When life hands you lemons...
I'm currently finishing off the last of the fresh-squeezed lemonade I made a few nights ago. It turned out nearly perfect and cost less than if I were to purchase it pre-made. AND no high-fructose corn syrup! :)
Today marks the first full day of my Spring Break. Not that I'm going to be doing much partying, I have a ten-page midterm to write for my Race & Gender Political Movements course, work needs to be done on my 5-year business plan for my Independent Study in Theatre Management, and I need to write at least two reviews of professional theatre productions by the April 1. (Five must be written over the course of the semester.) So much for tequila shooters in Cancun. (shrugs)
Obviously, my online presence has been somewhat lacking. This is mostly due to large projects, lengthy readings, and sheer exhaustion. In the past month, I have:
- house managed a mainstage production of Comedy of Errors
- organized and facilitated a group audition for six directors
- completed a scenic design model for a large-scale environmental staging of Hamlet
- read multiple court cases (Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson, Rusk v. Maryland, Hopwood v. Texas, and the mind-numbing San Antonio v. Rodriguez)
- cast a delegate at the Denver County Democratic Convention for Barack Obama, and was elected to cast a delegate at the Congressional District 1 Convention
- volunteered to be an Assistant Director for a show, and volunteered to PSM an arts festival. (Not to mention auditioning for, and getting cast in, a one act play)
- elevated myself to a leadership position within my Senior Seminar class, effectively becoming some sort of odd quasi-Production Manager of the collection of Senior Seminar projects (MSU students: think Directing II festivals, but spread out over a month of time)
Speaking of the Directing II projects, I am infinitely advantaged in my Senior Seminar class because of my participation in the Directing II projects at Murray. The class is basically putting on a show in the same fashion, but some are directing, some are producing, etc. What's different about it is that everyone pretty much gets their own night. Some people are doing full-length shows, some are doing one-acts. It's kind of an odd amalgam of theatre, which becomes disorganized at most times and frustrates me because none of my classmates seem to recognize the importance (or magnitude) of what they are doing.
I've already apparently created waves within the department: for some reason, the department secretary hates me. (What is it with me and theatre department secretaries? Oh, how I miss Ms. Joan...) While house managing the production of Comedy of Errors, she turned into a mega-cold bitch and - out of the blue - complained that I was "not listening" to her when she emailed my Production Process professor. (Production Process is a "class" where we meet and get course credit for working on shows.) Kind of hard to say I'm not listening when I do every single thing she tells me to do. I found this part of the whole thing particularly funny, mostly because I am a professional house manager and already know what to do, but even *altered* my normal job tasks to her liking, just so I wouldn't get in trouble. Oh well, I guess I tried. The transition between professional theatre and educational theatre is still troubling me.
Another odd development concerns our transition back to Atlanta at the end of 2008. Of course, the tenants occupying our condo back home love the place. It makes perfect sense, because they are paying $850/month for a condo that's worth about $1,000/month. At the end of one year, their rent goes up to $950/month, I think. And those of you that have visited our condo know how nice it is. And it's great location. Of course, all this praise I'm giving it is setting up the story that we're probably not going to be moving back to it. In order to keep the rental income coming in, with reliable tenants, Josh and I will move somewhere else. So, if anyone knows of any nice properties under $200K that's less than a mile from a train station (I'm still sticking to that "I want to be able to walk to the train" thing.), let me know. I prefer Brookhaven, but it looks like we'll have to move away from one of my favorite neighborhoods in Atlanta. Unless we buy the scary, scary property below our old condo. And some of you remember the woes with that prospect. (To catch up others, this is a property we've already tried to buy, but a bunch of weird stuff went down thanks to the subprime mortgage crises and a shoddy home inspection.) It will probably cost at least $25,000 to fix up that place.
So, really. If you know of a place, let us know. I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get. :/
Today marks the first full day of my Spring Break. Not that I'm going to be doing much partying, I have a ten-page midterm to write for my Race & Gender Political Movements course, work needs to be done on my 5-year business plan for my Independent Study in Theatre Management, and I need to write at least two reviews of professional theatre productions by the April 1. (Five must be written over the course of the semester.) So much for tequila shooters in Cancun. (shrugs)
Obviously, my online presence has been somewhat lacking. This is mostly due to large projects, lengthy readings, and sheer exhaustion. In the past month, I have:
- house managed a mainstage production of Comedy of Errors
- organized and facilitated a group audition for six directors
- completed a scenic design model for a large-scale environmental staging of Hamlet
- read multiple court cases (Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson, Rusk v. Maryland, Hopwood v. Texas, and the mind-numbing San Antonio v. Rodriguez)
- cast a delegate at the Denver County Democratic Convention for Barack Obama, and was elected to cast a delegate at the Congressional District 1 Convention
- volunteered to be an Assistant Director for a show, and volunteered to PSM an arts festival. (Not to mention auditioning for, and getting cast in, a one act play)
- elevated myself to a leadership position within my Senior Seminar class, effectively becoming some sort of odd quasi-Production Manager of the collection of Senior Seminar projects (MSU students: think Directing II festivals, but spread out over a month of time)
Speaking of the Directing II projects, I am infinitely advantaged in my Senior Seminar class because of my participation in the Directing II projects at Murray. The class is basically putting on a show in the same fashion, but some are directing, some are producing, etc. What's different about it is that everyone pretty much gets their own night. Some people are doing full-length shows, some are doing one-acts. It's kind of an odd amalgam of theatre, which becomes disorganized at most times and frustrates me because none of my classmates seem to recognize the importance (or magnitude) of what they are doing.
I've already apparently created waves within the department: for some reason, the department secretary hates me. (What is it with me and theatre department secretaries? Oh, how I miss Ms. Joan...) While house managing the production of Comedy of Errors, she turned into a mega-cold bitch and - out of the blue - complained that I was "not listening" to her when she emailed my Production Process professor. (Production Process is a "class" where we meet and get course credit for working on shows.) Kind of hard to say I'm not listening when I do every single thing she tells me to do. I found this part of the whole thing particularly funny, mostly because I am a professional house manager and already know what to do, but even *altered* my normal job tasks to her liking, just so I wouldn't get in trouble. Oh well, I guess I tried. The transition between professional theatre and educational theatre is still troubling me.
Another odd development concerns our transition back to Atlanta at the end of 2008. Of course, the tenants occupying our condo back home love the place. It makes perfect sense, because they are paying $850/month for a condo that's worth about $1,000/month. At the end of one year, their rent goes up to $950/month, I think. And those of you that have visited our condo know how nice it is. And it's great location. Of course, all this praise I'm giving it is setting up the story that we're probably not going to be moving back to it. In order to keep the rental income coming in, with reliable tenants, Josh and I will move somewhere else. So, if anyone knows of any nice properties under $200K that's less than a mile from a train station (I'm still sticking to that "I want to be able to walk to the train" thing.), let me know. I prefer Brookhaven, but it looks like we'll have to move away from one of my favorite neighborhoods in Atlanta. Unless we buy the scary, scary property below our old condo. And some of you remember the woes with that prospect. (To catch up others, this is a property we've already tried to buy, but a bunch of weird stuff went down thanks to the subprime mortgage crises and a shoddy home inspection.) It will probably cost at least $25,000 to fix up that place.
So, really. If you know of a place, let us know. I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get. :/