The show and nothing but the show

I have spent about 22 hours at the theatre rehearsing since Friday. Needless to say I am tired and have no time to pee and eat, much less blog. We are getting there, the band sounds great and the costumes look good. We still have some work to do to get this show open. But we have Three more full tech/dress rehearsals to work it out. It is going to be tough, but I am starting to feel like we are going to have a good show.

I bought dance tights to wear under all my lingerie to cover my white and interestingly bruised legs. The elastic waistband sucks ass though and is so tight it cuts into my body and makes things bulge unattractively. But we have a couple of "real" dancers in the show and they both gave me tips. One told me to cut the elastic band in spots all the way around to make it looser. That helped, plus I pull it up to just under my bustline and it smooths my line rather than ruin it. The other tip is a stroke of genius. I have the best shoes for my outfits, but they are open toed slides, both of them. Impossible to keep on my feet onstage when running and/or dancing and coming up and down the staircase to the rooms upstairs. The dance tights just made them slip around even worse. Jessee the dance captain told me to sew a piece of elastic in together at the ends and slip it over the shoe and my foot. So I used the two pieces of flesh-colored elastic left over from when I bought my ballet slippers. It works amazingly well! So I get to wear the impossible, but gorgeous shoes in the show and I can even dance a little in them! Yay for dancers who share their knowledge with others. Thanks Sabrina and Jessee!



My mom is picking Jackson up from school tomorrow and keeping him a few days while David and both have rehearsals. David is directing the next show up at the Palace and needs to get started on blocking. So I get to sleep in Wed and Thurs mornings at least. I will miss Jackson, he is such a good boy lately.

Except the whole throwing up thing. Saturday, he spend the day with his Dad and grandparents. It was hot, he ate lots of junk, didn't drink enough or ate something bad - we aren't sure what the cause was. But I go home at midnight after a very long day and looked in on him before going to my room. He was sleeping peacefully enough, but I thought "he's sick." Not sure what made me think that, but i remember just knowing he was sick. But I went to bed anyway and when I was just about asleep, I heard him coughing. The kind of cough that for Jackson, always proceeds him throwing up. So I jumped up and ran into his room. But I wasn't fast enough. He upchucked all over his pillow and bed and arms and shirt. Just everywhere. So David and I spent the next hour cleaning up and making sure he was done. I was so far past exhausted at that point I just had to laugh. But luckily it was a one-time thing and I slept like the dead until 10:30 Sunday morning. David let me sleep in, wonderful guy that he is.

He also gave me a gorgeous pair of earrings and a heart pendant 'from Jackson' for Mother's day. I love my boys.

Fingernails and Ice Cream and Mullets

Instead of updating and talking about the insane amount of time I am spending at the theatre working on the show, I thought I would come up with something else to talk about.


Like my new fingernails that are making it really tough to type. I broke down and got some really nice falsies. I am desperate to once again stop biting my nails down to nubs and I figured this was worth a shot. The new nails look nice and are really strong. They don't look as nice as when I grow my own nails out; they have that slightly fakey quality that fake nails have. But they are a hell of a lot better than the chewed look I have been sporting since Jackson was born.

Speaking of the small boy, he has developed a new sleeping arrangement. He gets out of his bed in the middle of the night and comes to our room. He climbs up the hope chest at the foot of our bed and flops down near our feet on top of the blanket, like a dog, and goes to sleep. I barely notice, but David can't sleep with the boy all curled up in his foot space. It seems somehow wrong to let your child sleep at the foot of your bed like a pet. So we are trying to discourage the practice, but so far, no luck.

I am going to appear on stage wearing little clothing in under two weeks, but still, David, Jackson and I took a well-deserved family Dairy Queen outing after dinner tonight. Jackson asked me to ride in the backseat with him and we talked about ice cream and what kind we wanted the whole ride. He also asked me if I loved him several times, a habit he picked up from his father. Such a simple thing, a trip to Dairy Queen, but something to treasure none-the-less.

My hair is about an inch from officially being a mullet. Not sure what to do about that. Get a trim, I suppose. Because I can't walk around with a mullet. My ego would run screaming off a cliff if I let that happen.

I don't have all that much to talk about, it seems, without blogging incessantly about the show and how it is and isn't going. So I will stop now and pay attention to my cat.

Is this show gonna get there?

Just a quick blog to say that I am really busy working on the show. Rehearsing 3 hours each night and 7 hours yesterday. My singing voice has been non-existent. Truly, I open my mouth to sing and no sound comes out. But it is getting a little better every day. I have not been even trying to sing during rehearsals. And it hasn't been necessary since we are mainly trying to get the scenes and dances set on the stage. I am terrified about how much remains to be done and how much work it needs. But the others in the cast who do lots of Palace musicals are not worried. I am used to plays that are blocked and off book and nearly ready to go two weeks out. Musicals are different, at least at this theatre. But with everyone knowing what is on the line, they generally come together by opening night. We get costumes Saturday next week and hopefully the band will join us and we can set the music and be ready to go by May 16th.

In other news, Jackson saw me get out the box of blueberry muffin mix yesterday morning and said, "Blueberry muffins? Mama, I love you."

Cat Food, Lost Voice and Undies

This morning I gave Jackson a little bit of coco pebbles cereal to eat. No milk, he eats his cereal dry for some reason. Anyway, this was his first taste of coco pebble goodness and came running over to ask me, "what is this cat food? It's gooood cat food!" Now I have to worry about him getting into the cat bowl and getting a nasty surprise when it doesn't taste at all like coco pebbles.

Last night was our final vocal rehearsal for the show. We cemented some harmonies, I hope, and went through some of the biggest chorus numbers as a group. I have been fighting a little chest cold and probably shouldn't have sung. My voice is totally gone. I have to take it really easy on my voice for the next few days so I have it back by Saturday for our all-day marathon rehearsal. I can't believe we open May 16th and we are only just now starting to run acts and then full show on Sat. Very scary indeed, but I know with some awfully long rehearsals between now and then, we will get there. We have no other choice.

Tonight we run act I and then I will see what kind of shape we are in really. Maybe we are farther along than I think we are.

I don't much care for the Wiggles. Just saying.

Mary Ellen decreed early on in rehearsals that Miss Mona's girls will all have signature colors. This created a frenzy of ladies vying for their favorite colors. And as it became apparent that Mary Ellen would not be assigning these colors as planned, the women chose for themselves. Except me and maybe one or two others. I didn't want to pick randomly; I wanted Mary Ellen to be free to choose the best Ball Gown for me and not have to choose based on color. The undies are supposed to be the same color as the ball gown that has velcro down the back and gets removed in a big reveal onstage. So I didn't pick a color and when all the other girls went ahead and started buying lingerie in 'their' color I started to feel a little left out. But I am not going to go spend $140 at Frederick's for a corset and pair of panties. I don't have the time for that and I certainly can't justify the purchase. The others want to keep their stuff and they are younger and/or don't have kids and cancer bills. So that is fine for them. Plus I don't know what I am supposed to do about fricken colors. I am not interested in costuming myself. Besides, I don't want the underwear before I know what the gown looks like. How do I know what kind of 'support' or cut I will need? Strapless gown? Princess neckline? See what I mean?

So I missed the color/undies boat. But I told Mary Ellen how I felt a couple of days ago and she said she was more than happy to get lingerie for me since she loves to costume me and is dying to get out and find cute stuff. So I left the color choice and purchasing in her hands. I know she already bought some stuff that I will probably see today. I just worry because she didn't seem to care what colors were already 'taken'. I just know she is gonna bring me stuff in a color someone else has already chosen and I will look like an asshole. This is all so very high school and I don't want to play. So I leave it up to her and if there are hurt color feelings I apologize and accept little responsibility. I will wear what I am told - within reason. I don't want to compete and I don't want to spend a bunch of money. Is that so wrong?

Publicity shots

Here I am at the ill-fated relay. I am pretty disappointed that the event was cancelled, but what can you do? It was one helluva storm.

So here is an update on what has been going on lately. All the ho's at the chicken ranch got all dressed up for some publicity shots last week. It was pretty fun to play in the costumes with the girls. Mary Ellen pulled out the theatre's supply of wigs and everyone did their best to find something that wasn't hideous. There are quite a few wigs, but they are all in need of a serious washing and setting. I took my own wig, since I have such a nice one. The other girls has serious wig envy when they thought I had found the best wig in the trunk. But then they realized it was my cancer wig. It did look good and it felt really good to put it on again. So nice to have hair, I instantly felt pretty and sexy and everything Miss Mona's girls should be. This one is me (Angel) with Danielle (the blonde) who plays Ruby Rae.


I really can't wait until I have good hair again. It sure makes a difference in the way I feel. I am now in the Elvis sideburns muttonchop phase of hair growth which is really attractive. I pretty much hate it and don't anticipate that changing any time soon.

Here is a shot of all the girls, Mona and the Sherrif.


Saturday we took Jackson to the Red Poppy Festival and parade in Georgetown. I had rehearsal at 11:30 and David was holding auditions for his show at 1:00, so we decided to head in early and check it out. Jackson enjoyed the parade, but was a little confused by the concept. When the marching band came into view he was excited and then they got to us and kept going. He kept asking "where are they going?" Very cute. Of course our camera ran out of juice before we got any good pics. Sorry.

Relay for Suck

I got my speeches, one for the survivors dinner and one for the fight back ceremony, all ready and felt pretty good about them both. I got into the red dress which zipped and looked fabulous. Andrea brought me her Miss Georgetown crown which fit nicely on my head and clipped into my short hair securely. Because the relay is an all night event spent walking the track, I wore my high heeled black and white sneakers with black and white striped stockings. Andrea pinned her crown-shaped sash pin on me to hold my Miss Chemo sash into place. It was awesome.

We got there to find the field full of tents and booths and people everywhere ready to have a good time. They opened the relay with a prayer and the national anthem and a couple of survivors spoke. They announced the survivor lap would begin in a few minutes time and then told us that after the survivor lap everyone had to go home because there were tornadoes on the ground in the area and were heading our way.

So David and I walked the survivor lap with everyone and then we picked up our shit and went home. Sigh. What a huge let-down after spending the whole day filled with nervous energy and excitement for the relay and getting to speak. I imagine the folks who spent months planning this and hours setting it up are feeling even more crappy right now. Boo.

On the way out Elaine grabbed a plate full of bbq meat they were going to serve at the ill-fated survivors dinner. So we at least got to eat a little. But I wonder what they are going to do with all that food. Very frustrating!

Thanks to everyone who contributed, I raised $1005 for the American Cancer Society.

And we didn't get hit by a tornado.

That is all the silver lining I can take right now.

Boo.

Suck.

Sorry Dad

I haven't blogged much this week and my Dad called to complain. Says he thinks there is something wrong when I don't check in all the time. So I'd better post to let everyone know that I am doing well.

I stopped by the costume shop last weekend and tried on the red gown I want to wear to the Relay for Life on Friday. And to my surprise, it zipped. I haven't really lost weight according to the scale, but I think I have become a bit leaner since rehearsals started. The dress is still very tight through my ribcage, so Ronni is going to see if she can't ooch me and inch or so out of the zipper. Ooch. I like saying that. Ooch...

I took Jackson to get his hair cut today at Penny's. He did so well. He sat in the chair and let them put the cape on him. The lady who did the cutting has a two-year-old herself so was wonderful in talking to him and working with him. He wiggled too much, but held still when it really counted and even let her use the clippers around his ears. I really wanted to get it done today since he gets his picture take tomorrow at school and I didn't want to immortalize his hair in his eyes.

I don't really feel like blogging right now. I feel like having some ice cream. So that is what I am going to do. (Ronni, you workin on that dress?)