In the Flow

In the past few years, I've spent a lot of time waiting for things to happen, especially when it came to my teaching life. I was waiting for a particular door to open, and I've only recently come to truly face the fact that it's just not going to happen. Rather than shaking my fist against the sky about it, I've decided to focus hard on blooming where I'm planted, and kicking my committment to 6th grade up a notch. The results have been...well, bloomy. My kids are doing great, we're smack in the middle of the most fun unit of the year (Greek mythology), I've just done a ton of cleaning out and purging and organizing, and I'm finding energy to create new things, make old things better, and just generally go along with the positive flow.

My new little guy is transitioning well. He's fighting against doing work, which it seems has not really been expected of him until now, and I'm using my Maria Von Trapp "firm but kind" mentality. (Insert lyrics to "I Have Confidence" here.) I'm finding little ways to connect to him, reasons to praise him, and on the one day last week when he didn't show up to school, I called the boys' home looking for him, got him on the phone, and basically told him to get his skinny little butt to school where he belongs. He hasn't missed a day since. He will, of course, but I'll deal with that when it comes.

In other news, my show is going well. It's hard to face three more weekends when I'm always done with a show in one, but it's a whole different ballgame being on this side of the process. When I'm directing, my work feels like it's never ever done. I dream about the show, I think about it all the live-long day, I expend tons of energy with emails, organizing, and all of the little tasks that come with being In Charge. In this, I do my thing and go home. And that's been lovely. The cast is all very nice, and I've remembered that really, the bulk of the "bonding" does actually happen during production week, when you're in the flow of the show and finding your patterns. You do a quick change next to the same person every night. You wait for an entrance every night beside someone else. You help the same person with a zipper at the same spot each day. That's how it all happens. The personalities are all very different in this cast, but I'm really fond of them all now. The funniest line of the week was from my favorite of the "sassy gay boys," describing a particularly zany and clueless, but immensely talented girl: "She's a heart of gold wrapped in a mess. But not like a dirty mess, a mess like a kitten all tangled up in too much string."

My home life, though it's been busy with all of my rehearsals this week, is definitely continuing to improve with the coming of spring.

All in all, life is very good right now. This doesn't do much for creative or interesting things to blog about, but honestly...I'll take it while it lasts.