Living the Nightmare in the Middle of a Dream

October 10th was an Aristotlian dream...full of catharsis. Here is the Cliff Notes for the theatrical piece that I call simply

Living the Nightmare in the Middle of a Dream

Act I

I had a am meeting at the Women's Project with Allison Prouty, its Associate Producer. I will be working at their office beginning on Monday. I love their mission statement and everyone in the executive office was wonderfully welcoming; I can't wait to get to work.

To read about their mission and upcoming projects please check out their website at http://www.womensproject.org/

The website is currently being updated, so what is there today will be new and improved by Monday.

Act II

I just got out of the meeting and had grabbed a matinee ticket when my mom called. My father - yes this is the SAME father who has been fighting colon cancer all summer - had a heart attack. As this is not a personal diary, I will refrain from all the emotional detail, but I will say that people are the same everywhere. As I sat on the nearest stoop on the corner of 42nd and 10th to catch my breath and thoughts, at least 3 people sensed something and asked this perfect stranger if she was okay. Amazing.

Act III

My mother, sister, brother and husband all convinced me that I was not to come home as he was going to be fine, which is tough to grasp when he is just got out of surgery, in icu and can't speak to me on the phone.

So, what should you do when you can do nothing? Experience mindless fun...why do I feel like a bad daughter?

Yankton's (the town of beautiful people) own Ellie Satter is in nyc auditioning and taking classes so she was good enough to spend the day with me. We we went to Xanadu and Legally Blonde in the same day. I really did love them both...excuse the phrasing, but I will always be a musical whore. Bigger than life characters, extravagant sets and over-the-top musical numbers did their best to give me a reprieve from the real life characters, sets and drama at home.

Encore

Between shows, Ellie and I were enjoying cookies and coffee on my fire escape when she says, "Kim, there is a naked man walking down your sidewalk." Sure enough - there was. He wore nothing except his tennis shoes and a smile; he was also carrying a bag. As he strolled underneath us and down the street, a man on a cell phone that he passed was heard saying, "...yeah, completely naked." I retorted down to him, "Hey, don't be hating on the naked guy. Some of us don't have the luxury of a change of clothes. His must be dirty, and they are in the bag. Certainly, he is on his way to the cleaners around the corner." As we were all laughing about this, another guy yelled up to us, "I think we should all walk naked!" I responded, "Me too. You first!" More laughter. About a minute later, as the naked guy went around the corner, another man walked under the fire escape. I said, "Excuse me, we lost a naked guy. You didn't happen to see him did you?" "Yes! I did! He's down the street!" He thought we were for serious for about 4 more steps; he then stopped, turned looked at us, and we all screamed in laughter! I wonder how far Naked Man got before someone told the emperor he had no clothes.

Mitch had a great comment when I was told him the story. As I described Naked Man as being incredibly hairy from head to toe, Mitch said, "Maybe he thought he was dressed." Beautiful.