Night of the Lepus....uh, Killer Bunny

There are many things I enjoy in life.  Long walks on the beach (or anywhere for that matter) with my beaugtiful wife, deep-fried cinnamon rolls the size of your head, the laughter of my children, The Princess Bride (and Star Trek, Star Wars, The Big Bang Theory) and Monty Python.  That being said, it will come as no surprise to those of you who know me that I recently had a Monty Python day of sorts.

I have now been in the process of gathering bicycles and restoring them in order to sell and give all of the proceeds to Sunrise Day Camp.  I call this project ReCycle for Sunrise and its the latest fundraising effort of Connor's Army.  As much as my beautiful wife Amy likes to take romantic walks on the beach with me, she's not too keen on my riding across the country again anytime soon.  So I've been converting my corner of the basement (meine kleine mannhöhle) into my bike repair workshop so I can fix the bicycles that have been so graciously donated to our cause.  Some I find on the road and others have been given to me by friends or family (thanks be to Joan!).  In working on them I often find myself feeling a bit like F.G. Superman in the sketch below;



Of course, I don't always change clothing before I get to work but you get the idea.  I've lost track of how many bicycles I've sold in the last two years (the project really started before the Ride Across America) but I know we've made over $2,000 from the sale of these bicycles alone.  I don't sell them for very much, basically for about half of what a comparable bike would go for on Craig's List.  I clean them all up, lube them up, replace any parts that need to be replaced, and true the wheels if they need to be trued.  I then look for a comparable bike and then print out a sign and place it on my front lawn here on Main Street in Northport during the weekends.  I've even had people come by and say they've heard about me and were wondering if I had a particular type of bike.  Word of mouth can be a powerful marketing tool I guess.

But aside from Bicycle Repairman, there is another connection I had last Sunday with my Monty Python side.  To really understand this Pythonesque moment, I need to give you a little background.   Way back in the day, although not completely "old school"(which from the graphic below you can see is a bit behind the front haunches but not all the way to the mid spine), I had a summer job with my friend Ed Trevorrow.

 

We worked for the German Civil Corps of Engineers which was attached to the military base at Katterbach, Germany.  Our summer job was basically to cut all the grass in the area below;

 

 

It really wasn't such a bad gig since we had self-propelled mowers for most of the work (every now and then we had to use sling blades) and for the first part of the summer we got to ride behind them on these trailer seats until someone decided it was too dangerous for fifteen-year-old kids to be doing that and they took them away.  It was also funny as hell because the four of us would show up about 8:00 every morning but we would never roll out until 8:30.  It would always take us 30 minutes to get there and then our German supervisor would have to take a break at 10:00 which would last half an hour.  We would work until 12:00 and then head back for lunch which would take an hour.  It would then take us about half an hour to get back to wherever we had left off.  We'd work until about 2:30 when he would have another half hour break and then finish up about 4:00.  It wasn't until half way through that we learned these "breaks" basically consisted of all the civil service employees meeting back at the garage to drink a beer or two.  I guess civil service can be the same everywhere.

 

So it was usually up to me, Ed and the other two summer hires to do most of the grass cutting.  One day while out cutting grass we came across a couple of baby rabbits.  Now, we were curious as any teenage boy might be and we wanted to gete a closer look.  Big mistake!!!!!  As we edged closer to get a look at the "herd" (yes, that is actually the technical term for a group of rabbits) big mama bunny decided we were a threat and came right at us.  Did you know they make a hissing sound when threatened?  And they do have a crazed look in their eye when they attack.  Now this was probably the summer of 1979 but since I had been in Germany since 1976 (and Augusta, GA before that) I had not really seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  It wasn't until years later that I saw the movie and realized that the "killer rabbit" was probably just a mama bunny protecting her young ones;

  

Of course, blasting it to bejeezus with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch was probably a bit extreme.  This experience left a lasting impression of me and I've always equated the most protective act of a mother for her children with this mother rabbit's actions.  Needless to say we backed off and went to cut another section of the field.

This event also tied into another childhood memory of mine.  When my father was stationed at Fort Ord, CA we used to go to the drive-in movies quite a bit, to the UA Marina Auto Movie in Monterrey as a matter of fact.  It used to be something we did almost once a month and I remember seeing quite a few movies there.  I remember The Black Scorpion, The Blob and one that stuck with me for years, The Night of the Lepus.  What's that you ask?  Well, here's the trailer;



Go ahead.  I can feel your shudders of terror out there in cyber space.  But hey, for a seven-year-old it was pretty scary exciting stuff.  I had a great time but I have to admit it was a long time before I would touch a bunny.  And Easter would just freak me out.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't suffer from Leporiphobia I just happen to have a healthy respect for what these animals are capable of doing if you get them riled.  Which brings me to Sunday night.

It had been a wonderful day playing with the kids and enjoying National Ice Cream day.  We had home made pancakes and vanilla ice cream for breakfast.  We went to Baskin-Robbins for lunch and for dinner we had ice cream sundaes.  A little before dinner we noticed we had a rabbit in out back yard.  Now we had noticed this rabbit about a few times in the past but hadn't thought anything of it but this time the rabbit stayed and even came up fairly close to the kids.  It was a bit brazen in fact.  When it came time to move the bicycles off the front lawn and into the shed the rabbit didn't hop off like one would think.  No, it decided to lie down under the swing set and take a little siesta while I moved the bikes around not ten feet away from it.  The kids thought this was all fantabulous and we even got a few great pictures of our bunny pal.  Here he is placidly planning his next foray;

 

And here he is making an incursion into enemy lines to test the preparedness of our defenses;



 

 

Ultimately the entire family was delighted by our new lagomorphian friend.  He stuck around for quite some time and then moved to the front yard when the real fun began.  You see, I didn't want to scare him off but I did need to take out the garbage and move the car to the drive way.  But I was convinced he (or perhaps she?) would run off as soon as I got onto the walk.  So I kept checking every fifteen minutes or so which amused my wife to no end.  She started teasing me that I was afraid of the bunny.  Of course I reminded her of the killer lagomorph of Pythonian fame which only served to amuse her more.  But I didnt' want to scare the bunny!  I was enjoying the fact that we have a wild animal that is so at ease in our yard and I don't want to scare it off.  Of course the glint in its eye didn't help;

Beatrix Potter my henie, that thing is mocking us!

In any event I finally had to give in and move the garbage out to the curb and move the car to the drive way.  The bunny did move to the other side of the front yard but it did stay in the yard.  I guess it's not afraid of me lobbing the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch at it.  I'm just glad it didn't morph into this Pooka;

 

Now that one I may need to lob a grenade at, or maybe just pummel with a baseball bat.  It's enough to give you leporiphobia.  Of course, it would all be easier if like Raj, I were the King of the Rabbits;

 

 

 

Stay well my friends and I'll see you on the road!

A Decade of Dual Dynamos

(Ahhhh, The Havoc They Can Wreak)

Ten years ago today our world was turned topsy turvey by the arrival of two long awaited individuals - Willam Padraig Gabriel and his twin James Eamon Gabriel.  If the road to their conception wasn't long and arduous enough, the day of their both was a tortuous affair all on its own.  Let me sum up;

 

You see, the boys were originally due in April but it had not been an easy pregnancy for Amy.  First, we had an amniocentesis to make sure the boys were going to be healthy and unfortunately it caused one of the amniotic sacs to rupture requiring Amy to be on bed rest for weeks.  Not too long after she recovered sufficiently to be get out of bed she had to be taken to the hospital three separate times for extreme dehydration due to the incredible morning sickness she was experiencing.

 

Then at the end of January, the second sac (not to be outdone by his brother) ruptured as well and this time they hospitalized Amy instead of having her stay on bed rest at home.  The idea was to keep her from going into labor as long as possible and also to try and introduce steroids into the boys so their organs would continue to develop.  If they could make it two weeks then it might be enough time to let their lungs (the last of the internal organs to fully develop) grow completely.  I would go and visit her as often as I could which was difficult since Sarah was only 3 1/2 at the time and I couldn't always get her there.  Yes, I was Mr. Mom and the entire world did not end.

 

The night of Februay 6, 2003 started out with a heavy snow that just kept coming down.  We knew that becuase of Amy's condition she could go into labor any day and we were trying to be ready for it but deep down we hoped we could just get past this blizzard they were predicting.  Now back then they didn't name the winter storms as they ahve taken to doing since last year (as of this writing Winter Storm Nemo is bearing down on us) so I couldn't tell you what the storm was, only it was piling up outside my door. 

 

At about 6:00 in the morning I get a phone call from Amy telling me to call her mother and ask her to drive to Smithtown to watch Sarah because I should probably get to the hospital.  I called her and she said she would come out and in the meantime I got Sarah dressed and I proceeded to start shoveling the driveway which at this time had about a foot of snow.  I then get another phone call from Amy telling me I should get the neighbor from across the street to watch Sarah because we weren't going to be able to wait for her mother to come.  By now it's really coming down and I don't even have the back of the Volvo wagon uncovered but I go and get Sue and she comes over to stay with Sarah.

 

I'm digging feverishly when Sue comes out to tell me there's another call from Amy.  I get on the phone with her just in time to hear someone in the background saying that she can't talk to me and they are taking her now.  I can't even get anyone to answer me, I'm just hearing it all over the phone.  So I hang up the phone, I shovel what I can and just make the decision to drive out of the rest.  And its still snowing hard!

 

I get on 25A ( small winding two lane road) and suddenly I find myself behind every person who should ABSOLUTELY NOT on the road in the snow.  It truly seemed like everyone had completely forgotten how to drive - especially everyone in an SUV!  But eventually I get there, get parked and get to the delivery room - only to try and get myself into the paper jumpsuit and into the delivery room to be with my wife.  Apparently Amy was still composed and conscious enough to tell the nurse to tell me that one of them was already delivered just to see if I would freak out.  Luckily for me she didn't do that.

 

The boys were tiny, only 3 lbs 5 oz, and 3 lbs 6 oz.  We were able to glimpse them just for brief moment before they were rushed off to the Stonybrook NICU where they stayed for the next six weeks.  We were so lucky because not only were they in arguable the best NICU on Long Island, they had no physical complications due to their ten week prematurity.  And this is what we were finally able to see once they got them all cleaned up;

 

 

It's been a rough ten years and for the first three or four we were constantly worried that some sort of physical complications would arise becuase they were born so early.  We would attend all the March of Dimes meetings with parents of other preemies and always feel so guilty that our sons were healthy and doing so well.  After a while we had to stop going because our "survivor's guilt" was just too much.  And now it's ten years later and they are the joy of our lives.  Our little fighters made it through all the possible complications and they are smart, inquisitive, giving, empathic, funny, brave, helpful, kind, polite, and so much more.  We are truly blessed by all they give us.

 

And yes, we are still dealing with waiting on the results of William's operation.  Although the surgeon was 98% sure it was benign we are not going to be completely at ease until we get the pathology report that says 100%.  Until then we just wait and count our blessings - both of them.  And now a brief retrospective of their young lives;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it, a quick retrospective in the lives of our two miracle boys who made it through the blizzard, survived the improbability of no complications after six weeks in an incubator and now they are the twin terrors tornadoes joys of our lives.  We couldn't imagine what life would be like without the topsey turvey journey they have given us but we wouldn't trade the ride for anything!

 

Stay well and I'll see you on the road (I'm still riding for William)!



 



Summing It Up - Again!

(And I Have No Idea What the Answer Is)

So I have a couple of confessions to make - the first is there is no way in Hades I could ever solve the above equation.  You see in high school I transferred halfway through my senior year to a lovely high school called C.E. Ellison High School  in Killeen, TX (actually, it was the second high school I transferred to since I actually spent three weeks at Copperas Cove High School) and the only math class they could fit in my schedule (becuase of all the band classes and drama classes) was Algebra II.  Algebra II was taught by a lovely                             (insert perjorative adjective of your choice here) of a man who couldn't give a                    's (insert funny animal of your choice here) patootie about math.  You see, in the great tradition of Friday Night Lights he was the head coach of the football team and his class load consisted of one Algebra II class, two driver's ed classes and supervision of two study halls (during which time he caught up on his newspaper time).  As great fortune would have it, I had this teacher for three out of my eight classes - yayyyyyy!!!!!  So, as fate would have it, when he taught Algebra II he sat at his desk and read while we did problems out of the book which he would grade and hand back - and I didn't learn a lick of math!



My second confession goes like this, "forgive me reader, for I have erred and it has been 41 days since my last entry".  Now, I know that since this is the Lenten season I should probably do some sort of penance so I have taken it upon myself to watch as amany episodes of "My Little Pony" as I can before my brain turns to permanent tapioca.  I would offer to do a daily Rosary Novenabut since I am already doing that for Lent anyway I thought the MLP penance would work better.  That, and I need to write to you what I've been up to.  So let me explain, no there's is too much:





So I figured I would catch you all up by doing a little weekly highlights event of what has transpired over the last five and a half weeks;

February 15 - 19

Okay, so all of that talk about riding with a vengeance didn't really go as planned.  One thing snowballed behind another and the next thing I knew I had only logged 60 miles this week.  But I did get to spend some time with the family and Amy was busily rehearsing for her featured role in the Broadhollow Theatre Company production of Nine!

February 20 - 26
So this winter we decided that we wouldn't go anywhere for break since Amy was in rehearsals.  He show didn't open until February 25th but rehearsals were intense and she was out late in rehearsals this week.  I spent my time riding as much as I could during the day and trying to sell more bikes for ReCycle for Sunrise.  I only managed to sell one bike but I got to spend a lot of time with the kids and we played and had a lot of fun.

Amy's show opened on Saturday the 25th and the whole family was in attendance and I have to say (from a biased opinion) she was AMAZING!!!  But of course!  She was French to the extreme and her role allowed her to improv with the audience which is something she enjoys doing.  Although I don't have any "official" youtube videos for the production (I can't even seem to find any "unofficial" version either) here is a "trailer" a member of the cast put together as an ad for the show.   Although you see her being interviewed and you see little snippets of her in the clip, it really doesn't do justice to the amazing performance she gives.  But if you listen closely, the voice you hear singing "Folies Bergère" is that of my lovely wife;

So in between being a stage husband and taking care of the kids, we managed to take advantage of the weather and have some fun outside.  We really couldn't travel anywhere due to Amy's schedule but the kids and I took some bike rides, I fixed up Sarah's "new" road bike for the cross country, and I did manage to log 105 miles this week - my first "Century" of the year!!!!  My fitness level seems to be in good form for this time of year and I'm looking forward to trying to build on it.  Of course, who knows what will happen once we're actually going cross country but for now I'm highly optimistic!!!!

February 27 - March 4
This week saw us all getting back into "the groove" as we all went back to school.  I spent much of my time at school as we had so much left to do on Beauty and the Beast.  It wasn't really practical for me to ride home since we were staying later at rehearsals and Friday was the Syosset High School Sports Night.  Stacey Kerley and the kids in Peer Helpers worked to raise close to $700 and Sam Daniels and Steph Grayson worked on their own section to do even more fundraising!  It brings us just a bit closer to our goal.  I myself had the chance to only participate in the teacher challenge version of dodge ball.  My team lost and I was the next to last on my team to be knocked out - ohhhhh, it brought back so many memories of middle school.  Of course, all I had running in my head was this scene;



Primarily because in middle school (where I was all of about 4'6"), I was basically considered "target practice" because I was small and quick.  They figured if they could hit me, they could hit anyone.  Well, I almost lasted to the end at Sports Night.

And despite all of the the lack of riding I managed to log 55 miles in 4 rides - basically riding to school and back two days that week.  Not much but better than nothing.

March 5 - March 11
This week really caught me by surprise.  The weather sort of sucked and between that and long hours at school I didn't really ride.  I logged 54 miles in 3 rides and drove a lot in order to get home in time to watch the kids as this was Amy's last week in Nine.  I am so proud of her and the job she did in that show.  She truly is talented and she showed how its supposed to be done.  Since I know she never reads my blog and won't read these words I can gush all I want about her.  She really is a phenomenal performer (even if she'll never admit it - I guess we're both alike in that regard) and the more I see her perform the more I wish we could figure out a way for her to go back and do it professionally.  She really is in her element on stage, particularly in performance and I'm so proud to be her husband. 

Oh, and this Friday also saw our annual 10 out of 12 rehearsal in which we have an entire day set aside to rehearse with the orchestra and try to get the technical elements working in the show.  It wasn't easy, especially as the costumes came in and the kids just wanted to play with their costumes.  It took an hour just to get the Wardrobe costume put together and fitted properly.  We have SEVEN racks of costumes!!!!!  We've never had this many ever.  Sunday couldn't come soon enough as we all needed a break.  We had a family movie night and watched Miyazaki's Porco Rosso - if you don't know its sort of an Anime retelling of Beauty and the Beast - we thought it appropriate!  Here's a trailer for it - fast forward to :58 to see Porco Rosso;



If you haven't seen this movie - do yourself a favor and rent it today!!!!!

March - 12 - 18
This week was only devoted to the show.  We opened on Thursday to a great house but not as full as we would have hoped - only 450!  But the audience loved it and everyone was just enthralled with the work the kids did.  The kids got a standing ovation!!!!!  They truly deserved it for all their hard work.

By Friday the word had gotten out what an incredible show the kids were doing and we sold out five minutes before curtain.  What a high for the kids to have going into that performance.  It was also the night they filmed the production and the kids were phenomenal!!!!!  When the kids finished performing "Be Our Guest" the audience applauded for 45 seconds - literally stopping the show.  It was a first for Syosset High School theatre and the kids were in a tizzy not sure what to do.  But troupers that they are they smiled and kept going!

Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and although we didn't sell out, we came within 30 of selling out and that in itself was pretty phenomenal.  The kids weren't as sharp (darn those full days off!) but they still put on a great show and this time the audience gave them a standing ovation that lasted a full minute after "Be Our Guest"!  That was amazing and I hope the kids will remember that always and remember just how rare that is.  Here is a clip of our version of the song;



On Sunday the kids were totally pumped up about the show and rightly so - they sold out yet again!!!!!  We all felt bad because that meant that a few little ones wouldnt' get th echance to see the show but they had an amazing time and they got so much deserved praise.  It truly was sad to see it go. 

WE had an amazing continuation of tradition in our "Act Three" Parody followed by a great cast party hosted by the Treidel family - Cara is the last one so its the end of an era!!!!!  And the cast bought us all "Connor's Army"  baseball caps which the boys did not take off at all - even when they went to sleep!

And of course with all of the craziness entailed in the show I only rode 12 miles this week!
March 19 - 25
This week started out with one last hurrah!  The annual Board of Education performance in which we take snippets of the musical and perform them at the board meeting.  We put together "Gaston", "Beauty and the Beast" and "Home".  It was a great experience and it was really nice for the kids to get the accolades they so richly deserved yet one more time!  This isn't a clip from that night but it IS a clip of our version of "Gaston" from the production;




It took Amy and I (okay, mostly Amy - and once again may I say I have the most amazing wife!!!) two days to pack up the 14 boxes of costumes from the show and we finally got them out on Tuesday.  I thought the guys on the loading dock were going to ban me for life!!!!

And then it was on to Shakespeare!!!  We held our auditions on Wednesday for All's Well That Ends Well.  There were fewer who auditioned than I had hoped and I fear its becuase we've taken on too many student directed shows which are now pulling away the talent of the pool.  We'll have to do something about that for next year but for now we have a really good (if somewhat young) cast that I think will  help me find a great interpretation of Shakespeare's "Problem" play. 

And the good news is that I managed to log 88 miles at an average speed of 17.72 mph!!!!  If I can just keep building on this shape I'll be ready in no time.

This week
And that brings me to this week.  I have logged 42 miles so far in the two days that I've ridden and I'm really trying to push myself to ride almost every day unless there are particular extenuating circumstances.  The wind has really been torturous but I have to get used to that.  One of the down sides of cycling in Kansas is that althought its flat (a good thing) there is nothing to stop the wind from "sweeping" down the plain and barrelling right into you!!!!!!  So, I just tuck my head and pedal harder and all the time hope that I'll be able to keep building my fitness level up so that I'll be ready in 87 days when we leave San Diego!!!!!

Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting us at Connor's Army, thanks for helping us help the kids at Sunrise, and EXPECT more frequent blog posts now!

Stay well and I'll See You on the Road (numerous times if I can help it!!!)!

Let Me Sum Up/Mea Culpa - Part Deux

Okay so once again I find myself apologizing to all of you out there in cyberland.  But as the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote in his poem "To A Mouse On Turning Up Her Nest With a Plow" (composed in 1785);

"But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
            Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
            For promis'd joy."

Back in the day when I taught 9th grade English I used to use that as an introduction to John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men;


(and yes, I know I bear a striking resemblance to Gary Sinese - if only!)

The basic gist (for those of you for whom it has been many years since you have read the novel) is that we can plan all we want but sometimes it just doesn't work out the way we planned (God laughs!)

And so it is with my pledge to update this blog more often.  I really have tried but a lot of things have gone on in the last few weeks.  And then today I checked on my blog and I realized that it had been 20 days since my last post.  I didn't know whether to do this;



or go to St. Philips across the street and recite the all too familiar litany.  Of course, for those of us who may be a little rusty on the whole confession process, you can go to this link sponsored by Catholic.org.  Either way, to you my sometime blog followers, as your sometime blog contributor I apologize as it has been 20 days since my last installment.  I would welcome your comments (yes, you can post the comments you know) on this sit or you can go to OUR facebook page (and of course, the link is in the upper right hand corner of this blog) and get updates that way.  OR, you could do both - I'm just saying.

So where was I?  Oh yes, forgive me reader for I have erred and it has been 20 days since my last installment.  And, as is the case with my life, SOOOOOOO much has happened.  So once again, in the true spirit of Inigo Montoya:


In other words, LET ME SUM UP!

When last I left you oh intrepid readers my brain was pretty much mush from my efforts on the New York State Teacher Certification Examination for School District Administration.  I was pretty well wrung out and happy to have it over.  Of course, now I find out that in order to get said certification (I'm pretty sure I passed the district leader test) I also have to take the Building Leader test - another 8 hours of brain numbing torture!!!!  Talking about a self imposed lobotomy!

So what has been happening since March 6th?

First of all, on Saturday, March 12th after an amazing final tech rehearsal for SHS's production of Bye Bye Birdie, my family and I participated in St. Baldrick's Day at Napper Tandy's in Northport. We even got a write up in Newsday!  And for those who can't seem to operate your clicking finger to go to those links, in the spirit of immediate gratification here is the after photo;

(Notice William's the only one looking directly at this camera!)

There were tons of cameras there so in the above photo we're all looking at different ones!  I have to say I'm incredibly proud of my children for being so brave and doing this.  I'm especially proud of 11-year-old Sarah.  To be the only girl in her entire middle school to do this was exceptionally brave but she took it in stride and I think she may have even gained a few new friends from it.

The following week saw the entire family living much of our time at the high school as it was "Hell Week" for our production of Bye Bye Birdie. 

We had a great write up done on us by The Syosset Patch  (or you can see it here) The only down side of the entire production was that we didn't have the audience draw that we normally do.  I'm pretty sure it was due to the new way that we have instituted for ticket sales.

That brings up to this past week.  Aside from trying to recuperate from a lot of expended brain matter, I also had to catch up on my administrative classes.  We are down to our last two courses!!!!!  Soon I'll have my evenings back and I can actually see my family!

But along with the celebration there was also sadness.  We lost a camper last Saturday who had been valiantly fighting a rare form of cancer for three years.  Although I only got to know her for eight weeks (and only twice a week at that), she made a very permanent impression on me.  Here was a little girl who was obviously very sick and yet she was always smiling and she always loved taking part in the theatre and dance classes.  It wasn't until much later that I found out that dancing was one of her favorite things.  It explains why on the very last day when I had her for dance class she came up to me while I was changing the music and kissed me on the head, hugged me and said "thank you."  I was really looking forward to seeing her again this summer.  Instead I went to her wake on Monday and I was broken up by how strong her parents had to be and how much of an impression this little girl had made on so many people. 

I had found out about her passing the Sunday morning before our final show.  I actually spoke about her without mentioning her name and I told my cast that they had to remember that what they were doing was a blessing and that they had to relish every single moment on stage.  I told them that they wouldn't know if there was a little six year-old girl in the audience whose dream they were living and they needed to perform for those little ones to the best of their ability.  I then called places and I noticed that one of the young ladies in the cast was really broken up (I mean, a lot of tears were shed after that "motivational" speech because it was the last show - especially for some of the seniors).  I asked her if she were okay and she said that her six-year-old cousin has also passed away the morning before.  In one of those moments of synchronicity, we discovered it was the same girl.  We hugged each other for a moment and she was okay to go on and we called places.  The kids managed to give an incredible performance - one that they will remember for a long time.

And speaking of performances.  Something else happened.  Amy auditioned for a role in a local production of Oliver! and she was cast in the role of Nancy.  She then found out that they needed more boys to play orphans and she offered up Sarah (with her shorn hair) and it ended up they could also use the boys.  The only problem is that opening weekend of that show is also the weekend of our Spring production at SHS.  However, it looks like I'll also be taken part as a member of the adult ensemble - so in another week THE ENTIRE CONNOR CLAN WILL BE ONSTAGE TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!!!!!
Get your tickets now because who knows when this will happen again!

We also got the final go ahead to start publicizing the fundraiser organized by my friend and colleague Peter Haughwout.  He coordinates an art cooperative called Studio 85 and in conjunction with another art group they are going to hold an art exhibit with proceeds from the entry fee going to sponsor the Connor's Army cross country ride.  You can get the information here.  An dthey even created this really cool poster for the event;

Now how cool is that?  I want one for my office it's Walt Whitman in a really funky colorway!  Since its an art exhibit at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum I thought it was incredibly fitting.  Walt Whitman the rock star!

But Sarah also was a bit of a mini star this past week as she was one of only two sixth graders to get a principal role in her middle school's production of Alice in Wonderland, Jr. She was cast as the littlest of three Chesire Cats and if that doesn't conjur up images of cuteness, then this picture will verify them;

And if that's not enough Chesire Cuteness for you, you can go here and get 25 other vision of how she ROCKED the costume.  Okay, am I a proud stage papa or what?

And then there was yesterday - Friday, March 25th.  A year ago I lost my little brother David.  I wrote about it at the time in a posting and even though a year has past, I still have the same regret - that I never made the effort to know him as well as I should have once we were reunited. 

He was a simple guy, a basic guy but from the little I got to be with him he was a caring guy with a wry sense of humor (as you can see from the twinkle in his eye in the above photo) .  I wish that my kids had gotten the chance to know their uncle David.  I wish I had gotten to know him much better.  Yesterday brought a lot of that back to me.  It may not be my biggest regret, but certainly one of them.
 
We also held the callbacks for our upcoming production of The Laramie Project.  It's an emotional enough show as it is but I had decided that for the callback I wouldn't give the kids cold readings but instead I wanted them to tell me a story from their life (I know, very A Chorus Line right?) that had to do with loss (of anything or anyone), of bullying or a happy memory.  With 40 people it took a while and we all cried and learned a lot about each other.  I started it off by talking about David and my regret about not knowing him better.  The kids then told their stories and it wasn't until the end that I told them that the storytelling was the callback.  I wanted to hear how they told stories since that is what the show is all about, real people telling real stories of loss and of coping.  I learned a lot about my young actors and I think with the ensemble we'll put together there will be the kind of trust that they haven't had before.  I have to send them the cast list tomorrow.  Its going to be an emotional journey but since we are using it to make a stand against bullying and intolerance, one that I think will be worth the tears.

So that in a nutshell are the ups and downs, the trial and tribulations, the hills and valleys, the good and the bad of the last 20 days.  I really wish I could post on a daily basis like The Bike Snob but I just don't have the time -- at least not until my admin classes are finished.  But its all a part of this crazy journey we call life and after all - we've gotta a LOT of livin' to do!

	04 - A Lot of Livin to Do .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

The other thing I MUST be getting back to is my bike.  With the insane weather we've had and my incredibly busy schedule I haven't put in nearly enough miles and my fitness is suffereing.  Right now if I tried to ride with the AA boys I wouldn't make it 20 miles at their pace so I have a lot of work to do.

But most of all, we are edging ever closer to raising the last of the $6,000 that we need.  Every little bit counts and friends, family and former students are helping us reach our goal.  For those of you who keep up with this please help us by keeping your ears open and either approaching companies on our behalf or forwarding the information to us about interested companies.  Come hell or high water (or both!) we're cycling America in 2012 and we're going to raise the money for the kids! 

Your support in reading this blog has been so incredible and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Hey, if we can't be grateful for the friendships in life (even the cyber ones) what's the point?

Stay well and I'll see you on the road!