Keel Finding

Better than keel-hauling, to be sure.

Had another class Wednesday evening. Session 2 of "Actor's Bag O' Tricks" which N. taught. Whatever mental core dump took place Tuesday night must've been a bit helpful. Just rereading that last post, it's tempting to select edit, then delete because it just sounds like self-indulgent whimpering.

But, in most everything I've ever done, the frustration usually sets in solidly before any gains take place. And that's pretty much where the needle was pointing after class Tuesday. Or, to keep the nautical-theme of the title, things were leanin' pretty hard to port. Wednesday brought things a bit back to center.

And it was fun getting there. Which is good. I spent a little time after work talking with my wife, and she listened extremely patiently to my chattering about wanting to hit the right mark, etc... When I'd exhausted most of my thoughts, she quietly asked, "You still like it, right?"

That pretty much skewered the crux of the issue.

Yeah. I like it. A lot. No. More than that. I have ridiculous amounts of fun doing this, really enjoy the people I have met so far, and look forward to things with a high degree of optimism.

"So," she continued. "Have fun with it."

Which adds to the long tally of reasons why I married her. Spot on, she was.

And so I wandered down to class, and had fun. Did absolutely the ugliest Australian accent I've ever managed and just had to smile and laugh afterwards. Threw it another gear (Russian) and cracked off a decent bit. Had fun with that. Listened, learned, tried to tune my ears some more and finished the evening by cracking off a legal delivery that scared me a little when I listened back to it this morning. (My wife asked me if they had sped it up...) A good evening and quality class.

It's funny to think about how much of this verbal, vocal, vox business has nothing to do with speaking. So much more is about the mental position, attitude and, well, the fun you bring in with you.