Well, it is nearly over. My last Spring Break as a “college kid”!! My son, Jon jokingly said yesterday he was going to go back to school and get his PhD because we had had someone in school for so long it was going to be weird to not have college schedules and tests and papers to discuss. I told him I would go for my MFA and we could see who finishes first! We were both kidding (for now) because we are both pretty “done” with school. I am looking forward to having time for myself, my family and the life I had before I went back to school. Of course, life will never be the same again, it is always changing. In the three years I have been in school Jon has gotten a “grown up” job and moved into his own apartment, Tim has gotten more and more jobs doing sound and commissions for his metal art, so he is busy in a different way than he was before, we have changed the house and yard a lot and I have changed and grown personally. Both of our cats have died and I have made many new friends and lost many old friends. So life will definitely be different!!
Over spring break I have done a lot and not done a lot. I wrote seven papers, learned a Shakespearean scene and a restoration monologue. I have had the front yard torn up and totally re landscaped and re sodded. I have gotten all of the props for my play together and I have gotten all of the income tax stuff I was supposed to do done. I did get to eat out one night with our friends the Basses and I had lunch on Friday with my girlfriends. I got to go to a live remote my son and his radio show did at a local BBQ spot, I had a facial and some spa time and I even did a little shopping. I did not get to go on a trip and I did not really rest much. Even while I was getting my facial I was running my lines in my head- I just could not turn it off. I did think about the fact that I was glad the lady doing the facial could not read minds or she would have been wondering why I thinking that I was angry that my husband brought the daggers from the place and that he needed to wash the blood off of his hands!(Oh, that Macbeth scene!)
Today I am back at work, paying bills and doing laundry and housework. And tomorrow I am headed back to school to start the tech work on my play. Yes, I know tomorrow is Sunday, but I am headed back early- you know showbiz! But I am excited to have the play presented and then move on to my other big project of the semester. I hope that I have done most of my work for the rest of the semester this week, so that I can concentrate on my plays and then graduate without too much drama. Well, lots of drama actually, but on stage I hope- not in my real life!
So my last spring break was not the kind of break most of the other students took. And that is OK. In fact it is the way my whole college experience has been, not quite the same as everyone else! I see the facebook posts of their time at the beach or in California or Disney World. I am a little jealous I have to admit. When I was their age I was working and now that I am in college I have too many responsibilities to just run off somewhere. Well, let me rephrase that. I COULD have run off somewhere, but I am too responsible to do that. People are relying on me and I expect too much from myself to not get the work done. After May 4th I can go and do whatever I want for the most part, but I can not let myself down at this point- I want to graduate with honors even though no one really cares about honors but me! I want to know my lines so I don’t let down my scene partner or my professor. I want to be ready for tech week of my show and the rehearsals of the other play. So yes, I could have chunked it all and run off, but I want to be prepared more than I want to run away!
So maybe my “girls gone wild” moment was soup and sandwiches at the neighborhood bookstore with three other middle age moms. And my only “drinking game” was trying to decide if I actually liked the cucumber gin and tonic at a new pub in town. And here I am, at the end of spring break wondering if I made all of the right choices. Maybe not. But I do feel calm inside knowing I am as prepared as possible, that my life is basically in order, my yard is pretty and I am excited about the days ahead. Overall, I think that is pretty good.
