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Tommy Hensel

Sparkling Isolation – Day 131

July 27, 2020 //  by Tommy Hensel//  Leave a Comment

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I don’t have a thing to wear.

The struggle is real. I have plenty of clothes, but every day I struggle with the thought, “Why bother?” The only thing that seems to keep me wearing decent clothes is the fact that I have seemingly-endless online meetings.

Of course, that means that most of the time the only thing I worry about is my shirt. I can honestly say that I have not gone pantsless during any meetings – at least I am always wearing pants. What I realize, however, is that I wear the same three or four pair of pants over and over.

I have three pair of jeans and three different colors of shorts. In the past 131 days of quarantine, the only times I have not worn one of those six pair of pants have been three rare occasions where I knew I wear going out to a decent restaurant and wanted to feel slightly more dressed up.

As for tops, most days I just grab the t-shirt that is the closest to the front of my drawer and I tend to wear the same t-shirt for several days in a row before I realize it probably should go into the basket for laundry – or until I spill something on it. For most meetings, I will run into my bedroom and throw on a nice shirt and then swap back to the t-shirt as soon as I’m not on video any longer.

Shoes? Two pair have served me for the majority of this quarantine since I am mostly barefoot at home. I think I wore another pair once – maybe. I don’t recall. Once, I actually wore a nice blue jacket – to dress up the jeans I was wearing – to go out for dinner. That was my one-and-only ‘dress up’ moment since early March.

I do not have a washer/dryer in my apartment, so I have to rely on laundromats for doing my clothes. In the 131 days of quarantine, I have dropped off clothes at a local laundromat six times – and that was largely because I needed to wash sheets and underwear. Doing the math, that means that I don’t go through enough clothes to warrant taking them to a laundromat except every three weeks or so.

I don’t know if there’s a point to this laundry list of items (yes – pun intended). Perhaps the point is that I am depressed by the fact that I don’t have any reason to care about how I look lately. I have some gorgeous suits and beautiful ties and dress shoes. What’s the point? They are just hanging there waiting for something – I’m not sure what.

 I am not renowned for my patience. Waiting, especially for something utterly unknown, is not something that makes me happy.

Still, here I sit not-so-patiently waiting. Waiting.

It’s only Quarantine if it comes from the Quarante province of France. Otherwise, it’s just Sparkling Isolation.

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Category: ThoughtsTag: Sparkling Isolation

About Tommy Hensel

Tommy Hensel is the Director of the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Moraine Valley Community College (www.morainevalley.edu/fpac), a position he has held since January 2008. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, he has worked for more than 35 years as a professional actor, singer, stage manager, director, and arts presenter. He holds a B.A. in music and a B.A. in communication from Florida State University and an M.A. in theater from the University of South Carolina. He currently serves as Chair of the Illinois Presenters Network and is a board member of NAPAMA. He served as co-chair of the 2018 Arts Midwest Conference and currently sits on the professional development committees of both NAPAMA and Arts Midwest.

Prior to his move to Chicago, Tommy was an 11-year resident of the Seacoast region of New Hampshire where he served as Executive Director of the Rochester Opera House and sat on several non-profit arts boards. He has served on grant review panels for the New England Foundation for the Arts, New Hampshire Arts Council, Vermont Arts Council, and Illinois Arts Council. During his years as an arts presenter, he has also served on the juried showcase panels for the Arts Midwest Conference and Performing Arts Exchange.

Among his many theater credits, Hensel was the founding artistic director of the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival (now part of the Gamut Theatre Group in PA). He has over 50 professional directing credits to his name and an extensive resumé as a theatrical performer and cabaret singer. In Chicago, he has a side "gig" as a restaurant reviewer for The Local Tourist website (http://chicago.thelocaltourist.com) and blogs about travel and food at https://www.tableforoneplease.com.

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