Bad Blogger.

Bad, bad blogger....

So, I've been away for a while. Sorry 'bout that. Once the show started I was onstage during my usual blogging time and then once I got back to Florida I had friends and a regular schedule again so I've been away from my computer less and less. I still blame the iphone for all of this because it's just so darn convenient to check e-mail and Facebook, and yet so inconvenient to type anything longer than a text message, so the blog suffers. See how I got the blame off of me? =)

At any rate, I'm doing well! So grateful to have had the experience doing "In Transit" and glad to have a job to return to once it was over. So many times a show closes and you spend the next few days adjusting to being unemployed yet again and the panic sets in because you don't know when your next paycheck will come from or when you'll get it. You get into hunker-down mode and suddenly that take-out dinner that was no big deal while your show was up and running is now a budget buster and...Ramon noodles for dinner it is!

It can be pretty crazy going back and forth between Florida and NYC. Sometimes it feels like I live a double life. I can slip into one world as quickly as another and pick up right where I left off. I have one daily routine in Florida and another in NY. I have one set of friends in FL and another in NY. 2 completely different lifestyles. 2 completely different frames of mind. Those of you who know me well know that I prefer one over the other, but I'm not yet ready to sever ties with either and just commit to one. One day I will, but something is keeping me on the fence with it all and so for now I'm letting myself live in limbo between my 2 "lives." We shall see....

In the meantime I've been keeping busy (which I love), I've been working on a few different projects (which I love) and this weekend I got to fly home to surprise Dad for his 60th birthday (love, love, love).

Being home is always bittersweet. Flying into the Cleveland airport makes me peek out the window like a kid searching the sky for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. I try to recognize landmarks: there's I-71, there's my college campus, there's the football stadium by the lake. I get excited because it's all so familiar. It's home!

When I'm home I eat more food, lounge longer, do more shopping, watch more TV. I can see how my hometown has changed even over the span of the few months since my last visit. New buildings built, old ones knocked down or re-purposed. The Friendly's restaurant where my high school friends and I would go after a play or musical performance is now a Sonic. The street signs are reflective blue and white instead of tall brown wooden posts. Even the driveway to my parents' house was redone a few months ago. It's great to see the city changing and growing. But a little bittersweet to be missing it somehow.

Best thing about being home? FAMILY! In the last 2 days I've gotten to visit and catch up with my grandma, an aunt and uncle, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and my 3 1/2 year old nephew, Connor. Most of my time was spent up to my elbows in play-doh, crayons, coloring books, blocks, games, videos, remote-controlled cars, and Dr. Seuss books with Connor. He's been crawling all over me for 2 days and it's been bliss!

Last night before he went to bed, Connor and my parents and I were sitting in the living room watching "The Wizard of Oz." We've all seen the movie tons of times. But doesn't matter because there's always something in it that you've never seen before - especially when you get to watch it again through the eyes of a kid. So familiar, but can still surprise you. That's what coming home is like. Familiar and sometimes surprising.

The bitter part of coming home? Leaving. BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It's hard to be away from my family. I don't get to be there for every holiday, every birthday, every family dinner or every outing. It stinks. But I have a great support system in Orlando. I have a great church in Orlando. I have a job that love. And I have a cellphone with a speed dial. =)

So, even though I'm far away, working in my own version of Oz (Disney), it's definitely true what they say:

There's no place like home.