March 2013
1 post
January 2013
2 posts
Fantastic: Grandmas
Krystyna Buckiewicz, 1922 - 2013
In Polish, the word for Grandma is Babcia. My Babcia was a tough old broad, always ready to cut you a new one if you did something she didn’t like. I never realized what made her a tough old broad until she passed away.
I knew she had a war story, I just didn’t know what a doozy it was. My dad had a document she...
I was waving, not drowning.: Reality TV's risk &... →
i-was-waving-not-drowning:
I’m on the front page of the Los Angeles Sunday Times today.
Two years ago almost to the day I made the front page of the Detroit Free Press. At that time, I had sold a show to Discovery Channel and was about to begin shooting it in Detroit when the city shut it down. The series would have…
This is really really good. As ‘glamorous’ as people...
November 2012
1 post
November 2011
1 post
September 2011
3 posts
onthemetro asked: I just read your post about losing your friend and realized that our worlds overlap. I knew Melissa, not well but I went to Ching and some of our social circles overlapped - mostly through Jacqui Downs. Wow, small world. Thinking of you today, I know how difficult these days can be.
4 tags
Not Fantastic: Losing your Best Friend
5 years ago today was one of the worst days of my life.
I was goofing off online in the wee hours of the morning, procrastinating some school project or another, and I came across a post from one of my high school friends.”RIP Melissa.” I read it, then scrolled past it, then scrolled back up. Next to it was a photo of my life partner through high school. My best friend.
I...
August 2011
1 post
5 tags
Fantastic: Firefighters
To say it’s overwhelming is an understatement.
The Richardson wildfire ripped through Northern Alberta, burning up a chunk of forest the size of one-and-a-half Prince Edward Islands. A handful of days after the fire ripped through and here I am standing right smack dab in the middle of it. Blackened trees stretch as far as the eye can see, like big black smokestacks jutting out from the...
May 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Fantastic: Namibia
The car that was supposed to be waiting for us at the Windhoek airport wasn’t there.
This isn’t usually a problem. We’re not exactly fancypants who are used to having cars and drivers available to escort us around. But we’re in a country, on a continent, that’s completely foreign to us, and we don’t know where we’re going, and we’re trying our...
4 tags
Not Fantastic: Blatant Racism
I’m white.
And I’ve never been more aware of it than in Cape Town, South Africa.
South Africa has only recently started to catch up to the rest of the world in terms of basic equality. Up until 17 years ago, the country was living under apartheid, which meant that non-white people weren’t equal to the whites according to the (white, minority) government. Even though Blacks...
5 tags
Fantastic: The edge of the world
It’s really hard to describe the smell, but that’s what I remember the most.
Sort of sweet, sort of salty, sort of green. If I could bottle it, I would have. But when you’re standing at the bottom edge of the African continent, with the calm, docile Indian ocean to one side and the rough, moody Atlantic at the other, with mountains looming around you and local wildlife giving...
March 2011
5 posts
Fantastic: Yelling at Authority
What with the election being called in the True-North-strong-and-free, I figured it was time to rehash an old story of mine. Ladies and Gentlemen, gather ‘round, as this is the tale of a time when I accidentally yelled at Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada.
________________________________________________________________
I’m at the NHL Awards, running down a flight of...
6 tags
Not Fantastic: Death Destruction Drama
I don’t remember waking up to my phone ringing.
I just remember staring at it, wondering why it was going off at 5 o’clock in the morning. Then, in a daze, it clicked in that I should answer it, so I did.
“There’s been an earthquake. Get to the office now.”
I quickly started pulling myself together. I read the newsfeeds off my laptop as I was brushing my...
3 tags
Fantastic: Winning friends with Salad
This is one of my favourite recipes to make, hands down. Every time I serve it at a dinner party, people gush. Plus, with no cheese or nuts it’s incredibly low in fat and chock full of vitamins.
Sweet Salad:
-Arugula/Spring Mix
-Fennel (Anise)
-Green cabbage
-Pomegranate seeds (or cranberry, if you’re having problems finding pomegranate)
-Optional: green apple.
Dressing:
I...
February 2011
1 post
3 tags
Fantastic: FITNESS
Some have called me the incredible shrinking woman. Several have told me I’m their thinspiration. Others - strangers, even - walk up to me on the street, grabbing my new waistline, saying “Where are you disappearing to, woman?!”
I didn’t realize how much other people cared about my weight until I started losing it.
I’ve lost 80 lbs so far. That’s, like, a...
December 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Not Fantastic: Dating inside the box
As the saying goes: Opinions are like assholes — everybody’s got one.
I don’t exactly like this saying, though, and it’s not because it forces me to think about the status of everyone’s chocolate starfish. Rather, I don’t like it because it isn’t exactly true. Sure, everyone has opinions, but they change constantly. They become stronger, weaker, or change...
November 2010
1 post
2 tags
Fantastic: Birthweeks
As a young’un, I treated best friends the way I treated a pair of jeans. I lovedlovedloved them with all my heart, and it pained me to spend even a day without them. Then slowly I would realize I had outgrown them, and go and find myself a shiny new friend. The cycle would continue.
(My dislike of commitment started early. So shoot me.)
From about 1992 - 1997 (and then coming back into my...
October 2010
1 post
3 tags
Fantastic: Hope
I couldn’t help but notice her.
Wearing a bright pink wig and matching feather boa, well, you’d just assume that she would stand out in a crowd. But actually, in this crowd that helped her fit in. All around us were the same eye-grabbing shades of pink, on wigs, or socks, or boas, or balloons.
But her bright pink wig didn’t quite cover the tufts of sparse, brown hair that...
September 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Not Fantastic: The G-Bomb
It hits you when you least expect it.
First, you catch eyes across a party. You think, maybe it’s a coincidence, that both of you were just glancing about at the same time. But then, you catch him staring at you, across the room. You smile. He smiles. You coyly glance away.
Then he’s standing next to you in your friends circle. Seamlessly, he joins the conversation, talking, joking,...
August 2010
12 posts
4 tags
Fantastic: Safety
Five years ago, the water started flowing.
Sure, they told everyone in New Orleans that it was coming. That it was inevitable. But in the Big Easy they said, meh, we’ll ride it out. And they always assumed they would, with their traditional grace and good humour.
But this time, the ride was too big.
Driving through New Orleans, it’s easy to miss them. The abandoned buildings. The...
3 tags
Fantastic: Cute Animals
This is Bella. She’s a three-toed sloth who currently lives in the Dallas World Aquarium with her mate, Leno. I was surprised at how adorable sloths are; having not seen many wandering the streets of Toronto, I assumed they’d be your typical lumps of fur. But when I saw this eager grin looking my way, I fell in love. Especially because I had come to the aquarium to see these:
Same...
Anonymous asked: What was your most life changing moment?
Fantastic: Cucumbers and Sex Labs
Take a look at this, ladies. Yep, fresh sliced cucumber. Does it turn you on? Does it get you cranked and ready to go?
I didn’t think so, either, but a new book says otherwise. In recent scent tests at a sex lab, women were mostly attracted to the smell of cucumbers mixed with the candy Good and Plenty (which is like black licorice). The cucumber I can slightly understand, due to its phallic...
Not Fantastic: Scam Artists
Below is a response I received to my craigslist ad selling my car. Reminds me when I was trying to rent an apartment in New York, and the seller wanted thousands of dollars sent via Western Union as a deposit.
Seriously, who falls for this?
Dear Seller, Thanks for the swift response, just to let you know that am okay with the condition and price of the item, am ready for its purchase and my form...
Fantastic: Dinner with Friends
There’s just nothing like a great home cooked meal with wonderful company. It’s such a grown-up kind of fun, the kind you imagined your parents having whenever you were away at Grandma’s.
But I’m sure they didn’t have an Adam Lambert wig or a fisheye camera:
Fantastic: Shark Week
I love sharks.
They’re the undisputed bad asses of the animal kingdom. You think a bear could take this on? Look at those teeth! They bite chunks out of each other when they’re MATING. During sexytimes! Imagine what that huge mouth could do when it gets angry?
I love that it’s Shark Week™ on the Discovery Channel right now. Since I work there, you’d think I had some...
tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?
Not Fantastic: Moving
I think I have a future in television. Ok, I have a present in television, but I see myself hosting a show one day. And that show will be… Hoarders.
Hi, my name is Amanda, and I have too much stuff.
Scene 1: Me, running through airport. Overstuffed suitcase bouncing off my ankles, a bulging backpack digging into my shoulders, and likely a purse sliding constantly down my arm, smacking me...
July 2010
2 posts
“In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount...”
Fantastic: Firsts
It’s always difficult to know what to write in a first post. I have ideas for posts #2 - 2million, but this is number one. Years from now when we all have electric flying pods and redheads are extinct, someone will find this blog in the archaological dig that is the internet and wonder, who was this girl? Writing for free, for an audience she didn’t know would come? And they’ll...
