I really need to get back on the blogging ball. I have been unusually busy of late, but hope things will calm down over the next week or so. I especially need to blog about the spring break Habitat for Humanity trip that Mer and I went on with students a couple of weeks ago. But, it is currently late in Matt-time, so that rather lengthy entry will have to wait for a few days.

About a month or so ago, I started taking Dobro (resonator guitar) lessons. I wanted accountability, and lessons make me practice. I am super-pleased with how things are going. I’m able to play most chords in songs that I like (think Fake Books, where you get the words and chords). I’ve learned three different right-hand picking patterns. My teacher has been impressed, and for whatever reason decided that my “assignment” for this week should be to write a song. I have played around with writing songs before, with little luck (I’ve managed a chorus or two, but never a whole song). I figured I’d give it a go. Last Friday, I was making calzones and listening to John Gorka. Gorka loves to write songs with double/multiple meanings, so it got me thinking. I started thinking about the idea of losing your life in the busy seconds that can make up a day, so I wrote down phrases that I thought would communicate that. Then, on Saturday, with the help of a rhyming dictionary, I put the ideas into verse form. Finally, today, I set everything up to a few chords. It is far from a masterpiece, but I’m happy with it for a music lesson assignment. Here is the text (and chords) of the song:

In This for Life

G                   C

Don’t want to die in the seconds

   D                   G

Living on the edge of time’s knife

   G                   Am

Much more meaning beckons

   D              G

‘Cause I’m in this for life

   G              D

Why do I wake up alarmed?

   C                           D

Got a full day and schedule

   G                  D

With my work I am armed

  Am                      D

Extra time’s just residual

G                    
D

I always want all that’s due

    C               D

Staying busy is the key

  G                      D

Just looking for things to do

   Am             D

Instead of things to be

   G                   C

Don’t want to die in the seconds

   D                   G

Living on the edge of time’s knife

   G                   Am

Much more meaning beckons

   D              G

‘Cause I’m in this for life

G                      
D

No direction – I’m a rover

   C                                            D

Think everything comes by the sweat of my brow

G                     
D

I don’t want to be left over

Am                   D

Lose the future in the now

G                       
D

I’m not looking for a mean

     C                      D

Grasping life is ethereal

  G                            D

Don’t want simple scene after scene

Am                          
D

Life is more than a serial

   G                   C

Don’t want to die in the seconds

   D                   G

Living on the edge of time’s knife

   G                   Am

Much more meaning beckons

   D              G

‘Cause I’m in this for life

   G                   C

Don’t want to die in the seconds

   D                   G

Living on the edge of time’s knife

   G                   Am

Much more meaning beckons

   D              G

‘Cause I’m in this for life

Last Monday was March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. Every year that I have worked at CVCA, I have danced a reel in the cafeteria during the two lunch times. A few years ago, I included CVCA’s assistant headmaster in the fun (he’s a big hit) for part of the dance. This year, I was happy to show off the Ceili Club during the festivities.

I had six members of the Ceili Club dance “The Fairy Reel” in each lunch, then immediately followed them with me and the assistant headmaster doing solo reels. The students did a fantastic job. They managed to dance well in an unfamiliar space that was also crowded. I was tremendously proud of the kids. Several people told me throughout the day how much they enjoyed the show. I’m also hoping that will help pique interest in the club next fall, since I’ll be losing a number of seniors. Nice job, Ceili Club!

Last Thursday, we had this year’s second Royal Fools improv show at CVCA. I’m always nervous before a show, but I was also anxious for the kids – we had over 70 people at the December show (a record for us), and I was worried that we would not have as good a crowd and the Fools would feel disappointed. With about 5 minutes to go to the show, things were looking so-so; we had about 30-35 people, which was average for last year, but looked pretty empty (we can seat about 65 in the library). Happily, more people came in right at 7:00, and we had another full room (about 65-70 people).

This was a  good audience, too – they were full of energy, and they were shouting out suggestions so loudly that I was having a hard time picking out individual suggestions. The Fools responded well to the crowd and had a really good show. I do not remember shows fully – I’m too anxious about the show and too often thinking ahead to what is next for me to remember everything, but some things I do remember:

– turning the suggestion “senioritis” into the act of being really old (what a great twist!)
– getting both “musical” and “Shakespeare” as suggestions for genres in Genre Rewind (a scene about trying to discover the meaning of life from the walls while in bathroom stalls)
– expert advice on how to avoid alien abductions
– pantomime of being in a political office to buy hats while getting stung by killer bees
– a Foolish Idol song about a letter opener and the harm it can do
– a political debate where one candidate came out so strongly on the issue of pirates as to admit that he was one himself, and that, if elected, he would steal everything

The show went about an hour and fifteen minutes, and as far as I could tell, the audience had a really good time. I had several people that night and the next day tell me that they enjoyed it. We should have one more show in May and then wrap it up for the year. I hope we can finish as well as we have already been doing; that would be a great season.

Last Sunday (my, how the unblogged days go by!), Mer and I met up with Aunt Mary at Weathervane Playhouse in Akron to see Children of a Lesser God. Neither Mer nor I knew much of anything about the play. We had a colleague acting in the play (he was the one who told me about the production), and he had let me know that it was a play about deaf people at a school for the deaf. That was everything I knew about the play.

Without giving too much away, the play focuses on a teacher at the school who can hear, and a 24-year-old deaf woman who works at the school who has refused to learn to speak. They do eventually fall in love and marry. The play tells their story and the stories of a few people around them.

The set of the play was simple, but it worked – a few platforms and a chalkboard were enough to portray a classroom, a house, an office, a living room, and more.

The acting was fine, and the play was signed as well – either the actors signed themselves, or, for a few of the minor roles, onstage interpreters signed for the actors. I love sign language – it is a beautiful and elegant way to communicate, and it added to the production.

My only complaint about the play was not the production – it was the play itself. I found that I did not get into the two main characters; they were not bad people, but I just found that I did not sympathize with them. I’m not even sure why – my best guess is that both characters were strong and stubborn, and it frustrated me that their problems largely came out of that.

On the plus side, it did make me think about the deaf and how they communicate. One of the issues of the play was asking if the deaf should have to learn to read lips and learn to speak so they can communicate with the hearing world. It is an interesting question, and at least for me, I answer it with the same view as when people want to force immigrants to learn English. I don’t think the deaf should be forced to learn to speak (and I don’t think immigrants should be forced to learn English), but I do think they have to be prepared for the consequences. The deaf should not expect the hearing to learn sign language any more than Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, etc. speakers should expect most Americans to learn other languages to communicate. If a deaf person wants to only know sign language, that is fine, but that person needs to realize that most of society will be closed off by that choice.

So, it was a worthwhile afternoon, if only to make me think more about the challenges deaf people face every day.

After months of trying, I finally made it to pro level in Wii baseball. I beat a pro team 4-2, and got to a rating of 1062 (1000 is pro level). I find Wii baseball almost exhausting. I still have trouble hitting splitters, and I am always second-guessing my pitch selection. I rarely get strikeouts, and rely heavily on my defense (which is computer controlled). I’m also pro level at golf and tennis, and I have great confidence in those games. Baseball refuses to get to a confident level for me. I may very well be back down in the bush leagues before long (you can lose points if you lose to teams), but for one happy night, I’m a pro in three different games.

On Tuesday, Mer and I (and four other chaperons) headed out with 150 seniors and juniors to go the short distance to Actors’ Summit theater to see Macbeth. We filled the theater; it was nice to have just our kids in the theater. The production went a little over two hours, and the students did very well, all in all. A few of them started whispering the “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly” speech that they had memorized, but a quick glance from teachers cut that short. They also started getting a little restless in the last 15 minutes or so (including one girl next to me who had the giggles through much of the ending sword fights), but on the whole the kids did really well. They did laugh quite a bit at seeing Macbeth’s head on a pike at the end of the play (the head was clearly fake), but I can’t blame them for that – it takes going to theater for awhile to get used to scenery and props being suggestive instead of photorealistic.

As for the play, it was excellent. The set was simple, but effective – there were two sets of curved stairs on either side of the stage. Actors could enter or exit at the top of the stairs or go under them. This allowed for the witches to disappear under the earth, or for Lady Macbeth to be seated on a dais/throne. It worked very well.

The acting was great all the way around – they had many experienced actors on stage, with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth played by the co-artistic directors of the theater, real-life husband and wife Neil and MaryJo.

The “wow” part of the play was the vision for the witches. Neil (who also directed) decided to have the witches be on stage every time something bad was happening. It was as if they were actively driving the evil of the play. It was fantastic. So, they were on stage as servants when Lady Macbeth read the letter from her husband that the king was coming to the castle. They were on stage holding the imaginary dagger in front of Macbeth during the “Is this a dagger I see before me” scene (it was brilliantly played). They shielded Fleance from the murderers while Banquo was being killed so that Macbeth would not succeed. They even came on stage at the end of the play to surround the new king, Malcolm. Since Banquo was supposed “to beget kings,” we know that Malcolm cannot last as king either, so the witches appear to indicate the start of another cycle of violence (it reminded me of the end of the movie Beowulf in that way). I had never thought of the witches as so active in the play, and it worked really really well.

After the play, we loosed most of the kids on the local restaurants (on bus of students went to a McDonald’s so we would not overwhelm the local eateries). Mer and I went with two other teachers to Old Whedon Grille, where there were six students eating. It was about 1:00 or so, and we were the only people in the restaurant (10 people total). It surprised me, then, when it took about 40 minutes to get our food. It was okay – we had good fellowship rolling along in talking about the play and all, but the time pushed us so that the dessert addicts among us could not get anything sweet after the lunch.

Everyone made it safely back, so it was a great trip! Certainly a nice break from the work-day routine.

Last Sunday was Aunt Mary’s birthday, so we went down to Canton to see her and to go out to eat. Aunt Mary decided she wanted to go to Hog Heaven – a barbecue place in Canton. It was biker-themed, but the food was very good. Mer got into one of her very rare steak moods (her mood was rare – she likes her steak medium well), but Aunt Mary and I got the barbecue sandwich. I had only previously had barbecue in southern (Florida) restaurants, so I was surprised when they brought the sandwich out and it was plain pork with the sauce on the side. It was very good, but I had expected a messy drenched sandwich. It was less sloppy to eat it with a little sauce at a time.

After lunch, we headed to Circuit City to help Aunt Mary buy a new 26″ LCD TV. We got a Panasonic (which Sonotmu recommended) on sale (less than $600 even with tax), and headed back to Aunt Mary’s house, where I moved her TVs around (she has one on each of three floors), and I hooked up her new TV. The screen was very bright, but I could not quite get the picture to come in as well as I thought it should. Maybe analog cable does not come in very well on 720p High-def TVs. It was still good, but I expected to be wowed.

We spent some more time chatting with Aunt Mary and opening some gifts, and then we headed home with the oldest of Aunt Mary’s TVs – a 26″ TV from 1995. That was quite an upgrade from our 20″ TV from 1990! It is nice to have a bigger TV, if only to fill the space in our entertainment center (although the bigger picture has been fun for watching Dr. Who on!). I don’t know if it was related, but my putting in Wii golf was off for most of the last week. I’ll blame the TV.

  We’ve had a bit of snow here in the last day or so – quite a bit. We had 8-9 inches this morning and it started up again around noon. I’d say we are around a foot, and it is still coming down.

It is pretty, so I decided that I had to go tromp around in the stuff. I headed out (with my trusty camera), and headed toward CVCA’s running trail so I could wander in the woods. On the way over, the air was very still, the way it can get after a snowfall. I could hear motors running and laughter coming from CVCA. So, I wandered over to the parking lot to see two coach buses unloading the CVCA choir. They had come back from their three-day New York tour where they had sung and seen a couple of Broadway musicals. They were getting to unload their stuff in the snowstorm, which required a couple of the guys to be in short-sleeved shirts and one guy in shorts. Ahhh, youth. I talked with a couple of teachers who chaperoned the trip, and they said things went very well. I saw that I was not going to be much use in the unloading process, so I wandered off to the woods.

  The woods were great. It was quiet and pretty. Not surprisingly, I was the first person to be in the trail this morning. Although there were no leaves on the trees, the wind was still blocked out, so it was not cold. I got to see some birds in the woods, and the stream was pretty (my favorite part).

When I got back home, I spent some time shoveling the driveway. At one point, I joined two neighbors in trying to push a car up the street, but we could not make it up the very slight incline at the end of the road, so the driver had to turn around. Since most people were able to drive okay (including me and Mer shortly after), I can only assume the tires were really bald.

I got back in the house and Mer and I talked about groceries. Mer likes to cook on the weekend, and we have some students coming over to the house tomorrow night, so we decided to risk going out. I wanted to drive (that is the control freak in me), and that way I could be there if the car got stuck. The roads were okay (once we got off our street, which had (and has) not been plowed yet). I told Mer that there is always a price for me to go to the grocery store; I picked up three impulse buys in the store, but the crowning moment was going to Handel’s Ice Cream. In a blizzard. In a parking lot with 10 inches of snow in it. The manager was there and had only opened because two families had ordered ice cream cakes earlier in the week and were coming to pick them up. She thought we were one of the families and seemed a little surprised that we wanted ice cream. She was very kind – she heated some hot fudge in a microwave just for me, and gave us $1.00 off because we were there in that weather. While we were there, both families picked up their cakes, and she closed the place. We managed to be there for the 15 minutes or so that she was open. Yum!

It is not all bad being snowed in – we aren’t going anywhere else because of the snow, and we can enjoy it being pretty without going out in it. Unless I feel the need to tromp in it again!

Last Thursday, Mer headed over to our friends’ apartment for a Pampered Chef party. It was thrown by Londa, and so I asked what her husband Zach was doing. It turns out he was free, so we headed over to Rico Latte, the local free-trade coffee house. We were planning on then going to Friday’s for dessert, but we talked for so long at the coffee shop that we never made it. That was made up for by an excellent hot chocolate (Zach had a cold coffee drink) and a great peanut butter brownie (boy, it was really good).

We talked for over two hours. We talked about how to cultivate relationships with students, about how to improve teaching and classroom management, and more. Zach is one of the great people to be around in my life. He is open and honest, he listens well, and when he wishes you “God bless,” he really means it. I’m glad I could catch up with Zach.

On the Pampered Chef front, Mer had a great time and good food. The apartment is cozy, and it smelled great when I was there. Mer is looking at buying a few small things that would help around the kitchen. So, in all, a very successful evening.

Last Wednesday, Mer and I met up with our friends Matt and Liz Akers. They are great people. In a strange twist of fate, Liz taught Latin at CVCA in 2001-02 and then Matt taught Latin in 2004-06. They are both really bright (Liz is a lawyer and Matt is working on his PhD). In fact, Matt is on track to graduate with his degree in the spring. His thesis is on the view of Genesis in one particular theologian’s writing (from the 15th century?). His thesis is 225 pages long! Go, Matt!

We met up at a Thai restaurant that Liz and Matt like very much (yes, we have a Thai restaurant in the area). The food was very good (I had orange chicken), and we took our time with the meal. We chatted about Matt’s work, and talked about CVCA, and about Matt’s new fashion sense (he is now into overalls to go along with his love of handguns, cowboy hats, motorcycles, and outlaw country). Liz is very excited about Matt’s overalls (read with sarcasm, please).

I hope to stay in contact with Matt and Liz – it is always fun to be with them.