Sharkboy

I saw Rent, the live musical version, for the 3rd time last Tuesday, and it was the best production ever. So glad I went again.

11 years ago, Rent was playing in town with a permanent production, if I’m not mistaken the show was here for 2 years, I saw it when it first started with all my staff and I bought tickets for the very last performance when the show closed. I had loved it that much… The first time was amazing, just great, I didn’t really know the story and was blown away by the message, the acting, the singing, the songs, the sets… The second time was good, but something was off that night, maybe because it was the last performance, who knows, but the energy was down on stage even with the electrifying cheers from the audience.

But last Tuesday, I saw it with “the pros”… 2 of the original cast members from the Broadway production are touring across America and they are in town for a few weeks… Adam Pascal as Roger AND Anthony Rapp as Mark… and they owned the show. Their performance was absolutely hypnotizing. These guys have known these characters for almost 20 years and it was obvious they loved them… And to top this off, Gwen Stewart also reprises her role as a homeless lady from the original show. She is the lady with the gorgeous crystal piercing voice on the original Broadway recording, the one from Seasons Of Love. Sigh! What a great evening it was. It also helped that my friend Lisell was able to secure us the most amazing tickets, 7th row / centre.

Anthony Rapp & Adam Pascal
(courtesy of broadwayworld.com)

Gwen Stewart
(courtesy of braodwayworld.com)

I’m glad DR agreed to see it live as the movie version didn’t really hold a candle to the live show. And I know he was as moved as the rest of us during the performance.

Of course, when we are in New York City next month, we will have brunch at the Life Cafe… I might just sing a verse from La Vie Boheme.

DR and I go to St-Lawrence Market on a regular basis, not every week, but it is our place of choice for fresh veggies and meat. Our routine is always the same, we get ready very early, take a few cloth bags with us and walk the 20 minutes it takes us to get there. Our first stop never changes either: Peameal Bacon On A Bun and we sit by the bakery and savour our breakfast. After that we start shopping, meat first, then we cross the street for the veggies directly from the farmers renting space for that day.

This week was no exception, except that while DR was paying for the sandwiches, I went to grab us some napkins out of the restaurant’s dispenser. I thought I was getting 2 or 3, but when I pulled the entire container emptied all over the counter… I took what I needed and walked away, not much I could do about that, I didn’t need 75 napkins after all. But it did take me back in time… a time when 6 friends from high school were on a school organized trip to New York City, my very first time there. I was 17 yrs old. It was 1981.

There we were for 4 days on a very limited budget trying to explore all that the city had to offer… we did everything from the Statue of Liberty to Empire State Building to Rockefeller Centre to 42nd Street at night to the Subway to Central Park to World Trade Centre to the Meat Market. We ran around like crazy without sleeping much while there.

Of course, our meals consisted of the cheapest options we could find: McDonald’s, Burger King, Street Meat, Pizza, etc, our rule was that as long as it was under $5 per person, it was OK, we didn’t care.
One girl that was with us was a little particular, she was actually the friend of a friend and we didn’t know here very well, but she was pleasant and got along with everyone… until the meals. Whatever place we would go to, she would take a huge amount of napkins and would wipe her mouth after every bite and throw the napkin out… a burger would mean approximately 20 napkins would get tossed, and double that if we went to a cheap pasta place… We really shouldn’t have cared, but it bugged all of us that she couldn’t re-use a napkin twice by turning it around. She said they were free with the meal and preferred using a new one everytime…

I swear that it was at one of those meals that a tricky Madison Avenue man watching us coined the expression wildly known around the world nowadays: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.

Just based on us, little Canadian high school travelers.

This work week is over.

Finally.

This work week has been exactly the stuff nightmares are made of. Just one of those where people were not only demanding but they were also mean spirited about their whole behaviour towards the staff at our location.

This work week I have been told to fuck off (by customers). I have been told that it is my job to “serve” customers (by customers). I have been told that we are too slow (by customers). I have been told that it was my fault a letter didn’t reach its destination (by customers). I have been told to not question customers (by customers)… And that was just on Monday…

Anyway, you get the picture, it’s been a rotten week, and today, late afternoon, I was really drained of any energy and sympathy and patience after someone questioned every single thing I would tell him:

Me: Here’s your receipt, make sure you keep it for at least one year.
Him: Why?
Me: Because the computer system will update at midnight only and if it goes down, the information may get lost and this is your only proof you’ve paid
Him: I don’t care, that’s your problem
Me: And yours too, if the payment doesn’t show up on your account, you driver’s licence will get suspended
Him: No man, that’s why I used my Visa.
Me: Visa???
Him: Yeah, that’s the only receipt I need
Me: Well, you might have a record you paid this amount of money, but it won’t have your transaction number and I’m afraid it won’t be a proof that you’ve paid THIS particular offence.
Him: We’ll see about that
Me: Why not just do yourself a favour and hold on to THIS receipt which has ALL the information you’d need to prove you’ve made the right payment for the right offence
Him: That’s your job to take care of that
Me: aaarrrrgggghhhh… Have a good day
Him: You don’t have to be rude
Me: Have a good day… sigh.

After shaking my head a little, I called the next number not even looking who was walking to my counter. I was surprised to see a smiling lady in her 40′s with a young man in his 20′s. I asked how I could help them and she looked at the young man and asked him to give me the letter he was holding. It was an invoice for a payment that was due. I took the invoice, punched the offence number in the computer system and confirmed that the amount owing on the invoice was the same and asked how they would like to pay. The young man moved his face very close to the microphone and loudly said that he wanted to pay with cash and then looked up at me and smiled. I noticed right away that he was showing signs of being mentally challenged and I couldn’t help but smile back at him. I looked at the lady who was still smiling and I smiled back at her totally getting what she was doing, letting this young man show some independence by letting him take care of this invoice. For some strange reason, I winked at her.

That small little action made me all happy inside.

I turned to the guy and told him I needed $103.00 to pay the bill. He reached in his pocket and pulled out five $20 bills and handed them to me through the opening in the window. I counted them in front of him and said that this made $100. He reached back in his pocket and pulled out two coins, one $2 coin and one $1 coin. I confirmed that this was the exact total I needed. He looked at the lady and smiled and she told him he was doing very well.

I asked him to wait just a few seconds so I could ring all this in and give him a receipt. He nodded.

I printed his receipt and stapled it to his invoice and handed it to him. I reminded him to keep the receipt for at least one year. He moved his head once again very close to the microphone and said: “thank you sir” to which I happily replied: “And thank you as well sir”. He smiled at me. I nodded. The lady looked at me and mouthed the words “Thank You” and took the young man by the arm to lead him toward the door. I couldn’t hear what she was telling him, but I’m sure she was reassuring him that he did a good job.

I don’t know why it affected me so much, but I took a little break after this, I needed it… I noticed my eyes had welled up.

Maybe I just realized that there are more important things in life than to let idiots get to you? It took that one gentle nice couple to revitalize my week…

While emptying the dishwasher this morning, I couldn’t fit any of the clean plastic containers in their cupboard:

I knew I had to do something, I mean crushing them into the space didn’t really work…

It took me just a few minutes after a glass of wine this afternoon and voila:

Order. AAAaaaaaahhh! So nice.

On my way to work in the morning, I always stop for a morning coffee at one of the local Starbucks by my office, most of the times, it is the one inside the Hospital for Sick Kids.

I like the staff there and always feel that I’m sort of contributing to a good cause as the coffee I buy helps that franchise pay the rent and the rent they pay helps the Hospital stay open and continue their amazing work. Win – win situation.

I also like that particular location for the amazing atrium-cafeteria they have and very often, if I’m a tad early for work, I will sit by the window, drink my coffee and read. It’s a bright room, it’s relaxing, it’s quiet and it’s got this right smack in the middle of it:

It’s the closest thing to Disney World I have in Toronto.. I swear it even smells Disney in there…

Plus, this morning I slipped on a little puddle of water in the cafeteria and fell… I got up and had approximately 13 nurses, 4 doctors and 1 secretary type girl coming at me to make sure I was fine. I motioned to the little puddle and one got on the phone to call maintenance.

I don’t know any safer place to read.

1. The first time I went to a bar to drink was on my 18th birthday, the legal drinking age in Quebec. I had 3 beers and I was pretty drunk. I didn’t drive home… my sister drove me back.

2. My first car was a cherry red convertible MGB which I loved. Sold it for the same amount of money I had bought it 2 years prior.

3. I was a trained and licensed barber. My first barber job was a the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal which was part of their well known spa. I once cut the hair of famous 60′s teen idol from Quebec: Pierre Lalonde and hockey legend Guy Lafleur.

4. I won a Rock-and-Roll dance contest when I was 17 to the tune of The Boy From New York City. The first prize was 6 bottles of wine which we were too young to have and the prize was awarded to my “then girlfriend’s” parents. (she was the last girlfriend)

5. While in College, over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I read the entire book The Stand by Stephen King. I was obsessed and couldn’t put it down.

6. The best drag queen show I ever saw was at The Parliament House in Orlando… and that’s a lot for me to say as I love watching drag queen on stage and even performed with them in a couple of big shows here in Toronto… But still, when I saw the one in The Parliament House hosted by this big girl who could dance anyone out of the place while singing Moving On Out, I was cheerily in drag queen heaven.

7. In Grade 8, I started being serious about learning English and took extra classes. In one of them, the teacher thought that using pop culture such as tv shows, music, Archie comic books was the best way to really get us to learn. One of our first assignment was to go buy the single The Things We Do For Love and write down the lyrics… I got an A+ after driving my mom crazy while listening to the song ad nauseam

8. I worked for Club Med as a G.O. (gentil organisateur). The first Club I went to was St-Lucia for 5 months where I worked as the Chef Du Village’ administrative assistant… at the time it was secretary, which consisted of sending weekly typed documents to the head office in New York… Easy Peasy… I worked 7 days a week, 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening and I was part of most of the shows in the evenings… Great dream job… The second Club I went to was Paradise Island in the Bahamas and that wasn’t so hot.. the Chef Du Village was not a happy camper and made life a little bit tough on all of us… I lasted 3 weeks before I decided to go back home… I was the 33rd person to leave since the beginning of that season, it was almost a contest to see who’d leave next.

9. We own over 800 movies and TV shows on Blu-Ray, DVD or video (and that’s after getting rid of a lot of videos too). We haven’t watched them all and just added 31 DVD to that list on our last trip to Vermont where my brother in law gave us free access to his warehouse (I was too embarrassed to pick more.. hehe)

10. We’re already planning our next trip to Disney for December of this year, but are mostly excited about New York City and the Southern Carbbean cruise in 42 days!!! Who’s coming with us?

Now it’s your turn… tell things things we might not know about you!