Creativity, culture and carrots

Yesterday morning GC and I went to Alison Gresik’s Creativity Bee at Raw Sugar. It was her birthday and this was how she wanted to celebrate it. She even provided cupcakes. So I brought my laptop and hammered out some ideas for this year’s National Novel-Writing Month, and GC brought his art journal and markers. We also had a long conversation with Alison’s very interesting mom, Brenda.

I still don’t know what my novel will be about this year, but at least the ideas are starting to flow. It’s a start.

After the Creativity Bee, we headed over to Sparks Street for the CBC Open House, which was part of Culture Days. I think CBC was a popular destination: we waited in line for close to an hour before we got in. While we were waiting, a journalism student from Carleton University interviewed us, and the friendly young man behind us, who was six foot seven, told us everything that was happening for miles in all directions.

The tour was great. CBC’s a pretty jam-packed, hub-of-activity sort of place. It looks like a stressful place to work, from the maze of desk-sized cubicles to the crazy hours and ticking clocks. We got to see a few studios, including the newsroom. Ian Black demonstrated how the weather map works.Newsguy Bob took a picture of GC and me with Evan Solomon of Power and Politics. My only disappointment was I didn’t get to meet Kathleen Petty or see the radio studio.

After CBC, we headed off to Montreal for a party at my Dad and Merle’s place, where we ate and drank and caught up with people’s lives and fed carrots to Lola the Pug and beat a five year old at Simon Says. (It wasn’t easy though – she was very very very good.) Sadie, who is 94 years old now, gave me a great big long lottery ticket with 20 sets of numbers on it. As of October first, I expect to be ridiculously rich.

And then we drove back to Ottawa, played a Bejeweled tournament, and collapsed, exhausted, into bed.