Waldorf Winter Fair

At the winter fair I was confronted with the new challenge of dealing with young kids. While intimidated at first by the prospect that I would not know how to deal with small children, my fears were put to rest since I was assigned to the Ginger Bread Gnome room. Using my prior knowledge of baking from my job I was able to relax a bit and take some charge when it came to making sure that both kids and volunteers knew what they were doing. There were no problems when dealing with the kids, and I found that I had a somewhat naturally kind reaction to them after a short time with them. Thanks to this I was able to make a small connection with the kids hopefully making them feel more comfortable when making the cookies. None of the children had any forms of breakdowns nor did any of them ruin anyone else's time. With that said I feel like I did my part to ensure that a fun experience was had by all. Towards the end of the day we realized that we did not have enough cookies or decorations to continue through the rest of the day. With some quick thinking I realized that if we could not give them any cookies that we could at least let the people come and use what little we had left to decorate any baked goods that they had previously purchased. Afterwards we had little left thanks to the popularity of the room and my quick suggestion.

STAGE - Off book, getting more in depth

For the last few weeks we have been working without our scripts. Because of this it has freed up our hands and heads allowing for better blocking and character development. Mrs. Botsford has been working with us on our characters so that we have back stories in order to make the characters more believable. This worked well since Evan and I were confused as to who our characters were on a deeper level, but with some prompting of Mrs. Botsford we created two different, but still similar, characters with different traits and mannerisms. Through these exercises I was able to see how I create a character, but also how I need a little motivation to creating them, which I will need to work on in the future.

After we all created our characters our "relationships" took on new meanings which has both tested us and strengthened us as a cast.

SOI - Bake Sale failure and SOI potluck plans.

Last week we had planned to work a "bake" sale of healthy organic foods and tea. We were all assigned to different days to work and different foods to bring in. I was assigned to bring in tea and work on Monday. Since we had plenty of left over tea from our first sale that counted as my contribution. Because of this I forgot about the bake sale completely and when Monday came around I was not there for the sale and i missed out. If I had talked to anyone in SOI, wrote the schedule down, or bought more tea, I would have been able to remember the bake sale.

Today at the meeting I found that overall the sale was a bust, and that we were going to scrap the idea for now so that we can focus on a SOI pot luck for us so that we can see if we can branch it out to the greater Sturgis Community. Through this preparation we hope to be sure that we can work as a "separated group" to create enough food for us so that we know what needs to get done for when we have the Sturgis wide one. Hopefully through these pot lucks we will be able to increase awareness of organic products.

Assistant Instructor?

Today in Tai Chi we had a new student just in for her first lesson. So Maureen spend about half of the class with her while I led the other students in perfecting the form. It was the first time I had ever taken charge in any martial arts class. Thankfully not only was I skilled in the form enough to lead everyone through it, but also still learning so that when confronted with specific questions, such as what move follows which or how a certain move needs to be performed, I had to truly think about what I was telling the others. This hard thought reminded me of how I was beginning to slip in some of the more technical parts of the form and reminded me what i needed to do in order to do the form correctly.
Being an assistant instructor reminded me not only of my own growth, but also how I didn't have everything perfect yet.

Stage - Character Development and Blocking

Over the past few weeks in STAGE we have been working on our character's backstories, interactions, and blocking. As of right now Evan and I have been working very well as a team, and our interactions with the other characters have been great so far. Our flirtatious yet obnoxious character development has been clashing nicely with the sassy and nosey Jackie, while making the character Pat and Sylvia cringe at what our "next move" will be. We have also been playing up the cockiness factor too, making our mutual dislike for Dino feel truly believable. With this great effort along with our mutual support for each character has made the Danny and Steve duo two of the more dynamic characters in the show. Mrs. Botsford has also been impressed by my work. I have received no "negative" notes, only constructive notes. I also have been getting notes praising how well the character is coming along and how natural the movements and blocking seem.

First SOI Meeting

For the first meeting I was regrettably late by a few minutes. I didn't miss much and I had several ideas that I feel helped. This meeting was mostly brainstorming but we seem to be branching out from the school and onto main street with our ideas. Jade set up a blog for SOI to use and brainstorm out of meetings. I have yet to use it yet, but I have talked with some members about possible ideas. This thursday we have another meeting. We will hopefully be able to narrow down what we want to do.

Stage - First Rehearsals

At STAGE we started rehearsals off with a total read through of the script. At first glance my character is little more than a joker, and while he is very flat it is a different role for me which is good. In the play I work very close with another character named Danny, who was originally played by Daniel Verbank. Unfortunately Daniel left the school and his character was replaced with Evan Griffin. Evan and I are friends which makes our chemistry on stage make our characters seem that much more believable. I also have begun to get somewhat close to the two freshman girls who play Pat and Sylvia, who are two girls that Danny and Steve flirt with throughout the play. All of the cast that my character interacts with are people who I know which makes working with them much easier. I have been noticing my strengths as an actor in this role as well as several weaknesses. Hopefully by next rehearsal I will be able to pinpoint them by next week.

Tai Chi - Private lesson

At Tai Chi I ended up having a private lesson because none of the other students showed up. I was allowed to work full the first third of the form that we are working on. I worked well with the instructor, and I discovered that with one small tweak that I had the entire first third memorized even with my month absence. This made me extremely happy and I could tell the Maureen the instructor was surprised and proud. My goal of getting to the same place that the class is was set very high, but I feel very accomplished that I was able to reach it in such a short time, and I had reassuring proof that through hard work and perseverance that I could reach new heights even if I am behind.

Nursing Home Concerts - First Show!

I finally had my first show at Atria Woodbriar Healthcare. I was nervous at first, but I quickly got over these worries once I started. The residents were all very happy to have me. Many of them sang along with several of the songs. After my show most of the residents came up to me and said that I did a wonderful job and several asked me if I had a business card. Those congratulations reminded me that music bring joy back to people who are in seemingly endless cycles of life.

Also my contacts with Heratige have been going well, but we have yet to set a date.

Tai Chi - Return after 1 month absence

After one month I finally returned to Tai Chi. I was extremely happy to be back as some of the muscle tension I have been feeling over the past few weeks will hopefully go away soon with my return. As it turns out despite my absence the rest of the class has been flying through the rest of the third form. Because of this I was very open to what people had to say in order to perform that part of the form easier. After only three times I had it almost perfect. If it hadn't been for everyone helping me it would have taken much longer. This made me feel immediately comfortable with the rest of the students despite their advancements over me.

Nursing Home Concerts - More Troubles but New Successes

After sending out letters to three nursing homes in the Falmouth Area I got two call backs on Tuesday the 4th of August. Atria Healthcare asked me to come in the next day to do a short 45 minute concert for their resident's ice cream social. Happily I agreed. When I got to Atria I met with Karen, the Activities co-ordinator for Atria, and she gave me a quick run down of where I would be performing and what time I should start. I set up my speakers and Ipod where she wanted me to, but the system wasn't turning on. Frantically I scrambled to two other outlets, but the system still wouldn't turn on. After a little frustration I talked to Karen. She was supportive and called the home's technician in. He was also baffled as to what the problem was since all three of the outlets I used were working. Then we realized that the power chord of my system was broken even though it had worked perfectly the night before. I informed Karen of this and we decided to scrap this concert, but schedule another once I got a new power chord. Karen told me to introduce myself to the residents and tell them a little about myself. As I did this they seemed genuinely happy that even though I didn't do anything that I eventually I was going to perform for them. They were also very supportive of me and thanked me fore taking the time to try and perform for them.

The next day I had a meeting with Christine Davidson, The activities director for Heritage at Falmouth. During the meeting I reiterated to her what I was planning to do and how I was going to accomplish it. She seemed very gung-ho about it, and asked when would I be able to start the concerts. I told her my schedule and explained that I was waiting on a new power chord that I had ordered the night before. She then gave me her business card and told me to send her an email when i got the chord. She also asked for me to send a short bio of myself so that she could advertise the concerts to the residents. That night I put together the bio and sent it to her. Both of these activities were valuable to me because I learned that sometimes checking your equipment is not a fool-proof way to know that it will work on the day of you performance. I also learned that sometimes you need to make sure you have you credentials all ready to present.

Nursing Home Concerts - Troubles from the Get-go

After returning home from Germany I decided to get started on my CAS again. I called up Sun Bridge Healthcare (formerly Harborside) in Mashpee where I had submitted a letter explaining what I wanted to do for the seniors. After being sent to Karen I was met with a response that I wasn't expecting. Karen had been so many applicants that apparently she never even read my letter. Before I could even explain that I wasn't just another volunteer and that I had a specific and different activity to run I was told to call back in September and the conversation ended. I was slightly angry that not only had she not read my letter, which I had submitted a month before, but also that I wasn't able to set the record straight. After these feelings passed I realized that I needed to be more aggressive in planning my activities in order to get them started. Even though I didn't put on any concerts so far, it taught me the importance of persistence. I am going to try my hand at several other Nursing homes on Cape Cod.

On another note, I was able to create a burned CD of karaoke versions of top "oldies" songs that will help me immensely during the concerts.

Tai Chi - Long Form First Part (and Prom Nigh fallout)

Because of the long weekend and my high amount of stress I was really looking forward to, as well as dreading Tai Chi this week. All day today I was exhausted and my muscles were aching. However when we started there was another student who had a bad cold so we all joked around about nasal decongestants. When we finally started the muscle tension caused for me to be in immense pain as I tried use some of the moves a simple as the core movements, but as I kept on doing them and battled through the pain and found out that the more I kept doing the movements the looser my body got, and the pain and muscle tension went away. This showed me some of the positive health benefits of Tai Chi in relieving not only mental stress but physical as well. This of course made me feel a sense of relief and satisfaction that I was no longer uncomfortable. This was the first time in a while that I attempted to battle through pain using non-aggressive movement or a heating pad

Tai Chi - "Grasp Sparrow's Tail" (First form)

Monday May 11, 2009
It was my second week of Tai Chi classes and already I feel the positive effects. Since so much of Tai Chi is based off of balance and concentration I found myself really working hard not only at doing the moves right, but also to keep myself on balance. This focus not only lasted throughout the whole practice, but also throughout my way home. Also since all of the movements were new I also used muscles and muscle combinations that I do not normally use not only stretching those muscles, but also giving them a much needed work out. Even in the beginning of the exorcise I felt invigorated and focused.