Author's perks

Here come the girls

Let the games begin

Steiny's Tale

Karen, Pam and I arrived in Montreal within 30 minutes of each other.  After lots of hugging and squealing, we grabbed a cab to our hotel.  As we pulled out of the airport, it began to snow huge, sloppy, wonderfully fat snowflakes!  Welcome to Canada!

We arrived at out hotel, La Tour Hotel, Centerville on Rene Levesque, unpacked, settled in a bit and waited for Shirley to arrive.  She had driven up with a friend and got to the hotel about an hour behind us. The three of us were waiting with open arms when the elevator doors opened.  We probably scared her to death, but she fakes pretty well and recovered nicely!  Lots of hugs were exchanged.

After Shirl had a chance to settle in, Karen shepherded us to a little pizza joint she had found, Pizza il Focolaico, for some of the best pizza I've ever eaten.  When we returned to the hotel, Karen introduced us to a game she's been working on, and we had a blast!  We'd had a couple of pitchers of beer with the pizza, so we were ready for some fun.  However, I decided that night that if I were going to be any good at this game, I needed to revisit La Femme Nikita...all 5 seasons!  After the game broke up, Karen and Shirl got out their laptops to check on RDO and the outside world.

Friday was an easy day, because our first commitment was dinner at Rockaberry's.  We slept in a bit, and lazed around getting ready.  We arrived at Eggspectations at about 10:30a.m..  Our cute little waiter, who endured lots of abuse from us, brought us our tickets when we were finished, and we discovered his name was NIKITAS!  Well.....!  We called him over and asked the ethnicity of the name...Greek, actually...and the correct pronunciation was "Nikita"!  The perfect start to a great day.

After breakfast we headed off to Winners, Canada's version of T.J. Maxx, in the Underground.  Everyone found at least one thing they couldn't live without.  We returned home, dropped off our treasures and got ready for dinner.  Thanks to Carol, we had an enjoyable evening at Rockaberry's on Queen Mary Road.  We arrived to see about 30 people already assembled.  I was finally able to put faces with names, especially Lyn and Marcia.  It was great to see familiar faces as well as meet and greet new ones.

Lyn and Marcia came back to our room to play Karen's game.  It was so much fun! There is a clue to Karen's game that I must share with you.  If in doubt, the answer is always "Prague"!  Right, Pam? ;)

Saturday was a wild whirl.  We were all up early, bathing and primping in preparation for the BIG DAY.  We thought we were doing well on time, but even though we ran most of the way from the Metro to Aux Petit Extra, we still didn't get there in time to find seats at the same table.  I actually thought I might have to spend the afternoon in the bar, because no one had told us that a chair would be added at each table for Roy to use.  Consequently, I was shooed away from every table, because everyone thought they needed to keep one chair free for him!  After that problem was solved, everyone settled in to watch Sticky Fingers.

This is such a cute movie!  Roy is gorgeous in it, and his character is naughty enough to be interesting, but so incredibly charming.  The film is really very sweet at times, but also has laugh-out-loud moments.

Roy came in looking stunning, and immediately turned around and left to go to the bathroom. He returned, still looking stunning, in his well-loved black leather coat, a dark navy t-shirt with red/orange mountains outlined on the front, well-worn jeans (Karen was a happy woman!) and athletic shoes. His hair was the perfect length and had a beautiful silver sheen to it. He had a bit of facial hair, and his skin was amazing. His voice has a smoother quality to it. Not smoking has been good for him.

Roy seemed to be having a good time with everyone. There were nice bursts of laughter at each of the tables. We were the third table in the circuit. When he had settled himself, I asked (to the chuckles of my tablemates) what he had been doing with himself. His eyes got wide, he took a deep breath and launched into a litany of the things he had been doing to prepare for the Soirée. He said he would be performing a fable written by the same man who wrote Being at Home with Claude (René-Daniel Dubois). I said, "So, you've kept contact all the years between then and now?" He said, "Yes, we don't see each other all the time, but we stay in contact." He said he would tell us the story, and we could share it with the others, because he would be doing it in French and we would probably not understand it.
The writer adapted a Nicaraguan fable about a peasant who falls in love with a star in the sky. He is sad thinking that he can never be with the star. As he is standing by the water one night, he hears a voice. It is the star asking him to climb the rays of light she emits so they can be together. He says that is impossible but she convinces him and he does it. But, once he passes the moon, he gets scared and realizes he is doing something impossible...he then falls back to Earth and dies. The star looks down and sadly says "too bad he had such a small love".
The reason I believe he chose this particular piece is because the moral is that we fail to accomplish things because we see them as impossible to achieve. He was adamant that no one should give up because they think the job is too big.

There was good discussion at the table, and Roy did a great deal of the talking. He said he felt the Foundation was gaining some momentum and power (which he said is good news and maybe bad news), because the government is trying to rush the completion of the proposed projects since they are feeling the pressure from Rivers. Marcia asked him why he had done an interview with an interviewer (Sorry, I can't recall a name) that was known to be difficult. Roy said you do interviews when you have something that you want to be heard. You have to accept the fact that some questions will be hard for you, but you take those questions in order to have the chance to say what you have come to say.  Roy was asked (by Glorita, I believe) about his earlier reputation of being a difficult interview and why he was that way. Roy said, "When I was younger, I didn't have anything to say. That's different now."  He was asked about Les Rescapés, if he enjoyed doing it and if he would continue. He said he very much enjoyed doing the series, but that he'd have to see a couple of the finished episodes to see if he wanted to continue.

He was congratulated for his choice to stop smoking, and someone asked him (Karen, I think) if a role called for him to smoke, would he do it. He said that the role in Les Rescapés called for that, and he refused.  He said when he stopped smoking he ballooned up in weight and that he's still getting it off. He still has 10 pounds to go, he said. (Frankly, I thought he looked terrific.) He said he's playing hockey three times a week to help with the weight...mmmm, those thighs will just get better and better! He was very emphatic about people who say, "I'm trying to stop smoking or whatever." He said, "If someone says they're 'trying' to quit something, that means they're not quitting, because if you really want to do it, you just do it. You don't 'try'."  He said that quitting smoking wasn't nearly as hard as quitting drinking. He was very candid about the fact that he struggled for at least a year with backslides and forward movement in his bout with alcohol.

When he was asked about his plans for his boating trip, Roy said he was working on the boat now and was planning to leave in the late fall of next year. He said he had to wait to leave until after hurricane season, because no one would sell him insurance for the time during the season of rough weather.  I asked Roy if, since he seemed to be so much in the public eye recently, if it were any easier for him to go out in public without being mobbed. He said, "No, whenever I go out, people look at me. They may not come up to me, but they're looking." I said, "Well, c'mon, you're a handsome man. People would look at you anyway, whether you were famous or not." He paused slightly and said, "Well, yeah, but not in the same way." (I'm glad to know his modesty is firmly in place!)

There was a scene in the movie we had just seen, Sticky Fingers, that brought a tear to my eyes. We had been talking about it after the movie. Someone told Roy that there was a moment that made me cry, and I said I had thought the moment was sweet. He looked at me with a look that either said, "Wow, she really got that." or "This woman is crazy." I couldn't decide.

All too soon the time for Roy to leave was drawing near, so he signed the items we had for him and took pictures with us. This is the first time I've taken an individual picture with Roy since the compulsory one at the race track at MIRA in 2004, and that one was with Pam and me. Does everyone feel that they just fit right under his arm and next to him? If not, trust me...it's a good feeling!

There were two things that left an impression with me at this event. One was the fact that Roy seemed so completely comfortable and relaxed. Except for seeing him in Blasté last year, I hadn't seen Roy since 2005. The difference between the last time I saw him at an event and this time was a marked change. Those of you who have seen him more recently, and frequently, over the past few years, may have noticed a gradual change, however, since it had been a long time between visits for me there was a real difference...a good one. He just seems so much more at ease, which is very nice.

The other thing was that I actually spoke to the man this time. I have always been dumbstruck with awe or terror or something, but this time he seemed different...or maybe I was. Whatever it was, it was very cool. He is an amazing man!

Part 2 >>