Happy birthday, Lindsey!

Ah, paint by number sounds fun!  I'm not a good freestyle painter or drawer either.  It is fun to bring your stories to life in a visual way.  That's what I do with The Sims.  My characters and settings never look quite the same as they do in my head, but I still have fun creating them and playing with them in my game.

Yay for being so close to finishing your story!  I know you said you'll probably take a break to paint, but do you have more ideas waiting to be written when you're ready?

Yep, no one had a better answer than to have someone carry the kid down the stairs.  Let's hope there's never an actual fire. 😳  Putting the art room on the second floor (with no windows, I might add) was a dumb decision in the first place.  But he has a kiln in there and his own storage closet, so moving it downstairs isn't really an option either.  Clearly, no one considered the logistics of having students with disabilities, beyond meeting the basic ADA requirements with the ramp and elevator.  That's terrible that your students who depended on a wheelchair, even temporarily, couldn't even go to music!  I'm glad they've since moved the music room to a more accessible location.

Yes, the Vegas trip will be a nice way to sort of close out my summer before August hits and I have to get into back to school mode.  We are not doing a meet and greet because of how expensive it is.  The last time I went to Vegas in July, it was 120 degrees, so that's what I'm preparing myself for.  It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because of the lack of humidity.  I never felt sweaty because it was so dry that the sweat evaporated instantly, and we were only outside for a few minutes at a time while walking between casinos.  The only thing we're hoping to do that's outside is the Neon Museum, which we'll do at night if it's not too hot.

Happy Brithday, Lindsey! If you haven't disappeared again because the forum is being stupid! lol

I wish I was talented enough to paint freestyle. When I say painting, I mean those elaborate paint by number ones I make. They are hard and look really good when I'm done but I could never do it freeform. I would love to do that. I have so many visual images in my mind of certain scenes in my stories that I'd love to see come alive. Yes, I only have two chapters left of this story I'm working on. Technically I could finish in one, but I have had an ending in my mind from the start and time has to go by between the second to last chapter and the last chapter, so I'm stretching to two more.

The last time I went to Broadway before seeing this one was when I went to see Kevin in Chicago. There were only a small handful of people waiting at the backstage door and no barricades at all. When I was very young and living in the Bronx, we used to go very often to see a lot of shows and we almost always waited backstage afterwards. I was so young though, I don't really remember caring about anything except getting a NYC pretzel afterwards. lol

We did quite a few trips into the city to see shows when I was in high school, but like you, because it was an entire marching band or chorus, we never did the stage door.

You were told that the art teacher should carry them down? Wtf? Jesus! The kids who were in wheelchairs because of injuries wouldn't even be able to come to music class at all because the only way to get up to my classroom was an entire flight of steps. I used to physically wince when a kid came up on crutches. Afriad that they'd fall and break their little necks. I know they have since FINALLY moved the music room into the main building where there is an elevator and they turned my old room into a storage closet, which is what it should've have always been in the first place.

End of July is a good time for a concert. I don't know about heat wise with Vegas, but it'll be a nice way to bring your summer to an end. Are you guys doing the whole Meet and Greet thing? I'm sure if they are even doing those, it will be off the wall expensive.

YouTube is a great starting point!  I learn so much from YouTube LOL.

Ugh, the bathroom situation at your old school sounds like a nightmare.  I am fortunate to be in a fairly new school building (built in 2001), where there is a staff bathroom located in each hall.  The building is also very accessible; it has two stories, but there is an elevator to get to the second floor and a ramp anywhere that requires a few steps up or down.  My classroom is on the first floor and is closest to the nurse's office, so I tend to get the students with physical disabilities.  The one problematic thing is that the art room is on the second floor, so once a week, those students have to take the elevator to get upstairs to art.  Not a big deal, except for that if there were ever a fire and the elevator were out of order, no one has ever been able to give me a satisfactory answer as to how we would get students who are, say, full-time wheelchair users downstairs and out of the building.  "Have the art teacher carry her" was the answer I got the last time I had a student who used a wheelchair and couldn't walk at all.  Our art teacher is close to retirement; I'm not sure he could carry some of these kids.  They really need some kind of stair lift that could be operated manually in case of an emergency.

Glad to hear Kieran is back!

I've only been to two Broadway shows (on actual Broadway), and both times, I was on a bus trip with a big group of people, so I don't think waiting at the stage door was an option, if that was even a thing back then.  I haven't been to NYC since 2009, so I'm sure the culture has grown since then.  That's crazy that people are yelling out the actors' names during the show.  No matter what kind of music it is, a musical is not the same as a concert.  I've been to musicals where I know every lyric and would love to sing along, but I don't because we paid to hear the actors sing, not random people in the audience LOL.  I do sing along at concerts, but quietly - and not when someone is recording next to me.  We're doing the July 27 and 28 shows in Vegas.

I only post here on my computer too. I occasionally tweet or comment on Reddit from my phone, but that's about it. Writing directly on AO3 is idiotic! Rookie mistake! Wait until they accidentally lose everything, and they'll learn. I've switched to Google Docs out of convenience; I don't even have Word on my desktop computer anymore (well, I do, but I haven't paid for it, so I can't edit documents on it). The only thing I miss about Word is that there's no limit to how long documents can be. Google Docs can't handle some of my docs. 🙃

Does that mean you're two chapters away from finishing your story?  That's exciting!  Painting sounds nice.  Maybe you could paint something related to your stories and say it's inspiration for writing.  That's sometimes how I justify playing The Sims instead of writing in the summer LOL.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I don't have a team of anyone to help with anything, but I have been looking up YouTube videos for building upper arm strength. We'll see how it goes. When I taught, my classroom was up a flight of steps and to get to the bathroom, I had to go down and walk across the gym floor to get to the bathrooms behind the bleachers. I only had about a five-minute gap between classes and it would take me that long just to make it down the steps, so I would have to wait until the end of the school day before I got to go. I can't even tell you the number of times I almost peed myself. That was another place that was not handicap accessible. They were the barest minimum to get the ADA approval. There was an elevator and a ramp leading into the gym, but there was no way for someone in a wheelchair to get to the main school from the gym without having to climb steps. 

Kieran was at the play yesterday, so it was probably a stomach bug or something. I'm sure a video of a fan asking will pop up at some point.

I love that you are lurking on my videos, Dee. lol I keep forgetting to ask my sister for the one where I actually interact with Bill Burr.

Stage Door has become a whole culture now. I know the Outsiders, even though there's no one famous in that show, they have a bunch of groupies that go to the plays all the time and religiously wait for them afterwards. Apparently, they are rude as well. They treat the play like a rock concert and yell out the actors' names. Since Broadway is right now comprised of a lot of A list celebrities it's been kind of crazy, although not many do stage door regularly. I think George Clooney comes out once in a while. No offense to Joey Fatone, but nobody seems to care about him. I don't even think they have a barricade for & Juliet. I might be wrong, but who knows? lol

When do you guys go to Vegas?

I can't type anything on my phone. Even to post here, I have to be on the computer. The only time I post from my phone is on Twitter and sometimes FB. I don't know how people write on their phones, but I guess if that's all your used to. So many people I know who write also don't do it on Word, but directly on the AO3 site. I would be way too paranoid to do that.

I'm glad you're both writing. I have about two more chapters to write on this one and then I think I'm taking a break. I've been wanting to paint again, and I can't do both.

I'm glad the forum is back!

Hopefully all is well with Kieran and his family.  Good thing you went last week, just in case!

Good idea to write a Yelp review for the hotel!  I'm sure other people who are looking for accessible rooms will appreciate knowing about your experience.  That's crazy that there weren't even curb cuts at every intersection in NYC.  Of all the ways to add accessibility, that seems like it should be one of the easiest ones to do.  But you're right; until you've been in that situation or known someone who is, you don't even think about it.

Trying the wrist weights sounds like a good idea, as does Dee's PT suggestion.  Hopefully you can find some simple exercises to help you maintain and build on the function and strength you have.

I have a couple of things in-progress that I'm bouncing around... PBox,  snails, that 5 POV thing I started a few summers ago. Also considering a horror-movie watch and dropping a snippet in on you and Rose. We'll see.  I did take my computer on our little vacation and opened it exactly zero times, so I'm doing great! But I have been percolating a lot on Nick's new album and how it resonates with me and my thoughts.

All this makes me happy to hear!  Especially the horror movie plan!  You sound just like me whenever I'm between projects, bouncing here and there and everywhere.  It always takes me some time to settle into a new story (or back into an old one I started and didn't finish).  Keep percolating!  No pressure to write on vacation though.  I can never focus well enough to get much done when I'm away from home.

What are your favorite tracks from Nick's album?  My favorite of the new ones is Storms.  I could definitely see that one inspiring a story someday.

According to comments I've seen on Reddit, there are definitely teenagers who type all their fanfics on their phones.  Maybe they're better at typing that way because they grew up with it, whereas we didn't have smartphones with full keyboards until we were adults.  The phone keyboard is just too small for me; I make so many typos that I would be incredibly frustrated trying to use it as my main writing device.  We've been one-to-one with Chromebooks at school since Covid, and I use Typing.com with my students for keyboarding lessons and practice.  I have them type all their published pieces in writing, so they get faster at it over the course of the year.

Hey guys! Here is my rather long review of my trip to NYC!

Mare, I also loved lurking on your video. What an amazing experience -- I'm so happy for you! I think a lot of shows are busy at the stage door like that depending on the star power of the show and/or the performers. Like I would imagine something like Hamilton or & Juliet right now with Joey Fatone in it is crazy busy like that, but maybe not something like Avenue Q? lol I'm so glad that the extra 20-minute wait ended up positively! How exciting that he was still wearing your bracelet a few days later!!

That hotel and train experience is wild! I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. That Amtrak from the city to upstate is the worst. And now I feel vindicated in that belief outside of the horrible hangover I had that day. lol Which I realize is not the same thing, but I did complain to my husband about the size of the bathroom door for ADA accessibility. For the hotel, could also be worth it to call their corporate customer service number? If for nothing but the cavalierness of "it happens all the time."

In addition to the wrist weights, you could also look at getting a resistance band and working your way up to hand weight exercises. If PT is part of your doctors appointments (or if its not), your care team may have some good suggestions on working on arm strength.

ETA: And on the bathroom thing. It's because you weigh: is my day going to be worse if I stop what I'm doing right now to go the bathroom or if I don't stop what I'm doing to go to the bathroom? I usually find that 9/10, my life will be easier if I just put off going to the bathroom. Add to that that for whatever reason, being in the midst of teaching usually makes me forget I have to go to the bathroom anyway.

I have some answers to what went down with Nanowrimo...

I discovered another piece of Nick's acting career... I was reading through the official backstreet boys biography that released in 1997 (Man, I love the internet archive) and in the Nick chapter it mentions an indie art film called Electra.

That's what I'd heard as well. When your main mission is working with kids, you really have to do everything you can to keep that safe and above board. I think a little more transparency in their actions could have helped a lot as well, but it would be difficult to start a new version with the way it ended.

Always love a good Greek mythology-based project. Add that to my watch list this summer.

Sounds like you've done plenty!

I should get paid more for this full time job. The other day, I got yelled at because I kept insisting the letter "eluex" was actually "W, X" in the alphabet song -- the audacity! And for some reason, the argument that I'm an expert on early literacy does not work on a Toddler.

Just brushing up on my French and Japanese! 16 days so far!

I have a couple of things in-progress that I'm bouncing around... PBox,  snails, that 5 POV thing I started a few summers ago. Also considering a horror-movie watch and dropping a snippet in on you and Rose. We'll see.  I did take my computer on our little vacation and opened it exactly zero times, so I'm doing great! But I have been percolating a lot on Nick's new album and how it resonates with me and my thoughts.

Is it because they see phones and fun and computers for school? I know they're basically tiny computers these days, but my thumbs can't type nearly as fast as my fingers on a full keyboard. Even when I had a tablet instead of a computer for a couple of years, I used a Bluetooth keyboard when I wanted to type anything -- a story, an email, lesson plans, whatever. I watch my husband do his weird two finger typing and think that's what the kids are doing. How do they get anything done, let alone in a timely manner. Do schools still have Mavis Beacon? Are the kids just swyping or using auto-predict or are they leaving themselves voice to text notes? I need an AMA with a teenage author. lol

Yay! It's still here. I'm not sure what's going on with this site. It's annoying.

My Kieran interaction definitely made the trip worth it. I almost booked it for today instead of last Friday and I'm so glad I didn't because Kieran missed the play for the first time ever last night and I can't even imagine the amount of anxiety I would have had traveling all the way to NYC today knowing that. It's a little worrying because of how late he cancelled. The outside door still announced he was going to be there. It wasn't until about 20 minutes before showtime that the understudy found out he would be going on and it was finally announced. Alan Ruck was also there in the audience, which tells me he really did plan on being there. Hopefully he's okay and or Jazz because now there's also speculation that she might be pregnant, because when Kieran got his Sardi's portrait unveiled, Bill Burr mentioned this was an incredible year for him both professionally and personally. And yay for him getting a Sardi's portrait. That's a big deal.

Anyway, we all know how that goes. When one of them suddenly no shows or something. All the negative thoughts that fly. Hopefully he'll show at tonight's performance.

The hotel was the worst! Some of my friends recommended I write up a yelp review about the experience, so I did that, and it made me feel better. It really does amaze me how ambivalent people are about things like that. I mean, I guess I get it, because until you find yourself in this situation it is really hard to understand all the little hinderances there are throughout the day for people who are handicapped and especially wheelchair bound. I honestly don't know what I would have done if I was completely immobile. There were so many times during this trip that I was forced to get out of the chair to be able to get into someplace or get down from someplace. The sidewalks in NY for instance. Even at the end of every corner, there wasn't always a natural slope to go down. Not that we had time to go exploring, but to get across the street to the theater, there was nowhere to even cross that didn't involve going over a step, even a small one. And the train as well. Even though there was a handicap accessible bathroom, an actual wheelchair would never fit in there so I would have to park the chair and then walk inside.

I'm figuring out it's not my legs that's the problem, but my arms. I don't have the strength I used to. So, pulling myself up is getting increasingly difficult. I went to sit outside yesterday, and I almost wasn't able to get back inside because there's one big step up into the backdoor. By big I mean normal sized. I can do small ones with no problem; it's the big ones that are killing me. I wasn't able to really push myself at all in the chair either. I have wrist weights so I'm going to start using those to see if it helps.

I am so glad we live in an era where it's easy to document your experiences. I love that I can watch those videos whenever I want. I swear I watch it every night before I go to bed. lol Although with that comes the paranoia about that damn dumb but smart bracelet. I was so taken in by him, I didn't think to make sure he understood that reference as a Roman quote. The way he read it and nodded, the more I watch it I'm like...hrmm did he think that was a backhanded insult? lol but he tends to have a good memory and if he got the Blork one, He had to remember that line, right? Hopefully. He was wearing my Blork bracelet when he got his portrait at Sardi's.

Today is the first day I feel like myself, so I'm actually going to try to write a bit. I really hope the forum stays up. Now that we have people active again on here, I don't want it to disappear again!

I’ll respond in more detail tomorrow, but before this site goes away again, I wanted to link my videos so this way those of you who do not to Twitter can see them.

https://youtube.com/@egypt18015?si=2N4iBchi8PsV1T9h

When you go there, they are all under the shorts. It opens on my Jean birthday video.

Glad the forum is back online!

I couldn't remember the details but read the gist of what happened with NaNoWriMo after they announced they were shutting down.  It's too bad that they let it fall into chaos like that.

Wow, Electra is a Nick project I've never heard of!  And I even have that biography - the one with the red cover, right?  Good for you for finding it!  How big is his role in it?  Does he have a speaking part?  My favorite early Nick acting project is "Reach for a Book," the L-I-B-R-A-R-Y video.  It's hilarious! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTIo5INXwtg

Mare, I've been looking forward to reading all about your experience.  And what an experience it was!  Sounds like it was worth it for the Kieran interaction, but some of the other stuff sounds like a nightmare.  I saw your tweet and was wondering what the deal was with your pants!  I'm glad you had another pair to wear to the show.

That is infuriating that the hotel had no ADA rooms and didn't communicate that with you.  If they were all sold out, they should show up that way on the website and not allow you to book them.  I believe it does happen all the time, though.  A couple I follow on YouTube, Cole and Charisma, just posted a video about that a couple of weeks ago.  They had reserved an ADA room with a roll-in shower weeks in advance and called the hotel after booking to confirm that they did, in fact, have a room with a roll-in shower reserved.  They were assured they did.  The day of check-in, they called the hotel again to double check that they still had their room and were again told that they did.  Then they arrived at the hotel and were told that their room was no longer available because the people staying in it the night before had decided to extend their stay, and there were no other rooms with roll-in showers available.  They also said that this happens a lot, and even calling to confirm the reservation doesn't guarantee that the right kind of room will be available once they get there.  Absolutely frustrating and so very wrong!  I'm glad you were able to make it sort of work for you for one night, but sorry you experienced that.

Also sorry for your Amtrak woes!  I'm glad the trip there was mostly okay, but the trip back sounds terrible.  I can't believe how rude people are.  The woman who sat next to you and wouldn't move to let your sister sit by you?  What a bitch.  It's not like she paid for that seat specifically, like on an airplane.   You should have started asking her for help with stuff until she decided to move LOL.

After all that, I'm glad the play was worth the trip!  I loved the videos you posted on Twitter.  So cool that you got to meet all those actors and have such great interactions!  Like I said on Twitter, they all seemed genuinely nice.  I'm sure you were on cloud nine after your encounter with Kieran!

I bet you were exhausted by the time you got home.  So many highs and lows.  Sorry to hear about the steps!  It would probably be good to look into getting a ramp so you can leave the house without having anxiety about getting up and down the stairs.