Work/life balance. I love my job, I really do. But love it or not, I can't live and breathe it. Though we each have our thresholds, it's the rare well-adjusted person who doesn't need something else -- whatever that may be.

For me, it has to be something creative. My first major in college was theater, and I also took a stab at applying for MFA programs in creative writing (which led to a fiasco that I'll save for another time). If I don't have some form of acting or writing going on in my life, I end up moody and generally discombobulated.

I get in some writing when I can, and I've enrolled in a fiction writing workshop that starts in March. Maybe I'll make some progress on my library novel, tentatively titled Reference. (Don't laugh. Oh, who am I kidding? Laugh!)

The acting bug is biting, though, and I have yet to figure this one out. In a city teeming with (mostly out-of-work) actors, how do I casually pursue a role in a community production, the way I used to in Bloomington or Ann Arbor? And most of all, with a job that has me rotating through evening and weekend shifts, how do I make myself available for a demanding rehearsal schedule?

I don't have the answer, but then again, I haven't tried yet. I want to soon.

What's your secret to maintaining that work/life balance? What do you need in your life to stay on an even keel?

All work and no play makes Ken a dull boy. (Typing that into a blog instead of on a typewriter somehow causes it to lose its Shining-style creepiness!)