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.