The Great Hunter and I haven’t been doing much lately in the way of making a dent in our Mondays list. We found a while back that quite a few places weren’t open on Mondays, so our Mondays often turned into Tuesdays.

But the problem with Tuesdays is the Great Hunter is very much a creature of habit. For him, Tuesdays are laundry days. I don’t remember when he took over doing the laundry, but I’ve never complained. He didn’t like my idea that clothes that needed folding was done while watching television in the evening. His idea is each load is put away as soon as it’s finished. He hangs up my tee shirts; I take them off the hangers, fold them up and put them in my drawers. He folds my jeans; I refold them so the cuffs aren’t all crooked. And don’t get me started on what he does to a fitted bed sheet. Lol.

So we haven’t done much in the way of paring down the list that’s been on my dry erase board since we started our Monday excursions in the fall of 2019. I hope now that the weather is getting nicer, we can get back to spending some quality time with each other instead of him in his mancave watching Youtube videos on how to build a rustic cabin in the woods he doesn’t own and me in the living room watching, well, whatever happens to be my current flavor of the day.

We’ve still managed to stay busy though. This last weekend wrapped up the 42nd “almost-annual” Melodrama presentation at my church, Our Savior Lutheran. I say “almost-annual” because, in 2020, we were four days away from opening night when we were shut down, like most of the world, due to the pandemic.

What is a Melodrama? The Oxford Dictionary defines Melodrama as:

a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions

I’m not sure any of those words pertain to the plays that we put on except for the exaggerated characters. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any “exciting events” that would appeal to the emotions or “sensational drama”. Mostly, it’s corny humor with a lot of ad-libbing and missed lines; a lot of laughs, a lot of work, but a lot of fun. All the money raised benefit our youth groups and provide funds for them to attend the annual youth gathering.

This was my 11th year appearing in the Melodrama. Over the years, I played a variety of parts, from bit parts to starring roles. But regardless of what the part was, it was always a lot of fun.

2007 Trouble in Tumbleweed

2008 Who Put the Overalls in Mrs’ Murphy’s Chowder

2009 Veggie Villian…or He Had a Steak in It

2010 Dogsbreath Deveraux

2011 Heaven Help the Po-Taters

2012 Bulldog Saves the Day…or I was the Teacher’s Pitt

2013 Sundown Alley

And, a practice night wedding proposal…

2014 Brother’s O’Toole

And after a five-year hiatus, I was back.

2019 (And I don’t know the name of the play)

2020 The Year Pandemic Cancelled the Play

2022 Mission Possible

And now that the Melodrama’s over and my son’s cross-country move from Virginia to St. Louis is almost completed, maybe we can cross some of those other destinations off the Mondays list.