A Theatre Week

It has been a week of theatre in this area!

There are three shows going on this weekend.  The University is presenting their musical, “Anything Goes,” the Prairie Wind Players based in Barrett have “Christmas Belles” and the high school is showing “Anyone Can Whistle.”

On Wednesday we went to the opening night of “Anything Goes.”  It’s a fun musical that was first performed on Broadway in 1937.  There’s high society, low society, mobsters, and show girls, all aboard a ship heading for England.  Watching the cast sing, dance, and act (all at the very same time!) was inspiring.  

As it was the first night, there were still kinks to work out.  The pit orchestra was a little too loud, and some of the headset mics needed balancing.  There were a few times the actors had to stretch for their notes.  But the choreography!  I know that not everyone would have known how to tap dance going into the production.  Everyone had tap shoes on at some point or another.  They all did a wonderful job!

Last night we headed up to Barrett for “Christmas Belles” which is the second of a four part (so far) play series.  The series began with “Dearly Beloved” which Matt acted in last spring with the Morris group.  I laughed most of the way through “Christmas Belles.”  Anything and everything that could go wrong with putting on a church Christmas pageant did, including the Great Pancake Massacre and a drunken socialite trying to read the Christmas story from the Bible.  Elvis stopped by for a visit, too, as the “Ghost of Christmas future to come!”  

Mix this with a very pregnant forty year old (TWINS!) and her husband who, to provide more money for the family took on a seasonal job as Santa and a convict, there was always something going on.  Santa gets a kidney stone, so he was wailing and complaining most of the show.  

I loved the show!  It helps that I knew a lot of the people in it, and the basic premise.  Many of the actors and actresses from “Dearly Beloved” reprised their roles in this show, and a few new ones were added in.  It was wonderful to talk with everyone after the show.  

I even had a chance to talk to my old English Teaching Methods teacher.  She’s now retired and I haven’t had a chance to be in touch with her for a long time.  We had to go to the green room to find her, but find her we did.

“Sandy! Your adoring fans come to you!”

Her face lit up and a big hug came my way.  It was good.  She invited us to go to the bar with her and some friends, but unfortunately we had to get home as it was really pretty late.  The baby sitter had school today, you know.  And Sandy’s reaction, “Oh, how cute!”  Yeah, Sandy, thanks.  I still have a smile on my face remembering all of it.  

And as always, watching performances gives me a longing to be there too.  I want to get back on stage sometime.  I just have to wait for a while till my girls are older.  My time will come soon enough. 

Unfortunately, we won’t get a chance to see the high school play.  We’re heading out for the weekend for a baby shower and an early Thanksgiving.  I would love to go though, if  I could!

Mischief Maker

Why is it that when kids are asleep, they look all sweet and innocent?  And then they wake up and prove otherwise?

We’ve been fighting with Emily to keep diapers on.  She figured out how to take them off and now it’s a fun thing to do every day, multiple times, not to mention peeing on the floor every now and then.  Of course I made the mistake of leaving her unsupervised while I figured out how to hook up the new to us phones.  I grabbed the one to go in the living room and made my way over there. 

I didn’t pay much attention as Emily tried helping out.  I was more concerned with keeping cords away from her and making sure she didn't run off with the old phone.  It wasn’t until I got the phone plugged in properly that I finally turned and looked at Emily.  

Her jammies were unzipped and no diaper to be found!  So I begin searching for the missing diaper.  I looked all over the living room, picking up toys and blankets as I went.  Couldn’t find it.  I looked in the “Little People Empire” corner behind the rocking chair.  Not there.  I looked on the stairs where the girls throw their dirty clothes, and still nothing.  I looked in the kitchen, thinking she threw it over that gate, and still no luck.  I looked under the movie cabinet, table, and china cabinet.  STILL couldn’t find the elusive diaper. 

I finally ran my hands over Emily’s legs to see if it got caught in her clothes.

Huh. Extra padding around the one leg…

EUREKA!

It is found!  

She only undid one side of it and in the normal movement of toddlerhood, it slipped down around one leg, hidden from sight by her jammies. 

Whew, able to save the day this time.  New diaper goes on, clothes for the day go on, and now we’re back to playing and getting through the rest of the day.  Which now sounds like more mischief on her part.  “Uh oh” is not good to hear from a toddler.

Why write?

So, in the wake of pretty well freaking out over quitting the one job, I finally get news about a different job.  Basically I'm doing an interview by email.  Then they'll send me stuff to write.  But the questions are some that I really have to think about:

Tell about your interests when it comes to writing.
What do you see as your strong skills in writing?
What do you enjoy most about writing?

I've never really thought about my writing in that form.  Now I am and I'm coming up with nothing.  Could it be writer's block already?

Personal Apocalypse

And today is the beginning of the end. 

 

Sounds rather apocalyptic, but in all reality it’s not.  It’s the beginning of the end of my tenure as church secretary.  Tonight is a Church Council meeting, and I have my letter ready to be submitted to the trustees.  Two weeks from today I’ll be done with that position.  

I know it’s a good move, and one that’s needed to be done for a long time now.  Yet it still hurts.  I loved doing the actual work and took pride in making the bulletins and newsletter look good.  However, circumstances beyond my control have made the job rather unbearable for me.  

Not working there means I will only HAVE to be in town about once a week.  The rest I’m at home, taking care of my girls and keeping house.  That won’t be too horrible, either.  I don’t like going into town to work right now, anyway.  I have to pop a Xanax for the anxiety and then still need my mental cheerleader telling me I can do the job and not freak out while I’m at the church.  Then, when I’m done for the week, I have no motivation to go back for Sunday services.  It’s rather pathetic, I know, but that’s where it’s at.  This last week was even worse than usual, because I felt that I would be forced into conversations with Pastor that I don’t want to have quite yet.  His emails to me hinted to something to that effect, anyway.  So, in order to handle being there and working, I asked Matt to meet me there after he got off work on Friday and just be there to deflect anything that may come up.  And Matt, being the saint he is, agreed to it.  This after a hellish couple of days when a server move didn’t go well and computing services had to go into disaster recovery mode.  He still made time to help me get my stuff done.  

He even helped me compose my letter of resignation.  I’m grateful that he didn’t take my first draft seriously.  I just wrote it to get out my feelings and used some very strong words.  He did laugh at some of what I said, in an almost incredulous way.  I needed that.  Therapy, and all.  My real letter is very short, to the point, and doesn’t give much in details.  

So, now, today, before I go and pick up Kirstin from preschool, I will deliver the letter to the council secretary to be brought to the trustees.  I don’t trust others well enough to deliver it to the church and have it get to the trustees, the way it’s supposed to.    The secretary is a good friend, and knows what’s going on. 

I fear what will come from this, to some extent.  I don’t know what kind of repercussions this may have.  I know I will have to have a conversation with Pastor, but I really don’t want to until I’m out of the situation for a while and have time to reflect back on it.  I will talk with the trustees, as they are officially my bosses, and the elders, for any spiritual matters.  That’s fine, and they’re all people I like and trust.  I just cannot speak with Pastor quite yet.  Hopefully after I have a bit of a “cooling down” period as it were I’ll have enough strength for that.

When this is all over, I’ll finally let myself have a good cry and be washed of it that way.  Until then, I just leak tears every now and then and move on to the next thing that needs doing.  Just sorta in survival mode.  The next couple of weeks will be rough on the anxiety levels.  Thank goodness for good people and lots of stuff to keep me busy.  I shut down over the weekend, and then realized I can’t do that again because it doesn’t do anything but make me feel worse.  When stuff doesn’t get done around the house I start getting overwhelmed and that doesn’t bode well.  Now I just channel the energy into those chores.  If I keep this up my house will be sparkling and all my little crafty projects will be done!  I guess there’s a silver lining.

And maybe this is a personal apocalypse.  I just needed to figure it out and get through it.  Now I can have positive changes in my life and go on and get better again.