The long dark tea-time of the soul *

      I'm here. I'm still alive. I think about posting a lot. Particularly when I'm at the theater and it's midnight and I realize that if I had only not volunteered to direct, I could be posting. Except I would have posted earlier since I try to go to sleep before midnight. Sleep ... Once I knew what that was.
      The play is going well. The actors are coming along. I have a couple of problem areas to work on, but overall, it's shaping up nicely. The set should be finished this weekend, although it won't get its furnishings until the week of the performance. We're borrowing the furniture so we try to limit its time at the theater. I'll take a picture of the empty set after we paint the floor Saturday so you can see how it turned out. A friend of mine, an interior decorator, is decorating the set, and she's doing a great job.
      Work and the play. That's pretty much my life until the end of the month. Why I ever direct is a mystery to me. It's a lot of work if you try to do it well, and I'm incapable of not trying to do my best. I hate to see plays where the set has been slopped up there and the actors stumble over their lines. I'm determined that my actors have the best available and as much time as they need to master their characters. I want the play to be something they're proud of having been in when April 3rd rolls around. (The play's performances are March 30 - April 2.)
      Everything is getting done on schedule. I have a list of what has to be done, and I check items off daily. Too few items, but at least things are getting done. Some things won't be done simply because we'll run out of time, but the major and most of the minor items will be completed. I think most projects are like that. Eventually a deadline rolls around, and you go with what you have.
      They sent my niece home from the hospital. Basically they pumped her full of steroids and pain meds, said they didn't know what was wrong other than something was, recommended she get some more tests, and that was that, another fine example of the medical care for the uninsured in this nation.
      I choose the title to the post due to the malaise that has affected me over the past few days. It's been busy and exhausting, what with work, the play, a funeral, an IBD flare, general aches and pains, etc. I need a vacation. A few days away on a beach. A new life. All the usual things I long for, but don't make happen. Ah, there's the rub.
      Anyway, it's 6:40 p.m. now, and I have to get to the theater. I'll try to stay in touch more. Night y'all.

(*With apologies to Douglas Adams for borrowing the title of one of books)