Five Things Meme

Christine d'Abo tagged me for this meme on Friday.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

SusieJ
Wylie’s Words
Red’s Red Pages
Christine d’Abo
A Piece of My Mind

Next select five people to tag:

This tag has already been around a bit, so I'm going to open it up to all takers.

Now — the questions:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was working as an usher at the Hummingbird Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Ontario. It was my 6th year there. Made many magnificent friends, had so many fascinating discussions during whatever part of the show we had off. Many of the ushers were in the arts - musicians, actors, filmmakers, writers, painters, comic artists and photographers. Often after the show we'd go out. Work is so much fun when you hang out with your co-workers by choice.

When I first moved to Toronto, I'd walk past that theatre (originally the O'Keefe Centre) and think, Wow - Mikhail Baryshnikov walked out of that stage door to freedom. Then it dawned on me that I could actually apply to work where my beloved ballet company performed. And they hired me!!! When the ballet season was on, I was delirious with joy. We also had the Canadian Opera Company at our theatre - now both companies have moved to the new opera house, the Four Seasons Centre. And we had concerts (Leonard Cohen and k.d.lang stand out for me) and touring shows (Sesame Street Live; Sharon, Lois & Bram; "Cats" and "Evita".) Try to imagine how far my jaw dropped when our manager announced that Mikhail Baryshnikov was scheduled. Lots of dream-come-true stuff from that time in my life. Oh wait - did I mention all the gourmet dinners we ate, once the corporate sponsors were finished eating and were enjoying the show?

Writing-wise, I'd graduated from film school two years prior and started writing a novel in 97 as a way to recover from making films.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

I was working at the Registry of Deeds, scanning old deed books onto an online database. Great team to work with, wonderful supervisor. Made a wonderful friend. Collected loads of old-fashioned names from all those deeds.

Writing-wise, just restarted the half-novel I ended up with when I did NaNoWriMo the November before. I'd run into a wall with it, but the writers' retreat last year helped me blow the wall to smithereens.

Five snacks you enjoy:

Chocolate in all forms
Superstore bakery hermit cookies
Pink Lady apples
Grapes and cheese
Sesame rice crackers

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:

"All of Me" by Billie Holiday
"Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra
"I Feel Fine" by The Beatles
"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" by The Police
"Potiphar" from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"

My high school performed "Joseph" and my first boyfriend played Joseph, so this song was a favorite because he was about to get framed and thrown in prison - says a lot about me!


Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

* Indulge my family
* Fund a discretionary monetary award for Ryerson University film students, who are having trouble financing their film projects
* Install a magical garden
* Become a member of the National Ballet of Canada's Patron's Council (perks include use of the private lounge and 'free' wine and gourmet snacks - 'free' after you've donated $10,000.00 to the ballet, that is)
* Travel to all the seasons of all the great ballet companies, all over the world

Five bad habits:

I have five of them? Oh, let's see, now...

* I'm a sentimental saver of things. Not big on throwing stuff out, but working at it.
* I create pile-structure-sculpture instead of doing the obvious thing and put stuff away. Or perhaps throw stuff out.
* I'm not the world's best with time management. Gradually acquiring skills.
* I don't get enough sleep. Not from insomnia. Just trying to crowbar more hours into the day. Actually, it's mostly due to living in a daytime world when I'm a night owl.
* I offer my 2-cents-worth to all who complain to me about something, forgetting that they usually don't want to know my words of rabbi-wisdom. They mostly want to be listened to. I'm working on setting all my advice free!

Five things you like doing:

* Going out to dinner
* Settling into my seat at a live performance (ballet/musical theatre/concert) or at the movie theatre
* Singing in a choir
* Working on my photo albums - really more like scrapbooking with me
* Curling up on the couch with The Pack (my husband and our dog)

Five things you would never wear again:

* A wet suit (went scuba diving once with my dad, but I hated the wet suit - I think seriously I was allergic to it)
* A bra with an underwire. Why bother? It lasts 20 minutes and sproing!
* High heels - broke the bone in my foot that leads to the big toe. My foot gives out at the high heel angle.
* Leggings - it's a 90's thing
* A hairband - used to be a big hairstyle for me. That's before my migraines went ballistic on me. Don't need any more pressure, thanks.