Life As Of Late: Working Holiday and Faking It Till You Make It

Ephraim has bought me more flowers than I've received my whole life over! And certainly they are the most beautiful bouquets

My vacation from work is slowly coming to a close, and I can hardly believe it.  Where have the weeks gone? For that matter, how am I going to finish reading these plays?! I'm going to have to turn to hypnopaedic methods to cram the last few in! Or, you know, lazy mornings while I'm in Quebec next weekend.  Ephraim tends to be a later riser than me, and sometimes I take this as a good excuse to stay in bed and snooze and cuddle, but other mornings I just want to GO GO GO.  Instead, I will READ READ READ and SIP SIP SIP some tea.

Actually that sounds pretty heavenly.  If I were a day timer kind of person, I would write that down in my daily itinerary. 

Congratulatory flowers to celebrate the opening of my first realized design for The Shaw Festival

I'm just finding it so difficult to believe that I'm about to begin my second season at The Shaw Festival.  I always hoped to be there for another season (or two!), but it doesn't quite feel like a reality yet.  None of my life feels that real right now, and maybe that's because things are running pretty smoothly for a change.  I've gotten pretty used to living from one disaster to the next, so this smooth sailing has got me on my toes; does something terrible lay in wait around the corner? Or did my hard work pay off (or did I just get really lucky??).  

I'm excited for the challenges and growth this next season will bring, and am particularly pumped to get started on model building straight away when I return.  Maquette building has been the area in which I grew the most in the last year, and I constantly surprised myself with my ability to achieve realistic and proportional model furniture and rooms at such a small scale (1/2" = 1').  There are so many skills I want to develop in my time at the Shaw, and the faith they have in me never ceases to both comfort and alarm me.  I'm faking my way through so much.  But maybe that's just what the whole game is.   

I've also been invited to my old University to talk to the first year theatre students about my life after York University, as part of a panel of alumni.  I remember idolizing Jeff Churchill of Jitterbug Boy Original Footwear (where I was lucky enough to work for a short time) from the instant he walked on stage when I attended the same lecture in first year.  I leaned over to my best friend and said "that guy.  I want to be that guy.  Look how cool his shoes are!".  Then we learned that he had hand crafted those shoes himself.  How can I possibly be as inspiring as him? How can the university hold my career path in the same ball park, let alone the same auditorium? I don't feel that I'm there yet, and I certainly have a long way to go till I "make it". But I really hope this is telling of the things to come.