Artventure: Fredericton, NB Part 6
I had an odd collection of cheeses, yogurt, red pepper, and fruit salad in my mini fridge that I wanted to eat up, so once again I left a note for Bonnie letting her know I would fend for myself regarding breakfast.
Saturday was incredible; sunny and unseasonably warm. Halfway to the gallery I took off my jacket and walked joyfully in my t-shirt, arms bare to the October sun.
My talk was scheduled for 2:00pm and I arrived at the gallery a half hour beforehand. Tom and Joss worked out the technical bugs between my laptop and the projector (thank god for the geek-inclined!). A decent-sized crowd attended – on such a nice day it would be tempting to blow off such an event to go play outside.
As far as my performance was concerned I felt I could have done better. I got nervous because my laptop switched away from my usual presenter mode and I couldn’t figure out how to scroll down to view all of my notes without screwing up what was happening on the public screen. Instead of taking a minute or two to fix it in the beginning I soldiered through. This was a mistake because it threw me off my game and I never got quite on track again. Afterward, there was a good range of questions, and a few intricate comments that I tried to respond to but felt I didn’t address correctly. I haven’t had tons of experience speaking publicly about my work, so it’s still a learning game. Next time I’ll respond differently.
Once the talk was over Karen (the photographer from NBCCD) gave direction as she took photos of me with a few key pieces. She graciously offered to drive me to the airport on Sunday morning. I’d really enjoyed Karen’s company during the week and I was glad we’d have a chance to chat again before I left.
I had a last (late) lunch with Tom and John before they left the city for the weekend, dropping me off at Jacqueline’s place on their way out (I’d met Jacqueline earlier in the week). We went for an evening walk out around the experimental farm (I was secretly hoping to see some experimental farm animals, but no such luck 😉 ). We talked about dogs and Jacqueline’s upcoming sabbatical where she’s going to spend some quality time taking a course in Hawaii – I’m so jealous!
Back at the B&B, the full force of the week washed over me. I was exhausted. I did some preliminary packing and then called it an early night.
For the first time all week I had a good night’s sleep (yup, just in time to have my clock discombobulated again). After breakfast I finished packing and took a picture of the mattress I had slept on:
This bed was so-o-o-o-o-o comfy.
Karen dropped me off at the airport and I had plenty of time to check in and buy plane snacks from the vending machine at the gate. I am always so much more impatient on flights where I’m homeward bound and this occasion was no exception.
I’d had a fabulous time in Fredericton; big, heartfelt thank you’s to John, Tom, Karen, Sophia, Loanne, Marilyn, Joss, Dana, Candace, and the rest of the wonderful Fred arts community. You are all amazing! I couldn’t imagine my trip being any better.
Even so, I was aching to be back in Vancouver.
Like Dorothy says, there’s no place like home.
