Dec. 21 - Time and Movies

I had not a clue that I hadn't posted anything in the last four months. Amazing. Time passes and there's nothing that you can do to stop it... even as much as you'd like it to.

Why is it that when we are young we can't wait for the time to fly by so that we can get out of the house and live our lives? Now that I'm older, and I do hope a bit wiser, that I find the time just flying by too fast.

My baby girl is now seventeen years old and my twins little baby boys are now thirteen years old. Wow... where has the time gone? The pictures I guess paint the picture more and more.

This evening we watched a movie together called Inkheart. It was a movie that had Brendan Frazier in it. He's become one of my favorite actors. It was a very interesting story of a man who could read a story and actually bring the characters to "life" - they would come out of the story and be "real" people. A very interesting idea.

Here I am - a want to be writer thinking about this story where a man brings to life the characters he reads. I wish that it was that simple to write about it. It's actually quite hard to sit and write something. It's like a saying that I've seen on Ms. Michel's desk. It says: "Writing isn't hard. You just stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood appear on your forehead." Sometimes, that's all the truth that there is.

Then, there are those people that you watch as they are pounding out a story left and right and you have to wonder how they got so proficient at it, as you look back to your blank sheet of paper and wipe your brow wondering if the blood is there yet. I still have stories in my head... and I want to tell them, but the question sometimes is how to get the characters down, the scenes straight and everything right and without errors.

If I only had the time to do it...

Sept 5 - Things in General

It's been two weeks since school started and I've already had to use some thumb holding down and write up a student. I've also already had a grandparent yell at me for an extended period of time before I finally decided that I was not going to put up with her mess anymore. Not the best way to begin off the school year, but then again, I'm not going to put up with that kind of crap.

I've lost a grand total of 20 pounds so far. I'm glad that I was able to do that at least. I need to continue to stick to the diet even when I feel like I want to eat everything in the house. The issue is that I'm a stress eater. :( Not a good thing, but it happens. Plus, I love bread... it's my downfall.

Things on the audio front have been going well. It's coming along nicely on the projects that I'm working on. We'll see how that goes.

I also mentioned this on my Facebook. A student that I had last year passed away on Wednesday in a car accident. Very sad and very tragic as far as I'm concerned. She was one of my favorite kids. I wish that she had been able to stay longer, but I know that when the Father calls you home, your job is done here and you have another one awaiting you in paradise. At least she's not in pain. That, I do know. I am praying for her family though and I do hope that God just wraps them up in His arms and holds them through this ordeal and for many many months afterwards.

It's been a long summer and it looks like it's going to be a fairly long year - even when it seems that the days have been going by fairly quickly.

We have been finally getting some rain around here. Thank goodness. We have been in a drought for awhile and it's wonderful right now to see mud. It's a blessing even when there's trash out in the yard from the wind blowing it in. I'm not worried about that. Trash can be picked up.

I still need more time in the day to do all the things that I need to get done within it and I'm just wishing that I was able to do more... but I do need to use the facilities, sleep, to work and eat. It's just that I have so much to do and I want to get to it all. It's not fair that I have to stop doing something because my body isn't working for me.

That's something else. My back/hip has been giving me issues. My hip keeps going out of alignment and it's just frustrating that I can't sit at my desk for long periods of time to get the stuff done that I need to get done. :(

Better get to work on some more audio. The more that I can get done, the sooner it can get out and that will mean the sooner that I can get paid for it. :) I'm not worried about getting it done. I'm putting Colonial Radio Theatre: On The Air first and foremost.

I know that it's a long post, but in the end, I guess that I've been far too quite on my blog. I know this and I'll do my level best to get better about that. I need to blog it so that I can get this crap out of my system and so that I can keep a record of all the interesting details in my life down - even when they aren't so interesting to some.

~MJ

A need for ... something...

I guess that I'm just asking for anything/everything. Perhaps, I'm not. I don't know. I just know that I'm totally and completely stressed out from work - and it started on last Monday!

I found out that I will be teaching the following schedule:
Period 1: English 1 =======================11 kids
Period 2: English 3 and English 4==========23 kids
Period 3: PLC (Professional Learning Community)
Period 4: English 2 =======================11 kids
Period 5: Conference
Period 6: English 1 ========================5 kids
Period 7: English 1 and English 4===========14 kids

The issue that I'm having is that I'm teaching two different (COMPLETELY DIFFERENT) courses in two different periods. I don't have an issue with teaching all four Englishes. No no no. It's the doubling up. I do understand that I'm the only resource teacher, but I don't have the Superman cape on behind me. I'm not Wonder Woman. I don't really know how I'm going to do all of this. I'm frustrated - and on top of it all, I have to be working with a NEW Scope and Sequence as well as deal with a new system for the Special Education program for making the kids Individual Educational Plans (IEPs).

I have a feeling that what I'm going to do is just set up a notebook for each class with their own Scope and Sequence and deal with that that way... and just go through the damn thing.

However, I'm just not sure that I like where all of this is leading. If I'm going to be the ONLY Resource English teacher, then, they need to like perhaps give me six classes or something instead of 5 so that they can at least spread them out across the day and not double them up. That's just silly to do that to me. God.

Prayers. I guess that I'm asking for prayers.

Please.

~MJ

Musings...

I wonder what this next school year holds for me. It's going to be interesting to see exactly what the kids will be wearing, doing, etc. It's just going to be too interesting to see actually how I cope with the stress of all four of the English classes on my shoulders.

At least they are going to be MY classes again. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed teaching with the other teachers within the inclusion process, but I never really felt like they were MY kids. They were OUR kids... or more to the point in some of the classes, HER/HIS kids. By the end of the year, this past year, had me running all over the place, having more and more to do.

I'm grateful that the school puts a lot of faith in me to do the things that I do, but there are times when I wish that they didn't. I just want to have a simple year ahead. Is that something that I can have? Geez, I surely do hope that it's a simple year.

~MJ

Quantum Things...

Of all things to come into my brain today is someone asking me if they had permission to write a story to be put up on the Quantum Leap: The Virtual Seasons website.

I guess that this means that I'll have to work on the new website for QLTVS and do my best to make it better before I start the new season. I have a couple of stories, but I don't think that they have been edited or anything else of that nature.

So, I'm going to have more stuff to work on. I know. I KNOW. I take on too much and I do too much, but when it comes to Quantum Leap and Quantum Retribution, I have found out that I have slacked off in those two areas.

I mean, it's been at least 7 months since a new Quantum Retribution audio has come out and we (Eleiece and I) had to recast a role for the show. Mark Bruzee wasn't able to keep up with the role of Xavier. We hope that he can continue on with the role of Edward Grant. At least Edward was the more evil of the two.... I think. I'm not sure anymore. LOL

As for Quantum Leap audio, it's been put on hold for so long that it's not even funny. I really need to get started on that again. I want to get that finished so that I can go ahead and get it out. At least at chapters at a time or something.

We'll see about that one.

As for Quantum Retribution - as soon as we recast Xavier, I'll begin work on putting 109 Getting To Know You, What a Pain together... as well as working on Buck Alice.

So... there ya go.

Wow.

~MJ

Hazards...

It's the hazards of the job, I know that it has to be...

When you begin an audio production and you have cast certain people because they have the right sound that you are looking for - it's more than a bit frustrating when after a couple of MONTHS of waiting that you finally have to decide that you've had enough of waiting and you have to recast. It's not fun to decide. It's not fun to do. It throws everyone off because the character was already somewhat set and actually had been changed before. It's frustrating... it's sad... and it's driving me to the brink of being upset. I don't want to recast. I don't want to have to send out a casting call when the person who was doing the voice was so good at what he did.

But I can't keep the show waiting... and after an email to a group list... and still no response after two days... what are you supposed to think?

I guess that I think that I'm going to have to do what I don't want to do... and it's frustrating the heck outta me.

Sighs.

~MJ

What the...

I woke up yesterday and got prepared to edit some audio - and it wasn't there. The session was empty. 23 MINUTES of audio gone.

So far, I've managed to re-create about 7 minutes of it. So... I'm continuing on re-creating.

I'm NOT happy.

Outcome...

I didn't get as far as I thought that I would. I got about half of it done. I wanted to go back and listen to things and clean things up. I can't just leave stuff alone. I have to go back in and mess with it all again. Regardless, I'm glad that I was able to make a few changes here and there.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. It's going to be a relatively quiet day tomorrow. The boys are gone with their grandparents and Meghan and Matt will be out at someone's house working on the goat pens that they are making so that the boys can have goats. Perhaps I'll be able to get more done on BA. :)

And still get the house clean and whatnot. Clothes washed, etc.

We'll see how it all plays out.

~MJ

Back and ready to work.

It was a very nice personal funeral for our cousin, Don Simms yesterday. It was nice to see some of our family, but it's just not the best time to meet and catch up on what's going on with everyone.

Regardless...

I am ready to work on again on audio, so... here we go. Let's see how much I can get done this evening. At least I'm hoping to get through all the changes that Jerry would like for the first 23 pages and then, I'll just continue to mosey on through it.

So... off to work, I go. :)

~MJ

Tis sad...

We are leaving in a little bit to go to Throckmorton for a funeral today. It's sad that Matt's cousin, Don Simms passed away on Monday. He was having issues for the last month. Last week, they put him into hospice. So, it was just a matter of time. He was 72 years old.

I don't like going to funerals. Not one bit. Seeing family - yeah... it's good, but not in that way.

It's going to be a long drive and I'm not looking forward to it. We'll get there sometime this evening. I just hope that it's not too late.

Matt is also making a part of this a delivery so we are hauling steel down there too. So, even part of this trip is going to be a work thing.

Also on this particular trip, Thursday we are dropping the kids off with my mom and dad. The 13 year old boys will have a chance to hang out and work with their grandparents. It's going to be nice to have a little break from them. I will miss them terribly though.

Well, I must eat something before Matt gets here and we leave.



Did I mention that I don't like funerals?

~MJ

Another Day...

It's been a very busy busy day again, today. Between the house work, the constant goings on with family and the mixing of this particular audio, I've been keeping myself relatively busy busy busy.

I'm enjoying mixing this audio, as it continues to go on. It's not anything like the moody piece of Moonfleet that I did before and that's quite okay. Every story has it's own little piece of flair to it and Buck Alice and the Actor Robot most definitely has it's own. I'm just thoroughly enjoying it. Even when I have to beat my head against the desk trying to find the right sound that I'm looking for and wondering where I put it that particular sound that I'm looking for.

There is a lot of things that's going on with us at Colonial Radio Theatre. I just know that from what I heard of the few productions that are going on - it's going to be a wonderful listening experience for anyone who enjoys book radio. :)

At least I'm enjoying them; especially the ones that my senior co-hort, Seth Adam Sher, has been producing as well. He's really an awesome producer and he's a wiz at getting them done in record time.

Ok. More work to do and I'm going to try to get a bit more of it done... it's a massive project but you know, I always enjoy a challenge!

~MJ

Eepness...

I went to my live journal account and found out that I hadn't posted there since... uhm.. well Jan. 1, 2009. So, I guess that I'll try to do my best to post here and there between or something on some note. I know that I've not kept up here that much either, but when you are as busy as I am... or dealing with things that I've been dealing with - you gotta just deal with them, I guess.

Shrugs.

ANYHOO... it's about 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday and I'm about to start working on Buck Alice and see how much I can get done this morning. :) Here's to hoping that a good deal of it can get done.

So... yeah.

There we go.

~MJ

June 25: Audio and Things...

THINGS:

I have been keeping myself extremely busy. Matt asked me to come up to his job at Texas Building and Roofing Inc. to help out for the summer during the day and actually keep up with the bookkeeping. It's not too bad actually, it's just that I hate messing with numbers and this is forcing me to step outside of my comfort zone and get into that world of numbers. On the plus side, I'm actually getting to know the world that my husband deals with on a day in day out situations. His stress level is comparable to mine at school - it's just on a different level.

AUDIO:

Audio wise, I'm just as busy. Totally busy. I've been working on a audio project with Colonial Radio Theatre: On the Air called "Buck Alice and the Actor Robot" written by Walter Koenig. It's a story about an alien race coming and annihilating the human race, but they didn't kill everyone... one one-thousandths of the human race survived and there is only one fertile woman left on the planet. Both alien and human races are both wanting this woman to help fertilate the planet once again.
It's a very interesting story so, I'm just trying to deal with all the issues that are with it...

I've also been listening to other audio from Colonial Radio Theatre:
1) Jarrem Lee
2) Zorro
3) Ticonderoga

So far they have been all excellent audios. I'm get onto listening to other audios that were produced by CRT, as soon as I can. I'm starting to listen to them while I'm at work.

It's all great audios!!!

~MJ

Mar. 29 - Sunday

Sunday Mar. 29, 2009

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning with the idea that something was wrong. I had forgotten to do something. Then it came to me… I didn’t call the shuttle service to come and get me to take me to LAX for my flight. So, I picked up the phone and called. They at first were going to arrive at 4:00. I immediately panicked.

I looked at the schedule for the day and Scott was supposed to begin signing autographs at 4:00! I called more shuttles, cabs, etc., and found a shuttle that would show up no later than 4:30. I tried to get a later flight… but that would cost another $250 and there was no way that we had the money for me to do that. I was scraping by with what I had to get here.

I called Eleiece and talked with her about what was going and cried. She (as Pollyanna) gave me some advice and said that she was going to pray that I would be able to meet up with Scott. I prayed that I would, too.

I went to breakfast and saw Brian… told him what was going on and he told me that he couldn’t do anything because Scott’s security wasn’t going to let any line skipping happen. So…. I was crushed. I decided that it was just not going to happen. I had cried some more… but it just wasn’t a good thing.

The ballroom opened at 8:00 and I went in and just sat there wondering exactly what was going on. I had to leave to get my bearings.

The Dealer room opened at 8:30 for VIPs and Jay Schwartz began a Garage Sale of all of his Quantum Leap memorabilia. Again – no money, so, I just sorta meandered through the rooms and talked a bit more with John Durham and Lana Bettencourt. John and I talked for awhile about audio drama and how that might be done. He seemed to be really interested in it.

At 9:30, autographs with guest stars panel no. 7 began: The people on the paper to be there was: John D’Aquino, Brad Silverman, Susan Griffiths, DeLane Matthews, LeReine Chabut, Harry Groener, Liz Torrez, and Marjorie Monaghan.

Velton Ray Bunch – was not there for an autograph.
Susan Griffiths – was not signing for an autograph although some people were able to catch up with her.
LeReine Chabut – She did not show.
Harry Groener – he was not signing for autographs.
Marjorie Monaghan -she was not signing for autographs.

I was able to get autographs and pictures with the following:
• Liz Torres
• DeLane Matthews
• John D’Aquino
• Brad Silverman

It was while I was standing in line for Panel 7 autographs, I was talking about how I wasn’t going to be able to meet Scott. One of the people that I was talking to told me to go and talk with Jay Schwartz (Scott’s publicist) about what was happening and see if I could get in front to get his autograph. I saw Jay actually go into the Dealer’s room.

I didn’t expect anything to actually happen. Honestly. I told Jay Schwartz about what the issue that I had. He told me, “We will fix that. You will get an autograph with Scott. Here’s what I want you to do. When everything is over, I want you to get up and walk out with Row A or before them. Come over here and I’ll make sure that you get in straight away to meet him, because if Scott doesn’t sign someone’s he doesn’t sign anyone’s.” He then gave directions to one of the convention workers and told her the same thing. I thanked him profusely and told him my name in case he needed to have it. He reviewed with me again and told me pointedly, “Don’t let anyone stop you. If they try to, you tell them that Jay told me to be here.” I nodded, thanked him again, then went and got back in line for the autographs. After the autographs with panel 7, I got back in time to take pictures of Panel 6.

I was able to show back up at the ballroom to get pictures of the people who were in Panel 6: Deborah Pratt, James Whitmore Jr., Diamond Farnsworth, Ron Grow, Mike Beche and Harriet Marguiles.

At 11:00, Panel 7 came up with: John D’Aquino, Brad Silverman, Liz Torrez, Susan Griffiths, DeLane Matthews, LeReine Chabut, Harry Groener, and Marjorie Monaghan.

After watching the panel 7, I had to go pay for my room and take care of my luggage because the shuttle was coming at 4:30. So, I was able to get the room paid for then, asked if the hotel could watch my bags. They said gladly, so, by the time that I got back to the Ballroom, I got to hear Deborah Pratt read a bit of her new Quantum Leap Novel. We then had a tribute video of Dennis Wolfberg (Gooshie).

Brian had told Morgan and myself to make sure that we were in the ballroom at 1:15. I just made sure that I was there.

Around 1:15, while Marc was talking to us about how we should compose ourselves when Scott gets here, the stage crews removed the tables and brought out 2 chairs and a keyboard. At some point, we heard a gasp – and I knew that he was there. Scott had arrived…

Scott came in, we all cheered. It was just amazing to be in the same room with him. I heard a woman who was near me keep saying over and over again “Oh my god… he’s here! He’s here!” All I could think of once everyone calmed down was how I was just lucky to be in the same room with him.

Velton Ray Bunch showed up to play at the keyboard and Scott then sang, “Somewhere in the Night” for us.

Around 1:30, we had the Bakula vs. Schwartz Trivia Challenge. That in of itself was rather funny. Scott had come in saying certain things about different episodes, saying that he was getting points for them. He gave Jay the majority of the answers anyway, but it was fun to see the two of them go back and forth. You can tell that they have a wonderful relationship.

At one point, Scott kept trying to divide up the room so that he would have the panel of judges on his side no matter what the outcome. The final outcome was that Jay Schwartz won the contest (thanks to Scott’s help) and Scott won second place.

That’s when Donald Bellasario came out and sat down next to Scott and they got to go over a few old times. It was while they were talking together that Dean Stockwell called in and we got to hear from Dean as well. It was sad that he wasn’t there, but you know, at least we got to hear his voice. That was important to me.

Scott’s award; however, didn’t stay with Scott for very long. When the Q & A started up, Janine Humphreys stood up to ask them a question. She got a little out and then froze. Poor thing. She started to cry. Don, Scott and Marc all tried to calm her, but she was really upset. That’s when Marc told Scott and Don that she had not been like this all weekend, that she had won a trivia question last night so that she could get a book. It was at that moment that she said, “I can do it now! I can do it!” Marc took the microphone back over to her, and she stood up and said, “Sam Beckett’s social security number is 563-86-9801.” I can’t even remember it. She spilled it out. That’s when Scott stood up, grabbed the award, jumped down from the stage, went to her, kissed her on the cheek, gave her a big hug and then told her that the trophy was hers. She was stunned, slightly crying and completely froze. She was so cute!

I was able to get up and talk in the Q & A… and I was determined not to do that. However, when it came my turn, Marc, who was across the room from me, looked up and say, “Ma’am, your question?” It helped that he did that because I turned toward him and said, “What’s this ma’am, stuff? Suddenly, I’m ma’am?” That’s when Scott, Don and Marc all said, “Oooo…. Young lady.” It tickled me.

It broke whatever nerves I had – so I told them my name and that I was from Texas.

Don had two questions for me:
1) Where in Texas do you live?
2) Do you know where Bourne is?

I answered Bertram (near Austin) and yes, I do! He then told us that his daughter lived in Bourne! I was actually not tongue-tied.

I then told them that I really didn’t have a question for them but a comment. I started with Donald Bellasario – for the obvious reason – because starting with Scott was a bit nerve racking.

I told Don that when you look at all of the things that he had done in his life, all the stories that he has written, that we (the audience) can really tell from the writing what kind of heart he has and thanked him for doing all that he’s done. He thanked me.

Then I turned to Scott. I told him (I think), “thank you for what you have done in all of your acting because without you taking this part, I don’t think that any of us would know where we would be without you.” He sat back in his chair and said, “Wow,” along with a “Thank you.”

At 3:30, Scott and Don started to go toward the autograph room. It was then announced that we would be going by rows and to stay in our seats. I told the people around me a small lie. I told them that I had to use the restroom. I did go to the restroom, then immediately went to the autograph area. Once I got down there, I had a few people look at me and frown.

I actually had someone say, “Miss, you will need to go back to the ballroom. You are not allowed to be here.” I immediately piped up, “Jay told me to come down here. I’m under his orders.” I was not going to have someone escort me away when Jay told me specifically to do something. Immediately, someone said, “Oh…. That’s Jay’s case. She can stay.”

Brian showed up then. We hugged and I told him what a pleasure it was to meet him and talk with him.

While I stood underneath the stairs, Scott walked by me three different times. I watched as he turned to Diamond Farnsworth’s wife and told her that he had to call Chelsea so that she’d know where he was. He was four feet away at that point. I just stood there watching him, and when his eyes came up to me, and we locked eyes, I just smiled at him – and he gave me that grin back.

He went into the autograph room then, and I just stood there and reminded myself that he’s just a man. Period. Nothing more than a man. That’s when Diamond Farnsworth’s wife walked up and asked me why I was standing there. I told her about the shuttle coming at 4:30 and about how Jay said that I could get an autograph from Scott. She nodded then asked where I was from. We talked for a few minutes, but one of the questions she asked was, “So, have you met Scott before?” I told her no, but that this has just been amazing. I even told her that meeting Scott is like a dream coming true. She then said that she had to go back into the room to take care of something. I nodded and she left.

I continued to wait… patiently, looking at my watch constantly. It was getting to be about 4:15 and none of the others (Row A) had shown up yet. I was worried about actually missing my shuttle. I just remember talking with a few of Scott’s security and then hearing, “Okay, come on in.” That was from Mrs. Farnsworth! I remember asking, “Are you sure?” and she motioned me in. I smiled and dropped my bag as I walked in, remembering that we weren’t supposed to take anything but something for him to sign up to him.

Then I hear this voice say, “So, you have a plane to catch, huh?” Thanks to my mother’s upbringing, I answered, “Yes, sir,” then approached him. We talked for a few minutes about where I was from, my name and what not. He signed my booklet as well as the picture that the convention gave us I thanked him for coming, for the opportunity to meet him, everything. I’m just glad that I didn’t babble on. I did ask if I could get a photograph with him and he said, “Of course.” He got up, came from behind the table (from the photos that I’ve seen, he’s leaned over the table) wrapped his arm around my shoulder. See:



I then got to get an autograph with Don Bellasario as Row A began to come in. A very pleasant, personable man. He smiled and talked with me for a few minutes. Before I left, I did reach for Scott’s hand one last time and gave him a handshake and thanked him once more.

I missed the closing ceremony that was at 3:30. I missed the screening of The Leap Back.

My shuttle came at 4:35. I gave hugs to Julie, Jon and his wife and Dean, and to a few others before I got in the shuttle in and talked with a few of the people within the van about what had just happened.

I ate at the airport and the flight went on without a hitch at 7:15. The only waiting time that I had was after I got to Austin at 12:30 AM. I had to wait awhile for my luggage to get to the luggage cart. I had to wait until 1 AM to get the luggage, the I drove home. I got home at 2:00 AM. I’m glad that I decided to take Monday off!!!

Mar. 28 - Saturday

Saturday March 28, 2009 - Day 2 of the Quantum Leap Convention:

Woke at 6:50 and decided that I was going to do better at keeping to that convention rules of 6-2-1. I am at least closer to the 6 hours of sleep today to keep me going. Now, I just needed to get some food within my system and some coffee.

I went to the restaurant at the hotel and ate with two lovely young women from England that befriended me. While we ate, we watched as the magician (Joshua Chaikin) ran back and forth (quite literally at times) between the ballroom and the restaurant. We began to actually start making jokes about how he might have forgotten how certain tricks were performed and was working it out in his head. Perhaps it wasn’t nice, but it was funny.

I was able to make it to the ballroom a little after 8:30. I missed the very beginning of the second showing of the Quantum Leap Fan-Film: A Leap to Di For. Since I had already seen the last part of it, I watched up to the part where I got caught up. Chris Allen really did a nice job with all of the work that he put into the show and I told him so when I had the opportunity to do so.

At 9:00, we had VIP Admission to the Dealers room for Diamond and Platinum holders. I went down there and looked around. It was nicely set up and I took various pictures of some of the awesome displays that they had up of the posters at the back of the room. It was really quite lovely.

At 9:30 the magician Joshua Chaikin performed, but I missed it. I was in the Dealers room, then went across to the artist’s room to look at the pictures they had up there. It was nice to see some of those pictures. They were really well done. When I have the chance, I'll post the pictures somewhere for everyone to see.

It was at this point when I began talking with John Durham. He was sitting in the Artists room just watching over things and I didn’t know who he was – thought he was just a fan. I had no idea that he was one of the assistants of Deborah Pratt.

He let me know that he was a writer. He asked me if I wrote – I said that yes, I wrote fan-fiction. He was interested in what I had to say, so, I just told him that I had written a story a while back that I just absolutely hated. He asked me what it was about the story that I hated. I told him that it was that the characters didn’t want to do what *I* wanted them to do – that they took on a life of their own. He was amused at that and asked if I was a published writer. I told him no. It was then that he wrote down his name, his phone number, and his email address. He told me that he said that he would do his best to help me get published – and introduce me to Lana Bettencourt (who is Deborah Pratt’s personal assistant). Talk about mind boggling.

John walked me into the Dealer’s Room and introduced me to Lana Bettencourt. I looked at her like I knew her from somewhere… and she told me that she remembered me too. Lana had taken the picture of me with Deborah Pratt. She asked me what I was interested in, and I told her that I did work on websites, wrote, and did audio production for Colonial Radio Theatre. I told her about working on Moonfleet and how it might be interesting to see Deborah’s story (The Vision Quest) get made into an audio drama. She asked me to jot down my name, email, phone, and address so that she could contact me and get a hold of me about different things.

At that point in time, I thought that she was just blowing smoke, but I did it anyway. I mean, I’m just a lowly fan looking up at all of this at this moment as just a grand and wonderful thing to even meeting people and having fun!

At 10:00, we had Guest Star Panel Number 3 with the following people: Rob LaBelle, Lisa Jane Persky, Erika Amato, Natasha Pavlovich, Fabiana Udenio, Susan Isaacs and Michael Gregory.

It was during this panel that I finally got up the courage to go up to the microphones that were set up and give a comment to all of these wonderful guest stars that had come to the convention. I really didn’t have a question for them, but a comment. I told them that my name and that I was from Texas. I then went ahead and told them that I appreciated them coming down to the convention to tell us their stories about the show and about Scott. I went ahead to tell them that I wrote fan-fiction stories and thanked them for helping me to teach my content. I saw the quizzical expressions and told them that I used Quantum Leap in the classroom to help get the point across from various standpoints. Not just the racial card, but to show how plot is used, etc. Regardless, I said thank you them. That must have made an impact on Michael Gregory. (You’ll see when you read a bit more.)

The next panel then came up on the stage at 11:00: and there wasn’t a way that I wasn’t going to get my pictures and see as much as I could of this panel. It has my favorite two people in it: David Newsome (Tom Beckett) and Carolyn Seymour (Zoe)!!!

The Guest Stars in Panel No. 4 were: Michael Gregory, Jane Sibbett, David Newsome, Jarrett Lennon, Carolyn Seymour, and Donna Magnani.

This group was actually quite amazing. Just listening to them talk about working with Scott and having so much fun, I decided that I was going to definitely get up and talk to David Newsome and Carolyn Seymour. I really didn’t know what I was going to say until I got up to the microphone. What came out was something along this manner: “It’s because of the people who are in the panels who have kept me writing fan-fiction for the past 9 years – especially Carolyn Seymour and David Newsome.” David then grinned and asked, “Oh…. Am I in trouble?” I told him back that no, he wasn’t in trouble… yet. I then thanked them for participating with the convention, for working on TV and just thank you for your talent.

It was at that point that I turned away from the microphone to leave (they had called my row to go to get autographs) when I heard: “MJ! Aren’t you the teacher?” I turned back to the panel and saw that Michael Gregory had asked me this question. So, I re-centered myself at the microphone then said, “Yes sir.”

He said, “Would you tell this panel what you said to the previous panel?”

I replied, “Sure.” I was actually thinking – oh crap. I’m screwed. You know? What did I say? So, I repeated the school stuff and I believe added that these days you had to get the kids engaged and that was one way to do it. At that point, Carolyn Seymour leaned forward in her chair and said, “And that’s what makes you an awesome teacher,” and she began clapping (as did the rest of the panel). It went from her lips to my ears to my heart. I immediately found tears in my eyes and my voice cracked as I looked up at her and said, “Thank you.” As they clapped (the panel!!!), I beat a retreat back to the back of the room because I really didn’t want to cry in front of them. So, I headed down to the next autograph session with the previous panel. I had already decided that no matter what I was going to pay for Carolyn Seymour’s autograph.

So, I was able to get autographs and pictures with these people from panel No. 4:
• Rob LaBelle
• Erika Amato
• Lisa Jane Persky
• K. Callen (Showed up afterwards)
• Natasha Pavlovich
• Fabiana Udenio (didn’t get a picture with her – she had to leave)
• Susan Isaacs (didn’t get a picture or autograph – she left (I believe))

Because I was getting these autographs from one panel, I wasn’t able to get to see the panel for the Novels and Comics (C. Winston Taylor, Julie Barrett, Mindy Peterman and Chris DeFilippis) that happened at 12:00, but I was able to get into the line for the autographs for Panel no. 5.

I was able to get autographs and pictures with the following:
• David Newsome (my god… he’s handsome)
• Michael Gregory (a very sweet and humbling man)
• Jane Sibbett (autograph only)
• Jarrett Lennon (autograph only)
• Donna Magnani (autograph only)
• Carolyn Seymour (you had to pay for her autograph) – more detail on that one below.

The Novels and Comics Panel showed up then and I was able to get autographs with them as well:
• C. Winston Taylor
• Julie Barrett
• Mindy Peterman
• Chris DeFilippis

Because I was getting all of these autographs, I wasn’t able to see the Guest Panel No. 5 at 1:00 with Claudia Christian, Beverly Leech, Vaughn Armstrong, Richard Herd, K Callan, Stuart Fratkin and James Harper. BUT... I did get the following later:
• Claudia Christian - a picture with her and her autograph. (had to pay for)
• Vaughn Armstrong - a picture with him the day before.
• Richard Herd - a picture and an autograph (had to pay for)
• James Harper - I wasn't able to get either a photo or an autograph.
• Stuart Fratkin - he wasn't there. (I don't think)

After I got all the autographs at this point, I went down to the Dealers room to see if I could get an autograph from Carolyn Seymour. When I showed up, she was actually walking down the hallway toward the room and I called out her name. “Ms. Seymour?” She didn’t hear me and kept walking – so, I tried to hurry toward her and said, “Carolyn?”

She turned around with a smile and said, “Yes, love?”

Okay… right then… I didn’t care if I had to pay a LOT of money for her autograph. I was going to get it no matter what. I mean, having ZOE of all people calling me Love?! Mind boggling. Instead of being the fan-girl though, I just smiled and said, “I have to tell you that you made me cry earlier.”

She met up with me, gave me a half hug, and said, “Why… oh, wait, you’re the teacher!” I nodded and she said, “I have something that I want to give to you.” I was flubbered. What would Carolyn Seymour want to give me!? It didn’t make sense, but I followed her into the Dealer’s Room and we went to her set up. She motioned to the pictures that she had amongst her possessions, picked one, and then said, “This one will do, I think.” It a picture of her all made up to look like a Romulan from Star Trek: The New Generation. She asked how to spell my name, and wrote on it: “To Mar-Jayne, What lucky kids! Love, Carolyn Seymour.”

I asked her how much it would be for her autograph and she immediately, “No love, this is from me to you. You owe me nothing. This is for your kids at school.” I was able to get a picture not just of her, but with her.

We talked about the short story that she’s writing about her great aunt. Carolyn said she wasn’t ready to come to the end of the story, because that would mean that she would have to somehow permanently come to the end of the one woman who believed in her. I can definitely understand that logic and appreciate how she’s taking her time with it. I did tell her that whenever she did finish it that I would love to read it. She then told me that she was on Facebook and to add her, that when she finished it, she would send out a message to let me know that it was available to get.

While we were talking and getting pictures with her, I missed listening to Jay Schwartz on this memories of Quantum Leap because I was getting autographs and pictures with all of the above. Amazing.

I had called AJ Burfield at some point during the day and found out that she would be coming up to talk with me at 3:00. I wanted to desperately meet AJ since we had began Quantum Leap: The Virtual Seasons back in 1999.

We met at 3:00, had a leisurely lunch, and just chatted for a long time because I didn’t have money for the auction. I knew that I wasn’t able to buy anything so, I was going to spend as much time with AJ as I could. She had to leave around 5:00 so, we were able to get a nice visit in. ☺ YAY!

I did go into the Charity Auction and watch for a little while. I couldn’t believe how much money people were willing to give for something. It was absolutely amazing. I believe that someone even bought the construction of Ziggy that Chris Allen made.

I met up with Julie Greene – Brian’s wife, and had dinner with her. It was really nice to meet up with Julie and get to know her a bit better. She’s pregnant and the precious baby boy will be born in July. I can’t wait to see a picture of him. He’s going to be beautiful. ☺ With parents like those two - why wouldn't he be???

Our dinner did take awhile because interestingly enough, I believe that they forgot about us. I had to hurry back to the room to get chanced for the Costume Masquerade that was going to happen.

I showed up a little bit late… but that was okay. The Enterprise Blues Band was playing when I joined in at 8:15. They were really good. Richard Herd sang a lovely version of “Oh Danny Boy” and I was able to at least get a few pictures of him singing it. We all stopped when he started singing it and reveled in it. Very, very nice.

The Costume Masquerade was really well done. We had some very interesting characters as you can see below. However, how the judging was done could have been done better. Unfortunately, they didn’t ask who we were or allow us to tell. What happened was Marc Lee actually put his hand over people’s head and then the audience clapped to see if they liked the costume or not. When I saw that happening, I wasn’t going to abject myself to that humiliation. I went ahead and took myself out of the running and went to talk with Jonathan, Mike and Morgan.

Even though I participated in the raffles, I didn’t win anything. ☹ That’s okay, I have my own memories and that’s good enough.

The evening ended at 11:00, but I was able to spend time with Brian to finally catch up with him. He had promised me that we would catch up and we did. We talked of his family and of mine. It was nice to finally get a chance to spend time with him.

As far as the convention rules go for Saturday – I met the requirement for eating at least twice a day. I was going to try to get in at least 6 hours of sleep. The one exciting thing for each day: Being able to talk with Brian, a picture with David Newsome and my favorite picture with Carolyn Seymour.

Mar. 27 - Friday

March 27, 2009 Friday - Day 1 of the Quantum Leap Convention


It all started when I got up at 3:30 on Friday morning and did all the normal ritualistic things to get ready to leave the house. I grabbed two small bagels, fixed a small snack bag of pretzels for the plane trip, and put them in my purse. Then, I finished the last little bit of packing, got it in the car and then headed out of town at around 4:45, only to realize that I had forgotten the camera – turned back around and go get it. (Praise be that I remembered it as close as I was to the house. I was already running a bit late. I was supposed to leave to get the airport on time at 4:30.) By the time that I was actually on the road to the airport, it was closer to five. Regardless, I got to the airport on time, checked in, and caught my flight out to California. Nothing exciting there, but thank goodness that nothing outrageous happened on the way to California. It’s the little things in life, right? Right. I left Austin Airport at 7:15 CST.

By the time that the flight landed, it was 8:35 PST. I went ahead and ate one of the two bags of pretzels that I brought with me while on the plane ride and just did the best that I could to space out my meals. I exited the plane and found myself smiling. It was like I couldn’t just let it go that I was actually in California and that I was going to be able to meet up with Scott Bakula and fulfill a dream of mine for the last twenty years. I got into a shuttle bus that took me over to the Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn in North Hollywood. (Let me tell you right here, right now, I think that the driver of the shuttle was actually a kamikaze pilot! We almost had three wrecks. He’d honk the horn and everything and the passengers that were in the car with me agreed that he was a kamikaze pilot!)

What should have tipped me off that it was going to be an awesome weekend was walking into the lobby of the Holiday Inn to meet with the Master of Ceremonies Marc B. Lee. I recognized him and introduced myself while the employees were getting the entire necessary paperwork ready for me to sign, etc. It was then that I laid my hand on my suitcase and found out at that point that something was going on in my bag. I knew that I hadn’t packed the dog (at least I hoped that I hadn’t). But when I laid the bag down, I unzipped the bag and found myself starting to smile when I heard Marc Lee ask, “Something wrong?”

I told him that there was something going off in my bag and unzipped it to hear my toothbrush actually vibrating within the bag. I started grinning when I reached in, grabbed it and turned it off. Marc started backing away and said, “I really don’t want to know what’s going off in your bag.” I started giggling and said, “Oh, it’s just my toothbrush.” His response was only to say: “Oh… is that what they are calling those things these days?”

Totally embarrassing, but that was how my day began in California. Amazing. LOL

From there, it just kept getting better.

I went to the room where we were to get our registration packets for the Quantum Leap Convention. We received a lanyard with our row and seat number and a bag with pictures of Scott and Dean and a booklet with all of the people who could possibly show up. It was really a nice little gift to have and I’m totally going to use it!

On the way to the ballroom, I met Janine Humphreys and her mother. Janine Humphreys is someone that I had met online a few years ago. She played a part in the Quantum Retribution Audio Production. We were able to talk for quite some time. I met her mom and we really did hit it off.

While Janine and I were talking, I saw this man walking around in a green and white shirt. I kept thinking that I knew this man from somewhere. I finally squinted my eyes and finally called out, “Brian Greene?” He kept walking and probably didn’t hear me. Janine and I continued to talk about things in general when I saw the same person coming and going back into the ballroom where the main hub of the convention would be held. I was conveniently hidden slightly behind Janine when I called out his name once again as he walked inside the door of the ballroom. He stepped back out and looked around at who might have been calling his name. I stood up and smiled, walked over to him and gave him a big hug.

For those that don’t know, Brian Greene and I had met each other online via Al’s Place (A Quantum Leap Website – he’s the owner). It says that I joined the Al’s Place Forum back in 2002, but I’ve talked on and off with Brian since 1999 -- ten years. It was finally nice to put the person with the face and smile that I’ve seen in his pictures. He was busy of course, but he stopped a moment in his hectic schedule to talk at least for a few minutes before the ballroom was opened to us at around 11:45 in the morning.

The ballroom was set up and looked very nice. I’ll go around the room to describe the room. When you walked in, if you turned to your left, you got to see a replica of Ziggy that Chris Allen had made. It was great to see the “old girl” sitting there – all shiny and brightly lit up. A little bit away from her was the sound booth and camera for the taping of the convention. On the far left wall, there was memorabilia lined up to be raffled / auctioned off. In front was the stage and on either side of the stage there were two big TV screens so that we could all see the stage. A banner was set up above the stage that announced the convention from 1999 to 2009. To the right of the stage and going back to the door was even more memorabilia to be auctioned off for charity.

At 12:30, Deborah Pratt came in and talked to us about Quantum Leap. It was amazing to listen to her and know that she’s the reason why I’m writing some of the stuff that I do about Ziggy. Deborah Pratt is the voice of Ziggy, played in the show as Troian, and wrote episodes that are some of my favorite ones (The Trilogy). Several people asked questions – and it was nice to get to know Deborah a little bit more.

Around 1:40, we had our first panel of guests that came to the convention. The following people were in the panel: Holly Fields, Cynthia Bain, Lydia Cornell, Ken Foree, T’Keyah C. Keymah and Jim Townsend. It was interesting to listen to them talk about how things had been while they had been working with Scott. While the panel was still going on, they began to show the rows of people who could go to the Mission North room to get an autograph with Deborah Pratt.

This was crappy. You see, because if you wanted to get an autograph, you had to leave the panel and then miss out on what they were talking about. But I left anyway to get Deborah’s autograph. Deborah was a big part of Quantum Leap and I didn’t want to miss out on that. It was just too interesting to be able to meet her. Lana Bettencourt, her personal assistant, was there and she is the one that took the pictures for me for meeting Deborah. She was very nice (boy… had I only known)!

There was a small snafu with the signing of the autographs. Unfortunately, people didn’t understand that rows would be called out to go get autographs. A lot of people rushed out to go to the room where Deborah would be to get an autograph. This screwed everything up and made it take even longer to get an autograph. So… we had to just deal with long lines while they sorted us out in row and number order. Very frustrating and tiring when you think about it.

From 1:30 to 3:30, we could go into the Mission South room to look at the items that were going to go up on auction. I didn’t really peruse the auction items that were available. I didn’t have the money to do something so extravagant like buy memorabilia. I was just glad to be there meeting fans, meeting friends and meeting some of the people I had watched on TV for so long.

I totally missed the music video competition, because I went to go get autographs for Panel Number 1. I was able to get the following autographs and pictures with:
• Holly Fields
• Lydia Cornell
• T’Keyah C. Keymah
• Ken Foree
• and Jim Townsend.
• Cynthia Bain had to leave and was unable to sign.

I did get a picture with Vaughn Armstrong. He was hilarious to actually get a picture with. He said that he would give pictures to all the ladies. He wrapped his arms around me and then growled in my ear. LOL!

At 3:30, the showing of A Leap to Di For was shown. I missed the first part of it because I was still getting autographs from the first panel. I came back in time to see the end of the episode and then watch Chris Allen and Deborah Pratt talk about the show. We were introduced to all the actors and they were appreciated. In all honesty, the whole concept that they were doing in the fan-video was really well done, but no one can replace Scott.

Around 4:45, we had our next panel show up. It had the following people in it: Joe Napolitano, Rich Whiteside, Mike DeMerritt and Chris Ruppenthal. I had to get something to eat during the middle of this particular panel. I grabbed a coke and a snickers bar. I needed something to have to help me pep myself up. I had been awake since 3:30 AM Texas time. So, I had been up a grand total at this point was: fifteen hours.

It was at this point in the day that I saw someone walk by who looked really familiar. A great big smile on his face and all. Mike Bloxam. I happened to be on the phone with Eleiece when I called out his name and he came back and talked with me and with Eleiece. We talked and made sure that we would get a picture later at some point so that we could have documentation that we had met. *grin*

I was able to get autographs and pictures with Rich Whiteside and Mike DeMerritt.

By the time that this was done, I had to go to another room to begin to learn the Quantum Leap line dance to the song: Somewhere In The Night. We only had 30 minutes to learn it and it was very interesting to do so because I was adding to the wonderfulness of the line dance by doing my own thing, I think. I was so confused. It was a bit disorienting. Mike was there and we did our best to actually get the dance learned. Unfortunately, we only learned like the first couple of steps before we had to leave to go to the next party.

At 7:30, all of the people who were staying in the Holiday Inn came into the ballroom, which was set up just for us, and we had a nice little dinner of BBQ and sandwiches. By the time that I got there, there wasn’t any more BBQ, but I did have at least four pieces of a sandwich. It was really good. It was at that point that I got to meet one of Brian’s best friends, Jonathan. He was too funny. By this point in the night, I had met up with Mike, Morgan, Brian (when he wasn’t running around like a chicken without a head) and some other friends that I never really caught their names, but we stood around, laughed and had a grand time!

This only led into the next event at 8:00 where we had our first party featuring music with Erika Amato, we had a fan-trivia contest and just had fun meeting people. It was neat to be able to see everyone having a good time and learning more about the people that I’ve met over the last couple of years. I did have a couple of drinks that helped me pass the night, and with the little bit of food that I had eaten, the alcohol, I believe went straight to my head. I didn’t get sick, but I was quite content with where I was and how I was feeling. *grin*

The event for the day ended at 11:00; but that didn’t stop us from going outside in the cool night air and sitting outside on the bench and just talking until 12:45. I walked back to the room just wondering if I’d be able to sleep at all. Thankfully, I climbed into bed, set the alarm for 6:50, and then passed out.

At some point, I did call Brian Oldham and found out the “Convention Rules”. He told me that it was the 6-2-1 rule. Get at least 6 hours of sleep every night, have at least 2 meals a day, and do 1 thing that is memorable for every day of the convention.

For Friday – I obviously didn’t follow this very well:
1) Was working off of four hours of sleep
2) Didn’t have enough to eat – 2 small bagels, a bag of pretzels, snickers bar, equivalent of 1 sandwich and 1 small spinach quiche.
3) The one thing that I was able to do that was memorable: To meet Deborah Pratt and get to talk with her when I got her autograph.

Mar. 10 -- Tuesday

Why is it that following the rules is just so hard? Why is it that when you say that someone can't do something that's the first thing that they do? Is it being stubborn, to prove that you can? Is it just plain will power? What is it that causes us to do the things that we do?

Being a teacher, one tends to wonder why students do the things that they do. It doesn't always make sense, that's for sure. It's confusing the way that their brain works and you just have to realize that's just how it's supposed to be. I'm assuming that's how I've got to think about things. I mean, I just have to realize why they think the way that they do.

I do know that in a sense, we all do this, it's just more blatantly obvious at school. I guess it's just one of those things that I've got to understand.

I'm starting to understand that it's not really a stubbornness that is causing people to do this particular type of activity. The reason why this happens is to see just how far the boundary can be pushed before we get castigated for what we've overstepped. The more boundaries or expectations on kids, the more that they realize that you care enough to give those boundaries and want them to exceed.

It's very interesting to see that perspective as a mom and a teacher. I couldn't see it when I was a student myself. I just thought that my parents were too strict. But now that I look back at it, I'm so glad that I had parents who cared enough about me to put those restrictions on me and try to protect me in a manner that they saw fit. I so appreciate them now for all the hard work that they did.

Heaven knows that in my classroom, I have students who don't have parents who are active in their lives and they think that they can do whatever it is that they want to do and get away with it. And we wonder why the children of today are so misunderstood. They don't know who to look up to.

We had this training called Capturing Kids Hearts and it talked about various things to build a "relationship" with the kids and to get to know them better so that you can have a balance in the classroom. One of the things that was given to us was to meet the kids at the door with a handshake everyday. Their was one student this past year who refused to shake hands at the door with a particular teacher for the whole year. The teacher continued everyday to hold out his hand try to engage that kid to get to know him better and every day, that kid would turn away and shake his head. At the end of the school year on the last day, the teacher held out his hand and surprisingly, the student finally shook the man's hand and went inside the class. The teacher was so shocked that he went into class and after it was over, he caught up with the kid and asked, "Why the change? Why did you shake my hand today and not the rest of the year?"

The kid responded, "I wanted to make sure that you were for real." Basically - are you consistent in what you say and what you do.

It's absolutely amazing how students can blow your mind with some kind of little thing like that.

~~**~~

Mar. 8th - Sunday.

It may not be time, but....

Beware the Ides of March (March 15).

In Roman times, it might have been a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a parade was held, but most people usually associate this day: March 15 as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated. "Et tu Brute?"

Julius Caesar has been on the mind as of late since in my English 2 class, we are actually going to read Julius Caesar. It's going to be an interesting ride. I'm just trying to find out how I'm going to put it in a way that they will understand.

I understand: "Veni, vidi, vici." But how to get the kids to understand it is just another thing entirely. I wish that I could get that across to the kids at some point to: "Obtain the unobtainable. Dare to dream, conquer, and celebrate. Live life to it's fullest!"

But... that's just in one class. The other classes are going to be just as intertaining.

English 1: First we are going over the wonderful story of Helen Keller, then we will be diving into the Epic of Ullysses. Now... that is fun. I love Ullysses! :)

English 3: I know that we need to finish up doing the story : Of Mice and Men. We're actually on the final three chapters of it. I think that they are really getting into it.

English 4: Ohhhh help me. MacBeth. I'm honestly not sure of what to think of MacBeth. I've read it... yes. But do I remember it? No. I can honestly say that I don't. I'll have to study up on that one. So... it's going to be an interesting bumpy ride there. Don't be surprised if I start babbling around the computer with thee's and thou's.

Well, I do know that I'm going to slowly wind down the rest of the year. There are approximately 59 days of school left... only school days. I'm not talking weekends there.

So, we'll see how the rest of the year progresses. I'm just wanting it to be all calm and serene. I don't need anymore stressful moments. I've had enough this year. Honestly.

*~MJ~*

Feb. 20 - Friday

Short and sweet: There are times (like today) when teaching school just royally sucks.

_$@%&*!_)#(UJ!KN"VHS(VY*@$_0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feb. 18 - Wednesday

There's not much to tell today except that the kids at school have lost their ever loving damn minds. I can't help but think this. I mean, come on, they come to school, talk/curse amongst their friends and then when you tell them that they need to bring a book to class, they "forget" that we told them, they don't bring pencil/pen nor paper and then act like it's a big imposition on them to actually have to do work and to turn it in. I'm pretty sick and tired of it all.

It also doesn't help that some people on the staff decide to do something stupid and then kids do something idiotic which then makes everything roll downhill - especially when it comes down from the top. Yeah, that's right. The principal basically sent out e-mails telling people, either you will do this, or you will lose that priveledge. Also, there are threats rolling around the email as well about how if we don't do what we need to do, that we will be written up on a reprimand that will go into our permanent folder. I think not.

I will do what I need to do, but when I'm spread so thin, you tell me how the hell that I'm supposed to make sure that the kids are doing what they need to be doing? I'm already running all over the building doing things for everyone and finally coming to the realization that by the time that I get home, I'm exhausted. I don't have time to grade papers until the last period of the day and by then, I'm tired and don't want to sit at the desk with a pen in my hand making a paper bleed.

It's rather difficult when you are the only person who is the "staff" of the special education department for all of the English classes there on the campus. Me, myself and I are just plain ass tired.

I came home this evening and put all my things down, worked on a few creative things away from the computer then made dinner, drank a beer, had some ice cream and then a bit later had another beer. I actually told my father in law today (he came in this morning) that I'm ready to quit teaching period. It's almost getting to be a joke, anyway.

It doesn't help that I was talking to a student this afternoon and he wrote down in a note that he was wishing that he was dead. Of course, I had to take that to a counselor. I really don't want a repeat from six years ago. I can't. It would destroy me. I talked about what happened today at work, but I just can't get that out of my mind that I was the last teacher that the student had, he didn't want to talk to me about what was going on before Thanksgiving Holiday and then goes home and hangs himself. NO. I will NOT have that on my heart again.

AND, on top of all of that, my back is hurting and I can't deal with it right now. I really can't.

I believe that I'm going to go to bed soon because I'm so tired. I haven't worked on Moonfleet since Monday, but then again, I sat here for the majority of the three day weekend (this past weekend) and really put a lot of hours into it. I was able to finish up Episode 7 and get Act 1 of Episode 8 done. Jerry has already sent me notes to do on Ep 8 and I'll begin to work on those when I can. There were 8 things that he wants me to fix. *sighs* I thought it was a really good edit to. Snap.

It's 10... and I'm exhausted. Sad really. I used to be such a night owl.

~~**~~

Feb. 14 - Saturday

It's been a very productive day today:

Audio Wise:
Starting at 8:00 and ending at 4:00 this afternoon, (took a LONG well deserved break) then came back at it at 9:30 and went until 11:30. I worked on Moonfleet. I was able to finish Episode 7, Act 2 and get it posted up on the server for Jerry to review. I also cut all the lines for Episode 8, Act 1 and 2. I laid it all out to place in the sfx. I have them relatively laid out. That I did until 4 PM. This evening, though, I went back in and sat here and put in the sfx for more background, etc., and have been most effective in getting the first 4 pages done. I'm in the middle of Act 1, but I'm worried about a part that Jerry may not want within the show. A character sounds way off microphone and sounds a bit odd, so, I already emailed him.

Creative Wise:
In the time that I was away from the computer, I worked on some arts and crafts while I watched some CSI that I had recorded on the TV. I was able to get a good amount of that stuff done as well. I'm hoping that eventually, I'll be able to get that finished so that I can mail it off soon. As soon as it's done, I'll be mailing them out to the appropriate people. I just hope that they like them.

And now... it's time for bed. YAY! I got enough done today.

Tomorrow will be some house cleaning, laundry and other house duties that need to be done and then I'll be going back to work on Moonfleet again. Perhaps, I'll be able to finish up with Act 1 tomorrow and then begin working on Act 2. I'm hoping that I won't have to wait on lines to be redone. If I do, I'll just go ahead and work on it and then come back and punch in the lines. I guess that it'll be easier that way anyway. Who knows.

~**~

Feb. 9 - Monday

I'm not sure exactly why it is, but why do we all dread to go to work? Is it just the commute or is it something more? Is it the same routine over and over? It may be the mixture of both. My day isn't so scheduled anymore. I have various teachers to teach with and also have a ton or kids throughout the day. So - I shouldn't really be so upset about coming to work. Who knows. Perhaps it's just the want to be back in bed. I think that's the big thing here.

I found out over the weekend that I'll be able to go to the convention after all. We sold one of the tickets and that paid for the airfare to get there. So, now, it's just getting the place to stay. Here's to hoping that either Margaret or Julie will be able to be my roommate while there and have a blast. I can't wait!!

Moonfleet is moving along. I'm on Ep 7 and I'm having issues with programs not being compatible with Jerry's Sony Forge program. Here's to hoping that it will work. I saved it through Sony so here's to hoping that it'll work out. I'll call and let Jerry know what I've done. Perhaps, he can open it now. We'll see.

It's raining today. It's supposed to rain all day -- all day. I guess that has something to do with my mood. I'm just so ready to crawl back into bed. Sitting here at the desk just listening to the movie about "The Bear" it only makes me want to lay down my head and just go to sleep. I need more sleep.

In one of my English classes today, we talked about Auschwitz. They were a bit surprised about it. It was amazing how they just sat there with mouths open, surprised at what I was saying and reading to them. It's positively horrific what the Germans/Hitler did. The whole thing... blah. 4 million people died at Auschwitz. The only good that I can see that came out of this was that the scientists learned about the human body. Just sad that we had to learn about it that way.

I set up the Colonial Raiod Theatre Audio Producation Group just for the post producers and Jerry. He asked me to set one up and I was able to get it done during lunch. Thankfully. I'll be able to send Jerry what Bill Young got done with Father Brown as well. I saw that he wanted / needed a few sfx and I'll work on getting those to him as well. I'll also send an email later tonight to Perry to see if he's interested in working with Colonial.

Oh... Update: It seems that Jerry can open the files now and that worked. Good. It means a little bit more work for me, but as long as he gets what he needs, I'm good. Anything to make him less stressed, is a good thing.

I'm downloading all of the sfx that I can find from Chris' server so that I can have them in case something else should happen with the server. I just want to make sure that everything is taken care of in the long run.

~**~

Feb. 1 -- Sunday

So much for my "everything" present:
Matt and I had purchased tickets to the Quantum Leap Convention. It was to be my birthday, anniversary, mother's day, christmas, valentines and another birthday present for me to get to go to this particular convention to meet Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell and a lot of other actors and actresses that were on the show. Donald Bellasario was also going to be there and I was going to be able to meet all of them. It will be taking place March 27 - 29. I have the tickets, but nothing else. I don't have a place to stay (hotel cost is about $169 a night), the money to take to eat (at this point, I'd sneak bread and peanut butter and jelly and live on that for those days), nor an air ticket to get there (around $254 for a round trip for me alone).

I'll not be going now. Just don't have the money. So... yeah.

I'm upset. I'm very disappointed. A year of hope - flushed down the damn drain.

Jan 25 -- Sunday

Oh drat it!!! I did it again. I've stopped doing this for a week! A week! UGH! But then again, after the past couple of weeks, I wish that I didn't have to even think about what has happened.

Well, let me tell you.... no. That would take too long. Let me sum up. A 30 year old woman claimed that Meghan(16) was sleeping with Don (34 year old). It's a lie. Total fabrication. TOTAL. She's a psychopath and I'm tired of dealing with her and dealing with the whole lot of crap that's been going around with it. There. Done.

I've been working on Moonfleet again. I told Jerry what I had done about the episodes and made them all together for him. ((I have episodes 1 - 7 done for XM Radio - all put together and ready, but he was saying that I needed to change a few things... so I guess, I'll have to put them together again. Ugh. No big deal... )) BUT, he seemed pleased, but if I can't get them up on the server, it's going to rather difficult to get them to him. Moonfleet starts tomorrow on LuLu.com Here's to hoping that the regular fans of CRT will look at it and say their ooo's and ah's and enjoy it and buy a whole lot! *giggles* It really is a good story. It's just really dark. You have to be ready for it and you have to concentrate on it especially when the people in it speak differently.

It's been a week of interesting things.

I'm in a book study. Well, actually two. One with Mr. Sibberson, my boss, and the other with June James, the assistant principal and PDAS appraiser.

The book that I read for Mr. Sibberson's group was called: Our Iceberg is Melting (Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions) by John Kotter and Holger Rathberger. It's an interesting book actually. It's a story about Penguins. Yes, I did say penguins. If you'd like to take a look, it's here: http://www.ouricebergismelting.com/html/iceberg.html There is an 8 step procedure in what you need to do to make change work and to succeed in making that change. I thought it was really interesting. They take a fable about penguins and the story is pretty much so accurate, that you can quite literally pick out people that you work with that "copy" the way that the penguins act/talk. I read it back at the beginning of January and we had our meeting on Jan 21 and ate while we talked about it. That meeting really brought out some interesting things. Instead of worrying about taking another meeting for that book, we called it finished and are will be starting on the next one.

The book that I've read for June's group is called: How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Don Clifton. If you'd like to take a look at it, it's here on this particular website: http://www.bucketbook.com/content/default.aspx?ci=12121 This book was really educational about positive interactions with people. This is from the website: Organized around a simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket, and grounded in 50 years of research, this book will show you how to greatly increase the positive moments in your work and your life -- while reducing the negative. I REALLY needed to read this after the last couple of weeks. This helped me and it also helped me to see how I affect other people and other people affect me. I immediately began thinking about my interactions with people and it does make a difference when you think about if you are dipping out of someone else's bucket, or are you helping to fill it up. I'm definitely using THAT strategy from now on. It's kinda like once you "see" how a certain puzzle works, it's hard NOT to see it.... that's how this is.

Monday is about to be here and I need to go to bed. It's going to be a interesting, fun-filled, blessed day because I'm doing what I like to do - even when the kids are driving me nuts. LOL

Those of you who actually stop by to see what I write, thank you so much for doing so. I do appreciate the time that you spend with me and my thoughts.

~**~

Jan. 19 -- Monday

It was a long tiring day. Oh my goodness.

We woke up at 5:00 to get dressed, eat and get in the car to go to the Ft. Worth Stock Show. I was in no mood to go. I was actually sick this morning - as in up of the chuck. *shivers* I think that I had crap from my sinus' in my stomach and that's what made it so nauceous. Wonderful, huh? I got in the car and went to sleep. A couple more hours of sleep and I at least didn't feel nauceous.

We got to the Stock Show at 8:30. From then on, we walked and walked and walked, then ate lunch, then walked and walked and walked and walked until... at least 3:30. Oh my god, my legs hurt... and of course it was in the cool and cold air and now, I'm still having a sore throat.

I'm about to go take some medicine and then go to bed. I'm feeling still rather crappy. I was hoping to get a lot of audio stuff done this weekend, and did I? Oh no... no... I didn't. I was either up in my bed sleeping, or just laying up there rather listless, hoping that I would feel better. So, I didn't get any audio done. I'm really rather upset about that. :(

Tomorrow is a teacher staff development day. I've already seen the agenda for the day and oh boy does it look like oh so much fun! (Yeah... sarcasm... isn't it great!?):

8 – 11 Cafeteria
11 – 12 Opportunity to watch Inauguration
12 – 1 Lunch (provided to all by the district)
1 – 3:30 Cafeteria

It's going to be a very interesting day, that's for sure.

We got home at 7:45 this evening. It makes for a very very long day. I am going to take my medicine, get into some warm clothes (because I still have a freakin' chill) and climb into bed with the hopes of falling asleep quickly. I'll have to get up tomorrow early so that I can get up, and get everything together so that I can make it to work on time.

At least tomorrow we won't have to worry about going everywhere and running around the school. If we had to do that, oh my god, I'd just go ahead and call in and just lay in bed.

And with that... bed.

~~**~~

Jan 18 -- Sunday

It's been a long day already. I've not done anything, but I'm exhausted. It's frustrating to me that I need to get some stuff done, and yet, I don't honestly have the energy to sit here and do it. *sighs*

I came back to the computer to look at the temperature outside and just wanted to go ahead and make a little post on here about things in general. It's 64 degrees outside and I know that it's warmer in the house, but I'm cold. I'm in two shirts and sweatpants. Good grief!

I'm about to go lay back down. I didn't eat breakfast, but I did eat lunch and I'm trying to get some liquids into my system so that I don't get dehydrated. I don't want that to happen.

Since January 1, I've lost now six pounds. Yeah! I'm glad about that at least. I'm watching what I eat and I'm taking care of business, I guess. *smiles*

~~**~~

Jan 17 -- Saturday

I'm sick. I didn't post yesterday because honestly, I forgot. I went upstairs and went to bed. I've spent most of the day on the couch or in bed. I just feel like warmed over dog meat.

I've had medicine, theraflu and other medicine. Normally, if I get a coke, I drink it down pretty quickly, but... oh no. Not today. It's taken me more than three hours to get a sprite drank.... and I'm still not done yet. *sighs*

My throat hurts. My allergies are just kicking my butt. I'll eventually get over this cedar fever, it's just got to run it's course, I guess. I'm about to go take some more theraflu and go lay down again.

~~**~~

Jan 15 -- Thursday

After a pretty much uneventful day at school and feeling like crap... I'm going to go to bed. Bleh. I hate cold weather and feeling ill. I shall get some rest now.

~~**~~

Jan 14 -- Wednesday

Work:

As far as it goes, I'm pretty much caught up with things at work, save for one test that the kids are going to take tomorrow. Since it's Final's week, we have enough to do, literally.

Ever since I found out that Donna has an ulcer, I just want to make sure that she's a little bit less stressed out. So, I'm going to step it up and do the best that I can do to help her out to keep her from getting so stressed out.

Tomorrow is just going to be an interesting day. I have to stay in Killeen until 7:30 for training. So, I'll be getting home around 8:30 and then getting ready for work on Friday. I may be so tired that I may just drop into bed and rest. I have training that I need to go to and it may or may not help me out, but I have to get 150 hours for my certificates. So... it'll count against those hours. So... I'm okay with that.


In general:

I'm tired. I don't know why I'm so tired, but I am. I feel really worn out and it doesn't help that it's going to get even colder here from an artic front that's blowing in. It may be that my allergies are causing me to be so wonkified. I'm thinking of just calling it an evening but I know that I need to be working on some kind of audio.

I've been working on my diet. It's going slow and there have been times when I'm really hungry, but I usually sate my appetite when I pop a piece of sugar free gum into my mouth and drink some water. I know that it's not really doing anything, but it's at least something that will stop the cravings and help me to not go completely biserko.


Audio Production:

It's amazing that I'm doing so many things. I'm about to go back to working on Moonfleet. I'm just so excited to be going back to it. I haven't heard anything about the announcer voice for it yet, but I really wish that Jerry would let me be the announcer for it. But then again, I probably don't have the tonal quality that he's looking for... and I'm lacking in one thing for sure: I'm a woman instead of a man. I've not heard a single woman announcer from Colonial yet and I would definitely be the first if... IF... I'm allowed to do that.

I've also got lines for Tales From The Museum and I think that I also have lines for a new Quantum Retribution. I'm not sure actually. I'm going to have to go through all the QR lines. I'm going to have to work on that. I know that I'm behind on QR a lot. At least, it's a good show.


A complaint:

I'm having issues with my eyes. I'm not sure if it's my contacts or just my eyes in general. I've kinda have the same issue when I have my glasses on as well. They start hurting after a while and I have to relax them sometimes by just closing my eyes. I think that I'm going to have to go to the doctor and let them look again at my eyes. I fear that this is one of those things that happen thanks to the lovely car wreck.


Well... I think that I am going to call it an early night tonight. I'm starting now to get a headache and I can feel it starting to beat at the base of my skull and that's usually when I start feeling a migraine coming on and I don't want to get one of those again. So, I'm going to go take some medicine and just go to bed. Perhaps I can beat it before it progresses into something that's horrible.

~*~ MJ ~*~

Jan 13 -- Tuesday

It's been a rather filled day today. I went to work and found out that Donna needed me to be the substitute for the day... so I took over all of her classes. Pretty good since the knee is acting up.

Today is the start of kids taking their finals. Joy oh joy! Sitting for two hours to watch someone take a test is rather tiring, actually. Odd how that is..

I came home and sat down on the couch and then fell asleep. It's a good thing that I woke up for Eastern Star this evening. It's been the first time that I've gone in a couple of months. I really didn't need to miss it... especially since I was on the refreshment committee this evening! It was a nice meeting and I enjoyed talking and laughing with them. They are a wonderful set of ladies and gentlemen. I can't help but love each and every one of them.

And now... it's bedtime. I almost forgot about this this evening, but someone reminded me of it and I'm glad that reminder came. I've been doing okay, I think. Right? Even if it was something small, I posted. So... yeah. It takes 18 days to make a new habit. So... here's to making this a habit.

Now, if only I can do the same with my diet. Now, that's another blog all together.

Until tomorrow... hehehehe...

Nanu Nanu. (Yeah... I've been watching Mork and Mindy.)

Jan 12 -- Monday

Wow... I can't believe that I'm updating this thing for two days ago! What a mess I am, huh? I can't help it. I was a very very very busy girl this weekend!


Saturday Update:

I really wish that I knew what was wrong with my knee. All I know is that when I bend it, it gets sore, but when I extend it, the muscle behind my knee almost... catches. It's a bit painful. Now, when it pops it's even worse. It sucks that I'm worrying now about my knee. I know that it has a little bit to do with my weight, which I can't believe how much I weigh.... but I digress about the knee. It's frustrating to be so sore and not understand why or what you did to it to make it sore in the first place. *sighs*

The day started off with getting up at nine. Oh wow... it was nice to actually sleep in and get some extra sleep. Meghan had a friend spend the night Friday evening, and so, we decided that they were going to have to just get up and eat some oatmeal on that fine Saturday morning.

We had plenty to do. Saturday evening was the night of the Masonic Dinner. The Masonic Dinner is just a nice little get together of the Masons and the Order of the Eastern Star. Since I'm a member of OES, I was in charge of cooking for the Masons that evening. (It's a monthly thing that happens and it was my turn to do it.) So... we began making Chili at 11:00 that morning for dinner. Oh... what a mess. Making about eight pots of chili for the evening seemed a bit wild, but I did it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing the laundry and mixing on Jerry and the Pirates - Ep 24. Ep 24 needed to be done so that it can be shipped off to XM next week at some point. Which also reminds me that I need to put up the 320 version of Ep 23 for Chris. I worked on that thing until it was time for me to go to the Lodge at 4:30... then returned home without Meghan's friend only to fuss at the kids for making spectacles out of themselves.

The dinner though was a great success. We had fifty-four people eating that night. That's a LOT of people when you think about it - and we had a little bit of chili left over too! I'm glad that I made as much as I did. It was REALLY good. Yumola.

After I put the kids to bed, I went ahead and started back on Jerry and the pirates. I worked on it until almost midnight. That's when I realized that I hadn't posted on the blog and put up that little bitty blurb saying that I'd update later. I really need to post at a set time.

Sunday Update:

Yesterday, I spent most of the day sitting in front of the computer working on Jerry and the Pirates and then on Darker Projects Star Trek: Lost Frontier.

Matt worked on the old kitchen putting up new bead-board up and it really looks nice. I however worked on audios and just tried to get myself a little bit caught up on things. Well, did it work?

Not really. I was able to finish up Jerry and the Pirates for Jerry to review, then I quickly began to work on Star Trek: Lost Frontier. Yes, self, I know.... I shouldn't have said that I could help out, but I don't have an iota of a clue to even know where the sounds go initially. I kept having questions over the whole thing and nothing was working. Nothing. So... I spent the day and most of the evening, (save for finishing laundry and eating) putting the vast majority of the lines together.

By the time that 11:30 rolled around, I was extremely tired, but I wanted to get this information to Eric as quickly as I could. So, I uploaded them on the server and then immediately sent him an email to let him know where they were and what was going on with it. I do hope that he's not too terribly mad at me for not finishing up the audio. I mean, I think that he would understand about consistency and places in ones mind. I might go in and turn the Enterprise F (I think that that's the right letter) upside down and almost inside out compared to Eric's view on it.

Anyway, I'm worried about how he's going to take it that I didn't finish it. I don't like just handing things back, but I don't want to screw something like that up.

So... I was in bed around 11:40.

Today's Update:

Well, after an most interesting day at work: I'm being sarcastic actually. This week is Finals week for the first semester. Needless to say, the kids are freaking out over the tests they are about to take. Some of them are actually having anxiety over it. I went to the nurse's office today to see if they had a brace for my knee and there was a young woman in there who was getting her hand looked at. It was bleeding only slightly. She had gotten so upset and was so anxious over a test that she turned and hit the wall instead of hitting a teacher! Good grief!!!

I spent the day mostly in Donna's room. I couldn't walk all over the place like I would need to do. The leg just hurt and I had left my brace at home. :(

So... I went throughout the day, sitting at the desk and grading papers and sorting papers and what not. I got more done on the Hamlet powerpoint, and thankfully, I found out from Paul that they haven't even finished Hamlet! I thought that they were totally finished with it and that it was a part of their final! Thank goodness for that. I'm just glad that I didn't stay up late last night to try to get other stuff done for school.

So... school was just rather blah until Donna said that she was going to the doctor. She was complaining about her abdomin hurting her. She went to the hospital and I got a phone call from her this afternoon while I was in Walmart. She's in the hospital. They wanted to keep her over night to make sure that everything is okay. She had a surgery recently to remove a hernia. So, I don't know if this pain is from that or not. She said that she hoped that she'd be back at school tomorrow. We'll see.

For the past couple of hours though, I've been dealing with the issue of mortality - suicide - a good thing - a bad thing. What a person can do to try to stop another from committing the deed? What can you do when you are a thousand miles away? The only thing that I can think of is pray and keep telling that person how much you love them, how much they mean to you, and that you are there for them to talk and to help them through those rough times.

I did that this evening... I told how much I loved them, how much they mean, and that I'll always be here to talk to in those times. I know how depression is... and I know that the devil is going to use whatever he can to get his claws into someone. He can't have this one. I will *not* let that happen. P e r i o d.

A student of mine from San Angelo High School took his life on Thanksgiving Holidays. In doing what he did, he ruined that holiday for his all of his loved ones. He cheated as far as I'm concerned. Took that easy road out - and left the ones here to deal with what he left behind. I'm sorry, I can't see that as a good thing. I can't see others suffering from losing a loved one that way. And what's sad, is I'm still aggravated at that kid after all this time. He made me mad - my thoughts now even go back to the same thing: "How dare he do that to his family and friends!?"

Moving on....

Moving on....

I finished Jerry and the Pirates this evening and I'm putting them up on the server to be seen for final review. Hopefully they will be okay. I guess now, I can start back on Moonfleet. The moody piece that I love.

~**~

Jan 11 -- Sunday

Of course, I waited again and I'm going to have to update later. At least I'm doing this to remind myself... right? Blah.

Jan 10 -- Saturday

I should have posted earlier, but I'll do an update on Sunday. I did a lot today, but I wasn't able to finish up on Jerry and the Pirates like I wanted to. :( It just sucks!!!

Jan. 9 -- Friday

Thank goodness that it's Friday! YAY! The only bad thing about today is that I've somehow hurt my knee. I don't know how I did it, but I did - and now, I've taken some muscle relaxers to try to help that out with the pain.

I've tried (not very hard though) to mix this evening, but found that I can't focus, probably because of the muscle relaxers. So... I'm going to pack it in for the evening and just pray that my leg will get better in the morning.

I will be working on JatP tomorrow to try to finish it up and get it all ready for Jerry. I know that he wants to ship it out sometime this next week, so, I want to get that done for him.

Today at school was fun though. We had fun playing Jeopardy with the kids. I have to finish up the Jeopardy game that I'm making for the Seniors. It's just way cool. I'm making a powerpoint so that I won't have to worry about making cards to flip through. The other classes were okay. I had fun doing them, too.

Oh... I did exercise this evening... more abdominal than legs (cuz of the knee) but I think that it's starting to get a bit easier. I just wish that I could start losing some weight. I think that I'm gainning muscle though. Here's to hoping!

~*~*~*~

Jan 8 -- Thursday

A bit of an update from the previous days:


Tuesday evening:

Well, I got home, settled down on the couch, began watching TV after some dinner and the next thing I know, I'm waking up to my daughter beating on meat for Wednesday night's meal. Talk about weird. I'm not a person who will just go to the couch, stretch out and take a nap. Naps only come on when I'm starting to or am sick. Matt even told me that he tried to wake me up to do pilates with them and that after one time of waking me up, he decided to just leave me alone. Wise man. I'm dealing with allergies and my lovely defenses to them. Needless to say, I woke up, meandered about a bit, took some medicine for a minor headache and went back to bed.


Wednesday (all day):

Yesterday was a long day. My body and allergies were kicking my butt, but it was around noon when I decided to check my email while I was at school. I found an e-mail from Jerry that said that he was bringin in a new editor and he's going to give Father Brown to the new editor to work on. I called Jerry and talked to him about his decision.

Of course, I was saddened to lose Father Brown. I have fun mixing those and JT Turner, the actor who plays Father Brown, is just a wonderful actor! A nut to be precise. Jerry wasn't putting down my ability - not by a long shot. It was more to give me time to finish up Moonfleet and then start up on the next season of Powder River. I'm going to be a busy busy beaver, that's for sure. Not only with Colonial but with Darker Projects as well. I'm going to be doing so much that I won't know what to do, I fear. But, I'll save that complaint for another blog.

So, after I ate, I worked on Jerry and the Pirates Episode 24. I got a good chunk of it all worked out - meaning, I was pitching voices and recalibrating the volume of the voices as I listened and made sure that they were all there. By eleven o'clock, I was exhausted and dragged my butt upstairs and went to bed.

Today:

As far as work went today, it was pretty good. Got to play a Jeopardy - Family Feud game with the kids as a review for their final over Romeo and Juliet. It's a wonderful game that we play with them to go over Romeo and Juliet. It was fun and I got to do it for three periods! I'm actually helping out with another one for Hamlet, but I have to read it and... and... Shakespeare is so hard to read! Good thing that it's for an AP Class.

On the way home I had an issue with my left contact. Not a good thing when you are driving. I HAVE to get new contacts.

Once I got home, it seemed that everything just went a little blewy. Kids kinda acted up - especially Meghan. I'm not going to have her talkback to me anymore. I need that paint-ball gun or something. Grrrrrr.

Sat down at nine to work on episode 24 of JATP and finally got through all the rebalancing and revoluming and pitching. So... now tomorrow I can go in and start putting in the SFX and getting people where they need to be for the FINAL episode. THEN, I can start working back on Moonfleet. I was actually about to write Father Brown.

But... bed calls.... and I need some sleep desperately. Perhaps if I just get more sleep, I wouldn't be so sleepy? Nah. Sleep may be overrated. *giggles* If it is or if it isn't, it really doesn't matter.

~*~*~