Hello, Miss Cleo?

When I was 16 I visited a psychic.

Now I'm the first person to tell you that most psychics are full of shit. I think they pick up on cues from their subjects and determine what information the subject would like to hear. This was not the case with Barbara, the woman I saw 14 years ago.

Here's how it went down:

I went to my then piano teacher's house. She was friends with Barbara and was hosting what I guess you could call a psychic party. We all had our appointments with Barbara scheduled and would hang out at the piano teacher's house whilst awaiting our turn.

When it was my turn, I walked into the room where Barbara was giving her readings. To my surprise, she was a normal looking lady. Probably in her 30's, blond (but not un-naturally so), slight build, really friendly.

We sat down at a table, Barbara pressed "record" on her tape recorder (the tape of the session was mine to take with me), took my hands in hers, and started talking to me. The entire first part of the reading was Barbara telling me about me. I said nothing, she did all the talking. Keep in mind, she knew nothing about me. I was at a piano studio that didn't offer voice lessons so she had no reason to know that I was a singer who loved performing in musicals (also note: I wasn't wearing anything that would give that away).

The second part of the reading was question and answer time. I had a bunch of stupid questions (I was only 16) about my immediate future. Over the next several months, all of her answers proved correct.

Here are some interesting, long term predictions she revealed in that session:

I would have 2 opportunities to marry very young. If I took these opportunities, I would have multiple marriages as I wasn't going to marry my forever-husband until my late 20's. (This was totally accurate)

I would have a successful corporate career. I wouldn't be the "head honcho", but I would be pretty high up on the food chain. (also totally accurate)

As I'm sitting here, "enjoying" my successful corporate career, I can't help but think of something else she said:

Even though I would have a successful corporate career, I would still be surrounded by theater. At some point, I would give up the corporate life to pursue theater exclusively.

This has been nagging at me a lot lately. It's a dream of mine to start a small theater company and produce musicals (some plays, too). The mission statement of my company would be to cast based on talent alone. Look would not be important. Not only is this an issue near and dear to my heart, but how often do you see a musical where someone "looks the part" but has no talent? Conversely, how often do you "forgive" a performer for not looking the part when they're super talented? In my experience, I've ALWAYS been forgiven my look (when given the opportunity) because of my talent.

Bottom Line: Audiences forgive me for being fat because I'm talented. Directors/producers never do and I want to change that (for myself and others like me) by becoming the producer.

There are a lot of talented people who aren't always working. I'd love to cast them in the shows I produce. Unfortunately, I can't imagine how this last "prediction" would ever come true.

Maybe I need to find Barbara for a follow up reading.