Wednesday, June 27, 2007

• How Great Thou Art

  Currently Watching The Fountain (Widescreen Edition) By Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis, Stephen McHattie see related

  Things are rarely as bad as you think they're gonna be (unless, of course, you're Bush and/or the American people deluding themselves that this would be a quick hit and run sort of war).

  Last night was the culmination of seven weeks of this "Stage, Song, and Self" class a coworker, four others, and I have been taking this summer.  We created a scene, a script, and some monologues and song selections and performed them last night.  The characters developed out of our weekly two hour sessions together, our self-exploration.  It's one of those hippie-touchy-feely sort of classes, but it was a really neat experience.  Our leader, Lee, has been a vocal instructor (she's a kick-ass soprano) at the university for several years, but now she's switching directions and getting a master's in counseling.  In addition to the two hour group meetings, she meets with each of us individually for one hour a week.  Here we talk about whatever, and she'll ask us each questions that she thinks will help us.  I'm interested in the way counselors and therapists go about picking what things to focus on and what they're thinking about when they're trying to evoke self-knowledge and insight from their clients.  I know one thing Lee made me realize out loud was the pride and embarrassment I associate with singing.  I've been proud of my voice a long time, but as I've used it less and in more informal settings over the years, it has slowly deteriorated.  I've learned in this class to accept my feelings about it and to just appreciate what my voice IS and work with that.  And so last night I did my monologue, I did my song parts, which went okay, and I did very well with the solo.  Sure, there were some quiet parts and the timing was slow, but I hit every note, and the power with which I sung most of the song really surprised me.  Combined with some of the other forced improv and antics by others in the performance, the event was a success.  Dinner afterwards with my parents was mostly successful, too.  We got some bad news from my sister that she had been in a one-sided car accident in which nobody got hurt.  Glad nobody's hurt and I'm glad she and her boy were the only ones involved, but of course I worry about their financial situation.  Of course I have opinions about how she should handle the situation, but all I can do is offer advice and love her whatever she decides she has to do.

  This morning was another example of things not always being as bad as they seem.  I finally met with one of the accountants on campus to submit sales tax checks from my students' micro-companies.  This is my second year doing this, and it's gotten a little better, but it's hard to tell.  It's definitely better in that the eight checks I turned in all matched up the way they were supposed to.  Last year, the students couldn't figure out 7% sales tax to save their lives.  They either didn't keep track of their sales revenue or they multiplied by crazy things - 7.5% tax or moving decimals.  People - you're college sophomores!  I know that makes you sophomoric, but you have prerequisites that mean you should be able to do basic multiplication... and I know the professor has shown you income statements before.  Anyway, the thing they did a little worse this year was that two of the ten teams haven't yet turned in all of their information.  And since we don't require that they do so before assigning them a grade for the semester, what motivation do they have?  All the e-mails and phone calls and other badgering in the world that I can or could provide is not going to convince them to fulfill their end of the bargain they made at the beginning of the year.  Oh well.  Meeting with the accountant was pleasant - the numbers we had added up and then we talked about our families, our careers, our health goals.  Being outgoing isn't as scary as it first seems sometimes.

  Saw "The Fountain" last night.  Loved it.  Have a lot to say about it, a lot of which I already have to various friends.  If you've seen it and have comments, I'm itchin' to go   Otherwise, I'm going to enjoy my second to final "counseling" session this afternoon and go home to make some dinner and watch nerdy Star Trek with my beloved. 

  A mix of peace, play, and constructively deep thoughts to all of you!

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