I had my last “Acting for Improvisers” class at Second City last night. Started at 7 PM, and went way past the 10 PM ending time. The first half was taken up with Topher doing a brain dump about how to find an agent, what to put on your head shot, how to audition, what to do, where to go, etc.

When we did our monologues, we did it as if we were actually going to an audition. He misspoke our names and asked odd questions. It reminded me of the interview process. We then did our two person scenes, which again went incredibly well (and thank you again, Jennifer, for being my last minute partner in all this).

At the end of class we learned that this workshop was a trial run for our teacher’s idea for a full acting class. He is going to have three full eight-week sessions, starting on Saturday (3-6 PM, right after my Improv class). When done, a student will walk away will a full acting audition kit: five monologues of various types and lengths, five scenes, an evaluated resume … the works.

I so want to do this. I love improv. I am starting to really love acting too.

And it would all be so easy to start.

I’ll take both classes. Saturdays are shot anyway, so now I’ll be busy, including driving, from 11 AM to 7 PM every Saturday for over half a year. I’ll keep my job, but really focus on finding performance gigs in Ann Arbor, and auditioning for shows.

While I have dental insurance, I’ll find out how much it costs to get my teeth straightened again, and I’ll have them professionally whitened.

Having a job helps, a lot. I can afford the headshots (which cost $400-$1,000). I can support my family during the lean times, assuming I make it at all. I’ll be able to afford to drive everywhere to make auditions and learn more. Taking acting lesions at the Purple Rose in Chelsea is on the list too.

The SCA will be completely out, as would gaming and the like. I’ll need all my time for this.

I’ll also actively work on my standup. I’ve started that, but any experience on the stage is good experience, and I need to figure out where my strengths lay: standup, improv, or just regular acting.

Topher gave us the name of a good talent agency, and I’ll call them. There are others easily found. Surprisingly, there are a lot of commercials filmed in the area, as well as PR pieces done for industry, and a good amount of voice work. So if I just keep auditioning, something should happen.

I can do this.

I want to do this.

But not right now.

The above is a fun fantasy, and if I were just graduating high school and had gotten more involved with theater, there’d be a great shot that I would try it.

But not now.

The thing is, I really do love my job. My gesture work is finally making waves in the world, and my other work is starting to make a positive difference too. I like my work and I don’t want to give up.

I like providing for my family, and being a struggling artist is worse than being a starving grad student. At least in grad school I had a roof over my head at the lab – struggling artists usually don’t even have that.

So no, I’m not going to throw it all away and dive into the desperate world of acting. That being said, I’m still going to study Improv, and I might even start performing that on a limited basis.

I will also work very hard at my job and happily spend tons of time with my family.

Still, I won’t be able to stop myself from glancing over at the path I didn’t take, and wonder what might have been.

While leaving my house this morning and pulling out of my driveway, I noticed something very odd. Parked in front of my house were a large number of SUVs.

No, not a number of large SUVs. More like a large number of large SUVs, except that saying ‘large SUV’ is kind of redundant.

Up and down on both sides of my little street, tons of cars were parked. I looked over at King George, and even more cars and SUVs were parked there. And literally, for every car there were four SUVs.

I drove to work, and all the streets were packed with parked vehicles. The side streets were covered. Just parked SUVs as far as the eye could see.

It was eerie.

Why were they all there? I think I’ve figured it out, but it is more fun to just imagine what it could be…

· A yuppie golf tournament was being held at the King George recreation center.
· People got confused and thought Art Fair was this week, not last week.
· Kerry is coming to Ann Arbor in a month, and people wanted a really good parking space.
· In a move to half garbage collection in the area, people are using their vehicles to block curbside access.
· A freak radioactive experiment has mutated ants into SUVs.
· Ford and GM rebates are getting really out of hand.
· There was a bad thunderstorm yesterday: instead of hail, this is what we got.
· Car thieves have opened a chop shop in a high-end suburban neighborhood. No one would think to look for them here!
· All those vehicles are from Patrick’s neighborhood. They heard that he got some good news and have fled in terror.
· It is some crazy new reality show about SUVs, hippies, and no-parking zones.
· Like the mythical Elephant Graveyard, this is where all SUVs go when they run out of gas.

The real reason is still kind of interesting. The police and education department run a “Safety Town” program, teaching personal and pedestrian safety to kindergarten children. I think that a session is being held nearby this week.

I could be wrong.

Given all my guessing above, I’m sure the right answer is out there somewhere.

Went into slight panic mode when I thought that the week I go Pennsic was on the 9th and not the 16th. That would mean that I have less than two weeks to write over ten proposals.

Fortunately, I do have until the 15th, which is plenty of time. The bad news now is that they are due on Wednesday, August 11th. Still, that gives me an extra weekend and three working days. At one a day it brings this back from the realm of the insane to the land of the possible.

And, this will be the first time in years that I head off to Pennsic after proposals are due, and not before. That will feel strange.

I get very frustrated at this time when things come up to suck time away. Yesterday I finally got going on one, when at the last minute I was called away to go to a meeting with the president of WDIV in Detroit. It was a fine meeting, but it killed three hours.

Today I have a meeting with another company that kills most of the day too. Important? Yes. Frustrating? Absolutely.

I don’t think I have any other things scheduled after that, but emergencies always happen.

I am looking forward to getting over this latest hurdle.

I’m feeling much better today.

Was I over reacting before? I don’t think so. Events could have turned out quite bad. I didn’t get home until 8 PM Tuesday night, but things were worked out, there worst that I was prepared for didn’t happen, and we can actually move forward.

Today, when I woke up, I felt like going to work again.

Still, I found I was climbing down the stress ladder. At this morning’s meeting, I actually laughed, and people noticed and commented. I got a ton done. But I was still bottled up.

Second City took care of that. I had my acting class today, where my partner Jen and I had to do a ten minute scene.

This was a very serious scene, called “Life and Limb,” about a fellow who lost is arm in Korea and his wife later on, and she comes back from the dead to tell him that she committed adultery.

We had practiced on Monday (which was late, since I only figured out the play we should do on Friday) and ran through it three times, without any blocking or even moving around. I spent a good part of my free time on Tuesday trying to memorize the lines. I had them down, but it wasn’t perfect.

So tonight we are about to do the scene and I get a case of the giggles. I’m laughing a lot, but I eventually get over it and am ready to do the scene.

And then something set me off. I’m not going to tell you what it was, because you really had to see and hear it for it to make any sense, and quite frankly it just struck a chord with me and I found it hilarious.

I started laughing.

Have you ever laughed so hard to you couldn’t remain seated, let alone standing? Where you are gasping for breath? Where you desperately need air so much that you think you’ll die if you don’t breathe soon, and that makes you laugh even more?

Where you start drooling because you’ve lost almost complete control?

Where every time you stop laughing, you think back on the absurdity of life and it just sets you off all over again?

Where all your stress and frustrations comes out in a cathartic spasm of joy, and you think to yourself, “This feels so damn good!” while everyone is looking at you as if you suddenly grew a second head which started singing songs from the musical Grease?

I had that tonight.

Obviously, I was still pretty highly strung. But not anymore. A good laugh like that is worth at least two hours of full body massage.

Well, maybe one hour.

I’m quite fortunate. I get a good laugh like that at least three times a year. I remember most of them. The reason for the laughing is always dumb, but the laugher itself is a joy.

I’ve always felt that when I look into my wife’s eyes I can see God. I think that when people are laughing this way, you can hear him.

People handle stress in different ways. Some people smoke, or turn to alcohol. Still others turn to violence, even attacking their friends.

Others get depressed, suicidal.

Or they will ignore the stress and bury it deep inside until they explode and go out shopping for a shotgun.

I find I handle stress quite well. In the beginning at least. Let’s chart it out on a scale of one to five.

One. Barely any stress at all. This is more frustration, like when I have a to-do list but can’t get to any of it because of phone calls or car breaking down or something. I just deal with it and move on.

Two. Small amount of stress. This actually gets me to prioritize. I find I have to clean my work area, or make a to-do list and stick to it. I’m alert. A bit horny. I’m actually quite happy because things get completed. As I’m getting nervous, I’ll tell jokes and start to get sarcastic.

Three. The stress has increased and I have things to get done, and soon. Here is where I get very efficient. I get extremely focused, tell myself things like, “When, not if, I get A done, then I can do B for myself. Then I’ll do C and D and take a break.” I’ll get ticked off if I’m interrupted and outside forces derail my plans. I tell a bunch of jokes at this point, and the sarcasm is getting all over everything. I bounce off of walls and act very hyper and silly.

Four. This is where I start to freak out. Things aren’t going well. I realize that no matter what I do, the removal of stress is out of my control. I’m not happy anymore. I don’t tell any jokes, and I even stop being sarcastic. I get cold and contained. I’m very much into problem solving mode, and doing my best to fix things, and fix things right now. I get extremely driven and don’t get any humor at all. As things get worse, I’ll start shaking, get incredibly depressed, and I’ll have trouble keeping things together. That is, I start falling apart.

Five. This is when I’ve gone over the edge, and my attitude takes two modes. In one reaction I basically, well, fall apart. I may cry, though that is rare. Instead, I get sick. I’ll have the runs, start getting headaches and a sore throat. I may even get a fever. I’ll shiver from being so cold. While that isn’t good, the other mode is worse. I don’t get sick. Instead of my body shutting down, my brain does. I basically stop caring. Nothing fazes me, nothing bothers me. No stress, but no nothing, either.

I don’t live being at stress level five. I’m still somewhat able to function, but it takes a lot to pull me out of it. Usually shock, or a major change in the situation. And even when that happens, it might take days for me to get back to zero or one. When I’m at this stage, I have to be very careful about separating the stress from the rest of my life. If work is causing it, I must not bring it home with me. And if it is my personal life, I have to try my best to keep it out of my work area.

Today I was at stress level four. I see level five right around the corner, and the physical symptoms are starting to arrive

Tomorrow is going to just peachy.

Last weekend Elaine and I found some time to sit down and watch the television show Monk. A fun show on the USA network, we think the character is awesome and the stories are usually very well written.

I had taped it from Friday night. I love watching television like that because I can skip all the commercials. (Yes, I know, I should get a Tivo.)

About fifteen minutes into it, Elaine gets a phone call and it looks like she’ll be stuck for a while, so I go off to the other room to play games … I mean, to do some computer work.

Ten minutes later she’s off the phone so I come back in the family room. And what do I see?

Marcus is standing there holding the VCR remote control. He was pressing buttons and happened to cause it to record over the program.

My boy is getting way to smart.

Now, I couldn’t really be mad. He didn’t know what he did was wrong, and it is just a television program. And, as I stood there frantically trying to stop more from being recorded over, it was quite funny.

So I tell Elaine what I find out when it is on again so we can record it and watch it later.

I check out the online listings and, hey, that episode of Monk is on right now!

I rush back in and turn on the television, and it is at an earlier point in the show so we didn’t miss anything. And when the show caught up to after the part Marcus recorded over, we went back to watching it on tape!

You have to love how much the cable channels repeat their shows. Seriously. I wish that the major networks used some other channels to repeat stuff. It would make my life a little bit easier, especially during power outages.

Marcus was incredible. We now make sure that all the remote controls are way out of his range. Since he can climb on the sofa, that isn't good enough anymore.

Now that I think about it, I should go and back up my hard drive. I have the horrid feeling that Marcus will figure out how to wipe that out pretty soon now.

I knew from the beginning it would be one of those trips. Nothing majorly went wrong, but just a bunch of little things.

Like the night before I unpack my new dress clothes, and the collar button on one of the shirts falls right off. I don’t have that color thread, and of course the store isn’t open at 11 PM. That sort of thing.

The flight was to leave at eight in the morning, so that meant I had to be there by seven, so I’d be picking up my boss at six thirty.

It started the night before. The handouts weren’t ready (not surprising, it was another last minute job that takes creativity to do – I’m just impressed it got done on time at all!) and wouldn’t be ready at Kinko’s until 6 AM, so I told my colleague that I’d pick it up since I’d be up anyway.

Didn’t fall asleep until after one in the morning.

Got up at 5:30, loaded my very light rolling cart and made it there a bit late, like ten after six.

The sheets weren’t ready. The guy didn’t know they were double sided before he started. I know for a fact he was told, but oh well. He had about 20 out of 55 done, and the poster and other one siders done, so I just took all of that and left. It would have taken another 20 minutes to finish the task, but with a flight to catch I couldn’t risk it. At least they didn’t charge us for the one siders and a tube to hold the poster.

Pick up my boss. She’s ready on time, which is good. She doesn’t like the poster holder, so we leave that behind. Make it to the airport on time but spend ten minutes looking for a parking space.

We go the wrong way in the airport. It was the old terminal, and I thought that all airlines run out of A&B, and forgot about C (reminds me of my old horrid multiple choice biology tests in high school).

Get to our terminal and discover that 8 AM, the time listed on the ticket, is when they start boarding, not when the flight leaves, as all other airlines list. So we had an extra 45 minutes. I could have slept later. I could have gotten all the printouts.

Make it to DC with no problems, but Hertz doesn’t have any cars available. “We have a reservations.” “I’m sorry sir, that doesn’t matter.” “Do you know what the word reservation means?”

They are about to give us a van when someone drops off a car so we take that and we are on our way to TATRC.

This is when I discover that the directions they give, while they look complete, stink. They say things like: take 395 to George Washington Parkway. Um, 395 north or south? GWP north or south? Or east?

That is how we ended up lost and going out of our way. Added about 45 minutes to the drive, though we got in early enough that it probably wouldn’t matter. The map from the rental agency helped. The directions were still bad though: look for and follow Rockport exits. Um, okay, but we never exit at Rockport, and in fact we have to drive twenty miles beyond that.

The town where the base is has one interesting feature. For a while, it seemed that the best restaurant they had was a McDonalds. Seriously. And that is if you rate Taco Bell below it.

Since we had two hours until the meeting, I just drive around randomly and we find a nice little diner. This was one of the fortunate things that happened. This diner rocked. They had a great crab and chicken sandwich, with Thousand Island dressing and provolone on toasted bread that was just yummy.

During lunch is when we saw the note that we’d need two picture IDs to get on base. This was the first I heard about it, so I hoped that was just an old regulation.

We got to the military base and went to the visitor’s area, where nice men in army fatigues holding machine guns asked to see my driver’s license and to open the trunk. They were very formal and gruff until they saw my license photo where I have long hair, classes, and a very ugly expression.

“What the hell happened to you, sir?” He started laughing, showed it to his partner, who I think is going to put it on their web site of top ten stupid photo IDs.

“I’m a Ph.D.”

“Oh, of course. Go right on in.”

So much for two IDs.

There is construction, so we have to detour around to get to the building. We are early but it is nice to wait on the couch in the air conditioning.

The couch was really comfortable. And soft. I closed my eyes for a minute, and opened them a half hour later just as our COTR (the government guy who runs our contract) walked in to get us for our meeting. At least I wake up quickly.

One great thing about trips that have annoying little things going on is that the meetings usually go well, and this was no exception. It was a very good meeting, and my boss and I work very well together. One of the doctors there recognized me from my picture in the MIT Technology Review magazine, which helped break the ice in a wonderful way.

The bad news came at the end. We were strongly encouraged to go to a medical conference which is a week long, and takes place at the exact same time as Pennsic (the second full week). Figures.

We stick around an extra hour to talk to one of our competitors about teaming up. That was an interesting conversation, in the same way it is scary to live in interesting times. We agree to talk more, and I get the feeling we will work together, though there are hoops to jump through.

So by this time it is 5:30 PM and we get back on the main highways to speed on back to the airport to drop the car off. The trip out took an hour, including driving 20 minutes out of our way. The drive back took two hours because of the traffic.

At least I didn’t get lost.

Another nice thing happened that night. We stayed at the Cosmos Club, and since my boss knows everyone there, I go to meet some extremely nice elderly people who had wonderful stories. Apparently, their daughter is also in the SCA and runs the world science fiction conventions. Small world.

I think I listened to them talk for an hour. It was a great way to spend the evening.

The next morning I discover that I’m the only person in D.C. who can’t hail a cap. I give up and take the Metro. As it is only 97 degrees outside, being in a suit is no big deal. People like standing next to puddles of sweaty flesh.

But hey, getting a low of walking in is good for me. Especially since my boss had me carry the posters back home with me. It was less than ten pounds, but it was in this big bulky Fed Ex box. If I were thinking clearly I would have shipped it home. If I were really thinking clearly I would have realized she would need it next week (because her meeting on Thursday was postponed) and should just leave it at the Club anyway.

I make it to my flight, though I’m late. Aside from getting a drink spilled on me, it was uneventful.

And now I’m at home, and find out that my acting partner is dropping the class.

I’m thinking about going to bed now.

(From a conversation with a friend, and from watching the movie too much...)

Spidermen, Spidermen, does whatever a Rabbi can.
Performs a bris, any size,
blesses bread, and some wine, oye veh!
There goes the Spidermen.

Is he a mensch,
lissen boychick
he's not just some
kind of nudnick
Oy veh, he's Schmuel Spidermensch.

In the chill of the night, at the solemn prayer service, when the minyon is one light, he arrives, just in time!

Lady : "Oy, Spidermensch! Look ovah theah. It's my son, the doctah Octapus!"
SpiderMen: "So, something evil he's doing now, nu?"
Lady: "No, I just tell everybody that he's a doctah!"
Doc Oc: Oye! Again with the Doctah!
Lady: And why did you have to change your name to Octapus? What was wrong with Octapusgoldbergersteinowitzinski?
Aunt May: Why do you have to get hung up on that shikse Mary Jane? Can't you find a nice Jewish girl?

I had a follow up visit with my surgeon today. I told him about the discomfort growing my groin area, how I scratched off everything down to my bones, and that I’m sleeping a ton.

He said I’m fine. He looked at all the scars, and then did the wonder probing of the groin that was not at all comfortable, but no where near what I suppose women go through with mammograms. He probed, I turned my head and coughed.

“It is healing wonderfully.”

He then drew me a graph, which made me very happy, being a math geek and all. During the first week, he explained, not much healing happens in the area. But starting that second week, tons of healing occurs, which explains why I am tired all the time.

Also, my nerves are coming back online, so I’ll start feeling some discomfort.

How long until the healing process is over? Six weeks.

Ah well. I feel like I’m over the hurdle and that every day I’ll get better. Still, I’m looking forward to four weeks from now. That is when I can begin lifting more than ten pounds. The freedom will be quite nice.

It is late. Very late.

So late that Family Ties is on TV Land right now (with a very young Tom Hanks guest staring as someone with a drinking problem).

I’m exhausted, but not really ready to sleep yet. I had a wonderful time at my Second City class. See the link to the left – my first acting class!

I’m in an odd mood, with a variety of thoughts going through my very tired brain.

I like the students in the class. Topher, the teacher, made me laugh when he said, “I’m 32, the oldest one here by far!” I corrected him with my additional five years. I’m so old.

Half of us went out for a snack (that would be six). Three of them use drugs, two actively. I’m very impressed with the one who doesn’t anymore. He actually went cold turkey and has been free for several years. That takes a lot of strength and determination, and he deserves a lot of credit for that.

The class has such a different background from me, more so than my other classes. The academic one is just … odd. In my group, most people I know have a bachelor’s degree, so it surprises me when I’m in the minority. Oh, having a degree isn’t important. It is just odd, for me, and the path my life too. It would be as if I suddenly found myself in a room full of auto mechanics.

I feel blessed because of this. It is tough to get involved with different group to get different points of view, perspectives, backgrounds, and histories.

Nice, I just used four words for two concepts. I am tired.

Man. Happy Days was a stupid show.

My hernia area is starting to hurt again. I’m hoping that just means I’m getting feeling back there again, and that isn’t serious. I’m not longer itching, and can sneeze with only a tiny bit of pain. I see the doctor tomorrow at 10:45, which means I can sleep late, which is why I’m up right now babbling at all of you.

Two more of my friends are having SCA problems. I sometimes feel I’m running out of people to play with.

Work is still stressful. Deadlines galore that never end. I keep thinking I see when it will get easier, but one can’t get ahead when fighting the hydra of fire drills.

Speaking of work, I get to fly into DC next Tuesday for a one hour meeting. Because of airline costs, I have to stay overnight. So, now I get to figure out how to travel without carrying more than 10 pounds. I won’t bring my computer. Or a suitcase. Or, apparently, a change of clothes. Hmmmm. Perhaps I should put some thought into this later.

I adore my wife.

I’ve come to depend a lot on her. I know she loves me, cares for me, and would do anything for me. But it recently occurred to me that she does something else. Something I didn’t realize I needed.

She watches my back.

I’m the luckiest man in the world.

My friend Alison, the wonderful pregnant woman who watched Marcus while Elaine was away and I was under Doctor’s orders not to lift anything heavier than a 10 pound bag of feathers, had an exciting and then extremely boring holiday weekend.

Her water broke. At least six weeks early.

She was looking forward to having the whole summer off from teaching, hanging out with friends, going swimming, and visiting her Canadian homeland and attending the Windsor Ballet.

But not anymore.

Now she’s stuck at Sparrow Hospital (email me if you want more info) until the baby is born. She can’t leave due to the risk of infection. She’s fine. The baby is fine.

She has nothing to do all day but stay in bed and relax.

This is a situation people think they want, but the reality is quite the opposite.

She’s bored out of her skull.

Alison’s not a huge television watcher, and although she has tons of books, even Elaine wouldn’t want to read non-stop for days on end.

I brought her some knitting stuff. She doesn’t know how (well, she learned many many years ago, but has forgotten), but I think that with all that time she’ll learn! She was happy. It gives her something to do and she did want to know that skill.

Obviously, her baby shower is cancelled. We’ll figure out something later.

Hopefully she won’t give birth for another three weeks. Then any time after that is cool, although if birth happened now the baby would be fine.

Until then, she’d love lots of visitors, phone calls, and more yarn!

Alison stuck in the hospital, putting on a happy face for the paparazzi.

My country tis of thee,
“Terrorists’ Best Friends are The Radical Liberals” – American Daily, OH

Sweet land of liberty,
“Iraq prison abuse reported as early as November, soldiers say.” – Atlanta Journal Constitution

Of thee I sing.
“Cheney Unapologetic for Curse at Senator.” - Fox News

Land where my fathers died!
“Army prepares to activate at least 5,600 troops from Individual Ready Reserves.” - Stars and Stripes

Land of the Pilgrim's pride!
“New Halliburton waste alleged.” - MSNBC

From every mountain side,
“Bush Environmental Policies Endanger Homeland Security.” - U.S. Newswire

Let freedom ring!
“US admits rise in terror attacks.” - BBC News

[Guest entry from my wife!]

I recently traveled to Texas, a state I've never been to before, to teach dance at the Ansteorran Music and Dance Symposium and to visit Michelle. I got free flights with my frequent flyer miles - Yay! I flew out Thursday afternoon.

I suffered a little bit of anxiety with my flights, because I had a 40 minute layover in Memphis, and my flight from Detroit was delayed. They started boarding at 20 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave, and then stopped boarding (for no stated reason) until the scheduled departure time. Thankfully, I got to Memphis 20 minutes before my next flight's scheduled departure time, and, as it turned out, they hadn't even started boarding yet!

Michelle picked me up at the airport and we went to a great Mexican place for dinner. I had a combo plate with 3 kinds of enchiladas (cheese, beef and chicken). Yum! As Michelle said, there are a lot of Mexican restaurants down there, and bad ones don't last very long :)

We then went to NASA to watch an EVA scheduled for that evening. Unfortunately, we got there just in time to hear that it was scrubbed. It was still fun to be there when it officially was cancelled, but somehow not quite the same as seeing the real thing.

It was pretty nice outside, so we went for ice cream (actually more like frozen custard) and then went walking on Kemah Boardwalk. A walk felt good after all that food :) Then we headed back to Michelle's place. She has a really nice apartment, with a gorgeous garden bathtub with marbelized porcelain and hot tub jets. She says that those are much more common down there for some reason.

The next morning, after hitting an IHOP for breakfast, I got my special tour of NASA, getting to go into all the cool places Michelle had access to. Got to sit at an old mission control station, see the training modules, see new mission control, etc. It was super cool :) It was fun to actually get to go into places that most people just get to see from the catwalks!

We went to a Viatnamese place that Michelle recommended for lunch, and had yummy beef with rice. Then we hit the road for Arlington. Ran into lots and lots of rain. Of every possible variety (light mist, buckets, huge drops that you could see coming right at you (yes, even the rain is big in Texas!), etc.) So my main impression of Texas was that it was very wet! Of course, better that than the triple digit temperatures I was expecting. We got to the house we were crashing at around 7pm.

Now, what Philip had said was that he was house sitting and we were going to stay at the house along with him, Elin, Lowrie, and the person Lowrie was traveling with. We got to the house and rang the bell, and the owners (known by neither of us) answered. "You must be the crashers!" they said. "Yes" we replied. Didn't seem appropriate to ask what they were doing there. We mentioned that we were happy to have found the right place while it was still light and that we still needed to head out for dinner.

They gave us a recommendation for a Texas barbecue place and directions. We couldn't find it and traffic was getting bad, so we ended up at a place called Madeleine's, which was actually very decent French food in a casual atmosphere with no waiting for a table (a very good thing on a Friday night). I didn't actually get the food I ordered, but I got my second choice (beef in a mushroom sauce), which was quite nice. From there I gave Philip a call. Turns out that the owners decided not to leave on their trip until Saturday morning and that we would be the only crashers that night. The house owners were very nice, and they were SCA people who were used to hosting crashers for events at the university, since they live so close.

I also mentioned to Philip that we had no idea how to get to the event. "Don't you have a kingdom newsletter?" he asked. Well, no! So he said he'd stop by the house later with a map. We went back to the house and hung out, and were just about to give up and go to bed at about the time Philip showed up (11pm local time). Found out that the event site opens at 8am and the first class is at 9am. Gasp! And we have trouble getting people to 10am classes! My first class was at 10am, so I promised to be there before then.

As it turned out, I woke up pretty early (that whole time difference thing), and we ended up at the event site by 8:30am. Philip hadn't mentioned that Michelle and I were comped due to my special guest status. That was a nice surprise :)

The event was fun. Bottled water was provided for all attendees (as many bottles as you wanted), which was nice. First class I went to was on improvisation in pavannes and galliards. Didn't learn too much, but enjoyed dancing around. Of course, the teacher grabbed me to demonstrate a galliard with, and that's soooo not my strength. Thank goodness for long skirts that hide my legs! ;)

My classes were next. Bella Gioiosa in the first period. La Castellana and Fiamma d'Amore in the second period. The classes went well. No brain freezes, and people seemed to like the dances. Yay, dancing!

Michelle and I grabbed lunch with a bunch of the local teachers, getting a ride with a very nice middle eastern dancer. We ended up at Cafe au France (I find it odd that the cuisine that I had the most in Texas was French!) for a nice light tasty lunch. And we picked up sweets to eat later in the afternoon.

Went to a class on a new version of Prendente in Giro (Saltarello II), that was designed to fit the music the way it is written rather than the Dead Can Dance version. It didn't work so well, unfortunately. There was a sequence where you were supposed to pass 5 people in 5 pive that was quite awkward. It was possible to either run and pass 5 people or to do 5 pive and pass 4 people, and people weren't consistent about what they did, with the result that it was kind of like musical chairs, where a couple dancers would end up booted out of the circle! Ah well - it was fun experiment, anyway.

Then I went to Philip's class to learn his reconstruction. That was a lot of fun. He needs to get the music recorded by a real group so that people will dance it :) Has lots of elements of Maraviglia d'Amore and Bella Gioiosa in it. And, of course, being Philip, he did extensive documentation on all the step sequences. I also enjoy his friendly and laid back teaching style. One of the things I like about traveling out of kingdom is picking up teaching techniques that work, and I felt I got some from him. Of course, one of the other things I like is that the students don't already know all the jokes I stick in while teaching dance!

Around this time, I was finally able to place a familiar face. Anne, one of the people I danced a lot with, was clearly someone I'd met before, but it took us awhile to figure out the connection - turns out she also camps with Starry Knights at Pennsic.

Lowrie's class was next. She taught Marchesana and Belreguardo. I knew the first, of course, but enjoyed learning the second. It's a cute dance, even if the contrapassi are really annoying to time to the music.

After that, we did some pickup dancing, and I actually got to dance Bella, instead of just teaching it :) Lowrie and I also did Maraviglia d'Amore, which was entertaining as we completely missed when we tried to high-five with left hands! Later, we did Allegrezza with a group that was practicing for a performance. And I taught Villanicco.

I was starting to feel in need of real food after this. Thankfully, they opened up the sideboard at the same time as they started court. That meant I didn't go to court, and, as it turns out, I would have been called up and gotten a token as a teacher had I been there. But there was the food! It was an impressive sideboard. Included roasted chicken and pork, hard boiled eggs, cheese, veggie tray with dips, relishes, fruit salad, crackers, bread, and cookies. I felt much better after the nourishment :) Sitting was nice too.

Then it was time for the ball, which was smallish, but fun. I realized that since I had only taken a few pictures during my NASA tour (with Michelle's camera, as I hadn't brought mine), I had almost a roll of film to use ue, so lots of pictures were taken. I danced most dances. None of what I taught was included, but that's because the locals didn't know them. Lowrie and I did Gracca Amorosa after the main ball was over. There was an odd Quen Quer Que - odd because we were dancing a few measures off to the music, which drove me a bit crazy. Still - lots of dancing, which was lots of fun.

Site closed at 11, so they were kicking people out by 10:30pm. There was post rev at the house we were crashing at. I stayed up and chatted with people until around 12:30, and then gave up (zombie that I was by then) and went to bed.

All in all a very fun time :)

My flights back were fine. Although I hadn't looked closely at my itinerary, which required me to check in with Delta Airlines, rather than NW. That meant trekking to another building from where Michelle dropped me off and then having to wait in a long line, since my NW card wouldn't work in the Delta self-serve kiosks. Grrr. It was a good thing I'd had a good breakfast (Michelle, Philip, Lowrie, Myfanway,and I all went to Madeleine's. I had a yummy ham and swiss cheese crepe, a bowl of fresh strawberries, and a chocolate croissant!)

One concern I had was that I realized that my car keys were nowhere to be found a couple days into my trip. So on the way to breakfast I called the airport parking lot where I had left my car. They said they had a set of Ford keys with a Varsity Ford keychain. I relievedly told them that that sounded like them :)

The first leg of my flight was in the tiniest jet I've ever been on - only 16 rows of 4 seats across (2 each side of the aisle). They did the collect your larger carryon items on a luggage cart thing, because the overhead compartments were decidedly not large. But at least this flight was on time :)

I had an hour and a half layover in Memphis this time, which allowed me to get some lunch. I was feeling a little bit of pregnancy related nausea, and the only place near my gate to eat was a barbeque place, so I didn't eat tons.

The last leg of my flight was the best. Ran into Malaika, who was returning home from a grandmother's 90th birthday party. Small world :) The flight was on time and not crowded (I had an empty seat next to me!)

I immediately caught a shuttle to where my car was parked, and found out that they keys they had were not, in fact, my keys. Doh! So I called home. Chuck wasn't feeling so hot, but thankfully both DeForest and Elizabeth were there. Elizabeth very kindly drove Chuck's set of keys out to me so I could get home. Thank you Elizabeth!

Homecoming was marvelous, of course. Marcus was so excited to see me! He ran over and hugged me, started jumping up and down and screaming with delight. Chuck was also very happy to see me, although not quite so loud and physical about it :)

Yay to visits with friends, dancing, and coming home!

I have a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering Systems. I’ve worked on computers since I was in Middle school. I’ve built imagine processing circuits, robots, and have two patents.

Yet it took me years to figure out that I have Video On Demand and how to use it.

Wow, what a treat digital cable is!

Sure, I knew that I could get television listings pretty easy using it. I also knew I could pay for some movies. What I didn’t know was that because I get HBO, I don’t have to watch it according to their programming. I can download anything that is on their schedule, anytime I want to, for free. I can pause, fast forward and rewind.

Incredible!! And the movie selection on the pay per view is pretty neat too, and only $4/movie, much less than Blockbuster, and I don’t to get off of my lazy butt to get it.

I hear that eventually the cable box will work just like a Tivo. I’m very much looking forward to that day, where I never have to get up and leave the house, and I can watch any show or movie I want, at any time, according to my whims.

Thanks to cable, I am a King.