Blogger's Block and The School Play for 2012-2013

     There is writer's block, and there is blogger's block.  I have recently been afflicted with the latter, which is basically writer's block compounded by the fear of saying something that will somehow get you into trouble in the real world.  It's something of a conundrum.
 
     One of my worries has been, 'I know I signed up, but should I really do the play again this year?'  My friends and family listened to me whine that I didn't have enough time to make a Broadway worthy set for the play last year, even though I am not on Broadway.  After much internal dithering, I finally decided to go ahead and do the play again.  I admit, I think I have an addiction.  Admitting is the first step to recovery.  I have an addiction to making scenery (and costumes, too, but we won't go into that addiction in today's post).   I'm not fully ready for recovery yet, though, because I'm not ready to give up my addiction.  Yes, friends and family, I am GOING TO GO THROUGH WITH IT AGAIN.  I heard your advice, and I'm consciously ignoring it.

     ...and now, of course, I'm beginning to worry about it, as evidenced by the fact that I woke up at 3:30 am this morning, trying to figure out what set pieces I should start first, even though the director (one I have not worked with in this capacity before) told me, "it's not time to do anything yet..."

excerpts from a texted conversation earlier this evening... (WARNING:  Gratuitous use of a the word "asshole" ahead... Read at your own discretion.)

Friend:  I am an ASShole.  Not just an ass.  Asshole.

Me:       Why?

Friend:  I would love to tell you... but I'm too much of an ASSHOLE to explain it. 

Me:       Oh come on, I have a half hour to kill.  I'm an asshole too.

Friend:  I am just in a real asshole mood today.  We can be be assholes together... Want to go see the hs
             play tomorrow afternoon?

(interesting, since I'm thinking about a school play myself...)

Me:       - what time?

Friend:  2.  but assholes need to get there at 1:30.

Me:      I bet I am the bigger asshole.  I am looking at scenes of The Little Mermaid on the 
             internet right now.  There are 8 distinct scenes in this play. 

...other topics of conversation ensue at this point.  Nothing that screams asshole.  Clearly, we both are just enjoying our gratuitous use of that word today.  Suddenly, my friend realizes what I've said just a few texts earlier...

Friend:  You better not be doing that play!  I will use all my asshole martial arts tactics on you.

Me:       I am doing the play.  I am going to carve spray foam like a ninja...

Friend:  You are not.

              Stop it.

Me:       Yes, I'm going to carve shells out of spray foam insulation with an electric carving knife. 
              Like a ninja. (hummm - can you imagine a ninja wielding an electric carving knife?)

Friend:  I'm going to schedule a week's worth of meetings in the green room.

(... a theme from last year, apparently on the agenda this year.  I'm hoping to work around it more efficiently, but it is another of my worries...)

Me:       Ninja...

Friend:  most sought after room in all the land.

Me:       ... and I will stand sentinel outside the doors with my electric carving knife.

              Can I post the play-part of this converstion on the blog?  I'm short on material.

Friend:   Just don't say ASSHOLES...

Me:        See, really this is a conflict between what I should be doing with my time, and what I 
              want to do with my time. No italics on texting...  see, I should be doing chores, cleaning, 
              organizing, perhaps getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night.  

Friend:   That's no fun.

Me:        Instead I WANT to carve spray foam with an electric carving knife and make a shell as 
               big as the one in Botticelli's Venus painting.  Wouldn't that be cool?  I could use it as a 
               bathtub when I'm done if only I can get it to hold water...

Friend:   Can picture the shell, but not the sea foam. That shit will hold water...

               You talking about Great Stuff on a can?

(What is Great Stuff in a can?  She used to work at Home Depot - maybe she knows about this spray foam stuff...)

Me:       Oh, have I missed a detail?  What about 1000 cans of Barbasol Shaving Cream  sprayed
              around the stage?  and mixed with judicious pieces of flotsam and JETSAM. 

              Did you know that the eel henchman, Flotsam and Jetsam will be illuminated?  

              I have a sickness, don't I?

Friend:   Flotsam goes upstream and jetsam goes downstream.  Yes, you do.

Me:        So, do flotsam and jetsam work together to make Scylla and Charybdis?  or whatever
              that whirlpool from the Odyssy is called.

Friend:   Yes, they do.  Scylla is allergic to flotsam though, so it gets complicated.

Me:        I am eating chocolate chips again.  Does Ariel eat chocolate chips?  Illuminated jellyfish.  
              Just throwing that out there... giant ones... just 2. Or maybe not.  I think that might be a 
              COSTUME. 

              Ariel's grotto - decorated with lots of seaweed hanging from the pole that does not move 
              up and down in the flyspace. BWAAAaaaahhahahahaha!!!  I think I need a nice glass 
              of wine.

Friend:  You do.

Filming a shot from an episode of Royal Pains

     A few weeks ago, I was minding my own business at my place of employment when an unusual call came in.  A guy from a filming company called wanting to know if his film company could use my place of employment as a home base for the day for his company.  More specifically, he was calling to secure a location for them to park their trucks, and feed their staff lunch.  He may have, at that point, mentioned the title of the TV show Royal Pains, but to be honest, I don't watch much episodic
television (much to my husband's chagrin, I'm a reality television girl) and the name just didn't stick.

     Unfortunately, due to reasons unknown to me, the guy had to scout out another location, however, I remembered the date in question, and I resolved to look around town on my lunch hour to see if the filming was taking place nearby in a location I could find.

     Sure enough, I hit the jackpot immediately.


     The street leading down to the marina was blocked off by a village patrol car and guys wearing headsets and looking very important.

     Some poor guy on a bike tried to cross the street, and the guys stopped him (apologetically, I will admit) and told him that he couldn't cross because "we're filming and this street is visible in the background."

     Filming was taking place at a location I had actually posted a picture of just about a month and a half ago (see my post, Lunch Time - it's the restaurant with the American flags hanging from the porch)

     As you can see, I would not survive for long as a paparazzi.  I don't have the kahoonahs to go right up and ask for a photo, or to just walk right up and snap a shot without permission.  Still, there were some people just milling around (although, maybe they were part of the entourage) and still others walking on by like, Who cares? (unless, of course, they were extras).

     Oh, how fun it would have been to have them based in our building for the day - then I would not have had to feel sheepish taking a picture.

... and I might have scored some excellent lunch leftovers, too.

Turn on the lights, Gilly Hicks!

     I took my first trip to Gilly Hicks a mere two weeks or so ago, and my first thought was, This is the most BIZARRE store I have ever been in. 

      According to Wikipedia, Gilly Hicks is owned by Abercrombie and Fitch and was inspired by the phrase "down under" which no doubt is what ties it into the Sydney, Australia location, which is a complete fabrication since it is and always was an American company.  Creators of the brand created the fictional character, Gilly Hicks. whose life is the one on which the store is based.

      For those of you who have never been there, here's a run down:

      Upon entering the store, which I had passed for years without really noticing it because it looks like someone's dark front porch, I saw this:

I got this image online, but the store in my local mall was set up similarly.

Someone turn on the lights!  And... where are the employees?

     Doesn't this look like a beauty counter at a high end department store (except for the fact that SOMEONE FORGOT TO TURN ON THE LIGHTS). Did the counter girl run off for an extended break before someone came in to cover her shift?  Does it make me a person of bad moral character if I immediately noted how very EASY it would probably be to steal things from the counter?  (And you know you're getting old when you discuss this issue with your peers and they comment on issues of personal safety as well.)

     There was no visible register.  No visible employees of any kind.  No signs, and you wouldn't see the doorways to the next room until you were right in front of them.   We walked back to the very front of the store and peeked into a room on the side, where a lone employee was folding bras in a room the size of a large bathroom, at what looked like someone's dining room table.  "Hi, welcome to Gilly Hicks, do you need any help finding anything?" No thanks, just wondering if I fell down the rabbit hole in Alice's Wonderland.

     We walked into an oval shaped adjoining room with a large drawing of a semi-naked man on the wall, at which point, my son seemed to begin having an allergic reaction to his surroundings.

Mom,

Mom,

Mom.

Mom - can we get out of here, please?

     My daughter, however, was on the hunt for a Gilly Hicks sweatshirt and would not be deterred.   In the adjoining room on the other side of the naked-man room, we finally hit pay-dirt.  Sweatshirts.  Nice ones - on sale for twenty dollars. But when she held up the dark one she liked, we couldn't tell if it was navy blue or black.  Seriously... couldn't tell.  We held it under the beam from the halogen light - blue?  Yes, blue... I think.

     My poor son was practically getting itchy at this point.

     MOM!!  Can we GO now?

     I think he was worrying that someone he knew would spot him in there and he'd never live it down.

     Sure, son, we just have to pay for this.


     And then, another first.  I could NOT find the register.

     It was just like this youtube video...

I actually had to ASK someone to give me directions to the register. 

How embarrassing!

     Yesterday, we went back to Gilly Hicks for more sweatshirts and matching sweatpants.  We managed to find the dressing rooms (due, in large part, to the numerous shoppers standing around waiting with clothes draped over their arms).

Check out the interior of this dressing room:

     Creating some ambiance, maybe? or do they actually think we're going to park ourselves in there and read novels?

 ...in our underwear?

...in the dark, no less?

Ocean City, Maryland (Believe it... Or NOT)

We just got back from a somewhat spur of the moment trip to Ocean City, Maryland.  We had been there almost 10 years ago, when the kids were very small, and we had a nice time.

By coincidence, we stayed in the same place we had stayed when we went last time.  The hotel has become a bit run down, but the room overlooked the boardwalk, which was pretty cool.

I spent a fair amount of time looking out the window...  see the mime wearing gold in the lower left of the picture?  He was entertaining.

Another mime.  Or maybe just the same guy after changing outfits and moving to a new spot.


Then there was the sand art...  Some guy created The Last Supper out of sand...

... and he posted signs touting his religious beliefs and asking for donations.

Which I think is lovely, except I was a little disappointed, since we saw this exact same sand art when we were in Ocean City approximately nine years ago.  Can't this guy come up with some new material?  Is his stuff really made of concrete with a light dusting of sand on top?  I would be SO disillusioned to find that out! Come on, sand art guy, I want to see Moses parting the Red Sea in sand, or maybe Jesus walking on water in sand...  I was also wondering about the lights - how does he manage to plug all those extension cords in to light up his artwork?  Does he have a deal worked out with the city?

hummm....

Here's a picture looking down the boardwalk at night.

I would have taken more pictures, except it rained (and I mean POURED) every day except the first.

The sightseeing highlight for us, though, was the giant shark head poking out of the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. 

My son talked about this shark head the WHOLE time we were there last (he was 3 years old then)  and for years afterward.  The shark head and tail move back and forth, giving the shark that 

"I DON'T CARE THAT THERE'S A BUILDING IN THE WAY I'M COMING FOR YOU!!!!" look.  

When you go inside for the museum tour, you can see how the parts work from the inside.  

Oh, and there's a bird nesting in the shark's mouth... BELIEVE IT OR NOT.

Purging (painfully) and Moving On

my lesson plan book from teaching 7th grade, an article on Ben Franklin, and materials for a Chinese New Year lesson

I have two four drawer filing cabinets full of teaching stuff I'm most likely never going to use.  I had collected the stuff over years, from when I started my master's degree in 2001 all the way through 2008, when I had finally had enough of looking for a teaching job and I decided that I (and my family) needed some normalcy again.

But what to do with all that junk?

For a good six months, I couldn't even look at it.  The thought was depressing.  All that work.  (I particularly loved the props for the Chinese New Year lesson I did for my "Teaching Social Studies" class.)  All that time.  All those hopes...  I had put so much effort into making and collecting the stuff - getting rid of it is like acknowledging that it was a useless effort.

I guess in many circumstances, eventually, there comes a time when you feel the weight of all that "stuff," and you know you have to purge it from your life, but it's still difficult.  I have a friend who would most certainly tell me to not even look through it - "just throw it out,"  but there have been times in my life when I've done that, and down the road, I've regretted not looking through it first - the stuff almost gains more importance when you're not exactly sure what was in there.

For me, sometimes the "stuff" is proof that I was there.  "I have ____, therefore I am ______."  I am working on overcoming this belief, but to quote Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, "Slow going, eh?"

This weekend, I finally started on the filing cabinets.  Amid the tossing I took a trip down memory lane.  It was nostalgic, and yes, I am still a bit bitter over certain things, but I am ready to move on.  And you know, today, I do feel a bit lighter.

Lunch Time

American flags on a porch 

I am still waiting to find out if my option of taking the summer off will really be an option.  I am hoping it's still on the table, since when I check in with the kids during the day, they tell me they are bored, and they ask me what we're doing when I get home.  (hummmm, how about cleaning the house, cooking dinner, eating dinner and cleaning up after dinner? with maybe some laundry thrown in...  whaddayathink?)  I am keeping my fingers, toes, and arms and legs crossed, hoping it will help.  In the mean time, I am appreciating things like lunch time.

I am lucky enough to work just a few short blocks from the ocean, and when the weather is nice, I like taking a walk to the marina and checking out the sights.  Yesterday, I brought my camera to work and took a few pictures on my walk.

boats in the marina

It was pretty hot, but there was a nice breeze, and the air smelled of wild flowers, and down in the marina, it smelled like salt air and fresh seafood...  the smell of summer.  Nice.

sailboats in the marina

sailboat near the playground

boats in the marina

kayaks

playground in the marina

bicycles in the marina

It's a good life.

Enjoy!  

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

 

Paper Mache Fish - Step 3 - Attaching Front to Back

In this step, I'm attaching the front pieces of the fish body and tail to the back pieces of the fish body and tail.  I've been lax in posting this because I realized my fish has a design flaw, and I'm worried I won't be able to compensate for it.  You see, I should have made the body and tail as one piece - i.e., body/tail front, body/tail back.  By making the tail separately from the body, I'm most likely making the area that connects the body to the tail a weak point.  I've come up with a few ideas for  remedying this situation, but if you're just reading and contemplating making a fish, do what I didn't do and connect the tail to the body right from the start.

So to begin this step, I assembled my basic pieces - I also used a few very large rubber bands and a small cardboard box to aid in the assembly that are not pictured here - you'll see how I use them later on.

First, trim the rough edges so they more closely resemble the shape you want.  This is not a precise operation, you just want to make sure they will fit together as nicely as possible.  Do this for both the tail pieces and the body pieces (or, if you are the type that reads directions BEFORE assembly, you will have just one front piece and one back piece - hurray for you, you overachiever!)

This is where my extra large rubber band came in SO handy...  you don't want your two pieces slipping and sliding around after you begin putting the gluey paper mache strips on them...  that would be a great, big YIKES.

 I put a wadded paper napkin in between the two pieces where I wanted there to be some separation - in this case, where the tail will attach to the fish.  You can use the same idea in any location where the pieces aren't laying flush with each other, or if you need to elevate a section.  

Now, begin adding connecting strips of paper mache around the edges...

Make them as smooth as you can to avoid fixing the bumps later on.

I worked for as long as possible with the rubber band on - it helped to keep everything in place.

I kept this end open so that I could slide this over one end of the fish, but as you know, on any future fish, I would make it all one piece...

Walla.....  time to dry.

For the fish body, after trimming excess paper off the edge, I bent the wires around the edges to attach the front to the back.   I added this craft wire with another layer of paper mache after the first layer had dried.  I'm not really sure this was necessary, but what the heck.

This time I found an appropriately sized box that I could stand my fish in while I was working on it.  I didn't have a rubber band large enough for this piece.

It was a little difficult to get the wire bent extremely flat, but I think it will still help make it stronger in the end.


Next stage of fish production:  attaching the tail to the body.