But I'm not ready!

TW pointed out to me last night that my show opens just 2 weeks from tomorrow! ACK! I am so not ready! I've got 2 scenes where I definitely do not have my lines memorized yet (TW has promised to help me run lines this weekend - so much for a relaxing weekend at the cabin). Worse, I'm still learning nearly all the music, and we have one number we haven't even gone over yet. Yike!

We had our first of only 2 choreography rehearsals earlier this week. Straightforward stuff, fortunately, and easy to memorize.

I realize I've been very spoiled with the musicals and operettas I've done up to now. This is the first musical I've done where our "accompanist" was a CD, not a human. I have to completely relearn how to learn my music, since it's often hard to hear my musical cue in the accompaniment. Complicating things is the fact that the stressed syllables of words often do not fall on the downbeat and much of the music is irregularly syncopated, making it very tricky in places to get the timing right.

If I feel under-rehearsed, I'm sure that's due in no small part to the fact that our rehearsals have been scheduled for only 2 hours instead of the 3 I'm used to. You can't cover nearly as much material if you don't have that 3rd hour, but our director has tried very hard to make sure the middle- and high-schoolers in the cast aren't up too late on a school night, so we've been stopping at 9 p.m. Now, though, we work until we get as far as we need to, and we may well lay on another rehearsal. Not that I want to give up a Sunday (I've loved having no weekend rehearsals for this show), but boy, do I need more rehearsal time!

I suspect I'm not the only one who feels that way, too. Some of us have some dance background, some don't, but the music is presenting particular challenges. Not only is it hard to learn, but several people have expressed their frustration that they don't read music, aren't used to singing harmony rather than melody, etc. This has sometimes meant spending 10 minutes or more on a single, tricky phrase, which means we haven't gotten nearly as far as I'd like. (Yeah, I know; I gotta quit being such a nervous nelly and learn the stuff, already.)

OK, enough whingeing; back to learning my lines & music.

This T-shirt made me chuckle.

While waiting for my train this afternoon, I was passed by someone wearing a T-shirt that read "Jesus hates the Yankees". When I chuckled, he smiled and said "Right?" Must be a Boston fan...

This is gonna be fun!

Met this morning w/ the woman teaching next month's cabaret workshop so she could vet my choices for a ballad & up tempo. She OK'ed my choice of Distract Me from Wooing the Lorelei for my up tempo. This is very cool, as I'll be singing an original piece, probably with the songwriter herself sitting in the audience!

I like this woman - for all that I walked in on a Saturday morning, recovering from a migraine and with my voice still sound asleep, she ran me through a few warm-ups and commented on how she liked my voice.

The friend who told me about the cabaret workshop takes voice lessons from this woman and has proposed that she & I work w/ her to find 2 guys and put together a modest production of Jacques Brel is Alive & Well & Living in Paris, or at least selections from same. With the Fringe production, recital and cabaret looming large, I haven't had time to think about it for at least a month, but now that I've met w/ L and gotten to play cabaret a teeny tiny bit, I'm getting excited about this project again.

A little thing, I know...

... but still. I contacted customer service for the rental car company I used on last month's business trip to find out when my rental would be credited. The woman responded using the title "Mr". Um, no; check out my profile and you'll see that my first name is not one I've ever heard of used as a boy's name, isn't an either/or name (e.g, Chris), nor is it one like Ashley that used to be a man's name (think Ashley Wilks in Gone With the Wind).

When I responded with a follow-up question, it took her a full week to get back to me. Again addressing me as "Mr". Methinks their customer service rep training program could do with a little work.

Does anyone train these guys?!?

A week ago Friday we had a security system installed. The installer had some problems (the phone line he was hooking it into was the old-fashioned kind, where the phone company used to have to send someone out to physically attach a phone to the wiring) and the job ended up taking nearly4 1/2 hours - completely wiped out my Friday night! We then had to have him come back because the air conditioner was no longer kicking in - seems he'd stapled through the thermostat wiring. Oh, and he'd left one of his tools behind, while forgetting to leave any of the "protected by" stickers he was supposed to give us.

Today TW was at the cabin to let in the installer for that security system. (We'd had some pilferage out there.) He first called me when the guy had been there a good 4 hours to tell me how bad a job the installer was doing. First he had to cut the wiring a couple of times because he kept getting it too short, then he ended up cutting the phone line, which we'd just had installed a week ago! =:o TW wanted me to talk to the guy who'd written up the order and express our, oh, "dissatisfaction", shall we say. I outlined the problems we'd now had with two of the company's installers - jobs that should have taken no more than 3 hours for both (according to what the first installer told me) were taking at least 3 times that because the guys couldn't seem to get it right the first time. If we'd had to take time off for work for this, it would have been at least one full day, possibly two. The promotional guy had suggested giving the installer a tip because he'd be spending so much time in transit instead of on a job; I think you can imagine how much of a tip that guy's going to be getting...

Another victim of the economy? Sniff...

Yesterday my long-suffering husband allowed me to drag him to the new location of the local fabric mecca. What a shock! The new location has barely 1/3 the sales space of the old one, the notions department (ribbon, trim, buttons, other findings, etc.) was much smaller than in the old location, the selection wasn't nearly as nice or as well displayed. Given the reduced sales space, they had to display less; I wouldn't want to see them return to the model of their original location, which was so crammed with goodies you couldn't see half of them, and you could barely move. The less-appealing displays are probably (I hope!) due to the fact that they only just moved - they only reopened Thursday. Still, it was disappointing and very sad to see an old friend in reduced circumstances.

And the Chief had a disappointment when we then proceeded to his preferred home improvement store. The staff at this one was really bad - the ones near the check-out were copping an attitude with each other, it was hard to get their attention to get some assistance, and then they had to hunt to find someone who knew how to get the Chief his military discount.

So much for boot camp

Well, the Chief is sending his home improvement bootcamp Recruit home 3 weeks early. The plan called for a LOT of sanding and painting of the cabin's deck and other exterior surfaces, and with no more than 2 non-rainy days in a row since the Recruit arrived and the same forecast for at least another week and a half, the Chief reluctantly decided to throw in the towel. Tomorrow morning they'll be at the airport almost before the sun is up, and by early tomorrow afternoon, the Recruit will be back in the bosom of his loving family.

While they weren't able to do any painting, they did get a bed or two built on the slope alongside the addition. The Chief was pleased with his Recruit's work, so I'm looking forward to seeing it and installing some hellebores and ferns. I'll have to post pictures (if I can get the computer to acknowledge my camera).

Not such a bad weekend after all.

No, the roofer still hasn't called, and it absolutely POURED earlier tonight - flooding streets and flinging a few smallish hailstones, just for fun. The leak hasn't reappeared yet, but given the forecast - more rain the next coupla days - I figure it's only a matter of time.

The weekend wasn't a total waste despite not getting out to the cabin. I spent Friday night getting an alarm system installed (or reinstalled; another company took over from the one who did our original installation). Took 5 hours, mostly because the tech had so much trouble getting the wiring right. Ah, the joys of owning an older home.

Saturday, however, in addition to getting a few things done around the house, I actually got to have some fun - a friend and a cabaret performance downtown that I was actually able to attend because I wasn't at the cabin. Sunday evening I went to a G&S "cabaret" and ended up sitting w/ a friend and her friend. In fact, I was teasing her about packing the house because two of the next few couples into the house were friends of hers. The music was fun, so was the company.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...

We've been getting rain, sometimes quite a lot of it, 3 or 4 days a week for at least 2 weeks now. It brought with it the usual woes - migraines and creaky joints - but the last straw for my tolerance was when I got home last night to find that the roof had sprung a leak. And then found another leak this afternoon. Because of all the rain, our roofer's phone started ringing off the hook about a week ago, so as I told him when I called this morning, I wasn't expecting immediate service. No, I just hoped my position on his waiting list wasn't too far back.

The one ray of hope to which I cling is that he only lives a few blocks away; maybe he'll be able to swing by on the way to or from one of the customers further up the list.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that I had been planning to go out to the cabin for the weekend. Instead, I find myself sitting by the phone, waiting for a man to call. Haven't done that since the last time the Chief was deployed. :D

Still crazy

... and getting crazier. Tonight is my only night this week to get my stuff together to go out to the cabin this weekend. So what have I been doing? Wasting my time on the computer since dinner, instead of doing laundry, getting the recycling out to the bin, collecting the stuff to go to the cabin, paying bills...

Another crazy theater weekend

Got home from my conference, stopped at the grocery store on the way home from the airport, had about an hour to put away groceries and get ready to go right out again to work "box office" for a nearby community production of Measure for Measure. Nicely done, and the woman playing Isabel was wonderful - gave a moving performance.

Today it's off to see Man of La Mancha, done by a company that tends to do a good job in its small space. I've done a number of shows with the guy playing Don Quixote; I imagine they cast him as soon as he opened his mouth at auditions.

And I just reserved my ticket for a G&S "cabaret" next Sunday. Busy, busy, busy.

Weekend house party (or should that be "cabin party"?)

We had 2 couples join us at the cabin this weekend. We know 3 of the 4 people through theater, and enjoyed meeting B's wife, a bibliophile who was happy to answer all our questions about her Kindle. I've decided the best thing about a "house party" like this is that you can have nice, long uninterrupted chunks of time with your friends instead of chopped-up conversations - 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there. It was very gratifying to see the relaxed smiles on people's faces, hear them comment on how well they slept or how nice it was to be able to linger over dinner.

The Chief & I have sort of settled into a division of labor for these things - no matter which of us cooks (usually me, though he usually helps), he usually insists on doing the dishes while making coffee for those who want it. He loves playing host and I enjoy feeding people (having grown up in a big family, I loved having up to 7 of us around the table), so it works out well.

We didn't get fancy with the menu because I wanted to spend my time visiting, not cooking, but we didn't need fancy to have a good time. We're already talking about when we can do this again.

Smiley face

My sister forwarded this. The original offered it as a reason to do a full, 360-degree check in front of a mirror before leaving the house. Me, I'm more old-fashioned - a slip would have the added advantage of making the skirt hang better.

Recruit has arrived

My nephew arrived without incident and is now safely ensconced out at the cabin with the Chief, resting up for what my sister has dubbed "Home Improvement Bootcamp". The poor Recruit doesn't know what the Chief has in store for him, but he'll find out first thing in the morning. I wonder which project will come first on the list...?

Amazing!

This fossil, named "Ida" (pronounced EE-da), is amazing for its completeness! Not only a 95%-complete skeleton from a period when paleontologists get excited about finding more than 1 or 2 bones, but skin, fur, and stomach contents. I think the media description of her as a "missing link" is sensationalist hyperbole, but it really is an incredible find. Cool stuff!

More Ida info:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0521/1224247034331.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/19/ida-fossil-evolution

On the lighter side, see what abovetopsecret.com has to say on the matter:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread465091/pg1

And here's an a propos variation on the Google logo I got from a friend's blog:

Nice little surprise

They announced by e-mail this afternoon that they're letting us all take off 4 hours early come Friday! Hooray for starting my 3-day weekend at the cabin that much sooner, and maybe beating the worst of the get-away traffic! The Chief will be happy, too, because it means I'll be able to give him that much more help getting things ready for our weekend visitors.

More plants

The Chief and I spent the weekend at the cabin, starting to gear up for the company who'll be spending Memorial Day weekend with us there. In addition to decluttering, hanging pictures (how long ago did those picture rails go up in the new bedroom?!?) and running errands, we managed a trip to the neighborhood nursery. We were loading our buckets of compost, 2 ferns and 1 bleeding heart into the car when I saw something I wasn't sure I recognized and asked about it. Turns out I had spotted a very healthy section of hellebores, which they've just started selling. We ended up adding 3 of them to our haul. Because they're still a year away from blooming (seems they don't bloom until their 3rd year), we won't know until early next spring what colors we just bought. The Chief now has another project for my nephew to help with - a bed near the cabin's front door where we'll plant those hellebores. They assured us the deer won't eat them because they're poisonous, and they spread if the conditions are amenable, so I'm hoping our 3 little hellebores will become a nice, lush bed of them in a few years. Probably not as nice as in the picture, but we can dream...

Great weekend!

Just got back from a long weekend watching a good friend graduate. I'm so impressed by her accomplishment - single mother of many, working full time, yet she still managed to get her Bachelor's. As she put it, "It took me 31 years, but I did it!" Needless to say, those of us in her "cheering section" did our best to make ourselves heard when her name was announced and she walked across that stage for her hard-won diploma.

I'm so glad I decided to stay the extra day, as it gave us some time after Saturday's whirlwind of activities to have a satisfying chat and get caught up. Even better was the fact that my maid of honor not only managed to make it, but surprised us by bringing her parents! She had both the graduate and me getting a bit misty-eyed - what a lovely surprise! The three of us managed to do a surprising amount of catching up in the short 24 hours she was in town, and she shared my hotel room the one night she was in, which gave us that much more time to visit. The 3 of us are already talking about getting together for a "girls' weekend" at the cabin.

Yorkshire vacation!

Yesterday we bought our plane tickets and today we booked a B&B for a lovely week in Harrogate! We were able to find a fare that will run us at least $150 less per ticket than we thought we'd have to pay, and we'll be staying at very conveniently located B&B in this room. We'll be going in late October, so it'll be chilly and probably rainy but that's OK. I lived in Yorkshire for year (nearly 20 years ago!) so I know what I'm letting myself in for. We'll pack sweaters, rain gear and walking shoes and have ourselves a great time: introducing the Chief to my former landlady, taking one or both of them to Betty's tea room, exploring the local sights, perhaps touring a "stately home" or two - can't wait!

Pollen as bio-weapon

Saturday my allergies were so bad, I sat out that night's performance of Follies. I was in such bad shape (sneezing fits, eyes streaming, nose running, constant coughing) that I knew no one would want me anywhere near, let alone doing their make-up. I was so bad off, I was even getting an upset stomach, headache and sore throat.

Yesterday & today I'm still uncomfortable, but it's nothing like as bad as it was Saturday. According to the weather report on the news just now, that's because today's pollen count is 1730-ish, which is miserably high (the non-sensitive start feeling uncomfortable when it hits 200 or 250; those of us with allergies start feeling it when the count's at around 100 or lower). Saturday's count, however, was at 4539! When I was half-joking on Saturday that the count was in the Lethal range, I had no idea how close I was to the truth!

The news is full of swine flu symptoms - sneezing, coughing, itchy/runny eyes, sometimes diarrhea or vomiting. My first reaction was that it sounds indistinguishable from "pollen poisoning"!