We are moving

Well, on Saturday night we had another run in with our Resident Manager. She has a little bit of a problem abusing the power she has been given. I may or may not have written about this before, but this is not the first time. She actually informed me that it was the 6th time she has told us to be quiet. Usually what happens is: we are in our apartment doing nothing terribly loud (eg, having a couple people over, watching a movie, climbing the stairs - or not, or even sitting at our kitchen table carving a pumpkin.) She came to the door and I answered knowing full well what was about to happen. We had a small argument where she would say something and I would repeat what she said with the accent on a different word. Dumb ***** "We all have to live here." Me "Yeah, we all have to live here." Needless to say the argument went no where. The last time this happened we called the manager of the building to let him know what was happening. This time she threatened me if I was to call him again, and then threatened me with a written warning.

So we got a written warning - and a fire under our butt to move. Can't live with a crazy lady with too much power living right under you.

So we have been searching for a new apartment and have 4 viewings lined up before the end of the weekend, one tonight. Wish us luck!

Catch up

So my first week of rehearsals with Quest Theatre on The Curse of Shri children's play is complete. It started off quite a bit of work. Then we started rehearsals and the first few days have been fun. And lately I have been feeling the difference between working in an A house (the most prestigious, largest and best paying venues) and Theatre for Young Audiences (close to the opposite of the previous bracket). Never the less, it is a job, I am the stage manager and it will look great on my resume, and an interesting experience in patience and planning (and keeping my mouth shut).

As a perk (and a long story I won't go into now) I was given the very odd stat. holiday, Family Day, off. This is the second or third year for Alberta to have Family Day and the first time around for Sask. And I don't think any other province has picked up this odd three day weekend in February. On this occasion Logan and I decided to go home. Further to that long story mentioned above, I flew home on Saturday night. Logan and two friends of ours; Jen and Jason, drove with Logan on Friday after work. We had a great time. Not near long enough to see even half my list of must sees - but it was short notice and I was there for only one full day.

We had a good time at the Kotlar's for a early birthday party for Logan on Saturday night:

Above is Dad doing his drunk giggle, Stef laughing and Owein being embarrassed for the both of them.

Sunday we spent the day visiting. Stef and I went to Lisa & Curtis' and got to try out the New Nintendo Wii. Good fun.

And then Sunday night it was over to the Glass House. For much boozing and a little bit of the game Pit.

This is Jason and I after we feel off a stool...

... trying to take this picture.

Going home is always a good time! Especially when you wake up Monday morning and have to drive home with Sambuca shots still rolling in your belly!

Catch Up!

To wrap up my time on The Retreat From Moscow I will add some pictures to my blog. Here you will see Gina Moe the Stage Manager and myself.

And here Mr. Duncan Ollerenshaw - Calgary Actor, Ms. Martha Henry - First Lady of Canadian Theatre primiarily of Stratford Festival, and Mr. David Scherman - of Shaw Festival. If you Google the two latter names you are sure to see the amazing career that they have had - and I have had the opportunity to work with them. Yeah for me!

A Short Blog From Log

Wow, my first time "blogging". don't like talking about my training because it seems like it's all I ever do, and I don't want to be one of those people that other people say 'shut up about the cop thing already...'. Here goes:
I love it. The people that are in my group are great, and so are our instructors. The instructors are very level-headed and make us do very difficult tasks, but always include an explanation as to how this will help us. The majority of Police officers are great people. We are told what we can and can not do constantly, but they throw in a side note of "but if there are kids involved, do whatever you can", letting us know that we may be sued civily for our actions....but would you want to save a child's life and get sued, or let one die? It won't seem like it when you get your speeding ticket (I have lots!), but most cops really want to help. I know I have been sitting at a red light and a cop car will turn on the lights, blow through the light, then turn them off again and I thought 'fresh batch of doughnuts eh??' but now I think....I wonder if that guy has a 1 month old baby at home and is enroute to a sids death, or rape-home invasion.
I'm just lucky that I have Stacey and my family and God to keep me flying steady.

First time bloggin'....hmmmm. It was ok, but don't hold your breath.

Happy Valentine's Day

Who says red wine and pizza don't go together?

Logan and I both worked until 5 today - and then there is the drive home. Did I complain about that yet? I hate rush hour. Since we have moved here I have either walked to work - or when I was working at Westjet - was going the opposite direction of rush hour the whole way. Well, by time we make it home it is 6:00. And I had forgotten to take out the steaks we were planning on having for supper. So Logan wanted pizza. So pizza it is. Panago pizza and red wine. We were also planning on having a little fondue with the chocolate and fruit we have in the house. With both of us working early mornings it is hard to say if we will be awake enough to feel hungry for dessert before we go to bed.

Hope you all told your Valentine's you loved them!

Nothing new

There doesn't seem to be anything new to report, but I haven't written in a while so I thought that I should. Today is the first day of the last week of The Retreat from Moscow. I have also started prep on my next show The Curse of Shri - a children's show with Quest Theatre. I am the stage manager on this one and am starting to feel nervous. All the work is on my shoulders, not just assigned to me by someone else. Oh well. I have spent many hours today (and right now during the show) typing out the script. I was given a copy that has rewrites in pencil all over it. I tried to scan it in, but if you have ever tried text recognition on a scanner you will know that if you type quickly it is just as fast to retype. But it is time consuming. Good thing it is short!

Homesick

I haven't been home since the last weekend of August. This is the longest I have been away from home - correct - Regina. Even when I went to England it wasn't this long. I see my sister about once a week, and my mom I went to Vegas with in Oct and she came to Calgary for the Dixie Chicks in Nov, and my brother came for his birthday in early Dec. But I haven't seen my dad in forever! Or my grandparents. Family is so important. I especially feel that this has been a long time because we all used to get together on Sunday. Sometimes both families in one day, Church and then brunch with the Glass family and then supper with the Beatty's. And everyone in the city would be there. It is what I have come to think of as Sunday. I haven't had a Sunday supper in I don't know how long. And we are having one tomorrow. Auntie Shelley is cooking and I only have a matinee with no evening show! Yeah family dinner. It will be nice.

Proactive Defensive Driving Coarse

Now that I have gotten over feeling bad about not paying attention to the show I can tell you what I did today. I went to a Proactive Defensive Driving Coarse. Most of the people were there because they wanted to reduce their demerits. I was there because the next show I am working on is a in city tour - and I have to drive the company van.

What a waste of eight hours. Sitting in a room with delinquents talking about the cons of speeding and drinking and driving. All I really walked away with was a renewed sense of how dangerous it is to drive. Like I needed a reminder. I am living in a city of a million people that has outgrown it's current roadways long before they thought - and we had a huge dump of snow yesterday and it is like the people of Calgary have never seen it before! (it took me over twenty minutes, not in rush hour to get from home to work - I can walk there in that time) I am already afraid for my life when I'm behind the wheel.

But the long and the short of it is, I got 98% on the end of class test, got the certificate and will be able to do my next contract. As a bonus, if I get any demerits in the next 2 years this coarse will erase them - and the company paid for it!

In the middle of a show

Well, this show doesn't have a lot for me to do. When I sit back stage I sit right outside the head stage carpenter's office. This show is so slow that he is on a two week leave to go back and work for Cirque de Soleil. They have brought on someone else. He quickly realized that there is nothing to do and is sitting in the green room reading. So I thought I'd jump on the computer and check out what everyone else in the world is doing - via blogs - but feel a little bad about blogging myself. Oh well, the last show and my next show will make up for my slack performance on this show.