Five on Friday: What is Gina up to Now?

The truth is, my high school guidance counselor didn't know what to do with me.   “You’re good at English and History, you like writing, performing and you’re good at leading groups. I guess you should be a teacher.” 

Well, guidance counselor, I didn't really know what to do with me either but I keep trying new things and finding new ways to combine my passions. It's exciting to take a look at my life and realize how many interesting gigs I've got going on. 

This week's list is a compilation of where you can find me doing the things I love:

1. The Moth recently re-aired my story, Adventures in Saying Yes. Every time it's shared on the national level I literally get messages from around the country and sometimes world. Some are friends from across the country texting, "I just heard you on the radio!" and others are messages from strangers saying, "My family is just like yours!" I treasure all them all.

2. Graveyard Tours! A dream come to fruition! I've wanted to do this for so long and I'm so pleased with everything about how it turned out. The research was easy (and I found *so* many juicy tidbits to share!), my volunteers were great (and my Gorey-inspired graphics were AMAZING thanks to one of them--thank you Robbie-Lynn!!!!), tours sold out meaning money raised for the not-profit I'm volunteering with and the weather all month totally cooperated. 

Oh, and there was that dress!

These tours are over but information will be coming out soon for any locals that might want to book private small group tours . . . stay tuned.

3. Lecture on the Carlisle School on Sunday, November 6th.

4. Tipsy History! During my graveyard tours, there were some stories I only told little bits of . . . the rest of the stories are going to be told at this event that will be held in February. Again, stay tuned!

Yes, that's me double-fisting it with ginger ale in plastic wine glasses, New Year's Eve 1978ish? (& Robbie-Lynn designed this, too! She's the best.)

5.  Monthly Story Slam's at Scout's are back! We took October off but we'll be back on November 11th with the theme of Traditions . . . start thinking of your stories now!

Five on Friday: The Holiday Post Can Wait

Today’s post was going to have a holiday theme—yesterday was Thanksgiving, that’d be an easy one, right? I had some ideas floating around but hadn’t found the time to figure out how I was going to stitch them together.

 

With all of the cooking and baking I did this week (apparently cooking a Thanksgiving meal takes many hours over two days even if it’s only for your immediate family!), I didn’t find time to sit down and write.

 

Besides preparing food, I also delivered some bread and mini-pies to a few people, including my parents. They are getting ready to move from their home that they’ve lived in for the past forty-four years, so my Mom keeps giving me things she is purging. This time she gifted me with the ultimate treasure: a box of my old report cards, certificates, newspaper clippings (“Was I just always in the paper my entire life???” Mom: “Pretty much.”), head shots, play programs and more.

 

They are too good not to share. I’ll tell you something about the holidays next week, for now you can enjoy this little walk down memory lane with me.

 

Enjoy!

 

1. From one of my very first public performances. It was more of a Talent Show than anything else. I remember being not very concerned about winning but very pleased to have a stage and a real audience. I am pretty sure I participated twice. I think it was the second time that strangers were telling my Mom that I should have won, so my Mom made me a "People's Choice" award ribbon that year.

 

 2.  I distinctly remember reenacting this at home. I think I made my younger sister be the Virgin Mary while I took on the roles of Joseph, the Innkeeper, the Angel, a Shepherd and all three Wise Men . . . perhaps also the Little Drummer Boy.

 

3.This was a big deal. The lead characters, both boys, played by two girls. "You can just tuck your long hair up under this top hat, right?" I could.

4. They really ate out of my hand! Apparently this was not just exciting to me but to the newspaper as well.

5. And here it is, folks, the pièce de résistance . . . head shots from that time when I was eleven and my Mom took me to a modeling agency.

Five on Friday: The Realizations That Led to An Epiphany

I wasn't looking for a new job.

If you know me at all or have been reading my blog for a bit, you may know I work at a nearby local historical Mill. I first started there as a school tour guide when my youngest was in kindergarten. The following year they offered me a part-time position as a Museum Administrator. I agreed as long as I could continue with tours as I really enjoy doing that. 

They agreed and I came to love so much about my job there: continuing to give tours (sometimes in costume!), helping plan, promote and run the various fun events they host, the rotating cast of characters that a small museum seems to attract, learning local history, the camaraderie of my co-workers. I couldn't believe my luck in finding a such a fun and interesting job that was also excessively family friendly. (Okay if I bring my sort-of-sick kid with me? Sure! My kid's actually sick, I'm staying home. Fine! It's summer, I might only really work two days a week instead of three. Okay!)

So I really, really wasn't looking for a new job.

But a new job found me anyway. The even smaller museum right in my own town was looking for a new part-time Curator. For a multitude of reasons, it was a perfect fit. The hiring committee agreed and offered me the position.

Because I feel so loyal to the Mill, and technically there are enough hours in a week for two part-time jobs, I entertained the idea of working both.

I put a lot of thought into it and realized:

1. I am already always on the verge of feeling completely overwhelmed. 

2. Just because I can doesn't mean I should

3. My Mill co-workers, though they like me and appreciate what I do, will not die without me

4. Scheduling time with extended family and friends is already way harder than it should be

5. This is going to be big year for our family with my oldest going to college this fall

I had an epiphany: I was not going to work two jobs. And as a matter of fact, I would take a hiatus from Meta Theatre Company for the time being. I would step away from two committees I am on. I would start saying "let me think about it" instead of "yes" when asked to do something. (Success with this twice so far!)

While it was hard to tell my co-workers and fellow actors about my decisions, overall everything felt so right. Nothing happened immediately, it's more of an extraction than a clean break: I had a few more rehearsals and one more show with Meta and I've told the Mill I'll leave slowly and still do school tours. (I really love them and that's only seasonal.)

Last show with MTC before my hiatus

So while I ease away from the Mill I actually am working two part-time jobs but with a light at the end of the tunnel. I look forward to that upcoming time when I'll be only working one job, won't feel so overwhelmed, will have an easier time scheduling time with family and friends, will have time to help my oldest get settled at school (& visit her if she stays local enough), can eventually consider adding acting or other interests back in slowly.

"I'll rest when I'm dead," I always say, but right now I'm pretty comfortable with this decision to cut myself some slack while I'm still alive.

Here's "my" museum!

Five on Friday: Behind the Scenes

If somehow you found my blog without following me somewhere else on social media, I'll just fill you in: I told a story for The Moth which was aired two weeks ago. A video of it was shared on Hey Iris earlier this week and has been getting a lot of attention.

View from the stage of the Folly Theater in Kansas City, MO

The response to my video has been mind-blowing. Each time I check on it, the numbers of likes, shares, comments and views seems to have jumped exponentially. An adoptive father from Finland let me know that it was shared on a Finnish Adoption page and a woman from California wants to show it in her Foster Parent training classes. Multiple agencies and support groups are sharing it with their followers.

I was going to make today's list about my favorites of these responses but I am notoriously bad at picking favorites. I claim "rainbow" as my favorite color, okay? So how I think I'd narrow down the thousands (literally!) to just five is beyond me. Fine, this one definitely makes the cut, but after that I'm a total loss:

Also I think I need to make sure credit is being given where credit is due, so for today's list I'm going to shed some light and share a little gratitude, for:

1.  The good, nice, competent, wonderful case and social workers we did have. I realize the only impression I give in my story is that they all were unreliable. Unfortunately that was true for many that we had. But I will always remember  the ones that broke the stereotype, particularly the older woman who spent her monthly visits with us in a Grandmotherly fashion cuddling babies on the couch. 

2. My kids: My biological kids, you didn't know Daddy and I were taking you on a roller coaster ride. Thanks for accepting all of it (the case workers' questions, the siblings you didn't know if you'd be able to keep and all the new extended family we never knew we'd have) without puking.

My adopted kids, for challenging what I thought I knew. For hurling "You're not my real Mom" at me those times when you were really hurting. It doesn't hurt my feelings to acknowledge that you do, in fact, have another Mom. And if you feel safe enough to show me your deepest pain and biggest anger, that makes me feel pretty real as a Mom, too.

3. Jen Hixson, my Director at The Moth for helping me weave a thousand loose strands into a beautiful tapestry. I'm also grateful to Jen for understanding and defending my choice to not add in parts that were too private or not mine to tell.

4. My husband, the half of this partnership that prefers the auditorium seats to the stage.  Just because he's not up there with me doesn't mean he hasn't been right here with me. My life is completely magical and I can trace it all back to that time I met a boy in Freshman Choir.

5. My kids' biological family for welcoming, accepting and loving us. People try to give me a lot of credit for our relationship happening. I tell them all the same thing: "Relationships are two-way streets."

 "Yes," they say, "but you reached out."

 "Yes," I say, "but they reached back."

Five on Friday: Happy It's My Birthday

I thought I was going to feel different by this age. More . . . adult-like. I thought for sure I'd understand things like escrow and and the appeal of The Bridges of Madison County. (I still don't but to be fair I haven't tried reading it again.)

I also thought maybe I'd shed my belief that lying about your age is stupid.  I'll be turning 44 this weekend and not only will I continue to not lie about my age, I'll be happy to tell everyone because:

1. BACK TO AN EVEN NUMBER, BABY! (Apparently I haven't outgrown my weird hatred of odd numbers yet either)

2. Not just any even number but 44! That's half of 88! That's super great! 8 is the best number of all time!

3. I'll be kicking off the birthday celebration with a bang: fasting and blood work! Oh yeah baby, oldish ladies know how to party.

4. I just got an Instant Pot and one of the first recipes I happened across was for Angel Food cake, which is my usual birthday dessert request. I'm taking that as a sign and bought the ingredients.

5. I'll be ending the day in prison and I can't wait. Huh? The inside (incarcerated) half of my social justice theatre troupe has written, produced and directed their own show and will be performing it for the other women in prison. I went through the proper volunteer training so I will be allowed access in to see it. They've worked really hard on every single step of this show. I've known them vicariously for years so meeting them and watching them perform will be a great way to top off my birthday.

Gratuitous baby pic of the birthday girl

Five On Friday: How I Spent My Spring Break

Hiking El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico . . . APRIL FOOLS! These are just some of the pictures that Facebook's On This Day has been taunting me with this week, from a trip four years ago.

This Spring Break has featured:
1. Only Friday and Monday off for the teenagers as the recent storms/extended power outages closed school unexpectedly last month.
2. Crappy weather.
3. No fun plans

Wait, wait, that's not my list. I'm going to stop right there and tell you what we DID do that's worth noting:

1.  Really enjoyed having Easter fall on April Fools' Day. The, uh, Bunny hid the kids' baskets this year. It extended the morning's festivities and created a lot of fun memories like all 7 of us standing in our small bathroom trying to find one of the baskets (should have been easy, right? Oh but that Bunny is GOOD!) Also, this:

We could probably do this other days, too, right?

2.  Cleaned out the board games and the non-used toys in the boys' room. FEELS SO GOOD.

3. Spent some time on Easter Day looking through my parents' High School yearbooks. I am really into Charm Club and also these two ladies' captions:

4. Got some much-needed kid shoe shopping done and it turned into a super-fun outing, partly because a department store was closing and selling their mannequins. We might have to go back and get one when they're marked down further, the possibilities are endless . . .

5. Got the  Meta Theatre Company's "What Were You Wearing: Survivor Art Exhibit" set up last night and then ran through our show. It's made up of a scene we've only performed once, one that we've performed a few times, two new poems and a brand new open letter to Patriarchy at the end. It all came together beautifully and I can't wait for tonight's Opening Reception!

Five on Friday: The Meta Theatre Company

I woke up way too early this morning--but this time not because my six-year-old came in to tell me she was hungry at five-something o'clock. This time it was with very good reason: to travel into New York City to participate in and perform at an international conference called Performing the World. I am not alone, I'm with my social justice theatre troupe, The Meta Theatre Company.

You may have heard me mention Meta on Facebook or Twitter, usually when I'm saying something about how lucky I am to have found them. What is it that makes Meta so wonderful? So many things . . . for example:

1. The fact that it exists at all. What are the odds that there would be something that existed that combined my passions of writing, performing and social justice?

2. The fact that it exists here, where I live. I'm not just saying that because this is where I live and so that's convenient. I mean the county paper is called the "Democrat" and that's more than a bit ironic. It's not a very . . . progressive area overall.

3. That fact that it exists here, where there is a Correctional Facility for Women, and that we have been able to get into that prison to perform. Even better is that we have been able to run a weekly writing group with them and have written a full-length show along with a group of incarcerated women. It's not always easy to get permission to do these things, and somehow we've gotten it.

4.  This group has changed a bunch over the past four years: we've had some long term members who ended up needing to take a break, we've had some short term members for specific shows or projects. We also have a core group that's been in it, think or thin. You know what we haven't had? Much drama. (Well, besides on the stage, of course . . . ). And it's wonderful.

5. That time a woman watched one of our shows and came up to me to tell me that she thought I was a great actress. That was nice, but what was even better was when she continued to tell me that I had helped open up and change her mind. She used to judge immigrants and was rude to them when their English wasn't coming easily. She told me that she regretted her past behavior.

Theatre can change minds and change lives. And this theatre troupe has absolutely changed mine. 

Thank you, Meta.

#gettameta

Ready for our closeups. Read about us here