I already love 2010.

I'm just feeling really good about things today. Hans and I saw in the new year at the Roving Imp last night, and I'm not the least bit hung over. I'm going back this evening for the TJ & Dave movie, and a couple more shots of delicious espresso. Hans will probably forgo the movie for some mad scientist time in the basement.

I have work coming up for the opera program at KU: stage managing "The Rake's Progress" in February, and building props for that show and "Werther," which goes up later this month. Yay! I'm using my education, and for remuneration! I'm still doing lighting changeovers at the Heartland every few weeks, and I hope to pick up a running crew gig or two at the Lawrence Arts Center. I don't see myself ever going back to full-time, with the sixteen-hour days and the nine-day weeks, but a little work keeps me from going crazy and feeling useless.

I grew up during the height of the Women's Lib movement, so it's pretty firmly entrenched in my brain that I should make some financial contribution to the household, even if we could get by, as we have for a few years, without it. After the opera wraps up, I may even look for something normal and steady-ish, like cooking in a restaurant. I've done that before, and it was fun.

I'm cutting back my improv involvement this year to more of a slow-growth approach. I don't have a deadline for whatever milestone is next. I don't even know what the milestone looks like. All I know is I was overdoing it, and the stress-to-fun ratio got way too high. If there are dues to be paid, as I'm still a less-experienced improviser, they aren't in the form of making myself unhappy, or taking bad advice to heart just because it comes from someone more experienced. I've paid 37 years of dues as a human being, and I owe it to myself to listen to my intuition.

Oh. It's almost 5:30, I need to be at the Imp by 7, and I'm still in pajamas. Gotta go. Happy New Year!