Notes from a whirlwind weekend

at least you have an illustration to look at, OK?

Whirlwind weekend - Friday night David and I went to see children's theater without our children (!!!) and took in a lecture by international children's theater sensation Tasmanian playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer. Haven't you always wanted to know a Tasmanian playwright? David did a workshop with him last year that really opened up stuff for him creatively, so he was eager to hear him speak. Fin gave a great talk about emphasizing the "what" of playwriting over the how or the why -- really, this could apply to the what of any storytelling endeavour - a sort of call to arms to be true to the story and to let it go where it needs to go. While I was listening there were all kinds of great sentences that I wanted to capture, but I brought nothing to take notes. Alas. Still, I found it an inspiring reminder of the importance of story. And I liked that he used storytelling within his speech about storytelling. And when I met him afterwards, he kissed me on the cheek, in the Tasmanian style.

Here, David sums it up nicely from his angle.

Saturday night I went on my own to see Iceman Cometh at Ensemble. Second time this spring I've gone to the theater by myself. I find I like it. A really energetic production of a play it is rare to see. I had the passing thought that my parents should do a production at their bar, but maybe that would be mean. It also occurred to me that this play is the root of David Mamet's entire career. Surely, someone has written a dissertation about this or something? Also ran into several people whom it is also rare to see, some of whom admit to reading this blog. Hello, people!

And Sunday, my family gave me Mother's Day goodies of eggs Benedict, kid-made earrings (two-pairs!), and a trip to Perry for the windiest soccer game ever played.

Also, I slept in both mornings. Wonder. Then the working week started back up, and I am as underslept as ever.

Reading: The Dillard book I'm reading is simply amazing. I will go into greater length when I can. I am so grateful to have had it recommended to me.

Writing: Back to the every morning at 5:30 thing, successfully Monday and Tuesday.

Dinner: On Sunday, I cooked for the first time in ages. Roasted cabbage paprikash with egg noodles. Monday night pizza was spicy Hawaiian (ham, pineapple, minced banana pepper).

Soundtrack: Not being a big mainstream country music fan, I was a little surprised to fine that I really enjoyed Vince Gill on Prairie Home Companion while I was driving kids around this weekend. He has a Western swing band called the Time Jumpers that really swings and jumps.

Random thing: Puffball the cat discovered the top of the cupboards over the refrigerator -- about 8 inches below the ceiling. It is a perfect cat-sized wonderland. He spent 10 minutes rolling around up there this morning, chirping and putting his paws on the ceiling.