Unbelieveably, today is Thursday. This week has flown by, because I literally haven't had time to breathe all week long. I am proud of myself, because for the first time during a tech week, I am not letting anything slide. (Except maybe my journal, but that's not really a priority for me, sorry to say) I am not missing any work. My laundry is caught up, my dishes are washed, and my bills are paid. I haven't eaten fat food (my new term for fast food) all week. For that matter, I haven't eaten out at all this week. I've carefully packed my lunches and cooked dinners in advance so I can eat in my car. The one thing I haven't ever let go is my munchkin, who is always dressed, clean, and in the right place at the right time, even during tech week, because even in my laziest days I wasn't *that* bad. The program for the show is done and at the printer. I have delegated the lobby board, and called everyone involved to make sure everything is set. My lines are learned, my costumes are fitted, and my makeup box is stocked. I have red polish on my fingernails. I just have to buy stockings and go to the bank and I am set.
Of course, all of this means that I haven't had time to blink my eyes all week. I'm living on 6.58 hours of sleep per night, on average. I've irritated my bed-buddy when he has been caught in the tornado of my new-found efficiency. (I prodded him out of the house 10 minutes early yesterday morning, while he was still spreading peanut butter on his toast.) I have been so frighteningly focused that I haven't even considered my usual relaxing delights. I soothe myself by singing in my car, loudly, while en route to the next part of the day. I wonder how long I can keep up at this pace before I have a psychotic episode?
Rehearsals this week have been insane. The building we rehearse in closes at 10:30. The janitors shove everyone out and lock up. Usually. This week, they have been shy about it, a fact which I deeply regret. Our director is inexperienced, and we have a cast and crew of over 30 people. This means that the director's attention is being pulled in 40 different directions for the half-hour before rehearsal is to start, as she is outnumbered and hasn't learned to tell people to shut up and go away. The end-result of this is that we have not gotten this show running before 8:30 yet. It's a 2 hours and 45 minutes-long show. Plus time for scene changes. You do the math. By the time I got home last night, it was after midnight. My poor munchkin was snoring in the car. I feel really bad about that. Typically, it hasn't been a problem, because if she stays out until 10 or 10:30, she adapts by taking a nap after school, and is happy to accompany her mom to rehearsal. She doesn't have any trouble getting up for school in the morning. When I'm forced to keep her out past 10, however, she can't possibly fit in enough of a nap to make up for the lost time. She's groggy in the morning, and I can't imagine what it's like for her, sleeping in the van, then waking up in her bed.
It's nothing personal against my new director, but I think I might stick with experienced ones for a while, if only to avoid this sort of situation. As I have said, I fully expect to stay out late on tech week nights, but not for all 8 weeks of rehearsal.
I'm having fun at work today. I've got an experimental web server, and am designing a new web interface for our ancient BBS system, so that people can use it with Active-HTML and JAVA. It's going to be very cool.
You know, it occurred to me today that I'm really glad that I limit my munchkin's TV and movie exposure. I have never used the TV as a babysitter. She watches it on occasion, but I supervise the content. If she wants to watch and there aren't appropriate shows on TV, it gets turned off, or I put in a Disney video. I also don't let her watch the news, and I try to preview movies before I let her watch them, to make sure they aren't too scary. I think that we as a society are killing our children's innocence by bringing the grisliest elements of the world into their minds at a very early age, when they are at their most impressionable! What's more, many parents virtually abandon their kids, so that the only interaction these kids have is with COPS, CNN, and Jenny Jones. Have you seen the kinds of stuff that they have on daytime TV? One of Kirstin's schoolmates is like this. He goes home from school at age 7, and sits in his room until he goes to bed, watching TV. This same kid was allowed to watch Saving Private Ryan in the theatre with his bigger brother. Don't these parents see anything wrong with this??? Not only is it physically unhealthy, but it's teaching this little boy that all of this stuff is normal. A *kid* at the age of 7 does not need to watch the violence and hatred of a *real* war on TV! I'm an *adult* and I try to shield myself from those sorts of images. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm old-fashioned. This just upsets me a lot. Everyone wonders why kids are so unprecedently violent in this generation. I think it goes back to a basic rule of life. You get out of "x" only what you put in to "x". You can substitute any variable you would like. x=kids. x=life. x=education. x=relationships. x=religion. I'm occasionally impatient with Kirstin. Hence, she is occasionally impatient with me. She mirrors my gestures, and my patterns of speech. If it weren't me providing the input, what would she be like? In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that." (irony intended).
