So here's what happened on the first day of the big Toronto trip.
I woke up on Monday at around 6:30 a.m... There was a flight for me on Air Canada at 11:00. I got to the airport at around 9:30... I was excited, and I was early. I had to be at the Dini Petty show for around 1:00, regardless of my early arrival the plane was still scheduled to leave at 11:00... I was really early.
I got out of my car in the airport parking lot. I have a very slow leak in my rear tire on the drivers side. It was 9:30 and my flight was at 11:00. I looked at my tire and kicked it. It seemed a little low. I wondered if I should go to a gas station and really top the air up in the tire before I got on the plane.... I didn't. I was afraid that I would miss my flight. It was 9:30... My flight left at 11:00. I figure the tire will probably be fine since I'm only going to Toronto for just over 24 hours.
I get on the plane at 10:30... Because I was so early I was able to catch a flight that was earlier than the one at 11:00. See 10:30 is actually a full half hour before 11:00. So I got on the plane half an hour early.
I was standing on Toronto by around 11:30. Apparently the Dini Petty Show was going to send a limo for me... A LIMO! Now that is friggin comedy... That is comedy. I went to the place where the limo is supposed to pick me up and I told this lady in a uniform and she asked my name and I told her and she nodded and she said that my car was on the way and that I should wait so I waited. A couple of seconds later this huge stretch white limousine pulls up... I started laughing and took a step forward... I was about to hand my bag to the driver when I realized that this wasn't my limousine... Some other lady who looked as surprised as I was by the size of this car stepped forward when the driver called her name. I was burnt... I felt like an idiot... But how the hell was I supposed to know whose car it was...
A couple of minutes later another black limousine pulls up, it was a little bit more laid back. I think that white one would have been overkill... I was glad that Dini sent me this black one... It was gorgeous, not a huge stretchy one... It was just perfect... Thanks Dini. The driver was real nice too. We talked about hockey all the way to CTV. Lately I find I've been talking a lot about hockey. In the past I never talked about hockey... But I find it's a good thing to fill the air with if you are ever in a position where you have nothing to say. All Canadians can talk about hockey whether they want to or not.
I got to the show and the producers were all really cool. They gave me a ham sandwich and some coffee. Dini-friggin-licious!!! There was also cookies available. I did not eat any cookies. Dan Duran walked into the room... he is a big tall man. He didn't say anything to anybody so I said hi to him. He seemed a little bit distracted... He was obviously busy running around getting ready for the show. Then Dini came into the room, she really is quite an attractive lady. She hugged me! I told her that I couldn't believe it was Dini Petty and she hugged me!!! Dini was really laid back and cool... really nice. I can't believe she hugged me.... Dini Petty hugged me!!! I mean I got to hug her later on the show but that was me hugging her, that's different... In this instance Dini hugged me... I must admit I am pretty proud of that.
One of the producers came up to me after Dini left. She said the director was going to come down and talk to the guests. The producer told me that I should be outgoing when I met the director, she wanted me to be wacky... See when I'm backstage eating a sandwich I'm not being wacky... But the producer told me that if I was wacky I would be guaranteed to go on first and would probably get more time..... Oh yeah and this was funny... She said, "Normally we have a celebrity on the show as our first guest, but we don't have one today so you can go on first." I must admit it burst my bubble that I had created for myself in the limousine. I mean dammit what the hell am I chopped liver! I came here in a limousine dammit! I'm not just some punk off the street! I've been doing a show on the community station in Ottawa for three years! Three years dammit! ON THE COMMUNITY STATION!!!
The producers of the show were pretty surprised at the amount of people who came out. Apparently as soon as we posted on the web site the Dini audience number was going crazy. This web site is hilarious. All you people that called and went... you people are all hilarious. It's a good thing too because people from The Comedy Network were at the Dini show and I'm sure they noticed the support for our show. That makes the show look good when you people do that stuff and I thank you all for being such a bunch of paradises. Maybe I will have a job next year... (Although there has still been no official word on that.)
So the show went good... I ran around and Dini and I hugged and we ate donuts. It was fun. Thanks so much to the Dini Petty show producers, and to Dini. You guys were nice to me and I really like you and miss you now.
After the show I went and ate dinner with Steve one of our shows executive producers. Steve lives in Toronto. I was on this post Dini Petty Show rush. So I think I may have talked to much during dinner. I was also excited about meeting everybody at the movies later that night.
I guess about thirty people came to the movie, maybe 25. We tried sneaking in but we got caught. I hope everyone had fun. After the movie some people went home but about 15 of us went out to a bar and drank beers. We drank beers till about 2:00 a.m. at a bar called The Madison. The beers were tasty. After we drank beers about ten of us went to The Golden Griddle and ate pancakes. We stayed there till about 4:30 a.m. I was tired.
Thanks everyone for coming out and keeping lonely out-of-town Tom company. I will be honest and say I was surprised. I was surprised at how laid back everybody was. I had a feeling that there was going to be people there who wanted to kick me in the teeth... But nobody kicked anybody's teeth... It was kind of surreal because there was so many of us that we just all sort of made friends with each other. It was like a weird little party where nobody had ever met each other before. Strange, we have to have more of these strange movie/beer parties. See in high school nobody ever invited me to parties, so this was fun to have a party. Thanks for coming to the party everyone.
I'm back in Ottawa now.
I really miss you all and I'm sad....
Party Tom