Do you get to buy a SUBWAY sandwich, where the owner of the shop is one of the most acerbic, sarcastic, 'salt of the earth' and hilarious women on the planet! You might think in fact that you have landed at Caroline's Comedy Club rather than your local sandwich shop!
Speaking of comedy brings me to thoughts 'Canadian'. (As a nationality I think we have made our contribution to comedy here; we don't necessarily boast about it; prefer to keep our undercover, "you-can't-really-tell-we-are-different-than-you" disguise on.)
The other night I attended my first Canadian Association of New York event. I realized pretty quickly that, 1) I was about 20 years older than most of the people there; and 2) I have been living here in NYC for 25 years already; not exactly a newcomer! So what you might wonder, (or of course simply I was wondering), was I doing there?! Right, I had to go to pick up my free airline to Toronto, given out by Porter airlines!
After I got my ticket voucher, I quickly scanned the room and started talking with my fellow Canadians. Did find a comedy writer in the crowd who had just gotten a job writing for late night television, but of course, the primary conversations (this was the ice breaker) was everyone's 'visa war' story. I had spent a few years crossing the border, petrified that they would send me back to Montreal like my actress friend they suspected was coming here to work. Of course we had no real visas! Then I got my green card after getting married, (yes for love), but still had my vestiges of paranoia, so I went armed to my INS interview! Stacks of photos of our wedding: "This is my Grandma, oh, this is my Scottish nanny, Mrs. Mac, and oh, look at my Uncle Hy;... " okay; I got a little carried away. The poor INS interviewer just to shut me up, gave me my paperwork!
I have been legal for so long, though, that I had forgotten that for Canadians living in NYC, up there with the "where are you living and how did you get your apartment?" story, the visa thing is really what is on everyone minds. That, aside from the usual mating rituals.
The one thing everyone seemed to agree on, was how thrilling it was to be here living in NYC. And as probably the oldest person in that particular gathering, I was reinforcing their decision by my enthusiasm and addiction to living and raising my kids here in the city.
Which brings me back to my original story and one of the reasons this Canadian has flown south: only in New York City, do you get the level of sarcasm, warmth and most importantly, the highest level of irony, all wrapped up in a bun, a bagel, or in this particular case, a Subway Sandwich!
Go visit Camille at SUBWAY, 201A East 34th St. and if you are a Canadian out there reading this post, or want to see a lot of cute women at an event, (and get your free round trip ticket to Toronto; grace a Porter Airlines,) visit : www.canadianassociationny.org
Happy Fourth of July and Canada Day!!!!
www.donnafish.com