Improv! Get Your Improv Here!

I took an improv class a couple weeks ago. 'Twas super fun. Who knew my city offered such cool classes?

Turns out the city has a teen improve troupe called Creatures of Impulse. For the second year in a row, they'll be representing California at the Teen Comedy Festival in Chicago. And like any youth group travelling to distant lands, they need a bit of money to help get them there. There will be two shows to support this effort:

Impulsive Short and Long Tales, starring Creatures of Impulse
Saturday, April 2, 7pm, Veterans' Memorial Building, Pleasanton, Tickets-$5

Act I will consist of games and short scenes, with the audience voting for what they'd like to see as a longer scene in Act II. The audience votes with cash, so bring extra bills and make it rain!

Improv Inertia
Friday, April 15 and Saturday April 16, 7:30 pm, Veterans' Memorial Building, Pleasanton, Tickets-$5, Ages 14 and up.

The grown folk will come out and play – and they'll be music, too! (on Saturday, at least.)

If you have questions or simply want to contribute, please contact Mark Duncanson at MDuncanson@ci.pleasanton.ca.us.

I'm in a Play!

I've always been interested in acting, but was too afraid to really try it. But an opportunity arose to audition for a part in a local play and

I got the part!

The play is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and is based on the silent-film era movie that was made in Pleasanton. My character is Miss Dearborn. The play runs from Friday, May 6th - Sunday, May 15th.

If you're able, please come and support!

Tickets are available here and range from $6-$12 (for children 12 and under & seniors 62 and older) and $10-$18 (for everyone else)

Here is our schedule. There are two casts for the play (if you want to see me, I've highlighted my cast in bold and with arrows)

Fri, May 6, 7:30pm <--
Sat, May 7, 2:00pm <--
Sat, May 7, 7:30pm
Sun, May 8, 2:00pm
Wed, May 11, 9:30am <--
Wed, May 11, 11:00am <--
Thu, May 12, 9:30am
Thu, May 12, 11:00am
Fri, May 13, 7:30pm
Sat, May 14, 2:00pm
Sat, May 14, 7:30pm <--
Sun, May 15, 2:00pm <--

Whether in body or in spirit, thanks for your support!

Leopard Spots on the Horizon

I thought it was one of those oil globules firmly affixed to a strand of hair. (Never mind the fact there was nothing globular in shape or consistency hanging around the follicle.) I kept pulling the hair between my fingers, trying to get the color back to black.

It was two days before I realized it was not a sebaceous secretion.

I immediately panicked, struck by a vision of irregular patches of gray, a leopard with lopsided spots.

I looked in the mirror. Leaned close. Leaned in a little more. Squinted. There it was. My first albino strand of hair, nestled comfortably above my temple.

Computer Madness

Lemme just save this file from one of my classmates for this group project we have.

Right click, okay, select the flash drive.

What was that?

Wait – where's my folder? What happened to my folders?

Cancel cancel open flash drive.

Omigosh. The folder's gone. Maybe I accidentally moved it into another folder?

Search the flash drive.

Or to the hard drive?

Search the hard drive. Shortcuts from Monday night, but no actual folder.

Or to the other flash drive?

Search the other flash drive.

Repeat until the definition of crazy (doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result) sinks in.

God, can you please just make my folders magically reappear?

A lot of the stuff I need is on Blackboard; I can just re-download it. Hopefully, I won't need to resubmit an assignment I've previously done…

Well, at least I have the folder for my other class, and my paper that's due on next Tuesday.

Small comforts are no less worthy of taking than large ones.

*********

Lemme just copy my paper to the hard drive just in case.

Omigosh. The folder's not there. SNAP!

OmigoshOmigoshOmigosh.

All of my notes. All of my research. I have to re-write my paper, and I'm already behind in my other class…

(Cursing more than ever the fact that I wasted Sunday watching the Academy Awards instead of doing homework.)

Search the hard drive and the folder. Nothin' but shortcuts.

God, can you please PLEASE just make my folders magically reappear?

**********

How many other folders disappeared?

Are you kidding me? Only this quarter's classes have disappeared into some unknown internet/computer/technical portal?

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

A Forgiveness Question

One morning I was gripped by this question: Does forgiveness equal trust?

I tried to remember the circumstances when Jesus forgave. Was trust ever involved? I thought of how we are to be as innocent as doves and as wise as serpents.

I looked up forgiveness in my bible's concordance: "To pardon; show mercy to".

I looked up forgive in a Merriam Webster dictionary: "To give up resentment of or claim to requital".

I looked up pardon: "The excusing of an offense without exacting penalty".

I looked up trust: "Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. One in which confidence is placed."

I imagined forgiveness. Free from the hunger for retribution, one shakes the dust off of their shoes and moves on.

A sigh of relief - I don't have to trust to forgive. A concerned pause – It is more difficult to forgive those I distrust.

Afro!

My standard method of wash/blow dry/flat iron-curl was producing an every day is a shaggy dog bad hair day. I had to add another layer of heat (wash/blow dry/press/curl) to get my hair to look halfway decent. Another layer of heat, another hour of work on my hair.

Snip snip!

I had been growing out my relaxer for a while, planning to cut it out in March as a birthday gift to myself. But the threat of more work to get the coif presentable sped up my timeline.

I had this look ~ four years ago. When I last took my driver's license picture. When I went to Hawaii twice, for two different weddings. When I was pummeled by a wave while body surfing and spent at least 4 hours washing the sand out of my hair, coming to an intimate understanding of why my mother gave me a mild relaxer when I was in preschool, a child who couldn't say 'no' to the sandbox.

I've gotten many more compliments than I expected, a pleasant, though sometimes interesting surprise. One person thought I had gotten a perm; it didn't occur to them that I my hair was not naturally straight, bless their heart.

So here I am, hair au naturel once again.

Fresh from the salon

Luggage for the New Year

For all of the talk of a clean slate, we bring with us into the New Year our old baggage.

I noticed a faint numbness in my fingertips in November, prompting me to see a doctor. It was determined that the numbness, along with the accompanying sharp shoulder and the intense achy neck pains, were a work-related cumulative trauma injury.

Ergonomics.

Fixing it would be more than adding a back support and a foot rest to my cubicle. It would involve my posture.

My posture – slumped, eyes to the ground, an attempt to curl into invisibility – my posture can't support my neck.

So I have to learn to stand tall, to sit straight. Shoulders back, chest out, just like my parents insisted. Just as I always resisted.

I'm strengthening muscles I didn't know I had. And it hurts. Early going, the pain is not dissipating, but redistributing. It's becoming more tempting to slump back into my old ways. To pick up old bags, reasserting a belief in my worthlessness. Keeping my eyes to the ground and my shoulders hunched.

But to keep the neck pain from returning, I need to learn to be comfortable standing tall, being visible. I need to develop a belief in my worth. Chin up. Eyes forward. Undeniably present.

Such is the promise of a New Year. We cherish the hope that some of our luggage can finally be shed.