Me, me, me

Picking up where I left off

Oh dear. where to start? My life has exploded in a minor, temporary way in the last 2 weeks. Illness knocked me down, work got me up and threw me around for many many hours of every day, my daughter's illness spun us all around and around. Thank god for friends, sisters and good, patient husbands.

Things have calmed now: I'm well, the literary festival is over, and my daughter is finally -- after 2 and a half weeks! -- on antibiotics and responding well. We found that she is allergic to penicillin, and we didn't find out in a horrible terrifying way, so that's positive. Useful information to have about one's offspring.

The literary series that I worked on was a great success. Here is a list of just some of the things that happened during those five days of literary overload:

-- I got to work with a CBC Uber-producer and learned a lot from her. I also thought she was funny and sexy and fun to work with. Couldn't ask for better, really.

-- Our sound technician was new to the festival this year and he was great. Calm and efficient and professional and good-humoured. Important when you're spending 14-hour days side-by-side.

--I met Ed of Blork fame. Recognized him from his photo and introduced myself. It's weird to feel as though you know someone from reading their blog and then realize that they had no idea that you even exist.

--Fell in love (well, lust) with a Scottish-Pakistani writer named Suhayl Saadi. I was so happy to have him in our series and his interview was fascinating. We asked him to come and have a drink with us after out last event but he never showed up. Probably a good thing, since I was pretty tipsy and would have made an ass of myself. Man, was he sexy! He's also a doctor. Me love he.

--Talked a little bit to Margaret Atwood (!!!). I didn't think I'd be as impressed with her as I was. You feel her awesome intelligence, but you also feel what a normal, kind, giving person she is. She's so much tinier in person than she is in her writing. She had some time to kill before an event and said that she was going to go and get a coffee, then she turned to me and said "Do you want to come and get a coffee?" My face nearly fell off. I had to say no thank you, though. Then, when she was going away to get her coffee (with the Uber-Producer instead of me) I told her that she couldn't be too long, because we had to start soon. Then I burst out "Look at me! I'm bossing Margaret Atwood around!" She smiled in what I hope was a benevolent way.

--Michael Ondaatje is extremely impressive in real life. He's tall and white-haired and his voice is so beautiful that when he reads his gorgeous, gorgeous words the sound is like a warm wave washing over you. Our technician, who is a unilingual francophone and doesn't know Michael Ondaatje from the janitor, said after the reading that it was like being at Mass. You could have heard a pin drop in a room that was filled with more than 300 people.

--My sister A. came to some events and seeing her there made me feel so good, so normal, and reminded me that life was continuing outside the festival and would continue for me after the festival. She also brought me lunch which, as my friend said at the time, confirms that she is the "Best sister, EVER!"

-- After the last event in our series I drank more glasses of wine than was strictly necessary and my husband and kids came to pick me up. We took the glass elevator to the top of the hotel and went to check out the revolving restaurant. It was so cool! The kids were so excited and I was so tipsy and so relieved and happy that I felt like I was floating. We want to go back and eat in that restaurant. I know a revolving restaurant is old hat now, but we thought it was incredibly cool.

--I want more wine.