Yada Yada Yada

Just have not felt much like blogging of late.... Started Thanksgiving holiday on Wednesday... it was good to sleep in although I had great plans to get the house back in shape before Christmas and the next play starts.

I got much of the last play put to bed... We are almost through putting the bust back together. He is a little cracked, but on stage will not look too bad I think. Many hours though have been sucked up doing that...not to mention the space he is occupying.

Made Rolls and my cranberry salad to take to Fond Du Lac. Maddie had finally cleaned her room (after a very long time) and so we came up with several loads of laundry to do... She helped me take them to the Laundromat and haul them home again.

Thursday night she had several friends over to play "Risk” She had mentioned off hand that she had played Risk with someone a little while ago and that it was a blast. I told her that we used to play all the time and that there was a board in the basement. She very excitedly hunted it up and found that we actually had two boards. A plan developed to host a Risk party in her room.

Originally her plan was to get the room clean enough to create a little hangout for her friends. The local coffee-shop closed and the bakery had too many religious sayings haunting the place. There really is no place for young people to just hang out and talk in our town and I would certainly rather they hung out here. She made Chocolate Chip Cookies (we finally now know that our new oven runs hot) ... they all came over (four of them) and I was a little surprised to see that they were all boys. All of those boys have had or do have a crush on her too. One was her current boyfriend, who she does not see much of. Her friend Patty was expected later.

I have started swimming at the school pool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am trying to get my knee strengthened... It is very weak and arthritic... I need to build up muscle and lose some weight. The pool seemed like the best option. It is good to be in the water again.

Anyhow that left me going off to the pool during the boy fest at my house. I knew I would only be gone 45 minutes and that they were pretty nice young men, but it still made me a little nervous. Puck had to leave too to go bartend. When I came home Patty had come over and they were all crammed into the room having a wonderful time and being amazed at the weird stuff she has in the room.. like the longhorn bull skull wearing vintage mining goggles and the giant plaster cobra, not to mention billions of Harry Potter scenes in Legos.

That covers Tuesday and Wednesday...

Thursday we drove up to Fond Du Lac to have dinner with Puck's brother, his wife and their son. We got off to a slow start... Both Puck and Mad are nursing colds so I had to drive... I really miss the cruise control in the car. We got lost when Puck woke up and changed the directions from what Maddie was reading to me from Map Blast. I thought we were going to be really late, but Nancy (my sister in law) was also running late. We had a lovely dinner. My father in law had driven down from Bemidji too so that was cool.

We talked about college.. Maddie is way ahead of Ryan in looking at schools, which made me feel a little more comfortable. Ryan is pretty blasé about the whole thing though. Puck and his brother had a little discussion about Bob (the brother) retiring to the family home... there is a little problem with inheritance that needs to be worked out with the three siblings (they have a sister who lives in Washington) The home is on lake front property and is valued currently at $200,000.

Bob would like to take over the house and have Dad live with them. Nancy (his wife has family up in Bemidji and is a physical therapist) Diane... the sister is not at all happy about her brother taking care of Dad. I am not certain how that all would work, but I can see already there is some underlying trouble brewing which has the potential of getting ugly. Bob is looking to retire in 2 to 4 years so we have a little time. Dad is quite healthy now, but I cannot see him being relegated to the basement and I cannot see them comfortable living down there either. It will be interesting.

Puck had been drinking wine and Maddie was not too keen on driving at night so I was stuck driving home too. We got really lost leaving town and I got pissed. I am not a good night driver. All the lights sort of blur on me. It took us a half hour to get the heck out of town and I was Thankful to get home.

I again slept in on Friday, but made my own turkey and fixings later in the day. Puck got called in to work and Maddie and I went shopping. We are giving her dorm stuff for Christmas. I found a very cool vintage Sewing kit on EBAY and am filling it with all sorts of stuff. Puck is in charge of the tool kit. We went to Goodwill of course since I have not had a goodwill fix in ages. Found a couple cool dresses that I think I can remake for "My Fair Lady" the last show Maddie will be in this year. I also found thank you cards that must have come from overstock at Target... they were only .49 for 8 cards... I picked up a ton of them to use for Graduation.

We then went off to look for the new Wal-Mart... They built a dang superstore in Janesville. Finally we found the blasted place... The parking lot was as big as the malls and worse to navigate. The store was horribly big and it took forever to find the sewing stuff. I told Maddie I needed to replenish my supplies after the play, but it was all for her kit :)

I really hated the store and will not go back anytime soon. Wal-Mart used to be a nice comfortable K-Mart sized store with an easy parking lot. Now it is a monster. Shop-Ko and Target will be getting my business from now on.

Sorta Creepy Sorta Not

Last Friday after the show I went out with the director and assistant director for dinner. We had e-mailed back and forth and Puck was invited too, but had to bartend that night.

We went to a new little spot in town that is rather classy for as small a town as this is. I had my single tequila sunrise and I shared a couple appetizers with the stage crew assistant and her husband. The director ordered sauerbraten. She passed it around for us to taste and it was incredibly delicious. I will go back again. The chef even came to our table to ask how everything was. It was a very pleasant time.

We walked two doors down to the bar Puck was supposed be at and there was no sign of him. I puzzled over that, but was not too concerned. Sometimes he leaves early if things are quiet. I drove home and met Maddie at the door. She said …
"Dad fell, but I cleaned him up"
"What happened?"
"We didn't have keys to the house"
"So how did he fall?"
"He was holding the ladder and slipped in the snow there was blood everywhere, it was a good thing you weren't here mom"

I walked into the living room and there he was with a huge bandage on his nose. Here was the sequence of events. Puck had gone to work only to find that he was not on the schedule. Normally he is. He stayed and tended bar for a couple hours, but forgot that we were out so never came by. When he finally got home he found that he had not taken his keys with him. There also was no key in our secret hiding place. Maddie must have stolen that one and not put it back.

He tried to break in through the kitchen window, but that was stuck shut. I have crawled through that one before. By this time Maddie came home. She didn't have any keys either. She had thrown her backpack into my car and I had driven off with it. They decided to try her second story window which apparently opens with ease. They got the ladder out and while Puck was struggling to put it up he fell and his nose hit the steps and cut it open deeply. He started bleeding and the lady that brought Mad home grabbed some tissues. She also held the ladder while Maddie scrambled up on the porch roof and climbed through her bedroom window to come down and let Puck in.

She cleaned up the blood, put a butterfly bandage on his cut, and applied the Neosporin so that by the time I got home he looked rough but not so bad. The next day Puck found that his keys were actually lost. That added insult to injury. He must have dropped them in the snow somewhere. He spent Sat and Sunday retracing his steps and looking for them to no avail.

He went down to the police station, but they had stupid hours and closed at 3:00... he had extra keys made and was going to try and contact the police again later.

Yesterday I got a call here at school. It was the police asking for me or Steve (Puck's real name) They asked if we had lost a set of keys and I said yes. The officer said he would be at the middle school in 20 seconds and could deliver them. I ran (walked real fast) down to the entrance and there was the police car. He asked a couple questions and handed me the keys.

It was a little creepy that he knew where I worked and that we owned the keys since the only thing that could identify us was the Piggly Wiggly card with only a bar code on it. At least we got the keys back

Busted Bust

The play is finished, but I lost my bust in the process... Saturday during one of the scene changes there was a horrible crash. I knew immediately that my plaster bust had fallen into a million pieces. I had purchased it to be used as a prop so it was not terribly awful, but I had hoped it would get through more than half a show before it was pushed over.

The kids were a little scared of my reaction, but I reassured them. We did sweep up the remains and Maddie and I are going to put Humpty Dumpty together again if we can then calk any holes, sand him down, paint him white and marble him good as new. That is plan anyhow. Right now he is in many many pieces and one small back of dustpan remains. It will be an interesting challenge.

We got everything home in only a couple trips. I handed my keys off to my costume assistant and she and Mad drove a couple loads of clothes and props back to the house. Several boys loaded up the van with the rest of our stuff and I drove that home. They ran after me and brought it all in... all I had to do was hold the door. Now I need to take the six foot pile of clothes off the sofa and clear the mound of props off the dining room table... there is a full set of encyclopedias on the bar that needs to get put back, but first I need to put all the bar stuff back in the bar so I can get to the bookshelf where those books belong. It is sort of a domino process and is going to take a few days.

During Sunday's performance again during a scene change I heard a smaller crash. Puck turned to me and said
"what do you suppose that was?"
"I know exactly what it was"
"What?"
"That was your ashtray!"
"Shit"
"It didn't sound like it broke though"

I have run into that ashtray enough times to recognise the sound of it jostling. It was fine thank heavens... it is a stand alone ashtray with a glass liner and the liner would be difficult to replace. I should just find one that the theater could have instead of lending ours out so often for shows

It will be good to be able to get the house back to normal again... cluttered, but normal

Elwood and his portrait

painting done by Maddie

Nurse Kelly in her great dress

Got this dress on EBAY... it was listed as an I Love Lucy dress which seem to be the common denominator for all fifties dresses... just in case you are looking for one. We were a little worried that it might seem to cream colored for a nurse dress, but we bluffed the director and just had Mad wear it. I had another dress in reserve just in case. The director loved it though and Mad was very pleased

Nurse Kelly on the phone

Last week of Rehearsal

I forget if I mentioned it, but due to low grades they had to release an actor... They replaced him with a much taller boy and then had to plug another boy in another scene. That meant hunting up another two costumes for them. Not a huge problem. Taller boy is so skinny that he fits the lovely vintage frock coat. I had a little more trouble with the set crew boy they pulled in for the tavern scene. He has thinned out a little since middle school, but is still a rather round young man. Boys are not used to wearing pants at their waists any more than girls are these days and nobody seems to tuck in a shirt anymore... there is a lot of retraining that has to go into costuming now. Especially in dress shoes... Student actors find the constraints of period shoes uncomfortable even when they fit. It will only get worse I fear.

I think I have everthing done though regarding costuming. Again half my house is on stage and my own house is just stacks of things that used to be on the tables, in the bookcases or in the bar that we moved to the theater.

I did make a fabulous find at the outreach(resale) place in town though. I went in looking for stuff last wednesday. That is the only day they are open late in the afternoon. I was wandering around when the lady who manages the store came up to me asking if I had seen the old coat in the back room. She has been hanging odd dresses back there for me and kind of keeps an eye out for things that I might be able to use for drama. I told her that I had not yet been back there, but I high tailed it to that corner. Yup there was a nice old black coat back there. It looked almost floor length and frankly all I thought was "ooh here is a great Goth coat for Maddie" It had velvet cuffs and a velvet collar and looked clean and in good shape so I really didn't look at it very closely. It didn't have a price on it so I took it up to the front. That lady hauled it back to be priced while I continued shopping. Eventually she came back asking if $3.00 was ok. In my mind I was thinking "Great" since any nice long wool coat is worth that, but I casually said "Sure I can pay $3.00 for it" it is a little game I guess, but I need to be able to buy things cheap whenever possible.

I brought all my stuff home and then waited for Maddie to get back from rehearsal. I had her try on the coat and sure enough it fit her like a glove. It has cut glass black buttons and buttons off center. As I was looking at the coat it all of a sudden dawned on me that the style was turn of the century.... I inspected the lines of the coat and lining more carefully and sure enough this was a perfectly preserved 1910 long coat... there is a tiny bit of wear at the hem in the grey silk lining and a tiny bit at the top where it joins the collar, but otherwise it is in mint condition. It even has all it's buttons down the front and two on the rear of the coat. It has two small pleats showing the lining at the back of the coat too. It really is beautiful. It is a great coat and although I would love to just hang it in the attic and use it for plays I will probably give it to Maddie to wear. They are not totally rare, but rare enough that I would not want to build one. She will get more use out of it though and if she keeps it fairly clean it should last another hundred years.

We have a dress rehearsal today so I am skipping church in order to get over to the theater early. Nobody put me in charge of makeup, but nobody seemed to be taking charge there either so yesterday I hauled it all out and checked to see whether they had enough facial sponges. There are enough for today, but they will have to get more for the performances. I might have to have a bit of a power struggle with a couple boys and their too long hair... I am bringing in my Dippity Doo to see if slicking will take care of it, but we may have to request a little trimming at the back. The boys are worse than the girls about their crowning glories. Hurrumphhh.

We brought in a bunch of books to fill the bookcase at Chumley's Rest (the mental hospital) and finally found our 1940 copies of "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex"
and some other little sex manual that belonged to my parents. We also loaned the little plaster skull ashtray that my dad got at chiropractic college. Sometimes it is fun to fill the shelves with odd little books that the audience will never see, but the actors will know about... Grey's Anatomy is up there too.