Erica Deutschman and I met when we were 14 years old at Centauri Summer Arts Camp. Since then, Erica Deutschman landed roles in movies and TV shows, including the lead in Hallmark’s A Cheerful Christmas. It wouldn’t feel like the holidays without Christmas movies! It was great to catch up and learn about Erica’s acting career.
It’s amazing to see how Netflix transformed a classic book series into a modern TV series catered to Gen Z that’s still appealing to the millennial crowd who grew up with Ann M. Martin’s books. Watching The Baby-Sitters Club series is way better than how I experienced the movie on VHS in the 90’s. The movie was about them organizing a camp and I disliked the last two episodes set at camp.
Everything about The Baby-Sitters Club has improved, especially their style. For example, when Claudia puts on a preppy outfit to get ready for a quiz, she describes her look as “Ruth Bader Ginsburg chic”. Within a few episodes, I also spotted Claudia in red pants!
Meeting Sarah Dessen was very exciting because I loved the movie How To Deal and she was one of my favourite childhood authors. Due to the timing of her book signing, I didn’t publish a blog post about it immediately for personal reasons. It was very special though and not because we have the same name. “You spell it the right way, but let’s not offend the Sarahs with the other spelling,” she said.
Sarah told the crowd a funny story about being on live TV while wearing an Apple Watch and it rang when her husband called! She had to take it off and throw it offscreen to make the sound go away. Now she doesn’t wear it anymore.
A few years ago, I blogged about how LinkedIn recruited celebrities to join. I said that I was in favour of it and I hope they commit to it like other social media channels. Most of them abandoned it, but it doesn’t matter because one of Chelsea Handler’s articles really stood out to me.
In March 2016, Chelsea Handler wrote an article on LinkedIn about the power of showing up. A few months later, I was thinking about the article while standing in Starbucks near St. Andrew station and I found the link, then tweeted about it. I re-read the article this week right before I had a chance to tell her how much I loved it in person. It was worth reading again.
When I was in high school, I wanted to be like Peyton Sawyer on One Tree Hill. Peyton loved listening to music and working with artists. Peyton was a fan of Tegan and Sara and so was I. 10 years later, my dreams came true. I met Tegan and Sara in person! In the last month, I went to their book signing, read their memoir and attended their concert.