In which Jonah posts (Read the previous post first)

My life's been pretty exciting lately. Good Woman of Setzuan ended, and I've been making plans. I applied for a summer job editing a literary magazine and an all-year job writing for a paper. I did another "play" (actually a table read of Mikael's I.S.). I spent a lovely weekend with Saralyn.
What's been on my mind lately has been my first Presidential Primary as a voter on Tuesday, and the exciting issue of the Wooster Voice that comes with it. Bill Clinton was in Wooster today and though I missed it (thanks to said table reading), my reporters did not. We're going to run it in a sweet front page package with a story about Governor Sibelius (spelling might be wrong) of Kansas (the State not the band) coming on behalf of Obama and with a primary results story. On top of all that, we'll be covering the Trustee meeting this weekend. It ought to be sweet.
As for me, I can't really figure out who to vote for. I keep going back and forth. I think I'll go to a secret lab and create a biracial, hermaphroditic Barackary Clintbama and vote for him/her. Actually that seems super scary.
And right now I've just been serenaded by the beautiful song stylings of Chalkey. It was really neat. Nathan and I opened and it went well, though I did some silly things I probably shouldn't have. Still, as they say, A goode tyme waf had by alle.
Well I'm working at Common grounds, so I'm going to have to end this post early. But it's still a post!

Lrrr: And now you have doomed your planet! We shall blow it up!
Nick Heidfield: (slaps forehead)

(But then, just before the Omicron Perseiids enter their spaceship it suddenly explodes)

Michael Bay: (entering on a motorcycle) I'm the only one who gets to blow things up around here. Because I'm the only one awesome enough!

(As he rides off, Ethel's singing tube explodes. She is oddly unharmed)

And that, folks, is the end of that chapter. Until next month!

"All I can say is Thank GOD for teenage pregnancy."

In which Jonah tries to talk his way out of being devoured by cartoon aliens

Jonah: Stop the COOOOOOOOUUURRRTTTS!
Samuel L. Jackson: I don't think you can do that. Can he do that?
Ethel Merman: (something inaudible from inside tube) (realizes she can't be heard and shrugs her shoulders)
Nick Heidfeld: Lassen Sie uns ihn heraus hören.
Jonah: I throw myself on the mercy of the court.
*pause*
Jackson: Lame
Heidfeld: Faul!
Merman: (makes L on forehead with thumb and forefinger)
Jonah: In that case, I submit that in Ohio I still have an hour and a half to post.
Lrrr: You have promised us fresh human! If you reneg now, we will destroy the earth!
Ndnd: The longer he sits out the colder he will become!
Jonah: Gentlemen and Ethel, the integrity of the court is at stake.
(The court confers)
Samuel L. Jackson: The court rules that Jonah has one hour to post or he will be eaten.
Nick Heidfeld: Merken Sie, daß, wenn Sie bekanntgeben, die Masse zerstört wird. So wurden wir eher Sie nicht.
Jonah: Ha! I have played you all! Like a Xylophone! For we are all in my post RIGHT NOW!
(There is a loud crash as the fourth wall shatters)
Michael: Wait a minute. I haven't been counting tribunal posts towards my count, so you can't either.
Samuel L. Jackson: So ruled. You now have 45 minutes.
(Jonah begins typing furiously)

"All I can say is Thank GOD for teenage pregnancy."

I knew saying it sounded reasonable would get you to mention the unreasonable part

I suppose it's time for my The Show is Over post. I kind of wish the world really did end on Sunday, because as much of a relief it is to have the show over and done with, I've got three other classes to catch up on. Most pressing is my narrative assignment, I need to have a few more pages, and edit the one's I've already got, by Friday morning. Since the end of the show, though, I've been feeling lethargic and indifferent to my classes, hence my more-continuous-than-planned participation in the Oscar blitzblog. I'm thinking that by spring break, the hardest bit of most of my classes will be done with; I've finished the stupid Hamlet thing, I'll be done sharing a slightly more personal than I'm entirely comfortable with narrative, and I'll be done with most of the dance portion of Movement for the Actor. All that's left is a research paper about African American Theatre. I have no idea what I'm going to do for that, so Ansley will probably think I don't care about black people. Michael, you can put that in the year in review in December, it'll probably be funny by then. Maybe I'll watch Watermelon Man or Blazing Saddles, and write about that.
In the mean time, it's snowing entirely too much. It's like Ohio decided it didn't like it for a second, so it melted one day. The next day, Ohio says, "You know what I miss? Snow." Don't get me wrong, normally I find snow fun, but I'm getting really tired of trudging to class through snow that can't decide whether or not it's going to stay. Between each snowfall, we've probably had enough for arch-filling festivities, but it never stays long enough to try.

"All I can say is Thank GOD for teenage pregnancy."

I, too, can command the wind, sir! I have a hurrican in me that will strip Spain BARE if you dare to try me!

This blog brought to you by the folks at Fry's Electronics, whose laptop power cords are still unreasonably priced, but less so than the same product elsewhere. Because DAMN.

Earlier this week I got a rejection letter from the University of Wisconson's graduate program. After days of angsting about whether they rejected me because they didn't get all of my stuff on time or because they just didn't want me and, oh God, what am I supposed to do with my life, yesterday I got an email from the University of Illinois. AND I GOT IN THERE! And they're considering me for a fellowship! And I actually wanted to go to U of I, unlike Wisconsin, which I would have turned down anyway. So YAY!

I'm on Winter Break, and I'm going to spend most of it working on papers and stuff, but tonight... I blog.

"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

Exhausted Musings, or possibly an incoherant rant, on various subjects

Good Woman of Setzuan is over. It is 1:05 in the morning, and I am very, very tired. I think I've put off being tired until this show was over, and now it's all catching up to me. There is a cast party going on, but I'm not there because it is a party with lots of people drinking and making fools of themselves and probably loud music, darkness, and too many people, which is totally not my scene. So I'm sitting in my room blogging. Why am I not sleeping? I don't know. I was going to, but then I checked the blog and I was like "I haven't blogged in a while," and it was one of those things that I was going to do after the show was over, so why put it off another day?
I'm not drunk. I thought I should clarify, because if I was reading this I would totally think I was drunk, but I'm actually just really tired. ANd this makes me ramble. And write run-on sentences. But those last two weren't run-ons, they were fragments. Anyhow, back to the show. I'm glad I did it. I'm also really glad it's over, and I can have all of my evenings and half of my afternoons back for things like homework and sufficient sleep. And Kylie. And British Science Fiction. Though the two kind of go hand in hand now. We found this girl who has Dr. Who and Torchwood on DVD and we're going to start watching Torchwood tomorrow, because I've heard really good things about it. But I went to borrow the DVD's and ended up spending like half an hour in the girl's room talking about old girl/boy friends and what kind of factor relative amount/type of geekiness is in the longevity of a relationship. Which led me to have some insights into my own relationships in general, which takes me back to the show again.
Basically, there's the really pretty costume girl who's a first year. And I was thinking that if I were still single, I'd be really shy and awkward around her and falling all over her. But when I have a girlfriend, if I'm attracted to someone, I just avoid them, because I'm worried that if I start talking to them I'll start flirting with them, and then I feel guilty. But then I realized that for some reason that only applies if the girl is single. If she has a boyfriend and is also off the market, it's just like talking to a guy or a lesbian.
What started this thing is that Amy had a date and called me to ask how she should wear her hair. We had a whole conversation, I hung up, then immediately remembered that it was her birthday and I had utterly failed to acknowledge this over the phone. But she didn't answer when I called her back.
Having trouble forming coherent thoughts now. Sleep coming. Damn this post is long. Hope I don't regret it in the morning.

"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

I have remembered how once in Tintagil/ You heard the tread of Time hour after hour

I don't really have much to say this week. I've spent most of it trying to catch up and stay caught up. I had a paper due last Monday, but I got an extension on it and turned it in today. Now I have to write a ten-page paper for this upcoming Monday. Argh.

My roommate's gone this weekend, so I have the room to myself! Hooray! I'm going to do lots of paper-writing and recapping and reading! And no one will judge me! Hahahaha!

In March Hanover theatre is putting on Measure for Measure in such a form that Shakespeare would be ashamed to call it his own, and I am playing a whore for two scenes. So is Whitney. Which is hilarious casting, since the last time I was a hooker in a play, people laughed at me. The actress playing the prison matron has to stick her finger in my mouth to extract a piece of gum. Because the director wanted to get "a real sense of personal space being invaded." And that's all well and good, but it's MY personal space that HE'S invading. Also, when Whitney and I ended up with nothing to do at the end of a scene, he asked if we would make out. And I think he was serious. We both simultaneously said, "No." After which it took him about five minutes to decide that she can file her nails and I can read a book. This play... it's going to be weird, guys. And it's probably going to be bad.

And... that's about it for now!

"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

Looking up (sort of)

If this play is ready to be performed in nine days, I will be pleasantly surprised. The actors might actually be okay. Whether there are going to be costumes, props, lights, and a set is another question. Either way everyone involved with the production is under a lot of stress right now. But I'm actually making a fair amount of extra money as a result, which is some consolation.
Aside from the impending disaster that is The Good Woman of Setzuan, my life is actually going pretty well. I'm almost healthy, my housing for next year and my job for the summer are figured out, and my life is generally headed in a good direction. I'm probably gonna be working for the opera as a props intern over the summer, which will be a lot of work but should also be a lot of fun. Next year I'm gonna live in Common Grounds, possibly in a quad with Marten, Jonah and Chalkey. Kylie also got into the program, so it ought to be a blast. Kylie and I bring the grand total of Common Grounds couples to five, which is fairly impressive in a program with sixteen people.
I've decided to enter the KCACTF design competition next year. Since it will likely be a lot of work, I've started the preliminary job of reading all the plays so I can pick one. Right now I'm leaning towards Dr. Faustus, because costuming for angels and demons could be a lot of fun, but I'm withholding any decisions until I've read everything. It's a good deal though. I get more design experience, and it will produce a portfolio that I can use to apply for this big grad school fellowship. Plus if I actually win, there's a scholarship I can use for grad school. So it ought to be worth it.
I'll start blogging about things other than theatre soon, I hope. It just seems to be most of my life lately.
"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

The New Day was a Great Big Fish

I just passed my comps! That's short for "senior comprehensive examinations." For English majors, it's an oral exam in which two professors can ask you anything you've studied ever throughout your entire college career. And it's over! And it went quickly and it went well and I got an A! WHOOOOOO!

And tonight is opening night of "Hay Fever," the play I'm in, which is a really, really fun play. I love it. And it's my last major stage role, probably for years. And I get to be British. It's a nine-person play, so my part is pretty big.

When people were bitching the past few weeks about their comps, and they found out I had comps the same day as the opening of the play, the response I inevitably got was, "...Oh." Yeah. But now everything is awesome! And people have been so supportive! My Aunt Barbara wrote me an email listing reasons I should not be worried, my favorite of which was "no one remembers shit like you do." My friend Jenaba gave me a bunch of candy bars and a good-luck note during the show preview last night. And my roommate Krista just wrote me an Arthurian romance about how I conquered comps and the play at the same time, and then married Sir Jim Halpert of Dunder Mifflin. I love everyone!

"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

Wherein Jonah, as usual, gets near a number of points but fails to make them

I feel like I'm incapable of displaying levels of involvement in class.
That was the beginning of a very interesting post back when I didn't write it. Now I'm going to start with something else.

I have been made Student Coordinator of Common Grounds. This means I'm in charge. Here's what happened. One person was interested in the job (on account of it really being more work than glamour). This person was not, in fact, me, but Gen. Another person, Elyssa, was not interested in the job but was interested in Gen not having the job so she put her name in. Than certain other people decided that it would be good for there to be a neutral candidate that everyone could agree on, and that I was the best choice for that person. So on the night of the meeting where we were to vote I was nominated from the floor and gave a short speech about how I had no strong feelings either way about being elected. It didn't help. I got the job anyway.
It's sort of like the whole Hitchhikers Guide President of the Galaxy thing, where no one who wants the job is qualified for it, except that in this case the job isn't really that important.

So the whole thing took me quite by surprise, but as I sort of like being in charge of things and I'm flattered that everyone thinks I should be, I've decided to just be happy about this. However, if I also succeed in my bid for editor-in-chief of the Voice, I will have quite a year lined up for me.

Sidebar: I quickly remembered why I quit the alphabetical thing. I'm gonna take a page from Chalkey's LJ and do post titles that start with "Wherein."

Now I'm going to backtrack and write the post I meant to write before, or maybe just a long rant about philosophy with the same beginning.

I feel like I'm incapable of displaying levels of involvement in class. Well, really I have exactly two levels: Really, really into it and dominating the discussion to an annoying extent; and Completely lost in space, focused entirely on my doodles and taking in none of the discussion. I try to tone down my participation and I end up losing interest. I try to listen carefully and end up having lots of things to say. As a result, I have a hunch that my philosophy classmates don't like me very much. In fact, the other day on my way to ethical theory, Marten's former roommate Ramses walked by and said "Hey man, got your argument all ready?" I realize that doesn't look bad written out, but imagine it being said in a very snide way.
It even got to the point where Thompson (my prof.) called me out after class to make sure I wasn't one of those superchristians who was only taking a philosophy class to argue with the teacher and chalk things up to God. (I mean he didn't use any of those words, but I think that's what he was afraid of. I had been arguing a lot for God that day.)
It's not so bad in my Transcendental Philosophy class, because everyone seems to be that way. The other day a kid named Rusty spent a full 20 minutes of class trying to explain why colors and space were like the same thing. The order of the day was deciding that space was an a priori concept - You know you're in a philosophy class when you can spend entire class discussing what must be one of the most basic facts in the universe - the existence of space - and attempting to disprove it. Next class we tackle time.

"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

Well, that was straight forward

A lot of stuff has happened that I meant to blog about since the last time I posted, so here's some stuff I remember, in back wards chronological order. It'll be like the color scenes in Memento.

First, a stupid thing happened today. As I have posted about before, I edit the pot, which is a publication that gives students the opportunity to advertise for their groups and events and such. I am not the only editor, and this year, the other editor has been a total failure at organizing the pot. His crimes include cutting off bits of ads and surround them with random crap from the internet. I honestly think that when he finds things to put into the pot he types "random ass shit" into a search engine. Such a failure has he been at his job that he has gotten complaints from people who read the pot. And so, today, he put in some kind of disclaimer about how there are two editors and how he's new at this. and then he puts in a challenge to a "Pot-off." Not only does he think he is actually capable of making a better edition of the Pot than I, he actually wastes ad space to say so. It has been suggested that I do my next Pot as a "Thursday Version" (mine comes out on Mondays), or do a melodramatic response to this challenge, but all of that would defeat my claim against him, that he is unprofessional. I guess the fact that I'm just going to keep making the Pot like I have been is sort of a boring ending to this story, but hey, I have my integrity to uphold.

Second, (but really first, because I'm going backwards) I got an email yesterday morning that I got into OLO, in a singing capacity. I decided to use my excitement as an excuse to skip my first class. Turns out I didn't miss much anyway. Still, this is a bit overwhelming; my first role on the Freedlander main stage is a paid gig. I'm going to celebrate my 21st birthday with a bunch of opera singers. I'm being paid to perform. Granted, I'm paid less to perform than I would be to build something, but the schedule is slightly less stressful. I had just sort of written my audition off as fail, and I'm sure that I only got my email because someone else had declined an offer. I'm just glad that I got an email before another guy on campus whose name I will not reveal because no one knows him.

Third, (but really, um, zeroth, or whatever, since, um, never mind) I took Gen home to Pittsburgh and stayed there for the weekend about two weeks ago for her sister's birthday. They all seem to like me there. I keep initially typing "their" when I don't mean to. Mr. and Mrs. Pecharka are kind of classic 50's parents. It's charming and kind of wacky at the same time. Her dad, in a completely meaningless coincidence, piloted AH-1 Cobra helicopters in the army, a vehicle I know entirely too much about because I used to have this bunch of pamphlets on an assortment of aircraft, and the AH-1 was my favorite for some reason. Any how, I'm pretty sure I left the receiver for my guitar hero controller there, and this is very distressing. Sometimes I get tired of sounding crappy on my real guitar

Fourth, (-1) there was a squirrel in the house when we got back. He lived in the basement, and Mike named him Linus. He'd greet us as we finished our showers and did our laundry. I occasionally left him peanut butter and biscotti. Firefox does not recognize biscotti as a word. Anyhow, when the squirrel was brought up at the meeting, we decided on a live and let live policy, since he clearly came in and out of the house and never left the basement, and trying to remove him would be kind of pointless since he could probably get back in the same way he did in the first place. Ellysa, however, a woman who clearly thinks in a completely different world than everyone else, decided it would be a safety hazard of some kind, and went behind everyone's back to call security. After she did this, she tried to go around to everyone in the house and attempted confess and ask forgiveness without actually apologizing. This created pseudo-drama that no one cares about, and, more importantly, brought in incompetent people from security and reslife. The first time, it was three people with a net. This squirrel was living in the ceiling of the basement, they're not going to catch it with a net, so it was kind of like a cartoon. The second time, it was three people from security with no animal control equipment at all. They went downstairs while Mike was in the shower, asked him some questions while he was in a towel, then left. It was awkward. At some point, they supposedly caught him, though I don't know how, but we haven't seen him since. Still, I'll miss his scampering around whenever I come downstairs.

But I have blogged backwards. I feel as though I may have left something out. Oh well. Oh yeah, I remain busy with Good Woman of Setzuan and this class stuff, so that's why I haven't blogged in a while.

"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"

Addendum (Rant)

I'm still sick.

I went to bed last night with my stomach hurting, pretty much exactly the symptoms that started this whole thing exactly three weeks ago. The problem is, I can't afford to miss another week of school. I can't afford a day. There are people counting on me to get things done. These prop master duties just simply aren't gonna get done if I don't do them. I can't miss a week of rehearsal. I can't miss a week of Russian, I'm already damn nearly failing that class because I've had no time to study. I missed classes today because I didn't feel at all capable of going to them.

I can't be relapsing my initial disease. I just can't be. But I'm past the point where I can just barrell along and assume I'll feel ok in the morning. I've been assuming that for three weeks.

I just can't do this anymore. Why did it have to come in the middle of the play, when my schedule was so ridiculously full? I hate this.
And now I have to go get some work done. I'd much rather be in bed.
"I hear they unscrew our lug nuts at night and eat them at their human brunch!"