posers

(I did this quickly last night - so please forgive the misspelling.)

time

Well, I had to fix a flat tire today. I didn't fix it, I paid someone else to do it. That's the second time in about 3 or 4 months. I guess I should maybe buy new ones? Karen thinks so anyway. The first one was a nail. This one was just a little hole.


Speaking of Karen, her eye is healing nicely...'cept it was hurting tonight and last night. Maybe it's b/c it's healing? I don't know....well, I do know that she looks cute with her new haircut and that little bandage.

Back to Puppetland tomorrow. I wish that meant that I could vacation from Homeworkville. I hate that place. Actually, I sometimes like it but it's ruined by other things that get in the way like life....flat tires, litterboxes, laundry, two jobs, a wonderful girlfriend and a dog who looks sad when I don't throw the Ball.

It's getting late, so I'll make myself stop writing and do some more work on my Detroit project.



Here are some photos of Ohren on the rug we bought a couple days ago - and his new chew toy that's supposed to help clean his teeth.

must...focus....

Aw, man...the internet is so addicting. I stayed up late last night just looking at STUFF. And this morning I'm trying to research constructivism and then I go off on tangents about old 1920's plays about the labor movement and how that might make a good puppet show (not for me, anyway) so I need to stop playin' around and get back to work! Anybody else have this problem?

Groundhog Day

So I'm in this show at the Center for Puppetry Arts called Rainforest Adventure.
Right now we do 13 shows a week and we're going to do about 175 shows during the run (which runs through April 9). Yesterday we did show number 50. Sounds impressive. It is - 'cept there's 125 more to go.

I thought during our first show today that the whole thing is like the movie Groundhog Day. Each show, when done properly, should feel exactly the same to us. There are no lines, but lots of concentrating on moving the puppets. We need to be in the moment, but it also has to be so precise. It's like ballet, really. It's choreographed and set to music so there's not much that we can do to stray. Sure, we can look twice at something instead of once....if there's time. If the kids are laughing the monkey can poke the flower with the stick an extra time. But there's not a lot of "hold for laughter" time, you know?

Then at the exact same time during the second show I thought that it felt like Groundhog Day. Crazy. Then I thought about how every move we make in the show can affect the other 4 performers. For example, there's a part in the show where we are all reaching up high to move a puppet...then a couple of us let go and the head puppeteer of that particular part moves the puppet lower. Yesterday I kept my arms up in the air. The audience didn't see it because we're in the dark and dressed all in black. But then I realized that for a split second I didn't lower my arms and didn't know why. I quickly put them down to move around the head puppeteer and in doing so, elbowed Jeffrey in the head. I felt exactly what I did. Then he too had to move around Julie and we had to get in place to grab the same puppet again. Once we were in place, I did a "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for bonking you in the head" pat on Jeffrey's back. He moved in a way to indicate that he was OK and that the apology was accepted. (this happened in about 2 seconds time) then the frog which is supposed to jump in and startle our puppet was late. Clint couldn't get around us because we were standing back farther than normal during our little "conversation." He managed to squeeze past. That caused our puppet to react a couple beats late, which meant that Michael had just a little less time to get the next puppet in place. That worked out just fine, but isn't it funny how that little chain happened all because I kept my arms in the air a couple seconds longer than normal?

At least it made it a little less like Groundhog Day.

I'm adding a photo of the others in the cast and a shot of the monkey in the show. It's dark like that on purpose - but you can see it better in person.

*It's my mom's 61st birthday today. Last year I threw her a kickass surprise party and flew in to Wichita for it - even that was a surprise. This year she got a phone call. Oh well. I saw her a couple weeks ago and that was nice.

*The update from the last few days will have to wait until I get my homework done for tomorrow night's class. I wish I didn't have to work and could just enjoy this quarter. It's turning out to be a good one. I'm learning so much and I'll have some great projects to show for it...I think. Back to work!

Oops

Well, I haven't posted in a while...and this hardly will count. I have to leave in a couple minutes to go to the Center to entertain several birthday parties and other kiddos. Woo!

I have not yet gotten into the habit of blogging. There have been times when I thought, "I should go add to my blog" and I even have thought that maybe I should come up with a concept for this baby. So...I'm still thinking.

A quick summary of my last couple days: a trip to the ER (Karen had a run in with a door) and Amy Lippoldt and Melinda were in town. We watched the end of the second season of The Sopranos. Karen is watching some 24-hour preseason NASCAR-related race. My "guy" is winning. Has been winning for hours. That kind of cool, I guess.

I'll write more later.

Couch of Love

No...not that kind of love!

Here's a great photo of three of our furry ones (Jonah, Emerson and Ohren) hanging out with Karen on the couch.

Love them!

Amy is vising from Kansas - she's going to see the show tomorrow and that makes me very happy. Melinda from TX also will be there. She's moving back here in a few months and that also makes me very happy!

But right now I need to do some homework for tomorrow's class - which does not make me happy. Oh well. Not much more to do.

Today

Well, today we did shows numbers one and two out of 13 for the week. It's like I never had a day off yesterday - but I'm telling you, this puppet thing is great. It's great b/c I know that lots of days I'd spend the morning justifying how I should sleep in and that's not really productive, so at least I get to do some fun puppetry, hang out with great people and even get paid to do it! I forget about that sometimes...that we get a paycheck for all of this fun. I'm sure I'd think differently if this were not the first show I've done there. A woman from school named Robin came to a show on Sunday and she brought her sister who works at the Atlanta zoo. They really loved it. I'm so glad. It's really for kids but I think it's fun for adults too, but I didn't know if others would feel the same way.

Then I came home and played with Ohren and cleaned litterboxes. Woo. Showered. Went to my other job - of course, Ohren came to work, too. He's a hard worker, that dog.

Prepared for class after that. It's Systems class - we need to brand a city and I chose Detroit. Why? I've never been and I really didn't want to go. All I hear about that city is that it's full of crime and it's dirty. But things are really changing there, so I hear. So wish me luck on trying to sell Detroit! I think it's going to be a good challenge.

On my way home from class tonight, about a block away from home, I saw out of the corner of my eye a little(ish) spider crawl on the inside of my windshield and run under the rubber edge. Never saw him again. Makes me wonder what other critters call my car a home - besides me. I once heard about how a car (and a mattress, for that matter) gains weight over the years from dirt and stuff. Crazy.

Karen and I gave Ohren a bath tonight. He was sad but I'm sure he'll be happy to smell fresh and he'll get all the more kisses because of it.

Oh! I saw the Oscar Mayer (I had to sing the song to spell it correctly) Weinermobile on Peachtree St. on my way to class. Had to call Karen. She was engaged to the Weinermobile man for a time - OK, she was maybe 8 or so? She said he died recently. I guess he's no longer a threat.

Now I'm going to do my best to get all of my homework done for tomorrow night's class. Wish me luck!

how old was that?

OK, I came home from class and hadn't eaten much today 'cept a banana, some pita and hummus and some coffee. Made me a big ol' Dang Kaysa-dee-ya....but the chicken in the fridge had been there for a while. Karen warned me. Now I'm having "uh oh" issues - but I'm sure it's in my head. I don't feel physically ill, really. I just feel that something's not right. If you don't hear from me in a couple days, that's why, OK?

Back to some homework. Woo hoo Detroit!

blah...g

Remember that show "Out of This World" back in the late 80s? Evie was half alien - her dad was from somewhere in the stars and her mom was human. I don't remember how they hooked up. Weird. Anyway, she could communicate w/ her dad via a crazy plastic phone thing that would open up and I think there was fog....and lights blinking, of course!

Anyway, her "gift" was the ability to stop time by touching her index fingers together.

I keep trying but it doesn't work.

It's hard to be a procrastinator - especially when you have more to do than a normal person could handle.

dinner

Karen and I ate a Asada on Dekalb Ave. The drinks were b-a-d. The food was meh. Not going back.

Karen thinks it should be pronounced "A Sad Day."

We bought some new fish for our community tank and I'll take some photos later and post them.

My show at the Center for Puppetry Arts went well today. Some UNIMA folks were there - that's the international puppetry group, to explain it easily. Yesterday's shows, however, were the best ever...of course, our director Jon didn't see either of them. Maybe that's why they were so good. Whatever. More shows tomorrow.

Karen and I wanted to hang out with friends - any friends - tonight after seeing our friend David play at the Red Light Cafe - which was fun, as always. (www.davidstephensbanjo.com) Nobody was available for drinks. Sad. We're wondering if we need to take more showers!

OK, now we're going to watch another Sopranos episode - On Demand. That rocks.

Don't tell, but I think we may skip church tomorrow so we can do some cleaning. I know that I need to clean my fish tanks and stuff and the Good Lord knows I need to do some homework. Besides, I have to leave halfway through to get to my noon call at the theatre anyway.

blog or tv?

Well, this will be a quickie - I want to get back to work...but I'm taking a small break to write because I'm afraid that if I don't I'll never develop the habit. Yes, that's right folks, I want to develop a HABIT of posting to a blog. Who reads these, anyway? I know I do...I spent like 2 hours last night in bed reading other people's blogs....wondering if I'd really like them if I met them....wondering if they'd like me. You know. Not that I expect people to be hanging on every word I write...but maybe I'll say something witty.

At least it's not TV. I used to watch TV all the time. Now I've successfully weaned myself off of most shows. It happened when I started to date Karen, I think. And school does it. This quarter all of my classes are at night.

So, blogging is like TV - but better. Or is it?

OK, me too, then.

I guess I'll start posting on a blog. I tried a couple years ago at a friend's urging to do this - but it was on livejournal.

I asked Karen if she'd start a blog too. She's a great writer and hopes to write a book someday so it will be good practice for her...and I also want to be a better writer. I've never tried to do the journaling thing and I never started a diary - once I got one for Christmas and the only thing I liked about it was the lock. Then I lost the key.

Here's a photo I took of myself around the moment I decided to start a blog.

When I got my laptop, I had this romantic notion that I'd be on it all the time in coffee shops, etc. and being one of those cool blogging/podcast types. It has been a while. But hey, I've been busy with school. After so many hours working on it for school work it's hard to embrace it "after hours." Maybe this will make my computer less utilitarian and more fun.

OK, that's it for now. Let's hope I keep this up.