Ode to the Coffee Pub

There's this little coffee shop in Tallahassee which has become popular with countless FSU students for it's coffee and atmosphere. C. introduced me to the Coffee Pub one evening last Spring semester, and it quickly became my study spot, my hangout, my escape. On more than one occasion I found myself twisted up with a book and a steaming cup of tea in one of the comfy chairs in the corner furtively watching the people around me as I tried to make sense of Beckett, or Virginia Wolff, or Stoppard (oh, Stoppard!). Some evenings when I didn't have much to do, I would just sit and journal, sipping the amazing Mighty Leaf tea with honey.

On evenings like tonight, I want nothing more than to sit and listen to the low hum of college students doing homework and chatting with friends, having conversations that don't relate to someones boyfriend, or High School Musical (the bane of my existence). I miss intelligent conversation, and being around people who have heard of the Lost City of Atlantis (no, not the ride), or Death Valley, or Tibet. There is only so much high school jabber a person can take.

If anyone knows of a good coffee shop in the East Orlando area, please share (Starbucks and Barnie's do not count).

Not Scary Enough

I've decided that I'm not scary enough. I remember going into "Les Miserables" being completely terrified to miss a rehearsal. Despite my warnings, my cast doesn't seem worried about missing rehearsal. As much as I don't want to, I may have to cut someone, just to prove a point. I hope it's not someone I like. But the fact is, several of them have missed rehearsals without telling me why, or even telling me in advance, and that is--frankly--not cool. I want to give them some time to settle in and work things out with their parents as far as rides go, because I remember what it was like being in high school, but at the same time, there hasn't been one rehearsal where someone wasn't standing in for someone else. Considering that we are less than 4 weeks from opening night, that is not good.

I have to be scary. Develop that look. Do something so that they will pay attention and quit goofing around. Maybe I need to grow up a little too. I think that might be my problem. I'm so young and so close to their age that they make a joke, and I totally get it, so I make a joke too, and then we start going back and forth and we don't get anything done. Did I mention that I spent half an hour talking about Nintendo with some of my cast last week when we should have been rehearsing? I need to quit that. It's not good for anyone.

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The Hispanic festival was on Friday in the PAC. They needed someone to run the fly, and since none of my students know how to use the fly safely, I stayed and did it for them. It has been a really long time since I've done anything like that. No matter how evenly weighted the grand drape is, getting 3000 pounds of anything moving is going to take some energy. Doing it upwards of 20 times quickly and in the span of two hours is downright exhausting. My hands are bruised from the rope, despite the leather gloves I wore. I think it was worth it though. A few hours of my work will hopefully be returned in the form of clean dressing rooms and a good relationship with that club in the future. If not, well, they can do their own fly work next year, and it's not my fault if someone gets a grand drape on top of them.

I'm Supposed to Turn Those In?

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember that I write a lot when there are other things to do. This evening is no exception. For those readers not intimately aware of the school calendar, I should mention that this is the last week of the first grading period. That means grades are due tomorrow by noon, lesson plans from the past nine weeks were due at the end of the day today. Here's the thing though, I didn't hear about the whole lesson plan thing until yesterday at lunch in my very first "departmental meeting" (it just so happened that the fine arts faculty ended up eating lunch in the same room).

The lesson plans shouldn't be difficult since I've only done one or two things since my arrival on campus three weeks ago (can you believe it's been that long?). Unfortunately the lesson plans require using a completely different and totally mysterious teacher language, a language which I haven't yet learned. There is a form to work off of, but to my untrained eyes, it looks like a bunch of gobbledygook which I can hardly hope to translate before tomorrow.

All of a sudden I feel like the kid scrunched down in the chair in the back because he forgot to do his homework or study for the test.

Despite being behind in the lesson plan department, I'm beginning to recognize the early flickers of confidence. I'm growing, dare I say it, comfortable in my job. Don't get me wrong, I am still flailing in the vast ocean of the public school system, but my flailing is beginning to resemble treading.

The Mom Song

I saw this on some website and thought it was hilarious. So I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

The First Referral

I had to write a guy up Thursday. It took a week and a half of teaching. That's probably not a good thing. I found myself wondering what I'd done wrong as far as classroom control goes? He and I had a discussion earlier in the class period about his grade (which is not good to say the least, although I haven't actually calculated it yet). In hindsight, I probably should have drawn the line and said I wasn't discussing it. Frankly, I don't know what else he was expecting from his performance. What gets me is that he didn't even try. Last week he told me that he didn't really want to be in my class in the first place, something about not wanting to be an actor. I told him that I wasn't expecting amazing performances, and all he had to do in my class to pass it was try. Just try, that's all I want. He said he wasn't smart enough to memorize his lines. I told him he' s selling himself short, and that he has potential to do whatever he wants.

On Thursday he walked out of my class without permission. What else was I supposed to do?

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In other news, I've blown my monthly quota out of the water. I'm pretty excited about that. Maybe my annual average will be 6 posts a month. It's just a product of actually having something to write about for the first time in a long time. Good times.

Auditions, Red Ribbon Week, and a Sort Of Clean Stage

This has been a fairly productive week. I ordered a copy of "A Christmas Carol," taken steps to get the rights and worked on purchase orders to buy scripts. I'm still overwhelmed, but for the first time since last Monday when I started, I think I might actually make it.

Last week a girl from SGA came in and asked if the Drama Club wanted to do a skit for Red Ribbon week. Not knowing that Red Ribbon Week was only two weeks away at the time, and that this week's class periods were basically lost to PSATs, I accepted and put the students to work. At first we had an extravagant plan which included a whole lot of monologues and a whole lot of people. But we realized how little time we have left today, and decided to cut it down to a few people, like seven. The cast for the skit is entirely students I trust (and who trust each other). I was worried that the younger people would get scared being in front of everyone in the courtyard and forget lines or just refuse to perform, but cutting it down to just these few people makes the entire situation a lot easier. Although I'm not sure how everyone else will react when they find out that they're out. I think they'll understand though, and hopefully they won't be upset.

I also spent three and a half hours in the theatre meeting with my Drama club officers and cleaning the stage just a little. It's not as clean as I would like, but I talked to the maintenance guy and he said they could mop the stage and clean up the wood finish that someone spilled, which actually makes me really happy. I thought I would have to go in and clean it up myself on Friday, but now I don't have to and can spend Friday getting ready for auditions on Monday.

And I've finally scheduled auditions for "A Christmas Carol." Monday at 3:30 in the Drama room/PAC. Cold readings. So this weekend I'll have to find scenes/monologues for my prospective actors to read for me.

My freshmen are performing their first scenes tomorrow. I'm expecting disaster. No one was really off book last class, which means they have a lot of work to do before tomorrow's class period. I'm sure a few of them will surprise me. Others might disappoint. Either way, it means I don't have to lecture.

Oh, and I think I might want to do "Urinetown" for the spring musical. Really, it's a lot cleaner than it sounds.

Characters

I spend every day with characters.

There's Bon Jovi Guy. He looks like Jon Bon Jovi. He's kind of crazy, and likes to do semi-acrobatic things while running around like an idiot. I yelled at Bon Jovi Guy and company today for being idiots.

There's Pee Boy, who asked to go pee in the first five minutes of class on my first day of school. No, Pee Boy, you can't go pee. You should have done that during lunch. He hasn't asked to go pee since.

There's Crazy Girl, who has emotional problems.

There's the Suck-Up, who insists that I am her favorite teacher and Drama is her favorite class. She's had me for all of a day, and she's had a sub in Drama for the rest of the year. She's trying to get on my good side. She's a Suck-Up.

There's Girl-With-Too-Much-On-Her-Plate. She does band and sleeps in my class.

There's the Corner Girls, who don't pay attention, and who will be getting low grades on their first assignment because they haven't been working on them. At all. So they're getting low grades.

There's Well-Dressed-Guy, who always wears a tie. And he was wearing Seminole colors on my first day. That was pretty awesome.

There's Attitude Girl (more like three or four Attitude Girls) who insists on talking over everyone else, then giving them attitude when I tell her to be quiet. She wasn't in class today. I was happy about that.

So, I spend my day with characters. I don't really want to, but it's my job.