very exhausted... but we're finally here, in our favorite hotel in montreal. it was a long day... woke up early and rented a PA, then drove from toronto to ottawa, played a 3 hour instore promo gig with barely any breaks... i think i played 5 sets with maybe 5 min breaks. met a lot of great people in ottawa... and sold a lot of cds. yay, gas, hotel and food money! the city was beautiful as ever... and it was really cool to be playing a block away from the Canadian parliament. as i played there was a book with stephen harper's face staring me down... lol.

another bonus, before leaving ottawa we took a stab at a random exit off the 417 and found a gas station selling gas for 92 cents!! the place was pandemonium, but we got in line and got our "cheap" gas. funny eh? anyways, i didn't realize how tired i was until we got back on the highway - but i hung on and didn't really start dozing off uncontrollably until we started getting into montreal. i'm only awake now because i'm waiting for marc to return with wine and chinese food... mmmmmm. it will be nice to wake up here and not have to drive anywhere in the morning... we have the day in montreal and an instore gig at indigo books in the evening.

k

it's nice to have wine again. i started a new song yesterday. don't know... i feel like i'm actually writing for 2 totally different records right now. i know which one i want to pursue, but the other? what is it's purpose? should i find an artist to produce? should i look for a publisher? i really don't know.

the days are ticking down till my birthday (may 1). i'm reminded of it each day i type my age into the elliptical trainer at the gym. and, i've realized i'm not so much the big group-birthday-party type of person, definitely more low-key one on one. marc and i will sort of celebrate-in-advance in montreal this weekend, but it's looking like he'll have to fly back to toronto early the next morning for a session while i trek on to Kingston for the last gig of the tour. hopefully we'll meet up for a late sushi dinner in toronto at the end of the day...

as for the actual birthday i'll probably just go about my day as normal. but i'll demand backrubs.

in a really good writing space these days. i wake up in the morning feeling full of possibilites and i'm channelling that energy straight onto the page/piano. it's exciting to start my day this way, and i'm getting a lot of things finished... one song in particular that i'm very happy with - in fact, i was having so much fun with it that i immediately got marc to lay a bass track down on, even though he was sick (yes, he finally caught my deathly cold and has been in bed for the last few days). anyways, it's done now, but I don't have a name for this tune... it's the first one in a long time that doesn't have an obvious name. i'm still referring to it for my own purposes as "orange", which comes from the first days that i started writing it at orange studios last year (yes this one has been in the works for a long time). it's the only way to identify it... but it will need to be christened something something soon as i have a feeling it will be making it onto the next band setlist, if not my solo shows.

cold update: i'm basically well again... except for this lingering runny nose and bit of a cough and as a result, easilly tired throat. it's annoying and kinda stressful because of the 2 shows i have coming up this weekend, but i'm going to take it quiet and easy the next couple of days and drink plenty of fluids. marc says i should be a "diva" and not talk at all... lol. that's very hard to do! i'll do my best tho hehe. i don't know what that virus was that i caught but it really was a monster to be still affecting me this long afterwards.

been totally down and out sick this week... i had been fighting off a cold but still had exciting things to do (junos, etc) and it seems that all the partying finally did me in... thankfully i have a slow week in which to lie in bed, drink hot tea, and watch endless hours of tv.

i did get some writing done today though... took the laptop into bed and hooked up my headphones to a few songs i've been working on... it felt really good to be writing lyrics again, after a few weeks of craziness in which i had no time to write. i dragged my sick ass out to see ben harper do a live taping at bravo last sunday and he said he writes something down every day. he also said something i'll never forget, in regards to how his music wasn't really the genre everyone was looking for when he first started out. he said 'you do it wrong so long, it becomes style". inspiring :)

it's humid here today and the keys of my keyboard are sticking as i type, where i spilled orange juice a few months ago. the worst is the "s" key... damn it! time to get out the rubbing alcohol and q-tips.

whew what a fun night at the cameron last night. i think we need a bigger venue though! i was really excited to do our new manic depression cover, and everyone seemed to really get into it. i really enjoyed hearing mandippal and chris each play again... always enjoy them. chris's trio is really sounding tight.

once we got home, my sore throat (the one that i've been kinda dancing with for the last 2 weeks, since before the junos!!) roared up and hit me hard... guess i'm gonna have to take it easy for the next few days and really get rid of it for good. it's a pesky one, this is.

speaking of the junos, i realize that i totally forgot to post after the big night(s). you know if you're not able to do online journalling then the parties must be pretty crazy! :) *wink*

thanks again everyone who was there last night!

k

good morning from halifax. i finally made it in the early evening yesterday, however the day's woes didn't stop there... after being greeted by the crazy loud juno party in the airport (and drinking something that looked like wine but was disappointingly only blueberry juice), i found marc (pounding back a scary promotional energy drink) and we got my bag. the live 3 person percussion ensemble in the small echo-chamber of a baggage return was NOT the easiest thing on the ears, but luckily halifax is a small airport and the bag came quickly. finally! we headed for the door and the rented car.

ah yes, the spacious car marc rented to tote his upright bass around town is nice, but where were the cds i brought to listen to in it? STILL ON THE PLANE.

back into the airport.

7pm and i still hadn't seen a glimps of halifax (which is a 30 min drive from the airport). we were missing the welcome reception (though from what we hear, it wasn't that big a deal). still, we had tickets, and being that it is our first time at the junos, and being that i had been basically in a state of "Waiting" all day since the first mishaps at 4:30am, i was ready to flip out.

note to self: good cure for crazy-waiting-in-airport-feeling: bagels + vodka

the end result is that the cds were "not found on the plane" and it left for Montreal.... it's funny how violated one can feel when their favorite albums go astray... i lost a few greats there: Hail to the Thief, OK Computer, along with X&Y, Feist's record, and an old Portishead album... basically, anything that was in reach that i could stuff into the little cd book as i rushed out the door. oh, and the 2 disc dvd of Ray, which i haven't even gotten to watch yet. fuck. i don't know what the chances are that they will be found on the plane on a 2nd grooming of the plane... i'm realizing i probably shouldn't hold out much hope.

anyways, let's put all that behind us now... the rest of the night was fairly fun... we rushed into halifax, had a too-quick but yummy greek dinner and got to marc's gig in perfect time. it was a live to air cbc recording of "Afterhours" filled with the music of all the jazz juno nominees. marc was in the house band and the lineup changed from song to song depending on the nominee. mark adam stopped by after his own gig, on his way home to where he now lives, an hour away in Antigonish (sp?). great to see him again, though when he first sat down with me i barely recognized him. can't believe he's a dad now!

finished the night with a visit to a pub with danny, a fun hang though i was pretty freakin tired.

today is pretty calm for me until the gala dinner. marc had a gig this morning already, i think it was another cbc thing. he has a rehearsal this afternoon so i think i'm gonna head out and check out downtown halifax. looks like a beautiful day!