I did my last three middle school shows with Sylvester today. Some folks would have called that a good days work...but no. I still had driving to do.

I drove through 4 hours of severe thunderstorms today and arrived safely home from Indiana an hour ago (9-1/2 hrs total) to find my Brezsney horoscope waiting on the counter for me. Now even though it's online, i hadn't bothered to read it before, and i had to laugh out loud when he suggested i "commune with the waters of life" this week. I've now had enough water i think...between the rain nearly all the way home and drinking around 156oz of bottle water plus 4 "energy" juice drinks in the past 24 hours. I'm all unpacked and the caffeine & ginseng from the "energy" beverages is starting to wear off (don't let them fool you, guarana is just a fancy name for caffeine). Good night (or good morning...whatever it is)~w

Today was spent playing with elementary school students. They are wacky, no matter where you go. We left Michigan City, Indiana without ever seeing the lake though. I'm guessing it's a big steel town. I stopped in Popeye's for some chicken at lunch and the workers there were loopy. They'd just finished filling an order for a woman for 300 pieces of chicken that morning and she was coming back for 250 more in the afternoon. Apparently she was feeding the workers at a steel mill nearby. Tonight we're in Peru, Indiana, home of the International Circus Hall of Fame. My first clue was the name of our hotel the "Circus City Inn" and then the fact that there is a huge clown mural etched in the glass that separates the pool area from the lobby. Sure enough, this was a railway stop that brought every circus to town for the whole countryside to see. Unfortunately, this is the off season and the museum is only open by appointment right now. Since it was already early evening i decided to go in search of dinner rather than clowns.

Tomorrow we play with the middle schoolers in Bunker Hill and then i start the long drive back to Asheville.~w

We performed at a high school today that has it's own improv troupe. They call themselves "No Questions Asked." New Trier also has a top ranked jazz band and an orchestra that sounded professional as it rehearsed in the large auditorium while we got ready to perform in the little theatre. All in all it was probably the most impressive performing arts department i've ever seen in a public high school. Apparently the local property taxes pay for the schools and the property values are high enough to fund some pretty amazing things. Still it's a public school, which means that competition is high. The freshman class is right around 1,000 students and is located now on a separate campus. But, i enjoyed hanging out before our last show and watching some students working on Tartuffe by Moliere. I guess i should have suspected that a school just north of Chicago and near one of the best theatre colleges in the nation (Northwestern) might have some pretty amazing things going on in it's theatres.~w

I forgot to mention last night (actually it looks like the post showed up under today's date...but it was really last night in my mind) that my sister took us out to the Courier Cafe in Urbana. It used to be the newspaper, but now they serve yummy food and delicious shakes. I fell in love with chocolate all over again. Even though i ordered the mouth-watering trout that to my sister was disgusting, she was kind enough to buy me dinner too. Thanks Sis!

Today we drove up through Chicago to Skokie. We had a bit of rehearsing to do for tomorrow's shows, but otherwise the day was free. I took a nice walk around the Baha'i House of Worship even though i wasn't able to make it there before they closed at 5pm. The red-wing blackbirds, finches, robins, and grackles had a lot to say to me though (the pigeons seemed to keep their distance) and i even saw a bunny nibbling on the lawn. The tulips aren't quite ready to bloom in the chill Illinois air, but the Canadian geese have arrived on their trek north. On my way back to the hotel i found a lovely little hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant called Opart's where i got some tastey curry to take with me for dinner. Now i'm working toward bedtime so i can wake up at 5:30am.~w

I meant "awake" at the end of that last post, but obviously i wasn't. It was a long full day, but very enjoyable. The middle school kids at the three schools we went to yesterday were fabulous. We were brought in by the McCraken Public Library and Iris was a super hostess as well. Thanks to her i now have a McCracken coffee mug to drink out of, especially good since i forgot mine at home. From her description, my step-mom should thoroughly enjoy her visit there in a couple of weeks for the big quilt show too. Anyway, must be checking out and heading north to Chicago now.~w

We got standing O's from the Middle schoolers of Paducah, KY. Then i drove the next few hours to get to Champaign and visit my sister. Now i'm nodding off having stuffed my belly at dinner. i'll try and write more in the morning when i'm more away.~w

In order to avoid issues with time in the morning...i've decided i'd better blog in the evenings this week. Only until i get home again i think. I must say that it's very odd to spring forward only to drive across a time zone first thing in the morning and go back to the time it was before. I suppose it's kinda like living in Indiana (they don't seem to bother to spring forward or fall back, but their neighbors do).

I'm sitting in a hotel room on the Ohio river today (and eventually you'll get to see a picture here of it). I must admit i've been a bit lazy. I did the driving, and i rehearsed the show for tomorrow, but other than that i've been pretty quite. I've read a bit and practiced some reiki (it certainly helps clear out morning allergies and guck quickly, a great thing to learn as we head into pollen season). I think i have to be up early (still waiting on confirmation of the first show time), so i'm planning on turning in to a pumpkin earlier than usual. Sometimes it's really nice just to have time to be quiet and move slowly.~w

The pictures are here! You may find some of them below, but you may have to go here to see the rest of them on the days they were taken. To jump directly to the hike without passing GO try clicking here. This time i set them up so you can also click on the picture to get the full size version for a closer look if you like. Enjoy!~w