So sometimes, no matter how much you think you need to do, or how many projects have to be finished, or how many errands you need to run, life puts on its breaks for you. Hold it..... stop! I just finished another show on Sunday...... on Monday I was sick..... Not kind of sick, but fever, runny nose, sore throat..... then came loss of voice and fever blisters..... ok, yeah.... fun times. So I took basically Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off as my body had said to slow it down, and spent most of the time drink plenty of fluids and reclined with my head on a pillow.

Thursday, have to work! I got up, did the email check...... this one takes awhile after three days of not checking the account. Then, I finished preparation for a home schooled class I teach on music. Got in my car, and left for Lake County (where the class is held)... Plenty of time... No traffic... Feeling better... Not great, but better... Got to Volusia County now it is raining... Got to DeLand now it is pouring... Pulled into a convenience store for a drink… turned off the car… shut the windows… locked the doors… closed the door...... BOOM!

My keys are in the ignition!

Ok, so I go in the store and ask to use the phone. She directs me to an outside pay phone, across the parking lot. Here is the picture. Pouring rain! Me on the phone, make that on hold, waiting from AAA to answer. Waiting... Getting wetter... Waiting... Get really wet... They do finally get to my call... Hour and a half wait time for road service.

Life stopped me again. Ok so my cell phone was locked in the car with my keys. No way to call the home schooled class. Phone number stored in the phone. Augh!! So there I wait stranded at a Handy Way. Real handy! I visit with the cashier... Browse at everything in the store at least twice. Waiting... Well I do manage to get into the car when the motor club locksmith arrives. Make the phone call to the class that I am running late. The mother had also been running late, airport delays, traffic, and family stuff.

Guess we were all put on hold. All forced to stop. Life had made us stop. They say to stop and smell roses. There were no roses at the store parking lot. Ok so it is a metaphor. Appreciate life. I try I really do, but it is hard when responsibilities do not stop. I know everyone understands deep down resting and pausing is important, but do we. Yeah maybe sometimes, or maybe just we life puts on the red light. Life can be quite a ride, but be careful you might be heading to a wall!

Peace out!

Naturally, we all seek harmony, understanding, and justice, right? Hardly, we all find our way, meandering through time and space, locating a few friends, realizing things we have in common, engaging our lives in some sort of vocation, and for the lucky ones, settling down with the one.... you know, the one that completes you. Isn't that what they say? I will expand on that thought another day. Today, I am going to focus on the disrupters.

You know who they are... we find kindred spirits.. those who we have things in common with.... those we work well together with... those who we can be create with... those we can work with... those we can play with... those we enjoy being around... and those other people come... the disrupters.

They come in to your life, your workplace, your social scene, your little bit of this great big world, and cause contrary motion. Sometimes a little rattling is fun, exciting, purposeful for growth, but I am not talking of those people. I am speaking of those who destroy the peace, the space, the situation. They come in and bit by bit break down the enjoyment of the moment. They turn people against each other. They distract you and others from the issues they are causing. They are truly manipulators of any situation. They try, and usually succeed, to disrupt the flow the natural motion and create contrary motion.

When things seem to be in transition that is when they arrive. It is like they know when they can cause chaos, and then they attack. I have dealt with those kinds, we all do, right? Well sometimes you have to rattle back. You can’t let them take over. Once you have spotted their evil plan you must put them asunder. They must not gain control. They are like weeds; it will get completely out of control if you let it go that far. Tend your garden. Plant goodness and you will reap a bounty of fragrances, beautiful colors and pure delight. But they will try to break down your flow with contrary motion.

If you find yourself, on the other side of this battle, you are causing the contrary motion. Stop! Reevaluate your purpose, your situation, and your motives. Are you trying to fit yourself into the wrong moment, the wrong space, the wrong wrong, don’t! You will only find the misery you will cause for others in yourself. Turn away, find another way, take time to play, enjoy the flowers of May, and surely do not delay.

Ok so my Birthday (yesterday) marked the 25th anniversary of the "Twinkie". So here is a little information on that sponge cake delight.

52,000 Twinkies can be filled with creme in one hour at a Twinkie bakery. It takes 10 minutes to bake a Twinkie. Twinkies got their name from a St. Louis billboard advertisement for the Twinkle Toe shoe. The Twinkie was chosen to be included in the White House millennium time capsule, representing "an object of enduring American symbolism." More than 1½ million hens are needed to lay the 160 million Grade A large eggs used to make Twinkies each year. Hostess bakeries can produce up to 1,000 Twinkies in a minute. 500 million Twinkies are baked each year. If you laid one billion Twinkies end to end, they would circle the Earth at the Equator twice, with enough left over to go from LA to New York three abreast. Chicago is the city that consumes more Twinkies per capita than any other city in the United States followed by Los Angeles. Super hero Superman celebrated his 50th birthday with a Twinkie birthday cake. It takes 45 seconds for a Twinkie to explode in the microwave. Twinkies have a shelf life of 14 days. Twinkies filling switched from banana to vanilla during World War II. It takes 39,672 miles of cellophane wrapping to cover Twinkies each year. Two students at Rice University conducted the "T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project," a series of "scientific tests" on Twinkies. The tests included the "Rapid Oxidation Test," the "Gravitational Response Test" as well as the "Turing Test."

Ok here is something interesting, "deep fried twinkies" http://www.sptimes.com/2002/06/26/Taste/The_Twinkie_transform.shtml

Wanna get apparel..... all kinds of stuff can be found at: http://www.twinkieshop.com/

Send a FREE twinkie post card to a friend by going to: http://www.twinkies.com/planet_postcard/

Anyway, buy a freaking twinkie you know you want to, who can resist. Life is a lot like a twinkie. So many of us hold are sweetness inside, sheltering it from the rest of the world. The world finds a chance to... to take a bite, changing us, exposing our vulnerability, showing our transparent inner self to... to the world. Knowing that we are probably only a passing fancy, one of immediate satisfaction. Twinkies are moments. Each is a short commitment, quick satisfaction, a delightful sugar high. But all things must and do come to an end. And you will finish the twinkie, everyone does. You may eat it in sections. You may lick out the sweet innocencee of its center. You may dive in and enjoy all its riches from end to end. But you will finish it all. You will take your moment, your chance, your pleasure, your delight. Enjoy your days, moment to moment, like a twinkie excursion. Remember the tastes, remember the feel, and remember the moments. Life is rich with moments, how ever you choose to devour its sensations.

Just a thought on this purely American, pre-packaged, fully manufactured, taste sensation. Wanna Twinkie? Enjoy each moment in your life! There will never be another like it!

So I am having one of those weeks were you keep just trying to move forward but everything around you seems to be either out-of-sync or just plain chaos. I can blame it on the fact that I am in "tech week". For those of you not in the theatre community, tech week is the week into opening night where all the technical parts of the show are revealed for better or worse -- costumes, set, lights, sound, new props, things you never thought you were going to use or see or wear. They appear on this week, and you are to "make it happen", "make it work", "find a way", etc.

But the things that have happened this week are not all show related so that would be just an excuse to play the game of blame in that direction. So I guess it is just a "Wednesday Some uppens". Some of this and some of that, and that is what's up. Well happy Wednesday. Oh and btw it is my birthday. Things are gonna get grand, right?

MaestroTimothy