Why I Teach Theatre

Because I love when they make me laugh so hard I cry

Because I love when they perform so well they make me cry

Because I love when they look at me in shock when I sing at the top of my lungs just for fun

Because I love when they say thank you and give me flowers

Because I love how a hairdo can turn an actor into a character

Because I love when they give in to the awkwardness of stage make-up, eyebrows and all

Because I love the little things, like when they hand wash the powder puffs

Because I love watching them get hooked on a musical, listening to it every second

Because I love when they beg me to download soundtracks

Because I love when they listen to me talk about the first time I saw Rent

Because I love that they beg me to take them back to New York

Because I love watching them go from awkward freshmen to show-stopping senior stars

Because I love seeing them create a better system of organization that I could

Because I love seeing them become professionals

Because I love getting to finally sit back and watch the product of our hard work

Because I love the look on their faces the first time I ask them to make a professional phone call

Because I love the pride with which they report how much we made in ticket sales

Because I love how they take everything seriously, even rolling change

Because I love how they will painstakingly and pridefully repurpose a vest, humbly stitching in a corner for hours. 

Because I love that five people will grab a needle and thread all at once to fix a problem

November

So, I am in the midst of tech week for Quilt.  My two leads still don't know their lines very well, which is nerve wracking to say the least, but other than that... it is coming along. We had a really productive rehearsal Friday.  There has been some other drama (no pun intended), which I think is pretty typical of most theatre departments, but hasn't been typical of mine until this year. Sigh. Next week we start full on rehearsals with the accompanist, and I have high hopes.

This weekend has been relatively calm. We put together Tiana's big girl bed and she napped in it (after quite the struggle, but we did succeed) and slept in it last night. When we put Vinny in his big boy bed for the first time, he was only 15 months old, and I swear he never once got up. He was probably 5 years old before he realized he was allowed to get out of bed without us coming to get him.

But Tiana is not Vinny.

She is LOVING the freedom to get up on her own. As soon as we put her down for nap, she promptly took advantage of the freedom to go get all of her stuffed animals and invite them into bed with her. She certainly enjoys the up and down.  But, we are going on a cruise in a few weeks, and she is going to have to sleep in a bed there, and I already knew getting used to a bed was going to be a problem, so I wanted to make sure to transition her now. It's gonna be a rough couple of weeks,  but we will get through it.

I was looking at our calendar for the next few months, and I must admit, I am having some difficulty coming to terms with all of the time I will be parenting solo.  I am off work in the month of January, so that is helpful, but Marc is going to be in Iowa for a lot of the time I am off. Then there are just a ton of other little weekend things...  local youth worker weekend in the mountains, national youth worker thing in Anaheim, middle school winter camp, high school winter camp... you get the picture.

Well, I suppose I should enjoy what I have instead of complaining about what will be. Last night, we went out for our anniversary and we saw Spring Awakening, which I have been excited about for a long time. What an amazing musical.  Great acting and voices too.

Well, its off to church now.  :-)