The A-Bomb

I haven’t updated this thing in a long while. Well that’s mostly because I’ve been really busy at school this semester, but also because I’ve had little inspiration to post things. So I decided I’d write a little ‘catch up’ post, in regards to my school year so far. IN NOVEL FORM.

Bond and Blonde

CHAPTER 1: THE EMPRESS ENDS

My summer job finished, and when all was said and done, it was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Not only was I doing theatre, and getting paid for it, but I was learning so many new skills and getting to know a group of awesome people. That job has granted me some FFLs (Friends For Life) and I’m really grateful for that.

While I only had a few weeks after that job ended before school started, it was a pretty great time. I got to see some old friends and some new friends, I got to go to the Calgary Zoo again, and more or less had time to relax before school began in September. It was actually a little nerve wracking, as I had told myself to become more involved in drama-related things at school and I was worried I’d have a terrible experience with it again…luckily that was not the case.

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So today was a looong day as we had our ‘Fam Tour’ (Familiarization Tour) for the southwestern area of Alberta. Basically we had to drive around in a bus and visit various tourist attractions so we can tell people visiting the Empress Theatre about them. I’m quite sleepy now, and they fed me way too much food. But there will be a full Trip Report for that later, once I get all the pictures uploaded.

Things have changed drastically in the past month, and I’m still adjusting. I’m infinitely happy that I got this job at the Theatre for the summer because otherwise I might have been going out of my mind bored. They’re all great people I work with too, and while we may be sick of each other when August ends, for now I’m having a blast. Also we found out today that we can go horseback riding/whitewater rafting for free since we work in the ‘tourism industry’ of Alberta. So that’s probably something we’ll do later this month, and I’m super excited for that. It’s half research as I have to ride a fake horse in the one play we’re doing so this will make it possible to be more realistic. Let’s hope!

Have I mentioned how freaking nervous I am for this production? One of the plays I have a small(er) part and I’m already off book. So I’m not too worried about that one, but the other one I play the lead role and the character has like 20 monologues throughout the play. Not only that but I need to make convincing interactions with a fake/invisible horse and that will be the most challenging part. I think it will be a great experience for me though.

I’ve decided I’m going to try to become more active in the drama community next year during school. I was always kind of weary of getting involved in those things as my first year I got hurt pretty bad by the drama students. But I’m more confident now, and I’m SO excited for The BFG next spring, which I’m going to work my ass off for because I want to be in that play SO bad. I’ve also started writing more, and I hope to have the first draft of my current play done by the time summer is over. Then I have some ideas for more plays to write, and if I never get these produced I won’t mind because I enjoy the writing process. But maybe a Theatre Xtra would be a good place to try my hand at getting some of my writing produced?

So I am still trying to find my place in the world. Corny I know, but it’s true. I’ve never really had a ’solid’ group of friends or people that I connect with in all aspects. I guess I can think of that as a positive thing, that I’m so ‘unique’ that there is no one else like me, but it still is a hard thing to go through. I’m really thankful to have so many great friends that care about me, but I still feel forgotten and/or out of place most of the time. This may sound like I’m being all emo again, but I’m honestly not trying to sound that way. I have learned a lot about myself the past few years, and I realize that I need to worry more about enjoying the ride than looking for a destination.

I like driving metaphors, I dunno why.

This was the awesome cake my mom made me for my birthday party a few weeks ago. It’s probably the greatest thing ever created. (It’s a dinosaur)

So yesterday was my first school booking for a day long workshop at the Empress. We had a class of 19 grade 5 kids come to the theater so we could teach them how to act crazy and create stories. I had a little bit of experience teaching children during my Theater for Young Audiences class, but I was still a little nervous. Kids are hard to predict, and sometimes there are perfectly happy and well behaved little angels and other times there are evil little miscreants who never listen and hate everything about you. So I went into it with a positive attitude, and while they weren’t nearly as bad as I thought there was still some little punks who we immediately recognized as ‘trouble makers.’ I’m just glad Jeremy was there to act as the ‘head honcho’ and wrangle the kids into shape when needed.

For the first part of the day we just did some drama games, and for the most part there wasn’t much worth noting. At one point however, Jeremy had to stop everyone and talk to them ’sternly’ because everyone was running into each other and there was a possibility of getting hurt. As he was giving a little talk to the kids, the teacher piped in and started talking about how ‘This is what I’ve been going through all year, I can’t believe this is still happening ahhhh’ and it was a little awkward. It seemed like the teacher was really stressed over her kids and was happy to get the year over with. When it came time for lunch she asked Jer to come with her and the kids to the park because she might not ‘be able to handle them’ alone. WHAT? You are their TEACHER lady. Maybe you chose the wrong profession?

After lunch was when we made a little mini play with the kids. We each had a third of the kids and made the beginning, middle, and end to a story (Hansel and Gretel) separately. So afterwards we all showed them in order and it was pretty interesting. But the worst part was trying to figure out how to cast the kids, I had three boys and three girls, all the boys wanted Hansel and two girls wanted Gretel (the third didn’t care and didn’t seem to want to do anything at all). So I had to make some executive decisions and choose everyone’s part. The one girl was happy with being a wolf, while the one boy was okay with being the evil witch. The third boy, however, HATED HATED HATED being a crow, and sat down on the edge of the stage and pouted. He said he didn’t want to do ANYTHING anymore, so I asked if he wanted to do Math homework instead, and he was like ‘YEAH’ which took me by surprise so I asked if he HAD any of it with him, and he said no. So I was able to make him happy with being a crow since he was allowed to run down the aisle flying up to the stage. Kids are strange.

The weirdest thing of the day, though, was after the kids left. Last week Gerard (Artistic Director of the Empress) invited all the summer staffers to watch the Rolling Stones concert dvd (Shine a Light) by Martin Scorcese and eat pizza. We had no idea why this was happening, but he made it sound like it was pretty much mandatory. So that was supposed to happen yesterday and we waited around. We were corralled into the theater’s balcony and he gave us all sheets of paper with ‘STAFF MEETING’ written on top which was strange enough because we weren’t told it was a meeting. Then he made a point to announce at the beginning that he wasn’t expecting the summer staff to be here…even though he INVITED US! Then we had the pizza (which was pretty bad actually) and they started the movie. It was ONLY the summer staff by about halfway through the film and I fell asleep watching it. Honestly there is only so much of Mick Jagger’s old wrinkly ass waving in front of my face that I can take. Wouldn’t it be embarrasing if he was your grandfather? I guess only slightly. And you’d be pretty rich, so…

The drummer was the coolest looking grandfather ever though. Anyway it was pretty strange that we were pretty much forced to sit through this movie when no one else was even watching it. Oh well, afterwards I got some fresh popcorn! (we get free pop and popcorn there)

Best Propaganda poster ever

I have officially started my job at the Empress Theater in Fort Macleod, and I can tell it’s going to be a busy/rewarding summer. On top of the two plays we will be putting together and performing, we’ll also do guided tours of the theater itself (with spiffy blue polo golf shirts as uniforms!) and drama camps/workshops for kids later on in the summer! I am pretty excited for it actually, it feels a lot like my Theater for Young Audiences class I took last semester except this time, I get paid!

Since I’ll be working there pretty hardcore this summer, my job at HMV is going to take a backseat, and I’ll probably work one shift a week or so there. But Ryland, Jen and Dave have all submitted resignation letters, and James says he might be planning to as well, and Cam’s contract is up in the end of May, so that leaves myself, Kent, and Adam. Adam makes his own schedule and is really just a receiver and Kent is in summer school, so he’s only getting two shifts a week or so. So…I have no idea what’s going to happen with the store. Really they should have been hiring people way back in February because now they are scrambling. I guess we’ll have to see what happens here, but it is not looking good!

Nestea makes some specialty iced tea called Vitao and I had a Mandarin Orange one today and it’s delicious and (possibly) nutritious. I may be drinking much more of those. Also, the mall has a new little sandwich shop called Café Express which is a pretty good price and pretty tasty (sandwich + 2 kinds of salads + chocolate milk for 8 bucks!). Looks like I found a new place to eat for my lunch breaks!

I saw a really old man driving a motorized scooter today and it was really awesome. Not the sit down, wheelchair type things, but an actual scooter that is similar to a bicycle. I’ve never seen that before. I think that, in general, old people are either a) really hilarious/awesome or b) really cranky and mean. There really is no middle ground once you make it over 70 years old. I definitely hope to be of the former category when I’m that age!

In other news, I’ve tried to maintain my sanity this summer by delving deep into the world of video games. Granted I’ve been in this world for the majority of my life, but I’ve been so out of my mind bored with Carli gone that I’m playing much more than I should be. It also has to do with the new Grand Theft Auto game coming out and me being totally enjoying my experiences with said game. It’s one of the more ‘realistic’ games I’ve played before and it’s pretty entertaining to run around shoving people and making them drop their shopping bags (which they never retrieve for some reason, guess I’m just that intimidating). Anyway, my video gaming marathon will soon come to an end when I start my job at the Empress Theater in a few days, it’s going to be fun to get paid to do the things I love.

I’ve been trying to write more, and think up ideas for stories, plays, etc, but I’ve had little luck so far. I think if I just started writing instead of meticulously planning things out all the time I would probably get a lot more done. I hope to get some short stories posted here soon, even if they aren’t the greatest stories ever written, we all have to start somewhere.

I’m sure anyone who has worked in any form of customer service related job knows how weird some people can be. I’ve worked 4 separate jobs now that have caused me to rethink my adamant stance on people and how they are not crazy. But every so often you get one of those people who, no matter how crazy they are, entertain you completely instead of forcing you to rip your own hair out in frustration.

Well I happened to have one such occurrence not long ago at work. Indeed, when he first walked in I thought nothing of it, because while he had scrubby clothes, long gray hair and insanely thick glasses which made his eyes look like tiny marbles, we get a ton of odd looking fellows like that entering the premises so it was no reason for me to take notice. It wasn’t until later on when he was chatting with one of the salesmen (Derek) that I perked up and decided this was going to be interesting.

He was buying a Bell Satellite, and I guess he was really looking forward to getting some ‘free swag’ with his purchase, and continued to pester Derek about said swag. Derek, always thinking on his feet, proudly announced that he would ‘throw in’ the box and packaging for the satellite. This intrigued the man, who I am now going to call Melvin, and Derek, sensing his excitement, proclaimed that he would also give him a completely free invoice and receipt. Melvin practically jumped up and down at this, and they both skipped over to the computer to write up the sale.

Meanwhile, Aaron (another co-worker) was glancing outside and noticed something amiss.

“Do the rules of parking not apply to anyone anymore?” He shouted in exasperation. I looked outside and noticed there was a truck, parked completely parallel to the building taking up almost three parking spaces, as well as a smaller black car parked angled facing the truck, removing the parking option from two more vehicles. Melvin heard Aaron’s comment and quickly ran over to apologize.

“That truck is mine, I thought you guys were closed!” Aaron shook his head and Melvin jaunted back to the computer.

Finally it was time for Melvin to leave with his purchase, but of course he had to come through me to pay for it, and as Derek walked over to get the satellite for him, he said,

“I have a stolen credit card to use, it’ll only be good for a few more days, if that’s ok?” Derek didn’t hear this confession, so he simply stated, “I’ll take that as a no. Cash will do.” Of course this mastermind thief must have thought of that, since he told me that the money he was paying with was all “printed up this morning” and that I should ignore the counterfeit marks on them. I’ll be honest, for all I know he was being truthful, and was really trying to get caught and go to jail, but I thought he was so crazy/funny that I let it slide. They were very convincing if they were indeed counterfeit.

The best part, however, was when he demanded more free stuff from Derek. He stated loudly that he wants ‘Fifty thousand mega-pixels in a brown paper bag.’ Derek apologized that we didn’t have any brown paper bags, then grabbed one of our plastic ones and swooshed it around in the air for a bit. Quickly closing the top, he handed the bag to Melvin and warned him not to open the top or the mega-pixels will escape. This gave Melvin quite the laugh, and he slapped Derek on the back, a gesture to show they were just clownin’ around, and that he was ‘all right.’ Derek sent Melvin on his way, and he drove away in his giant truck, beady marble eyes staring intently ahead.

I hope to see Melvin again, because as weird as the whole experience was, it’s things like that that keep life interesting.