The Week in Review

So this was a pretty busy week - overall a good week. As I said in my previous blog I was spending 95% of my week in DC teaching ballet and jazz technique to 3rd - 10th graders.

I have to admit, I haven't danced for 6 hours a day in a long time, so it was a pretty rough week physically. I don't think my body was quite ready for the shock of it. My calves were so sore on Tuesday that I wasn 't actually really able to dance (what I consider to be) full out again until Friday. Nevertheless, it was actually a nice change of pace considering I don't teach dance during the school year at my HS.

I have to say that it actually made me miss TAKING a dance class instead of teaching one all the time. I am hoping maybe I can squeeze some classes in after school starts in the fall. The other nice aspect of the class was that since it wasn't a Musical Theatre related class, I could choreograph dance for dance-sake. Since I am usually choreographing for a musical - what I do has to be in context with the show, the storyline and characters.

I really enjoyed pulling some ballet out of my back pocket, since you don't use plain ballet in musicals very often. My favorite aspect of the week was choreographing some jazz. There are songs I hear sometimes that I am dying to choreograph, but really have no forum to put them in. There is a song in the show SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, that is a really fun uptempo jazz piece. Unfortuantely, my students weren't loving it as much as me. So at the end of the week we worked on a lyrical jazz piece to "How to Save a Life" by The Fray. They enjoyed working on it and I wish that I had somewhere to keep developing it - oh well, maybe I will find an opportunity. Hopefully, Mia Michaels won't do it anytime soon on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Clearly if she does it, it will be brilliant, and it's hard to follow brilliance like hers.

In other news, my new laptop arrived on Wednesday!!! Unfortuantely, I was in DC from Wednesday - Friday because I was staying in DC to save money on gas. Kevin went to pick it up from Jason and Erika's on Wednesday night - I was sad that I wasn't able to go and visit with them. Thank you Jason for helping me get it and helping me save some money :-)


Another high point of the week was that we finally purchased another couch to replace the one that didn't fit! We went to JCPenny's and didn't see anything outwardly that we liked, but discovered a very comfy brown leather couch. We liked the style, but not the color. Much to our surprise we could actually order it in black. The catch was that being special ordered it would take another 6-8 weeks to get...so it means we are back to sitting on the futon for awhile. (We actually need to get it back in the living room seeing as we have reverted to using the floor and pillows as seating.)

So that's the week - we ended it with a nice trip to Pizza John's on Friday night. Kevin spent all day working Saturday. I spent the day with Kierstie and Debbie working on SUMMER SHOWCASE, the piece I am directing, which starts Monday. SOOOO excited and cannot wait to start!

Today was catch-up day, the hightlights being laundry and McDonald's...and getting started on Thank You Cards. Am really looking forward to tomorrow when we will have a new niece and I get to start SHOWCASE...

The Empty Hole in Our Living Room

So this past Wednesday, I stayed at home eagerly awaiting our new couch we bought from the Roomstore two weeks ago. We have been using our old futon as a couch for the last four months and were extremely excited about getting a brand new comfy leather couch since our futon is extremely uncomfortable. To prepare for our new couch Kevin cleared the futon out of the living room and moved it into our office.

So the delivery men arrived around 10am on Wednesday to inform me they were here with our nice new couch. After about 15 minutes or so one of the men returned to inform me that the couch could not fit in the elevator or the stairway. I went down to see and I couldn't really argue with them seeing as we hadn't measured the height of the elevator, the stairs or our doorway. However, upon measuring it later Kevin and I both agreed we thought they actually could have made it fit up the stairs, but it probably wouldn't have fit through our narrow doorway. Alas, they took our beloved couch back and we were still charged with a restocking fee and delivery fee. (And resolving the couch drama took up our evening so I didn't go get to visit with friends and see 209 Live in Fells Point, which I had been looking forward to.)
While the stairs weren't technically our fault, the doorway would have been, so I guess we have learned our lesson. So now we are in search of a new couch to fill the big empty void in our living room where our new couch should have been. We don't want to go through the hassle of moving the futon in and out again so we are stuck watching TV in the green mushroom chair or on the floor with pillows. We actually fell asleep watching TV on the floor Thursday - upon waking up with a back ache - I can say we cannot WAIT to get a new couch...

The Adventure Begins

So I started a blog about three years ago, right after I graduated from college. I had wanted to keep up with it, but I got way too busy as an apprentice at the theatre I was working at (60 hours a week did not allow me leisure writing time). Then I was working full-time as a teacher/producer at the theatre and was acting and choreographing outside of work. And of course then we were preparing for the long awaited wedding.

Having read my sister-in-law, Erika's, blog for some time, I decided finally that I would try this again. It seems that life events inspire you to do these kinds of things. In the last 4 months I have managed to get a new job, move to a new apartment and get married. So join me as I venture this year into all of these new endeavors and hopefully as my life settles down slightly for a change...one can dream...