Indelible Adventures

Do you remember your first girlfriend or boyfriend?    The excitement of seeing them after a few hours or days, or perhaps that first kiss and how clumsy the feelings were that surrounded it.    It’s even strange to say the word “girlfriend” as it relates to those first awkward connections.   I think growing up in a strict household coupled with being from a small country town of only 500 people, even the thought of meeting someone of the opposite sex, let alone actually having a conversation with them and/or potentially going out with them was extremely remote.    Now I know those of you that know me may have a very hard time believing I was incredibly shy, but I remember being so tongue tied when a girl spoke to me once at secondary school that I just couldn't get the words out, all I could do was mumble something rather incoherent and my face turned the shade of red normally associated with that of a fire truck!    I was...

Improv class is so awesome!   I had my first class two weeks ago, then last week I was in Atlanta to Emcee and host our Annual User Conference for work – fun! Anyway, this past week I showed up to class a little early so I could chat with our teacher (Cary) who btw is an Improv guru. His backstory is fascinating; apparently as he tells it he came to his first Improv class about 12 years ago and fell in love with it almost immediately.    After a fun filled and enjoyable Intro course he decided that he would pursue each of the Improv levels and over the ensuing years did just that, building his expertise, knowledge and willingness to embrace the “yes, and” mantra which is central to Improv. Then about eight years ago he kicked in his regular job to pursue Improv full time, since then he’s performed on stage all over Canada and the US and now teaches classes at The Second City training facility when not performing onstage. He’s got such a fun and playful way ab...

There are times in your life when you reach a crossroad, each of them a test of sorts, a moment when you need to make a decision.   Often a moment that could potentially change the course of your life…sometimes irreversibly. My starting point... We’ve all had them, sometimes large and visible surrounded by significant stress and consternation, other times discreet and small and at that particular moment in time inconsequential, at least on the surface.    In hindsight some of the smallest decisions – a chance meeting after a late night study session at university and agreeing to go for a hamburger, a response to a question in a hotel lobby in Salzburg Austria or perhaps losing a job…each one of these changes the game. As many of you know I was a teacher in Australia, and over an seven-year (yeah, pretty short) teaching career taught at all three levels of the educational pyramid.    My first job out of University was teaching at a primary school – ...