He's No Wayne Brady

The year is already moving too quickly.  I was shocked today in church to find it was Fast Sunday.  Wasn't even on my mind.  Oops.

I've been busy down here!  Meetings for church and meetings for school and trying to have a dating life have really shortened my free time.  However, all those things I just listed are good things!  So in reality what I'm trying to do is refocus my mind into being happy with more in my life than just me.  Who'd have though living alone for 5 years would make me set in my ways?  :)

Sorry guys, but I'm not going to say anything about dating on this blog.  I just don't feel it's the place.  But you could write to me and ask.  :)  Of course, I still might not tell you anything!

Of recent note is the fact that I'm writing more with my free time.  Less TV right now, and I just recently completed another short story.  I've got the concept for an additional story in mind that I'll be starting soon.  As well, I was in Phoenix last weekend and had the opportunity to meet a handful of successful young adult writers.  When moments were appropriate I was able to ask a few questions and was givens some positive feedback.  Writing every day is my goal.

The highlight of the past few weeks has been Drama related.  I suggested to Ms. Olsen that we should throw together another night of improvisation.  We did one in August, we have one scheduled for April, but rather than wait, we would a free weekend and our number one goal was to just make a profit.  Our secondary goal was to get seen, so what we did this past week, after a few weeks and weekends of practicing and preparing, was put on assemblies during  the school day.  Thursday we spent the entire day in the auditorium, and had a blast.  The best thing was that we got to play many of our favorite games, and rather than just keeping who's best at this game playing this game, I was able to shift the kids around and let them play games they'd not done before.  In addition, with the teacher's response, our largest audience was easily more than 200 students.  That was pretty huge.  And to add to that fun, for our last 2 assemblies, we pulled Mr. Franey and Mr. Randall up on the stage and they helped us out.  The kids loved it!

Friday night was our performance, and while we were hoping for huge, we were still content with a little more than 60.  We're still getting this thing started, so we're staying positive.  While I don't have a ton of pictures, mostly video, of the evening, I did the picture above for my profile shot.

I was complimented for some of the things I came up with as I prepped for the productions.  Tell me what you think:

Let’s Make a Date
a.     A confused grizzly bear, who is slowly gaining the power of speech
b.     The world’s worst country music singer
c.     A religious priest who believes Bachelor #2 is possessed by the devil
(The religious priest was above and beyond anything I'd expected! It was brilliant!)

Press Conference
a.     Aladdin and Jasmine, announcing the Genie is in rehab
(I was pretty proud of this one, and the kids had a blast with it.  The audience roared when one of the cast accused our confused Aladdin that he was just a "street rat".)

Scenes from a Hat
a.     What the “Occupy” groups would protest at Kofa High School
b.     Superheroes that could serve the Yuma community
c.     Pick-up lines for Yuma High School
d.     The worst excuse to use when you have to leave and step to the restroom
e.     What happens at Randall’s Super Bowl parties
f.      Mrs. Olsen in 3^rd grade
g.     Mr. Kelly’s theme song
(Believe it or not, but the restroom one had the most responses.  You'd think they were my kids!)

Finale: Whose Line
a.     I used to be a super model
b.     I’m going to quit teaching and try out for American Idol
c.     My nickname growing up was monkey butt
d.     I think I have brain diarrhea
e.     My girlfriend has a mustache
f.      I like to wear a tutu and do the cha-cha
For this game, I had Ms. Olsen and Mr. Randall join me on stage and the three of us played it together.  I ended up in a serious moment describing the time my father had a serious talk with me as a child and he admitted, "I like to wear a tutu and do the cha-cha."  Sorry to reveal your secret, Pop.  I also ended up with the American Idol line, and was then encouraged to sing as we ended the bit.  It was no Wayne Brady, but I think I did pretty good.  Y'all would've been proud.