Friday, March 26, 2010

The Art of it all

There is truly an art to everything I do. There has to be. Otherwise, why am I doing it?

Scrap that.


There is an element of grace with every task that I complete.

Strike that from the record.


Okay - Although I may be trudging along & my legs covered with bruises, I am heading somewhere. I am constantly striving to move forward, working with determination towards an end. And gosh darn it - if all that I am accomplishing is butting my head continually up against a hard brick well - well damn it! I'm doing it with great effort!

I'd like to say that every day right now presents itself with opportunity to work towards perfection. That each day I have a set of goals made out and that I hope to complete or gain them. In reality I am living each day thinking of only of this: at the end of the day I get to go to bed.

Great goal right?

Not really. Yes, it is challenging never having time to be perfectly alone. To always have someone else in the house who may come knocking at your door as you are in the middle of a really good part of a book. Or to constantly be asked the same damn question repeatedly as you try to finish your job applications. And to know that at the end of the day when I snuggle up next to my husband that we not in our own place. That one sucks a lot.

I guess I could say I accomplished this today: I wrote up a really good report about my shift last night. I helped my dad arrange a bedroom for my Gram into a little apartment for her, trying to make it as cozy as possible. This entailed bringing in furniture from the garage & the basement, dusting and cleaning it, setting it upstairs, making sure it all had pads underneath it to stop scratching the wood floor, moving all of her little figurines and generally just a lot of lifting. I also applied for a few more jobs, and entered this blog.
Not great I know, but it's something.

So here's to you. For all of the little successes and wins that you gained today. I raise a glass to you. (No, I don't have a beer in hand right now, but it won't be too long from now.)
Here's to cleaning the toilet, to hanging up clothes, to watching that movie you keep on saying you will watch.

Take a moment and take glory in it.
Because Damn it - we deserve it!!!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Bring Andrew & Brianne back to Toronto Initiative!

Think of it as a call to arms - a battle cry- a really great statement...okay maybe it is a bit of a whimper, but come on, you want us back in Toronto too, don't you?

Yes, we haven't been blogging for months, perhaps because we have practically nothing to blog about. Nothing truly exciting or mesmerizing. I mean really, has Ottawa always been this dead artistically?
Yes, Ottawa has some beautiful foliage, it has maple sugar bushes, the Byward Market, the longest skating rink and Winterlude, not to mention Beaver Tails. Ah, Beaver Tails...

...sorry I will just wipe the drool from my lips.

Ahem.
Yes, well. Where was I?

Right! Reasons to not be in Ottawa. Here's the thing, there are more companies auditioning in Toronto, there are more Artistic Directors to rub elbows with, directors to schmooze, more places to perfect your art and in short more liberals.
I don't mean liberals in a political sense (that I have NO CLUE about)I mean in an artistic way - Art has fewer boundaries in Toronto as only in the big cities do people feel completely free to express themselves. Yes, even the crazy lady who sits outside of KFC can be included in this...

But here's the thing - everytime we get closer & closer to heading back to Toronto something comes up & stands in our way. Admittedly it's us. We keep on accepting the projects, we keep on wanting to work with those around us.
Like Eddie May. Wow, I cannot express enough love and gratitude to Eddie May Murder Mysteries. I truly think that if we hadn't been a part of this company for the past 5 months that we would have gone crazy. (maybe even postal crazy.) Being able to perform so regularly and to have so much fun creating these characters has been an outright blast.

And then there are the people in the company. I couldn't ask for more friendly, funny and endearing people to be around. (except of course for you Tanya!) I could go on & on about you guys, but I won't. Mainly because I haven't your permission to write about each & everyone of you...and I respect you all enough to at least ASK. (It is the worst thing in the world to come across someone talking about you on the internet and you have no knowledge of this.)

And last of all there is the Ottawa Fringe. Sure, it's not the Edinburgh fringe, but it's still a great showcase for new theatre and up and coming artists of all backgrounds. I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity I have to be a part of "Prisoner's Dilemma." It's short. It's witty. It makes you think. I personally think this show is going to rock the fringe, and I hope to see all of our followers (Yes, all two of you.) there in the front row. The Ottawa fringe is in June, in case you don't know.)

So perhaps after the fringe is over we will finally have our opportunity to move back. Because let's face it folks: we need our own place.