Season four of Being Erica, my favourite show, premiered this week. It’s the only show I watch and I take it in online because we don’t have cable. If you haven’t seen it, and are a woman between the ages of 25 and 40, watch and love.

A few clickity clacks after the show and I found myself on the mothercorp job board where I found this little gooder. May be worth dusting off the ‘ole CV.

Lorna Dueck and Preston Manning together at the Glenn Gould Studio, CBC, May 30.

Follow this link for more information.

When I step out the morning has barely risen. And I inhale the untethered walks, brisk, down Fraser Street, a likely hour to start my morning shift, and remember smiling at men with carts already begun their day’s collecting. Like him.

And I enter a coffee shop where we used to sit in the dark hours before children found us, talking with out cause to cease. Rest an unthought.

Oh, how times have changed.

Leaving English Bay, my mouth hangs open, open for wanting to plunge my run-out eight-and-a-halves clear around Lord Stanley’s treasured gift. It, a tarmac. I, taking flight.

And I grin as I pass Delaney’s where you and I sat for our last cup of coffee. Me, now mother. You, intrepid reporter. And Tompopo where she and I sipped miso, after I’d lent her my Jeep — my sweet, charcoal convertible — before we’d even met.

I was like that then, where did that go?

And as my feet pad pavement damp, oh I will miss this sweet lick of cement, I spot Joe Fortes Library — the site of my first CBC remote broadcast, that time with Early Edition, a provincial election spot.

They announced the election yesterday, a government in contempt. At least we’ll have that in Toronto.

And it’s here on this 6 a.m. peel of Denman that I remember myself.

I began reading through my old (xanga) blog archives today. Here’s a gooder:

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THE ROOF, THE ROOF, THE (CORPORATE) ROOF IS ON FIRE.

THE QUESTION: Are corporations out of control? Does their pursuit of profit and power hurt society? Do people not know how to EVACUATE a building anymore??!!?

THE EVENT: Joel Baken’s book and documentary “The Corporation” was the topic of debate this afternoon. BC Almanac’s Mark Forsythe hosted the forum at the Vancouver Public Library and I was the smiling PR face. It was quite a gas. Drama. Drama. Drama.

THE USUAL: The usual anti-establishment boos and hisses echoed out in response to the Fraser Institute and Business Admin schoolrepresentatives’ conservative banter.

THE DRAMA: It all began with a little smoke on the third floor. Being in the bowels of the immense downtown library, we were unaware of the excitement unfolding overhead. We were suddenly barraged by the bellow of alarm. Mark, the host, coolly continued the debate even through calls to EVACUATE the upper floors. Every two minutes the sirens broke for another announcement that yet another floor must EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. It wasn’t until 8 minutes later that they finally cut to tape and we called it a day. At Mark’s command the 200+ in attendance rushed the door but not before asking me if they had won a copy of the book. Ack! NO!!! We were being EVACUATED. (I’m drawing for them tomorrow.) Do people not understand the meaning of the word - E-VAC-U-ATE???  One older man strolled into the evacuated building after hearing the chaos on-air. He walked up to me and calmly asked for a copy of the show - he commented that it sounded so ”Monty-Python-esque” AND HE JUST HAD TO HAVE IT. Classic. I referred him to the producer who promised we’d post it on-line for his listening pleasure, we then reminded him that he should probably EXIT the building.

THE COMEDY: The best part of this whole ordeal was the fact that thousands of people were evacuated because someone just couldn’t wait to light up - they took a few drags in the third floor bathroom and the rest, shall we say, is history. Oh the comedy.

Just another day in the life of a part-time CBCer.

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You can find the original post here.

Sitting down to write, here at the dinner table, the Pacific laid out before me, sipping tea while baby sleeps and indulging in a slice of carrot cake from Whole Foods reminds me of the way I felt during my first days working on the second floor at the CBC. Awe. Am I really here? Somebody pinch me.

Our dream really has come true.

The days so far have been filled with mother meet-ups and visiting with the Cowper family. We’ve sipped tea outside Daniel’s handmade house and entertained around our dining table.

Matthew comes by for a swing on a porch every day or two. We borrow their hammock.

I wandered into the Bowen Island Family Place last Tuesday and was enveloped in this intimate island community. This is one of my greatest joys as a mother: the instant community that forms around children. Two days at Family Place, a dozen introductions later, and a lovely mom named Victoria invited me to her mom’s group. I got thoroughly lost on my way there. Luckily Madeleine napped as I crisscrossed the island, finally making my way to Caroline and her daughter Katie’s beautiful home. Caroline, a former campaign finance lawyer from Washington, DC, bare-faced and effortlessly beautiful, welcomed me at the door. Her husband John, who owns an amazing travel company, came in to say Hi.

Bit by bit I am piecing together people’s stories. I’m hungry to know why people live here, where they’ve come from, how they make it work, what other roles these devoted mothers fill. One, a recent transplant from New York, left a career as a social worker and is writing copy so she can stay home with her little one. Another a forestry worker, another a teacher. Some from Toronto, Vancouver, many new to Bowen, just like me.

I plan to get back into the writing saddle while we’re here and have connected with three potential part-time nannies for Madeleine. One a student hopeful for a career in childhood education, one a composer/musician recently moved from Brooklyn, and one a mom with a daughter two months older than Madeleine. We’re taking the week to decide. I can’t wait to have two solid days to sit with my books, pen and MacBook and create.

It feels right in every single way that we’re here. Everything is flowing. A friend of mine, a deeply spiritual person, gave me this advice many years ago: Follow the way of peace. Now, not every part of of our life at present is peaceful (we’re unpacking boxes while the three of us nurse colds and we’re cranky, oh, and I killed the largest spider I have ever seen this morning) but at every turn peace is meeting us.

It’s like I can hear God saying “Yes.”

Tonight my good friend Marisa and I took to the Regional Assembly of Text for a special letter writing night. The CBC was there filming a doc, so basically we were stars. Typing stars. 

Oh yeah, our monthly Letter Writing Party is taking place a week early this month so we can write our mushy, ooey gooey love letters in time for Valentine’s Day. E-mail me for the locale. Julia the Chemist (a famous commenter around these parts) is hosting it at a lovely Queen’s Park apartment. 

Clickity clack, that’s that.

I caught up with Canada’s George Stroumboulopoulos, host of CBC’s The Hour, to get his thoughts on true love and his affinity for black (among other things.)

Enjoy this uncut version!

I am off to London tomorrow to celebrate my birthday (April 3,) visit Amanda’s adorable digs, peruse Oxford with the hubby, and savour croissants (pregnancy, the perfect excuse!) in Paris… then home to Vancouver! See you after the 18th.

Streeting in front Toronto’s CBC buildings I ‘ran into’ a guy named George. Turns out he’s a little famous. Hear his thoughts on the ‘centre of the world’ (aka Toronto) and Canada at large.

Camera: Mike Klassen

(For those who have been waiting, Part 2 of the interview is too large a file to upload to Youtube. I’m shrinking it later today and hope to post it soon.)

I fear for the beloved mother corp. Read the news here, here and here.

I fell for the CBC, and public broadcasting at-large, through my liberal communication studies at Simon Fraser University. Reading McChesney’s Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy solidified it for me. Still does. To my mind, these are fearful days. We are on the brink of losing public broadcasting in this country.

As I’m sure other parents will tell you, words can not describe what it’s like to see your baby moving on the ultrasound screen for the first time. My heart was aflutter. There the tiny heart beat steadily. Its body shifting to and fro. My baby. Safe. Healthy. Growing. Inside of me.

I am overwhelmed. God, I thank you for this gift. 

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And just an hour before I met with a hero of mine. One of the country’s best interviewers. With dreamy eyes and a stature settling just below my 5′8.5″ frame, I stood with George Stroumboulopoulos in the CBC Atrium interviewing him. It’s a wild story. On Monday I happened to stumble upon a posting for a lifestyle TV host position with the CBC in Vancouver. The description read like my DNA. I already had tickets to see The Hour that night so, feeling particularly ballsy (and eventually egged on by Annie, my date for the night) I asked George if he’d do a cameo in my demo reel. And (by some miracle) he said YES. The one hiccup was it had to happen before Friday, hence the interview/ultrasound afternoon.

George knows me from my days working for the CBC in Vancouver. I was the special projects coordinator on his first live taping which took place at the Firehall Arts Centre on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. I’ve been to a few of his shows since and check in each time with a friendly hello. But really, he went out on a limb for me and I am incredibly grateful.

I can’t wait to show you the footage.

And girlfriends, I asked him the question we’ve all been dying to ask: “What are you looking for in a woman?”