I have been astoundingly busy for the last month doing Jesus Christ Superstar at Wilmington Drama League. It closed last weekend after having the run extended (the first time in the 70-year history of the theater) to good reviews and lots of tears.

The cast was unlike any other I’d ever worked with. It was a big cast with such astounding talent, yet there weren’t any divas, no egos, no attitudes. Everyone got along, whether it was production staff, lead, chorus member or band guy. The environment was all positive and very encouraging, which made me (and I’m sure others) feel unafraid to take the emotional risks needed to pull the show off.

There were two nights when we didn’t have cast parties, so instead we had Cabaret Nights, where we all brought songs we always wanted to perform and sang them at the theater, with the amazing help of John Williams our accompanist and various musicians in the cast as well. It was such a supportive, loving environment, and I swear, but "I’ve been changed... yes, really changed..."

I promise someday I'll stop talking about this show. It's just that I'm not used to having lots friends and really good vibes in Delaware. So allow me, eh...

Anyhoozle, landing back on the solid ground of reality, especially in the midst of all this talk of war, really slaps you in the face with a wet cod. (??)

You might have heard that there was a significant turn of events in my work-life, so here’s the latest and greatest, in as small of a nutshell as I can muster:

I have worked for a consulting/contracting company called Info Systems since I moved to Delaware in 1999. Info Systems has pimped me out to various companies for long-term assignments (You may recall Wingspanbank.com, First USA Bank, Wawa and now Accenture).

Info Systems has been running Accenture’s entire information technology department since January of 2000. I head up the team out here, and all my co-workers therefore are Info Systems employees. My co-workers all rule, they’re hilarious, warm, festive, dorky and above all, they are brilliant workers and kick ass.

Anyhoo, Info Systems’ contract with Accenture was up for renewal in January of 2003. Accenture decided in early January that they weren’t going to renew the contract, which came as a gigantic shock to everyone. Accenture thought it was stupid to hire another company to run their information technology department (called "outsourcing") when that’s the line of work that Accenture does themselves. So Info Systems is out the door.

The good news is that Accenture has offered jobs to most of the people on my team, myself included. However, Info Systems didn’t want to let me go so they told me that if I stayed with Info Systems, they’d give me this phatty job with a huge raise and daily massages and spa visits and fresh flowers and the whole nine yards. Accenture said that if I came on board with Accenture, they’d give me a $10K raise and plenty of room for career growth, stability, a pension, plus the ability to relocate to Arizona when a position became available in their Phoenix office.

So I had a decision to make.

I decided to compile an apples-to-apples list of job salary, benefits, etc., between the two companies. To make a long story short, Accenture offers the best deal (plus the most love), so that’s where I’m staying. I have to sign my acceptance letter today, in fact.

The bad news is that Accenture doesn’t have room for everyone on my team… with the economy being what it is, we’re being asked to do more with much less. It’s going to be stressful and the hours are definitely going to be very long, so again, I don’t know how much time I’ll have to goof off. The days of lollygagging seem to be over… (I shouldn’t complain, I had it really easy for a long time, there.)

So, if you're one to AIM me at work, I am gonna have to apologize up front for not being able to yap at length like I used to. Sorry, eh!

In other news, I was sitting at work and my cell phone rang, and I heard this voice on the other end saying, "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm the artistic director for City Theater, and I saw you in Jesus Christ Superstar and you were absolutely wonderful; very powerful but very grounded... and anyway, I wanted to know if you wanted to audition for our production of Into The Woods at the Opera House. Can I fax you the music and can you swing by Saturday?"   Holy crap!   As if that agent guy who said he wanted to represent me wasn't enough to inflate my head to the size of Detroit... now this? Anyhoo, I had to gracefully turn him down only because the role he had me in mind for was too high for me to do it justice. But I told him to keep me in mind should anything else open up. Wheee!

OK. It's late, and I gotta jet.

Sorry I've been so uncommunicative. If I ever said I was busy before, I was lying, because now I know what busy is. Makin' up for the last three years, I guess... :-D

Love you guys!