Things About Toronto

• You will get tear-y at the sight of Lake Ontario and the CN Toronto. Although that may be because you only got 4 hours of sleep before your 7 am flight.

• In Vancouver, we have mountains to tell us where we are. In Toronto it's the CN Tower, the only building you can see from anywhere.
• You will have totally forgotten that Toronto is totally made of red brick: all of it. This is not a memory that you kept in the 15 years since you were last there, but it's true. Vancouver is wood and stucco and things that bend in our damp, earthquake-y setting. Toronto is old and unbending. Things may crumble, but they will never rot. Even your old house is red brick. And the hospital where you were born.
• Downtown is pretty different. So are some of the things about your old neighbourhood. But certain things will tug at your memory: The smell of the subway- metallic heaviness in the back of your throat; the bustle of St. Lawrence Market on a Saturday morning; a park across the road from a family friend's house; the "Inglis" sign near the Gardiner Expressway; the buildings at Ontario Place. These are the things that make your heart beat faster after all these years, even though all your friends and family have moved away from your birthplace.
  
• Well, not all your friends. Some family friends remain, and after a few glasses of wine, they'll give your mother a huge hug, because sometimes old friends are the best kind.
• Oh yeah, and although you won't be able to stay for Opening Night (well, technically it's Opening Matinee), it's pretty freakin' cool to have a show that you wrote the music for onstage at the very first theatre you ever went to as a kid. "The Emperor's New Threads" is currently at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People (formerly Young People's Theatre). Too bad it's acronym is... LiKTYP. Hmmm.

*I'm going on tour for a few weeks with Newman & Wright Theatre from Barkerville. We'll be traveling to Chilliwack, Dawson Creek, Hazelton, Chetwynd and... well you get it. Not exactly glam, but hey, I get to sing music hall songs and even dance a bit. I'll be bringing my laptop, so I'll try and post some stuff soon. ta-ta!