The Beginning, The Middle, and The End

This weekend was one of sleeping in...and having concerns (about work, travel, friends, family) but it felt like...hey...all of that can wait. I've gone five days without shaving...something I can't do at least for another 61 days. It's the 'calm before the storm' I suppose.

Tomorrow is the beginning...the final run up to Berklee's 5-Week Performance Program. We are preparing for 1000+ students to arrive, check in, and want to be entertained.

It is the middle: chronologically it is just over the half way point of the time I've had off from Mount Allison and it feels as thought it's about halfway in terms of me physically getting back in shape.

It is also the beginning of the end-I know what I'm doing at work by now...and things are getting down to 'crunch-time' this week and again in August when waves of young adults arrive on campus.

Near the beginning of this summer (the end of April for me) this was little that needed to be done...and as I moved to Boston about ten days before I moved to Mount Allison I did not know anybody in the city. But now this solitude gives me the freedom to talk to those that I want to, to not have to decide between people; to have a break from much of the drama that accompanies college life. It's been slow at times but the next nine weeks won't be.

I'll be working overtime, going to New York City alone (maybe not ideal to some...but I feel it's great to get away from the familiar and be on your own...and it's New York City...I'm probably not going to have the time/money/proximity to see it any other time. I'll probably reread The Catcher in the Rye), maybe spending a weekend with friends on vacation at 6-Flags, and finally getting re-certified in CPR among other things.

It feels like it's getting closer to the end because almost all of my 'free time' has been scheduled and filled. It reminds me of early November and early March (at least at Mount Allison) when you know what you have for the rest of the year-what final essays you have to write, and which when your final exams are (for me: fall orientation). Eight weeks from Saturday morning is still a ways off but it'll go by more quickly than the last eight weeks have.