am the next morning. They call this "the hazing shift" - it's a rite of passage of sorts, I think. Where they give you the longest, hardest shift of your life for your first shift, just to see how hard you can work and how good your attitude is. Little did they realise who they were dealing with... Anyhow, I think I impressed them because I have been "fastracked" now, and only have to do two more training shifts, instead of the standard 3. Woo Hoo!

Actually, I really like my new job so far. Tonight I will be training on bar, and then tomorrow night I will be serving. I am scheduled quite a bit over the next week or so, but that's good, I need the money. It's also terribly exciting to have a job that I don't really have to prepare for, or work on outside of work hours, for a change. I have no lesson plans to make. No emails to send to performers, crews, theatre technicians, etc. All I have to do for this job is show up when they tell me to, be friendly and efficient, and then go home when my shift is done... Remarkable!!!

And the other bonus about having this bartending/serving job is the flexibility. I still have some time to pursue the projects that are dear to my heart, which at this time include producing Tracey's newest show for the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival (it's called "Two in the Bush" and it's the sequel to "The Burning Bush" and it will partially tell the story of our world tour!), delivering "Conflict Transformation" workshops in high schools for the Children's Peace Theatre, probably delivering food education workshops in elementary schools for Real Food For Real Kids, as well as co-producing a short documentary video about that program with my friend Alison and some of her fellow Ryerson grads, and researching and writing a book (more info on that later)!

And also having the most kick-ass, totally super-awesome, out-of-your-mind-FUN, summer in Toronto ever. Because I think it'll be my last for a while. Yes, the plans to move to New York City are still on. And that's something else that I ought to be devoting some time to researching and planning!

Sooooo... basically my life in Toronto consists of spending time with the people I love and pursuing the projects that are important to me... I guess I'm a super lucky gal!

Just for fun, I shall conclude this email with a picture from New Year's Eve 2006 - good Toronto times! This is me and my very, very, VERY special friend Alison:

Woo Hoo! Life is good!

I wish I was stronger... Facebook is glad I'm not

I am not as strong as I pretend to be. I talk a good game about how f***d up Facebook is: how it has pretty much been designed by former US Bureau of Investigation spies, how it tracks our every move, message, friend, thought, etc., and then sells all this information to marketing companies and major corporations, how we all love it because it is new and exciting and so thorough(!) but essentially we are simply fodder for millionaires to make more millions, by tracking us and then selling this information... Yeah, I still believe all of this, but I am weak. About a week ago I caved in and joined Facebook.

When I first joined, it was because a group of women that I used to run a dance company with told me that it was their primary method of communication. Not wanting to miss a social engagement with these ladies whom I see rarely enough as it is, I reluctantly signed on to Facebook. But I immediately posted on my own wall, stating my disdain for Facebook, a link to an informative website about the evils of Facebook, and declaring that I was only on there to make brunch plans with the OHDC ladies. Even though I don't even like brunch!

I also made a few other ground rules for myself:
1. I would not post a photo of myself (i used a photo of a beach in Africa that a friend took instead)

2. I would not enter ANY information about myself on my "profile"

3. I would not seek out any friends (or do any other active Facebook actions, like writing on friends' walls, commenting on photos, etc.) but rather, I would let the masses come to me, and I would allow my friend count to build slowly, through my "word of mouth campaign"

I have since broken ALL of those rules. And it's barely been a week.

Not only that, but I end up talking about Facebook all the time now too. And here I am writing about it - ACK!!! This has got to stop!

It is a beautifully sunshiney day out there today, and I've already taken one stroll through the nearby Trinity Bellwoods Park, where it seems all of Toronto has decided to go and frolick today. I'm gonna go enjoy my own backyard for a few hours. Before I head off to my first shift at the bar that I just got a job at.

Yes folks, it's all true; I'm on Facebook and I'm a waitress now.

Joy to the world.

Oh my.

what the world needs NOW...

Sometimes, okay, oftentimes actually. I feel so deeply the sentiment that "this world is just TOO MUCH for me". Sometimes it's too beautiful, so beautiful it hurts. But often it's just too painful in it's uglyness.

Now, I don't read newspapers. And I haven't watched TV (other than occassionally, when on vacation or at other peoples' homes) in over 8 years! These are choices. Conscious choices that I have made to avoid "the media", as much as humanly possible. Once I changed my homepage on my computer to be the Toronto Star Online, so that every morning when I logged on to the internet I would see the day's headlines. That lasted about a month, maybe.

The thing is, I really don't want to come off like a moron when conversing with others about current events. So I try to stay in the loop via CBC radio, which I listen to every morning (even though "Metro Morning" kind of drives me nuts, especially when that dolt Karen Horseman subs in for Andy Barrie, who at least drives me nuts the way your dorky dad might drive you nuts). But "The Current" and "Sounds Like Canada" are often pretty good shows. But still, I have too many days when I just desperately want to turn the radio off - because some days are just too much for me...

Ever since I took my first History class in high school, I have been obsessed with the question "what will the history books fifty, a hundred, or even 500 years from now, say about the time that I am living in, now?"

Well, it would appear that the signs of our times are the internet and student killing rampages. Oh yeah, and a ridiculous war spearheaded by the ridiculous leader of a bully of a country. Bullying - now there's a trend. World leaders do it on an international scale, and yet we're trying to convince our kids not to be bullies? And we care so much about what's cool, and making money, and celebrating violence and indifference through the music we listen to and the TV shows that that we watch, that we forget to just be nice and love each other. And then we wonder why young people break, how they shatter completely, and go out and hurt others... And our response to their violence is talk of the need for more security (what? more guns you mean?) in schools. Because no one wants to admit what the real problem, or rather the root, of all our problems is...

In my humble opinion, the great, huge, unfathomably large, real problems of our world today, all come down to the fact that we do not know how to love. We are scared, hurt, angry, sad and weak... as nations, individuals, as members of families, as employees, as husbands/wives... and from our weaknesses, and that place where we want and need so badly to be loved, but don't know how to give love, or even ask for the love that we need, comes the defensive. The way to conceal our weaknesses is to take power over others. And sadly, too often, this power comes in the form of violence.

This may seem like an overly simplistic diagnosis of all the problems of the world, but contrary to being simple, I think that to work towards rectifying this problem, to work towards solving this problem of the "lack of love" in our world is actually so impossibly huge, it makes me feel a little hopeless sometimes. Sometimes.

But only sometimes.

I have a little article that was published in NOW Magazine the week of September 11th, 2001, and the title is "I Vow To Steer Fear Towards Love". It was written by Rob Brezny. It has been taped to every mirror, in every home I have lived in since it was published. Lest I ever forget my vow to steer fear towards love, always.

Lest we never forget.

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.

Belated Vermont Road Trip Pics

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007:
Me & Sarah in the car on the way to Burlington, Vermont...

First stop, dinner in Montreal where we get complimented on our French speaking skillz - oh yeah!!!

Wednesday Night Arrival! Finally!! We're Here!!! At Robin & Ethan's HOUSE THAT THEY OWN!!! This photo was taken either right before or right after the cat startled me and I spilled an entire glass of red wine on Robin and Ethan's white couch. I had been in their home for less than an hour. Classy.

My Best Friend actually OWNS this house!!!

Robin & Ethan... Have I mentioned that I am a BIG fan of this guy?!

These women have been two of MY BEST FRIENDS for over 10 years now.
And aren't they pretty?!

Clearly I really respect the Easter Holiday... Do you think Robin's friend Erin thinks I'm wierd?

We may be 25 now, but it's not like we're mature...

It's our last night in Burlington and we're out at 80's Dance Night - YESSSSSSS! This photo has a soundtrack... "Ooooh-OH, we're halfway there, ooooh-OH, LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!!!"

And finally,
The first Tim Horton's of the day, just outside of Montreal, as we journey home...

And So It Ends...

until next time!