Weekday ways.

[tedwords]

"It's a new dawn, It's a new day, It's a new life for me.." Nina Simone

One week into the other side. Quick take this week, as it's been surprisingly busy.

Not exactly what I planned, however. I had thought I would be spending the week preparing for my new writing projects, getting things organized in the office, and finalizing our plans for Paris and Spain, but instead, first thing Monday, I was asked by my friend Anna to deliver a presentation on the history of Eldredge Players for the Eldredge Historical Society this Sunday, as she has to travel. So I spent a lot of my office time working on pulling together a presentation and then, visiting the lovely Norton Historical Society on Wednesday to dig into their archives. It was kind of fun!

Thursday Corb had an eye doctors exam that took a few hours and dilated his pupils, so I had to go with him. That kind of shot that day.

Still, it was a nice week. I did feel I got stuff accomplished and have developed a working alternative to work. As Corb replied when a friend joked that all my life is now a weekend, "Not the way he lives." But as long as I am loving my weekday way of life, I think it's fine.

So tonight, I raise a puckery lemon drop martini to tackling unexpected new challenges, to developing new routines and to...soon, I swear, nailing down our plans for Paris and Barcelona. That will happen next week, seriously!

As always, I raise a cup to my friends, to all the awesome members of the Friday night Martini club! And love you, mom and pop! You truly mean the world to us. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Post-Friday night scribblings:

I guess I can now write in terms of what happened during the week, and not just the weekend. That's quite a change. 

As I posted, I really did not plan to spend my entire week working on a historical presentation for the Eldredge Players, but that is what ended up happening. The presentation will be tomorrow and I expect that it will not be well attended. But that's not really the point, frankly.

I think it was a good experience for me to do as I think about this next stage of my life. Because it's really not just been 34 years of my life working in the corporate world. It's also been 22 years with the Eldredge Players. For someone who just planned to direct just one show for them all those years ago, that's been a big chunk of my life! 

One of the focus areas of the presentation is on a lady named Louise Pettitt, who spent 15 years with the group when it was founded in leading roles, and then another 32 years directing the group. I have spent my life thinking that's an impossible feat to match. I now realize that I have matched two-thirds of her record when it comes to directing with the group. 

What I won't mention is that I have heard that Louise was actually rather bitter about the group when she left. She was getter older and was having trouble handling both stage and music direction--note, I have only ever handled the stage direction. To do both? What an amazing woman. 

She was bitter because she was basically let go from the group. Her stage directing had gotten a bit sloppy--she would give directions one night at a rehearsal and then forget what she had done at the very next rehearsal, making it necessary to have someone whose job it was to keep her on track and clean things up. Finally, the board staged a bit of a coup and insisted on replacing her as stage manager but keeping her as music director. She refused to be demoted and quit the group. 

This decision naturally caused a rift in the group. Some were loyal to Louise, some to the folks on the board. Some members still talk about this rift to this day. For most, it is ancient history. 

I have no desire to have such a rift occur with me, which is why after I directed Chess two years ago, I made the conscious decision to hang up my stage direction hat and select other talented directors and music directors from the area to take over the job. A) It creates diversification and expands your organization's bench and B) I really at the time had little desire to do the job any more, with my work responsibilities. But most importantly, A. 

And also, I had two decades of the spotlight. That was enough. 

This decision weighed on my mind as I put the presentation together this week. It made me feel good, knowing that I had made a decision to age gracefully and give other folks an opportunity to find the same success I had achieved. Kind of like what I did at work, frankly. 

Letting go is not easy. But the question I now must address is: letting go to do what? Because "nothing" is not the answer. 

Maybe I will keep working on this Eldredge Players history. I have found it interesting.

As part of the "what's next," I did after the post start to plan where we will stay in Barcelona. We will be there for one night before the cruise and them four nights when the cruise is over. So, good start there. 

A bit of time was also spent trying to resolve the decision of Corb's mom NOT to go, owing to her fear around traveling in the midst of the Iran war, as well as the health of her cat, Sooki, who has a heart condition. Since she has elected to back out after the cut off period, she is only able to recover 25 percent of what she put down, meaning she is out about $2000. For an 80 year old lady on a fixed income, this is not fun news to hear, and Royal Caribbean has not been sympathetic (we were hoping for perhaps a less horrific penalty, to be applied to a future cruise). But, we have gotten over that, and I just now need to get her the 25 percent back. 

Oh, and book the flight and the hotel rooms in Paris. This still weighs on the back of my mind. 

Tomorrow, the presentation. Next week, Ohio. 

It's going to be a fun summer. Eat, drink and travel often.