Epilogue: I could have driven to Halifax by now

Okay, so here’s the epilogue to my crazy work week.

After the Wednesday/Thursday all-nighter I was amazingly productive throughout Thursday and got everything done. Sort of.

 I needed to get my proposal to the courier by 6:30pm. At 4pm I thought I had everything ready to go, and went out for an hour to attend my coworker’s goodbye celebration. Back shortly after 5pm and in good spirits…until I discovered a major major flaw in my document. Unrecoverable error. Return to sender.

Couldn’t send the document as it was, and my frantic attempts to fix it in time to get to the courier only made things worse. Around 6:05pm I threw in the towel and resigned myself to delivering it personally on Friday morning.

To Windsor.

Ugh. That’s a three-hour one-way trip through one of the more boring stretches of highway in Ontario. But after all the time I spent on this project, I was damn sure gonna get it there on time.

Anyway, I got the document finished, went home, and slept for about seven hours. Woke up at 6am, and was on the road by 6:30am. A buddy came along to keep me company and, more importantly, keep me from falling asleep at the wheel. It had been awhile since we caught up, so we had a good conversation.

Drove to Windsor, dropped the package off. Got back to Waterloo shortly after noon.

Went to the office and picked up my coworkers to go out for lunch. Then back to the office to take care of a few things and see my one coworker off at the end of the day.

After that, you’d think I’d go to sleep. But no…Battle of the Bards was on Friday night. So I got all of my stuff in order for that, hosted a truly great show, and headed off to the pub for the traditional after-party. As well, some friends from out of town were back in the area for a wedding and I really wanted to see them.

Did I mention that Bards was great? Well, it was great (and also one of the more suggestive shows we’ve had). Although I got conflicting reviews of my own performance. Some people thought I was bantering too much between performances, whereas others thought it was better because I was doing that more. You can’t please everyone, I guess.

The previous two shows were packed with 12 performers, which doesn’t leave me much time to “host” so much as thank one act and bring on the next one. This time around we had 12 performers that got whittled down to nine by showtime, so I figured I’d have to fill time a little more. That’s actually better for me, personally, because I get into a flow, in which case I think I’m more entertaining. When we have 12 acts, I sometimes feel a little disjointed.

Truth be told, I should really shoot for ten acts. That’s optimal, but if I get 12 requests I don’t like turning people away. Hey, maybe I should get 15 acts one of these times and turn it into a three-hour show.

Great idea, right? That’s why we’re going to do it. Awhile ago, I mentioned that I’ve got something super in the works, but wasn’t ready to talk about it. Well with Friday’s show in the books, it’s past time.

On Saturday, July 22nd, Battle of the Bards will put on a big outdoor show in Waterloo Park. It’ll start at 2pm and go until dusk, with as many performers as we can reasonably fit in. We’ll have bigger time slots (possibly 15-20 minutes), a house band to back up singing acts, and everything else we can think of.

Pretty cool, eh?

We’re tossing around names for the event. I wanted to call it Bardshell (cuz it’s in the Waterloo Park Bandshell), but that got vetoed cuz it sounds like Bard’s Hell. The working title is Open Air Bards, but I’m not really that fond of it.

Unfortunately, someone at Friday’s show yelled out “RussStock”…and I’m afraid that that’s going to stick as the unofficial name, which I really don’t want. You see, Bards isn’t mine. It belongs to my friend John, and I’m just the caretaker while he’s in England. So we’ll have to come up with something better and catchier, so that people drop RussStock. Maybe an acronym. Any suggestions?

This weekend has involved a lot of sleep. I spent yesterday in a slight daze, and a portion of today at a Robin in the Hood rehearsal, and now I’m catching up those of you who I haven’t spoken to in awhile, in my typical, long-winded, overly-descriptive way.

So yeah, a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Lots to see and do, and many events on the horizon.

You should come out.