What's in the water in Boston?

So what is it about Boston that causes me to instantly get overcommitted. I have been in the state for less than a month and already I am working 4 jobs simultaneously! I know me and overcommitment is not something you're shocked by and don't get me wrong I feel incredibly lucky to have work, especially in this economic climate, but really 4??

Many of you don't know this but I work for a local psychologist as an assistant. I have been doing this since before I left Boston and moved to Texas (and ever since, including while I was in TX, though sporadically for those couple years).  I do research mostly and copy editing, but more recently I've been writing, mostly reducing chapters into snippets, but a little from scratch as well. And now we are also working on a new endeavor, so we're researching, drafting ideas and language and looking into making it all possible.  It's interesting and fun and I can work from anywhere, any day, anytime.

I also resigned up with my fabulous temping agency, Randstad, in their Cambridge office. Two days after being reinstated (I hadn't worked for them in long enough that I was inactive in the system), they sent me out on an ushering job for the launch of Lady Gaga's Born Brave campaign. Fun gig, and Memorial Hall's Sanders Theater at Harvard is gorgeous. Now I'm temping again at McLean Hospital for the Business Development Department. I've temped for them in the past. I enjoy it up there, in fact the only things about it I don't like are the location (why can't they be easier to get to!) and 9-5ing it. I was not made for a traditional hours job. I have always been a night owl. Best part though: the job stays at work.

And then there are the two theater gigs I am working on. I am in prep for Troilus and Cressida at Actors' Shakespeare Project. It is shaping up to be a fantastic production. I've never worked with ASP before and they seem like a terrific group. We'll perform at the Modern at Suffolk U which is not only a space I've never worked in, but it's a space I've never seen. It opened while I was in Dallas (and I recently found out: its flexible nature is talked about in comparison to the Wyly...).

The first 3 days of T&C rehearsal are also rehearsals and performance for a reading of Comedy of Sorrows which is a translation of Commedia Al-Ahzaan, a new play by Egyptian playwright Ibrahim El-Husseini. The reading is a part of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Learning's  annual conference Women Making Democracy. It will be a grueling 3 days when I work on the first 3 days of both shows simultaneously! Oh, and I'm also headed to NY on my first T&C day off to perform Comedy of Sorrows at the CUNY Graduate Center's Segel Theater (we've only  just started on the logistics for that one...)


If you add looking for temporary apartments to stay in and job searching for the rest of my theater gigs for the year, it is a wonder I'm avoiding moving to Boston permanently!?! I must be a maniac!

Thanks for reading,
Melissa

click here: Women Making Democracy