Gratitude

Friday night was the opening of A Digital Silouhette which is the 10 year celebration of our summer education program The Manoa Project. We asked three of our previous playwriting winners to write short plays for the show. They did and they are awesome. Seriously. I just love watching this show and am so sad it is ending today at 2pm. If you are reading this, come to T-Lab at 2pm and check out these new plays.
They. Are. Amazing.

At the new space...

Florence + The Machine plays over the sound system.
Laughing from the dressing room, I enter to Hannah and Amanda doing some kind of monkey dance. 
Alex lays on the couch and I say, "What's up Alex?" and he says "Totally engaged."
Christmas lights are house lights.
Cookies are being devoured.
People are talking and laughing and hugging and smiling. Everywhere.
Everywhere is talkinglaughingsmilinghugging.
Everywhere.

Looking around, I had this rush of love. I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky.

Sometimes it is good to step back, look around and see all the good and beauty that is around you. Great friends, amazing art, a beautiful space, an incredible show,
cutest husband ever smiling at me from the corner of the room.

Life's pretty good.

                           Our new space isn't quite this cool but it is still pretty awesome.

Trite

Yep. I'm writing a blog about television.

Kevin R. Elder, my Co-AD at the theatre, recently told me that I should watch the HBO show Girls. He said he thought I'd like the writing. I had read a bit about it and all I knew was that it was being likened to Sex and the City.
I watched it and I really, really liked it. I see Kevin again (as I do most everyday) and he tells me that after a positive critical beginning, it is getting a lot of bad press and reviews. This interests me so I go home and search around.

Here are my thoughts on all of this (and I will digress here now for a bit...)

A long time ago there was this show called Sex and the City. I had heard about it but I didn't have cable and didn't watch a lot of tv at the time. One summer, I went on tour with my theatre company. On this tour with me was a young man who had recently broken my heart and his GIRLFRIEND who (and she had every right) hated my guts for reasons I don't care to go into it. I loved my theatre show, my company members, being on tour etc. but by the time we got to Winnipeg (which was the last stop) I was pretty collapsed. It was July in Manitoba so it was 175 degrees with 125% humidity. The lady Byron and I were staying with was a little bit coo-coo pants as she actually kept track of how much toilet paper we used. However, she had dvds of the first season of Sex and the City. I was all done with everything at this point so Byron (also exchausted from the tour and probably from taking care of me all the time) and I watched them. And I loved them.
I was 29 years old, confused, making bad choices, in love with a complicated unavailable man, etc.
I became a very big SATC fan. This show also got a lot of flack.
It's trite.
It's not real.
All those women do is eat and drink and that is not realistic. When do they work? How do they stay so skinny? How do they have money? This could never happen in real life. Etc.

Who fucking cares?

I get home from tour and thanks to a birthday I become a 30 year old female artist, semi-broke, working 3 jobs, dating jerkfaces, always trying to lose those last 10 pounds that will totally fix everything that is wrong in my life.
Why do I want to watch a tv show about what's real? Why would I want to watch a show about 4 women going to work, cooking chicken breasts and stupid vegetables for the week, selling their clothes to Buffalo Exchange for some extra cash? Seriously? I wanted to escape and have a good time. I wanted to go to my friend Kristin's house with 4 dvds and a bottle of vodka (which started as cosmopolitans and then just became shots of vodka) and watch TELEVISION. It's television.

Okay, I digressed a lot. My point is that the tv show Girls is not realistic perhaps. They're not terribly likeable.Yes, if some of these girls were my sister or friend I might be like, "Buck up and get a fucking job." but they're not. They're pretend. I like watching their bad choices and stupidity. I like the writing and think it is clever and funny and dirty.

Maybe I am secretly afraid when I like something considered trite. I'm a leader of an experimental theatre company. I fancy myself a writer, a reader, an artist, a world traveler.
But everything can't be the fucking Sound and the Fury, you know?
If critics don't like it, why don't they go write a show about real life with likeable people?
Jeez.

Thanks for letting me bitch. You rock. 

My version of balance

Whoa. It's been a while.
I'm  going to try to blog more often even if the only person who reads these is my husband (hi Aaron!)

I am on vacation time still. Which is actually waking up at 5am and getting tired around 8pm. I woke up this morning at 4:30. Ugh.

I went on a cruise with my mom to celebrate our upcoming 40th and 65th birthdays. I had never been on a cruise before. They are weird. Weeeeeeird. I think I may like a more mellow cruise line better. This Carnival cruise was like a big floating Wal-Mart. It was just not my scene. My mom and I found our niche though. Early morning by the pool was really quiet. We'd drink coffee and lay in the sun reading. The pool would be empty so I could swim. We'd have breakfast...then maybe a pina colada. It was pretty cool. Right when it would get crazypants we'd be ready to go have lunch. We'd sit on the balcony and talk or read. It was really pretty nice.

We stopped in Honduras, Belize and Mexico. The first stop in Honduras freaked me out at the start. You stepped off the boat into this made up shopping mall town that was clearly created just for the cruise people. It was all fake and strange. The cruise people were like, 'this is so great! Look at that t-shirt!' and I was like, 'where is Honduras?' but as we went further in and finally got on the bus, things got good. And the rest of the stops were lovely. I love Belize so very much and Cozumel was gorgeous. We snorkeled with dolphins (if you dive down and pull a piece of sea grass out they will chase you and take it from you!! I did this over and over again.) There were a lot of "firsts" for me on this trip. First time scuba diving, ziplining, and driving a car in a foreign country. Ziplining is the coolest thing ever. I would like to incorporate ziplining in everything I do. We ended in New Orleans and we had a blast there too. Great food, a swamp tour, the voodoo museum.

My mom is rad. We had a good time. :)

One last thing about the cruise, I am not a skinny girl. I have never really been skinny and never will be skinny. I like shapes and sizes and think as long as you are active, challenging yourself, and don't put too much junk in your vessel you are doing okay. I'm not judgmental at all. However, I think maybe some people shouldn't wear bikinis. I want to say, 'good for you! You go big girl with your tiny bikini' but I just couldn't. Sorry. Please check out a one piece or a tankini. Beyonce does it and she is hot. Thanks.

I feel pretty rejuvenated. Refreshed. Ready to come back to work. This is the first time since February 2011 that I took a trip and feel like it was a vacation. A true vacation. I know, poor me, right? Oh no first world princess are your VACATIONS not living up to expectations??? I know, but still...

In February of 2011 things changed radically for me. It has been amazing and remarkable in my new job and new direction and focus but it is also intense. Europe last summer was AMAZING but it was work. My little trips here and there were great but they were family or baby shower or work. I am a girl who needs a vacation. I don't have kids and while demanding, my job is very flexible. I don't work 8-5 Monday through Friday. I have an amazing team of people who do their jobs and I can check in as needed. Aaron and I aren't rich but we do okay. We make enough to live simply and take a few trips here and there. I need to travel. I really do.My work pattern is like this: go, go, go and then drop. I used to hate this about myself. I'm manic, I'd say, I need balance. But really, I'm manic and I embrace that. I need trips that are exciting, adventurous, lazy, and joyful. It makes me better at what I do and who I am. I reflect and refresh. And then I come back with new ideas, goals, and oddly- a sense of balance.

I guess my point is, I feel pretty good. Got home and spent much needed quality time with Aaron. Went to Trader Joe's, cleaned the house, did some laundry, cooked some food, caught up a bit. I'm ready to rock and roll this summer.

Also, I'm looking forward to Curacao this September. :)