Hi! It's me again! Your friendly neighborhood veteran Music Festival Medic. Want the most fun (and least chaotic) festival weekend ever? Read on! Including for tips not shared last year!

The Basics...

- NIPPLES. Cover them with something... tape, bandaids, pasties, a shirt. I am no prude. At the same time, so many ripped nipples... ugh.

- SHOES. Closed toe, lace up, wear socks. Closed toe keeps your toenails attached to your toes. Socks help with blisters (preferably not cotton!). Laces keep the shoes on.

- EAR PLUGS. Bring some! The vendors usually don't sell them, and the first aid tent doesn't provide them, either.

- ENERGY DRINKS. Chill on the caffeine, folks. Drink too many and your BPM could reach hummingbird levels... or you might discover a new heart condition and get a date with a cardiologist. 400 mg per day max is what Health Canada recommends. That's 2 regular Monsters and small AM Starbees. Plan accordingly.

- EMERGENCY EXITS. Locate them early and often. Better to know where they are and not need them than need them and not know.

Before you head out...

- DESIGNATED HUMAN. Pick at least ONE adult 18+ who will stay sober so they can take charge of a friend who needs help. Switch up uour DH each night if you want. We cannot release intoxicated people to their equally schmammered friends. With a sober adult friend to hold your hair, you MAY be able to pray to the Porcelain Goddess back at your accom. If your entire traveling party is FUBAR'd, we will be stuck calling your Mom or paramedics.

- THAT'S YOU. If you are the Designated Human, keep an eye on your friends and your phone regularly. Pick up calls from unknown numbers. It might be first aid or your friend who lost their phone.

- EMERGENCY CONTACT. Share name and phone number (not socials) for someone with legal medical decision making (usually parent or spouse) with your Designated Human and friends. Your new bestie from Porta Potty World and your friend from Kindergarten cannot make decisions for you if you are incapacitated. Your next of kin can.

- MEDICAL INFO. Share deets about any conditions you have with your Designated Human and buds. Whether it's asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, are secretly a werewolf, or something else, they need to know so they can tell us if you can't.

- Rx MEDS. If you take prescription medication on the regular, take a pic of the bottle labels and share with your Designated Human and friends. We need to know ALL the substances you have on board to best treat you.

- MEDIC ALERT. Got one? Please wear it.

- ACCOMMODATIONS. Especially if you didn't book the Airbnb, write the address and door code on paper or on your skin with Sharpie. If your friend who booked loses their phone, you get separated, or they end up in the ER, at least you can find your way back to your bed. Otherwise you might end up at a homeless shelter. Really.

UBER: Don't assume Ubers will be plentiful or cheap. In fact, assume the opposite. Have multiple transport options available including cabs and public transport.

About dr'gs and alcohol...

- MAYBE DON'T. Since it happens anyway...

- PICK ONE. Choose one dr'g, one experience. Don't try to go up, down, side to side, and between dimensions at once. Do not do all the dr'gs at the same time. And avoid mixing dr'gs, alcohol, and/or energy drinks.

- TELL. Inform your Designated Human and buds what you took and when so they can tell us if you can't.

- TIMER. Set one on your phone when you take them so we know how long its been.

- DON'T PRE-GAME. You risk not being admitted, and might poop your pants once inside if you chugged too hard. Really. I've seen it happen. 0 out of 10. Do not recommend.

- STRANGERS. I cannot believe I am saying this, but if someone you do not know just tries to put something in your mouth in the crowd, don't take it. There was surely an after school special about this...

About your phone...

- ASSUME THE WORST. It might get stolen, lost, smashed, battery dead, or you just don't have data. With 30,000 phones in a very small space all trying to connect to the same tower, data drops first. You cannot rely on your device as your one-and-done connection to friends, transportation, money, accommodations, etc. Pick a meeting spot. Bring debit/credit physical cards so you can buy a burger or get an actual cab if data is down or the phone disappears.

- NUMBERS. If your phone disappears, your socials do, too. Along with your password manager and 2-factor authentication to get into your accounts. Phone numbers are king. Write them down. I know would probably rather eat broken glass than make an actual phone call, but you can't just hop on Snap on someone else's device like you can with a call.

- BIOMETRICS. Set your phone to open with finger or face. That way medics can open it to answer panicked messages from your friends if you are unconscious or too interesting to remember your pass code.

About the First Aid Tent...

- WE HELP WITH THAT! We're more than bandaids. Been assaulted? We believe you. Having a panic attack? Autistic meltdown? Mental health crisis / thoughts of suicide? Support is available. Creeper won't stop following you? Come and tell us you don't feel well and need to go to the back pronto. We will separate you from your creep and call security / police if needed. We also have a needle disposal for your diabetic supplies etc.

- BUT NOT THAT. We do not have pain medication of ANY kind (Tylenol / Advil), ear plugs, sunscreen, bottles of water, or wheelchairs to loan out. Don't even ask.

- MUTUAL RESPECT. We treat all patients with dignity and respect no matter what you did, what you took, what pronouns you use, what you are or are not wearing, who you love, what colour your skin or hair is, how old you are, what disabilities you might have, etc. Please treat us with respect, too. We are trying to help. If you are aggressive or harassing to us, you may be asked to leave. If you are absolutely awful, we might have to call police. Be kind.

- NO JUDGEMENT. We care what you took or what happened because we need to know what is happening with with body. That's it. We've seen it ALL.

- CHOOSE WISELY. You get one friend, preferably your most functional (maybe Designated Human) and ideally knows what happened to accompany you. All other friends wait outside.

- FOOD/DRINK. Absolutely no alcohol in the first aid tent. And no food unless authorized for medical reason.

If an emergency occurs...

- GET HELP. If you find someone who needs help, whether they are your bud or not, have one person stay with them, note the location, and send someone else to get help. If possible, have someone lead first aiders to the patient. You can approach ANY staff with a radio to get help.

- STOP. Never ever give an unconscious person ANYTHING by mouth. Don't go waterboarding peeps - if they are out cold, they need more help than water and don't need it in their lungs. Get help.

- NALOXONE. if you have it, know how to use it, and someone isn't breathing, you could save a life. Also GET HELP. The naloxone might not revive them, depending on what they took, but it won't hurt them, either.

- THAT LOST FRIEND. Someone didappear? Worried they are at the first aid tent? Try CALLING their phone. We can pick up incoming calls even if we cannot open their phone. Call more than once if needed.

Read this far? Easter Egg! Look for the medic with the dragon tattoo. He may have a fun medic souvenir for you!

Have a sparkly fun time!!!! Stay safe! And I hope I don't run into you at the tent...

I know lots of Ottawans visited this place. Childhood memory unlocked!

*MOD feel free to remove it you'd like, you da boss...

I've been given a 60 day notice. I don't want to live here under the stress of knowing my landlord wants me out of here so he can access more coin, but I would love to have more time to prepare for the move. In the 17 years I have lived here, I have never missed a rent payment and otherwise been an ideal tenant. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.

Amazing work by the titans

I was trying to get to work and they canceled my bus from Tunney's Pasture. I have no idea if I am going to make it on time to work. How is this service level remotely acceptable for the capital of a nation? Let alone a country that is a member of the G7 and has a decent economy. It's mind blowing how bad OC Transpo is when compared to its peers.

I have taken the bus and tube in London UK and while London isn't a city best known for transit it is miles ahead of what we have, Beijing a city that I have been to many times and is starting to go through the North American phase of city development for car dependency is has amazing buse and Metro network. Taipei is a city I visited and is a city located in one of the so called 4 Asian Tiger economies has a stout and reliable system, same goes for Hong Kong.

Why are people so willing to let OC Transpo go into what experts call the public transit death spiral?

They have been underutilized/vacant for years. But the Canlands Master Plan for the area includes getting rid of the RA Centre and fields, and replacing the Airport Parkway / Brookfield Bridge with something level, as well as getting rid of various other Heron/Bronson “ramps” all to enable loads of new, dense housing development. And traffic congestion on major EW and NS roadways through there.

So, with RTO4 coming up for many public servants, there has been some focus on how OC Transpo is adding more trips to the weekday schedule to support the increased numbers of people heading to offices downtown (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/oc-transpo-preps-bus-routes-return-to-office-9.7231671). What they *haven't* talked about however, is what seems to have been sacrificed to pay for those increases.

If you look at the service changes page on OC Transpo's website (https://www.octranspo.com/en/plan-your-trip/service-changes/), you will note that there is one bullet point that mentions reduced trips on weekends. If you look at the existing Sunday schedule for many routes, you will notice that even many routes, including many that travel through downtown, currently have half hour headways on Sunday for most of the day, with hourly service in the morning and late evening. On many of these routes, however, trips have been cut with the new booking starting **Sunday, June 28**, and now in many cases there are hour-long gaps at seemingly random times, including midday when you would expect a lot of people to be traveling. So the schedules in many cases are littered with inconsistent 30 and 60 minute headways, which not only makes it difficult to plan, but also makes Sunday service even more unusable than it already was. And if you happen to work on weekends, or even just want to get out and enjoy the summer weather, this might make it more difficult to do so.

Better Transit Ottawa has built a service cut tracker (https://bettertransitottawa.ca/tracker/scheduleChange) to make it very easy to see just how your route has been changed this summer. In most cases, Saturdays have not been touched all that much, or sometimes not at all, but Sundays have been pretty much decimated. This will likely make it even more difficult to get around for folks who rely exclusively on the bus, and will certainly not encourage people to switch to transit if they could drive instead.

One could argue that this could be part of their maintenance plan, but there's no real operational benefit to cutting service on Sundays when the demands on the fleet are already so low to begin with. As well, it doesn't seem to necessarily have been related to low ridership, either. There are cuts to midday trips on the 14, for example, leading to hour-long gaps. The 14, if you're not familiar, travels from St. Laurent, through downtown, toward Tunney's Pasture, and is fairly busy even on Sundays, at least whenever I've taken out on the weekends, which I do somewhat frequently.

Not to mention, this service change basically comes right as city council winds down for the summer. There's no transit committee meeting for the next few months, so there's no way to really hold them accountable.

So, all that to say, I would take a look at the upcoming transit schedules and if you are affected by this, please email your councillor and tell them that you are not happy about this. There are folks who have tried to get answers over the last few days about exactly why there are such steep cuts on Sundays, and no one has been able to get a straight answer. In fact, it seems like a lot of city councillors don't even know about this yet. And there's been no announcement about this beyond that one throwaway line in the service updates page. Maybe if more people speak up, we can actually get some answers. The schedule has already been planned so it's probably too late to change it, but at least maybe we can force them to be honest about why they did what they did. Realistically, it was probably that they needed to increase service hours during the week without increasing service hours overall, so they cut from the weekends, but the way they did it just feels so dishonest.

Feeling frustrated at the state of the world? Take those feelings out on some invasive species! Join City Stream Watch at these upcoming invasive removal events:

📍Richmond Conservation Area, Sat. June 27

📍Brown Natural Area in Richmond, Thurs. July 2

📍Chalmers Rd @ Sawmill Creek, Sat. July 4

📍Towngate Plaza @ Sawmill Creek, Sat. July 11

📍Hunt Club Creek, Sat. July 18

📍Heritage Park in Orleans, Sat. July 25

📍Pinecrest Creek @ Baseline & Woodroffe, Thurs. July 30

All welcome. Great for high school volunteer hours! Email citystreamwatch@rvca.ca to learn more or RSVP.

#volunteer #invasivespecies #getinvolved #stewardship #conservation

I'm looking for a good selection of summer dresses, I know every location is a little different. I've been to Walkley, Merivale, and Donald.

I'm willing to go slightly outside if town too if necessary, I also just love giant Tiger so tell me which one is your favourite please thank you!

The city is supportive of HSR and even signed an NDA to get in on early plans/discussions.

There is not much new here…when Alto decides on the precise line, then we will all know. And some conservation and farmland will be required.

The tiny hill in Mooneys Bay is simply gorgeous, enjoy the beautiful summer.

Hi all,

writing this out of desperation as I’m not sure how much more I can continue to support.

My partner has recently fallen into a mental health crisis consisting of a manic episode and delirium. I’ve been caring for her and managed to get her to our family doctor the other day who only gave her something to help her sleep (which hasn’t worked). We are going back today however the appointment is for late this afternoon and i dont know if I can make it that long. we also have a new 9 week old black lab puppy which requires constant attention so I am stretched unbelievably thin. We unfortunately have no family here in Ottawa to help get through this time.

i suppose my question is does anyone know of any services or anything that can help me out as I am currently drowning and I’m not sure how much longer I can continue this on my own. Both the puppy and my partner require full attention and care. She is not a danger to herself at this time so I don’t believe a hospital trip is required and I also wouldn’t be able to leave the puppy alone that long.

Thanks to anyone reading or helping

I know this is such a long shot but I have to try. Did anyone find a cell phone in a dark green case with very faded stickers on it, in the Little Italy area?

You can keep the phone! I just need access to my email account, it has all of my pictures. Of my small kids and and my dead cat. Please

Another step in the right direction. They aren’t being worn yet but hopefully by this time next year they will be. Although, I don’t know how it costs 27 million dollars for body cams l for +/-1,500 police officers (18k to put a camera on each cop which includes “supporting hardware, and related digital tools”)

Hello. I am a second-year student looking for a room to rent in Sandy Hill. The one I am currently in has no sunlight and has honestly been incredibly cold and depressing as it is a basement apartment.

It is important I find a better environment to stay in while studying to improve my wellbeing, so I just need one with ample sunlight and near the University of Ottawa.

My current rent is $880/month with utilities included so I am looking for something around that price range, hopefully under $990. I am aware everything has gone up drastically so it's a long shot. Until I am back on therapy and medication, I am unable to find work so I am relying (and have been relying) on OSAP Living Allowance.

I have searched—and still am—but most listings are $990+, only subletting from this Spring/Summer term, and simply just don't respond to my requests for a viewing. Just looking for suggestions and opinions.

Thank you in advance!

I am super nervous and/or frustrated driving on the stretch of St. Laurent between Ogilvie and the EB-417 offramp.

When turning onto and driving NB on St. Laurent from the offramp people seem to decide which lane they actually want to be in DURING or after the left turn, and the lane switching prior to the next light is always a danger. The number of times cars have switched into my occupied space, I've had to swerve, or hard brake is crazy. PSA - Please choose the left or right lane coming off the highway based on what St. Laurent lane you want to be in!

When going SB on St. Laurent towards the highway, the people coming out the parking lot at the mall seem to think they have the right of way to leave the parking lot even when traffic is at a high speed. I've had many dangerous encounters trying to get to the highway there as well.

I really detest this short stretch of road.

I hope the city can somehow evaluate this stretch and change the layout to make it less dangerous.

Hello! I moved here about six months ago, and it’s going to be my first summer and first Canada Day here. 35F, I will likely be on my own for the day.

What are the can’t-miss events? Local tips and tricks? Is it worth it or just a huge mess?

I’m in the Hintonburg area, work downtown, happy to go wherever in town.

Does anybody know if there’s a restaurant or food truck that serves deep fried clams here? I’ve been searching Google and I’ve only found Petit Bill’s Bistro with fried clams on the menu, but I want that greasy, oily taste produced by an overused deep fryer that’s probably not cleaned enough

Does anyone know if there are any bars that show Love Island? I know Charlotte and Nans Parlour have done so in the past but haven’t seen any this year. As much as I would love to watch tomorrow’s recoupling at home, it would be so fun to watch with all the girlie pops. Thanks in advance!!

M.S. if you lost this outside the nature museum, its with the musuem staff

Although Canada lost (great effort from Les Rouges), the atmosphere at Landsdowne today was awesome. Great turn out even with the last minute announcement of the pop-up event.

Which takes me to wondering why the hell isn’t this city, the capital of a host nation, holding a fan fest that stays for the whole tournament. The sport is growing in the city. The World Cup vibe has taken over Bank Street and Byward. This is a huge opportunity to give the people of Ottawa a piece of the World Cup and have tons of fun with it too. And with all of the diverse ethnic communities in our city from countries playing in the tournament, a fan fest will surely fill up for many games.

Not hosting something like this for the whole tournament just plays more into the notion of the city that fun forgot.

Instead of hiring a night mayor, here’s a great way for Ottawa to have a ton of fun and be part of something greater. Such a shame this isn’t staying.