Well, summertime is now two-thirds over. August is somehow almost here and activities like cross country are going to start up soon. BUT, what happened in the second half of June and much of July? There is much to tell but little time to tell it, so I will be slightly briefer on the topics that I will be mentioning.
So previously on Dave’s adventures, I described my lovely week in the Twin Cities. I’ve got to say, ever since that week, I’ve been trying to find ways to go back. Once I got back from the cities, I did literally nothing for the next two weeks. Absolutely nothing. I had nothing to do, nowhere to be, so I did nothing. We had recently rescued our little kitten which gave me some entertainment, but still, nothing really happened until my mom told me about an opportunity to be in Popcorn players. Of course, I said yes.
To those of you who don’t know what Popcorn Players is, it’s a program run by Warroad Summer Theatre to produce a show with children ages 6 to 16. In my natural interest and love of acting, I said yes to my mom’s opportunity to be in it. The only problem that would conflict with Popcorn Players would be attending Laketrails Base Camp. Long story short though, the Laketrails season was canceled due to high water and flooding on Lake of the Woods, which was good for being in Popcorn Players, but also not good because it ruined an entire third of my summer plans. The first rehearsal for the show was on June 14th, and the performances were on July 7th, 8th, and 9th. So it gave me plenty of time to do things that I enjoyed.
The show was “The Wacky Wizard of Oz”, and the part I ended up getting was the Tin Woodsman. The perfect part for me. As the next two weeks went by, I learned my lines, all my stage blocking, and also got to know some of the other kids. I also happened to be the oldest person of the group which was quite interesting.
Now, it was only two weeks into practice when I realized something I had forgotten about: ''Hey I have a 4-H State-to-State Exchange trip to Oregon and I leave in two days. Guess I’ll have to skip a week of play practice.” So that is exactly what I did. With permission of course.
Now I’m going to just quickly breeze over my Oregon trip. First of all, it was entirely worth it. Loved every single bit of it. We flew at 6 am from Fargo to Minneapolis, and then from Minneapolis to Portland. I’ve said it before, but I love flying. The thought of being a flight attendant seems quite entertaining.
Once we got to Portland, we got picked up by the Oregon State Exchange people, drove to the coast, and stayed at a resort there. One of the things that most surprised me was the tide. I knew it existed, I just had never seen it actually….happen. We stayed at the coast for a couple of days, explored some local areas near it, and also saw an Audi Club consisting of 9 different Audis, including an R8, pull up to a parking lot where we were also parked by a boat museum. (That was also really cool.)
After our couple days at the coast, we went on a 9-hour bus ride to Union County, more specifically to the La Grande area of eastern Oregon. From there, the next few days we did lots of fun things like hiking some mountains, swimming in a massive man-made lake (I didn’t swim, however) and visiting a massive local farm. We also visited and toured the Pendleton Round-Up which was pretty cool. After that, the Minnesota and Oregon Exchange groups had to part which was quite sad because I made lots of friends. We spent one more night in the Tri-Cities in Washington, then flew the next day from there to Minneapolis and from Minneapolis to Fargo once again. Just to be clear, a lot more in-depth, smaller stuff happened, and it all happened over a week-long trip.
Once I got back, I realized something. It was show week for the play. I had forgotten my lines! Insert the Fourth of July, which was a really fun day with my friends. Then there were two days of rehearsals, then three days of the performance.
One of the most highly regarded talents that I have discovered over time is that I work extremely well under pressure. I learned that in 9th grade doing twenty assignments on the last day of the trimester, doing 5 art assignments till 3 in the morning, and casually writing an entire English essay on 1984 in a day after I had two weeks to work on it while still doing an exceptionally good job for my timeframe. This was no different.
On my first rehearsal back, we were supposed to have our lines fully memorized. Now the fact I had the second highest amount of lines (and also played three different characters) made things a bit difficult. So here’s what I did: I put two scripts backstage, one on each side of the stage. Every time I was backstage, which was actually more frequent than I expected, I memorized my lines for the next scene. I entered that practice knowing no lines at all and left that same practice knowing every single one of them. I barely knew them, but I still knew them. The next rehearsal helped me solidly get my lines, but the fact I did what I did in such a short amount of time surprised many people, including me.
The performance for all three shows was really good, I enjoyed being in the play, and after that ended I was almost back to doing nothing again. Almost. The same week of rehearsal I finally got a job. What do I do for work? Yard work. Not as fun as it sounds and it's usually not. I actually quite enjoy it. (Yes, something can be not fun but still enjoyable.)
I would work there the next couple of weeks till Fair Week.
Ah, the Roseau County Fair. Full of fun activities, rides, different booths, animals, art projects, etc. I’m going to be blunt about this. I don’t hate the fair. But I don't love it either. How I feel about the fair lies somewhere in the middle between the two. It's fun to be there with friends and offers great opportunities for community service and volunteering, but the place is full of people and it’s crazy expensive. And the rides are kind of scary if I'm being honest with myself.
That week was hectic. I helped at the Team Epic booth for hours, helped clean the grand stand, and did other 4-H volunteering. When I wasn’t at the fair, I was working 9-hour days, except for one day when I worked 5 hours because I was exposed to poison ivy multiple times. By miracle chance, I didn’t get it. That week I got about 17 hours worth of community service by working at the fair. Although it was worth it, it really wore me out.
That leads us to today (the Wednesday before this comes out on Saturday). This week I haven’t done much work (but next week I’ll be out and about doing many things.) One thing that I have been working on is fixing our 1987 Jetta with my dad, which has been fun. Friday (yesterday) I left for the cities (YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!) to go to a Catholic youth conference called Steubenville hosted at the University of St. Thomas. When I get back, the next day I leave for Laketrails. “But, David, Laketrails is canceled. Why are you going there?” You are right. It was canceled. But there is a lot of work to be done on the island and a few people were invited to go help work there.
So I still have plenty of more adventures to go on, possibly another update once school starts, but that is all I have for today. I said I’d breeze over things, and I kind of did, and kind of didn’t at the same time. Hopefully, I provided a multitude of reading entertainment, and as always, I’ll see you all again very soon and have a fantastic, lovely little Saturday.
WAKWIR (Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence)
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
Remembering You
Kim
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