Can You Hear Me Now?

Okay, I am finally getting around to this! I have decided to post the public links to my Facebook pictures, because they don’t show the “tags” I gave people (with their last names) or the comments people have left (with their last names), so it is sort of private. If any of the people in the photos have a problem with that, let me know and I’ll take down the links! It’s just way easier to do that than upload all the photos here. Although, I will upload some here that never made it there.

Anyway.

My flight arrived in Toronto (Wednesday, September 12) a few minutes early, and at a different gate than was originally announced. As I waited for Rob and Emma to get me, I thought maybe they went to the wrong gate? Because… they wouldn’t be late or anything. I called Rob. “Where are you??” “We’re almost there! Uh - Emma held us up by getting arrested for drinking and causing a public disturbance.” Ahhhh, that Emma. I asked him if he knew what gate I was at, and he said “C”, which was the old gate. “No, I’m at gate B. B as in BASTARD.” Heh.

So the car pulled up, and out hopped Rob and Emma for big hugs, followed by Gaby! Gaby is a good friend of Emma’s who came with her from Montreal. Which was great and all, but… there would be 4 of us in the car… PLUS my big suitcase and WALKER… yikes! I don’t know how they managed to do it, but we all fit. Gaby had to become very intimate with my walker in the back seat, but if you recall, she was perching last year in Montreal, so she’s flexible enough!

Rob drove us all to the Sheraton Centre hotel, which would be home for the next few days. Gaby was staying at Lindy’s that night, but would be there with Emma and I the rest of the time. That’s right, I shared my hotel room with two 18 year old girls. They giggle lots. Oh, and they make awesome slaves helpers.

Once we got to the hotel, we said our goodbye’s to Rob until tomorrow, checked in and got settled. Then I needed to EAT something, (my day had consisted of a latte, a small bag of crackers, and 2 shortbread cookies) and since my wheelchair rental wasn’t being delivered until the following morning, we took a cab to Gaby and Emma’s favourite restaurant several blocks away. The Java House has great food at awesome prices and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a place to stop in while wandering around Queen Street West in Toronto (which we should all do at least 10 times in our lifetime).

Gaby had breakfast for dinner and I laughed at how she ate her eggs.

After dinner we popped into the Second Cup across the street for lattes, of course.

Mark (?) made icky, cold lattes. Some people just don’t have the touch, you know?

Then it was back to the hotel, where I crashed. I should have been wide awake, considering I was on Calgary time (2 hours earlier), but no. Long, uncomfortable day on a plane. (Could those seats be any smaller? And why stick me in bulkhead, where the arms don’t go up, and I’m wedged between two metal panels, bruising my thighs and unable to move? “Oh, we like to put our wheelchair passengers in the bulkhead for the leg room”. Well, that’s nice and all, but I need ASS ROOM!!)

Anyway. Emma and Gaby went out while I just lied in bed and rested. The beds in that room were great! Emma was back around 11:00 pm, having left Gaby to spend the night at Lindy’s house. We chatted and slept…

Thursday

After we got up and dressed, we went to explore the food court/mall level of the hotel. The Continental Breakfast at the hotel was $17/person, so we were skipping that one. We won’t even talk about room service prices, but let’s just say that did not happen. Late night pizza-ordering or hot dogs from street vendors at 2:00 am are more our style.

My rental wheelchair had arrived, so we headed downstairs. There were coffee and bagels to be had in the food court!

Where we ate breakfast. Emma texting Gaby to find out when we’d all be meeting up.

I think it was around 1:30 when Lindy and Gaby picked us up, and we went to a little place called Aunties and Uncles for brunch (Lindy’s breakfast, our lunch. He IS a musician, you know).

The rest of these pictures are in the Facebook album linked at the end. I’m only uploading ones here that aren’t in there!

Like these ones, of us driving around the city a bit after we ate. During which, Lindy played us all sorts of music… new stuff of his and Major Maker’s, old stuff he had never released… it was sooooo cool. I even guessed “that sounds like you in about 1998-99…” and I was right! Heh.

Sneaky Dees, an old hangout of mine!

We stopped at a studio where Lindy had to pick up a copy of Major Maker’s unmastered disc to Fedex to LA. I took a picture of the house next door because I WANT IT.

We ended up at the West Beaches where we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on a patio, enjoying the view and a beer.

More pictures on Facebook

So, that was a perfect day. And it didn’t stop there! Lindy dropped us back at the hotel, and we all got ready for the big night out for Scott Cooper’s CD release show at the Supermarket. Gaby and Emma were the merchandise gals, so they headed down earlier than me to set up. Rob, being the complete and utter sweetheart and gentleman he is, called me. “Do you need a ride to the show? Because I would love to give you one”. Aw. So Rob picked me up, and I left my walker in his trunk so I would just use my cane inside. I knew it would be crowded and tight, and there would be plenty of things/people to hang onto!

Once inside, the first people I saw (and met) were my friend Gail and her boyfriend Loren. Gail and I met through this here blog, and have been emailing back and forth for many months. So it was great to finally meet in person, and we hit it off! The woman started by giving me the rest of her rich and delectable chocolate dessert that she was unable to finish, so, you know, how could I not love her? Loren got us a great table right in front, while I mingled and met a bunch of other people I’d been dying to meet… Coop’s wife Stacey, Caroline, Catherine, Colin… and of course getting big hugs from Scott, Adam, Alex (Scott’s band that night was the same one Rob had at the South Country Fair, except Rob and Scott traded places, and with the addition of Dean Drouillard on guitar. Oh, and Caroline-the-amazing-and-lovely-Brooks on vocals, who also plays with the Good Lovelies, the opening act). Got all that? Lots of people. Lots of amazing music and talent and hotness and they are all good friends with each other and it ROCKS what amazing people they all are. I was blown away. I am sooooo lucky to be able to call them all my friends, too.

Peter Katz was also there to see the show. LOVE him. And I very briefly met Adam’s girlfriend Lisa. Too briefly. And Gail (sorry, I mean her cat, Pollyanna) gave me a Sigg water bottle! And Scott gave me a shout out from the stage! The show was FANTASTIC and Scott’s new CD (”Tiny Increments“) is sooooooo good it almost makes me cry.

After the show there was much talking and hugging and picture taking. (Pictures from that night on Facebook!) We stood outside for awhile discussing the who-was-riding-with-who situation (Peter gave us a ride back) and I’m not sure if you have ever experienced Kensington Market in Toronto during the late night/early morning hours… but all kinds of memories of me wandering through Kensington at 2:00 in the morning when I was 19 came flooding back to me as the smell TOOK OVER MY BODY AND CONSUMED ME TO THE CORE. That is some GROSS garbage on the streets, there. It is truly a disgusting stench on those sidewalks, but part of Kensington’s “charm”, I guess. Ha

So that was Day One. Are you tired yet?

All my Toronto pictures are in this Facebook album. So you even get a look ahead at the coming days I haven’t written about yet! If you’re not on Facebook (or my friend on there) you can still view these, just without names and comments from others!

More to come…

Oh yes, and here is Lindy in Major Maker’s very fun and silly video for Rollercoaster!! Request it at a radio station near you and buy it on iTunes