Monday: First Day Off in Ten Months

The view on my walk home from UBC
yesterday. The lawns are already brown.

Monday was my first total day off in ten months—since the day Kim and I met to talk about doing Knock Knock at Presentation House. It was an offer I refused, proposing instead that I do the show that became Trudeau, the Felons & Me. 

I wrote it immediately. It took mere days, then I did re-writes and then sent it to Kim and he liked it right away and so I started working on the "telegrams" (bits contributed from other people involved in the story). Then there was a blitz of re-working the Monkey screenplay, and then I went directly into the designing of the set and then the costumes. And then into memorizing my lines, rehearsals and production. It was an epic ride and now I am supremely happy it is over.

And so anal me just sterilized my condo; under everything, behind everything—every surface is spotless. I even thoroughly cleaned my lockers, throwing out things I have been carrying around for a lifetime. I am not attached to anything any more—not photos of Tyrell ancestors (they are so not mine, nice as they may be), things I have been hoping to get back to but now accept I won't be doing (old art supplies, my skis, roller skates, etc.) and a ton of old frames. (I am also going to, one way or another, get rid of old artwork I don't want any more. I will donate it to some charity if I have to.)

I obsess about cleaning. I indulge myself in it. I love it and I once read that people who feel that they live out of control in a world out of control, love to clean their personal space and keep order there—that could be me. And I like to "clean house" after every project, and Trudeau was a HUGE project for me so the cleaning job has been huge too. Then, when everything is spotless, I sterilize the bathroom and then I have a bath, shave with a clean new razor and put on clean clothes. Obsessive, eh?! But then I feel "back to normal" and wonderful. It hurts no one, this indulgence, so I think it is okay.

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We've had 3 mm of rain when we normally have 57 by now in June. May was our driest and sunniest since they have been keeping records. It is truly unreal to be here right now.