Just wanted to pop in and let y’all know that I’m back from the thyroid biopsy. I had my neck frozen and they took two samples. The freezing was the only kind of painful part. At any rate, it’s done and I’m feeling just a little bruised/tender in the area. I’m supposed to have results in 5-7 business days. However, they cautioned me several times that thyroids are very difficult to get conclusive samples from. I kept chanting in my mind “conclusive, benign, conclusive, benign’ during the test, but I’m not sure that my thyroid could hear me frozen as it was. We shall see.
Thanks for all your well wishes. Please keep praying for a conclusive and benign result.
I could not agree more. I humbly offer my own blog alternative, bjournal. (pronouned bee-YEARN-ul). I’m sure bjournal is poised to usurp meh as the next big word invention.
And speaking of humble offerings, if you’re ever looking to include a Vancouver-ite in your ensemble…pick me! Pick me! Here’s why I think it could work. I understand your fringe show is about brains. Well, I’m obsessed with brains, just take a read around here. And I believe I have a specialty in playing crazy, and not-of-this-world characters, so there’s that.
Just putting it out there.
And speaking of awesome, (I was wasn’t I?) here’s a post-post-modern re-telling of West Side Story, (which is a modern re-telling of Romeo and Juliet, which I’m sure was ripped off of something from Beowulf). So. Funny.
Today is the Discussion of Trinity of Brain Issues (Learning Disabilities, ADHD, and Aspergers) and the Treatment Thereof Tuesday (DTBITTT) or in short form Tuesday BITs.
Just a couple of quick things:
Watch for a repeat of this programme, Fixing The Brain. It’s quite a good documentary about the Arrowsmith Program. Here’s my one quarrel with this documentary. Repeatedly there is this woman who comes on and harps about how she believes the Arrowsmith Program is a fraud. Then it’s announced mid-way through the programme that the harping woman has designed her own special education system. So, while I get the need to have balanced reporting, that actually wasn’t balanced at all, but someone having a bad case of sour grapes that her education system isn’t getting the attention that the Arrowsmith Program is. Still, the programme ends on a really positive note in that a brain researcher is actually going to do brain scans of kids going to the Arrowsmith Program, kids who do different programs and kid who do not alternative programs at all, to see if the claims that Arrowsmith makes are justified. Can’t wait for THAT documentary.
And here’s an interesting article about the different ways that autistic children learn new behaviours:
As compared to their typically developing peers, children with autism relied much more on their own internal sense of body position (proprioception), rather than visual information coming from the external world to learn new patterns of movement. Furthermore, researchers found that the greater the reliance on proprioception, the greater the child’s impairment in social skills, motor skills and imitation.
This seems to get back to the something that I’ve observed before about that body-mind connection. I think there’s a big important Aha! waiting for us there. I’m going to start taking the kids and myself through Anat Baniel’s 9 steps to a more vital life through enhancing that body-mind connection.
We have had an ongoing battle with our personal household Gollum who seems to have developed a taste for all things camera-related. First it was the card reader, then the battery charger, then the card reader that I bought to replace the first one he took. But apparently, I spoke too soon, because it was the Pool-Boy who had taken the card reader for (rolling my eyes) work-related purposes. Like that’s somehow more important then my need to fill my bjournal with point-underscoring pictures?
Note the handy label on the top drawer.
Anyway, because I was so frustrated looking for the damn thing, I bought a handy little three-drawer desk thingie for $5.00 to keep all these cards and card readers, so at least it would have a home. I felt much better knowing that if the drawer was empty that meant that someone was using it rather than it had just vanished. Which of course was exactly what happened yesterday when I went to post my theatre in the trash can photo.
So, I waited for the Pool-Boy to come home. As soon as he walked in the door, I believe I gave him a token hello, how ya doing, before I accused him of removing the card reader from its drawer, so don’t believe anything he tells you differently. Once he confessed, I grabbed the card reader from him and scurried off to complete my photo posting.
And while I was there, I figured I would take one more look at the sound situation, because for the last four weeks we haven’t had sound on the computer and we can’t figure out why. So, I was merrily plugging and unplugging things from the computer when I noticed these slots on the front of the computer. I decided to take a closer look and do you know what I found?
Well do you?
You guessed it. My computer has BUILT IN CARD READERS!
Four different kinds, in fact, including the SD card which is the one I needed. I know this is blurry, but just look…
I had the answer to my problem the whole time. I only needed to look around me.
But I needed to look not for the solution I knew to be the solution, which amounts to tunnel vision.
I needed to look for the solution that was there right in front of me but off to the side, and kind of hidden in the dark.
I needed to be open to alternatives.
And then I had an epiphany.
I have everything I need.
I know all the right people.
Other right people will find me.
I have all the solutions in front of me, just off to the side a little and perhaps hidden in the dark. But they are there.
So, I’m going to stop being frustrated when I can’t solve a problem.
I will remember that I already have the answer, I just need to take a look around me and and see what God or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it, has already brought to me.
This is a song from Altar Boyz. Although the show is both a comedy and a light satire, I found this song quite moving, especially the line “I believe that I came to know you for a reason.”
So for all you reading this, there’s a reason we’ve come to know each other. Even if it’s just so you can tell me how to fix the sound on my computer.
[Abe]
One beam of light, is enough to see where you’re going
One wrong turn, is enough to loose your way
One choice, is all you have to make
One ounce of faith could save the day
I believe, that I came to know you for a reason
I believe, that the things that you say will come true
I believe that with you in my life I’ll make it
I believe in you .stlyrics
[Juan]
One Mistake, doesn’t have to mean that it’s over
[Luke]
One bad day, only means there’s work to do
[Mark]
One night, is sometimes all it takes
[All]
To realize one thing is true
I believe, that I came to know you for a reason
I believe, that the things that you say will come true
I believe that with you in my life I’ll make it
I believe in you
[Matthew]
Take a picture of me now, take a look at who I am
Yesterday I wasn’t half as strong
[Abe, Juan, Luke, and Mark]
Take a picture of us all, what we’ve been and what we are
Look at that, and tell me I’m wrong
[Matthew]
I BELIEVE!
[Abe, Juan, Luke, Mark]
That I came to know you for a reason
[All]
I believe, that the things that you say will come true
[Matthew}
Oooohhh
[All]
I believe that with you in my life I’ll make it
I believe in you
I believe in
I attended a play the other night. The audience demographic let’s just say was skewed toward the blue rinse crowd. The average age of the crowd appeared to be about 70. So, this was not just a grey-haired crowd, it was a thinning and what remains is white, white, white hair crowd. And they all knew each other, and the guy at the box office, the lady at the concession stand, and the guy who was handing out programmes. It’s their thing. The place they go where everybody knows their name.
And it got me to thinking…
There’s a lot of talk in the theatre community about the ‘greying’ of our audience. Like, as seems to be happening with my friends, we started off with a group in their twenties and as the years have passed our get togethers are with a much greyer crowd. The extension of that belief is that once the current crowd dies off, that will be it for theatre. Better just send it off to the glue factory along with the lame petting zoo pony that bites when the five year old girls try to feed him carrots.
BUT, here’s my thought…
Maybe theatre is a rite of passage into middle age.
What if becoming a regular attendee at live theatre is like wine tasting or opera or classical music or oatmeal or reading Maeve Binchy novels? What if a large chunk of the population doesn’t acquire a taste for it until middle age? I don’t see many twenty year-olds doing a wine tour, eating oatmeal, or going to the symphony. (I know SOME do, maybe even lots, {so don’t be telling me that I’m wrong because you’re only 22 and you LOVE all these things, you are the exception, not the rule} but the bulk of the people involved in these activities, well, they’ve got some kilometres on the old speedometer.)
And I’m not saying we should stop trying to widen our audience. We should continue to get young people into the theatre, keep moving the art form forward, keep putting the word ‘edgy’ into our press releases, continue to find ways to (ooh, look I’m going for the grant-speak) engage our community.
I just think that as long as people continue to get older, (and although I’m not a fan of that myself, I have not yet found a way to stop it, well, except for dying, and I hardly think that counts) that they will also continue to discover theatre, as long as we’re there and fairly easy to be discovered
Look at the theatre companies that target the young audiences. They aren’t fretting that their audience window is like a maximum of 10 years. They know that people continue to have children and so their audience pool continues to renew itself. Bonus, if they played to a child who twenty years later brings their own child to the theatre. They’ve really done some audience development there.
But just like their will always be children. There will also always be the middle-aged and the elderly.
Today’s Wahoo Wednesday theme is “Dang, I wish I wrote that!” I’ve discovered a couple of sites of late that have me green with envy, wildly excited by really great thoughts, brilliantly written. I can only hope they help me step up my game.
The first is called Mildly Creative. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, when I’m reading my 113th blog post about being remarkable, excellent, focused, perfect, instead of being inspired, I just feel exhausted. So, I love Ken Roberts idea of not aiming for perfection, excellence and market domination, but exploration, listening to your authentic self, being curious, showing up. Go, check it out. His Mild Manifesto alone is so brilliant, I’m not even sure you’re going to come back. (You’ll come back won’t you? Dang! I lose more readers this way.)
The second is Comfort Queen. Every time I read her, I say to myself, “Is this chick reading my mind and just expressing it better?”
Go enjoy! Get comforted and mildly creative.
And then come back, because I’m sure I have something that they don’t. Like, uhmm, a countdown to the solstice and equinoxes. That has to count for something doesn’t it?
Kindergarten orientation one week, high school orientation the next, the end of school, grade 7 graduation, the solstice, Father’s Day, the 4 and 11/12ths year old became a five-year-old. The middle child had a birthday party. Milestones, celebrations, logistics, orientations, and farewells.
And I’ve become that Dad on a road trip. You know THAT Dad. The one intent on getting to Saskatoon before dinnertime so there will be no stopping at any historic landmarks, scenic picture-taking pulloffs, or frankly even to pee. Must. Keep. Driving.
Perhaps I’m not ready to acknowledge what all these changes mean.
I have a daughter that’s leaving the relative safety of elementary school and heading into the big scary high school. She’s going to be 13 soon. 13!
The middle child is becoming a senior elementary school student.
My baby is about embark on his next big adventure of Kindergarten. Which means that I don’t really have a baby anymore.
And here, the solstice has already passed. The year is almost half over and I’m still occasionally writing 2008 on my cheques.
WHERE IS THE TIME GOING?!?
It’s time to slow down, apply the brakes occasionally and maybe start taking some scenic detours to see the world’s largest shovel and take some pictures of waterfalls. Saskatoon will still be there in the morning.
I’m in one of those phases where it’s all just too much. Do you get this sometimes? The obligation to return a phone call or an email or even respond to a comment — too much. Can’t do it. I know intellectually that these things only take minutes or even seconds, and yet I go to do it, and I don’t know, I just can’t. It suddenly feels like I’m trying to heft a piano up the staircase all by myself.
So of course, I abandon the piano at the bottom of the staircase and spend the rest of the day, week, month walking around the piano which requires that I turn sideways and crabwalk around it, and occasionally crawl over top of it to get to where I need to go. And everytime I do this, I curse my inability to just get it done, because clearly the rest of the world can. And so to top off my inability to get it done I then have to contend with a piano load of shame and guilt, like a load of laundry covered in a layer of dust and mildew sitting atop the abandoned piano.
Maybe I should recognize that no one can haul a piano upstairs by themselves and just ask for some help to get it there. Because I know as soon as I do that it won’t be a piano at all, I’ll discover it was yappy dog that just needed to be let outside to pee.
And now for a completely different metaphor…
I feel like Rapunzel. I’m also all the characters in this little fairy tale. I’m the King who wanted to protect his daughter by placing her safely in an inescapable tower. I am the moat and the dragon at the entrance. (I don’t think the original fairy tale had a moat or a dragon, but it’s my fairy tale, so I’m going for broke.)
I’m also the one with the fabulous hair that could use it for her escape if she would choose to.
I just need to find my inner prince to make that plea to let down my hair. He might have sprained an ankle trying to cross that moat though, and he’s a little scorched by the fire-breathing dragon.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that if I owe you a response of some kind, it’s not a lack of love that’s keeping me from it. It’s just that moat and a prince with weak ankles. Also, maybe a small piano/yappy dog.
Final note: I recently discovered there is a nodule in my left thyroid. It’s most likely benign because these things usually are, and my mother had a benign thyroid thing and these things run in families. BUT there is a chance it’s carcinomic. Which of course TERRIFIES me. I have a fine needle biopsy on July 9. So, I would appreciate prayers, good vibrations, well wishes, lit candles, patron saints of thyroid health and any other kind of blessing you can lay on me and my thyroid.
Today’s theme seems to be simple creativity. People being creatively genius with nothing much but a simple idea and simple tools.
First up: Did you notice my cool new bjournal header? This was done through the oh so much fun spell with Flickr. This guy has found pictures that contain letters from photos on Flickr and then added them to a database. You can then click on the individual letters to change them to a different photo until you get something that pleases you. If you want to know all the sordid details about how I did it, including how I had to find my own X, leave a comment, otherwise enjoy!
I can’t remember how I got there, but at any rate here’s the author @MadjustMad
And that made me remember the story of Hamlet told through Facebook which came to me quite some time ago on Facebook via forgotten sources (plus you can tell it’s the OLD Facebook, that’s how long ago it was).
So funny.
And then we have the simple creativity in finding the beautiful in the well, not quite right. The Fantastically Ugly — the Fugly if you will.
Awkward theatre publicity photos. I was so relieved not to find myself on this site. BUT, I did find one that played at my day job. Guesses which one it is? The photo actually kind of captures its essence and the play itself was marvellous and resonating. So, you can’t always judge a play by its publicity photo.
...in which I ask important questions like "If I'm the centre of the universe, why don't I get my way more often?" and "What if the laws of the universe are merely suggestions?" and of course the key questions, "Have you subscribed? How will I know you like me if you don't?"
There’s a lot of talk in the theatre community about the ‘greying’ of our audience. Like, as seems to be happening with my friends, we started off with a group in their twenties and as the years have passed our get togethers are with a much greyer crowd. The extension of that belief is that once the current crowd dies off, that will be it for theatre. Better just send it off to the glue factory along with the lame petting zoo pony that bites when the five year old girls try to feed him carrots.
Tentative Equinox North
Tentative Equinox 