26 Miles – bravo!

We had the good fortune of catching  ’26 Miles’ last Friday evening before the show came to an end on Sunday.  Now, I’ll be the first to confess that I’m usually not a big fan of the theatre and plays–I’ll go, but usually after a lot of prodding and some bribing.  So, when my girlfriend proclaimed some weeks ago that we’re going to this, I reluctantly agreed, being the good girlfriend that I am.  I knew next to nothing about the play except for a short synopsis that I read–some coming-of-age bullshit.  The only thing that kept my interest up was the fact that it was written by a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Quiara Hude and directed by a gay director, Kent Gash.

So with my skepticism in check, we hurriedly walked our way over to the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center as the sky was looking rather ominous and the wind kicked up a few notches.  Once we entered, the attendant directed us through the building, back out the other door, and through a side door that lead 2 flights of stairs down into the basement, also known as the Hertz Stage.  We overheard our usher telling a group of concerned patrons that “we’re in the safest part of the building, should the impending storm hit us”….oh, that’s always nice to know.  The small theatre was adequate but really, nothing special.  The stadium-style theatre had rows of hard plastic chairs and there were no assigned seats.  For smaller intimate venues like this one, I personally prefer the 7 Stages in Little Five Points…but that’s just me.

Ok, I digressed…the play was surprisingly entertaining and well-acted and I found myself absorbed in it for the whole 1 hr, 40 min without any moments of daydreaming or catnapping, and that’s saying something.  The subject matter of family, love, and self-identity was easy to empathize with, and I thought each actor did a tremendous job in his/her depiction of each role.  I may go so far as to say this play might be the turning point in my whole perception of the theatre.  My only regret is that I didn’t see it sooner and I missed out on my opportunity to share my enthusiasm with others.

heeeello~ world!!

Ok…signed up for my very own space in this gigantic universe of blogosphere…now I’m good to go, right?  Except…now that I actually have the power of expression, I’m drawing a complete blank!  How funny is that?  All the things I’ve been wanting to say and share have vanished, at least for the time being.  So, for now I’ll just ramble on for a little while about….well, how ’bout the weather?

We are now into the month of April here in Atlanta.  Normally, this time of the year is when the temperature starts to shoot into the 70’s and you start to see people come out of their winter hibernation everywhere and it’s a beautiful sight.  Well, spring is definitely taking its time getting here this year for some reason and we’ve been having many cold rainy days for the past few weeks and this morning the temperature even dropped down into the 30’s.  What the heck is goin’ on here?  I’m definitely getting antsy and starting to feel my body reacting to the low vitamin D level and out of whack melatonin level.  Take it from someone that has moved here from the cold and dark Northeast, seasonal affective disorder is definitely REAL and can be VERY debilitating, both mentally and physically.  Now, I say physically not because it’s physiologically painful to the body, but because once you start to get mentally depressed, you start to neglect all aspects of your life, including your physical health.  For me personally, I stop exercising, eat poorly, and consume more alcohol.

I’ve been lucky in the sense that my seasonal disorder was never so severe to the point of reaching clinical depression, feeling suicidal or needing to get on medication, and most of my symptoms really vanished slowly over time on its own since I’ve relocated to the warmer climate, but it does rear it’s ugly head every once in a while.

Well, they said we’ll make it up to 62 degrees by this afternoon and it’s suppose to be beautiful for the rest of the week and into the weekend, so maybe I’m safe.  I think I’ll go for a run around Piedmont Park later on and hopefully recharge…

Update (4.9.09)…

Piedmont Park

Well, the weather turned out even better than what they had forecasted. I made it out to Piedmont Park late in the afternoon and it was absolutely beautiful! We had to have made it well into the high 60’s, for I was more than comfortable running in my t-shirt and shorts. Unfortunately, I can’t say the rest of my body felt just as comfortable–my lungs felt like it was on fire, my heart was ready to jump out of my chest and my legs felt like they weighed a ton…it’s been a long dark winter, and it’s time to wake up!