Clean Slate

Well, I am dismayed at how long it has been since my last post . . . but the end of 2008 was a wild ride.

I hosted my friend K and several colleagues for Turkey Day and though it was pleasant, I missed my DC Thanksgivings desperately. My reasons are pretty silly and petulant, but suffice to say it just wasn't the same crowd and nobody here knew "the rules" (which is just to say the day was completely different than how it evolved in DC). Seeing K and catching up with her was truly the highlight of the break.

A few days after Turkey Day, I found ANOTHER stray. Yup. My third since moving to my new home. Well, he was a MESS, but I got him cleaned up and promptly fell in love with him. One of my students said he looked like a cute little Wilford Brimley - he had a name! Though I adored this little shih-tzu, I knew I couldn't keep him so I spent the next three weeks trying to find Brimley a new home. In the end, I found a home for him at in Stella's new obedience class. I hated to let him go . . . I still miss the little fella . . . but I believe he has found a very good home and for that I am grateful.

Of course, the end of the semester is nutty anyway, and to make it even crazier, I held auditions for Oedipus which I'm directing in the spring. So the last three nights of official class days, I was dealing with being a director. It was fun, but exhausting.

When I got home late the final night of auditions, there was a cryptic message on my voice mail left by my mother. You know the kind, left in a serious tone that says nothing other than she needed to speak to me about something and I should call "no matter what time." That's never good. So I call and wake up both my mother and father and am told that my sister-in-law, H, is in the hospital with double pneumonia and "a kidney problem." Ugh. So I hang up, thankful she's being cared for but concerned for her, my brother, and their kids.

The next day, a dead day on campus and also my birthday, I spent in meetings and on the phone trying to get information on H. One of her lungs had collapsed and that "kidney problem" was actually early renal failure so she was placed on a ventilator and went into a long sleep. She was VERY ILL. I also heard that the job search, for which I am a finalist, is now on an indefinite hold, and the funding I had to go spend a week on at my Alexander training center was pulled. SIGH. Happy Birthday, huh? So far, I'm not impressed with the birthdays in my 40s!

The next week was really a blur of finals, grading, and staying up to date on H's condition. Once grades were in, I cleaned my house, got all my dogs groomed (the fleas are STILL persisting - AAAAHHH), packed, and left for Atlanta to be with my brother and his family. On the nearly 12 hour drive to Atlanta (with THREE DOGS and TWO CATS mind you), I got a text message from my brother that said something like, "the surgery went well." HUH? My reply was, "surgery"?! Come to find out, the docs went in and scraped the infection off H's lung. Gross, but good. Of course, there was a lot more going on with H that I've skipped over - stints and draining fluid and weaning her from the ventilator - but that would take too long.

I arrived in Atlanta wiped out from the drive (the dogs were NUTS, especially Zoe who is normally a very good traveler. I have purchased a dog gate for the return trip, if that tells you anything) but glad to be at ground zero.

The next day, I visited H and got to be there when they transferred her out of ICU - woot! From there, it was a short day of recovery and she was sent home on Christmas Eve. Surely the best present for my family!

So I've been in Atlanta since then. It's been quite a visit with 4 dogs, 2 cats, 3 kids, 3 grandparents, and a patient! My folks left the weekend after Christmas and H's mom left just a short while ago.

The kids are still sleeping off their New Year "celebration" - watching space chimps, drinking three soda's, and staying up to see the ball drop - so the office is quiet and I have time to consider the year ahead.

I'm not so good at resolutions. If I make them, I always feel badly when I don't see them through. Still, one likes to think about the potential that lies in a new year. It's kind of like a clean slate or a "do-over", isn't it?

So, were I to make some resolutions for 2009 (I'm still struggling to fathom nine years have passed since I rang in 2000), these might be a sampling:

1. Work - well, first, FIND some for when this job is up in May. But also get organized and embrace being in academia. A part of me has resisted this move to academia . . . and it's time to let that go and embrace being an educator.

2. Social - in spite of my lack of love life, I'm going off match.com and eHarmony. Today in fact. I just don't have the time to devote to the search. And to be perfectly honest, it isn't as much fun as it used to be. It feels too much like work! Still, I will remain optimistic that SOMETHING will change for me in 2009.

3. Fitness - the good news is, my running partner, the artist, is still committed to running! And I have gone running with my brother here. So I just need to find a few races to register for . . . starting small with the artist (she has never run a race longer than 5K) and ending with what I hope will be another marathon. Hula Ladies - name some races 'cause I want to go somewhere!

4. Travel - speaking of GOING somewhere . . . it is time for a big trip to some place exotic. And that doesn't mean it has to be warm and tropical - exotic could be Russia!

5. Health - well, what this really boils down to is shopping better and cooking more. I'm not sure how that will play out once I go into rehearsal for Oedipus, but we'll see.

6. Friends - I want to stay in touch more actively! And I need to plan visits . . . lots of visits. Also, lifestudent mentioned in her blog a while back about a site that supports daily blogging. Now, based on my track record most of you will LAUGH at the thought of my blogging daily, but I'm putting it out there. Keep me honest, friends.

7. Art - well, as my work is now in academia, it is time to think of my professional performing as art. True, art rarely happens, but I'm thinking a twist on how I think about it may breathe new life into a stale, stagnant "career". I am making early strides . . . I have a callback in just over a week in St. Louis and I have been chosen to be an actor at the Mid-America Theatre Conference in March. I will be working with a playwright, director, dramaturg, and other actors on a new work. I am really looking forward to it!

So that's about it . . . no out and out RESOLUTIONS per se, but some ideas about approaching this new year, this clean slate, with new energy and enthusiasm.