Spring Awakening is in the city!

Remember I said that Spring Awakening was coming to the city? Well, it's here.
Read up about it before you decide to see it as it's a little bit controversial, but I would highly recommend it.
The touring cast is mostly different from the cast that I saw on Broadway, but the guy who plays Moritz is still the same and has already gotten a mention at blogto. I remember liking him as well. I think I liked most, if not all of the performers, come to think of it.
It was a great show.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Day

My brother tipped me google doodle for the day. It's super cute.
So apparently it's the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Day.
Who knew. March 20th.


- picture courtesy of www.eric-carle.com

2 days, 2 ballets

Last night, I attended the Erik Bruhn Prize. Tonight, I attended Romeo and Juliet.

The Erik Bruhn Prize was wonderful. Imagine the best parts of the best ballets thrown together for one performance and danced by some of the best young dancers in the world.
The best pas de deux and variations. Phew - it was slick.
There were dancers from the National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet.
I'm so tired right now, that I don't feel like writing much more. I think if you actually want to know more, you're smart enough to find out more on your own. Or you can just ask me in person.
I'm not sure when the next competition will be, but I definitely want to attend. I think I liked it better than a full length ballet.

Romeo and Juliet was good as well. It was the first time I'd seen this ballet, and I think I like more technical ballets than those that are all about acting and portraying a character. So yes, I did like this one, but it's not one of my favorites. It just seemed very different from a lot of other full length ballets that I've seen. Lots of little snippets put together. A million difference scenes for storytelling purposes.

A couple other things from the night:
1. The Four Seasons Centre is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I love everything about it.
2. I like people watching at nights out. So interesting to see the types of people who are there and ummm, what they're wearing.
3. People give standing ovations too easily these days. I think the Erik Bruhn dancers put on a better show than tonight and although there were shouts of bravo and brava and a couple people standing, it wasn't crazy. And I KNOW that the audience was an educated one. Tonight, people started standing as soon as the curtain came down for the first time. C'mon. Honestly, c'mon. I know that there are people in the audience who know ballet, but I really think that there are a lot who know nothing and just want to...I don't even want to generalize something like that. Bottom line is that I think that standing ovations are something that really needs to be deserved and just not given out so easily. Ugh.
4. I was at Union Station to pick up a post-ballet snack (read: Cinnabon) and after being surrounded by the ballet-going crowd, it was kinda funny to see the Britney Spears crowd. Such a different group. I spent a lot of my year with Britney-girls, and seeing the crowds tonight made be remember just how different I am.

I'm kind of impressed

I ran on the treadmill for 40 minutes tonight.
I don't have this looming reason for me to run on a treadmill, yet I'm still doing it. I'm proud of myself and hope that I can keep it up.
I'm going a little loopy without excessive amounts of physical activity right now though, so maybe that's what's keeping me going to the gym.
I never would have thought that I would be a gym person. I still think it's incredibly boring and the TV really isn't enough of a distraction for me, but gosh darn it, 40 minutes is pretty good!
Now, if only the condo developers would build a rink next door.
One can always dream.

Yessssssssss!

Dancebreak is wonderful.
I just bought a ticket to the Erik Bruhn Prize.
See...it pays to have a wacky sleeping schedule.
Although I wonder if I missed out on an even better ticket for being engrossed in my internet/movie in the background daze for 11 minutes until I noticed that it was after midnight. Crap. The only reason I wonder if because I remember checking the seating availability a couple days ago and there was one straggler seat in the orchestra, smack dab in the middle, row p-ish. And when I went to buy my ticket it was gone.
I get obsessive about stuff like that. Enough that I played the checkout waiting game to see if someone would release their better ticket before I purchased my own. It worked. I did get a slightly better ticket than I'd originally snagged, but not the one that I'd hoped to get.
Now I just have to make sure that I don't check the seating availability again, because if that seat shows up again, I will have a freak attack.
So ballet in less than 20 hours, and then another one the day after!
Woot woot!

Procrastination central

I've been at school for 1.5hours and have gotten nothing accomplished. Good thing is that it is only 2pm and I still have lots of time to waste. The bad thing is that I'm running out of things to do (obviously, not counting the stuff that I'm supposed to do).
It's fashion week in Toronto.
I'm not going to any fashions shows in the city, but I still hope that one day I will. It would be even better if I got a cool invitation in the mail like these ones. Don't forget to click on the links to see the ones from NY and Milan.
It's such a nice day outside.
I'm trying to decide what I should do after I've wasted enough time here. I was going to so an impromptu trip to the theatre and watch Dirty Dancing, but by the time that I got to the box office, the rush tickets had sold out. Darn it. If only I didn't sleep in.
My sleep pattern is completely wack. I went to bed early last night at 1am (my average sleep time has been around 3am), but still didn't get out of bed until 11am. I've got to get my internal clock back in gear.
Still need to find something to do. It's too nice of a day to just go back home.

I like to think that it takes a lot to scare me but...

I just got home from skating at Harbourfront.
It took a lot of willpower to get myself out the door at such a late hour after comfortably being at home, but I'm proud of myself for doing it.
The ice was really bad tonight. I was a little concerned because it's been warmer recently, and my worries were legit.
Although the zamboni got off the ice just as I was arriving to the rink (I'm surprised that they had maintenance so late) and I was stepping onto a fresh sheet of ice, it sure felt horrible.
Not only is it a little scary for me to skate late at night on an outdoor rink like this one because of the darkness (I can only liken it to the feeling of confusion you get in certain situations when you've got bad night vision), but the cracking and creaking sound doesn't help either. It was so loud and hollow sounding.
I was the only one on the ice for the first little while, and I was pretty terrified of doing anything. The ice was in such bad condition that I had the fear that it was just going to give out and I've fall into an imaginary pool of ice cold water and drown. Obviously this would never happen there, but I was that scared.
Soon a couple more people showed up (wow - I can't believe that some people skate this late at night on a Sunday) and I felt a little better.
I did some edge work, but that's about it. I did a couple backspins, but didn't dare jump.
My mind was playing some games tonight and it was quite the session. I loved looking at the stars and watching the lights on the CN Tower. I ended up staying on the ice for an hour, mostly just skating in circles. At times I felt a complete calm, others a complete sadness.
I'm absolutely terrified that this will be the last time that I skate.

C'mon.

Eriq La Salle just showed up.
Jeez.

See, I don't need a TV

I'm currently watching the latest episode of ER.
This is the only season that I've watched, but I do remember some of the people who were part of the original cast. You know the really famous people. Namely George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle and Julianna Margulies among others.
They brought back Noah Wyle a couple episodes ago, and Julianna Margulies and George Clooney just showed up on the screen a couple seconds ago.
Is it sweeps time? Are the ratings for the show in the dumps?
Doesn't matter - seeing Mr. George on the screen is never something I'm going to complain about.

Oh yeah, and then Susan Sarandon guest stars. Hmmm.

Awww man

I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up for things going more than 80% off at Hazel like I'd hoped they would.

CTRL-Ded (or Apple-Ded as the case may be)

Another website added to my bookmarks.

Giving Hazel a second chance

Remember when I said that I would never return to Hazel?
Well, I did.
But I had good reason. You see, they're going bankrupt and I'd seen advertisements of their 80% liquidation, so I wanted to see such a schmancy boutique at its worst. I wanted to see just how low the prices would go and find out if their stock was basically depleted.
There was still a bunch of stuff in the store (still completely haphazardly displayed) and they rented out a second location to help out with the sale but perhaps they have a lot less lying around than they first did. It's hard to tell.
The prices of course are bargains for what they are, but 80% off of a gown that's $3000 still doesn't make me want to buy it.
For the fun of it - I did try a couple things on. Why not, right?
Here's question for you - why do things that are incredibly expensive always look good on? I guess there's something to be said about quality workmanship and materials. Darn. One of the dresses was so cute and I would love to have it. Still - too expensive for me.
I think they're closing the doors forever soon - wonder if they'll lower the prices even more just to try to get rid of stuff.
To be honest, there was only one dress and one skirt that I liked, but if the price is right, I might be tempted to get them.

Now I'm hungry

This is impressive.
I love how creative people are and how pretty their creations are.
The question is: how do they taste?
I'll volunteer to find out.
I want cuppy cakes.

I'm smiling and reminiscing

I'm running out of things to have playing in the background on my laptop while I'm working.
I found something new.
The Amazing Race 14 (seriously - 14?!?).
Anyway, I'm watching the first episode and they've just arrived to Switzerland and are heading to Locarno and are seeing everything that I saw in the first week of working in Switzerland.
I know my love of Europe and my life there is overkill but I can't help it.
So, as I'm going through crazy highs and lows right now, watching this is making me smile.
And now they're heading to Interlaken. Amazing.

my book

I bought one. I finally bought one.
After much consideration (most likely too much), I ended up getting Semikolon.
I thought I would get a Moleskine, and there were a couple books at Indigo but in the end the thickness and quality of the pages in the Semikolon won me over.
The colours were an added bonus.
The books actually reminded me of the cloth-bound books from Bookbinders Design that I fell in love with in Europe. I would actually make the trip to Zurich just to visit the shop. I love stationary shops.
I have these grand plans for making a series of scrapbooks about my fabulous life using cloth-bound books. I'll have so many that I can make a rainbow of them and then I'll put them on my uber-chic, minimalist bookshelf. It will be lovely. But it'll probably never happen because I have tons of grand plans and there are so many three-dimensional things that I'd want to somehow incorporate into my memory books. Oh well.
Anyway, back to my book. I'm glad that there's an elastic closure and the added bonus of a loop for a pen. It actually came with a golf pencil but everyone knows how useless those are.
The next debate, what kind of pen to get. It's a big debate. Trust me.

Honest Ed's

I'm not really sure why I haven't actually set foot inside of this store, but this exhibit may be enough incentive to actually do something about it.
It sounds kind of interesting and I love hearing stories about people.
I remember hearing about how my Grandma/aunt used to line up at Honest Ed's to get free chickens/turkeys at Thanksgiving/Christmas.
Since coming back, I've driven past there a bunch and marveled at the advertised price of various odds and ends in their windows.
People have told me about how they get lost in there and how each visit uncovers a whole new wing of the store that they didn't even know existed.
I've heard stories about the finds that you can get in the store, yet I haven't gone in myself.
I figure I'm going to go and either be completely creeped out or think that I've entered a magical fairy-land (the good kind).

Entre les Murs (The Class)

I went to see this film awhile back.
I'd first heard about this first when I was doing my research for TIFF08. I was seeing what movies had done the other big festivals around the world and obviously Entre les Murs (which goes by The Class in English contexts) caught my eye as the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes and for it subject matter. The trailer looked amazing. Needless to say, I was disappointed when I found out that it wasn't coming to Toronto.
Anyway, it did come to the city a little while later and with extremely high expectations, I went to see it.
I was disappointed. First of all, I have to say that my expectations were REALLY high. I think the biggest problem was that the film was very different from the trailer and this is the movie had been a flushed out version of the trailer, I would have been happy.
Instead, what I found was that the film scratched the surface of many issues that arise in an inner city school (perhaps this would have been more shocking/interesting to people who aren't in the education field) but few of the stories went as in-depth as I would have liked.
The film was very much like a documentary, and that was fine, but the timeline seemed off kilter. It seemed like the film was going to span one academic year and it did, but the end was very abrupt and for a film that seemed to be marketed as the journey of an educator to win over his students, it seemed to leave out the part about how he did it. There was one section which showed him reaching out to a troubled student and the teaching strategies he used to do so, but it was such a small part of the film that I expected there to be more.
I liked the characters in the film. They were real and raw and they were living it, but it's just that story that wasn't pieced together quite right. I'm sure they had tons more footage, so maybe they just made some wrong choices in which bits to put into the production.
I think they did a good job of highlighting different stories and their backgrounds. Of course it's an added bonus that, for the most part, are real students who are basically being themselves, put in various situations and are not trained actors/actresses. That being said, perhaps they lost the chance to follow the overarching story (or at least what I thought it should be) by focusing on individual stories. Maybe I just wanted a film that needed 5 hours to be told.
Most of the issues that were raised about life at an inner school and the outskirts of Paris didn't surprise me. The one thing that did surprise me was that two student representatives were present at staff meetings where marks are discussed. I don't know from which grade this practice happens and perhaps in other situation or with other students it would be fine, but I just thought that it would open a huge can of worms by having students present at these meetings. Not to say that I think that teachers should always be doing things behind closed doors, I get that part of it, but I just don't know if students are mature enough to handle the confidentiality of the situation and the delicateness of some of the issues that are raised in these meetings. I do agree that it's nice to have a student's opinion at times and although some teachers are very close to students and know their backgrounds and special situations, often their peers have better insight into some of the difficulties that their classmates are going through. Still - it's really tricky and I'm a little torn about whether or not I agree with the practice.
As the final clip of the film started, I knew that it was the end. The credits started and I was left with the feeling of - that's it? I wanted more from the film. I think the thing was, as I watched the film, I enjoyed the issues, the banter, the characters, the stories...and then it jumped to the end and it was over.
I don't know. I guess I would recommend this film to others. I almost want to watch the film again, because I can't believe that I didn't have as strong a positive reaction as all of the critics have had. Makes me wonder if I missed something.

- picture courtesy of www.sonyclassics.com

Bipolar days

One fault of mine is that I'm incredibly indecisive. This coupled with my obsession to analyze, predict, control, plan...(I need a thesaurus) makes for some bipolar moments.
So yesterday I was having another bipolar day. Having to evaluate a peer is always tough, especially when you get negative vibes from them and really are just trying to do your job and be constructive especially in a field that I'm so incredible passionate about. Then I just spent the afternoon getting absolutely nothing accomplished. I even went to the mall to try to cheer myself up (well, actually to buy something that had to be bought for school purposes) and didn't even feel like being girly and shopping. Since sale season is over, there was no extra incentive. Of course factor in that my mind was racing about this and that and what I want to do in life and how I'm going to get there. It was shaping up to be a pretty blah day.
Meeting up with friends always makes me feel better, especially when it involves good conversation and yummy food, the day was starting to get better.
When someone who you haven't heard from in a year calls from their car saying that they're coming to the city for a couple hours and would love to catch up - you know, it's pretty special. Sure, I missed a chance to go skating again, but I can also think of it as if I hadn't made a tough decision, I would have been skating for sure and wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet up. And also, if I wasn't addicted to internet TV show streaming, I would have missed his call and missed out entirely. Everything happens for a reason. Everything in life is perfect. It was such a nice evening.

Anyway, friends are everything. People make all the difference in turning a day from gross to good. See, I did come back to Toronto for all the right reasons.

Should I be happy?

I'm really looking forward to putting my winter coat away for the season. I can't wait to wear my ballet flats without socks and wear non-winter stuff.
It's warmer outside today and although I don't know how long it'll last or if it really is a sign that spring's coming it also means that the ice at Harbourfront may start melting.
Boo.
Too hard ice isn't that fun to skate on, but it's way better than too soft ice. When ice starts turning into slush, it's disgusting. There's a spring to the ice at the Galaxy, but that's because they take care of the ice there and it's for figure skaters. I hope it's cold enough at night that the ice is still in good condition. I really want to skate as long as I possibly can. I need to skate.

Blind Date

It's a show.
It was the first time that I'd been to a show at the Harbourfront Centre and I quite liked it.
The premise for Blind Date is simple. An actress (Rebecca Northam) is going on a blind date set in a cafe in Paris. The date doesn't show up, but she selects a man from the audience to fill in and then who knows what will happen next.
The actress mingled with the audience beforehand, meeting people and basically sizing up the crowd and figuring out potential participants. The seating was intimate with people seated at tables and wine/water/beer/popcorn being sold. I got a major wave of insecurity.
Given everything that I've done in life and experiences I've had, I can't believe how incredibly shy I really am. I entered the room expecting it to be row seating which is completely unintimidating (to me) for someone attending the theatre on their own. When I saw the tables of four with candles and such and pretty much all of the tables already occupied with pairs or triplets of people, I had to take a moment to figure out my next step. One of the ushers (in character) approached me to help me find a seat, and interestingly enough, I was absolutely comfortable talking to him about this and that, laughing as his fake French accent, attempts to compliment me and his apparently astonishment that I was alone (which didn't bother me, even as I said it outloud), but as soon as he suggested that I join another table, I practically started to shake. It's something about meeting new people. Imposing myself. I don't know. I felt like I needed to retreat to the back of the room, which I eventually did and found an empty table to sit at.
Eventually, two pairs of people joined me (which didn't bother me at all, and I was quite happy chatting with them once they'd sat down) and I felt like I was at a pretty special table. We had a blast that night. One pair were ladies who had taken improv classes with Rebecca (one's not a realtor "to make money" and the other one's still in the industry as an editor). The other pair consisted of Rebecca's agent and his friend who was also in the industry as a writer. She said that she's got some kind of animated adult something-or-other coming up on TV.
Anyway, the show was wonderful. It was what exactly how I expected it. Awkward moments where the audience member didn't really know what to do/say. Funny moments where Rebecca put him on the spot. Of course there was a plan of where Rebecca wanted the piece to go, but as we heard in the Q&A session afterwards, there's always room for the piece to go into uncharted territories, which it did that night as well. I was a little surprised at the amount of PDA that happened on stage. I guess the guy loosened up quite a bit!
Even though I had an awkward moment at the beginning of the night, I'm so glad that I went because I laughed and had a great time.
The show is playing until the end of the week and they've just added extra seats to the showings (which are already sold out).

-picture courtesy of www.harbourfrontcentre.com

I feel like I just went through a bad break-up

Boy, my emotions have gone through the wringer this past little while. I'm NOT a crier by nature, but in the past little while I think I've met my tear quota for the year.
I'm slept many many hours which is a sign that my mind has been needing some time to recuperate.
Sometimes decisions in life are hard. I know I've made the right decision (every decision I make turns out to be the right one) but it doesn't mean that it was easy. It also doesn't mean that I know what I want to do in the future. You see, when you love something so much...it's never black and white.
No matter. One day at a time and I'm going to make the most of the next month before I have to make any more major decisions. Perhaps the month will be so wonderful that it'll make the decision for me.
I think I've got a temporary cure (I think the sign said until March 22nd). The rink at the Harbourfront Centre is practically down the street, free and basically empty at night. The ice isn't the best quality at that time, but crappy empty ice is much better than amazing busy ice, any day. I also was wearing jeans and my every day coat, but it was a little bit of an impromptu post-show trip. You can't beat the ambiance. I was in the core of the city I love, seeing the lights of the CN Tower, skyscrapers and the darkness of Lake Ontario. It was wonderful. It was quite dark though, so spins were kept to a minimum, but I managed to eek out a couple jumps. I call pull off a double salchow in my sleep. I wonder how long I'll retain this talent for. I did some axels and double toes as well and that's pretty much my entire arsenal. I suppose I could have tried a couple double loops, but I didn't want to push it. It's weird jumping in civilian clothing. I actually bumped into another skating girl who was leaving as I was arriving. You know, part of me wishes I had a skating compatriot downtown to enjoy the ice with, but part of me enjoys the alone time too (not like I don't get enough of that). I'm looking forward to going almost every night until they close. I'm just worried about how I'll feel afterwards. The timing could prove to be a disaster.
I figure I'm either going to have a phase of absolute depression or a complete honeymoon stage for the next little while. Actually, I think I'm going to flip flop between the two. Yesterday was very upsetting for me. My eyes hurt all day. Today I feel, not quite wonderful, but optimistic.
One day at a time. One day at a time.