I just got home from opening night of You Can't Do That, Dan Moody! This is a production co-sponsored by the Palace and Tom Swift. It is being performed at the Williamson County Courthouse in the actual courtroom where the true court case was tried in 1923. It was the first successful prosecution of the KKK for their crimes in the US. Pretty interesting history. Decent play.

Phil Rodriguez who played Dan Moody, the District Attorney, was fabulous. And there were several good to great performances. There were also some very amateur performances as lots of Williamson County officials and friends of Tom Swift (co-author and director) are in the show and are not experienced actors. The leads are good enough to carry it, though. And those that need to be convincing bad guys are well able to pull it off. I enjoyed it as a cool piece of history if not the most polished piece of theatre.

And the Courthouse renovation looks really good. Here is a pic looking up from the rotunda and one inside the courtroom itself.



I wanted to take more pictures but my camera ran out of battery power. There is a story here. Wanna hear it? OK!

This morning while getting dressed, I picked up the Payless bag on my closet floor to take out the new shoes inside - the new shoes I bought on my post-chemo shopping trip - the one I don't exactly remember. Inside the Payless bag was a bag from the Dollar Store. Lakeline Mall has a Dollar Store. I now vaguely remember going into the Lakeline Mall Dollar Store on the ill-fated shopping trip. I bought two things in the Dollar Store. One was a box of about 100 emery boards in different sizes. I have started biting my nails again, so I am not exactly sure what I will do with this lifetime supply of emery boards, but I have them. And I guess they cost me a dollar.

The other purchase I made in the Dollar Store was a package of AA batteries. I was thinking clearly enough to remember that we were out of AA batteries, but not clearly enough to reason through the logic of purchasing Sunbeam brand batteries at the Dollar Store. Sunbeam. They make batteries apparently and I bought 8 of them. So when I picked up the camera tonight to take along with me I popped a couple of them in, since they were my only option, and off I went.

I took six pictures and that was all she wrote. I should have known they would crap out on me when I picked them up and they weighed less than an ice cube - put together. And the package says "Sunbeam, De Larga Duracion." In Spanish. Not very Larga. And their Duracion leaves much to be desired. Yeah, not the best choice I made there. So I don't have the pics I wanted from the courthouse.

Today, Jackson and I made it to work. I really wanted to be there because with Dan Moody opening tonight and Tenor still running at the theatre proper, I knew there would be lots of work and some serious reservation double checking to do. And I was right. Larry was there this afternoon too. And Karen, Larry and I kept busy all afternoon while Jackson napped, taking reservations, checking seating charts and reservation lists and just getting things ready. It felt good to work hard and feel like I accomplished something. And I decided to leave Jackson with David and go to the opening night. Glad I did, though I am pretty beat now. My body feels tired, like I worked hard today, not tired like I am sick. I like that better. And I will probably sleep well. Yay!

What else? Oh, update from symptom-land: My fingertips are still annoyingly numb-slash-pins-and-needles-tingly. And now I can't sing. Yup, you heard me. I cannot sing. Since the cancer has been blasted out of my lung and I can breath again these past 6 weeks or so, I have enjoyed being able to sing again. In the shower, in the car, washing dishes...you know, places you sing. Before chemo, every deep breath led to a coughing spasm, and singing requires air, so singing became an under my breath thing.

Then with the deep breaths came the ability to jam out in the car during the admittedly few times I have been driving by myself or with the captive Jackson who has to listen me. But I have been noticing lately that I can't control the sound. Can't sustain a note. Sounds flatish or just off. And frankly, just sounds like shit. Now, those that know me know that while I have little breath control and power, I do have a nice singing voice. Well, not right now I don't. I kind of thought it might be my imagination, but I googled around this afternoon and sure enough - fucking chemo.

It's the Vincristine again, the same drug/poison damaging the nerves in my hands is screwing with my vocal cords. Even my speaking voice is being affected. Trying to talk in the Rotunda tonight with the crowd buzzing all around was hard. My voice cracks and warbles. It sounds like I am out of breath; it just plain sounds funny. Sigh. Hopefully this is temporary, too. I can't find a whole lot of info on it, just vague confirmation that others have reported it and long-term Vincristine use has led to loss of voice in some people. Hopefully not permanent, especially since I want to act again when I am cured. I'll definitely ask the doctor about it before the next round. Maybe he knows something about it.