Right now, the day-to-day is embroiled in visits to banks and pools. Sanity is kept in the water while the neurons rage under financial pressure. On my way back from Maine to KL, I spent time reading the Marketplace Addendum to my citibank account. Second time through, I still had questions as to whether I would be charged an additional fee for a credit card purchase outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Back here, where the days start and end at the same time all year round, I fester with bank officers about retrieving my debit card from the machine that swallowed it, and smile at over-the-counter personnel to get them to work faster.
The bank and the pool.
A day before departing I met with a college staff member at the Heath Center. She tells me about the documents I ought to read to secure a better understanding of any health insurance plan. An Out-of-Network plan will cover 80% of the Usual and Customary charges. okay. The 80% covered is based on the remanding amount following the deductible. okay.
When not pursuing logistical details, the experience is transfixing. Last night I attended a Toastmaster's Meeting. Earlier this month, the club's members sought advice from theater professionals regarding gesturing while public speaking. The day I returned, my mother, a Toastmaster, asked if I would be so keen as to conduct a workshop for the club. done. Two weeks from now it is. Yesterday was about giving a five minute preview of the session to come. Aside from a blow-by-blow layout of the workshop activities, I recounted the time Kate Kearns recited her monologue in Acting Shakespeare and how there was some consensus about her fish-like qualities on stage when it comes to non-verbal expression. That has since changed. So, amidst formally dressed toastmasters, I reenacted the acting class scene with a textually sound shakespearen delivery from the Merchant of Venice, and asked for observations from the floor. Getting acquainted with the club's members was the best part of the evening, a rather rowdy bunch of twenty or so early to late career professionals, cheering on each speaker, making the occasional marginally racy comment, and listening astutely. Everything was in english and as public speakers, the level of english proficiency was medium to high. Full sentences, consistent tense and gender pronouns, eloquent elocution were elements in full gear.
Travel wise, a US visa set back has caused me to postpone my departure date to the beginning of August. Much to my dismay, this arrangement throws off initial plans to attend the Annual Global Network Conference in Kyoto. As an adjustment and a way to make up for the holistic communal experience I would have had, I am hoping to participate in the week-long excursion following the conference to Hiroshima. The group will attend the World Conference against the Atomic and Hydrogen bombs, and the 70th Anniversary of the bombs.
Dialing back to the weekend before returning to Malaysia. Here is a snippet from the three weeks of prep leading up to Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Not I.