Dear World,

We have been without power/phone/internet for two days (not all of them at the same time but at least one was lacking at all times over the course of the storm). Some people still don't have power. The elements are acting up - they are extremely unhappy. We feel extremely lucky to have each other because it can be really cold on your own. Morro built a lean to with the couch and some blankets and we heated up some cans of soup over candles. We couldn't open them because it was too dark to find the can opener so we just ended up eating the crackers, but it was a fun thought.

As we huddled together we ended up singing a lot of songs and listening to the crackling ice as it fell from the trees that look like prehistoric dino-trees. It was actually kinda nice. It did make us really appreciate a few things though: ONE- we have two ... as in two of us (even though that can be really annoying sometimes it was essential here just even for basic survival needs); TWO- we had spurts of hydro and now have it again (some people don't even have that. in fact some people never have that); THREE- we actually have a lot, like just in general ... a lot of love, a lot of joy, a lot of friends... So thank you for that... to the universe to the friends to Santa or Pere Noel or our community... Maybe we didn't get to finish shopping or plan the perfect meal because a bit of a natural disaster happened but it was only a bit of a disaster and we have so many other things that we can never stop saying thank you for.... like actually, now that Morro has started she is just saying "thank you" on repeat, its getting kind of annoying.

But really, thank you... everyone... and Merry Merry Everything! 

Love,

Morro and Jasp

xoxo

Apparently on these days you don't necessary have to go to work in some jobs... like this one. So we went back home and baked cookies and slept because then the power went out and the oven didn't work anymore. Stay safe and warm everyone!

xoxo 

We got a shift at the Calendar Club!

The day started off a little rough. Jasp forgot to eat breakfast again and although Morro offered her apple (Jasp says she’s allergic) and her granola bar (Jasp didn’t want it because it had chocolate chips and those turn her stomach in the morning), that wasn’t good enough. So once we got to the Eaton Centre she had to get a “muffie” and a “green juice” and we were so late. In fact the first thing the boss said to us was “ You are late!”

We got right to work. We learned where everything was in the store (including the entire wall of dog calendars) and then had to bring boxes to the other location (the store has two locations in one mal how strange is that). Next was the garbage run. We had to carry so many boxes and bag through the mall, into the “authorized person-elle only’ hallways, into the freight elevators, down into the dirty seedy underground depths of the mall where all the veneer is gone, and to the garbage eating monster. Its really just like a transformer robot, gobbling all the boxes and crunching them down. On the way some guy laughed at us and gave us nudie gingerbread cookies (like, the actually had genitalia).

Once we got back to the store we got to sweep. It didn’t go too well because Jasp is really allergic to dust but Morro had a blast going around on the scooter and catching all the dust bunnies.   

The came the customer service. Our boss, Sean Michael, said that we needed to make everyone who came into the store feel welcome and acknowledged. Easy. We made sure to hi to everyone at least once… or twice… We got to ride around the store helping people find calendars of Anne Hathaway (well not that because they didn’t have that, but others similar to that like one direction or butterflies) and recommending toys and games such as racing nuns.  It was pretty fun until it got really repetitive. Just when we started to feel tired and were thinking we could use a break about now, the boss said that it was time to learn to “face and front” (or something like that) which meant that we had to make all the shelves look good and bring all the boxes to the front, even if they were the only one left on the shelf, and release the lions in plastic bags to add to the front display (we named them Salome and Viktor) and pretty up the shelves that looked depleated… Now we understand the afternoon slumpy humpy that people talk about. Morro got really grumpy and sat in the middle of the floor, which was not at all useful.

After pretending that we were still happy even when we were not (because you still have to make the customer feel happy even when you are sleepy) for a bit longer our boss gave us hot chocolate and tea, told us that we would be getting an evaluation and then said we could go (as we had to get to our other job at Factory). On the way out we visited our friend who is a Chocolate Chef at Rocky Mountain Chocolate (who knew there were so many chocolate covered things in the world) and ran into another friend. Wahoo!

THEN the TTC broke down. Okay, its really hard not to whine when you are so tired and hungry and then the streetcar stops working.  We finally arrived at Factory just in time for Franny’s birthday. Nina taught us all about her job when Nigel is not around and Iris wasn’t even there to yell at us today.

Probably the most important decision of the day was that we decided we want to be REVOLUTIONARY! Not sure how yet. 

We were working at the Calendar Club and at Factory Theatre today and we are soooo tired that we cant even post about it right now..... must sleep.... will update tomorrow..... working life is hard.....

10:00 am    Quick update on last night (even thought we are supposed to be working shhhh)... It was the best ever ever! Like, our book launch was sooooo much fun and we had tonnes of friends bring delicious food, and Emmy Rouge was sweet and soulful, and Local 164 made us shimmy our shoulders in all the right ways, and the Suspects rocked our boots, and the dance party was superhero amazing, and we signed so many books that our fingers hurt today but it was all so totally worth it. Thank you thank you thank you for celebrating with us.  

12:00 pm    Time goes so fast here. We just got here and then suddenly it was lunch time.

1:00 pm     So this afternoon we thought we were in the studio but the studio is not what we thought was the studio. What we thought was the studio is actually called the rehearsal hall and the rehearsal hall is where we are actually supposed to be today, not the theatre which is actually called the studio. So slightly confused but now going to right place, to the rehearsal hall we go.

2:00 pm    Jasp takes a nap. We are really tired from last night. Morro discovers a door behind a door while Jasp sleeps.


3:00 pm     In the studio. NO. Rehearsal hall... sorry... we spun around in the swirly office chairs because that’s what people have when they have real jobs right? Aaaannd we made charts and graphs, for really reals. They were about the difference between play and story and experience (is there really a difference?). Actually it turned into a lengthy debate.

4:35 pm     Quote of the day from Iris “Draw a tree and go *!@$ yourself”.

5:00 pm     What a great hump day (not that kind of hump day)! 

Today it began. 
Dec 16, 2013. 
We entered through the Factory Theatre construction site, passing the workers working furiously against the cold. The cold must have followed us in because as we sat in the Factory greenroom we learned quickly what it means to be professional writers. 
We channel the great writers ... Dickens... Dostoyevsky... Darwin... Dumas... Atwood... sitting over a candle with our tea and scarves contemplating the plight of being employed artists (ok there was no candle) and think that perhaps it would be better to just throw in the quill and get a 9-5 in a warm spacious office. We blow a fuse. It has nothing to do with the fact that we have five space heaters going at once. "This will help!", exclaims Morro as she pulls out a container of Friendship Cake which she baked just for this momentus occasion. Jasp begins filing through the application forms that she got when we applied for jobs at the Eaton Centre. "This is so hard, there are a lot of questions and empty boxes waiting my perfect response. The response that will get me hired". Morro is hard at work with a marker up her nose. 
Don't boil the kettle and run the space heater at the same time - we blow another fuse. There is a sign saying just that but we didn't read it until after we blew the fuse... again. "What if you can't read at all? How are you going to know not to do that", says Morro. 
There are super serious auditions happening in the next room - Oh yeah we are here to work. Must write brilliance. We go exploring for inspiration. We get to go through all the doors that say "No Admittance" and "Do Not Enter" so its pretty exciting as there are a lot of dark and mysterious back hallways, Although they always end up leading back to the same place. The greenroom... where me must write.

Dear Everyone!

While we have been applying for jobs we  inquired about how to make a book and then accidentally made one. Actually it wasn't accidental - it was actually a lot of work (to everyone who does that for a living - you have a hard job and we totally understand and appreciate that). Anyways, now that it's done (the book) we are having a party to celebrate it. You are all invited! Check out the details here below.

Tuesday Dec 17, 2013 at the Drake Hotel. 6pm

There shall be food and live bands and dramatic readings of recipes. See you there!

Drake link

http://www.thedrakehotel.ca/happenings/2013/12/17/morro-and-jasp-eat-your-heart-out-book-launch/

Facebook Invite

https://www.facebook.com/events/599312636802723/