Great news!

I. Got. Into. Bremen Town!!! Best of all, it was the part I really wanted. It was the one I thought I was too young for. The woman I thought would be perfect for it was at auditions, and I almost left when I saw her. She is also producing it. She said she was trying out but she didn't read the first night, staying out in the hall for some reason (to help latecomers, maybe.) The second night she came in and watched while I read and went back out. I got the call later that night and SCREAMED when the director told me (hope I didn't blow her ear out.) I asked her about Marilyn, and she said she would have helped out if no one else was right for the part. Ann was so sweet--when I said I thought Marilyn would have been a great Hilda, she said, "I think YOU'LL be a great Hilda." Rehearsals start tomorrow and I am so excited!

I am partway into CO's last scene. I have written George's big epiphany monologue. I am still not sure where to stick the individual parts. I trust it will all unfold as it's supposed to.

Went home this weekend and caught some gills. Dad caught quite a few and I caught three. We realized too late that I had the wrong lure (jig.) I used his after a while and as soon as I dropped it in I got a bite. I got two nice sized ones and one that was sort of on the small side. Dad said it was 7 1/2 inches but I think it was more like 6 1/2. We ordered Chinese that night and I had the best Mongolian Beef EVER. I also got to have lunch with Mom and we had a nice talk.

I have LOTS of students--I'm very blessed. I am working with four kids now: two brothers, a girl, and one boy who lives downstairs from me. That's convenient because we meet Saturdays at 10. His mom wanted to meet at 7 AM! Way too early for me, esp. on a Saturday. The boys are low intermediate, but the girl is really advanced. She has no accent and reads very well. We're going to work through the school curriculum. The next thing we're going to work on is focusing on playwrighting. I think I'll be able to teach that (ahem.) I am also working with three men. One of them is the father of the girl, and he is fun to work with. He's about low intermediate. The other Korean man is low beginner. The third guy, an Indian man, is high intermediate. He understands English very well but wants to work on his accent so people can understand him better. He is understood by people at work and I understand him, but he is talking about "everyday" people. Personally, I think the people he is talking about are not experienced dealing with those who do not speak English as a first language, people who have a smaller worldview. He mentioned people in fast food restaurants (especially at the drive-thru!) and people talking on the phone. I personally have no problem understanding him, but he does certainly have an accent. I don't want to destroy the way he talks (not possible anyway; he's past the "golden period,") but I have demonstrated how American English is a lazy language. He's going to keep a list of words and phrases that are misunderstood, and we are going to go over how to "Americanize" them. I hesitate to say how most Americans pronounce them. I just talk with the intermediate guy and the low beginner and I are finding topics and discussing them.

So, lots of good things are happening in my life now. I will get to go back to working once a week with Stephanie because of the increased cash flow, and I'm going to start voice lessons with the woman who teaches the girl who starred in Thunderhoof (she has a golden voice.) I have a new friend in Kris, my "Lansing mom"; I went over to her house for dinner again tonight. She is working on her house and tonight she was painting her living room. I got to meet her sister and one of the s'ghetti girls came over. Have I talked about them? They are Kris' best friends, and the name came from a card she got with a picture of four little girls throwing spaghetti at each other. So now they are the s'ghetti girls.

Going to go back to FB and see if there's any more "news."

Hanging up now....

Goodbye Patrick

I fell in love with Patrick Swayze when he wowed us with Dirty Dancing. I was 16 and it quickly became my favorite movie. A friend posted a clip from To Wong Foo which, amazingly, I have never seen. It is pretty cool. He plays his character as a dignified and experienced queen. His illness took him so fast. We don't understand why those we love are taken from us before their time, and perhaps we'll never know. This goes back to this whole idea of cancer coming from the pit of hell that one of my prayer buddies mentioned (I wrote about this a while ago.) My pastor believes there is evil here on earth, that we don't need to believe in a supernatural evil. She thinks we can stop it and that "it makes God cry." So people working to cure cancer just need to work harder. And we can rid the environment of carcinogens. And people can stop smoking or being exposed to smoke (when are we going to have smokefree bars like those in California? I smoked when I lived there and it never bothered me. We just went outside to smoke.)

Well, we know he's dancing in Heaven tonight....

I have three new tutoring clients. I meet with one of them tomorrow morning, one tomorrow afternoon, and one starting next Monday. I'm looking forward to it; I just hope I'm up to the challenge. I'm glad to have three at once. I am charging $20 an hour, and I think this is not unreasonable. So this will be an extra $60 a week. Now if I just got two more clients...I could be making $100 a week. That would be nice.

Well, I'm off to bed so I can be fresh for my clients tomorrow. Hanging up now....

Steelhead!

My plans to work on CO Wednesday were pushed aside by a call from my mom. We have a friend who goes out on Lake Michigan to catch big fish like steelhead, salmon and lake trout. We have been trying to go all summer but haven't had a good day to go. It was more restricted when I was in the show, but now that I don't have that and I don't have a job, we decided I could go during the week. So Mom called about 5:30 on Wednesday to say tomorrow looked like a good day and that I should come to Kalamazoo. I got there at about 8:30, after packing and eating dinner. We had to get up at 6 the next morning, and I tossed and turned, so I was worried about having to get up. But I was so excited it wasn't a problem. We got out to the lake at about 8:30, leaving from Saugatuck. Getting out to the lake and putting the lines in took about half an hour. I caught the first fish at about 9. It was such a thrill! It took about twenty minutes to reel it in. And what a payoff--a beautiful steelhead that was probably about 5 lbs. Dad caught one not long after and then I caught my second one. This one got tangled up in another line and for one terrible moment I thought I'd lost him, because the tension disappeared. Dad then caught a lake trout. It was beautiful--I love the way they're mottled. Our friend thought it was out of season so we threw it back. I caught my third on a shorter line so it didn't take as long to reel in--maybe five minutes. It really put up a good fight and it was HUGE! We guessed 7 lbs. That one was the most fun to catch and a good end to the day. The guys cleaned them and we took them home and ate two fillets that night. They were GOOOD! Dad sent me home with 6 fillets and I plan to cook up one for Adam soon.

Tired--no reason to be but I am anyway. So I'll say good night.

Hanging up now....

Again, sorry about the repeats. I've been looking back over the last few blog entries and have seen stuff repeated. I just can't keep track of what I've written before. Just a failing of mine. I'll try to remember what I wrote and didn't write, and try to write about what is happening NOW to avoid the problem.

So what is happening NOW? I have finished the penultimate scene. I'm very happy with it. It's only 5 pages long but I think it's enough. It covers a lot of good stuff. It ends on a sort of suspenseful note that was kind of unexpected. I've outlined the final scene and will try to start that tomorrow. I'm a little afraid of writing this scene for some reason. Is it because it's the last scene? Am I worried that I won't be able to tie it all up neatly? Have I just enjoyed writing it so much I don't want it to end? If a play is like a child, writing the end is like watching it grow into adulthood--it's bittersweet. Also, there's that fear of sharing it with others. There are several people I want to show it to when this draft is done. I'm pretty much over that fear, though. I think it's just hard because I want it to be good. Hopefully I will get braver as I write it.

I applied to Dunkin Donuts. Haven't heard back from them. I had a dream that I worked for them and I made 100 bucks every two weeks. Better than Evan P., who had lost his job at Channel 6. Michigan's economy--that's the stuff of nightmares.

My trip to Kzoo was nice. Dad and I caught a dozen 'gills. I caught a big one but banged it on the side of the boat and it got away. That's the fun of fishing--getting the fish out of the water and into the boat. Then out of the boat and into the pan, and out of the pan and into my tummy. Yum!

We also had a cookout which was great. I made a pasta salad that went over pretty well. Recipe: 1 box shell pasta, about 8 oz sliced mushrooms, 1 red bell pepper, and one can artichoke hearts. Toss with Kraft Cucumber Ranch. Easy and tasty yum!

Saw my cousin Ric and second cousin Travis at the lake on Sunday. Travis has sustained a football injury and probably won't be able to play the rest of the season. It will be really hard for him. He's into both football and track. He's looking at a college that has a good track program. Good for him. We were talking about reasons for going to college and later Dad asked Travis "So Travis, who are you?" Way to put the teenager on the spot, Dad. I came back with "That's another good reason to go to college." Kids his age don't want to talk about who they are! Especially to old people!

Auditions for "The Bremen Town Musicians" are coming up soon. The script is really cute and the music is fun. There are two female parts; I'm probably too old for one and too young for the other. Same story as usual. But I'm going to give it my best shot and sing "I Want to Be Bad," one of the songs Kelly and I worked on.

I met with Clara yesterday and she gave me the materials for the educational plays. The materials are advertising aimed at schools, not a call for actors. I'd still like to contact them regarding employment. It's a long shot but we'll see. Maybe I could send them a resume and a headshot. I should get my headshots redone anyway.

I have spent way too much time on Facebook today. It's hard to fill your days when you don't have a job. I worked out today and that was good, and I worked on Checking Out, but I spent most of the day on Facebook. I did search for jobs on Craigslist a bit. I'm not right for most of the jobs they advertize. I don't have the experience or the training.

How can someone who has spent much of her adult life in school have so much trouble finding a job?

Hanging up now...

Things are clipping along. Checking Out is going well. I'm well into the penultimate scene. I decided that it's not such a bad thing to have a dialogue-driven play, rather than an action-packed one. There is enough action to keep it interesting. I was concerned at first that it would be too short, but now I think I might have to cut it. I don't really have a way of knowing how long a scene is. I figured ten pages=ten minutes, but I don't know if this is right. It depends on spacing and stuff like that. My play Marriage of Convenience was about an hour and a half, and it was about 100 pages. But it was more widely spaced. CO has lines with the speaker and the dialogue on the same line, whereas Marriage was written more like a screenplay with the speaker centered and the line underneath. So what to cut? That would be a 2nd or even 3rd revision step.

I'm not good at revising. I revised several times in my page-to-stage class, but I wasn't satisfied with the final product. I hate the process. Some people edit as they go along, but I prefer going back after the whole draft is finished. I'm afraid I would never finish otherwise. I think all writers have to choose their own style of revising. I like the idea of making comments in the margin and then using those as a jumping-off point.

No news on the job front. My emails from NES Staffing are all telling me to go back to school. No more school for me!!! I have gotten a few leads from two women who may have something. One of them was the musical director for the show and she has some info about a job where people go into Chicago schools and do educational plays. That would be a perfect fit for me having both the theater and the educational background. Another friend has someone she is going to talk to about my situation. In the meantime, Dunkin' Donuts is hiring--I'm trying to decide if I want to pursue that. It's a job at least.

I talked to my pastor about my feelings concerning the church. She is trying to coordinate a more contemporary service that will meet at 5 on Saturdays. This might be a good service for me. The only thing about it that I don't like is it would be lead by someone other than my pastor. Too bad--I really like her. She has very progressive ideas on many subjects. For one, she doesn't believe we need to have Jesus in our hearts to get into Heaven. She says that a Buddhist or a Muslim still believes in God, and they don't need Jesus to have a relationship with God. She also says that she doesn't think God cares about "whose what goes where" when it comes to sexuality. It is ideas like these that keep me in the church. Hers was the first face I saw when coming into the church, and it is that face that I associate with the church. This is why it will be hard to give her sermons up.

I'm going home for Labor Day. Dad and I will fish on Friday and there is a block party Saturday. We will go out to the lake Sunday. So that should be a fun weekend.

I watched the DVD of Thunderhoof and was really impressed. We all did a great job. Dan really came through. Everyone was professional and funny at the same time, and the show was just a delight to watch.

Exciting news about Kelly--she got in her first show at SIU. It's Company, and she is Susan. It's a role for a high soprano, which is a little odd. I've always seen her as more of a mezzo. But apparently the director sees her as something different. As far as me musically, I'm going to look into the Greater Lansing Arts Chorale. I don't think I'll do the choir at church. And I'm probably not going to do prayer group. I'm seeing a Lugnuts game with my folks so I won't be able to make it this Thursday. I'll try to go next Thursday after that and explain to them that I am moving into a different relationship with God. I pray on my own but I'm not sure if I want to continue with this group. I will think about it and pray about it on my own and see if I can figure out what to do and what to tell them.

I went to the Mich. RenFest this weekend. It was great. I went with the costumers from the show and some of their friends. I am becoming good friends with one of the costumers, Kris. I think she is going to become my Lansing mom. She is just so very warm and fun to be around.

I think I'll go back to FB and see if there is any news. Hanging up now....