Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Time Capsule--2.15.12

A letter to my son in college:

Good morning--

Hope all is going well for you this week.

For some reason, I seem to miss you more now that I did when you first left and can't wait to have you home.  I'd really like it if you could hold out until your Spring Break.  That would be best.  This Friday, I'm subbing at the high school, and then going with the KidsPlayers to see "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".  The poor kids have had two weeks of tech.  Dennis  told me last night that they're all sick. 

And the following weekend, I'm scrapbooking. 

A little heads-up for Friday the 3rd--Dad, Corey, and I have tickets to see "God of Carnage" at IRT.  Corey got them free from a friend he knows who works at IRT.  If you would stay home with Ben that night, that would be great.  It'll be a late night for us and I know Ben stays home a lot, but we'll be all the way in Indy and I'd just feel better if you were there.

Hope all is going well for you at school.  I think of you a lot.  You know, your dad had a thought that made sense to me.  I hope it doesn't make you mad, but if you think about it, it really is true.  He said, "He is so smart, but unless you have the ______________  (fill the blank:  grades, high school diploma, college degree), there's no concrete evidence of that."  He's right, you know.  You can be as smart as you want, but unless you have the grades, etc., there's no proof of that.  Just something to think about.

On the family side of things, Dad's definitely going to retire.  You might read my blog, if you have a chance.  It really says it all.  http://imbetterinwriting.blogspot.com/2012/01/lightness-of-being.html.  It was really a scary decision, but ultimately the right one.  For the last year, I really worried about your dad.  It just seems to get worse and worse.  He talked about a girl yesterday--a first grader--who just went OFF in his class.  Crazy.  Crazy in a way that middle-class white folk can't begin to comprehend, you know?

Also, do you remember me talking about how Grampie added Linda's name to the deed for the cottage?  Maybe you don't or maybe I didn't bring it up.  In any case, that was not what we four sibs (me, Diane, Andy, Daniel) decided, and he went against our decision.  Everyone was upset about it (except Andy, who just said 'oh, well') and Daniel and I both wrote Grampie letters about it.  I sent a copy of mine to everyone and Aunt Diane called me crying and crying because she was so glad I sent it.  She said she had a letter, too, but was still working on it.  Well, apparently Dad let Linda read our letters, so yesterday I got a letter from Linda telling me how 'she felt about our decision and the letters we wrote.  Sigh.  Haven't dealt with that yet and I don't know that I'm going to.  I forwarded a copy of it to Andy, Diane, and Daniel.  And Grammie.  If you want to read it, I'll send it to you, too.

Greenfield Idol is coming along.  Had a long email discussion with Joe Urban about emceeing.  He had promised from the beginning that he'd be home weekends and be able to emcee all three Saturdays.  Then, all of a sudden, he's saying, "I'll do it if my schedule doesn't change".  Well, that's when I started looking for more emcees.  I've got emcees now for the first two, but not the last one.  Joe said, "It won't work if you have a different emcee every time."  That's proven to be a difficult task.   In any case, I'm pretty set for judges.  Still need one emcee and one entertainer.  We'll just hold our breath now to see what kind of auditioners we get.  Hopefully more than 20!

The KidsPlay show is really going gangbusters.  I've set up a nice schedule for myself of working in the Dungeon during the day on sewing (I've moved my machine and most of the sewing stuff there) and then coming home in the evenings (when I don't have rehearsal) to do the computer work at night.  It's working out well.  The costumes are coming along; the playbill is mostly done.  In addition to that, the set is up and painted AND, I've cut rehearsal back to 8:30 until we start doing full-run throughs.  We're running through all the scenes twice and then some and I'm afraid the kids will get bored with it!  Got some funny stuff.  Caymen (as one of the orphans) is hilarious.  Ariel Urban is great.  Maggie Brown is great.  Ben doesn't have that big a part this time (he didn't want to be in it originally).  It's going to be funny as long as they can keep it fresh.

I guess that's about it.  This is a nice time capsule of how things are going around here.  There's probably more, but it's 9:00 and I need to get up to the Dungeon. 

Take care, good son.  Give enough time and attention to your studies.  Be MORE than ready for tests and quizzes.  Be an over-achiever on projects.

Love you very much.

Mom