Thoroughly Tuesday

Date:                                 Tuesday. August 31st 2010
Word of the Day:              shenanigan; Mischief, prankishness
Weight:                             225 pounds
Goal:                                 lose 100 pounds in one year duration
Pounds to lose:                 93 pounds                                                                  
Waist Sizr:                        53,5 inches                                                                                  
Rowing Duration:              95 minutes, 58 seconds,  97 minutes, 18 seconds (second session)
                                                            

I spoke to my sister-in-law, Louise, on the telephone last night, I am so appreciative towards her, she is not only raising my kids, and doing a wonderful job, but she faithfully reads my blog everyday. and I'm so grateful to her, and to the rest of you loyal readers, thank you all very much

I was wondering if there was anything that you wouild like me to include in this blog,  besides my daily indicators, which is the whole point of starting this blog, is there anything you would like me to touch upon that I haven't, do you have pleasany subjects that you think would be of interest to other people, or to you, if so, please advise me accordingly.

 Yes, Lily, I know you want me to talk more about movies, and the people in them, I'm trying, but I don't want to oversatuate every post with this genre, and I don't care how much in love you are with Cary Grant, haven't you heard, he's dead!  You should really consider buying some tickets to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which will be starting up next week, I believe, on the ninth of September.

TIFF, that is the one thing I truly miss about living downtown.  During the festival, I always saw a plethora of movie stars eating at Bistro 990 or even just walking up and down the street.  I'll never forget going to see the movie, Rounders, starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, when who should I run into on Bay Street, heading towards the Sutton Place Hotel, but the divine Miss M, yup, I noticed, stopped, and talked briefly with Bette Midler, who was surprised that I recognized her.  I'll never forget her asking me how I recognized her, and I told her, honestly, her face, but actually, she had got my attention right away when I noticed this rather small woman with a very noticeable,  and distinctive walk, that is truly soooo Bette Midler, coming towards me.  I would have to have been blind not to recognize her.

Zac is always a little impressed that I don't clam up around movie stars, I talk and treat them as normal people, because to me, that's all they are, they just happen to work in the entertainment industry,  and are known by a few more people than I.  There has only been one occasion wherein I failed to speak to a celebrity, and that is when the one and only, Miss Andrea McArdle was sitting in the audience at the rainbow room at a nighttime concert of Betty Buckley.  I don't know, I just didn't want to disturb her, she was there to watch the show, just like me,  and to intrude on her privacy seemed like something that I just didn't want to do at that time.  What was I thinking?????

I had a difficult time getting up this am., I was enjoying my sleep,  and it had finally got cool enough inside to get some sleep, I tell you, if the heat today is as bad as yesterday, I know I shall be going skinnydipping, tonight, which sounds like alot of fun anyway, do you think I should I sell tickets?

It was very difficult doing my first rowing session on Cruella, (who am I kidding?; all the rowing sessions are difficult,)  it was still rather warm outside,  and I had moved the difficulty of rowing up one notch more so that I am now up to level four, and I could really  feel the difference.  I can't imagine what number level five,  and the rest of them will be like, but, I'll tackle that, hopefully, one day.

I suppose we should be appreciative of this heat wave, I know I'm quite fond of saying that I'll take the heat over the cold anyday, but, yesterday, it had to be the hottest day of the year for up here, and I bet we could match the temperatures raging in Gainesville, Florida!

Well people, I don't like to complain, but, the producers of American Idol have not yet called me to be one of their judges, and they really should, so I expect that you are not doing what you can to get me elected to this show.  Call Oprah, if you have a link to her, or call Simon Cowell,  and tell him that you have located his better, I'm sure that will get his attention,  do what you can,  as I want to be the next judge on that show.  Come on people, I'm doing my bit, now it is time for you to do your bit, and you just know that I'll mention you on the show!!!!!!!Is that the reason that you haven't done anything yet?

When I was in Grade eight at Lord Dufferin Public School, I was eleven years old, and I was quite impressonable,  and liked to go to the movies alot, I let the movies influence me, for example, when I saw West Side Story, my best friend Andy and I started a gang.  There was just the two of us in the gang, but we felt invincible, and went around with a confidence that never had been displayed before, from either of us, funny, how that can happen.  Well, one Sunday afternoon, Andy and I were hanging around Yonge and College Streets and we noticed the movie 'OIiver' was playing at the Odeon Carlton theatre.  Although we desperately wanted to see this movie, as we had been seeing the previews for several months prior to this day, we could not afford the ticket price.  The cost was two dollars and fifty cents, which for that time, was quite steep, and you had to have tickets on a reserved seat basis.   Having patronized the Odeon Carlton many times before, Andy and I knew the layout of the theatre quite well, and going up on the steps halfway that led to the balcony seats was still seats and tables from a restaurant that the Odeon Carlton used to run for business.  The doors to this restaurant were still open,  and if you walked inside the restaurant, it took you right into the theatre wherein on the upper level was also located the men's washroom.   The only problem was you had to be extremely careful as to not get seen in that area, as there were huge, long mirrors on the opposite wall to the restaurant, and anyone,  and everyone,  could see if somebody was walking inside that area;  because it was so easy to notice anyone walikng from the restaurant into the cinema part of the theatre.  Andy and I  crawled our way to the cinema, and before we knew it, we were on our way to find seats.   It was actually quite an easy thing for us to do, sneaking into the theatre without paying, and we didn't really understand how the owner's of the theatre, didn't have a better plan of operations.  We were kids you understand.

Inside the movie house, we took our seats, not knowing at that time, that you had to have tickets to show the usher/usherette because of the reserved seats.  As luck would have it, underneath one of the lights that were located on the sides of one of the end chairs to a row of seats, I found what looked like to be a pair of tickets.  It had the same date as the day was, it gave the seat numbers,  and it listed the movie 'Oliver.'  The tickets were obviously duplicates and were printed in error, whoever was responsible for the misprint, obviously just pitched them away after the original ones had been sold, not expecting anyone to find or use the duplicates. Somebody was clearly on our side that day. 


 Well, like I said, the usher did indeed come around and check our tickets as there was another couple waiting to sit in the same seats as us, as they also had matching tickets.  The usher looked confused and asked Andy and I,  I guess because we were just kids, if we would step outside into the lobby, we did, and he summoned the manager of the theatre,  as he didn't know what to do., nothing like this had happened in his experience as an usher.

I complained convincingly,  to the manager, (I think I can remember that I even managed to squeeze out a few tears,)  that the way we were being treated was reprehensible, and he told me not to get excited.   I explained that we paid a month's worth of our allowances for those tickets, and we expected to see the movie.  The manager, very calmly said that we would, and took us upstairs to  the balcony seats where we had great seats with no one blocking our view.  The manager then gave us each an apology for our inconvenience, a great big box of popcorn, candy, and a large soda.  We were even given a colourful program of the movie that cost five dollars, plus a promise of refills on the candy, popcorn and soda that we could get at the intermission time.   Sometimes, life just didn't get any better.

'Oliver' was to become one of my favourite movies, and that year, I think I took it in over twenty-five times.  I'm not going to bore you, today, with how Andy and I were able to see this film when the admission price was clearly something we could not afford,  but we did, and if you want to hear more about how we did it, you have to stay tuned in to my blog.

I just noticed, again, the word of the day, how appropriate is that considering the memory I just shared with you.

Topics coming soon:

The night they raided Minsky's
Circumcision
Cancer