Laundry

I finally folded my laundry. I had started it some time last week, maybe Monday or Tuesday, or maybe even Wednesday, heck, I don't remember, but it got so late that I didn't feel like waiting up for the drier to buzz to fold it. When I woke up the next morning, my clothes were already wrinkled and still the slightest bit damp, so there was no point in folding them at that moment. I was running late anyway. So the drier's contents were emptied into my basket and trudged up the stairs, then riffled through for a pair of jeans and the least wrinkly shirt. And then they sat. I had intended to fold them when I got home, but that didn't happen for whatever reason; laziness, most likely. Several mornings of dodging laundry baskets on my way to the door has finally prompted me to fold my clothes. It took half an hour. I didn't know I had so many. I hate laundry.

The Last Hurdle

Today, November 12, 2009, I jumped the final hurdle into adulthood with the addition of a single card to my wallet: a Sam's Club Advantage Membership card. Not only am I old enough to have one, I'm old enough to care about the price difference when you buy bulk. Sure, there are other things in my wallet that say, "Look at me, I'm not a little girl anymore," credit cards, proof of insurance, money...but there is something distinctly grown up about a Sam's card. Probably the fact that it's not something I will brag about to my friends. Oh, I'll tell them, as I'm telling you, but I won't brag, I'll bemoan its presence in my wallet, adding a fraction of an inch to the thickness and a decade of age to its owner. It's the only card that does that (except for maybe an AARP card, but ignore that, I'm being melodramatic). A credit card says, look at me, I don't even need money! A driver's license says, why yes, I can give you a ride! A learner's permit says, why yes, I can make the car stall in the middle of the road! But a Sam's Card...it says, yes, I can purchase 36 Cup o' Noodles in the same package!

So, if you see me around and I'm leaning on a large mountain of Cup o' Noodles, you know why. Give me a nod, and welcome me to grown-up-hood.

Another One Bites the Dust

This weekend was a serious fail as far as NaBloPoMo is concerned, however, I blame it on The Foreigner and am resolved to try to continue for the rest of the month (until I get busy again).


Speaking of Foreigner, it's over. Two months of hard work has come to an end, and the only thing that remains are memories and dried droplets of paint on the black stage from careless brushes. And maybe some stickiness from spilled Coke. That reality is one of the hardest things about theatre in my opinion. It's so temporary. You work on it for a set amount of time, then you do it, then it's over. I don't think I would want it to keep going much longer, but I still miss it when its gone. For me, taking down the set is the hardest part. We spent weeks putting it up, getting it to where it needed to be, painting, building, taping, painting some more, hour after hour; the whole thing came down in three.


The only thing that makes it easier for me is knowing that there is another show coming in a few months. There are already things I'm working on and planning for December and January. I have not one, but TWO one acts in the works, one with 6th period as an in-school performance, one with 4th period for Districts. I'm only sort of directing them, acting more as a consultant/producer for student directors. I wanted to put it in my student's hands and see what happens. Hopefully they will rise to the occasion.

21 Hours and Counting

"The Foreigner" goes up tomorrow night, yet I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's because I've done this before. Maybe it's because I fell strangely detached because I've had to be at ESOL class two nights a week rather than at rehearsal. Maybe it's because I'm just having a hard time caring this year. Maybe it's because I've lowered my expectations. Regardless, I'm calm, and I'm trying to decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I've realized that regardless of my mental/emotional state, the show will go on, and it will probably be relatively good. Sure, the run time might be a little long, but that's okay I guess. There's nothing I can do about it at this point, so why should I worry?

In fact, I think this is the most comfortable I've felt about the technical side of things. We actually programmed light cues this year. I have three reliable people running the boards. I think I can actually sit and watch without having to worry about the house lights not coming up. Or maybe I do. Maybe I'm being foolhardy.
Anyway. There's that.

Baby Steps

Someone asked me in the first few months of teaching what my goals were for my Drama program. I didn't really know how to answer; my best response was basically that I wanted it to be like the drama program when I was in high school. That was my goal two years ago, and still is, to a certain extent. But now I approach the question with a slightly more educated and realistic eye (is that the best way to say that? I don't know). My ultimate goal is to be able to put on excellent productions that are primarily student run. I want to be able to sit in the front row and watch, without having to worry that there will be some disaster backstage that will require my immediate attention.

That is a pretty lofty goal, especially from where I'm standing. But I think it's doable. Here are a few steps we need to take towards excellence:

1. Establish a sense of pride in the program as a whole and in the quality of work. At this point, we don't know what a really excellent program or even an excellent production looks like, nor do we know what it takes to get there. I need to start showing my students what excellence looks like. We need to go watch other people who are being excellent. This has its pitfalls. The tendency might be for them to compare themselves, rather than take it as inspiration to do better.

2. Get out of the mindset that we can wait until the last minute to pull it off "because we always do." I think this is what has killed us with "The Foreigner." A few strategic people have established the attitude among the cast that later is okay, so we've taken far too long to get off book, and find costumes, know our cues. In today's rehearsal, we were where we needed to be about two weeks ago because two weeks ago, I was still yelling at people to be off book, and they were still making excuses. This is a great segue into my final point.

3. I need to be a jerk about things like missed rehearsal/tardiness, and missed deadlines. I don't know how to do it. I don't have the heart to tell someone who has been in rehearsal for a month that they won't be in the show because they aren't off book, or because they missed 3 rehearsals, or because they were late a few times. How do I tell a parent that their kid is out of the play because they had some kind of obligation and didn't tell me in advance? In reality, I HAVE to if I want the program to succeed. Teaching them that being there sometimes is not okay. Aside from the difficulties of trying to rehearse or block a scene without a character, it also destroys a sense of trust among the cast. How can I expect one person to rely on the other to make an entrance or know a cue if they aren't even at rehearsal?

Why I Wanted to Do NaBloPoMo

I used to write a lot. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Papers for various classes were always on the horizon, so I frequently got to stretch my writing muscles. Now that I'm an adult I hardly ever have to write. Ever. And I've begun to feel my writing skills atrophy. Here's a quick example: I was in ESOL class the other day (its a requirement for all teachers in OCPS to take ESOL), and the instructor was talking about dual something-or-the-other (see how much I was paying attention?), and I thought, "Duel? Like they fight each other?" I also lost any spelling ability I had.

Anyway, I've become increasingly aware of the decline of my writing skills, and I didn't want that to continue, or at least to slow the process. NaBloPoMo seemed like a good way to do it.

Side note: it was a REALLY long day for me, I was at work from 7:10 AM until 11:30 PM. I actually am retro posting this, because well, it's still the November 2nd in my mind. Anyway, if it seems like I'm a little delirious, it's okay, I probably am.

NaBloPoMo

I'm an avid reader of blogs. By 'avid,' I mean that I read 6 or 7 every day via Google Reader (yay Google Reader), and one of the things that starts popping up this time of year is NaBloPoMo: National Blog Posting Month. It's a challenge to write 30 posts in 30 days throughout the month of November. That's one a day. So, when the blogs I read started talking about them (okay, I think there was really only one that mentioned it, but that was enough), I began thinking about participating. I've never posted more than 9 times in a month, so this is going to be a challenge, especially since I've almost failed before even starting (it's currently 11:53 PM, not getting started on the best foot).

Anyway, I have no idea what I'm going to post for the next 30 days, but I'm going to try to do it. Care to join me?

What if...

...Facebook stays around for really long time. And what if I'm still a teacher ten years from now. And what if my students 10 years from now are like, "Miss, you have a Facebook?" And what if I said, "Yes! And I've had a Facebook since before you were born! Stop calling me 'Miss'!"

[Insert Witty and Alliterative Title Here]

So, I obviously haven't been writing much on here lately. I think it's a combination of school starting back up, then Vision '13, then the fall show starting up (The Foreigner, November 5, 6, 7 @ 7pm, November 8 @ 2:30), and online reading courses starting up--not learning to read, I know how to do that, learning to teach reading. Next week I begin my ESOL course, which, sadly isn't online, so I loose another two evenings out of my week.

Anyway, life has been busy, but good for the most part. There are, as always, the normal complaints about teaching and working in general, but I think I'm okay with that garbage. Sadly, getting okay means that I feel like I'm falling into a rut. Oh, the ever dreaded rut. Ruts are bad. Ruts are what make me feel like I need to get out of said rut. Ruts are indicative of discontent.

Basically, I'm going through a quarter life crisis.

I was at a meeting for area drama teachers a few weeks ago, and I sat there looking at the faces around the table wondering, "Is this my life in 10 years? Really?" What happened to doing something adventurous? Now, I know on the grand scale of things, my job is pretty sweet. I get nice long summers, and two weeks at Christmas, and a week for Thanksgiving, and Spring Break and I don't have to clean toilets. And don't get me wrong, I love my students. Sometimes I catch myself imagining what the program will look like in two or three years when my freshmen are upperclassmen, and they know how I roll. And then I imagine the dark circles under my eyes and the slight hint of madness etched on my face. I don't know if I'm that resilient.

Straight from the Headlines

I have news headlines from the BBC on my iGoogle page, and on occasion the headline can be taken the wrong way. Usually, this taking of things the wrong way results in some kind of funny image popping into my head. I thought I'd share what I see (sort of, in a poorly executed way). Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

On the Eve of a New Year

Well, summer has come to end, and I'm staring a new school year in the face. I also have a terrible case of insomnia. Dang it.

I am incredibly un-enthused about this school year. I'm going into it without knowing a lot of things, and with more work than I had last year, and with less room for error just because it's my third year, and not my first or second. Also, we're going back to the 7:20 start time. I'm not a morning person. At all. In one sense, I'm glad that I'll get out of rehearsal at 5pm instead of 6:30, that I'll get to see something other than school in the daylight. On the other hand, anything I do before 9am is basically rubbish.

As frequent readers of this here blog might remember, I'm a worrier. It's what I do. Also, I like lists. So here, in no particular order, are things I'm worried about this year:

- Fall play. I'm not sure what it is yet. Both options have their own separate set of problems.
- I don't have a good strong senior leader. This could be a problem.
- My classes are all a jumble, and they may stay that way all year long.
- I had a couple of GREAT classes last year, and I'm afraid my standards for awesome are completely shot. Forever.
- No strong Senior leader.
- I had some really awful students last year, and I don't want their kind again. Ever.
- Musical. Don't know what it is yet. Also, no seniors (it seems ridiculous a little, but they're REALLY important).
- One Act. Don't know what it is yet.
- Certification stuff. Should have done it this summer. Didn't. Will invariably do it on the night before it's due and have Dad proof read it. Just kidding. But seriously.
- Two more preps this year than last year. Didn't do them over the summer (in my defense, I didn't know that I had them, one of them I found out about YESTERDAY, dang it.)
- Did I mention that I don't have a strong Senior leader?

Panama

I'm having one of those evenings when I really feel like I should be writing something, and for once the normal excuse of, "I haven't done anything interesting lately" doesn't apply. The thing is, I have done something interesting lately. It was interesting while I did it, but my week long vacation in Panama was deliciously normal. In answer to the question, "How was your trip?" I can only respond, "Good. It's a beautiful country. That canal thing is pretty cool. Oh, and they have a really old church that's kind of in ruins now 'cause they used it to build the new city after the fire. Oh, and I went zip-lining in El Valle." That's not to say that I didn't have a good time. On the contrary, it was a lot of fun and I saw some pretty cool stuff, but I didn't get arrested or anything. Not that I wanted to. There was that time in the Canal Museum that I sat down on a bench and the guy told me not to (it wasn't roped off. I'm still perplexed as to why they would put it there in prime sitting position without some kind of signage telling people not to sit on the antique railroad benches).

All that to say, I had a great time in Panama. If you want details feel free to ask. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few. Click for larger images. (Update: I just clicked on some of them, and they're not bigger. I don't know why. Sorry.)

Cathedral ruins in Panama la Vieja. I'm jumping in this picture, that's why half of my legs are missing. I do, in fact, have legs.

The view from the top floor of that tower. That's part of the modern Panama City through the window. It's massive.

Climbing on ruins in Panama la Vieja. Yeah, you can do that there.

They had these crazy, fume-spewing buses. Apparently I'm famous there. They named one after me.

The next day we went to Casco Viejo. The National Theatre was open for visitors. Yeah, it's was pretty awesome. They have a raked stage. Teaching tool! Yes!

In El Casco Viejo there are beautiful buildings like the National Theatre right next to run down ones like this.

The sad thing is that it was obvious that this house was once quite beautiful (it even had a pool), but they left it to mother nature for whatever reason (probably financial).

A trip to Panama wouldn't be complete without visiting the Panama Canal. There it is. These are the Miraflores locks on the south side of the Canal. You can see a container ship in the far lock (behind the building). Those containers are about the size of a tractor-trailer.

Another container ship entering the locks from the lake.

The view from the Causeway towards Panama City. The Causeway connects two small islands to the mainland and was constructed from material removed to make the Canal. Talk about a pile of dirt.

Me in the harness getting ready to go zip-lining in El Valle. Look at my bad self.

It's super blurry, but that is indeed me going down that zip-line. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't at all afraid. I think I might be a little bit crazy. Either that or I just got used to heights from working in grid in the PAC.

I stopped a little early and had to pull myself the last few feet.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!"

There's this huge stone wall in the jungle with writing from the indigenous people. It is a lost language, so no one knows what it means.

A picturesque waterfall. El Valle is full of little rivers. On the way back from the wall writing place, Curt and I decided to forgo the use of a bridge and cross one. I fell in. I got my shoes and shorts wet. Thankfully the camera was saved.

Flying

I’ve enjoyed flying for as long as I can remember. I was that kid with my nose pressed to the window watching the ground slip away beneath the wings of the plane. It was magic. A lot of times, knowing how something works, the intricacies of it, the scientific reason why something is possible, takes away the sense of wonder. But knowing, though roughly and in the vaguest of terms, how an airplane works hasn’t changed that awe. Maybe that’s why I enjoy flying so much.

I’m reminded of the poem about ‘slipping the surly bonds of earth’ and ‘touching the face of God’ that I memorized in middle school (and have mostly forgotten in the ten years since…oh my gosh, it’s been ten years since middle school). Maybe God didn’t give us wings to start with so that we could be in awe when He did.

Anyway, the cabin crew is picking up the trash, and the fasten seatbelt sign just popped back on, so I guess we’re almost to Panama. It’s been a good flight. They aren’t stingy with food on this airline. We got little sandwiches and Oreos with our pretzels.

P.S. In case you're wondering, I wrote this on the plane, then published it later. I was not on the internet on the plane, although that would have been cool.

Validation

Blog Re-Design

I did a minor blog re-design today, so if you generally read this (people actually read this?) via RSS feed, please check it out and let me know what you think. I figured that after four years of the same thing it was time for a change. The picture is of the fly rail in the PAC. It is in serious need of some maintenance as you can tell by the loose ropes, which is one of those things that I'm hoping will be fixed this summer. Fat chance with the current budget situation.

Why I Do My Job

The girl that wrote this note on my board made my life suck last year. We had clashes almost daily. At the beginning of this year, she was on the top of my list of people to kick out of the class because it was too large. That ended up not happening, and I'm so thankful that it didn't. This kid--no, young adult--has surprised me with her maturity, and I'm looking forward to working with her next year.

This kid is just a naturally talented young person, and I'm hoping she's in my class next year too. Not quite as "afternoon special " as the first, but I touched by it as well.

That's why I do my job, the off chance that maybe I'm making a difference in these peoples lives. I'm thankful that I got to see some of the fruits of my labor.

"US President Barack Obama is trying to secure an invitation for the Queen to attend the official D-Day commemorations in France on Saturday." Maybe he can give her the latest season of "24" on DVD.

Hi. You May Not Remember Me. I'm Laura. I Write This Blog

I've started writing a blog post no less than four times in the last month, but each time I got about three sentences into it and realized that I was whining (again), when I really had nothing to whine about. The things about which I complained were petty at best, things that I deal with every...single...day. So I didn't feel like I should whine about them, because that would only encourage this habit of whining about silly things (like having Memorial Day right before the end of school. I have my reasons, but why am I whining about a three day weekend?).

To be honest, my life has been pretty comfortable for the last month since Guys and Dolls ended. Happy, comfortable growth. This has been a semester for personal victories. Here are a few:

1. I stood up to someone who I would have let run me over a year ago.
2. I directed a musical, and it was okay. Not great, I dare not even say good, but we got through it, and the kids--and maybe me, too--had fun.
3. I got my guitar string callouses back. And a new guitar. It sounds pretty.
4. I got over my fear of calling parents. I think they're more afraid of me than I am of them. I still don't like it, but I'll do it. One area that needs growth: sounding like an adult. I called a parent and they asked me three times if I was the teacher. Maybe it's my youthful enthusiasm. Or sarcasm. Just kidding.
5. I get to keep my job. Not an area of personal growth, but I think it speaks to my growth over the last year and a half, so I feel justified including it in this list. Yeah, I'm pretty stoked about that.

A Diatribe Against Laziness in English

You may have seen something called “No Fear Shakespeare” in the Shakespeare section of your local bookstore. These ‘editions’ of Shakespeare have the original text on one side and the ‘translated’ text on the other side. In my one week’s experience of teaching Shakespeare, I’ve found that these “No Fear” editions have accomplished the exact opposite.

Students fear Shakespeare because they do not understand the language with which he speaks. As a freshman in high school, I struggled to understand the Bard’s early modern English and subsequently the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My teacher walked us through it scene by scene, and we were able to make the first halting steps toward comprehension. I have done the same thing with my Drama I students (most of whom have already studied Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in their English classes), yet they aren’t even familiar with the abbreviated words (flow’r, o’er), or the common words ‘doth,’ ‘wast,’ ‘wilt;’ some even trip over more familiar archaic language like ‘thee,’ and ‘thou.’ How can they be completely unfamiliar with the language if they have indeed studied Shakespeare in English? No Fear Shakespeare. They haven’t read Shakespeare, they’ve something 'translated' into modern language, void of the language which makes Shakespeare Shakespeare.

Why should we even study Shakespeare if we aren’t studying SHAKESPEARE? One doesn’t read Shakespeare for plot, since many of his stories were recycled from mythology and folktales. We read Shakespeare for the poetry, for the way he molded the words and images to capture his audience’s imagination. We study Shakespeare because he was able to hold the attention of the uneducated groundlings that attended his plays for hours on end. We study Shakespeare, because even after four readings of the same text, I'm still discover something new each time. Do you really think Romeo and Juliet is famous because of its tired and worn out plot (which, by the way, had been done before)? No, it’s because Juliet said, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Sure, the story is timeless, but I almost think Leonard Bernstein did it a little better in the 1950s when he set it to music.

Furthermore, using No Fear Shakespeare as a class tool has taught the students that it's okay to let someone else do the work for them. We don't give students the answer in math class, why should we do the same thing in English? Shakespeare is like any difficult problem, it takes time to learn it, but once learned the concept is the building block for bigger and better things. The skills I learned from doing close readings of Shakespeare have proved invaluable to me as I went to other classes, and into my job now.

Finally, No Fear Shakespeare sends the wrong message to students about themselves. Handing them a pre-solved puzzle is like saying, I'm sorry, you're not smart enough to understand this for yourself, you need someone older to tell you what's going on. All of this isn't to say that there is no place for No Fear Shakespeare. I can see how it would be beneficial to show students that this is English, and that they can draw parallels to the language as we speak it today. It might provide a good starting point for students, a model of how they might go about understanding it for themselves. But how are people supposed to learn and grow as human beings if they face no challenges to their intellect? How are they to get past a 7th grade reading level if we keep giving them the dumbed down version of one of the greatest writers of the English language? Quit taking the easy way out in education. It won't do anyone good.

Favorite Childhood Memories

I was blessed with an amazing childhood. This is one of the ways.

I wouldn't call my parents particularly musical, but somehow all three of us kids ended up playing at least one musical instrument by our teenage years. I think our love of music, and need to create it, is because of the kitchen sink. All of us, at some point, had to help Dad wash the dishes, and on most of these occasions we were singing. With dish rag in hand and water dripping from our elbows we would sing or listen to music on the old blue boom box as the sun set through the kitchen window. On Sunday nights, we would listen to Thistle and Shamrock, the Celtic music program on NPR, keeping time on the back of the plates. On other nights, we'd listen to Peter, Paul and Mary, singing along with the worn tape. At some point I noticed that Mary was singing something different, so I followed her voice and learned how to sing harmony.

Sometimes when the TV isn't on and Dad is washing dishes, he sings or whistles the same songs.

And Now, Some Random (and Silly) Thoughts...

- My cat is really adorable when you catch him using his liter box. He gives you this look as if to say, hey, I don't have a door to close, so maybe you could be nice and butt out. If you don't he just continues with his business as if to say, yeah, I know it stinks, what are you going to do about it? Anthropomorphism much?

- I say a lot of things that don't really make sense. For example, butt o'clock. No logic whatsoever.

- My knee has been hurting lately. Maybe it's because of the temperamental temperatures of central Florida. Or maybe it's because I'm always bouncing around at rehearsal. Nah...it's the temperature.

- I didn't know that temperamental had an 'a' in it until I got red-squiggly-lined by the word checker. How did that escape me?

- The difference between me and a high school student (other than vast amounts of maturity...sometimes, intellect and education) is that I checked the dictionary for the correct spelling rather than doing something ridiculous like leaving it that way and assuming the computer is stupid. Probably why I don't use words like supposably. It's supposedly, people!

- I'm convinced that my knee is conspiring with Bard the Cat and the dust mites under my bed to take over my room. I'm not sure what my knee hopes to get out of it. World domination, perhaps?

- I should play sports again. Yeah, sports. That would be fun. If only I had someone to play with... sigh.

The Suffering of Intellect and Gums

In college, I was really good about flossing my teeth. I would do it every night as I was reading whatever I needed to read for the next day of school. It worked really well because I had those big text books that held themselves open and only needed page turning once every 5 minutes. These days, though, I'm really bad about it. Maybe once a week, if my gums are lucky. I don't do as much reading these days. This makes me sad. I like reading, but I find that I'm usually too tired to do any reading that I actually want to do, and it takes me so long to finish a book of any quality that I forget what happened in the beginning, so the entire exercise was almost pointless.

So, less flossing, less reading. My intellect and my gums suffer together.

Valentine's Day

It's almost Valentine's Day around here, a day in which I rarely see the sky due to the large volume of whale-sized balloons floating above my head. I didn't mind Valentine's Day so much in high school; there lived a small hope inside me that at some point in time I too would be able to carry one of those ridiculous balloons around all day. College wasn't so bad either, because there were a large number of people just as bitter as I who encouraged the wearing of black t-shirts in observance of Single's Awareness Day. Here on the other end of both, I just want to take a pair of scissors to the balloons and explain ever so kindly to the giggly girls that the oh-so-sweet boys just wants to get in their pants. They shed a tear as the leaking balloons lay in piles around my feet. Alas, cutting devices are frowned upon in public high schools.*

Happy Valentine's Day.

*Hyperbole.

Gah!

My friend mentioned on her 25 Things About Her list (if you don't know what this is, you're obviously not on Facebook) that she's turning 24 this year. (I am 100% sure there is something stuck under my delete key which is really bad, because I use it all the time. Grrrr...I need a can of compressed air) So, if she's turning 24 this year, then that means I'm turning 24 this year! When did that happen? Somehow I became a person in my mid-20s without noticing it. I can only imagine that the getting old thing only gets worse as I actually get old.

I was thinking the other day about how young my students are. One was born in 1994. I was 9 years old at the time. Freshmen this year have never lived in a world without cell phones or with the USSR. Wow. And then I told my dad this and he put things in perspective. My grandparents found out about my birth via telegram. Telegram! The thing where a guy in a uniform drives up to your house, rings your doorbell and starts singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling!" hands you a message! He also said something about not having direct dial long distance, but I'm sure they've always had that. I think maybe he was pulling my leg.

Random (and Silly) Thoughts

And now, some random (and silly) thoughts:

-My backspace button doesn't want to work very well. I'm thinking I might have gotten something stuck under it. Either that, or my laptop is just spiteful. What for, I don't know. Anthropomorphism much? I think so!

-I hope I used anthropomorphism correctly. I'm a teacher, it seems like I should know these things.

-My kids did moderately well at Districts, for which I'm very proud of them. Now, if only I had someone to be Drama Club President next year...

-I must not dress very nicely most of the time, because when I do, everyone stops me to ask, "What's the occasion?" It might have been because I was wearing a blazer today to combat the freezing temperatures in my car this morning, and the freezing temperatures in the PAC all day. The PAC is freezing all the time, regardless of exterior temperature. On cold days, it is frequently colder in the PAC than it is outside. Probably something to do with the sun. I'm convinced that my students will one day walk in to find me frozen to my chair. That or with my tongue stuck to a light post. I'm contemplating getting a light post for just such an occasion, because that would be a pretty amazing story to tell, and I like telling stories. Also, I've always wondered what that was like.

-My drama program is pretty much broke. We need to raise money.

-My cat has taken to sleeping under my bed. I think he and the under-bed-monster are plotting with the dust mites to surreptitiously take over my bedroom. Maybe that's why he's been biting me more, he's trying to weaken my defenses. It isn't working, I'm only becoming more aware of his animosity towards me. I'm planning my own offensive against his ally, the dust mites. Unfortunately, it is being delayed by an awful mixture of busyness and laziness on my part.

These are the strange things that run through my head on a regular basis. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

A Very Bad Dream

I dreamt last night that there was a serial killer (something akin to the guy in "Silence of the Lambs") that marked people walking into bookstores for slaughter later. In this dream I was unfortunate enough to walk into said bookstore. I don't remember how exactly it happened, but somehow I ended up going to this guy's house (it had something to do with one of my students saying something like, "Come on, Miss, he's really not that scary"). I found myself lying on the floor behind a bed with the serial killers feet clearly visible on the other side. Just as his knee touched the ground, Bard ran across my legs and woke me up. My heart was pounding as I jolted out of bed, and I was disoriented until I remembered where I was, and that there wasn't actually a serial killer after me. That was the worst nightmare I can remember since I was six and I dreamt that the entire house was covered in snakes.

Point being: I haven't been sleeping well lately. The bad dreams are just kind of adding to it. I blame it on the stress. Kind of reminds me of the Nightmare Island in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Musical Anxiety

I was examining my calendar this evening in a feeble attempt to get some kind of rehearsal schedule down on paper when I realized that the first day of rehearsal for Guys and Dolls is less than a month away! Gah! How did it sneak up on me that fast? Anyway, I have a lot of work to do between then and now. So I'm starting to freak out. That's just what I do. Freak out. It can't be particularly healthy, but it's my natural reaction to basically everything. That, and procrastination, which only compounds the effect.

I sat down with the script today and was trying to figure out exactly how many people I need in this thing. Here's the problem: I HAVE NO IDEA! Having never directed a musical before, I don't know what my style is, and therefore don't know if I should over cast this thing and have wings stuffed full of people that aren't absolutely necessary, or do I go with the bare minimum and have people playing three or four or five roles (walk ons, but roles nonetheless).

So, I have all of this preparation to do to get ready for the musical, as well as a whole bunch of things to do to get ready for Districts in two weeks and State in April. State is in April, but I have to start the paperwork now because it's out of county. Ugh, why can't they all suddenly be 18 and responsible for themselves?

In Which I Wonder Whether Netflix Is Worth It During the School Year

I got Netflix last summer, and boy did I use it. I watch a new movie almost every single day and loved nearly every minute of it (there were a few duds). But recently, I've been wondering if it's worth getting the three movies at a time package. On evenings such as this when I am busy working on grading papers convincing myself that I will work on grading papers very soon, the movies, in conjunction with whatever is on TV that evening, only provide another excuse to not do what I'm supposed to. I have contemplated doing my work in front of the TV, but I find that I just get annoyed after a while and end up watching TV and not grading things; how dare work infringe on mindless entertainment.

Anyway, I do like having numerous options on the weekends (especially since college football will be over in 24 hours), so maybe I'll hold on to it. Besides, I'm a drama teacher, watching movies is part of my job. Right? Right?

I Might, Just Might, Be Completely Screwed

I had this feeling today, the feeling I get when we're very very close to an extended break (Christmas, Spring, Summer, etc.). The feeling that there's only a little while longer until all of my pain and student-inflicted suffering will be put on hold and I can do what I really want to do (sleep). Then I realized: it's the first Tuesday after Christmas break. Thus, no long breaks for two months. Thus, I'm royally screwed.

Excuse me, I think I'll go cry now.

I'm Kind of Lazy

At the beginning of each and every long extended break, I have this image of myself on the first day of the break sitting at my desk being incredibly productive, finishing all of the work I need to do in two days and then spending the rest of the vacation in blissful idleness. This image of an extremely productive Laura has been in my brain since my first experience with summer reading before my freshman year of high school. Unfortunately, this has never actually happened to date. More often my work during the break looks something like this:

I decide to work on my project after I do something I should have done a long time ago--usually something cleaning related (car, room, bathroom, cat). After I've half finished my cleaning project, I decided that I've been working on it for long enough and deserve a short break. The short break turns into several hours of Nintendo, by which time the sun has gone down and I couldn't possibly continue cleaning. There's something indecent about cleaning after the sun goes down. I wake up very late the next day because I'd been playing Nintendo until the wee hours of the morning and decided that I'll play just a little bit to wake up and then go get some work done. The play just a little bit turns into all afternoon, and once again the sun has gone down and the no cleaning after the sun goes down thing kicks into effect. This process repeats until the last three or four days of break, at which point I start hating myself and wonder what happened to my blissful vacation.

This break is no exception. So, I have one sketch and a mostly cleaned room to show for two weeks of vacation. Crap. This week is going to suck.

Hello 2009

Well, the new year has arrived, and with it the promise of January 5th--the first day back to school--looming in the near future. I have decided that I'm not a fan of the Spring semester. It brings with it more stress than I'm paid for. In an attempt to stave off the imminent anxiety for just a while longer, I have begun working on the set design for "Guys and Dolls," our spring production.

So, for the first time ever on this blog, I'm showing you something that I've drawn. Pardon the darkness of the photo, I tried it with flash, but it just got really washed out. This is the view of the main location, Broadway of the 1950s. The things with the darker edges are meant to be flats built with a little bit of forced perspective (hurray for the Italian Renaissance and forced perspective!). The lighter stuff is a rough idea of what I want for the backdrop (and yes, I know the Empire State Building is a little weird looking).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what people think.

P.S. The cat is asleep next to/half on my pillow. I don't want to move him because he's so darn cute, but he's kind of in the way.