Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

I know I said I would post at least twice a week, however, last week was the first week of class, and so that doesn't count.  Why?  It just does.  This week doesn't look like it will be any better, so I will ramble about something fun, since my last two posts were long and huge downers.

I started kindergarten when I was four, because my birthday was three days before the cutoff to start school.  I should have been the youngest person in my class, but two other kids entered early, so I was the third youngest person.  That's neither here nor there, I'm just throwing that out there.  Anyway, in my school kindergarten was half day, and you were either half day morning, or half day afternoon.  I was half day morning, and when I got off of the bus, it was my mom's custom to have beefaroni or soup or something else hot and fast ready for me.  She would set up TV trays in front of the TV in the living room, and we would eat lunch while we watched Sesame Street.  I loved that damn show.  Part of my love for that show is the warm memory I have of the time my mom and I shared together, but it was also just how damn awesome the Muppets were in general.

On Sunday nights, it was a big treat for my brother and me to stay up and watch the Muppet Show.  So much of what went on on The Muppet Show went flying over my head at supersonic speeds, but I loved it all the same.  I watched every Muppet movie that came out.

I eventually stopped watching Sesame Street, and The Muppet Show went off the air, and I continued growing up.

When I got a little older, say middle school or early high school age, I began watching Sesame Street again and a cable channel, perhaps Nickelodeon, started re-running The Muppet Show, and I fell in love all over again.  It was like rediscovering your favorite restaurant, or the place where your husband proposed, or reconnecting with your best friend.  I decided right then and there that I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life - I wanted to be a Muppeteer.

Now, this wasn't a huge stretch for me, because I had been making videos with the family video camera for years, always improvised, and I loved performing.  I got involved with theatre and choir in high school and I figured that I was destined for greatness.  I somehow got it in my head that I had to go to Julliard in order to realize my dream, and so, one day, when I realized that I would have to audition in order to attend, my lack of self-confidence reared its ugly head, and I gave up my dream.

My love of the Muppets never really went away, though, and to this day, if I could stroll down Sesame Street and meet some Muppets, I could die the next day a happy woman.

Thank you, all of the people who made Sesame Street and the Muppet Show possible.  Thank you Jim Henson, and I wish you would have gone to the doctor and gotten treatment, instead of dying.  The world is not quite the same without you.

Recommended listening: It's Not That Easy Being Green, Kermit the Frog version of course!