Ahh...Dry Weather / Dry Skin

I have eczema. Yet another great trait I picked up from my dad (along with bad eyes, and bad teeth). Every winter my skin gets red and itchy on my upper arms, upper leg and cheeks when it gets really bad. When I was young I went to the dermatologist to solve the problem. He/she (I can't remember) told me about

Buff Puff SinglesThey seemed to do the trick through most of high school. It wasn't until Gr. 12 when they stopped selling it in Canada that things started to get worse.

Now every winter I look forward to an itch that can only be satisfied but rolling around on the carpet - much like Baloo the bear from Jungle Book on a tree.
I saw an ad on TV not to long ago for Spectro Eczema relief. So I bought it today. We shall see how it goes.

Rehearsal, zits and bad eyes

Rehearsal keeps ticking on.

Clearly I am a little stressed as I have started breaking out. I am 25. Shouldn't you stop getting zits when you aren't a teenager any more. I have heard no.

Oh, and I think my eyes have changed again. I realize that I got my glasses a whole year ago Sept 13 . But again - 25 years old. My eyes should stop changing every year.

Just when I thought I was a grown up.

Halloween Pictures

Jason Haughey bought a new camera. Now that he has this expensive camera it is out with us all the time and he documents the crap out of everything we do. As such, I don't take a camera any more so I now steal pictures off of other peoples facebook. This explains the delay in the post.

Here I am, a Stepford Wife

Raveigh and Stef both went as Tom Cruise from Risky Business
Tyler as Spiderman, and Logan as an...off duty cop?

Feels like...forever

Sarah got married June 23rd. It is October 30th. And I am still working on her wedding video. Keeping in mind that I was still working on Lindsay and Dan's video until not long before Thanksgiving. But it feels like I have been working on it forever. I would write up a longer blog but I have been on the computer all night and am bored.

End of the run

Yesterday was the closing performance of my lunchbox show. It was a good time. Once we were into a show state I worked three hours a day. Roll in at 10:40, set up the show, sit around and talk for a bit, do a 40 minute show, clean up, type a report, walk home. It was a good deal. The money was good for the work I was doing, which means that the actual pay cheque is small.

I have four days off now. Start Christmas Carol on Thursday. Christmas begins Nov 1st. Break out the trees and lights.

Name and Logo

I have been playing more seriously with the idea of my own little videography company. I guess I have decided on the name Glass Imagery from a post of long ago . This is my first mock up of a potential logo.

What do you think? This is just my art. I will talk to some other "creative" folks to get some opinions. And Logan has a few good ideas we will try. Let me know what you actually think.

Catch up

On the weekend we went out to Canmore again.
Stef hasn't been yet so we thought that was as good a reason as any.
Hung out, walked about, made some dinner, did some drinking.
On Sunday we went to Banff and walked about the streets (which are still being ripped up and repaired). We did a little shopping and then hit the hot springs. It was great fun.

The show is running along now tickittyboo. The playwright came to see the show today. Norm Foster. You may know him from such plays as: Sinners , The Melville Boys, My Darling Judith, The Affections of May , The Motor Trade , Wrong for Each Other , and Office Hours. They are all shows that are readily done. The Melville Boys is actually being done at the Globe in Regina this season. It was pretty neat to meet another Canadian theatre "superstar". I know I am throwing that term around a little loosely - but he is quite famous for what he does.

The show is open. And we have received glowing reviews from both The Calgary Herald and the FastForward. They were both very generous and it has helped our audiences numbers.

"Ever wondered what it would be like to suddenly find yourself summoned before
the Angel of Death for the completion of documents necessary for your new
post-mortem life? Possibly not nearly as amusing as Canadian playwright Norm
Foster pictures it in his latest play, The Death of Me"

times gets funny enough to almost become the death of all of us."

Calgary Herald

FastForward/

House hunting

Logan and I are in a place in our lives when the idea of owning a home is really appealing. We are locked into a lease at the moment - but I am always watching. Just checking out the listing pages. My biggest problem is that we have a HUGE decision to make:

Downtown or Not Downtown

If we stay downtown I can walk to work and avoid astronomical parking fees, or hour long transit rides. We are close to everything and can walk to a bar and meet up with everyone. Downtown living is certainly a way of life.

If we move out of downtown we would head to Country Hill or Harvest Hill which is the area by Logan's district office. He could walk to work, I could take the train and save on gas. We would have a home. Our own space, with grass and space and no one above and below and beside us.

Let's compare:

Downtown:
Mission area (the area we are in right now)
$375,000
2 Bedroom + Den
2 Bathrooms
1116 square feet
Heated underground parking
Gas fireplace, slate/carpet/cork flooring

20 min walk to work for Stacey

19 km – about 24 mins drive for Logan

$0 is parking/transit

Close to everything

Not Downtown:

Country Hills (the area of the District 7 Police Office)

$370,000

3 Bedroom + 1 Downstairs bedroom

1.5 Bathrooms

1250 square feet + 600 downstairs

Double Rear parking pad

Backyard, Office, Laundry room, Storage, a house

17.4 km – bus ride for Stacey

10 min walk for Logan

I go back and forth everyday. I don't know how we are going to make this decision. Go thing we don't know how much a bank would give us for a mortgage. For now, they are hypothetical questions.

Opening "Night"

Today was the opening performance of my show. And it went really well! It was sold out (it is a small theatre so the sell out was 182 people). But they loved it. And that is all you need to feel good about the show you are working on.
After we had a little bit of chocolate cake in the green room and enjoyed our time together.
I like the energy of opening. All the stress of tech and notes sessions drifts away into nervous energy. I love it.

Thanksgiving

This weekend was a long weekend. A holiday. A time for families to be together and share a meal and a prayer of thanksgiving. My family did just that - I however work in theatre. A workplace populated by heathens and those who don't care about family dinners, Sunday brunch after church or any religious holiday. That being said, I worked this weekend.

It was tech weekend - which means long hours and frustration. But after a Saturday and Sunday of hell, Monday brought hope in the form of an audience. 72 smiling, responsive, living people filling the red chairs that have been staring in silence for the past 8 runs of the show. But the hope was crushed by a 4 hour rehearsal following the show.

On my way home I called Logan to ask if they were on their way home from the football game and how many people he was bringing. (I knew that it would be Logan, Rory and I. Rory came to town for the football game and would be staying with us. Nicole was also in town for the weekend with my prof. Bill. They were planning to go home after the game - so they were a big question mark for supper before my rehearsal began.) Logan reported to me that we would be hosting thanksgiving dinner for 7. Rory, Bill, Nicole, Cris, Jen, Logan and I. It went really well. Nicole had most of the work done when I got home from rehearsal. Roast Beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, garlic toast and raw veggies for dipping. She had even picked up a pumpkin pie, which I served along side my own apple pie.

For a person that thought they weren't going to have a big meal with people I love - I was wrong.

Haughey's House Warming Party

On the weekend the Haughey boys had a house warming party. As a house warming gift Logan and I gave them a Texas Mickie of Crown Royal.











We all had a good time. Drank a lot. I am not going to tell you how I know this, but some people were "able to get off with a warning" for blood alcohol level - while some of us failed.

Logan and I stayed the night - so we didn't need to drive. Stef was nice enough to offer up her bed.

Good party. Can't wait for Halloween.

I heard some great news!

I got news today

one of my best friends of all time

got engaged to her long time boyfriend

and the friend that I went to England with.

Congratulations Kendra and Aaron!

(photo from Mel Little's wedding in June 2000)

1st Day of Rehearsal

Today was my first day of rehearsal as Stage Manager for Lunchbox. I felt a little nervous to start. I always do. New pressure, new people, new expectations and days of feeling things out to see who works this way and who works that way and how I fit in. After you figure it out you are half way thru the process and then it is over. Oh well.

It went well, and the first day is over. Now on to paper work, emails and phone calls.

My new lap top

I received my new lap top from Dell. I ordered it for work. If I can take a computer with me into rehearsals that aren't in a conventional place, such as the last show (in the basement of a community center) or this one (in the "theatre" space of the basement of a church). I can take my computer in and save myself a couple extra hours of work every night.

This lap top is one of the new ones you have all seen commercials about - you can choose its colour. I chose espresso. It is great. I love that it has a full size keyboard and a full number pad too. If I am doing paperwork on this thing I need to be able to type.

In other news: Stef and I chopped up another bag of apples tonight. We got another 2 freezer bags full of chopped, cored and skinned apples and 5- 1 litre jars of apples sauce, 3 apples with cinnamon and 2 apples and strawberry. Should be yummy.

Headshots

I received the disc containing the two photos that I chose for my Headshots. One of these will be put in the program and displayed in the lobby of each show I work on. I haven't decided which one to use, or if I switch between them. Theatre Calgary tends to hold onto your headshot and just hold onto it and reuse it for each show.

Which should I use for Theatre Calgary and which should I use for my current show at Lunchbox Theatre?

6 grocery bags of apples

On Sunday night I headed over to Jen's house to pick apples from her mom's backyard. They are huge, the size of your fist. Backyard trees don't usually produce apples of any size. So we picked 13 grocery bags full.

That is alot of apples. I took 6 bags full. Now many of the apples are bruised from an over zealous mom shaking the tree. So I figured that I would not get as much from a bag as I had to cut off the bruise. Not so. I cored and peeled and sliced 1 grocery bag full and made 2 pies and filled 6 freezer bags full of slices ready to go for apples in the future.

I plan to make more jam, and apples sauce and perhaps some apple muffins - but that will only use up a couple more bags. I have offered 2 bags to my aunt. But I am still worried that I will be stuck with a bunch of apples.

Any ideas for what else to make - preferably that I can freeze.

Not So Emergency Alarm

Today while working at my desk a 1st stage fire alarm rang. The Technical Director was in the office with me and we kept working while the alarm rang. The announcement told us to stay put while they investigate. One would think that the time we were given during stage one - we may have taken the time to prepare to evacuate. Not so.

The 2nd stage alarm started and the announcement said to evacuate. I decided that his would be a good time to go home for the day. I took the time to close my programs and shut down the computer, pack up my books and papers neatly and put them in my bag. After this time the Technical Director was still on the computer. We started making our way out, closing doors behind us, running into the couple of other workers still in the theatre.

As we moved into the lobby there were people everywhere. But they were not making their way to the exit. They were sitting having lunch, on the phone or just standing around. I headed toward the escalator and people were coming up. Alarms were sounding, lights flashing and a man announcing the evacuation of the building. As I walked out the door people were heading in off the street - I told them about the evacuation. One lady turned around and walked away, but the other two said "Oh well" and headed in.

Weird. I don't know what ended up happening cause I went home. But it was all very weird.

Lunchbox Theatre

THE DEATH OF ME

A Killer Comedy
By Norm Foster,
Oct. 8 - 27, 2007

Mon. - Sat. 12:10pm Thursday evenings: 5:30pm

When John bargains with the Angel of Death for a

second chance at life, he quickly discovers that fixing

the mistakes of your past is difficult, especially when

there are all sorts of new mistakes to be made.

Today was my first day at Lunchbox Theatre working on The Death of Me. It is a very funny little piece. If I haven't mentioned it before Lunchbox is a theatre that does shows at 12:15pm every weekday. They do a 45 min show for the downtown office crowd. It is a very neat idea. You bring in your bag lunch or what ever you would like and see a live show - usually a comedy or musical. What a way to brighten your day.

The company is over 30 years old, but the people running the place are young and fun but so far appear to be very on top of it. Not that I doubt young people, for I am one myself and feel that I am very capable. I just thought that with the longest running full time staffer has been there for two years they have their shit together. We will see how she goes.

I was in the office today for 4 hours and now plan to work mostly from home for this week. The office space they have given me is not large enough to have the computer monitor, keyboard and my script. All of those peoples integral to the process. So, here I come paperwork.

Day Nine of Nine

Today is my last day off before I just back into the crazy, and all consuming live of theatre. I am excited and nervous to start up with Lunchbox and don't feel like I have prepared enough. Oh well. That is what they are paying me for next week. That and I have had to much fun slacking off this week.

Derek and Rory were in town this weekend. We went out for breakfast yesterday after an interesting game of run around as they tried to secure tickets to the Riders / Stamps game. We drove them to the game and they seemed to enjoy themselves. The game didn't go well - but they did discover why people from Sask can drink. They need to in order to make it thru a game.

We went out for dinner and then the three of us drove Logan to work. I have never been in a cop car so he grabbed some keys and let us hop in. He wasn't on duty yet so we couldn't take it out for a drive or log onto their in car computer system - but it was still cool.

Then we headed out to Wildwood for a drink where the three of us ordered the sample tray of all of the beers that they brew. It was fun to compare and sip and discuss the flavours. Stef, Jason, Tyler and Raveigh joined us for a bit. Back to our place for a quick game of Wii and then had to put the pooped travellers to bed.

Today I want to finish up all the things that I really didn't get around to like I had planned. Let us review the checklist

- Prepare for starting prep week at Lunchbox Theatre
- Sew slip cover for the Haughey's pink and purple couch
- Complete Sarah and Tyler's Wedding Video

Okay, I did prepare a bit. Reread the opening of a guide to create my checklists for starting at a new theatre. Had the script emailed to me. Contacted equity (the theatre professionals association) to learn how much money I had to give them in order to work but for them to do nothing for me. But I didn't organize my shit - my literal stationary, binders etc to see what I need to replace. It is like starting school again.

I did complete the slip cover for the couch. And it looks really good I might add. It did take me three 8 hour sessions (including fabric shopping). But it is complete. One check mark for me!

I am not even close to finishing Sarah's wedding video. I have completed their Getting Ready segment. It will certainly be the hardest part because I captured almost two hours of video between the salon and her house. I got it down to 22 minutes. That is pretty damn good if I do say so myself.

I guess I did enough. Entertained, created and enjoyed. Couldn't ask for much more.

Health Claims

In July you may remember me getting the Gardasil Vaccine. And if you will remember it was sparked because we received a newsletter from Blue Cross saying that it would now be covered. So when they gynecologist and my doctor suggested it I did it. I sent in my claim and have been waiting for a huge cheque in the mail. Instead I received a letter saying that it wasn't covered. I just got off the phone with Blue Cross looking for an explanation. You are not going to guess what the reason is. It was administered in a doctor's office. Yup. She snotty lady on the phone said the drug is covered but not if you get it done at the doctor.
"So I am supposed to give myself the shot?"
"Uh, no. You could go to a clinic"
"So I am supposed to go to a walk in clinic or family planning clinic but my own doctor can't do it."
"That is right."

That is possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard - just behind "yeah, we are Best Buy but we don't accept the Best Buy Credit Card."

Without the snotty ladies help I have figured out a way around this. Purchase at Shoppers and then take it to the doctor. It costs way more at Shoppers but I can claim it. The shot is a series of three. So the one that is already done can be claimed under misc expenses and it will mostly be covered. The next will be covered under my drug plan if they don't know the doctor did it. And the last will be in the new year so I should be able to claim it again - or if not - thru the renewed misc expenses which renews in Jan.

Now the problem with my glasses:

On Monday I decided enough was enough, I was going to tell Lens Crafters whats what. I got these glasses in Sept of last year. I have always felt that I was not seeing as well as I should for a new prescription. I have gone back 3 times and each time they have said they are the right prescription we can adjust frame if you would like. The one time they adjusted it so high on my nose (so that my vision was clear) that I looked ridiculous that I had them adjust them back and left pissed off. This time I was gonna have none of that. I realized after wearing my contacts the other day that the glasses were way off. I can see better with contacts that are 2 prescriptions behind my glasses.

We marched into Lens Crafters and told the first lady. She seemed not to speak English so she got someone else. That lady took my glasses and had a pow wow with several other ladies in lab coats. I was expecting "I am sorry, you have had them for a year, clearly your eyes have changed and it is your fault, not ours." When she returned she didn't do that at all. "The focal point of your glasses is in the middle of the frame but your eyes are lower than that. If you give me an hour I can replace the lenses. The only thing is I don't have the Featherweights in so I will have to upgrade you to Index lens." (which by the way is the lens I had wanted/ requested in the first place because they are way thinner than the coke bottle look I get without).

They fixed them and they are good now. We think that they pulled up my profile and saw who took the order in the first place. She was training and I remember feeling like I knew more about glasses than she did. This is the only good thing I have to say about Lens Crafters. If you are in need of glasses *Don't go to Lens Crafters!*

Day Two

Today is the second day of nine days off before I go back to my actual job, my career, what I have worked toward for so long, the reason I have to go thru summers of crap.

So far, yesterday, I uploaded Sarah's wedding onto the computer and solved major problem that has been haunting the stupid thing for weeks. My editing program auto saved three files that were each 10Gb to the hard drive. Deleting those saved almost half of the memory space. We also went out to Original Joes for drinks.

Today I did the laundry and hung out with Logan during the day. We did a little searching on the web for homes for sale. We looked at stuff downtown and places out by his district office (very far away from downtown. The express bus takes 30 min). For the same absurd amount of money we can buy a two bedroom house with garage or apartment style condo of 800 sq ft. Depressing. I think we will stay put for a little longer.

I have begun editing Sarah's Wedding and hope to complete it by the end of my 9 days.

Checklist for my time off:
- Prepare for starting prep week at Lunchbox Theatre
- Sew slip cover for the Haughey's pink and purple couch
- Complete Sarah and Tyler's Wedding Video

We will see how she goes.

No more

Ahhh... last day.

No more Shoppers Drug Mart

I am not gonna lie, I am not gonna miss it.

A pictural post

On Sunday was the Beatty Challenge. A golf tournament for my mom's side of the family. It almost didn't happen this year. There were whispers of people putting something together but my cousin Kari and I decided to take the reins.

High Wood Golf & Country Club, High River AB


Team #1: Uncle Bob, Lorne, Stef, Andy


Team #2: Stacey, Uncle Ron, Auntie Sharon, Lu

Team #3: Mat, Kari, Logan, Uncle Laird






Back to the club house for a prime rib dinner.





Then a quick drive to Uncle Bob & Lu's for some more drinks (perhaps some had enough already?)



Stacey certainly had enough


-drinking in the cart ................................. at dinner

-laughing fits on the deck


And the Winners Are...


Dad won a First Aid Kit ..............Logan won Stamps Tickets
for dangers behaviour ..................for longest putt
(cart accident)

3rd Place

2nd Place 1st Plac