This week - Ups and Downs

[moondancerdrake]

This has been a … ummm … interesting week. Now with me gearing up for finals I’m finding my blogging time limited to about once a week. Hopefully this summer will give me more time to talk to ya’ll. Okay, onto the news… 

 

Two days early this week I found myself rushing an injured bird to the wildlife rehab place, both found in rather precarious locations. The first, last Monday, was a sea gull with a broken leg I discovered mid Teutonia Drive, causing Miss Moon to dodge a wee bit of traffic to face the gull’s half-hearted attempts to bite said rescuer. Wednesday I dropped Adrian off at work to find what I later learned to be a female rose-breasted crossbill with a broken wink. She was in the parking lane of a very busy international corporation during a time when a great many employees would be using the area for similar drop offs. Both patients arrived at the rehabilitation center safely and seem to be doing well so far. I’ll be calling for an update this week.

Both group projects have been finished (whew) with no beatings from Miss Moon as I worried might be inevitable. I love working in groups, but not as much when the time is limited, the members are unmotivated, and/or grades are on the line. The better my grades are the better my chances are for scholarships and at almost a 3.5 this past year I’m still getting rejection letter for scholarships constantly this week so I figure I need all the help I can get. Unlike some of the students I do not have families able to pay my way through school.

I’m UBER excited about next years’ class schedule. I finally got all signed up, and got into almost all the classes I wanted to get into. Since I technically still count as a sophomore until this next grades come in, I get the suckiest scheduling slot. For once I have Monday’s and Wednesdays off (those are normally my busiest days), though Tuesdays are packed with three classes, Thursdays I have two, and Friday I have two. Whew.

I think the class I’m most excited about is my “Drafting for the Theatre” Tuesdays and Thursday mornings with Professor Richard Graham Jr, who was my “Theatre Production and Design” instructor this past spring. He was very supportive, challenging me so that I pushed myself to try things I never thought I could. For a woman that couldn’t draw stick figures before I took his class, I’m doing pretty darn well with my set renderings and costume design sketches. What a miracle worker. I’m also taking his “Scene Design” course on Friday afternoons. I figure the two will be a good combination. He says normally people take the drafting class first but he doesn’t force me having any issues taking both in the same semester.

Another duo of classes I get to take with the same professor are “Sound Production”, which is in the morning before the drafting class, and “Digital Workstation: Stage & Studio” an online course teaching me how to work the computerized sound systems that are commonplace now and most of the larger theatre houses. I was a bit concerned taking another online class since I found the one this spring so aggravating, but Professor Guse assures me the course is set up as a very hands on manner, with simulations to give practical applications. Since I’m more of a “doing” learner than a “visional” this one this sounds perfect for me. I was surprised to learn the sound production class doesn’t quite mesh up with the one around the sound board. I had hoped one would accentuate the other. I have to admit looking at the info the professor sent me the program for the online class looks totally complicated and very, very fun.

If I make it through the waiting list (I am the first in line) I’ll have a theatre makeup course in the mornings. I am very much looking forward to this. I was lucky enough to learn that there’s a midrange Japanese actors foundation that exactly matches my unusual skin tone, so I will not have to mix my own anymore. What a relief. I should have guessed light skinned native skin and certain Asian skin tones would be similar since so many of our features are as well. We didn’t have near the choices in foundation shades when I did theatre 20 years ago. This is a great time to do this sort of work again. If I’m lucky they’ll tech the advanced makeup class over the next few years. I love doing FX makeup and want to learn more about the techniques. Professor Bertha Powell seems like such a great lady, I’m looking forward to working with her finally.

 On Tuesday afternoons I have my Playwriting course with Professor Bastings. She was my Play Analysis instructor this semester and though tough, she is also fair. Their doing a thing called the Penelope Project when I will talk more about later. Basically it’s an intergeneration project between UWM, one of the local extended care facilities for the elderly, and the Sojourn theatre company centered on the story of Penelope, Odysseus’ wife. The Playwriting classes and the storytelling classes both get to participate in this project which is very thrilling. I can’t wait.

Outside of the excitement of the coming semester I have to admit to some regret as well. For the third month, as of today, my moontime has come early with an irregular flow, which is possibly caused my early miscarriage. Since the false positive a few months ago (spent a day thinking I was pregnant to get a call that night from the doc that the lab had “guessed” wrong) we’ve been trying, though at my ago and with my past fertility issues I know the odds are stacked against us. Even so each month I have been hopeful, and today, once again, my heart is heavy from disappointment.

I also want to take this moment to say good bye to a very special lady who was lost to this life today. Lena Horne was royalty who stood tall against the rabble of the white Hollywood machine and never stopped fighting for what was right, rather than falling back on what was easy. Looking back at the age of 80, Ms. Horne said: “My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. I no longer have to be a ‘credit.’ I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”

We salute you, Ms Horne!