points

timmy and i went to a play yesterday.  it has been quite a while since i have been to a play that i didn't know people working with it.  i just went to go.  to experience the play.

the play was about the people's temple and jonestown.  fascinating stuff.  it really gave a voice to the entire story, not just the purple kool-aid.  it was extremely moving and well done.  

it also made me miss doing theater terribly.  it has been at least 4 years since i have been in a straight theater production.  theater was such a huge part of my life for so long, and it feels so off that it has been thrown the wayside for so long.

of course, my priority (educational and financial) right now has to be graduate school.  i am enjoying graduate school.  it is filling me with new passions and possibilities.  however, i have to believe that i can have a career and life that involves all of my passions.  this is a non-negotiable point for me.

as i said to timmy, you can picture yourself doing your career (not a job, but your career...they are totally different things) in your mind...different pictures...different careers...but, some pictures, some careers just feel better than others.  some just make you more excited about the future.

i owe it to myself to be excited.  it just makes way more sense to me. 

picture pages

i covered a photo exhibit opening last night.  The Aftermath Project (www.theaftermathproject.org) is a wonderful organization that gives grants to photographers covering the aftermath of a conflict.  

it is wonderful at opening people's eyes to the fact that after a war or conflict is over, the story does not end.  it should not end.  

the pictures were often times hard to look at, but the stories spoke volumes.

check it out.

wheels

i miss having a car.  i miss having the freedom to just go wherever i please without having to wait for 20 minutes for an overcrowded train.  

mostly i miss being able to have a traveling junk storage area.  oh and i miss pumping gas.  strangely i miss pumping gas.

for me the price of gas is forever around $1.60.

pundit, caucus, partisan

i have 3 classes under my belt.  one things has become quite apparent...i need to read the newspaper more.  sure, i consider myself well informed.  but, i have come to quickly realize that i hover above the news and don't often dive into it.  

i know the major fact, the major players.  however, if i was given a quiz on what the main topics were on page 7 of the washington post, i would probably fail miserably.

i am trying to remedy this.  i am bent on becoming a complete news monger.  

it will cost me a lot of quarters and a lot of reading time.  

but, i guess that is all part of becoming an educated journalist.  

i suppose those first grade reading classes are really paying off now.

i was in the advanced first grade reading class...in case anyone doesn't know.

first day

today is my first day of graduate school classes.  i had a sleepless night last night.  i have always had an issue with being increasingly nervous before the first day of any new endeavor.  

first day of college....check

first day of play rehearsals...check

first day of second city classes....check

first day of i.o. classes...check

first day of teaching...check

now it seems i am continuing this grand tradition by being as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  (apparently, this graduate nervousness translates into me using southern colloquialisms)

i have my books, pens, pencils, and notebooks all laid out.  i have been practicing my use of graduate "smart" words like:  unmitigated and audacity and menagerie.  i have my first day outfit ready to go.  

however, all of this planning won't really get me over the nervousness.  getting through the first couple of weeks will do that.  it always does.  i just have to see that graduate school isn't all the fire breathing professors and personal mental deficiency i have built it up to be.  i just have to trust in myself.  

for you see, there is a menagerie of reasons this intellectual endeavor will send me soaring into the clouds of success.  i just have to get through the first few classes.

until then, i will be sweating as much as a whore at a tent revival.

lactic acid

i can't remember if your muscles hurt worse when you have too much lactic acid or too little.  

regardless, my muscles hurt.  i went to an intense yoga class on saturday, over did it a little.  helped timmy move on sunday, over did it a lot.  monday morning i woke up feeling quite a bit like a zombie.  or at least how i think a zombie would feel.  think more stiff body, groggy demeanor and less hungry for human flesh.  

i am out of advil.  my solution?  lots of stretching and complaining.  that will fix it, right?