Camping & Cross-dressing

If you read my earlier post you’re probably wondering what the deal is with the cross-dressers from the campground… aren’t we all!

Harding’s Point Campground is located on the Kingston Peninsula, a ferry ride across the river from Grand Bay-Westfield’s Brundage Point River Centre. The campground has a couple of fun events throughout the season that visitors and long-time residents can participate in – things like Christmas in July for the kids, or this year it’s Halloween in August.

One of these long-standing traditions is a “fashion show” for the adults, which happens in the evening after the kids have gone to bed. It includes good music, more than a few drinks, and yes, cross-dressing. Part of the tradition even later that evening is for the “ladies” to cross the ferry at least once to give the ferry passengers a good laugh. For the first time this year these partiers have a destination on the Grand Bay side of the ferry – the new Brundage Point River Centre – which conveniently has a bar. And even more convenient for this year’s fashion models was the private wedding happening in the River Centre when the ferry landed, which made for a perfect party crashing opportunity.

Of course, this is Saint John where everyone is welcome, so rather than crash the party this lively group of middle-aged and above drag-queens ended up being welcomed with open arms! The attached pic is one of me (frozen just in off the water as you can tell from my blue lips) and a 73 year old diva.

Life is all about perspective

Did you have a good weekend, or a bad one? With the exception of having to face some of life’s more serious challenges, I submit that the answer is all in your perspective – consider my Saturday…

Picture it, Saint John, two thousand and eight (couldn’t resist, Estelle Getty was my favourite Golden Girl)… I slept through my alarm, therefore missing my opportunity to bring my recyclables to the redemption centre only open in the morning. I ran out of gluten free toast and so was not able to have my planned quick breakfast, delaying my trip to the beach. When we arrived at the beach (and long before that for that matter) it was blanketed in fog – some would say not the best weather for taking in a sand sculpture contest at New River Beach.

Later that afternoon we went for a trip up the St. John River in my brother-in-law’s boat to check on some waterfront property we’re considering. The water was rough, and since his boat has only two padded seats, my rear is pretty sore today. By the time we arrived at the property we had run some pretty rough water and hit some big swells, going at a good clip of course. It was at this point that we realized we’d managed to split the primary side seam of his boat from bow to stern. It was shortly after that, while limping back downriver but against the swells (more sadness for my rear), that we realized we were out of gas and had almost seized the motor. It was shortly after that that we saw the incredibly ominous fog bank slipping silently upriver towards us – did I mention that we were completely soaking wet from the rough ride?

So, at first glance we could say that’s a pretty crappy day. Or we could shift our perspective and look at it the way I’ve chosen to… I got to sleep in. Instead of boring toast I had a fantastic omelette for breakfast. Because of the fog I had the first beach experience of my life where I wasn’t uncomfortably hot and sunburned. If we hadn’t stopped to look at that property, we likely would have sunk my brother-in-law’s boat. If we hadn’t split the seam we would have been going too fast to be able to salvage the gas-deprived motor. And our return timing was just too perfect – if we’d been in any later we would have frozen in the fog, but if we’d returned any earlier we would have missed the Harding’s Point cross-dressers crash a wedding at the River Centre (I’ll explain that one in another post). All in all a very good Saturday!

Music Video being shot in Saint John

On Wednesday Chris Cummings, successful country recording artist, announced he'll be recording his next single and shooting the corresponding video in Saint John! He'll be covering John Sebastian's song Welcome Back! (known as the theme song from Welcome Back Kotter) and theme the storyline of the video around his own experience of moving away and years later being drawn back home.

We're so excited to be working with Chris on this project! When he originally approached Life on Your Terms looking for ideas of potential partners, it took us no time at all to realize that the project was a perfect fit for us. The Welcome Back! message fits perfectly with our drive to bring people back to Saint John (or here for the first time for that matter), and Chris is a model of this growing phenomenon. Of course the song itself will give many late Boomers and early Gen-Xers a wave of nostalgia, and with his new take on the song we're sure Chris will gather a whole new generation of fans as well. And the prospect of showcasing what life is really like here - our natural beauty, our wonderful people and the economic boom - in such a long-lasting medium is really sensational.

Residents and visitors to the Saint John Community (Grand Bay-Westfield, Saint John, Rothesay, Quispamsis & St. Martins) can participate in the video - we're particularly excited about shooting the concert scene at the Imperial Theatre and then making our way down to the Boardwalk that evening so Chris can perform in the finale of Kent Country Star. We'll be announcing extra opportunities as they are identified - stay tuned Saint John!

Elton John Tickets

Just like half the city, my partner and I were online at 9:45am this past Saturday to try to snag Elton John tickets (believe me, being up before noon on the weekend is a big feat for us). We decided to double-team the system - Sean clicked refresh twenty times a second trying to get into the online booking, and I spent the next two and a half hours hitting redial on the phone. I discovered that I can do all kinds of things with one hand, like mowing the lawn, sweeping the driveway and brushing and bathing the dog. Not quickly mind you, but it gets done.

Anyway after hours of trying we got no where and figured it was sold out, only to hear on the radio that many were having system troubles and there were still tickets left. So we ended up going to Harbour Station and buying the tickets straight from the wicket... how very sneaky.

See you at the show Saint John!

Music Video being shot in Saint John

Tomorrow morning I, along with a well-known recording artist, will be announcing the details of a music video that will be shot in and prominently feature the Saint John Community!

We're making the announcement in the lobby of the Imperial Theatre at 10:00am and everyone is welcome (everyone who will fit in the lobby that is) so please join us Saint John (and Grand Bay-Westfield, and Rothesay, and Quispamsis, and St. Martins!) to learn about this awesome project and how you can be in the video!

Rosie O'Donnell in Saint John?

Was Rosie O'Donnell really in Saint John today? Her cruise ship, Norwegian Dawn, certainly was, and all day I’ve overheard conversations where one person swears they experienced a Rosie sighting while the other swears the first must be crazy because they saw Rosie somewhere else in the city at the exact same time. One way or the other I certainly hope that all of those cruise ship visitors (including the comedic maven) had a fantastic time in our community.

I’m particularly excited for the twenty or so couples rumoured to have been married here today. I figure those newly-weds will have good luck in their marriages no matter what, as we had rain, and fog, and brilliant sun today… whatever wedding mythology you prescribe to we had you covered – congrats!

Oh how I missed the sweet, soft, cool fog!

There was nothing quite as welcome as that thick bank of fog we drove into as we returned to Saint John from our week in Southern Ontario. Yes, read it again, I am glad to see the fog!

While everyone here in Saint John was grumbling about the gray mist, I was melting in 30+ degree heat in Ottawa and missing my fog. I think there’s nothing quite as nasty as being too hot, and Ottawa was too hot! And to the thousands of you who think I’m crazy just look at it this way – when it’s too cold you can put a sweater on. When it’s too hot – well there are only so many layers you’re able to ditch before the local authorities get anxious.

Heat aside we did have a great vacation – I got to tour around the St. Lawrence River with my father on his boat (and beside it on a scooter, where I was almost caught in a freak hail-storm), my partner got to visit friends of ours in Toronto. I spent Canada Day in Ottawa with my sister (sorry Saint John, but our capitol really does have you beat for this holiday) and saw really awesome fireworks from an island in the middle of the river behind Parliament Hill. I attended my first Buddhist ceremony (my mother’s wedding) and had a fantastic time drinking and dancing with my family (my 88 year old grandmother was the queen of the dance floor). And we topped it all off with a fabulous dinner in Riviere du Loup at a place called Restaurant le Saint Patrice and a visit to Le Parc des Chutes, which was spectacular lit up in the early evening. A note on the restaurant – half Italian half French cuisine, I cheated on the gluten-free thing and had a seafood pizza which was well worth the consequences!

And now I’m back in my beloved Saint John, and up until this morning was surrounded by beautiful fog. Today it’s 24 and sunny – guess it’s a day to have lunch on an Uptown patio and plan which Salty Jam concerts to check out this evening!