The Big Green Monster

I'm not talking about jealousy. I'm too tired and busy to be jealous of anyone. Well, except people who work 8-hour days and then go home and put their comfies on to sit on the couch for a while before bed. I'm very jealous of them right now.

This week, I've been out every night--Monday was Sac Choral, but every other night was to rehearse with the orchestra for the spring musical at my Large Suburban High School. (That musical is Shrek, hence the title of this post.)

It's actually been a lot of fun; I'm enjoying the process, I'm enjoying reuniting with my long-ignored clarinet, and I've never played in a pit orchestra before. The kids in the cast sound great. But I'm not going to lie, I'm so bloody exhausted from the 12-hour days I've been putting in (get up, gym/run, teach class, work on school stuff, teach piano lessons, rehearse, come home, crash) that I'm looking forward to having a weekend to...

Oh, wait.

Because this is just my life, I have to move out of my bedroom before May 1st. We're getting the carpet replaced with wood next week, which is a true "hallelujah" because the carpet that came with this house isn't the best and it's showing its age in a big way. But it means that I have to move everything out of my bedroom, so this weekend will be devoted to packing books and whatnot, and dragging them out to various corners of the house and garage. Fortunately, I don't really have a lot of stuff here, and as I go through my books, I find a few that I'm happy to take to the used book store, so that helps.

The next few weeks are full of activity for me--rehearsals and then performances of the musical, getting ready for my own spring concert, regular lessons, workouts, a couple of races, and a Sac Choral concert weekend. June 1st is going to find me half-comatose on my bed, watching movies and guzzling tea between naps.

It's worth it, though.

Things are going pretty well, really. I'm busy, which keeps me satisfied and happy. I do actually get enough sleep at night, what's missing is the much-loved "down time," though I'm managing to grab some here and there (this afternoon, a glorious four hours of it).

And while I may grumble and groan now and again, I know that at the end of all this, I'll be resting through June, having successfully completed my first year at the LSHS, performed the epic and bombastic "Carmina Burana" with Sac Choral, and looking forward to spending some time in the summer getting ready for a great 2nd year.