i'm staying home

i downloaded howard jones' album human's lib. are you quietly judging me right now? during my turbulent high school junior year, this album was my refuge. i had a cassette of it. later i got the cd. later i became ashamed of it and eradicated it from my collection. now i've come back around. as i type these words it fills my ears with its synthesized goodness.

it's rainy. i'm staying home to incubate and learn as many lines as i can before tonight's rehearsal. i will go in half a day today.

favorite students 1

p. is a student who suffered last year, right around this time last year, from a tumor at the front of his brain which had to be removed. his surgery was very successful and though there were some rocky moments when we weren't sure we would see him again, or that he had changed drastically because of his surgery, he is well and pretty much almost all the way back to normal. there are ways he has changed, though-- he seems more strident in his speech, is more likely to ramble loudly, and has lost a certain edge in his personality, a kind of dry wit that used to be there that just isn't there anymore. this does not change the way i love him, he is one of my favorite people, he is generous, kind, funny, and can roll with whatever you throw him. 

e. is a student whose grade point average is somewhere around 104. last year, during her junior year, she would come into my office almost every morning just to hang out while i was checking my emails and getting ready for the school day. we started a ritual of choosing a word at random from the dictionary and putting it up on the dry erase board. she would comment on my music, or my omnipresent snack of apples and carrots, and we would name things-- starting with stuffed animals left in my office, like a stuffed dog with no nose (derek), the naming mania eventually spread all the way to incidental washers found in the black box (billy), or discarded pomettes from costumes (hillary). e. is one of my favorite people because of her steadfastness, her sharp mind, her sensitivity to and curiosity in the world around her. she asked me to attend the summa reception with her this year, which felt like being asked to the prom.

i will miss these people.

a few events

what happened today?

i had trouble getting out of bed. feeling really exhausted.

had no time for breakfast or coffee, could be responsible for my fatigue in the middle of the day, before i had a chance to have lunch.

while i was at starbucks an elderly woman pulling out of the parking lot ran into a cop on a motorcycle. though he was down, he didn't seem seriously hurt. i was more concerned about the elderly woman, who seemed stunned as she stood over the cop with her hand outstretched.

in my theatre I class, an advanced tech student named Z, who was visiting, led an improvisation game which the class loved. Z had just hours before told me he was interested in teaching as a career, and seeing him with the students made me think he would be really good at this, if he decides to do it for a living.

official

well, i have told my students that i am leaving at the end of the year. we had a big meeting. it was cathartic-- both sad and joyful. there was an outpouring of love, which i felt privileged and comforted and energized to receive. i feel sad about not being there for many of the students next year, but they were 100% supportive of my moving on.
it has been a huge couple of months-- i took six students to the harvard speech tournament (we won 8th place in duo interpretation), i went to minneapolis, i took a group to the state speech tournament (we won first place sweepstakes), competed in our zone one-act play contest (we advanced to the district level), and this past weekend i went to dallas for my nephew's wedding.
now it is spring break and i am:
relaxing
cleaning the house
doing laundry
learning my lines for the upcoming LINCOLNESQUE (opens the second weekend in may)
helping one of my students with a film he's shooting
spending quality time with friends (esp. fran and zoe)
by the way, i have finally updated the drawings blog. the drawing called "supine" had been the last one posted for way too long, but was also somehow appropriate, since the blog was a little bit asleep for a while. visit!