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| Grand Central Light Fixture |
Holy heckaroni, peeps, I'm a tightly-wound ball of stress right now.
I thought last week was epic in its scope - the highs, the lows, the in-betweens - the manic flux betwixt them.1
There was a show I was in and a show I saw; there was an appointment, a party, an out-of-town guest; there were plane tickets booked, and bacon for breakfast; there was an interview, and classes; there were emails sent, and dogs seen, and Scrabble played; there was a surprise encounter with a half-naked person in my bathroom (of which I will say no more). Plus I spent 50 hours workin' for The Man. Plus I spent who-knows-how-many hours researching Eastern Europe for my upcoming trip2. It was a full week, shall we say.
This week, I was expecting to get caught up on things, but instead I feel farther behind. My To-Do list has a To-Do list, my mind keeps restlessly spinning, and there are Post-It note reminders to myself everywhere.
I had Improv class last night and I didn't want to go. I had a bad attitude - partly owing to new theater blues (I miss my old, comfortable, familiar theater!) and partly because I just felt like I had TOO MUCH going on, TOO MUCH to accomplish, in TOO SHORT a time frame. I had NO TIME for class.
But I showed up anyways, and you know what? It went ok. My classmates were friendly. My teacher gave good notes. We even played two games that were new to me: one called "Mission Impossible" and one called "Let's F*** With The Baby" (of which I will say no more). Class was fun. And about half-way through the evening, I realized that my mind wasn't relentlessly spinning, I had stopped mentally creating To-Do lists, I had blocked out everything but what was happening before me in that studio space.
And then I remembered one of the reasons I love Improv: it helps me be present. For the three hours each week that I am in class, I am not thinking about the rest of my week. I am not thinking about work, I am not mourning what's missing in my life, I feel no guilt for being unable to remember the last time I went to the gym. I block all that out. I check the stress ball at the door. Time stops. I'm present. And I get to just...play.
New theater, old theater, it's still the same: Improv is a much-needed play-date with myself. And I can MAKE TIME for that.
Now back to my To-Do list(s)...
1 Betwixt? That's a word? I can use it? Yes.
2 Don't cry for me, Argentina, I'm not looking for pity 'cause I'm stressed about planning a vacation. We should all have such problems. Just explaining my head space coming into this week.
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