Yes- you saw that right. I have three more weeks of classes. Then a week of finals but that will consist of turning in some paperwork I have spent today finishing up, performing a couple of monologues and singing a couple of songs. So in three weeks I will basically be through.
I have not written a blog post in a while and after working on the long analysis I just finished I am not sure I should be writing any more now. I think I want to get a few magazines and go sit on the porch. But first I will tell you that the show I directed for the Spring Theatre Festival was a really good experience. I enjoyed everyone I worked with and the play turned out OK I think. I am still not sure I am meant to direct things. I like performing and being more active. As the director I was not really allowed to be physically doing much when the play began. There were people to handle tech and the sets changes. I was just there as an observer once the show opened and I did not like that. I got to sell tickets opening night, but we sold out in a few minutes and the other nights I held the ticket basket and welcomed people but not much action. So I am not really sure that I am cut out to be a director. I had a vision, but it was very straight forward and I think probably that is not sufficient.
I did make a mistake in dance class last Tuesday. We had an optional back roll we could do and I decided not to do it. As I watched my classmates I saw they were all doing it and even the person I was to dance with did it. So at the last second, with no preparation, I just flung myself on the ground.( And yes, I guess if everyone jumped off of a cliff, I would too!) I felt a very uncomfortable feeling in my back and I could feel the bruises growing as I walked off. By that night it hurt worse, but I felt like it was a pulled muscle so I worked all the harder trying to work out the muscle. As the days passed I continued to stretch and lift things in hopes of working out my aches. By Friday night as I drove home from the theatre festival I thought I was having a heart attack. My back hurt and the pain in my chest was overwhelming. I could not get my breath and trying to breathe was excruciating! I got home and took a Tylenol PM because I could not get comfortable to sleep. Suffice it to say, I have a cracked rib and bruises on top of bruises. Luckily we did not have dance last Thursday and this week I have not sung full out or done any rolls in dance! I did try to half way dance on Tuesday this week and I made matters worse but favoring my left side. Half-ass crunches hurt your neck, half way moving gets you out of alignment. So I was back at it full force this Thursday. If I thought it was ill advised I just sat out, otherwise I did things full out. I think I am getting better. I plan to be 100% next week!
I realized once again how lucky I am to have the husband I have. He was very supportive during the festival, even though it pulled me away from church during Holy Week when I knew he needed my help. He came to the dress rehearsal after his rehearsal at church to see my show. When the other directors asked me to go get some food one night after the show and about a cast party for another night I quickly declined. Not that I don’t love those kids and not that I wouldn’t have had a blast with them, but between the pain in my side and back and my exhaustion, I knew I had to go home. Driving home though I realized that even more than that, I missed Tim. I wanted to tell him everything that had happened, how the show went, how the audience reacted, who was there, what I had done during the day. And I wanted to hear what he had seen and done all day, who he saw at church, how the sermon was. After 29 years (our anniversary was on Easter this year and we were both too tired to celebrate!) there is no one I want to talk to and be with more than Tim. I am a lucky girl!
My friend Matt and I were talking about graduation the other day and we realized that after we walk across the stage in 4 weeks we will probably never see each other again. I kind of got a lump in my throat. From the beginning I knew that I was going to meet lots of people who would only be in my life a short amount of time. I had no idea so many of them would come to mean so much to me. Like the song in “Wicked” who can say if I’ve been changed for the better, (I do believe I have been changed for the better) I have definitely been changed for good.
So my time dwindles down. I am trying to just take it one day at a time and enjoy every moment as it happens. I think that is the lesson I learned the best in my time in the theatre department- live in the moment. On stage, in life just enjoy each moment. So now I think I will go out to the back veranda with those magazines I was talking about and enjoy a moment, knowing I am caught up and nearly done- for good.
