Sleepy Writers

Thought I had been doing pretty well keeping on top of my work and grading, but dutifully grading forty papers throughout the week still left me forty to finish when I got home yesterday. I drank a buttload of pumpkin latte and buzzed away into the night. At midnight I got the tumble grumbles and ordered takeout chips and queso. I didn't want the delivery guys to ring and wake up my roomsters, so I sat on our front porch typing manically "You need a clear topic sentence" and "Avoid the use of vague summary" onto my laptop.

It was a silent night, holy night. The dark reflection of palm trees on the pool, breeze. I stayed on my stoop until 3 AM snacking and reading and feedbacking. I took a photo because it occurred to me "Man, I'm young. It's the middle of the night and I'm eating nachos outside on a weekday."

It's been a pleasure and a treat to have the playwright of Drones with us in this first week of rehearsal. He's a great dude, and I'm learning so much about the production process from a writer's perspective. Tonight he wandered out of the theatre, and when I was released I opened the door to this very accomplished and talented guy slumped across the maroon-splashed mini sofa in the foyer of the building--legs wide open and propped on a footrest. 

"Are you sick of your play already?" I asked.

"I came out here to make a phone call," he said with half-closed eyes, "and then I couldn't get up."

Consequently, excuse me as I crash into my pillow.

(Edit: I fell asleep on this entry as I was posting it last night.)

Stir-essed

Lots to do:

-Prep for Encyclopedia Show
-Finish and turn in my Teaching Philosophy & CV for an award nomination I got(!)
-Write a 20 minute set for my first headliner stand-up show(!)
-Finish grading 10 improv journals
-Grade 22 screenplays that star Angelina Jolie
-Revise my 10-minute play
-Finish a full-lenth
-And another
-Read peer plays for discussion
-Put the new plates on my scooter
-Write an article about pumpkins
-Get fitted for a costume
-Absentee vote
-Plus work, plus TAing, plus class, plus improv rehearsal, plus play rehearsal

Chicago Skyline. Blurred. 2012.

I try not to discredit my feelings, but once I write it out like that, it sure sounds like I'm stressed about gumdrops and jelly beans.

Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

Work, Dudes

Taken in St. Louis. June 2011.

Run. Read. Write. Eat. Work. Teach. Eat. Comedy. Write. Read. Comedy. Eat. Write. Sleep.