It's raining today. It always makes it hard to get up when it is raining, and yet there is something very cleansing about the rain. I know everyone says that, but hey, it's true. The rain, the changing seasons, the changing clothes that go with the changing seasons; it seems sometimes that life is just a whirlwind of events and sudden calms. For a while I felt like I was in the doldrums, now I feel as if I'm in the midst of a tempest. During a tempest there are two kinds of people, those that go below to the relative dryness and those who take the wheel, or a rope, or a lookout and revel in the storm. Even though the rain stings the face and it seems as though the wind is going to blow them right off the ship some people live for these tense moments.
About three weeks ago a friend of mine called me and asked me to help him out. He works at Benedictine college and one of his faculty members had had some health problems and he needed someone to take on a class for a semester. I naturally snapped up the opportunity. So in less that five days I found myself in a whole different place on the other side of the state. I plopped down in the chair in my shared office and looked at what I had to do. Write a new syllabus, have a lesson plan ready for the next day, since I have some experience in the shop they asked me to help out in there and act at T.D. so I dropped in two weeks before opening night. I've been running around constantly ever since, just trying to find my grove in this new situation.
I find more and more I live for these stressful times where I feel needed, or at least feel like I'm filling a purpose somewhere, somehow. Even though the rain hurts and the wind is about to cast me overboard, I relish every moment I'm on deck. The students here are fun and eager. They don't know hardly anything, and they know it, but can't wait to fill those gaps and are ready to listen, watch, and do.
I am once again getting to work with lights and build sets and develop ideas of how to overcome obstacles. After this show is over (Antigone) I get to design the set for Pride and Prejudice. I'm just getting to add to my portfolio left and right. My class is progressing pretty brilliantly (I have no idea what I'm going to do today because I accidentally left today blank in the syllabus) and life is all around just plain good. If I ever had time I could go for a run along the Missouri River or take a walk past some of the most beautiful homes you've ever seen, or sit on a bluff and look over miles and miles of countryside.
"Blow, Blow thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind"
