skylark913

I'm currently going through the process of applying anywhere and everywhere looking for a job.  Any one have any suggestions of where to apply or know anywhere that's hiring?  I'll be spending today out looking for work and filling out applications.  It's a pity college degrees don't count for anything anymore... 

 Diego and Velcro are getting along so well.  Here's some pictures of my boys:

Was awake at 6am.  ravin_raven and I are meeting up with a few other rennies to go to the Skull Session.

 *yawns*   
over and out

 So, it's been awhile since my last update (btw, I will eventually finish posting the rest of my Greenwich entries).  Things have been going rather well.

I'm all moved into my new apartment.  ravin_raven and I have a spiffy set-up.  We're still getting organized and settled in, but things are going well.  We got really lucky and didn't end up losing power during the wind storm.  I'm excited for when we have people over to socialize.  I brought Velcro (adorable kitteh) up this morning.  He traveled surprisingly well.  He talked to me almost the whole way up, but wasn't crying too bad or scratching at his carrier overly much.  He in my room now, hiding under the bed and won't come out, but I didn't really expect any different, since he's in a completely new place now and is prolly scared because everything is new to him and nothing smells right.   As long as I put his food and water at the edge of the bed he's still eating and drinking, so that's good.  Hopefully he'll adjust soon, and then he can start getting used to Amanda.  It takes him a few weeks to warm up to a new person, but once he does he's really sweet.  

I got my first tip on my Brown Belt yesterday.   That makes me 1st gup now.  Just one more tip, then Black Belt, yay!  Tanner was the one who tested me, which was nice because he's the one who's seen me train the most and knows where all my mistakes are.  And he's the one who I'm going to be training with for the next year anyways.  The test went about as I expected.  All of my self-defense work was excellent (Tanner said I made him hurt :)) because that's what I train the most.  It's what would be the most useful of all the training if I were actually attacked.  I think I surprised Tanner on my second baseball bat defense. I just jump inside the overhead swing, grab the arm and throw him right right over my hip.  I think it's the only throw I've actually legitimately been able to execute on someone who's bigger than me. :) My forms had some detail work that needs to be touched up, and I could have done them better.  Kicks were about as I expected.  Some of them were alright, but with my knee my spinning kicks and idan (jumping) kicks weren't great, but that's not something I can really fix.  

Now I'm just waiting for school to start.  This is my last quarter, and I'm ready to be done.  I'm taking Yoga, English 581 (African American Lit), English 578 (a film class on the Sopranos), and Edu T&L 589 (field experience in teaching).  Hopefully it won't be too bad, even with taking three 500 level classes.  I'm going to be working in the Mail Room at the pharmacy again this quarter, and beginning to look for a job that can continue thru the winter and spring.  I'll also be observing in a school and tutoring 3 times a week for my T&L class.  

I'm excited for guild to start this year.  Partly because I've missed the socialization and partly because I love the group for itself.  I'm going to be the herald this year for Faire.  Not a terribly involved role, since I'm sure how involved I'll be able to be after I graduate.  It should be a lot of fun.  I'm also going to be Garb Mistress this year, so we'll see how that goes.  I'm kind of nervous about that, but I think as long as the older Rennies help out too that it'll be alright.  Things'll be starting up next week, so that's not too long to wait.

Things with Thom are wonderful.  He helped me to move in and since I've been back from England we've been seeing each other on and off.  He doesn't move in until Sunday, since he's in the dorms again this year.  It'll be interesting to see how much we get to see of each other this quarter, since our schedules seem to fit together like puzzle pieces.  It's all good though.  

I think that's all for now.  Laters!

August 9

I didn't wake up until 1pm today.  It was gross and rainy, so I hung about inside during the day.  I started packing my souvineers and that kind of thing.  I'm glad I packed an extra duffel bag, because I think I'll need it for some of my clothes.  The rest of the day I talked to Thom and watched movies.

Once people got back from London Lindsey, Jenn, Andrea and I went into Greenwich to find food before the What?Fest!  We went to an Italian place on the corner.  The food was amazing and the dessert was better.  It was pretty expensive, but totally worth it.

Then we headed to the Auctioneer for What?Fest!  The first band and a half was saw weren't great, but the last badn, Minus IQ, was really good.  When they were done we got up and danced (to the Killers).  I also had a tasty drink, Strongbow and blackcurrent.

August 8

I had every intention of going to the National Gallery today, but I got to Trafalgar Square to find a festival going on in honor of the 2008 Olympics.  The opening ceremony is today.  This festival seems more interesting.

There was a traditional and modern Chinese dance show telling the story of the creation of the universe.  It was really cool.  They had the elderly members of a Tai Chi school do the traditional Tai Chi at the end of the performance with scrolls, while the younger members took liberties with the art and wore white and colorful costumes instead of the black tai chi uniform.

The show was followed by the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics in Trafalgar Square on a huge big-screen TV.  The show was really cool and amazing to watch that many people all working together.  Harmony.  Watching the teams march in is rather interesting.  It makes me realize again how multi-cultural London is.  Little pockets of people cheer for whatever individual country is walking in.  And everyone boos everytime George W. Bush is shown on screen.  I'm not surprised at all, as I join in heartily.

After growing tired of the Parade of nations I went over to the National Gallery.  I followed the short tour that Peter had planned for us.  It was remarkable.  My favorite spice was probably "The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein the Younger.  It had a distorted skull in it that you could only see at the right proportions from the far right side of the painting.  Kinda trippy.

I stopped in Halyceon Books on the way back to Greenwich.  They had what looked like original copies of _Pilgrim's Progress_ and very old copies of _When You Were Very Young_ (some of the Winnie the Pooh stories), dedicated to Christopher Robin.

We went out to Weatherspoon's for pitchers of Pimm's.  So tasty.  I'm going to have to see about getting Pimm's at home.  Gin and Lemonade, but their lemonade is carbonated, so maybe more like Gin and Sprite?  Anyways, then we went to Club W and danced 'til 2 in the morning.

August 6

Today we had a tour of the National Theater.  It's really cool how they're sponsered by the government so they have money for all the sweet sets and can hire their own people to work on site.  It's cool how it allows those artists to actually have...jobs.

They do this thing with the stages that allows them to have 3 shows running because the can just push the sets around.  It's called a repetoir system.  We got to see some of the props the've used in past plays.  We saw one of the horse puppets that was goign ot be used in _Warhorse_.  I'm really sad the show starts after we leave, but I do want to read the book.  I liked the smallest theater we saw because everything in it moves, even the seats.  That means you can configure the stage however you want.

Heather then gave us an hour to get back to Woolwich and eat eat lunch.  She told us to just take the train.  But that would take us out of our zone and we would have pay to get to class.  So we took the bus and it took us at least an hour and half.  I think she was mad, but it was kind of ridiculous to expect us to make it back that fast or pay to get there.

Workshop we studied Brecht and really controversial plays.  Then we had to script our own short play based on a newspaper article.  We did ours on maternity and paternity leaves and equal rights.  I was...interesting.

We went for Indian food last night and it was amazing.  We walked to Blackheath.  Totally warth it.  After food we cut back through the park as it was closing.  It was drizzling a bit but that made it really cool when we spotted the green Prime Meridian laser.  It looks like it was sparkling everytime a rain drop crossed.  We could see it going all the way into the city.

August 4

Today was our first day of class with Heather.  This week is theater, and I'm pretty excited about it.  I liked Heather, though I think most of the class hated her.  She's just got the slightly abrasive theater personality that I'm used to.  We did some performance analysis stuff today, which was kind of confusing because at first she made it sound like it was supposed to be more like a review, but then she freaked out when anyone said anything with an opinion.  I was a little confused at what she wanted.

After class was the Banksy tour with Gurte, that most people opted out of.  It had the potential to be interesting, except that after nearly 2 hours of walking Gurte announced "Rrrrright, so here is where our tour proper starts."  What!?  I left because I had to get back to get ready for _Timon of Athens_.  The couple of people who stayed for the rest of it said it got a lot better, and that all the graffiti was really close together after I left.  I've got the handout, should I feel the urge to go back.

We went to Pizza Express for dinner, and it was quite tasty, though I don't think I'll get anchovies on my pizza again.  I like the salty flavor they added, but they were kind of...furry.

_Timon of Athens_ was amazing.  We saw it at the Globe.  I think I liked it better than _Merry Wives_.  It was full of acrobats, and a weird combination of artsy and modern.  They had a net rigged up above the groundlings that the crows climbed around on, making clicking and clacking noises whenever they witnesses human nature at it's worst (greed, cruelty, etc.).  They even bungeed down into the groundlings, and used the bungee cords to fly across the stage.  One of the prositutes made her entrance via aerial silks.  So cool.  I want to learn aerial silks and spanish web and stuff.

The costuming was sweet.  It was an odd mixture of modern and renaissance styles.  They wore (the men) for the most part, black jeans and black pumas, and then some sort of overcoat cape thing. Everyone had tails incorporated into the costume, making them look more supernatural, kind of like dragons.  The women wore unitards with long overcoats.  They were made of those shiny spandex materials that leos are generally made from. 

There was a party scene where everyone is getting completely wasted.  one of the Senators was getting progressively ore drunk and more naked when he then, just in a loincloth, ran aroudn the stage flashing the crowd.  Full-frontal old-man nudity.  Blech.

Timon also ended up nearly naked for half the play.  He goes slightly mad.  At one point he shits in a hole he's dug and then tricks the Painter and the Poet into thinking it's gold.  He rubs it all over their faces.  There were a lot of poop jokes.  And it remains hilarious through the ages.

The end of the play was disturbing.  Timon buries himself alive and then the other people show up, all animalistic.  They discover the gold that Timon has found and end up in a huge pile fighting over it, like a pack of wild dogs.  They tear Timon to pieces and wat him, ending up with blood everywhere; their hands and faces.  Gruesome ending to a disturbing play.

August 3

Today I went up to Brick Lane and Spittlefield's market.  I got a pretty skirt that is the same blue as my flemish gown was this year (the zipper is messed up, but that shouldn't be difficult to fix.)  it has flowers on it and a band of green aroudn the bottom.  I also bought a few things to give as gifts.

I was goign to go to the Changing of the Guard this morning, but the weather was icky.  Also, registration at the British Library isn't open on Sundays.  The Circle and District lines were down, so would have been a huge hassle to get to the National Gallery today, so I ended up heading back early to wander around the Greenwich market and then do some laundry.

I'm kind of sad _Taming of the Shrew_ got cancelled tonight, but 15 quid is really expensive to sit on the damp ground and get rained on in the park.  I do want to see about getting weekday tickets to _Avenue Q_.  I'm also goign to see _Timon of Athens_ tomorrow at teh Globe with a group of people.  Speaking of which, I should read that before I go.