If you haven’t noticed, my website looks a little different now. I decided to do some reconstruction to consolidate and make things make more sense. Since I am in my early planning stages of my second act, I wanted to rejigger the site to reflect the direction in which I would like to go after July 1, 2027.

The newsletter concept is new to me, but I thought I’d try chronicling things more intentionally and publishing one at least once a month. We’ll see how that goes. 

So, here’s how things are going in the month of September.

In August and September, I sat for two different chats focused on the two big passions of my life: arts education and (of course) adult gymnastics. 

The first was with the new Adult Gymnastics Podcast, hosted by Hugh Smith and Jenny Woudenberg. It was an in-depth conversation about my gymnastics story, my new Geriatric Gymnast website, and how writing has been  instrumental in processing everything I’ve learned. Episode 10 is out wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube.

The second was with my old friend Pete Kramer, a local journalist whose mission it is to cover and promote high school theater and interesting people stories in our area. That was another “hands to heart” hour of discussing everything that has inspired me in my career and as it’s coming to a close, the direction I am looking to go. 

Episode 2 of season 2 is coming out in late September on his Substack. I’m so excited!

Since I noticed that my dear friend and former Thespian student (from a MILLION years ago) recently subscribed to my website, I thought I’d take a moment to reshare his Changed for the Better episode (lucky 13!). That was a podcast project from 2022-2023 that I created as a love letter to my alumni. It’s a fantastic series of conversations that makes me smile wide 😃 whenever I listen to them. Graig’s is particularly awesome (as is he).

A little about Graig Kreindler. An artiste who paints baseball history from old photographs, he recreates the color palette to reflect what you would have actually seen when the photograph was taken. His work is astounding and sublime.

The reality of his work seems unreal. It looks like it could be AI (many have accused him of that), but I assure you it is not. Every brush stroke, every color combination is carefully curated in his brain and executed through his hand. I’d call him the Michaelangelo of historical baseball painters, but his utterly humble nature would make him blush too much. But, he’s got a commission wait list that stretches over a decade into the future. So, I’m not wrong.

Before his rise to painting fame, Graig was one of my earliest Thespians (class of 1998). In my first few years he was my lighting coordinator extraordinaire. That was back when lighting wasn’t simply the push of a button, but rather a carefully orchestrated series of pulling squeaky levers on a gargantuan wall panel in the light booth. He was subject to my tyrannical orders relating to timing and execution of the light cues and seemed (that word is doing a lot there) to thrive in the stress of tech week. At least, he stuck around long enough to finish the show.

And, to boot, we are very dear friends three decades later. Visit his website to learn more about him.

Just before school started, I wrote a post called Retirement: The Year of Lasts.

Now, the school year is well underway. Introductions are done and I’m diving into my curriculum.

That said, year was off to a bit of a rocky start. A few days in, our principal was removed (for reasons still yet unknown). He was well liked, fostered a pleasant school climate, and we were filled with hope for more improvement as the school year progressed. Whatever flaws or faults he may have had as an administrator were not felt by the community at large.

So, we are trying to quickly adjust to a new leader, who is also trying to quickly adjust in very difficult circumstances. We also have a new superintendent and there have been unsettling shifts in district leadership.

Our schedules are also still shifting, and we are all just trying to do our best in what I would characterize as shaky ground, which may be the understatement of the year. It’s not the climate in which I wanted to enter my last school year, for sure. Over the course of my career, I’ve experienced many unsettling ups and downs related to our district. I was kinda hoping for a bit more smooth sailing.

But I digress…

Fortunately, in the cocoon of my beautiful dance studio, I can leave all of that at the door, look into my students’ eyes, and present them with the best version of me that I can. Hopefully, I can inspire them to do the same.

In other good news, our school clubs have begun. Thespians has our cast list for “She Kills Monsters“ all set, and we will begin our rehearsals and meetings next week. Dance Club is also underway. For both clubs, we have a young, eager group of creatives. And that’s the way I like it. At the very least, we can get through the school day, and then spend some good time exercising our creative brains.

September 20 was my mom’s birthday. She would have been 79 this year. Sadly, she died in 2020 after a long battle with peritoneal cancer. I wrote What Ronnie Sue Knew after spending her last week by her bedside, asking questions about what she remembered about her life.

I clicked at the laptop keyboard as she talked and published this book a year later. It’s my love letter to her, what she taught me just by living her beautiful life. It’s on Amazon, in case you are interested in a good page turner (so I’ve heard).

Maybe have some tissues at the ready.

We have re-entered another empty nesting chapter. I say re-entered because our first round ended when my eldest graduated with her masters degree and spent a gap year at home. Now, both of our kids are out of the house, happily in ensconced in their academic programs. The eldest is beginning her PhD journey and our youngest is starting her final year in college.

The quiet of the house now contains my husband and I, two dogs, and a cat. We are finding some space to reconnect and have some more conversation just the two of us, that is not primarily focused on the kids. The quiet is both needed and (to be honest) a little bit unnerving sometimes. But, we are happy to make the adjustment. We are now enjoying some of “our shows” and taking in fewer TikTok videos. We enjoy grocery dates as much as we do evening concerts. Our goal is to find different ways to spend time together, whether mundane or extra-special.

We do catch up with the girls regularly, although we rarely hear from the youngest, who is fifteen minutes away and living on campus. As long as they’re happy, so are we.

Now that the summer is over, I don’t have time to visit other gyms. I’m trying to incorporate whatever gains I’ve made into my training at Flipper’s. I’m there three days a week, which is a lot considering my full time work schedule. I imagine that once I retire, I’ll continue expanding my gym time.

In the meantime, since my flyaways breakthrough, I’ve been dealing with a wonky shoulder (again). It’s amazing how the body is so capable, but if there are any anatomical weaknesses, you can’t capitalize on that capacity. So, the focus shifts from skill development to rehabilitation and bolstering the weakness that was exposed.

I suppose that’s another whole post of its own.

Regardless, as gymnasts always say, there’s always something to work on at the gym. Building the strength and mobility of my shoulders and rotator cuff is now the primary focus. That and my Achilles tendons and hips. At 54, everything feels pretty wonky. Every warmup starts with a sort of PT session. I never have enough time to get everything in, so I do what I can while I’m there.

With that in mind, I’m working on creating and curating a YouTube playlist of fundamentals that people can do at home. In case anyone is looking for that kind of thing.

Baby steps. For everything.

---

I suppose that’s a good overview of what life looks like in my corner of the sky. I hope this newsletter finds you healthy, happy and in good spirits.

I’ll do my best to put out a new letter once a month. Thank you for taking the time to catch up. If you’ve subscribed, thank you for that as well. Share this with someone who might be interested. Let me know if there’s something specific you want to read more about from my universe.