MOVING THE GOAL POSTS

Okay, yes I watch a lot of West Wing, and yes, my last blog post was about not watching as much TV, so I will report that I have made -- together with my wife -- a commitment to only watch after 10:30ish so as to limit the amount of available hours in the day for TV before bedtime.

But... I was watching The West Wing last night and CJ said one of my favorite lines -- one I had actually been thinking about last night after I saw a great one act at Manhattan Rep's One Act play Festival. The line was: "I'm moving the goal posts and claiming the match."

I was thinking about this because when I walked into the one act my friend had directed that night, I was taken by the intimacy of the space. It was 30 seats tops. And the audience was right in the faces of the actors. It was a real "theatre" theatre. It was a little raw, in a good, organic/holistic/real sort of way. I started thinking about all of the small spaces like this that exist in the city. I started thinking about all of the festivals like this that take place in the city. A one act festival. Available as a service to artists in the city, but also doing a service to Manhattan Rep. Bringing audiences into new work. Producing new work that won't see much more -- that doesn't have much more of an ambition -- than that festival. It's about the play in that space.

A ROUTINE, A HIATUS AND A NEW OUTLOOK

Routine can be comforting, but it can also be confining. Recently, I've settled into a very comfortable routine that has formed once my nine-and-a-half-year-old daughter began her "official" bedtime routine. It goes like this: wake up at 7:30am when she wakes up, try to sleep on and off until 8:30 when I get into the shower, take her to day care, go to work, work until 6:15ish, come home to hang out with my wife and daughter, feed my daughter around 8pm-ish, read to her til lights-out at 9pm, then sit and watch an episode or two or three of something with my wife until it's time to do the whole thing over again tomorrow. 

I'm finding that days are going by too quickly. I'm disappointed in how "short" my time feels. Though it's strange: I love every minute of it. Still, I'm feeling tired because of it. Being a Dad still feels new to me. Especially this very "Dad" routine. By 9pm, when my daughter goes to bed, I'm exhausted. I don't feel like reading or cooking. Definitely don't feel like cleaning or doing family budget work or grocery shopping or any other seemingly productive activity. I feel entitled to my exhaustion and I want to just sit down next to my wife and relax, thanks.