Phase I Complete!

Just a quick announcement that work on the play I am writing with Paul Allgood has reached a huge milestone today! After almost a year of meeting regularly at the Eva Perry Library and The Daily Perk coffee shop, we have successfully completed a complete first draft of the play! Transforming 150 pages of mostly monologue into 3 acts of dialogue and action while maintaining the voice of the original book has been a huge challenge, but it has been incredibly rewarding and the best laboratory for learning how to create an artistic production from 2-dimensional text. Next Monday (May 5th) we will be showing it to an actor's ensemble for the first time. The playwriter's lab at Burning Coal Theater in downtown Raleigh will be reading the first ten pages of the play and giving us some feedback. Then, we'll tweak it and submit it for production as a reader's theater project at Burning Coal. We are also pursuing the playwriting department at UNC, where there seems to be some interest in looking at our project as well!

We'll keep you posted on future developments!! :)

A Photo Shoot, a Luau, and a Beach Trip

This was another whirlwind weekend for the Fowle household. Cassie was home for the "Bar Hike" on Hillsborough Street and was celebrating her new job and trying to figure out her big move, and our social calendar was packed to the brim (did you know that there is no Spanish word for "brim"? I learned that from our Argentinian friends this weekend!)

On Saturday morning, Kennedy and I packed up and left for Willow Springs at 7am for her photo shoot. She has to have her modeling photos redone because they are two years old and she has changed quite a bit since her original photos were taken. The photographer is local this time, so we didn't have to drive to Hickory this time -- but we had to stop to pick out a new outfit on the way, so we left very early. We got to the photographer's house and were paired up with a 17-year old girl from Chapel Hill who is the reigning Miss Teen North Carolina. They had a great time together and it was good thing, because our 2-3 hour shoot turned out to last over 5 hours!! But, the photographer was very pleased with Kennedy's work and I'm hopeful that the photos will be terrific.

Saturday night was the Jim and Leigh's luau, and we had a GREAT time. We saw lots of neighbors and most of the softball team and many of the Family Fun Night folks. The roasted pig was yummy and there was tons of food! The rain kind of dampened things a bit, tho -- we managed to stay for an hour in the sprinkles, but by 10:30 we were ready to head home. Kennedy fell asleep on my lap at 10:15, and we had another early morning coming up on Sunday. Thanks, Jim and Leigh, tho for hosting such a fun time -- it's definitely on our calendar for NEXT year!

Sunday morning was our scheduled beach trip with the GSE Team from Argentina. Again, we were up at 6:30 and out the door by 7:15. We met Tollan Wade and his family in Fuquay, drove to Four Oaks, picked up the team and BJ Deal (our Area's asst. district governor) and headed to Atlantic Beach and Beaufort. Vicky and Mariana drove with Kennedy and I, and Tollan's son Alex joined Kennedy in the back seat to keep her company. The two of them had a GREAT time back there playing games, listening to music, and playing with Kennedy's new Webkinz.

We started our tour of the NC coastline at Atlantic Beach -- I've never been to any of these places, so it was as much fun for me as it was for the team. We walked on the beach and collected shells and rocks while Kennedy and Alex body-surfed in the waves and played in the sand. The kids were the only ones who were brave enough to change into swim suits and actually got waist-deep in the water before it finally froze them! The team really enjoyed the beach and told us about the difference between our beaches and the ones in Argentina.

After the beach, BJ took us to historic Beaufort for lunch and shopping. The ladies tried crab cakes and southern seafood dishes on the upper deck of a restaurant that overlooked the water. Then, after lunch, we walked up and down the main street of Beaufort looking at the restored homes and checking out the cool shops. The team window-shopped for over an hour before we all gathered again at 4pm. The Wades headed off on their own after that, but the team wanted to go to Fort Macon, which was just down the road.

BJ took us there, but had to leave before the team was ready to go, so she left and the entourage was down to Kennedy and I and the 5 ladies. We explored the fort for over an hour and took LOTS more photos. It is an amazing place and I can't wait to go back someday and explore it more thouroughly!

After the fort closed at 5:30, we walked to the west side of the peninsula and checked out the beach. Kennedy, Mariana, Anabella, and Alicia actually went down to the water for a few minutes, but the rest of us stayed up in the observation post and watched.

By the time we were done at the fort, it was time to head back. We stopped at a Starbucks and got some hot water so we could share some mate on the way back. I love that! :)

The rain finally came as we were driving home and we drove home through a monsoon, but it was all worth it. Kennedy slept most of the way home and it was a struggle to get up this morning, but it was a great day at the coast and it was more memories for us all to share. We have a farewell party for the team on Friday night and then they fly to New York for a few days. Hopefully we can arrange a trip to Argentina in the next few months to visit them!! It's absolutely awesome to have friends in a foreign country to make a visit so much more meaningful. I guess it's time for me to learn Spanish!! :)

"Crowns" and Cassie's Moving Home!!

Last night (Thursday), Mark and I joined my writing partner, Paul, at a performance of "Crowns" at the Burning Coal Theater on Polk Street in downtown Raleigh. It was an amazing performance about a young girl from Harlem who is sent to live with her North Carolina relatives after her brother is murdered on the streets of New York. It's a gospel musical about hats -- thus the name "Crowns" -- and it's about how fundamentally different african-american culture is in the rural south as compared to the city streets of Harlem. It was hilarious at times, and touching at others, but it was a great contrast to the Spamalot (Broadway-style) show we saw Sunday night. This was "theater-in-the-round" and the entire play was done in a 50'x50' space with chairs ringing the stage.

We went to see the performance because we are 98% done with the play we're working on and we are scouting out this theater for the possibility that they might try it out for us. Any play that is being developed needs a test run or two so the playrights can get feedback and make some tweaks before either publishing or having the play produced. It turns out that we couldn't talk to anyone last night, but we did find out that the New Works program actively runs through new scripts on a monthly basis.

So, Paul is going back to the theater on Monday night to see a new play being produced as part of the New Works program, and we will both be going on May 5th to watch live actors work through 10+ pages of our script. I'm secretly hoping that we can get more than 10 pages done, but we'll see! We're also going to get a theater group at one of the universities in the area to do a full run-through for us. It's beginning to look like the writing part is coming to a close and we're getting closer to getting the play produced locally! :)

The other exciting news is that Cassie is moving back to the area! After 2 years in Boone, attending 4 semesters at App State and working at Banana Republic in Blowing Rock, she has been offered a position as Assistant Manager at a Banana Republic at Southpoint Mall in Durham, which is less than 45 minutes from our house! We are very excited for her and it will be great to have her around more often. Her starting salary will be $3/hour more than she currently makes, which she is also very excited about. Now all she has to do is find a place to live, which looks like it will be easier than we originally thought -- she's meeting a potential roommate tomorrow who has a 2-bedroom townhouse less than 10 minutes from the mall in Durham. As long as she can have her dog, it should work out well!

Sunday, we are taking the ladies from the GSE team to Beaufort, North Carolina to see the coastline and the incredible history in that area. Despite the high price of gas, we expect to have a great time! The ladies are wonderful and we have never been to Beaufort in the 10 years we have been here, so it should be a great trip as long as the weather holds. :)

"Spam, Spam, Spam...."

With barely a moment to catch our collective breaths on Sunday, Mark and I breezed in from our weekend of soccer and Passover to drop Kennedy off, change quickly, and drive to the Progress Energy Center in Raleigh for "Spamalot" at 7pm. The heavens had opened by that time, and we drove downtown in the pouring rain to meet our good friends, the Schurtmans, have a glass of wine, and sit down for a 2-hour escape from reality.

Wow!! Did it EVER meet our expectations!!! :)

That has to have been the best theatrical performance I've seen in a couple of years (not including Kennedy's wonderful version of Slurping Beauty in last month's "Fairly Goosed" at the Holly Springs Cultural Arts Center)! The humor was relentless and hilarious, and they never missed an opportunity for a play on words. I guess that's the Monty Python way!! Not being a huge Monty Python fan, I was reintroduced to attack rabbits, dark knights, flying cows, and a gay Sir Lancelot by people who could recite many of the scenes from memory!

Nevertheless, it was completely irreverent (especially the song about not being able to stage a Broadway production because they didn't have any Jews) and the sets and costumes were great! It's the first play I've been to in a while where we completely lost track of time!! It had a lot of standard Monty Python songs and jokes, plus some notable extras to help the story flow. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a chance to see it. Clay Aiken is playing Sir Robin's role on Broadway through May, but for those who can't afford to jet off to New York, hopefully it will come around a second time in another year or two. It's DEFINITELY a "must see!"

To celebrate our trip to the "land of far, far away", I bought a button that says "I fart in your general direction" that I intend to wear to my Rotary meeting this week to see if there are any Monty Python fans in the group!! LOL :)

Crush White Rules!!

I am FINALLY at a point where I can write about something other than work, so I will! :)

This past weekend we traveled to Charlotte, NC to take Kennedy to her soccer tournament and visit Jill and Bobby Roeder, who moved there in December from Holly Springs. This was Passover weekend, and usually we spend the Jewish holidays with our adoptive Jewish family here in Holly Springs. But, this year, Passover was the same weekend as the Annual Julian Brown soccer tournament, and we couldn't be in two places at once.

It turns out that Jill and Bobby's house was only 15 minutes from the soccer fields, so we were able to enjoy soccer AND Passover! :) Mark took a half day on Friday and we were able to get to the Roeder's before dark. We spent the evening eating burgers and hot dogs and catching up with everything Roeder. Bobby's parents were also there for the weekend--they are wonderful people, too!

Saturday morning was spent visiting and gearing up for soccer. Kennedy's first game was at noon, and the girls played really hard, but lost 3-2. The low number of goals was indicative of how hard both teams played. Our 4:30 game was a bit different, tho! Our girls won 6-1, and Kennedy scored 3 goals!! The wide goal margin put our team in first place going into the semi-finals on Sunday morning. After dinner with the White squad, the kids all went back to the hotel and had an ice cream party. Kennedy spent the night in the hotel with her teammates while Mark and I went back to Jill and Bobby's to share Passover with them.

Sunday morning's semi-final game was a heartbreaker. Down 3-0 halfway through the second period, Kennedy's team rallied and ended up tying the score before the game ended. After TWO overtime periods, the other team scored (the ref gave them 5 penalty shots in the last 15 minutes of the game). Our girls were exhausted from playing 3 games in 2 days with only 1 sub, while the other teams had 3-4 subs each. The girls were very upset that they lost, but several of us took our kids out for ice cream before we headed home and their spirits were much improved after that! I think they realize that they kicked some soccer butt against some very aggressive teams and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Kennedy is upset because some of her teammates don't seem to want to work very hard, but that's a hard lesson in life and part of being a leader is encouraging your peers to play with the same determination that you have! Kennedy's response to her disappointment is that she intends to try out for U11 in May so she can move up and play with girls who really WANT to play!

Hopefully the trend of replacing personal disappointment with new personal goals instead of wanting to give up will continue! :)

Thank you!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who responded to my last-minute plea and donated to Serena's March for Babies! She made her original goal of $350 about 2 weeks ago, and then just made her $500 goal this week.

It's such a wonderful organization to support, and I appreciate that several of you tossed some additional bucks into the hat for the walk this weekend.

I am hyperventilating this evening as I desperately try to finish TWO projects before we leave for Charlotte tomorrow for Kennedy's annual Julian Brown Soccer Tournament. It is beginning to look like I'll have to work while I'm down there, which I was really trying to avoid.
However, I won't be able to post here for a few more days....

I'll be back, tho!! :)

March for Babies is THIS WEEK!!

Introducing Sadie ---->

We have a family friend whose son and daughter-in-law just had their first child. Born with Down's Syndrome and a host of other congenital abnormalities that had to be corrected surgically within a few hours of her birth, Sadie has made remarkable progress in the last 6 weeks.

The annual March for Babies event is taking place this Friday. My daughter, Serena, is very involved in the NCState chapter of March of Dimes and has walked in this event for the last 3 years! Her goal this year for sponsorships is $500 and she is just $85 shy!

Even just a $10 donation will help! Please take a moment, click on the link to the right of this posting, and share a donation to help the fight to prevent infant mortality and birth defects. The United States is 27th in the world for infant mortality -- that's the lowest of all the developed countries! Surely the unaware young mothers in our society are worth a donation to this cause!

Thank you!

Have a Mate!

Today was "unwind" day -- our Argentinian visitors are off on the next leg of their whirlwind tour of Central NC, and today was spent visiting friends and playing soccer in the rain. Kennedy and Mark also went to a Father-Daughter Dance tonight that was organized by the Girl Scouts. They had a great time and Kennedy got a patch for her vest! They had formal photos taken again this year, and I can't wait to see them!

Last night we took three of our Argentinians bowling -- one had an invitation to have dinner with friends in Apex and one was taken to a jazz concert by her host family. The other three wanted to go bowling, so we took them. We got a late start and didn't get to the bowling alley until almost 8pm, but we took Kennedy and met everyone there. Several members of our Rotary club joined us and we ALL bowled. Nadia, Mariana, and Alicia had never bowled before, so we had the bumpers on both lanes, but everyone had a GREAT time and the girls went out with one of their hosts afterwards to find a pizza place. The rest of us "old folks" limped home and passed out, however! :)

Today they went to the state's Peace Conference in Chapel Hill and their host families drove them there, so I didn't need to chauffer them anywhere for the first time in 3 days... it seemed strange to just drive my own family around for a change! :)

This week I get back to work and work, and more work... I think I will probably attend a couple of social events in other Rotary areas over the next 2 weeks to check in and see how the team is doing. I really enjoyed getting to know them and would like to share some more Mate with them and discuss what they have learned in other areas. I am purchasing my own Mate and gourd from a place online tomorrow -- it's an infusion drink that is served hot, and it's very good! The team introduced it to us while they were here and it has many benefits for the drinker, including increased metabolism! I've included a photo here so you can see what it looks like. It's a very common drink in Latin America that is shared among people in social gatherings -- especially university environments.

More soon...!

Whirlwind Week!!

Wow!
My feet hurt and my head is spinning, but this week has been so much more rewarding than I thought it would be. For the last 2 1/2 days, I've been chauffering 5 Argentinian women around our area, visiting businesses and introducing them to American culture as much as I can in between events.

Part of their commitment to the Rotary Foundation is to make presentations to Rotary Clubs in the different areas they tour. So after picking them up on Wednesday, we went to the Angier Rotary Club, which holds its meetings in an old, renovated train depot in downtown Angier (about 30 miles south of Holly Springs). After enjoying good Southern hospitality there, we loaded into the van and headed to Raven's Rock State Park, where the ladies enjoyed a presentation about the state park system and statewide efforts to preserve as much land as possible in the face of increasing development. The ladies hiked to the rock with another member of our club (Willem) while I raced home to get Kennedy and Mark!

After the state park trip, we all met back at Tollan Wade's farm for a cookout -- hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw, chili for the dogs, and chocolate kalhua cake!! All the host families were there and everyone had a chance to relax and get to know one another. Tollan is our resident author of adventure books who is from South Africa originally.

The kids (some of the adults included) played soccer on the lawn, and I think Kennedy has a crush on Tollan's 8-year old son. She said to me in a quiet moment: "Mom, I think I REALLY like him! He said he has no friends because they all say he's boring!" I asked "Why do they think he's boring?" And Kennedy's reply was, "Just because he has a rock collection and wants to be an archeologist when he grows up... why would anyone think that was boring! I mean, I want to be a geologist when I grow up (news to us!) and that's almost the same thing!" :)
Alex Wade is a walking encyclopaedia at age 8, and Kennedy thinks he is fascinating. I think we'll be visiting the chicken farm a LOT this summer!! :)

Yesterday (Thursday), we started at Willem's house for coffee and tea, then went to a presentation at Wake Tech's Business and Industry Center. It was fascinating and I think the team is pretty jazzed up about the idea of instituting a "workforce development" program in Argentina after listening to what we do in the States. After the presentation, we had an hour to kill, so Vitaliy (the van driver, also a member of our club, originally from Russia) and I introduced them to a coffee house in Apex. They had never had lattes before, or bagels, so that was fun to watch! :)

The team presented at the Apex Rotary Club at 1pm at a Carrabas Italian Grill restaurant and then we headed to Cary to visit the publisher of Cary Magazine and Triangle East magazine. They got a tour, heard a presentation of the publishing business, and the house photographer took their picture -- it will be in an upcoming issue of Triangle East magazine and the ladies are VERY excited about that!

After the magazine publisher, we found an hour to stop at the mall! You might think that was a bit frivolous, but they don't have malls in Argentina like we do here, so it was definitely a stop they wanted to make. :) After a stop at Rainbow Lanes (bowling alley) Clayton to present at the Rotary Club there, we all headed home for the evening.

Today (Friday) they are spending the day in Raleigh, and the Raleigh West club has a full day of activities for them -- tonight we pick them back up at a social hour the Raleigh Club has planned for them, and will be taking them bowling! Serena joined us this morning for breakfast and they have invited her to go out "clubbing" with them tomorrow night. The GSE team from this district that will be going TO Argentina in May is also a group of young women just a little older than Serena, and the two teams are going out tomorrow night together. Serena is hoping to get an invitation to travel to Argentina and stay with members of the team, who are very receptive to the idea, so we'll see what happens.

As for me, I am going to spend the rest of the day getting some much neglected work done and taking a quick nap before I have to go back and pick the team up. It looks like we will be taking them to the beach at the end of the month before they fly back to Argentina, so we will get to see them again before they leave!

It's been exhausting, but a lot of fun, and I think I've learned as much from them as they have been learning from us! :) I'll post some photos in a couple of days...

Viva Argentina!

This week, in addition to editing almost around the clock to make several deadlines, I have been putting the final touches on 3 days of activities for a group of 5 business women from Cordoba, Argentina. They are here on a Rotary District-sponsored Group Study Exchange (GSE), and will be visiting all 8 Areas of District 7710, of which my Fuquay-Varina Rotary Club is a member.

It has been exhausting but fun, and my only regret is how few of our club members were willing to do ANYTHING to help out. The lack of energy in my club is truly discouraging, and although I am scheduled to be the President in another year, I'm seriously reconsidering it.

ANYWAY, for the next three days, I will be a tour guide in southern and western Wake County. We are scheduled to visit three other clubs -- Angier, Apex, and Clayton -- where the team will give a presentation about their country. In addition, we are planning to visit the new Kraft YMCA in Apex, the Wake Technical College's Business and Industry Center in Apex, the publisher of Cary Magazine, and the new Wake County SPCA facility in Garner. We're having a cookout for them tonight to share the American cookout experience, and we're taking them "clubbing" one night, and out to dinner and a movie on the third night.

I am really excited to meet the 5 ladies, but I know that I'll be absolutely wiped out by Saturday night. I have to remember to get film for the camera! :)

I love the international feel that the club is incubating! I may have to stick around just for that!! :)

A Dark Day in Carolina

Today is a dark day in our neck of the woods -- yes its dark because its been raining off and on for the last week, but it's also dark in a figurative sense because our two brightest hopes for springtime glory were set back on their heels this weekend (no pun intended)!

The Carolina Hurricanes (and it's no secret I'm a huge fan!) were division leaders all season -- only fell from first place for 14 days out of a 6 month run -- and were whomped in the final 2 weeks of play by a team that flew from last place in the division to division champs in 2 months!
It was SO HARD to watch the Canes slide from an 8-2-0 "last 10" record to a 5-4-1 "last 10" in the last 2-3 weeks, but it just happened.

Then, to make it worse, we watched the Capitals beat the Panthers last night (not sure why we put ourselves through that, but I guess we had some slight hope that the Panthers could be a spoiler), and when it was over, we quickly switched to the Kansas-UNC Final Four game to cheer ourselves up. Well, for those of you who followed THAT game, you know that we weren't any happier! Kansas handed UNC their worst loss of the season! We didn't even watch the game after we saw the score in the first half -- switched the channel to America's Most Wanted, where we actually win sometimes !! :)

But there's always a "But..."

You know, I think it's human nature to live vicariously through people or groups of people who can do something we don't have a prayer of doing. AND, I think it's also human nature (for some people, anyway) to be attracted to people or events that rise above a significant challenge or two to put the nay-sayers to shame. That's the way I feel about the Canes! The year I lost my job to a bunch of idiots who took control of my destiny away from me was the year the Canes won the Stanley Cup. After wallowing in self-pity for a couple of months, I was bouyed up by the adrenaline of the race for a large shiny (ugly) trophy that was called a "Cup" but didn't look anything like one -- by a group of guys that were paid a lot of money to beat each other up on an ice rink in June! I had never watched hockey much, but the fire and grit of that team as they thumbed their collective noses at the NHL (who has always behaved as if southern hockey was a mistake) by proving all the pundits wrong was intoxicating in so many ways!

I really credit that 2-month period with getting me out of the funk I was in that spring, and as a result, I will always believe the Canes are special, regardless of how poorly they might do. Do I hate the fact that they are out of the playoffs for the second year in a row after winning the Stanley Cup? Of course! Do I hate the fact that all their hard work after months of injuries and two long rounds of the flu came down to one game that they couldn't win?? Absolutely!

But, I am a "forever fan" (FF), and I'm already looking forward to July 1 when training starts and I am already getting caught up in the talk of trades and acquisitions and the makeup of the 2008-09 team. For me, the Carolina Hurricanes are a constantly evolving story of guys trying to beat the odds in a league that thinks their division is a joke, and I hope those guys enjoy a much-deserved vacation while they heal and get ready for the next round! And whoever's on the team in the Fall will be my champions for the entire season -- hell, I can hardly skate, let alone play 60 minutes of hockey at that speed!! They certainly have my respect, and they most definitely have my appreciation, and win or lose, they give me something to root for when the rest of my life seems very ordinary and stressful.

Let's go, Canes!!!