Photo courtesey of Hello Ottawa
I very rarely make this sort of blog post, but it pretty much explains as to why I have not updated this site as much as normal. Twitter is kind of limited to professional updates until about 8 p.m. even though I’ve been doing 12-14 hour days regularly.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
I knew this was going to be an intense day. My ‘real’ job had a big meeting that I’d been prepping for the whole week long and it didn’t help that the night before I had gone out for some serious retail therapy and girl talk with one of my closest girlfriends including a quick drink at The Collection bar in the Market, which I of course biked to making my total that day probably about 15 km.
The ninja woke me up at about 6 so I did some emailing before headed off to work. I grabbed a few copies of the Metro newspaper and checked out my articles (3). A photo of a guy friend of mine enjoying tea had been placed beside a Chippendales ad. Hilarious. In between gluing the last of my slogans, shoveling in some lunch, and tweeting with fellow activists I raced to Parliament Hill with a giant poster in hand for the pro-choice presence at the March of Life.
My sign - Side #1 - Side #2 was a history lesson 
Biking with big posters can be quite difficult as they have a tendency to flap up in your line of vision. I had a laugh biking around all the government workers on Bank St. trying to check out my sign and was impressed when I got a nod of approval from a cop.
Photo from the Ottawa Citizen
I had debated whether or not to attend because as unbiased journalist I can’t be seen supporting one cause over another. Go figure, as soon as I get there I run into a fellow writer that wants to interview me. I declined politely and rang my bell as we marched up Elgin Street. For the next hour or so I stood on top of a bench chanting and waving my sign with my kindred feminist neighbour until I sounded as horse as Scarlette Johanson. Usually the afternoons are reserved for writing, but when a friend texted, it was hard to decline hanging out on a patio on such a beautiful sunny day.
I spoke to a few people on the phone (personal and professional reasons) and sent off a few emails then hopped into the shower leaving no time to eat before going to the Hacks and Hackers first Ottawa conference. I learned a lot about web scraping for stories and met some interesting people. The head editor for the Ottawa Citizen did a presentation (lecture!) on new styles of journalism that I was so grateful to be there for since I didn’t actually go to Journalism school. It’s been two years now since I’ve graduated from university!
I was supposed to go to a punk rock show immediately after the conference but my friend had bailed and truthfully, I didn’t think I had eaten a full meal since breakfast. A friend called and I passed out around 12.
Photo Courtesy of Hello Ottawa
Friday the 13th!
Fridays are my “catch-up” days. This day should have been called, “all-things-Rock-Lottery-day.” Someone decided to wake me up early by dragging a grocery delivery box all over my living room and causing a commotion. My allergies have been terrible too (hayfever) so there was no excuse to not get a move on some article-deadlines and open up my email. Emails couldn’t have been better but time-consuming. Several different media outlets had contacted me for interviews but that also meant some major follow-up on ones that did not return my requests. I did a few interviews and some last minute sponsorship confirmation came in meaning I had to update ALL of the site, social media, etc. which I of course have created and maintain completely.
Rock Lotto!
Basically now, aside from having Alanis Morissette (I wish!) the Rock Lottery is pretty much my dream vision. I knew it would be stressful, last week I have to admit to pulling my hair out a bit, but in all honesty, I thrive on stress and business.
I also finalized some promo modeling jobs and sent off finished articles to my editor(s).
People would be surprised at my office space since my apartment isn’t that large. The humidity didn’t help but the smell of some nearby lilac bushes just made me so happy. I truly felt like an adult sending off my census on time too. Mid-afternoon I began to plan my nap (which I never took).
In total I’ve biked about 40 km this week. I decided to bus it to CHUO FM, one of my sponsors, to drop off tickets and talk with the lovely folks at the station. I used to have a show there, but it was before they were in the basement. I’ve since been asked back for an interview next Monday. Obviously on the way back I had to poster my walk back. After a few more errands in the market I decided to treat myself to So Good for dinner. It was too hot to cook anyway.
I watched the news and cleaned my apartment before heading back to Bank Street to finish postering before the rain hit. Postering by bike rules by the way. It’s so much more effective. Then the rain hit and I resolved I’d bus it downtown to see The Love Machine play Live. I’m not with the radio station anymore but they still treat me so well, and Noah cracks me up. I could only stay so long before hitting up The Balconies.
Photo by Ben Welland
They played for over an hour. I was sent their media mp3 release earlier in the week and haven’t stopped listening to it (“Kill Count 7” here). They’re going to be huge Canada-wide. Some really awesome people were at Mavericks too. I was like a proud mama seeing my full-colour poster smiling back on the front door as I exited. Next weekend will be a madhouse.
It was a friend’s birthday and another friend’s going away party so even though my friends were tired we trudged on to Zaphods to wish them well… and danced until close.
And that’s pretty typical of my average week. It’ll quiet down some once rock lotto is over but in the meantime, I feel so blessed I’m able to work in my field of choice and get to be around such wonderful people.
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