Working Hard, Not Hardly Working

It's a strange job I have. On some days, I'm in the middle of nowhere, with a ton of free time on my hands. I have 4 and 1/2 hours of work and then have to amuse myself in a town of 1500 with two restaurants and a stoplight. Sometimes, like today, I work over 12 hours, with a densely populated, very interesting seeming corner of Washington State, just south of the Tacoma/Seattle area, just in my far too busy to appreciate it grasp. Oh well.

Today I did 5, count 'em, 5 workshops for the kids. They were all the same workshop too, a workshop demonstrating the wonders of stage makeup. The school principal also nixed my specialty, a set of zombie makeup. Oh well. I completely understand not wanting that particular phone call from a parent. It just meant that I had to get rather creative and try some new stuff. This took a lot of different forms, experimenting with effects makeup, making kids up like The Incredible Hulk, and in a couple memorable cases, making Kindergartners up like David Bowie and Gene Simmons. I even varied the approach: a kid in one session got the big Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt, while another got the Labyrinth look. I was actually kind of proud of how they turned out.

Five makeup workshops were immediately followed by a full 4.5 hour rehearsal. It's weird, it never rains but it pours. We went entire weeks this summer where no one wanted any workshops, and now they want 6 (another one on Friday). Not complaining, mind you, I do get paid extra after all. And really, the makeup workshops were quite fun. It's just that somewhere around the 10 hour mark my brain, reflecting perhaps on recent events, tried to recover its balance, and the thought "you're not as young as you used to be" flashed across my mind.

I usually don't write specifically about the kids in this blog. I'm eager to not offend anyone who may come across it, and even the most gentle of sarcastic comments or complaints may be seen as a dire insult. I don't want to give that image, since most kids are really a joy to work with. In this case, however, I've got to write about how bright these kids are. We've only had one group younger than this, but this has been one of our most dedicated and enthusiastic casts, very fun to have around.

Strange that my "crazy busy day" is the one where I make two blog posts. Odd.