10/5/14, Day 14,033 (Mercena Day 51): Mercena’s First Flux Sunday
We’d been considering bringing Mercena to this Flux Sunday because it was at The Sand Box, where we’ll be rehearsing most of Once Upon a Bride There Was a Forest, and as chief baby wrangler, I’ll be picking her up there every day after work while Heather rehearses. A practice run couldn’t hurt for her or us, and when a last minute conflict called me into action to run the Flux Sunday, away we went.
Of course, the real reason we wanted to bring her was to introduce her to some of our Flux Sunday friends, and for better or worse, this thing we do called theatre.
Her love of the subway was quite promising, as she fell asleep to the rhythm of the rails both ways. Her love of theatre is a work in progress, as Heather managed to direct a scene but not watch any of the others. All the stimulation seemed to mess with her sleep last night, leaving her a little crankier than usual, but really, that’s kind of how theatre works, right?
10/6/14, Day 14,034 (Mercena Day 52): Mercena’s First Trip to Manhattan
Feeling inspired by the success of her first subway trip the day before, and needing to fill in for a sick Fluxer to host the Flux Family Feud Committee meeting, Heather took Mercena on her first trip into Manhattan. I spent most of the meeting playing with and soothing a fussy, over-stimulated baby who, happily, slept well on the subway back.
It was also great to introduce her to my TCG friends. I’m currently fighting to stay out of the weeds at work, but the honeymoon period is definitely over and I’m back in the thick of it. By the time we got home, I was more tired than our baby.
10/7/14, Day 14,035 (Mercena Day 53): Flux and the Wonders of Technology
After another intense day of work at TCG, I had my third day of busy Fluxation, with a general Flux meeting at night. While we’ve successfully held a few meetings where most of us are virtual (thanks, Google Hangout), no one in actual attendance had a working computer on hand (#planning), so we had to get creative.
After resolving our tech issues, we had a great meeting, getting on the same page about our Basecamp trial (a great project management system) and talking more about the Feud and Flux’s developing immigration project with Judson. It was also my Mom’s birthday (happy birthday, Mom)!
10/8/14, Day 14,036 (Mercena Day 54): Day of Smiles
Another Mercena breakthrough day: in my madrugada shift, she gave me four huge smiles. Now, she’s smiled before, for sure, but these were different; while she’s seemed engaged and very curious for many weeks, she hasn’t seemed happy for prolonged periods (which, given her intense parents, may not be her default setting). Yesterday, she was smiling up a storm, including in several videos Heather shared with me, and in the beautiful picture featured above.
I finally didn’t have a post-work obligation, so I was able to get home in time for a bedtime ritual with a sleepy baby, and to make a real dinner for Heather, as well as make further Flux progress on several projects and even practice guitar. And I started work on a new play…
Technique never stands still: it only advances or retreats…
Writing: 159 out of 204 days (Taina and Marvin and KD and The Band rewrites)
Spanish: 134 out of 204 days
Music: 62 out of 110 days
What small things did I do the past four days to help build the Honeycomb?
(And what does it mean to “Help build the honeycomb?”)
- Ate and cooked local, organic, vegetarian food, and used cloth diapers for Mercena;
- Asked President Obama to support the EPA Clean Power Plan;
- Asked the EPA to close the loopholes in the Clean Water Act.
Corinna Schulenburg 