Dimblog

For those of you tracking my busy-ness, we’ve just closed a major chapter.

I direct the play at school every year - this is my third. We did Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon this year and the show ran last week, Wednesday and Thursday.

There were eight weeks between our first rehearsal and our opening night, and that is not very much time. The show has a cast of seven and, let me tell you, they worked like slaves for most of that time. When we do difficult, long-term projects, we (or I, anyway) tend to focus on the negatives, on the problems, on the things that need fixing, and not on the stuff that’s working. It’s only once things are over and done with that we can sit and look back over the entire process to see what went right.

Let me tell you, this one went right. These seven students (and about six technicians) produced a superior show, one that I was proud to be associated with. Our audiences are always kind, but, this year, we blew them away. The play is usually the highlight off the school year for me, personally, and I’m still feeling the good vibes from this one.

Of course, there’s about three weeks of work sitting on my desk, since I didn’t do much during the week before, during and after the play. But, I’m ignoring that part.

There is more Dimblog goodness for you to enjoy than what you see on this page. Use the search tool at the top-right corner to look for something specific (try it; it’s fun!) or click on the Archives tab to see That Which Has Come Before.

I haven’t posted anything since March 9 and haven’t written since the day of Gedaliah’s bris. Wow… talk about a drought. Truth be told, I’ve been busy. Really busy.

First things first: The kids are darn cute. As Judi wrote, Purim has happened recently and, as part of the festivities, we went to a Purim Seudah here in KC. At the end of the evening, a clown performed for the children who was fantastic. I’ve done some clowning, and I know how hard it can be and, let me tell you, this guy was talented. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding; ignore the red-eye and take a look at the reaction he got from my kids in this photo.

What else has been happening. Well, mostly, the play. In addition to my teaching duties, I direct the High School play at school. This year, we produced Lost in Yonkers, by Neil Simon, and the performances took place this past Wednesday and Thursday nights. I’m not exactly unbiased, since I’m a little too close to things to be impartial, but I think that the students did a bang-up job and the audience response was totally positive. We impressed our audiences for the third straight year which, when you think about it, is pretty remarkable, expecially if you know that we had only eight weeks between our first rehearsal and our opening night.

So, that kept me pretty busy. I’ve also been trying to keep up with school, the newspaper and this year’s yearbook, as well as our school’s once-every-seven-years accredidation process and the fact that we had a baby. That’s a lot to heap onto once plate, so you’ll understand why blogging has slid down the list of priorities a bit.

The kids are great and, as expected, Gedaliah is as cute as a button. This coming Tuesday is his one-month-day and he is already responding to visual and auditory stimuli and has, thank-God, been sleeping through the night since he and Judi came home from the hospital. He eats nicely, poops nicely and is generally good natured so we’ve got nothing to complain about… and lots and lots to be thankful for.

Check out the new pics! Purim was yesterday and the kids had a lot of fun. Shifra didn’t have school so she got to stay home with me and watch a DVD while I nursed the baby. Shoshana and Hillel had a half day of school but it was all special programming. They heard megillah and had a Purim carnival. Then they came home, had lunch and then all 3 went out with Grandpa to deliver mishloach manot.

In the evening, there was a collective seudah with 3 different shuls (including ours) participating. The kids had a good time, but Mommy and Abba were exhausted. Thank God things are back to normal. As a family, we don’t handle schedule changes very well and between Gedaliah arriving, the bris, Purim and such, it’ll be good to be back on track.