I am writing a play

     For a long time now I have wanted to write a play or a novel. I have had lots of ideas and started on a few projects. In high school and college I wrote some little one acts and short stories that were decent but nothing I thought I could really expand on.

   A few days ago I got a brilliant idea. I started thinking about how I should write a SPAM reunion show and somehow get everyone back together to perform it. I started thinking about the different kinds of skits and what kind of material would be in it. That led me to think that we should do a scotchtalk skit because I think that would translate pretty well from video to the stage. That idea took hold and I started to come up with a full length play based around how we came up with the idea to do scotchtalk in the first place and some of the wacky behind the scenes stuff that played out.

     I have the first scene written and I'm really proud of it actually. I want to polish it my play and submit it to theaters around town. I think the Jewel Box still selects amatuer written plays to perform.

      I have a ton of work to do and it will probably be a solid year before I'm ready to submit it but I thought the journey would be a good one to blog about.

     If you have any ideas on how to properly format a play as well as how to submit it or generally some support I will gladly listen.

Regards,

Dartagnon Burns

A love of German culture + a Gatsby Party = Oktoberfest

      I have always had a fascination with German culture. It started early because my dad would yell at me and my sisters in German whenever we were in trouble. So when I got the chance to take German classes in ninth grade I signed up. I learned right away that my dad was really just yelling at us in "gibberish German" having only taken part of a semester in high school before his parents moved him to a school that didn't offer German language classes. Coincidentally, I also yell at my kids in German. Not quite "gibberish" becuase I have taken 4 years of German classes across High School and College.

     When I say "yell" I don't mean scream or berate I mean that when we are at the store and the kids aren't keeping up or are acting up we like to break out the German. I actually started this after I took a Psychology of Language class in college and I remember one lesson where we talked about if you know two languages say English and German but you live with people that only speak English you will most likely only use German as a point of emphasis. So when we are out and the kids aren't keeping up I like to yell "schnell" meaning "quickly"  it's what my 9th grade German teacher used to yell at us when we slacking off in class.

    My other great fascination has been that I have always wanted to throw what I call a "Gatsby Party". When I was in tenth grade we had to read "The Great Gatsby" in an English class. I loved it, I remember summarizing it to other people in my class who hadn't read it before a test one day. In the book Gatsby throws huge parties where people dress up in their finest clothes, dancing and alcohol abound and people party until the sun comes up. In the book Gatsby throws these parties as a way of trying to attract Daisy his great love so that he might see her again. Ever since I was a teenager I have wanted to throw a party like this.

     Since I have such a fascination with German culture and with throwing a big party with lots of dancing and alcohol I find it really puzzling that it could take me until after my 31st birthday to get the idea of throwing an Oktoberfest party. I got the idea when I was having coffee with my friend Jeffery and he was showing me pictures of the yearly Oktoberfest party his family throws. Complete with men in Lederhosen, women in Dirndle's , German language signs, German food and of course German Beer.

     As soon as I got home that day I started to put a plan in place, I started cooking German recipes and looked all around town to see if I could buy Oktoberfest party supplies. I found lots of things online but nothing in stores. When it became apparent that time (and money) were running out I decided to throw a combination birthday party for me / Risk night (because it takes all night to finish)/ Oktoberfest party. I actually hand drew some signs and had my kids color them with markers. One said "Willkommen zum Oktoberfest" and I had a large German flag  also. My daughter made the one that says "Risk Nacht"



      I cooked a very tasty pork chop meal for dinner at our party. I combined sourkraut, brown sugar, onions and apples and cooked it over the pork chops, the left over juices made a great gravy on my mashed potatoes too. I don't know how authentic it was but it was delicious. I had started a fast from alcohol a few days before the party though, I'm fasting from alcohol until I get a job, so I wasn't able to drink any delicious German Beer, we even had some Bitburger which is a very yummy beer I first had in a pub in German town in Chicago this past summer. It was the first time that I had been involved in a party where I wasn't drinking. It was actually fun being the stone cold sober one. I do feel bad for forcing a friend of mine to drink from a stein that I had though. It took 3 beers to fill it up and I filled up his stein at least twice. I still have several beers left over from that party that I will try when I get a job. I do hope that I get a job soon. I really, really want a beer!

     This year the party was pretty tame but I have a solid 5 year plan. Next year I want to invite several more people and have a nice tent that we can set up outside. I want to eventually start brewing our own beer and having the men dress up in Lederhosen and the women in Dirndles, my friend and I have a theory that any woman is more attractive as soon as she puts on a Dirndle.

     We have a year to get some more professional looking signs and to figure out where to get authentic Lederhosen and to perfect a few more German dishes. Got any ideas for me?

Other blogs I read 2

     http://brum-review.blogspot.com/ Is another blog I read. It's written by an old friend from high school (I am beginning to think I only have friends from high school having run all of the others off) the writer is very intelligent and I enjoy spending time with him because I always feel more intelligent afterwards. Enjoy!

Other blogs I read 1

     I have a degree in Psychology which taught me many things. The most important thing I learned is that I have issues! Don't we all? Anyway here is a link to a blog an old friend from high school writes. I enjoy it and I think you will too. Especially if you are like me and use humor as a coping mechanism.

http://angelaandluke.blogspot.com/

Lessons I have learned while being unemployed

     When I was working I used to daydream about what I would do if I ever got fired or laid off. I used to tell myself that I would sit around and drink beer all day and play video games. That I would use the extra time to clean the house top to bottom and that I would do a better job of it than my wife did when she was a stay at home mom. That I would sit around and read the classics and that I would memorize Voltaire and Pablo Neruda and long passages of the bible.

    Here is what I actually have done with my 4 months (and counting) of unemployment. I used to sit around and play video games and drink beer then the beer ran out and since I am unemployed I didn't have any money to buy more and I got annoyed that the kids wouldn't let me play for more than about 5 minutes so I stopped playing video games.

     My wife and I have different strenghts and weaknesses when it comes to cleaning. My wife is good at doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and mopping the floors but she is allergic to dust. I dust but I am not good at doing laundry and I always load the dishwasher wrong.

     I find it difficult to read during the day, it's a combination of feeling quilty that I am home and not working and feeling that I should be doing more constructive things like cleaning the kids rooms or mowing the lawn and I can't memorize my shopping list during the day much less Voltaire.

     I have learned why my wife did certain things when she was a stay at home mom and I know that she understands why I did certain things and why I acted in certain ways. I learned how quickly the day can get away from you when you are a stay at home dad. There are days when I want to clean, do laundry, go grocery shopping and cook a great dinner and I get 1 load of laundry done and nothing else.

     Speaking of dinner, I find it really difficult to figure out what's for dinner each night!  Somedays I will go online and find a great recipe to try. I have actually been cooking a lot of German food lately. Half the time though I just make soup and sandwiches because I don't know what to make.

    I used to hate it when my wife would call me and ask me to go to the store and pick up a single item she forgot or she needed to make dinner. I hated being exhausted and just wanting to be home and having to delay going home and waiting in a long line to get 1 thing. I remember the first time I asked my wife to do this and she came home and commented on how now she understood why I hated it so much and she apologized for ever asking me to do it! That was the only time I asked her to do that.

   There used to be many times that I would want to get new work clothes because my old ones were faded or getting old or too big / small and my wife would comment that we didn't have the money for it. My wife is working with a lot of young girls that dress cute and trendy and we have recently scoured thrift stores and discount department stores for clothes for her and she understands now why I wanted to have clothes that were in good condition. I went on an interview last week and I wore a suit that was at least 2 sizes to big and I felt horrible. My wife let me go to the outlet mall over the weekend and buy a new suit. I got a great suit for $84 dollars and we both agree it was money well spent.

     I used to complain that I didn't want to do anything on the weekend because I wanted to rest, I was always exhausted and I just wanted some time to sit and rest mentally and physically. I remember one week that my wife worked a lot of overtime and we had a birthday party or something to do on both Saturday and Sunday and I wanted to go because I was tired of being in the house and my wife just wanted to sit at home and rest.

     I learned a lot and I feel like I am a better person for having gone through this experience. Now I am restless and bored and I am ready to go back to work. I honestly don't care what I do, I have interviewed at all kinds of companies and I don't care if it's a call center, retail, anything but sales (I hate sales people, I'll tell why in another post).

     Thank you for letting me express these feelings. If you have gone through a similiar experience I would love to hear about some lessons you have learned.