DAY EIGHT: Downhill Slope

Is it even possible that we have already been here for a week, and that we have less than a week left here? Something about that makes me sad and anxious at the same time. This has been a great vacation and has helped me forget about (or at least remember less) the horrible summer I've had. Being here has just refilled my engines, so to speak. I'm anxious because I've had so many ideas concerning my kids and their pieces that I'm excited to share these ideas with them. I miss my kids, and I'm ready to get the season started.
But, I do still have a week left to continue to be inspired. It definitely continued today. The first thing on the agenda today was to go see Oxford HS (yes, from Mississippi) perform Man of La Mancha. They were unbelievable!! I was so proud of them, and so happy to have them representing Mississippi with us.

After their performance, it was back to Pollack Halls to get ready for our next performance. The kids got in costume and we had another rehearsal, and even changed several of the harmonies.

The performance was one of those dream scenarios where things just fell into place. The performance was timeless and we were sold out again. The majority of the audience was kids which was great. It was such a humbling experience to watch these kids look at out students as "stars". they waited with their programs to be signed, and all of our actors signed autographs for almost an hour after the show.

As I sit here and think about all of these great things that are happening to me, I can't help but think about Dad. I have missed him so much since coming over here, and I keep thinking about how I can't wait to tell him about this thing or that thing I saw and then I'm hit with the realization that I can't do that anymore. Vacations are great, but they don't take away reality. I still long for this pain to go away. I wish I knew how. I wish he were here. Dad, I know you'd have loved every minute of this.

DAY SEVEN: The Military Tatoo

It was so hard to get up this morning after the late night we had watching shows last night. I honestly thought as this day began that it was going to be horrible, but thankfully, I was very wrong.

Even though we got up very early (actually it was very late, it just felt early because of how late we got back) we came back to the dormitory after breakfast and ran into the only mean Scotsman we've experienced since being here. Let me explain. Our cleaning lady is the Wicked Scottish Witch of the West. Everyone else that works in our building is great, sweet, and easy to get a long with. The Scottish people are some of the nicest people in the world - except for Griselda the maid. Ok, maybe that's not her name, but it should be! She wants to punish us for the sink waterfall incident from two nights ago. First of all, we cleaned that up ourselves. The only thing she had to do was take the towels and move them to the laundry because we aren't allowed in there. But to get back at us, she has conveniently forgotten to give us towels for two days. This had to be stopped!

When she was on the other side of our hall today, I took a towel off of her cart while she was in another room. As I was walking out I heard one of the boys ask her for towels, and she flat out lied to him. She said that they had a towel shortage because the truck could not get up the mountain with the clean towels. She just left him with that. He turned to me and so I started to investigate and found mounds of towels on every floor BUT ours. Oh, and all the workers on the other floors were incredibly nice.

So, about 30 minutes later I was waiting for the elevator and Griselda walked over and waited to go down as well. When the doors opened, her supervisor exited as I got on. She asked Griselda if she had everything she needed and Grizzly Griselda said yes. I spoke up and said Actually don't forget you have an entire floor that doesn't have towels because the truck hasn't made it up the mountain yet with the clean ones. As the doors were closing I saw the supervisor give her a wicked look. We went to see "The Three Muskateers" performed by Wisconsin, and when we came back . . . we all had towels. Oh, sweet victory!

Anyway, then we went to the Royal Mile to shop and I managed to get all my family members taken care of. The kids were excited because they got 3 uninterrupted hours of shopping. When we went to the Military Tatoo which made the entire trip for me. It was absolutely amazing! I am so grateful for the opportunities that this trip keeps giving me. I am completely amazed everytime we do something new.

DAY SIX: The First Performances

Finally, what we've been waiting for . . . the opportunity to perform. After all, that's why we came here. We knew this was going to be quite a long day so we prepared ourselves as best we could.

First, we trekked down to the Royal Mile and did a street performance. They set up stages along the street and its your job as performers to attract an audience's attention. Logan (Baloo) got up on the stage and began singing One Blood with Christian (Mowgli) and Noel (Bagheera) and then the entire cast joined in. It was exciting to see the children from Edinburgh flock to our stage to watch. Our kids were remarkable with them. They actually spent most of their performance playing with the kids. Towards the end of our time on the Royal Mile, one of the Fringe Festival employees informed us that out first show was completely sold out! That never happens at the Fringe. There are 350,000 shows in 4 weeks time. It is just incredible and so humbling to see what Suz and thesekids do with so little. they don't even have an auditorium at home to sell out, but they sell out shows in Scotland. Some people back home should take notice and realize the gift they've been given and start supporting them.

The afternoon performance was a good first show. Like most first shows there were a few bumps, but nothing in comparison to some we have seen since being here. We got nothing but positive feedback from the audience.

Then, we watched two other shows after ours. First, Alice in Wonderland done by a Michigan school and then By the Skin of Our Teeth from Texas. Very late night. Early morning tomorrow.