TECH Week



The cast of "Importance of Being Earnest", as well as family members and friends who have helped us out along the way (not pictured: Julie, actress, and Robert, techie)



First of all, this time I'm NOT going to apologize for taking a week off from blogging. I used to do that with my diaries, too. I would put them down for a week or a month or even a couple of years, and then pick them up and feel like I had to apologize. The fact was, I always had a good reason for not writing. This week is no different, and the reason is one that I definitely don't feel requires an apology.

This past week has been...

TECH WEEK!!!!


DUN... DUN... DUNNNNNNNNNN...

Actually, it's not quite that dramatic. I mean, despite the fact that it is, you know, drama.

That's one of the weirdest-yet-coolest things about JOY. There is literally NO drama there -- not even in the drama class. It's like a little world all its own, separated from the rest of the catty, superficial planet by a huge wall of Jesus.

Anna and I like to say that we left public school because of the drama, and now we refuse to leave our co-op because of the drama. Har har.

I'm having the greatest time. I'm playing a mean old lady whose age remains unknown -- I'm going with about a million years. Unfortunately, my make-up hasn't shown up in any of the photographs taken from the audience-level, which worries me. This is going to sound weird to any of you not in drama, but I don't particularly want to look fifteen. I want to look about a bajillion years old. And I don't. Look about a bajillion years old, that is.

My director (who, BTW, cast me in this role -- we didn't even have auditions) says it's because I'm too pretty to play an old person. I'm feeling a mixture of exasperation, flattery, and indignation. Like, I'm exasperated that she cast me in this role if I can't even look the part, I'm flattered that she thinks I'm so pretty, and I'm rather offended that she thinks I don't look old.

Um.

So, Tech Week. (DUN... DUN... DUNNNNNNNN...)

Monday! I posted on Monday, multiple times, I believe, because at the beginning of Tech Week you actually still have some semblance of energy once you get off the stage. I didn't tell you, however, that we spent about three hours after rehearsal at South Beach Taco with our director, our friends Rebecca, Maddie, and Morgan, and some familiar faces from the cast of Music Man!

That's right -- Mayor Shinn and our spotlight guy returned to celebrate Maddie and Morgan's mom's birthday. They're complete country boys, of course -- big, brawny, short-haired, tan, and with excellent manners -- but -- imagine! -- the don't like Frodo! THE HORROR!!!!

Actually, they're really great guys, so I do like 'em a lot, despite their lack of Frodo-love.

After three hours of talking, mainly about movies -- I disagreed with them on almost everything, but oh well -- and me dosing off multiple times from exhaustion, we finally left.

Anna and I spent the night at Morgan and Maddie's house -- they live much closer to the theater than we do. Plus they're fun. We spent most of the night in Morgan's room -- totally the cutest room evaarrrr -- and watched a movie -- totally the cutest movie evaarrrr -- except for "Ponyo" -- called "Underneath The Greenwood Tree" for no apparent reason, except that they keep showing random shots of a greenwood tree that has nothing to do with the story at all. *sigh* Oh well. The movie critic side of me just had to deal with it, because I did like the movie a lot -- it was kind of dumb, but the main guy was a complete dream (he had blue eyes and thick dark eyebrows -- um, yeah. Morgan and I died every time he came on-screen) and everyone except the snobby preacher character had a very happy ending. Certainly won't go down as one of my all-time favorites, but still the perfect movie to watch with some of your favorite girl-friends.

We did actually manage to go to bed on time, with lights out and no talking (SHOCK) but for some reason I could not go to sleep for the longest time. I don't know when I finally dropped off, but it wasn't until I'd spent what felt like hours just staring up at the ceiling and trying to find a more comfortable position. You'd think after such a long, hard, mentally exhausting day, my brain would have a little less energy. But no. Not my brain. My brain is not like that. My brain likes to work like any normal person's would during the day as long as I'm with people -- and I was with people, all day -- and then kick into gear at night, when I least need it to. Come on, Brain. We talked about this. This is why I left public school -- because you never functioned like you're capable of during the day, when my grades were suffering and my teachers were frustrated, but at night, when I was exhausted and needed my sleep, suddenly you go revving up to 10th gear -- there may not be such a thing as 10th gear in cars, but in my brain, there certainly is -- and start making up stories, creating imaginary friends, and basically transforming my bedroom into a storybook. But during school? No! During school you were so tired from staying up all night before that you couldn't remember simple things, like when to bring your homework, or whether the answer is A or B on your multiple choice test, which you just studied for yesterday, and your grades suffer, but do you do anything about it? NO!!!... But I digress. Sorry. I'm still quite frustrated with my brain for keeping me up all night on Monday and giving me a splitting headache on Tuesday morning.

So Tuesday rehearsal went okay, I suppose -- at this point I was still forgetting my lines and such. Jameson -- the lead actor in our play and the responsible big brother of the group -- drove me and Anna home. We had quite an experience on our way back... Let's just say that we now have an inside joke that will probably last till we're at least thirty. *HONK* "I'M BORED!!!" *squeak*

Sorry.

This is where the days really start to run together. I know that at some point a lady came and watched the play and gave us ideas for how we could do it better, that no matter how I did my old-lady make-up it never looked exactly old, and that during the last rehearsal my cain, whom I have dubbed "Franz", kept falling over. I managed to cover it, but ugh... That was frustrating.

Oh, and on Wednesday night Anna and I spent the night with Maddie and Morgan again and we watched "Sherlock Holmes" (2009). Ah. Maze. Ing. Sherlock is my hero, and Robert Downey Jr is my new favorite actor -- you know, besides Johnny Depp and Elijah Wood.

Friday we had our first performance. And that is possibly my new favorite memory. Beginning to end, the audience was cracking up, I almost joined them a couple of times -- the audience knew it, too, which made them laugh harder -- and when the curtains closed, it was so dark we couldn't see where we were going or where we were, we just ran around hugging anyone we could find, even if we didn't know who they were, squealing, "WE DID IT!!! WE DID IT!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! WE DID IT!!!"

Saturday we had our day off, and then yesterday we performed at the Artisan Theater, a theater-in-the-round in Hurst. That was weird. We did pretty well, but it was so strange trying to navigate an in-the-round set when we're so used to just being on a normal stage. We did get a lot of laughs, though, and this time I managed to stay in character, even when Jameson had to run off stage and couldn't get back on in time, so he ad-libbed the line, "I can't find my way back!" in full-on English accent. That was far too cruel of him; I haven't decided whether to forgive him for being so funny when we weren't supposed to laugh. Darn teenage boys. Darn homeschoolers.

So, now I've just finished what has possibly been the longest day of my life. I'm sitting in my room, typing, waiting for it to be time for sleep, because...

Drum roll, please!!!

Because tomorrow we're leaving for Joplin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot put enough exclamation points on the end of that sentence. I am so incredibly excited, I keep catching myself grinning. I'll be riding with Anna, Maddie, and Wesley, the Heath-Ledger-look-alike who shares my taste in movies and over-all quirkiness. It's going to be a FUN ride. Of course, when we get there I know it will be hard emotionally. It's already hard emotionally and we haven't even left yet. But still, I'm really looking forward to spending the whole of the ride up there quoting "The Princess Bride" and singing "Stuck Inside Your Head" by Julian Smith. Because as Christian Homeschoolers, that is what we do.

And it is funny.

I'll be posting blogs throughout the week, if I can. If I can't, well, too bad, but I'm definitely gonna try. :)