The Ubiquitous End of Year Post... My Year in Review

2011 Here it goes. For more detail, of course, you can flip through the whole Blog, but I know that I wrote more sparsely at different times of the year and sometimes my writing was motivated more by the emotional state of my life than the actual events. So a look back seems to bring out the significance in what happened this year.

Theatrical Events:
It was busy in 2011. The first half of the year I wrapped up my tenure as AD of Walterdale. I started the season knee-deep in Rabbit Hole and I think that will always be one of the most satisfying directorial experiences of my life. I had challenges that fed my personal needs. I had a terrific cast, production team and crew. I had to make some tough decisions. I had a script that I really wanted to serve and I think I did that. I also complicated my life by overlapping rehearsals for that show with The Threepenny Opera. I enjoyed doing that show. It too had elements that really made me work. The music in that show was some of the most challenging I have ever sung. Like G & S, Weill is not in my wheelhouse, meaning I had to work. So many fabulous people and it was great to be onstage in the season. I confess, I was trying to find a way to do as much as I could before the end of my tenure. So that led into my first 'real' set design for Village of Idiots. I was more nervous about that than any acting or directing job I have ever done. I worked with the wonderful Linette Smith in a kind of full-circle sort of way (she directed Steel Magnolias which was my second show at Walterdale, but the one where I really knew I was home). The summer meant Fringe and this year I was so happy to re-visit and re-draft Pieces. I was thrilled with the response form both critics and audiences. I can tell you quite honestly that the sounds of sniffling audiences makes me very happy. I also really enjoyed working with my cast and Team. The luxury of doing your own Fringe show is picking the people you want to work with. I was happy with our picks. I was also happy with the new draft as I felt that it was so much closer to the story I wanted to tell. Fall rolled into A Little Night Music at Festival Place. Another wonderful new family and the joy of singing Sondheim. And then I wrapped up the year as Master Painter for Wyrd Sisters at Walterdale. This was a fun challenge as I did not have my mentor, Joan, on hand so I had to solve the painting mystery myself and I also brought my kids on board to be my crew. Someday I see Gibson as having the potential to be an excellent set painter. Oliver might be too, if he gets paid, but I doubt he has the patience for detail work.

Educational Events:
I did Drama 209 first semester and Drama 257 second semester. Drama 209 is the second theatre history course at the U of A and you travel from just after Shakespeare to Ibsen. I really enjoyed it and find that aside from the essays I really love theatre history. Good thing I kick major butt on the exams! Drama 257 is scene study and while I really enjoyed the class, particularly my classmates, it really made me ask questions about what I was doing at University. I haven't fully answered this question but I was frustrated because although I enjoyed the course I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know. It did remind me that I was lazy about some of the character prep work that I could be doing. It also shook up my approach to objectives and tactics because I think I do them a lot more instinctively and less formally and really they are so useful, but it was more like a refresher course than an eye-opener. It is making me re-think my second semester choice. Outside of University I went to Playworks Ink in the Fall and for one very short weekend I was reminded of how much I love writing and how little time I put into it. I have so many plays I need to write. I need to make time for that writing. I don't. I need to.

Personal/Family/All the Rest:
* This year we said goodbye to Smeep, our beloved cat. This was very hard for me. She was a wonderful member of our family. I still expect her to greet me when I come home and the bumps and thumps in the night have no explanation any more. We had her longer than Oliver.
* Oliver and Gibson started basketball and for half a year it took over our lives. Well, mine anyhow. I have a better idea of how it works now and know that it means the Fall will be challenging for scheduling in other activities, but it has been very cool to watch Oliver grow as a player and start to think like a team player and an athlete.
*My cousin Margaret got married and I got to travel on my own to San Francisco/Berkley for a great family reunion - too short, as always.
* I taught my first (hopefully of many) Workshop By Request in Calmar. It was on Giving and Receiving Direction and I had so much fun with this wonderful group who have a fabulous attitude towards what they do.
* I did not gain weight, but I haven't really significantly lost any. This has to change. I am working on trying to streamline my life so that I am doing only the projects I want to do and therefore can have enough to be happy and not too much so that I can't work more on my physical shape. I just don't want that whole diet and fitness thing to take over my life. I think that would depress me and make me want to eat... I did lose 10 lbs in the last 10 weeks of 2011 and have a great support group online with my extended family. So hopefully I can continue this momentum into the new year. I am comfortable with 10 lbs in 10 weeks. It's not crazy. It's realistic.
* I did not write as much as I would have liked. This is also about time. I need to make the time for it. Pieces was a lovely opportunity and I do have a half a draft I was supposed to finish for December 15th to send to Daniel MacIvor. I need to finish that and do more. I must.

It's been a good year.

Goodbye Smeep...

This past week we said goodbye to Smeep. She had a rough go of it the last 8-10 months. She was diagnosed with diabetes in late March/early April. We thought it was a urinary tract infection but it was a little more than that. We struggled at first with what turned out to be an over-prescription of insulin which led to 2 diabetic comas. When she had the second one she flat-lined at the vets. It was pretty bad. We got her level, but to be honest, we struggled with the routine of it. I lost confidence in my vet because of the insulin comas and after a pretty calm summer she declined again this Fall. We had Smeep for 12 years and she came into our family at a time when I was sad about some other things and she was truly my cat in many ways. She was a wonderful cat, never afraid to offer her belly up for a rub when a stranger came in the house. This December Smeep was featured in Today's Parent magazine (you can check the article out on page 64). I think she waited for her fame and then it was time to go. I will miss her.

More Ups Than Downs! Yay!

Well, the cat is so much better. She was over-prescribed on the dosage for her insulin and after she spent a day with the vet getting her stabilized she is home and back to normal with a much lower dosage that seems to be working. So much better.

The show is doing well. We have had really nice full audiences (100+) for the first three nights and last night (Saturday) was SOLD OUT! Hurrah! We usually do well on the Sunday matinee so I expect to see quite a few there today. I have had a lot of my friends come and they have been very positive for the most part (I have one friend who didn't like it but she didn't like the music and I think it wasn't her kind of show - fair enough). The reviews are good and I have been blessed with being singled out in a nice way.

Right now my hair is in curlers. I wish I could nap with them in because I do not feel I got to sleep in as late as I would have liked. I am thinking of exploring a way to sleep sitting up!

This week is a bit Up and Down...

The Ups are mostly at the theatre. The show opened and audiences are really responsive and seem to like it. I got great feedback from AM, who will not lie to me. So if she said it was good, it was... I certainly feel the love from the audiences. It is a tough show in many ways because it is not typical musical theatre. Brecht is very blatant and there are no jazz hands, baby! Also, I really like this cast and crew (except whoever stole my Diet Coke from the fridge... I will find you and exact my vengeance!) so being around them all is wonderful fun. The Downs mostly are at home, with Smeep. She took a turn this morning. I am pretty sure she was hypoglycemic. She couldn't' make her legs work. We are trying to stay on the insulin schedule but she is not eating so it's a big frigging mess in her body. I hate to say it, but I preferred it when she was having accidents all over the house. At least she could walk and talk to us. I am worried. She is at the Vet right now and hopefully they will stabilize her and we can get a better plan for her. The plan we were on was not working. It is hard for me to deal with this. She is a wonderful cat and I don't knwo what is goign to happen for her. It has to be easier or at least there has to be a plan we can follow that will help her. I continue to be excessively busy. I got a chunk of work done yesterday but I have lots more to do before my project starts on Tuesday. I have no time to learn my song for the callback on Monday that I am contemplating cancelling because my life is so chaotic right now. I really want to do the show, but I feel like I am at a critical mass point...

My Cat Has Diabetes...

It's not a urine tract infection... it's diabetes, a disease which she will likely have for the rest of her life and which requires 2 injections of insulin every day at very specific times. It could be worse. It could be something without treatment or with an even more expensive treatment. It will likely cost us about $1000 per year at first estimates. It could be one of my kids. I am not wrapping my head around the logistics of this needle thing though. I worry it will chain us to the house at 8 and 8 forever. I am currently pulling a Scarlett O'Hara and thinking about it tomorrow, because I don't know how we are going to make it work. Maybe we will get the sugars managed so that she only will require one needle a day... does that happen? Please say it does...

Cat Update #2

I got a phone call from the vet today. Smeep's lump was benign and with the type of tumor it was excision is curative. Yay! So we should keep an eye (or hand) out for future lumps, but she is fine for now. In a week the stitches should come out and then it is just wait for her next shot. I am quite relieved.

Cat Update

Smeep is home. She seems to be doing well and we will find out in a week or so about the results from the lab. She is leaving the sutures alone and is a bit clingy, but that is expected. Hopefully all will be well.

It strikes me as strange compared to how we dealt with our pets as children. I am pretty sure we did not take any of our cats for yearly shots. We let them run around outside and the only time they went to the vet was to get fixed or if they were visibly injured. If the repair cost a significant amount of money I am pretty sure that my parents went the way of euthanasia. But Smeep is a part of our family. She's been here longer than the boys have. I couldn't see not getting the lump removed and tested, although I was relieved that it cost less than the $500 the doctor originally quoted. Who knows, down the line it may cost more.

When I was picking her up there was an elderly gentlemen leaving the back room alone who looked quite shook up as though he'd been crying. The vet came out and said "sorry for your loss" and it struck me how gentle all the staff was with him. He looked like a weathered farmer type of guy. I really liked the way the staff was behaving and it made me feel that we have a good doctor for our Smeep.

Kitty Cat Woes...

My cat Smeep is at the vet today. She had a small lump on her back and they are removing it and testing it. The Vet says it looks like melanoma. We will not know what it is until next week and I am hoping it is benign. She's a really nice cat.