Okay I’m a little bleary from last night’s festivities. Me and W. went to Rosedale. The President of the University of Toronto’s house, to be specific. It’s big. Really big. The occasion was an award I was getting, along with 80 or so others – the Arbour Award for Volunteer Service to the University. I drank red wine and we chatted with various people, many of them in the seniors demographic. I think, in fact, I might have been the youngest person to get the award, which I say only to point out that most of the people being recognized were retirees, so I don’t know what that says about me. Anyway, it was cool to be recognized and fun to go to the Prez’s house and, more importantly, great to have a babysitter and be out on the town with W. After the ceremonies and several more glasses of red, we decamped for a bite to eat. We ended up at the Golden Turtle, a Vietnamese restaurant near our house, and an excellent spot for a late dinner. I had their amazing herb wrapped beef on rice noodles. Yummy. Anyway, we don’t get out that much together and I don’t get too many awards (there aren’t too many awards for being a smart-ass I don’t think) so on this day of collapsing global economies (there goes my $334 investment in the stock market) I thought I’d be cheery. Enjoy it. It won’t last.


Tomorrow night I’m hitting the town solo, attending not one but two literary events so if anyone in Toronto wants to hang out with me, drop by. First I’ll be going to the double launch of new books by Daniel Allen Cox and Ivan Coyote. I blurbed Cox’s book, a novel called Shuck. It’s the wry and tender tale of a sarcastic gay street hustler. Great stuff. (Gladstone at 7:30) After that I’m gonna hop on my bike and drop by the Toronto launch party for Freehand books at Clinton’s. Freehand is a new Calgary based literary publisher. They’re launching their first ever Fall list and they have reason to celebrate. One of their novels, Good to a Fault, has been included on the Giller Prize longlist, quite an amazing feat for a small press that launched, like, yesterday. Anyway, I’ll be over there around 9pm (it starts at 7:30 at Clinton’s on Bloor Street).