Exotic is as Exotic Does

This was from my cousin, who I recently moved in with, but haven't seen more than twenty minutes at a time since the move, since I've been back and forth so much:

"I want to hear all about how the show is going, and get information about how to get tickets. I've been telling many friends about it, and they think it's incredibly cool and exotic that I live with (and am related to) an actual practicing artist who travels the country directing performances -- and some of them may want to take a road trip to WV to see it."

It is good to hear things like that every once in a while. A reminder that, yes, however impractical and unrealistic it is to be pursuing a career as a theater artist, it is, in fact, "cool and exotic" in its own way.

It is not, however, cool when one is struggling each month to make rent.

I, on the other hand, think it is amazingly cool that my cousin has two ivy league degrees, is working to better the human condition all over the planet, has lived on her own in places like Argentina and Mexico City, speaks several languages, and reads both the Financial Times and US magazine daily.

She rocks.