Monday, July 22, 2013

Check-In Day

Today is "D-Blog Check-In Day," a multi-hyphenate event proposed by Christopher of A Consequence Of Hypoglycemia. Basically, the idea is that the Diabetes Online Community is just that: a community! The goal of being a community is interaction; we all contribute, sharing our voices, but it's nice to know we're not just shouting into the wind. Check-In Day asks one simple thing of its participants: if you read a D-blog today, comment! I haven't had the chance to read blogs today, but I'll try for the last couple of hours. I think it's a great idea. 

I haven't had time to blog much lately because life has been so eventful! If anyone here has seen my other blog, Rhymes With Dramaturg, you'll know I'm a theatre person, and I recently had a small dream come true when I was selected to be a judge for the Best of Fringe; basically, our Fringe Festival presents 150+ unjuried shows over twelve days in twelve mainspace venues, a kids' venue, "Alley Plays" at the Fringe Club downtown, and many unique "Bring Your Own" venues such as bars, fields, back-alleys, stores, laundromats, and anything else the creative teams can think of. Shows are between 45-90 minutes, with most being one hour. I love the anarchic, creative, artsy and often brilliant work that results, but my favourite thing about Fringe is, just like the DOC, the community aspect. You talk to so many new people, theatre fans like you. Word of mouth is the most important marketing tool at Fringe, because there's so much of it. You run into the same people (your theatre friends) over and over, and make new friends to see next time. I met wonderful people on the jury. Our job was to, between us, see all the shows and narrow them down to eight of the best to be re-mounted at an uptown theatre - currently happening, so if you're in Toronto and missed the Fringe, check these shows out!

I saw 44 shows (for free!) in 12 days as a Fringe VIP (plus another one at Best of Fringe 3 days later), liked almost all of them, and had an amazing time. We had meetings after the last show of the night that lasted hours, so I was NEVER home. My parents came home from a trip midway through the festival and I did not see my dad for a week. Thankfully, my fiance's 30th birthday (I can't believe it; we've been together since I was 19 and he was 21) was the last day of Fringe, when I was already fairly burnt out and could slow down with an awesome dinner at a fancy restaurant and then drinks with friends at a pub as near to the Fringe tent as possible, and I could go a short way to showing him how grateful I am at what a wonderful T3 he's been; truly, in sickness and in health!

My swanky VIP pass. I loved it so.

The thing about Fringe is that, since all the theatres are located in a similar area of downtown, and you are often running from one theatre to the next, there is a LOT of walking/running involved. Because you're seeing as many as seven shows in a day, there is not a lot of eating involved (not that much time in between)! To tie this to diabetes, this is both a fantastic and a terrible combination. Constant sweatbetes (and I mean SWEAT - it was bloody hot most of the time, when there wasn't a monsoon shutting down power and flooding the city) and not much fuel meant that I consumed every single glucose tab I had in my possession over 12 days, and I had many. Of course, to me, this is yet another reason to involve myself in as much theatre as possible; it lowers my blood sugar!

Finally, I'd like to mention a second D-Blog I've started (okay, I know; I don't need to splinter this any further). I love the "What Should We Call Me" meme, which is a headline situation posted, and a GIF underneath to illustrate that situation. So, if you like hilarious animated GIFs and diabetes, please check out What Should We Call Diabetes. You don't even have to comment!

18 comments:

  1. I love The Fringe & kudos to them for asking you to judge!!

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    1. The Fringe is awesome! I would have been writing reviews anyway, so I was thrilled to be asked. Having a degree in Dramaturgy might only qualify me for one thing, but this would be it. :)

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  2. Wait, you write this awesome post and then link out to something ELSE I want to go look at? (I'm a sucked for GIFs.) Checking in here, and now I'm off to There. :)

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    1. Aw, thanks, Kerri! (blushes) I hope you like the Tumblr (it makes me laugh, at least).

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  3. I love What Should We Call Diabetes!

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    1. Thank you! Animated GIFs, why are you so much fun? :)

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  4. What an absolutely FUN opportunity to spend time this summer! I haven't been to many plays/productions for any age group in many, many years so I would be soaking up enjoying the talents out there. Our small community has a local theater group that puts on a few productions a year…I LOVE how so many people in this small community come together to perform for one month at a time. Very cool.

    What did you use to combat the sweatbetes between all the shows other than the tabs? Any particular fuel food that you used that traveled well?

    Thanks for sharing!!

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    1. Hi, thanks so much for your comment! One of the reasons I live where I do is because there's so much awesome theatre here; I feel like I couldn't live without it! I really didn't do too much to combat the sweatbetes, unfortunately; it was mostly thinking, "oh, I haven't eaten anything in 14 hours, that's why I have to cram glucose tabs into my mouth right now." I tried to bring a granola bar with me, at least. I think the insanity of the schedule, plus the heat, even triggered a migraine once. It's not a schedule I would recommend as healthy, except for the running and the theatre. :)

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  5. It's Tuesday now, but I'm still allowed to comment...right?

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  6. Ilana, sorry I didn't make it here yesterday. My power went out in a storm last night, effectively shutting off my #DBlogCheck Day early. Just want to say how awesome your writing is, and how I devour each word like I'm at 2.3 and devouring glucose tabs. Thanks

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    1. Aw, thank you so much! I think I actually blush every time I read this comment. I'm so happy that you like my writing, and I thought your dblogcheck post was wonderful; it reminds we why we all do this. I totally understand about the storm; we've had some terrible ones here this summer, with multiple power outages. Storms won't stop us, though! :)

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  7. Sweatbetes and fringe in the same post, Yo! You are too cool for words. I am glad to see you are doing well.

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    1. Thank you! :) I'm not the most athletic person out there, so I try to get my sweatbetes when I can, and theatre makes it easier (just a spoonful of theatre makes the sweatbetes go down?) The problem with being so busy is that I need to actually have a week that I'm home on Wednesday night so I can do #dsma, because I miss it!

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  8. All that theater stuff sounds pretty awesome - and exhausting! What a cool thing to be asked to judge! Way to go! I think it's pretty cool that you can find similarities between the community aspects of it and the DOC.

    And yeah, count me as a follower of the animated gif blog, too. :-)

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    1. I think community is, in the end, the driving factor behind almost everything we do; the desire to be connected and accepted is so strong. Thanks for helping me feel so welcome in this community!

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  9. i'm waaay behind the times but your blog is always comment worthy. The Fringe sounds fabulous. Summer in the city has it's perks I guess :)

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    1. Summer in Toronto is often hot, humid or stormy, but the Fringe definitely makes up for it! Thanks for commenting :)

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