New Quotes

I have about a zillion new quotes to put into the sidebar, but I left my notebook in my binder, and it's too stinking cold to run back and get it -- and too dangerous. Between here and Mocks there are random splotches of icelessness that come upon you unawares. So you're going along running like a drunk turkey trying to maintain speed, and all of a sudden you hit a dry patch.

It's not the ice that fouls up the system. It's the lack of it.

And P.S. Car covers are even harder to put on than take off coated in ice. Funny how heavy it gets.

Learning Lines

Today Portland was iced in. So most of us spent the morning at home watching musicals. I went out to get them from Blockbuster, but otherwise I didn't leave. Besides, I learned to drive in Washington, and experiences lovely mid-west ice storms at college. Getting my ice-encrusted car cover off took a long time. It was cold. The rest of Portland doesn't know what to do with it. I suspect it's rather like Seattle: An inch of snow sends them scurrying for chains. They hadn't sanded any of the backroads. There was gravel on the main one.

I worked on my lines tonight with Vicky. Knowing the show already has helped, although the new script revisions make it hard to remember when a line has changed tense, or been given to another character. It's coming along. Our last cast member comes in tomorrow, so we should start blocking, or at least do another read-through Monday.

Another thing I learned again today -- four cups of coffee on an empty stomach isn't a good idea.

The Dinner Theater is supposed to be presenting at a missions conference in a few weeks. We only found out about it a few days ago, and none of us know yet what exactly that will entail. Surprise!

My sister got a new job, which is very exciting considering how upset she's been about the old one.

And last night I got a chance to sing because everyone was out of the house. I need some voice lessons badly, but even worse I need real music. I was trying to remember songs I used to be able to accompany myself to, and they all ended up in the same key (The same one as Memory from Cats). I just resorted to drowning out my wrong chords, and since no one was listening, it didn't really matter.

Lots of spontaneity

Today we went into rehearsals expecting to do blocking. Instead, since the director was still working with the script, we did improv. Hours and hours of improv. It's not bad once you get going, but it's way outside of my comfort zone. I'm hit and miss. A couple of moment seemed to go well, but one scene -- where you had to react over the top to a particular sentence (The best was "may I have some pretzels"). We played statues, where the two actors onstage can't be moved until the two people behind manhandle them. And Freeze, where two people start a scene, someone else yells freeze, replaces one, and begins a new scene from the same place.

Then tonight, after dinner we played Pictionary. My team was behind the whole game (we kept rolling 1's) but two fives and a couple of good clues gave us the lead right at the end. There was a lot of screaming on our side. The other team claims they lost unfairly due to their newly acquired hearing loss. Bull.

Tomorrow we'll have a completed script, and blocking should commence. Hopefully without games. Though, I suppose being stretched is 'a good thing.'

Casting

Well, casting was announced today. I got the lead. Still getting over the shock. I wasn't expecting it...

Not for Credit

Another thing I learned about my self on tour is how much I do with the intent of impressing other people. I think we all do to some extent. But how many times do we do things, not out of the goodness of our hearts, but for the "she's so selfless" status.

When I finally started just doing things that I saw needed to be done it was frustrating. People don't spend nearly as much time looking at you as you'd think. Or would like. And it was a temptation every time to let people know what you'd done if they didn't seem to be catching onto your subtle glow of martyrdom. But that defeats the purpose.

Proverbs tells us to never let praise come out of your own lips -- and I'll hunt down the reference in a minute. And the New Testament (I'm not even going to guess at the book) says to 'do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.'

I had more failures than successes over Christmas. But I found those times that I did something and didn't allow myself the privledge of gloating over it afterwards built the most character.

On tour again

So here I am, back in Portland for another tour with Wycliffe Dinner Theater. I drove down Friday morning through a snow storm, and helped prepare Mock's Crest for the rest of the team to show up.

We just had a meeting to remind the returning team members:
1) This tour is not the last one, it is not a continuation, it is a new tour. These are new people. Dynamics will change.
2) Remember what we learned the last time and apply it this time.

So what did I learn last tour? The admonition to not let the sun go down on your anger is not just poetry or a helpful hint. As far as relationships go, especially in close quarters, wait long enough that you aren't still simmering, but go and talk with them. Work out the misunderstandings and miscommunication. Don't assume anything. Apologize where needed, and confront where needed. Always think the best of the other person's intentions, especially when you're furious.

Relational problems that aren't dealt with right away fester, and grow out of proportion, and then come back to bite you when you least expect it, in a situation that doesn't merit that kind of emotional outburst. And a broken relationship with one person will affect your relationship with the other 12 people. Don't expect it not to. And one bad comment to someone else in the heat of anger can put ideas into someone else's head about that person. They'll never look at you or them the same way.

And having said this, I can expect to be tested on it. Isn't that the way it always works.

Funny things kids say

Speaking of Children's perceptions...

My Dad's school's fire alarm went off four times the week before Christmas. The fourth time, the janitor went up on the roof and inspected things, and found that a sensor in the ducts was malfunctioning and setting off the alarms. The kids were gathered in the gym after the drill to explain what was happening. When they went to music class, my dad asked them what had happened.

"A flock of censored ducks landed on the roof and set off the alarm."

Loving Satan

Thinklings is having an interesting debate a few posts down.

In the children's Bible study, they were studying the second great commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself". This child asked her teacher, "Does that mean we have to love Satan too?"

The two thoughts coming to my mind (I've been reading Lewis all day) are, does God love Satan, and did he weep for him when he fell?

Hunting Dog is Driving Force

This is nothing compared to the 405 at rush hour.

Breaking and Entering

Today I am guilty of breaking and entering.

My parents still own the house I grew up in, and have it rented out. When my stuff made the move from Southern California (not to be confused with the stuff that hasn't moved from Waco, Texas) it ended up there instead of at their new house. So before I go back on tour I had a list of things to go find. Namely my "Mutual Funds for Dummies" book, and the suits I'm shipping to my sister for her round of job interviews. So I found myself parking in front of the house -- no one was home, walking around the side yard, and breaking into what used to be my Dad's drum studio with a butter knife. It's a trick I learned when I was, I don't know, 10. Maybe 12. And I'm not sure why I'd even want to break in there -- maybe I learned that when it was still his shop. And I'd break in to steal tools to build chairs with one leg too short for the tree house. Funny story about that chair, by the way. My sister was trying to reach something, and didn't notice that the short leg was off the edge of the deck. Of course the chair tilted, and she fell, hitting her head on the tree branch that our rope swing was tied to on the way down. Which was good, because she got knocked out and didn't feel it when she landed on a shovel.

So if tomorrow I'm blogging from jail, you'll know why. My boot prints through the snow should make it pretty darn clear that SOMEBODY was in their back yard. It wouldn't take Lord Peter to figure it out.