Dear Kate,
Hey! It was so nice seeing you yesterday at 4:30 a.m. in the hall bathroom when I went to brush my teeth! Sorry if I seemed a little out of it; I was in John Jay Lounge for 8 hours. I don’t think I’ve seen you since before spring break. Varsity Show is going really well…thanks for asking. You want to meet for dinner sometime soon? Let me go check my day planner. Tomorrow after I meet with our Tech Director, our Theater Advisor, the admissions office and then make sure our publicity video shoot happens, I think I am free for dinner! That would be so nice. I feel like I don’t know anything about your life lately. I’ve always heard it’s hard to keep up with your single friends when you get married, and I got married to 8 people in December and then had fourteen babies! They really are the loves of my life but, like you always hear, being a new parent is hard. The kids have to be fed, kept entertained, and scheduled (kids these days and their endless activities!). Sometimes they get upset and I have to play with their hair and nod and smile for a while, when I really should be answering emails. But oh well! I chose this life, did I not? Oh, shoot. Kate, I’m so sorry but I just realized I actually can’t have dinner tomorrow night. I have to run by McBain and wake up our composer. He has to be up at 8 p.m. meaning the knocking starts at 6. Bummer! Some other time. My calendar is telling me mid-May?
Some people don’t understand my new life. They don’t get how I can devote over 55 hours a week to these crazy kids. I don’t get paid. No one thanks me. I never sleep. But as a parent, don’t you want to always just be there? AND still make time to see their Nonsequitur show and hold their hand when they have an essay due? The madness has become second nature. I can’t justify doing the things I used to do when I was single and childless, things like taking the subway downtown or, you know, showering. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
What makes it all worth it, though, is when they sing together. When they get more laughs than they thought they would and then they smile. When they all get somewhere on time. When they trust each other. When they trust me. That’s why, I’ve realized, I do this. So yeah, Kate, it was so nice seeing you yesterday, but I don’t think I’ll be seeing you again until the summer because being the producer of the Varsity Show is the best job in the world.
Yours in absence, though I hope to hear your hopes, dreams, and fears when the opportunity presents itself,
Ally