I have returned, after a long absence, to find my blog full of comments . . .

Howdy one and all. No, I am not dead. Sorry to disappoint. The fact of the matter is, I won't be posting at all on weekends for the next several weeks . . . that pesky little thing called “Oliver” takes up all my time.

As for not following through on my expectation to update on Thursday, that was because nothing happened. I told you I had been invited to a fencing class, if you'll recall. Well, as it so turned out, the guy who was giving both me and the teacher a ride got a migraine, so he couldn't drive, so nothing happened.

However. They had also planned to have fencing on Friday, and I got a call at about lunchtime that day informing me that it was still on (well, technically, he just asked if I was going, but it worked as information as well).

So since I had a show on Friday night, and fencing was from about 3:30-5:45 (which was call time), I figured “well, I'll just pack a lunch and cut out of the class fifteen minutes early or so.” Heh. Well, that didn't happen. I was expecting my ride at around 3:20 or so, and at 3:02 or so there was a knock on the door. Inwardly, I went, “oh, crap, he can't be here already, can he??” Turned out he could. So, since I hadn't been expecting him for another twenty minutes, I had just began getting ready. So I didn't eat dinner Friday.

It worked out all right, though, because I wasn't really very hungry, and I got to learn some fun fancy footwork that I wouldn't have learned otherwise.

So, how was it, you ask. It was a lot of fun, and I really hope that I'll be able to go more often. I feel kind of bad, because I'm obviously the worst in the class (having just started), so the teacher has to spend pretty much all his time on me, teaching me stuff that the other two people already know, so they just kind of do random stuff (like choreographing a knife fight). And one of them is leaving soon, too, so I don't know what's going to happen . . . unless of course the number of people changes on a classly basis, in which case things might turn out okay.

And as you might be wondering because of the knife fight, it turned out to be not just fencing, but stage combat in general, although fencing was my favorite of the stuff he taught me. Knives were pretty cool, too. He had quarterstaffs, too, but I didn't learn about those. But that was okay, because my head was still spinning from all the instruction on fencing, knife fighting, fist fighting, club fighting, and gun fighting. Although those last two were basically just disarms. It was still cool, though.

But as I said, fencing was my favorite. Probably the most practical, too, in terms of theater. There's not a whole lot of knife fighting in theater, in my experience, and not a whole lot of quarterstaff fighting, club fighting, and gun fighting, either. Although I will admit that there is a lot of physical combat (well, not a lot, but more than the others). But fencing is cooler. The question now is, will I remember everything? The answer is, more than likely, no. But that's okay, because it was my first day, after all, and the teacher even told me that he didn't expect me to remember it all.

Okay, what's wrong with me? I keep referring to him as “The Teacher,” like he's some high and mighty stage combat guru. In actuality, he's a 17-year-old guy who just happens to know more about it than we do. His name is Josh (like so many other people at Lifehouse), and from here on out he'll be called that (or Josh M., if necessary).

So anyway, I think that's pretty much that. As the class got towards the end, the Oliver cast began arriving and watching us. Megan was trying to throw shoes at me when he was teaching us how to disarm someone with a club *rolls eyes* Some people just can't let something go . . .

Anyway, eventually Wayne told us to stop so we could start Oliver warm-ups, so we did, and Josh and David and Brandon (the other people in the class) went backstage, and I sat down in the seats for Oliver.

And once I sat down Megan did throw those shoes at me . . . I was going to keep them and sell them on ebay, but Wayne found them and sent them backstage. So that idea was pretty much shot, unless I can get her to throw them at me again. Which actually probably won't be that hard . . .

Anyway, the show. Right. Well, I don't think there were any majorly interesting things that happened on Friday night . . . nothing that wasn't supposed to - well, okay, to be honest, it wasn't exactly our greatest show ever. Heh. During one of the merchant scenes, our chestnut vendor was a bit close to the stairs, and a townsperson brushed up against her, and all of a sudden we had a combination of cobblestone and chestnut roads. And then there were lots of minor things . . . and a prop that flew into the audience. One lucky member of the audience that night got a fake orange peel. Yay.

I don't think there was much else worth writing about on Friday, I don't think anyone I know came . . . if they did, they didn't talk to me. So let's move on to Saturday, shall we? Oh, well, no let's not. First let's talk about after I came home on Friday night. I came home to see AJ fiddling with boxes in the office. I said, “Hey, what's with all this?” He replied, “I'm packing, dude. You do remember that I'm moving tomorrow, right?” *lightbulb goes on above head* “Uh . . . yeah.”

Oh, man, and I forgot to mention the even that happened on Friday morning . . . wow, I must be really out of it or something . . . anyway, you might recall the whole Biola thing I talked about. Well, on Friday morning, we had a test to see if the program worked. So we went on, and had the test and . . . yeah. My microphone doesn't work with the program. Fun. So we're kind of unsure what to do . . . I tested it again with iChat, and it works fine, so I emailed the guy and he said it might be because I have a Mac. JOY. So he has no idea how to fix it, so some interesting things are going on regarding my future high school education, and I have no idea how it's going to turn out. So yeah, this'll be fun.

So anyway, back to the time at hand, which I suppose is now Saturday morning. I got up earlier than I otherwise would have, because AJ wanted to read me a science fiction story that was “the coolest thing ever.” But in the end, because he was packing at the last minute, I spent most of the morning playing Fire Emblem, and waiting for him to have free time, and then going to Lifehouse. So I never did get to hear the “coolest thing ever.”

Saturdays are always fun because we do two shows, with a dinner break in between. It also turned out that this particular Saturday night show was video night. And it also turned out that over the dinner break Matt was finally going to take me out to dinner and Starbucks and give me my birthday present. Which was a drink at Starbucks. But hey. It was fun anyway. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The first show went pretty well, all things considered. A few minor mishaps, I think, but nothing serious. And Maria and Dimyana came to see it, so that was cool. Maria told me that in Mr. Sowerberry I'd found my calling, and that I now have no choice but to become an undertaker when I grow up. So I told her that she has to be a genius when she grows up. So then came dinner break. Matt and I and a guy named Patrick went to Fazoli's, where Maria was to meet us after taking Dimyana home. After that we were supposed to meet Megan and a bunch of other Oliver people at Starbucks. Well, it turns out that Matt is a really slow eater. So we got to Starbucks right as everyone else was leaving. So basically we just got our stuff and rushed back to Lifehouse.

Naturally, the second show came after this. As I said, it was video night. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Lifehouse, video nights are jinxed, and something terrible simply has to happen. In Wizard of Oz, for example, they accidentally lit the Tin Man coming on stage, so it was pretty darn obvious he wasn't actually rusted solid. So in Oliver, they accidentally went to a blackout in the middle of a scene. So there'll be a random blackout on the video. Yay. That, and Fagin tripped over a certain shoe while entering, so there's a random shoe out in the middle of the stage for a while. Megan also invited me to go to Trinity during the show, then changed her mind and decided I should go next week instead.

So I went home and went to bed, then got up and went to Church yesterday. We talked about Thomas and his doubting the resurrection, which was interesting, but there wasn't really a whole lot I hadn't already thought of myself. It was nice to hear someone else confirming it, though. (And our group leader did say one funny thing: “Yeah, spending a week with Thomas probably weakened [the disciples'] faith in the resurrection. I mean, they see him, and they're all excited and pumped, and then Thomas comes along and goes 'You guys are idiots.'”)

Then we had Sunday's show. That was interesting. They were training an new tech guy, and someone had the following brilliant idea: “Hey! Let's train him during a show!!” So they did. We had a few blackouts where they weren't supposed to be, one that was supposed to last for more than double the time it did (interesting sight there, the audience saw Bill Sikes pulling Mr. Brownlow's house in half). And a song ended in the middle, then started up again, then a very important voice-over was a few seconds late. So yeah. Lots of fun stuff. Other than all that nightmareish stuff, however, it was a pretty good show. We (the actors and such) did fine. It was just the blasted tech crew.

So after the show I didn't really want to go home, because the previous week I had gone through Lifehouse withdraw, and I wasn't looking forward to it happening again. But there was nothing else to do, so I went home.

And sure enough, less than two hours later, I started missing everyone. *sigh* What's wrong with me? How is it even possible to miss people that soon after seeing them??

So yeah . . . I spent most of the rest of Sunday online talking to Megan and Rachel and Seth and Doug. And I think there was one other person. But I don't remember.

Then today I had to get up early for Dance, and I guess it was fine, but we “decided” (as in “were told”) that we were performing for a drama camp at Heartland tomorrow morning. So I have to get up AGAIN. *sigh* Sometimes life just sucks, doesn't it?

So I think that's pretty much it, then. So, onto comments we go (I skipped a few, sorry):

The whole Iceberg thing: Couldn't we bring it down with two big ships, one to move it and one to stop it? Then we wouldn't have to run it into the mountains. And we could use it to destroy the giant fire dude who's attacking us.

Cormack: Curses . . . I meant to do that. Sorry. The problem is that I don't know how long it's going to be until my next update . . . could be as few days as one, could be as many as 7. Who knows. Not I.

Eleanor: I would be honored to receive a letter from France to spice up my “mundane existence.”

Rachael: You know . . . I think that you, having been in only one show, should lay off on the derogatory comments about Lifehouse. As for the books, it's much easier for me not to read them and to read the books that Sarah crams down my throat. It's a lot easier to answer to you then to deal with her trying to kill me. And I am NOT a Communist. Megan and I actually had a very long and semi-intelligent discussion on that topic a while ago, and decided that I am not a Communist, despite what you may think.

Rae: Don't worry . . . “Cilla Anne” takes a bit of getting used to. I had trouble, too, the first few months after I first met her.

Rachael again: Yes, you knew it was David, and I knew it was David, but some people might not have known, and it was courteous of him to let them know. And I wasn't ignoring you, I happened to actually have stuff to DO.

Rae Again: Hey, what am I, chopped liver??