We were liars in love.

Daddy says the Devil looks a lot like you.

Oh ... hello, 1986. Last night I held the first reading of a new play I wrote in the middle of my sleep earlier this year. The first scene takes place twenty-eight years ago, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Coble said he had nothing to say about it because he kept trying to remember who he was dating then.

One of our readers had car trouble, so I gave her a lift to and from the reading. I couldn't shut up about this stupid script. (Valerie, I am so sorry.) I had thought this play was about one thing, but in my stream of consciousness rant after the reading, I realized it was about a million things, many of them worse than I had previous remembered. (I am so very, very sorry.)

But it was a very successful reading. I want Corey sitting next to me every time I see a suspenseful movie, he is delightfully reactive.

Temperature: 42°
Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 172.5 lbs.

Storm's coming. See you on the other side.

1986 Playlist
Happy Hour - The Housemartins
And We Danced - Hooters
The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades - Timbuk 3
The Pleasure Principle - Janet Jackson
Breakout - Swing Out Sister
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
The Boy In The Bubble - Paul Simon
Crazy Mixed-Up Kid - The Smithereens
Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel

Ensemble Theatre presents the World Premiere of "The Way I Danced With You," through April 7, 2019.

And it's not about you joggers who go round and round and round ...

Multi-tasking is something with which I have a certain degree of skill, but that does not mean it comes to me easily. Tomorrow is a rare example of a single day in which I have three major events scheduled, all of which, while pertaining to theater, consume a different part of my brain and soul.

In the early afternoon I am the designated speaker at a social event for which I am expected to detail my journey as a theater artist. For this event I have even created a PowerPoint presentation. About me.

Later in the afternoon I will conduct an audition workshop with three at-risk youth, and encourage them to get onto their feet and read Shakespeare. It can be done. That does not make it easy.

Finally, there will be a private table reading of a new play I have written. This will actually be the most relaxing part of the day, where I get to just sit and listen. That does not mean it is without stress. But having already done all of the advance work (rehearsal with actors, writing the damn thing) I do not need to speak very much, and just sink into my chair.

Temperature: 59°
Climate: utter gorgeous
Distance: 4 miles

Anxiety can crush the will. Judging how much I yearn to accomplish vs. how much I want to just give up is a good barometer for whether I am depressed or merely stressed. This afternoon was tough because, I believe, this weekend, while entirely enjoyable, involved a lot of not doing those things that are running around my mind.

We were relaxing, attending the girl's orchestra concert, lazing about the botanical garden, taking in an art "happening", having dinner in Little Italy with my mother-in-law. Today it was the boy's soccer game. Hurry up and wait for Monday. That's no way to enjoy a weekend.

However, it even made me not want to run, rather than run. That lasted about two steps into my actual run. Synapses flashes, the pulse quickened, I came a live and alert. I even noticed that, for most of my run, I did not even open my mouth.

I breathe through my nose! To run! For miles, with my mouth closed! There was a time in my life when I could simply not have done that.

Gorillaz Genius Playlist
Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz 
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Oxford Comma - Vampire Weekend
Derezzed - Daft Punk
Close To Me - The Cure
Parklife - Blur
All I Need - Radiohead
L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold
Sleeping In - The Postal Service
Tron Legacy (End Theme) - Daft Punk

Around the world and back

Route

Wow. I really hated that route. Took my regular way, then kept going up Lee to Cain Park - such a nice day, thought I would take the scenic route.

Well. Though the park has been plowed, the snowbanks at the sides of the paths cause meltwater the pool. Then I ended up on Taylor Road, which had unshoveled sidewalks, and so had to content with driving blockheads. I took side streets with which I was unfamiliar, and ended up taking a dispiritingly winding trek back to home.

Best laid plans.

Distance: 4.35 miles
Temperature: 49 degrees
Weight: 150 lbs.

Sinuses

With the exception of one day last week, we have been submerged in sub-zero temps since New Year's. Last weekend my right sinus collapsed and I was spiraling into migraine territory. Cahs-strapped, I have been avoiding the prescription stuff in favor of Sudafed, though I needed an Imitrex following the girl's sixth birthday party.

Yesterday was another ugly one, though the OTC stuff did the job. My entire being sudders with relief over the respite from the deep-freeze that began today and will, hopefully, continue until next weekend.

Playwrights Unit

&TYD got its post-mortem from the Unit last Tuesday.

SG said it was longer than it needed to be ... but has no idea what is unnecessary. This was the general feeling about the piece. Nothing is boring, or uninteresting, but it does (ha ha) cover a lot of ground.

Some suggested MARATHON is too long ... but it keeps making Josh cry, so I am loathe to change it.

The Unit had said previously that we don't need two pooping scenes, and the second one seems "unfunny" though I do remember it getting a big response. Remember - hell, I have video! But I do understand, and I have been thinking long and hard about the S.O.S. scene.

SG was wild about the projections, especially Josh's maps, they really give the audience a sense of scale. The music, he said, was not nearly as well integrated, and I am with him on this. I also take responsibility for it, and have loads of suggestions on how to revise them. The music needs to work with the slides better, ad they need to work better with the performer. We can make that happen.

ML is still confused by how many wives I have.

1990 Playlist
World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode
Gonna Make You Sweat - C+C Music Factory
Never Enough [Big Mix] - The Cure
So Hard - Pet Shop Boys
Suck - Pigface
Everybody Everybody - Black Box
Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
Here's Where the Story Ends - The Sundays
The Power - Snap!
Tom's Diner - DNA ft. Suzanne Vega

Writing, not running.

Here's my dilemma ... I just got back to running a few times a week, but now it's snowy and dangerous outside. And cold, of course. I would like to sign up for a gym membership, but we're a little pinched right now and trying to cut out unnecessaries. So a treadmill is out ... and so are all of those weight machines which I seem to have no trouble using when I have a physical trainer to tell me what to do, how much, and for how long.

Keeping up with the regimen is challenging. It's not impossible. But, you know. I worry. Hopefully there will be time later today to hit the less scary parts of the neighborhood, the shoveled parts, I don't know.

It took a few months (in four segments, two weeks apart - and missing the last one) but the PU has finished hearing the &TYD.

That's my wife's appelation, by the way. Cute, right?

And word is good. I was most thrown and then moved when DM said there are places when the piece "devolves" ... (and I cringed as she lost her thought for a moment, considering if that were the right word before continuing) ... "into poetry."

Oh. Well. That's good.

FS likes the piece about the Jock in Geometry. Funny, I may be having lunch later this week with the guy I talk about in that piece. We've seen each other twince since graduation, both times at reunions. We've probably never watched each other eat in our lives.

Boring but beautiful.

It's migraine weather. And my prescription is out of date. I am trying to hold off serious pain by taking otc meds, they worked last year. The Imitrex has gotten so expensive, I calculate how many hours a day I need to work in order to justify taking one.

No stretches this morning, I needed to sleep. I took two Benadryl last night, which hit me over the head good and tight. I hope to make up for that later today. At PT yesterday Melissa had me on the jumping machine. Weird!

Sunday the entire creative staff got together for a reading at Ali's. That's when I clocked an hour fifteen. I wish a playwriting fairy would light on my shoulder and tell me exactly which part I should dump to bring this beast down to size.

At PU last night, two very helpful observations were made ... if this play is about what runs through a guy's head while he's running the race (not my original intent, but that's how SG described it, and so he says, so it is) then the history of Marathon is not that.

And MO said it is "beautiful but boring," which he obviously meant as a critique of EC's reading abilities, but that's okay, EC is still a nice guy.

It's a warning. The names are difficult to follow, the story is well-known (except to those in the room for whom it wasn't) and it doesn't sound like me. A challenge.

The second regards THE ICON, and that I should just say what it is. So what if the Angel at Bethesda has been mentioned or pictured in everything from Godspell to Angels In America? Don't make it diffuse.

"Let the poop scenes breathe."

Playwrights' Unit again tonight. Praise for the rhythm, and observations about where the rhythm isn't working right. The words are running.

The chronology can be confusing ... I have been working to pare down details, to focus on action and emotion and not exposition. One scene in particular has too many players on the pitch (the verse "the wife's lover's children and my lover's wife" suddenly springs to mind) and I think I can take care of that, too, easily.

And the poop scenes are too close together.

Cutting, cutting, cutting ... bring it in under 60 minutes. Now, it's a race.

P.U.

First night with the CPH Playwright's Unit. We will meet biweekly through the spring, bringing ten pages to the table more or less every other Monday, with a few special readings stuck in there for good measure. That's good work!

Due to a recent shift, there have been three new additions to the eight member unit (nine, if you include Seth, which you most definitely should) and we were pressed to be the first to offer. I skittishly offered to go first of the first.

The first ten pages of ATYD, the beginning, which is the part I am most concerned about. I had offered up the middle ten (roughly) at the Dark Room a couple months ago, because I felt more confident about those. This is set-up. It's hard to start.

E.C. read the lines (E.S. the stage directions) and he did all right, he's not me, you know. M.O. said it was a bit heavy, he wanted more cheek, and I got that. Only I think I will be bringing the cheek, if you know what I mean.

I love hearing the bits I didn't even get when I was writing them. I didn't even intend them, but I'll take them. D.M. thought I used the term refugee camp twice when describing Fort Wadsworth. Not true, but I somehow had made her think that, so I think I was getting the image across. Things like that.

The Forster bit is too long, I knew that. I don't think character will help.

S.G. says it works so far, the idea that these thoughts are going through the mind of a marathon runner as he runs. That's good. Ali, how do we make sure it looks like that?