What a fucking week. The past few weeks have put a huge strain on my hard-fought mental clarity from this summer, mainly because of the show I’ve been working with my students at work. They were supposed to memorize their lines over the winter break and be ready to hit the ground running on January 8 when we came back. This didn’t happen (they are middle schoolers after all) but it sets back everything that we can do in a rehearsal until that is done. Week 1 passed, nothing. Week 2 passed, threats etc., nothing. Week three was last week and still things weren’t where they needed to be.

Last night at rehearsal we had my district level supervisor in with us to clinic our show. It was the absolute worst run of the show that we have every had. It was a clusterfuck, or flustercluck (school safe version) and heads were up on the chopping block. Amazing what pressure and a clear consequence will do for a group of students who are talented but unmotivated to get the work done. It felt like a totally different group of students on stage and, like my director said, it was stressing me out more than I wanted to admit. Monday night I was a mess, Tuesday as well and last night was a total write-off. Tonight, as long as things don’t go to hell over the weekend, we will have a show. Maybe even a great show. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I’m heading down to Huntsville for the Rocky 100K with David and Ben. This is my first “big” race because it is a Western States Qualifier and there will be some really big names in the sport of Ultrarunning there toeing the line for the 100 Miler. We will see how it goes, it looks like it will be wet and storming all weekend but at least it won’t be cold! Report to follow.

We will make it because we have to.