There’s no one I’d rather get stuck in the middle of nowhere with than Aleysa. So luckily when my car broke down on the highway about an hour outside of Toronto, she was my willing passenger. After realizing something was seriously wrong, Aleysa said “put it in neutral, I’ll push it off to the side”. I’ll note here that both Aleysa and I were wearing our summer sundress bests having just come from a very civilized weekend in the country. No matter. She pushed, I steered, we got out of harms way. While she made calls on her phone to find a tow truck, I waved over a van with coincidentally “Alternators & Starters” written on the side. And after a quick inspection, turned out it was indeed my alternator that died. So for the next hour, while our saviour stranger went to work, we had an amazing time, photoshoot and all.

That’s the other reason Aleysa is the best person to be stranded with. She knows how to squeeze the ultimate amount of fun out of any situation. Within seconds she had the local beer we bought up North in hand, telling me THIS should be our “drink”. No, I thought, it doesn’t follow the rules, we didn’t make a plan, the photo won’t match the format… . While others in my life might agree and suggest a time we could meet for real, Aleysa just gave me a look that made me realize my rigid ridiculousness.

In ways we’re quite similar. We both are (semi)mature career women who know how to get shit done. She makes commercial, I make television. We’re both motivated procrastinators who put way more time and energy into other people’s projects than our own. We both love to eat but where Aleysa is a phenomenal cook, I prefer to eat what Aleysa makes for me. She is hands down a good time gal who I’m thrilled to call a new friend. But more than bringing the party, what I like best about Aleysa is her motherly quality. She will hate that but it’s true. She’s the person I ask the proper oil to lemon proportions for dressing, what colour would most suit my walls, what I should do with my back yard, what’s too much to pay for a purse I will “have forever”, what TV series I should download next, what are the must see movies at TIFF… whatever it is, she just seems to know. Except when it came to how much it costs to get an new alternator, she was at a loss.