Vol 2 Issue 8

Pic of the week 

The spray from this geyser was covering the entire street.  Needless to say, I found an alternate route so as to avoid getting drenched on my scooter.

Quote of the week

"As you likely already know, Greg is a living Starburst..." 

-The Artistic Director of Story Pirates in an email to the company about my new job! 

What's going on?

It's officially official!  I am now the Associate Artistic Director for Story Pirates in LA!!  What a title!!! Basically that just means that I'm in charge of the day-to-day operations of the artistic department here.  I will cast shows, train actors and directors, maintain scheduling calendars, provide support, encouragement, love, make important financial decisions like "Is $45 too much to spend on a giant inflatable dragon?" etc.  So far I'm having a blast, and the support from the Story Pirates community has been overwhelming and wonderful.  Story Pirates has felt like home to me - artistically, socially, emotionally, spiritually - basically from day one, and to have the opportunity to continue making it that kind of place for other people is a dream.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! I spoke in my ward today.  Basically that's just my calling now.  Mother's Day speaker. It went really well and I got lots of positive feedback.  And luckily the bishop had the primary kids sing after my talk.  I think if they'd sung before it, I'd have been destroyed.  Anyway. Moms are pretty cool, I guess, or whatever.

Everybody.  Listen.  Life is really good right now.  I have a killer job, unbelievably amazing friends, opportunities to go places and see things, I live in a city that has amazing desserts and mac & cheese, I am not rich, but I'm not worried about where rent is coming from.  It really doesn't get much better. (Though I could definitely get down with some health insurance.  I should look into that...)

What I'm reading

This is a cute little story about a boy who finds a girl who finds and collects wishes.  Breezy reading, and I love it.

What I'm listening to

Hidden Brain.  It's a podcast about how our brains work and I generally find it fascinating.  This week's episode was no exception.  It looks at religion as something that came about to help enforce cultural norms as communities grew beyond 150 people or so.  It's definitely an intellectual look at religion, but I thought it was a really interesting take.

What I'm making

Pocket parents! In the last year or two I have had several friends (as evidenced by the picture above) lose parents.  And for some reason it just now occurred to me to make them pocket parents.  It just feels right. Ya know?  I gave the blonde mom up there to my friend this week and she screamed.  Our pregnant friend was there and completely lost it.  I think they're a hit.  I know people's relationships with their parents can be complicated, but this still feels like a meaningful thing I can do for them.