Outta here!

[ Sweet Thing soundchecks for Strombo, and I'm there! ]

Alex is gonzo. Glad it's this week and not last week when i was in the middle of meltdown central. Not pretty. Not pretty at all.

 [ via Justin Blyth ]

Last week, he did all of the following:

• sweeping
• dishes
• dog walking
• breakfast-making
• sanity-keeping
• sympathy-doling

It was nice.

Now I'm on my own. I hired back our old dog walkers just to ease the burden this week. My pups are lovely but they are a big gigantic handful. Make that two.

But, well, he's gone for a very good reason. And I'm kind of getting used to this tour business now. I don't even cry anymore. I replace his space in the bed with extra pillows and two dogs (roughly resembling his shape under dim lit conditions), and go on with my life.

Sweet Thing is heading West to break more hearts and win over more radio big-wigs. I just can't quite understand why they're not ridiculously famous yet. Someone mustn't be doing their job. I mean, REALLY. (shut up, I am not biased)

Last night they slept in my home town - Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. Yessiree, they did. Jealous. I said that they should go have coffee with Shannon or breakfast at Smitty's or a stroll in Island Park or tea with the Bird family. 'Cause that's what I would have done. But they're on a beeline for the coast, and I imagine that they probably didn't stay for sightseeing. There's not much to it unless you have nostalgia, anyway.

[ my old house, via GoogleMaps Street View ]

It's pretty rad that they're opening for Metric - their first stadium show! The tour opener is another  Down With Webster gig, then they'll be headlining it back across the country. They're playing another of my hometowns, Ottawa, on the last leg. (I was a military brat. "Home" is subjective) You can see the full list of shows here.

Oh, and I mentioned these two amazing videos on FB and Twitter, but thought I'd remind you again. If you missed the performance on George Strombolopoulos Tonight, you can watch it here. 

Aaaaand, Change of Seasons is featured in the trailer of a new Rachel McAdams/Harrison Ford/Diane Lane flick. Check out the trailer here.

[ still from Morning Glory ]

Also, stay tuned for a NEW video, possibly the best yet. I saw a rough cut, because those are the perks of bandwifedom, obvs. This is a hilarious still from the shoot:

[ via Sweet Thing on Facebook ]

Whew. Mouthful. I'm off to soak in the bath (definitely), eat something sensible for dinner (maybe) and then head out to cover an event for blogTO. 

 

Too legit. (hey-hey!)

Wanna know how I turned a hobby/not-so-real job into a legit career? OK, well, I'd share but I don't exactly know how it happened myself. I guess doing what you love (the best parental advice I ever received, and am only now following) just works out because if you are so obviously passionate about something, someone is bound to notice.

So, yup, I'm finally sharing my news! Remember how potential good news had to be kept a secret because I was worried about it falling through? It's confirmed now, and I can open my fat mouth! Finally. *whew* I am sooo bad at my own secrets.

 [ big mouth. ]

As of November 1st, I will be officially working FULL TIME for blogTO!  Yup, what was really meant to be just a side project and fun thing to keep me busy during job hunting has turned into an actual career! I am so thrilled that my work for the site was noticed! I guess it shows when you really love something! I am loathe to call myself a journalist (huge overstatement and insult to ACTUAL journalists) but at least now when I pretend to be one, I'm actually being paid! Yee haw! You can see my work-to-date here. Lots and lots more to come!

The challenge? I am going to be BUSY and will probably have to build a social life into my schedule - ie. if you want to hang out with me, you have to do it at a bar I'm reviewing or be my plus one at an event I'm covering. That's reality for me now.

I also have to make SURE to make time for Dudley & Bea. I'm actually getting a lot of interest from bloggers (like this one - see my water bowls featured here!) and retail shops with the line so far! I've only sold two items, but granted, I haven't advertised and my shop is pretty small. I am hoping to devote 8-10 hours a week to it, which will be more feasible when A. Alex is on tour and B. I get into the swing of my new job. I MUST learn to be super organized all over again (I slipped quite a bit while in unemployed sloth mode).  

 

Speaking of my ever-crafty DIY world, doing what I love and am good at has paid off in another way (this is "good news" item #2). Through a weird Twitter encounter, I met some lovely CBC producers from the Steven & Chris show. We've been chatting for a while but nothing had really panned out. Until now. On a recent Web Wonder Woman segment with Jamey Ordolis, I did some back-end sewing/crafting to make demo items for the show! This week, my projects will be featured on a step-by-step demo on the show's website with photos of me making them! Well, my hands, at least. Alex and I sat in the audience at the show today, and the pillow and placemat I made were featured. The episode will air Thursday at 2pm EST! Watch! They're actually doing a giveaway of some of the pieces I've made. Annnnd, I hear that Steven loved the pillow and will be keeping it for his own office! I hope to work with the show again in the future. Stay tuned!

 Strangely enough, Alex and I will be BACK at the CBC building tomorrow, as the boys of Sweet Thing will be taping a performance for George's new show, George Strombolopolous Tonight. Gotta admit, I'm kinda over having to attend every single show/performance/whatever related to Sweet Thing (not that I'm over the band, or my "duties" as cheerleader, just all of the standing around), but I love George and it IS a pretty big deal for them. The performance will air on the show sometime soon, likely on a Friday. I'll sneak a few photos of the behind-the-scenes action and share soon!

 Since this week is going to be BONKERS for me (massive to-do list before I start crazy full-time work), I might be posting less frequently, but I'll be sure to write a "3 Things" and a "My High School Diary" post.

Ta-ta!

xo

Your Yoko

[ i'm THIS happy. ]

TIFF Love.

 [ Girls on film. Girls on film. ]

A busy-busy week is preventing me from getting in on much of the TIFF action. Really. Alex left today after a crazy, crazy weekend of packing and tour-planning (*sniff, sniff*). The rest of my week is full, too, with:

Real-work temping

Make-believe-journalist sleuthing

Girl coffee-dates

Scary medical tests for inexplicable symptoms (no, I'm not a hypochondriac if there are ACTUALLY a thousand things wrong with me)

Bootcamp

Brunches

Hip-hop karaoke

and....

Job interviews (yes!)

Any small gaps in my schedule must be earmarked for dog-love. The poor pooches are so used to having a full-time stay-home mom and dad. This week will be hard for them. And me too: single-mom-dom is tough.

 [ sad: the puppy condition ]

BUT I did get a small taste of TIFF-love via some good bandwife and BlogTO hookups:

One.

Friday I snagged tix to the Vitaminwater late-night party which ended up being lame despite a valiant effort to pull off a cool 70s/futuristic backyard theme. 

 The party was all gravy, no meat. And too much advertising. Attendance was poor and there were no celebs in sight. Not that I'm starstruck in any way, but you'd expect even some local celeb-action at these shindigs. I dragged Miss M out after work - I was lucky to land a plus-one on my first try (she's reliable and spontaneous like that). 

[ My hot date. Wowza. ]

While the party wasn't "fun" per se, we had our own brand which, as usual, erred on the side of ridiculous. I got to rock leopard tights and take red carpet pics, too.

Twitter buzz indicated that Strombo's party around the corner was THE place to be, and while furious texting did nothing to get us a guest list spot, we faked our way past two levels of bouncers and event staff with sheer babe-power and confident lying. This completely out-of-character maneuver was amply fueled by cleverly named Vitaminwater cocktails at the previous party. The term "open-bar" is not my friend. Strombo was at least able to provide minor shoulder-rubbing with somewhat-celebs. The whole thing was absurd and amusing. 

We abused the free photo booth, dragging blogger Casie Stewart and TV host Bruce Turner (really, such a super nice and genuine person) in with us.  Chris Hyndman applied my lip gloss for me, sloppily. AND, I may or may not have caused ex-"boyfriend" trouble for my friend (sorry Joey, will explain later). See? So, so random.The lameness of our exploits made them all the more hilarious. 

Uncharacteristically, I arrived home at 4am - at least 5 hours past my usual Friday bedtime, and 3 hours later than Alex who had returned that night from playing the K-OS show in Kingston. So much ridiculousness. For the 934th time in my life, I vowed to never drink again.

Two.

Alex's film debuted at TIFF this weekend! OK, not HIS film. Not even Sweet Thing's film. But the film that featured their song like 500 times! We were invited yesterday as guests to a pre-release-date screening for radio winners. Easy A was incredible! So great in terms of teen movies - almost as good as Mean Girls (a film that also had a great "adult" supporting cast). Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Hayden Church - amazing performances. I am SO excited for everyone to see it!! It's released this Friday, September 17th. Go!

 I am sad to miss checking out any other TIFF flicks. Next year... Any good renters for after the fest?

---

Just back from bootcamp, waiting (im)patiently for a postponed Skype date with my West-Coast hubby. 

Can I please offer marriage advice? Do not pick a fight with your husband the DAY BEFORE he leaves for two weeks. You will sorely regret it. We went to bed mad for the first time in the history of our four-and-a-half year relationship. We only had 3 minutes of morning-breath-scented making-up before he was gone. I cried and then almost slept in for my temp job. Never go to bed angry. We're obviously way-OK now but I hate that our last half-day together was spent in fuming silence. Over nothing.

Being apart is hard. Is that why I pick fights when it gets close? Misguided emotions? 

Gah. It's only been 11 hours. Only 288 hours to go. I miss him.

[ Hey Victoria, go see Sweet Thing and Justin Nozuka tomorrow. 'Cause I can't. ]

(p.s. now that I am tweeting regularly, it's hard NOT to use #hashtags and @symbols in everything I write!)