Amy Lu's View

In my last post I celebrated a new twist on our Christmas tree traditions, but tonight, we kept it Old School and put up our real Christmas tree while we listened to our CD of the Muppets and John Denver.

So Christmas tree traditions are on my mind. I don’t really have family Christmas tree traditions that I remember. We always had a tree, and  I always loved it, but I think it was usually something my mom handled putting up by herself when she had time to do it.

I don’t feel I have family traditions about too many things. As an adult, I’ve been learning how to navigate traditions…to create and celebrate ones that are meaningful but not presciptive or limiting.

I feel the Chamy Christmas Tree hits this sweet spot. We had all the key ingredients: 1) a real tree, 2) the Muppets CD, and 3) some alcohol, but this year we had some updates. Most notably, we deviated from our custom of having our “classy” color-coordinated ornaments on our real tree. Instead, we included many of our most-notably kitschy ornaments that we usually only have on our fake tree (now bedecked soley with race-finisher medals). And, we drank martinis (our alcohol choice has cycled through eggnog, Irish coffees, and wine…).

Whether classy or kitschy (and the line between them is certainly fuzzy for us) most of our ornaments are infused with memories. There’s the Santa ornament I’ve had since 5th grade, the red drumset our friend Gary gave us, and the Cats First Christmas ornament.

And then there are the mostly remants of the ornaments from the very first tree we had together when we lived (in sin!) in Iowa. I remember my mother gave us $50 to buy decorations for that tree, which I at first thought was crazy extravagant, but soon realized went pretty quickly, even in 1993. I’m still struck by how sweet and thoughtful it was for her to realize that “Hey, these mullet-headed kids might be in love but they don’t have enough moola to pull together to decorate a Christmas tree.”

The next year, we (Chad) had to tie said tree to the planter hook that was convenientally on the ceiling so that our very first so that it didn’t fall over when our very first, and much-loved, cat, Rogue, climbed it.

Rogue eventually lost interest in climbing the tree, although she and Jubilee usually “re-decorated” it a bit every year. Our current cats, Pepper and Sprout, have surpisingly never been too interested in the Christmas tree, but we still keep all the breakable ornaments up top, just to be safe.

 

Tonight I saw a good friend who I haven’t seen for the while, so of course, I had to make him look at my marathon medal. No, I wasn’t actually wearing it, and I don’t even always carry it with me, but since I knew I was going to be seeing him I came prepared. And yes, I also made him look at the medal I got for running the Twin Cities Ultra Summit Challenge (a 5K, 10 Mile, and Half Marathon in 2017 in addition to the Marathon).

So I’m going to indulge in some more marathon reflecting. More specifically, a compare and contrast between running a marathon and being in a play, as three weeks after I ran the TC Marathon I had a lead role in  “Panache.”

Tackling two such intensive undertakings back-to-back was exhausting and exhilarating, and I couldn’t help but think about the similarities and differences. The biggest similarity is acting and running (at least at this scale) both take a lot of time and discipline. They both require pushing through boredom (“argh I do NOT want to spend any more time learning my lines/running”) and doubt (“I CAN’T DO THIS! Why did I ever think I could this? Why do I want to do this?”).

It might seem weird that runners often get nervous before a race (I certainly do) but I think that is a normal reaction for any situation where the stakes seem high. You’ve put a lot of time into preparing for this, and so much could go wrong. But although I was worried about the marathon and how everything would go, for me, acting is more nerve-wracking.

This might seem obvious…there is an audience (hopefully) watching you if you’re in a play, but the spectators at a race aren’t there to observe in the same way. Yes, I did do my best to wave at friends that I ran past and to give a good performance as I crossed the marathon finish line because I knew there was a camera, but there wasn’t the same expectation to entertain.

The key difference is your responsbility to other people. While I couldn’t have a lead in a play or run a marathon without the support of other people, the impact these endeavors has on others definitely varies. At the end of the day, I knew my marathon performance really only affected me–unless I tripped and fell and knocked over a bunch of other people.

Sure, my loved ones would feel happy or sorry for me based on how I did in the marathon, but that’s not nearly the same as being on stage with me if I forgot my lines. I would be the only one suffering for the 4-5 hours of the race (in reality, a time of 4:16:34 in case you forgot…) but a stage meltdown could mire me, my fellow actors and the audience in an extremely awkward experience.

The flip side is there isn’t anyone else to rely on if you get in a jam during the race. Yes, there are people to cheer you on and encourage you and medics to pick you up if you are totally done, but no one can run that race for you. And while no one else can say your lines for you, they may be able to cover for you or feed you a line (even if they are pissed off  about it).

Not sure what this all means, except that I’m really grateful that I’ve had both of these opportunities to challenge myself and hope I’ll have more. And both of these hobbies involve my body, mind, and spirit in ways that I never realized. Acting is way more physical than I ever guessed (not as demanding as running for hours and hours but you don’t just stand around and talk) and running is definitely a mind game. Most importantly, both running and acting involve feeling all of the feels and making yourself vulnerable and taking big risks.

Both activities also throw my eating and drinking habits way off balance. Or, more accuately, give me an excuse to eat and drink like a madwoman.

That does bring up another important difference…I have much more control about if I run another marathon and don’t have to compete to be in one (unless I want to run Boston). As long as I think I can run a marathon and want to do it, I just need to be able to afford the registration fee and I’m in. There are definitely times when I wish the rules of acting were the same.

I guess I alway have the option of writing my own one-woman shows and peforming them for the cats.

And I should get a medal for being a show. And going to work. And unloading the dishwasher.

 

 

 

I think I am mostly recovered from my post-play (Panache) hangover (although I still haven’t unpacked my bag of show supplies) so let the blogging commence! And hey, look, I have moved my blog to WordPress with the hopes that it will look snazzier.

Truthfully, I also had to mentally recover from my colonoscopy, which in many ways was no big woo but I was dreading it SO much but I won’t subject the blogiverse to any more about that, suffice it to say all, thankfully, is well on that front…er, end?). And I’m also finished with some work presentations and an awesome return gig of Pigeons From hell, so hey, here’s this thing called “free time.”

Actually, it feels a little like New Years’ to me so some “resolutions” seem in order. Or maybe more accurately a “to-do” list now that I do have some time to do some things that were simply out of the question when my schedule was so packed. Or maybe, a list of things to focus on to help keep myself from feeling too ansty now that I have said free time.

So, Where Do I Go From Here? In no particular order, I would like to:

• • Learn to actually play aforementioned songs on the Pigeons From Hell set list. Last night was a blast, but turns out knowing some lyrics and chords would be helpful.
  • Learn to play some Christmas songs on piano
  • Learn to play some Christmas songs on ukele (and learn to actually play the ukele while I’m at it)
  • Read. This is actually a huge category that includes “catching up” on the pile of magazines I’ve been building (I think I have heard that is the first sign of hoarding) to reading all my saved Facebook posts to reading Actual Physical Books Printed on Paper. I make no apologies for my love of and almost excluse use of audiobooks, but don’t want my forearms to become too weak to hold a book.
  • Maintain a level of cleanliness and order in our house that promotes personal and domestic harmony. In other words, I don’t want to be constantly digging through piles of clothes, papers, dishes and whatnot and tripping over crap. If I’m really dreaming big this will involve giving away some of those clothes.
  • Edit and share (with people who might actually be interested) all the various recordings I have of various musical endeavors.
  • Blogging, journaling, writing in any form that helps me reflect, appreciate, and impose a little order to my chaotic thoughts.
  • Learn how to use WordPress to make my blog aethestically respectable. Sorry, blogger, but I just can’t handle how you mangle captions any longer.
  • Brush Kitty Boo Boo every day. Well, every other day.
  • Remember that I did a whole day on a liquid diet that did NOT involve alcohol and try to replicate this restraint with mini-stretches of responsible chip and alcohol consumption
  • But most importantly…reconnect with people, by actually spending more time with them, and being more present and less distracted with the time we do share. Which may lead me to…
    1. Getting to a new bar/restaurant or two
    2. Taking up latch hook again. I need something to do with my hands other than surf the internet while Chad and I watch TV. I’m not sure latch hook, which takes up a lot of lap space, is going to be a Kitty Boo and Mama Pepper aproved activity, though.
  • Have time to be kind and helpful, and a little spontaneous, and a little less freaky if things don’t go exactly as scheduled.