commas and ampersands

Gotta say, I'm not really a fan of winter. It's not my favorite season--that distinction is reserved for summer. (Ah, summer, with your long, long days; your lazy lethargy; your warm sunshine... but I digress.) It may not have been the main reason I moved to L.A., but the weather has certainly been one of the biggest perks of living here for the past two years. For the past few winters, I've gone back to Calgary for 3 weeks in December, and that's enough time to get my fill of snow and cold--and, more importantly, to drive on icy roads long enough to not become a wimpy driver who can't handle winter.

That's the thing. I may not love winter, but I can handle it. I come from hardy, Canadian prairie stock. I know what to do when it's -40 degrees Celsius out, but I love the Chinook winds that invariably mean that I don't have to deal with the -40 weather for very long. I know how to drive on ice, and I don't freak out if there's a skiff of snow that doesn't even stick to the ground, and thankyouverymuch, I plan on keeping those skills.

I have yet to wear a winter coat (or gloves, or a toque) while living in Southern California, because it has yet to get cold here. I see people around here get all bundled up when the temperature hits 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Canadian part of me laughs at them for being such wimps, while the American part of me gloats at my family and friends who live where they really have to bundle up. It gets chilly, yes. It gets cold enough that I don't want to sleep with my window open all winter, cold enough that I'm not wearing sandals all the time, cold enough that I can actually use my sweaters and fall jackets--but it doesn't get cold, and that's one of the things I love about this place.

One thing I don't love, however, is the assumption that just because I'm Canadian, I've never experienced hot weather before. I could do without all the comments about how this must be the hottest weather I've ever experienced, and I must be so out of my element, and isn't it just so different from the frozen north, and it must be freezing up there. (My favorite is when that last comment comes in August.)

Winter and I have a complicated relationship. I may not like it, but that doesn't give others who have never lived with it the right to knock it. When Calgary's weather doesn't cooperate with the season, I feel like the city is a misbehaving small child, embarrassing me in front of all my friends, even though I know it's not doing it on purpose. But that doesn't mean I won't defend it. "It's not always like this." "This isn't really seasonal." "Wait a few days; a chinook will hit and the temperature will jump 40 degrees overnight." "At least we're not like some places, where winter doesn't leave until spring."

And, you know, there are things about it that aren't all that bad. While it's all well and good to curl up in bed with hot chocolate and a book on a windy, rainy, chilly day in Los Angeles, it's even better to do it on a blizzardy, blustery, freezing cold day in Calgary. And if you've never experienced a midnight snowfall on Christmas Eve, you don't know what you're missing. And just like any other season, it's the change that's the best part. The first crisp, cold day; the new sweaters, jackets, and corduroy in stores; the first snowfall; those bright, cold, sunny days that are still good days for a walk outside. As long as those days don't come before December first.

When it comes to winter, I'm picky. I want it on my terms, when I want it. I'd be happy with a winter that lasted for the month of December. No more, no less. Give me a winter that goes with Christmas, and I can handle that. But by February? You and me, winter? We're so over, and while I still may not like other people smack-talking you, I reserve the right to badmouth you all I want.

---

This has been an entry for therealljidol season 6. Read the rest of the entries for this topic here.

I still need to get a second job, but I really don't want to. There's so much going on in this city that it kills me to think of eating up my evenings with another job. I don't take advantage of nearly enough of the stuff that Calgary offers, but with this job (the Calgary Arts Development one), it's coming across my desk constantly. When I'm more aware of what's happening--and around people who are more excited about it--I'm reminded that I need to be out there, seeing and doing more. I want to be doing something cultural at least every week, and there are that many opportunities (and more!), if only I didn't have to work evenings and weekends elsewhere.

Sigh.

After living in the U.S. for a significant part of the last almost-4 years, I go back and forth between Celsius and Fahrenheit fairly easily. I can convert them in my head (rather, I know the equivalents along the way, and I ballpark from there--I don't actually do the math), although I'm fuzzy on the Fahrenheit equivalents of 0 to -40 Celsius, and I'm fuzzy on the Celsius equivalents of 90+ Fahrenheit (gee, I wonder why...). And, like learning a foreign language, I'm getting better at "thinking" in Fahrenheit, but there are still times that I have to convert it to Celsius to translate it into a sense of what the air will feel like on my body.

However, I've realized lately that, no matter who I'm talking to, I talk about Canadian temperatures in Celsius and American temperatures in Fahrenheit.

I realized it most vividly when Esther commented the other day that she wants it to be in the 30s the entire time she's visiting. I did a quick double take and then agreed with her, because, yes, I'd like it to be in the mid-80s the entire time she's visiting. The funniest part is, I have no problem instinctively saying that I would be fully happy for it to never dip below 25 all summer while I'm in Calgary, and would never think of saying that I want it to be in the high 70s for three months.

In my foreign language example, is this the equivalent to dreaming in French?

I meant to mention:

When we were driving through Montana, I saw a Calgary Transit bus driving north on the I-15. Totally random. I wasn't driving, which is probably a good thing, because I did a major double take and twisted all the way around in my seat to make sure I wasn't seeing things. No--it really was a Calgary Transit bus; one of the new red and gray ones.

And yes, I know better than most that new buses have to be picked up and driven to their "originating" point; that they don't just show up with no mileage on them. Still, it was the weirdest thing to suddenly see one on the highway in the middle of rural Montana.

This post is springboarding off of a guest post entitled "Canadian-Ish" by Kyran Pittman on Her Bad Mother, which you should go read so that this makes more sense. It started out as a comment, but it's something that I've been meaning to post on for a while, so it's grown from there into a real post.

On the surface, I'm a Canadian ex-pat who moved to the U.S. in 2005. Culturally and definitively, I'm Canadian, having spent the first 24 years of my life north of the 49th parallel in a time when Canadian identity was going through phases of being defined as, "Well, I'm not sure what we are, but we're not American!", but it's still a bit more complicated than just being an ex-pat or an immigrant. (Side note: As a kid, I always thought it was so funny that my mom was an immigrant, because to me, immigrants came on ships in the 1800s and early 1900s, had to learn a new language, and travelled in steerage.) Growing up with a dual citizenship and choosing to relocate as an adult have put me somewhere on the scale of Canadian-ish and American-ish, and where I fit on the scale completely depends on the day.

Deep down, I'm probably more Canadian than American, but I've always known as much about American history as Canadian, and I was raised to be patriotically both. In fact, my family was and is, in some ways, more patriotic than many other Canadian families because my mom, being American, makes a big deal of national holidays, including Canadian ones (she's lived there for 30+ years now but has never become a citizen). Colin and I were commenting that she decorates the yard and house more for Canada Day than most people around here do, and part of that, I'm sure, has to do with the fact that July 4th is such a huge holiday in the States.

While Canadian schools learn much more about American history, politics, and economics than American schools do about the Canadian counterparts, it was always also a big part of what we had at home. In our house, knowing about American history and culture was more than just the Americanization of Canadian media and the influences of having mostly American programming.

In California, I'm the "token Canadian" and that's how certain people introduce me. "This is Alida. She's Canadian!" I've explained Calgary's bizarre weather patterns to more people than I can count, and I've answered, "So, is it really different to be living here?" a gajillion times, give or take a few.

When it comes to Colin's and my relationship, I'm American: his key to a green card (all those years that I got tongue-in-cheek marriage proposals because I've got a dual, it didn't really occur to me that I'd actually know more about marriage visas and immigration than I ever wanted to). And yes, I know that I'm more than a green card to him, and he doesn't see me as "AMERICAN," but legally, in our relationship, I am. Or, at least, I will be.

When I come back to Calgary, people scrutinize my behavior to see if I'm becoming "more American." Too American? Maybe. I try to evade the stereotypes of either nationality just to make life easier, but occasionally, it's just more fun to play into them. I've heard it all, from "Wow, you must hate having to live in the States" to "You live in California? Why on earth are you working in Calgary?" to "Man, you're so lucky that you get Target and cheaper gas!" Of those statements, I tend to lean towards the last. No one's forcing me to live in California; if I didn't want to, I wouldn't. But I do want to, and we do want to, and we're planning to be there for a while, and trust me, it's not because it's the easier place to be.

According to my passports (yes, I have two), I'm whichever one I want to travel on. These days, since my residency is officially in California, that's mostly American. I file taxes in both countries (although that has less to do with citizenship than with the fact that I've spent time working in both countries every year since 2005), I have a SIN and a SSN, I have both a birth certificate and a certificate of birth abroad, I fully identify with the Canadian jokes on How I Met Your Mother, and I think that "Let's Go to the Mall" is brilliant (and I regret not buying the t-shirt when it was on Glarkware). I mock a lot of original Canadian programming, but I have a vested interest in Canada's entertainment industry, given that it pays my bills. I know what a toque is and what pencil crayons are. At one time, I knew the "I am Canadian" rant inside out, even though I don't drink beer. In school, I couldn't draw a maple leaf to save my life--but then again, I don't think that many kids could, so that probably doesn't mean anything except that I'm a bad artist.

I vehemently deny that I say "oot" and "aboot" (I'm convinced that that's more an Ontario thing than a Canadian thing), but I proudly say "SORE-ry," not "SAH-ry." My spellings vaccilate between "our" and "or" (tending towards the "or") and "re" and "er" (generally going for "re") with no real rhyme or reason, and I stick a double-L on words before I add a suffix (see: travelling).

I cheer for the Canadians during the Winter Olympics and both countries during the Summer Olympics--but that's mostly because, during the summer games, Canada's medal hopes seem to be on par with some small African country with three athletes representing the entire population.

Our kids will have dual citizenships, because it opens so many doors, and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to live and work in either country. We're planning to be in California for the foreseeable future--that's where we'll start our marriage and build our home. Sometimes, the idea of taking vacation/disability leave when having babies, and not having the security of 12 months of maternity leave, scares me. If we have health problems, we'll be back in Canada as soon as we can get there.

And yet, even though I hold that magic key to giving them duals, it's not guaranteed. If our kids are born in the U.S., it's easy, and we can definitely give them the Canadian side. If we move back to Canada before we have kids, it'll be time for some serious number-crunching to figure out whether I've spent that magic number of days on American soil. Because I'm a dualie, it's not automatic, and maybe I'm not legally American enough to give my kids those same opportunities, even though I'm American enough to give Colin a green card.

Mostly, I'm Canadian. I'll laugh at anyone who thinks we live in igloos and wear parkas for 11 months of the year, that we all speak fluent French, or that Calgary and Toronto are next to each other. I'll deride Canadian cell phone plans, amazon.ca, and the extra fees on flights (although I still tend to prefer Air Canada to WestJet for flights to L.A., just because they have better schedules and better in-flight entertainment). Far from making me less Canadian, I think that those are the things that more deeply entrench my Canuck-ness.

Still, I defend American culture and my choice to live there just as vehemently as I defend the correct pronounciation of sorry. I'm just as proud of the American history in my family as I am of the Canadian history, and I've probably had more emotional patriotic moments as an American than I have as a Canadian.

Call me Canadian, call me American--either way, I'll probably clarify.

Every time I go to write an entry these days, time gets away from me, and before I know it, my lj homepage is telling me that it's been three days since I last updated.

Colin and I went to the Stampede yesterday. It was pretty perfect, and it was also the first day that we've both been off work since we got back from California, so that made it even more perfect. (He was technically off work on Canada Day, but a) we spent the day moving Allison into her new place, so it wasn't really a day off, and b) Colin had to go in to work at around 8 PM anyway, and ended up working until 1 AM, so it wasn't really a day off.)

( Ya- )



Anyway, Stampeding aside...



( -Hooooo! )



As a bonus (and so that I can get filo77 hooked on something besides "Straight No Chaser"), here's a video of Barrage:


( Watch me! )

When my parents came home from Stampede, my mom told me that we needed to make sure we saw Barrage. I told her that it was already in our plans, and she made a comment to the effect of, "Well, you don't have to act like you know everything..."

When it comes to the Stampede's programming, though, we do know everything. All around the park, there are great big "Super Screens" with a loop of all the day's events, concerts, and performances, as well as various advertisements and general Stampede information. Two loops for every day. Each one with clips of all the different groups and concerts. Guess who's responsible for putting those together? Colin. His company does all of the Stampede's video (including commercials, TV specials, and so on), and his job for the past two months has been making Super Screens. So when it comes to Stampede programming, we know everything.

(Not to mention that Colin worked on a TV special about Barrage a few years ago, so when it comes to Barrage, he knows a lot more than my mom does, and he knew it a lot sooner than she did. So when it comes to Barrage being great, and Barrage being at the Stampede, we really do have an edge.)




I have another rant brewing about audience behavior, but that can wait for another post.

Stampede 2008: Great fun

My feet: Sore

Colin's feet: Blistered

Both our wallets: Much emptier than they were going in




Sleepy, but it was a great day.

Yesterday was the Stampede Parade, and the first anniversary of "less sleep, more muffin!" We didn't stay up late to make muffins this year, though; we got home from Drumheller at 12:30 and were almost ready to leave the house at 5:30, so we didn't really feel like taking more time to bake. Besides, my sister made the muffins this year. My mom brought the Froot Loops, and we bought rice krispie squares and puffed wheat squares (Colin's traditional Stampede Breakfast food) at Mac's before the parade started.

We're camping with Colin's parents this weekend--they've been at the campground since Wednesday, and when Colin came out yesterday, we moved over there (well, I moved over there from my trailer on the site). Today was wonderfully lazy--almost too much so. We didn't get up until almost 10, and then after breakfast, we were both so tired that we lay down again before going for a walk... and didn't wake up until 3:30, when I had to be on site by 4. Oops. Guess that one-hour nap didn't turn out quite like we'd planned. We won't really have time tomorrow, either; Sundays are matinees, so we don't have nearly as much time during the day before the show.

Yes, the show is open. Opening night went really well; tonight is slightly less pulled together, but everyone knows that the second show is always the weakest. I think that has held true for at least 75% of the shows I've ever been involved in. Opening night has its own special kind of adrenaline, and by the third show, it's getting into a rhythm, but the second night is always rough.

( A little theatre etiquette rant )

Anyway. Rant over. For the moment.

Oh, going back to the parade for a second, this cracked me up:

In the Stampede Parade, there are over 800 horses. That means that there's a lot of horse poop on the streets during the parade. Periodically, the street sweepers will come through (as part of the parade) and clean it up.

Well, yesterday morning, some organization had made a grid of the intersection that we were sitting near. 64 or 81 squares, I think. I didn't notice the exact number, but it was squared off into a grid, and each square was numbered. Before the parade started, you could buy a number, and if a horse pooped on your square, you won. I'm guessing it was a fundraiser for something--like a 50-50 draw. I'd never seen that done before, though. Horse Poop Bingo! The funny thing was that there were only 2 or 3 squares that were pooped on, so it was actually somewhat of a game, as opposed to having a near-guarantee that a horse would poop on almost every square. It kind of surprised me, though. I was expecting that there would be more.

Anyway, the show's over for tonight, and Colin's waiting for me to finish up so we can go have dinner.

Oh, there are tons of pictures in this post. Lots and lots. Mostly from the Stampede Parade, but a few other cute ones, too.

( Not quite dialup friendly )

There are more, but that's enough for one post. The rest of the gallery is here, though. Go take a look!

Colin and I saw Ratatouille last night. Very cute. Then again, I love movies that turn anything into art. Any story that explores the passion and artistry of something that doesn't seem artistic at first glance is something that I just love. That's why I liked Proof (the play more than the movie, but still--I like the story). I'm not a math person, but I was intrigued by the idea of math as art. Heh. As if it wasn't already obvious where my brain is...

Ah, my Stampeding is done for 2007. Sigh. Colin and I went again last night after work, and had a bit more time than we did on Tuesday, although it would have been nice to have an entire day on the grounds. More rides, more time with the exhibition stuff, but oh well. We still had fun, and we got down to the grounds twice, so that adds up to almost a whole day, doesn't it?

The goal of last night was to make sure we ate lots of classic Stampede food. So, we got the jumbo hot dogs in Weadickville, fresh squeezed lemonade, mini donuts, cotton candy, sno-cones, and deep fried Coke. Which was actually not bad. I wouldn't have wanted a whole one to myself, and I wouldn't want it more than about once a year, but it was pretty good. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so there is no documentation of the deep fried Coke. It was really funny-looking, too--squiggles of some sort of dough that obviously had Coke syrup as a main ingredient, and then deep fried. I said it looked like calamari; Colin said it tasted like ginger beef. Without the ginger. Or the beef. There was a lot of food that we didn't get around to, but we got a pretty decent sampling. ;)

Anyway... we we went to the Round-Up Centre and wandered the exhibition stuff for a while, then we watched the Superdogs, and then we had tickets to the chucks and the grandstand show, which was fun, although our seats were way off on the side, so we saw most of the show in our peripheral vision or on the screens. I've never done rush seating for the show, but Colin has, and apparently, that's usually better seating than what we paid for, just because it's more central. We weren't too high up, so if our seats had been a bit more in the middle, it would have been perfect.

After the show, we half-heartedly hit the midway, but it was too late to go on many rides before they closed, and neither one of us was in much of a "let's hit every ride in the park" mood. We went on the ferris wheel, but that was about it--we tried to get the skyride, just for tradition's sake, but they shut the line down just as we were walking up to it. Ah well...

I didn't get to a breakfast this year, but I think this was the first time in probably 12 years or so that I was at both the grounds and the parade in the same year, and it was definitely the first time in years and years that I'd gone to the grandstand show. I'm really glad we had the chance to do it all this year. First of all, it was such a big part of both our childhoods that it's cool to do Stampede together. Second, who knows when we'll be in Calgary for Stampede again. It might happen soon, but depending on work schedules and how things go in the next few years, it might not. We just don't know, so it was really important to me that we get in there this year and do as much as we could. And we did. And now I'm kind of sad that it's over.

Anyway, a few pictures that have nothing to do with Stampede, but they're cute anyway:

( Picspam! )

And now, I've got to actually get myself in gear and get out the door--I'm driving up to Edmonton this afternoon, spending the night at murphy987's house, and then driving straight from there to Drumheller tomorrow afternoon for the last performance of the Passion Play, and meeting Colin, his mom (and hopefully dad), and my parents there. Colin, his mom, and I are all in the choir, and my parents are coming to see the show, and then we'll probably all go out for dinner afterwards--and hopefully his dad will decide to go along... first of all, so that we can all go out for dinner, and also, so that Colin can drive back with me instead of driving with his mom. Lots of driving. Which I really don't mind--I love driving and road trips, but I'm not entirely in the mood to do 8 hours of driving by myself in the next two days.

Heh. Can you tell I'm procrastinating? The more I talk about driving the more I'm not getting in the shower (to wash off all the blue raspberry sno-cone that I spilled all over myself last night...) and getting ready to go.

Okay--I'm off. To do what, I'm not sure, but I'm off. Heh.

( Bling, pseudo-dads, and sunshine )

Home. It's cold.

Actually, not quite "home," but close enough. I'm at Kat and Aaron's place (watching their new TV... oooh... aaaaahhhh) tonight, since it's just easier.

I'll catch up online at some point. This weekend, though... Here are the next few days:

Tomorrow, I've got to meet with Heather, pick up boxes from Colin, pack my stuff, and then I get to hang out with pink_hammer! Saturday morning, we've got a production team meeting, and then I'm moving (yeah, again), and then I'm sure Pink, murphy987, and I will do something in the evening. Sunday, I'll go to the early church service, and then head out to Banff with Pink and Murphy. At some point, I'll do my very best to update a) my GG and VM thoughts (because I actually have thoughts to talk about), b) my pictures and discussion of the gg-palooza, and c) the interview and days at CalArts.

It's going to be a busy weekend, and hopefully (hopefully!) I'll be flying to New York in a few weeks, too. I won't know about that until I find out if I got an interview, but I should know about that in the next week (or, hopefully, less). Ah, so challenging to my always-plan-ahead tendencies. Oh well. Sometimes, you've just gotta go with it.

And sometimes, you've just gotta go to sleep. I'm in that strange place in between over-tired and over-energized. The coffee on the plane at close to midnight probably isn't helping, but... oh well. I had some great set-related ideas, so it must have been good for something.

Ack. More later. G'night.

I forgot my iPod yesterday, and I really can't do data entry for 8 hours with no music, but luckily, I had my laptop with me, so both yesterday and today, I've had my music playing on my computer while I work on the office computer. Hence the reason that I can have episodes of certain TV shows on in the background. Nothing that I'm watching for the first time or would actually need to pay attention to, but older episodes of Gilmore Girls, Everwood, or Veronica Mars are fair game.

Randomness: Calgary has way too few coffee shops. I drive all the way from the northwest to the northeast every morning, and there are no Starbucks directly on my way. My office is right beside a rather large shopping complex, and there's no Starbucks (or coffee shop of any sort) in there, either. There's one independent coffee shop (with free wireless) in between work and my rehearsal space, and it's been closed for the past 3 weeks for a family emergency. Not cool. When I have a few hours to kill, I want to take my laptop and get some work done, and it's too far to go home, so I need other options.

Holy crap, I'm bored. Today is going by so slowly. I miss the forums. I miss livejournal. I miss all the things that help me procrastinate and keep me from feeling like I'm in a cell for 8 hours a day.

Let's talk about something happier, though, shall we? I'm done complaining for a while.

I'll be home to watch GG tonight, thankfully. Not VM, though, since I've got a 7:30 rehearsal. GG is on at 6, though, so I can go home (to my house, not where I'm sitting) and watch it, and still get up to rehearsal on time.  VM will have to wait until later, though.

On another positive note, though, I finished chapter 18 of "And When She Was Good" yesterday, and I'm plowing through the next one today. Apparently Ican always find things to do with my time if I try hard enough. That story has been waiting for almost two months, though-and 18 has been half-written for almost two months, as well-so it's about time I got back to it and got some momentum going again.

I hope traffic isn't too bad getting home tonight. I really don't want to be stuck on the roads forever. Just get me home as quickly as possible. Oh, and speaking of traffic. it happens every year when we get the first snow. Despite living in a city where we have snow--and lots of it--every winter, people always forget to drive when the first one hits. Last night, there was an 80-car pileup on the Deerfoot. No major injuries, but still--80 cars were involved? Seriously. And one more thing about traffic (have I mentioned that I'm bored?): It's actually faster to get to work--in the northeast--from where I'm housesitting--in the southwest--than it is to get there from home--in the northwest.

Okay, seriously. That's gotta be an all-time low. I'm talking about traffic? Yeah, it's time for something new. I'll go back to writing fic now.

I'm here!  It's been a busy day, hence the lack of updates and/or online presence at all, but I finally have a few minutes, and a wireless connection, sitting in my car waiting to meet up with my mom and sister to switch vehicles.  I feel very Veronica Mars, sitting in my car with my laptop open, although I'm not doing anything nearly as cool and surreptious as she does.

Security was actually not bad at all--I got to the airport at 5 for an 8:20 flight, and was through security by 6, so I had plenty of time to kill.  The first flight was incredibly long--5 hours felt longer than it should have, for some reason.  Then there was a 45 minute layover in Vegas, and then the second flight, which was only 2 1/4 hours, went by a lot more quickly, because I was sleeping--I had an empty seat beside me, so there was way more room to spread out.

Got to my parents' house at 5:30 a.m., went to bed for about 2 1/2 hours, then got up and had a hair appointment.  My sister got gift certificates for cuts/highlights for her bridesmaids, so she and I went and got that done... and let me tell you, it's kind of dramatic.  I'll have to post pictures later.  :o)

The rest of the afternoon... I went to my new house and saw it, dropped off a couple of suitcases, figured out where I'm going, and now I'm waiting to switch vehicles, and then I'll go to Kat and Aaron's house to see the new baby!  And the rest of the family, too, of course.  No movie night tonight, which disappointed Aaron greatly, but I've had no sleep, and I'm driving home with my mom, so I've kinda got to stick to her schedule, more or less.  Depending on how tired I am, I'll try to get some more time online, catch up on the G2M2, etc.

It feels very surreal.  In some ways, it's like I never left, and in other ways, it feels like I'm just here on vacation, like it's been the past few times I've been here.  Except for the whole "I've got a new house and I've got job interviews" thing, I feel like I could be leaving after the wedding, and it's a little weird that that's completely not the case at all.  For all that, though, I'm expecting things to be exactly like they were a year ago, and it's strange to drive down roads that have had major construction, and aren't the same anymore, and to know that I can't drop in on the same people at work in the same places.  Life changes, and it's weird to come back and in some ways, pick up exactly where I left off, and in other ways, start over.

Or maybe I just need sleep.

I... seem to have lost my writing momentum.

I think I've officially jumped on the Veronica Mars bandwagon.  Does 18 episodes in 5 days constitute "jumping on"?

scripted22 gets to have Timbits soon! Yes, that's what I'll get when I get into the Calgary airport at 3:45 a.m. and I'm waiting for someone to drag himself out of bed to come pick me up. Very nice. And, believe it or not, the play I'm doing this fall is set in a Tim Horton's! You know it's by a Canadian playwright when...

Is it bad of me to hope that my niece doesn't sleep through the night that night? Because if she doesn't, Kat will come meet me, since Kayla will be keeping her awake anyway. If Kayla's sleeping, of course Kat's not going to come. But if she's up anyway...