Yesterday afternoon I was at the Vancouver CBC Studio to watch the taping of that evening’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. I went last year with Shan, Miranda and Renee, but this time around I brought Heather, Gillian and Ed because I like to share the love and Ed was sad he didn’t get to go last time. We met up in the plaza outside, and waited in many lines before we made it into the studio. To pass the time while waiting, we ate food (I apparently do not like Gorgonzola cheese ONE BIT), said hello to various people like Courtney, Mikala, John, Sam and Carol. Some people I did not say hello to but instead took creepy pictures of using my iPhone telephoto lens, like Rick:

I was not smart enough to wear a jacket, so I bought Ed a Hockey Night in Canada hoodie for me to wear. This did not work, because he immediately took possession of the hoodie and proudly wore it for the rest of the day so I continued to freeze.

and is cold.

I didn’t have too long to be cold though, as we were ushered inside to wait in the basement while the studio itself was set up. It was here that there was DRAMA:

The three women pictured above quite deliberately and callously cut in front of 100 or so people and parked themselves approximately 6 spots back from the very front of the line. Those of us who had been waiting for over two hours at that point were not impressed with their imperious line cutting, and Jennifer actually went up to them to a) point out the fact that they cut in line, and b) ask them to be good, polite Canadians and move back to their rightful spot in the line. They rudely ignored her, and then it was on: I took their picture and tweeted it with the hashtag #cbclinejumpers. Other people retweeted the image, and a lively discussion – both electronic and pointedly out loud – about how some people could be so rude/whatever happened to having manners/what kind of heinous bitches would be so heinous and bitchy like what/my goodness those are shiny pants and ridiculous shoes took place. The couple directly in front of us (and directly behind the line cutters) went to find a CBC Red Jacket and ask for assistance, and the rest of us talked about cougars in the wild. We repeatedly plead for help from CBC Vancouver’s Twitter account to deal with the jumpers, and finally someone came by to talk to them! Hooray!

Everyone in the immediate area pointed out the jumpers, and the lead cougar had the balls to say that we were all mistaken and that they had been there all along. I fucking HATE people like that, so I and others stridently disagreed with their bullshit and wouldn’t let it drop. They whined and complained and said that we were all mean and wrong and probably jealous of their high, high heels and shiny pants, but the CBC Red Jacket wasn’t having any of it. Still, she had to be somewhat polite to the public (which is why I don’t work in public; I loathe having to be polite to people who don’t deserve it) so she allowed them to stay in line as long as they agreed to stand aside while people were being seated, and let the people they cut off sit down first. This was good enough for those of us inconvenienced by their unbelievably rude ways (although I wanted to see them marched out of the studio and thrown onto the street as everyone pointed and booed and hissed, but I am a vengeful person who wishes for bloody and instant karmic retribution), and the horrible cougars were put in their place. When it was time to be seated, they fully intended on waltzing into the studio without waiting, but the CBC Red Jacket was true to her word and was watching for them at the door – she pulled them aside, and the rest of us (or maybe just me; see above re: vengeful) smirked at them as we walked in and found awesome seats.

I only sat in the awesome seats for a few minutes, though – as luck would have it, John had VIP seating on the floor and an extra chair. He was there as Miss 604’s guest, but she was unable to make it. I got to move up to the floor and was sitting super close – second row – to everything:

Yay! The show itself was awesome – George chatted with the crowd a lot and is totally fun. We got to see three live interviews – Elizabeth May, Ice Cube and Ian Hanomansing – as well as a taped performance by Hannah Georgas. After the filming was done, George answered a whole bunch of audience questions and told some stories – he’s an engaging speaker with some hilarious stories, and the whole thing was a lot of fun. Afterward, there was a brief meet n’ greet with George – we hung out for a while to say some hellos while John took pictures. Heather even got George to record her voicemail message, which I totally need to call to hear. Many fun times! I love hanging out at the CBC Building, and it’s always great to watch Canada’s boyfriend do his thing. So swoony!

It was a good day – leaving work early, enjoying the beautiful day, publicly humiliating nasty people, seeing George, and hanging with friends. The $40 parking ticket from Easy Park was a little less enjoyable, but whatever – it was still worth it.

There’s a special tweet up tonight with George – it’s an early viewing of Scream 4, and it’s a first-come-first-serve entry sort of affair (so don’t fucking jump the line). As much as I love George tweet ups, I don’t have a need to see Scream 4 so I’ll leave my head count for someone else to enjoy – but if you want in, look up #scream4strombo on Twitter for the details.

obstructing: just as bad as line jumping