hanging out in claremont

Update: It's unlikely that I'll be able to update my Blatherings until after I get back, but I'll catch up then. Unless I can find easy/cheap Internet access before then, of course...

When I first e-mailed Scott and Amanda about visiting, I told them that I wasn't so much interested in seeing the sights as just hanging out with the two of them, and especially Zoë. So far, the visit has been exactly what I had hoped for: very laid-back, and I've had a chance to get to know Zoë a lot better.

She was a bit wary of me for the first half hour or so when she woke up on yesterday morning, staring at me intensely as only a one-year-old can do, sizing me up, checking me out. I must have passed the test, because she start grinning at me and chewing on my leg. Zoë's pretty adorable, I gotta say. Dimples the size of Lake Ontario, gorgeous gray-blue eyes. And when she started reaching up for me to be picked up, I melted inside. Good thing she can't talk yet, or I'd be utterly helpless if she asked me for anything.

She's even let me change her diaper! Twice! The first time was a disaster because I was so out of practice. Zoë was squirming pretty energetically so I took Amanda's cue and gently held her down with one hand while I went searching for the wipes and diapers with the other hand. Found the wipes, but I'd forgotten where Amanda had told me to find the diapers. I finally found one in the cupboard, started putting it on her before I clued into the fact that it was backwards. Still holding a cheerfully Zoë down with one hand, I grappled with the other one until it was turned around and on her. But for some reason, it kept coming off! Finally giving up, I took Zoë downstairs and pleaded for help from Amanda.

Turns out that I had grabbed a size 6 diaper instead of size 3. The parents among you are probably nodding your heads sagely. For the non-parents, a size 6 diaper was WAY too big. Zoe looked like she was diapered with an inflatable white zeppelin. Amanda took her back upstairs and put on a new diaper: a process that had taken me about 15 minutes had taken her 20 seconds. Zoë was incredibly patient with my ineptitude, however, happily doing the Gerber-baby gurgling and babbling throughout.

BUT! my second attempt at changing her was a success, yay!





But enough about Zoë for now. We had a wonderful, relaxing day yesterday. Went for brunch at BC's (I think that's what it was called. Scott? Amanda?) where I had a very yummy citrus chicken salad. Everyone at the restaurant knew Zoë by name. :-)

I got to see Scott's and Amanda's old neighbourhoods, the Folk Music Center Museum (where I bought a calimba! Christo, will you help me learn how to play it??? I could have spent way too much in this place), a VERY cool little shop with crafts from local artists (where I bought a present for Ruth, whose birthday is next month), an amazing candy store with a zillion flavours of M&Ms sorted by colour (well, maybe not a zillion, but I'll post a photo soon), and MY FIRST KRISPY KREME OUTLET!

re: Krispy Kreme. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. VERY cool to see the doughnuts being made right in front of me (so was Zoë! it was her first Krispy Kreme outlet, too). Unfortunately, the "hot doughnuts" sign wasn't lit when we visited, but we decided to drop in anyway. Watched the doughnut-making process for a while, then Amanda bought a dozen doughnuts and some milk for us and we chowed down (thanks, Amanda!). I chose a Sour Cream Glazed, my favourite at Tim Hortons, and confess that I did like it better than the Tim Horton's version (sorry, Andy and Allison). Yummmmmmmmmm. I'm still eventually hoping to try a Krispy Kreme fresh out of the oven someday.

Went back home. Zoë and I took naps. :-) I had woken up at 4:30 a.m. yesterday morning despite my best attempts to sleep in, but felt much refreshed after I woke up. Played with Zoë a bit, then we went out for some sushi at Tokyo Sushi. Great sushi, and cool decor...part of the floor was transparent plastic, and there was a fish aquarium beneath!

After sushi, we went to the airport to pick up Jodi. Her flight went smoothly, and she didn't encounter as much hassle at the Toronto Airport as I did, thankfully. Her luggage made it here fine, too so YAAAAAAAAYYY, Urban Tapestry has officially made it to the West coast okay!

After chatting a while, Amanda and Zoë went up to bed. I went up shortly after, leaving Scott and Jodi to catch up.

It was the perfect sort of day. :-)

We're going to do some more wandering about today, then will head up to the hotel in Van Nuys in the evening to hook up with Allison.

I took a ton of photos today and will post more of them when I get back.

california!

Woohoo! I'm in California!!

The Toronto airport was a zoo because of all the World Youth Day types going home.

For the first time ever, I got my carry-on luggage weighed, and was told that my rolling carry-on bag was 8 lbs overweight and that I would either need to get rid of the extra weight somehow (by moving it into my checked luggage) or pay a $75 surcharge. After some hurried shifting of contents at the express check-in counter, I managed to get everything redistributed to the Air Canada employee's satisfaction.

But then came the line-ups; first the line-up for the x-ray machines, then the line-up for U.S. customs. Because I was carrying two pieces of checked luggage (including my guitar) and two pieces of carry-on, manoeuvering as the line progressed was somewhat of a pain. Wait 3 seconds, then pick everything up, shuffle forward a foot, put everything down again. My hands were too occupied to pass the time reading a magazine or playing Scrabble on my Palm.

The World Youth people were in good spirits, however. I got asked several times by clergy where I was from, was this my first time to Toronto. No, I had to keep saying, I'm not part of the World Youth thing. But then I started getting grilled about my ancestral background, my parents, how long my family had been in Canada, could I speak any Japanese, etc. While I understand that they were just smalltalking to pass the time and to be friendly, I didn't really feel like spilling my life history. By that time, I was kicking my guitar along the floor with one foot instead of picking it up and carrying it each time the line moved a few inches.

It took me an hour and a half to get through check-in and customs.

The flight was okay. I am jaded now; I used to get so excited about flying. I'd take pictures of the clouds out the window. I used to listen during the pre-flight safety speech, dutifully look through the laminated emergency instruction card in the seat pocket in front of me. Now I'm usually asleep by the time the plane stops taxiing for hours and actually leaves the ground.

I still like the compartmentalized food but geez, Air Canada's really cutting back. My "hot meal" consisted of a piece of lukewarm chicken the size of my middle finger on a small bed of somewhat crusty rice, 12 chickpeas with some mysterious but bland dressing, a roll, and a small piece of carrot cake. I liked the carrot cake the best.

My seatmate was a small, older Asian woman. She seemed somewhat crabby at first, but after I helped flag down a flight attendant to get a pillow for her, she warmed up to me considerably. She reminded me a lot of my grandmother (my dad's mom, who died many years ago), and I found myself feeling oddly protective of her.

Scott Snyder was waiting for me at baggage claim. SO great to see him; we hadn't seen each other since he was Interfilk guest at FilKONtario two years ago. We had a chance to catch up a bit on the drive home.

Zoë was asleep by the time we got back to the Snyders' place (about 2 a.m. my time), but Amanda was up. I was hungry, so she heated up some leftovers for me and we talked for about an hour. VERY cool to hang out with them again!

When I went to bed, I found some Lindor and Godiva chocolates on my pillow, yummmmmm. (Thanks, Amanda!)

I met Zoë this morning! She chewed on my leg and spit food at me, so we're getting along just fine. :-)

Today's Blatherpic: Zoë, this morning.

fillmore

Hey, some very cool news from Rand. He and Adam sold some music to Disney! They wrote the theme music for a new cartoon called Fillmore, which will debut on Sat. Sept. 14th at 9 am on Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC. If you want to find out more about Ookla the Mok, check out their Web site.

---

I've added the following two blogs to my list of online journals:

David Goulden was the sound engineer for the second Urban Tapestry album, Myths and Urban Legends. He duct taped my mouth shut once during a recording session because I kept laughing. Allison and Jodi were highly amused.

Jason Nolan is a lecturer at the Ontario Institue for Studies in Education. I met him through David, Scott Snyder did some online work for him, and he was kind enough to let me use part of his MOO for the Inkspot community.

---

Hey, I leave for Los Angeles today, woohoo! Scott Snyder's picking me up at the airport.

I'll Blather when I can, of course, and/or will post in Blatherchat.

Today's Blatherpic:

A very old photo of Rand and Adam, in Watchmen Studios.

sisters

Ruth came over yesterday afternoon. We don't get much of a chance to hang out, just the two of us, so it was nice having that time. We walked over to Starbucks at the Chapters near the Paramount, ordered frozen drinks and chatted in the cushy armchairs near the window for a few hours.

I hope Annie and Sara grow up to be as close as Ruth and me. As children, Ruth and I had the typical squabbling fights of siblings. I am horrified when I recall (or am reminded) about something of the horrible things I used to do to her, like hanging her teddy bears or leaving books with scary covers around even though I knew they freaked her out, or telling her that the mannequins in department stores used to be human beings but had been lasered by aliens. I imagine how I'd react if I heard that Sara had hung up Annie's teddy bears for fun.





But we survived our childhood, and bonded even closer after family tragedies knocked us about, our "Leave It To Beaver" suburban complacency gone forever. We've learned that bad things happen to good people, but it's still possible to go on living and enjoy life.

I think that one reason I love Annie and Sara so much is because they remind me so much of Ruth and me when we were that age.





I leave for California tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to meeting Zoë Snyder for the first time when I stay with Scott and Amanda for a couple of days.

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	A quick self-portrait photo as Ruth and I passed a mirrored window yesterday afternoon.
	Ruth and me as kids. I'm on the left. Mom made our dresses. She made most of our clothes back then.
	T-shirt for the Conchord Interfilk auction.
	CD for the Conchord Interfilk auction, with two sample tracks from our upcoming CD. Mixing and mastering by Chris Conway. Tracks: "The Friendship Song", "I Am Stardust".

guinea pigs

Yesterday was a catch-up and California trip prep day for me. Jeff went off to work with a client and I stayed at home in my pjs most of the morning (my penguin pjs, a gift from Andrea a while back). Worked on my WritersMarket.com column, my novel, wrapped Sara's birthday present, started packing.

It was a wonder to me, seeing Sara on her eighth birthday. She is already so much more poised and confident at eight than I ever was. Ruth asked Sara what she wanted on her cake, and Sara asked for a guinea pig (see photo at top of this page). Stripe and Fluffy are doing well, by the way, and remain the placid little food-consuming balls of fur that they were originally, except much bigger.

I was pretty ignorant about guinea pigs until Sara educated me; she did extensive research beforehand. Did you know that guinea pigs originally came from South America? Apparently several species still roam in the wild. Guinea pigs are a type of animal that must have "EAT ME" stamped across their furry little foreheads to predators. And almost everything is a predator to them, really. Supposedly they were named because sailors selling them for one guinea and noticing that they made squealing noises like a pig.

Downtown Toronto is devoid of Catholic World Youth right now, by the way; they're all out in Downsview for a vigil with the Pope and an outdoor mass today. One church official was quoted as saying that the "most devout" will be awake through the night, which I thought was pretty funny.

Two more days until I leave for California!

Links/News:

William Shatner has a new VH1 documentary show called "One Hit Wonders", which he says is a tribute to unforgettable tunes by artists who never repeated the same success", according to Reuters.