Another acceptance! Two, actually! My cold's nearly gone! Yippie!

I learned last night that my three-minute play, "My Six-Thirty," was accepted by Theatre One, the theatre that is putting on "Peanut Butter Sandwiches." I won't be able to see it performed, b/c it's short and it's on Friday night, and there's NO WAY I can drive all the way out to Middleboro on a Friday night, but it's still gratifying to know that the festival was interested in it (truth be told, I had forgotten I had even sent them that one). The festival producer, Peg, wrote me a couple of very nice, very supportive emails today, and like I've said, external validation cannot be underestimated. I'm really excited about meeting her and seeing PB Sandwiches performed. THEN I got an email today from a director in New Mexico, informing me that "My Six Thirty" is a semi-finalist for the Poco Loco Theatre, and if it wins, it will be made into a film! This seems a little strange, in that it's only a short piece, but I believe it's for a high school or college (I could be wrong), and they probably want to work on short pieces.

In any case, I felt honored, and how cool would it be to see the work made into a FILM? It's also interesting that these were not the first two plays that come to mind when I think of my strongest pieces, and yet, here we are. So you never know, and you have to just keep on writing and submitting. I have not heard from Another Country, and don't think I will; acting is fun, but it isn't going to become a central part of my creative life anytime soon, clearly. But I have writing, and I have time during the holiday break, and so I need to think of some new ideas and then get to writing. I am still struggling with "Out for the Holidays," the play about Santa Claus coming out to his college-age daughter; I think it's funnier/more interesting in premise than in execution, sadly. I haven't given up on it, and I emailed it to A. in Florida today, who is still there, caring for her ailing father, and since she has a good sense of what I like to write and what works, I hope she can come up with some creative suggestions. It feels like a jigsaw puzzle: the picture is there, but the pieces just won't fit together (and maybe some are missing, or there are too many, and they need to be extracted, like teeth). I don't know. It's frustrating, but I'm going to put it aside again and see what A. thinks. I need to move onto other things, anyway.

And thank GOD my cold seems to have broken this morning, and I actually feel almost back to normal. I'm tired, and a little congested, but nothing like yesterday (or this past week, or two weeks earlier, for that matter). I just hope that it actually stays away this time, b/c I felt like hell for far too long, and I'm a lousy patient. I enjoyed the book swap with my book club friends, and I had the most delicious b.l.t. (minus the t, b/c I abhor tomatoes) at "Flour" in the South End, but I still felt very out of it, and the walk back to the gym in the cold (the temperature dropped at least 15 degrees in two hours) didn't help. I managed a pretty good workout, though, and maybe that's what allowed the cold to break. In any case, after Tuesday, things will really calm down at work, and then I have all of next week, save Tuesday, off, which should help a lot. So let me just say again how wonderful it feels to have my work accepted, and how proud I feel, and how I wish that high would last forever. Yoga is great, but acceptance emails are even better.