Not Another Homeschool Blog

As I lay in my hotel bed with sore legs and aching feet, I feel very happy and satisfied. I have just spent 3 whole days at BroadwayCon 2017, also known as BroadwayCon #2, the year we didn't get snowed in due to a huge blizzard. It was great, and after the last couple of months, I was due a break from the issues of the world that troubled my mind. It's not like I wasn't aware of the STUFF that has had me so upset, but I was allowed to celebrate, art, and fun, and the artists who create the fun and entertainment that is so worth celebrating. The STUFF was actually a pretty major theme throughout the weekend, but to get to look at it through the lens of artists, deep thinkers, who create and reinterpret the world around us, was a beautiful thing. It was also good to know I was surrounded by people who were pretty much of the same mind. Sure some people didn't agree and a few people left, but in this crowd, it probably less than 1% of the crowd who had a problem with t...

As is typical in Metro Atlanta, I live in what some would call a McMansion, in a gated community. It didn't take me long to discover that I was locked in with the crazies. The people within this gated community act just as squirrely as the people on the outside. Within our upper-middle income community, we have had thefts, drug deals, speeding on streets kids play on, and vandalism... the people that did the crimes lived within the community.  Take for instance the fact that my car was ransacked last night. The thief took my backpack. But before they took it they removed the contents.. My binder for the community theatre board, my folders and receipts for each costuming project. They just took the backpack and the cell phone charging brick that was in the pocket.... well, that and then they tossed the car looking for change. They didn't even take the Gas card that had $17.00 on it. Chances are, this was a neighborhood kid.  Who lives in my community. If I see my backpack ag...

When I was in college working on my BA in Fine Art, I would grate when it was time to critique one another's work... especially when it was time to critique mine. These people were always so far off the mark. That time when I did a still life of things in my dorm room, which happened to include handcuffs that my brother won at the county fair and somehow I kept them as a momento. That still life was deemed deeply sexual when for me, they were a symbol of strength and connection. That time when the teacher berated me for doing a Madonna and Child print when in reality the woman holding the child was my oldest sister who had died from Cancer at 30 and the child was my 2nd youngest brother who could not break out of mourning... He was broken and my heart was not only broken for me, but for him and the loss of her.  (I brought in the source photo the next day and threw it at him.) How could these people look at my work in insinuate their own experiences into them. How dare those ...

People keep telling me to give tRump a chance.  Well here it is: FIX HEALTHCARE In anticipation to his inaugur-disater, Republican lawmakers have voted to repeal Preexisting conditions, keeping young adults on parents plans, pretty much just the whole damn thing. I hope people are happy, but here's what it means to me. I AM UNINSURABLE. My mother and several of her sisters died of cancer. I have polycistic ovarian syndrome I am pre-diabetic. I have had a hysterectomy. (But I am valuable) I am a bad risk for insurance companies.  If I get sick, I will die. Period. I have many people in my family in worse shape than me... they have had cancer and are lucky to be alive.  But lawmakers are yelling, repeal baby! Why? Because a black president is attached to it.  (it is what it is) Yes, it was imperfect, but it is what THEY helped design. So tRump... slow down the repeal, and replace it with something that won't make getting sick a gamble. I nev...

I've become obsessed with Shakespeare.  Perhaps it is because I am currently repurposing costumes we used in The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged and using them for a kids show, Rumplestiltskin, so I am literally, conjuring up memories as I handle the costumes.  Perhaps it is because we, the community theatre board just approved next year's season, and so I had time to think about what I love and what I wanted to see.  Maybe it's because I experienced " 1599" at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn some months ago and haven't been able to get it out of my psyche.  If hubby's job was still in NY, I would to see it again! (I wasn't asked to promote this).  I wrote on my Facebook page today "Theatre without the Shakespeare is like reading without the alphabet". To me, it is the foundation of acting and an actor who chooses to skip it chooses to not

My daughter kept saying that she was sure we were going to be hit with a meteor that would end all life before 2016 was over.  The year had been so messed up, and losing Carrie and Debbie Reynolds together to her was a sign of impending doom.  But were still here! So here we are, alive and pretty much still in a bad mood. The politics are grating. The racial climate is uncomfortable (understatement), and the world seems suddenly unwelcoming. But that's OK.  I'm still here are I have stuff to do. What to expect from me this year? 1. Rebranding, as evidenced by the change in my blog name. 2. No nonsense- straight talk.  I feel an urgency in my heart that won't let me mince words 3. Completion of projects to clear space to start the new ones waiting for me. I feel a sense of urgency in my heart that is propelling me forward. I got stuff to do.

As 2016 draws to a close,  I sit here in a proverbial pillar of salt.  While it was an interesting and reasonably good year on a personal level, I am sad and despondent over the state of our nation. As much as I would like to be positive and say that 2017 is going to be a banner year, it is far more likely to become a shit-storm. That me for me it is a time for introversion and building. My book will be finished. I will be working more with homeschoolers and maybe less in the arts... unless those two things combine. I will make a decision about my Masters degree.. will I get one or not? I hope I can find some joy this year.. as I have a wonderful family and am well cared for, but what good is my comfort if others are being persecuted? Goodbye 2016.  I will spend the next few days putting on my armor for the coming years.