Everything's Coming up Martens!

I bet the insane amount of people that read this have been really anxious to hear about my new J-O-B. We finalized details on Monday, and I went to work full-time on Tuesday! So it's been a solid week of working like a real grown-up! This is huge because it's not just my first legitimate full-time job, but it's also my first out of college job. This job as of now is contract so I'll work until October, and will hopefully find something else afterward. So I'm the Sponsorship and Promotions Coordinator of the Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film Festival.

I am finding sponsors for the festival, some that need to renew their contracts and some new. It's all about generating funding for the festival since it's a non-profit and pretty small for it's large title. There are only 4 permanent people that work for the organization, all the rest are contract or interns. It's a niche in festivals or film that I haven't done before, so it's exciting to learn new things. My boss is the exec director, and we're going to a meeting with Discovery Channel in 2 weeks!! To me that's like meeting celebrities...getting to meet people that work for Discovery. Granted it's Discovery Canada, but still.

The title of this post refers to what my great friend Helena said when I told her I got the job. Also, on Thursday I got a call from TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, arguably the biggest film festival in Canada and one of the biggest in the world! I have applied to many jobs there, and this job I applied to more than a month ago. The guy wanted to do a phone interview, which was during work, and then they were hoping to get people in on Monday. It was so sudden I was thinking about this job versus that one, pros and cons. The TIFF job would start immediately, which wouldn't allow for any kind of notice to my job now. I will see on Monday if I get a call, and then I'll have to decide.

BUT...bigger news is that I'm getting some great visitors in 4 days!! My Dad and brother are coming to visit me up in the big north!! I couldn't be more excited, and nothing could brighten up my spirits more than finally getting to see some family after 3 months!! It's gonna be great to spend time with family and show people around my new city of residence. Lastly, the past 3 days were so intense with the heat! We went through a brutal heat wave..I could barely sleep, we were sweating just sitting around! It was really rough..I was complaining a lot. Yep, I'm kind of a sissy.

Cana-duh Day!

Hello folks, this week has turned out to be pretty awesome for many reasons. I've been on some good runs in this great little forest-y pathway by my house, runs do wonders to clear the mind I have to say! Also, my house FINALLY got a soccer ball so we got to play at the neighborhood school a block away.

THEN, Canada Day (basically Canada's 4th of July) was on Thursday, so my roommate Alia, our friends Dan and Warren, and I went road tripping to Cleveland, OH to see the Toronto Blue Jays play the Cleveland Indians. Even though we left at 6am, the Border was packed and it took 2 hours to get across, making the total driving time more like 7 hours rather than the 4.5 hours it should have been! By the time we got there, it was the 7th inning and so we went to a bar across the street and waited for the game to end. Total time spent in Cleveland was about 2 hours. We got back on the road, much faster going back, and stopped at a liquor store I had scoped out to get some good 'ol California beer that I've been missing. After that, stopping at the border of course I got questioned. I didn't know what to say, so when she said what are you doing here I said, "Um..just hanging out," to which she said, "Um..nobody just hangs out in Canada for 2 months." That's when I told her I had an unpaid internship and blah blah. Needless to say my quote lived on in the car for some time.

But, the joke is on the border officer now because I was offered a position at my internship on Friday to basically be the Executive Director's right-hand man, dealing with sponsorship and marketing. She said it would be full-time until October when the festival is!!! This is HUGE news, which will be even BIGGER on Monday when we meet to finalize things. All I'd like to say is Booyah Canada!! I conquered your "Canadians only" policy..so there!!

And lastly, today we are having a BBQ to celebrate Canada weekend, and the weather is amazing!! We have all the fixins for a wonderful night of eating, drinking and conversing about Canadian stuff. Actually, we have a new roommate renting the basement studio who is apparently American too and just moved here 2 weeks ago! So at least I'll have someone there to celebrate 4th of July with who appreciates it. Oh, and I took pictures of the Farmer's Market today, check it!