Gone away, gone ahead, echoes roll unanswered...

Most of summer staff is gone. Yesterday, everyone closed out their worksites. For AV Crew, this means clearing out and inventorying our equipment in the Aud, cleaning the booth, washing the AV van, moving equipment, walking through spaces, collecting TVs, and throwing out old equipment. It was a long day, where we worked hard and played hard. I won rock-paper-scissors and got to go, along with Heather and Grayson, to wash the AV van. We went to one of those places where you feed it quarters to wash it yourself, and we had a blast. (We were highly amused by the tri-color protectant, and how it changed colors.)

Another fun event of the day was AV aggression being let loose. It started with one of our members taking a hammer to an old microphone. It ended in a full-on "let's hurl old wireless transmitters at the ground!" session. It was much like the scene where they beat the photocopier in Office Space.

I've kept mine to bring to load-ins and say, "This is what happened to the LAST piece of sound equipment that gave me crap!" to scare the sound system into behaving.

Today, while everyone moved out, I worked worship. I like staying longer. There was a staff dinner last night, and the end-of-summer slideshow, which lead to the giant move-out this morning. I thought working worship after all the ending events would be anticlimatic. In some ways, it was (except for the WIDOR TOCCATA!), but there was a very comfortable energy as those of us remaining sat scheduling for this next week.

I had to move into Balsam during the heat of the day. And the day is VERY hot indeed. Dragging all of my stuff up a hill during my lunch break is not exactly my idea of a good time, but Balsam is beautiful. Not really at the surface, but it's fascinating architecturally. I'm not sure what the original house was, there are so many additions and repairs. I turned a corner and found the original outside of the house, while inside. There are a number of small level differences, strange twists and turns, and I have a beautiful view. Too bad I'm only there for a few days.

While the AV and Aud Crews explored parts of Montreat I'm not supposed to tell the public about, one particular location made me say, "Site specific theater! Right here!" Russ then said, "What about Sweeney Todd in this space?" and I said, "OH GOD!" and I think it was one of the most genuine reactions I have ever had. I am very glad to have met Russ this summer. He's the first person I've met who is a directing major NOT at PHTS, and it's exciting to see what's different and thrilling to see what's the same in our training. He takes the main principle of improv (saying "Yes, and") into how he lives his life, which allows me to easily live without fear of embarrassment. I say, "Mooooooose!" he yells, "MOOOO-OOOOSE!" (this did happen). I bought a book of Irish fairy tales, and he was like, "Oh my God, I want that." He's genuine and doesn't take crap, and really one of the most delightful people I've ever met. He's also directing Edward Gorey's Helpless Doorknobs next semester. He was looking for plays, and since I was also looking for plays, I handed him this play and said, "Read it, it's crazy." I'm so excited for his production, even though I probably won't be able to see it.

Russ is one example of the amazing people I've met here, and his constant affirmation is enabling. There are so many beautiful people here to learn from.

Also, the fact that I say, "The sky," whenever someone asks, "What's up?" made it into the Mumble (the summer staff "yearbook"). I've been doing that for many, many years and am proud it was acknowledged.