Where was I?

The show was great & it was encouraging for me to be back involved with local theater & all the wonderful people there. I'll say more on that tomorrow.

I'm also glad my stealth sinus infection didn't kill me. Ditto.

Again with the late post

If I had my book drive hooked up, I'd find a picture to post, but these will have to do.

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My baby girl seeming to know I'm home & relaxed after play rehearsal; she wakes & gently fusses until I come to pick her up and give her some goodnight snuggles.

Bringing large boxes for the properties women to use in the spaghetti-throwing scene, and seeing their faces light up because one box worked for the catch & the other for the crash, and the director complimenting them on it.

Having Samantha offer to fix my hair tonight and watching her effortlessly turn my tangled curls into a poofy, 80s big-hair creation. (Love it!)

Seeing more old friends/acquaintances again in person & not just on FaceBook.

Being able to share food, band-aids, bobby pins, safety pins, make up, jewelry-- and lots of wise-acre remarks-- to help us get ready. It's the "community" in "community theater" that I need the most.

And IF

I tried blogging during the day, I might have something insightful to write.

Tired

Good day on the whole, even though I felt like I was chasing my fanny all day. MLB had a quick & satisfactory visit with his psychiatrist. First thing in the office & he wanted to be weighed & measured! (Just call him "Numbers.") He's up to 41 pounds & 45 inches, give or take. So he's growing OK for a kid on ADHD meds, and behavior is as good as it can get even in a non-ADHD kid, so we'll stay the course. Husband has sinus infection-- no surprise there. Wonder if my "allergy head" will succumb next. Fall Parent/Teacher conference went well; again, MLB is doing well in class & is making great progress on social & behavioral goals. I learned more about the AR Reading program & his goals; we also discussed maybe having his eating a satisfactory lunch tied into his behavioral rewards. At tech rehearsal, again there was ego & drama, but no one was killed or maimed, we all wore costumes, we found a few more lines & put them in the right order (they found us a great dinette set,) and we might get our pictures in the paper this Thursday. We'll see. Oh, and DLG didn't climb anything today

Over & out.

Ah, the DRAMA!

As far as first tech runs, it didn't blow big chunks tonight. Nobody fell off the stage. No set or technical pieces collapsed. In regards to those items, Karl built a Bee-U-Tee-Fulll set!!!! I was speechless. I know he'd been working on it by himself in between scenes (he's one of the "Gazpacho Brothers",) but from the mock-up we'd been using in our rehearsal space, I never expected THAT. Wow! Just Wow!

We also got all of our lines in, just not in the exact order. Don't know why that was. One thing is there was still "drama" between one actress and her displeasure with the fill-in costumer's idea of her costumes. Other was the realization that, no, the understudy was NOT taking over the lead role--- the lead actress thought she'd communicated that she was missing just that one more rehearsal, but that the understudy needed to be prepared. If you must know, one lead actress & one director are former spouses. That might just clarify how the misunderstanding happened in the first place.

On the Home Front--- my daughter is climbing EVERYTHING! Until this weekend, she specialized in beds, chairs of all kinds & tables (with chair assist as needed.) She has now branched out to her small bookcase, a small table that helped her climb to the top of her chest of drawers so she could play with the things we've kept up there and a decorative cross hanging on her wall that she thought made a good hammer, the changing table we've been using to store her toys, and over the side of the playpen we'd been using to keep her from climbing over everything. The bookshelf & table have been removed from her room, and the rocking chair might be the next to go. The playpen will be throughly cleaned & used only as a travel bed. We will have my mom bring the toddler-bed conversion rail over before DLG tries parkour with her crib.

A straight-jacket for one of us may be an option.

Do they let you pre-register at the Pediatric ER like you do for Labor & Delivery, because it's only a matter of "when."

Excited

I should exhausted, but I'm merely sleepy. I spent half of today in my car, dropping off recyclable& household hazardous waste, buying a few more last-minute supplies for the play, storing boxes of books and kid clothes at my parents' basement. On top of the usual weekend chore-catch-up.

But we move the play into the VBC Playhouse tomorrow! I've been picturing my station in the dressing room for days now. I try to get the same one every show-- back wall, 3rd from the front. It was the first station I was assigned to for my first Huntsville production. Yep, we actors get to be habitual creatures, if not out-right superstitious. I can even see my things spread out at my station.

This play is really going to happen!!!!!! Friday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. is Theatre Huntsville's opening night for Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple: Female Version."

Two more weeks of living another life, and then is back to the reality of the up-coming holidays & all that "fa-la-la-la-la."

Must I?

Blog tonight?

Thought I'd try going to sleep before tomorrow for once.

It's been better.

Rehearsals, we've had better. I'll allow that it was a "lame-duck" sort of rehearsal, our last one in the Plummer Road rehearsal space. But on top of that, we had to switch out lead actresses. The dear lady playing "Olive" had to all but bow-out; her father has end-stage cancer. It could be mere days, may God bring His peace to her & her family. Now the understudy has the role for all but maybe one performance if the first woman feels up to it. Another woman, within days of celebrating her 60th birthday, got let go from her job today-- a job she loved & just recently received an award in. The male cast members and one director were thinking more about what it's going to take to load up the set, move it to the VBC Playhouse and set it up. The other director was bell happy, ringing the "practical" doorbell & phone as often as he could, sometimes early & sometimes inappropriately. We were all trying to assemble 1980-ish costumes at the last minute, and some of the selections the producer recommended to yet another actress highly disappointed her.

Yes, obviously, the energy & sparkle weren't there. We've been at this for two months now (three if you count auditioning in August & getting our scripts then.) We might be overly familiar with Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple: Female Version," but we're not lock-tight with it either.

We move into the Playhouse this weekend, and the the real fun begins. Tech week is also called "Hell Week." We'll have the whole set up (and we're promised doors that don't fight with us... I'm going to miss that running gag.), we'll have to find our props and not trip over or break the set dressing pieces. We'll have to get used to having lighting & sound cues ironed out. There's finding our way on stage in the dark. Projection (not that we could ever be too loud.) Hair, make-up & costumes.

Ugh! I guess if I'm going to survive the next two weeks, I'd better stop blogging late at night & instead get some rest.

I love it.

Wouldn't want it any other way.

No. No.

Not ready to metaphorically hemorrhage all over this blog about my four-month absence. Although to follow the conceit, it's self-inflicted.

The Facebook/Zynga crack isn't helping.

Day 3, check.

Maybe tomorrow.

And in other news,

I voted today.

THAT, actually, is something I firmly believe in. I think I've only missed the chance to vote twice.

The first time was an Auburn city-wide election that I was eligible to vote in, as that I lived off-campus. I was scheduled to work almost the balance of the day, so I figured that it wasn't worth my effort to go vote. But it was. One of the referendums was a measure to reduce the amount of influence students could have on metropolitan governance-- like limiting their ability to vote in municipal elections. Yep, it was summertime, and the passin' was easy. My lonely little vote would not have turned the tide, but it would have given me the permission to complain. I vowed to never miss another ballot.

But I did miss a run-off here when MLB was still a babe-in-arms and we'd been doing a lot of stuff getting his cleft repaired. I was just wore out and I think we were all sick. I forgave myself, and luckily for my conscience, the candidate I would have voted for handily won.

Nowadays, we always go to the polls with MLB; the numbers on the voting machines charmed him from about age two, and since we go at least one a year, he and his enthusiasm have become well known to the poll-workers. Indeed, we can't vote without him.

I like that sort of civic-enchantment in an American.

(Yes, yes, I KNOW I owe y'all an explanation, but rehearsal ran rather late, and I drank a lake's worth of diet cola. Soon. Really.)

Errm....

Huh?

NaMoBloPo-Pop, blah-blah?

Qu'est ca?

Maybe.