How I want to be remembered.....

This week, I have lost a dear friend.

Camille was not only a work colleague, but someone who had a ready ear, a welcome grounding perspective, a quick wit and a willing attitude to do almost anything.  From lunch on a workday to shopping on a Saturday, or theatre when the tickets were too good to pass up, I was very fortunate to be able to call on Camille, and away we'd go.  I will miss that. I will miss that a lot. I will miss Camille. A lot.

When a dear friend suddenly passes away, it's not uncommon to reflect on the many shared moments, and what made them special. Often it's the person, moreso than the act itself, that makes them memorable. And as I find myself writing a tribute or card, I tend to reflect on these moments and characteristics of my friend that made them such outstanding representatives of human character.

Camille was one of those friends -- an outstanding human being. Compassionate beyond words. Steadfast. Loyal. True and without pretense. When she'd ask how your day was going, she meant it -- good and bad. She'd listen, and keep you grounded -- and she'd make you laugh. She had lots of life experience, yet tried new things without hesitation. She'd have a hot cup of water on her desk in the morning, but she'd go for a vanilla shake at lunch. She was elegant, sophisticated, and enjoyed every weekend she could muster at her daughter's cottage, kicking back with the kids. She was a kid at heart!

One of the most memorable moments for me, that defined Camille as an incredible friend, was a Sunday morning as I walked into my husband's room at Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto). This was about 5 years ago when he was unable to walk due to a metastisized cancer near his spine. Since Ken was not from the city, it was rare we had visitors until late in the day. There was Camille, sitting quietly chatting with Ken, both of them drinking something from Tim Horton's.... Camille had been to visit a family member, and dropped in. She knew she was family to us too.

That's how I want to be remembered by friends.... the same way I'm remembering Camille. If I can do as she did -- to be there for those who need me, to offer a compassionate ear and a hug when required, to be rich in life experiences and wise in knowing when to share that knowledge, and being genuine, caring and maintaining my integrity in all situations, then I will have done what Camille has done -- left this world a better place.

Rest peacefully, my dear friend.

Random Rants....

In the category "Think! It's not illegal yet", I offer this gem. I'm early for my haircut appointment and the waiting area is part of the main traffic area between two areas in the shop. A young man (late teens) is there with his mom, and is purchasing a coffee and donut for her, at her request. This necessitates the young fellow to traipse through the waiting area on his way to the coffee shop, stepping over my feet on his way. Seconds later, he's back to inform his mother what types of donuts are available. She makes a suggestion. He makes a third trek through the waiting area and navigates around where I'm sitting, in a quest to purchase the required donut. Apparently the preferred flavour was not one of the available options, and this necessitates another trip back to mom to inform her. On his fifth trip through the waiting area, I'm seriously wondering what independent decision-making skills this person will have when he branches out on his own at post-secondary or the workplace?

In the category of "open-minded creativity", I present this nominee. At a screenwriting session, a group of a dozen people are participating in an instructor-led session on idea generation. Responses to the question "Where do ideas come from?" generated a number of expected responses -- history, travel, life experiences -- the usual tangible regurgetation of plotlines. Recognizing my brain may not necessarily operate in a similar fastion to others, I offer "imagination" as a source -- recognizing the creative newness of ideas that may pop into one's mind at random intervals. Nope. Apparently not. According to this group, and supported by a smaller sub-group of 20-somethings who think a 4-year-old's story about Barbie using lipstick is creative genius, there is only a role for imagination when used as a tool to recreate a tangible storyline generated from external stimuli. Wow. I wonder what external stimuli created that blue dude in Avatar.

And finally, this has the potential to be a winner in multiple categories including "Technology Sucks", or "Crap that You'd Expect to be Reliable", or "How Many Laptops can I Crash".  After years of a mututally beneficial relationship with my HP laptop, it finally surrendered to age and flashed the blue screen of death before gasping its last breath. The series of subsequent technological failures in recent months have made me mourn the loss of that workhorse. The succession workplan had a Lenovo ThinkPad step up to take over. That lasted six months before it became incapable of switching between applications and opted to freeze as a way of dealing with its overload issues.  After our IT staff provide CPR, and promise a less stressful environment, it becomes a backup laptop with a guaranteed schedule of morning sleep-ins and afternoon naps.

Taking its place on the main stage is Lenovo ThinkPad the Sequel. Six weeks later, it decides it can't handle the pace, and mounts a slower reaction time to every user request in hopes of being assigned the same fate as its predecessor. After frustration with regular eight-minute start-ups, and consistent "not responding"' messages, The Sequel is relegated to a corner of my desk where it awaits an understudy role if required.

Enter Dell, the new upstart that promises to outshine all others before it. It's not without its quirks -- an offset keyboard with about 20% of wasted real estate that generates a sentence of gobbledygook every time you line up your hands directly in front of the monitor, and skewed key placement that results in launching the calculator on the excessively large number pad vs. hitting the delete key. But once we'd come to an understanding, most things seemed to be going well.... that is, until it started randomly moving the cursor to different locations in the application I was running. Before you suggest it might have been an unwanted grazing of the trackpad, let me assure you it wasn't. Not only have I been successfully using a trackpad for more than 15 years, after my first experience with this Dell, I set the sensitivity of the trackpad to "pound for action" mode. Besides, even grazing the trackpad in error could not result in Dell randomly choosing entire paragraphs to delete, or launching other applications when fingers were no where near the keyboard!

So, after Dell's possessed actions this morning, I rebooted it (does anyone else really think there should be a different definition for reBOOT?!), only to end up with a computer with skewed icons (some I have no idea where they've come from), and no mouse function. Back to the Lenovo understudy.

Things were going well with Lenovo -- I figuure the holiday had left it well-rested. That was until 20 minutes later when the blue screen of death appeared -- and with its gasping breath, was heard to exclaim something about a crash dump.

I'm reluctant to grab the back-up to the back-up in case things happen in threes! Of course, I was very reticent to use my iPad too, for those very reasons. I'm going to save this now and post.... I hope!

There's a difference between a "groupie" and appreciation!

Today I had the distinct pleasure of meeting three Canadian actors who are starring in one of Canada's hottest comedic crime dramas -- Republic of Doyle. Set in St. John's, Newfoundland, the private investigator Jake Doyle (Allan Hawco) assists the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, particularly Sargeant Leslie Bennett (Krystin Pellerin), to solve cases -- with some assistance from colleague Des Courtney (Mark O'Brien) ...among others.

It was "Jake", "Leslie" and "Des" who were in attendance at the CBC Connects event today in Toronto, talking about past and future episodes, the creative process and how they all ended up in The Republic of Doyle. And I was impressed. What impressed me was the candid nature of the comments made by the actors, the level of comfort and appreciation for each others' talents, and the comraderie between them as they responded to questions and built on each other's comments.

Granted much of that comes with having built five seasons of a successful television show, but what I saw was a Canadian flavour to it all. There was the stereotypical Canadian politeness, the laughter and the easy feeling about it all... a genuine comfort of inclusion. There was no "stardom", no pretense; there were quick laughs and lots of smiles; there was a comfort and ease when the conversation jumped from one to another. I'd suggest if you had just dropped in to the CBC and had not seen the lights and microphones, you may not have known from the way the team spoke, or their easy-going manner, that these are busy Canadians who are also actors with a commitment and depth of character belied by this meet and greet appearance. In addition to "Doyle", Krystin is involved in SoulPepper (Toronto theatre) and is an accomplished singer; Allan is co-creator, writer, show-runner for the "Republic" as well as a founder/director of the Company Theatre (Toronto), and Mark has made a name for himself as a film producer...this in addition to their "normal" lives!

And after the "formalities" of the interview, the three ambassadors of Canada's most eastern province made things as comfortable as if one was sharing a pint at the Duke of Duckworth.  In one-on-one conversations, there was no hesitation in having Allan respond about how tight-knit his writing team is; having Krystin comment on the unusual spelling of names; and having Mark easily laugh off "solving the case of who has whose Sharpie" when Krystin used mine, and I had Allan's.... (ooops!)

I hope that doesn't sound too "groupie"... I think I made that transition more than a decade ago!! At this stage of my life, my appreciation is for the people who work to create this entertainment for our enjoyment -- the writing, concept and character development, and the camera work advancing the storyline. In fact, I would suggest that "Doyle" was a motivating factor in furthering my interest in screenwriting after years of news and publicity writing. Now before you think that's entirely altruistic, to be honest, it doesn't diminish my appreciation of the "eye candy" at all! And for the record, yes... Allan's eyes are THAT blue, Krystin is gorgeous, and Mark's quick, quirky and ready sense of humour is as evident out of character as in the role!

Today I was again really proud to be Canadian.... to appreciate that sense of humour and politeness, and to share the interest and congeniality with three people who are part of the Republic of Doyle. It reminded me of the "proud to be Canadian" moment when, after waiting for an hour at a recent event in order to have Commander Chris Hadfield sign a copy of his book, he said "I'm sorry you had to wait so long." And by the way, those folks in the back row of this photo are the CBC's broadcast team for hockey at the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics.... some more Canadian talent indeed!

True Canadianism is much deeper than a polite "sorry" or "thank you"..... these folks demonstrate that. It's genuine, and right to the heart!