I started the first week of the month by working on my car (headlight bulb cover has been lose). On Tuesday (2nd), I was personally invited by a "facebook" friend to the local Morris Police Appreciation Picnic after all the "negative" (see "Netural Perspective: Law Enforcement-Police “Protect and to Serve?” in the news. We then had our weekly "Morris Pick-up Soccer/Futbol at Green River Park Thursday, which we would not miss at all this whole month. We had different people almost every week as not everybody was able to come the same time. My renter and his friend (from Kazakistan) was even able to come, which my co-worker (Oray) enjoyed meeting. It's been a great social community connection.
The 1st weekend of the month, I would go to the cities to attend my niece's birthday. I used the weekend to spend quality time with my parents too and celebrate my dad's birthday early since I couldn't come down here the 2nd weekend. I treated him out for his b-day by paying lunch for both him and my mom at Denny's-great wheat pancakes by the way!
My renter for 3-4+ years finally was moving, which took a longer start than he hoped for as finding a place in Mankato was challenging. He ended up moving out the 18th (compared to early July) while 2 friends he referred to already moved in (Saturday the 13th). We managed to all live together for 3-4 days as this has happened before.
One of my ESL students (Caio from Brazil) did a presentation about his country on the 10th (Wednesday) as our tradition in our classes before students leave. This gives the opportunity for the community to come and learn; however, it didn't workout for many people's schedule. Fortunately I was able to video tape it and I'm able to share it.
It was Stevens County Fair time, which I would go there only once due to busyness of two new renters moving the same weekend. I ended up taking both of them for lunch to get to know them on Saturday (13th). It was great weather and the only threat of severe weather the whole time was Wednesday night, but nothing much came out of the dark scary looking clouds that evening.
On Wednesday (17th), my workplace took our annual trip to Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, which I would drive the big bus again for 2 wheel chair clients to go the 2nd year in a row. It was great weather (foggy for awhile south of Willmar) , but there were a lot of road construction along the way that slowed us a bit, but not too bad.
We saw "Beauty & the Beast", which I had to comment on the great costume designs the characters wore. I wasn't able to watch it "fully" because I had my hands full with work.
The last weekend of the month, I would drive to the cities with a friend/ESL student from Brazil (Luciano) as he was willing to help my sister and her b/f move. It was kind of "last minute" (planned ahead) as my co-worker (John F.) volunteered to take my shift on Saturday (27th) the day prior. I called Luciano if it was ok to leave Friday (same day), so it worked out-Praise the Lord! It was an answer to prayer! We ended up going to the Minnesota State Fair that evening as a treat and some fun before moving the next day...
Luciano had so much fun that we ended up going back here on Sunday for 7-8 hours before driving back to Morris...
On Monday (29th), I had our quarterly Adult Basic Education Consortium Meeting in Alexandria, as part of my teaching English certificate qualification for the up-coming academic season. I then went to Menards to gather some landscaping supplies that I never had a chance to work on for the beginning of the summer because I just was slacking..hehe!
It's the morning (Sunday, September 13th 2015) after our last of two nightly theatrical performances. I wanted to share my thoughts of my first experience in theatre while it's fresh in my memory. First, I can say I can cross this off my checklist of my "bucket list" in things I always wanted to do in my life. I was too shy growing-up, but got more "social" during my college years due to many factors (e.g. small college campus community and mostly because of my new growing "faith" (see personal testimony).
I decided to audition for this particular performance because I'm a huge fan of musicals overall. I love singing..."I try". Since growing-up, I somehow just love the movie musical ("Sound of Music"-Music: Karaoke-"Edelweiss"). If anyone that reads this and knows of any auditions for this, please let me know :)! In fact, it's coming "locally" (St. Paul's Ordway Theatre this winter-Christmas season). I first heard about these auditions from the local paper (Morris Sun Tribune (Community invited to join Plays in the Park By Kim Ukura on Jul 18, 2015 at 5:13 a.m.) , which I regularly read online almost nightly to read "whats happening" in my local community. I got very excited and clicked on a link on "Plays in the Park". I immediately started practicing the lines of Aladdin's song "One Jump". I thought after competing in the Kiwanis Talent Show the month prior (June), I felt confident to do this. However, my original intention in auditioning for Aladdin was to get a "minor" role with this being my first theatrical experience. When I auditioned the second of two days on Friday (August 7th 2015), I didn't know what to expect. It was my first auditioning experience. They asked me to sing one of the character's songs. I decided to choose Aladdin's "I Can Show You the World" since I've done this song many times. I even told them I know it by heart, so I didn't even to bother to use the song lyric sheet. However, I would realize I really didn't know the lines as I was "messing-up" mid-way of the song. I felt very bad and they told me that was it for auditioning. I felt really bad as I wish I could've shown more. However, they did ask me to fill out an application, which I shared my "resume" of musical performance experiences (e.g. playing the trumpet back at middle school, doing some video recording skits for work (e.g. training videos), etc..) . I wrote down about my participating in the month prior "Kiwanis Talent Show" when I performed "Somewhere Out There" (also a Disney song).
The next day, I checked my email to see if I passed the auditions. I would find out later in the evening and I got a part and was very excited. I kept it a secret from family and friends until weeks later when the topic came up. Our first practice started immediately since the first performance will be a little over a month. We started on Monday (August 10th), which was somewhat an ice breaker and wasn't intense. We had to read the lines of our characters together and got to know each other briefly. However, the number of lines for Jafar was a little overwhelming. It was more than I thought I could handle. I even pondered about quitting because I was thinking this was too much for me. At the time, we didn't have anyone to play Aladdin, so I decided to stay. In fact, I looked around, and I was like the only guy there for the major roles. I decided to stick with it and help out. I believe 2-3 practices later, we found our Aladdin (David), which I even asked Joe earlier if I should advertise around for this missing role. I even emailed and texted a couple of guy friends. Also, I placed a post on one of our facebook groups (Community Needs) . Then the director (Joe) gave us our schedule of rehearsals. I was able to make to most of them except two due to scheduling conflicts. I really needed as much practice as I can, so I decided to skip one "schedule conflict" (annual A.B.E. Consortium "training" meeting). I'm glad I took voice lessons earlier this summer because it helped sustain my voice. I remember the first week of rehearsals, I left early to be part of my local church worship practice. I started to lose my voice this early, so I did a lot of voice exercises my voice lesson teacher (Kurtis) taught me. Also, the necessary "natural remedy" tips (e.g. moisten your throat frequently). On August 26th (Wednesday), I was asked to drive the work bus to Chanhassen Dinner Theatre for our annual trip. I asked my boss if I can have someone work for me because we had rehearsals for the whole of Act 1, which I needed as much practice as I can. Unfortunately, there were no co-workers that could. I wasn't totally disappointed because I was somewhat anxious to see Mary Poppins, which I looooove musicals! I'm glad I was able to go since it gave me some inspiration and ideas to go about doing my theatrical performance with Aladdin!.
It was somewhat a challenging transition, but it was good to have preparation on the actual site of our performance. During our practice outside, after repeatedly rehearsing the scene where I sing and tease "Prince Ali" being merely "Aladdin". I started to feel sorry for Aladdin while singing. It was one of those moments where I just got out of character. It was one of those interesting acting experiences. On Wednesday (September 9th 2015), our director (Joe) shared about how the local paper will be coming and that we might need to bring sharpies to sign autographs. One of the kids from the ensemble team replied softly to me, "Wow, wee are going to be famous!". I then thought to myself, "I don't want to be famous, I want Jesus to be famous" (I thought of this song rancesca Battistelli - He Knows My Name (Official Audio)) . I responded softly back..."yeah..like Hollywood", but wasn't too excited saying it. During the performances, I would pray-"Lord, help me do well, so that I glorify you!". I want to use this opportunity in this blog to thank my Creator for giving me these "creative gifts, talents, and skills to do what I was able to do during and after these performances.
The day of the performance, I would create a blog to record my list of Theatrical Performance Tips? for future reference and help others that might go through similar challenges in preparation for a similar or bigger performance. When I got to the park an hour before our performance, one of the kids from the ensemble gave me his autograph after I gave him mine (signed "Jafar...keep shining")
My biggest tip would be getting yourself spiritually prepared. I would meditate on a Bible verse (Psalm 121) the morning before my first performance, which would help me during the performance. I somehow felt "down", so I remembered this particular verse and prayed. I asked God to give me strength to finish this show. Despite missing some lines (one obvious one in the last scene if you watch the video below :( ), I thank God for helping me get through this first one.
Here is a pic from a scene from our 1st evening show..
Plays in the Park: Aladdin the Musical-1st (Sept 11th 15) Performance Pt 1of2
In the second show (Saturday, September 12th 2015), I continued more of my preparation tips. While doing some errands Saturday afternoon, a couple of young teenage boys shouted "great job last night" while biking back home from Thrifty White to develop pictures. One thing I did differently was standing up while practicing my lines earlier and later in the day. I found this tip through a google search too. I then wrote down the lines I missed during the 1st show, so I can get it really on my head. Then I did some meditation (after biking -a pedestrian shouted "great show last night" on my way back home-to the local fitness center to wake me up after a power nap) by listening to some worship song (from Real Ministries last Saturday evening) while putting on my character outfit. I was still a little nervous during our 2nd performance. Another additional activity that helped me was just praying for my fellow cast members when they were performing. Even during the middle of one of my performances between lines, I started praying blessings for the audience in attendance. This somehow helped me get through the nervousness. All this made the 2nd show a lot better. I missed one line and didn't say of my last lines clearly, but thankful I finished! We ended the last night by having a Cast get-together at Pizza Ranch, which we stayed till 10:20ish that evening.
Overall, it has been a great 5+ weeks getting to know some of my fellow cast members and it was fun overall. It was a lot of work memorizing lines, our dance routines, etc... It was definitely a great experience and willing to do this again..hoping for another fun musical!
I started the first day of the month with my drain pipe trench project. I was in the "mood" after finishing a similar project for Jost Construction last month. I did other projects around and outside of the house the next day. I finished screwing the gutters I put on my garage for better stableness with the potential heavy snow on top of the garage during the long Minnesota winters. I also worked on my downstairs bathroom shelf (make it more stable too).
The 2nd weekend of the month, I went down to the Cities for a high school buddy's wedding. In fact, he had two weddings (traditional-Vietnamese & Cambodian and regular the next day). It was a great cultural experience and fun overall to celebrate a long time friend's BIG DAY! I also took advantaged of that weekend to help my older sister and her boyfriend "move" on Sunday. It was a productive and fun weekend!
On the 15th (Friday), I attended a friend's concert "October Ocean - FREE Debut show" at our new local church building. It was a great time to hangout with friends on a Friday night.
During this month long digging trench project, I was able to chat with many passer-bys. It was a great opportunity to chat with neighbors and community members that I haven't had time to chat with.
On Friday (22nd), my family and I went to the annual "great together"-> Minnesota State Fair . It was almost the perfect weather as it wasn't too hot and partly cloudy. It much more comfortable compared to last year as this year was less humid.
On Sunday (31st), my local church hosted a picnic and water baptism at Glacial State Park in Starbuck, Minnesota.
I started the month with doing continuous house work. I cleaned and repaired my gutters that surround the north and south side of my roof. This is one of the key areas that has been giving water damage inside my house. I'll see what the results of how effective this work was next Spring. I had a good first week of the month in batting in softball, which I'll share more down below.
I played tennis for the 1st time in three years on Sunday, August 7th of 2011. What too so long? I don't know, probably been busy doing other sports (e.g. softball). I like the variety. I played tennis with some of my ESL students from Brazil because they never played before. I had to take it really easy at first until one of the students (Danillo) up his playing a bit. It was another great way to spend time outside in these beautiful summer days.
I was able to finally upload a video of a theatre performance from this past winter. I thought it was such a great performance I had to share it with everybody...
"Genesis The Story of Creation to the Call of Abram of Ur" Part 1
A cool thing happened at one of my work sites. We do some cleaning around the community and when we were doing our twice a week time at the local laundromat, it was a busy time because of the county fair in town. There were lots of "carnies" (carnival festival workers) doing their laundry. Well, the clients (developmentally challenged folks) love to talk and one of the workers seem to enjoy chatting with them (that's why I enjoy my job and been in this field since college graduation in 99')! This particular worker ended up giving my co-worker $40 dollar bill and specifically asked us to treat them. We thought this was so awesome that we ended up going to Dairy Queen after cleaning. Unfortunately, the DQ wasn't open early in the morning (not till 10:30am), so we ended up dividing the cash and gave it to the clients to spend whatever they freely want to. What a blessing! I tried to look for that guy when I went to the county fair, but never saw him to say THANK YOU again.
The big annual Stevens County Fair was during the 2nd week of the month, which I attended 3 of the 4 days it was going on. I was also involved with the 1st Annual Morris Soccer Invitational that occurred at the RFC Soccer Fields (by H20-Water Tower). I invited my 2 ESL students from Brazil, which they were only able to play 1 of the 3 days...
I ended-up playing the 3rd days because the team (UMM Team) didn't have enough players (Brazilian students chose to attend the Car Derby at the county fair). I tried to balance my time during the fun weekend by helping with my local church's fair booth. I had a great time meeting people there. I met this couple from Cannon Falls that was looking for a local church, which would be the same town our U.S. President Obama visited weeks later. I also had a great time meeting friends I haven't chatted for a long time despite we living in this same small rural town community. Also, I met several of the 80+ new international students from China that are attending the local university. The funny thing was that they asked if I was Chinese too? I had to laugh as I've never been speculated to be this particular nationality. I've been called all sorts of others (e.g. Italian, African-American, Indian, Native-American, and even a "terrorist" a couple of times). On the 2nd day I tabled, I spent some quality time with a young friend from church, which we haven't done for quite awhile. The second weekend of August was a fun-filled time!
This same weekend, I had to also share that I went to a co-worker's family's funeral. Like all funerals, I start reflecting what I've done all my life so far and want to "live it to the fullest". At this particular funeral service, they shared about how she positively impacted the people around her life until the age of 90 or so. Wow, that's long! This challenged me to live my fullest for my Heavenly Father and to make a "positive' impact as much as possible while He has me on earth as we have only 1 life! *see GoodnewsEverybody.com: Death- Grieving, Mourning, Reflection, etc..
I spent part of the mid-month cleaning and painting (special paint against mold) my basement. It was a very wet spring-summer, so I finally had a chance get my hasement dry for the first time since a long time. This was also due to some plumbing problems, which I finally got fixed by a local plumber. I thank God the amount was less than he estimated, which was a blessing financially when it came to some bills mid-month!
On Tuesday, August 16th I was able to play golf for the first time all summer. Geez, what took so long again for this too! Well, I'm not retired and old yet, so I don't play the 9 or 18-hole. I like going on the driving range. I did a small bucket ($5) at the local golf place here in Morris with a buddy of mine, which was a great time to chat one and one too in a nice summer afternoon after work.
Earlier this same week when I was playing soccer, I was playing defense (left) and tried to "head" a flying soccer ball. Well, I ended up getting my nose hit too, which hurt. This left a bruise in the upper part. Well, I would end-up getting hit in this area again playing softball..
..which caused a fracture after a homeplate "football-style" collision at home plate in attempting to just tag my opponent as I was playing catcher. Well, I'm still suffering the effects as I'm still getting over some occasional headaches. I'm praying there is no long-term damage. The best part of this is that I was able to hold on to the ball for the out and our team won to continue to advance in the playoffs. We would lose the 2nd game the following week, but it was our best finish as a softball team!
The third Sunday of the month, my local church celebrated the oldest and longest marriage (50 years) couple's Wedding Anniversary. I'm hoping to interview them and get some notes on how they've reach this successful feat sometime in the future.
My Heavenly Father answered one of my prayers right before I took a week vacation (my workplace takes 2 weeks off during the summer months-1st during July 4th-Independence Day and last week of August before Labor Day) to end the summer. My former housemate moved out mid-June and never advertised of the need of another housemate, except by word of mouth. My local church pastor even referred this guy from Alexandria, but that never worked out. I got a call from this UMM international student in a need of a place to stay. I don't even remember telling him of my rental basement as it hasn't been finished yet. However, he was open to move to the spare 2nd bedroom and "decided" to come move in (physically moved the following day) the same day he looked at it. I felt it was great timing as I was already planning to head to the cities several days later.
I spent the last week of the month in the Twin Cities. I was supposed to take my mom to the UofM-Twin Cities Campus' Dental Clinic for mouth surgery, but my mom wasn't able to get an appointment the week before the break. My younger brother invited me to go on a road-trip with his family to the East Coast (e.g. Washington D.C., North Carolina, etc..), so I was about to look up flights for a one-way back to Minnesota because I didn't want to be in North Carolina that whole last weekend. I wanted to spend some time in St. Paul before my week plus vacation ended before going back to Morris. Well, on my way to St. Paul from Morris, my mom calls and tells me "good news".."I was able to get a dental appointment on Monday". This was the original plan, so I decided to not for go the East Coast road trip as I thought was the "sign" to stay in St. Paul. I was hesitant going with the forecast hurricane (Irene->see weather) coming and recent rare earthquake. I was a little disappointed, but saw it was God's plan for me to spend quality time with my parents (e.g. River Boat Ride along the Mississippi River, State Fair, etc..) and sister (e.g. tennis). I would later find out it was a good reason to stay in St. Paul with my car problems (spent $500 on new tires because of poor brakes that I should've gotten fix long time ago. Then additional $400+ for wheel bearings. Could've spent $200 extra to fix the brakes and rotors, but watched a video online and had my friend oversee my work to fix it ourselves!=> see GoodnewsEverybody.com Financial: Automobiles, Auto, Cars, Trucks, Vehicles, etc...)). Isn't God good? We sometimes wonder why our plans don't work the way we planned or desire, but it's for our own good. During my last day of my vacation, I was driving to church and was running late. I love the praise and worship (music) part and it was in the beginning of the service. As I was just 2 blocks away, I got caught speeding..doh! :)...I was going 44 on a 30 when the police officer asked me if I knew how fast I was going. Well, he told me I was going 41..wew, I'll take that! Well, I had my mom with me and she was praying during the whole traffic stop (e.g. showing my license, registration, etc..). It seem the prayer worked as the police officer decided to just give me a warning because I had a "good' record (haven't been stopped or anything since 97'). Thank God! I told the officer then that I was in hurry to get to church and he lectured back to me-"Well, don't rush to God as God will wait for you". My mom then told the officer-"God bless you sir"-as we drove off to church "later". I arrived at church praising Him more! As I was heading back to Morris the day before Labor Day (Holiday), I had an opportunity to "share" with a "homeless guy" on the streets along an entry ramp to Interstate 94 (see "Another "Street Sign"- Homeless Guy Story: What can we do to help them?", Goodnewseverybodycom's Weblog)...
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