Welcome Back!

Mood: On edge
Song: My Funny Valentine – Miles Davis
Units of Caffeine: 7

So, my vacation was good. K and I relaxed; we hung out; the weather was cool; it was nice. But, I guess I just can’t get over this whole cruise thing – Perhaps it was because, with the cruise, I wouldn’t have had to look at every penny we were spending every hour or so. But, the fact is, we got away from our lives for a while and we weren’t busy trying to squeeze thirty hours into the twenty-four hour day.

But I guess the main problem is that there really wasn’t an ease back into my everyday life. I couldn’t stick a toe in and get used to the temperature before easing my way into the pool. No, I was thrown right back into the deep end of an ice-cold pool that is my life. Yesterday I spent the day paying bills and catching up with housework and such, and this morning I opened my e-mail at work to find one hundred thirty two new e-mail messages. There was also a neatly piled stack of paperwork on my desk for me to go through. I quickly read up on the drama that is happening behind the scenes with Seussical and, as my eye was beginning to twitch, I got blindsided with two pieces of news regarding the Ren Mad banquet: (a) The down payment for the project is going to cost >$6K and (b) The caterer told me that there is a 15% charge on top of his quoted price that will go to the school’s catering company. I have no earthly idea why I have to pay a 15% surcharge to my University’s catering company when they aren’t doing a damn thing, but it increased my budget by ~$1,600.00. All of this is not good news when the church who is joining me in this Ren Mad venture informed me that they did not think of any of the up-front costs.

I hit the panic button and headed straight to the drama department and spoke with one of my mentors, (who happens to also be a good friend of mine). He calmed me down somewhat and suggested that I speak with the Chair. I spoke with the Chair and she did a really good job of easing my mind a bit. She told me that I should not, under any circumstances attempt to fund this project on my own. It was good to hear this from her, as I was thinking that I would have to take out a home equity loan or something like that. She also told me that it’s often a bad idea to act immediately after hearing bad news. It’s funny – I realize this is all pretty matter-of-fact advice that really should come as a “no brainer,” but I guess, with everything on my plate, it’s just hard to see the obvious. So we bounced around ideas of how to come up with money to front the initial funds needed for this project and even discussed my options in the event that the Ren Mad doesn’t pan out. I am not going to write about these options because I really don’t even want to think of them right now – It would almost be like admitting defeat. However, I know that in a worst-case scenario, I will still graduate in December!