This is the lovely fruit tart that theoni brought over for me last night to celebrate my successful driving test. I had a piece but gave Cj the kiwi that was on top, then said goodnight to Joe and Leah. About 5 minutes later the roof of my mouth went numb and bumpy, and I started to break out in hives. FUN! Another fruit off the list.

Anyway, in (almost) reverse chronological order, the rest of my weekend -

Earlier on Saturday I hung out at the pool with Cj and maetenshi for about 3 hours, at one point drawing a fake tattoo of Isis onto my friend Christie's back with a sharpie. It turned out really nice, but as I still don't know how to get pictures off of my phone you'll have to wait until I see her again for a picture.

Then I went and saw a show on campus that was using one of my short plays (The Hammer Man or Hammerman, I posted it earlier) as its closing piece, and I have to tell you it was so well directed I got shivers. The whole concept was like a traveling gypsy circus type thing, with a whole lot of fake blood and severed arms and such. And despite being super low-budget, all the elements worked together really well. But honestly the best part [for me] was watching my piece and having the random dog that one of the audience members brought growl at the villain in it, who was carrying a giant red hammer. That dog is genius. Now I have to write a dog into my piece - or at least some growling noises.

On Friday I met with my director for the Tempest, then went and saw a production of the Tempest that was happening at my school (which was excellent - they used acapella in lieu of live music). Afterwards one of the other fifth years (with a big entourage of people following him) grabbed me and said, "Hey, you're coming with us." I just kind of went, "Uhh... Okay!" We went to his car and he explained that we were going to a spa to sit in a jacuzzi and sauna room. So for about an hour on friday I randomly ended up wrapped in a towel sipping tea in a jacuzzi tub.

Then I taught my last two sections (in a row) and showed up at the review section the other TAs and I were supposed to teach, and I was pretty much on my own. One of the other TAs came a bit late, and the other one didn't show up at all (his parents were in town). It was one of the more terrifying experiences in my life, facing a whole room full of students expecting me to tell them everything that was on the test, and having to tell them that they needed to help each other study while I mediated, and not get all the answers from me.

Then I had my final rehearsal/showing for the ballet piece I worked on this quarter. It turned out spectacular, and the professor had almost only good things to say which is always fantastic. One of the dancers from Delizie is a photo student, so he came and took movement and portrait-style shots of the piece. Hopefully by next week I'll have those photos, ones of Hammerman, video of the show I directed in Fall, video of the ballet piece in Ballet Rep, video of Delizie, and a shirt with the logo I designed for the student plays festival. Whew.

Today I have to finish grading, then tomorrow at 8 am I proctor a final, rehearse all day, then have the final showing for my Directing Studio scene at 7 at night. NUTS! But that's just about it for this year.

1) I lectured to a class of about 60-70 students on Thursday about the Chinese origins of "Caucasian Chalk Circle" and Brecht's Epic Theater. It seems to have gone well.

2) In three rehearsals the dancers and I managed to finish that ballet piece I've been so worried about, and it turned out to be an awesome collaboration. Emphasis on collaboration. :) So now we just need to run it consistently until it's clean. The performance isn't even until the 31st.

3) Sections today went really well. The professor visited and gave the okay, so I know I haven't been doing anything wrong so far.

So even though this quarter has been really rough (in more ways than one), Things are still going okay. And maybe I'll even get to have some down time. I hope.

Please let me not be scheduled to teach a 9 AM section next quarter.

Please pretty please.

p.s. I got a 19/20 on my midterm. :)