Kinast Connection: A Long Day's Journey into this post

6.01.2017

A Long Day's Journey into this post

Hello Kinast clan!

This posting is unfortunately long over due. It would seem that I have lost my ability to multitask successfully. I promise to do my best to make up for that in this post.

Nate and I have been supremely busy since November of 2016. As a matter of fact, we didn't really take a break until our trip May 12 to 15, 2017. The escape to Chicago was much needed. More on that later.

Nate began a new job in December with Data Center, Inc. in Hutchinson. He seems to be enjoying the position, though there are days when the new job bug bites pretty hard. He's continuing to explore options that he never had before and finding time for friends and family that never really was an option for him previously. He continues to enjoy exercising at either Planet Fitness or the YMCA. And he's starting to think long term in terms of what he wants to do with his life. An exciting journey for sure.

I began my 4th season at Stage 9 in January. We've already had a very good season full of good audiences and artful productions. Our first two productions completely sold out. I was pleased to take on a new challenge in doing a reading of Our Town as I had never done a staged reading. I finally got to produce The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in April and I consider it to be one of Stage 9's greatest artistic successes. I've had a bit of a break but am about to ramp up productions of The Laramie Project and Godspell. Additionally, we will be adding another staff person at Stage 9 which I am very excited about. It's looking to be a great rest of the year and 2018 is going to be very special for Stage 9.

As I said earlier, Nate and I took a trip to Chicago. I've includes pictures from the trip. We took Amtrak from Hutchinson and flew home on Southwest. It was a short trip but we accomplished a lot. We visited Navy Pier, took a ride on a speedboat, visited the Alder Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, John Hancock Tower Observatory and the Art Institute of Chicago and finally took in a performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Playing Brahms' Symphony 3 and 4) and The Blue Man Group. We also got to visit with Katie and Andrew pre-Theo at a cute restaurant near their neighborhood.