Shirin Delsooz

My Life Adventures and Thoughts

My Rescue Experience Featured on CBC Radio!

Last summer I was at the bus stop way late at night when some total creepy dude was staring me down. I’m usually the only woman at the late night bus stop so I was expecting some attention like that, but man was this dude ever creepy. I thought I was overreacting to his stares, but when he followed me out the bus I knew it was bad news. It took a turn for the worse when he started a conversation with me when we were all alone. I was freakin’ terrified. I had no idea where to go, what to say or what to do! I was in the middle of the nowhere suburbs Scarborough at 3 am! You could imagine how relieved I was when this total teenaged stranger rushed to my rescue! You can hear the full story on this week’s edition of Definitely Not the Opera on CBC.

I didn’t know how to repay him, so I added him on Facebook to wait for an opportunity! He turns out to be a really cool actor so in the meantime I’ll do a proud plug of my new friend Ryan Drummond!

Listen to this week’s edition of Definitely Not The Opera on CBC.

Childhood Memory – The Amazons and Catholicism

When I was in Grade 4, my teacher lectured us on the native culture of the Amazons.

“They believed that when you get sick, it was because you did something bad.”

I shot my hand up high, “Why don’t we go tell them they are wrong!?!?”

“Uh, um, you can’t, uh really do that,”

“But why?!”

“It’s their beliefs, it’s their way of life…”

She trailed on for about 10 minutes. I was kind of taken aback.

At 9 years old, I thought I was offering a logical solution, the same way Spanish conquistadors felt when they invaded and imposed Catholicism.

A Crazy Story – Mr. Snaz

So get this:

When I was 15, I chatted with a guy online. Snaz was relatively my age, lived in the same town, had an affinity for the arts, spoke French, and was Persian. We had lots in common! He was a street performer, a really cool mime and a break dancer. We spoke a lot but never went the extra mile to meet. It was just cool that way.

I always said it would be better if I would catch him on the street during his mime act some day.

One day I was strapped for cash, I don’t remember what for, but it was probably to pay off my phone bill and pay day was a week away. I didn’t want to ask my mom, who thought I was a reckless teenager. So Snaz said he would lend me the $30 I needed. I gave him my information and he wired me the money right away.

My friend “L” thought it was hilarious, “What? He actually gave you the money? What an idiot! You’re not going to pay him back are you?”

“Of course I’m going to pay him back! That wouldn’t be cool!”

Payday came and I wired Snaz the money back.

We thought nothing of it and continued chatting here and there. Unfortunately, as the internet social scene was going through some major changes,  we lost contact over the years.

HOWEVER – eight years later – last summer I sat in Kensington Market to pass the time playing the mandolin when I had the weirdest human encounter in my life.

A guy riding his bike passed by me, watched and gave me some money and left. He came back again to watch some more.

Then he stopped me, “Are you Venus?” (the old name I had stopped going by for many years.) My heart stopped. It was such a long time ago and I didn’t recognize the person at all. I felt like worlds were colliding! I thought no one from my dark suburban past would ever step foot in Kensington Market.

“Uh…” I spoke very slowly, “Um… yea… uh… who.. are.. who are you?”

“We spoke on the internet”

“Um? I don’t know. Who are you?”

“Remember, I did miming”

“Oh Holy FK! You are the guy who lent me $30!!!”

“Yea!”

“OMFG, wtf are you doing here?”

“I work in this neighbourhood,”

So we started talking for a good 20 minutes. He told me he was saving up money so he could build houses in Mexico. We exchanged contacts and began chatting in the Facebook realm. He said  I motivated him to get back into street performing.

I just checked my Facebook now and noticed he’s gone again. Maybe he deleted me, or he deleted his profile. Who knows. Maybe its just cooler that way.

Yea. It happened.

She hated ‘green’

Okay, so there’s this coworker I had who always spoke openly about hating ‘green’. She refused to recycle, and detested products that had green marketing. And despised bike paths!
To her, being ‘green’ was some sort of trend statement that went with granola bars and yoga mats.
I’m open to opinions, but being green shouldn’t be viewed as a preference.
That’s all.

Guess who I met later on that night?

Literally a few minutes after I meet Jack Layton, I stumbled into Dora Keogh’s and saw Luba Goy from Royal Canadian Air Farce.

There was some altercation at the bar and she wasn’t having any of it. As she was walking out, I stopped her.

“Whose bothering you? I’ll take care of them!”

“Those people!”

“Well, can you at least stay for a picture?”

And she did! Horrah! She even gave me that crown she had been wearing in that picture.

I then asked her if I could be in any of the sketches on Air Farce. Then it occured to me that the show had been cancelled for a while now. But I’m sure she could hook me up with some TV comedy role…