Catching Up Tuesday

Today is going to be one of my rare catching up posts.  Perhaps only a few have noticed, but I have been MIA from this part of my life for a little over a week now.  Nothing traumatic was going on, I have just been incredibly busy and thus too exhausted to spend any time formulating coherent thoughts worthy of anybody reading.  I can barely get words on a page even right now.

So now, it's time to catch up.

First off, remember that I have a bunch of animals?  8 chickens, 1 rooster, 3 dogs, 1 cat and 1 turtle.  It's been fun to have so many animals running around outside.  Doing the dishes was  always entertaining because the coop and run were right there under the kitchen window.

I say was because chickens and rooster are no more.

The original 6 as chicks.

Long story short, Mr. Sexy and I have a history of making quick decisions and do our best to ignore potential red flags.  Rue and Atlas were one of those decisions. And now, Rue has officially killed off every single chicken we have owned.  Those two dogs are gone now.  And we are buying more chickens soon.  We are determined to get our own eggs regularly! At least now we can say: lesson learned.

Atlas, the brother who watches.

Rue, the hunter.

Now we have our one beloved dog, Winnie, and our 1 cat (though I haven't seen Whiskers for a few days) and our turtle, Shelly Sheldon Sexy.  I miss having a bunch of animals running around outside.

What has kept me most preoccupied this week is Marilla Cuthbert.  We opened Anne of Green
Gables this weekend so last week was excruciating.  I saw Mr. Sexy rarely and had 4 hour rehearsals every night.  I would come home full of energy so it took time to calm down and get to sleep.  Then I was tired the next morning and had no energy for things like laundry, dishes, sweeping or getting dressed.

Nervously yet happily waiting to go on stage.

In one word: exhausting.

I knew I was becoming drained during a conversation with Mr. Sexy about some things that had been going on with Marie.  I said something but he reacted to what he heard which in turn hurt my feelings so I shut him out.  It wasn't long before we were able to talk it through and I realized the emotional toll the play was having on me.  Thankfully, crazy late nights are over - for now.

We did two shows this past weekend and we have 4 more next weekend and then we are done. I tend to get really nervous about stupid things like birthday parties where I know people. It's ridiculous.  So imagine my nerves on opening night... I was shaking when I went on stage and the nerves didn't calm until halfway through the first act.

What I found is that as I accomplished each entrance, every line and every scene, my confidence boosted.  The second show wasn't quite so nerve-racking for me, either.  It was actually a lot of fun.

Well now, that's all I feel like talking about right now.  I have to get back in the swing of things.