The Week In Revue

Yikes, I've got to catch up! I was all ready to participate in the Fun Monday carnival after a long absence, and plumb forgot about it! This blogging thing takes time, and determination. So, anyway...

Sunday's performances last week were so great! It was sad at the same time though. After the last performance which started at 7 and ended at 9:30, we parents started right in on striking the set. By the time the kids got back into the theatre about 45 minutes later from their meet and greet in the commons, we'd already gotten the extension taken off of the front of the stage and were working on dismantling the rest. Kerry, the technical director had warned us that we might be there for 4 to 6 hours, but with 36 people working, the massive, steel frame, wood decking and fabric walls were gone and we were sweeping the stage by 11:59! Woo Hoo!

I was glad the performance part of this was over - for Bear's sake and for the sake of the rest of the kids. Keeping up with your homework, and chores, and preparing for summer activities and graduation AND doing 5 performances in 3 days had to be grueling! But, they're kids and they bounce back. I, on the other hand, along with Downtown Dad actually went through a little bit of withdrawal. The core group of parents who have worked together on this from the beginning have become such good friends. Yes, I'm glad to be able to have time for laundry, and dishes, and sleeping for a change, but I'm going to miss "choir practice" with my theatre parent buds.

I also had one of the parents respond to a real estate solicitation I'd sent out at the beginning of the year, offering a donation to their kids' travel fund for referring a client to me. Actually, this mom was the last person I'd have guessed would refer someone to me, but hey, like I said, we've all gotten very close over the course of a year - who knew? Another guy, the son of one of my clients also called saying he's finally ready to buy something - I'll believe that when I see it, but who knows, maybe he is. Also, last week a guy I'd sold a house to called and said he was being deployed to Iraq so he was considering selling his house. I did a market analysis for him, but he hasn't gotten back to me, so maybe he's not going to sell after all.

Auditions for Gooseberry were held all this past week. Bear and Tessie had originally signed up for the first day, but then Tessie decided she needed more preparation so she rescheduled hers for tonight at 7. Bearly though, despite coming off of a hectic weekend, barrelled right into the Tuesday evening audition with his usual confidence and got both dance and vocal callbacks in the advanced group on Saturday. He's hoping to be cast as the Lion. He sang Giants In the Sky from Into the Woods, did the Status Quo dance from High School Musical and recited a monologue about theatre pride. He did a fabulous job too, according to the parent/board member monitor who is required to sit in with the directors in all auditions. Being new on the board I hadn't had the opportunity to sit in on auditions before and was anxious to experience it. Let me tell you - it's kind of nerve wracking. The kids, no matter how many times they've done this are nervous, and it's hard to sit expressionless and not respond - but that's what you have to do. You aren't allowed to sit in on your own kid's audition though.

Downtown Dad has been working on dewintering the back yard. He and Bearly got two huge piles of dead branches dragged to the curb and even got the pool uncovered! Now we just have to call the pool guy to come and open up the filtering system for us, then there's that week it takes for the water to somehow magically go from brackish black to clear blue sparkling! We're thinking of adding a solar heater this year to extend the usability season.

Started my new job on Wednesday. This should work out pretty slick, it's just three days a week, about 6 or so hours a day and it's really quiet, so being the multitasker I am, I should be able to at least return phone calls, write if need be, and maybe update this blog! It's a new position, and there are still a lot of hiccups in how things are going to work... log ins, passwords, network availability, just to name a few. It seems to me, that it's a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, but I'll just stand back and observe for a while before I make any assessments.

I had my graduation ceremony from the Chamber Leadership class I've been in since last year. It was a very nice lunch with a keynote speaker from our local renovated Fargo Theatre and the president of the chamber, as well as a short speech from the 'validictorian' of our class. He's an attorney with a bald head and his name is F. John. He was in my group of 5 for the final presentations last week and was out of town. We took the opportunity to conspire together to get everyone to either wear a skull cap or wear a tee shirt with a great big F. on the front. We were going to chant F...F...F...F..., but one of our more corporate, and less fun-loving classmates suggested we wait til after the ceremony and do that at our social get-together at the bowling alley. I don't usually frequent bowling alleys, but I went just for the Tee-shirt wearing and cheer. It was a nice gathering, but, I left early.

I've been worried about Tessie and her audition this week. She has a way of not preparing - for anything, not just this, and as a result, both with school work and auditions - she tests badly. She's had her monologue memorized, but up until Wednesday, was still deciding between two or three songs to sing, and didn't have a dance. Although I've never seen one of her auditions, I am just sure that one of the reasons she's not been cast as much as Bearly, is because she doesn't come off as polished and prepared. She has a beautiful voice, and a hiphop look and movement style that is pretty fly for a white girl. :) She's hoping to be cast in the role of Addaperle. Anyway, on Wednesday, we were scrolling through YouTube looking for songs that would showcase her more Alto than Soprano voice and came across Paulette from Legally Blonde singing her Ireland reprise - and that was it! Orfeh, the actress who plays Paulette on Broadway was simply amazing when Downtown Dad and I got a chance to see the show last year in New York. I never would have suggested Tessie sing one of her songs, but - holy moly - she can really belt it out! There's a fabulous long note at the end that really sells it and if Tessie is not too scared she can totally pull it off! So that was one thing down, but we still didn't have a dance.... until last night. I found an old video tape we'd gotten Tessie when she was like 6 or 7, called Darren's Dance Grooves. It's a guy teaching the steps to popular music videos. Tessie had watched that tape until it almost fell apart, in fact when I popped it into the VCR it squealed and jittered pretty badly. But she absolutely lit up when she saw it because she still remembered the dance she'd taught herself from it all those years ago and decided that was going to be her audition dance. What song? What artist? "Crazy" by Britney Spears... oh brother. But, she does it really well and she burned the song on a CD from iTunes - so whew!

This morning I bit the bullet and bought one of the parent jackets from High School Musical, it was the last day they were available and I just didn't want to look back on this year and regret not getting one. I also got an email from one of the directors who is overseeing the finances for the Scotland trip. We'd recently turned in over $1,100 from Bearly's personal fundraising letter and the way the email was worded I am concerned about whether or not all of it went into Bearly's account or if some went to the general fund. Luckily I am absolutely anal about keeping track of who sent what, and a complete task master when it comes to getting Bearly to write thank you notes right away - so I have documentation in case any mistakes happen!

Well, that's all for now, I'm working today until early afternoon, so I'll have time to help Tessie prep for tonight, before I have to go over to the theatre to be the audition monitor again. I'll have to step out when its her turn, but I am TOTALLY listening at the door!