ioianthe, posts by tag: kidstock - LiveJournal

Such a weird day yesterday-- but awesome none the less. LAST DAY OF CAMP! the show was cute. Big b's niece, the apple of his eye Lucy (one of my madhatters) came to one of the shows, saw me and lit up. I gave her a wave and a big hello but the show started and that was that. After the show I was taking down corn (don't ask) when bri came down and told me I had to come see Lucy because she was "positively apopleptic" that she didn't get to say goodbye to me. I went up and gave her a hug, and it was like I was a movie star. she was all shy and smiley, and when her grandmother asked her if she wanted to say anything, she smiled at me and murmmered a breathless "Hi!" It was adorable. And it felt double-ly good, both because I was liked that much by a kid (and the kids, I've seen some around and it's always pretty much the same) but because b. has to admit I'm doing something right because lucy loves me.

Anyway, we decide we're all going to jims apartment in davis to party for the evening (meeting at nine) so after work I go home. Bill and I are at home when we get a crank call from a number in fucking ontario canada. This has been going on for a few days now and is terribly creepy, esp. since we don't know anyone in ontario... grr. after the call, I hear someone turning our door knob. I pop up, and cautiously open the door... and there is a little baby boy (less than 2) and I think OH GOD THERE"S A BABY ON MY DOORSTEP. But rather than panic I scoop him up and head upstairs to go door to door to find the owners of the child. First try is a hit, they had all kinds of small children visiting and he just sort of wandered off. They were very excited he was safe. WEIRD.

Finally, off to dinner and then the party. Dinner was fine but the party was really great. I love them there work people and I'm gonna miss Mike (who's moving to chicago to break into the improve sceen) and colin (who's moving to cali) terribly. Not so much Monika, I'm sad to say... this past week I've realized that there is more and more I don't like about her. oh well, she was still fun to work with (although I really didn't like the way she treated the kids, lots of yelling and "calling kids out") Oh well again... It's done. Had a beer with "the kids" (the younger employees) and that was really weird, but fun none the less, they're pretty cool... my justin, who I work with a lot, shawn, allison and michaela... Then nate came by and Danielle had to go home (who knew she got so paranoid and whiney when she got high, poor baby)and eventually everyone stopped by... It was so much freaking fun. :) :)

It was soo friday today, as noted by the quiping of "you need to learn your left from your right so when you're older and driving you don't crash into a tree" and "I'm mr todd, I've always been mr todd, and I will continue to be mr todd until I report the criminals and become mr. smith of oklahoma." and Nate decked out in a bowler hat with a fake eyelash painted under his eye... and finally, yours truely singing "we're painting the lines all white"
And self-discovery is put on the back burner for self-indulgence this weekend. This was gonna be the big one, I was gonna spend some serious time alone, thinking, trying to "figure it out" make some definate decisions... write. Cleans, refocus, redirect. Instead I am going to get my hair and nails done, and go to my mothers for girls night of games and cocktails.

I'm not having fun any more so I think I'm going to take my ball and go home... Or at least that's the way I've felt about work this summer- First I get twice the headache and half the credit in the madhatters program, then I kind of turn into slave labor somehow, with no time to work on the extra work I have from having to make my projects "other people" friendly, instead of just me friendly, and then I have my deadline pushed up by three days for no fucking reason, and then I have to waste half a day making some tricky fucking prop that brian wants done his way but then the Jester troup don't even use it in their show and then I get sick and I keep getting sicker. Plus, all I've wanted to do is come home and crash but there have been extra people here all week so I can have that time to do that thing.

Feeling like a bit of an asshole today, after justin told me stacey was dropping the ball as far as teaching art went, and I was so overjoyed. Nothing would make me happier than seeing her fail miserably this week, nothing...(even if it wasn't her choice to take my job this week) and I feel like that makes me a bad person. but I am still none the less thrilled, making me a bad person who is conflicted. Just call me a mama tiger, and the madhatters art curriculum is my baby.

Alright, so... I work with four year olds. That's right, that type of four year olds, the four kind... I teach art to them, I do all the preps for their projects and plan everything weeks in advance, it's all a little tricky because I only have 20 minutes, and it really takes 5 to get ready and 5-10 to clean up, so I only have 5 or 10 minutes for the actual project sometimes. Here was my plan for last week:

MONDAY: placemat, crayon and water color (not so cool but nothing I could do, Kim wants them)
TUESDAY: Sand Sculptures
WEDNESDAY: Sea Crowns
THURSDAY: Paint Large Sea Shells
FRIDAY: Sandpaper sandcastles

Sounds cute right? believe me, my demos were.

But here is what happend:
TUESDAY: make the sand, the kids love it, but Brian says to kim "the sand sculptures don't look like anything, that's unacceptable, they have to look like something" and then kim, who is usually a sweetheart but is 8 freaking months pregnant and shouldn't have to be working, in my opinion, says "Mandy, these things look awful-- we have to do something to make them look like something" Now mind you, and one who works with kids will tell you that anything that a four year old does never looks like anything... NEVER. Anyway, I say "It was a process project, did you see how much fun the kids had?" and Kim says "Maybe you've forgotten, but process projects aren't Kidstock projects" And here is where I would like to kick myself for the first time, because I say "Fine, we'll... we'll turn them into islands... I can change my schedual and make it work" Instead of saying "I'm sorry it isn't what you'd like to see, there's nothing I can do to fix it, since I already have my schedual all set up, nextime I'll plan it better"
WEDNESDAY: Rush through the crowns to use the same things to decorate the sand sculptures, crowns come out sparse, because kids are rushed, sand looks *SAD* because of all the shit they stuck in it.
THURSDAY: The problem day, the day from hell. I wake up with out the alarm, which is fairly common for me, and look over to see what time it is and then I'm all like "it's blinking, that's weird, I wonder what that means, my clock... blinking like that... SHIT!!!!" I bounce out of bed to see it's 7:25... blackout. I'm supposed to be there at 7:30, and I was gonna go in early to set up some stuff for madhatters because I had ended up working late into the evening down in the art room, and had just wanted to go home. Also, I had decided to scrap the shells for shaving cream and glue foam paint so they could make water to go with their islands. ANYWAY, I call brian and Kim, and am on my way. I get there and Olive, the other art teacher, who told me she'd pick up shaving cream for me and her to have enough, told me she didn't have enough. I send off one of my assistants to the store. Then I have to be in extended day... I ended up missing our morning circle so I could lay out tarps, and mix up the paint. Anyway, art went tough, because there wasn't enough room to dry everything, not having as much space as I was promised because costumes were never moved out, and then we had to clean up for snack afterwards. And Brian and Kim are in and out of there the entire time.... ugh! I am frantic. Had I been alone I would have handled things differently that day... but I wasn't, and I don't have the brass to say "Kim, Brian, Let me do it my way" and there in lies the entire problem.
After madhatters we're having our meeting and I get terribly terribly shat on for not being preped, and therefore we arn't as far ahead for next week as we should be. NOT PREPARED? NOT PREPARED? I WAS FUCKING PREPARED! I WAS I WAS I WAS! BUT SOMEBODY WANTED ME TO FURKING CHANGE EVERYTHING. Kim has an example of Olives art project she did with the 7 year olds and says "this is what the project should have been" and I am thinking BUT THAT"S NOT WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE, SO IT SHOULDN'T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THAT!!!! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A ONE DAY THING, NOT THREE DAY and here is again where I kick myself, because I said "yes," and "I'm sorry" and "It won't happen again" Who the fuck am I? I don't cowtow... I never have! Is it because I like this job so much? I dunno. AND nextweek, Stacy is teaching art and Todd is teaching Games (my two classes) they say it's because I'm not going to be there on Friday, but I feel deeply deeply burned, and wonder if they are being passive agressively angry towards me. I spend the rest of thursday in a haze of sorts, and come home to leave you all the lovely message I left you that night.

Here's the way I see it: If I had stuck to my guns on tuesday, had the guts to say something to someone, then I wouldn't have had the shaving cream disaster, or rushed through the crowns, or gotten yelled at, and If I had said on thursday that I felt that way, I wouldn't feel so much like shit about the way things were handled.

FRIDAY: A perfect day, but Brian and Kim are scarcely around to see it... which frustrates the fuck out of me. and worst of all ::SOB:: those fucking islands look pretty cute.

I feel much better after crying... and after snuggling with bill... and after those two shots of vodka I had when I walked in the door... I was shat all over today, and it all boils down to the fact that I caved to the pressure of my bosses, where if I had stuck to my guns and stayed with my plan everything would have been fine. More later... I promise.

Yesterday was the jingle vision film festival at work, and let me tell you I think this might have been the best set of films yet! and I've seen a lot of them. The premise was we were watching a day of the kidstock channel on TV, with Gilligan's Island (meets the love boat) Cops, Super Friends, The Dukes of Hazzard, Nancy Drew, The Brady Bunch, Making the Band, and While you were out. Let me tell you I laughed so hard I cried... When Jan said to Marcia "Why do you say such hurtful things?" and Marcia answered back "Why do you always say my name three times?" I was taken up by uncontrollable gales of laughter when the oldest boys were dancing (done in slow motion to beeGees music!) and making them selves look like idiots. I snorted when Mrs. Howell called her male counterpart Poppet with a perfect aristocratic accent, and I almost peed my self when the Kidstock Patrol (or Cops) took a kid down to the office was asking him questions, and he said : "I won't say a word with out my councilor!" It was great... and their were comercials with dancing and jingles and silly product slogans "Wonderspray, It's a wonder *AND* a spray" :D Over all a great ending to a busy, but good week. Madhatters starts on Monday and my space was still not even cleaned when I left on friday (yet Big B. wouldn't let me do it...) Oh well, I'll deal.

Eric and Michelle are coming over tonight to start our new biweekly ritual of trying a new boardgame, each one of us will get our turn to pick and the only way a game can be vetoed is if *NOONE* else wants to play it... This will be fun!

Somewhere along the way I became the kind of person people give things to. It's been crazy the last few weeks-- Here, have a computer, take a card table, enjoy the couch! (and we are, thanks so much!) Seriously, the couch is the best part of it... It kicks the futon's ass to the kurb... to the kurb motha fucka. Sheesh.

Anyway, as I've lamely stated in many posts prior, I have been very very very busy with kidstock. I am so glad to be back :D This past week was shakespear, and we did the tempest. THe oldest kids learned the shakespear with aplomb, taking only four days for their nearly flawless delivery. as much as I generally hate middle schoolers. they never cease to impress me. And Kim, one of my various direct bosses, created this dance for one of their songs and it was amazing. The kids all had black clothes and masks and a single strip of white cloth. The room was dark except for the black light. The music started out simple and grew more complex while more and more kids jumped up and down, shaking the ribbons and runing around in circles. Then singing the haunting lyrics that master mucisian Jim put together... Creating a RAIN STORM How fucking cool is that? Then there was my friend erin's coreography... It always makes me happy-- generally simple, with lots of gestures correlating to the words they're singing, kind a modern, always lovely. It was great seeing a modern off-hand "Smooooth" and head bonking representing stupidity, set against original shakespearean lyrics in jims traditionally broadwayish song! :) so so so good. Lots of work down in the art room, prep and making things etc. Especially cool are some of the things that I have made for travel week-- a waterbottle box train, a great coney island sign, some buildings, etc. I should bring in my camera so I can take pictures of stuff I make-- It's kind of like building a portfolio or something, It could be useful when trying to get a job as a teacher...

Having jim back at work is so great that I'm going to post the story of it ( Collapse )

Our staff is so great this summer-- The best yet! It's been seriously like a talent love fest "You're so talented" "No, no, *YOU'RE* so talented" everyone there is so very astonishingly creative, which I think is a great ego boost, because I've come to realize that not everyone they hire to work there for the summer gets invited back, and this is my third year back among such cool, creative, talented people, I must be doing something right... Maybe I'm even just as talented as everyone else... I feel so lucky.

Moderately related information, one of the girls I work with has a friend at museum school who is a really talented photographer, who she thinks would jump at the oportunity to do a wedding, and make a thousand dollars. In short, If I like his stuff I'll save about 2,500 dollars over the other photographer I was considering. I love students.

okay, a big reason that I haven't been able to post much is because I'm about ready to kill olive. You see, I didn't take the extended day position at kidstock because I didn't want to get out at six. My call is 7:30-4:00 and yet, for some reason ungodly, I haven't been able to get out of there sooner than 5:45... Sheesh!

I can't belive the last time I posted was to mention the fish thing...! anyway, Kidstock has started ::Glee:: and I am so so so busy. More later, I have cds to burn.