No particular reason for this picture, I just thought it was cute.

If ever there was week that needed to come to an end, this would be it.

Today and tomorrow are parent/teacher conferences at school, and while I don't really have conferences, I felt I should probably be there at least a majority of the time just because. I stayed til 5:30 and would've stayed later but had a meeting I had to get to. One thing I do love about p/t conferences is the sense of "community" it brings to the staff. We're all there late, we're all kind of stressed, and the PTA brought in wonderful food for dinner, so most everyone spent a little time in the lounge at varying times. There are some people we don't ever see in the lounge because they aren't at school all the time or whatever, so we got to eat with different people than usual. I really liked that.

Last night I watched the best movie--Mystic River. I know it's been out awhile and probably everyone has seen it but man it was good. So, so tragic, though. Tomorrow night I have Akeelah and the Bee-- I've heard good things about it so I'm looking forward to it.

Tonight was a board meeting for the community theater group I volunteer with. The topic of discussion was the upcoming production of A Gilbert & Sullivan Christmas Carol that we're performing in December. We did a short version of it last year and it was great. It's the story of the CC but uses new words to songs from G&S shows. I'm not really doing much, I could have had a singing part but declined. Anyway, I've only been to two board meetings but I already almost dread them when they come. This group does not have an agenda to pass out, they bird walk all over the place (jump from topic to topic without staying on track) and the secretary that takes minutes doesn't own a computer so all the minutes are handwritten, AND we don't get a copy of the minutes. Most of the board have been with the group 15-20 years minimum, so I'm kind of the newbie. So far they aren't interested in 1) making copies of the minutes and 2) informing the rest of the group what was discussed or decided at the meetings ("no, they just complain too much about things then"). It.makes.me.crazy.

And I'm really tired.

We're going to the circus on Saturday-- not really something either of us would normally be interested in, but the ringmaster for this tour is Chuck Wagner. Chuck played the lead in the national tour of Jekyll & Hyde The Musical when it toured in 1999-2000. I saw the show in Denver (three times), Raleigh (four times), Chicago (four times) and was in Houston for the closing performances of the tour (five times). I got to know Chuck a little throughout the shows, so am looking forward to connecting with him again. We're going to meet up with him before the show and I'm hoping for a backstage tour after. for those of you at school--Chuck is the guy in the picture with me that's on the door to my office in the library.