Tuesday, July 31, 2007

damned cookies!

I hadn't seen or eaten these cookies for years; we used to buy them all the time years and years ago. They are delicious and addictive. The only bad thing about them is that they leave your mouth really dry.
I suppose I ate to many of them last night and didn't drink enough water before going to bed because when I woke up this morning, my mouth was super dry and my throat was actually hurting from dehydration. I've been drinking lots of water since waking up and now I'm starting to feel better. I'll keep drinking and have a high-sodium lunch and then I think all will be well.
The bad thing about being dehydrated - at least as far as I have noticed - is that it makes my sugars less responsive to insulin; they stay longer on the higher side. It becomes a catch-22 because elevated sugars use up more of your bodies hydration in attempts to clean those excess sugars out of the blood.
Regardless, I'm on the road to recovery.

Tonight I'm very excited to hang out with 2 good friends that I haven't seen enough of lately: one because he lives in Hong Kong and the other because.... well I haven't a good reason, I guess I'm just a bastard. Nevertheless, tonight will be a good time.

I've been working a little this morning at the piano - playing around with some parts of the film music that I'm writing. Things are starting to take shape!
So ya, today I called the apartment manager as per the request of my roommate. They wanted to know my SIN and some other info, presumably so that they can do a credit/criminal records check. I am also going to send my roommate a cheque for my first months' rent!
The only thing to worry about now is how I am going to get out there and under what circumstances.
This apartment is available on Sept. 1st, no earlier. The original plan was that my parents would drive me out the last week of August because my dad needs to be back for the beginning of Sept. Now you see the problem. This also means that I won't have much time to settle in before things start with school. Oh well, that's a luxury I never really expected to have.
The other issue I had started to ignore when I thought I was living somewhere partially furnished was what stuff I'm going to take and how I would get it there. I am now moving to a completely unfurnished 2br apt. I will have to talk to my roommate and figure out what he has and what I need to bring. I have a feeling that this is going to be a little costly. It's back to the drawing board of making a list of things I absolutely need to bring for each room.

In other news I saw the Simpsons movie tonight. It was good, but I wasn't super impressed. I'm not sure of exactly what I was expecting, but it didn't quite meet those vague expectations. I just don't think that the show/characters fit well with the big kinda story/shenanigans. I do enjoy when they make the episodes grandiose, but they weren't able to translate that same energy onto the big screen. With that said, it still had the classic Simpsons wit and humour that you come to expect.

Monday, July 30, 2007

As much as I know never to say never, according to current obligations and plans, I think I'm officially done with musical theatre in Winnipeg. (for now, at least)
This summer was all about the musical theatre. I did a kid's theatre camp for three weeks and I did the fringe run of Hair. Both are now wrapped up.
We had our last performance of Hair today - it was a great show. After the show and cleanup, we had a barbecue at the director's house - so much food and fun. Then we had limos take us to the river boat for party and dancing.
Scotty came with me on the boat. Scotty is not lame. If he had wussed out on account of having to wake up for work tomorrow morning at the Leg, I would call him LAME right now, but he didn't. Scotty is not lame.
Overall, today was a pretty kick ass day!

The other kick-ass awesome news from today is that I have a place to live in London. This time it's more certain than last! It's a 2 bedroom apartment right in downtown London - close to everything I'll need and only 10 minute bus ride to the university. I'm so excited to not have to bus for an hour and a half to get to school!! This is the situation I had originally wanted, but I got sidetracked with other options that I thought might be more beneficial, but this is what I really want and I'm going to be happy with it!
As I learn more details about my living situation, I will post more, but for now I'm reasonably confident that I have a place as of Sept 1'st....
But that means that I have to reevaluate how I'm getting out there... That part is a little up in the air.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Apartment hunting

Earlier this summer I was feeling a lot better about finding a place to live. At one point I even thought I had a lease coming in the mail and that it was all in the bag. Now I'm at the point where I don't think that lease is coming and I'm looking at cheaper places anyway, but it's looking less and less promising. Places that I contact have a number of people coming for viewings, and I can't compete with that. I am not able to go there, see the apartment and then hand them a cheque for a deposit- and how can I blame any landlord for wanting that security.
Anyway, I am still checking up on all the ads; sending emails and making phone calls with the hopes of latching onto something.
I suppose I still have a month before I actually move there, so there's still time, but the first question people always ask me about moving is if I have a place lined up yet.

Monday, July 23, 2007

It had been such a while since I actually sat down to knit.
I was talking the other night with some people in the cast of Hair and I spilled the beans about my previous knitting experiences. They were delighted and expressed interest in wearing them as part of the 'nude' scene - I don't think any of the women are going completely nude; they are topless. Nevertheless, they thought that some thongs could spice up the scene.
Yesterday evening and today, I knit 6 thongs for today. Anyway, hopefully they will follow through with wearing them, that would be delightful! I made a variety of colours and styles - reminding me of how fun thong-knitting is in the first place. I do believe that I will start the business back up!
Anyway, I'm off to the show, and then perhaps more knitting....

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Summer has really flown by so quickly.
Even just this last week - my parents were out of town since tuesday, but I was barely at home so I didn't really notice a difference. The whole week I would leave the house at 8 or 9 in the morning, and I don't think I got home before 10 any day, more than a few I was out until after midnight.
2 of the 3 weeks are already over for musical theatre camp, only next week remains. That means that July is very nearly over.
I'm nowhere near as busy in August, so there's no reason why it would fly by, but I imagine it will. I still have so much stuff to do to get ready to move.
I need to figure out whether my health coverage would be better if I remained a Manitoba resident or if I switched to Ontario. I'm in a situation where I could justify either, so I just need to figure out which would help me out more. I also need to pick some courses, though registration doesn't happen until I get there and then I need to get my student loan papers in order.

Fringeramma!

Wow, the show today went really well and then I proceeded to go to 3 other fringe shows in the evening.
I love the fringe festival!
I can't afford the fringe festival!
I love the fringe festival!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Splendid Day

It was long, I left my house at 8:04am and I got home at just after midnight, but it was a good day!
I will assemble some of the highlights for your enjoyment:

Theater camp was fun, I wasn't too tired. I was involved in the teacher's skit that we presented for the kids. Maybe it was the ridiculous costume (tight leather jacket and orange/purple wig) or the fact that it was a bunch of little children that we were entertaining, but I was able to just let loose and be silly! The skit was set up as a dating show, I was bachelor number three, a rocl star!
To contrast, any previous experiences I've had with improvised theater has been uncomfortable with me - my use of language is not as fluid as I would like. I also got to know some of my coworkers a little better and then I wandered around downtown and had lunch and killed a lot of time before rehearsal.

HAPPY FRINGE! Today was the kickoff day for the fringe festival, more highlights:

We did a media performance on the free stage at Old Market Square. The performance itself was not the best due to only 2 singers being miked and never having seen/rehearsed in the space. It was also a tough crowd, at least inasmuchas it's tough to keep their attention.
Anyway, the good part - Butterflies seemed to like me today, a lot!
A Butterfly landed next to me and I put my finger out, but it flew away. Soon after, someone pointed out that it was on my shoulder - I felt so at-one with nature! She later moved onto my music book and then a different butterfly landed on my other shoulder! it was amazing!

Later, we went to a few fringe shows. I have to give huge advertising to the one at the Gas Station Theater - Die Roten Punkte.
It was amazingly professional and funny and non-stop entertaining. I would have been fine with just having experienced the show normally, but one of the characters picked me out of the audience to sing a special song to (Carpenters - Why do birds...) on the glockenspiel! I must have turned a little red, but it was hilarious and they kept it going all through the show. I was impressed with both of the actors' conviction and delivery. They never broke character and generally it was just super!
I highly recommend seeing this one if you going to see anything at the Fringe, oh and of course Hair!

Those were the highlights of the day.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

I hate technology

I'm going to have to reinstall windows and wipe everything off the basement computer.
I spent a large part of the afternoon today figuring out a) what files I absolutely need to keep and 2) how to get them onto my laptop Networking wouldn't work and I didn't feel like burning a billion cd's, luckily I found a way for the computer to recognize my travel drive.
It's hard to delete a whole hard drive. I imagine it would be horrible to have to and not be able to at least salvage somethings. If I knew how and had the patience, I might actually take the time to fix things up, but I don't so I won't.
I might get around to it tomorrow. I have camp from 9am - noon and then rehearsal from 3-midnight.... I will come home in between and then see if I'm motivated to use that time to fix a computer.
I am rather excited about how much better the computer will function once I've gotten rid of the years of junk that's on it.
It's also not that big of a deal because I basically only use my laptop now. I think I might have done the same thing anyway for my parents knowing that I'm leaving. It will be nice and organized and only have the essential programs on there for them. Then if it breaks down, it's their own fault! haha

So yes, as I mentioned, tomorrow is a long day and marks the beginning of official hardcore time! Actually I think it started last week, but I'll ignore that. I think that today was my last day with nothing to do until the end of July. Then I cut loose and go visit my sister for a few days and then I come back for 6 day a week work until I leave home for good.
The intensity of how quickly time will pass over the next month is starting to show itself, but I don't think it's the type of thing I can really prepare for. It will just hit me.

I'm at a funky place where I slept in late, so I've not even been up 12 hours, so I can't go to sleep, but I have a long day that starts early tomorrow, so I SHOULD go to bed relatively early, but who knows. I think I'm going to cut myself off the internet and do some sort of creative work!

Goodnight world!
I feel like I haven't blogged in forever.
Time went by this last week so quickly because I had both musical theatre camp and Hair rehearsals, making for some long days. I'm done with the dance classes, so at least that's one less thing on my schedule.
I had mentioned the two meetings I had late this week that would help form my musical creativity plans for the summer.
The dance rehearsal/meeting - I got together with the producer and the dancer. This gave me an opportunity to get to know the dancer and find out some of her inspirations for movement and whatnot. We shot some test footage in the apartment - where he is shooting one section of the film. I also got a crash course in photo/film development, about 3 or 4 minutes of filming worked out to about 2 seconds of actual film time. It was very good to see the work that is going in on the part of the other collaborators.
This was a good get-together as it gave me some good insight and direction on the project. It also gave me some different ways of thinking of things and ideas are already rolling for what music I will write!

The other meeting was good as well, but the aftermath has been interesting...
By the end of the meeting, we had picked 3 poems to use and we were happy with the way they fit together. Next step is to get copyright permissions.
This is a process that I will need to become familiar with at some point. I do not ever want to be familiar with it!! YUCK! I'm stuck on the first step of finding out who has the copyright to the poems. I'm waiting for confirmation. Once I have that, then I need to get the permission - a process that can take up to 6 or even 8 weeks. And permission is not something that I can just count on; in fact, people who have done this before have wished me luck in the process. Because the permission is not a sure thing.. I can't start working with the poems until I have it official, otherwise I might be screwed over.
Anyway, it will be playing this waiting game for a while yet. I really can't describe just how frustrating this process has been already, and will surely be in the future.

Aside from that frustration, which will actually do me a world of good in terms of learning, things are going well. I find that being busier and having thing after thing to do actually keeps my mind more creatively active, so I have ideas floating around for the creative projects that I don't have time to do...

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

I'm feeling very much disappointed at this moment in the fact that my dance classes need to end after this week.
I've gotten over the overwhelmingness that I experienced in the first classes. I am not as sore after the intense classes, but I still feel myself working as hard or harder. I am also sort of almost catching onto the relation that one must have between their physical body and their mind in order to do the proper things at the proper time ish.
I can tell that I will have learned something after thursday and that I will have gained valuable insight and experience applicable to my playing for dance classes. Nevertheless, I know that even just sticking with the classes for the full 5 weeks would multiply my learnings so much! But alas, I have looked at my schedule many times and there is no way I have time to take any more classes until the last 3 days - at which point the classes will have become too advanced and it wouldn't be of benefit to anyone.
Are you ready for a tease of inspiration? (here it is)
I was reminded today of the original reason that I decided to take these classes: No, it wasn't when I realized the relationship of holding my butt muscles and smiling and how it can actually help me balance. And no, it wasn't the marvelous sense of freedom I had today when one of the moving steps in modern class clicked...
What reminded me of the original reason was one of the jumps in modern - it shifted quickly from side to side. My feet and mind were quick and I actually kept up with the exercise and everyone else in the class. What didn't move so quickly was my belly, which felt like a bowl full of jelly.
My belly ; the real reason I'm taking these summer dance classes!
(tee hee hee)

Dear Belly,
We've had some good times, but I think it's time that we parted. I know it won't be easy, but I think it's for the best. Luckily, these dance classes have shown me that I can push myself even further than I had thought. I intend to work hard, and eventually you will be gone. And take your friend, my ghetto booty, with you!
Sincerely,
Michael

Monday, July 09, 2007

It's amazing how the day goes by fast when there's a variety of things to do.
I started my day with 3 hours of musical theater camp, then I had a few hours for lunch, I finally went to Mitzi's for chicken fingers... they a great reputation, but odd business hours, so I went today. The chicken fingers were damned good, but caesar salad was not up to par. Nevertheless, I see why they are known for wonderful chicken fingers.
After lunch, I went to the library downtown and read some poetry about autumn.
Then was Hair rehearsal. We did a bit of cleaning and then a run through of the second act - what a wake up call to those two pieces that I had never played with the cast before... I was not comfortable. I need to spiff those up a lot before the next time. It's odd thought that I have no time really to work on them. I took some time tonight to work on the pieces that we will run through tomorrow, but there's only so many waking hours in the day (appropriate for playing piano).
Oh ya, the mus th. camp this morning was so cute. not my group, but there's a group of 15 5/6 year olds doing a Clown workshop!! I get to play for their performance - cutest thing ever.
Anyway, where was I... after the Hair run, I had something to eat and then dance classes. The stretching / turn-out exercise didn't even hurt as much as it did the other times. I'm actually experiencing the benefits of dance training.... ish.
I had grabbed a vial of test strips last night in the dark to replace the ones in my backpack.. but it turned out to be a vial I had used for old strips which had already been used. My sugars were not in their happy place when I got home... after 11 hours of not testing.... I'd prefer not to think about how long they were resting at that bad place.

Also, I'm excited about the creative prospects increasing lately. The dance film is getting underway. I have the form and a lot of concepts and I'm going to a rehearsal on friday to see what the motion style is going to look like. On thursday, I'm meeting with a singer friend for whom I am writing a songcycle. She has chosen poems and she'll present them to me with her inspirations and then I have free reigns to make them into beautiful music. She will be learning them for her recital, so most of the work will be done at the beginning of next year AKA-during my masters. That's going to be somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes of music! Moral of this story is that I'm very excited to have something concrete to work on and have some direction. And as of this weekend, I will have two such projects! Perhaps this summer isn't all for shit afterall...

Sunday, July 08, 2007

I just realized that my blog is actually linked somewhere out in the world of diabetes blogging - this made me feel guilty about barely ever posting about diabetes, so now I will diablog for you.

I've been trying to sort out my own thoughts and feelings about insulin pumping.
Since the dawning of insulin pumps and up until maybe a year ago I was convinced that I never wanted on. It was simply being tethered to my insulin. This was reinforced by an Endocrinologist and educator reminding me that the pump is only as good as the person using it. By assessing the inadequacies of my diabetes management, I concluded that the improvements have to come from myself, not a new toy/tool.
Sometime within the last few years, I actually saw little improvements in my control, resulting from carb counting and more aggressive dosing. I also started reading diabetes blogs. Everything added up, and I got the impression that everyone who has tight diabetes control has an insulin pump - this image is clear as a bell in the diabetes blogging community. I actually thought about getting a pump.
Finances aside, I almost convinced myself it was a possibility.
Recent: My control was getting quite good with MDI(multiple daily injections) and my recent trip to Europe showed me that with an active lifestyle, management is even more responsive.
Now: I'm back home and the lack of constant exercise/physical activity has set back in - my insulin requirements are back up high and my sugars are running higher than I want them to be. I'm relatively convinced that Winnipeg in general is bad for diabetes....
I've pushed the pump out of my head and life because it's not a financial possibility at this point in my life. Since my insulin requirements are so much higher than other people, I can have tighter control with single use dosing that would be unimaginable to most pumpers. At the same time, I really really want to use less insulin. It would make losing weight so much easier and would be better for me in so many ways.
Basically, I'm convinced that I'm making the right choice and that I can improve from this state, but I'm not sure whether I'm currently anti-pump for logical reasons, or whether I'm just dressing up my assessment of financial concerns.
Anyway, I hope to be more regular in my posting about diabetes- something that will force me to think about it more also!
I had been planning on being so super productive this summer.....
I had big plans of doing so much composing, but as of now, I've done no composition whatsoever. The closest I've come is having started to almost work on the dance film project. I've written down one chord that sounded like a train, although I will most likely change that chord between now and the final product.
I'm starting to even feel guilty about not having spent this summer working my ass off to become a better composer - As it is, I'm years behind the other people that will be doing the MMus program in terms of experience in writing things... I should not be sitting on my laurels, I should be using the time during the summer to write so much stuff.
Nevertheless, I don't have that inspiration, and my days are already starting to fill up with rehearsals and all of that stuff. Tomorrow my day is filled with things to do straight from 9am up until 10 or 11 pm... and the rest of the week is similarly 10+ hour days. Looking at my schedule... it snuck up on me.. I knew that July was going to go by quickly.. It looks like the next time I will have time to think about anything other than musical theater in some capacity, it will be the tail end of July, right into August.
I am planning on visiting my sister and her husband in Thompson during the first week of August, before I start ballet work because as soon as the ballet is done it's summer session, I'm moving to London.
In other words, my move is sneaking up on me very quickly. I think I will be prepared. I'm spending some time today ripping my favorite CD's onto my computer. I don't want to take them with me (another thing I'm going to be storing at my parents' house).

So, I've been playing on the IKEA website, and I think I can get the kind of desk I want by simply choosing a table top and then some kind of legs. I spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect desk - what I really want is a large working area on the desk, but usually that costs a lot of money, and you can only get that in one of those huge wooden office desks. Now, don't get me wrong; that would be absolutely amazing, BUT I don't have 700$ to spend on a desk... I don't have that much to spend on anything really. Anyway, for much less, I can get something that will suit my needs!
I also played around yesterday with the monitor from the home computer seeing how great the extended desktop feature is... I love it. I'm getting a very large LCD monitor for my computer from my wonderful sister so that I can see everything on the computer screen when I'm composing for large ensembles. It will also be large enough that I can use it as a TV screen for watching movies or whatnot.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Oouchy!

So yesterday was great to get me comfortable with being in a dance class and being physically active....
Today was not as much about being comfortable as it was about being sweaty. Modern class was great in terms of the intensity. My coordination was not so great. The great thing about modern is that it chains simple movements together from the get-go and gets you moving more than ballet... but you apparently need the memory and coordination to make it actually work. It wasn't that bad, I was holding my own and the teacher was super supportive of everyone (I love you Claire!).
Then there was jazz class... 2 things I learned about stretching: 1) my body really doesn't want to move like that and b) when I try to move my body like that, it hurts and sweats (I figure that sweating is my body's version of tears). Other than the stretching, everything went pretty well. We did some on-the-spot (ish) movements that vaguely looked like an aerobics class. In the steps across the room and the combination we started, I was a lot more coordinated than I was in the modern class.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Well, I played piano for the RWB for 4 regular school seasons and some summers.... I've developed a strong dance vocabulary and knowledge of basic dance technique.....
but nothing could have prepared them for tonight....
Musical theatre was OK, I can sing.. so that count for something. I couldn't remember the choreography - and we're talking the very simplest of movements... but it was fun!!
Ballet... wow, I have so little balance. Ballet class is supposed to be serious, but I couldn't help but laugh at some points! I was pretty good at the skipping.. except when we did it on the second side and then I got confused as to which arm was going where...
The ballet teacher kept on saying that it the class wouldn't be a cardiovascular workout, but I was still working up a bit of a sweat. Partially because she had us working some muscles that I didn't even know actually existed, but mostly because I'm so out of shape.
Tomorrow is going to kill me, but in a wonderful way. Tonight was my 2 low intensity classes; I'm not sure about modern, but I know that Jazz is a high energy class. These are the classes that I'm taking to get me in shape!
I had become a little apprehensive over the last few days because the office lady worried me about what I needed to wear, but the teachers and other people in the classes were great. Definitely a positive experience so far!
I will be sure to post tomorrow about the other classes. The teachers tomorrow are both young and hip teachers!! yippee!