Status: not sure if I'll ever finish. I don't have much time anymore, but, never say never.
Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her
Here Comes the Sun
Saturday, October 20, 2007
I must admit that I am doing better than I expected while playing Georg von Trapp, aka The Captain. I even seem to be getting along with the kids who are playing my children. I still meet with Kadence every day after rehearsal and every Saturday. This has become a slight problem for my friends but they know how important this is to me and even though they don’t like it, they cannot do anything about it.
The worst part of all of this is I am still working on my Graduation Project, which I must present in April. I decided to do it on something that has impacted my life seriously. However, when I look back at my life so far, nothing really stands out. I don’t remember my dad getting elected into the Senate, I was only a baby.
I don’t remember my grandfather dying so that won’t work, but I am hoping that God will tell me something by at least February or I won’t graduate. I can do almost everything else for the project, like the research but the actual story of “what impacted my life” is something that needs to be told or else it’s just another research project.
I knew I had to get my butt started or else I would never finish. However, this “defining moment” dilemma was hanging over my head like a rain cloud. So, I decided to just putt that off as much as possible until I had this “moment”. I also got to “researching”, which meant interviewing my parents, my grandparents and even Rev. Collins one afternoon after practicing with Kadence about defining moments in their lives, such as “What made you decide you wanted to go into politics” for my dad. Today is Saturday and that means another day of going to Kadence’s house and practicing.
This week at school wasn’t too bad, but when you add in practice, the work load felt nearly impossible, I have no idea how this is going to be when the semester winds down and exam time is near. I survived but was looking forward to sleeping in today but remembered that I had practice with Kadence and I have church tomorrow, so I guess it is naps in the afternoon for me this weekend.
I had to get myself up this morning because my mom had to go visit my grandma this weekend because apparently Granny needed some help picking out a birthday present for me…even though my birthday isn’t for another 11 days. Anyway, I was very proud of myself for waking up on time and early for once on the weekend.
I got up around 8 A.M. and then took a shower and then shaved and got dressed. I decided to wear a black dress shirt and jeans with my usual black converses. I then went downstairs to make some kind of breakfast. I looked all around the kitchen and finally decided to make some scrambled eggs with cheese.
I washed my dishes when I was done, left a note for Mom, grabbed my script and was on my way to Kadence’s house. Once I got there, I noticed Kadence’s car already in the carport. I parked my car and made my way to the front porch. After ringing the doorbell, I didn’t have to wait long before Kadence opened the door. She looked as though she had been crying, so I asked her,
“Are you alright Kadence?”
“Yes Kellan, I am fine, it’s nothing you need to worry about, but thanks for asking.”
I couldn’t help but notice that everything was probably not “fine” but decided not to pursue the issue. I also noticed that she had a red shirt with a black undershirt and a long black skirt along with her usual converses on as well.
She let me into the house and we took our places on her couches. I noticed that she grabbed a blanket before sitting down but thought nothing of it because it was October after all and we were in the mountains where it got cold pretty fast. Before I could say anything,
Kadence started,
“Kellan, I want you to know that we cannot meet next Saturday.”
“Oh, why is that Kadence, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh, it’s nothing really, just something that came up all of a sudden and I have to go to Asheville for the day.”
I decided not to pursue the matter because that meant that I got to sleep in on a Saturday. But, my mind also wandered to why Kadence had to go to Asheville, once again, I decided to stop it right there, it wasn’t my business.
We decided to start with singing first yesterday but I was still weary of my singing voice. Kadence and the others assured me that I sounded fine, but since I was not as experienced as the rest of them, I had no idea if they were lying or telling me the truth. I found out that Mrs. Collins was home for once, so Kadence had her play the piano for us while we sang, but we first listened to the CD that was made for us. Kadence had developed a system of listening to the CD and then practicing on the piano and then listening to the CD while singing along.
We started with “The Sound of Music (reprise)”, which wasn’t too bad, considering that it was a short song. Even Mrs. Collins commented on our singing. The biggest problem for me during some of these rehearsals was that I wasn’t practicing with “my children” and thus it was hard to fully practice, but we survived. After singing “The Sound of Music (reprise)”, “No Way to Stop It”, “An Ordinary Couple”, Do-Re-Mi (reprise), “Edelweiss” and “So Long, Farwell (reprise)”, we decided to take a lunch break.
“No Way to Stop It” is usually sung by the Captain, Max and Elsa but since it was just Kadence, Reverend, Mrs. Collins and I we split the roles. I was the Captain of course and Reverend Collins was Max and Mrs. Collins was Elsa while Kadence played the piano when we got to that part. It was strange singing “An Ordinary Couple” with Kadence because I have grown up with her and to sing a love song is kind of strange, but I got through it.
Our lunch consisted of baked potato soup with get this turkey bacon and cheese, sweet tea and grilled chicken. I had never heard of turkey bacon and when Kadence saw the look on my face when I realized that this “bacon” was definitely not the pork kind I had grown up with, she said,
“Oh, Kellan, I am sorry, I should have said it is turkey bacon.”
“What is this ‘turkey bacon’ you speak of and why can’t you use real bacon?”
“Well, it’s just like regular bacon, only made with turkey meat instead of pork. I love pigs, they are my favorite animal, and my dad’s parents even have some that I have ‘adopted’, so I don’t eat pork.”
She doesn’t eat pork? What kind of a Southern girl is she, seriously; I mean no true Southern girl denies eating barbeque right?
After lunch, it was time to start learning our lines again, but we only focused on scenes that involved me (with people other than “Maria”) and those that involved “Maria” aka Kadence. The first scene was the “meeting scene” in Act I Scene 5. It was hard to be serious and stern when that is not really who I am but Kadence helped me “get into character.”
She was excellent as “Maria” even though there were no children in her living room; you could see that she was not acting when she was “meeting” the children. We also had to incorporate the music we had just practiced into our scenes, we blocked what we could (well, what we had learned so far) in her living room and by the end of it, I had to crash on Kadence’s couch.
When I noticed Kadence plop down beside me, I couldn’t help but notice how pale she really looked. I closed my eyes for about two minutes but apparently that was all it took for Kadence to fall asleep. When I got up, I saw her curled up in a little ball on “her side” of the couch fast asleep. I grabbed her brown blanket and covered her up with it before quietly leaving the living room. I quickly wrote Kadence a note saying that she looked “too peaceful” to disturb but I would see her tomorrow in Sunday school or in church.
Once leaving Kadence her note, I saw Reverend and Mrs. Collins in the kitchen just sitting at the table. I told them,
“Thank you again for allowing me to come over and practice with Kadence.”
“Oh, it is no problem; you both seem to benefit from it. We will see you tomorrow Kellan?”
“Yes sir, I will be there, do not worry.”
“Kellan, please tell your mother that our class will be meeting in Tartan Hall tomorrow instead of the usual classroom ok?”
“Yes ma’am,”
I said.
I walked out to my car and for the first time in a while, put my iPod playlist entitled “Happy Days” on to listen to on my long journey back home.
♠ ♠ ♠
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. The fact that Kadence doesn't eat pork is somewhat based on me, I love pigs and TRY not to eat pork but sometimes I cannot help it, i.e. pepperoni pizza. I even have a shirt that has a pig on it that says "No, I don't have any spare ribs!" This is ironic in my family because my brother LOVES to eat ribs. I don't know when the next chapter will be out but maybe Wednesday or Thursday of next week...just a guess. If you read this story, don't be afraid to comment, I don't bite, infact, I welcome comments with open arms :)Here is the link to the outfits in this chapter (fyi, the blanket says another website, it is actually from Pottery Barn Teen, so if you want to see what it really looks like, go there)
Outfits