Nonetheless, here I am, not quite full seven months later with a short update.
Another Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival has come and gone. Well technically it's still going on to about midnight, but Rob is Done.
I'm exhausted. More than I ever used to be at the end of Fringe (though I suppose not by a great deal since I can't actually remember what 'regular post-Fringe exhaustion' was like). Physically, mentally, and especially socially spent. The idea of dealing face-to-face with another human being right now is simply not something I have the capacity to consider. In fact, my intent, after I finish my supper, is to hop into a cool shower, climb into bed, and luxuriate in the blessed Asocial for about 36 hours.
I don't think just six shifts as a Team Leader used to do this to me. But part of it is not being used to working venues (which involves managing a handful of other volunteers, interfacing with staff, and--most taxingly--being 'charming' to aspects of the general public I usually do my best to avoid). Part of it is almost certainly doing so while being 'old as dirt', which is how I choose to express my advancing age at the moment.
My venue shifts didn't go badly at all, but I've been out of venues long enough that it took longer to remind myself about what I was supposed to do than it should have. And every venue has its quirks (as does the general public but I'll skip that rant for now). I'd worked a couple shifts at this venue last year, so it wasn't completely alien. But things change just a little year to year anyway, and all the little changes and all the little reminders, and all the little failures of congruence thereof were, well, not helpful in achieving my preferred (and increasingly unattainable) 'mostly competent-appearing and -feeling Rob' state.
Anyway, after I spend some quality dark-and-alone time I'll probably back to my usual con-brio self, or at least as con as brio has been of late. Having the attention span of a methed-up bumblebee (and the energy of a slow loris on heavy opiates) certainly limits the brio. But that's a complaint for the blog entry of a person who has aspirations beyond sitting alone in the dark for a while.
