Inside Andy's Brain ( A Scary Place)

Monday, February 28th

Another month down. 2011 now 1/6 gone or some such and I feel like I haven't gotten 2010 managed yet. I suppose I can catch up when I'm dead.

'Lucia di Lammermoor' starts staging rehearsals tomorrow. I am not yet comfortable with the music and still have a lot of Italian to learn. We're less than three weeks away from the show and I should be able to get it all down but I'm feeling a bit nervous about it. I learned 'Turandot' from scratch in a similar length of time so I should be able to do it. The other theatrical projects on the horizon are the premiere of my new script for the Seasoned Performers which happens in late April and a 2011 edition of 'Politically Incorrect Cabaret' which is slated for May. After that, a much needed break to catch up with other areas of life.

The bronchitis from hell has more or less cleared but I still have the occasional residual cough and bronchospasm. I'll give it to the end of the month and if it's still a problem then, I may need to see the allergist or pulmonologist to see what else I can do to get rid of it. It shouldn't be quite this length of time. At least I feel better and have some energy. Tommy and I were at least able to get everything in the house onto the proper floor this weekend (a massive undertaking) and now we have to do a major clean over the next couple of weeks and we should be Ok there for a while. I still wish I could convince the cats not to shed all over everything.

Life has been way too busy at work as we are down clinical provider FTE and the rest of us have to make up the difference. Add new Medicare hospice rules requiring lots of house calls, new projects in education and a couple new committees and I am running around like the proverbial chicken. Things are supposed to get better after March. I am not holding my breath.

We formally installed our new minister at the UU church last night. She's going to be very good for us and help get the congregation out of some traps it has fallen into the last few years. As if I didn't have enough to do, I have the Committee on Ministry to tend to this year.

posted by Andy @ 10:23 AM

Tuesday, February 15th

I have been very remiss about updating this for a while but I do have a good excuse known as a never ending case of bronchitis which has been hanging around since early January. It is slowly getting better but I still have hacking fits and feel tired and washed out and not much like doing things. The upshot of this is that many routine chores are way behind. Not only blogging, but Christmas is still not put away (although the majority is at least boxed up) and the vacuuming and dusting is way behind which is no joke in a household with four cats.

Besides respiratory ailments, January has been about three other things. The first is mass craziness at work. Due to certain changes in Medicare regulations and a different approach to the mineworkers contract, I have had to stuff about another eight hours into my work week which is making me slightly insane. Something has got to give as I cannot keep the pace up long term. I'm going to do all of this through March and then reevaluate.

The second is opera season. Faust was a significant success due to a talented chorus, both as vocalists and actors and a good director who made use of us so it wasn't all park and bark as is often the case in opera. The principals were all also in fine voice. I have been unable to locate much in the way of production photographs yet but here is one I found featuring yours truly as the town drunk in the first act.



The third is the somewhat crazy weather we've been having around here. We have had four significant snow/ice falls since Christmas so far. The one mid-January put so much ice on the roads that the whole city was shut down for two days. Another one brought ice mid-afternoon that led to a blind panic and everyone trying to get home at once and my ten minute commute took an hour and a half. We could get snow through March so we may not be out of the woods yet although this week it's sixty degrees and sunny.

I'll try not to get quite so far behind the rest of the spring but the road to hell and all that...

posted by Andy @ 5:58 AM