Like so many things the last three months, it’s a scheduling thing. Were mom alive and well and healthy, she probably would have rescheduled the start of her Fringe visit a few days earlier this year to partake in an extra, more low-key weekend of Fringing like we had just this past weekend - to kind of ease into things. Sadly, that didn’t come to pass.
And because I’ve been out of town so much the last three months dealing with mom’s declining health, and then the aftermath of her death, I couldn’t go yet another weekend with no income from the second job. So while many of you were catching the first weekend of Family Fringe, I was piling on some extra work hours to prop up the bank account over the next two weekends when I *will* be seeing shows all day.
I think Mom would have appreciated the Family Fringe being moved closer to other West Bank venues this year. Last year, the logistics of getting to and from the Family Fringe show we saw cut into her schedule in a way she didn’t like. I think she’d also appreciate the two festivals overlapping but not being completely on top of, and in competition with, each other. She would have enjoyed a weekend just to see Family Fringe before the traditional Fringe got underway.
She was a purist, so I know, just like last year, the curation aspect creeping into the Fringe Festival via the Family Fringe would have bothered her. Even in the hospital, when the subject turned to the Fringe with her friends, she’d pipe up with “It’s not a true Fringe if someone’s choosing the shows.” I’m not going to get into an argument about that here. I agree with her, but I know the Fringe has its reasons for arranging things this way, too. That’s a subject for another time. I could just hear her voice in my head and I wanted to honor that before it slipped out of my memory.
The crazy unexpected travel and family time back in Pennsylvania also meant I was receiving press releases from various Fringe artists during a time I really couldn’t respond to them. I appreciate those who sent them, and I did read and use the material in them pretty liberally when blogging and making schedule decisions, so I was glad to receive them. The radio silence on my end was just a function of circumstance.
Also, since Mom’s not here to hang out with, I won’t be taking full vacation days during the week. I’ll have the weekends off, but I’ll work half days during the week (again, I’ve been away too long), and still have a few hours to decompress between the day job and start of evening shows. Not sure how that’s going to affect the coverage. I hope not too much.
But this is where we are right now.
Next year will be a different animal, with hopefully more flexibility. I guess we’ll know when we get there.
Right now, I just want to get through the next two weeks.
Thanks for understanding.
For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019. There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should. If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here. Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)
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