Things were pretty quiet for a while. After Music Man ended in February and Rocky Horror ended in May I was as free as a fart in a locker room. No shows, no school, virtually no extrafamilial obligations whatsoever.
That has now come to a screeching halt - and it's going to get worse.
At the beginning of September I signed up for a physics course at Rowan University. That and a composition course are all that stand between me and my degree, so I'm working on knocking them out of the way. That course meets two nights a week from 6:30-9:00pm. It's no fun, but it's what I need to do.
So that eats up two nights. The St. Paul's Praise & Worship Band is performing this Sunday. Last Sunday we rehearsed and will again this Saturday. That's no biggie.
Here's where it gets interesting. The Collingswood Community Theater is doing State Fair next February, so auditions will be in November and rehearsals will run from then all the way up to opening night. I don't know if I'll be in that, but it looks likely.
The other day Betty Averill, the music director for Collingswood First Methodist Church for whom I have played here and there over the last five years, is putting together a big Christmas drama and would like me to play a lead role. Rehearsals are every Saturday morning. The shows are December 13 & 14 with rehearsals every night of the preceding week.
The final exam for my physics course is December 16, two days after the last Christmas drama performance.
As if all that isn't enough, our own church, the aforementioned St. Paul's, wants to have a brass quintet at their Christmas Eve service, with which they'd love to have Linda and me play. Along with that they'd like us to sing in the choir for that service.
Oh yeah - did I mention that we're losing one set of tenants in our rental property and will need to deal with that as well? The picture just gets rosier and rosier.
Have you got all that? School, Christmas drama, State Fair, vacant apartment, final exam and St. Paul's Christmas Eve service, all overlapping one way or the other. For four months nothing was happening. Now I'm swamped.
I will say this, though: it's nice to be wanted.
My one big concern is my course. Physics is a bitch, and I have no head for numbers, so I'm really struggling. I'm doing well so far, but I feel as though I'm barely treading water. I need to hunker down with my books and really slog through them every time I do homework or a lab project or just about anything to do with this course. I won't have these materials to draw from when it's exam time, so I have my work cut out for me. Still, I think I can pull it off. I may not get the A I so desire, but I'll do fine.