where to start...
once again, i've waited way too long to update my journal and so much has happened over the summer. this summer was a bit of a writeoff - it was mostly work. actually, i didn't leave banff for the entire month of august, except once to go hiking. i expected that i'd be busy this summer, but it was ridiculous. they were supposed to hire another two stage carpenters for the summer, but apparently stage carps are hard to find so that never happened. so, i officially became the second and because at least one staff member has to be present for all stage calls, it was either me or my department head that had to be there so we both got the shaft. it's funny, despite being the dept. with that was short staffed, we kept up with the other departments so it was rarely an issue, other than the o/t. on the plus side of all of this, i was asked to stay here till next august - to which i refused but then agreed to stay till xmas. it will give me a chance to learn more of the paperwork side of my job as well as put me in a good position to return next year. plus i got a raise and with all the overtime i did, i was able to pay for burning man as well as have the time i took off paid for. more on bm later.
i dated someone here for about a month, which was interesting. her name was hazel, and she works in the wardrobe department as a stitcher. we randomly hooked up at a party and decided to date. it was pretty weird, mostly because we had very little in common, except for climbing and the whole outdoors thing. she was just very regular, if you know what i mean (straight world, maybe? not really, because she was pretty cool about a lot of things. but she was definitely very normal). i think the reason we ever got together in the first place is due to the bubble that is the banff centre theatre arts department. the theatre staff increases to around 100 people and everyone is really busy and there is very little socialization that happens outside of theatre. it's funny, because about a week before burning man i went to calgary to visit the crew i was going down with and as soon as i saw tysun and ari and my friends (as in, not coworkers) the bubble burst and it was pretty obvious that hazel and i were not meant to be in a relationship. we broke up later that week and big surprise, she felt a lot of the same things i was. so, it's cool. we're still friends and hopefully we'll go climbing together again cause she sure can crank it up the wall.
so, burning man. it was such a mixed experience. the start of the week was definitely better than the end of it. we got there just as the sun was rising on sunday morning and there were very few people there. of course over the week more and more people and art and craziness kept coming. i felt so overwhelmed and crazy the whole time. i went with a great crew of 13 people and we camped with this crew from portland called the earth tribe. they were a really nice bunch for the most part, but i found myself increasingly frustrated by the lack of cleaning and contribution to the camp by a lot of them. we were camped near the large sound system area, so the week was a non-stop raverama. like i said, i prefered the early part of the week because that's when the people who really seemed to understand the whole concept of black rock city came. by the labour day long weekend all the tourists and partiers showed up and i felt like the city got way dirtier with moop, and just the general vibe was a bit frat-partyish. but overall i had a great time. there was some amazing art, i got to do a couple days of an acrobatic silk workshop (the long piece of fabric that's suspended that you do acrobatics on - like cirque) and i had a blast working in the cafe. i also really got to connect with dana c. and laurie b. actually, that was the best part of the whole thing. laurie b.and i hooked up after a few days on the playa. we've had mutual crushes for ages and i was so excited when i found out she was coming from taiwan (she teaches english). so we finally got to spend some quality time together and it just naturally happened. that was the best feeling, just how natural it felt being with her. i had a great time together running around the playa and hanging out with her. i feel like we have a pretty deep connection and she's someone that i relate to. we've emailed a couple of times since and i really hope that when she comes back that we can pursue some kind of relationship or at least good friendship. she's just so super, i still get really warm inside thinking about her. okay, i'm starting to gush. that's enough for now.
so now i'm in banff, slightly regretting my decision to stay out here for longer. if i hadn't, i would have been back in calgary this weekend. weird. there's so many people in calg that i haven't kept in touch with who are leaving now and it really saddens me that i didn't try harder. i don't even know if i would stay in calgary, maybe not. tysun asked me if i wanted to move to montreal with him next year and it's pretty tempting. late last month i applied for a job in vancouver that i didn't get but i think that i'll keep trying to find something. i was thinking of toronto next fall. or i could just stay out here till august. i don't know, one step at a time i guess.
i dated someone here for about a month, which was interesting. her name was hazel, and she works in the wardrobe department as a stitcher. we randomly hooked up at a party and decided to date. it was pretty weird, mostly because we had very little in common, except for climbing and the whole outdoors thing. she was just very regular, if you know what i mean (straight world, maybe? not really, because she was pretty cool about a lot of things. but she was definitely very normal). i think the reason we ever got together in the first place is due to the bubble that is the banff centre theatre arts department. the theatre staff increases to around 100 people and everyone is really busy and there is very little socialization that happens outside of theatre. it's funny, because about a week before burning man i went to calgary to visit the crew i was going down with and as soon as i saw tysun and ari and my friends (as in, not coworkers) the bubble burst and it was pretty obvious that hazel and i were not meant to be in a relationship. we broke up later that week and big surprise, she felt a lot of the same things i was. so, it's cool. we're still friends and hopefully we'll go climbing together again cause she sure can crank it up the wall.
so, burning man. it was such a mixed experience. the start of the week was definitely better than the end of it. we got there just as the sun was rising on sunday morning and there were very few people there. of course over the week more and more people and art and craziness kept coming. i felt so overwhelmed and crazy the whole time. i went with a great crew of 13 people and we camped with this crew from portland called the earth tribe. they were a really nice bunch for the most part, but i found myself increasingly frustrated by the lack of cleaning and contribution to the camp by a lot of them. we were camped near the large sound system area, so the week was a non-stop raverama. like i said, i prefered the early part of the week because that's when the people who really seemed to understand the whole concept of black rock city came. by the labour day long weekend all the tourists and partiers showed up and i felt like the city got way dirtier with moop, and just the general vibe was a bit frat-partyish. but overall i had a great time. there was some amazing art, i got to do a couple days of an acrobatic silk workshop (the long piece of fabric that's suspended that you do acrobatics on - like cirque) and i had a blast working in the cafe. i also really got to connect with dana c. and laurie b. actually, that was the best part of the whole thing. laurie b.and i hooked up after a few days on the playa. we've had mutual crushes for ages and i was so excited when i found out she was coming from taiwan (she teaches english). so we finally got to spend some quality time together and it just naturally happened. that was the best feeling, just how natural it felt being with her. i had a great time together running around the playa and hanging out with her. i feel like we have a pretty deep connection and she's someone that i relate to. we've emailed a couple of times since and i really hope that when she comes back that we can pursue some kind of relationship or at least good friendship. she's just so super, i still get really warm inside thinking about her. okay, i'm starting to gush. that's enough for now.
so now i'm in banff, slightly regretting my decision to stay out here for longer. if i hadn't, i would have been back in calgary this weekend. weird. there's so many people in calg that i haven't kept in touch with who are leaving now and it really saddens me that i didn't try harder. i don't even know if i would stay in calgary, maybe not. tysun asked me if i wanted to move to montreal with him next year and it's pretty tempting. late last month i applied for a job in vancouver that i didn't get but i think that i'll keep trying to find something. i was thinking of toronto next fall. or i could just stay out here till august. i don't know, one step at a time i guess.