Surviving Burlesqueland

Holy cow Burlesqueland was fun this year!  Three shows, one class, an outing and a day at the Park.  Holy mackerel!

Caveat time.  It was fun except for the allergy attack that kept me from my Naked Girls Reading stint on Saturday.  Oh, and the 24-hour sinus thing that took my voice, zapped my energy, kicked up my temperature and kept me from performing Sunday night.  Yeah, fun except for those things.

I got sick last year the day after we went to the Park.  You'd think I would've learned a valuable lesson from that.  Nope.  I worked on stuff for Burlesqueland for several months: costume, props, music, merch.  My weekends since my Texas trip have been spent almost entirely focused on stuff for our little festival.  The past three weeks have been early mornings, long hours at the day job, lots of crafting upon the return home and a late bedtime.  I ate convenience foods because I didn't have time to dedicate to proper meal preparation.  I exhausted myself so that I was ready to collapse when the event finally arrived.  I was so wiped out that I fell asleep on Pirates when we hit the Park.

I love that I'm such an active participant in the Burlesqueland festival, but I have to take some lessons from this if I'm going to survive future years.

1. Sleep is good.  In the weeks leading up to the local festival, get eight hours sleep each night as the norm.  Only make exceptions on show nights.
2. Meals are good.  Spend 20 minutes to throw something tasty in the crock pot that will last a few days.
3. Stock up on healthy snacks for those heavy crafting nights.  It's smarter to grab a handful of carrot sticks or apple slices as a pick-me-up than to devour an entire bag of delicious cheese curls.
4. Use stuff that's already done!  Mr. Snapper and I built everything for my Wild Ride act.  We're using that again.  It's stressful putting together a brand new act on top while devoting an appropriate amount of attention to the other activities of the festival and daily lift.  If you missed Red Snapper's Wild Ride, it'll be back in 2012 and it'll be even better.  I'm also reusing the host costume Scarlett Letter whipped up for me in 48 hours.
5. Take a little personal quiet time during the festival, even if it's ten minutes of meditation each day before heading into the flood of activities.
6. Communication is key to keeping everything on track and keeping frazzled nerves to a minimum.  I know I'll work on hosting bits much sooner if I'm hosting again next year.

I love Burlesqueland but I wore myself out this year so I was prone to illness.  I hope I learn my lesson by 2012.