{friday morning}

On Friday morning, I left the house twice, as is my custom on days such as this: The first time I go, I go with great anticipation, slight trepidation, probably something stuck in my teeth. The second time I go, I go with all of the important things that I forgot to bring with me the first time. (On this particular day, it was my media badge and a jacket.)

During this process, I always imagine that the neighbour across the street (who is kind of a busybody; don't tell her I said that) is sitting in her front window judging me and remarking to her cat, "That girl is forgetful and unreliable." And I imagine the cat nodding and having a thought bubble above its head which reads "Airhead."

In any case, I arrived on time (9 AM SHARP) at the Brandt Centre which, for those of you not familiar with my city, was where the Juno Awards were going to be taking place on Sunday. Today was the soundcheck and stage unveiling for a small group of media of which I somehow managed to be a part through my work at Rage. The lobby was full of camera crews and men with earpieces and women with very high heels and overly oversized microphones. I made a beeline for the first familiar face I saw (a girl from CBC whom I'd met a few days before) and successfully infiltrated a conversation between her and someone else regarding static electricity and its effect on women's dress clothing.

A very official-looking person with a clipboard began rounding us up and explaining how the morning was going to happen and asking us to follow her backstage. I looked around at the reporters and cameramen around me; they all looked very serious and professional. I tried to look serious and professional, even though I am mostly never either.

We followed the woman into the stadium where Hannah Georgas was rehearsing her song Robotic. We watched her rehearse it four times and moved around the seats to take our pictures. I felt hilariously out of place with my little camera and all my unprofessional smiling, but I didn't mind it because it didn't matter. I propped my feet up on the seat in front of me and rested my chin in my hands.
They took us out into the hallway then, to talk to a few of the people behind the stage design and the camera work and all that, and then we chatted with Hannah Georgas a little too, scrum-style. There are a few hilarious videos on YouTube where I'm standing right in the back of someone's video of these interviews, trying to look all serious, like I belong in a media scrum.

Ha.