Where did I come from?

Still relishing in the glory that was Indyish’s first birthday — and Monthly Mess V — I thought it might be time to introduce my little (but rather tall) self and tell the tale of how Indyish and I came to coexist.

Once upon a Montreal Fringe Festival, I was browsing Craigslist ads at work (the paying job) and found a call for help during the festivities. (Let it be known that I love Craig and his list to death, and the massive classifieds community has never failed me. I’ve found amazing apartments, my day job, my soon-to-be roommate, and more on these wonderful pages.) Around this time, I was sort of re-evaluating my life and trying to decide whether to pack up and move to BC at the end of the summer or stay in Montreal and go to Concordia in the fall. Don’t get me wrong — I love Montreal, and it’s certainly been good to me over the past four years, but I felt like a change and I really did leave my heart in BC when I was there in May (though I only travelled around Vancouver and Victoria). I was also rather anxiously waiting on some test results of the hospital kind.

But instead of moping about and over-analyzing every minute detail of my life as it stood, I decided to have The Bestest Summer Ever and throw myself whole-heartedly into whatever came my way.

Needless to say, I answered that ad.

Risa emailed me back and suggested I meet the crew at the Fringe Park during the afternoon, but I had to reply oh-so-sadly that I could only do evenings and/or weekends… thanks, day job. The Friday of Assembly 2.0, Sarah gave me a ring and asked if I was available to help out, be it selling merch, doing a reading on stage, or what-have-you that very evening. As soon as I mentioned that I used to act (in the community theater way) in high school, it was decided. After work I made my way up to Club Lambi and one by one, I met the crew. Sarah and I had a blast with our script reading and I loved everyone I’d met, so before departing for some much-needed end-of-week sleep, I shyly asked Risa if I might be needed/wanted for the second Assembly night…

To make a long story full of delightful details short, I spent that entire weekend with Indyish at the Fringe (save for a brief kidnapping by Peter Radomski to go see Jamie Adkins‘ show) , brought a quiche and a pineapple to the post-Fringe potluck, and, well, here I am! Still playing, still plugging in. In case you haven’t figured out, I did make my decision: I’m staying in Montreal for at least another two years. It’s safe to say Indyish played a large part in making my choice that much easier.

That’s the true tale of how I got involved. What you might have thought, or what you might not have known, is that Risa is a good friend of my stepsister Claire. Believe me when I say that I did not know this or figure it out until halfway through that first Friday night! But thanks to Facebook’s display of people’s friends, I vaguely recognized the name “Risa Dickens” and quickly made the connection. I later related this tale to Claire and we both agreed that Radomski is in fact correct when he says that everyone in Anglo Montreal, especially artistic Anglo Montreal, is connected by one degree, or two at most.

So I’m here, I’m learning what I’m doing as I go along, and someday I might just get up the guts to bring some of my own work into this world we call Indyish…