Inside

The library is quiet today. Rain is coming down outside. It is a miserable day. Why isn't everyone coming to the library to turn it into a happy day?

Emily

Pippin, School, and Don't Touch Her!

'Kay. I'm alive, I promise.

It would seem I did not make "Pippin" - they haven't got a cast list posted yet but haven't gotten back to me in the almost two weeks since I auditioned, so I figure I've been rejected. This means, however, that I can join the community chorus. It was one or the other.

I've been walking around feeling self-conscious, figuring everyone assumes I have the H1N1 virus - since I have this thing that brings about reckless coughing. People are probably like, "DON'T TOUCH HER!"

School has started again. I love the renewed structure. It's nice to have school back. People get dead bored when I tell them I'm home-schooled, though - a typical conversation with any adult:

"So Emily, what grade are you in now?"

"Twelfth."

"Ooooooh, a senior! Is it exciting?"

"Well, yes, I suppose so; I mean, I'm home-schooled -"

"Oh," the person will deadpan, his/her smile crashing to the floor. Then they just walk away.

Fun.

School is school, my friends.

Speaking of which, I have to go get my day started.

Emily

Forgotten

Sigh. You know, I can't actually remember whatever else I planned to say about the stage, but maybe my brain has wound down a little since the play. And who knows, perhaps it will come back to me if I make Pippin - for which I auditioned on Sunday. We'll find out if I've made it either tomorrow or Thursday. A sliver of entertainment for the moment:

Very very green.

Emily

On Stage

So I have not been blogging at all for the last while because I was busy with play rehearsals. We cram the play into five days, since this compnay tours cross-country, working with kids from different counties, starting in Washington State and ending in RI. It was great fun - not nearly as much fun as last year, but nothing could really beat the Snow White play we did last year. And besides, this year it was really nice not to have a lead role - the last two years I did and it was really terribly hard work. Fun but exhausting. I remember every day last year, when I was the Wicked Queen and had this maniacal evil laugh to do, the first thing the directors would say to me was, "How's your voice? Drink plenty of water!"

The only thing I do NOT like about being backstage so often - well, besides, the boredom you get from just sitting there for a while - is that when you actually do come on stage, you're all tensed up and not ready to roll. You get broken in pretty quickly when you have a lot more stage time, but I was rusty each time I went onstage because being backstage gives you plenty of time to get tensed up.

The first performance was agonizing. Some people were just awfully sloppy. Others were great. But the first performance is pretty tough, because you're in front of a real crowd for the first time - and crowd interaction is involved here, so everything changes a little: the movements change a bit and actors' facial expressions' change, so that some of us were not quite sure how to hold ourselves. (Now, I know this sounds like it's coming from an amateur. It is. This is my third play.)

After a painful first performance ...

... we had a mind-blowingly fantastic second performance. It's too bad there are only two performances, because the third would have been a-rockin' and a-rollin', and the fourth would have been better, and then the fifth ...

The biggest issue with the second performance was that one of the really important cast members got sick, and one of the directors had to take her place. She tried, though. She was brave. "No, no, no, I have to go on ... I can do it, really I can ... no worries ..." She tried. But she couldn't have done it; the poor thing was really awfully ill. I can't believe she made it through the first performance!

This has been a long enough blog entry. I write anymore and it will seem like too much for one entry ... so more later, I suppose, because I DO have more to say.

Emily

All In One Wonderful Building

It's great that I'm shelving regularly at the library now. Works wonders for the muscles, spirit, and brain. Perfectly relaxing and good exercise at the same time - a lot of concentration but not much brainpower. A bit like tennis - or beading or coloring, but with more walking around and carrying things, reaching up and bending down.

Not to mention the library is a place to do deliciously nerdful things. Here is a place where I get to visit Star Trek websites without my brothers looking over my shoulder, read about everything from how human blood works to folk tales of the Hmong to the physical possibilities of time travel, and keep out of the thick Rhode Island heat. I love this place.

Emily

The Rain Brings ...

So much rain; it's almost incredible. However, the rain tends to lead to this ...

... so it's not like it's useless. It might almost be worth it.

Down Below