Management 101

Today was a royal pain in my ass.
Its bad form to claim compassion and then break basic labour laws in the same breathe.
Its weak management to make choices based on what is the easiest option, or because you're afraid to rock the boat, or because you assume someone else will just pick up the slack. What's worse still, is to make no decisions at all and just hope things will work out.

I take strong issue with lacking integrity, especially in the work place. I understand that life is not always so cut and dry, but work is simple. There are rules, there are policies, you follow them.
If they don't fit the situation, then fine, change them.
But then you talk about it, consider the implications and options available and then you make decisions that are ethical and effective for all parties. You communicate, you plan.

'Oh its a miracle! it worked out!'
No, not a miracle, its called me, figuring out your mess and getting it done.
And in the end its me who sacrifices my basic labour rights.
How very compassionate of you.

Another one bites the dust!

Seriously this production should have been a reality show.
The drama of it all is simply sensational! The ratings would have been killer! The characters! You can't write this kind of craziness.
We sent another packing... The 'T's stepped in and said 'no, all feelings aside, these are the rules we must live by' (ok so I was the only one who said that, but the feelers appreciated my logic and my plan for action)
And now we have temporary people in, we are doing more rehearsals and we're also preparing for more understudy shows. Blah!
Did I mention that I'm sick? I feel like I've been hit by a truck today. Too bad for me, there is noooooo way that I can be missing shows this week; so I'll just have to suck it up.
Surprisingly though, morale on the show seems stable. I think we've all become so accustom to the never-ending drama that we can roll with pretty much anything. Its amazing what you can get use to.
Is it saturday yet? yikes.
I have friends coming to visit this weekend. I promise I will do my best to be fun, maybe even aim to make it on the 'awesome' list.  ; ) A
So it goes friends.
Talk to you again soon.

peace

Try Me

How selfish and arrogant do you have to be to get behind the wheel after a couple of drinks?
I travel those roads. I have friends and family who travel on those roads.
You may choose to risk your own life that way.
But how dare you make that choice for the rest of us.
don't think I'd call the cops on your ass?
Try me.....
Done.

Never ending rehearsals

Long week. Like that's a surprise.
I've been swamped at work, rehearsals, Q-2-Q's, new equipment... yarg.
And it seems there will be more to come in the upcoming weeks. One would think that we'd have the show ready by now, being that we're almost five months in, but that would be foolishness.
It looks as though we will be replacing yet another member of our team; so we keep rehearsing.
I'm tired.
I honestly can't think of any other witty or exciting anecdote to add.
Peace all

Thank goodness for Fridays

Its Friday folks! Yay!
That means tomorrow I get a day off, and this week, that feels well deserved.
This week has been crazy busy and stupidly stressful. It seems to have plateaued at this point and for that I am grateful. We are still prepping rehearsals and fighting technical issues but there's nothing that I can do to make that easier at this point.
There is also order at home. It doesn't feel clean by any stretch, but order will do.
At this point I am starting to plan my return to Van. Packing, organizing...
I still have a full 7 weeks left here, but I don't plan on spending one extra night here than I have too; so a good plan can make that happen.
I might have some friends out next month, which would be great, but I don't want to send them home with any unwanted travellers. Then I make one more trip to Van, one more week of shows after that and then its all over.
I have a feeling that once I get to September things will move fast and it will really start to seem like we're in the home stretch.
As a complete side note, can I just say how amazed I am with myself that I've been so consistent with this blog? I really thought I would get so wrapped up in the show that I would fall out of the habit rather quickly.
So time to jet, the theatre calls. Saturday, I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon.
Peace

yargh!

Well the love in at the theatre was short lived.
Technical fiascos, drama and buddy who won't get off my back for a second.
I made the mistake of rolling my eyes during this evening's lecture and he let me have it.
Funny though. He doesn't realize that when I know I'm right about something, I don't budge.
Keep talking buddy.
I came home, had a glass of wine and will let it go for the day. You can't fix stupid.

aaaaah

So as it happens, the universe tends to provide some reprieve when it knows I can bare no more.

My roommate came home today and we hugged out our bugging situation. (Really we drank wine, sat on out stoop, got caught up and cursed the little f*&$^*ers that are compromising our sanity)

We also had one of our best shows tonight. Still fighting with some technical difficulties, but I gave a bunch of notes and people actually listened to me and treated me with, what is that? Respect?!

aaaaah. Thank you Universe.

I think I might actually be able to sleep tonight.

Happy Sunshine and Fuzzy Puppies!!!YAaaAaaY!!!

Just because I realized that many of my blog titles are down right depressing.
Maybe this uber cheery one will help balance the score.
Ha!
Made you smile ; )

is it October yet?

Our bug man came on Fri.
we talked about bugs. looked around the house. Kind of what I expected.
Then I left and he doused my house with pesticides.
The house felt pretty gross that first night back. A toxic war-zone.
Today was my day off and I've started to put the house back together. Most of my belongings have been decontaminated at this point, though I do still have a batch in the freezer. Now the trick will be keeping them that way while I wait out the quarantine. It will be a few months yet before I know for sure that they're gone. In the meanwhile, I have to stay in the house and sleep in my bed. The treatment is more effective if there are people around to entice the bugs out of their hiding places. It just doesn't make for a very restful sleep, and I'm already feeling completely burnt out.

Our show is back into rehearsal prep at the moment. A few different reasons. One of which is prepping the understudy show that we have not run yet. It's the most complicated one too; so I'm feeling that work load at the moment.
And what's with all the crazy shows this week? Power outages, equipment failing (people failing), props and costumes breaking? The show is literally starting to fall apart and I get the feeling that everyone has had about enough. Its like the week off just gave everyone a moment to realize how much they hate being here and then we came back and there's still so much to go.

I am ready to be done.
I'm exhausted, lonely and uncomfortable and at the same time, I am also creatively and professionally frustrated.
I stayed on this project because I refused to let it break me. Though I may still be here, I do, in the end, feel broken. I wonder if I've accomplished anything by coming on this G-d forsaken adventure.
If I click my heels three times do you think I can go home?

oh wait...all my shoes are in bags being decontaminated...never mind.

close

I'm getting there.
Our bug man comes Fri. Until then I just keep cleaning cleaning cleaning.
I am feeling less overwhelmed by the situation at this point, for which I am grateful.
I do not cope well with chaos. Now I've got some semblance of an organized system to keep the contamination contained and that really helps my brain.
I think I am single handedly keeping Ziplock and Rubbermaid in business at the moment. I really only leave my house when necessary because it is such an elaborate production to decontaminate myself before I leave. It just seems easier to stay home.

Oh, and today's fun show!!
We had two power outages before the show even started. So ridiculous. It means that I have to completely re-set the computer and all then lights when that happens. I did three lighting checks and presets before we even started the show. Seriously?

And we are getting into more rehearsals for our final understudy show.

Oh how I miss the vanilla days of July.

Actually, I don't. I'd rather be stressed and busy than bored and lonely.

Did I mention I have less that two months of this left?
I can do this
I can do this.

sims check in

When 'The Sims' first came out, I was briefly caught up in the novelty of the game. Creating little homes with imaginary families. The fun of it soon turned twisted when my friends and I discovered that you could make the little people do crazy and reckless things and then stand back and watch them descend  into madness. For one poor Sim, that meant never being allowed to sit or lay down to sleep. Our Sim eventually developed narcolepsy and would fall asleep in strange places until we would frantically hit the 'wake up' command to disturb their slumber. Exhausted, little Sim would throw a tantrum over having been woken up and then would continue to pace fitfully around their house.

I feel like that Sim.

I think there might be a Sim G-d out there somewhere taking their revenge against this sadistic gamer.

chaos invites chaos

Greetings all

I've had a bit of a crazy week, thus the absent blogs. So to catch you up.

This past week was my big, 'week off' summer vacation. It has been less of a vacation than I anticipated. What did I do this week?
I cleaned.

Normally speaking, I am two quirks away from crazy. (thanks Seinfeld)
This week, I feel like I may have crossed that bridge.

Last Wednesday, I was up, middle of the night, and found a suspicious bug in my Kamloops bathroom. You know the kind. So I trapped it. Sealed it into a canning jar and duck taped the top closed. Then came the insanity. I started bagging everything and washing everything. I stayed up for 72 hours straight doing this (minus one,  1+1/2hr exhaustion induced nap). I phoned my land lady to bring in some professionals to assess the situation and then I left  town.

I took only what I needed with me; cards, phone, some cash (all of which had been thoroughly de-contaminated, including the cash in my pocket) and headed to vancouver. I picked up everything else in van, de-contamintated those items and then started frantically cleaning my house in Van, just in case.

I am now the crazy zip-lock lady. Everything I own goes in a zip lock. I shower before I leave the house, and then I shower again when I get home. And my house in Van isn't even buggie. *sigh* Some vacation.

Tomorrow morning I head back to Kamloops to continue to deal with the situation there. We did have a proper inspection and they confirmed my worse fears. We have bugs. Though aside from the one I managed to trap, they could see no other signs of an infestation and no one has been bit at our house; so they believe the issue is a small one to deal with.

small. Ha!

'Well there's no way to know for sure.'
'There are no guarantees'
'Anyone can pick them up.... Anywhere'
'You just have to trust that I know how to do my job'

That's the essence of the conversation I had with the exterminator. 'Trust me' That one is my favourite. I do not trust; so I clean. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.
The problem is I can't tell at this point when or if something is clean. How do I know? I mean really. So I clean it again. and again
If I could live in a bubble at this point I would.
I think these next few weeks will be tough and busy.

I did manage to do some fun stuff in my week off. Art galleries, movies, arts and crafts, amazing dance shows and some quality time with friends. Thanks all.
two more months.
I can do this.
I can do this.

peace
Cmax aka 'Bubs'