Look out baby, here we come!

Here it is the unofficial trip itinerary for NYC!

September 4th:
Arrive New York and get key to the city.
Check out Times Square.
Try and trade key to city for fake Rolex (likely not to succeed).

September 5th:
Sing national anthem (without cue cards -- badly buthering the words) and throw out first pitch at Yankees/Mariners game.
In the seventh inning run on field.
Get arrested for running on the field.

September 6th:
Donna's Birthday.
Get bailed out of jail and promptly visit Central Park.
Meet locals, and get mugged.
Go to Hello Deli and get sandwich with the spare change found in my pocket.

September 7th:
Try and be in audience at Peoples Court.
Buy fake Rolex.
Get arrested for buying fake Rolex.

September 8th:
Get bailed out of jail (again).
Visit Empire State Building.
Drop a penny.
Get arrested for vandalism.

September 9th:
Get bailed out of jail (yet again).
Stand outside the Jets/Patriots game cursing FedEx and wishing I was there.
See Letterman play, "Name that cut of meet".

September 10th:
Visit United Nations.
Pose as Canadian Delegate and decalre war on North Dakota.
Get arrested (again).

September 11th:
Get bailed out.
Go to Ground Zero.
Feel humbled.

September 12th:
Go to Broadway play: Mary Poppins.
Get thrown out for yelling "Where's Julie?" repeatedly.

September 13th:
Go to jail to say goodby to all of my friends.
Miss my flight.
Hitch hike home.

insomnia

Not sure what's going on with me for the last little while but sleep is nearly impossible.

Normally a little reading will help rest my mind and allow me to fall asleep and when that fails laying on my couch listening to the tv usually does the trick, but I seem to be at a loss.

I'm sure it doesn't help that I am not doing myself any favours by neglecting my diet. I just realized that all I had today was a cup of tea, a cup of coffee and a granola snack at lunch. Probably not the best idea when I just got home from my day.

Oh well at least I've got some stuff that I can do to fill all this extra time I seem to have because I'm not sleeping.

Customer Service at it's finest

Half a fucking hour before I actually got someone on the damn phone who could be of some fucking assistance.

First of all I kept phoning through using the prompts, it would ring and ring and ring and then just cut off.

So I went through sales. I got some poor unsuspecting soul, tore him a new asshole and then he was only too happy to transfer me to customer service.

Upon being transferred my call was finally put into the queue. Great. Progress. The entertaining part was I got to listen to a one sided conversation of a customer service rep while I waited on hold (apparently they've been bought out by ebay and they take 15% of the selling price of the ticket!).

Finally after much swearing, and rage filled pounding on my keyboard (mixed with several moments of wanting to bludgeon someone with my phone!) Richard comes on the line.

Nice chap.

After several rage fueled minutes of telling him what shitty customer service I thought they had, I demanded to know what the hell was going on with my tickets.

In short he's going to call me back on Friday after talking to the seller.

So I really didn't get much further ahead than before I spent those 45 minutes on the phone.

But yelling at someone sure did make me feel better, albeit temporarily.

6AM phone calls

Nothing good can ever come out of a phone ringing before 6am.

It's either bad news, work, or bad news.

That's because most reasonable people wait to call until a decent hour. Normally the only person I answer the phone for before 7 is my mother.

Yesterday after a short sleep on the couch and dreaming of Mr. Miyagi teaching me the drum technique (I may have fallen asleep watching Karate Kid II) I was startled awake by a foreign sound. I couldn't for the life of me understand what the ringing sound was.....oh right my phone!

I let it go to my machine and was surprised that it was my friend Turkey, whom I haven't heard from in months, telling me that she had some big news. Her inflection was neither excited nor depressed and so I lay there on my couch trying to decide what the news was....I decided it was one of three things: she was pregnant, she was getting married or someone was dying. I hoped it wasn't the last one.

She called again, this time to my mobile and as I grumbled out a hello, she brightly proclaims "I'm getting married!"

My reaction wasn't the most flattering for either of us so I will refrain from reprinting it. But if you want people to be able to give you a bright sunny reaction, here's a little tip: Don't call them at 6am!

I called her back later in the day to tell her congratulations as my early morning brain didn't think of it!

Comfortably crazy

Perhaps I have a problem. Whenever I'm feeling a little low and in need of a quick pick me up, I wander into my bedroom and gaze lovingly into my closet and find a cute pair of heels.

Is it strange then that putting on a pair of cute shoes and wandering around my shoebox of an apartment will give me an instant lift in mood?

I can't wait for New York and doing some shoe shopping.

Dodging land mines

Last night was the benefit for Peaches and I must say, that is the best I've seen him looking in the past month. While he did appear a little tired but he seemed thrilled to be out and surrounded by people who love him.

Of course several of those people that love him were ex-girlfriends. It was like every direction I turned I had to step lively because an ex-girlfriend was lurking around every corner. Just when I thought I got away from one, then she would reappear before me again. Another would appear in the other's wake. I did my best to smile politely and give a nod or quick hello, as I passed but that will only get you so far. You'd think in a room full of 400 plus people you would be able to find a few safety zones. Not one. Standing anywhere near him was basically being right in the middle of the suck. Your safest bet was to find a spot, (preferably a corner so your back wouldn't be exposed and fortify yourself with many many many glasses of wine) and not move an inch for fear of coming into contact be it intentional or accidentally with one of these land mines.

Somehow I managed to survive. Only emerging today with some minor emotional scarring and a bit of hangover from all that fortifying.

The hits just keep on coming....

Poor kid. Not only is he paralyzed but now he has c. difficile.

That sucks.

And as we learned when my Mum had it, I do not look good in the yellow quarantine gown! And the smell of the gloves is disgusting. But c'est la vie.

Here's hoping the drugs kick in soon and he gets better.

No cubicles for me!

"A bad day in television is still better than a good day in a cubicle."

Mike is a genius. Granted today was just one of those days where absolutely nothing seemed to go right. But thankfully we're just doing the news and not saving lives!

To start with the most amazing football game didn't get recorded on the weekend becaues someone switched the inputs. Then it was a shit-show to get feeds of it from other regions. Things just kept adding up and seeming to go wrong.

We only had one producer and he tends to let things stack up and come in late, which screws us over in the control room and tonight it showed. When we were supposed to go live to the Bridge City and our reporter out on the street there, we rolled the pak instead. Then because the producer dropped something further in the line-up (because they didn't get anyone to edit it and lost the tape!) it screwed up the rundown and we went to black on air. Then the sports guy's mic was open the whole time (and he wouldn't quit talking even when I told him not to!!). It just seemed like one thing after another and thankfully Mike and I didn't get down about it and just pushed on through and finished the show.

It's definitely not going to go on any demo reels but at least it wasn't a complete clusterfuck. And then he put things in perspective as he always does.

I can only hope to be as talented and knowledgeable as him one day. He was sideline camera op at the football game on Saturday night and some of the replays off his camera were AMAZING.

I think I've found my new hero and he's not a middle-aged, alcoholic sports announcer!

The night the lights went out

It's nights like this that people will talk about in thirty years. That people will sit around and say remember that game......

It's nights like this that I LOVE my job. It's such a rush. About twenty minutes before going to air with our late cast, the power went out (not to mention it was the start of the fourth quarter in the football game!) We were running with a show that was being held together with a piece of string and some tape to begin with (shooting the whole show in the newsroom as the studio is being repainted and has the lighting adjusted). Thank goodness for backup generators (although it only runs the "important" stuff.) Thankfully hi-lites had just finished being cut but unfortunately the tape was still in the unpowered machine. So after an executive decision we disconnected the deck from the system, carried it to the backroom (where the generator was feeding power) to plug it in and pop the tape.

Suprisingly we made it to air without a hitch until the power came back on and the entire station dipped to black for 30 seconds. It happened during a commercial break but happened literally as we were coming out of commercial to go back to air!! We made it back on, showed our hi-lites and got the hell out.

That's when the fun began. We decided to head down to the stadium to get post and I am so glad we went.

The atmosphere at the stadium for those fans that stuckout the blackout and the torrential downpour and the lightning did not disappoint. The place was like a rock concert (it was an even more amazing vibe than the Rolling Stones -- and I am not exaggerating in the least). I have never seen that much bare flesh at a late night football game -- except for that streaker a few weeks ago! It was like all of the fans had trickled down into the lower part of the stadium and were huddling together for warmth.

They were so loud and so exuberant that it would have been a shock if the team hadn't won. In talking to some of the players afterwards they were amazed at how many people stayed through that hour delay. As they sat in a blackened dressing room (after leaving the field because of a lightning delay) the only light coming from their cell phones, waiting to hear if they would indeed finish the game! And what an end it was. Down by five points going into the delay they had just recovered a fumble and there was a definite swing in momentum. They came back and won by a touchdown (just like I said they would!).

Tonight was a night that will go down in history for that stadium. She may be old and starting to get rundown but tonight was amazing!

It's nights like this that people will talk about in thirty years. Not to mention the fact that this was the game that put us first in the league. It's nights like this that become legendary......

I'm so glad I got to be apart of it.

Sometimes you just have to take a break....

I had some good ideas for blogs to write but unfortunately due to massive brain-mush none of them seem to be formulating the way I want them to.

So perhaps it's time to take an evening to sit back and turn my brain to further mush by watching a little mindless talking box.

Good night.

Another case of mistaken identity...

Apparently I am a chameleon (no not red, gold and green) of my surroundings. Once again I found myself being mistaken for someone caring, kind, and compassionate.
I find it quite humorous.

Last night while I was visiting Peaches, his nurses came in to change the gauze on his incision (which was healing nicely I might add!) Now I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary (or so I thought -- perhaps all those many hours I have devoted to ER and Grey's Anatomy have paid off!)

But the nurse turned to me and started to tell me something, the slightly quizzical (not confused!) look I had on my face caused her to stop mid-sentence and ask, "Aren't you a nursing student?"

Between Peaches and my laughing about it, she quickly understood that indeed I was not the caring, compassionate individual she believed me to be.

But good to know that I can blend into the surroundings whenever I need to!

Introspective

I started to contemplate some things as I sat listening to the whirring, and beeps that filled the darkened corridors. The gurgle of the humidifier. The smell of latex assaulting my nostrils. Watching the glow of the television dancing across his face.

Tonight was the first night since his accident that I actually got to spend some time alone with Peaches. And it was nice to just sit with him and talk.

I sat there in the darkened room, listening to the steady breathing of his roommate behind the curtain, thinking how quickly things can change.

Of course those thoughts got me thinking of my aunt and how quickly the cancer raced through her body. It still hits me like a tonne of bricks that I will never see her again. I think it will only truly sink completely in when I make it back Down Under and she's not there to welcome me "home".

Added up it's definitely making me see life through slightly different eyes. I'm still being a silly workaholic, and I know that I need to get things back on track with big brother, but I'm starting to think bigger picture. I want to make sure I do some of the things that I've always dreamed of doing.

With Peaches it's also becoming easier to verbalize things. Although maybe it's things that don't need to be said yet. He's changed, and is being a more considerate person and we are still on track with our honesty to one another.

I think my time in the QC is drawing to a close but I don't think I'm ready for the City of Bridges just yet. I'm not sure where life is going to take me, but wherever I go a part of Peaches is going with me.

Half way there........not completely insane

Twenty-one days in and only twenty-one days to go. I would venture a guess at about 47% insane (but of course I started out 34% insane) so I would have to say, so far so good.

Now if only I didn't have to put up with the "braintrust" for the next three weeks that insanity quotient probably wouldn't increase very much but I have a feeling as these weeks drag by, it's going to increase exponentially. Which should make for a fun little trip to NYC in September.

What it does mean though, is that I am constantly tired and regularly stay in. Except of course for a few drinks with the Co-worker and regular visits to Peaches.

The fundraiser for him next week should be something to see.

Now to maintain this comfortable level of insanity I should probably go to bed. Can't wait for NYC and Hawaii!

Hemp, hippies and.........happiness?

In between the turquoise jewelry, organic cotton shirts, the healing power of amethyst and henna tattoos, was me.

I'm not sure what possessed me to wander downtown tonight into the midst of "hippie-ville" but there I was perusing the wares and wondering what sort of lifestyle would ever force me to use something like the Divacup or reusable menstrual pads...... clearly not my thing.

The 'dreds were out in full force as I was surrounded by hemp and hemp related products. Seriously, I thought I was doing pretty good for having a vegan wallet (of course it's Matt & Nat). But I don't even come close to comparing to these people.

It just wasn't the same without my partner in crime to ridicule the silliness of it all. But at least I could put a damper on her happiness by simply talking to her for 15 minutes (you're welcome Donni!)

Switching gears from hemp products. At work today I bore witness to a disturbing sight. While shooting a junior football game this afternoon, I was filled with dread as the third quarter ground to a halt. A player stayed down after one play (no big deal, it was after all the first game of the season and several players were helped off the field through the course of the game). This one was different one minute he was sitting up right, and the next he toppled over like a tree in the forest. His body went completely rigid, his arms stretched out in front of him as his entire body began to convulse. It felt like it went on forever and that it took an eternity for the ambulance to finally show up.

We chose not to run the footage. I hope the kid is going to be ok.

Time to go lay down and fix my back.

Peaches.

I just got home from a visit with Peaches.

It was time to check out his new digs at the rehabilitation centre. It kinda depressed me. I think it's now finally setting in. That place would depress me. He went from a private room at the hospital with a window view to a shared room on the door side. But I suppose you could use your surroundings as motivation to get the hell out.

He looked better when I saw him Sunday at the hospital. I know he's scared shitless (and so am I, for him).

I laughed that he apologized when I decided to call it a night that we didn't really get to talk, for him seeing him is enough. He can't help it that he has non-stop visitors.

I am almost 100% that I'm going to move into the house with his little sister. I don't care what's happened between me and him in the past, or what could happen in the future. All I want is for him to have a full recovery, I would give anything for him to have that.

Playing with fire

What a brave man my landlord is....that or he's incredibly stupid, I'm not sure which. Perhaps a little of column A and a lot of column B.

My doorbell rang bright and early at 8am this morning. I knew exactly who it was and why. They had decided that they were going to sweep the parking lot but didn't specify a time and I had planned on moving my car when I left for work. I lay there in bed wondering if he would just go away. He rang my doorbell again. That pissed me off.

I dragged my tired (but fabulous) ass out of bed and scowled at my landlord as he politely asked me to move my car.

I felt fury building within me but kept it in check by keeping my mouth closed (well that and I had some morning breath).

So after moving my car and stumbling back into my shoebox (aka my apartment) I tried to go back to sleep but alas with a bedroom window that provides a stunning view of the parking lot (and therefore all the noise that goes with it) sleep was not in my near future.

I decided that if I was going to be up at this ungodly hour then I might as well make the most of it and get ready for work.

This would then give me ample time to drive 15 minutes out of my way, to buy an overpriced latte, and be a little bit snobby. I mean seriously, my day doesn't officially start until the clock hits double digits or I've had copious amounts of caffeine.

The latte was perfect and curbed some of the aforementioned rage.

And for a bit a reality check: As I was driving 15 minutes out of my way (normally I walk to work and could buy a perfectly decent cup of coffee from a locally owned shop across the street from my shoebox but today only one thing could make me happy. That little white cup with the green circle. ahh Starbucky's my one true love.) to buy my overpriced latte, Peaches was waiting for an ambulance to move him from the hospital to the rehabilitation centre. That thought sobered me. Then I remembered I wouldn't be me if I wasn't at least a bit of a snobby bitch, and besides it's good news that he's out of the hospital and will be fully into his rehab.

Could you please be quiet.....

Tonight during the show I was trying to figure out how to tell my boss to shut up at the back of the control room, but I couldn't decide how to do it without using the patented, "Could you shut the fuck up!?" and still go back to work tomorrow.

So instead I bit my lip and kept my mouth shut trying to concentrate on the show.

Somehow we pulled it off.

Now I'm going to figure out how I'm going to politely tell him to shut the fuck up for tomorrow night's show.

I can't wait til the summer is over and I don't have to deal directly with the brain trust anymore!

Scare up some hope. You're going to need it just to cope.

Nights like tonight are when I loathe my job and ultimately considering just leaving it all behind.

On the bright side I know that I am not a complete robot and I hope that this job never makes me lose my emotions or become devoid of respect for human life.

As is customary for the long weekend I was in attendance at a fairly bad car accident. It happened not that long before we went to air and so the race was on to get some viz and get back before 11.

I did my customary cautious drive, but unfortunately this accident was bad enough that I was still there in time to witness the use of the jaws of life, and pulling the driver from the car.

I set up my sticks and stayed within the crowd of people because I hate doing this stuff, but it is a necessary evil to the job. At least I'm smart enough to know to stay out of the way of the cops, EMS and firemen. Not the CTV camera guy. He is the reason people hate the media. He showed up ten minutes behind me and proceeded to walk right up to the car they were working on extracting the driver from. Not only did he have no regard to the fact that he walked right into my shot but seriously you think the cops are going to let you stay there?

So because he was an ass that got the cops backs up towards us and they became a little pissy with me as well, when all I was doing was staying back and shooting what I needed from a distance.

As I was standing there shooting though I had to repress what emotions I could. I ranged from wanting to cry into my camera to thinking about puking on the sidewalk.

Luckily I did neither.

I'm not sure how everyone else deals with it. Sometimes it does help to just look through the viewfinder and because it's in black and white it seems a little less real, but when you start thinking that is someone's husband, father, son, brother.....that's when it starts to hit home.

Some guy was driving along maybe going home, maybe going out for the evening and because some jackass couldn't stop for a red light his life is now changed forever.

I guess it also didn't help that I went and visited Peaches again before I went to work, because as I was standing there shooting I kept thinking about him. Although he looks better each day I go and see him, it's still a shock to realize that he can't physically do things for himself.

I'm just a mess of emotions right now and I need to get some sleep so I can make it to work in the morning.

I hope the guy in the car accident is ok.

I've got absolutely nothing

I'm not sure what it is about Saturdays.....apparently they are a very uncreative day for me. That or perhaps I use all of my creativity at work (although I don't think that was the case today because all I did was shoot a Little League baseball game, not much creativity on that one!)

So with that I guess I will call it a night and fall in to bed, only to do it all again tomorrow!

It's only a problem if you let it become one.

I have got to stop reading these books about successful young women who have shopping addictions. Simply because I fear I am one of them.

The problem comes when these fabulous women get themselves into debt and are forced to realize that perhaps they are a little superficial and forces them to curtail their shopping.

But for me shopping is happiness. My mother has never understood why I "need" so many clothes. I don't "need" them I just like to buy them because in that way money can buy happiness.

On a brighter note it was one of the greatest sights I could have asked for; seeing him lift his arms. Nothing (aside from him standing up from that chair and giving me a hug) could have made me happier today.

Brooks De-something-or-other

He's in Kandahar and when I watched his standup I was reminded of when he taught one of our classes and we were all swooning as he sat at the front of the room. Then of course there was audible disappointment when he stood up.

If only life could be framed like a standup all the time. Brooks would be totally hot.

Phone a friend

I hate that I needed that kick in the ass to get over myself and go to the hospital. But I was just so terrified about what it would all be. Then I realized that he's probably scared each day (which he admitted to me he is) and that if nothing else I had to put on a brave face and be there for him.

It was like a cold pail of reality thrown in my face. While I knew what to expect and had been mentally preparing myself the entire walk there, seeing him laying there with a neck brace and unable to move was tough.

How quickly life can change.....