So, something else popped into my mind today about the festival. One of those "if you only knew" kind of thing. On July 26th, during the second week of the festival, it is Allyson's birthday. She has been incredibly hard to make Neanderthal a success and has sacrificed her birthday three years in a row. The first we virtually skipped her birthday and acknowledged it about two or three weeks later. Last year, we decided that her birthday should not be forgotten and we caked out the shows the night of her birthday. People got cake and a show! How can that be bad?

But this year, I am thinking that it would be a nice gesture to have birthday cards. Not gifts. Just a nice card with a few nice words inside. You could write out some short message about the festival, you could make your own card (again with a few nice words), or it could be just a short letter saying how much you liked the festival or the show you saw. It would mean a lot to her to have something like that. I see her working hard every single year, pouring her professionalism and her heart into this summer event and it would be nice to have someone outside of the production group tell her how much they appreciate it. I know that it may be asking a lot of some people but I think it is worth it. Hell, I will do a card too. It would mean a lot to me to have a few cards appear on the day of her birthday. If you are far away and can't make the festival, you could mail some! It would be awesome!

It kills me each year to see she pour everything into the festival only to have some poo-poo her efforts. Sometimes even those involved don't seem to be as committed as she is. It is amazing that she survives the six months to help put the festival together. I do my part, of course, but I am just the nerd guy. I am behind the scenes and most of what I do goes unnoticed. But that is the nature of what I do and I have long accepted that the nerds get overlooked a lot of the time. But for her to have her work not recognized as much as I think it should (especially since there is a birthday involved) is almost criminal.

Are you game? Are you willing to show up and give a complete stranger a birthday card? If you think you'd be interested in sending out a card or dropping one by, drop me an e-mail at shane@shanesworld.ca and I will fire off our home address.

I thank you all in advance -- but I also hope you can come see a live performance at the festival!