"Hey, Patrick! It's Jerry. I'm calling to let you know that I've started a new theater company, and we're going to kick things off with a festival of short plays. I wanted to know if you'd be interested in having 10 Proms performed again. I loved that show when it was done at the Summer Shorts a couple of years ago, and I'd like to include it. Give me a call, okay?"

Cool!

This marks the second time a play of mine has been specifically requested to be performed somewhere (the first time was when Kymm asked if she could bring Clerestory and On the Way Home to the Samuel French Festival), rather than submitting to a theater.

It is the result of having the play performed at a festival where I submitted it, but the fact that it stuck with someone for two years so much that he wanted it included in his premiere showcase for a new theater company makes me feel great.

I called Jerry back, and he asked if I wanted to direct the show again. Since I'm going to be in North Carolina during the auditions and I also don't want to have to schedule rehearsals around 11 actors, plus find 9 prom dresses, I asked if he could find a director. He said no problem; if he can't find a director for the show, he'll direct it himself.

I'm thrilled. It was a real kick in the pants in terms of getting back to playwriting, too. I wrote several pages on the "Will/Mike Script" tonight, which I'd put aside while I was on vacation.

I have nothing else to say but...yay!

I really really didn't want to wake up today. I'm still a little bit in vacation mode, and my bed at home is softer than the bed at the hotel was. I did get to work on time and started in on a project I was given when I started the new position, but had put off for more important things. I left Jean an e-mail asking her if I could meet with her about it, and she called at noon to say she could meet me at 1pm.

"I'd have called earlier, but I wanted to give you a little breathing room on your first day back," she said.

Have I mentioned that my boss is incredibly cool? Because she is.

In addition to the project, I'm also going to be working on tutorials for our database system. I'm going to be using a program that our IT guy recommended. It's a Macromedia program, but he couldn't remember the name of it. He said if I like Flash, I'll like this, because it doesn't require the programming of Flash.

Hyung had RoboHelp installed on her machine, and I'm going to ask if I can get it installed on mine, as well. When I was looking outside of the company for positions that might include writing, RoboHelp was often mentioned. I have no intention of leaving this position anytime soon (see above: utterly cool boss), but it's always good to have skills that are transferable. Since I had such a good time creating the tutorials for Design a couple of years ago, I think I might like technical writing that isn't as engineering-based as the writing gig I had with the Infrared Camera Company. Creating help files for programs or websites would be something I could do very well, and I'd probably enjoy it too.

I think I'm pretty good at this job so far, and I certainly enjoy it, so it'd be a win/win if I got to play around with RoboHelp as well as the program for tutorials.

At therapy today, Jane told me she thinks I'm ready to "graduate" to a once every three week session. My last sessions have been more like chats with someone I know pretty well more than therapy, and I was going to ask her about going to a less than biweekly schedule. It's a good sign that we're on the same page.

I do still need the check-ins every once in awhile, but I can feel myself pulling away from that as the days go on. I don't need to do a daily check on how I'm doing or what I'm feeling. I'm doing what I should be doing, and feeling whatever is appropriate for the situation at-hand. I don't hate my job, I don't hate the world, and I don't hate myself.

Being able to finally say that is so liberating. I know I'm a different person than I was a couple of years ago; heck, I'm a different person than I was one year ago. I can navigate through life without being hurt all the time, and that feels so damned good sometimes, I want to tell everyone I meet about it.

Instead, I write it here, and that's enough.

Not much else to report. I need to catch up on the sleep I missed on my last day of vacation, so I'm hitting the sheets early. Despite my morning reprieve from diving head-first into project work today, I do have a full plate until the middle of this month, and by then, I'll probably have another dozen projects to keep me busy through the summer. Add the fourth of July, the Quinn family reunion, Gaylaxicon, and the trip to North Carolina to see my play, and I'm going to be very busy for quite some time.

But not right now. Right now, the air conditioner is humming and I'm looking forward to shutting down and shutting off for a couple of hours.