My Friend the Comedienne!

Last night Mike and I went to Seconnd City. It was a pretty big deal for us on several levels.
The first was that it was a night out. Matthew had a sleepover with his cousin (and yes, they did sleep). The second was that we'd never been to Second City (I know) and the third was that my friend Stef was on the Second City Mainstage. Even as someone who had never been before I knew this was a big deal. So we went.
I am so proud.
Let me tell you about Stef.
I've known her for about 5 years. I met her when I was working at a film company. She was a temp receptionist and I was an admin assistant. The very first thing I remember about her is that she brought this ridiculous fish lunch bag and walked in still wearing a bike helmet over her curly red hair.
I was kind of intrigued and kind of frightened.
Within a day I realized that she is one of the most amazing people I will ever meet.
Stef is an actor and a singer. And she's incredible.
And, despite the frustrations of being a struggling actor in Toronto she hasn't given up. She goes to auditions all the time. Sometimes she lands stuff, often she doesn't. But, the point is that she is working and trying and most of all acting.
And, last night was a pretty big deal - since her comedy troupe was at Second City.
And ... they were good. In fact - they were amazing!
Truthfully, the reason I haven't been to Second city before is because I don't really enjoy comedy. Most of the time I don't get it, and I really hate people who say funny things they know are funny in order to make people laugh.
I'm more of a person who is impressed by off the cuff funny. You know, like sometimes people just say things that are so hilarious you laugh all of the time. I digress here. My point is that, despite my feelings on comedy I LOVED THIS.
Because it was good.
In fact it was amazing. Stef even sang a song about terrorists. Seriously.
And, at the end of it all I am one proud friend.
Why? Because after forever she's still doing what she loves, and no matter the set backs, she keeps trying. And getting places and doing amazingly well. And, I'm so proud to say she's my friend. (did you know she was in Mean Girls too? She was - with Lo Lo - and when we go shopping people always recognize her - also very cool.)
But, aside from all of this, the thing that keeps me hanging out with her is that she's also an amazing person and friend.
She once told me that in life you have a friends pyramid. There are the ones at the top that are the most important and then the wealth is spread down. And, she said to me "you know you're at the top of my pyramid."
Is it true? I don't know. But I feel that way - as do all of her friends.
Because she cares. Despite the fact that she's the busiest person I know (really, I almost have to call her agent if I want to meet for lunch - and yes, she really does have 2 agents and I know all about them!) she always makes the time to know about the silly details of my life.
She's one of the only friends who is allowed to join me when I go to see my hairstylist, Bill (he loves her) because she gets the Bill experience. Yes, of course I must wear my best outfit, yes you must tell me that I look thin and rich before I go in, yes I will discuss every detail of everything he said to me.
She also just seems to get things. When I had Matt and just was fat and ugly for months she bought me clothes that flattered me. She always makes me feel like the fact that I'm a mom is the cooles thing ever. And, when you're 25 when you have a baby, not too many of your friends say that.
And, at the end of the day she makes me laugh. When we were working at a crappy admin job we got nicknamed Lucy and Ethel after flooding our office because we put dish soap in the dishwasher. If I'm pissed off at someone (we worked with a crazy accountant) she can get me giggling. I think all of this comedy and improv is perfect. Because she will rock it.
Like she rocks everything else.
I think she knows how much I think of her, but now you guys do too.Yes - we are wearing matching sweaters. We thought it was cool that was had the same item of clothing (different cut, same old Navy sales rack) so we decided to go out in matching outfits. We ordered the infamous Fat Plate at Pickle Barrel - also known as their appetizer sampler.

Hello to the Peeps!

The other day I got an instant message from Mike. He was very excited to tell me about someone who read my blog.
I tried guessing to no avail.
And finally he told me. His ex-girlfriend from highschool reads my blog - on a regular basis (Hi Melissa!)
First of all, yes, I'm totally okay with the fact that he is friends with her. We're talking high school romance, and I'm friends with a highschool boyfriend. This is not my point.
My point is, this is pretty cool.
I write my blog because I like to write. I really do. It's an outlet for me and it's a space for me to write about what is going on in my life. Motherhood has been a pretty frightening journey for me, and one that I'm only beginning to navigate. Combine that with the drama that is my every day life and I'm one explosively emotional being!
And it's super cool to know that people actually are reading about my life - and care.
The comments I love. I love them especially when the comments are from people I don't know outside of the "blogosphere". I can't even tell you how incredibly important and special and, well, let's be honest COOL I felt when one of my favourite writers (and bloggers) first commented on my blog. I think I told everyone I knew - and some people I barely knew were told to check out the comments because I was so excited.
And, it's also pretty neat to know friends are reading. I know this sounds corny and cheesy and everything else, but when someone tells me that they read something on my blog it's important to me. Or when they take the time to mention something I've said, or comment on something that has upset me or pissed me off or just generally got me thinking (i.e. whether I want another baby) it's appreciated. Because, honestly, at the end of the day sometimes it's easier to write out what you are thinking than to hunt down a friend to listen.
So to all of you out there - this is a great big thank you and a great big hug. Thanks for keeping me going, keeping me smiling and caring about my little corner of the universe.
And one more thing .... comment comment comment. Please!

Wide Awake

I don't know what it is about fall, but lately my sleep is totally off. Take today for instance. In the back of my mind I knew I had to get up early. I promised one of my colleagues I would help her set up for an event, which means being downtown for 7am. No biggie, usually. I set my alarm a few minutes early and went to bed.
The only problem was that at 3:30 I was wide awake and raring to go. I finally got out of bed at 4. It's ridiculous. I decided to tweeze my eyebrows because what else do you do at 4am? I also had an extra cup of coffee and watched all of the different news programs.
Who knew how much news is on before 5:30.
Interesting.
And, on the topic of being awake so early it makes me wonder what exactly consists of late and early. For instance, the early early show that I was watching ran from 4-5. But, what time does the late late show end? It's completely possible that people, friends even, were going to bed when I was waking up.
Hmmm ...
Okay - well, it's now almost 6 and I need to get ready. Because despite my early start I'm still not dressed and ready to go.
Oh - and on a completely different topic.
I GOT NEW JEANS!
I'm very excited about this. I've been a little obsessed about jeans lately. It seems that everywhere everyone keeps talking about skinny jeans. Trust me - they look awful on me. But, still needed new jeans.
So, we were at the mall last night and I went to the Gap. I found the coolest jeans. They are kind of low rise, but not too low rise. And, the waistband is embellished with studs (sounds tacky, but it's not). Anyway, I was looking for my size and they didn't have it. So, I thought that I'd get the size down and try them on. I figured that if they weren't too horribly tight I would buy them to shrink into.
Except, wonder of wonders, they fit. Perfectly.
They could have been the ugliest jeans ever, and I think I would have bought them because they fit me and I liked the size. And, I ran down the aisle of the fitting room and showed Mike who kind of knew there was no saying no to these jeans.
Is it possible to be in LOVE with jeans??? Cause I am. I debated saying screw the dress code at work and wearing them today, but really, no. Not such a good idea. But, I'm so wearing them on friday. Because we can wear jeans on Friday (ha ha my legal department friends who cannot wear jeans. Ha ha I say). And we are going to Second City in the evening and I can also wear jeans there. I think.
So excited.

Mommy cracked

I knew one day this would happen.
I finally cracked!
Okay, well maybe not exactly, but ...
Yesterday was a weird day. We didn't quite knw if it was rainy or sunny so we didn't quite know what to do with the day. We checked out the Cabbageton festival which was fun. And then we decided to go to McDonald's for lunch because Mike wanted a big mac and Matt wanted to go to a playground. Since it looked like rain we thought the indoor playground would be perfect.
Apparently so did 5 million other parents.
We had lunch and then Matt went to play. (I went with him).
He's only 2 - and the age range is 3-10. But, I figure he is fine because he's a pretty aggressive toddler and he can hold his own with 3 and 4 year olds.
Things were okay at first, but then some of the older kids got a little aggressive. Matty still held his own, climbing through the tunnels. Though I wanted to leave Mike said no, he was fine, let him play. And I did. For several minutes.
But, I started stressing when one of the kids (I'd say he was like 8 maybe) started to climb the play structure from the outside. I kind of wondered where his parents were. This is a pretty restrained McDonald's, and usually the parents are all over their kids.
Apparently this wasn't the case with destructo child.
All the kids were kind of avoiding him.
And then he found Matt who was climbing into the tunnel.
Matt wanted to take his time, this kid wanted to get in the tunnel.
Matt said no.
The kid tried to push him.
Matt pushed back - Hard - and knocked the kid over a bit.
So the kid says "move".
Matt said no and sat down.
So the kid stepped on his foot and when Matt started to cry he pushed him and went up the slide.
All this happened while I was en route from my seat to the base of the climbing structure. I freaked out, said "hey" grabbed Matt and left the room.
Truthfully, I almost lost it. Which is why I left (thank God Mike grabbed Matt's shoes and jacket). I was almost the mommy who freaked out and shouted at someone else's child. I mean he was pushing a little kid. seriously.
Mike thought it was kind of funny because I did turn into crazy mom there for a minute. And, I did carry my screaming toddler through McDonald's. It was a bit of a scene.
Oh well. Funny. At least I didn't scream at the other kid.
And, as Mike pointed out, thank goodness Matt can hold his own.