I once again ask “Why?” today. You know, since it’s 1:12 a.m. and all.

1. Why is it that I’m the one who has to get up at 5 a.m. and go to work, but I’m the one Rousseau comes to at 12:30 because he’s having tummy trouble and needs to go outside? Does he not know that the Thriller doesn’t have to get up early?
2. Why do my students make me want to launch puppies across the Grand Canyon every moment leading up to a performance, but then sing like angels at the concert?
3. Why can’t Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez pitch like that all the time?
4. Why is it so easy to assume we have all the information on a thing, when in fact we have very little? Assumptions can be (and often are) dangerous, especially when entire schools of thought are built on them.
5. Why is it impossible for me to go back to sleep once I’ve been awakened in the night? I ask this, of course, while Rousseau snores peacefully at my feet.
6. Why has the school year gone so fast? (And why on earth am I complaining about it?)

Dog is awake again, poor thing. Strap in, cousin. It’s gonna be a long, long night. Oy, warum?

I think it’s safe to say that I am a social creature; a textbook extrovert, in that I derive my energy from others instead of from inside myself. Or maybe that’s the textbook definition of needy. Haha. I care not.

I am always thinking about the people in my life — what they’re thinking, what they’re up to now, when I can see them next, whether or not they’re OK. (Sometimes I think about things in a glut: like this morning, I’m wondering about the whereabouts of Ross and TRO — two talented bloggers who frequented RtB a few years ago). So I check on them on Facebook. I “talk” to them in messages and texts and emails, and even occasionally talk to them in person or on the phone. (Please, micro-Luddites, spare me the rants.)

There’s just not enough time these days to do it is all. And I don’t mean that in a broad-spectrum, people-got-to-be-free, we-are-the-world context. I mean I just don’t get up early enough to talk to them all. Really, there’s not enough time.

And you thought I was deep-divin’ today.

How much time do you spend every day in social media, or on the phone or the doorstep, making contact with friends and family? Bet it’s not near enough in your estimation. We really need to correct the rat-race attitude that pervades — dominates — the American lifestyle. I’ma work on that.

With me?

OK, penultimate day of classes in 3…2…1…

It’s the final countdown (for the record, I hate that song).

The end is near. The end of the longest school year ever. Three gigs and we’re done — four if you count the Academic Awards ceremony tomorrow night.

As I lay in bed this morning with the alarm snoozed, I retraced some memories. It’s been a year of changes, frustrations, joy and unexpected happenings:

1. Made a huge decision about my future
2. Moved a longstanding production (Dinner Theatre) from March to November
3. Yet another annus horribilis for the Finkmobile 
4. Had my first Black Friday experience
5. Started The Comfort Foodie — and haven’t touched it since March (gotta get on that this summer)
6. Embarked on the longest rehearsal schedule ever, due to spring sports conflicts
7. Been the sickest I think I’ve ever been, and for the longest time period
8. The Kidney Stones, oy
9. I actually looked for another job after 13 years at my beloved school (but later changed my mind, thank the gods — besides, who’d hire an aging hag, eight years from retirement, at masters +48?)
10. Fought through myriad obstacles and we still had a great show

It’s been a bizzy year. And hey, it’s 6:04 a.m. — I’m four minutes late getting upstairs to get ready for this last insane week. Four more things, four more things…

How was your weekend? I went to a fab birthday party for Justin yesterday — I’ll probably find a photo or two to post, after I troll my daughter-in-law’s Facebook.

FO

Click the title ^^ to reveal the tale.

I think we’re ready for it. I’m sure we are. It’s for certain. I need to notify Ross, who hasn’t been out this way for awhile.

It’s Round Robin, Round Three. If you want to marvel at all the cool writers who haunt RtB, you can have a gander at Round Robins I and II.

Rules of the Game

1. Only add a few sentences at a time — but you can add on to the story as many different times as you like.
2. Don’t hit “Reply” under someone else’s comment. Rather, just start a new comment altogether. That way, the story will read down the page, and we won’t nest ourselves into a 1-centimeter-wide column.
3. The Fink gets the last line of the story. Because Kody will simply write, “Everyone died. The End.”

Ready, steady. go. I’ll start.

It was a dark and stormy night…