Because I don't already have enough to do in my every-day life, I decided to answer a call for volunteers to help out at the Giller Light Bash in Toronto on November 5, 2013. I was originally on a waiting list to volunteer, but last week I was thrilled to find out I had been bumped up to the volunteer list! I had already talked with my supervisor about the possibility of taking time off from work (and missing a meeting I generally set up and minute) to do this, so once I had the official notice that I could help out, I quickly booked train (and of course this was the one week there were NOT seat sales that helped me out) and hotel and then had an anxiety attack over how much this was costing me at a time I should not have been spending money.

But you know what? It was totally worth it.

I was on a 6:45 am train Tuesday morning, from Montreal to Toronto. Those of you who know me well know how useless I am in the morning, so you can imagine how spaced out I was that day. I can't sleep while traveling and I was praying that the hotel would let me check in 3 hours early so I could try to catch some sleep before heading to CBC Studio 40 for my orientation and debriefing at 5pm that day.

I was thankfully allowed to check in early and I got about an hour's nap. I had been up almost the entire night before nervous about this trip for unknown reasons. I had this total sense of foreboding about it. So besides the early train ride, I'd gotten about 2 hours sleep before that and the hour in the hotel room. I was tired, but fuelled by anxiety and coffee, so I was ready to take on the bash and work until 1am!

I didn't know what to expect really, but I thought it would be fun to get to meet other students in my publishing program who lived in the Toronto area. I do the program online via distance education so I thought, hey, why not take this opportunity. Also I got to meet some of the publishing contacts I have made while running this blog. So it was fun!

The Giller Light Bash has been going strong since 2002 and has raised over $400,000 for Frontier College, Canada's literacy organization. It runs simultaneously with the Giller Prize (this year's short list) and we watch the hour-long prize broadcast on big screens while having our own party next door! It was such an exciting experience to watch a literary prize broadcast with 300-400 other people who were just as excited and in love with reading as I was. This is a publishing event that you don't want to miss if you're in Toronto!  I can't just get a group of my friends together to watch a book award being handed out. They don't get it. (Well, some of them do.) So to be surrounded by people who live for publishing and books was such an amazing feeling. I love book people!

This was the first year that the bash was held at the CBC and I really liked the location. Us volunteers manned different stations - there were raffle tickets, drink tickets, free ice cream, a lollipop draw, photo booth stations and more. Attendees were dressed up and enjoyed dancing to both the DJ and the live cover band that played. The night was MC'd by Kevin Sylvester (of the Neil Flambe books) and everyone was full of smiles and laughter and had come together for a great cause!

I was assigned to one of three photobooth stations - the one with all the fancy dresses!

No one wanted to try on any of the fancy dresses though. I think mostly because a) they weren't "costumes" and b) people were already in fancy dresses and it would have been way too much trouble to get out of your fancy frock and into another one just to snap a photo for instagram, you know? The other two stations had silly hats and props and I think it might have worked best in one location with everything combined. BUT I wasn't too upset about the lack of photo taking because I was next to the ice cream station and got to know some of the other Ryerson student volunteers AND got to get to know the two women who ran the company supplying the dresses and they were awesome!

The dresses were supplied by Rent Frock Repeat and it is a Canadian run company where you can RENT fancy dresses which were bought directly from designers and you can save a ton of money having to buy one. Lisa and Kristy were so friendly and warm (and extremely well dressed!) and I had so much fun there that night thanks to them. I ended up handing out more information about the company to bash attendees and tried hard to get someone to try on a dress. (I was so tempted to try one on myself!) Not only can you rent a dress for an event, they ship all over Canada and send you a pre-paid envelope to ship the dress back AND take care of dry cleaning. This makes me want to go to events now. I need to find events so I can rent a pretty dress. Since I work in a Music faculty I took some info to bring home with me. I think our Opera program and some of the students who need fancy things for auditions and performances might be interested in this company. You know I don't talk about things on here that I don't actually like myself, and I thought this idea was brilliant. And it's a Canadian company and they support Canadian designers and I am all about supporting my country's awesomeness.

I sort of wish I had time to look around the CBC building because it's full of awesome Canadian nostalgia. At the end of the night I was moved to Elevator Duty (they had to be run manually) and not only did it help me battle my elevator fear, I was right next to a wall of Mr. Dressup photos that made me tear up. I loved Mr Dressup when I was a kid and our little ephelant Finnegan was named after Finnegan the dog on that show.  I know that the treehouse from the show is somewhere in that building, too and I was longing to get to see it. I might have broken down in a sobbing mess though, so perhaps it was best that I didn't see it. Hey, I cried when I heard the Muppet Show theme for the movie and at the Just For Laughs performance. And I cry when the Sesame Street gang shows up on the Muppet Family Christmas special. And I cry when they open the Disney World theme park in the morning with confetti and music and magic. I am a sap. Shush.

I'm getting distracted! So, the Giller Light Bash was a success (I think. It certainly LOOKED successful!) and I got to meet Michelle from Simon & Schuster and Shannon and Katie from Harper Collins and even someone who was a student in Music at my place of employment and I hadn't seen for years. And it looked like a super fun party (complete with a Limbo competition at 11pm!).

I think I might buy tickets to the event next year and go as a guest in a pretty dress (and gee, I wonder if I could rent a dress for the occasion?). Although I really enjoyed volunteering and I know they could use the help. So I'm sort of torn. But I know they don't have a shortage of volunteers and I'd really like to dress pretty and dance. :)

I am extremely glad I was able to grasp this opportunity. I am especially grateful that I could take three days off work to travel because I certainly needed to sleep in the next day. I then met up with some friends for lunch and dinner and was on a 6:40 am train on Thursday back home. Of course, I was so worried about sleeping through my alarm that I didn't sleep much Wednesday night, either and was up as of 4 am. I napped for almost 4 hours when I got home yesterday. Oy. I am so tired!

And in case you're wondering - Lynn Coady won the Giller Prize for her book of short stories - Hellgoing. I will have to make sure to read that book because it sounded very interesting. Actually, all of the short listed books sounded fascinating so I will add them to my list of books I want to read. That is, if I can read a book for more than 3 pages at a time soon. Because reading & I aren't getting along very well these days.