Kate Has Abducted Me

At least, it seems that way.

For those of you who don't know me, my extra-curricular activity of choice is theatre. This fall the company I act with (my school's company) is performing an original piece about Shakespeare's Women, and I am, you guessed it, Kate, from Taming of the Shrew. I'm also Lady Macbeth and Desdemona (from Othello), but those characters don't seem to have taken hold of me quite like the shrew herself. I have to say, this is the most fun I have ever had doing a Shakespeare show, and I've had lots of fun doing lots of Shakespeare. But there's something about Kate. It may be that she has so much depth for a comedic female character. It may be that she gets to beat people up. Whatever it is, I love her, and am having a blast.

This joy, however, has completely consumed my life. Between that, class, and trying to get in observation hours at the local public schools (part requirement for two of my classes), I have been going non stop from 8am to 10pm every day for two weeks. Hence, no LSNED pages. (My ink did come in, by the way. Haven't even printed one picture.)

I have, however, been keeping track of my learning! I'm very surprised at myself. But, as part of my weight loss adventure, I write down what I eat every day on a notecard, and I decided sometime ago that I would write my learnings for the day on the back of said notecard, and so now I have a lovely stack of September notecards with my diet on one side and my learnings on the other. I think I may just scrap the notecards when I get around to it.

So I have a great stack of notecards with learnings, but alas, no pictures for at least the past week or so. And really, no end in sight for my crazy schedule. When this play ends, I'm hoping to have a part in the next one to pick up, and I'm not even a third of the way through my observation hours (though I am close to that beloved third mark).

In the midst of all of this craziness, I am not finding time to "reflect" (my word of the year), nor am I even really finding time to breathe. I feel constantly stressed, and worry about whether I am actually going to be able to get it all done or not. I worry about my husband and my dog, whether they feel abandoned or neglected by my constant schedule. I know the rest of my family does because I am never able to talk to them. But one thing I am not doing is regretting. I do not regret my choice to quit my cushy job with benefits, sell our house, and follow my husband back to this crazy place called college. When I walk across the campus green, or spread out my blanket to study for an hour, I am nothing but thankful for the opportunity to take a new direction in my life, in our life. I know in my bones it was the right choice to make, just like I knew in my bones almost ten years ago that my husband was the one I was supposed to marry.

And so today, I learned that I am thankful. Because it took me a long time to get here, and I'm going to be grateful for every second. Even though there never seem to be enough of them.