Today was one of those hectic, busy days that I just love.  Work til 2 then immediately have to make my way to rehearsal. Fortunately, the time clock is set 5 minutes fast.  Rehearsal was just as fun as I had imagined it would be.  The principal cast and members of the chorus were given a lesson in waltzing by the choreographer.  Actually not as bad as I had feared although it was only a rudimentary lesson.   In the ballroom scene, Grandpa actually has to appear to be moving somewhere during his graceful dance with Esther.  We also got to watch the big chorus number on board the trolley begin to take shape.  Just so long as it isn’t a  bunch of people sitting on board moving up and down, up and down to simulate the movement.  While listening to chorus members practice, one of the male singers was asked which part he sang… Bass.  And by golly, he was indeed a bass.  I could never in my wildest dreams hit some of the notes he was able to.  There are basses and then there are BASSES!!!

Then it was over my home theatre where we were having three meetings as well as a surprise 21st birthday party for a dear friend who is in Over the Tavern. Apparently, she was surprised because she was amazed that I could keep a secret.  I just told her that I had to come over for the meetings.

Following the meetings, some of us went across the way to eat.  I had no money with me… something about misplacing my wallet.  This never happens to anyone else, right?  I did find it when I returned home.

OK… The End of The Spy Who Loved Me

James Bond Will Return in

For Your Eyes Only.

But he returned in Moonraker (yuck) first.

Happy 21st, Megan.

Year after Year, the Ice fisherman go out onto the Great Lakes in droves. They will drive their jeeps, trucks, ATV and snowmobiles. It was reported on National News outlets that over 100 people were trapped out on the ice when it broke away from shore.

Warmer temperatures, high winds will all contribute to this happening. It was lucky that only one person lost his life. I just wonder why people take go out on the lakes at these times. I even wonder more why they take expensive machinery out on the lake. I can understand the lure of fishing, I’ve done it many times in the past. Me, I liked the summer fishing the best, but then I have another interest that will have me sitting for extended periods in the cold.

I have gone ice fishing in the past, but only on small inland ponds and lakes. I always wanted to make sure the complete lake was frozen. Even on those days, when the wind picked up, you could hear and feel the ice buckle beneath your feet. I can’t even imaging feeling this on a lake where you could end up drifting miles off shore.

Well, anyway they did it again this year, and I’m sure they will do it again next year. I’m very convinced they will, because I heard today on the news, that they were out again today. I’m almost certain that some of the people rescued earlier were back on the ice today. I hope they stay safe.

Okay, here is the long-awaited part 2 of the teaching poll.  Please choose as many as you would want to teach.  And please feel free to comment/expound on any of your choices. 🙂

[poll id=”5″]

Continuing in the soap opera theme of a couple of posts ago, I have one to share from my own experience on Thursday.  I didn’t even have to adjust the title to fit as it works well just as it is- they are of course young, and they were quite restless.  If anyone knows about autism, one of the things even the higher-functioning kids need is a structured environment and schedule- everything should remain the same from day to day.  It appears that the same holds true for kids with behavioral issues.  I was in a middle school BD/LD classroom on Thursday.  I should start by saying I was in this class before several times and have never really had a problem before Thursday.  The fact that there are usually two teachers and two assistants in the room has always helped a great deal.  However,  this time both teachers had subs.  Also, the day before both teachers and both assistants were out sick- believe it or not, this was not engineered!  Between these two events, the kids just fell apart.  It didn’t really help that the plans included having the kids do something they apparently never do even when the teachers are there.  This was mentioned, loudly I should add, by 6th grade and 8th grade students alike- “We never do vocabulary!”  In addition, they absolutely would not listen to any instruction from me.  I tried to follow the plans as given, but they were already trying to go ahead, and were actually getting upset at me for trying to do what the teacher had written.  Sigh.  In the end I just had to give up and let them work on their own.  The 8th graders I think actual did the work.  The 6th graders, on the other hand, for the most part chose to do their own thing.  One even brought in a video game book and would read only this.  The assistants tried too, but in the end they were just back after being sick for a few days so it really wasn’t worth getting on them until the teachers returned.

However, trying to get them to work was only part of this story.  All day many of the students had anger issues, threw thing st one another, and had to be pulled from their regular classes.  There were a couple of teachers or social workers who were in on and off trying to keep the kids in line.  Parents were called.  What a drama.  Even the class where I had only one student was a bust.  She came to school late the period before, ate her lunch for that period (she was supposed to be doing math), and continued eating it during her social studies period.  She refused to read until she was done, never mind that girls are generally good at multitasking.  Clearly she was just stalling.  Of course, when she did start reading she couldn’t concentrate thanks to other kids in the room creating problems.  If you’re confused at this, you’re not alone- it can be confusing.  Most of the day there are two classes going on at once- one by each teacher.  Additionally, there can be kids in there who cannot be in their regular classes for some reason or other (remember above where I mentioned pulling kids out of other classes).  At this time, I had social studies with 7th grade (the one student), but the other sub had math with 6th grade.  One of the 6th graders had big issues all day.

Well, tune in next time for hopefully a post with less drama.  Well at least a better day for me- drama is great for the reader 😛 .  Otherwise, I will have to work in another soap opera title. 😉

WAL-MART! I can find many ways to blame Wal-Mart for the way the economy is tanking.  Time for my latest beef about the place.  We went over there Friday morning because my husband didn’t have to work until after lunch, and we need an oil change.  So we thought we’d get the oil change done together this time, which made me really happy because normally it’s just me and my two children (ages 2 and 7 mos.) who have to kill around 2 hours there every 3 months (or sometimes even more frequently).  If you’re thinking that spending 2 hours at Wal-Mart with 2 little kids while trying not to spend a lot of money is both exhausting and frustrating, you aren’t very far off the mark.  So anyway, Friday I thought I had company for the oil change, but even so, who wants to spend hours at Wal-Mart?  When we pulled up, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there weren’t any cars waiting, so I thought we might actually be out of there in under an hour – WRONG!  The wait time they quoted us was an hour and a half!  But we needed the oil change and were kind of trying to kill time until the area restaurants would start serving lunch, so we decided to go for it, especially since they’ve opened an H & R Block in the Wal-Mart for tax season.  Taxes and an oil change – kill two birds with one stone, or so we thought…  We get to the other side of the store where the makeshift H & R Block is, and we find out it’s not open until 1pm.  So we went back to the Automotive Department to sign in our car anyway, and that’s when we discover that an oil change at Wal-Mart is now $30!  That is a $7.50 increase in price over the last 3 months!  So no taxes to get done + expensive oil change + long wait = forget it!  And I will add the fact that Wal-Mart sucks at oil changes.  Almost every time I’d come home with the car, it would act funny or something else would be wrong with it.  Once they forgot to put the air filter back in, several times they didn’t replace the wiper fluid when it was checked off on the to-do list, and a few times I had to go back and have them re-vacuum the interior of the car because they said they did it but clearly had not.  Those were the days when oil changes were still so reasonable in price that we got the full monty of services, including the vacuuming and the refilling of fluids – not anymore!

We called other places around town, and we found that Wal-Mart is now the most expensive AND takes the longest.  But at the other places you needed an appointment, so we’ll have to wait until next week – no problem if I don’t have to go back to Wal-Mart!  Plus I’d rather support the little guy anyway (ever hear the country music song “Little Man” by Alan Jackson?  It’s a good one and I highly recommend listening to it if you’re frustrated about Wal-Mart’s world take-over).  And that brings me to why I’m blaming Wal-Mart for the awful economy…

They’re putting all the little guys out of business, so there go the jobs and the competition in the retail world that was keeping product and services prices reasonable.  Wal-Mart sets the pricing trends, unfortunately.  Mark my words, as soon as the little guys in town get wind that Wal-Mart upped their oil change prices, they will follow suit and you won’t be able to touch an oil change for under $30.  And worse yet, I read in the newspaper just yesterday that Wal-Mart is the only retail place that posted profits for January.  In fact, they’re doing even better than Wall Street predicted for them, which in this economy, makes them stand alone in that respect.

The state of our economy is so bad right now that I suppose it’s not logical to blame just one entity.  But moaning about Walmart is a good venting tool, and they p*ss me off!

Tonight was the opening for the WCCT’s first show of the 2009-2010 season.  Over the Tavern tells the story of Rudy, a young Catholic boy who questions his upbringing in the church.  The young man finds himself at odds with his teacher, the formidable ‘ster Clarissa.  Life at home is not much better.  I will call it nearly normal.  Not quite insane enough to be termed dysfunctional; but nowhere the idyllic lifestyle which Rudy longs for: the world of 50s family series television headed by Robert Young (of Father Knows Best).  If anyone tells you that their family is the picture of perfection, they are either delusional or pulling your leg. Each member of Pazinski clan (father Chet, mother Ellen, oldest brother Eddie, sister Annie, Rudolph, and little Georgie …. HE HAS TO BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED) each have life experiences which play into the drama.

Each member of the cast was just great from veterans who have been on stage several times to the young boys who are just beginning to step on stage.  Those of us who were raised in a Catholic home were transported back to the classroom in which the fear of God was instilled in you with a ruler cracking your hand.  Rudy and Eddie in the bedroom on bunk beds took me back to my childhood when I shared a room with my older brother and the battles therein.

I would feel terrible if I did not mention my friend’s return to the stage.  Megan was just terrific.  Although I have shared the stage with her before, I have never had the pleasure of seeing her on stage.  Her facial expressions, timing, entire characterization made everyone believe that she was 16 years old going through her own life’s trials and whose hair belongs to her parents until she is 21.  Ironically, Carol reminded me that that would be in a few short days.  I told Megan that I hope it is not another 2 seasons before she graces the stage.

The whole cast, set, the entire production of Over the Tavern kicked off the new theatre season in hilarious fashion.  I arrived a bit early to offer good wishes to all and found myself stuffing programs and running into the frantic director who typically appeared to be quite frazzled for whatever reason.

The other day, my husband reminded me of a cute story about something our oldest daughter did when she was younger, probably around 4 years old.  He said I should write it down somewhere so we don’t forget about it, so I decided to write something about all four of our wonderful kids, starting with the oldest and going down.  Here’s a visual:

TAYLOR – About 5 years ago, we began finding the letters “WCPL” all over the house.  The letters were always written together like a word, and they were everywhere – walls, books, VHS movies, chairs, everywhere.  We couldn’t figure out what word our then-4-year-old was trying to spell, so we had a talk about not writing where we’re not supposed to, cleaned it all up, and moved on.  A few weeks later, I took my daughter to the library to check out some books and movies, and that’s when I saw the labels on the VHS cases – WCPL = Williams County Public Library!  She had noticed that all of her books and movies that came from the library had those letters on them, so I guess she figured things were supposed to be labeled WCPL – hehehe!

SAMANTHA – Sammie is a very unique child.  She can be a real spitfire, but she just has this incredible spirit about her…  But she’ll ask me questions that I have no idea how to answer.  When her older sister was her age, she would ask the normal kid questions about life and how things work, and even if she didn’t phrase her questions correctly, it was always easy for me to figure out what she wanted to know and where she was coming from.  Not true with Samantha!  Since half the time I don’t know what she’s asking about, I can’t think of any of her confusing questions to share here on the blog, but I will say that she is the type of kid who asks the embarrassing questions in public – and loudly.  We went to a nursing home to sing Christmas carols during the holidays, and there was a gentleman in a wheelchair who suffered from a muscle illness that made his tongue swell.  He loved the caroling and really got into it, singing quite loudly.  This got Sammie’s attention.  She asked me, “Does your tongue hang out because you get so old?”  She just has such a different way of looking at things…  This is the same kid who asked me one time (really loudly of course) why someone was wearing purple underwear in the bathroom stall next to us!

DISNEY – It’s funny because Disney and Sammie look very much alike, almost like twins years apart.  But their personalities are night and day.  The other day, Disney, our 2-year-old, looked up at the sky and said, “Airplane!  See it, on ceiling?”  Awwww…..

CHRISTOPHER – I remembered something I forgot to mention about my son’s 6-month doctor visit.  The nurse said he should be eating 3 meals a day – something that seems obvious, but I’m actually really glad she mentioned it!  When you have a baby and you’re used to popping bottles in his mouth all the time, you forget that when he’s old enough to be eating solid foods that he needs meals just like big people!  My son loves all kinds of food; he tries to grab as much as he can, and he shoves it into his mouth with his little fists.  As he gets older, I’m starting to notice the difference between girls and boys, especially when it comes to their eating habits.  Boys are messier and more enthusiastic eaters, while girls tend to be dainty and more picky.  But again, maybe these are just differences in my kids, rather than a difference based on gender, who knows.  And from what I remember, all the kids started out not being picky about their food – they were just so happy to be experiencing flavors after an entire life of only formula!

I have been blessed with 4 kids, and they have 4 very individualistic personalities.  It’s really neat to watch how they interact with each other.  Well, except when the interacting involves fighting!

Trying again to move pictures and other files around to help keep thing in order on my computer.  I’ve never really been much of a picture taker, but with a digital camera it is so easy just to keep clicking away.  I’m still trying to file all of my video files, but they take much longer to move around.   I may have to buy a Blu-Ray writeable drive when the cost of the media comes down.  I really don’t need to keep the videos on the hard drive, but to fit them on DVD’s almost always compresses them and they lose quality. 

Anyway I’ve been spending the evening looking at pictures, giving them better titles, and moving them to specific folders.  Then I can group these together by type of picture and keep better track of them.  I’m still trying to find pictures of our first dog,  and some other pets we’ve had.   

I’ve had some fun, a few tears and I found some pictures I thought I lost.  

So here is something I haven’t posted before.   This is a picture of me and my wife from 2001. Sure wish I knew what we were looking at.

Tonight’s rehearsal was full of fun.  We had a visitor from an area newspaper who may also be of help in the costuming area.  She was there to discuss the show individually when we were not needed in a scene.  “John Truitt” and I happened to be available at the same time (it was not the scene in which we are part of).  As I introduced myself to the interviewer, “John” said “I know who you are.  You look just like your brother.”  Apparently, the young man is a self-acclaimed nuisance to my oldest brother at school by dropping in on him quite frequently with computer problems.  Knowing my brother quite well, I doubt if he sees the teenager as a nuisance.

Part of the fun was watching people attempt to waltz as well as trying to dance myself.  Then, the real challenge came: waltzing and talking at the same time.  At least I only have one line to remember while I dance.  Hopefully, waltzing will come back to me on Sunday when the choreographer joins us.

I also found a lot of other humorous possibilities as well as some very quick costume changes… how fun THOSE will be.

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on a website for a theatre that I have been looking at announcing their summer season.  This week, I looked back to see if any additional information had been posted (audition information, performance dates, etc).  Oddly enough, the Wagon Wheel is staging Joseph and the Amazing Techincolor Dreamcoat as is a local theatre group.  My experience with the show goes back at least 16 years when I saw it on Broadway.  I was on spring break tour with the BGSU Men’s Chorus which made its way to the Big Apple.  In 1999, I auditioned for a local production; however, I was not offered a role.  The next summer, a neighboring community group staged the musical.  This time, I was cast in multiple walk-on roles.  I actually was responsible for selling Jacob the coat of many colors.  Later, I was one of Potiphar’s attendees and carried a large fan adoringly waving it on him.  Later still, I was one of Pharoah’s guards and hauled Joseph to the King’s feet.  Being my first role with this theatre, I must have made quite an impression as the following year I was cast as Motel in Fiddler.

The Wagon Wheel is a theatre about an hour and a half away.  The stage is quite interesting as it is in “a round.”  The stage is smack in the middle with the audience surrounding it.  This would be a very unique experience for me as I have never before acted on a round stage. I have never auditioned for what can only be considered a summer stock situation.  There are a total of 6 different shows over the summer (Joseph, Brigadoon, Nunsense, High School Musical, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and A Chorus Line).  If what I feel is correct, each person who makes the cut will be involved somehow in each of the shows whether it be on or off stage.  This would mean a neccessity for quick memorization, characterization, dedication, hard work, and more commitment than ever.  Sounds like a complete drag to me…. AAARRRRRRRGH!  That is funny.  It sounds like a totally rewarding as well as professional experience.  An open call was announced for SUNDAY(?)  March 22 at Western Michigan University.

I know that I have a lot to do between now and then.  I need to find 16 measures of an up-tempo song and a ballad.  I have half of that.  Not to mention Meet Me in St. Louis. However, I KNOW that that will not be a problem.  I think I can prepare and be involved in one show at the same time.  Especially if I will need to learn to balance six at once.  But if all else fails, I can always come back and audition for another production of Joseph.