Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

My play is over. Many many people saw it and many many people cried. That’s a total win. And in news of even MORE win, I now am done! And don’t have to go to the theater night after night after night! MORE TIME FOR RESTING! And writing! And petting of Dumbcats! There’s a certain Dumbcat who’s very pleased by this development. He’s curled up to my leg right now as I write this. He wants you to know he has SUFFERED from SO MUCH LONELINESS over the past few weeks. Who will scratch his little stubby tail-area just like he likes it if I am gone, he wants to know? Who will give him his cat treats? WHO, he asks? WHO?

And I am kind of also officially done; in big, fat, life-changing news, I made the decision over the past few months, and let the president of the board know this weekend, I would not be coming back to the board next season (which starts in June.) So as of late-June, I will officially no longer be a board member at the theater. There are a number of factors that led to this decision, but it’s a good one, and it’s the right one for me, and for my peace of mind and my sanity. I’m not leaving the theater altogether; I will of course still be attending their shows, and working hospitality or the box office, as needed. I just won’t be doing all of the other things, and I won’t be working on any shows for a while. I need a good long sanity-break. How long will this break be? I don’t know yet. I will let my sanity and boredom be my guide on this. I feel both very free and very adrift, all at once. It’s scary and it’s exhilarating. But overall? It’s right. And it’s time.

This will give me more time to do the things I love: attend shows, write, review shows, read, spend time with friends, spend time with The Nephew, travel. Also? Breathe. It will give me more time to breathe. And I need this. I need a little more time for Amy.

A very wise and sciency man told me upon receipt of this news that “sometimes you need to take stock and refocus on what’s giving you happiness.” He’s not always all-science-all-the-time, you guys. He’s also very thoughtful. And very often right.

I have big plans for my time. Plans which you, too, will be privy to, as they unfold. (Whether you want to be or not, I suppose.) And a lot of those plans involve finding my happiness. It’s gotten lost, you see. I miss it. I’d like it to come back, one of these days. So is it time to go looking for it? I think it might just be.

First of the plans: IT IS LESS THAN A WEEK UNTIL ANDREAS-DAY.

!!!!ANDREAS!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Five days from today, to be precise. Andreas leaves tomorrow (and my worrying starts in earnest the minute he boards his plane – planes make me NERVOUS, yo. More than they should, probably. So the whole time he’s in the air – well, other than when I’m sleeping, because then I will be unaware – I will be using most of my prodigious brainpower sending good vibes that his plane does what it’s supposed to. Stay aloft when appropriate, land when also appropriate. He has many many places where he has to switch planes. You can’t just get a nonstop flight to MERKA from FINLAND, you know. There are probably gas-issues with a nonstop flight, I’d imagine. There are all these places he has to change planes to ANOTHER plane. Then I will worry all OVER again. Yes, it’s not easy living in my head, why do you ask?) and so I have MANY plans to make. MANY MANY.

If you look SO SO CLOSE you probably can see Andreas waving at us. Hi, Andreas!

I have to buy new CLOTHES and finish buying welcome to MERKA presents and then WRAP those presents and pack a new PURSE because I can’t bring my normal everyday BIG purse if we’re walking all AROUND and I need to charge all my various DEVICES like cameras and phones and chargers and Kindles and such and think of all the things I will need like maybe MONEY or other things, plus also I need to do things like grocery shop and do laundry and pay the rent and write a billion things this week because I have a billion things to write, not just here, but elsewhere. I know! ELSEWHERE! I’m like a gadabout, sincerely.

Also, I just think it needs to be said that I’m so excited that my butterflies have little butterflies riding on them like butterfly-jockies. I AM THE MOST EXCITED. I am going to have an ADVENTURE! With one of my favorite people! When I met Andreas…how long now? A little over a year ago? Fifteen months ago? I never thought I would get to meet him. Never in a million years. And look what’s happened. Sometimes life is really kind of magical, you know? I know you hate it when I say magical, Andreas. Because magic isn’t sciency. Sorry. But it really is magical. That you meet someone via social media who lives approximately 4,200 miles away from you (YES, I looked that up) and you not only have that kind of crazy click with them that maybe happens once in…I don’t know, hundreds? thousands? of people? but then you kind of resign yourself to well, you will never meet this person in real life, but you know them, so really, you won that battle. It’d be so much worse if you didn’t know them at all.

Aw, Oatmeal. You get me. You totally get me.

But SOMEHOW, magic happened, and Andreas is coming to Merka. And I get to meet Andreas with my FACE. And we are going to have an ADVENTURE. In my favorite city of them all. So shh, let me have my magic. There’s so little of it left in the world, I take it where I can get it. And no matter what you say and what science you try to put on it, I will always and forever believe that click when you know, you just KNOW, that someone is meant to be in your life, and meant to be your friend, is magic. The best kind of magic there is. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Mmm, icing. Mmm, cake.

And is there a better city for magic than New York? I think not.

Happy week, everyone! I hope (hope hope hope) to be here more than I’m not this week. And by this time next week, hopefully I will have most of a post written talking about magic and New York and meeting the most wonderful friend and having a whole day of adventures and wandering and talking and laughing.

Butterflies riding the butterflies like little butterfly-jockies.

(Title from a Roald Dahl quote; if there’s anyone who knew about magic, it’s the man who made us a chocolate factory, don’t you think?)