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…

It is to weep.

I stumbled across an article that made me giggle. I thought, yep — I bawled like a fool at that movie. And it got me to thinking…you know, I bawl at some point at just about every movie I’ve ever seen. Empathy Overdrive.

Why do I do this to myself? It’s like I can’t help it. I spent most of  Water for Elephants in boo-hoo mode. And you should have seen me during the cloying, sappy The Notebook. I couldn’t breathe through my nose for an hour. And Sophie’s Choice — I don’t even want to talk about it. Cripes — you name the movie and I cried at it. (Well, except maybe The Hangover.)

Even the old classics — The Wizard of Oz, It’s a Wonderful Life — are weepworthy for me. Why do I do this?

I once asked the Thriller (who never cries at anything) how he and I can be watching the same film, and I’ve got the box of Kleenex on my lap while he sits there munching on popcorn, totally oblivious to all the harrowing emotion onscreen. His response was, “It’s not that it doesn’t make me sad, but it’s all just a made-up story.” I realized then that some of us internalize a story, and some of us watch it as a disinterested (not to be confused with uninterested) bystander.

This was brought to bear in a conversation I recently had with the students in my vocal jazz ensemble. One of the boys made the comment, “I get so involved in the [in this case, horror] story, I can’t take it.” I totally agreed. The slash-and-gore isn’t happening to the girl on the screen; it’s happening to me. I guess that’s why I can’t watch most horror films. I totally flip my poop. Same with a sad movie: I’m right there with the people going through it. I remember seeing Ghost in the theater…oh dear, what a mistake.

And it doesn’t stop at movies. I can’t read this without dissolving into weeping foolery. I cry at commercials (remember the Folger’s Coffee ones about soldiers coming home at Christmas? And I can’t even get through the opening frame of this, Lawd). But movies get me the most, because I crawl so far into the story, it’s impossible to extricate myself when things get hairy. I can’t watch Cars with my grandsons without losing it during the scene where James Taylor sings “Our Town,” and I’ve seen that movie a hundred times. I’m bawling right now, having researched and played the link. No one seems to need us like they did before…Oy…

OK, so what’s your take on this? Where do you sit on the Weep Scale? I’m off the charts, ferdangsure. What are the saddest movies you’ve ever seen? I’ll bet I could say “Oh yeah!” to more than one of them.

Off to get ready for…sniffy…school.

*sNORt*

What to do when I’m up at 4………….

Here’s something for sure: when this school year (you know, the Three Weeks What Will Never End) is done, I’m getting back into my skin. Family, friends (although I’ve loved spending time with the always-awesome Stoney during this rehearsal run), traveling, cooking, baking, gardening, reading, walking the dog…it’s all coming back with a vengeance. Can’t wait.

I will resume my list on the Comfort Foodie; the last recipe I posted was back in March, oy. But until then, I will look for pockets of sanity when I can. It’s the best all of us can do during the crazy times, ja? Behold the V & S coolness for today:

Do NOT go here.

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Lifehacker has the coolest stuff.

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I entered grilled chicken  in the first box, and roast beef in the second. Nice little script.

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I don’t visit Photo of the Week nearly often enough.

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Some of these I knew; others I did not. As Suzanne is wont to say: Inneresting!

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You can’t stop watching. Heh heh.

Well, I suppose I will go get ready for the school house — but not before reading about how the Indians came back to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th, only to give it up to the White Sox in the 10th. Yay.