Wednesday, 01 July 2009
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Attack of the Theater People
By Marc Acito
see relatedGedney, it's the Minnesota Pickle...
So it's been awhile, as usual. However, this time, I haven't written because I have been so very busy.
This previous weekend we were in Minnesota visiting family and friends; Angela was out of Iraq on R&R, and was kind enough to buy plane tickets for us so we could go see her. The flight out did not go according to plan, as a large thunderstorm came through and delayed our flight by 2 hours. We made it, though! We finally got home around 1:45 am on Friday morning.
I got to spend Friday morning enjoying coffee and bagels with Angela at the Blue Moon Cafe, where we caught up and had one of our "deep conversations" that we always seem to have when we're together. Matt's parents came up from Missouri for a day and a half, so on Friday we all went to the Mall of America and Ikea before going to dinner with Mom & Dad at Old Chicago. Dad, who finished his tenth World Beer Tour and is now the proud owner of a pewter beer stein, has just started working at a different office in the Twin Cities. I'm glad, because I think it means he doesn't have to get up at 3:00 am anymore! After a quick trip to Blue Max ("Oh, we gotta go to the liquor store!") we headed home, and then went up to The Jimmy for some Toasted Almonds. There was live music that night, a guitar duo, and they performed Dad's favorite Buffett song, "A Pirate Looks at Forty." It was a nice, relaxing evening.
Saturday Mom threw a barbeque, as usual (my parents have the best barbeques!), and we enjoyed burgers and beers with Matt's parents, Jenna, and Maggie. Matt's parents had to take off so his dad could get back in time for work on Sunday, so we spent the latter part of the afternoon running errands, shopping, and getting ready for our Valleyfair trip on Sunday.
Valleyfair was a ton of fun; I hadn't been there for several years, and going with my girlfriends was a day I definitely needed. Matt stayed home, as he's not really a fan of amusement parks, so I got to spend all day with Jenna, Maggie, and Angela. I didn't even get sunburnt, which was AWESOME. Usually I come out of that place looking like a tomato. Afterward, I met up with Mom, Dad, and Matt at the used book store in Apple Valley before heading to Timber Lodge for dinner. I could hardly eat, of course, after having ridden rollercoasters all day and eating junky Fair food (like fried cheese on a stick and Ben & Jerry's milkshakes), but dinner there is always so tasty, so I brought a good portion of it home. Then, there was the visit with Tim, Val, Catherine, and Ethan into the evening. It is always so nice to see them, since I get to so rarely.
Monday we spent the majority of the day sitting around doing as little as possible before heading to the airport in the early afternoon to return to Denver. We missed our Peanut a lot, and we were happy to get home to see her. Taylor was kind enough to come house/dogsit for us over the weekend, so Mirabelle had a good time with her. We'd missed Dan's 30th birthday (that was on Friday) so we went over to Dan and Joe's for a belated celebration with beer and cupcakes.
Now, as usual, I'm dealing with pretty severe homesickness. It usually takes me a few days to readjust after a trip home. I come back to Denver, and as happy as I am here, I miss my parents and my girlfriends so much that I just can't shake it.
I keep going back and forth about the idea of moving back to MN. I'm not going to lie, I'd love to be so close to my parents (who I've become really close with and I miss more now than I did when I was in college) and my girlfriends, but at the same time I love Denver. I love the weather, I love the people here that I do know, I'm happy that I have some good friends here, too. I love that it is a "Big Little City," I love that we have so many breweries, that we are so close to the mountains, it's just so beautiful here... It's so hard to weigh the good versus the bad. I don't particularly like my job here in Denver, but would I find something better in the Twin Cities?
There's the other rub: the job. The "career." Maybe it's my quarter-life crisis, but I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life. What I'm doing now, I can't consider it a career. It's not something I want to do for the rest of my life. To be honest, I'm not sure what I want to do for a career. I guess I'm not the type of person that can just do a job for the sake of it or have a job just for the paycheck; I've got to enjoy what I'm doing, I've got to do something that makes me feel like I'm making a difference. The dream was always to have a job in a theater, doing SOMETHING, anything, to be involved in the business or production part of it. Secondary? Roasting coffee for a living, blending and making something delicious (perhaps leading to our own shop someday). Third? Maybe an event planner at a hotel, or even an independent company, helping to plan parties and weddings and meetings. Would any of these careers be more easily sought in the Twin Cities? Maybe the theater career, but there you have to find a break to get into it just like everywhere else. Roasting can be done anywhere, but it seems like something little advertised and even less in-demand. Event planning I'd probably be better getting into here, since I already have the contacts through my current job.
The other issue is the flux in my current job. So far over the last year and 3 months I've gone from doing one job to doing 4 (rentals, counter sales, some custom gobos, receptionist). We've lost many employees in the fight to "do more with less people" and though it's been stressful it's a job, and I can't justify complaining about it when there are a ton of people who are unemployed. But rumors swirl regarding the employment of at least three of my co-workers, and I've got to wonder what that means for me. We've been talking about transferring me to a different department, but I know I can't really trust anything until it actually happens. And if that transition does happen, would I really enjoy it? Would something different here make me happier? Or would it be just another job? It's not that I'm unhappy with my job... I just have to wonder if I could do something that really fulfills me.
But I digress a bit. I am making some headway into a theater job: as I mentioned, Matt and I are working on a play downtown called "A Hint of Winter," which opens next Thursday night and runs for 4 weeks. The process has gone really well, and while I don't typically ASM shows it's been nice just to get back into the swing. I'll admit, though, it'll be nice when the show is over, because I'll have free evenings again. It gets tiring getting up at 7:45, working for 8 hours, going straight to rehearsal for 3 hours, getting home around 9:45 pm, and then going to bed just to get up and do the whole thing again the next day. But it's nice to be involved in "the process" again, and the little financial cushion that we've gotten from it has been even nicer. I'm hoping that I can do a few more shows, maybe two or three times a year. That'd be a really good way to save some money and to meet some people in the community here.
Also, Matt's going back to school, which will be very strange but hopefully will open a few things up for him, for us, here in Denver. He's going to be certified as a solar energy technician, and may pursue a more specialized degree after that. I think that, if the "green collar jobs" thing really takes off like everyone says it will, he shouldn't have trouble finding something once he has the degree. Hopefully the economy will have rebounded by then as well.
It's weird to me to be so concerned about things like the economy. That sounds bad, but I really didn't think about the national economy until I got out on my own. We were never wealthy growing up, and I knew that things were tight and that we couldn't just frivolously spend whatever we wanted, but now that I'm on my own I'm trying to pay more attention and learn more about it. I just don't understand a lot of financial ANYTHING, so it's been a bit tricky to me. Speaking of, I need to set up my 401K this weekend... so weird. I guess it's all a part of growing up, of becoming an adult, and I just don't want to face that yet. Funny how we spend our childhood looking forward to getting out of our parents' houses and out on our own, but as soon as we do we realize it's a crock of shit and want to go back to the safety and comfort of our homes.
"I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid..."
Now I'm hungry and it is time for a snack.
Hopefully it won't be over a month before the next update!!
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