The Best of Times

I'm a happy teacher. Not only is school starting tomorrow (yes, I truly am excited), but I'm also listening to the concept recording of a new musical - "A Tale of Two Cities." I ordered the CD months ago, left town and when I came back, the CD wasn't there! So I e-mailed the production with a complaint and they took quick care of it - and even invited me to tour the theatre next time I'm in NY! Hmm.... Now I have to figure out when to go. I hope the show doesn't close soon, because if it does... Christine - you make have an overnight guest! :) I missed "The Woman in White"... I don't want to miss "A Tale of Two Cities."

Lots of stuff is going on. So it's time for yet another catagorized list...

1) Running. Marathon training season has begun! Actually, it began while I was in DC, but I'm just now participating. I rejoined my running group yesterday, and they were up to 7 miles. Gulp. I ran 4 in Central Park three weeks ago, and 5 in Maryland 3 weeks prior to that. The last time I ran 7 miles was in February or March. But I was bound and determined to finish all 7 miles, despite my lack of really running. Hell, I used to run 6 miles every other day! So I started... and finished. I did a lot more walking the last mile and a half, but still finished in less than 1 hour and 45 minutes. The miles I did run were better than the miles I ran last fall, so I'll be in better shape before the half marathon. And I'll be running the Surfside Half Marathon. Unfortunately, Houston sold out three months earlier than it did last year and I didn't make it. It'll be the first time in 4 years that I won't run it, which upsets me terribly. But I have been wanting to run Surfside for years, so I just might as well do it this year! But the race that I'm going to focus on now is the Space City 10-miler in October. Last year I was in no conditition to run it at all (it was my first race since my knee injury, and ran it after training one month for it... after a 6 month hiatus from running) but I finished and won't dwell on my time - I was just happy I finished. This year, I won't necessarily dwell on time as much either, as long as I finish 10 minutes earlier than last year. :)

2) Rodeo. Yep. Rodeo season has started. Bring on the meetings!

3) School. I'm so freakin' excited. I love my job. I may complain, whine, etc, but I really enjoy teaching. I've worked really hard these past two weeks (early, before I was even supposed to start) and have accomplished great things - lesson plans for a month, my room has been set up for a while, I made all of my handouts for the first month, etc. I'm ahead of the game and my stress level is relatively low. So since I finished early, I've been being the good "Buddy Teacher" and SLC leader and have been helping out my fellow teachers. Plus I really like the new teachers and have been hanging out with them - yes, I'm gaining a social life again! Plus one of the new teachers is also my new neighbor - he lives below me (not in the dead man's apartment, but the other one) and we've been hanging out almost daily at one of our apartments, drinking beer, playing the guitar and talking teacher stuff and theatre.

Bring on the kids!

Cheers!

Yoda has Left the Building

I'm back at school, sort of unofficially. I started Monday by welcoming new teachers and attending SLC meetings (I'm an SLC leader this year). Afterwards, I went to my classroom to check on the damage.

Since they cleaned my room this summer, all of my furniture was near the door. Luckily I lift weights and am pretty strong, because I had to move all of it, by myself, to their proper locations. The full file cabinet was a struggle. I then did a quick inventory. The following did not make it back to my room (despite labels): two trashcans, my emergency bucket, and my desk chair. Yesterday I got my trashcans back, I took another teacher's desk chair (she was leaving the building and said I could have it... and it's more comfortable than my other one), and I'll probably get another emergency bucket next week.

But here's the startling thing: my Yoda poster is gone! It's one of the library posters; Yoda is holding a book and the caption reads, "Read and the force will be with you." I'm a total Star Wars nerd and that poster has been on my wall since my first day teaching. And now it's gone. Other teachers complained about their walls being stripped this summer because the building people wanted to paint (but ended up not painting). Whereas their posters were placed on their desks, Yoda faced no similar destiny. I'm guessing he was torn, and then the person who was removing him just threw him away. I need a new one now. Which means I may not have it on the first day.

:(

But on the flip side, my new LSU Championship flag looks great in my room!

Now it's Thursday - I've been in my room Monday, yesterday and today. Half of the time was spent socializing and arranging social activities with teachers, and the other half was actual working (we don't go back until next week, so it's not like I'm going to get in trouble for not working). But my room is all set up, I've written lessons for the first month in both of my sections, created my class overviews/syllabi and even made copies for the first week of class. I might go in tomorrow to make more copies for the rest of the first month. It's quite nice to go in early and just be done with things!

More good news: the theatre department chair was uber supportive of me starting a Shakespeare acting troupe! Woo-hoo! Good news, and on the day that the group photo made it to my mailbox. Now I'm off to search for a picture frame...

Cheers!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

"Cymbaline" was fantastic! The costumes were phenominal, the big-top music was perfect, the acting was fantastic. I cannot praise it enough. One directorial decision that I particularly enjoyed was turning lords and minor characters into the storytellers, which worked especially well in the opening scene (the story tellers introduced the play and characters using a tableau vivante). Last night's Antony was tonight's Cymbaline, last night's Cassius was one of the story tellers and last night's Portia was also in tonight's performance and they were all really great. I think it's going to be one of my new favorite Shakespeare plays.

The play/text itself was quite different from what I expected. It was a cross between "Much Ado About Nothing," "Othello," and "King Lear." It did not fit the normal Shakespearean comedy nor tragedy. It was tragic in that two people died (one quite visciously), but it was comedic because (a) we laughed at the deaths and (b) everyone was happy in the end. The Folio lists it as a tragedy, but it's not. The Riverside lists it as a romance, but there were deaths. I fully plan on reading the play because I'm wondering if a lot of the comedic situations were actually directorial decisions. Whether they were or not, I was quite pleased with the play. I'd love to see it again; too bad it closed tonight.

Time for bed. I start school tomorrow (sort of)!

Cheers!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

...lend me a good production!

So last night, I dragged my friend Daniel to the Houston Shakespeare Festival to see a production of "Julius Caesar". Every summer, they put on two plays, very professionally done (with equity actors and everything), at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. April didn't want to go (her words were, "Heat, bugs and Shakespeare: my idea of hell"), so I convinced Daniel to accompany me. I was slightly disappointed.

I know the play very well (having taught it a couple of times), but I've never seen a live production. I have to admit, I was daydreaming during the production. First of all, the director chose to modernize the dress to suits and cammoflauge. Some Shakespeare plays modernize very well, but I wanted to see the togas. Then the director cut a lot out - the play ran just under two hours - and if I didn't know the play very well, I might've been confused. Things seemed to happen too quickly, and didn't flow as well. Finally, I wasn't too keen on some of the actors' decisions. I felt that Portia was too naggy and Antony's voice was too high pitched and Cassius was too active. I thought Portia could've been stronger, Antony a bit deeper and Cassius a bit calmer (calm villains sometimes work better than hyper villains).

I did like the music, the sound, the set - very minimalistic with a good usage of various planes and stairs - and I enjoyed the actor who played Brutus. And the weather was nice with only minimal bugs (although two ninja junebugs dive-bombed my head and scared the daylights out of me both times).

Tonight's perfomance is "Cymbaline," which is a play that I am completely unfamiliar with - I've never seen it nor read it. I barely know the plot. So I migh enjoy this one better.

Time to organize my apartment!

Cheers!

The Creepy Cross Tour (AKA - I'm home!)

The time is 10:21pm, and I am finally home. Actually, I've been home for about 3 hours, but I needed to go grocery shopping and unpack my clothes.

The name of today's is the nickname April gave our roadtrip home. She called it the Creepy Cross Tour after the 3rd or 4th baptist church with absolutely enormous crosses in the front.

But here's how the roadtrip went...
Wednesday: We left at 6am, and drove until we arrived in Chattanooga, TN around 4:30pm. I drove the entire time, and was a complete music Nazi, alternating between the satellite radio stations and my iPod, which consists mostly of Broadway musicals. Everytime we passed cows, April moo'ed, and everytime we passed bails of hay, I said, "Heeeeyyy." Pretty silly stuff. We saw a tow truck being towed, an 18-wheeler being towed, and a school bus being towed, but the school bus looked as though it had been submerged under water for a while. Seriously. Wednesday's driving consisted mostly of mountain driving (and I thought we'd never get out of Virginia), which I am not accustomed to. I've been a passenger plenty of times for mountain rides, but never driven them. It wasn't too bad until we decided to go to Rock City at Lookout Mountain on the TN/GA border. I haven't been there in 20 years, and I haven't really been in the mountains in 12 years. Rock City was as cool as I remembered it, but I had a small panic attack on the drive up the mountain. The view was beautiful, but it also made me realize that we could die if a crazy person came barrelling down the mountain and plows into us (there was a tiny guardrail separating my car and a cliff). I drove like an old lady: both hands on the wheels, leaning forward, inching my way up the mountain. Plus I have a V4 engine, and it's not used to uphill driving. All in all, the mountain driving was amusing.

Yesterday, Wednesday, we left Chattanooga at 6:15am, arrived in Baton Rouge at 2:30pm (and we went through a time zone change, so add an hour). More mountain driving in the morning, but it was all freeway, so not bad. Beautiful sights, though. More cows. More hay. More tow trucks. I felt gracious and let April control the music, with the occassional veto of her heavy rap. Once in BR, we met up with my godfather, who is the most protective man to me. I completely appreciate it - he took over when my dad died (he taught me how to drive, how to shoot, supports me in everything, etc.), so it was nice to see him again. Then we went to LSU's campus, saw the new changes, bought some stuff for my classroom, and met people for dinner at the Chimes (YUM!): Eddie and Monique, Jeff and Phil, and then Andy came towards the end. Jeff and I used my new beer-drinking tendencies and then we all had some of the best food. There is no food like Louisiana food - and if I ate in Washington or NY like I ate last night, I would've gained 10 pounds. The duck and sausage gumbo was thick, dark and spicy, and the crawfish po'boys were perfection. The Chimes is a restaurant that I have to go to when I go to BR. After dinner, and then coffee, April and I went to Andy's, where Andy and I exchanged teaching stories and I filled him in on all of my Shakespeare stuff. But it wasn't too late of a night; he's already back in school. The afternoon and evening was so wonderful; it made me remember why I like the South and Southerners so much (except the stifling heat, of course). I was given shit sometimes this summer about being from Texas and the South, but I love both Texas and the South. Will I live here forever? Probably not. But the Texas is home, complete with warm people, warm fuzzy feelings, and great food.

This morning, after an early Jazzercise class, we went to New Orleans (might as well, it's only an hour away) for lunch at Port-Of-Call, another college favorite. Their hamburgers are completely worth the drive! Then we came to Houston, battling freakishly bad weather and taking more photos of Creepy Crosses.

And now I'm home. Unpleasant surprises: the dust, the heat, and my apartment people did NOT steam clean the carpets like they were supposed to. Pleasant surprise: I now have cable. I didn't order cable, but I have it. I supposed I should call someone. Maybe I'll do it next week.
So right now all of my bags are everywhere. I have bags on my couch, on the floor, on my dining table, on a loveseat in my bedroom. I don't even know where to begin to unpack my Shakespeare stuff. I might just leave everything nonessential until Sunday night, when I have alone time (April's flight back to DC leaves around 3pm).

But I'm home. I'm sure I've forgotten to mention something. Oh, well. Oh! I'll post more pictures this week.
Cheers!

It's Over

TSI is all over. A wonderful month of camaraderie, Shakespeare, scholarship, cuckold jokes, clapping in 4 syllables, beer, staying up late frantically trying to finish/perfect projects, and way too many experiences with ice down my shirt.

Yes, teachers are just high schoolers with better education.

I don't think I can even begin to explain what I've done this summer, and how much it means to me. I think the best thing I got out of it was something I wasn't even supposed to get out of it - I am now applying to grad school. TSI wants to teach teachers to be better teachers, but for me, it was about spending time in history, and I really have to get off my ass about going to grad school, and then getting into a PhD program. I also know what I want my thesis and dissertation to be about - I'm not going to divulge it right now, but it'll be in the Shakespeare realm. I love Shakespeare and history, so I'm going to mix them together.

I've been sad off and on. I've been wanting to participation in TSI for so long, and me getting accepted into the program created a fissure with the Cop (yes, his name shall no longer be mentioned). Now that it's over, I'm sad. I feel a void. I was in NY for a couple of days, visiting Christine and the baby (and trying not to get the baby sick... I've caught a sickness that I've dubbed the "TSI plague", due to the fact that many people got very very sick while they were here). NY was great, and it helped dull the sharp feeling of emptiness. But when I got back to DC today, I felt sad again. It's strange to be here with everyone else gone. I didn't go by the Folger, but I knew it would be sad if I did.

But I'm on a new mission. And it's a mission that I've been putting off for a while. I have to follow my dreams again!

Cheers!