Birthday Week

I had a very good week. First, on Wednesday one of my student groups won the final round of the citywide mock trial tournament. The judge, who had been judging this tournament for the past 25 years, said that this was one of the best matches he had seen. The students on the team were so very excited. My most uptight student attack-hugged me from behind as I was leaving the courtroom. This was an especially uplifting win because they were down one team-member due to a family emergency. As we were walking in, one of the students on the team turned to me and said "we're just going to use this to come together as a team and win and then you're going to give us all A's and not make us take the final." As it turns out.... accurate. Overall my teams ended up within a just few places of one another, so hooray for consistency.

This week was also great because of Trial by Jury. Will Munoz recalled the time I tricked him into joining GG&SS last year and returned the favor by tricking me into agreeing to be a spotlight operator for Trial by Jury. I was glad to do it, since I wasn't able to find time in my schedule to do the show this semester (note to future self: 5:45-7:45PM classes are bad). Coincidentally, spotlighting a show is one of the very few things that I have never done for a production. I have acted, directed, music directed, tech directed, stage managed, assistant stage managed, choreographed*, run the curtain, house managed, and a few other things that I have forgotten... but never have I operated a spotlight. They're fun! I was constantly overwhelmed with the feeling of trivial power that, during moments that were blackout except for my light, I could unilaterally plunge the performers into darkness if I so chose. I would probably never do that, of course. Like I said... trivial power.

They all did so well! It was a very fun show.

Steph R. as Plaintiff's Attorney, Justine as the Plaintiff, Jeff as the Judge, and Noah as the Defendant

Thursday was my birthday, and I had classes without breaks between 10AM til 7:45PM, so yay! At 8 I ran the spotlight for the show, and afterwards we had the Thursday night cast party at our house. Jeff refused to listen to my pleas to just ignore the fact that it was my birthday and brought out a cake with candles on it in the middle of the party. Everyone sang and most people even knew my name for the "happy birthday dear _____" part, which was nice since I wasn't in the show and there was no reason for a good number of people at the party to actually know my name. After the party I went downstairs to find birthday mail from family and friends. 

On Saturday, Kelsey had arranged for a birthday brunch at one of my favorite new eating spots, The Big Board. Apparently, by the time she was through arranging everything, she was on a first-name basis with everyone in the restaurant. They gave us the entire upstairs of the restaurant for as long as we wanted, because Kelsey is a very assertive party-arranger. She had also arranged for one of her co-workers to make me a cookie-cake, which was one of the best surprises ever. The cake came undecorated and we put out tubes of icing for people to play with. Selena went up first and used her artistic skills to write a very nice message and draw some hearts.

Very impressive.

Then everyone else went. I particularly appreciate the addition of the word "usually" to "We love you Mike!"

Cheers, Sladky! In this picture he is toasting me for having won a March Madness Bracket. 

We all know how knowledgable I am about sports.

Kels deserves lots of praise for putting everything together.

Saturday, after the final show, there was a GG&SS 40th anniversary gala. Kels and I got to go as Davia and Noah's "dates" (the members of the cast all got complimentary +1's). The event featured lots of good food and an open bar and provided an excuse to dress up. I even let Kelsey put gel in my hair.

And after all that effort to get ready, this is the least-blurry and/or light-distorted picture that was taken of us all night.

So, to sum up, 26 started out very well and I am excited to finish out the semester strong over the next few weeks.

*Until I let Kay take over. And by "let" I mean there was a mutiny against my choreography.