The Giants, the YMCA, Wonderful Joe: busy days

So much going on! Hardly slept last night, so much whirling in my head. Mostly, I’d just received word that my application to sponsor the film The Giants is going ahead. It will be shown on Monday November 18th if I can sell at least 35 tickets by November 7. So I was preoccupied with that at 4 a.m. It’s such a powerful, moving, beautiful, and inspiring film; I hope lots of people see it. Please see my post a few days ago about it, and if possible, buy a ticket and join us!

https://tickets.demand.film/event/13094

I wrote to my Vancouver friend Colin Thomas about it, and he is sponsoring a viewing there also on Nov. 18. So, West Coasters, you can see it too. It’s a good cause — our one and only planet.

But also, yesterday was quite a day. I was at the Y by 11, in a dress for the first time in what feels like years. And tights! For the 40th anniversary celebration of the Metro Central YMCA, a place that’s central to my life, as for many others. I’d been asked to be the M.C. and to talk about what the Y meant to me, which I did — in summary, it’s not just a workout place, it’s a building filled with good people who value community. And what a community; my runfit friends sat together and were overjoyed when Brian arrived, once a regular who’s not been back since Covid and the death of his wife. It was a grand celebration.

And then I was at the Arts and Letters Club by 6, to introduce my writing client Sheila Waengler at the launch of her first book, Growing Up in Toronto the Good. Sheila is 95, born in 1929, and as I said in my talk, she is a force of nature — phenomenal.

So that was a two speech day, which is a first. No wonder I was jazzed.

On Wednesday Kathleen came to visit; we were roommates, with one other, in my first apartment in Ottawa when I moved out of home for good at just 18. We had a two story three bedroom apartment above an Italian family for $120 a month — $40 each. She has lived in Montreal for many years so we’ve not seen each other often; it was good to reconnect. She was in Toronto to see Ronnie Burkett’s latest play Wonderful Joe, so she came here for dinner first and we went together.

Why do my eyes disappear when I smile? Sheesh.

Burkett’s work is an extraordinary thing to witness: he creates an army of detailed, lifelike puppets, writes the script, and voices and moves them on his own, one man creating a world. This one is a story of gentrification destroying lives, almost all of them gay. It’s wonderful, imaginative work.

I’ve been watching the next season of Slow Horses when I can squeeze in the time — two more episodes to go. It’s a treat, very entertaining although I have absolutely no idea what’s going on, who is chasing and trying to kill whom and why. I had to Google to try to figure it out. And out there, Hurricane Milton, which took out much of Anna Maria Island where Mum had a condo, albeit on the second floor. Devastating pictures. I’m glad she isn’t here to fret.

Today, the boys had a PD day; Anna had to work and asked if I’d take them. It was such a lovely day, we went out to the Beach to see Annie. And what a day. We flew a kite, they played soccer and wrestled in the sand while Annie and I sat up high on the lifeguard stand and talked — “My grandsons are feral,” I told her — then we had burgers at the outdoor café and more playing in the sand. The kind of blissful day we won’t forget, since the cold is hovering; I turned the furnace on yesterday.

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Things settle now, though still busy, after such a quiet summer. Better too much than too little, at least, sometimes. And now, another episode of Slow Horses, which will speed by while this slow horse tries to catch up.

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