Friday, April 06, 2001
Mmmm, Peking Duck. To celebrate an exhausting week well done we had dinner tonight at Golden Duck on Kirkwook and Bellaire in Houston, TX. Yummy!! I guess the chef is from Bejing and according to the photos he's served quite a few famous folks. So why is he cooking in a little hole in the wall in Houston? Who knows. We didn't get that story. What i can tell you is that everyone in the restaurant was having the duck. They slice it up at your table, so it's easy to spot and each table had their own. Ooh, boy was it good! We made the mistake of ordering more to go with it. Not necessary. For $22 two people can stuff themselves and the soup comes with it. Plus, they have some really cool fish tanks.
We met a long time patron of Poetry Alive! today. She seemed to know quite a bit of dirt about the history of the company. Hee hee. We gave our boss a bit of a hard time about it, but really she was super to us. In a strange kind of way it was like meeting a long lost relative who knows your family history and can appreciate you as a new generation carrying on the family values.
Speaking of great aunts, i have one who turns 90 next week. She's a wonderful person full of stories about her work in the peace corp and as a teacher. We are sooo almost close to the birthday celebration, but not enough to acutally get there that day. Hmm, it does look like we could stop in on our way from Bartlesville, OK to Grand Rapids, MI. I'll have to see about that...I can't remember how long it's been since i've seen her.
Let me see, what else is there? It's warm and muggy here, like a big warm damp blanket against my skin. It's kinda soothing in a way. The play we wanted to see is sold out, so we'll have to find something else to do tomorrow. Nothing else very exciting i guess. Ciro's busy online in his room and i've got the tv going in here to entertain me while i type. Another quiet night on the road, it's good to have the time to relax.~w
wendi's 11:02 PM ravings
Thursday, April 05, 2001
"Sometimes i wonder where i've been..."(some stray song floating through my head). It's been a very musical week in my head. Songs float in and camp out for a while only to be replace by another one. "Papa was a rolling stone..."(see there i go again). Or, "I want something else, to get me through this, semi-charmed kinda life..." Most are only fragments of songs that i sort of know, but i think it's a sign that my brain is happy.
Funny thing is, when i'm really happy it is harder for me to concentrate and write something. I think i'd rather be dancing around the room or something. Or maybe it's just that all the little things of the day that made me happy are hard to express. It's not like today was exceptionally different, it was just fun. It's one of those days when i really can say i love what i do.
The 4-6th graders we saw today at Windsong Elementary were extraordinary! Their enthusiasm was contagious and helped us to keep up our energy all day long. Some of them saw mulitiple shows and came prepared to add to the participation on poems like Jabberwocky. They were very funny.
Where to now, what next? More elementary kids tomorrow and then a weekend off in Houston. A new play is opening at the Alley Theatre. I think the director used to be the artistic director for the Seattle Rep. It looks to be an interesting show, we may try to catch it on Saturday if we can get half-price tickets on the day of show. We've seen two shows already at the Alley over the past 4 years and both of them were excellent. I especially liked Edward Albee's "The Play About the Baby" that we saw last year (meeting Mr. Albee after the show was an added treat).
wendi's 11:04 PM ravings
Wednesday, April 04, 2001
Hey, i feel better! My bones don't creak when i try to walk anymore!!
Spider poem from a 1st grader and swimming, and i saved a moth twice today. These are a few of my favorite things...
Ciro says it was a sulphur moth, or what inch worms turn into after they cocoon.
It was nearly drowned, but i washed it out of the pool.
It was nearly dinner for two lizards but i chased them off so at least he had a chance to catch his breathe and dry off from his swim.
The lizards were cute, but they didn't want to play with me.
The bulldog puppy recognizes me as the crazy lady he doesn't know who say hi to him every time we drive by.
We had all-you-can-eat sushi for dinner...hee hee!
I played music in my room and read a silly book.
I feel like i played all day even though we performed 3 times.
Silliness is good for the soul. Maybe ciro's right, maybe i am a goofball.~w
wendi's 11:45 PM ravings
It was a dizzy day. I had a hard time speaking in complete sentences and was all wound up in the wrong directions. The shows turned out okay i think. The contact person and the students seemed happy. I felt really out of it though. I kinda had a cross-eyed view of the world and my attention kept wandering. So, my solution was to get my butt over to a chiropracter. I'm sure he thought i was a total goof-ball, but he was very helpful. He unlocked my neck (which was beyond the point of headaches and just stiff) and almost fixed my mid-back. It's still pretty tight, but i feel like i can see straight at least. Yeah!! I'm going to try to get back to him to get another adjustment before we leave the area. I wish i could afford to go more often. I should figure that into a budget i suppose. Ack! Just to ferment the healing process ciro and i got sushi for dinner again. Mmm mmm good for the soul!
Ciro napped this afternoon which seemed to fix his scatter-brainedness and just left him silly. I like silly ciro, i just wish i had a tape recorder to catch all the goofy songs that he makes up. I'm not sure if it's because we're around kids all the time or maybe we've just never grown up, but there is always fun to be had when our inner children come out to play. I highly recommend it. For starters just take any song in your head and start changing the lyrics to something about what you're doing at the moment. Simple at first, but i find it opens the doors to dancing down the aisles of a store and letting your imagination turn the ordinary into the fantastic.~w
wendi's 12:07 AM ravings
Tuesday, April 03, 2001
I got to be super silly today with the k-3 students! When we'd finished the last show ciro and the librarian needed to talk a little business, but she had a class, so i played teacher for a few minutes...wheee!! She had been reading them a poem about a louth tooth. So, i finished that one and listened to their stories about losing teeth. Then i found a poem about a cat and we talked about cats, then a panther, then a dinosaur, and then i read them alligator stew. Some of the kids had eaten alligator (being rather close to the bayou country that didn't suprise me), but those who hadn't tried it thought it sounded really gross. The funniest thing was when they got ahead of themselves trying to tell me a story and they just kinda made sounds as they finished acting it out. The librarian had to shoo me out to get her class back since i was having so much fun. I think i could have a lot of fun being a children's librarian, but it would require going back to school...hmmm.
I swam today too, in a outdoor unheated pool. That's right it was 80 and humid here today, just barely warm enough for me to stand the cold water. It felt good though. I haven't been swimming for quite a while and last week it was raining and thundering and no good for swimming outside even though that pool was heated. Between swimming and sitting in the hot tub afterwards i felt like i totally pampered myself today. To top it off i plan to be asleep shortly and get enough sleep so that i can spring back into action tomorrow morning.
I seem to have run short of deep thoughts lately. Either i've used up my creative batteries for the day, or i need a muse, or maybe i just need a chiropracter to fix my back and increase the blood flow to my brain.~w
wendi's 12:20 AM ravings
Monday, April 02, 2001
We got mail today! The office forwarded mail to us at our current hotel and we each received a packet from Sister Mary Lou in Erie, PA. Included in each envelope were a thank you note for our work at the Neighborhood Art House and two news articles, one written by Sister Mary Lou in the Erie Times-News under the "My Inspiration" section. It made both ciro and me cry it was so beautiful. I couldn't get Erie Times-News' site to navigate properly to the local section, so here's a sample:
One more thing about "Poetry Alive!." It breaks my heart to see 9- and 10-year-olds acting way beyond their years. When their conversation is filled with sexual innuendo, when their mouths are foul and violent, when they swagger and take on a pseudo-sophistication, I can forget that these are only children. But to see these street-wise kids get excited about elementary school poems like "Mice" by Rose Flyman and "Sick" by Shel Silverstein and "Sometimes I Feel This Way" by John Ciardi ... to hear them giggle and play, is to rediscover innocence. Theirs and mine.
In her article she validates some of the hopes i have for the work that we do. We aren't the sole solution to the problems children are having with violence in their schools, but perhaps every once in a while we change a mind thereby changing a life. Or, at least we provide a piece of respite from the drudgery of the everyday. As we begin a new week working with elementary kids again i carry with me a renewed hope that each day the work i do can make a difference.
I'll leave with another quote from Sister Mary Lou's article:
What can you do about the shootings in Columbine, Santee, Williamsport?....Tithe your time: Give a few hours a week to volunteering at an after-school program. Children need mentors, a person who is interested in why they do or don't want to get up in the morning. ~w
wendi's 12:25 AM ravings
Sunday, April 01, 2001
We finally went to see Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon tonight! Wow! It was a beautiful movie. Sure there are fight scenes, but nothing like you see in most American films. There was very little blood, and no guts, but amazing finesse. Add to that a score that fits precisely the choreographed movements and it's more like watching a dance than a fight. In fact, looking through the credits, the women are dancers by training so i guess that makes sense. I don't see many movies in the theatre anymore, but this was well worth the money.
Other than that, i slept about 13 hours and did laundry. I guess i was tired. Now the question is, will i be able to get to sleep at a decent hour? We lose an hour tonight. I hate that. I can barely tell the difference in the light change most times and the shift always leaves me boggled. I suppose it's like crossing back into eastern time, but i haven't driven anywhere so that just doesn't make sense to my brain. I hope we don't start off next week with early morning shows or i'll be in deep trouble. Mornings still aren't my best time even though we do shows most days at hours when i would have been asleep given a choice. (note to self...must find a way to work later in the day when i'm more awake)~w
wendi's 1:08 AM ravings
|
|
|
help?
