The teacher's show last night was fabulous! They even got a standing ovation from the audience! Glenis Redmond and The Dead Poets topped of the evening in style and over all, i think it was the best teacher residency show i've seen. There were 18 women at this past week's residency and they ranged in age from 17 to 73. The poetry they chose for the show varied from Grasshopper Gumbo to Margaret Atwood's Half Hanged Mary. Their creative ideas for staging these poems were both touching and outrageous. I really enjoyed working with them this week!

Today is my day of rest before the craziness starts again tomorrow when i shuttle people to and from the airport. So, the clothes are in the wash and my grocery list is made and once those things are done i'm going to sit around like a lump on a log.~w

Well, i got some of the tweaking things fixed. I noticed that the mac version of netscape likes this template even less that the old one (which it didn't like well either). If you're using i mac i highly recommend viewing this journal with explorer, it looks a whole lot better.

Last night was dinner out with the teachers. They wrote a magnificent poem a line at a time. I had a great time chatting with them and stuffing myself with wonderful food at the same time. Free food in the dorms where they're staying is cool, but free dinner out with this group was heaven. Tonight we see how well Allan trained them to get their "butterflies flying in formation" as he put it. They perform their show tonight for a paying audience along with the lovely local poet Glenis Redmond and the rockin' band The Dead Poets. I know i'm going to have a great time! But then, i'm not the one performing. I was asked to to a two voice poem that Allan wrote in the open mike portion of the evening which will be a fun diversion. I haven't worked with friends like that in a while.

Anyway, there are many things to do today before i get to the part when i can just sit back and watch the show.~w

Ooooh, the new blog templates are available. Most of them are pretty dang cool. I toyed with one this morning. A couple of things i tried to customize are working a little goofy though and now the servers too busy to fix them. i'll have to do that later.

Today is dinner out with the residency folks. Yeah, i finally get to do something fun with them after schlepping all week. I did stop when asked to help some teachers untangle the knots of their blocking. That was certainly fun, even if it did mean i got home late and was running through fast food for dinner rather than taking more time to go grocery shopping when i was hungry.

I must say that considering the day i was having the guy at the Checkers window made my day. I got in line, ordered my food, drove forward and discovered that i only had a buck in my wallet. Of course they don't take checks or anything. However, the guy gave me the food anyway and told me to just come back when i had cash. I was so grateful i rushed over to the back while munching my fries and got the cash to take back to them. The kicker is, i hadn't realized how late it was, but they were closing up when i got back to give them the money. So had it not been for the nice guy, i wouldn't have made it in time to get food. Whew!~w

I think it was the day before yesterday, but i'm not sure, i saw the sun glowing orange through the mist in this kind of slow motion sunset that lasted a couple of hours.

I feel like i'm on fast forward while the world around me is slowing down and i still can't get caught up with myself. I'm not sure why, but i feel this time pressure to get things done and i don't even know what the deadline is. I suppose it could all be avoidance of putting together my feature set of poetry for the show on the 27th where i've been asked to do my own poetry. That means rereading the old stuff and rememorizing it or writing new stuff and memorizing it and it's a week and 2 days away. Yeah, maybe that's part of my stress.

Today i will type and type and type and then get my back worked on at the end of the day to fix it from sitting in a car and typing.~w

It's a misty slow dawn kinda morning and i feel like my head is the same way. There is too much to do in the day and my brain is starting to slip when it comes to keeping everything on track. This morning i have an extra drive across town to pick up something i forgot last night. But hey, i was working until 11pm trying to get everything sorted out, so i suppose that's to be expected. At that point i was more concerned about getting something to eat than exchanging keys for a videotape. Hmm, that kinda sounds mysterious. What do the keys open? What's on the videotape? I'm sure the answer is much more dull that what you might imagine. So i'll leave you to your own musings...~w

Back on track again, i'm up with time to write before i have to be anywhere.

The teachers and poets and poem-presenters-to-be arrive yesterday by plane, auto and SUV. When they arrived a poem present was waiting for them and they were wisked through orientation. We finished the day with a wiz-bang slap together show. I didn't make it home until midnight though. Tonight looks to be another late one since 8pm is the deadline for them to select their poems for Friday's show. Then the poem fairy (aka me) wisks them away to be copied so they are ready for rehearsal in the morning. The line that kept racing through my head yesterday was "I go, I go, Look how I go! Faster than an arrow from a Tartar's bow." I'm not sure if i felt more like Puck or a ping pong ball as i flew in and out and in and out of the dorms helping to get everything ready. I'm hoping i've had enough sleep now to put the bounce back in my step. I have a feeling i'll need it again today.~w

I woke up to a message that i need to run errands for the residency. So, i'm starting the day running late. Good thing i got all my chores done and had some time to relax last night.~w