RELIEF

First week of school went pretty well. Turns out the fears of old age really doesn't seem to be an issue. Everyone has been very nice and seems not really to notice. 
So, I think it will be okay and it will be fun. 
Very relieved. 

At the bottom of this post is a link for comments, please feel free to share with me some of your thoughts on what you just read.  

What Are You Doing for The Next Minute

Performed my "one-minute" doing in Acting class today. We were all supposed to pick something we do and perform this thing in front of the class as if we were alone and they were watching through a two way mirror. 

I chose Oreos. You know cookies, everybody has their own individual way to eat an Oreo right? Well, it seemed simple and so I thought "no problem, just sit on the floor and eat the cookie". It was okay, I went and sat on the floor, opened the package and proceeded to take the cookie apart, eat the white filling, etc. 

It was only one minute, sixty seconds. I was a nervous wreck by the time I finished. I was shaking by the end. Now it occurs to me that I'm going to have a pretty hard time with this acting thing if even cookie eating is a problem. So, I think I better spend some time on the internet trying to find suggestions to help with the stage fright problem I have or I could just do more rehearsal with the cookies. Then I would have other things to worry about instead of the stage fright, like being naked because I no longer fit into my clothes. 

COOL PHONES

aybe you'll remember last week when I was searching for a new cell phone and I thought I would stay with Verizon because Sprint was the worst service I had ever had. Well, I finally made a "cast in stone" (according to the contract I signed it is) decision to go with guess who......Sprint. I can't believe it but I am going to go with them again. 

Sprint has some great phones and some really good service plans and after much testing and returning of phones on my part I now have a new cell service. The phone I chose is very cool, it will do absolutely everything. For a gadget freak like me the more bells and whistles the better. This phone will even get a pretty good selection of live television stations if I choose to pay for them. 

This is it.  





When I say it will do everything it will. It will do all the normal phone things. It will take and send pics to email addresses, it will take and send video to them also. It of course has the calendar functions, plays games, very cool ringers, it's a speakerphone, yadda, yadda, yadda. IT IS COOL. 

So back to Sprint. It really seems to work better than it did before, I hope. 

The next step----the dreaded porting of the old cell phone number! Sprint, please don't make me regret this decision. 

At the bottom of this post is a link for comments, please feel free to share with me some of your thoughts on what you just read.  

So far school has been pretty good. Actually I am enjoying it which is good because I don't think I could have gone the whole time being as nervous as I was before it started. 

The only thing I am having any problem with at this point is that I have a specific time that I have to get up. Now I don't have to get up until 8:30 am, and I know what you are saying. "Wow, that's too bad, 8:30 huh?" Well, that doesn't sound bad until you know that most nights, even with some help from the doctor, I am still awake at 3:00 am. So to get up at 8:30 is early for me. But, even though I don't get much sleep I find that I am okay with that and am having a good time already. 

The first class of the morning is a Voice and Diction class. We have so far spent all of the class sessions laying on our back on the floor, learning how to relax and trying to become a puddle on the floor. This is not my idea of a stressful class to be attending, especially after missing a couple of hours of sleep. I know from the reading I have done that these relaxation exercises are designed to undo old habits that you have that may be keeping you from using your voice to your fullest potential and I believe there is a method to the madness. But as of yet, I am not a puddle, I think this may take me a while. I will keep trying. 

The Acting I class is interesting also. It too starts out with relaxation and exercises designed to loosen both your body and your inhibitions. Today we stretched, sighed; wiggled, stretched and sighed (all at the same time), walked around the room, touched like friends might, talked and hugged. Very interesting. I was surprised how easy it is to let go and make yourself look like a fool so long as everybody in the room is doing it. 

Tomorrow is my first Demostration Lab class. I am unsure but I think I just have a observe there. 

This is proving to be an interesting endeavor. I think I am going to like it. 

At the bottom of this post is a link for comments, please feel free to share with me some of your thoughts on what you just read.  

TESTING TESTING

Today I went to shop for a new cell phone. The phone I had was perfectly fine and worked great, but I really felt the need for a camera phone. 
I really didn't think I would want one of those. In fact, I distinctly remember tellling my sister that I had a good digital camera and that I didn't need a phone that took pics too. But, as I approach this new endeavor of school I all of a sudden feel the need to have a new gadget that will allow me to document this whole adventure. For what? For posterity I guess. For later when I decide "what was I thinking" or something. 
Anyway, so I went shopping for a phone. Around my place the choices are many, yet the choices are so few. I mean we have a lot of companies to choose from, but only a couple that actually work. I have been through a few of them, GTE, I think it's Cingular or something now, not too bad, but very early in the cell phone game so not many services to compare back then, the next one was AT&T, again not awful, then the infamous SPRINT, the worst by far. Now I am with Verizon and all in all I am pretty happy with them, so I decided to stay with them. Better the devil I know and all. 
The next decision was which phone. They only have two so the choice here was limited to say the least. I guess that guys in the store work by number of sales because although he tried to hide it the salesman was pretty happy when after we had sent pics to all the email addresses I knew (well not all) I made a decision. 
I chose to try the Audiovox 8900. They tell me I have 15 days so we'll see. I plan to give this new phone a good workout, so for the next 14 days I will be sending pics to everyone I know and probably some I don't. So watch out you could be next. 
At the bottom of this post is a link for comments, please feel free to share with me some of your thoughts on what you just read.  

READY..........SET..........

Ok, so tonight I went to the new student orientation at the College where I am about to start classes. It was not too bad, although it could have been broken up into more applicable sections. They went through a lot of things that had absolutely nothing to do with me or my situation and it would have been good not to have sit through that stuff. 
The tour was good though and it made me realize that the first college I went to some eighteen years ago was not one of the most well equipped or upscale that is out there. This one on the other hand, well pretty snazzy. Seems they offer a service to cover just about any situation, up to and including all manner of free help to get your work corrected and edited before the instructor even sees it. I guess this is a good thing, but it did strike me that maybe they were making it just a bit too easy. Oh well, I guess in this day of "access" and "inclusion" that is what is expected. Just wish I had those advantages when I went so long ago. 
All in all, the orientation was informative and I must say I am a little more comfortable with my abilities to find my way around and such, but I still would like to have asked them one question.............. 
"So how old is the oldest "NON-TRADITIONAL" (that's what they call us old students now) student you have?" Is it me? 

At the bottom of this post is a link for comments, please feel free to share with me some of your thoughts on what you just read.  

PHASES AND STAGES

Seems there have been a lot of phases and stages in my life. Many times I have set off on a path that I thought I either had to do or something that I thought I wanted to do, only to find out after trying it that it wasn't what I wanted. I've never been totally convinced that it wasn't what I wanted as much as not something I was good at. I need to be good at it. Most of the time I try things only to find that I suck at whatever it is. 
So, in my ongoing quest to "find myself" I am returning to school next week, to take acting classes. This new phase presents a particular challenge to me this time since I am neither sure that I can do what I have chosen nor am I sure I will even be comfortable in the classes as the "by far oldest" one in the class. I will most probably even be far older than the instructor. This freaks my out. 
I don't know why but I find I am scared of the kids. Now intellectually I know that is the stupidest thing I could be thinking, but emotionally I feel this need to fit in somehow. How do I fit in at this point and why do I feel like I have to? I definately won't be going with my gray roots since I have a hair appointment Friday and what about those new jeans, aren't they cut just a little younger that I was wearing them last year? I guess part of this will be to come to terms with my stage in life now. I'm trying to do that, it just isn't as simple as it sounds. I will go kicking and screaming into this new stage. At least I'm not making surgery appointments, it's crossed my mind though. 
In trying to live our life through all the varying "phases and stages", do we worry too much about the outside and not enough about the only part we can control---------the inside? 

At the bottom of this post is a link for comments, please feel free to share with me some of your thoughts on what you just read.