To My Readers:

June  4th, 2013

To my readers,

Well, the fateful day has come, where it becomes necessary to take the laptops issued by the school, and return them for the summer. As unfortunate as this is, it is entirely necessary, as the computers are not ours, they still belong to the school.

However, for the first time a new problem is in effect for me.  This will be the first summer where I have a blog. I do not have as much access to my home computer as I did my school one, which creates a problem.

I did consider the possibility of not posting over the summer at all. However, this simply could not be done. Too much happens over the summer to just let it go ignored.

So, I will continue to post.  Only not as frequently, and certainly not as in-depth.  So, my faithful readers, do not be surprised if my blog is not updated for long periods of time.  This will be normal.

-NM

SS

Too brief of a reunion.

When we said goodbye before she moved, we thought it was the last time.  Turns out, I saw her again before she moved.  And again.  And again.  And about 6 more times.  Pretty soon, the whole goodbye thing died out, and we never got a good one.  That felt bad.

I did a pretty bad job of staying in touch with her after she left.  We only had a few short conversations every few months.  She told me this was more than most people were in touch with her, which just made me feel worse about not talking more.

When she told me that she would be coming back, I was overjoyed.

Unfortunately, we only got to see each other twice.  Once in town for a brief, fifteen minute conversation, and once at the 7th and 8th grade chorus concert.

She's changed a lot.  When she left, she was quiet, very enclosed.  In Millie, she asked a lot of questions, but always seemed hesitant to ask these questions.  She was not the most outgoing person ever.

When I saw her in town, she was extremely outgoing.  She was someone who went out and searched for conversation.  She was energetic, and fun to be around.

I'm proud of her.

I wish we could have had more time.  The reality of the fact that I might not see her (and her whole family) for an extremely long time set in this morning when she texted me goodbye, saying that they were pulling out then.

Until then, it's just going to be these texts every few months.  Not enough.  But I guess that's just how it's got to be.

-NM

PCLO's 42nd Street

Before I begin my critique, it is important to understand a few things to fully understand how I felt coming into this show.

The first is that I auditioned for this show back in February.  MG honored me with his recommendation (see Response to a Recommendation 2/5/13).  I went to the auditions, and walked out of there feeling like I had just as much of a chance as anyone else.  In April, I finally learned that I didn't get in, which didn't surprise me, considering just as much chance as anyone else meant about a 20% chance.  GZ and RB both made it into the teen chorus, and MG into the main cast, so I did get to see them.

The other thing to understand is that I went with MS.  Her family is in town this week, and it would have felt wrong if we didn't do anything together (to me at least).  I'm so glad their family could come in for this brief time, and I'm sure they are too.  Who knows when they're going to come again?

Before the show, we went to dinner, and just talked.  About everything from the difference between our two high school musicals, to Veggie Tales.  From the show we were about to see to our favorite shows all time.  It was delightful, delicious (the food was good), and delovely.

So, in short, there was a lot of anticipation coming into the evening, mainly for these reasons.  Not to mention that the CLO shows always tend to be good.

As for the show itself, it was a very good production.  The roles were very well cast, and just about everyone performed their parts really well.  The tap dancing was together, and well choreographed.  The audience was entertained, and enjoyed the show.  GZ, RB, and MG all looked great.  I only had two complaints.  There were times where the blocking was awkward, and the dancing that wasn't tap needed to be a little more together.  But the show as a whole was very good.

After the show, MS and I went backstage to see GZ, RB, and MG.  Although we couldn't talk long, they seemed to appreciate us coming, and we made sure they knew how good the show was.

All in all, an evening well-appreciated, and to be remembered.

-NM