Catching up...
Lots to share from just the past few weeks:
Things are going *really* well with my thesis...I love my class and keep joking with my students that I'm not going to let the class out every time we start because they are doing such great work and it is such a joy to be in the room with them. It's really fun and exciting to be having such a great time...and I wonder what is different about this than most of the rest of my time there. A lot has to do with the fact that all I'm doing this semester is my class. I really get to focus on it and have the time to do what I want and need. If I were just teaching a couple of classes a semester I think I could really dig this. (for those of you just catching up with this, my thesis is teaching an Ensemble for Non-Majors class..this is a performance class where we are creating an original piece of theatre over the course of the semester...we are working off of PostSecret)
The time at Goat Island in Chicago this last summer has contributed in a huge way to this. I've got them creating a lot and working in response to each other with a focus on using what they find "miraculous" in each other's work as a basis...we we are just building off of the strongest work towards the eventual creation.
The students are committed and focused and a pleasure to have in the room. The class is physically based and they are all working really well. We head full-long into text this next week. :)
Over Columbus Day weekend Mark and I flew to Louisville, KY to visit my little brother and his family who are stationed at Fort Knox. This is my brother who was in Iraq in 2005. This is the first time we've seen him since before he went to war and his wife and their eldest son since the wedding (and we had never met the youngest son). It was a great trip all around. It was really wonderful to reconnect with my brother and catch up in person. Family is a very funny thing where no matter how long we've been apart it feels like just yesterday we were together when we are in the same room again. I found us making jokes that were as if we had been hanging out every day.
Stephen has changed quite a bit since going to war. I saw him as a much more patient and involved father with his sons; still with the strict Betts way, but in a more gentle manner than I had seen before. He was easier with a smile and joking than I remember him being when we saw him in California. He was also more willing to engage in "serious" conversation, which he used to avoid in a big way. This was a big change that really helped the trip be a much stronger time of reconnection. Of course, the war is a touchy subject, but we found ways to talk about it and other sensitive topics.
It was very difficult to hear how he talked about other people, though (there was a lot of reference to other people being "stupid" or "idiots" - especially Iraqis or "hajis"). Something that runs in my family is a very judgemental way of thinking and speaking about other people (it is something that I have worked very hard to try to get out of my persona, with reasonable success - but with all honesty I know it is strongly engrained). Mark reminded me that Stephen likely needs to think this way in order to be able to do his job. This is probably more upsetting to me than some of the other things he has to do.
We got to reconnect with his wife Carla and their sons Anthony and Levi during the trip. Anthony was 1 y. old at the wedding and didn't really remember us, but is a very sociable child and we were quick friends. Mark and I played with him a lot in the back lawn with a soccer ball (which I got him to catch and toss to me really well by the time we left). He loves everyone to have attention on him and a common refrain would be "Aunt Sara, watch this" followed by some kind of physical contortion, followed by "You can't do that. You would fall down and hurt your head." The other common thing he would announce was "I'm a boy".
One day we asked him what boys do and he said "Jump off big slides" and that girls "Go to school". Carla insisted that she hadn't taught him that. :)
When we went to say Goodbye it was the night before our flight and we did so as Anthony was going to bed. When I thanked him for the visit and told him we wouldn't be there to play the next day he looked up at me with a confused look on his face and then said "Staaaayyy." (I seriously considered how I could make that happen.). :)
Carla is a wonderful woman and a great mother. She is more similar to me than anyone else in our family (scarily so). She was heavy in theatre in h. school and college and continues to be a writer as well as a very social and community oriented person.
Levi is a really happy and easy-going baby. Like a lot of second children, though, he finds his way to make sure that when he needs attention he gets it in the way he wants it (very particular about his surroundings when it is time for feeding or sleep.
In early December Stephen ships out to Fort Riley for a 90 day training before he goes to Afghanistan for 15 months. I feel a lot more comfortable with this deployment since his express mission on this deployment is to avoid contact with any kind of "enemy". I also feel a clearer understanding of our role in Afghanistan (as I gather he does).
The visit was really great overall. I don't want to think about my brother being gone just yet.
In June I applied for a job here in RI that I thought was a great fit. I've been doing a solo web consulting business since we moved here and have known about this company for a while...they do a lot of work for local non-profits. The company is called Embolden Design and is the only place I can imagine myself working for, if not for myself.
The interview process took a few weeks in the early summer and then I headed off to Chicago and Embolden re-evaluated what they were looking for for the position. When I came back we picked the conversation back up and I went in for a few more interviews (it will have been 4 in person visits overall in the end).
Long story short...they offered me the job a week ago and I accepted. I start tomorrow as a Program Manager / Web Programmer. I will be learning ASP.NET and doing a variety of things including project/client management, programming, and GUI design and testing. I am really excited to be working for a company that I believe in and in a team environment again.
Part of my attraction to this company is their flexibility and family friendliness. They understand my situation with my thesis through December and have no trouble with my schedule needs through that time.
So it's back to a full time work schedule (and the Snooze button) for me. :)
With the new job we now have a couple of days a week where we both need a car. So as soon as I got the offer Mark and I started shopping for a second vehicle. We've been doing really well with the one Jetta for the last 4 years.
After researching current fuel technologies we decided to focus on getting a diesel (we'd been thinking this way for a while) so we could use bio-diesel and even do a full veggie oil conversion at some point (when it is more readily available). Consulting with my best friend's dad who had his own auto shop for a long time he convinced us of the considerable advantage of the newer diesel technology.
So our search quickly narrowed down to the newer VW TDIs. We drove a 2006 Jetta Sedan (which was really nice!) and then test drove a wagon as well. It was clear the wagon was the best choice (the same great mileage - 45mpg - with the extra room and flexibility for the next few years).
The only thing about the TDIs (and especially the wagon TDIs) is that they are really hard to find. Thank you Craigslist! We found a 2003 Jetta wagon with all the features we were looking for (heated seats, sunroof, cruise control, and cloth seats) being sold by an individual in NH for a great price. We drove up there on Friday and made the deal. We get to bring it home next weekend.
Let the negotiation of who gets what car begin! :)
Finally, as if everything else weren't enough, I open my show this next week. We just finished tech (it is a tech-heavy show) and are headed into tech/dress week with previews starting on Friday.
The show is "Weightless" by Christine Evans playing at Perishable Theatre in Providence. It is a world premiere. After callbacks the script went through serious rewrites and my character went from being in only 1/2 of the play to almost every scene.
This has been a hard show for me to get my mind and body around. I do love the role and the script, but I've been having a hard time creating the role. Part of it has been that my character really requires me to make up almost everything and is written in a way where it seems like there are no obstacles to getting what she wants (aka actor death) and the other part has been learning how to work with this director.
I think it will be a great show and the tech process went realatively smoothly. This week will be a big one for us to really connect the dots.
So with all that I have a big week ahead of me and it looks like the traffic in Boston will continue to be bad as the Red Sox head into the World Series.
Oh yeah, and the weather has been really beautiful here all fall (more like California than Rhode Island). It can't last long, but it's been nice while it has lasted.
Hope all is well with you!
Write a note to let me know your thoughts. :)
Things are going *really* well with my thesis...I love my class and keep joking with my students that I'm not going to let the class out every time we start because they are doing such great work and it is such a joy to be in the room with them. It's really fun and exciting to be having such a great time...and I wonder what is different about this than most of the rest of my time there. A lot has to do with the fact that all I'm doing this semester is my class. I really get to focus on it and have the time to do what I want and need. If I were just teaching a couple of classes a semester I think I could really dig this. (for those of you just catching up with this, my thesis is teaching an Ensemble for Non-Majors class..this is a performance class where we are creating an original piece of theatre over the course of the semester...we are working off of PostSecret)
The time at Goat Island in Chicago this last summer has contributed in a huge way to this. I've got them creating a lot and working in response to each other with a focus on using what they find "miraculous" in each other's work as a basis...we we are just building off of the strongest work towards the eventual creation.
The students are committed and focused and a pleasure to have in the room. The class is physically based and they are all working really well. We head full-long into text this next week. :)
Over Columbus Day weekend Mark and I flew to Louisville, KY to visit my little brother and his family who are stationed at Fort Knox. This is my brother who was in Iraq in 2005. This is the first time we've seen him since before he went to war and his wife and their eldest son since the wedding (and we had never met the youngest son). It was a great trip all around. It was really wonderful to reconnect with my brother and catch up in person. Family is a very funny thing where no matter how long we've been apart it feels like just yesterday we were together when we are in the same room again. I found us making jokes that were as if we had been hanging out every day.
Stephen has changed quite a bit since going to war. I saw him as a much more patient and involved father with his sons; still with the strict Betts way, but in a more gentle manner than I had seen before. He was easier with a smile and joking than I remember him being when we saw him in California. He was also more willing to engage in "serious" conversation, which he used to avoid in a big way. This was a big change that really helped the trip be a much stronger time of reconnection. Of course, the war is a touchy subject, but we found ways to talk about it and other sensitive topics.
It was very difficult to hear how he talked about other people, though (there was a lot of reference to other people being "stupid" or "idiots" - especially Iraqis or "hajis"). Something that runs in my family is a very judgemental way of thinking and speaking about other people (it is something that I have worked very hard to try to get out of my persona, with reasonable success - but with all honesty I know it is strongly engrained). Mark reminded me that Stephen likely needs to think this way in order to be able to do his job. This is probably more upsetting to me than some of the other things he has to do.
We got to reconnect with his wife Carla and their sons Anthony and Levi during the trip. Anthony was 1 y. old at the wedding and didn't really remember us, but is a very sociable child and we were quick friends. Mark and I played with him a lot in the back lawn with a soccer ball (which I got him to catch and toss to me really well by the time we left). He loves everyone to have attention on him and a common refrain would be "Aunt Sara, watch this" followed by some kind of physical contortion, followed by "You can't do that. You would fall down and hurt your head." The other common thing he would announce was "I'm a boy".
One day we asked him what boys do and he said "Jump off big slides" and that girls "Go to school". Carla insisted that she hadn't taught him that. :)
When we went to say Goodbye it was the night before our flight and we did so as Anthony was going to bed. When I thanked him for the visit and told him we wouldn't be there to play the next day he looked up at me with a confused look on his face and then said "Staaaayyy." (I seriously considered how I could make that happen.). :)
Carla is a wonderful woman and a great mother. She is more similar to me than anyone else in our family (scarily so). She was heavy in theatre in h. school and college and continues to be a writer as well as a very social and community oriented person.
Levi is a really happy and easy-going baby. Like a lot of second children, though, he finds his way to make sure that when he needs attention he gets it in the way he wants it (very particular about his surroundings when it is time for feeding or sleep.
In early December Stephen ships out to Fort Riley for a 90 day training before he goes to Afghanistan for 15 months. I feel a lot more comfortable with this deployment since his express mission on this deployment is to avoid contact with any kind of "enemy". I also feel a clearer understanding of our role in Afghanistan (as I gather he does).
The visit was really great overall. I don't want to think about my brother being gone just yet.
In June I applied for a job here in RI that I thought was a great fit. I've been doing a solo web consulting business since we moved here and have known about this company for a while...they do a lot of work for local non-profits. The company is called Embolden Design and is the only place I can imagine myself working for, if not for myself.
The interview process took a few weeks in the early summer and then I headed off to Chicago and Embolden re-evaluated what they were looking for for the position. When I came back we picked the conversation back up and I went in for a few more interviews (it will have been 4 in person visits overall in the end).
Long story short...they offered me the job a week ago and I accepted. I start tomorrow as a Program Manager / Web Programmer. I will be learning ASP.NET and doing a variety of things including project/client management, programming, and GUI design and testing. I am really excited to be working for a company that I believe in and in a team environment again.
Part of my attraction to this company is their flexibility and family friendliness. They understand my situation with my thesis through December and have no trouble with my schedule needs through that time.
So it's back to a full time work schedule (and the Snooze button) for me. :)
With the new job we now have a couple of days a week where we both need a car. So as soon as I got the offer Mark and I started shopping for a second vehicle. We've been doing really well with the one Jetta for the last 4 years.
After researching current fuel technologies we decided to focus on getting a diesel (we'd been thinking this way for a while) so we could use bio-diesel and even do a full veggie oil conversion at some point (when it is more readily available). Consulting with my best friend's dad who had his own auto shop for a long time he convinced us of the considerable advantage of the newer diesel technology.
So our search quickly narrowed down to the newer VW TDIs. We drove a 2006 Jetta Sedan (which was really nice!) and then test drove a wagon as well. It was clear the wagon was the best choice (the same great mileage - 45mpg - with the extra room and flexibility for the next few years).
The only thing about the TDIs (and especially the wagon TDIs) is that they are really hard to find. Thank you Craigslist! We found a 2003 Jetta wagon with all the features we were looking for (heated seats, sunroof, cruise control, and cloth seats) being sold by an individual in NH for a great price. We drove up there on Friday and made the deal. We get to bring it home next weekend.
Let the negotiation of who gets what car begin! :)
Finally, as if everything else weren't enough, I open my show this next week. We just finished tech (it is a tech-heavy show) and are headed into tech/dress week with previews starting on Friday.
The show is "Weightless" by Christine Evans playing at Perishable Theatre in Providence. It is a world premiere. After callbacks the script went through serious rewrites and my character went from being in only 1/2 of the play to almost every scene.
This has been a hard show for me to get my mind and body around. I do love the role and the script, but I've been having a hard time creating the role. Part of it has been that my character really requires me to make up almost everything and is written in a way where it seems like there are no obstacles to getting what she wants (aka actor death) and the other part has been learning how to work with this director.
I think it will be a great show and the tech process went realatively smoothly. This week will be a big one for us to really connect the dots.
So with all that I have a big week ahead of me and it looks like the traffic in Boston will continue to be bad as the Red Sox head into the World Series.
Oh yeah, and the weather has been really beautiful here all fall (more like California than Rhode Island). It can't last long, but it's been nice while it has lasted.
Hope all is well with you!
Write a note to let me know your thoughts. :)