I don’t really think that it would be great for me to publicly talk about what I have been working on quite yet as all of the details are totally up in the air and I don’t want to send the wrong impressions to some people.  I do feel however like I need to say something, mostly on account of there is great potential for exciting opportunities for me.  It was really a chance happening that led to my flurry of impulsive work, but with a little luck I think that I may have set in motion a series of events that could be very good.

Isn’t it interesting though, how things kind of sneak up on you?  I was helping out a friend when I stumbled across the impetus for all this.  Totally unplanned and unpredicted.  I never really thought that I would be pursuing such a course of action at this point in time, though I have always known it was something I would do eventually.  It kinda made me a little stressed out just thinking about things and getting excited, but it could all be for naught so I don’t want to go nuts.

I have never been one for making long term plans.  I have always kind of lived by what comes my way.  Maybe it is the nature of what I do?  I have never liked feeling locked into anything way out in advance, because I always worry about what would happen if things change in the interim.

There is, however, something exciting that I can talk about.  I got the go-ahead from my boss to be able to take time off to go to the Theatre Department Alumni Reunion at my alma mater, Ithaca College.  Now I just have to plan out the logistics and I should be good to go.  The aspect of this trip that weighs heavy on my mind is finding a place to stay while there.  They blocked some hotel rooms, but they are kind of expensive.  I can fly out on miles, but I am not sure that I could afford to stay unless I can find better priced accommodations.  Thus, I don’t know if anyone from Ithaca reads my blog, but if you do and are going or live there and want to split a room or loan me a bed or your sofa, that would be cool!

So, pile all that on with opening the first show of the season this week at the theatre, it has been quite a long week and I am quite tired.  There is still a lot left to do, though I should be able to take most of tomorrow off after I go and shoot photos of the U of U Theatre Department’s production of Alcestis, which is part of the annual Greek Theatre Festival.  Since it is always done in traditional Greek style, it is outdoors at nine in the morning.  So tomorrow could be a long day.

Many people look forward to the time that they take off from work.  Some may not really care one way or the other.  For me however, it is fun to be back in the swing of things at work.  Now I suppose most people who visit here know that I work in theatre, but now anyone who just showed up knows as well.  It is certainly an interesting and crazy world to work in.  now as we push on into fall and winter (fall doesn’t last too long in Utah) we get less daylight, so pretty soon, I won’t really see much of it.  Well, I say that, but in reality, it probably isn’t true once we get into ski season.  It is always fun to get up when it is still fairly dark out and not go home again until it is dark.  We did get new curtains for the bedroom windows that let a lot more light in so that it is less like a cave in the mornings and it will be easier to wake up.

So, tonight is the first tech rehearsal for the first show of the season, and it really is fun to be back in the groove.  We have been off to a flying start with Hamlet since I got back to town, but everything has been going very smoothly and we have been very efficient.  This is a great thing considering that I have a bunch of new people working for me and this is the first show.  We also have one of my favorite lighting designers lighting this show, PM.  He calls himself “the other Jew in Salt Lake City” (it is our little joke, me being Jewish and all), and while he isn’t always the easiest to keep up with, he is always fun to have in town.

Last season, I had a hard time keeping up with PM on his show, which should have been one of the easiest shows of the season.  I think it had a lot lot to do with the fact that I had been sick for most of the tech process.  It happens.  This time it seems like we really have kicked things off on the right foot, and that is good because PM will be back for White Christmas in a couple months.

The crazy think now is that we will probably be running at what feels like full tilt until we get to the end of the season.  Like camp, the days will feel long, but the weeks will go by really fast.  The season will be over in the blink of an eye.  I can’t actually believe that I have been out here for five years!  It has gone by really fast (kinda scary), but it has been really great as well.  I am doing what I love in a place that I am quite happy to be, so life is good!

Well, it has been quite a while since I posted anything.  Life got really exciting and hectic at the end of the summer.  The end of camp is always a bigger deal than you ever remember it to be, and this summer was no exception.  I had more things on my plate in the last week of camp than I anticipated, and I still have some unfinished ones that I really need to get around to, especially now that my hard drives are back in town.

Getting home from camp, I had the worst travel day that I have ever had.  It started with bad omens in that we missed being able to go to the post office to mail home one last box of stuff.  Why the post office closes early on Saturdays, who knows.  However, from there, things only went downhill.  On the drive down to the airport I managed to get in a car accident that basically totaled my parent’s truck.  Thankfully everyone was OK, but it was not a good situation (not that any car accident is).  It all started because i had to slam on the brakes as there was another accident that had occurred, and everyone was stopping.  It is probably good that I hit the car in front of me as opposed to going around it as the embankment was very steep and the probability of rolling the truck would have been high.

So, I call my parents, who rush down to pick us up and get us to the airport.  Amazingly, we get there with a little time to spare, which is a good thing.  Why?  Well, when going through security, I got stopped because something showed up when they put my carry-on through the X-ray.  Turns out that I had one of Ruth’s bags in my carry-on and it had her pocket knife in it.  Needless to say, the knife got tossed.

After getting on the first plane, things seemed to smooth out, and for the first time that I had done any major travel with Ruth, it was good.  On our connecting flight from MDW to SLC we managed to snag our own row, with no third person, so we were very happy.  However, upon our arrival back in SLC, there had to be one more thing that would go wrong.  One of our bags decided to take an extended trip around the country, so it didn’t make it to SLC that night.  In fact, when I walked into the baggage office and showed them the claim ticket, they already knew about it.  The good news is that they knew where the bag was and they managed to get it to us the next day.  For that we got a $50 travel voucher which is pretty nice.

That weekend did get better though because we had tickets to see The Lion King on Sunday night.  The Lion King is quite possibly one of my most favorite musicals ever.  The music is great, the costumes and head-pieces are spectacular, and it is just a fun show to see.  If you have never seen it, you should.  I had been lucky enough to have seen it on Broadway back when it was new, and I had always wanted to see it again and see how they would get it on tour.  Well, even slightly scaled back to fit in trucks and in smaller theatres, it was a great show.  I still have the music stuck in my head.

Come Monday it was back to work.  Possibly the first thing that my boss said after “hello” was something to the effect of: “Can you push your schedule up a week and hang the show early so we can fly our scenery?”  What was my response?  Well, in traditional me style I just said: “Of course.”  So now I had to round up a crew and get to work to be able to start a week earlier than I had planned.  That is life at the theatre, always unexpected.

So, things are finally starting to settle down and get back to a normal rhythm.  I have plans to go camping on Labor Day Weekend, and then I am helping to lead services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and then we are doing the show.  I have to figure out my ski-pass situation and all the mundane things that come with being back in the swing of things.  Now that things are normalizing, life is pretty good.

The other thing that happened that is a major time suck is Words With Friends.  It is a iapp for iphone, ipod touch, etc. that is kinda like scrabble, and I love scrabble.  So I am totally hooked.  If you play or want to play, you can get if for free, and then look me up: Icewolf08!

On a side note, I did drop the ball on organizing Bloggerstock for August due to all that stuff I just mentioned.  So, we have pushed the August topic to September for anyone who is interested.  You can get the full scoop at the Bloggerstock Site.

“Freedom! Heading home for a much needed day off.” ~Christine Macken (1985-2010)

I often have written about how life is short and we need to make the best of what we have.  Sometimes the stark reality in that sentiment comes out and slaps you in the face.  I have often looked around me at my friends, finding it so strange that they were getting married and some even having children, but when it comes to my contemporaries passing away, that is a completely different story.  Death is an unfortunate phase of life when it snuffs out an amazing light so early.  It is immutable though and as such all we can do is keep the memories alive in ourselves.

As I walked across the field to my cabin this evening I just watched the lights through the mist.  In a way it was very surreal, walking and thinking about my friend who passed away last Monday, July 5.  I knew what I was doing, I was trying to compose some kind of post in my head and while I thought all of these ideas that came to me were good, probably none of them will actually make it here.  All of the thinking really just made me remember her and started to make me feel sad.

I remember the last time we were together.  It wasn’t really that long ago.  We met you at Squatters along with some of your other friends from the area.  Your mother was there too.  We had some food and a couple beers and caught up on old times.  I am sure that neither of us thought that would be the last time that we would see eachother.  At least it was a happy and fun time.

I met Macken at the University of Utah.  She was a theatre student who did some work and internships with us at PTC.  I don’t think that I ever actually realized that she was an EMT, but all things considered, it doesn’t surprise me.  Macken was an amazing person and a great friend.  She was a person who really did live life to the fullest all the time and I would imagine that it wasn’t easy given her medical history.  I can’t remember a time that I didn’t see her happy.  She was dedicated, hard-working, friendly, and kind.  While we may not have been best friends, she was a great friend to have!  I (and anyone else who did) was lucky to know her.

Life is like that sometimes.  Sometimes the best of people get dealt the lousy hands.  Sometimes you just have to look for the silver lining, the golden ticket.  Hopefully the place beyond this harsh world we inhabit for our brief moment of life is actually a better place.  Hopefully it is place where the things that plagued us in our Earthly life are set aside so that we can exist in some state of peace with the rest of the universe.  I would certainly hope that if we move on to a non-corporeal existence that the physical “defects” of our bodies will cease to haunt us.

For Christine, a short poem that this sad time inspired:

Freedom comes in many forms
In days off,
nights off,
and passing storms

Those left behind can’t understand
you lie
in peace
on beach’s sand

A laugh, a smile, a memory
of time spent
living
frolicking, free

We are but travelers here on earth
we seek refuge
in passage
to death from birth

Life cannot be lived when you hide in fear
so dream
make friends
and keep them near

Life’s release to death will freedom give
yet in our hearts
and minds
you live

This post is of course dedicated to Christine Macken and the Macken family.  I am so glad that I had the chance to get to know and work with Chrstine.  She was a wonderful person and a great friend.  May you find greener pastures wherever you are and I hope you know that you will be missed.  If you want to read more about this amazing person, you can follow this link.  Rest in peace Mack.

Today I was given another award type thing from the wonderful Debbie over at Debbie: The College Years.  Debbie is another theatre person, in fact she is currently studying theatre.  We theatre people seem to have a knack for finding eachother in the world, it is a very bizarre and cool thing.  This award is the “You are Going Places Baby” award which I suppose is kind of more like a meme than an award, but hey, we don’t have to play down calling it an award!  Who doesn’t like to be loved a little, right?  The idea behind this one is to share where you see yourself in ten years and then pass the award on to ten people.  I think that I can handle that.

I actually get asked often what I want to be when I grow up.  I started to find that a little odd after I graduated from college and got a job.  I mean, I am doing what I love to do, what I went to school for, and I am enjoying doing it.  I am working at a great theatre and living in a fun place, and I am happy.  The fact that I have a job, support myself, and live on the other side of the country from my parents makes me feel pretty grown up.  However, I am pretty sure that I can’t really stay where I am forever.

Ten years from now I will be 36 years old and certainly see myself still working in some aspect of the theatre/entertainment industry.  I have always thought that at some point in my life I would end up back in the academic world, teaching theatre, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I was doing that within ten years.  In this industry you often have to move out in order to move up.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job and where I work now, but I think that in order to continue to grow as a professional I will have to move on eventually.

People often ask if I see myself ending up on Broadway.  To be honest, I am not sure if that is the kind of theatre that I really want to be doing.  Sure, there is lots of money to be had working on the big commercial shows, but it is a very different beast than the theatre that we produce on the regional level.  I also just don’t really see myself living in New York City and being happy.  I know that there are plenty of people who love being in NYC, but of all the times that I have been there, I could never see myself living there.  A vacation there for a few days, not so bad.  Living there, I just don’t think so.

Hopefully within ten years I will have settled in to whatever job I have to the point where I can be happily married to my wonderful girlfriend.  I am not sure if children will be on the table at that point, I suppose it would depend on what we were both doing, but it it possible.  I certainly would like to have a family at some point down the road.  When you live in Utah, you are the odd-ball-out when you are my age, not married, and don’t have at least two kids, but hey, I was always the odd-ball!

In general, I am not really a person who does a lot of planning of things far in advance.  I like to live life as it comes at me.  I don’t spend a lot of time worrying or even really thinking about the future.  I feel like if you are too concerned with where you see yourself that you don’t spend enough time where you are.  Life is relatively short and if you don’t enjoy the now and only work towards your “ideal future,” will you really feel fulfilled when you get there (if you get there)?  I am very much a person who lives by the saying: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there!”

I suppose my answer to where I see myself a decade from now is a little ambiguous, but that is how it is in my mind.  The future is what it will be!  So, the lucky people who I would like to pass this little award on to are:

• e_mily from The Infamous Sun she doesn’t call herself a blogger, but if I am lucky maybe she will do this one
• Island Gal from NYC Island Gal
• Risha from You can Read me Anything
• Penny from There’s Beauty in the Breakdown
• Mel from Mel Learns her Lessons
• Ruth from Ramblings of Ruth
• Kris from Because or Why Not
• Kisekae from Diary of a Doll
• Bobby from Inside the Mind of Booya
• Ms. Harmony from Miss You Love