Dawning On Us

Deb: In the continuing theme of “Spring Posing as Fall”, the wonderful celebrations and encounters continue to mount. I had a perfect lunch with an old friend a few days ago, which really changed the way I was thinking about a number of things—for the better. Colin and I went to see Louis C.K. whom we love and who was doing all new material. Is there anything, I mean anything like laughing your guts out for two hours? Man! Barb, our friend Cheryl, and our dogs started a just-for-fun dog agility program and small breed off-lead day at a wonderful place in Toronto called Pawsway, and that was sweet and fun, and again with the laughter! Barb and I spent Saturday night at Nuit Blanche and, as Barb put it, it’s always one of the highlights of the year. More on that from Barb this week. I am about to embark on a trip to NYC this week with my husband and six other friends to celebrate two of our friends’ milestone birthdays. It is the autumn/spring that just keeps on giving and teaching and renewing. 

What could possibly top that you might ask? Well, something did. And it was certainly not a trip or a huge art event, but rather a small, casual lunch with a very special gal. We met Dawn! Yes, Dawn. Dawn from the blog, Dawn with the quiet wit and the always interesting intelligent point of view. Dawn was in town to see three Who’s Live shows that were in the surrounding areas of Toronto. I said to her that I thought it was amazing that she should design her hobby and travel for laughs. Dawn travels for laughs. She is a laugh collector. But like a lawyer with just one client, Dawn collects her laughs from one main source. Who’s Line and its improvisers. Not that she needed to prove her devotion to all things Who’s Line, but we walked her to her car at the end of the lunch to see her bumper stickers and her very special license plate. It is a combination of Mochrie and Sherwood and she came up with the perfect mash up: MOCHWD! MOCHWOOD. Dawn, don’t tell Brad that Colin got top billing! And in the continuing theme of laughter, Dawn had a bumper sticker that killed us. It says: “Save the trees. Wipe your ass with an owl!”

I was enthralled with Dawn’s Boston accent, one of my favourites. I collect accents as a hobby for trying out in the shower, and Dawn’s was perfect Bostonian. At discovering my passion for the accent, Dawn said, “What do you guys call a pair of green pants that aren’t jeans?” We said, “Khakis”. She said, “No,” reaching into her purse and pulling out her car keys, “these are Khakis!”  We laughed so hard. Try it. If you say khakis when describing your car keys, you have begun to master your Boston accent.

The visit with Dawn also inspired an idea for Barb and I to go to Boston and D.C. with our husbands in the spring and we will see Dawn then. We didn’t talk about anything too deep and the lunch was wayyyyyyyy too short, much like the coffee we had with Kate some months back, but it did its job. We connected. We wanted to spend more time with her and we will. She is a very special gal. And when we go to Boston, we will most certainly not lack for a parking space. After all, we can “pak a’ ca’ in the Hava’d ya’d!”

Thanks, Dawn, for being exactly who you are. It was our honour and pleasure.

Barbara: Now, I know you guys aren’t asking why our lunch with Dawn was so short, but I’m gonna tell you anyway. You know when you look forward to something special and you’re planning your day around that thing and then other non-negotiable things begin to pop up to sort of squish the first thing—the special one—like egg salad in a sandwich? Well, that happened to Dawn and us. First, there was the particular timing of the Pawsway schedule which meant we had to leave Dawn at 2pm. Then I got an audition at 2:45 for which I needed to drop Deb off and get to the middle of the city, which meant we now had to leave at 1:30. And then I got another audition right before our lunch, which almost threatened to compromise our start time! I’m telling you all this because normally this kind of loaded day would stress the hell out of me, but meeting Dawn was so … comfortable. Really, it felt like we’d done this a million times before. And maybe because we kinda have, communing every day on every kind of subject here on the blog. I want to thank you too, Dawn, for the talk, the laughs, and the friendship!