July 17th update

there comes a time when everyone should look over their life, or at least the past few days...

...for me, that time is right now.

recently, my life has been pretty good. Harvey opened last Wednesday, and has been decently recieved (but we're hoping for a jump in attendance for this week). It definitely is much slower (aka duller) than Wait Until Dark when it comes to backstage work (not counting preshow or intermission, I drop a book twice, and open a door three times... over a two-hour play)... but at least I have a puzzle book backstage to keep me occupied. The anti-tobacco camp didn't get enough kids to sign up, so it was cancelled, so now I can work with Drawer Boy. I just hope I can hear from the musical director for Guys and Dolls soon.

on sat, I was kidnapped by Erik and Erin, and I randomly wound up at the Old Schoolhouse. For the non-Bemidji people (and maybe some Bemidji people too), the Old Schoolhouse is an arts and crafts store, with art supplies, house decorations, wood products, and also houses Diane's Dance Studio. What Erik and Erin (who wanted to get information about a dance class) didn't know was that even though they were in the Old Schoolhouse for the first time, this was far from my first time there... let me explain. My dad runs a wood product business and the Old Schoolhouse is one of the businesses my dad actually uses as a vendor. So, when my dad would drop off stuff, I'd come with and wander around. Coming back on Saturday definitely brought back memories. I instantly remembered how each room felt, and how it was connected to basically every other room on the floor. I even recognized the smell and creaking of the floor as the Old Schoolhouse. It was also nice to see Lois and Diane, the two people who ran the place, and the fact that they recognized me after several years of not stopping by with my dad.

Yesterday... 5 o'clock shadow. This is a group some of my friends created for post-high school students to come and discuss things as well as have some fun. This week's topic was about the elements of a story and how we understand stories because of experiences humanity has experienced even back in Biblical times. I should start bringing my Bible to these events... after our discussion, Sara brought Ligretto, which is a really cool Swedish/German card game kind of like multiplayer solitaire and speed... and according to Dave, Twister. :-P As that was starting, I was called up by some MusiCampers asking (ahem, 'urging') me to visit, so since I was so close to Bangsberg, I visited them for a little bit. Fortunately, the 5 o'clock shadow people were still playing Ligretto when I got back, so I got to join in for a few rounds. After that, we randomly talked about stuff (like Mari's random slogans all fashioned after the infamous Pringle's slogan), and then had some awesome dual Guitar Hero.

Today, Megann, Chris, Erik, Sarah, Erin, Jessie, and I went to a semi-secluded spot by Blackduck for picnicing and swimming. Now, I don't swim much, but it was really fun. There was a rope swing from a red pine over the lake, so we were taking turns jumping off the tree (which I did do, thank you very much). When we first were swimming at like 1, the water was so warm! The shore is pretty slanted where we were, and the bottom was pretty rocky, but it was such a fun time. Well, when we first were swimming, I at least thought the water was warm... and then I ended up as a heat source for two other people also in the water because they were cold. :-D We cooked up some lunch, played some frisbee, kayaked for a little bit, and went swimming a second time. Granted the water wasn't as warm the second time, but we had a Tarzan rope swinging contest... either Megann or Chris won that one.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I can work on either film group stuff, care packages for Mike, Beth, and Liz, cleaning up the room, or something else productive. Hope everyone is doing well. Talk to everyone later, take care and God bless.

P.S. I hope MusiCamp is going well for all the band campers. I got to see Britt, Linds, Nathan, Sam, Donald and some other people yesterday (as mentioned before), but I hope all my camp friends (young and old) are doing well and having a good summer.