"Nothing changes on New Year's Day" -U2
Actually, a lot of things have changed in the past few weeks, Bono notwithstanding.
After couch-surfing since May '04 (initially to avoid paying rent for a place I'd only be in half the time during the Fringe Festival Tour, and then continuing mostly due to inertia) I have finally found a place of mine own. I lucked out talking to one of the dancers I know from Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD to those in the know) while volunteering for a fundraising bingo. She'd bought a house in Erlton and needed someone for the basement suite, and since I knew her, she gave me a great deal. I now refer to her as "The Girl On Top," a nickname she really seems to enjoy. (It's all strictly business, of course.)
I actually took possession on Dec 15 and then spent a total of 7 hours there before Christmas as I desperately worked two jobs and tried to find a truck to move my bed and various sundries out of farflung suburbia closer to Calgary's throbbing heart. You see, I don't have a car, and in Calgary*, this means you are just shy of being legally hadicapped (ie enough to evoke pity, insufficient to receive government subsidy). I did find a handful of people who were more than willing to help . . . after the holidays. Can't blame them, really - If I could have gotten out of it, I wouldn't have wanted to blow my Yule festivities lugging my crap around. And thanks to understanding friends who let me stay with them, I didn't.
The jobs were unexpectedly busy as well. I'd been trying to design my life to allow me to attempt to pursue the performing arts without having to work 9-5 hours consistently, so I have a small stable of jobs.
Besides occasionally doing acting stuff that pays (lovingly referred to as "gigs"), my faourite job is figure modelling for the university, the art college, and a few independent artists. Best pay, but fewest hours, and unfortunately that largely shuts down for the holidays.
I also recently started working for the Plaza Theatre in Kensington, a single screen movie theatre known for showing art house flicks in one of the trendier parts of the city that's not in downtown. Pay is horrible, but the work is pretty easy and attitude pretty cool, so I'm liking it. And if any local members come down and mention SG, I will . . . smile and nod. I'm still pretty fresh there, and haven't yet figured out the intricacies of "comping friends," save that I likely can't do it for groups of any appreciable size.
The big job this past month was for a community centre I do relief for in Sunnyside, not far from the Plaza. Pay is reasonably good, and I can count on shifts regularly without it dominating my time - normally. Since they close down for the holidays, they called in all troops to strip and wax the entire facility, which translated into 2 solid weeks of 8am-5pm shifts. This would have hurt my sensibilitites at the best of times (yeah, pretty wimpy, but I like to believe I deserve to work when I want) but the hours combined with either nightly rehearsals for Man of La Mancha or working the Plaza, poor food and sleeping conditions (remember, trying to move in) all during the darkest days of the year - well, it made me feel my age, which is unusual for me.
Wow, look at all that blather. I need an editor.
So now it's a week into 2005, and I'm still almost moved in. It's all in a jumble in my living room, waiting for me to give it shape, form and life, and today is probably the first day I have no other commitments and can just take care of it.
Although I am over at danny_g's since my computer isn't set up yet, and he's got the newest Alias and Lost on tape, and a friend of mine wants me to hang out with him and check out this mmorpg he found that miraculously doesn't charge you a monthly fee. So much time to waste on fun.
But then I think "What would Don Quixote do?" And I hearken to his words:
"Do not pursue pleasure, for thou may have the misfortune to overtake it."
And it occurs to me there's an open contact rehearsal tonight at 5-7 that I can finally make. Time is fleeting.
I will write more later. If this gets too long, even my friends won't want to read it.
*For non-locals, Calgary, Alberta, Canada is laid out a bit like an atom, with a small, dense downtown nucleus surrounded by a cloud of mostly empty space (suburbs), Occasionally interesting probabilities collapse into events outside of downtown, but you've really got to be observant.
Actually, a lot of things have changed in the past few weeks, Bono notwithstanding.
After couch-surfing since May '04 (initially to avoid paying rent for a place I'd only be in half the time during the Fringe Festival Tour, and then continuing mostly due to inertia) I have finally found a place of mine own. I lucked out talking to one of the dancers I know from Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD to those in the know) while volunteering for a fundraising bingo. She'd bought a house in Erlton and needed someone for the basement suite, and since I knew her, she gave me a great deal. I now refer to her as "The Girl On Top," a nickname she really seems to enjoy. (It's all strictly business, of course.)
I actually took possession on Dec 15 and then spent a total of 7 hours there before Christmas as I desperately worked two jobs and tried to find a truck to move my bed and various sundries out of farflung suburbia closer to Calgary's throbbing heart. You see, I don't have a car, and in Calgary*, this means you are just shy of being legally hadicapped (ie enough to evoke pity, insufficient to receive government subsidy). I did find a handful of people who were more than willing to help . . . after the holidays. Can't blame them, really - If I could have gotten out of it, I wouldn't have wanted to blow my Yule festivities lugging my crap around. And thanks to understanding friends who let me stay with them, I didn't.
The jobs were unexpectedly busy as well. I'd been trying to design my life to allow me to attempt to pursue the performing arts without having to work 9-5 hours consistently, so I have a small stable of jobs.
Besides occasionally doing acting stuff that pays (lovingly referred to as "gigs"), my faourite job is figure modelling for the university, the art college, and a few independent artists. Best pay, but fewest hours, and unfortunately that largely shuts down for the holidays.
I also recently started working for the Plaza Theatre in Kensington, a single screen movie theatre known for showing art house flicks in one of the trendier parts of the city that's not in downtown. Pay is horrible, but the work is pretty easy and attitude pretty cool, so I'm liking it. And if any local members come down and mention SG, I will . . . smile and nod. I'm still pretty fresh there, and haven't yet figured out the intricacies of "comping friends," save that I likely can't do it for groups of any appreciable size.
The big job this past month was for a community centre I do relief for in Sunnyside, not far from the Plaza. Pay is reasonably good, and I can count on shifts regularly without it dominating my time - normally. Since they close down for the holidays, they called in all troops to strip and wax the entire facility, which translated into 2 solid weeks of 8am-5pm shifts. This would have hurt my sensibilitites at the best of times (yeah, pretty wimpy, but I like to believe I deserve to work when I want) but the hours combined with either nightly rehearsals for Man of La Mancha or working the Plaza, poor food and sleeping conditions (remember, trying to move in) all during the darkest days of the year - well, it made me feel my age, which is unusual for me.
Wow, look at all that blather. I need an editor.
So now it's a week into 2005, and I'm still almost moved in. It's all in a jumble in my living room, waiting for me to give it shape, form and life, and today is probably the first day I have no other commitments and can just take care of it.
Although I am over at danny_g's since my computer isn't set up yet, and he's got the newest Alias and Lost on tape, and a friend of mine wants me to hang out with him and check out this mmorpg he found that miraculously doesn't charge you a monthly fee. So much time to waste on fun.
But then I think "What would Don Quixote do?" And I hearken to his words:
"Do not pursue pleasure, for thou may have the misfortune to overtake it."
And it occurs to me there's an open contact rehearsal tonight at 5-7 that I can finally make. Time is fleeting.
I will write more later. If this gets too long, even my friends won't want to read it.
*For non-locals, Calgary, Alberta, Canada is laid out a bit like an atom, with a small, dense downtown nucleus surrounded by a cloud of mostly empty space (suburbs), Occasionally interesting probabilities collapse into events outside of downtown, but you've really got to be observant.