29 March 2006

practicum hell

this week in practicum, dave drew a picture of me in hell. i'm beginning to think he has serious issues.

i was just sitting there, minding my own business, quietly doodling on my "sample interview questions" handout and attempting to ignore the babble of long-and-pointless-story girl. he decided that my drawings looked like flames (the red ink didn't help) and then drew me in them. we called it "laura in practicum". then we went to dinner, and he poured water on a girl in the trash line (she started it), and she threw her tray at him. literally. the floor was quite a mess. i've never seen the cafeteria break into spontaneous applause like that before. the reaction of me and joe : "and the state of pennsylvania is licensing him to teach the future of america."

27 March 2006

a good way to go out

a rollicking band of pirates we,
who tired of tossing on the sea,
are trying our hand at burglary,
with weapons grim and gory.



the musical was this past weekend, and it was amazing. i loved it more and more each time i saw it. i will admit that i was not impressed with it at all when i first heard the music. but actually seeing it performed on stage made a huge difference. especially once everybody learned their lines...and cues...and notes. i loved the boys. the pirates were wonderfully adorable, and the policemen were an absolute riot. derrick was amazing, particularly because he had the coolest pirate king coat in the history of the world. and chris was great as the major general (i give credit to the hat). and robbie...oh, robbie. what a character you are.

people say it's the best musical we've done in the four years we've been here. i find it impossible to pick a favorite show. each of them has it's own things that i love and hate about it. also, i can't separate the shows themselves from the experiences i had working on them. but pirates is definitely in the top five (along with school for scandal, jane eyre, much ado, and CT '05).

the costumes looked soooo good. i think it may be the best designing job i've done, though they were all hard in their own way. this time, the trick was in the details. if i ever figure out how to post pictures, i'll put some up here. we really ran it up to the wire this time. i officially finished costume work two minutes before the show opened, when i was chasing pirates down with a flashlight on the set, to give them necklaces with spray-painted gold beads. this was the show of the metallic gold spray-paint. we went after any button we thought would look interesting gold (and many that we knew wouldn't). from a distance, they looked just like normal gold buttons. we were able to get rid of so many hideous ones. i only wish we had figured this trick out before i cannibalized all the vintage british navy peacoats for much ado.

during the run i did makeup. i love makeup, because i always end up with specific interesting jobs to do, and don't get stuck slapping pancake makeup on a million people. this time, my jobs consisted of: spending half an hour sewing beads and gold buttons into pat's hair ("i have gold encrusted hair") which we decided were buttons from all the policemen he has slain, similar to the way indians carried scalps around on their belts; coralling all of dale's hair under his hat - no small feat, it took two rubber bands, many bobby pins, and copious amounts of hair spray - the boys needs a haircut; and getting steve to sit still long enough to get eyeliner put on. i always end up the one forcing boys into eyeliner. it goes back to rusty during west side freshman year, whose eye would twitch so much i had to pin him against the mirror to get it on him. i also spent time getting sharpie marker tattoos from chris. by saturday night, i had flames, a skull'n'crossbones w/ bandanna, and two daggers dripping blood across my whole upper arm. we, as a group, decided that i can't really pull off a tattoo.

it was so weird on saturday, standing backstage and knowing that i was getting ready to close my last mainstage musical. and my last time designing costumes. i often have these huge dreams of doing costumes professionally, but deep down i know it will never happen. earlier that day, i had been looking at the pins on my keys, and thinking back on all the shows i've done, and trying to remember all the people and memories from each of them. it doesn't seem like four years. it seems like maybe one. my college career has flown by. i remember being a freshman, and working in the costume shop, and being very nervous at the tech meeting, and then i blinked, and here i am in my last semester, surrounded by almost completely different people, having become one of those people who is giving a speech. i can't imagine what it's going to be like when i actually finish up my last show.

but, all things considered, this was a good show for my final set of costumes. they were fun, they weren't ridiculously hard, and i actually got to use color. and it was a great group of people to work with. even though it was crazy, i didn't sleep, and i was way too stressed out, i don't regret doing it for one minute. now i just wish i would stop meeting all these cool people two months before graduation.

26 March 2006

music of the moment

with cat-like tread,
upon our prey we steal,
in silence dread,
our cautious way we feel.
no sound at all,
we never speak a word,
a fly's foot-fall would be distinctly heard.

come, friends who plough the sea,
truce to navigation,
take another station.
let's vary piracy,
with a little burglary.

21 March 2006

contemplating my life while doodling

today dave told me i'm bitter. i'm beginning to think that he's right.


granted, this conversation occured via notes scribbled on my "correct job interview strategies" handout, while sitting through practicum and waiting impatiently for one particular long-winded person to stop sharing her standard group of pointless questions and off-topic stories, so maybe i should take the validity of the statement with a grain of salt. well, that, plus the fact that this scribbling also involved him drawing a star, a small man with a bow tie, and a basketball hoop on my paper. (the hoop was to illustrate my lack of athletic talent and inability to coach middle school girls basketball.)

19 March 2006

future children

recently the suite has been amusing its collective self (minus jenny) with projections on the personalities of our future children. they are as follows:

rachel - rachel's first born child will be miles-kimball. miles-kimball will attend georgetown preparatory academy (where all students must wear charcoal trousers and be well-groomed), speak with a simultaneous lisp and stutter, suffer from a severe wheat allergy, and is plaugued by extreme asthma attacks triggered by things which he finds frightening. he has a tendency to strike out at t-ball, wears suspenders with a belt, and dreams of the day when he can join the high school chess team. he hopes to pursue a career in chemical engineering, but his mother insists he will attend an ivy league institution where he will receive a strong liberal arts education.

megan - megan will be the mother of carter. carter strongly resembles a member of a boy band of the late-90s variety, complete with spiky hair, blonde highlights, too-tight jeans, flip flops, and a shell necklace. he will never set foot out of the house without at least one article of clothing from abercrombie & fitch (which, his mother informs us, will not be purchased by her). he has aspirations of breaking into the pop industry, and spends his time singing karaoke, practicing with his "band" in the basement, and attempting to land modeling jobs. carter's behavior is not condoned by miles-kimball.

laura - laura will have a set of fraternal twins, jackson and beauregard. the boys will be avid civil war reenactors, being members of a cavalry unit known for its extreme historical accuracy in uniforms and weapons. jackson, the more studious of the two, spends his free time researching the history of georgia, models himself after true southern gentlemen, and gets very annoyed when his brother tries to call him "jack". beau, on the other hand, prefers to spend his time hunting and skeet shooting, and has a slight obsession with the dukes of hazzard. beau once got in trouble for bringing a bb gun to the 2nd grade. beau frightens miles-kimball.

18 March 2006

st. patrick's day pet peeve

i may very well receive nasty comments about this, but it really bugs me when people refer to st. patrick's day as "st. patty's day". "patty" is either your great-aunt who owns 15 cats and crochets pot holders or a form of processed chicken. "paddy" is the irish nickname for patrick. so it should be called "st. paddy's day". i don't know why this bothers me. it does. various assorted articles in the collegian kept talking about "st. patty's day", and it just annoyed me.

speaking of the collegian, each issue is starting to irritate me more than the last. i don't know if it's a combination of poor writing, poor editing, imbicilic grovers, or the lovely editorials by annyoing female engineer extraordinaire, but there is always something i can get riled up about. (for example, a few weeks ago there was a letter to the editor where some dumbass tried to make it sound like dr. tilford was some psycho lunatic who wants to nuke the world, and that he doesn't really know what's going on the middle east. regardless of your opinions of earl the bomber, there is no debate that the man knows about war. sorry ted, but i'm think i'm going to have to trust the opinion of a 20 year career officer who works for the war college. there is just the slightest chance that maybe he knows more about this than you.)

today's issue was no exception. on top of a letter to the editor by yet another idiot against dr. tilford, the standard article by dumb chauvenist boy, and yet another editorial gem by the one and only L.A., there was the blatant factual mishap screaming at me from the page. attention everyone: there is no such thing as "Southern Ireland"!!! you do not refer to them as "Northern Ireland" and "Southern Ireland" like you would North and South Dakota. They are Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (or just Ireland). sheesh.

ok, enough whining. things that made me happy today:
- the policemen, particularly the ones who wanted to bring us lunch tomorrow while we're working in the costume shop
- talking to the one and only caitlin
- spray painting buttons
- clean sheets
- hearing from my sister
- showing off the golden chili pepper shimmy dress
- a co-op who gives me food because she knows how awful college food is
- hearing that all three classes of freshmen were paying attention to what i was saying

16 March 2006

growl

tonight's rehearsal was frustrating. extremely frustrating. i just wanted to scream, "people! we know your costumes aren't finished! we are not stupid! they will be done. trust me, i have been costuming for a very long time and i know what i'm doing. so stop complaining." it really got me kind of depressed, because marie, lindsey, meagan and i have been working our butts off the past two months to get these costumes made and ready and the first night it's like all we hear are problems and people saying they don't like things. they aren't done! it was the first dress rehearsal. it makes me question why we work so hard in the first place. at least there were a few people who liked their costumes. favorites right now: aitken, pat, robbie, darin, and the policemen.

i think i need to get more sleep.

15 March 2006

pirates sans pants

if you say "pirates sans pants" fast, it kinda sounds like "pirates of penzance". and, finally, it no longer applies to our play.

tonight i created the loudest and ugliest pair of pants i've ever made. doug christened them the "sultan pants". and wanted to know why he doesn't get to wear them. i told him it's because he in no way resembles mr. smee. and i reminded him that he gets to wear the minstrel shirt with what he refers to as the "albatross sleeves" (because their large size is about enough to get him airborne) and he decided he was happy. this conversation happened while he was leaping through the lobby a la mikhail baryshnikov, and attempting to jump and hit the light fixture at the top of the twelve foot doorway. (the scary thing being that he managed to do it. the boy is a human pogo stick.) we also figured out how to make tshirts. this was accomplished by marie stomping out on stage, saying "pat, give me your shirt...yes, the one you're wearing...don't look at me like that", and stomping back into the costume shop and tracing it. and here i was thinking that we needed a pattern.

can i just say that i love production week(s). it's crazy, it's hectic, i don't get sleep, and i'm kind of a bitch half the time (my apologies to my friends, suitemates, and mother), but it's the most fun i have at college. and i adore this cast. the guys are amazingly entertaining, even if they do invade my costume shop in large bunches. it further solidifies in my mind that this is what i want to do for the rest of my life. i can't think of anything else i would want to spend all day doing. it's why i'm designing and student teaching at the same time. it's also why i can't think of graduation without wanting to cry. i would be miserable without the theatre and the people in it. if i could get a professional costuming job, i would never work another day in my life. it would be like getting paid to play.

13 March 2006

question of the day

is there life after graduation?

suite 213: slightly dysfunctional and ok with that

laura: "i'm going to name my oldest son jackson alexander."
rachel: "sounds like he should be wearing a plume and be on a horse."

after muttering random spanish gibberish:
rachel: "what did i just say?"
megan: "good morning, skyscrapers."

we are not normal.






yeah...still not motivated.

12 March 2006

moment of annoyance

my lack of motivation is really starting to get to me. it's like i'm completely incapable of focusing. i think this has a lot to do with the fact that i am getting observed in psychology tomorrow, and i am avoiding having to come up with all the creative junk to put in my lesson. it will be nice when i start teaching world war two on friday. it does make me a little nervous, though, because apparently my status as a world war two "expert" (as it were) has gotten around the school, because the teacher of the self-contained special education classroom wants me to come talk about the war to her kids, too. kinda weird. hopefully i can live up to everybody's expectations.

09 March 2006

highlight

highlight of the day:

the pirates without pants song and dance number.


(as performed by doug and pat.)






it's the little things in life, really...

07 March 2006

no more

someone. shoot me. now.

06 March 2006

edited life goal

due to the fact that, as jess so kindly pointed out, ewan mcgregor is already married, i have decided that my new life goal is to marry paul walker.

the rest of "break". hmm...

had to go to school on friday, but it happened to be red cross blood drive day, so all of my seniors were wandering in and out randomly throughout the day. i never had more than half of them at a time in any class. so i just pushed my lesson off until monday, had each class answer a few review questions from the chapter, then sat around for the rest of the period talking and making sure nobody passed out from blood loss. ("heather?...heather?...is she breathing?...no, don't jab her with a pencil...") it was great. the only variation was 11th period when chad decided he wanted to watch the last of the mohicans, therefore everybody else had to, too. never mind that the last of the mohicans has nothing to do with psychology. then again, neither does half of what we talk about in that class. this is what happens when you student teach a subject you've never actually taken.

friday night we, we being becky, hannah, ryan, meagan, and myself, decided to watch whatever movie was being shown for free in the tlc. it happened to be into the blue. this was an astoundingly bad movie. so bad, in fact, that it was amazing. they managed to take every cliche and cram them into one movie: buried treasure, lost pirate ships, shark attacks, crack ho girlfriends who are going to blow the cover, plane crashes, sunken wrecks, drug lords, evil rivals who take your territory and destroy the environment in the process, corrupt policemen, etc, etc, etc. we managed to predict every plot twist ("oh, yeah, i know what's going to happen: the shark will eat the stupid girlfriend, and the evil rival will blow up the drug lords"...ten minutes later..."damn. i didn't think they'd actually do it.") the only redeeming feature of the movie was that it featured paul walker half-naked the whole time.

in closing, i wish i had the self-discipline to get more sleep

02 March 2006

note on the bathroom mirror

Dear Laura,

Please feed me one pinch of food, once a day.

Love,
Marsiglio of Padua

P.S. I've already eaten today.








i'm going to miss this next year.

so, yeah, it's break and i have the suite to myself. (hence, i'm responsible for keeping my aquatic neighbor alive.) i love being here by myself on the short breaks. this is the one thing i'm definitely looking forward to about graduation: living by myself. being able to throw my stuff on the floor anywhere i want and not having to worry about getting in somebody else's way.

this joy about being alone was increased exponentially by the fact that school was cancelled today!! this is the benefit of student teaching in the middle of nowhere - they are more likely to call off school because of bad weather. some of my friends didn't even have 2 hour delays. that isn't fun. i'm really glad we didn't go, if for no other reason than i was really scared about driving on the ice. that wreck last week really shook me up about driving in snow.

oh yeah. so i got in a car wreck last week. everybody is ok, and fortunately it wasn't my car, but it was quite scary at the time. we were on our way to school and it had snowed real quickly, so the roads got very slushy without warning. we came around a curve and suddenly the cars in front of us had slowed down about 20mph because of a wreck up ahead. j.j. slammed on the breaks and the car started to skid. she tried to recover, but it didn't work. we slid off the road at about 60mph, spun a little on the side of the road, hit a ditch, bounced off in the other direction (the cop said we were airborne), crunched into a guard rail, and then slid up another 50ish feet along the side of the guard rail. i've never seen a rear tire pop off a car sideways, but somehow we managed to do it. it was probably only 10-15 seconds at the most, but it seemed so much longer at the time. i kept bracing myself, waiting for the car to flip over, i was so sure it was going to happen. the next day my right arm hurt because i was hanging on so hard. but everybody was fine, and the car is being fixed. it took the cop over an hour to get there, because there were a bunch of wrecks that morning. there were three others within a mile of us, and superior ambulance was called out for four roll-overs on I-80. the crazy thing was that i was completely calm and collected the whole time, until i called daddy from the side of the road. then i almost started crying. i don't know why, but that's what always happens during a crisis. i'm fine until i talk to him.

anyway, back to today. since i was already up anyway, i decided to take advantage of the day off as much as possible and didn't go back to sleep. i went to pew in the morning, and did some work while j.j. practiced. then i bummed a free lunch ticket off doc, and had lunch. the afternoon involved a fun costume work-session with meagan and lindsey. i worked on the pirate king coat. it is turning out pretty good, if i do say so myself. i'm even topstiching and using interfacing. caitlin would be proud. i was going to do work before dinner, but i slept. then i was going to do work after dinner, but i slept some more. probably a good thing considering how little i've gotten lately. i did get a little of the room cleaned up, but we decided to go to elephant and castle because kevin was hungry, so here i am at 11:00, and i haven't really done much school work today. but, my lessons for tomorrow are done. i'm going to write my two for monday and call it a day. i wish all of life was this relaxing.