Dee Hathaway

Yawn… Stretch…

Oh hi there! What are you doing here so early? What? What time is it? It’s Feb 25!!! Wow, it’s a good thing you woke me up! I might have slept right through the rest of the month!

So what’s been going on for the last 3 weeks? I’m so glad you asked! Let’s see…

The big thing is that melodrama is in full swing.. for those of you that don’t know (and how could you not know!), the play this year is March 11 & 12. See me for tickets.

Yes, I am the sheriff again and this year there is singing and dancing (be afraid, but not too afraid, cuz I don’t sing much). I really love being in the melodrama and even though I have fewer lines, I have gotten to play a bigger part this year, be much more involved, and I love it. I even got to direct one night. Oh ya. I’ve got the power. (can you feel it?) What amazes me the most is how much there is that goes on back stage. It’s pretty fantastic.

Being February, there was the whole V thing… you know… Valentine’s day. I’m not really big on forced romance, and don’t think that stopping at a grocery store on the way home from work for chocolates and roses from the parking lot tent is any way to make a woman swoon. (but what do I know about women??) I do think that surprise gestures of affection are a much better way of showing someone that you love them. Finding a creative way to surprise that love of your life or make them say Holy Crap, something that gives them a heart attack (not a real one, that’s no fun) is much better. But that’s just me. Or maybe it’s you too?

Of course there was President’s Day, which was really an awesome holiday! I got the day off work (yay!) and spent most of it in bed. Ya. I’m that guy.

So anyway, enough about what I’ve been doing. Let’s get to the point of the little post (no, we’re not there yet) and talk a little bit about…
me. Hey. It’s my blog. (surely you didn’t expect something else… have you been reading these posts???)

I was reading through a Men’s Health magazine and found an article about Survival Skills by/about Bear Grylls. You know, the Man vs. Wild host guy who pretends to know how to survive on television, but actually sets his lean-to on fire and spends the night in the lobby at the nearest lodge.

Right in the middle of the article, which is where I started reading (sometimes I just jump right in… I like fast) was a quote that I really liked, and found really applicable to the whole V-month/romance thing, and which made me think of you. (which is why we have this post! See how that works?)

The quote was that women don’t care about how much you know… they want to know how much you care. (I changed the wording to make it gooder, btw)

I thought that was really, really smarmy (but I like smarmy) and sweet, so I read the rest of the article looking for pearls of wisdom. Mostly what I found was Bear droppings. :-/

Lemme just give you a few examples of life according to Bear. (cuz I do loveses my listses)

• What one thing should very man experience? (no, not that!) Getting up early and watching the sun rise once every year.
  (what?  once a year?  I watch the sun rise on my way home from the gym.  Every day!)
• What article of clothing should a man never wear? Underwear.
  (really?? umm… ewwww.)
• What hidden skill does he have?  He can do a backflip.  At age 36.
  (Impressive. but can he do pigeon pose for 20 minutes? hmmmm?)
• What’s the best advice? Follow your dreams and look after your friends.

OK, so he got the last one right. After I read the article I started thinking (yes I still do that) about the stupid things he said in the article, and then about a few of the things that I thought he got right. And I started thinking about you and how I wanted to share all of those thoughts with you.

I’d really love to do that… you know I like to talk and tell you things and stuff (especially the stuff). I thought about turning this into a “dee says” post, and I thought about how I read Bear’s little self-interview and about the few little bits of wisdom I took away from it. And how much I just couldn’t wait to get away from most of it.

At the end of the day (which it is now, btw), I want to just tell you how I feel about what I got from it. And I think it’s actually the way that we should look at a lot of things. He was right about follow your dreams and look after your friends. And he was right about that women/caring thing (again, I know nothing about women).

But what I will share about what I got from the article is that it’s really up to each of us to take away the pearls of wisdom we find and leave behind the Bear droppings. There is so much crap that we run across in our lives, and it just piles/pools up sometimes (haha). I think it’s up to us to let that go, to realize that we don’t need to take everything we think/are told/feel/hear as how things have to be. We need to watch for those bright spots in our lives, and hold on to those. Hold on tight.

So hey let’s do that, mkay? We can look at the crap as a learning experience, something that helps us grow even if it’s just to know that it’s something we don’t want. We don’t have to accept everything that comes our way no matter what situation/setting/magazine it may be in.

And we can focus on the stuff that we know is good, that we know is right. (how do you know?! I know because…) and demand more of that. Let’s make our takeaways be the good things and our leavebehinds be the bad. I know that being here with you is good. Cuz we’re good together. Right!?

Popularity: 7% [?]

You read that right, I was wrong. (I was surprised too!) And I’m not afraid to admit it. In fact, I’m pretty happy about it. It doesn’t happen very often (well, the being wrong part doesn’t anyway), but I’m willing to take the blame (or credit, depending on the situation) when it does. In fact, I’m pretty willing to take the credit for most things.

So we are back in full swing with melodrama, and I have to admit I was pretty worried at first. In fact, I’ll admit I’m still a little concerned. Singing, dancing, and a script where they say “I wood like to…” Really? Grammar much?

We’ll save the would/wood for another time…

So when the pitch for this particular melodrama was first presented, I was to play the part of Des Berado, the… comedic sidekick and western cliche. It’s a pretty decent part and I even made a trip to Mexico to get a sombrero and poncho. Okay, so I went to Mexico because I like road trips, but I did get the outfit while I was there.

The part of the Sheriff this year was to be played by the same actor who was the mayor in last year’s production, but he couldn’t make the schedule… so I was given the option of keeping the Des character or once again playing the sheriff. How could I possibly skip playing the sheriff again?

I couldn’t.

I passed the part of Des on to a new member of the BAG (that’s Buckeye Actor’s Guild, for you newbies), and I took the part of the sheriff. (is it typecasting if you always want to be the hero?)

After the first few rehearsals, I thought I might have been wrong for giving up that character. The new role has far fewer lines, and isn’t really the star of the show (and you know how I like being the center of attention). I spent a couple of weeks agonizing over that decision and was pretty sure I had made the wrong choice.

The sheriff isn’t on stage for very much of the play, but does have a vital role in the plot (such as it is, or isn’t in this case). But by having only a couple of scenes, I’ve been able to fill in for a lot of other characters during practice. I’ve been able to play several other parts, learn new lines, play some different positions on the team if you will.

So it turns out where I was really wrong (well, where I was wrong for general purposes of this post) is in thinking that I was wrong to have given up the role of Des. It has worked out really well for several reasons. Oh hey! Why don’t we list a few reasons (wouldn’t that be fun and unusual? no? okay, maybe just fun then. okay, well we’re gonna list anyway.)

• it has given a new cast member the opportunity to really show his talent
• it has given an old cast member (me) the opportunity to play a bunch of different roles in practice
• it has given me an excuse to get a really awesome costume

OMG the costume! I forgot about the costume! I am so freakin excited about the costume!!

I made a shopping trip to the costume store (to a couple of them, actually) and found the perfect outfit for the play (a couple of them, actually). I give it a 5 out of 7, which is pretty darned outstanding (my own personal rating system). Just being able to wear the getup I found, and to see the reactions I got while just in the store(s), made it a really prefect day. Yes, it was that good!

Anyway… it turns out that being wrong is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it can turn out to be pretty awesome.  And I think there’s maybe a little something to be learned about life from that (snuck that one in on you didn’t I?)  

We can’t go back and change the choices we’ve made.  Life is rather one-way and we don’t get the chance to turn around and take a different road.  But what we can do is be very grateful we had the chance to make a choice in the first place.  We can find some joy in the journey and most of all, we can make the choices now that will lead us down a better path, lead us to our happy place.  And, if you are lucky enough to be as happy as I am where I am right now, you realize that there really have not been any wrong decisions…  Every choice we’ve made, every turn we’ve taken, every part we’ve played, has led us to be here now. One different choice, one right turn instead of left, and we might be in a totally different place than where we are now. And where we are right now is a pretty darn good place to be. (says me!)

So why don’t you come see the play? Maybe I can get you a behind-the-scenes tour (it’s been know to happen).  You can help me brush up on my lines, we can hang out stage right, maybe tour the theater, hit the green room (careful, it’s dark and scary and dangerous down there).

And maybe, just maybe, if things go my way, I can be wrong again. That was awesome. And so are you!!

Popularity: 6% [?]