Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout

I have a tradition, at least in my mind, of reflecting on, and hopefully blogging about, what I've learned from each show I've acted in. So now that I have a free evening, which is rare (to slightly misquote my onstage alter ego, Kathleen, in "Panache") between performances (so yes, you, yes YOU can still come see us this weekend) I want to chronicle what I have learned from playing Kathleen and being a part of "Panache." Words are scrumptious. And also sometimes evil. The words of "Panache" have dazzled, overwhelmed, confounded and entranced me. Sometimes with the pure number of them that I have attempted to memorize. Sometimes with their beauty (scrumptious, relentless, glorious, desolation) and their banality. And their difficulty. Turns out, I had no idea how to pronounce "tempestuous." I actually hate talking on the phone and am probably holding this upside down...but, ACTING! Quick costume changes are fraught with dange...

It's been two weeks since I ran my first marathon. (Yes, I did say first , implying there may be more. Hey, I've already run 50.5 miles since the marathon, although that has been over 11 days.) I still can't believe I actually did it. AND I did it pretty successfully. I finished in 4 hours, 16 minutes, and 34 seconds (4:16:34). So I didn't just finish, but I finished in a rather respectable time for a 47-year-old woman. (My age-graded time, which is a magical mathematical formula that takes age and sex into account, was 3:54:03). For a little comparison, the average time for the 7,485 people who finished the marathon was 4:24:07. My goal was to finish in 4:15:00, so I was pretty close to achieving that. I started with a goal of beating Oprah's 1994 marathon time of 4:29:20 (for some reason that's a big standard in the amateur runner's world) but as my training progressed I was pretty sure I should be able to beat that. Turns out, beating Oprah's time...