"I Ran."

My new obsession with reading is clopping along as the Met progresses. It seems these days that I just can’t put books down which for me is a very rare occurrence. Will this new obsession last or will it fade once the confinement of the Met is lifted off of me? I can only hope that it will remain a presence in my life as it feels to me that I am accomplishing so much more by reading than watching endless hours of crappy television. Escapism is something that we are all searching for in long days in the theater and a book is the perfect place to accomplish that.

This thought brings to mind a conversation I had with a friend recently who accused me of being “obsessed with bettering” myself. Now the last time I checked of all things to be addicted to, bettering yourself is fairly low on the list of things to be cautious of. Now were I to be obsessed with doing crack or kicking pigeons (inside joke sorry) maybe I would want a friend to intervene. The funny thing is that I don’t even look at it in the sense of me bettering myself, which is what I told him, I look at it as me following what my mind wants to do. I never want to force my views on others (even though I do try at times) and I most certainly never want to try to be someone that I am not. However I feel like so often the world that I live in asks me to be someone that I don’t want to be.

Searching for the person you are meant to be was one of the prevailing themes of the book that I just finished “Kite Runner”. Now so many people had told me how great this novel was and I was hesitant at first but by the end found myself stunned and close to tears. The idea that what we do in our childhood can have such a profound impact on your life is a scary thing to contemplate. Have I done things already that will forever change the outcome of my life? Well of course the answer is that everything you do affects the day, the week, the month and the years after that event, but will it come back in a profound way? That is exactly what happens in this harrowing book and the repercussions of that childhood event are startling. Without giving anything away I will say that it was great to read a book that has such a social relevance to the time we are in right now. As I sit her watching the Daily Show I realize how the picture that the US paints of Afghanistan is so one-note and I never think of the people that live there through this turmoil. “Kite Runner” paints a vivid picture of the fact that Afghanistan is full of actual human beings not just terrorists. Those children have the same hopes and dreams for happiness that American children have they just do not have the means to accomplish those dreams that we are all so fortunate to have. It has an almost eerie effect giving this world that I feel is painted as being so heartless by the news media not only a heart but also a brain and hopes as well.

We are almost halfway done with Met Season and I am having a great time. “Cinderella” passed much more quickly than we thought the 11 shows would and doing ballroom was especially fun. I had a few moments where I could not contain my laughter on stage and felt completely unprofessional but I can only hope they were not noticeable from the audience. The girls in the corps just know how to get me to crack up and they don’t let up once they get me going. Damn them!

Sorry if these past couple of blogs have been boring. I feel like by the time I get home I am slightly brain-dead and on top of that I have my mom in town so have been spending time with her! I promise to be more regular soon! I am working on a new piece of writing that I hope to have up within the next week or so.

The picture above is of my past blog star Adrienne, David and I out at a Latin club this weekend blowing off some steam after dancing 11 Cinderella’s by dancing some more!