Having a toddler means never sleeping in much past 7:00 am. And even though Sunday was Father’s Day, I was up at 7:15 when I heard our son stirring.

I was letting Kathleen sleep as long as possible before she had to go to rehearsal at 10:00 am. She had been up practically all night, working on character details, uploading videos of the run-through to YouTube for the dancers and finalizing music editing.

So I woke up with our son and went downstairs to find a Father’s Day cake Kathleen had baked. Baked at 5:00 am, just before she had gone to bed. That’s pretty special. So I was more than happy to let her sleep.

As I was making our son’s ‘toast soldiers’, Kathleen’s Blackberry went bing. Normally I wouldn’t check her messages, but with so much going on, I hit the button to see what had caused the phone to bing. Interview at CIUT radio– 9:30. Well, that was news to me. I recalled there was a dance show on the University of Toronto radio station Sunday mornings, and apparently she was supposed to do an interview regarding VIVID4.

I went upstairs and whispered in her ear. "CIUT? 9:30?"

Her eyes shot open. "Oh yeah..."

I offered to drive, and threw some clothes on myself and our son as Kathleen took a bath. No matter how late she is, she always seems to find time for a bath. Traffic was light and we made good time, pulling up to the campus radio studio building at 9:25. Perfect. Except for one thing...

The building wasn’t there.

In place of the old house on St. George Street across from the Robarts Library that had been CIUT, there was a shiny new glass and steel building under construction. Definitely no radio station there.

Calls to the station went unanswered, since they were on the air. Kathleen’s Blackberry again came to the rescue as we looked up the new address. It was now in Hart House, kind of an arts and cultural student centre at UofT. But when we arrived, we didn't see any signs to indicate the studio location. Fortunately a fit and friendly staff member from the Hart House Athletic Centre led the way inside. In the end, Kathleen had a great interview with Ted Fox and the Evi-Dance crew, talking about the youth show, the knitting and how her husband thought the piece was going to be so cool because of the mythology aspect of the Norns. I listened to the interview in my car, parked outside, smiling every time she mentioned her husband.

After the interview, I dropped her off at the rehearsal studio and was on my way home when my phone rang. The room with the sound equipment was locked and she needed a CD player right then and there. Nothing fancy, just a basic CD player. Where could I find that on a Sunday morning??? I made a quick left and found Zellers at the Galleria Mall was open already. Good news.

Bad news that I had to actually go inside the Galleria Mall... but that mall is a whole ‘nother story.

Now, back in my day, everyone had those big plastic-y boom boxes with garish lights, an AM/FM radio, dual tape player and CD player. Alas, this is something that can now only be found in a museum. Zellers had some i-pod docking stations, but nothing that was “just a CD player”. Fortunately, a discount store in the mall had a small, cheap CD player. I bought it and hustled out across the grotty brown floor tiles and past the lunch counter with the curious and entirely unappetizing green-hued pictures of their food.

I triumphantly returned to the rehearsal studio with my find. Alas, cheap CD players from discount stores in depressing malls don’t play audio CD’s burned from a laptop. Kathleen was in her “do WHATEVER it takes to get the show on” mode, so she matter-of-factly asked if I could go home, get her laptop, (which she left at home, uploading the rehearsal videos) and bring it back to the studio. Though this wasn’t how I had pictured my Sunday morning going, I agreed, since I am the administrative and support staff of her company (...and I love her and want to help support her!)

After grabbing the laptop, power supply, speakers and speaker cables, I was on my way back to the studio when my phone rang again. She told me that Michael, the stage manager, had arrived with his laptop that could play the CD and they wouldn’t need her laptop after all. So I could just go home and relax.

Just a normal Sunday morning in the life of the husband of a modern dance choreographer and producer.

The cake was delicious.