Pretty Little Picture

Well, everybody seems to find the picture thing to be such a hit on other peoples' blogs. It's all "I love the picture of" this, and "your blog is better than Paul's because" that. SO I've decided to add a few make shift pictures of my life here in Toronto. My camera doesn't connect to my computer, my blackberry doesn't get service up here (for cheap), and I don't want to recycle facebook images. So how will I fill you in on the goings on of my exciting life? Via paintbrush folks. Here are a few images of my life in toronto

Last week I went to Niagra Falls


Realistic mist and everything

I also danced with a midget at a karaoke bar



Today, walking home from work, I dropped a few coins in a homeless mans hat. Good deed? check


(actually happened)

I also had an awkward run in with my friend Sandy when I tried to steal her Oscar. She forgave me though


(may not have actually happened)

Sorry my hair is a little Gabourey Sidbie post Mo'Nique abuse. But anyway, I hope these images are a gateway for you into my, up to this point, secretive Canadian life.



take that Aaron, in your pretty gold outfit


love love love

Oh Canada

Paul Sabala is officially abroad. (Let the pun settle in). So now this crazy, "magical" adventure begins. Once again I've exhibited my unique talent for reading one thing and totally thinking another. So when my contract told me that I would be in Canada until April 8th, it seems only natural that I would assume that I'd only be here till March 8th. I've been telling EVERYONE that I'd be in Canada for two weeks, gearing up for a fortnight of cold before the relief of the Florida sun. Oh brain, what disappointments you have in store for me. I wish I could treat you to photos of the beautiful Toronto skyline, but as I've said I've nothing to connect the camera to the computer with. Just rest assured, it's dern pretty. And why shouldn't it be? It's the most expensive place I've ever been. The exchange rate for currency is pretty much exactly the same, the US dollar being only slightly heavier. So silly me, I'm thinking with thirty dollars I should be able to do a decent amount of shopping for one. I made it home with bread, lunchmeat, cereal, milk and water....THIRTY DOLLARS people. I'll have to mix and match. Maybe have some cereal sandwiches, or water/meat soup. It's desperate times when we get our most creative.

Tonight marks my return to the P90X regimen. I'm just going to assume that the whole week and a half I skipped won't really matter, so I'll just pick up where I left off. So that means, though it's almost ten pm, I've got an hour and a half of yoga to do. Gotta love it.

Dear Canada,

Get Hulu

Thank you

Paul

I'm So Good At This

This is my first blog in about three weeks. Should I apologize? And if so, to whom? I thought blogging would be way easier to update than my own journal, which often goes from an entry in January claiming that my resolution for this year is to write in it more often, to some random day in june where I hang my head in shame. In between it's littered with recipes and terrible song lyrics. At one point I try to convince myself that if Taylor Swift could do something, so could I. And let me tell you, it's a sad day when you have to admit defeat to Taylor Swift (Grammy's don't count). Anyway, I write to you after my week long excursion to Oklahoma, catching up with the familiar faces there and spending time with Ryan and the baby before the big trip. I head out on Saturday morning at...drum roll...seven am. Thank you, DCL. But, I'm incredibly excited to be taking a two week trip to Canada, with housing and transportation taken care of. All they ask is that I dance with a hunchback. Done and done, Disney. It's a little odd to think of a world without my cell phone, since I'm not willing to add international calling to the plan for a mere two weeks. Though this experience should prep me for 2012 when all communications are lost. That's right, I intend to be a survivor. Bring it, apocalypse. I'll try to update this thing every day, or every other day while in the big C, but we should all (meaning me and my two readers) prepare ourselves for the inevitable neglect. Also, I'm going to start back up on the P90X since I took a break in Oklahoma. It isn't as easy when you're trying to do downward dog while a real dog chews on your ear. Pictures on the blog may be an issue since my mac does not have a slot for my SD card and I've lost the cord to connect my prehistoric HP camera to the computer. But, rest assured pictures shall be taken and when I get back to the homeland...let's just say you better not have dial up. Who still has dial up, you ask? Lin and Rocco Sabala. Ergo, I write to you from the local Barnes and Noble. Everyone, stay safe, stay warm and keep me updated on your lives/ventures as I try to keep you updated on mine. Much love.

Tappin the blogs away

A disclaimer to my title: in actuality, I've been doing little to no (emphasis on the latter) tapping, and am not afflicted by the ever troublesome "blogs". But apart form a misleading header, life is fantastic here in Houston, Texas. I'm on week two of P90X, and I think I'm negating some of it's effects by visiting my mother's stash of left over halloween candy once a day, but my muscles are sure letting me know that it's doing something. Since my parents still subscribe to dial up internet (...I was just listening to see if any of you gasped), I do most of my online ventures from the coffee shop in Barnes and Noble. The sign says free wifi but it really means "free wifi with the purchase of one of our fine products". If you just whip open that laptop at any of their tables without first getting yourself a cup of coffee, you get a look, indescribable through emoticons. Trust me, I tried them all =(. Anyway, here I can explore at my leisure and with a billion different sites right at the tips of my fingers, containing the information of the world for me to absorb, I visit facebook, twitter, and blogspot...sometimes gmail...mostly facebook. And from here I try to update you on my life. Since I last left you I've seen Sherlock Holmes, The Book of Eli, and Avatar, all great in their own rights and genres. Also I went bowling, though I can't recall most of that outing. Now the rest of the week contains a lot of A Prayer for Owen Meany, P90, and any seasons of TV shows my parents may have laying around the house. A few pictures to leave you with. Carolyn sent me a BEAUTIFUL Christmas present of personalized pillow cases. When one thinks of my interests, one's thoughts can't help but stray to ducks and robots. She knows me so well.

After receiving such a thoughtful gift, Ryan and I decided we needed to model with the pillow cases on top of my new polka dot flannel sheets. That shoot went a little something like this.

So now when someone walks into my room they may be concerned that such a young toddler should be sleeping on a queen bed unassisted. Fear not, stranger in my room, tis merely my childhood interests that never died. God bless the young at heart...and bed.

Now for a more serious note. Last night a good friend of mine and her family suffered a terrible loss. Their house caught fire in the middle of the night and burned to the ground, taking with it all of their possessions. Her mother, father, and grandmother got out in time and were unharmed, but they've lost everything. This is a devastating time for them all, please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. I'll let you know what I can as the situation progresses and if there are any opportunities to help. Certainly this is a tragedy when it happens to anybody, but it's duly hard when it happens to such a loving and wonderful family as the Steadmans, who have taken many of us in under their roof and done so much for us in the past.

Here we are, as in olden days

I find myself back to my old haunts in Houston. Mainly the Barnes and Noble(s)/Starbucks with its free WiFi and cheap coffee. But it feels so wonderful to be back home with old friends like Hayley, and a car. You forget how wonderful the freedom to hop in an automobile that isn't being driven by a strange man who is pretending not to know where you want to go, and drive wherever you want to be is. So far since I've been home I've gotten some much needed reading done, spent a day on the town with Aaron Umsted and Hayley McElhinney, submerged myself deep in the trenches of P90X (I have to admit, I give up a little early on the yoga. One can only hold twisted chair stance for so long), and helped the madre out with some household chores. It's a much needed break from my previous lifestyle. And I found out today that my health is acceptable to the Disney company, so I'm officially completely hired and cleared for the boat. It's one month from today that I get shipped off to Canada. Now I try to distract myself with some new hobbies and bide my time in Houston until February 13th. Tomorrow night I head downtown to see Aaron in his traveling show and hopefully by the end of the week I'll have another best picture nominee under my belt. Love to all, talk to you soon.

Paul

A Farewell To Friends

I've been SOoooo good about waking up recently. I mean, the old Paul would have been ever so groggy at about eleven a.m., stumbling about the kitchen to make himself a mediocre bowl of porridge. But not anymore! I don't exactly know what the reasons behind my early risings are, but I'm going to go ahead and give the credit to my knew Brookstone sleep machine, purchased for me by my beautiful Ryan Wood. This thing just gets me, you know? It soothes me to sleep and keeps me there comfortably for just about eight hours. God bless you, sleep machine. Coincidently, it's also given me weird, self aware dreams. The other night I was ruining someone's wedding and dream me felt really bad about it until actual me appeared in some omnipresent form and informed dream me that it was all a figment of my imagination in which dream me was playing a part and that whatever actions dream me took, there would be no repercussions in the real world. With that knowledge, dream me continued the wedding crashing plot sans remorse. What a beautiful world it would be if guilt wasn't a factor. Anywho, I got up early thanks to my new sound machine, put off the inevitable packing with some much needed text twist and pandora radio and then met Hartleigh and Melissa for some DELICIOUS hot cocoa at Lily's Chocolate shop. Wowza it was good, made with real melted chocolate and topped with marshmallows and peanuts. Heaven. Then it was back home, some packing of sorts, and then meeting Jillian, Karly, and Daniel at Blockheads for one too many margaritas and nachos. Such a fantastic night, complete with an uneventful trip over to Splash bar where Jillian and I had to share toilet paper. What a team. On my ride home tonight I had eyes made at me by a man who finally introduced himself as Angel from Puerto Rico. He gave me his number and asked me my name. upon learning my name, he gave a me a complete biblical history of my namesake and told me "Though he had visions, Paul was never visited by and angel...till now". Me being the heathen I am, I can't actually prove the validity of this comment, but Kudos Angel from Puerto Rico for such a clever pick up line on the spot. Needless to say I switched trains quickly and made my way back to where I now lay comfortably. Goodnight to all, we'll talk again soon I know it.

East of Eden, and like slightly west of Jackson Heights

These are the last few moments I'll be spending in my first New York apartment. I say "my first" but I think I'm actually going to save that phrase for an apartment I can truly call mine. One where I can be in charge of my own feng shui and be paying my bills like a grown up and respectable human being (the respectable part may be a bit of a stretch, but I'm going to go ahead and give myself the grown up). In three days time I'll be on a plane to Houston, TX. There I will save my money and get my things in order. I'll get to spend some fantastic time with Hayley and Chaney and Melanie and other Houston friends who may be in town whilst I wait for the next big adventure of my life, the sea adventure. I travel to Canada on the thirteenth of February and then to Florida in March before shipping out on the seas. I'm super excited for a relaxing and lovely month ahead of me and I know, though I'll probably find myself bored in bed more often than not, I'll look back on those days while I'm tossing from side to side on the ocean and doing three shows a day and missing the easier times. So I plan on really soaking in the inevitable laziness. I'll miss all of you in New York but September is really not that far away and will be here before we know it. I'll also be in Norman for about a week at the end of January so I look forward to seeing anyone who may be in town there.

What else, what else? Ryan came to visit NY and we had such a wonderful time just spending time together in the city. Sorry this was kind of a pointless blog with a bit of rambling on in it. Tomorrow, coffee with Meliss and Hartleigh and then some businessy things in the city to get me all moved out. Much love and I'll talk to you soon.

Paul