The perks to being a reviewer

Last night I saw a play I am to review: Frozen, at the Curious Theatre in Denver. I've reviewed a few other plays for them, The Dead Guy and Bug. At The Dead Guy, my first play as a reviewer, I had no idea what to expect. To make matters more complicated, it was a red carpet event, as well. I was awed by the employees handing out champagne and the party after the play, but mostly I was amazed by the way I was treated. I went to the ticket desk and said - very professionally, I thought - "I'm Katharine Leppert, with Splash Magazine." Immediately I was given a press packet, and Michael and I were ushered to our seats. Even Michael commented on how we were treated like something akin to royalty.

At the next play I reviewed, Bug, the treatment wasn't much different. They couldn't find my tickets at the box office, so the guy working the office called for Mare, the marketing director. It turned out the editor hadn't confirmed my tickets; nevertheless, Mare welcomed me warmly, found me a press packet, and personally found us a pair of seats.

For last night's performance of Frozen, the editor had me confirm the seats myself. This time, our seats were reserved with my name, and Mare even asked as she seated us if we liked those seats, or if we'd prefer others.

It's really something to be treated like that. It's not particularly surprising if you think about it, of course - the media is a major source of exposure for these plays, and so it's in their best interest to treat their reviewers as well as possible. I'm sure admitting how delighted it makes me shows a great deal of my inexperience, but I can't help it - I love being treated as though I'm very important. Goodness knows, as a writer I'm more likely to get criticism than respect, so I'll take the latter whenever I can find it.

After the storm

I worked another six hours yesterday, making the total nearly 21 hours. I don't think I could have made it any longer - yesterday morning I was fighting sleep while I was playing with my youngest charge (or rather, watching her play). However, my reward was $244 - hard earned, but much needed, money.

Last night I attended an event that I am reviewing for a community publication. It was an awful lot of fun... Afterward, I jotted down some notes and wrote about half of the piece. Since I'll have another event to attend tonight, and another review to write, I hope to get the first piece finished this afternoon. After this weekend, I'll have to resume work on a few of the assignments that were rather ignored amid all the excitement this week. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with all of these various assignments... I can only assume I'll get better at it as I gain more experience.

Drop everything and read

Recent reading material has caused me to reflect on reading and my childhood. Interestingly, I can't actually recall not being able to read. My mom says that I started reading before I turned three, so I guess that's why. The point is, reading was a strong influence on my life, from my earliest memories.

I can remember "D.E.A.R." in late elementary school. It was a time of day (or a specific day?) called "Drop Everything And Read," and it was schoolwide - every class participated. No matter what time of the day it was, everyone - students and teachers alike - were to stop what they were doing and read.

Of course, reading was not something that had to be pushed with me. In fact, my teachers, with a mixture of amusement, awe, and bewilderment, would tell my parents during conferences that they had to try to get all the other kids to read more, but they had to get me to read less. All through public school, I was more likely to be reading a book in class than paying attention. I don't recall how frequently I finished books during elementary and middle school, but I do know that by high school I could easily finish a regular (350-500 page) novel in a day - sometimes in less time, particularly during the summer.

After I graduated from high school, I wandered off the academic path, taking four years to work and party before deciding to return to college. I didn't read much during that time. I did start reading again, slowly at first, before I made the decision to go back to school. I guess it was inevitable that reading for pleasure should become a part of my life again before the will for (and the enjoyment of) learning could take place.

As an English major, a lot of what I read for three and a half years was mandated by my degree program. I loved most of it, detested some of it, and merely endured the rest. However, one of my greatest senses of accomplishment upon graduation was having earned the right to read books of my own choosing again.

Now, on Day 2 of my substitute-nannydom, I have not read in almost three days. Horrible feeling, especially since I was halfway through an excellent book when this entire ordeal started! I worked about seven hours today, and it was a big change from my usual routine of writing from bed until I get hungry, and then writing some more... Instead, I did dishes, cleaned up after children, rearranged children's furniture, folded laundry, and played chauffer... Basically I was in perpetual motion the entire day, as opposite as I could get from sitting in my pajamas and writing.

Now, it's a little after 8:00pm, but it feels at least a good three hours later than that. I am exhausted. I plan to take a nice, relaxing hot bath (which will no doubt make me even sleepier), get into bed, and watch a little TV. I have a little headache, and I just don't think I'll be able to bring myself to read tonight.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up this weekend...

Blog issues...again

It seems I'm having blogging issues again. My side banner - with all the links to my posts and other pages on my site - has, for some reason, migrated to the very bottom of the page. I have absolutely no idea why, as I have not changed a single thing... If it doesn't fix itself in a couple of days, I guess I'll have to find out how helpful Blogger's help team really is.

Solving money problems...and creating others

I think I've mentioned before that I do some babysitting on the side, to supplement my freelancing income. Well, some weeks that means one (or even zero) jobs; other weeks it means almost more than I can handle. This week is turning out to be the latter kind. Yesterday, I heard from one of my families; their nanny is unexpectedly out this week, so I'm filling in. At first I expected to only work four or five hours today, and about the same on Friday. However, their need for me ballooned more and more, until today's four hours turned into seven and a half. I'll also be working tomorrow - a full eight-hour day - as well as Friday. When all is said and done, I expect I'll have a minimum of 22 hours this week - all in three days. This is quite a bit of "supplemental" income, and sets my plans for the week back quite a bit; however, there are enough weeks without sufficient babysitting that I know I need to take it when it's available.

Unfortunately, the earlier schedule also means that I'll be robbed of one of my favorite times to work: late at night, after Michael has gone to bed. (My other favorite time is mid-day, when I'm still wearing my pajamas.) I can't imagine I'll be very productive this week, as a result - I don't get much work done in the evening, when Michael is home and awake, although I'll often work a little while he reads or works on his homework.

Fortunately, though, this unexpected work will rescue me from a major money crunch...so I guess I can't complain too much about the demands on my time. Hopefully I'll have a chance to catch up on my writing again next week...

Type 1 diabetic

In May of 2002, at the age of 22, I was diagnosed as having type 1 diabetes. For six months, I had been rapidly losing weight, urinating more and more frequently, and becoming thirstier with each passing day. However, I was completely unaware that these were symptoms of diabetes, and as a result I was down to 97 pounds - and up to a blood sugar level of more than 700 - by the time I was diagnosed. I spent four nights in the hospital over Memorial Day weekend, while the rather inept general doctors struggled to bring my blood sugar down to reasonable levels (and often fed me immediately after giving me a short of insulin to compensate for my highs). Eventually, I received treatment from an endocrinologist - a specialist of diabetes and other endocrine diseases - and was able to go home with normal blood sugar levels.

Now, I am so accustomed to my diabetes that I often forget to catagorize myself as diabetic, and think with surprise, "Oh, yeah - I have diabetes." I also have started to think of my frequent insulin injections as normal, and have actually caught myself wondering why someone else isn't taking a shot, as I would... And then, a split second later, I remember. "Oh, yeah - that's because I have a condition they don't."

However, as normal as being diabetic seems to me, it has significantly changed my outlook on life and politics. As a diabetic, I have had to deal with the fact that insurance companies can - and will - deny me coverage under an individual plan. If I don't have coverage through a group plan - through my work, or as my present situation, my boyfriend's work - they can turn me away...and it's perfectly legal. Furthermore, if I ever go without health insurance for longer than a month, even a group plan can turn me away as having a pre-existing condition... So if I don't have a job (or a significant other) that can provide me with health insurance, I can't get it on my own...and then I am punished for not being able to get it on my own, by being labeled as a pre-existing condition once I do find a job (or significant other) who can provide me with coverage under a group plan. It's like this horrible legal catch-22, designed to target diabetics. What isn't legal, however, is the appalling discrimination I have endured at the hands of employers. However, I still had to go through proving (with the help of a lawyer) that it actually was one of my legal rights to have the same access to health insurance as my co-workers.

Of course, so much of this is the result of the ineptitudes of our current government - and one of the main reasons why I voted for Kerry (and was brokenhearted when he didn't win). I wouldn't have thought it possible, but having seen our country's failure to provide adequate health insurance for all its citizens - or even regulate the existing health insurance industry - has made me even more liberal.

So by now (if you've lasted this long), you're probably wondering what triggered this tirade. This evening, I happened to run across an article on diabetes in The New York Times. While the article actually focuses on type 2 diabetes - a much bigger issue than type 1, as at least 90% of diabetics have type 2, a percentage that is constantly growing thanks to the U.S. culture of fast food and lots of it - many of the issues it presents are true for type 1 as well. Health insurance providers tend to drag their heels about providing preventative care - something I know about, having had coverage under several different providers since my diagnosis - but they have no qualms about coughing up the money for life-or-death instances (which, thankfully, I don't know about firsthand). If only they would realize that a little extra money spent on preventative care could save them oodles of money on the results of poor health care...

Having read my thoughts, please read the article. If the issues surrounding diabetes and/or the larger issue of American health care interest you, I hope you will continue to investigate on your own.

Reading

Last night I stayed up late reading for the first time in quite a while. As a teenager, I did that pretty frequently - staying up until 2 or 3am (or at least until my mom yelled at me to turn the lights out) because I was so hooked on a book. I haven't done so in months, though, I think... In fact, since I started freelancing full time, the vast majority of what I've read has been for work.

I have a lot else to do today - I'm making a list of publications to query for a new assignment, and I also need to change the oil and antifreeze in my car - but I thought my blissful night of reading deserved mention.