Interview With Great Grandma!

This past week, I have been PILED with homework for a literature class I’m taking. I have to give a presentation, pretending to be my great grandmother talking about The Great Depression. I interviewed my great grandma on the Depression a couple weeks ago. She is 96 and being that old, she couldn’t remember much.

My Mom: “How old do you think you were when the Depression started?”

Great Grandma: “Well…um…what?”

(She has bad hearing too.)

Mom: “Do you remember how old you were when the Depression started?”

GG: “The Depression? I don’t remember what that is.”

I exchange a look with my mom. If she can’t even remember what the Depression is (bless her heart) than there’s no way I’m going to get useful information for my presentation!

I would’ve asked her myself, considering it’s my report, but when I tried to talk to her, she freaked out because she couldn’t understand how there were two different voices on the other end of the phone. Not to mention, she couldn’t remember who I was either.

Me: “Hi Grandma, do you remember me?”

GG: “Yeah…”

Me: “Okay, good. I have some questions about the Great Depression.”

GG: “…Who’s this? Do you have grandchildren?”

(That’s where my mom and I couldn’t help but start laughing!)

My mom: “No, that’s MY daughter. She’s 15.”

GG: “Oh…well, do YOU have grandchildren?”

My mom: “No, my oldest is 17. And he isn’t married yet.”

GG: “Ohh…”

Now, I’m a very impatient person. I don’t pride myself in that, and I am trying to work on that. And I love my dear great grandmother. But when I have to get homework done, I am not a patient person at all.

My mom did the rest of the talking, so as not to confuse my grandma. And in the end we did get a lot of information from her. A lot of the time she would drift off to lovey-dovey land when we brought up her husband, my great grandpa.

GG: “Oh, George and I were always just so happy. Every day was a pleasure because I was so happily married…”

Isn't that cute? I hope when I'm 96, I'll be able to say the same thing. :)

We didn’t exactly follow the interviewee sheet because she couldn’t remember anything about those questions. So we made up our own, and my teacher was fine with it. (That’s the nice thing about being home-schooling teachers. You don’t have to do the assignment perfectly and you still can get an A+ if they enjoyed it.)

So, now that I’ve finished my report and written my note cards, I have to do my presentation tomorrow, pretending to be a little old lady who can’t remember who she’s talking to. ;)

Wish me luck!

Return of the Drama Ditz

WELL.


It's been a while. Five MONTHS in fact. What have I been DOING one might wonder? I really don't know where to start!

If you have read my mom's blog lately, you'll see that I was in a whole other show since I last posted something. That would be Godspell. And NOW, I'm currently playing a milkmaid/dancer in Oliver. I'll tell you about Oliver first!

If you've seen the movie, there's a song called "Who Will Buy?" which is like a round between a bunch of merchants trying to sell their products. It begins with the two rose sellers singing, "Who will buy my sweet red roses?" And then two other girls and I come in as milkmaids singing, "Any milk today mistress?" Then there's the strawberry seller, knife grinder, etc. It's a really cool number!

We learned the big dance number "Consider Yourself" last weekend. The directors say this is the number that the audience is going to walk away, still in AWE from. :P We have a hundred and two kids in our cast. That is the biggest cast we've ever had. So I think the audience probably WILL be in awe when they see so many kids on stage, singing at the top of their lungs and doing an energetic dance at the same time!

The dancers have also learned the dance to "It's A Fine Life". (A song the role Nancy sings in a bar.) As of right now, it's my favorite number. At the beginning, Nancy is singing to Bill Sykes and is serving him gin and food, and in the backround, all of us dancers are supposed to be getting nice and "drunk". We have assigned dance partners, and I was put with one of my best friends, Jo-Jo. Now, the funny thing is, we are assigned to think up our own characters and write a character biography for our directors, and Jo-Jo already decided he was going to be the town drunk. SO not only is he going to be really drunk at the beginning of the song, before we dance, but he's ALSO going to be staggering around while we're dancing. The directors approved that he is the only one who is allowed to act OVERLY drunk. And since he is one of my best friends, I'm going to have a blast trying to dance with him. ;)

Now, I'm sure you've also read about our current status in moving in my mom's blog. We've been looking at dozens of houses. I've picked out the one I want, but the rest of my siblings aren't too sure about it.

I decided that I wanted to have the basement bedroom in our new house. Since it looks like no matter what house we choose, we'll have to put an extra room in the basement. That way I'll get my own bathroom and a lot of space. The house that I picked out not only has a huge, GORGEOUS bathroom, but it also has a cute little kitchen space! So basically, I'd have my own little apartment. :)

On the other hand, that means that the three oldest boys in my family would have to share a room upstairs. BUT IT'S A BIG ROOM. It's 36'x14'. And my parents are talking about adding walls in the room so all three of them would have their own little space.

So anyway, it's all still up in the air. And we're going to look at some more this Sunday.

I plan to keep up with my blogging now. I was behind in school for a while, so I had to catch up with myself. I also had a lot of theater stuff to work on and we were painting/cleaning the house. Spring break gave me a week to get caught up in my life, and I hope it can stay that way and I can blog more regularly!

I apologize to my hundreds of readers two or three readers for the long AGONIZING wait to see what the exciting Drama Ditz is up to. ;)

Aw, It's All Over

Truth is, I'm not that sad.

OF COURSE I'm gonna miss a lot of it but I feel so light and bubbly without all that PRESSURE. Now I must tell you a little mishap that occurred...

All through the night, while you are dreaming,
Guardian stars will be gently gleaming.
Have no fear, I'll be near you deep in the dark.

That is the Deep in the Dark Reprise. I sang it alone with the lights off and a spotlight on me while Wilbur's sleeping. Notice: That's a very serious song.

When all the lights went off for the blackout, I quickly grabbed my "egg sack" and as I did every night, stuck it to the velcro on the barn. But this time, it didn't stick. It fell off and landed next to Wilbur. I could see that Wilbur just thought, oh well, we'll just have to leave it there. But the lights didn't go on, so she threw it up! And I missed! So it fell again! And she threw it up again! And I finally caught it. And I finally velcroed it on to the barn correctly. A few people in the audience clapped.

Then, just thinking about tossing Charlotte's precious egg sack back and forth like a beach ball, I got a MAJOR GIGGLE ATTACK.

Wilbur: "Are you awake, Charlotte?"

Me: "Ye *giggle* sss! *giggle"

(A few people in the audience snickered.)

Wilbur: "Oh, what's that nifty little thing? Is it something to play with?"

That's when I died.

Me: "Certainly *giggle* not! *giggle*" But, you can play toss with it sometimes!

More people in the audience began to giggle along with me.

I knew I had to pull this together. Clearing my mind of the humor, I took a deep breath and became the serious, tired from giving birth to 514 eggs, about to die, Charlotte I was supposed to be playing.

Later on in the lobby after the show, a random woman came up to me and said that she had gotten the giggles during her wedding and that she admired me for being able to stop as she had been unable to! I think I'm jinxed now. On my wedding day, I'll probably remember the egg sack incident and start laughing hysterically!

It's Not Easy Being a Spider

I'm sure that a bunch of you already read my mom's post about the past week, so you know a little about what's been happening here. When I saw that my mom had written that post, I immediately thought that I couldn't write anything else because she had basically covered everything. But then my mom said that my readers hadn't heard anything from MY view! So here we go!

One of the things that my mom talked about was the "trust fall". Oh gosh, was that the scariest thing. Especially with 4 extra legs! The first time I tried it, I screamed bloody murder.When they told me I should keep practicing till I could do it without the screech, I started hyperventilating. One of the guys who catches me (a former actor in our theater group, also a REAL tease) started showing off his muscles and telling me that "You're going to be in safe hands...because I'm pretty big...." After I had done it a couple more times, I finally stopped screaming as I fell backward. So I was ready to do it for the show.

WELL, that guy with the "big" muscles is full of it. When the blackout came and I scrunched myself up into a ball and fell backwards, he completely let me go! Luckily, the other guy held me long enough for Mr. Big Guns to help me to my feet. This time, I had something to tease HIM about rather than him teasing me for being scared of falling into his tough arms.

Another awkward thing besides the trust fall, is the barn that I sit in the whole show. When I perched myself up there for the first dress rehearsal, I practically started crying because of how uncomfortable it was! No matter what position I put myself in, my legs fell asleep. The only comfortable position was sitting cross-legged, but then you couldn't see me because the spotlights were blocked by the roof of the barn. I came home that night with a crick in my neck, a cramp in my back and both my legs permanently asleep and achy.

My parents and I looked around the house for something, anything that I could use to make that darn barn more comfortable! Finally, I decided on cushions from the back deck's chairs. They worked perfectly. Not only were they more comfortable than the wood platform, but they also made me taller so that I could sit cross legged in the barn and the spotlights could still find me!

Oh, and I just thought of another uncomfortable thing. My costume. Duhh. Wouldn't you think four extra legs would be quite annoying? They get caught on everything, they're heavy, they make me HOT and they shed. My friends have a joke about me "shaving" them, because the black, sparkly hair keeps falling off and the costume committee has to keep sewing it back on. Also, I have big, big, BIG, fake, black eyelashes. Which fall off once in a while, so I have to get someone to REALLY FAST put them back on before my next scene. And don't get me started on all the glitter I have to wear! Man, does that stuff hurt when it gets in my eyes. And when I have to take it off! It cuts into my skin. Ugh. But...it does look good and all the little girls LOVE it!

Speaking of little girls...goodness gracious, I can't get enough of those little girls. It's so much fun to walk out into the lobby after the show and see all of them waiting for "Charlotte" to give them an autograph. I had to learn how to write my name REALLY fast for all those cuties.

Everything's happened so fast, I haven't had time to think. Maybe I'll sort out my feelings for my next post. It really has been a great experience.

Wow, She's Still Alive!

Okay, first of all.... I AM SO SORRY I HAVEN'T WRITTEN IN FOREVER!!!!!!!! I have just been busy OUT OF MY MIND for the past month with memorizing lines and keeping up with school, that I just ran out of time for blogging! SO, updates on the show everyone!

Uh, basically, CHARLOTTE'S WEB OPENS THIS THURSDAY. And I haven't told you guys anything about it except the few first rehearsals. So, again, I'm soooooo sorry! But anyways, this show has gone by so fast, I'm still dizzy! Tonight is the first dress rehearsal and I am just now realizing that I am going to be singing in front of 600 people during these shows! And whenever I think about that, my stomach does this humongous flip and then butterflies start swarming everywhere inside me. Gahhhhhhhhh!

So in other words, I'm very nervous. I'm having to practice my lines 3 times a day while wearing my spider's arms so I can figure out movements for them. (Man, are my arms going to get nice and strong from having them up ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE SHOW.)

Now, two weekends ago, my mom watched the whole show and saw what I was doing with my part. I was proud with what I had done that day. So when I had jumped into the car after rehearsal, I immediately asked how I had done. (Of course, I was expecting praise.) But my mom didn't give me any. She told me everything that I did wrong and what I had to work on that night before the next morning. I, then, of course was really upset and thought all that emotional teenager stuff about how I have the worst mom and I couldn't believe what she was saying. But, deep down I decided I would work really hard that night and blow everyone out of their minds the next day.

My hard work paid off! When the audience first meets me, it's after Wilbur has been crying and saying how lonely he was and that he misses Fern. Then I say, "Do you want a friend, Wilbur?" And as I said it, that rehearsal, I raised all 6 of my arms up and said it loud and clearly with a big smile on my face. When my arms had flown up in the air, there was a loud gasp and some of the cast clapped and my directors smiled, and then I knew that my mom was the best mom that I could ever have asked for! 'Cause I had just blown their minds!

Now, as I sit here at this computer, my mom is picking up some make-up products that we need for the show. And soon, I will have to put on my big, black, sparkly, fake eyelashes and metallic, silver eyeshadow!

I am so excited, yet SO NERVOUS. And tonight isn't even a show, it's a dress rehearsal!

I'd love to write more, and I'm sorry this was so short and squished together, but I gotta start warming up my voice and drink hot lemon juice water, then practice my lines another time with my arms on. So I gotta run, and again I'm SO SORRY FOR NOT WRITING BEFORE THIS.

<3,>

You've Heard of Human Cannonballs?

This morning, my brothers and I were reading with my mom. In the middle of her sentence, my mom started laughing. We all looked up to see what she was laughing at and she said, "A chipmunk was running around the deck, and it just crawled into the end of the leaf blower. If someone were to turn the blower on, it'd go flying!"

We all jumped up and looked out onto our backyard deck. "Can I do it mom?!" my 12 year old brother asked eagerly. Sure that the chipmunk would escape first, my mom agreed and we all watched as my brother tiptoed out onto the deck and clicked the "ON" button. The chipmunk shot out like a cannonball, flew across the deck and hit a toy bucket! He scrambled to his feet and zipped away so fast, that we barely saw him go! We sat there laughing for about 10 minutes before we finally got back to our schoolwork.


It was the most exciting thing that happened to me all day. :)

Egyptian Writing Assignments

Mara's Room

I pushed open the door to my new chambers. Inside, the first thing I saw was gold. Gold was everywhere! To the right of me was a windowsill where I could lazily perch if I grew weary. Directly next to it was my dressing room with a chest full of silk garments and leather sandals. Then my eyes swerved to the vanity table sitting to the left of me, piled with cosmetics, stone mirrors, jewelry, elaborate wigs and lotuses for my hair. I let out a squeal of delight for my good fortune! I ran to the couch next to it, which was lined with silk and beaded decorations. The low beautifully-carved table in front of me was lined with foods fit for a princess. I plopped some grapes into my mouth and gazed at the most stunning piece of furniture in the room, sitting perfectly centered-the divan on which I was to sleep on every night from here on. The sleek satin gleamed as if beckoning me to come lay on it. The headrest looked newly polished as it sparkled from Ra's smile. I waved my slave girl away, to leave me in peace, that I might satisfy myself with these new surroundings.

(My assignment was to write a descriptive paragraph using spatial order.)

Hequet the Crack-up

In the Eloise Jarvis McGraw's novel, The Golden Goblet, the character that I would most likely be friends with is Hequet. From the author's descriptions, he sounds handsome, easygoing and friendly. Best of all, he's always cracking jokes. What I love about my friends is that they are very humorous and Hequet would fit right in, with his amusing personality. I'd love to hang out with him for a day!

(My assignment was to write a paragraph on the golden goblet with all sentences relating to the topic sentence.)