Leah and I went to Drum & Dance in Amherst on Friday, and then we spent most of the weekend in our respective quarters, soaking up the rain and getting things done. My apartment, for example, is clean. I could have company if I wanted. And you were of a mind to come by, of course.

Sarahluna chastened me about not bringing my drum on Friday. She was right. I really need that experience playing dun-dun, and it was hard for me to not be in with the drummers, playing. Part of me really wanted to move, though. I also need a case for my dun-dun. Does anyone know where I could get such a case? A bag, actually, would be ideal. I’ll have to look for one.

Last night, we went out dancing again. Our friends M & H have hardwood floors in the living room. So we rolled up the rugs, turned on the tunes, and danced for about an hour and a half. I want hardwood floors, damnit! Amazing. I now have something about my apartment that I would change. I agreed that for our next dance, I’d create a set or two that we could dance to, if only to get our bodies moving.

I am teaching two new classes at school this term — rhetoric and creative writing. I’m not entirely unhappy about this, but it’s also a burden on me, at least in the sense that I now have to think of something to do during these classes. On Monday, the creative writing class wrote excuse notes — excuse notes from Adam and Eve to God; notes from Jennifer Lopez to her lawyer, explaining that she didn’t really assault that maid who stole her jeans; notes from Nick Lachey to his best buddy, explaining his divorce from Jessica Simpson; and so on. I need some better ideas for that class, I think.

Rhetoric is today, and frankly I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I think we’ll do the read-through of Beowulf that I designed a few years ago, and demonstrate how preparation and semi-memorization can really help delivery. We’ll work on it. Update: as it turned out, the Beowulf thing worked well. Their homework is to memorize a section (15-20 lines or so) by next week. We also did some breathing and vocal exercises (which I’ll document this week), and I’ll write up another 4 pages or so in the eventual Rhetoric handbook. Four pages seems to be about the right number for recital exercises.

P.S., does anyone have some good tongue twisters or verses for practicing speech techniques? Mostly I’m looking for classic literature, or ‘children’s rhymes’.

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