This is one of my all-time favorite words. It's Hebrew and roughly means: chaos; a disaster; a mess; disorder; untidiness.

I heard it a lot when I was a kid in Israel. Mostly from my Israeli Aunt Ann. Her son Ron and I would have epic wrestling matches that destroyed her living room. She'd storm in and say, "Look at this balagan! Clean this up now, or so help me..." Then she'd rant incoherently in Hebrew or Arabic - whichever had the tastiest cuss words.

Work's been really tough lately. I've spent so much time having to deal with things that don't put on shows, put butts in seats, and put dollars in the account. I just got 8 new Board members. And now I have a contract negotiation with the stagehands union coming up. It's a balagan.

I feel like I've been slipping in other responsibilities due to the balagan at work. And that makes other balagans. Now we have balagans begetting balagans. And that's a balagan too.

I've lost 32 lbs. That's good. I'm really healthy now. But my brain is trying to go back to old behavior of self-medication with burgers and fries. But my body doesn't want that anymore. So I'm not eating it, but I'm hungry. Balagan.

I'm trying to finish my Masters of Divinity. I had planned to graduate in May. But now the possibility of graduating in December has been dangled in front of me. It will require the alignment of a lot of things out of my control. But now I'm all harried and in knots about that. Balagan.

My dogs are dumb. Balagan.

See, none of this is overly serious or life-threatening. That's why it's not scary or dangerous; It's just a mess. A balagan. I don't need CPR, I just need a broom and a nap.

And now I've taught you all a new word. You're welcome.