I had a good day

Yesterday was a good day. That was mostly because I spent time in cool activities rather than "I should be working on XYZ" limbo.

Yesterday Sarah! Harmer! was in town and I saw her twice, though she didn't perform once. Here's why:

In the afternoon an undergraduate student of my thesis adviser's was giving a music and nature workshop and presenting her findings. Her thesis involved connecting music and nature through time and talking about how music can be a compelling tool for reconnecting people to the environment. Many people came to the workshop, including Sarah! Harmer! Now, Sarah! Harmer! wasn't there the whole time but she came and did a Q and A with us regarding her connections to music and nature, and her struggles with an aggregate company wanting to blow off the top of the mountain she grew up on, which happens to also be a provincially significant area with endangered and threatened species and so on. It's on the Niagara Escarpment, birthplace of one of the best and most ancient natural water filtration systems that most of the GTA relies on for their water. Naturally, a great place to blast.[ /sarcasm].

Anyway, you can hear all about it in the DVD that Sarah! Harmer! made with her bandmates. They hiked and kayaked and did a whole tour based on the geomorphology of the escarpment starting in Tobermory and working their way south. They played only small towns and tried to raise support for protecting the escarpment, also incidentally a UNESCO world heritage site. Also somehow open for aggregate blasting. There's already a 600 acre pit mine, the company wants to make it way bigger.

Anyhoo, I'm off track. So, the afternoon music and nature (remember?) session was also a jam session, which I've never been a part of. I wanted to bring my banjo but I had to bike in to school so I brought shakers instead. I. rocked. the. shakers. Hee hee, it was fun and we made some really cool music! Then, My friend Claire (hi Claire!) went to the Princess (small and local, like the Mayfair) theatre to get her a ticket to the DVD showing of Sarah! Harmer!'s dvd, called Escarpment Blues. She has a song of the same name on her CD called "I'm a Mountain". Buy it, she's wonderful!

I already had a ticket because by such amazing luck, my friend Karla couldn't go so she gave me hers. I wasn't going to go because of the cost, and this made it possible. The movie was awesome, full of excellent music and beautiful images of Ontario. Ontario is very beautiful, it's so easy to forget that. The theatre was full of people from my faculty and I felt a good sense of community, which was wonderful. I think I missed that.

Then, four of us went next door for a drink which turned into us closing down the pub after 3 of us sharing 6 (six!) pitchers of Waterloo Dark (mm) [the fourth did her own work on 7 gin and tonics]. We had fries, pizza and Rob came to help me finish my responsibilities on the last pitcher or two. I have NOT had a night like that in a looooooong time and it was so, so funny. We had a great time, I saw Sarah! Harmer! twice, played in my first jam session and rocked out, enjoyed a great night out with some great girls, and that is why yesterday I fell like

I had a very good day.

I always feel replenished when I see movies made by people trying to do good things, whatever it is. I want to be a part of that, a part of good things. And it makes me want to go walk in the woods. And listen to Sarah! Harmer! I was 6 feet away from her! She looked me in the eyes and smiled at me! I'm as close to starstruck as I was when Shelagh Rogers sat next to me at a talk in Guelph. On the inside, I was squealing like a 13 year old meeting...whoever is a tween Tiger Beat cover star. Aieeeeeee! Hee hee, I'm mostly kidding, but it was pretty cool.

See you guys later