TWO MILES

I never understood how far 2 miles is until I ran it on the treadmill this morning.

My legs are tired.

And I feel a strange sense of defeat, even though I accomplished my goal. Why is that?

I mean, this one got me. It hurt and made me mad and I got tired more quickly than my last few runs.

But I did it...and I can now move on to what's next...

2.25.

Oof.

HAIR

I am grateful today for HAIR.

Listing all of the important things this show has brought to my life is impossible, but here are a few:

• lessons on loyalty & on the harshness of this industry
• the experience of working on a Tony winning musical 
• awareness of the fight for Equality
• passion to join that fight
• Penny Daulton
• friends from the Aquarius cast, too plentiful to list
• the heartbreak of a too-soon closing
• Billy, Chris & Katie
• DvZdJ
• Lola & Charlie & Luna
• my kids, Matt & Cailan
• deeper relationships with Kacie, Darius, John, Paris, Steel, Kaitlin, Josh, Alli, Nick, Lee
• Creative Goods & their adoption of Geoff'
• Rob, Julian, Lisa, Greg, Mike, Jeff and the rest of our crew
• new friends
• Napa Valley
• Doctor Who
• 30 cities & 2 countries in 68 weeks
• so many hotels...

I want to keep going, I have so many things to be grateful for that were caused or inspired by this production...

But I must now work on this production.

RUNNING

Y'all, I'm 34 years old.

And I'm a bit more to carry around than I was at 17, the last time I ran more than one mile.

As I get up-up-up into the years of my life I am realizing more & more how important my health is to my continued happiness. So I am trying this whole running thing that so many people rave about.

Let's be real for a second here. Running pretty much sucks. I am sure that as you keep at it, you can find joy in the practice. But when you are starting...well...it's a bit like trying to keep upright while suffocating.

I am starting my training on the treadmill, mostly because we're currently in Toronto and it's freezing outside. And I may be a little wimpier than I once thought.

But I am proud of myself - I have run as much as 1.82 miles in a single setting without stopping to walk. (I did that today!) That's more than twice what I could run before I started this training.  The next time I encounter the treadmill I will run 2 full miles, no walking. And I promise not to grumble the entire time I'm doing it. Well, I promise to TRY not to grumble...

My goal: to complete a 5K in West Palm Beach on January 14th.

That's 3.1 miles.

And I have to be ready to do it in 16 days. 

Oof.

LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN

It's been well over a year since I've posted a thought to this page.

Let's try to fix that.

Today is December 28, 2011. A few short days before 2012, the new year, the next year, the best year (aren't they all).

I have been on tour with HAIR since September 2010.  The tour will play its final performance on January 29, 2012.  This date will mark the end of my nearly 4 year love affair with this game changing musical. While slightly broken-hearted to see it coming to an end, I am so very ready to let it go and move on to a new love.

In the final moments of HAIR, Berger professes his desire to stay who he is forever - to bake brownies, and wander, and be free - while Claude professes his need to move on...and does so to a dramatic end.

As HAIR comes to a close, I find myself dwelling on these desires: to stay the same or to move forward with the change that is always happening. For me there is only one choice...change. No matter what may come, we must keep changing.

32 more days...here it comes...the wind that blows...that water that flows...the sand that drifts. Nothing stays the same.

Change.