Since I was last regularly updating this site, a decent amount of good and bad happened, and THEN a global pandemic shut down theatres.

Following this post where I was contemplating how I was going to fit myself into the professional acting world again, I ended up deciding to audition for the Third Coast Comedy Club house teams and being placed on the long form team Freak Pony. I also started playing regularly with an improv for kids team called Gnu Tales.

Then on the very last day of 2017, an old pipe in my 1950s era house burst while we were on Christmas vacation, flooding our house with thousands of gallons of water. It required full move out and redo of all our floors, many of our walls, and a complete redo of our kitchen. Which we had *just* finished renovating.

It was not fun.

We finally got through that 2018 personal chaos, and then I was bold in 2019 and into the first quarter of 2020 – I auditioned for and was cast in a play with Actors Bridge Ensemble and it was a wonderful and challenging experience, as I noted in this post. I finally applied to become an instructor at the new improv theatre where I was performing and was in the process of training to be eligible to lead a class. In March of 2020, I met a fellow improviser at a coffee shop to discuss the possibility of workshopping a movement improv performance that teamed dancers with comedic improvisers in some way.

Little did I know, that was the last latte I would sip “for here” in a coffee shop for an entire year.

The Coronavirus was in the United States. School for my girls was cancelled the day after that last meeting, kicking off Spring Break a couple days earlier than planned. Armed with Lysol for the two necessary potty stops & a cooler of food to avoid restaurants, we went to my father’s house at the beach. By the time we were heading back to Nashville a week later, the beaches were closed. School never restarted.

Welcome to Parenting Extreme: The 24/7 Experience.

My husband worked from home April thru June, but then he switched jobs to a new firm and needed to go into his new office. So with him gone 7a to 7p each day, and all the usual help taken out in the name of social distancing, I was all mom all the time, leaving little time or energy to work on anything else.

It was a lot. Don’t get me wrong, we had fun and I have the pictures to prove it. I will treasure many of the memories. But like all parents this past year, my mental and physical health took a serious beating all year.

So here we are, 2021. My kids schools are finally both open (with mask wearing and other accommodations), more people are getting vaccinated every day, and it seems *maybe* we’ll get some theatres open again by the end of the year (plleeeeaasssee). I actually did get together with a photog friend of mine and pop off some good stuff this winter, so I have updated headshots to roll out. And I have so many ideas to get out of my brain. All this time to think, and I think I know what theatres I’d like to dig into and what personal projects I’d like to tackle.

I’m trying to keep my hope measured, but I’m also looking forward to getting some work done. Work that’s not folding tiny human clothes, cooking three meals a day, refereeing sibling fights, or setting up virtual learning spaces.