Toronto

I know a few of you are waiting for this, so I’m posting it. If you start to read this and think I’m completely insane, feel free to skip to the pretty pictures, or just skip the whole thing. Trust me, it wouldn’t be the first time someone rolled their eyes at me. I captioned all of my trip photos on Flickr if you’d rather just scroll through over there, I won’t mind.

There really are no words to properly express how cool this was that I actually got to do this. Except I wrote 2000 of them, so I guess I tried.

If you follow me on Twitter or know me in real life, it is absolutely not a secret that I’m a fangirl. That means I really, really like my favorite TV shows. We generally accept that title and wear it proudly. It’s kind of like how we freak out over new fabric lines at Quilt Market. Kind of. Multiplied by 100.

One of these days I’ll write about all the health crap that I’ve been through in the last 10 years, but the most important thing is that I’m finally feeling a lot better. I still have to do a lot of work to get back in shape, but I’m at least healthy enough to be able to do that and not be in pain all the damn time. It’s nice to feel almost normal again and to be able to do normal things. So as a “make up for lost time” kind of thing, I told my friend Lisa about a play in Toronto that one of my favorite actors was going to be starring in. Since she fully supports and shares my fangirl habit, she was totally on board with going. And so a last minute road trip was planned. Chicago to Toronto, four days, three nights. Yes, we’re crazy! But as my friend Erin says, “Life is better when you’re a crazy person.”

 First I have to explain why I’m a fangirl. It all started with Stargate. When it hurt to even sit up in bed, Stargate kept me sane. When Stargate ended, we got Sanctuary. Amanda Tapping was the lead on Stargate SG-1 as Colonel Samantha Carter and the lead (and Executive Producer) on Sanctuary as Dr. Helen Magnus. Two kick-ass, strong, brilliant female characters. She’s amazing. I want to go meet her at Fan Expo in August! Anyway, we all completely fell in love with Sanctuary. By the end of the first season this little show had us hooked on compelling, brilliant characters and powerful stories that made us laugh and think and cry. Sanctuary is almost entirely filmed on green screen so they can literally do anything and go anywhere, even go back in history. On top of all of that, Sanctuary gave us a fandom that is so supportive, so much FUN, that I now have friends all over the world.

  Our favorite character on Sanctuary, after Helen Magnus of course, is her best friend of 100+ years – the immortal, genius, electro-magnetic, snarky, vintage-wine-drinking, sometimes-vampire version of Nikola Tesla, played by the amazingly talented Jonathon Young. One of the best actors on the planet. But he’s mostly a theatre actor, so we’re not likely to see much of him on our TV screens unless we get more Sanctuary some day. If you want to see him act, you pretty much have to go see him on stage. And holy crap, is it worth it. We didn’t know much about this play except that it was “physical theatre” and that it was a funny, disturbing thriller. According to every review we read, it was supposed to be absolutely phenomenal and more than worth the trip, so one night we just bought tickets. I think there was possibly wine involved? :) But most importantly, looking forward to this trip kept me from dissolving into a sobbing mess when they didn’t renew the show for season 5.

I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I’ve been working out since November, getting back into shape, getting stronger. Not sleeping normal hours (as those on Twitter already know) but at least sleeping a normal *number of hours.* I wanted to know that I wouldn’t be wasting my money buying tickets to the Stargate Chicago convention and Fan Expo Toronto in August and all the other fun stuff I want to do. And I did it. My body did it. And holy crap was it a TON of fun. Definitely the craziest thing I’ve EVER done in my entire life.

So that’s why we drove 10+ hours each way to see a play. And it was so worth it. And I’m planning to do it again! Soon!

So, Toronto.

Are you still with me? Anyone want to hear about the actual trip and not just why I wanted to go? :)

Since they film all of our shows up there (Toronto and Vancouver mostly), we often wish we were Canadian. So just going to Canada for me was just the coolest thing ever. And it lived up to the stereotype of being friendly, clean and welcoming. And they really do say things like a-boat instead of about. It was adorable. I really loved it. Now, that could have been the fangirl high because I don’t think I stopped giggling. And I’m not a city girl – I couldn’t get out of downtown Chicago fast enough when I was there the week before (getting my passport renewed at the last minute… yes I REALLY wanted to go on this trip!)

We got there just before midnight Thursday night. The hotel was awesome. Sadly, the weather was horrible and it rained almost the entire time. Friday was the worst, and of course that was the night we had tickets to the play. We attempted to go out during the day and got soaked even through our windbreakers and I completely ruined my Good Fortune Two Zip Hipster. But at that point, I really didn’t care because we were there! (Fabric suggestions for a new one are welcome!)

We had a great view from the hotel – I took these Saturday once we got a little break from the rain.

So Friday night we ventured out, in the downpour, to the play. We got there like 45 minutes early so we could get in line. The tickets were all general admission and there were only about 100 seats in the whole theatre. Some girls I’d talked to who had gone the week before said if we were lucky we’d get to sit in the front row, which was literally on the floor of the stage. We did. This was the view from our seats! (I know!)

The play was called Stockholm, starring Jonathon Young and Melissa-Jane Shaw. Just the two of them on stage for about an hour. The play itself was practically indescribable. So much emotion. It was a twisted love story, about the “cycle of conflict.” I won’t get too much into a review, mostly because I still can’t even wrap my head around it we should have seen it twice to really let it sink in. Parts were really funny and parts were really dark and disturbing. It was really fast moving, both the dialogue and the choreography. They tossed each other around that kitchen set – jumped on the counters, danced on the island and at one point he even picked her up and carried her brial style across the stage. There was singing, cooking, fighting. The emotions were intense. Not only were they aware of their every movement on the stage, but they could cycle through their emotions and make the audience really feel it. Their acting abilities completely blew me away! I knew to expect it, but it’s still something entirely different to see it in person and up close. It was absolutely amazing. (Fangirl friends reading this, you know how to contact me for more details. I know most of you already have! :P)

I mean, this is the promo photo they released. Half of the play was this intense. How do you even describe this? You really can’t, you just have to see it. And I’m glad that we did.

Autographs!!!

 When we picked up our tickets, we asked how we could get autographs after the show and they told us to go right outside. In the rain, of course. While my brain was screaming to just get in a cab and get out of there before I made a total fool out of myself, Lisa thankfully wasn’t in total fangirl mode and was still capable of speaking in complete sentences. I was also very determined to get an autograph for my friend Erin, who lives in Australia and is quite possibly a bigger fan than me. The entire thing is still a total blur, but they came outside right away. We asked him to sign our playbills and he was super sweet about it. He picked us out as Sanctuary fans immediately (because crazy theatre fans must not approach him on a nightly basis on the side of the building begging for autographs?) and said he was sad the series was cancelled. :( Of course my brain wasn’t working, so I couldn’t even manage a “Yes we love the show, we’ll miss it so much!” No, my brain = mush at that point. This is the “puddle of fangirl goo” we all refer to. More like “deer-in-headlights, brain stops functioning, can’t speak, completely starstruck, melting into a puddle of fangirl goo”. Thankfully, I had already filled out Erin’s address on the post card and somehow that helped me to explain that I was Erin and my friend was Erin and she lived far away and could he please please sign this for her? So he did, and OH MY GOSH is that not the most adorable autographed postcard, ever? I think we explained that we came all the way from Chicago, loved the play and wanted to come back for Tear the Curtain in October, and then I stumbled and giggled my way to a cab. Then I Skyped Erin the minute I got back to the hotel and gave her as many details as I could. International fangirling at it’s best. Lisa poured me a glass of wine (because apparently I really needed it!) and she went back to her Stargate Atlantis marathon (which she diligently continued all weekend, I was quite proud of her for staying on task with that!) while Erin and I giggled on opposite sides of the world. :D Also, there was very little sleeping on this trip. I was way too freaking excited.

When mailing priceless packages to Australia you might as well fill the envelope, so I made her this pouch to go along with the post card (it’s a Stargate Earth symbol). I also sent Canadian money and Reese’s Pieces, since they apparently don’t have those there, and a couple other fun things. :)

Saturday we walked around the entire city. Lisa figured out we walked 10 miles. We didn’t get to go up CN Tower because it was too cloudy to be worth it, but wow is that thing tall. Next time! But we did get a very good feel for the city and the layout. It was really easy to get around, we didn’t get lost and we even gave directions a few times. We did get international data packages for our iPhones so we used Yelp and walking directions a lot. It worked out great.

 Hockey Hall of Fame. Because we walked right past it. And why not, it’s Canada! OK so maybe we only went to the gift shop. But it was fun! :)

We ate at a great restaurant there too – in fact we saw several of these “market style” restaurants. Kind of like a farmer’s market setup with everything from omelet stations to chocolate covered strawberies to whole roasted chickens. It was so cool! Definitely on the list for next time.

Then we took the Ferry over to the island. And walked all the way around it. I think that’s how we logged so many miles.

 Then we watched a little Stargate on Space Channel (Canada’s awesome scifi network) and headed home!

This won’t be my last crazy fangirl experience this summer, so if you see a lot of related sewing projects – bags for the convention, dress for the play, that’s why. It will be fun. I promise! I think my cousin will tag along with me next time. I got her hooked on Sanctuary and she watched the entire series in a week and a half. I think she gets a fangirl award for that! Now I just need to make you guys two or three more patterns so I can afford my fangirl habit! :D

If you read this entire post, I shall count you among my closest friends.Thank you, from the bottom of my fangirl heart. <3

P.S. Since I’m posting this on the real, historical Tesla’s birthday, I should link you to this fantastic comic from The Oatmeal explaining why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived and why modern society owes him everything. Every device you turn on today is somehow thanks to Nikola Tesla. So happy birthday Nikola Tesla!

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