This Past Weekend Was Crazy Busy...

So I expect Christmas to be the opposite. I had many things on the go this weekend and I think I managed to get them all done in a satisfactory way. The weekend followed a very busy week wherein I was at the boy's school for Child Check, 2 field trips (one in-school, one out of school), and 2 Christmas Concerts. The blizzard that hit on Wednesday prevented me from doing what I had planned to do in the daytime on Thursday, but alas, that is what happens. Annie (my sis) came to visit on the weekend and while we dealt with the constantly imprecise schedules of our siblings we managed to work out a pretty good visit. She played Wii with the boys a couple of afternoons/evenings and they were in heaven with that. She and I visited and caught the latest Narnia Movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (not the best book to film adaptation).

Sunday I was at Walterdale for 2 rehearsals - Rabbit Hole in the afternoon and Threepenny in the evening. Around the rehearsals I squeezed in studying for my Drama 208 (Theatre History) Final. I wrote that on Monday morning. I think I did okay. The first half was delightful. I knew it all. I knew the second half too, but my brain was very tired and I do not think I crafted my answers as best as I could have. We shall see. I keep telling myself that I am not doing the course for marks, but I have never been the kind of student who could let things slide so I have a hard time letting go of that. It's done now so that's good.

After the exam I squeezed in a visit with Wanda. It was almost not to be as she was in a wee car accident on the way to lunch, however she managed to get the police report done and her vehicle and self were not injured so she came up to the house and we visited there. So good to see her! I must plan a trip to Calgary to see her for a real visit!

Then Monday night I had my final rehearsal for Rabbit Hole before we break for Christmas. We finished early (always a bonus) and I am resting today doing cards and cleaning a bit. Tomorrow I will attempt the 'shopping'. My list is short and since the crowd expected for Christmas dinner is smaller this year I expect a restful weekend. We do not plan to travel either weekend (that could change) and I really just want to relax and maybe work on my lines...

Yikes - Overdue Fees

Sigh. I had a whopper of a library bill to pay today. I tried to renew them online but couldn't figure out how to do it so I took them back today and faced the music. Yikes. 5 books. 2$ a day. 7 days. You can do the math. The librarian was lovely. Told me that as long as the fees were under $50 I could take out more - so I got them down to $30 and took out what I needed. I will have to make sure I get my paper written in less than 2 weeks so that I can get those new ones returned. EPL is a lot cheaper for fines. Sigh. Oh well, I probably helped pay for more books for the library. Just doing my part!

Yesterday started so crappy. I basically lost the day waiting on my car and then getting Mark's so I could accomplish the rest of the day. This past week when you count the rental car and the repairs we spent almost $1000 on my car. I think it is time for a new one. Really. If you include the lost time for me it is even more valuable. Ggah!

The evening was better. I was able to keep my theatre date with Lindsey to see Love and Human Remains at the U of A. Great visit with the Linds. We could talk for hours. The play was interesting. It's a Brad Fraser play so there was a lot of nudity, sex and violence with a bit of comic book aesthetic. Some of the casting was questionable but you are dealing with a very narrow age range from the pool of actors in the program, so you do the best you can. The pace was also set at a very high rate to support the quick slides from scene to scene (it is really written like a screenplay) so it takes time to invest in the characters. The nudity was handled well, but I question it's purpose. Sometimes it distracted from other scenes. If the director is controlling where the audience is supposed to look we were certainly getting mixed messages. I did think it was interesting and a worthwhile night of theatre. Some fabulous lighting and one thing I love about the U of A shows is that the concept is always cohesive and complete.

It's All Greek to Me...

I am really enjoying my theatre history class at the U of A. I know some of the other students might be a bit less into it because we spent over a month on Greek Theatre before moving on to anything else, but looking at the resources we could probably spend a whole 4 month son Greek Theatre and still not cover everything. I was very excited because today I found the resources I need to write my paper. Yippee! I would like to get a draft done this week so that I can get it proofed by our Professor (he said if we got him a draft by the 5th of Nov he would read and comment and get it back to us after the Remembrance day weekend). Now, it might be silly to be so excited about a resource, but I really didn't know how they would have done this one effect and now that I know I feel so much better. AH!

Good News

Weekly Weigh-in. Despite my worrying, I was delightfully down this week. I was down 1.2 lbs from my starting weight and 2.4 lbs down from last week so I will thank the time on the treadmill yesterday as well as watching what and when I ate the last couple of days. I also suggested to my Mom that we make some weekly goals so that we have more purpose to get us to the next week. My 3 goals are to work-out significantly (1 hour or longer) for at least 4 days this week, stay within 1300-2000 calories per day, and to not eat after 8 p.m. Hopefully those three goals will serve me well.

Went back to class today. It was fun. Lovely Gil let me borrow his notes to type out at home and bring back Friday. He trusts me - that's nice. I enjoyed the lecture and I like the kids I sit with. They are friendly and interested.

I worked on masks for Much Ado last night. I can only do the basic masks for now until I get fabric samples and costume designs, but that is a lot of groundwork. I got three basic masks done last night, and another finished this morning and I am currently working on 2 more. The nice thing about the method I am using is that if I do not like the shape I can cut off the part I don't like and build the mask up again until I like the shape. I know I could just buy commercial masks, but this is cheaper money wise (not time wise) and more importantly, I feel it is more of an artistic process for me. I enjoy the creation of the masks and the painting and decorating and marking it cohesive with the costumes and the concept of the show. I know they won't be onstage very long, but that's not the point.