Living up to my Legend

Part of working at A channel is acquiring a "nick" name. Most of you are familiar with nick names, but I mean literally a Nick name. Nick Paparella assigns names to people and uses them relentlessly until they become a part of who you are.

My Nick name has been around almost as long as I have. It has a few variations, all stemming from "One-time Queen of the Furrow" ...Queen, One Time or sometimes the full-out version. For people new to the newsroom, they may think I'm a little arrogant when Nick calls "Queen" and I respond. Ha ha. Little do they know the constant harassment I live with.

It all started when Nick discovered I was once the Dresden Fair Princess. I'm not even sure how this topic came up, but he grabbed it and ran with it. To be honest, I was never trying to be royalty and it certainly was no pageant. I simply won a lot of ribbons at the Dresden Fair and the boy & girl with the most points were declared Prince & Princess. I was totally embarrassed when my parents made me ride in the parade through town. However, over time the story has evolved and I think most people I work with really believe that I was the Queen of the Furrow, a title bestowed upon a lucky lady at the International Plowing Match.

Last week the IPM came to Elgin County, just south of London. After a year of planning and buzz, Nick was in his element when he was able to do a story about the history of the "Queen of the Furrow". Of course, I was noticeably absent. He did, however clip a photo out of the London Free Press and paste my face on to one of the contestants. (yes, he's technically challenged...his version of photoshop) He could barely contain his laughter as he walked up to my desk and posted the photocopy on my computer. Classic. The best part was that one of my coworkers saw the picture and actually thought it was REAL!

So, while at the IPM on the weekend, I couldn't resist getting this photo. It just felt like I should :)

TIFF 2010

So much to blog about, so little time.

Wow, the past week and a half has been so busy I've hardly had time to think. My first day of school happened last Wednesday. Monday was Labour Day and I don't have any classes on Tuesday, so Wednesday was the big day. I strapped on my backpack and set out at 7:30am. (a little early for someone that normally goes to bed at 1am and gets up about 8:30) I found my class, a Mac Lab in the "M" building for InDesign. I'm really looking forward to learning this software and everything that goes with it.

The next two days were two more classes and meeting my classmates. Overall, I'm excited about my classes, what I'll be learning and the projects we'll complete. But, it's taking some time to get used to the busy schedule and early mornings.

After class on Friday afternoon, Lisa picked me up and we were off to Toronto for our annual trip to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) It was an exhausting weekend of standing around star gazing (sounds easy, but it's tough stuff) but so worth it. It actually turned out to be more of a TV star weekend than movie stars. At the first premiere we went to, I saw "David Silver" from the original 90210. He's married to Megan Fox, who caused quite a stir...but I was more interested in getting my photo with Brian Austin Green!

Following that premiere, we waited around for the "Super" premiere. This was the one I was most anticipating as Rainn Wilson (AKA Dwight Shrute) was going to be there. The Office is my current favourite show and Dwight steals the show every time. I was pumped to see him up close and personal. As I was waiting for him to make his way down the press line, I noticed someone that looked familiar that was kinda standing around...not talking to the press and no one was asking for his autograph. It was KIRK from Gilmore Girls!! I didn't know his actual name, but I called Kirk and he came over. I was thrilled to get his autograph and a photo with him!

My other TV moment came when we saw David Schwimmer! Wow, after 10 years of watching him on Friends as Ross Geller, it was a little surreal to see him...and get a photo! Other highlights included Ben Stiller, Minnie Driver, Martin Sheen, Anthony Hopkins, John Legend, Emilio Estevez, Jennifer Garner, Liv Tyler, Mickey Rourke...the list goes on.

Now it's back to reality. Back to school, back to work. I've taken a few minutes out of the day to catch up blogging while watching the first episode of Survivor. When am I ever going to fit in all my TV shows? Yikes. I'll keep you posted about how I'm keeping up on life.

Me & The Peanut

My nephew Jesse recently turned five. And with a birthday comes a special day with Auntie Janice. I had the idea that he would enjoy a trip on the train and everything just fell into place for that to happen. It was so much fun!

We boarded the train in London with Daddy & Liam sending us off. Liam was a little upset that he wasn't going and a few tears were shed. Poor guy. Jesse wasn't too worried about that. He was busy climbing on board and finding a seat. After being on the train about 2 minutes, he discovered the flip out tray that resides inside the arm rest. Wow...what fun! In...Out....In...Out... then he informed me that you could use it as a sunblock if needed! (it covered about 2% of the surface area of the window) We made use of the table for a few minutes to have a snack and then it was back in it's spot. And then out again. Ha ha. There was lots to see out the window and he chattered the whole way.

Our stop was Glencoe...about a half hour ride. So, it was perfect - no time to get bored! When we arrived, my mom and Aunt Peggy were waiting for us. I should clarify, before I share this story, that my Aunt Peggy is 85 years old and has had a nagging cough for most of her life. So, picture this: Mom & Peggy in the front, me & Jesse in the back. Jesse says to me: "Pop is not healthy." I thought he said "Papa is not healthy"...made sense to me. They call Nick's dad Papa and he recently passed away. I thought Jesse was just pondering this information. But, no. Then he says "You should only have it once in a while, for a treat. It's not healthy for your body." Oh. Ok... the penny drops and I realize he's talking about POP. I respond "Yes, that's right. Pop is not healthy for you." Then he looks at me, jams his thumb in Peggy's direction and says "I think she drank too much pop." What a kid. When we got to Mom's we explained that Peggy was not sick because of pop. :)

After lunch we headed in to Steve & Connie's for a swim. It was so adorable, when we got there, Madison had made a sign on the fence that said "Welcome to Our House Jesse". Awww. They had a blast together all afternoon splashing and jumping and snacking (of course). We picked up pizza for dinner and headed back to the farm.

As I said, it all worked out perfectly as I had read in the Petrolia paper the week before that they were showing the movie Wall-E at Petrolia Discovery and UWO astronomers would be on site with their telescopes. Wow...cool! We arrived and got our popcorn and watched Wall-E. I must admit...I didn't enjoy the movie. I thought it was kinda weird...but Jesse loved it. After the movie, we ventured out with our flashlight and glow stick to find the telescopes. It was pretty cool even though we had no idea what we were looking at! He was thrilled to get to look through. It was a late night for the little peanut as he didn't get to bed until 10pm!

The next day we went to church with Mom & Dad, went to McDonalds with them and the Berrys and then headed home. That one is going to be tough to beat!