crazy weekend

Ok so... In addition to being a Mason Gross School of the Arts theater slave this weekend by working the patchpanel and dimmer switches backstage, I also am participating when I can in the bi-annual jujitsu conference at Rutgers. So my planned schedule for Friday looked like this: 10:30 bike over to College Ave to help set up mats. 12:00 bike back to Douglass, be at class by 12:30. 2:00 leave class, bike to College Ave by 2:30 in time to see Andrew/ give well-wishes to him before his black belt exam. Do jujitsu at the conference until 5:30. Bike back to Douglass, be at the Jameson Theater by 6. Prep for the show. Show starts at 8. With clean-up, get out by 11.

That was planned. What actually happened: 10:45 call Anissa to say I might be late. get there a little after 11, help with mats. A little before 12, run to the student center to get food, leave it with Anissa, for later. Bike back to Douglass for class. Outside the Wachovia, pop a tire. Lock bike up to a signpost, go into Wachovia and deposit checks. Call a classmate to tell the teacher I'll be late. 12:55, walk into class 20 minutes late and wet from the rain. 2:00 bike over to Anissa's to get the lunch I left with her. Sit and stare in a daze, and wonder why its so cold and rainy today. Debate going to jujitsu. I miss it. But with the start I got on the day, there's no telling what kind of weird injury I'll end up with. 2:55 watch Anissa catch Steve's contagious panic over not having cups for the water buckets at jujitsu. 3:00 leave with Anissa for the nearest store. Begin praying together for Andrew's test, and other things. (I really liked that part of the day.) 3:30 drop off the cups. Answer Sensei about why I'm not staying. And why Anissa's in the car waiting for me. (yeah, Anissa and me... the delinquent jujitsuka) 3:40- 4:10 get lost in New Brunswick. We've only lived here for how long? 4:15- 5:50 debate with Cyrus (also delinquent from jujitsu because of a tofu stomach) about going to jujitsu later, and whether or not we should do something special in honor of Andrew's big day. 6:00 get to the theater to prep for the show. 8:10 the show begins. 10:02 the show ends. 8 minutes early because the actors kept skipping lines. 10:20 leave cleanup early because on weekends we don't have to put the set pieces away in the closets so essentially we were all set for the next performance. Run back to the apartment to drop stuff off. Get picked up by Anissa, go to Andrew's, go to Omega for blueberry blintzes that tasted like chicken grease. Argue about paying since he can't just let people treat him to things which I'm going to find a way to cure him of. Go back to Busch, decide by a flip of a coin to stay overnight with Cara, Andrew, James, Eugene who I just met.

That brings us to today. The planned schedule was similar but irrelevant since as I have just proven, plans were invented so circomstances can say "screw you." Since anytime after midnight is today, the coin toss was technically today too. So we went inside and I argued with Andrew about where I was going to sleep... skip a few details here cause... just cause. I acted like a skootch and I feel bad about it. Get up, run to jujitsu, take a class on games for kids, in which we roll around on balls (picture a somersault sort of roll but hugging a giant ball instead of your knees), dive onto balls, roll from standing, catching plastic footballs, etc... It was a fun way to practice the skills needed in jujitsu. After that I went downstairs for a class in Iaido, which... if you saw The Last Samurai, the scene where Tom Cruise and some Japanese guys are sparring with wooden swords (bokken/bokuto), dressed in navy blue robes. That's Iaido. Well, to be more specific:

"The art of drawing a sword out of its scabbard, as fast and clean as possible, with evident naturalness and fluidity, being the main objective to cut the enemy long before he is able to draw his own sword or use any other type of weapon. The great masters of this art have gotten to be able to draw the sword and sheathe it back again with the speed of a lightning. Iaido is a sister art to Kendo, and is recommended when having certain experience in the latter."

So Tom Cruise was probably misrepresenting Kendo, which INVOLVES some form of Iaido. 'Cause you can't very well practice Kendo while the sword is still in the sheath. But anyway, now that I've taken this class, I am better prepared should I ever have to defend myself from someone swinging a sword at me. Provided they haven't drawn yet. Or if they have, provided they only attack with a swing over their heads. And somehow, even with a smooth, well sanded wooden sword, I managed to cut my knuckles of all things. It would be about the equivalent of a basketball player saying he got a cut from his basketball. Its a smooth object with no sharp edges. How do you do that?

So, anyway, I left for the theater about 12, got in at 12:30 and the stage crew are all freaking out because someone moved all our set pieces, and had a scene set for Streetcar Named Desire, which we are not doing. We rush to put everything back, the show starts etc. Show ends, and I have to hang around for "45 minutes" to help with a photo shoot. Which ends up being an hour and fifteen. 5:15, I am just about to turn the dimmers off when a wire pulls loose from one of the pins. To which the lighting designer cursed the building and the day it was built, the wire, the patch panel, the Jameson project in general, and anything else she could think of to curse. at 7:40, the soldering iron still won't solder the wire back in place, because the solder she has is for copper wires which, you guessed it, this particular patch panel does not use copper wiring. So its raining. The show starts in 20 minutes, and the audience wants to be allowed into the theater. And we still don't have the stage lights plugged in yet because if we do, Laura will get electrocuted. Finally we plug two lights into one patch on the panel, and kept checking the warning lights to see if we're exceeding the voltage. By this time, I'm exhausted, and emotional because of 1) last night 2) conversations with God 3) lack of sleep for the past week. So for the first 3 scenes of the play, I sat alone in the dark patch room with my headset, getting all my cues, but crying to God. Something cool happened. I thought of Aslan, and the scene where he comes up, and bends his head over Shasta, licks his forehead like a big cat and says "Tell me your troubles." And it was so comforting. So, the show ended and I came home and scrubbed the kitchen floor Cinderella-style cause I just don't think swiffer's gonna do the job this week. It was disgusting. Four buckets of black water.

And then I took a shower and ate ice cream. And now I have to go to bed, because, yes. There's jujitsu in the morning, and a show in the afternoon and then more jujitsu in the evening, and Andrew leaves for England. I'm so jealous. I want to go to England. I miss it.

But in summary, the highlight of Friday was praying with Anissa for all our friends. And the highlight today was playing with swords, specifically blocking Cyrus' attack, and turning the blade inward (so if it had been real, it would have cut him), disarming him, and then having him demonstrate with his fingers what his guts would look like as they are falling out. With a big grin on his face. As if he's happy his imaginary guts are falling out.

On that note, good night, and sweet dreams.