My kids (and who am I kidding, me too) are big fans of this YTV show called In Real Life. It’s a sort of game show for kids aged 12 to 14 from across Canada. The kids are put into teams of two, and then each week the teams face the challenge of taking on a different real life job. For example, this fall they took turns at being beekeepers, army recruits, baseball stadium workers, and stunt pilots. It’s cool, yo.

They just finished their third season and like the two previous seasons, we’ve kept all the episodes on the PVR for repeated watching. I think we weatched the first season, in its entirety (of about 12 episodes) at least 10 times over. I felt like those kids were my kids. Each of my own children adopted a favourite and hopefully the Captain won’t kill me some day when he reads this blog and finds out I told the world he cried when his favourite guy was eliminted. It’s no shame to care, dude!

Last summer we went to an Ottawa Fury Woman’s Soccer Game at Algonquin College. We’d never been there before and we took a wrong turn into the parking lot, ending up in a different lot. In that other lot, there were a bunch of half-built sheds set up and some TV cameras and a bunch of teams wearing different colours standing around. We could tell they were making some sort of TV show but at the time we thought it was possibly Canada’s Worst Handyman, and moved on.

Turns out they were filming episode three of season three of In Real Life – and we were RIGHT THERE. I’m still kicking myself at the lost chance to hop out and meet the host, Sabrina Jalees. My kids (and who am I kidding, me too) would have just melted with admiration. Then I would have totally dominated the conversation while my children clammed up in terror just like they do in the face of Santa.

(Side note: My kids are SO in awe of Santa that they never find the strength to say anything to him when we visit each year. This isn’t a problem at all for me because we don’t do The Photo With Santa thing, we just drop by to say hi, so they can be as shy as they like. Plus, I get to suggest a present for each in lieu of them being able to ask for themselves:

Santa: What would you like for Christmas, little boy?
Captain: ….
Me: Wouldn’t an Alien Conquest Lego set in the $35 dollar range be perfect?
Captain: [nods dumbly with wide saucer eyes]
Santa: Very good then.
Me: [cackles inside and congratulates self on already purchasing said Lego set]

And scene.)

So since I went and blew my chance to meet Sabrina and possibly get in the background of an In Real Life episode (likely squealing with delight and waving around an autograph book, I am SHAMELESS), let me just say this: Sabrina! Love the show! Huge fan! Keep it coming! Call me!