Polo, Psycho, and Ghost Towns

Mornings here in Calgary have been gloomy these last few days. I’ve noticed this because my room at my mom’s house hasn’t got curtains yet and the sun shines directly in my face, waking me up on non-gloomy mornings. These gloomy ones, however, I’m able to sleep through.

I managed to keep myself pretty busy this past weekend. On Friday evening, I found the exact dresser I wanted on Facebook Marketplace and picked it up. Saturday morning, I went to my mom’s, intending to drop it off, but ended up moving in my old bed, building my new desk, and installing my new mirror before having to leave. I went to a meet up of local YouTube creators, which went on for a few hours and was lots of fun. Afterward, I tried dropping off the dresser again, this time successfully.

On Sunday, Amy and I were invited by some family friends to our first ever polo game, and even got to take some of the horses for a short walk between games. Everything we knew of polo came from movies about rich British people, but we soon learned the basics of the game, and even though we were told several times that it wasn’t the best “spectator sport”, we had a lot of fun. And after a month in beautiful Vietnam, going out into the foothills of Alberta was a great reminder that Canada is pretty beautiful, too.

I then went home and continued editing a short film I was working on, a spoof of the shower scene from Psycho that I was doing for a contest and which was due the next day. I did most of the editing that afternoon, but when it came time for creating the music and recording some foley, Amy (who was on board as the violinist) and I found the house to be a bit too noisy. Our uncle and his girlfriend were talking and making dinner in the background, and our six-year-old cousin was loudly eating candy as she watched us. Eventually, Amy started playing with our cousin and then our mom came home and announced she’d invited a bunch of people over for dinner, at which Amy and I looked at each other and Amy said, “Why don’t we go to [our other cousin]’s house. They’re out camping and I know how to get in.”

So we did just that, only to see five or six cars parked in front of their house as we pulled up. Turned out, the oldest of their family had stayed behind and had a bunch of friends over to watch TV. He said they’d be leaving in no time to “play ball”, so we waited a bit, but eventually I said, “What about [our other other cousin]’s house?” and texted my other cousins who lived nearby to see if they were home. One responded in the affirmative and we took off to their house without really getting permission.

Anyway, the third house was the charm. It was only my cousin home, although he warned us his parents would be home in fifteen minutes. We managed to get the two different pieces of music we needed and the foley I wanted with the advantage of a quiet house, then we thanked him and hurried back home again (after picking up yet another cousin at another house for our little dinner party, and buying sour cream at our mom’s request because she forgot). As I said, the due date for this little film was the next day.

I ignored the party downstairs for the most part (I’d already eaten) and just put my earbuds in, head down, and worked until it was finished and submitted. I’m really proud of it. Unfortunately, there was a limit of 15 seconds, so I had to cut a lot and it goes by fast. I’m thinking of doing a longer cut, just for fun. But here, you can watch what I’ve come up with:

Yesterday evening, I was lucky enough to audition for a couple of plays in our local Heritage Park. Going to that audition was surreal. Heritage Park, if you didn’t know, is a sort of historical site/amusement park, with real buildings that used to be working hotels, opera houses, churches, and homes. Many buildings in the park still work as they’re meant to, like the bakery, the candy shoppe, etc. You walk around the park and see the sights, ride the rides, hear the stories…it’s pretty cool. But yesterday, for the first time ever, I drove into the park in my shabby little car, right into the heart of it, parking at a hitch post before entering the old hotel for my audition.

I haven’t done many theatre auditions, and I haven’t been in a play since university. I think I’m better suited to film, but I do love theatre. I think I just need some practice to get back into it. Dunno how my audition went, though. We’ll see.

Anyway, driving my early-2000s car in a ghost town straight out of the early 1900s was a pretty cool experience. I’m glad to have done it, even if I don’t get offered a part.

My siblings will soon be off to school and my room budget will soon be depleted, putting a halt on my room development until my next paycheque, so I’ll start keeping myself busy with the editing of vlogs from this summer. And, of course, I’ll be writing posts here as much as I can.