Just My Life

I was going let the Word Geek out again ... but I figure that's just me falling into feeling that I have to "entertain" with this blog. I mean, it's not bad sharing the weird things that excite me from time to time and it's not bad wanting to be interesting when I write this, but it's okay for me to trust in what this blog is supposed to be about at its core, which is letting my ever-increasing number of distant friends keep abreast of what's happening in my life. So ...

So ...

Soooo...

... I clipped my toe nails the other day ... that was good times.

No, seriously, things are pretty good right now. My life progresses steadily, and though there have been some big changes, really very little has changed.

I'm not doing a show right now, so my life is pretty much, go to work, come home, go to work, come home, and since I like my job, that's okay. In fact, it's really great.

It's really great to be able to focus just on teaching and to go to work really prepared for class. I'm caught up on my grading right now. Here we are heading into the middle of the semester, midterm time, and I'm caught up on my grading. (Though I've taken the midterm out of the course that used to have it ... at least I think I have ... hold on, let me check .... oh yeah, there is a midterm, but it's a paper, so it's not like I have to scramble to make up an objective test, like I usually do ... although I doooooo have to come up with a paper topic. Hey, shit, yeah, that's soon too. Man, it's a good thing I was talking to you guys).

I wonder if our professors, when we were in college, were like this. Some how, I imagine not.

One thing is clear to me now; I've only been able to pull the show load I've had simultaneous with my school load by having taught classes that I'd taught before. I'm teaching our theatre history class for the first time this semester (which is fun, 'cause, when it's not my disastrous, soul-scarring undergrad Western Civ experience, I actually get a kick out of history) and boy is it work!!

I mean, it's great because I've decided I'm not going to teach it like I've been taught. I'm not going to jump from one period to another like frogs jumping lilly pads, I'm going to connect the dots for them and -- since that's not the way I was taught -- for me as well. So now for the first time since eighth grade I've looked at the "latter days" of the Roman Empire. And I now have at least a vague understanding of what that whole Western / Eastern empire thing was. (I remember getting to Byzantium in school and thinking, "Byzantium? What the Hell? That's just ... I mean ... I don't even know what that is ... I don't even want to know what that is ... that just sounds bizarre and confusing, and is it East or is it West? And this is not all what I signed up for. Can't we just stick with Rome? Can't we just stick with emperors and proconsuls and senates and centurions and colosseums and togas and campaigns to Gaul and bread & circuses and Caesar and Pompey and Nero and Caligula and lions & Christians all of that cool ... Roman stuff? Byzantium? I don't wanna' know no Byzantium.")

Also, the way Western theater history is usually taught, you usually cover ancient Athens, you briefly mention Rome (by saying they copied the Athenians) and then -- Bang! -- you jump a thousand years to the medieval English churches and it's, "Whoa! How did we get there from here? What happened in between? What happened to Rome? How did we get from Hadrian building a wall in England to everyone's Christian?"

So I've tried not to do that. The down side of that is that every week I've been preparing lectures that cover hundreds of years of political/social history that then has theatre developments mapped to it. (Ooo! I just got an idea about how I can visually present that next year in a way that will make more sense.)

Of course I'm supposed to be teaching this new class in our May Term about African American history. I haven't done anything to prepare for that except purchase books for it. Ugh! You know, with all this theater history I'm teaching, maybe I should just go for the Ph.D. as well ... Naw! ... I'm only doing this until our department theater historian fully retires and we get a new one. And the way the economy is, who knows whether I'll have a job.

I mean, right now things look okay. Apparently everyone's endowment has devalued so everyone has less money in the bank to go along with less money coming in. I mean, at least we're a private institution. I shudder for the schools that depend on state funding. I mean, when I was at UVA years ago, Virginia was already asking state organizations to give back money they'd been allocate. Now ... I just heard that Kansas is talking about not having enough money to cover income tax returns. Kansas! Like, the state of Kansas is unable to perform one of the basic aspects of state business. Not only is that scary but I'm pretty sure that's illegal. I mean, if you've been withholding money from my check under the understanding that at the end of the year you'll give me back the difference between what I actually owe and what you've actually got, you don't just up and say, "Uh ... you know what? It turns out ... and this is a funny thing here ... it turns out that we don't actually got what we've actually got. At least, not so's that we can give it back to youse guys. Heh, heh. That's funny, idn't it?" (Yeah, I know that's not the Kansas accent. Just go with me.)

Anyway, back to my place. They're tightening belts. They're looking at what to do. It's a bad time to be an adjunct. But since I'm in this sort of weird limbo position between full time and adjunct times aren't bad enough yet that it's a bad time to be me. It's still pretty unnerving though. But hey, I worked for online companies when the Bubble burst. Job security? Dude, that's so mid-20th century!

So my home life has been drastically transformed (though, in reality, it's pretty much the same) by the presence of the cat. I mean, geez. Suddenly I have to share my life and space with this other living thing. It's so much work! I come home and he's like, "Play with me," and I'm like,
"I'm tired. I've been working all day. I just want to eat something while I work a few more hours in preparation for tomorrow,"
and he's like, "I've been cooped up here alone with nothing to do and no one to be with, essentially waiting for you. The least you can do is play with me."
And I'm like, "Can't you just nap?"
And he's, "Nap?!? I've been napping all fucking day!"
And I'm like, "Okay, there's no need to get upset."
And he's, "You know what? I don't think you even want me around."
And I'm like, of course I do. Don't say that."
And he's, "No. No, you don't. You just want me here in case those mice return. I'm just your little rat catcher. You don't care about me! You don't care about my needs! You want me, but you only want me on your terms!"
And I'm like, "All right! I'll play with you fer chrissakes!."
But by then he's all, "Oh will you, your majesty? Oh, thank you! You're so generous. You're so nice! I guess you deserve some applause. I guess you deserve a fucking medal of honor for deigning to cater to the help the way you do."
And I'm like, "Don't be over-dramatic. You're not the help."
And he's, "Over-dramatic? Who's 'over-dramatic' Mr. 'I've got rehearsal, so I'll be home late ... always!?' I'm surprised you come home at all!"
And then suddenly I'm, "Well, maybe I'd come home some more if some people would stop walking over my goddamned keyboard and let me get some goddamned work done! You know one of us has to earn money to pay the rent and the power buy the groceries and fight off fucking mice and keep a roof over our heads just so another one of us can sit on his asses all day and stare out the window!"
And then he's, "That's it, I'm scratching you!"
And it all just goes downhill from there.

I tell you ... why would anyone want to be in a relationship? It was so much easier when I was living alone ... fucking mice.

Still, it's cool. The cat has changed drastically in the last couple of weeks. He's not so clingy. I can get up and refresh a drink and he won't feel the need to dog my every step. (Hey, there's an ironic application of an idiom.) Even though this is a tiny apartment he's started to go off and find some place where he can do whatever on his own. It's cool. He sure likes playing with that bird thing, though. You have to understand, my last cat was not into playing with stuff. She'd much rather lounge around. So this is my first experience with a more "cat like" cat in this way.

Although for him, it's not so much "that bird thing." He's really not one for swatting it out of the air. As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, he's more one for wait until it comes to rest and then ... pounce!! Or he's all, "I'm chasing it while it skitters across the floor!" He's really good at that. Man, if the mice come back, they better be freakin' Speedy Gonzalez! A friend of mine recently told me that parts of Australia have had problems with near-extinctions because the Eurasian cats, which were not part of that ecosystem's evolution, are just too good at being hunters. I find that easy to believe. No wonder we domesticated them.

"Hey, Salah!"
"Yes, Baht?"
"Those cat things are hanging around the granary. What should we do?
"Are they eating the grain?"
"No. But they're eating the mice that are eating the grain, even Old Whiskers."
"You mean the bastard that got into the Pharaoh's stash that you and I tried all last week to catch?"
"Yeah, I saw him in the grey cat's mouth yesterday. So what should we do?"
"What do you think, idiot! Put down some milk ... and scratch behind their ears."
"Why behind the ears?"
"I don't know. I always like it when Zufi's little slave girl does that."

All right, I should either get some Zzz's or get back to editing Othello. Yeah, against the advice of friends who probably know better, I decided to do the show. I figure most people do Shakespeare edited, and if I want to do more Shakespeare, which I do, then it'll be a good experience for me to try it. It's painful though. There's a saying, the histories do well being edited, and the tragedies suffer by it. I just have to be careful that I don't trim too much nuance away. For instance, after we meet Othello for the first time, the scene shifts to the Duke of Venice and the Senators going over intelligence reports, trying to discern if the Ottaman Turks really are making a bid for Cyprus. Suddenly they get news that there's a fleet headed for Rhodes, but they're dubious. Sure enough they get other news that the Rhodesian fleet is just a feint. Then in comes Othello. Now, a reasonable person might say, "Well, that's all well and good, but surely you don't need all that. Let's cut to the chase. Excise all that shit at the beginning and start the scene with Othello's entrance. It picks up the pace. It's snappier. What's to lose?" Yeah, well who's to say it's a good thing to pick up the pace there? We've just seen Othello leave in the last scene. Don't we benefit from a little break from him? Don't we want that unconscious feeling of travel time? A little "Meanwhile in the Duke's chambers ..."? Also, the whole situation of the Turk seeming to go one way but really going another is metaphorical for the types of moves Iago is going to be making on Othello. And here Shakespeare lets us see how important it is to have the skill the discern when you're being fooled, a skill that Othello tragically does not have. So without those moments, the whole tapestry is less rich.

So we'll see what happens. This is my first pass through cutting. It would be great not to have to do a second or third pass through ('cause that means I'll have to start cutting out meat), but I'm not confident that I won't not have to.