167 photos.... but you only get to see 167!

 LETS GO!!!!!!!

April 25.  My first blog of 2024.  It must be a crazy year!  So busy.  

So this is a blog post about Meighan's celebration night.  The SAIT students in her class all finished their final projects for the year.  It was not one person, one video.  It was instead structured to allow a student to be the producer on one video, the clothing on another, the set design on yet another.  

Groups A & D were the ones that presented at 6:00 down at the Eau Claire Cineplex Odeon.  How fun to see these professional works on the big screen in a real time movie theatre.

Working towards this special night, Meighan was working so hard.  I saw her a few times and was able to chat.  We drove over to Safeway on the weekend before and she seemed so driven and focused.  A few days before Meighan revealed that it was going to be business casual but that "sheek hollywood" was also a dress up theme.

I left work and ran home to dress up for the night.  I picked up my little hollywood buddy and we dressed our best before running out the door.  Before leaving in the car we ran out to the garage and pulled down the fanciest box of scarves that we could find.  Betty rifled through the silk scarves looking for ones that would match my clothing, and I rifled through trying to find scares that would go with her outfit.  We settled on three scarves each and stuffed the backup scarves in our pockets for if we wanted to change looks mid show.

As we dropped into the car and started down crowchild I gave Betty my phone in order to give her something to do.  She was giving me directions on how to get to Eau Claire and it was rush hour and we had no time for traffic jams.  Just then I said, "you keep that phone.  your job tonight is to take as many photos as you can.  I want to see you get a hundred photos!  click click click.  take as many as you can".

Half way down to Eau Claire I realized that in my suit jacket was lots of scarves, but no wallet.  I thought to myself, could you make it back home and still be on time?!?  I decided no.  I realized that I had paid before with my phone and decided that we would probably be able to do that act if we had to pay for anything.  I wasn't certain, but I was certain that I wasn't going to be late.

We arrived just perfectly on time.  The doors opening at 5:30, and us walking up to the theatre at 5:35.  No charge for the theatre, but I had already paid for parking with my phone so I was feeling pretty confident with one problem already solved.

Right away we came into the lobby and saw Eli, so we had found a familiar face.  Then Meighan shortly there after.  Lots of young professionals milling around in their sunday best.  Looking like they were ready to take on the world.  We asked Eli if Betty and I could get a photo in the hollywood chairs.  I'm not sure how to get a copy of that photo but we did sit for a photo.

Then off to popcorn.  Up to the counter, and ordering whatever I thought would keep Betty's little hands busy if this production became too much for a little 8 year old.  We then made our way into theatre 5.  I asked Betty where she wanted to sit and we ended up right in the front and center.  Just as we were getting comfortable I heard "DOWN IN FRONT!!!!" It was Doral and anita back in about row 20.  Doral said that they had two seats for us, so we followed them up and sat with Anita, Doral, Marcia, Art, and Ron.  

Anita and Doral had driven all the way from Saskatoon for the production.  I got to sit beside Doral and we chatted the whole time before the movie began.  If you've watched a movie with any two of my siblings you'll know how the movie went while we were sitting together.  My siblings are so great at movie watching.  Funny little jokes in the pauses of a movie.  A quick laugh in just the right moment but no disrupting the movie while the dialog of plot is moving forwards.

It was a two hour long reel of commercials, documentaries, horror flix, feel good pieces, and 'behind the scenes' productions.  Although not all perfect like hollywood, I found myself fully submerged in the work.  A few moments where the credits were scrolling too fast, but for the majority of the pieces I was flabbergasted at the professional quality.  No, not flabbergasted.  That's not my sentiment.  I was impressed, and proud, and joyful of the accomplishments of these students.

One fun moment was in the horror film which played second to last.  It was one of the higher man hours productions.  In it a group of students were socializing in a basement, and called upon the spirits summoning a demon.  In the end, the main character inhabited the demon once more, and cut their own throat to end the demons life.  The Self throat cutting was so jaring that I quickly reached over to betty and covered her face with my hand.  "eek".

The final video was the behind the scenes for that horror film and we were shown the contraption and how the throat cutting was performed.  I hope that this was enough to brush away some of the potential nightmares for Betty.  We had a good laugh saying.... they're still alive!  We were saying so because that student had dressed up in the costume for this night.  So Betty took a photo of that student.  It is closer to the end of the photos attached.  

I was going to trim down the number of photos to post here.  But life is short!  You can skip photos faster than I can trim them down.  So here is the complete works of Betty's photography on Meighans big celebration night!

Oh, and when we got home, there was a rabbit on the lawn.  We got a photo of that as well.