Between April & May

Tidbit: I recently went to Bellingham for an event called Back2Bellingham. It's an annual alumni and family weekend at my alma mater, Western Washington University. One of the events during this weekend is a kegger in the library. Yes, a kegger in the library. It's a popular event and an opportunity to run into a lot of people you haven't seen in a long time. I happened to run into a former boss of mine. She asked me what I had been up to. I talked about work and training for a half-marathon. Then I sort of off-handed said I was doing shows and what not in my "free-time." The rest of the conversation went something like this:
Me: I'm pretty busy I guess.
KC: That's the way it's always been.
Me: (laughter) Yeah, I guess so.
That being said, I've been pretty busy. I've been working a lot. Probably nearly 50 hours a week a lot. It's a time of transitions for Book-It. We've had some shake-ups at work (good shake-ups, people getting great opportunities kind of shake-ups) and that has meant that there has been more work for everyone. I suddenly found myself responsible for way more stuff than I bargained for. Trial by fire. In the last three months, I have learned so much. Good news is, we're getting some new people in and my work-load should diminish...ever so slightly.

Not to worry though. Even with all the work, I've still kept myself busy on the artistic front as well:
1) I applied for my first grant recently. I'm trying to get in the habit of looking for funding and at least making an effort to get my work out there. Grants require a lot of planning, as I've learned from working in development. Applying for grants taught me a good lesson in the last couple of weeks: You have to say no to other people and take time for yourself and your work. Writing is often very solitary but applying for grants is even more so and you have to give yourself time to make it the best grant application you can. Saying no to periphery activities is an important lesson for anyone to learn.
2) I've been in rehearsal roughly three times a week for an upcoming show called Blood/Sailing. Later today, there will be a specific post about that experience.
3) It is reading time for NorthNorthwest. I haven't counted every entry specifically yet but I'm pretty sure we have over 500 ten-minute plays to read. Good news is, I have a bang-up team of readers helping me. Bad news is, I still will be reading every single ten-minute play myself. Since I am the senior editor, I feel it is my duty to know every play that has been submitted. Now to set aside the time to do that...
4) Grad school is on the near horizon. I'm ready to go back to school. I know I have so much more to learn about my writing, getting work produced, and myself. I plan to be applying this fall and hope to attend somewhere next fall. Regardless, I think it is time to see where my life takes me beyond Seattle. Damn. I need to sign up for the GRE.
5) One of the one-acts from my reading (There Were Butterflies) will be in the August NPA...next to a play by Allison Gregory. That's a little nerve-wracking. Anna Townes and I are going to be performing it, like we did in the reading, but this time I have asked Ashley Johnson to be our director. I "directed" all the pieces in the reading so I think it'll be nice to have a outside eyes on this one. There may be a few edits before then. We'll see.

There you go. That was the time between April & May.