I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!

Well . . . it HAS been a while, hasn't it? You're probably wondering why it's been so long. Short answer: very little has happened.

Long answer: it's kind of difficult to write about the stuff that has been happening . . . shows and stuff. I mean, there's lots of stuff that happened, but it is either hard to describe or really inconsequential. It may have seemed important to me at the time, or been fun, or whatever, but it's difficult to write about. If you understand me.

So basically, this'll probably be a slightly shorter post than you're used to. Actually, from here on out (at least for a while), they'll probably be shorter, because less stuff will be happening, because Oliver will be closing this weekend *sob*

Come to think of it, my next post will probably be pretty long, containing an account of the final weekend and the cast party and what-not.

So anyway, after blogging last Monday, I did indeed install some STAR Torrey stuff. I didn't really accomplish much, actually, because I was in kind of a bad mood for some reason, and I couldn't get on to the program, and I was too frustrated to try to figure out why. So I installed it, but I didn't actually get it to work.

If I recall correctly, the rest of Monday was just sitting around wasting time and doing nothing. I'm trying to get lots of that in these last two weeks, because school starts next Tuesday *sob sob*

So pretty much that was the rest of the week, although on Tuesday I was able to get the STAR Torrey thing working. But yeah, I really didn't do much of anything. Actually it got kind of depressing as the week went on, because it began to feel like my life had no purpose. And because of some other stuff that I really don't feel like talking about.

I don't think anything else really happened until Friday, when we had fencing/stage combat. Doug joined the class, and Michael was there, so we had five people, and having uneven members isn't cool, because one is almost always doing nothing. For the most part, that one person was me or Doug.

Anyway, to start things off, they were teaching us fun things to do with rifles. They taught us various disarms and ways to actually dis-arm the person who is holding the rifle. It was a great feeling knowing that if I pushed just a little harder, I could break Michael's arm. I've always wanted to do that :P There were also some cool things involving broken necks, jaws, and ending up with a bullet in your stomach. Fun stuff.

Then David and Josh started doing . . . something, I don't remember what. Michael decided it might be cool to teach Doug and me how to defend against someone attacking us with a belt. That was cool, too, knowing that if I pulled just a little harder, I could choke Michael.

In case you can't tell, I like the idea of causing immense pain to Michael. He's one of the people that is on my list of people to kill. . . . Hey, wait a sec, I didn't just say that, did I? Curses . . . well, there goes my secret . . . okay, well, I'd explain it, but I'm not very good at it. But I suppose that the maybe one or two of you who didn't know I was evil know it now :P

ANYWAY, after a while of working with the belt, Josh suggested that he and I and Doug work on fencing. I, liking fencing, thought that sounded cool. So we were working on that for a while, and it was cool, because I was better than Doug :P It's amazing how quickly your arm get tired, though. I mean, you pick up the sword, and it's like, “oh, wow, this is really light,” and then you fight for like ten minutes and you're like, “AAAAH!! This thing is HEAVY!!” Of course, it was better this week than last time, so I'm sure eventually I won't even really notice, but . . . it really starts to hurt after a while. And you get hand cramps.

But it was fun. And Josh taught me and David some cool guards that I never knew existed. I'm discovering that there's a LOT of stuff I didn't know existed. And there's also some cool little thingies that seem to serve no purpose, but actually do. It's fun stuff.

At about 5:15 or so, they started working on flips, and I wanted to join in (or at least watch David trying to flip himself), but I had to go eat. So I went out to the back patio and had a lonely dinner, then came back and joined the arriving Oliver cast. I had an interesting discussion with Amanda about “balancing” the Force.

Eventually Wayne showed up and we started the pre-show meeting. I don't recall anything really interesting happening on Friday night or Saturday afternoon, but I'll give an account of the dinner break on Saturday because I feel like it.

As usual, I was staying at Lifehouse, and I went out back, and Jake and Josh B. and Taylor and Jazzi were already there. So we went through the usual . . . sitting eating and talking about how awful Taylor and I are. Then Jake found a 3-month-old apple in his knapsack, which was really gross . . . Then Davis and Raven came in and started talking about random stuff, and it got disturbing so I went inside. (Taylor went inside, too, but I didn't want to say “Taylor and I went inside” because then it would sound like we went in together.) I deposited my dinner stuff in the dressing room (and yes, Megan, it was all eaten and drunk, there was nothing left to make Wayne angry), then went into the rehearsal hall seeking company. I found Taylor and someone else (I think it was Spaghetti, but I'm not sure), and we were talking for a while, then a bunch of other people came back and they joined in. Then it was time for our pre-show meeting, and then the show.

Now, you should know that I'm keeping score of how many times I hit Nick and Megan with the shoes. At that time, it was 6-2, Nick-Megan. So I was getting frustrated because I hadn't hit Megan since like the Friday after opening. And so I was determined to hit her. And she walked by me right before that scene (on her way to her entrance) and said something to the general effect of “Nyaah nyaah nyaah, you can't hit me.” So I, of course, replied with “You are going down.”

The scene came. They did the dance. Nick yelled “this life's for me!!” I came out of the window, cocked my arm back, and let fly. BOOM. I hit Megan in the shin. It was all I could do to stop myself from celebrating right then onstage. Megan snarled at me a bit more than usual.

Nick yelled at me, saying, “Yeah? I dare you to try that again, you cranky old bloke!” I tried it again. BOOM. I hit Nick's arm. After the last few seconds of the scene, I retreated back into my window. I sighed. A perfect scene. 7-3. After the scene, when Megan came off stage, she came back and “yelled” (in quotes because we have to be quiet backstage) at me for hitting her.

The rest of the show was pretty uneventful, actually somewhat of a let-down after that. I mean, you just can't beat Townsman whacking both Bet and Dodger (ironically) with thrown shoes.

Anyway, let's jump to Sunday, shall we? Naturally, the day began with a trip to church. If you didn't know, my church always begins with a breakfast. So at breakfast, dad was pouring himself a cup of coffee, and as he was lifting the coffee pitcher (I know they have a name but I can't remember), the lip of it hit the cup. The cup tipped over. The coffee spilled all over the counter and began to drip onto the floor. It was pretty funny. So Dad goes through this whole thing and cleans it up. Then he moves to the other side of the counter and pours himself another cup of coffee, and he takes a sip. Then Josh V., who is reaching for a pen to label his cup, knocks it over. The coffee spills all over the counter and the floor and Dad's shorts. Twice in as many minutes. Everybody started cracking up (except Josh, who felt pretty bad about staining Dad's shorts).

After that breakfast went without incident, and then it was time for worship. Our worship leaders are away, and since our reserve worship leader lives in Fullerton (*cough cough*), we had to think of something else. But Brian (who leads our church) found these cool worship DVDs. It's basically a worship band playing the worship songs, but it's done like a kid's sing-along tape, but it's worship songs with really cool pictures of mountains and stuff behind it (and “God of Wonders” had cool pictures of outer space). They were pretty cool.

So then we had sharing time, then began the study. We talked about the passage where Jesus appears to the disciples while they were fishing. There was some interesting stuff in there. Like when Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?,” in the Greek, Peter changes the wording in his answer of “you know I love you.” It goes from God's love (in the question) to a friend's love (in Peter's answer). Which I thought was interesting. We went on about that for a little while, but I don't feel like going into it for some reason. Ask me later if you want to know.

Upon finishing the study, we had to leave immediately to insure that we got to Lifehouse on time. So we went through the Wendy's drivethrough to get me lunch, and took off. We did end up making it on time. And we did something interesting at Lifehouse. Instead of a standard open prayer time, John went around the room and had everyone say one thing (at least) that they were thankful for, and one thing (at least) that they wanted God to bless. Which was pretty cool. Kind of scary to, when Melody mentioned that she was thankful that she didn't die last week. 'Cause she had some kind of fluid loose in her somewhere, and she said that the doctors told her that people have died from the problem she had. So it was cool to know that she didn't die. (I mean, I already knew that, obviously, but hopefully you know what I mean.)

The show went pretty well. The cast party was supposed to be on Sunday, but Steve changed it to next week (which was good, since I haven't even blocked my skit yet). So we didn't have the cast party. And again, the only interesting thing that happened happened in the shoe scene. Before I throw the shoes, I'm supposed to yell at Dodger and Bet to be quiet. So I'm up there in my window (behind the curtains), listening to the song and getting into my angry character. Then I happen to glance off to the side of the stage, where Bill Sikes enters moments later. And there's Jason, decked out in his full murderer's attire, dancing to the song like an idiot. With the perfect stupid smile on his face. I started cracking up. Right before I had to yell at Nick and Megan. I had to stretch my acting abilities to the max just to keep a straight face, and farther than ever before to actually be angry. In the end, I was only able to do it by being angry at Jason for making my life so hard. The second before I said my line I said to myself, “I'm gonna kill Jason.” But it was soooooo funny.

One thing I've found is that it's really interesting to observe characters as the people who play them. For example, in stage combat class, Josh and Michael were trying to figure out some gun takeaway, and I happened to be standing in the angle that made it look real. So I watch as Josh has a thoughtful look on his face as he gets whacked in the head with a rifle ten times. It's hilarious.

Anyway, after the show, Megan happened to be next to me and said that she was going to Oklahoma (like, immediately), and that I should go. She dragged me offstage, totally bewildered, and explained it to me. So I thought, “Ah, what the heck? I know half the cast anyway.” So I went back and got changed and stuff, then remembered that Dad was preaching at The River that night. I didn't have to go, but Mom had said she was going, so I would have no ride to Oklahoma. Which kind of made me unhappy, because I had just begun to get excited about going. So then I was talking to Megan, asking her if she could give me a ride. As it turned out, she wasn't even sure if she was going. So she said, “Maybe.”

In the end, she couldn't give me a ride, although she could go. So I was unable to go, and was rather sad when I got home. I didn't blame Mom or anything, I was just disappointed that I didn't get to go. So I'm at home doing something (catching up on the weekend's bloggings, I think), and all of a sudden Megan appeared on my iChat buddy list. And I was like, “What the heck??” And I IMed her, saying just that, and it turned out that her parents suddenly decided that she could go. So neither of us went, and we complained about it to one another for a while.

Then I spent most of the rest of the night watching Return of the Jedi as a substitute. Afterwards, it was like 9:30, so I decided to go on the computer for the last half an hour (only 'til ten because I had to get up for dance on Monday). Then I got talking to AJ, and I went to bed at like 1:30. I was talking so someone else, too, but I don't remember who it was.

Then I finally went to bed and got up at 8, and was very tired. As a result, I hit my snooze alarm more than once, and was running late. Which was not good, since David was picking me up to take me. So I was rushing through breakfast, afraid that he would ring the doorbell at any moment, when the phone rang, and it was David, telling me that they too were running late. So it all worked out fine, for me at least.

Dance was fun, nothing really out of the ordinary happened, I don't think, other than my suggesting that David and I practice quarterstaffing with a big stick that was lying there, but he declined.

Speaking of which, I think I forgot to mention it, but Josh taught me the basics of quarterstaff fighting at fencing, and AJ was right. They do rock. Hopefully I'll get to work with them a bit more next week (anything to have an excuse to swing something heavy at David's head . . . GWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!).

Anyway, back to the present, I think the rest of yesterday passed without incident. As did much of today. But at 12:30 today the STAR Torrey Academy had a second Breeze test (the program they use for the online stuff), to insure that everyone's mic was working. You may recall that in the last Breeze test, mine wasn't. Today, it was working, but I was breaking up terribly. So I had to stay late with two other guys to figure out why. In the end, it turned out that I simply had not configured the program properly, and after I did it worked fine. Yay.

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that all that stuff I said about this being a shorter entry at the beginning was a load of crap. You're right. It took a lot longer than I expected. In any case, on to comments:

Eleanor: Well, of course, I can never compare the darkness of my blog to yours' pure light. It's just that mine is superior to Stephen's, because mine is on blogger. : )

Rae: Well of course it was fun seeing the show! I was in it!! :P Seriously, though, I'm happy you enjoyed it.

Megan: The conversation about communism, and who is a communist and who isn't . . . I assume you remember it.

Rachael: No, I do not count the number of posts, blogger does it automatically. And no, I've never seen “Miss Congeniality 2.” I've never even seen the first one.

Stephen: “Sith Happens” . . . that ROCKS!!!! I WANT THAT SHIRT!!! And how, pray tell, would I retrieve this conversation if I never saved it? (And yay for Star Wars freaks!!)

Rachael again: Thank you, thank you. And Megan, just so you know, if Rachael's mom says you have a good voice, then you have a good voice. And no, I'm not aware of a way I can give you folks spellcheck. You'll just have to proofread everything yourselves.