today was my first day off in 26.
of those 26, fewer than half a dozen were shorter than 12 hour work days.
of the same 26, more than a dozen (i'd guess) were 15 hour days....
yesterday, after four days of a four person crew working non stop on blue satin tailored jackets (and i mean tailored: horse hair canvas, pad stitching, roll lines, the whole enchilada); my crew and i learned what it feels like to have something cut between final dress and opening night ---the andrews sisters are wearing the red jackets from the previous production. i can't describe how sad erika and i were for our crew, or how loving and sad they were for us.
i left. i had to catch my breath. i drove 40 miles in two hours, down country roads and to lakes i'd never been to. i got stopped in a traffic jam while about thirty canada geese crossed the road (with one mallard at the rear). i went to the grocery store and bought hummus and chips for dinner. i kept driving.
i came back in time to take a brief nap before the show was over and the party started --i knew i couldn't go to the party, but i wanted to hang out with friends in other parts of the campus.... instead i slept for 14 hours.
now it's late, and i'm going to st. cloud tomorrow to pull for anne frank (and to go to the mall, i'm a little sense-deprived)...
but i wanted to let y'all know that i'm alive, and here's why: two nights ago i hung out with friends for the first time all summer at the end of the day. i've been working, sleeping, and getting up to do it again without even realizing the obvious reasons i'm sooo miserable. i hung out and had fun. then i came back to my room and used my fancy prismacolor markers to make the following to do list:
1. breathe
2. let go
3. be gracious
4. try
these are the only things i had to do yesterday, and on that count i think it was a fairly successful day inspite of being violently awful all around.
be in touch y'all.... hey, I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU! tonight i heard my first tornado!!! after three years in illinois, in the tornado belt or whatever, i saw the sky turn green and i heard "the distant rumble of a train"....it was our second tornado warning in two weeks (the first coming at second dress of hello dolly).... i was answering phones in the box office (yes, we're on, yes, we have power, drive safely, see you soon! yes, we're holding the house), making lobby announcements, helping the house manager tear tickets to fill the house faster, and finally pouring pitchers of ice water so that the cast would survive the show without a/c (which went out at the same time that 1/3 of the stage lights with a power outage....so we held the house while they checked and rigged each light cue).... very exciting.
also saw a bald eagle this week.... God is in the details.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Friday, June 10, 2005
on the 8th day there was internet
it's friday. i think. most of the week i've been a day ahead, and vastly relieved to find that i still have a day more than i think i do. right now it doesn't really matter, the feeling that we won't get it all done is so overwhelming i don't care what day it is.
HELLO DOLLY! opens tuesday. i've learned a lot, and am still learning...some of these lessons are good (you can do more than you think you can, you have the necessary skills to make up the ones you lack), and some of these lessons are...hard. i never want to design 4 shows in 10 weeks again. i can't believe i had to get here to realize how painful this would be. the worst part is, if i'm this tired now where will i be next week when we start the next one, or in three weeks for ANNE FRANK? it's horrifying.
the lake is beautiful. it hasn't been that cold. we've had two or three nights of the most amazing thunder storms i've ever experienced...long and loud, right on top of the house, you could almost feel the electricity in doors. the night before the big one, they had just put our dock into the lake (it's 3 feet wide and maybe 12 feet long, kind of like a board walk just above the water level) and lora and i sat on the dock as the storm blew in: not a sound or a smell except the wind and the water. i don't know how fast it was going but i wouldn't be surprised if it was 20 mph ...it was the feeling you get on the bow of a fast moving boat but no diesel smell or engine noise. or standing on a cliff in the wind, but the water was only 12" below where i was sitting. like being blown clean.
we had the first run through tonight, and it confirmed or answered more issues than it raised. which was basically to say that the list is still too long, but there were no huge surprises. i think that's all i have a right to expect right now.
be in touch, now the internet (and wireless! oh my!) is up and running. the cell works, but i'm running about 6-8 days behind on returning calls that aren't show related. i don't think it'll ever slow down, i'm not sure i'll have a day off all summer. not happy about that either...whatever.
peace
HELLO DOLLY! opens tuesday. i've learned a lot, and am still learning...some of these lessons are good (you can do more than you think you can, you have the necessary skills to make up the ones you lack), and some of these lessons are...hard. i never want to design 4 shows in 10 weeks again. i can't believe i had to get here to realize how painful this would be. the worst part is, if i'm this tired now where will i be next week when we start the next one, or in three weeks for ANNE FRANK? it's horrifying.
the lake is beautiful. it hasn't been that cold. we've had two or three nights of the most amazing thunder storms i've ever experienced...long and loud, right on top of the house, you could almost feel the electricity in doors. the night before the big one, they had just put our dock into the lake (it's 3 feet wide and maybe 12 feet long, kind of like a board walk just above the water level) and lora and i sat on the dock as the storm blew in: not a sound or a smell except the wind and the water. i don't know how fast it was going but i wouldn't be surprised if it was 20 mph ...it was the feeling you get on the bow of a fast moving boat but no diesel smell or engine noise. or standing on a cliff in the wind, but the water was only 12" below where i was sitting. like being blown clean.
we had the first run through tonight, and it confirmed or answered more issues than it raised. which was basically to say that the list is still too long, but there were no huge surprises. i think that's all i have a right to expect right now.
be in touch, now the internet (and wireless! oh my!) is up and running. the cell works, but i'm running about 6-8 days behind on returning calls that aren't show related. i don't think it'll ever slow down, i'm not sure i'll have a day off all summer. not happy about that either...whatever.
peace
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