Spring Break fun

Thanks to everyone for praying for me to do well in A Little Night Music. I did! The director and the audience all seemed to like it a lot. And most of all, I wasn't nervous and sick with stage fright so all in all, a triumph. The best part is, it is over and I am on spring break and catching up on some much much needed sleep. And I'm going to read a book and you can't stop me! Remember when I "gave" you David Copperfield for Christmas, John? Yeah, I told Kent about that the other day. Good times, good times.

Today was a great day. I got up and took Kent to the train station and then spent a good 1.5 hours researching spas in the area and booking myself a 90 minute deep tissue stint for Friday. This is my present for working like a mad woman for the past month with rehearsals and too many courses and 3-4 hours sleep a night. Then I went back to sleep. Then I went to the mall and had a 2 hour conversation with mom on the phone while failing to find Kent a belated birthday present. Kent is the kind of person who doesn't ever want any presents. Not that he's an unworldly self-depriver, oh no. When he decides he wants something, he just immediately buys it for himself so the would-be present buyer is always too late. Maybe we'll splurge on a Bed and Breakfast weekend somewhere on the bay. They get awfully pricey in April and May so we'll have to go soon.

Which reminds me.

Today as I was getting in the car in the Target parking lot, I was really irritated with myself for making myself soooooo busy this semester that I had to cancel our glorious Pretty Woman-esque trip to the Metropolitan Opera for my stupid mini-recital as well as my ticket to Todd Hillyard's wedding in Utah which would have been so fun. I've over-commited myself right out of the most enjoyable things in life. It makes me sick and angry at myself for being such a masochistic over-achiever. (I blame you, Mom! :) Well, then I started the car and there was a report on NPR about how a course has finally overtaken Ec10 (introductory economics a.k.a. "how to get rich") as the most popular course at Harvard. That course: Positive Psychology. It's like a self-help type course on "how to get happy." They read stuff from Eastern and Western philosophy, watch Ellen Degeneres monologues and basically talk about the psychology of wellness rather than of pathology. The main thrust of the course is that people are not created for the rat race and that money and achievement don't bring happiness, that simplification and focusing on the things we find fulfilling and are good at are the real keys. Then I felt even more angry that I sacrificed a night of NYC glamour and fantastic Mozart with my adorable husband in order to do a piece-of-crap recital with music I don't even like and get an A on my Renaissance counterpoint project which interesting as it is, is not a memory I will treasure forever.

One of the studies in the course that they specifically mentioned is the research showing that counting your blessings daily will make you happier. Time to dust off the ol' gratitude journal. Today I am thankful for my Mom and all the sacrifices she made for my education. Plus, she's hot. I am also grateful for whatever prompting made me put on makeup and comb my hair today before going to the mall. Normally I wouldn't, because I've never run into anyone I know at this mall I go to, so of course today I bumped into two people I go to conservatory with. Phew! The illusion remains intact for another day at least!