Yeah, so finding wireless internet that my computer can understand is harder than I thought. Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last typed, but I've been busy adjusting to my new life......my new life that I'm quite delighted with I might add. Right now I'm in Edmonton Alberta, that's in Canada for all of you that are geophysically challenged. I'm sitting in a hip little coffee cafe called Sugar Bowl in a part of Edmonton that is a college/hipster district. It reminds me a lot of philly, kind of a cross between south street and rittenhouse square, if that is possible. Anyhow, I'm going to work backwards, since my memory is best of recent events....so here I am sitting here, sipping my coffee, just had some wonderful goat cheese/corn/peppers/salsa thing w/pita chips, the lights are dim, there local college and city foot traffic walking purposefully down the street amodst the crisp September canada air. The waitress looks early 30's, is friendly, has a nose and tongue piercing, and is a little slow w/ the food and coffee, but she seems happy. And of course......I'm the only one in here w/ an american accent :-) So, I got up here from great falls last night, it was a long day. After crossing the border on Sun we camped out at the first RV stop we could find, not too bad. I was travelling w/ two guys (the drummer and one of the clowns) who were nice enough and very patient to take me under their wing on my first jump between cities. So we got going yesterday aboot ( <---- ;-) ) 11AM and had about 5 hours of driving to do. So, all was smooth until about 15 kilometers outside of Calgary I had a blow in my right rear outside tire. It was quite an interesting experience when you're doing 75mph down a hill and your steel belted radial explodes. So, justin and tom swung back around and helped me get the spare on, and they continued on while tried to find a place that would replace both tires (since the one tire took out the other one also) on a holiday. So I drove the 7k into the town of Okotoke (which I found out from the girl at the Quiznos sub place, means "big rock" in blackfoot...who knew????) and Mark and the Canadian Tire hooked me up, he originally wasn't going to do it, but I told him my situation and that I needed to be up in edmonton that night, so he graciously agreed to do it (otherwisde I would have had to spend the night and get it fixed when they oped at 8AM the next morning) So I got on the road with my 2 new tires on made it to edmonton about 9PM. Pretty much everyone from the whole company was there, waiting in the parking lot, waiting because there was a pearl jam concert going on in the arena and we could park our little city of RVs until the concert let out and the parking lots were empty. After everything was said and done, the was 3:30AM until we were alll parked and hooked up to the electric, I have to say, there were some frustrated poeple due to the fact that it didn't go so smoothly, but as they say, welcome to the world of the circus (that's a line form the show) So we're here now, but the rehearsal scheduled for tonight was cancelled, I think due to the fact that they're having trouble getting the animals into the country. Anyhow, we have a show tomorrow, thurs, and fri., 3 sat, and one more sun. Then we're off to calgary. So, backtracking, after after 5 days of driving and 2300 miles I arrived in grand falls montana, and interesting small city. Definitely reminded a lot of the midwest and small town america, the people in general seemed friendly and helpful w/out pretense. Anyhow, I got into town, and the next day right away I had a rehearsal and then my first show. I have to say, that first moment of the openening was quite overwhelming. With the lights, haveing a sound monitor (w/ metronome, and all the other intruments and voices) in my ear, performing walking through our stage area, and my bell mike, and the music. It was quite an experiece. That first night I was there Sapo (the contortionist) was having a birthday party for his daughter, my first impression was how everyone responded to eachother, even though it was a little girls birthday party, most of the people from the show were there...of course we all live there, but there was a sense of a family of sorts, not in the sense of a blood relative, but that kind of familiar conraderie that arises out of a shared experience. A sense, that were are what we are, and we live this life and do what we do for a job, but we're all people and are in this together. I look around me and thought how many work places have this kind of connection, this sense of togehterness. Anyhow, we had a 3 show day sat., and then one more on sun. Each show was getting better for me, I'm a perfectionist, so of course I was frustrated w/ what I saw as unneccisary (sp?) on my part. Any how, I made it through my first week, and my lips are tired, but surviving. I have to firgure out how to maintain myself, and do my job without hurting myself. Oh, yeah and I found out from a doctor that the pain Ive been having is an impacted wisdom tooth, but I have to wait to get it fixed until 1) I get back in the US 2) my union benefits kick in and 3) I have enough time in my schedule for the procedure and recovery (which might not be till Dec.) Anyhow, life is still good and I continue to pray........
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Hmmmmmmmm......
Yeah, so finding wireless internet that my computer can understand is harder than I thought. Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last typed, but I've been busy adjusting to my new life......my new life that I'm quite delighted with I might add. Right now I'm in Edmonton Alberta, that's in Canada for all of you that are geophysically challenged. I'm sitting in a hip little coffee cafe called Sugar Bowl in a part of Edmonton that is a college/hipster district. It reminds me a lot of philly, kind of a cross between south street and rittenhouse square, if that is possible. Anyhow, I'm going to work backwards, since my memory is best of recent events....so here I am sitting here, sipping my coffee, just had some wonderful goat cheese/corn/peppers/salsa thing w/pita chips, the lights are dim, there local college and city foot traffic walking purposefully down the street amodst the crisp September canada air. The waitress looks early 30's, is friendly, has a nose and tongue piercing, and is a little slow w/ the food and coffee, but she seems happy. And of course......I'm the only one in here w/ an american accent :-) So, I got up here from great falls last night, it was a long day. After crossing the border on Sun we camped out at the first RV stop we could find, not too bad. I was travelling w/ two guys (the drummer and one of the clowns) who were nice enough and very patient to take me under their wing on my first jump between cities. So we got going yesterday aboot ( <---- ;-) ) 11AM and had about 5 hours of driving to do. So, all was smooth until about 15 kilometers outside of Calgary I had a blow in my right rear outside tire. It was quite an interesting experience when you're doing 75mph down a hill and your steel belted radial explodes. So, justin and tom swung back around and helped me get the spare on, and they continued on while tried to find a place that would replace both tires (since the one tire took out the other one also) on a holiday. So I drove the 7k into the town of Okotoke (which I found out from the girl at the Quiznos sub place, means "big rock" in blackfoot...who knew????) and Mark and the Canadian Tire hooked me up, he originally wasn't going to do it, but I told him my situation and that I needed to be up in edmonton that night, so he graciously agreed to do it (otherwisde I would have had to spend the night and get it fixed when they oped at 8AM the next morning) So I got on the road with my 2 new tires on made it to edmonton about 9PM. Pretty much everyone from the whole company was there, waiting in the parking lot, waiting because there was a pearl jam concert going on in the arena and we could park our little city of RVs until the concert let out and the parking lots were empty. After everything was said and done, the was 3:30AM until we were alll parked and hooked up to the electric, I have to say, there were some frustrated poeple due to the fact that it didn't go so smoothly, but as they say, welcome to the world of the circus (that's a line form the show) So we're here now, but the rehearsal scheduled for tonight was cancelled, I think due to the fact that they're having trouble getting the animals into the country. Anyhow, we have a show tomorrow, thurs, and fri., 3 sat, and one more sun. Then we're off to calgary. So, backtracking, after after 5 days of driving and 2300 miles I arrived in grand falls montana, and interesting small city. Definitely reminded a lot of the midwest and small town america, the people in general seemed friendly and helpful w/out pretense. Anyhow, I got into town, and the next day right away I had a rehearsal and then my first show. I have to say, that first moment of the openening was quite overwhelming. With the lights, haveing a sound monitor (w/ metronome, and all the other intruments and voices) in my ear, performing walking through our stage area, and my bell mike, and the music. It was quite an experiece. That first night I was there Sapo (the contortionist) was having a birthday party for his daughter, my first impression was how everyone responded to eachother, even though it was a little girls birthday party, most of the people from the show were there...of course we all live there, but there was a sense of a family of sorts, not in the sense of a blood relative, but that kind of familiar conraderie that arises out of a shared experience. A sense, that were are what we are, and we live this life and do what we do for a job, but we're all people and are in this together. I look around me and thought how many work places have this kind of connection, this sense of togehterness. Anyhow, we had a 3 show day sat., and then one more on sun. Each show was getting better for me, I'm a perfectionist, so of course I was frustrated w/ what I saw as unneccisary (sp?) on my part. Any how, I made it through my first week, and my lips are tired, but surviving. I have to firgure out how to maintain myself, and do my job without hurting myself. Oh, yeah and I found out from a doctor that the pain Ive been having is an impacted wisdom tooth, but I have to wait to get it fixed until 1) I get back in the US 2) my union benefits kick in and 3) I have enough time in my schedule for the procedure and recovery (which might not be till Dec.) Anyhow, life is still good and I continue to pray........
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