Calgary moments

So far, Calgary has been treating us quite well. It has given us numerous hot summer days filled with yummy food, walks in the park, full house shows, a generous and gracious host, an art festival, a farmers' market, and of course last night's adventure in the gymnasium.
First I just want to mention my favorite things so far--
Eleanor's birthday was on Friday. We went to brunch at a place called Diner Deluxe, which had one of those menus that torture Geminis like myself. So many amazing things to choose from. I had veggie eggs benedict and took bites of gouda and Canadian bacon stuffed french toast, grilled grapefruit with Rosemary syrup and fried oatmeal with lemon curd (yummmm). Then we visited a park that is an island in the middle of the river. This island wetland serves as a water purifier for the dirty runoff of the city. It is replete with native plants and duck ponds and small river beaches. As we were sitting by the river, dipping our feet in, I heard the sound of music. Tonya identified it as the man playing the auto-harp at the top of a set of stairs, and we followed our ears to reach him. I sat in the shade nearby to listen, and then Tonya seduced me off my butt as she began to dance. We proceeded to dance to this man's music for a while, and then Eleanor found us and danced as well. When we all finished, I went to talk to him and he told me that was the first time anyone had danced to his music spontaneously like that. He commented on how crucial it is for artists to collaborate in that way--especially in public. He also told me that he and his brother used to play in Bluegrass bands together, and since his brother died 3 years ago, he has been continuing to play the auto-harp partially to make money, but largely to connect with his brother. Daniel was his name. That really made my day, although it kept just getting better. We saw two hilarious shows--The Power of Ignorance, and On Second Thought. ANd then we performed our show to an almost packed house and a very receptive audience. What a great day!
But yesterday may take the cake for memorable days. The day was filled with hot, sweaty, sunshiny fun at an arts festival on the same street that the Fringe festival is on. We watched street performers and danced to drum music, we drank lemonade and lounged at a burning-man-esque shade structure, all the while handing out flyers for our show and meeting new people. Tonya and I went to a show that was maybe the worst show I've seen so far on this trip--the kind that reminds you of all the things you shouldn't do--sigh before every line, look around aimlessly when you're supposedly looking for something, cast an extremely flamingly gay man as a straight man who needs to express attraction for a female character in the show...the list goes on. We,(except for Adrienna who has a propensity for predicting these things), had no idea that this scorcher of a day would turn into the huge storm that it did. One child was killed by flying debris and others were wounded in other parts of Calgary. The extent of our disaster was the tale that Adrienna tells in her blog entry below this one. I will share a couple of moments from the gymnasium that we ended up doing our show in. If you haven't read the story of what happened, you should check out Adrienna's entry now to get the back-story. Basically, we had to change venues and do our show in a fluorescent-lit gymnasium with our audience on top of us.
One of my favorite moments was when I was doing my bald-guy line and there happened to be a bald guy sitting in front of me. We had an extremely good view of everyone's faces which was particularly challenging because people would avert their eyes so much as we made eye contact. I found myself looking at the bald guy in the eyes as I said my line--how perfect. And he didn't look away. But in the middle of my line, as I am rubbing the lumps on "his" head, his girlfriend wacks him--she is clearly mad at him for looking back at me. Oops. I quickly shifted to someone else.
Another gem was when I was doing the teacher monologue. I looked at Paul, our friend who was the safest face to look at because he was totally with us, and noticed that he had a look of shock and horror on his face as the student "grabs the back of my hair" due to his tension rising as I blow him. Later he confessed that he had been a teacher and was empathizing at that moment. He was relieved at the line, "this is my fantasy, and no one can arrest me for my thoughts." It reminded him that he hadn't done anything wrong.
There were other moments, but I'll leave it there. I'll let the others get a chance to share.
I feel as though we are officially in the thick of this trip. And i'm having a great time.
--Mary