Another day

6:15 - 8:15 Get kids ready for school
8:15 - 9:00 Homework
9:00 - 9:30 Get me ready for school
9:45 - 10:30 Rehearse scene
10:30 - 12:00 Class
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch Break!
1:00 - 3:00 Class
3:00 - 4:30 Help kids with homework
4:30 - 5:00 Drive Scooby to meeting
5:00 - 5:30 Drive back to school
5:30 - 7:30 Rehearse fight scenes
7:30 - 10:30 Rehearse Bye Bye Birdie

This is not so much for your edification as it is for my own organization!

I wonder why I'm so tired

Today's agenda: Class from 10:30 - 12:00
Work from 12:00 - 3:00
3:00 - 4:00 Pick up kids at various schools and drive to counseling appt.  Do homework in the car.
4:00 - 5:00 Counseling appt.
5:00 - 5:30 Drive to baseball. Eat in the car.  Change clothes in the car.
5:30 Meet Don and drop off Tarzan and Cinderella at baseball.  Drive Scooby to Tae Kwon Do.
6:00 Drop off Scooby at Tae Kwon Do and drive to school
6:00 - 7:00 Rapier and Dagger practice for fight testing on Friday
7:00 - 7:30 Pick up Scooby and drive him home.
8:00 - 10:00 Drive back to school and rehearse  Bye Bye Birdie
10:00 - 12:00 Homework

Don't you wish you were me?

Friday Update

Made it back from the audition in one piece.  Even got some lines memorized on the trip.  Long way to drive to smile and hold up a Pennzoil container, though. 
Auditioned for the May production of Romeo and Juliet today (same director and group of students that did MacBeth last summer)  I'm hoping for the Nurse - it would be a fun challenge!
Here are a couple of recent pictures.

Science Fair

Little man

Explaining his experiment

Three monkeys in a tree

Pretty!

More pretty!

Tomorrow's agenda

Tomorrow I'm going to Wilmington, NC for a commercial audition for Penzoil.  It's far away.  I'm carpooling with two other people and splitting gas money.  I hope I don't get carsick.  I don't know what to wear.  I don't know if this was a good idea.  But, how often do I get to do this kind of thing??

Spring!

Gorgeous 70 degrees and sunny today -
The trees are all in bloom and daffodils are everywhere.  Happy sigh.
Yesterday Scooby and I spent the entire day at the Tidewater Science Fair, where around 300 students from 6th through 12th grade were displaying their projects at Old Dominion University.  At the end of the day, over $3,000 in cash prizes as well as medallions and certificates were given away.  Scooby didn't win anything, and was pretty disappointed.  But, he got a T-shirt from the event, and he thought the college cafeteria was pretty cool.  I hope he had a good time, considering the amount of work we put into it.  He did get an A on the final project though, and his teacher asked if she could use his final report as an example for future classes.
Tarzan spent the afternoon at the District Pinewood Derby, where he came in 12th.  He won three out of four heats, so I guess the final results were based on the actual times rather than winning statistics.
Cinderella need some special event of her own - working on that for her.  She's been good about being dragged around to the boys' stuff.
Counseling is going pretty well, I guess.  We continue to struggle with some control issues, but we haven't had the crazy intense meltdowns for awhile.  Still not sure we're making any progress on finding the root of the issues, but she seems to think the change in behavior will lead to new habits, so let's hope that's true.
Trying to catch up on some homework today, but the weather is making it hard! We went for a family scavenger hunt/walk a little bit ago, so that helped, but Scooby and I are still finding it hard to concentrate!
Hope everyone out there is enjoying a taste of Spring!

So things are toddling along over here - coming to the end of my "spring break" which has gone by remarkably fast and been a fairly decent mixture of rest and accomplishment.  I read two books for pleasure (a mindless murder mystery and a collection of Stephen King novellas), read two plays, bought another book of plays that I hope to get to today, finished our taxes, caught up on six episodes of Parenthood, went back to bed three days this week, rehearsed scenes and fights for two different classes, and did all the usual kiddo homework/TaeKwonDo/cub scout related activity.  Tonight I'm going to a birthday party for two friends from school.  Although there were *many* more things on the list that I wanted to accomplish this week, I'm reasonable satisfied.

I'm getting used to the shows for next season too.  I actually think it looks like a pretty fun season, my own personal feelings about Joseph and the Amazing blah blah blah aside.  It will be a fun show, and lots of people will come to see it.  And, I probably won't be in it.  I think it's actually good that there isn't a thesis show that I'm DYING to do, because I'd be really disappointed if there were a role that I was in love with and didn't get it.  This way, I'll be ready to jump in and tackle whatever I get, and bring a fresh eye to it that might not be there if I already knew and loved the show.

Scooby and I had our third counseling session this week.  We actually had a really good week, with no meltdowns and only a couple of close calls.  He said he feels like he has a better idea when he's about to get upset, and was able to stop himself before it happened.  I think it was just a light homework week, and he was feeling less stressed.  I can't imagine that with only two counseling sessions, one of which was spent on ADD testing for half the time, that we've already turned a corner.  The testing came back fine, and he'll do another round of it next week.  He's normal on attention issues so far, which is what I expected.  The test also showed he responds better to visual than auditory clues, which is also not surprising.

One of the things I meant to do this week was run more consistently, but the going back to bed kind of put the kibosh on that.  I only made it out once this week.  But my intentions are good! Hoping that warmer weather will stir me to better committment.

Next week will take me into full-swing rehearsals for Bye Bye Birdie, and the rounding up of my second year.  Time to start thinking about what comes next...gathering info about job hunting, putting together a CV, all that fun stuff.  I like this school cocoon, and I'm not ready to leave it yet!

Next Year's Season

So, next year's shows at Regent are....

Beau Jest (a Jewish romantic comedy...much like Last Night of Ballyhoo, which was this year's Jewish romantic comedy)

The Three Musketeers (swashbuckling ho!)

As It Is In Heaven (a rebel Shaker shakes up the Shaker community)

Tartuffe (Moliere - tights and facepaint.  Religious hypocrisy.  Fun for the whole family)

Doubt (now, this one's cool.  But too late in the season to be a thesis show.  Boo.)

and...
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  If you've never seen it, check out the youtube version for Donnie Osmond in a long wig, a diaper, and no shirt.  Put down the snack food first.

Yeah, sorry about that.

I need alone time

So.  Two Mondays ago Tarzan had a fever and stayed home from school - meaning he came to school with me.  Last Thursday was a snow day and all the kids came to school with me.  Friday, Scooby got the crud and came to school with me.  He was sick all weekend and I sent him to school Monday hacking up a lung.  I'm sure the teachers love me.  Yesterday and today, I've got Cinderella with me.  And, I don't feel so hot. 

Also on Monday, we found out Scooby got into the Tidewater Science Fair.  Pretty big deal, all day event, cash prizes available.  Yay! Oyster land not over yet.

Also on Monday, Scooby had his first counseling session.  Not really sure what is supposed to happen, but I guess it went okay.  She was circling around ADHD - I guess they hear that a lot - but I think I convinced her that's not what's going on.  We left with homework strategies that we've tried a billion times before, and an appointment for next week.

Yesterday, Tarzan, Scooby and Don went to the Planetarium with cubscouts.  Cinderella and I stayed home.

That's about it.  School, fevers, stuff.

"The Runner Stumbles" reminds me why I love theater

This weekend and next weekend I am running lights for Regent's production of The Runner Stumbles, by Milan Stitt.  It's not a glamorous job.  I'm dressed in black, sitting in a dusty booth, hidden behind a giant light board, pressing a "go" button for two and a half hours.  Tech jobs are kind of a drag.  (but this is my last required one! Yay!) I actually chose running lights because I anticipated that this production would be good, and I wanted a crew position where I'd be able to watch the show (as opposed to running costumes or props, which I've done for the past three crew positions I've had.) Unfortunately, with the way the booth is situated, I can only watch the show if I run lights standing up.  Which I've done several times, because yes, the show is good.  Very, very good.

First of all, the play itself is pretty amazing.  It's about a priest and a nun...and yes, there've been jokes.  My favorite? A priest and a nun have dinner together.  Afterwards, the priest asks the nun if he can give her a kiss goodnight.  She thinks for  a moment, then says, "I suppose so.  As long as you don't get into the habit."

Buh-dum chick.

Anyway.  It's about a priest and a nun, and the tension that ensues as they wrestle with the love they have for God and the developing feelings between the two of them.  There's fire, violence, scandal, and in the end...murder.  And yet, there's hope.  Redemption. A sense that God is in our midst, only waiting for us to pivot towards Him so that He can receive us with open arms.  The play is well-written, funny, clever, and throbbing with pain and grief. 

Secondly, the director, one of my professors (who also directed The Elephant Man) is a meticulous, detail-oriented master of storytelling.  There is not a nuance of the script that's left unexplored.  Characters are drawn in precise detail, and the choices he's made at the end of each act with the lights, sound, staging, music, tell a clear and compelling story of despair and redemption, respectively. And the design work is delicious.  From the smallest detail of the crosses built into the furniture, to the sepia painting of  Christ on the cross subtly woven into the floorboards, to the ghostly draping of the material across the backdrop...yummy.

And then, there's the acting.  This is a demanding play.  The characters explore extreme heights and depths of emotion.  The actors are required to be intelligent, witty, impulse-driven, and extremely emotionally vulnerable.  And, for the most part, they succeed brilliantly.  There are many LOVELY performances, but if I had to single some out, I'd choose the performances of Father Rivard, Sister Rita and Mrs. Shandig.  The actor playing Rivard has the daunting task of moving through time...from the present time when he's on trial for the murder of Sister Rita and the past, where he's reliving his relationship with her from the moment of first meeting, through the crisis of faith, until the climactic night of the fire in the village when he's forced to make a life-changing decision. The actor handles all these changes with ease, charm, and grace.  Charm and grace are kind of trademarks of his, so that's not terrifically surprising.  However, he has also discovered within himself a complexity of emotion which I've never seen from him in any previous roles.  The actress playing Mrs. Shandig, the priest's Polish housekeeper, manages to bring many moments of much-needed humor into the story, but maintains a groundedness and total believability in her role which enables the unexpected revelation her character brings (no spoilers!) at the end to happen in a shockingly organic fashion.  This is the role that I would have loved to play, but she does it magnificently.  Finally, there's the first-year MFA playing Sister Rita.  This girl is one to watch.  Every moment she's onstage, she's alive and responsive.  Each gesture, each facial expression, each reaction and every word out of her mouth seem to spring to life right at that moment.  It's a beautiful, captivating performance and I can't wait to be in a show with her to get the chance to work off of her.

Now, is it a perfect show? No, of course not.  It's still a student performance.  There are occasionally misspoken lines, late cues, a moment of text which hasn't been fully explored.  This is to  be expected.  Not accepted, these things must continue to be worked on, but it is, as all live theater is, a  work in progress.  There are actors who make choices I don't agree with, things I would have directed differently.  Even lines in the script I would have written differently. 

But this show, this show is  lovely. It's a privilege to be a part of it, even in my small unglamorous way.

And the beat goes on...

I've been doing a lot of reading, and some researching of counseling options.  I appreciate all the feedback from everyone, and I hope you'll feel free to keep giving input - it really helps me clarify my thinking.  I don't necessarily feel any need to hang a label on Scooby, because I don't think they're particularly helpful.  What was helpful, however, is recognizing that kids who behave in ways similar to this sometimes need help coping with things.  That it's not necessarily bad parenting on our part, but that there are certainly areas we need to work on in our parenting skills.  That getting him help has moved up a number of notches on the to do list.

In the meantime...

The pinewood derby for CubScouts was last night, and once again I wasn't able to go because of school stuff.  Scooby got 2nd place for the Sibling category and Tarzan took 3rd place for his Den! Apparently there was a judge error and he thinks he actually should have placed higher, but still I think they were pleased overall.  Thanks Grandpa! next year, Cinderella wants to make a car too and have it shaped like a heart, "not just a plain old car."

I currently in a tech rehearsal for a show called The Runner Stumbles.  I'm running lights (for the first time in many many years) and it's my last required Crew Practicum.  After this, I only have to be at tech for shows if I'm in them.  Classes are going  well.  I'm  learning  IPA (Phoenetic spelling) in Vocal production, working on emotional preparation in Meisner 2, and doing sit-com scenes in Screen Acting.  This week I worked on this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuhSKP9Hco
I didn't really want to spend a bunch of money on a turkey, but I ended up getting a large whole chicken.  There was just no way to properly do justice to the scene without real raw meat.  And yes, I brought lots of hand sanitizer and clorox wipes for the floor and lined the counter and oven with aluminum foil.  It was suprisingly disgusting to throw around a raw chicken, but the scene turned out really well and there was lots of laughter!

We're working on the (final?)  phase of the Oyster project.  He got A pluses on the Results and Conclusions portions though! He's applying for the Tidewater Science Fair (although he "forgot" to turn the paperwork in yesterday, which was the deadline.  He emailed his teacher and got special permission to bring it in on Monday.  Grrrr.) It's a big deal if he gets accepted - it takes place on Old Dominion college campus and there are cash prizes available.

Anyone else ready for Spring?

Oyster Update and other stuff

The title indicates my intention to post some of Scooby's oyster project stuff on here, but the formatting got all wonky and after trying to fix it for about an hour I gave up.  Plus, I just discovered there are two more large components to this project and one more medium sized one, and I got quite discouraged.  I thought we were done.  But there's still a "Final" (which is mostly a compliation of all the steps done so far, plus the inclusion of a weekly journal.  Which I knew nothing about, and doesn't exist.  Sigh) and a presentation board with oral report.  And before those, an abstract.  Really, this project is GREAT but holy moley is it huge. 

Facebook followers may have noticed a recent posting that said I was researching Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Gifted Children.  Does this sound familiar to anyone? If it doesn't, you haven't spent much time around Scooby lately.

"Children who have ODD are often disobedient. They are easily angered and may seem to be angry much of the time. Very young children with the disorder will throw temper tantrums that last for 30 minutes or longer, over seemingly trivial matters. In addition, the child with ODD often starts arguments and will not give up. Winning the argument seems to be very important to a child with this disorder. Even if the youth knows that he or she will lose a privilege or otherwise be punished for continuing the tantrum or argument, he or she is unable to stop. Attempting to reason with such a child often backfires because the child perceives rational discussion as a continuation of the argument. Most children with ODD, however, do not perceive themselves as being argumentative or difficult. It is usual for such children to blame all their problems on others. Such children can also be perfectionists and have a strong sense of justice regarding violations of what they consider correct behavior. They are impatient and intolerant of others. They are more likely to argue verbally with other children than to get into physical fights. Older children or adolescents with ODD may try to provoke others by being deliberately annoying or critical. For example, a teenager may criticize an adult's way or speaking or dressing. This oppositional behavior is usually directed at an authority figure such as a parent, coach, or teacher."

Several articles I read said that gifted children are often "mis-diagnosed" with ODD or other conditions such as ADD, ADHD, Bi-polar disorder, and depression.  The earmarks of their "gifted-ness" are often confused with the symptoms of these other disorders.

ODD also is kind of a catch-all diagnosis for behavior that doesn't quite fit any other classification.  It also has very little recommended "treatment" or suggestions, other than certain behavioral "therapy" which I'm still looking into.

We had a couple of episodes this week that were completely horrible. At school, he's fine.  But at home a tiny little event seems to set him off and it spirals into something truly unrecognizable.  I don't feel like going into details about it now, but it was enough to prompt a search for help.

In other news, I had a conference with Cinderella's teacher because her grades, particularly in writing and "Work Habits" have dropped dramatically this quarter.  Her teacher says she's rocking in her chair, and that is preventing her from getting her work done.  No idea WHY she's rocking in her chair, and she doesn't do it at home.  At home, she's the most focused one during homework time, and has no trouble with the material.  Her teacher has given her permission to stand up, move around, lie on the floor, whatever it takes for her to get her work done.  I've discussed it with Cinderella, but she can't give me any reasons for it and just says she'll try to sit still.  We'll see what happens.

Tarzan seems fine. I'm sure his turn is coming.

Procrastination

Yeah, see, I keep meaning to upload the pictures of the oyster experiment and chronicle it on the blog, and then I can't find the camera, and then I find the camera but the memory card is missing, and then two weeks have gone by and I've been extremely busy catching up on episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Parenthood on Hulu and...what? That's not a good excuse? Huh.  So, yeah.  Christmas is almost here!

Non-writing

I know I haven't been writing much here, but I"m writing a little at that 29 days thing over there, and I'm writing an abstract on a 300 page book, and I've written a 105 page play.  So I am writing, just not much that might be interesting enough to post here!
Lots of stuff coming up in the next week or so - orchestra concert, another belt testing, oyster experiments, finals, Christmas tree getting, decorating...I'm tired just thinking about it.  Think I'll go to bed.

oh yeah...the blog

I've been incredibly busy lately, between school and home and...okay that's it.  School and home. 
At school: We had auditions  for the spring season.  They're doing The Runner Stumbles, Medea and Bye Bye Birdie. I got called back for the Nurse and Medea in Medea, and Rose and Mae Peterson  in Bye Bye Birdie.  I  was suprised to be called back for Rose - I never thought I'd have a shot at it.  I think the auditions went well, too.  But both Medea and Rose went to girls who are graduating this year, and they're both very good.  Can't complain about those decisions.  I was a little disappointed not to snag another lead, but I was cast as Mae Peterson, the obnoxious, overbearing mother in Birdie.  It's a featured part, and a comedic one, which I haven't had a chance to do here yet, so it should be fun.  Today I signed up to do my final crew assignment on Runner Stumbles, so I'll be done with that in early February.  Yay! Right now, I'm just starting my third one - Prop Crew Chief for The Last Night of Ballyhoo.  We have tech today and tomorrow, then dress rehearsals Mon - Thurs, and the show opens Friday.  We're off Thanksgiving weekend, then have another run of shows the first weekend in Dec.  Midterms went well, and I've registered for Spring classes.  It seems almost impossible to believe, but I'm just about half-way through! Our next auditions will be for our thesis roles.  Crazy.

At home: Scooby has continued to struggle with the amount of homework he's getting.  He's got all A's, except for a B- in Social Studies, so he's keeping up, but the amount of time he's been putting into assignments is outrageous.  We've tried to give him a quiet, consistent place to work, (although quiet is relative around here) and I've tried to be supportive and helpful while still allowing him to work through things on his own.  But it was getting extremely frustrating for all of us.  So I scheduled a conference with his teachers (four of them - math, science, English, and Social Studies) and the guidance counselor.  We talked about his perfectionistic  tendencies - how he'll get stuck on something and be absolutely UNABLE to move past it to something else, and his  inability to start working on something until he has it completely worked out in his head.  They told me they expect 20 - 30 minutes per subject, max.  After that, whatever he didn't get done stays undone.  If he doesn't get something, he's to circle it and ask his teacher about it the next day.  Anticipating major freakouts when this policy was implemented...but it hasn't been that bad.  We've stretched the 20 - 30 minutes several times, but he is spending less time than before.  And he seems a little more relaxed about stuff.  He likes me to make him a schedule, and he tries to stick to it the best he can.  I think it's progress.

Tarzan and Cinderella are doing well.  I finally had a conference with Tarzan's teacher, and he's getting all A's...they're working on  trying to find ways to continue to stretch him.  We also talked about his "sensitive heart" and how he takes to heart some of the admonishments given to  a whole class or lunch table.  We also called him over and asked him to talk about anything else that was bothering him in class, and he mentioned a boy who sits next to him and uses inappropriate language.  He got all teary-eyed when the teacher asked him to repeat what he said, so she let him spell it.  It was B-I-T-C-H (he spelled it right) and F-U...something.  Kind of like fudge.  Yikes.  So the teacher's going  to call the other kid's mom.  Tarzan also has a yucky cough right now, but at least the mystery rash seems to be gone.

Cinderella is doing fine in school too.  Math is excellent, she struggles with writing.  Don't know where these kids came from.  There's a girl down the street that has been  coming over to  play, and we're all struggling with whether this is a friendship we want to encourage.  Cinderella doesn't really like this girl all that much, and the family situation is not good.  Theyr'e really pretty stereotypical "trashy" family...smoke in the home, two pit-bulls, shirtless Dad, mullet-sporting kids...but the girl seems okay, and probably needs a friend.  And I want them to develop friendships and play with kids other than each other...but.  Why can't a nice, well-adjusted family live nearby? Oh, that's right, they did.  Then they moved away. 

Well, my dinner break is almost over and I have to make sure I pee before tech starts back up, so I'll sign off for now.  Hope to see much of the family over Thanksgiving break in DC! I'm ready for a break!!!

Halloween, and a couple of other random pictures

This year's pumpkin



All three trick-or-treaters



Scooby's Phoenix costume - jacket made by Aunt Lisa a long time ago (inside of Fireman's suit) and the rest created by Scooby for his Latin class assignment "Mythical Creature" costume.  For class, it had 20 body parts labeled in Latin.

Tarzan's toothbrush costume - idea by Tarzan, execution by Mom

Cinderella's Reese's cup costume.  Her thought, "Maybe if I'm dressed like my favorite candy, I'll get my favorite candy!" It worked.

Scooby's TaeKwonDo instructors

Scooby acheives yellow belt

Men at work in Norfolk

Hmmmmm

Children's Festival in Norfolk

Happy Halloween!

Show, Con't

Press release about Our Town

My Show

Timmy's Paper

Assignment: Write a "How To" Paper
Brainstorming page - What I do well
1. Feed cat
2. Give attention to cat
3. Anoyy Mom/Dad
4. Anoyy bro/sis
5. Fechting bones
6. swiming
7. Ignore someone
8. ride a bus
9. video games
10. TV
11. computer
12. eat
13. counting
14. math
15. blow nose
16. drawing
17. Brainstorming
18. writeing
19. skiping
20. takeing a test

How to Feed your Cat
This is how to feed your cat.  First you need to get your materials.  Your materials are a cat, cat food, and a bowl.  Next let your cat smell your finger.  Then put the food in the bowl.  Finally watch your cat until your cat is done eating.  Now if your mom asks you if you fed your cat; you can say that you did!

If you haven't seen this yet, you're missing out.

Smells like a Monster

Brrr!

48 degrees this morning.  All the fall/winter clothes still in storage.  Brr!
As you may have surmised, it's been a little busy here lately! Rehearsals for Our Town are chugging right along.  It's really tiring being onstage for three acts every night with very short breaks at intermission.  The fatigue is making it hard to keep the lines in my head.  I can paraphrase the night away, but I'm trying to be a stickler for word perfect memorization and there are many similar sounding lines that are kicking my butt right now.  The show's going okay - there are some strange idiosynchrasies that some of the actors have that drive me nuts, but in the interests of not knowing who's going to read this, I'll not elaborate further!
Scooby is belt-testing for Taekwondo next week.  More money, yay! If he passes he'll be up to yellow belt (the first step up from white belt.) It's a pain in the a$$ getting him there three times a week, but I think it was the right call.  He likes it, it's exercise, it gets him out from in front of the computer for an hour.  Good deal all around.
Tarzan ran for Student Council Secretary, but didn't win.  He had cute posters and a great speech, but the political machine spit him back out.  He did, however, win "Citizen of the Month" for September, so we get to have a sign in our yard for another month.  I swear, we've only gone about two months since we've been here that the sign wasn't in our yard.  Not complaining, it's kind of fun...although Don doesn't like mowing around it.
Cinderella's doing fine too - I'd love to get her into a class or something, but it's going to have to wait awhile, unfortunately.  She seems to be doing well in school - math is better than writing for her, and she's still struggling with telling time (but honestly, I still struggle with it sometimes myself!) and her reading is getting much better.
Oh, and I had a birthday yesterday.