Year end (Part One)

It's time to take stock of the year that is about to end.

Edu-ma-cation

I took three classes at ACT -- Dialects (Lynne Soffer) starting in January; Improv (Barbara Scott) starting in March; and Movement / Viewpoints (Mark Jackson) starting in June. All three were wonderful and memorable classes with wonderful and memorable teachers, as well as wonderful and memorable classmates. Due to work-related travel requirements, I had to skip the fourth quarter, but I'm returning next week to take Voice and Speech (Jeffrey Draper).


This Blog

It was in April during Barbara's Improv class that I started this blog. I did it mainly because of her flatly stated attitude that positives help us much more than negatives -- not just in improvisation, but in life in general. So I wanted to create a space where I could keep away from the things in my life that cause me stress or that cause my personality to head toward negativity (thus the subtitle, "Nothing Serious" -- and if you don't know where the "Go, Play, Boy, Play" title comes from, go back here and read the first posting). This is why I often try to avoid talking about my job and politics, though if I do discuss them, I try to say mostly positive things.

Of course, it is impossible to discuss politics in any way without potentially creating some static somewhere -- for example, if I am overjoyed at knowing that the current president is leaving office and believe that his ceasing to be president will, in fact, reduce the basic level of my free-floating anxieties, there are many, many people out there who will disagree with me. Vocally. But, in the immortal words of Bette Midler, "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."

Here's all I'll say about work: In another few months, none of my long-standing (2-8 years) clients will be in the same line of business that they were in two years ago. (Oddly enough, this is not actually a result of the economic crisis -- the companies were headed in this direction already.) This by itself is a source of stress for me, because it means that all my routines are overturned. I have actually pointed out that, since my work is already in transition, maybe now would be a good time to take me off those clients completely and give me clients closer to home. So keep your fingers crossed for me, that maybe all the trips to Southern California might be reduced or eliminated.


To be continued.