The Renée Review

October 16, 2009

I know this shouldn’t be zombie day number five, but it is.  I feel like a rolling stone with lots of momentum and an unknown destination.  I’m going, going, going, going…you get the picture.  I have so much to do and am being called on for so many things that I’m feeling a bit out of control. 

I truly HATE feeling out of control.

I really needed this day for getting household paperwork and homework done.  I needed those solid, uninterrupted chunks of time. 

This, sadly, was impossible due to the fact that Denver School of the Arts is letting out early.  So, Marlo starts at 7:15AM and is released at 11:00AM!  Really – is there any point of even going – How crazy is this!  If she weren’t performing in Urinetown, there would be no way she’d have gone to school.  The rub is that anyone in a performance that doesn’t show up at school does not perform that evening.  I understand those restrictions, but when we’re talking a half day and it takes us almost an hour to get there – one way – then we’ve spent roughly the same time coming and going in the car as she has spent in school.  This is not ideal.

Paul got Marlo to the morning car pool while I got an extra hour of sleep.  I really couldn’t lounge and relax this morning, because our household mail, accounting and files were calling.  This particular job always adjusts my attitude toward the negative needle position on the spectrum.

Needless to say – with the early release time, I had very little opportunity to hit our household paperwork with any meaningful mallet.  As it is, I left the house at 10:30AM and was a bit late getting Marlo from school. 

Fortunately, she was enjoying herself with another student who's major is music.  They were trolling the halls for a piano and were creating music together when I arrived.  Awesome!

I got her home by 12:15 and then dropped her off near Boulder High School so that she could lunch with some friends at 12:30. I know she’d like to attend Boulder High to be with her Boulder friends.  She would also enjoy the AP classes they offer and would really enjoy more aggressive academics.

I know she enjoys the creative and intense theatre major processes at Denver School of the Arts, but misses the rigorous academics in other areas of their curriculum.

She is definitely in a social versus creative and academic quandary.

The only class she ever seems to have homework in is for her major.  The kids all graduate with an undergraduate level degree in their major when they have completed their four years of high school.  It’s an intense program with guest artists and in-depth study.  I enjoy that aspect of the school, but wish their other areas were as diverse.

Anyway, after dropping her off, I came home, made lunch for myself and had a migraine headache suddenly paralyze me.  My day of any kind of meaningful paperwork and homework was effectively crushed.  I napped from 1:30 to 3:00 and then pulled myself together to get out the door by 3:30 to get her to the 5:00 call. 

I know an hour and a half drive time seems like overkill, but on Friday, the traffic can be that bad.  We fortunately did very well with time and had 20 extra minutes to get some back stage cough drops and water before she was dropped at school. 

I now had time to kill before curtain at 7:00.  I decided to explore the Northfield area a bit and found a fun shoe store.  I have not purchased shoes in a very long time and found several wonderful new additions for my wardrobe. 

I returned to the school at 6:40 to wait for Mike from class and found him waiting there for me.  It was so nice of him to attend the show with me.  We had awesome seats and the cast was totally on fire tonight.  Excellent energy and effort! 

This was my favorite viewing of the show so far.  It’s getting dangerous though – the songs are now starting to ring in my head and it becomes difficult to purge them when I want my brain to have quiet J