Ladies and gentleman, cats, dogs, gnomes, boggarts, Mad Hatters, poppets... This is my 100th blog!!!!!!!!!!!!! Golly gee. (You must be joshin'!)
I have hit that benchmark, if I were a sitcom I would be almost certainly guaranteed syndication.
In the past 99...
I have shared my path through grief, returning to musical theatre, my flossing and "poppet" obsessions, my passions, fears, hopes, mission statements, and joys.
I grew up in a family where my Dad was in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and my Mom was in Al-Anon (spouses of alcoholics) and those teachings helped shape me, they were a part of my heritage. One portion of the meetings is "sharing your story". You are to tell your journey, warts and all. I never knew how much that particular concept affected me until I started writing my musings.
These writings have aided in flaming the passion of writing songs, short stories, and novels, all of which are works in progress and I hope some of them shall debut later this year.
As a child, both of my parents taught us to love language, to speak and write properly, and to fashion our "voice", whatever that may be. I am more grateful to them than I could ever note. I love words, phrases, verbs, imagery, metaphors, alliteration, the ebb and flow of rhythmic passages, the yearning to write that one sentence that lets the world know who you are in that instance, thus encapsulating it in its own little word time capsule.
Making myself write these entries, ones in my personal journal, and writing stories, songs, etc. has aided in the metamorphosis from daydreamer to storyteller. Oh, I still daydream the most pleasantly odd situations, but now I run to the laptop or the paper and pen and jot these thoughts, these parts of me that derive from a place beyond this plane of existence, this place I cannot describe, but that I fervently know exists. Then, I invite you to read these stories in the hopes it will make you giggle, make you think, make you do what you need to do in that particular moment.
I am glad to say that after these 99, I am happy once more. I love my new house, my children's theatre gig, my burgeoning tales, my "sexifying" (Refer to Operation: Sexify blog), discovering my voice in this medium, and (after years of analysis, voice lessons, conservatory, singing in the shower, etc.) feeling as though I have tapped into my "real" singing voice and am as emotionally transparent as I know how to be... It is so much DAMN fun! Finally, the clouds have subsided and I feel like ME again.
I cannot tell you how ALIVE and FREE I feel. I am a child in the sandbox and want to invite you all to play with me. Please do so at your leisure for it is an open invitation.
I promise to get back to writing about the topics I mentioned a few blogs back. I merely wanted to pay homage to the past 99.
In AA meetings when a person speaks, he or she will start by saying his/her name and that he/she is an alcoholic. I wanted to do my own version in tribute to my Father and all the people whom he helped become sober and begin anew. I am about to come out of another closet. Wow, I thought those days were behind me... Here goes:
"Hi, my name is Dustin...
(This is where you say, "Hi Dustin." .... Did you say it? Come on...) :-)
"And I am a storyteller."
Dustin Ashley Beam, Ash'e, Ash, Dashley, The DASH, DAB, etc.
P.S. I am including several pictures from the show in which I am currently performing, a fun one of me with a pal in a Martini bar (I am swankified, I am),and one from "Dress in Pink for Mandi's Mom Having Surgery" Day (I am happy to report Mandi's Mother is doing well.) I love my character, Billy Bob Johnson, more every show. He is a passionate and refreshing little oddball. He is one of my gems and I am grateful to have made his acquaintance.
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