Sleep Now

Well, I'm back from Manitoba. It was pretty good, if a little cold and rainy. We flew in on Friday morning, and we had enough time to get to Ruben's house where we were staying, and eat something, and look over the Communist songs before we headed off to the mini-reunion at the Fort Garry Hotel. We played a montage of Communist songs while they played a retrospective video, and then we ate. We went back to Ruben's place and folded down the sofa bed, and blew up the air mattress, and crashed for the night. On Saturday we got up and I made Catherine and Ingunn go running with me - we left Michelle behind to make breakfast. We went down by the river, but the problem with Winnipeg is that the riverfront is mostly private property, so they don't have nice trails like there are in Saskatoon. They did it wrong. Then we went back to Ruben's and had breakfast. After that Michelle's parents took off for a tour of the printing press, while we stayed behind to rehearse. Then we got all dolled up, and went off to the big May Day banquet. It was good times, we danced the night away until about 10:30, then we went back to our uncomfortable beds and slept.

Sunday was our very exciting trip to Gimli. Our ride picked us up at 10:30 and drove us to Gimli and dropped us off at the hall we were playing in so we could rehearse. We warmed up, and had some coffee and scones at the tea room downstairs, then we played our concert at 2. There was about 40 people there, and they loved us. And I love people who love me, so I had a good time. Afterwards, the woman who drove us out there wanted to take us out to eat in Gimli, but first showed us the sights. This consisted of a giant cartoonish statue of a Viking, and driving us through all the residential streets and talking about who might live there. "I think Hallgrim lived there." "No, they moved two years ago and sold it to Gudrun and, the Bjarnssons moved down the road." "I thought they lived over on the next street." "No, that's the Gunnarssons." And etc. I gotta tell you, it was gripping. Then we finally arrived at the fish and chip place where they wanted to take us, and it was closed. So we ended up at some random place down the road. But hey, who doesn't love free food! Then we got back to Ruben's at about 7:30 and decided we should get some food because we had cleaned Ruben out. There were three grocery stores within walking distance of his house, but being a Sunday night in Winnipeg, they were closed. So we ended up at 7-11 where we went for the healthy choice of Slurpees and candy. We then went back to Ruben's and set up shop on the couch. We watched Grey's Anatomy, then Forrest Gump on TBS. By the time it ended at 1 am, we were all exhausted and crashing from the sugar, so we sat there for the last 20 minutes of it and cried. Forrest's so sweet!!! And then Jenny died!!!

We got up this morning and packed up our stuff, and flew back to Toronto. We had some excitement boarding the plane, as they absolutely could not let me on with my ginormous instrument. I am so pissed off at Air Canada, and am considering never flying them again. I fly quite a bit, and I've only ever had problems flying Air Canada - I've not just been hassled, but had to deal with openly hostile attendants who belittle me and act like I'm a stupid little girl who has no idea about anything. On Westjet, they're nothing but nice, and even let me pre-board with my instrument. Our union has a deal with all the carriers that violins (and violas) are allowable carry-on even though they're longer than the dimensions allowed, but nobody at Air Canada ever seems to know this, and they all act like it's giant travesty and that I am the stupidest person alive. I hate them, and I hope they all burn.

So now I'm bitter and back in Toronto.