Adventures of a Tofu Slut

Good morning!

I would join the crowds and post all my exciting, brilliant Oscar thoughts, except that I didn't watch them. Really, is there any point to watching awards shows by yourself? Exactly.

My parents were quite sure that I was going to be watching them, though, so they carefully waited until they thought they'd be over before calling...at 9pm my time. It made perfect sense to them -- after all, the Oscars start at 5 there, so why shouldn't they start at 5 here? Instead they caught me right at the beginning of Heroes, but I was too clever for them, and had the VCR all set up to start taping. HaHA!

I have already expressed my joy and delight at Heroes, so instead I will express my joy and delight at a) how gorgeous it was outside on Saturday, although I was wearing the wrong shoes so it was too slippery for me to walk through High Park; and b) the fact that I finally got off my ass and did everything on my to-do list (except buying groceries) yesterday. Including laundry, cleaning the bathroom, *and* cleaning the kitchen. The trick is to reward myself with something in between each bout of cleaning (in this case, episodes of Prison Break, Hustle, Lost and Veronica Mars that I hadn't watched yet this week).

And then I had insomnia followed by weird dreams that featured me and morag_gunn hanging out in a movie theatre in my parents' house (note: that does not actually exist), drinking orange pop laced with pot.

And how are YOU?

My cable disappeared for good at some point last night. I only discovered it when I went to watch Entourage at 10, and discovered that CityTV was all static, unlike Global and CBC, which I had been watching earlier. And it took me a few minutes to remember that I'd actually asked for this, since that was in July.

So, with the cable line still in, I have perfectly clear TVO, Global, OMNI, CBC, and Sun. Everything else is a whiteout. Not what I was expecting. I kind of thought it'd be fuzzy CBC, Global, CTV and City. Maybe with the cable out?

The round-up of what is still watchable from all the TV I've gotten myself sucked into:

Doctor Who, CBC, yes
Prison Break, Global, yes
Heroes, Global, yes
Entourage, City, no (but not a big loss because it's on DVD already)

Rick Mercer, CBC, yes
Intelligence, CBC, yes (and let me just take a moment to say how much I'm loving this -- I read a review that said it was for people who love The Wire and MI-5, which, HI. It's set in Vancouver, about a guy who runs an enormous drug operation and the police department who is trying to stop him. But he becomes sort of an informant for them instead, because the director is highly ambitious and is using him to get herself into a position of power in CSIS. It's all very dark and low-key and about the power of knowledge.)

America's Next Top Model, City, no (SADNESS)
Lost, CTV, no (which would be EVIL, except that I've been watching it with sarcasma and sanity_clause every week anyway, so I'm good as long as they keep letting me in the house)

Ugly Betty, City, no (it's fun, but I'll live)
CSI, CTV, no (wow - I've been watching this since the beginning. No more Warrick and Greg!)

The Hour, CBC, yes

And the most evil of all: Studio 60, CTV, NO. My Sorkin! Gone forever!

I'll definitely have to see what happens when I unplug the cable.

( Other pieces of randomness from the last couple of weeks )

Those of you who live far away from your parents - do you find that you get information in an oddly out-of-proportion way? In the weekly phone calls with the parents, I get lots of detail about what plays and operas they've seen, who came into the store, who said hi, what's being made for dinner, but major things often get left out or brought up really casually. And I don't think it's deliberate - in fact, I think I do the same thing. I guess we all just forget that we haven't mentioned things before. It's odd.

Hello! I'm back in the land of people at work. Let me just take a moment to mourn my vacation.

...

All right then. It was a great vacation and seriously wonderful to see my parents. The weather co-operated, and no-one died from heat stroke - there was even rain one day! I'm not sure my parents will believe me when I talk about the scary Ontario summers, though. We saw five shows, did all sorts of touristy things in Stratford, and even managed to wander around Toronto a bit, although time was pretty limited.

I'm sad that they're gone, sad that I won't see them again until Christmas, but it was a bit of relief to say goodbye to the energeticness of being on holidays. That constant making sure that everyone is happy and everyone is ok, which was doubled when we were here in Toronto (because I was the one that should know where to eat, and how long it would take to get places) - it's always a bit tiring. And my parents are getting old! The fourth-floor walk-up nearly killed them and their bad knees, especially since they had to do it again to go have a smoke outside. But I think they had a fantastic time.

And then I saw two more plays over the weekend after they left. That's 21 shows in 12 days in 2 cities. I think perhaps I'll lay off the live theatre for at least a week now.

I'm sure there'll be play reviews and "witty" anecdotes forthcoming, but for now I need all my brain power to tackle my super scary inbox here at work.

So that's it. I missed you all! How was your week? What's going on with you?

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Happy birthday to zoje_george and a happy belated birthday to crimsonkitty! Is it my imagination, or is there an overabundance of birthdays at this time of year?

3. Christmas Eve. There was a time (back when I was tiny and we still had contact with the relatives) that we would go to my Aunt's place for Christmas Eve. We'd hang out, then the kids (seven of them, all older than me) would go to bed, and at midnight they'd get woken up to open their stockings. But as the kids got older it got less fun, so the new tradition became the Christmas Eve Movie.

When we started this, only one theatre in town was open on Christmas Eve, early shows only, 3 screens. So we were pretty limited as to what we could see. Now, of course, everywhere is open, so we can be much pickier. I've already started scoping out the movies to see what I think we might all enjoy.

Sadly, the movie is usually followed by the traditional Last Minute Wrapping of Presents, because there's never quite enough time beforehand.

We're not a particularly traditional family, especially when it comes to holidays, which are usually celebrated only occasionally, if at all. My dad, though, loves any excuse to cook for large groups of people, so Christmas has become a pretty big deal in our house, especially now that I live across the country and that's usually the only time I get home.

By now, we do have a few traditions associated with Christmas, most of which have mutated over the years to become what they are today.

1. The tree. The tree goes upstairs, in front of the bay window. By edict of my dad, it has to be as tall as we can fit in the house (9 or 10 feet, I think) and can't be one of the super bushy kind, but has to be a little Charlie Brown in appearance, so that there's room between the branches for the ornaments to actually hang. We have a lot of beautiful ornaments, mostly from art galleries and craft fairs, and they're all different, so we need to be able to see them.

If we don't get the right kind of tree, my dad pouts.

It's also become a tradition to buy the tree before Christmas Eve, a lesson we learned one year when my dad and I spent hours driving around trying to find somewhere that still had trees for sale.

After we drag the tree up the stairs and into the tree holder, there is the traditional "is this straight?" viewing, usually followed by tying the tree to the wall with fishing wire so that it doesn't fall down. This is followed by the traditional vacuuming of the trail of needles, performed by my mom or myself, accompanied by much grumbling.

We've settled into roles when it comes to decorating the tree, too. My mom doesn't really like dealing with the tree, so she gets out all the ornaments, pulls things out and admires them, and generally putters. My dad climbs on the ladder and we put the lights on the tree, followed by the ornaments on the top half. Then finish off the tree. The cat helps by batting at the strings of lights as we're putting them up. I get to wield the staple gun and put lights up around the windows and on the bannister. (In case you're wondering, this isn't as destructive as it sounds. My parents added the second floor to the house when I was little, and it's unfinished - there is no heat, no insulation, and the interior walls are just rough boards, so the staples really don't affect the look at all. Visitors to our house in winter know to dress warmly, since the upper floor is where all the socializing/hanging out takes place - it's all one room, with the TV, couch/chairs, dart board, pool table that is usually covered with boards and used as a table for gaming or big dinners, another smaller table, and lots of bookcases. When we're feeling particularly energetic we light a fire in the wood stove, but mostly we just wear sweaters.)

After Christmas the decorations come down and we do our own version of the Much Music tree toss, and shove the tree out the window into the back yard. Except for that one year when we shoved it out the front window, and it got stuck in all the wires and we couldn't get it down, until eventually we managed to pull it loose and it fell on the car. Good times.

(This got a little long, so for the moment, that's the only tradition you get to hear about.)