Friday, May 18, 2001
Yeah, I'm Home!! More later...~w
wendi's 6:18 PM ravings
Thursday, May 17, 2001
Today we didn't get lost, we just had a hard time getting directions. Fortunately ciro kinda knew where he was going and we found a gas station nearby where someone could finish off the directions for us.
Before that all happened though we had oodles of fun with the students at Pickney Elementary on Fort Jackson. They were excellent audiences for all three shows and brought a ton of energy to the performance. The pre-K kids were adorable and surprised us in their ability to sit and listen and participate in a full length show. Granted we've performed for kids their age before, but never 150 of them at once. The older kids were both smart and goofy and they seemed to be having a blast. In our break between shows we also got to wander the halls and read the student poetry still posted around the school for their literary fair. There were some very powerful pieces and well as the silly and fun ones.
This is post-posted because we can't get online tonight. The phone lines at this hotel are all messed up with some new system that is too staticky to maintain a connection. I feel cut off, but fortunately i did some online searching at the school during a break earlier today so i could finish booking hotels without going online for directions, drive times, and nearby hotels for where we will stop on our 20 hour drive next week.~w
wendi's 6:16 PM ravings
Wednesday, May 16, 2001
We got lost again today. We've been to this school before and forgot it was on the base here in Columbia. It's not mentioned in the address and Yahoo maps was telling us the wrong road. Our contact person's line was busy, but fortunately we found an ambulance at the gas station. They had better maps than we did. It's good to know that even if yahoo can't tell you the directions, an ambulance can find where you are. It's also good that we always drive to the school the night before the show so that a mix up like this doesn't ever impact the show itself. In the morning we now know exactly where to go.
The shows themselves went well today even though ciro whispered to me before the last one that he wasn't feeling well. I think the principal heard him, because i saw a glimpse of panic on his face, but the kids loved us and he was ecstatic afterwards. Ciro's in pain though, he thinks he pulled a muscle or something. The thing about this job is that no matter how bad you feel, the show must go on. There are no understudies on the road with us and no sick days. One year ciro spent over a month doing shows on feet racked by a staph infection. He was miserable, but the shows never suffered for it. The worst i've had to deal with is the flu and dizziness, but never the kind of pain that ciro seems to have to endure. I wonder what the world would be like if everyone could put as much passion into their work as he does.
We finished the second book and have to go buy The Amber Spyglass now. Talk about cliffhanger...it's just not fair. I didn't know what i was getting into when i started reading these books and now i need to know how it's all going to turn out. Things got really bad at the end of this book and i can only hope that they get better from here, but i won't know until we read the next book.~
wendi's 11:18 PM ravings
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
We were going to leave at 9am this morning, but that didn't happen. Around 9:45 we finally left the hotel due to slow-poking. No problem, lots of day ahead of us still. Then we got directions to a post office so ciro could mail something priority. The directions led us to a mail box service place that charges you $2.00 more for priority mail so you can drop it in their drop box that the post office picks up at 4:30pm. Why? Who knows, but rather than feeling ripped off he asked for the nearest post office. The directions were confusing, but a kind Sheriff lady set us on the right track. Finally at about 10:45am we're on our way out of town.
The drive goes smoothly until we see a Prime Outlets sign. We could use gas and a bathroom and decide to stop. Of course we end up looking at stuff. We don't know what time we stopped, but it was 3:15pm by the time we're back on the highway. I think we fell into a big time hole there. Ciro talked himself out of shoes by getting distracted by sandals, i wasn't so lucky and in addition to the cheap pair of black pants that i needed i ended up with a dress and capri pants and a couple of tank tops (all on sale) for summer. Yikes! What a good american consumer i was today. I gotta be careful of that. Anyway, back on the road we suddenly realize that we're a lot farther from Fayetteville, NC than we wanted to be.
We did finally check in at about 8:30pm, but argued with the hotel clerk over the rate we were being charged. I had an email confirming one rate, she had a different rate in her computer. She said she couldn't make the computer give us the rate that it had confirmed. What? It's only a $6 difference, but it seems very strange. I hand wrote the rate on the paper i signed and we'll deal with a manager in the morning. Then i asked for directions to the main highway getting us to our school in the morning. She told us. We dumped our luggage off and went the find the school and food. I should have listened to her at all. She sent us in the opposite direction we wanted to go. Add to that the fact that the contact person gave us an exit that doesn't exist and we spent over an hour looking for a school 10 minutes from our hotel. Urgh!
Very grumpy we stopped into Charlie's restaurant to get a black & blue ceasar for dinner and find out they are out of lettuce. Offered no alternative we leave and go across the parking lot to a Logan's Roadhouse that does have lettuce and can make basically the same kind of salad. Plus, it was cheaper to boot. I'll remember that the next time...
At 10:30pm i make it into my hotel room and unpack. I jump in the shower and find it freezing cold. Wet i decided to stick it out, because after a day like this i just want to go to bed and hope tomorrow is smoother.~w
wendi's 11:45 PM ravings
Monday, May 14, 2001
Shows done we have moved on toward North Carolina, but only a few hours down the road so we're still in Florida. Reading in the car. Working on contact info for next week. I'm feeling mush brained.
I learned how to sign "dance," "sing," and "play" today during our show cuz i could actually see the interpreter as ciro was showing the kids what to do when we said those words in the poem. Which leads me to a frustration i realized today. You'd think after 4 years working with a fluent spanish speaker i could have picked up a little more of the language. I keep thinking it would be good to learn spanish, but i can't seem to get myself motivated to really work on it. What's up with that? Maybe i'm becoming lazy in my old age. ha!
Not much else to speak of since i'm drowning my lousy brain power in silly tv even as i write this. blerg. ~w
wendi's 9:32 PM ravings
Sunday, May 13, 2001
We drove 9 hours today. It felt like we went through a time warp. I hardly remember sitting in the car. We finished The Golden Compass and have moved on to The Subtle Knife. It's quite fun. Perhaps somehow in reading the book we slipped into another world where time moved differently for us (we did cross into central time and will be here for only 24 hours if that isn't confusing enough). Ciro just drove and listened. We only stopped twice, once for cash for the tolls and a bathroom and once for gas. I guess after last weekend it seemed like a short drive.
I can't complain about where we ended up though. Ft. Walton beach was bright and sunny as we arrived. We had dinner at the Crab shack looking over the water while muching on a yummy pile of steamed clams, oysters, shrimp, crab, mussels, and crawfish. Mmmmmh. We could have done without the offkey singer on the deck, but nothing is perfect i guess.
Tomorrow we play with elementary kids early, so i'd better get to sleep.~w
wendi's 11:28 PM ravings
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