nuke 'em.

kyle's birthday present. kick ass.
he was not as excited as i was about it, but i was like jumping up and down and clapping my hands really fast excited. i was double-fist pump in the air while bending both knees and mouthing the words "oh yeah" excited.

all we want to do is play games all night now.

guess what? our microwave broke. guess that's what you get for buying a cheap white microwave at walmart. stupid thing lasted like 3yrs. know what's better? an ancient wood-finish with chrome handled microwave from a long time ago. free. from leslie's basement. yeah. i am no longer sad that our microwave broke. old monster microwaves that are still truckin' are way better.

kyle's birthday was wonderful. and today was wonderful too. kyle and i are like inseparable best friends. we build forts, play games, and tell jokes. bestfriendsforlife.

just call my name. i'll be there.

kitty news.

first of all: yesterday was grizzie's birthday! she turned 2. now both kitties are 2. no more baby kitties in the house. well, they will always be my babies. but literally, they are not babies anymore. :(



gus and grizzie and mommy, circa 2007.

in other kitty news, the inevitable has finally happened: GUS IS GOING TO BE A STAR. he will be making his theatrical debut as "moortje" in the diary of anne frank at rockford college. he will be appearing alongside daddy, who will be playing the role of mr. frank. this is to be expected of course, because a.) gus has extremely theatrical parents and b.) it his his namesake. he is named after "gus the theater cat" in andrew lloyd weber's musical, cats. i hope you all can be there to see him shine (he's so excited; he's been rehearsing his meows, even though he has no lines, and has been watching his figure). the show goes up the last weekend of february.

there were lots of stories today; jumper cables, radio stations, and rendezvous at logli's...but i wanted to tell you the kitty stories more.

oh, and this.
look what my boyfriend can do:

come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination.

much to say. i am completely disappointed in myself for letting a week go by without visiting this little page to purge some excess thoughts. it makes sitting down to write really difficult. there's so much to say now. what do i filter?

i've been for a ride or two on the emotional rollercoaster last week. part of it was hormonally induced. scarily, part of it was not.

there is nothing imperative to mention about last week except that i rediscovered aldi. seriously. before you read any farther, open up a new window and go to aldifoods.com. and then make the decision to never shop anywhere else for groceries. and then come back and finish reading this entry.

inauguration day was really hard for me. i didn't intend for it to be hard. in fact, i thought it would be somewhat enjoyable. even AFTER i got pulled over on the way to work for having expired plates, i still thought that the day would turn out ok. the teachers at my school decided to make a big celebration out of the inauguration, and all of the students got to be out of uniform to dress up and there were no classes scheduled for the day. instead, the students watched the inauguration on the big projection screen in the auditorium all morning, went to lunch, and then rotated around to different "fun" stations in the afternoon. my station was to teach lyrics and choreo to signed, sealed, delivered...i'm yours all afternoon. so really, how could i complain?

but this inauguration happened during the same week as my directorial debut. i was extremely stressed and busy putting that show together. i decided to stay in my room, get some work done, and just watch the inauguration quietly from my tv. but my cable converter thing was the one that was being used in the theater, so my tv had no cable. tried to stream it on cspan...or cnn...or ANY website that claimed to be streaming live footage, but they all skipped. and then i just felt so sad. too busy to watch the inauguration. to caught up in the tiny details of my job that pays my bills to be able to see our president take office. confined to a windowless room.

of course, teachers and students alike were teary-eyed and overcome with emotion after spending all morning with obama. who wouldn't be? i was just depressed. stupid work. stupid job. stupid to-do list. stupid stupid stupid.

did you see how happy michelle looked? did you hear what he said? did you see all the people?

no. i didn't see anything.

did i get to see the beautiful cake decorated with obama's face and the words "yes we can" as it was paraded triumphantly down the hallway?

no. all i saw was 200 students eating 200 pieces of what must have been a beautiful cake.

and it all just seemed so unfair and i really let it bother me. everyone in the world was on youtube, celebrating, watching the balls, listening to the interviews, swept up. and i was totally left out.

so that was the sad part of my rollercoaster.

it got better (after a lot of stress) on thursday, when it was time for my show to go up. thirteen squirmy, squirrelly junior high students. a simple white set lit up in saturated, dramatic colors. a single chair. an upbeat soundtrack. like any good director, i watched the show without having to bark orders backstage. proud of my work, i confidently relaxed and enjoyed watching my students prove to me that they love theater. listened as they presented 2-3 pages of memorized monologues. high fived and fist pounded after the show. met parents who shook my hand with tears of joy in their eyes. made $40 in ticket sales.

accomplished. i did it. my little show became more than i ever expected and i am PROUD. tiny moments can have a big impact.

so i have made up my mind to do an all-school musical at my school. i don't think i'm crazy. i'm excited. willy wonka jr. chocolate swirls and golden tickets. i love directing.

there wasn't much weekend news. i spent this last weekend being kyle's best friend. we were inseparable for the entire weekend except for about an hour. saturday was matinee day at the movies. what a nice time to see a movie.

ugh. speaking of movies, kyle and i decided that we aren't going to go to the movies anymore unless we have a gift card or are using our five buck club cards. NINE FIFTY?! i tried to think realistically about how much i would feel comfortable spending on a movie. you know...what seemed fair. and i really couldn't justify more than $5. there is no need. and then kyle and i started to talk about movie theater food and that should just be illegal. it cannot be constitutional to charge that much for corn and sugar and water. we both agreed that we would SO rather nix the free refill part if it meant lower prices. so no more 9.50 movies and 15 food. sorry. i proudly state that kyle and i are firm believers in smuggling in cheap gas station candy. and i don't feel bad about that at all. charging that much money for food is far worse a crime than that.

back to talking about saturday afternoon at the movies. we saw notorious.



great movie. extremely interesting, heartfelt, well-acted. i can't say it changed my life, but it did thoroughly entertain me and make me think for the better part of a saturday.

oh lazy saturdays. weekends should happen so much more often.

sunday morning was a smokehouse skillet and two gigantic cinnamon rolls at stockholm inn. is there a better way to spend a sunday morning than deep in a bottomless white mug of coffee and intimate conversation? definitely not.

birthday dinner for kyle at grandpa's house on sunday night. he'll be 22 on friday. that's pretty old. we'll be out and celebrating; i can't WAIT to give him his presents. i'll blog all about it.

well that wonderful boyfriend of mine just came home. and he just brought me a plateful of pizza and a berghoff red bock winter ale. and he wants to hang out with me after this whole ridiculous monday filled with work and rehearsals and such.

so...i'm gonna go do that.
over and out.

मौसम & escape.

new movie to talk about: slumdog millionaire.
it was stunning. it completely rocked my world for the 131 minutes it lasted.
it started off with these crazy visual scenes with all this driving bollywood-style music and that alone was totally intense and stimulating.
but once the story took off, i was transfixed.

definitely worthy of the golden globe it won for best movie.



there's more to say today. i'm in this weird funk. feeling depressed for no reason. feeling stuffy and sloppy and morose. i'm trying to cheer up with a jasmine candle and a big glass of water, but its not helping. all i can think about is that this apartment is still cold and that i was not the one to drink the first glass of chardonnay that i bought, yet the bottle is open and there is a half-drunk wine glass sitting beside the sink.

i'm thinking about tomorrow being my last day of the weekend and it just cannot be true. days cannot go by that fast. it's impossible.

i really don't have anything nice to say and i'm not sure why. i have typed and deleted about four paragraphs.

my feet are asleep and its so quiet that i hear the secondhand tick on the clock. i am just sitting here breathing.

i know how to make myself happy, but i don't have the means to.

i like to ebb & flow.

i didn't have school today. hallelujah. i did nothing. made cookies and knit.
i must give credit to barbara for sending me the link, and to whiteoakschool.com for this blog post that i found.
enjoy.

When you look at a page, white space is the empty space that surrounds the text.

White space is very important. The amount of white space can make the text more legible. It can highlight a poem. It can set things off, emphasize them.

When there isn’t enough white space, the text can be hard to read, hard to understand. The page is cluttered; the brain has a hard time sorting out what’s there.

When we talk about overscheduled kids, I think about white space.

When we talk about project learning, I think about white space.

When we cram too many experiences into a child’s day/week/life, we don’t leave time for them to think about what they’ve experienced — they just move on to the next thing, letting the previous thing drop away.

(This is true for ourselves, too, of course.)

When children are learning through projects, their interest and engagement and production of work will naturally ebb and flow. It’s not factory work — it doesn’t happen at a single, steady pace. It’s creative work — it requires thinking, and having ideas, and mulling things over, and a change of pace now and then.

What is white space in a project? Doing something else for awhile … turning your attention to a different problem … relaxing … reading … being bored … maybe simply slowing the pace for awhile.

Refilling the well, being inspired, making connections, reflecting … these aren’t things that are easily acknowledged and checked off a list. They need time — empty, unfilled, unscheduled time. White space.

Without the white space, there’s no balance.

Rather than thinking about quantity — of ideas, of experiences, of work produced — we need to think about quality. Spending more time doing less, so we can do better and appreciate more. A single experience, really and truly had and understood, is more valuable than weeks and weeks of rushed, unconnected, random experiences.

every day it's as if i play a part.

today i cried.
i cried because i love music and dance and theater so much, and i teach it to kids who don't love it at all.
i cried because my students won't spit out their gum when i ask them nicely. or they pretend to spit it out but then keep chewing when they think i can't see.
i cried because i've never been so aware of my cultural identity.
my intolerance.
my failures. they keep happening.

so mom tells me that maybe i've been placed in this job not to teach me more about theater, but maybe because i need to learn some lessons. about relationships. because apparently, i have been habitually bad at relationships. funny. i've never considered myself an un-relatable person. in fact, in the past few years i have prided myself on being open-minded, accepting, and outgoing. i can't believe it can be so hard to learn tolerance. patience. absolute compassion. i'm not sure i'm capable. if i want to be capable...

so, ok.

i am not going to be sixteen and be all "shut up, you guys" when we talk about talent. i am mature enough to admit that i know i have some rocking potential in the music-dance-theater department, yet i am humble enough to admit that i am definitely not the best. however, all of my life i have felt different. like maybe i know how it feels to be an exceptional learner. except, instead of being slower than everyone else, i'm faster. and i seriously can't help it. can't say i'd choose it if i could do it all again. my brain thinks thinks thinks, all day. i analyze everything and sort out everything around me. name colors. count tiles. make shapes. and when it comes to the fine arts, well...to me, there is just no other way of life. i went to this arts academy when i was in 4-6th grade. i must have known what it felt like for a blind person to read braille for the first time. ohmygosh. this is learning. this is challenging. this is fun.

my teachers would give me a poem to recite and i'd memorize it, dress in costume, and perform it in a british accent. they'd tell me to write my vocabulary words in a sentence and i'd write them into a novel complete with full-page, full-color illustrations. my barbies didn't wear pink and go to the mall with ken. they were involved in theatrical productions with elaborate sets and costumes. bikes were horses. trees were mountains. my imaginary dog sat under my desk all day and i drew all the disney princesses nonstop.

i don't know any other way to be. i am an exceptional learner.
why does that change now that i'm a grown up? why can't i go above and beyond any more without being made fun of? all of that imagination and talent has settled into writing with lots of different colored dry-erase markers when i teach, color coding everything, matching my eyeshadow to my outfit, and singing in the car. i mean, except for the starlight show here and there, that's all that i have amounted to.

i feel like i've let myself down. i had so much more planned for myself than this.

call me a horrible person, but i just cannot accept that i have to lower my standards to fit into this monotonous society. why should i accept mumbled monologues and slouchy posture when i can imagine an orchestra of lights, key changes, kicklines, and character shoes? why do i have to put on black pants and a button down everyday when i'd far prefer scarves, jewels, slips, and tunics? why do i keep watching the days blend together when i could be living each one to the fullest?

makes me wonder if the lessons this job is teaching me are worth it. i've been waiting 25 years for life to begin.

i refuse to believe that this is what i have to settle for.

song of black leggings.

black stretchy leggings are perfect for me
for i am only 5-feet, 2-inches you see
they cover my short legs without extra mass
and since black is slimming, i wear them with sass

i've found that black leggings match all my clothes
they're great for rehearsals or going to shows
with brown boots or black boots or just simple flats
jackets and dresses and warm winter hats

i shall wear black stretchy leggings all day
until i'm an old woman and my hair is grey
teach in them, dance in them, sleep in them too
i love black leggings, how about you?

you win, pancakes.

another reason i decided to start blogging again was to document, comment on, and remember all the notable movies, theatrical performances, etc. that i saw throughout the year. last post included my thoughts on seven pounds. this post it is doubt.



doubt is a movie adapted from the broadway play written by john patrick shanley and is based on a true story. it is an extremely well-written, full-bodied script that dots every "i" and crosses every "t", not allowing your mind to rest easily in any corner of the plot. it is suspenseful and thought-provoking. it's satirical depiction of staunch catholicism and vivid characters make the movie stand out. meryl streep is f@#&*ing amazing. i mean, who's surprised by that. i feel disappointed that meryl streep has a bandwagon. like in every sitcom or play or anything, meryl streep is always the go-to good actress that they talk about. and like, EVERYONE agrees. so it doesn't really mean anything that i am enthralled with meryl streep because that's not news to anyone. phillip seymour hoffman was perfectly cast in this movie too. creepily good. i wasn't impressed with amy adams; she wasn't bad, but i just felt that her character was too naive and trusting, thus making her unrealistic. the whole thing ends a little abruptly and didn't keep me in suspense long enough, but it definitely makes you think. kyle and i talked about the movie the whole way home from the theaters. i love movies like that.

today worked out well for me. i was supposed to teach choreography from 9-3 today. we got up and started getting ready, and then the principal called and cancelled rehearsal. i wish he would have called about 20 minutes earlier. before i had washed my face, put on deoderant and makeup, brushed my teeth, and got dressed. it made going back to bed a little weird because i was already up and excited to go. but it took me about 20 seconds to get over the weirdness and zonked out for the rest of the morning all the way until 1pm. god that was great. after that long and busy week at school it was amazing to stay cocooned in bed. then kyle and i maxxxed out on some ihop and now i'm at home all folded up on the comfy chair. i foresee a lot of knitting tonight. and hopefully watch pocahontas.

it feels so good to feel the effects of not working at hobby lobby anymore. WOW it's worth it to have my weekends free.

close your eyes and i'll kiss you; tomorrow i'll miss you.

so, on a whim, i decided to go see seven pounds tonight. starts off confusing as hell. i played the game, believing that the movie would straighten itself out for me later. i mean, come on, there are WAY stupider people than me. if i was confused, then the movie was doing it on purpose.

anyway, it did straighten itself out. and the story unfolded beautifully. tragically. its a poignant and moving story; you simply must see it.

in other news, i amazed myself today. i had SO many things piled up on my to-do list that i ultimately had to decide to just omit some items. sadly, the first to go was a set for my upcoming performance at ellis. before i continue with my story, let me go ahead and plug this show shamelessly:

my advanced theater class will be presenting
CAFETERIA FOOD FOR THE SOUL: a night of monologues from the adolescent point of view
thursday, january 22nd at 6:30pm.
admission is $1.
for the love of god, please come. i'm terrified that there will not be an audience. it will be less than an hour and should be quite good.

okay, back to the to-do list. well sadly, the first to go was a set for the performance. i only had 2 and a half weeks to design, build, paint, and finish the set for my show. i had a budget of $0 and no help. so i just let it go. but then someone suggested that i go to the scene shop at ellis and putz around just to see what might be back there.

well.

1 three-walled flat, 2 gigantic door frames, about 7 assorted sized boxes, and one chair later, i had artfully assembled a pretty fierce set. went to walmart, bought 2 gallons of white paint and some rollers, and tomorrow i'm painting it all white. i plan to use some cool light effects to transform the scenery, which is why everything will be white. so if anything, come pay a dollar just to see what kind of a set i can make with virtually no resources and no help.

now to figure out how to look fashionable and professional in paint clothes tomorrow. a fun challenge, i must say.

go ahead and talk to me. i'm far, far away.

ohmygosh i didn't even blog yesterday.
like, that's how bad it was.
geez. i have been back at school for two days and it feels like a month already. i have SO much to do. driving home from durand last night (which was a blast!), i started to get so depressed about life. driving down the curvy, luminescent-purply moonlit highway, listening to my trippy jams mix (duncan sheik, "stop this train" by john mayer, ingrid michaelson) just life in general. like who's GRAND idea was it that people should have to work for a living?

i understand that it's important to be productive and everything. and i guess i just represent the minority. most people probably enjoy (to some extent), waking up in the morning and having a purpose in life. a purpose that earns them (hopefully a lot of) money. and i'm not saying i disagree with that. i think its important to be productive and use your talents to earn a living. but what the hell is with the 40+ hours? i mean, that literally leaves you with nothing. and what you are left with just gets spent sleeping or taking care of your human needs. sleeping until the latest possible second, which means shampoo+conditioner in 1 (booo), ponytails, food-on-the-go (i about gagged when i opened up the ol' familiar ziplock baggie of frosted mini wheats), chipped off nailpolish. i was thinking of all of the beautiful moments in my life: painting on the back porch with music playing, riding bikes, snowy days at home with a movie, sleeping when you are tired and waking up when you are done sleeping, leisurely showering and dressing, home-cooked (and eaten) breakfasts.

"why do we ground ourselves when we know that we can fly?" - just jinger.

god that quote will NEVER stop meaning everything to me. this south african band that i listened to a hundred years ago made me stop in my tracks and think about every weekend trip or vacation or summer night spent being carefree and enjoying life. i still wonder why it is human nature to work so much. does anyone love working more than playing? so much so that this society is still being run by the work-force? like, if president obama took a national poll, don't you think that pretty much everyone would choose to not work if we didn't have to worry about money anymore? i wish the money-starved, workaholic maniacs would just work all day and leave the rest of us the hell alone. NONE of my students want to be at school, so why should i want to? if someone wants to keep on beating that dead horse day after day, then by all means. but please don't force the rest of us.

i want a utopia. like that movie, the beach. except it doesn't really have a happy ending (thus proving that utopia doesn't exist), but still. we're talking basic premise here. that somewhere on this earth is a place i can escape to and never work again. i just want to lay around on a beach or in the mountains and listen to music, drink tea, be artistic, be in love.

this is not a good mindset to have at age 25.
and it sucks so much. everyone i know is all excited about entering the work force and becoming a young professional.
yeah f that.
i'm ready to retire.

149 days until summer break. that's if we don't have anymore snow days. but i need at least one more before then.

this masquerade is getting older.

ugh. time, inevitably, passes.
i remember all of the beautiful or bittersweet moments of my life when i have yearned for time to slow down...stop all together.

closing nights in woodstock, breakfast in sullivan, sleeping in hotel beds, sunday nights...

in all actuality, this holiday break has gone by slowly. lazy mornings in bed waking up and falling back asleep for hours, savoring every mug of tea and coffee, hot afternoon showers, unsolved mysteries marathons, game nights by the fireplace, falling asleep without setting an alarm.

part of all this is that i just get too sentimental. i dunno. i can't help it. i am a naturally contemplative person. to me, its pointless to be alive if you can't BE ALIVE. to feel and think and enjoy. so as day dwindled into night today i couldn't avoid the morose feeling that slowly overwhelmed me. back to work. time crunches and rushed meals and uncomfortable clothes and watching the clock. my break didn't even seem fun as it was happening but now that i don't have it anymore it seemed so perfect.

tonight was our xmas/goodbye party for my hobby lobby team. xmas because our schedules were too crazy to have it last week and goodbye because i decided i didn't have time to work there anymore this year and because susan's last day is on the 6th because she's going to NIU this spring. after 2 years of working there all day everyday with those four women, i really didn't know how to say goodbye. and i didn't realize how sad it would be. i have to look at this chapter in my life as exactly that...a chapter. a story within a story that had its own meaning and reason.

oooh. this entry came full circle. the ending of a chapter and the beginning of a new one.
goodbye 2008. hello 2009.

and this is for leslie, lynda, DLB, and suz. i will always love you all.

"i've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn. and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them...and we help them in return.

well, i don't know if i believe that's true, but i know i'm who i am today because i knew you.

like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun; like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood:
who can say if i've been changed for the better - but because i knew you, i have been changed for good.

it well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime, so let me say before we part:
so much of me is made of what i learned from you. you'll be with me like a handprint on my heart.
and now whatever way our stories end, i know you have rewritten mine by being my friend."

comments.

i fixed my blog.
so comment away.
comment until you cannot comment anymore.
and then go make your own blog so i can read it.
goodbye.

ps i have started my first ruffled arm warmer - so far its a success it think.

true amanda fashion.

ok.  i have to surrender. 

i have spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to make the post a comment link at the bottom of my entries work (so that you all can leave me comments - thus one of the main objectives of this blog) and its not working.  i simply cannot waste any more of my day on this problem.  if you have insight, please help.  

and i understand html as well as any intelligent person does.  but if you tell me to find some kind of nonsense code in my edit profile box that doesn't exist, then please spare me your help.  also, please do not send me to a link that is not found or has errors.  or tell me to expand my widgets or whatever and then when i do it, nothing happens.

so today is like the fourth day that kyle and i have taken full advantage of the fact that we are on vacation and have done completely nothing.  we've been by each other's side nonstop, watching one movie after another, staying up all night and sleeping all day.  letting the candles burn all day long (cause we haven't left the house), eating delicious leftovers and drinking nothing but beer and liquor.  i only took a few breaks to wash the dishes or make the bed.  its been quite lovely.

i thought i would never want this bliss to end, but after almost a week of doing nothing, it has sorta made me feel stuffy and languid, which is going to motivate me to wake up on monday morning when i have to go back to work.  thank god i don't hate work, otherwise we'd have some mega depression on the horizon.  a part of me is excited to roll out of bed when its still morning and put on something smart and spray some perfume and GO.  get some fresh air.  listen to NPR again.  see the everyday faces and have the everyday conversations.  hopefully it won't get monotonous until somewhere around mid-march, when i will happily welcome spring break.  and after spring break, the thought of summer brimming in the near future will probably be enough motivation to have some zest for the last month and a half or so.

so it'll be ok.

i have to direct my first production this spring.  we're doing willy wonka jr.  i have $327 in my theater budget.  i sheepishly admit that i have NO clue what i'm doing.  i guess i'm just going to wing it.  and assume that next year will be better.  that's the way i generally like to operate.  when i don't know exactly what i'm in store for, or when a project seems huge and unmanageable, i just break the process down into extremely manageable portions by procrastinating and doing only what is necessary to get through the present moment.

 for instance...choreographing the disney show is a HUGE task.  huge.  there's like 20 songs plus two long medleys.  i have tons of visually stunning ideas and inspiration pouring in from everywhere (movies, performances i've seen recently, music, etc.).  to manage this task, i probably should have started a binder like 3 months ago, designed a skeleton of formations and basic choreographic ideas for each song, and then as my ideas ripened and blossomed, add/change/edit/develop my design.  

but um, i haven't started.  like, not ONE dance move has been written down.

and we start this week.

so in the true amanda fashion i will be up all night the night before working until i fall asleep.  and then i will use some after school time to finish the rest of the song, then scramble to fix a weird section in my head on the drive there.

and it always turns out pretty good, but never my best.  and i feel like that is the story of my life.  

always good, never the best.

anyway.

i am really excited that i am getting good at knitting.  i was searching for patterns all night last night and have decided on LOTS of projects.  i want to be a super-knitter.  i want to have an etsy.com and sell my stuff.  have people commission me to make knitted things.  hats, scarves, cardigans, accessories.  its going to be a slow-starting business though.  i have only made scarves, which is like the no-brained project.  i have this cool pattern that i plan to start today.  i have this cool knit tricks book that has a lot of gorgeous projects in it. the first one i attempt will be the ruffled-edge hand warmers (see the picture at the bottom far right of the book cover), followed closely behind by a ruffled neck scarf and a cozy shrug.



i am making sure that i leave enough time for myself to do projects. to me, its a priority. at least it will be this year.
so if you can figure out how to leave a comment, that'd be wonderful.
if not...start a blogger.com of your own and share your thoughts with me there.

i made a wishlist on amazon.com that i plan to take seriously. as an avid shopper, i feel it is important document what i am currently interested in. so go see what i want.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3010ZYYHL02RN/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go

i'm off to spend quality time with my mother.

 

new blog. new year. new plan.

hi.

its my new blog.  created with the intention to organize my thoughts.  as 2008 came to an end, i realized how much of my year had slipped away into a vague chasm.  nights of watching movies or seeing friends or eating out fused into febu-embers and jul-arches.  frinights and sunmornings.

when was that?  were we with your family or mine that night?

this year, i hoped to put more emphasis on reflecting and savoring the present so that someday the future will be saturated with vivid and colorful memories.

thus, my blog.

i am going to start with my new year's plan.  as i perch on the peak of 2009, i have quite the view of the year that lay out before me.  it feels good to organize...color code...file & label.  so for myself, i am creating my storyboard for 2009.

january: 

back to school

singsation begins

my advanced thtr class puts on a production, "cafeteria food for the soul"

kyle's birthday - JAN 30!  we're going to medeival times!

february: 

valentine's day.  low key for us - dinner date.

kyle's show opens - diary of anne frank

we plan on escaping to a log cabin for the weekend late february.

singsation rehearsals!

march: 

kyle has a vocal collective trip to florida. home alone time for me!

singsation performances - march 13-14

my spring break - march 20-29 - we're going to see aaron in L.A.!

april: 

dan & becca's wedding - april 3 (my 1st time being a bridesmaid!)

things slow down a little.  i'll be in rehearsals for willy wonka jr., my 6-8 production.

my 26th birthday on april 28.  whoa.

may: 

willy wonka jr. performance - may 14

kyle will start working wherever he is going to work this summer.  

hopefully somewhere close.

june-aug: 

summer break!!

i have NO plans.  none.

i hope to travel, get tan, shop, see kyle, celebrate the 4th of july, act/dance, do art, read.

september: 

back to school; 2nd year teaching drama at ellis.  being better prepared with lots of new ideas.

footloose rehearsals start in durand.

kyle goes back to rockford college.

october: 

still teaching.

halloween!

november: 

START MY XMAS SHOPPING EARLY.

another wonderful thanksgiving with kyle.  our favorite day!

december: 

hopefully NOT having to deal with a winter arts festival.

being merry & bright.

celebrating traditions and inventing new ones.

xmas!

new years eve...looking back at 2009 and analyzing my journey.  

and because of this blog, i will to be able to keep 2009 vivid as it happens and as it fades away...