a bearable lightness of being

This is Sadie.  Short for Sadist, because of how she used to bite down too hard when she had her puppy teeth.
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It's been way heavy lately. A series of frustrating and unsuccessful auditions (as well was a few auditions I didn't get called about that I don't understand). And then something outside of me really shook me:

On the day before my 39th birthday, someone very close to me passed away.
I won't go into details on this, except to say: The world is a better place for having her in it.

And recently I performed an Iago monologue for an audition. Just awful. Horrible. I said all the words right, but there wasn't anything behind it. I couldn't bring it. I just didn't want to "be there."

So I stared in the mirror and I gazed at my navel, and then remembered that the me I like is more accurately represented by this than by Iago:

Cave Squirrelum

Nuts. Yesterday, August 13th, was National Left-handers Day, and I missed it. I hope I'm the only one. I think we'd be recognized as an oppressed minority (via scissors, notebooks, 3-ring binders, chainsaws, school desks, pens, erasable pens, some spatulas and butter knives, writing in general, always stuck at the end of the table, shorter life spans, the occasional schoolmarm with ruler though not so much anymore, analog watches) if we could just take ourselves seriously. Belatedly, here's to us.

Actor News: The dreadfully long list of unrequited auditions continues to grow. Sometimes I'm surprised. Sometimes not (a big theatre with the moolah to get pretty much whatever they want recently called me in to audition to understudy Gremio and Vincentio in Taming of the Shrew. I'm not remotely the right age. There were 4 of us auditioning at the time, 2 who were the right age, plus me, plus a guy who is close in age to me. He said, "Yeah, I don't know why they called me in, either."). Today I had an audition for a PSA. It went well, I thought, but, who knows?

Cool Stuff In Art: I recently happened upon this sculptor, Beth Cavener Stichter. You must check her out! Her mission statement is rather heavy, but where it takes her -- well, the quality of her work is stellar. A lot of it is like a bad trip through Wonderland. I'm also amazed at her patience -- because her work is large clay pieces, she spends the bulk of her time hollowing them out before firing them. I just missed seeing her stuff at the Smithsonian, but I noted that she seems to come through Baltimore on occasion. Hmm. Anyhoo, wander around her site, won't you?

Cool Stuff In Nature: Squirrels heat up their tails for defense. True! It'll make sense if you read the article.

Sadie: Is 8 months old and over 60 lbs. And she's not fat. Woof.

"Taxes" is an Anagram of "Texas"

A blue funk has kept me from posting. Here some math for you: Taxes + crummy weather = blue funk.

The last post was about 20 pounds of puppy ago (would that be 140 in people pounds?). Sadie is 20 weeks old and 45-ish pounds now. Oy. She's also losing her baby teeth. Good -- adult teeth are not quite so pointy. And while she doesn't look broken to me, I'll soon be taking her in to get fixed. Ha, ha.

We open Norman Conquests: Table Manners on Friday. The last week or so of rehearsal have been . . . tense, but I think it'll be fun once we have an audience. By the way, I'm very tired of corn flakes and toast. If you see the show you'll understand why.

Just had an audition today for Rep Stage, which has already garnered a callback next Monday. Wish me luck.

Introducing the Newest Member of the Family

Jen and I adopted a little girl last Saturday. She's a handful, time-consuming, which is why I'm only getting about to writing it now. She was a bit too thin, I think, and had some dandruff, but she looks like she's putting on some weight already and her hair's looking better, too. Her name is Sadie.