Mother of Seven

At long last (long being just over 24 hours), the waiting is over. I am ecstatic and honored to have been cast as a pragmatic mother of seven. I am pausing right now in my writing to look up the word pragmatic.

pragmatic
adjective
1. concerned with practical matters; "a matter-of-fact (or pragmatic) approach to the problem"; "a matter-of-fact account of the trip" [syn: matter-of-fact]

Also:

2. Archaic
Active; busy.
Active in an officious or meddlesome way.
Dogmatic; dictatorial.

If allowed, I will go with definition 1 as I long for the children and the audience to ADORE me.

Yesterday, as previously mentioned , I tracked down the director's blog like some kind of insane stalker. She had noted that the casting was complete and added that she was heartbroken because "there was one talented young actress I tried to fit in and it just didn't work." I read that sentence and felt a sensation not unlike that of being punched in the gut, only it settled more in my teeth for some reason. Because my vanity demands that everything be somehow related to ME, I assumed that I was the "talented young actress" who would not be cast in the show. And as the minutes, and then hours, ticked on, I became increasingly certain of this fact. Of course, there was the word "young" that really should have silenced my screaming ego; that and the fact that in a play involving a cast of 16 or so children, it's possible that the children might actually be the ones referred to as young. But it was nice to console myself with the idea that if in fact those words had been written about me, I could rest easier knowing that the director found me both talented and young.

At about 9:30 that night, I looked at my cell phone. I hadn't heard it ring, though I had been checking it about every 5 minutes since leaving the callback the night before. It announced to me in glowing digital spledor that I had Voicemail. The message was that of the sweetest variety...a lovely woman spoke the glorious words: "....we'd like to offer you the part of Aleena..." I called back immediately to accept the role.