I need to chill

So, my mom came to see the play on Sunday and commented that it looked like I'd lost weight. I guess it was just the stress of the show combined with lack of sleep and homework and not having a meal card to get a quick easy dining hall meal and substituting healthy food with four chocolate chip cookies.

But I decided to sort of check up on myself, and looked up some symptoms of really stressed out people. Here's what I discovered that I can remember experiencing during the rehearsal weeks.

Sleep disturbances. A couple of times, the most notable being when I spent the night on Busch with Andrew and got really irritated and woke up to have one of the worst rehearsal days ever.

Back, shoulder or neck pain. Ask Cyrus, Steve, and Anissa about this. I had more knots than a fisherman.

Upset stomach or cramps. And here I was thinking Cyrus' tofu stomach was just contagious.

Weight loss. I lost 5 pounds, but then I came home for Thanksgiving.

Fatigue. A couple times I thought I was going to die in my modern dance class, and I had to avoid jujitsu to some extent because it wore me out.

Shortness of breath. That's what I consider fatigue, so see above. Well, fatigue I guess is low energy too.

Cold feet or hands. Well yeah but thats a given. I have that from October to April every year.

Skin problems. The creases of my knees broke out in a rash. Really wierd.

Relational problems/conflicts/overreactions. Uhh...

Emotional. Nerves, moodiness, depression, memory problems, lack of concentration. I had to have a little planner and if I didn't write something in the planner then 3 minutes later it was gone to the same place deleted files go once they leave the recycle bin.

So, this is a warning to everyone reading this. Do lots of activities, but don't kill yourself to get things perfect. I think the reason this was so stressful is cause it was my first time stage managing and I wanted things to be just right. So yeah thats what I learned from all this.

But... its theater. It was worth it. :-D