Esther, Esther, Hebrew girl of righteous sovereignty . . .

Okay, okay, I'm SORRY ALREADY!!!!! You people are so demanding . . . ah, the struggles of a writer . . .

I'm fully aware that it has been two weeks. But you all just ASSUME that I have nothing else to do but blog. Which . . . is . . . usually true. But not this time! This time I've actually been very busy. Not a WHOLE lot to write about, mostly Esther rehearsals (and opening, woot woot!). But since all of you are longing so for an update, here it is.

After coming home from the Train Station, not a whole lot of special stuff happened, although Esther rehearsals were progressing nicely. They also mentioned that they have now done away with cast cleanup (woot woot again), and replaced it with a cast work day, in which the cast comes and helps John (and Randy, in this case) with the set. And since several of you at least probably don't know, John is the guy who does the sets for Lifehouse.

So yeah . . . rehearsals were pretty normal (or as normal as rehearsals can be), and we got the show finished and were just running running running (like a constipated wiener dog . . . *ahem*). On Friday night, they had a sign-up sheet for the work day, to tell what time we'd be there. I was planning on going at like 2 PM or so, but Sarah asked (rather forcefully) me to do it at 10 AM, because she didn't want to be the only person there. After much complaining and whining on my part, I consented, and signed up for 10-12.

It was actually quite fun. I was given the assignment of painting an arch. I was given a roller, some paint, and a gigantic cover-all. I learned a very valuable life lesson that day: Styrofoam is NOT easy to paint. Especially when it has weird little other-foam thingies on it that resist paint.

Or then again, maybe it's just me. But either way, it was difficult. But it was fun anyway (I've always enjoyed painting stuff, even though I'm terrible at it). Sarah was also assigned to painting an arch, and so we had a long conversation about many things (like fun things you can do in chemistry . . . like burn down a house . . .).

So that was pretty much that. After working, I went home and was pretty bored all day. I went online, hoping to talk to some interesting people, only to find that no one was online. Not even online and away, no one was even online. All sithin' day. It made me sad. I said to myself, “since when do any of my friends have anything better to do than sit at the computer all day??” But anyway, I pretty much spent the day wishing that people were online to talk to (I was really bored for some reason), and playing Madden.

Then Sunday came, and I got up and went to church. *shudder* Now, I usually enjoy church. But this Sunday (10/16) was the most boring service I've ever been to in my life . . . We had a lady come to talk to us who had gone to Texas to help with hurricane victims. She was given 15 minutes to summarize her trip. She stood up at maybe 10:30. She sat down at 12:30. 15 minutes would've been interesting. 2 hours was infuriating. And to any of you who know my dad, to show you just HOW boring it was, Dad actually stood up and left the room halfway through it and went and stood in the kitchen doing nothing, and had a better time than he'd had in the other room. And this is DAD doing this. I mean, if I did it, it wouldn't be a huge deal (in regards to showing how boring it was), or Josh, or even mom, but seeing Dad do that . . . yeah. It was awful. Mr. Von Helf joined him a bit later.

The stories could even have been interesting, but the lady was so incredibly disorganized, and not really a good public speaker . . . not to mention that she could've used a slice or two of humble pie, if you get my drift . . .

So anyway, yeah, that wasn't a whole lot of fun. Then we went home, and I watched football for a little while, then went to check my email and such (I didn't feel like blogging on Saturday or Sunday, since probably you folks will pounce on me about that . . . not to mention that there really wasn't enough to write a full update about). So anyway, I go on the computer, and STILL no one is online. Not even away. Just completely offline. “Grr,” says I.

So Sunday afternoon was pretty much the same as Saturday. Then came Monday. The start of the special time each show . . . that wonderful time when we all say good-bye to our families for a week . . . that fabulous time when we stew in three-layer costumes while Wayne and whoever the director is give notes for an hour . . . that joyous time when we all spend 5-6 hours each day at Lifehouse . . . yes. It was Heck Week.

But before I get into that, the daytime. School took up much of it, which was not cool. However, I started reading a very . . . special book. And by “special,” I mean “good but extremely disturbing at the same time.” It's called Descent into Hell, by Charles Williams. And perhaps I find it more disturbing than it really is. Who knows. Not I.

In any case, I started reading that on Monday, and then I finished school (I was reading the book for school), and went to check my email and blogs and such in the short amount of time I had before rehearsal. STILL no one online. At this point, I'm rather suspicious. One day is one thing. Three is another thing altogether. Especially over a weekend. My friends don't even have lives during the week. So I began to investigate . . . to see if maybe I accidentally told it not to separate my buddy list by availability or something.

Boy, I really outdid myself this time. In going through the preferences, I discovered the reason no one had been online all weekend. I had somehow (I have no idea how or when) managed to block every single person on my buddy list. Every single one of 'em. *sigh*

Anyway, rehearsal came rather quickly. We didn't have all of our costumes yet, so we just had a normal rehearsal, rather than a dress rehearsal. As far as I recall, it went pretty well. But I didn't have the prop that I had so longed for (which I won't say what it is, because that might possibly take away a bit from the show for those of you who haven't seen it . . . probably not, but you can't be too safe).

Tuesday was more of the same. Nothing really special, other than spending a LOT of time at Lifehouse. Still no prop.

Wednesday was the first ever dress rehearsal. I knew that my Haman's Guard costume was awesome, but unfortunately I discovered that I only wear that in a few scenes. For most of the scenes I'm just your average, every day, friendly neighborhood Persian. Which would have been fine, but for the fact that the costume had no shirt. It took me a minute to realize why. I was supposed to go shirtless, with just pants and a vest. I was unhappy about this. But I had no choice.

So the show went pretty well, considering it was our first time with costumes. Although I swear that one day that rope is going to kill me . . . and again, I cannot elaborate for fear of ruining something (gosh I love creating suspense :-D). You'll all find out, I'm sure, when you come see it. And to any who have seen it (aka David, I don't think anyone else who comments has seen it), who DO know what the rope is, not a word out of you. Don't ruin one of the most awesome moments (in my opinion) of the show.

Also, at the end of rehearsal, Wayne made the welcome announcement that he didn't like seeing twenty shirtless guys on stage. Megan (the costumer, not the one that reads this) said that we should go buy black tank tops to wear under the vests. I did, the next day.

Then came Thursday, again a rather normal day. Mom and I went to Fun Corner to buy make-up . . . remind me to never again buy make-up there for a show running during Halloween. It was very crowded. And that place is bad enough without lots of little kids running around. *shudder*

Rehearsal was, again, nothing overly special, although two of our future lighting people came to watch the rehearsal (for the two of you who know who they are, it was Nick and Lauren). Nick sat in a 15 seat. I got to harass him. It was fun.

Then, after rehearsal, Wayne was giving notes. He said that it was great being able to give “picky notes this early in the week” . . . on Thursday . . . which kind of scared me . . .

Then came Friday. On Friday morning, there was dance, as usual. I took Descent into Hell to read during ballet. I read like two pages in 45 minutes. It was pathetic. 'Cause they were all talking about things I was somewhat knowledgeable about (such as Esther), so I felt a need to participate in the conversation. Not like there was no one else in the dance class who knew about Esther . . . Sarah and Dimyana are both in my dance class and Esther, but hey. Anything to get out of doing school, right? (Although at the time I was actually somewhat obsessed with Descent into Hell . . . as disturbing as it is, it's an interesting story, and I was very curious to see how it ended. I was actually kind of disappointed when I finally got there . . . but that's a whole other conversation.)

So then, after dance, I went home and did school. Then, before I knew it, it was time for fencing. I got to Lifehouse about five-ten minutes late. (Stupid lines at Subway . . . they take forever. But I made a big difference in the “sandwich artist”s life . . . he said it was nice of me to ask how he was, and acknowledge that he was a human being . . . and he made a big deal about it and it took him like five minutes before he got around to asking what I wanted . . .) Even being late, I was the third one there. David was late (not surprising), and Josh was early (not surprising), and Megan was there (which WAS surprising). And this is the Megan who reads this, not the costumer. So she was working with Josh (or more Josh was working with her) learning about the basic stuff, while I just did moulets (or however you spell it . . . French word, pronounced moo-lay) and swoops and stuff while I waited for David or Michael to arrive so I could actually fight someone . . . finally Michael showed up, and then Josh and Michael switched places, and I fought Josh until David finally got there (twenty minutes late).

Once David got there, the two of us started slaving over our special sword-and-knife fight that we've been working on for the past several weeks. So that was fun . . . we actually made it through the whole fight without actually hurting the other person. It was the first time we'd been able to do that (and I've got the scars to prove it . . .).

We worked on that for a while, and then Josh and David started working on some physical fighting, and I was fencing with Megan for a while (no serious injuries to either one of us). Then 5:30 rolled around, and it was time for me to eat and head inside to the rehearsal. Sarah was there doing homework, so she agreed to eat with me, so that I wouldn't be all alone. Megan was supposed to leave at 5:30, but her ride wasn't there, so she also ate with us . . . well, she didn't really eat (except the Doritos that Sarah didn't want), but she was there.

Then it was time for rehearsal. I walked into the theater to find Debra and Taylor making my prop!! The prop that I had so longed for!! It made me very happy. Then we started rehearsal, and I think it went pretty well . . . they let us go home at like 9:45, so it couldn't have gone too bad . . .

Then. Saturday. Opening day. But since Esther is such a short show, Wayne told us we didn't have to be there until two. So I went out to breakfast with David, and it took a bit longer than I expected, and I was a few minutes late to Lifehouse.

Then our final rehearsal started, and I think it went really well. There really isn't much to tell. Over the dinner break, I stayed at Lifehouse (as usual), and ate with Sarah and the Tierces. Then I went onside, and was hanging out with Sarah in the make-up hall, when Rebekah Tierce walks in and says, “hey Mark, Taylor told me to bug you.” So she spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to bug me (she succeeded, too, although I made a point of not doing anything to her, knowing that she was just the messenger).

Then it was call time. The excitement began to rise. I asked Taylor what her motive for having Rebekah bug me was. She said, “well, I was walking by the make-up hall, and I thought 'I wonder if Mark might like to be annoyed right now.'” So she sent in Rebekah to make me happy.

After prayer and warm-ups and such, I had quite a long time between when I was ready for the show to start and when it actually started. So I was just hanging out backstage . . . and soundly got back at Taylor for having Rebekah annoy me . . . but I'll be nice and not publish it. If you REALLY want to know, you can ask me in private. That way she can't get mad at me for publishing it on the internet.

Anyway, for some reason I wasn't really all that excited about opening. I still don't really know why. A lot of people were depressed because Dustin (the director, if you don't remember) was leaving the next day for New York, where he got a job, so he won't see us again. *sniff sniff tear tear* I was kinda depressed about that myself, but I don't know Dusting as well as some cast members, so I didn't think that that was the whole reason I wasn't overly excited.

Then came the fateful call: “Places!” All of a sudden, I was really excited. I walked to my first entrance (saw Nathan on the way . . . told him to make sure his costume didn't pull the fire alarm :-P). Then the overture played. The lights went out. And the show began. It went really well, although Tedd (King Xerxes) messed up a line. But other than that it went well. Really not a whole lot can be said.

Then it was time for the traditional after-opening party at Denny's. Mother and I took Sarah, and we were the first ones there. We were joined shortly thereafter by Taylor (J. . . . not little female Taylor, big male Taylor). Then a little later female Taylor got there, and Matt, and Kelsey and Rachel . . . and lots of other people. But those were the folks sitting around me. We had lots of fun times doing stupid things . . . like playing rock-paper-scissors slap, and watching Taylor and Matt play paper football with a sugar packet. And I got a new expletive out of it! I'd been looking for something to say instead of “crap,” because everyone says that. I'd been saying “Cavarno,” but several people told me not to be mean to the person who's name that is, so I stopped. And anyway, at Denny's, I said “crap,” and Taylor (having one of her frequent blonde moments) said, “what? What the heck does cran mean??” So now “cran” is the word. So if you hear (or see) me saying it, you'll know what it means.

So after lots of silliness and randomness (and whacking), it was time to go home. So I did. Well, actually, I called mom, and she came and took me home. So then it was bed time. Since I was up so late on Saturday night, Mom told me I could sleep in on Sunday, so I did. Then I got up and started watching the Eagles game (final score: Eagles 20, Chargers 17, woot woot yet again). And at 12:30, it was time to depart for Lifehouse and do it all again.

Sunday's show also went well, Maria and Cedric and Carly were in the audience, so it was really responsive for a Sunday audience. Oh, and Cavarno was there, too. Although I think she might have been running lights. I'm really not sure. In any case, it was a good audience, and the show went well, too . . . although Shane missed his palace rounds, and I had to do it for him . . . humph.

So anyway . . . yeah. That's pretty much my life recently. Nothing much has happened this week, although . . . well I suppose I COULD go into what happened at debate . . . but this is already running a bit long.

So I'll just say: Disadvantages in debate ROCK. The guy who was teaching us about them was able to prove (in his DA) that if Ayla (a girl in debate . . . he was just using her as an example) eats McDonalds often, the entire American economy will collapse. It was so cool. Actually, it was kind of scary, but it was still cool.

Now, I'm sure that you all have had the Death Star content in your blood returned to healthy levels. So I shall advance to comments, and close there.

Okay . . . well, most of the comments don't really require replies . . . so I'm skipping quite a few.

Cormack: Well, hey . . . some of us don't have lives, and can spend time writing 6-page long updates, as evidenced by the one you just read. :-)

Eleanor: Yes, I rather liked the baseball scene, too . . . it was awesome, 'cause there were like 8 or 9 guys, and then there was this one girl who was like totally out of place . . . it was awesome.

Rae: Wait . . . Kyle read ALL of them? Like, all 52 or so?? Wow . . . and I thought I had no life . . .

(Final count: Pages: 6 Words: 3292)

Training for college: a stupid pun

Well. The time has come, I suppose. Time to write a new blog entry. Now that I've officially chased everyone away by lack of posting . . . but it really isn't (entirely) my fault. I really have had very little free time lately.

Since I have like 4-5 weeks to catch up on, I'm going to skip all the minor little things and just get the three big things: seeing Ragtime, seeing Round Table (twice), and my weekend at the Train Station.

Before I get into that, since the primary thing in my life is Esther right now, just figured I'd say a few things about that. First: it's going well. Second: it's going to be AWESOME. Third: so y'all better come see it, or I'll be forced to resort to violence.

Oh! And when you come to see it, sit either in A 7-8 (to get pounded by the guards chasing Haman . . . and have Justin thrown into you) or 15 of almost any row (so that I can harass you).

Okay. Onto the big stuff.

First, Ragtime. A few weeks ago, I went with much of my dance class (minus Sarah, David, and Katrina and plus parents and Maria) to see a play called Ragtime at Performance Riverside. It was the story of a black man's struggle against death and injustice, and a story of the fight for equal rights, and other cheesy stuff like that.

It was really good, though. The choreography wasn't astounding, but the acting was really good. Or perhaps I was just too busy paying attention to the acting to really notice most of the choreography. But it didn't strike me as overly impressive.

And of course, like all good plays, it had a real car that was driven across the stage. Okay, so maybe it wasn't a real car. But it LOOKED like a real car, and it didn't look like there was any other way it was moving . . . unlike the Wardrobe, which had one door that mysteriously never opened. And guns. Ragtime had quite a few guns. At least like four people got shot. And one person beaten to death. And there was almost a huge explosion, but the main character saw reason a few minutes too early for that.

It was also surprisingly funny for a show of that type. There was one scene where a white guy wanted to help a gang of black people, so he went to their hideout place and was talking to the head guy (who also happened to be the main character), and there was a whole big song about how he (the white guy) wanted to say how he thought a great injustice had been done, how black people should have rights, and all this heroic stuff. But in the end, all he said was, “I know how to blow stuff up.”

Of course, that's probably not funny at all in writing. Get over it. Come see Esther. It'll more than make up for it.

So yeah. That was pretty much that. Afterwards, the Pelevs and Maria had to leave, but the Anackers and Mom and I went out to dinner at CBU (a weird place to eat, true, but it was actually really good). And, like every other parent in the world, the Anackers asked me how I like the “Biola thing,” which got us talking about books, which is always an interesting discussion with the Anackers (and I mean that in a good way).

Anyway, the next day, we went to see Round Table at Lifehouse. It's about a bunch of “quotable notables” (a Wayne phrase if ever one existed) who come from the past and have a long conversation.

Many people find it boring. I find it fascinating. Act I was Socrates, Martin Luther, Sigmund Freud, and Florence Nightingale. It consisted mainly of Luther and Freud debating, but the other two put their two cents in here and there. I personally found it extremely interesting (one thing Wayne's good at is doing his research, and the characters were very accurate) and very clever. There were also a few funny moments, such as when Socrates says to Freud, “You were so rejected in your own day that you had trouble finding work,” and Freud replies, “Yes. And you were so rejected in your day that you were executed.”

The second act wasn't as interesting, but I still liked it. It was Galileo Galilei (sp?), Charles Darwin, and Theodore Roosevelt. I was impressed with the second act, however, because Wayne actually allowed there to be a cuss word. I was astounded.

The highlight of the second act was actually when Galileo was talking about gravity. He had a gun, and was aiming it at Daniel (the sound tech) and talking about how long it'd take him to shoot and kill him. It was hilarious.

And actually, I just remembered something else that happened before the Train Station. We had Lit. Club last Friday. We were doing To Kill a Mockingbird, and I had forgotten all about it until that Sunday, so I had read the book in four days, and was happy that I finally got to see the long week of trudging through it (although, for the record, it was an awesome book, it's just that I was reading it practically non-stop all week) conclude in the Lit. Club. Seven o'clock (the starting time) comes and goes. No one shows up. Seth comes at about 7:09. Seth hadn't read the book (he'd had even less time to do so than me, so he just saw the movie). More waiting. Micah comes at about 7:14. Micah hadn't quite been able to finish the book, although he got most of the way through it. More waiting. More waiting. At 7:35, no one else has come. Dad decides that we'll do the book next time instead (much to my anger . . . I read the book in four days for nothing!!!!). But, so that Seth and Micah didn't come all that way for nothing, Dad felt that we had to do something. So we watched X-Men instead of discussing the book. It was a really good movie, but I don't feel like reviewing it, so I won't. But it was good.

Okay. That brings me to my weekend at the Train Station. If there are any out there who don't know, the Train Station is my brother's (and his friends') apartments (two — one for guys, one for girls). For this, I'm going to steal an idea of Megan's that I liked. I'm not going to go into detail about each little thing that happened, like I usually do, but instead I'm going to summarize it all in a long list of memorable moments and phrases. Here goes (and Megan, you can't kill me, because I gave you credit):

AJ late picking me up.
The “Man-walk.”
A girlfriend for AJ.
A long, serious discussion about family.
The “evil Anakin face.”
The secret attic.
66 different hugging combinations.
The Frog of Judgment.
Fun with AJ's camera phone and Jessica's hair.
A painful metal bar in the small of my back.
Bedtime: 4:00 AM.
Time to get up: 12:02 PM.
Weird bowls for cereal.
Mass cell-phone phonebook purging.
6 degrees of Kevin Bacon/Star Wars characters.
Star Wars violence.
Shooting myself in the head 11 times.
Unknowingly charging alone into the enemy stronghold.
Dying many, many times.
Yummy Dutch Pancakes.
More Star Wars violence.
Yummy chocolate Dutch Pancakes.
An inch between the dirty dishes and the faucet.
Stephen practicing throwing his sheath.
“Get out of the tree!!”
The Frog of Judgment - in the flesh.
Telepathically throwing cows around.
Stephen nearly killing Jessica.
Easy Mac.
Concept 6 wanting to sell CDs.
A weird flute-thingy.
Tuning a ukulele.
Breaking a ukulele while tuning it.
“Gap-a-goo.”
A completely black grilled cheese sandwich.
A not-so-black but just-as-ruined grilled cheese sandwich.
Yummy dessert crepes.
“I'd have thought that ultimate darkness would be more like” *kwosh* “That?”
“Benton . . . I'm going to have to turn you into a dog for a while.”
Doug's black shoes.
The gum-chewing aisle.
Farewell to the Train Station.

Many thanks go out to AJ, Stephen, Doug, Faye, Rae, and Jessica for their hospitality, to AJ for inviting me, to Stephen for letting me blow things up, to Doug for his shoes, to Faye for looking for AJ's g/f, to Rae for her fabulous cooking, and to Jessica for her hair, and of course for saving us from the Frog.

And I apologize if you wanted something a bit longer . . . but it was either this, or wait another day.

Sorry . . .

Okay, everyone, I know I keep telling you that my posting will get more regular, and it never does. One day, one glorious day, I'll actually have time to post regularly. But I have had very very VERY little free time the past two weeks.

And although I may have misunderstood some comment conversation, I have no intention of permanently discontiniuing either deep thoughts OR regular journal-like entries. I simply have no time to write either of them at the moment.

Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps Sunday, I'll finally have time and get y'all up to speed. But until such a time as that, I really am sorry. Farewell for now.