the last thing I needed to do was check on my eyes with eye doctor to see if there was any permanent damage to my left eye after all of the pressure from my unchecked thyroid condition - turns out everything is fine. My eyes are showing no damage at all aside from dryness. Yay!
that brings me to the end of this blog. My thyroid is gone, the synthetic thryoid seems to be working well, the surgery is still healing but I am able to do cardio exercise and yoga, and I am well on my way back.
I had an interview the other day and I felt like my old self ( a little nervous but mostly confident and articulate) Phew! It was just last year that I had a job interview where I was a wreck - shaking, heart racing, stumbling, eye streaming...I thought that I was having some sort of breakdown but it turned out that I was just metabolizing everything too fast because my thyroid was out of control.
Unbelievable what a difference a year makes.
Thank goodness for great doctors and excellent surgeons and the constant kind and sensitive care of Andrew.
I felt that this blog kind of got muddy because of the number of school assignments I was obliged to post. Next school year I will create a blog specifically for school posts if required. I am not going to post to this blog anymore. I need to think about what I want to write about on a daily/weekly basis. I will forward the new address of my fresh blog when I have something together.
Wishing everyone a great spring.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
blatz it - Armin Wiebe's The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz
Imagine a precocious 10 year old boy. He is raised in a Mennonite community, speaks low German, loves poetry and music, and o yeah - he's a 10 year old boy so pretty much all he can think about is sex.
That is how I imagine this play really came to be - Wiebe delved deep deep deep into his 10 year old self and this is what he pulled out.
It is a smart choice for a first time play. It deals with Mennonite themes and there is a huge Mennonite community in Manitoba that is completely underserviced for theatre. It deals with sex and people like sex. It's a comedy and people do like the comedy. I think this could be an incredibly succesful suite of plays for Mr. Wiebe.
I thought the action of the play was excellent - the sexing and the piano playing and the...well OK that was the action but it did keep my eyes entertained.
The tensions set up between the characters was a bit more challenging for me. Every one of the characters wanted to make a baby. Great. So it was done. Great. And then everyone started second guessing their actions. Fine but. I was not convinced by their vacillations. I know people have doubts. I know people change their minds - all the time. But I was not convinced that these characters had actually changed their minds, or were really teetering between what was and what they wanted. It's not that I don't believe people are complicated it's just that I thought that there was not enough basis for these characters' see-saw feeling. It felt artificial - I was just not convinced.
The low German accent is HARD! It is so hard. If you turn your back on it for even a second it is suddenly Jamaican, or Irish, or a million other things - tricky bugger. I have nothing but a great deal of respect for the actors who got as much of this accent on the stage as they did. Oy!
The sound cues were embarassing. I don't know what the intent was but we can do better than this. If they were supposed to be silly they should have been much sillier and if they were supposed to be realistic then they missed the mark by a mile.
Neither the talk back nor the lecture changed my opinion about the play but it was very kind of Wiebe to generously give so much of his time to us. These are some of the things he shared with us.
That is how I imagine this play really came to be - Wiebe delved deep deep deep into his 10 year old self and this is what he pulled out.
It is a smart choice for a first time play. It deals with Mennonite themes and there is a huge Mennonite community in Manitoba that is completely underserviced for theatre. It deals with sex and people like sex. It's a comedy and people do like the comedy. I think this could be an incredibly succesful suite of plays for Mr. Wiebe.
I thought the action of the play was excellent - the sexing and the piano playing and the...well OK that was the action but it did keep my eyes entertained.
The tensions set up between the characters was a bit more challenging for me. Every one of the characters wanted to make a baby. Great. So it was done. Great. And then everyone started second guessing their actions. Fine but. I was not convinced by their vacillations. I know people have doubts. I know people change their minds - all the time. But I was not convinced that these characters had actually changed their minds, or were really teetering between what was and what they wanted. It's not that I don't believe people are complicated it's just that I thought that there was not enough basis for these characters' see-saw feeling. It felt artificial - I was just not convinced.
The low German accent is HARD! It is so hard. If you turn your back on it for even a second it is suddenly Jamaican, or Irish, or a million other things - tricky bugger. I have nothing but a great deal of respect for the actors who got as much of this accent on the stage as they did. Oy!
The sound cues were embarassing. I don't know what the intent was but we can do better than this. If they were supposed to be silly they should have been much sillier and if they were supposed to be realistic then they missed the mark by a mile.
Neither the talk back nor the lecture changed my opinion about the play but it was very kind of Wiebe to generously give so much of his time to us. These are some of the things he shared with us.
At the talkback Wiebe said that it took 5 years to write the play in total. That made me very nervous when I thought about my IPP - I intend to write a play in less than a year. oy.
Giving some great general advice, Wiebe exhorted us to trust in the intelligence of our audience. Never underestimate your audience or they will turn around and do the same for you.
During the lecture, Wiebe explained that as an emerging playwright he had provincial and city arts grants available to him. He would have received more grants but he would need to be an established playwright. Something for CreComm students to keep in mind as they embark on writing projects - there is grant money available for first time writers, not a lot, but some, and every little bit helps.
Wiebe said that his play is practically unique for modern low German drama. He could only think of two other examples but the presence of low german on the Internet is increasing. I think this is great niche market to develop - calling out anyone who speaks low German.
Finally, Wiebe's description of what it is like to turn a play over to actors was so apt and so accurate - it's really a perfect description of the experience.
"I felt like my play was a trampoline with actors testing the springs to see if it would hold."
Monday, April 11, 2011
surgery notes continued
so it is almost a week after the surgery and...
I'm tired
and
I have a calcium deficiency right now so I am taking supplements and I know it's time to take another dose because my hands or feet tingle like they have fallen asleep - it's really very strange.
Just trying to gather myself for my last big push of CreComm assignments - I have it in me, kinda perversely wish I did not but I should be grateful.
Everything is going to be OK
Happy Spring everyone.
I'm tired
and
I have a calcium deficiency right now so I am taking supplements and I know it's time to take another dose because my hands or feet tingle like they have fallen asleep - it's really very strange.
Just trying to gather myself for my last big push of CreComm assignments - I have it in me, kinda perversely wish I did not but I should be grateful.
Everything is going to be OK
Happy Spring everyone.
Friday, April 1, 2011
pre-op
Just had my consult before the surgery.
Apparently it's not a big deal, especially in comparison to having your appendix out which is a comforting thought.
I did learn that the anaesthesiologist (seriously how do you spell that word without spell check?) had a great deal of trouble intabating me last time and I should have received a letter from the hospital about that. Really? News to me...but I have been composing a book in my mind about the horrors of hospital life so I'll just put that into the chapter "Things the hospital should have done ... but totally and completely didn't."
It was really weird getting all this preparation for surgery. The last two times it was an emergency so there was no preparation at all. This time I went to this place called patient registration. They checked my information and then they had this nice boy take me to the fourth floor for my consultation with the pre-op nurse. It was all so nice and friendly and chill. Man, I should do all of my surgeries this way.
Wednesday of next week is the big day - I will keep everyone posted but I am going in at 1030 am, surgery is at noon, and I should be released around 8 am on Thursday.
cheers.
Apparently it's not a big deal, especially in comparison to having your appendix out which is a comforting thought.
I did learn that the anaesthesiologist (seriously how do you spell that word without spell check?) had a great deal of trouble intabating me last time and I should have received a letter from the hospital about that. Really? News to me...but I have been composing a book in my mind about the horrors of hospital life so I'll just put that into the chapter "Things the hospital should have done ... but totally and completely didn't."
It was really weird getting all this preparation for surgery. The last two times it was an emergency so there was no preparation at all. This time I went to this place called patient registration. They checked my information and then they had this nice boy take me to the fourth floor for my consultation with the pre-op nurse. It was all so nice and friendly and chill. Man, I should do all of my surgeries this way.
Wednesday of next week is the big day - I will keep everyone posted but I am going in at 1030 am, surgery is at noon, and I should be released around 8 am on Thursday.
cheers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)