I can kiss my Friday nights goodbye...

...because I'm going to be spending them between now and the first week of December in rehearsals for The Nutcracker! My former ballet teacher moved to another studio, where they are doing a full-length version complete with orchestra. I heard about it a little late, so I thought I wouldn't be able to do it, but then a part opened up and here I am.

I'll be playing a parent in the party scene (1st act), which means that mostly I'll be walking around in Victorian dress and pretending to socialize with the other parents. There will probably be a stately dance or maybe two, depending on what the directors are doing in this version. Anyway, my first rehearsal is Friday night and I'm really looking forward to it.

I should go get ready for the school day...but I just wanted to share how excited I am about getting to perform again!

Ouch.

Well, unfortunately I worked my hamstring too hard in ballet last night, so it's back to non-exercise for me. I'll have to rest it a lot until Saturday's class. I may try to do a little yoga (only stuff that doesn't hurt) in an effort to keep my mood up this week. Deep breathing and stretching will be good for me anyway, and maybe I can do some of the ab exercises without hurting my leg.

Speaking of dancing, D and I are going to sign up for an adult ballroom dancing class at school. One of the music teachers has organized this arts academy where kids can take classes that are held here. So starting after Thanksgiving, we'll be spending our Thursday nights dancing! We don't have another wedding for a year, so plenty of time to learn how to really cut a rug. At least we are on somewhat more equal footing in ballroom dancing, since I haven't done much besides my cotillion class in middle school. (Sigh. I remember the teacher's assistant. He was so dreamy!) Okay, so 20 years of ballet experience might help a little, but hopefully D isn't scared to screw it up since it will be mostly new to me too.

I've been working hard at organizing the 2 science activities--the club for girls and SO, and it feels really good to be putting a lot of effort into something the kids will really appreciate (they are science geeks, after all).

Cause and effect

I was in a rotten mood last week, and I'm wondering if it's because I mostly stopped exercising. I strained my hamstring in ballet a couple of weeks ago and it was bothering me, so I wanted to give it time to heal. All I did last week was 1 ballet class. I wonder if the lack of exercise was the cause of my irritability?

In unrelated but good news, another teacher and I put together a grant application that was approved for our school. We are starting an after school science program for girls--it will have 5 modules focusing on different science areas and each will have a guest speaker or two and a field trip at the end. Everything will be paid for, which is just wonderful. It's really going to be a lot of work, but it is nice to know that I'm doing some work on one of the things that drew me to middle school in the first place--the opportunity to encourage girls to pursue careers in math and science. I am helping to organize the program and teaching one of the modules. I'll also be starting to meet with the Science Olympiad team very shortly, probably next week.

Food for thought

This was in my inbox...makes me think and smile.

Teacher's Mission Statement

We the willing
Led by the unknowing
Are doing the impossible
For the ungrateful.
We have done
So much for so long
With so little,
We are now qualified
to do anything with nothing.