Cool It!

So, for being the last day of July I have to say it's been freaking cold!  What is up with the weather.  I mean after the freezing cold winter that killed half the things in my yard I guess I can't expect too much, but really it's been absurdly cold.  I think we had the AC on so far this summer for a total of five or six days.  I can't complain about that at all because it saves me a ton of money.

That being said, it's been so cold that when I went out running yesterday I actually wore pants and a sweatshirt, and then yesterday evening I was wearing pants when we went out to get some dinner on account of the chicken having gone bad.  It legitimately feels like it's the fall out there and it's still July.  I don't mind the heat, as long as it's not humid.  I don't mind the cool, but it's making me feel like summer is over and we're heading into fall when we still have at least a month of summer still to go.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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A show selfie of me and Alexa.  Obviously I was the director, and she just needed to get a little sun.  Seriously, for a life guard or something she's kind of pale.  I'm starting to suspect something is amiss.

Two Poo Magoo

The past few weeks I've been trying to be more active and as part of that I've been running again.  I'm not going to lie, it's hard for me to get out of bed and go running.  It's an internal debate every morning because the bed is warm and comfy and the alternative is running and it's not always a fun time.  For the running I've been using a couch to 5k program that's supposed to help you ease into running and get you to the point where you'd do a 5k.  I've actually been considering doing a 5k, which is another plus for the program.

Anyhow, the program has three runs per week that you do and it gives you intervals of running and walking and slowly changes the intervals to have you run more and walk less.  For the other days I just go jogging for a shorter jog, but something to get me up and moving.  On Monday it was one of my short jog days, and Ronan was super excited when he saw me getting ready so I decided to take him with me.  He was actually really good!  One of my issues with him is that he tries to stop and pee on everything which is problematic when it comes to trying to run.  Well on Monday he didn't do that and we got all the way without him being a total annoyance.

Well, given his good record I decided to take him with me today, and it didn't turn out quite as well.  He stopped twice to try and pee on things, but that wasn't a huge problem.  The bigger problem was he decided he needed to shit right in the middle of the street.  I expect this so I bring bags with me in case this happens.  It wasn't a huge deal since it's garbage day so I just bagged it up and threw it in a trash can.  So I started jogging again and we didn't get that far and suddenly Two Poo Magoo decided he has to take another thunderdump in the middle of the street.  I reach into my pocket for a bag and guess what, the other bag I brought is gone, so I have nothing to clean it up with.  I look around and found that someone had a bunch of newspaper ads in their recycling so I swiped some of that and cleaned the massive poo up, but not before getting some on my thumb.

This is why I'm reluctant to take him.  Even when I make sure he poos before we leave the yard he often runs out of pee and decides he has to drop a big wet sloppy dude in the middle of the street.  I may have to reconsider taking him on Friday.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I've taken to going on walks during my lunch hour to try and get a bit more activity into my life.  Today the flowers outside the building near my office looked nice.

Just Do It

I am risk averse.  I don't like risk because for years I was conditioned to try and go unnoticed.  Be quiet, be like a ghost, don't draw attention to yourself.  There are a variety of reasons that I'm like that and it's something that I have to fight against quite often.  Growing up it wasn't uncommon to get screamed and yelled at and spankings were not a rare occurrence.  People say that sort of things really creates people who are not comfortable with doing things that are wrong due to being conditioned to expect highly negative treatment when a mistake is made.  However I also spent a long time at school perfecting becoming an unseen, unheard ghost.  I did my best to stay unnoticed due to the excessive bullying that was thrown at me on a daily basis.  Perhaps due to kids growing up, or my skills at being unnoticed, or the ability to condition myself to show no response when faced with these people it eventually died down.  However I'm sure the conditioning is still rattling around up there.

So, does that mean I don't do anything that is risky?  No.  I used to act for a while there, which is a huge activity that requires you to put yourself out there.  I run a theatre company now with my friends and that is often having me put myself out there.  I work as a teacher which puts me up in front of large groups on a regular basis.  All of these things trigger my learned responses that tell me to avoid risks.  Sometimes they can be almost overwhelming and takes a lot of energy and focus to overcome them, but I do.  It's especially hard at first when it's something new and I don't know what to expect.  However, in any given activity once I'm over the initial fear and I'm able to overcome my risk adverse nature, I'm usually pretty good with it and become comfortable again.

That's a lot of lead up, but why I'm talking about this is because there are things I want to do and I've not been able to actually do them.  I've had a lot of objections to them, I've been afraid to do them, I've weighed them as too risky or it would require me putting too much out there.  So, what I'm saying is I'm in the process of trying to overcome that risk adverse nature that's keeping me from doing them.  Sure there are some valid points about having enough time to do them, but I think the largest problem is that right now they are feeling too overwhelming to me so I just can't do it.  I need to overcome that because I think they should be done and I want to do them.  Perhaps talking this through will help me get them done.

I know a lot of that is vague, but I need to get things out sometimes to help push myself along.  I know the things that make it hard for me to live a normal life, and I know how to cope and deal with them.  Sometimes getting it out there is one of those things that helps me move along.  I also know that generally speaking I just have to do it.  I've found that sometimes you just have to do it and stop worrying.  So, my goal is to move these things I've been considering along.  Let's see how it goes.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Last week  coworker headed over to get a snack out of the vending machine only to find they were gone.  They didn't tell us they were going, they just suddenly disappeared.  Well today the new ones arrived.  It's fancy new looking machine, which is nice.  However, with the new machine comes new prices, and now nothing is $1, everything is like $1.25 or something.  I will probably not be buying out of it anymore on account of the price increase.

In A Stunning Turn Of Events...

Today is my sister's birthday.  I wished her a happy birthday, like you do, and she said thanks.  Later on my way home from work I get a call from my Gran who tells me that my mom and sister are going out for dinner, which is normal, and then they're all going to my gran's at six for cake and such and she wanted to make sure I knew.  And as per usual, I wasn't informed of this until 5:30pm when my gran decided to make sure I knew expecting that someone else had already told me.

Well, no, I didn't know, which is typical.  In fact this happened just last year when I wasn't informed until the day of and then I couldn't go because I already had things arranged that I had to do.  I really don't see why it's so hard to plan something.  It's not like Easter where it jumps all around the calendar.  It manages to come the same day every year and every year I'm not told about plans until minutes before they happen.  As always I'm an after thought that no one really bothers to include.

That being said, I don't really think I can be mad anymore.  That's just how it is and it isn't going to change.  I don't' matter, so there's no point in me wasting time or energy being pissed off that other people suck.  As they say that would be like me drinking poison and expecting it to kill the other guy.  I've got better things to focus on than that kind of shit. I think that confuses people about me, they see me say that it's annoying but also say that I don't care and can't comprehend that both things are true.  Yes it's is stupid and annoying that people treat me like that.  But at the same time I really don't care and it's not something I think about or focus on.  I have so many other things to think about and focus on that spending time on things like that is a waste of resources.  It's like trying to grow grass in the desert, which only fools do.  I acknowledge it's stupid and then just move on.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Took this picture yesterday as the storms were rolling in. I thought it was kind of pretty.

Wraped Up

Now that the show is over, and I don't feel afraid that I'll curse it or jinx it, I have to say that this has been the best experience and highest quality show we've done since our first one three years ago.  It was seriously fantastic.  It was a huge undertaking, and when we started out, or going back even further to when we decided on it, I was afraid.  I was afraid when we had some people pull out and I wasn't sure who we had who could take on these large roles.  I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to pull off the combat.  I was afraid that the experience would be a repeat of what happened last year.  I'm thrilled to say that all of it turned out to not only meet my expectations, but exceed them, generally speaking.  Sure there were some things here and there that I found incredibly disappointing and didn't meet the standard that I expected, but they were minor in comparison to the whole.

I feel like this experience  has actually done a lot to rejuvenate me.  For a lot of time working on these shows I feel like I don't know why I bother.  No one seemed to care, no one seemed to value it.  However this show had a lot of great things in it that reminded me of why I do this and that people do value it and care.  That being said, there were also huge disappointments with people who should value it and care not seeming to want to put any effort in whatsoever.  I'm not sure I can really express how disappointing that is, how much I have loss faith in them and how I now have to question their reliability and dependability.  I don't like feeling like that with people I thought I could trust, but it's happened and I can only operate in the realities of it.

Luckily, however, the production as a whole went off wonderfully.  Huge audiences, quality performances.  I loved that every night the same things got gasps from the audiences and they were totally focused on what was happening on stage.  I loved getting to work with so many new people who were wonderful on stage and helped make the package whole.  I really enjoyed those new people talking about what a great experience it was and how it was better than other groups they worked with in the past, and how they joined right in and started asking "what are WE doing next year?"

All in all it was a great few months.  It even makes me want to try to do something to keep up the momentum but due to personal schedules (I have classes in the fall) and personal life changes coming to us in a few months, I don't think it's feasible.  Perhaps we can managing something small such as a touring show for kids that we could take to children's hospitals or something like that.  We'll see, but I feel like things are going to start

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Ronan gets so pouty when people leave.  It's a bit understandable since we've been gone so much for the show.  Well today Jasmine left and I found him pouting on the stairs as I was going to get some stuff for laundry.

That's A Wrap

Again, a short one since we had a show then a cast party and I need sleep!  The show is over, the costumes are awaiting cleaning and cataloging, and I'm so thrilled with how it all turned out.  We had the largest crowd ever tonight, which gives us three of the most attended performances and brought us to more in three performances than our last two shows combined.  It was a great show, and a great process.  It just now dawned on me that I don't have a video of any of the fights and should have taken some.  Too late now.

The cast party was a good time, we played Bill Kramer (which is a combination of Taboo and Charades, a perfect game for theatre people), had our traditional foods, and now it's time to sleep, and sleep in.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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The cast can get really weird on the final day of a show.  Foolishness was plentiful to close out our show.  Incidentally, the shaving cream was to get the fake blood off your skin, or apparently to look silly.

Night Two

Another short blog to say that night two was pretty good too!  We had a bit of a dip in the energy and quality of the show, but not enough so that I was annoyed.  Audiences were about the same as last night. The audience energy wasn't as good, but the size was only one person smaller than yesterday which means our highest attended performance was last night and the second place was tonight!  So either way, this show is getting some audience.

The show is also getting a ton of positive feedback from people I don't know, and people who don't know us or the cast.  We've had people who have approached us to congratulate us who are not connected to us or anyone in the cast at all and to give glowing reviews.  We also had a ton of new members in our cast this year so their friends and families don't know the actors and have been approaching them to tell them how much they loved the show and then specifically talk to them about some of their acting choices or things they did on stage.  It's incredible!  One more performance tomorrow and then we're probably taking a break for a while but next year we have big plans!

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I'm not sure but the cast seems a bit tired.  You don't often find them laying face down on the ground unless they're playing dead.

It's Opening Night!

Greetings from opening night of the Scottish Play!  This isn't going to be a long post since the play goes till nine, then we needed dinner, and now I'm tired, so as Lady Macbeth says "to bed, to bed".  Just a quick note to say our opening was fantastic!  We had the larges crowd at a single show tonight, which was very exciting.  Donation-wise they weren't the most generous, but still did pretty good.  If the next two nights come in around the same we'll end up a little lower than normal, but sometimes we get bigger donations the weekend nights, so it's possible we may fall right around where we normally do.

I think the biggest thing is that we had a large audience.  The pictures I post don't do it justice since anyone who is on a blanket is blocked by people in chairs, so you only see about half the people that actually are at the show.  Either way, we had nearly as many people tonight that came to all three performances combined of The Odd Couple.  It's great to see growth like this!  Very exciting and hopefully we'll see the same tomorrow!

Picture(s) of the Day:
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A pretty nice crowd, though about 20 minutes later we ended up with another dozen people who showed up a little bit late.  

All Dressed Up

Well, tonight was our final rehearsal, and tomorrow we will have a live audience in front of us.  It's crazy how fast the past two months went.  It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on a plane trying to finish up the cast list, and now we are done and in three days the whole thing will be over and I will have free evenings and weekends again.  I'm really happy with how the rehearsal process went.  We had, for the most part a really good process.  Lines were not rough like they were last time.  Our Macbeth had some trouble there the first two days off book, but as we've gone he's gotten stronger and stronger.

There weren't as many annoyances this show as last time either.  There are two people that I'm rather disappointed in, one had a smaller part and still had line issues, probably because they left their script at my house and didn't bother getting it for the past few weeks.  And then, big surprise, had to call line.  Had to call line when no one else called line.  Like, seriously, the first day off book, no one called line except for Macbeth.  That's unheard of in the history of any show I've worked on.  The other disappointment came from the behind the scenes side of things where a lot of stuff just didn't get done that was assigned to them.  

But for the most part this rehearsal period went well.  My fingers are crossed that our performances will go equally as well.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Our set flags arrived, though we ended up not being able to use the Scottish flags not he set, so we set them up on the changing tents just to have.

Tech-nichal Difficulties

Today was our tech rehearsal, which is also like a dress rehearsal only we don't necessarily require dress for everyone to be 100%, but we give them the option to run with their full costumes and anyone who has changes has  to so we know we have time for them to get changes and whatnot.  For the most part everything went fine and the show is looking very good.

The difficulty came with that lovely actor I mentioned yesterday.  After not showing up at all and pissing me off, he managed to actually make me even more angry and I had to push the button and kick him out of the show.  He sent me a message today saying "Hey Jason, sorry but I am in Ohio today and tomorrow and won't be able to make rehearsals."  He actually did this on our Facebook group and cast members immediately jumped on him for that since that means he's missing Tech and Dress rehearsal.  The only two rehearsals that we had scheduled since day one and told them they were mandatory.  So that means, he will have not practiced his fights since Sunday, and the first time doing them will be on stage with an audience.

Aside from being so blatantly disrespectful to his peers, it's a chance I can't take.  If he's missing these vital last rehearsals, and seems to think it's not a big deal, then what's to say he won't do the same on a performance?  Plus I can't have the actors miming a fight for two days and not getting the practice that they deserve.  So I had to pull him out of the cast and replace him with someone else.  It was a bit stressful but we had an actor who is never on stage at the same time that we decided to just dual cast.  I haven't told the other guy he's kicked out, and there was one fight the new kid can't do so I'm considering letting the cast vote to see if they want to allow him to do that fight.  It's not for him, but so that the other three people who are in it aren't punished for his stupidity. 

It's stress I didn't need, but it's working itself out, and I'm pretty positive about how the show is going to turn out.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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I was scrolling old pictures and I found this from the weird possessed items when we lived in the apartment.  This was the possessed mustard container that did this to itself for no apparent reason.  I found it amusing.

Kill The Actors! You Ever Eat With One?

It's show week.  Show week is a busy week, though this week it's going a bit more calmly than one might expect.  In the past they have been a bit frantic and there has often been a lot of stress going around.  Last year was total chaos and strife leading up to the performances of our shows.  In contrast this year has been pretty calm and I'm quite happy with how it's going.  However, there are always a few people that stress me out and annoy the hell out of me.

This year we're doing Macbeth, and that means there is a lot of extra stuff going on that we can't just cut from the show.  Specifically we have to have some sword fighting to make the show work.  To do that we ended up hiring this guy to do it.  Someone contacted us and referred us to him, and he's just been great to work with, and I'm super happy with what I'm seeing.  I think audiences will also be impressed by what we've put together.  However, the stress has come with one actor who has been very loose with attending rehearsals.  This is especially a problem because he is one of the people who has to fight in the show.  Now with his part it really isn't that large and missing the scenes isn't a huge deal, we can compensate for that.  However, not being there to practice fights hurts the other six cast members that he has to fight with throughout the show.

Well, today I'm ready to string him up and beat him.  Tonight was our last rehearsal with our fight choreographer, he actually came to the park to work the fights before one of our final runs of the show.  It was very nice to do that and I told them all yesterday that they couldn't be late and had to get here on time so we could do this.  So what happens to day?  Well, start time rolls around and he isn't there.  No sign of him.  No big deal, we decide to do some of the other fights first and come around to the fights he is in at the end in hopes that he'll show up.  However, time passes and he's still not here.  So someone sends him a text and he says he's running late.  So we work more fights and wait.  He then texts and says he had some issue but should be there soon.  So we wait some more and I send actors off to work with Becky so we aren't wasting everyone's time.  Finally we decide that we can't wait anymore since our fight choreographer has to go and we just move on.  Guess who didn't show up at all for the rehearsal! 

Seriously.  It's the last day with our choreographer, it's the last rehearsal before Tech and Dress, and you don't even show up.  I'm so mad I could kill him.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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People left their swords in ground.  Looked nice.

Dreams

I see a lot of people that post things online about some dream they had, or they talk about some crazy dream they had.  I find that any of the dreams I can remember are absurdly boring.  People talk about flying dreams, or sex dreams, or dreams where they're doing something crazy or exciting, and I don't recall ever having dreams like that.  My dreams are always things like, "Oh I'm at the grocery store, I should pick up some milk since we're low."  or "We should go see a movie, ok, let's go see a movie".  Those are probably the most boring dreams ever.

Perhaps I have interesting dreams and I just don't remember them.  Perhaps I'm just a boring person who has boring dreams and then wakes up and lives a boring life.  Kind of random but I just saw a bunch of stuff via social media lately where people have been talking about their dreams and it made me think of this.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Our poster for the show.

Do You Yield

Why is it so hard for people to get that a yield sign is not a stop sign.  This especially noticeable at one of the many roundabouts that you find in our area.  People drive up to them and stop.  Despite the fact that the sign says yield and there is no one coming at all.  But none the less they stop and then proceed, completely stopping traffic and pissing me off.

I guess the upside is that they aren't stopping in the roundabout itself, except for the times that they do stop in the roundabout itself.  I really fail to understand why it's so hard to figure out roundabouts.  Entering traffic yields to traffic in the roundabout.  Boo.  Done.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Got some bananas last week for the purpose of making some banana bread.  It looks like they're ready.

Dogs

You know we're spending a lot of time away from home when the dogs start to do certain things.  Ronan is especially noticeable when he misses us.  He usually greets us at the door very excited, jumping (though we've been working on getting him to not do this), running around, full of energy.  However when we've been gone for a long time he actually gets calmer and greets us at the door holding his bone, enthusiastically wiggling his butt but standing silent with his bone.  He'll then run to the living room with his bone.  Sometimes we'll see that he has got all his toys out and has them there as if to say "we're playing now?"

It's very cute.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Since we're talking about animals, and I'm on an old photo kick, how about today's picture an old photo from around 2002 or so, maybe 2003 of Fluffy and Norbert laying around like they used to do.  So cute.

One Week

Well, we have one week left to go until the show opens.  Overall I think it's going really well.  I was amazed last week when there were virtually no line issues for anyone.  The first day other than our Macbeth no one called line.  NO ONE!  That's unheard of!  Totally unheard of to have people have it so much together on their first day off book.  Usually it's a mess.  I mean the first show we had the script of shame that we made them read out of if they couldn't remember their lines, and this time nothing.

I will say there were a few people I was a bit annoyed with who had minor parts and then had line issues.  If our Lady Macbeth, Macduff, Malcolm, Banquo are able to get off book without calling line and without messing up their lines, explain how you have three scenes and you can't get your lines down?  It's very disappointing because it comes down to a lack of commitment.  I've got kids in this show who are 15 and never done a Shakespeare show ever and you are having line issues have doing them before, or being very involved in theatre?  It's very annoying and quite disappointing.

Regardless, it will be a good show.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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Another old one, I think this was around 2003 when we went to NYC to see Eddie Izzard in A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg.  We also went to the museum of natural history and saw a giant Easter Island statue.  Also note Becky's super short hair.

Parnoia And Fear

I got into a bit of a debate recently regarding what I see is a severe case of irrational fear.  Recently I've read three separate incidents where a parent was charged, jailed, or convicted of crimes such as child endangerment for leaving their kids alone.  Now, I'm not talking leaving a 5 month old in the car while popping into CVS on a hot day when they could die from the heat.  I'm talking a woman on a cool day letting her younger kid wait for five minutes in the car while she picked up some small something from the drug store, or the parent who though all three kids got on the church bus but instead the 10 year old slipped away and walked three blocks down to the corner store, or the woman who had a shift at McDonalds and let her kid play in a park instead of sitting in the restaurant waiting for her to get off work.

I really don't see a single issue with any of these things, and possibly because I have done all of these things at around the ages listed.  My gran would leave us in the car while she went to pay for gas, or pick up something out of corner market.  We'd have a great time sitting in the drivers seat playing with all the knobs, buttons, and levers.  In elementary school I'd sometimes walk home from school to my friends house, which was twice as far as this kid did, and sometimes his parents would let us walk even further down to the corner store to buy some candy, and we often went to the park unattended as well.  However, now people are getting arrested for that?  A 10 year old can't play in the park?  An elementary school kid can't wait five minutes in a car?  Kids can't walk four blocks from their house without their parents being arrested?

What insanity have we entered?  A friend posted a story so I posted a comment on how we have apparently lost all common sense and become a bunch of ninnies afraid of everything.  The result was a few comments before a parent decided to chime in about how dangerous the world is, and how it's more dangerous now than it was before, and that she doesn't understand how I could not see a problem with those things.  I said that there is no reason to be afraid and that people are going overboard and need to calm it down a bit and realize the facts of the world and stop being so absurdly fearful.

Eventually the response just became "well being a parent makes you nuts."  And that was exactly my point.  Parents are nuts, and it's an irrational fear.  The world is in fact safer now than it used to be.  Violent crime has decreased by 50% since the 1990s.  I grew up before the 1990s, and therefor in a statistically much more dangerous time, and we all survived fine.  The world is safer but we treat it like it's more dangerous.  We are fed fear constantly and it's resulting in parents being too afraid to do anything and people getting arrested for nonsense.

However, it worries me more because what is that doing to the children.  They live their entire lives under constant supervision.  Parents are there to fix any problem, swoop in to shield them from any discomfort, do everything for them.  It's no wonder that I see younger kids and they are incapable of doing anything alone.  They get stressed out at the mere though of having to do something on their own.

Going even further, what happens to a society which lives under constant fear?  That makes sure their kids are always being watched.  What does that do to a society?  I don't like the idea of people being comfortable with the idea of being under constant supervision.  Being constantly afraid and believing the world is far more dangerous than it has ever been in the history of ever.  That leads people to make bad choices and in my opinion is dangerous for a society.  Who cares if you're constantly monitored, you grew up that way, it's normal.

Let's be real.  If you were given a choice to raise a kid now, or at any other point in the history of our civilization, everyone would pick now.  We are safe, we have medicine, sanitation, abundant food, clean water, schools, entertainment, art, music, sports, leisure time, hospitals, doctors, dentists, roads, cars, electricity... the list goes on.  Yet we live as if any second a horde of nomadic Mongolians led by Genghis Khan is about to ride across the park, murder the dads, rape the moms, and take the kids away to become their child brides.

We need to calm down and stop being so stupid.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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So yesterday I did an old picture, so how about today I do an even older picture.  This is from 1998 a year after moving away from Virginia we cam back for a visit and this was at the party.   Also, I loved that shirt.  It was a cow on the back with a trench coat flashing and said something like "got milk".  It amused me.

Winning

I totally forgot to update about events the other day.  So, from the start of our show this year we've been getting shit from the guy that works at the park who approves the use of the park.  It started with him being all confused who we are, despite the fact that this is the 4th year we've done this.  Then he insisted we come to a park commission meeting and made it sound like we'd need to do this to use the park, and went on and on about fees.  In the end I don't care about fees, if he wants to charge us then fine, just stop wasting my time and making this difficult.  On the other hand I'm not quite sure exactly what we're paying for.  We use an empty grassy field, we don't leave anything, use any utilities, so really what would I be paying for?  Then we started getting harassed by the rangers who kept trying to close the park early and gave us a hard time.

Well, we complained about this and the guy we dealt with got kind of crappy and told some people that we falsified our application, and only got to use the park for free because we have a friend on the board (though he just started this year and as I said we've been doing this since 2011, so math clearly not a strong suit for this guy).  Apparently he also had an issue with us meeting and rehearsing in the park.  Despite the fact that we don't bring anything with us other than actors and scripts, so in all reality we could just be having a nightly picnic.  Additionally, what exactly are we doing?  We're out of the way, sitting on the grass practicing Shakespeare.  Well one ranger approached us and said we needed to call his boss about us being in the park ever night.  Well that set me off and Becky decided to call the park guy who said he couldn't talk because he was in a park commission meeting.

Well, don't tell me where you are and what you're doing, if what you're doing is harassing me, and where you are is meeting at the public meeting with your bosses.  So Becky went in and sat down to see the park commission meeting.  Of course since this is a small township with little attendance with those things they assumed that she was there for a reason and asked her if she wanted to address them.  So she did, and she laid it all out and let them know what was going on.  The result, the guy resigned, we get to use the park, and no one has harassed us since.

It is as the wise prophet Will Smith said "And lo... if ya don't start nuttin', there won't be nuttin'.

Picture(s) of the Day:
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How about a really old picture for today's picture of the day?  Let's do this one from probably 1999.

More Time

I need more time in the day.  The show is next week and I'm so tired all the time.  There's lots to do still and it would just be helpful if I had more time to do it.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 217

Just a picture of my building.  The old part at the bottom with the new part on the top left.  The glass thing has caused some drainage issues.  It's stupid.

Waiting

Sometimes I feel like my entire life is waiting, and I have no idea what I'm waiting for.  I spend all this time waiting for the day to end so I can stop being at work.  I spend all this time waiting for someone to call me for one of the dozens of applications that I send out, but they never do.  I wait, and I wait, and I wait.  And while I'm doing all this waiting I end up far down the road wondering how I ended up where I am and wondering how much longer I'll be waiting and will that just lead to more waiting.

Wait for the economy to get better, wait for all those teachers to retire they keep saying will on the news.  Wait for people to stop being assholes, wait for people to wise up and see things clearly.  Wait.  Constantly waiting.  Perhaps that's why I'm so patient.  I've always had to wait, so it's normal.  However, I'm worried I'm waiting away my life and before I know it I'll be done waiting, but also done living.

It's not like I don't do anything during this waiting.  I think, consider, strategize, plan, prepare.  It gives me time to think the next three steps ahead, plan out what to do next, what to do in case it doesn't work.  However, perhaps that is partially to blame for some of my anxiety.  I'm too used to have things planned out that sometimes if it's not it stresses me out.  I need to know what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Otherwise I'm just standing in a waiting room, waiting for who knows what, and will continue to do it for who knows how long.

I'm kind of rambling.  My thoughts originally on this post were better than this.  But I digress.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 216

Grass outside of my office.  Not short grass, but that really tall crap that is fancy or something.

Let's Go To The Movies

It occurs to me that it's been quite some time since I've seen a movie.  Was the last movie we saw The Fault in our Stars?  I feel like that might be the last movie that I've had a chance to see.  I really would like to go see something, but with the play going on it's really hard to get to do anything.  Every single night we have a rehearsal.  I've got about two hours and 45 minutes per day to get done everything I need to do, which includes dinner, and walking the dogs.  Lately it has also included going running, which I've started up again and plan to keep moving on.

I think I may have to wait till the show is over, since the time I have more and more restricted the closer we get to the show. 

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 215

This looks much sharper than it actually is.  Though it was share enough for the actor who stabbed themselves in the food with this and was bleeding all over.  Wasn't even fighting just ended up with a stabbed foot.

I Heard It On The Radio

Today my grandfather would have been 81.  To me that doesn't really seem that old, and really I don't think there is any reason he shouldn't be still around except for the years of smoking that resulted in some nasty lung cancer.  What's weirder than considering his age and the fact that he isn't here, is that he's been gone for eight years almost.

We recently got a new car and it came with a free trial to satellite radio.  I really don't see much of a draw for it.  We used it on our trip and the stations had a lot of repeat for many of them and it wasn't all that entertaining.  The one station we did end up spending a lot of time on was the 1940s station.  I really enjoy music from this period.  The big band and swing sort of music, the kind of warm sound that the recordings had, it's fun.  However, in addition to all the bands and orchestras that play they also have some actual songs with singers.  I hadn't though much about it, but as we were going into work the other day there was a song playing and it suddenly occurred to me that my grandpa spend a lot of time standing down in the basement, drinking beer, staring out the window watching the birds, or napping on the couch.  However, the entire time he spent it listening to the radio.

I don't know what he listed to exactly, something on AM.  However, it had a similar kind of sound to the song that was playing.  Older music, with an older sounding voice.  It was very familiar, even though not quite the same.  Anyhow, it just kind of reminded me of going down in the basement and hearing the radio playing as I went outside or arrived for a visit (the basement was really part of a tri-level house).

Just some random thoughts today.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 214

Today's picture of the day comes to you from rehearsal of the Scottish Play, where Tori decided to be a goon.

Back Log

I really need to get my photos uploaded so that I can get this backlog of blogs up and going.  I don't know why but I don't like to post later blogs until earlier blogs are posted, so I've got all these blogs waiting to go and can't post them because there's the vacation blogs holding things up.  I don't know when I'll get to them because things are starting to get busy with the show seeing as how we open in two weeks.  Actually, two weeks exactly.  Where is the time going?

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 214

Lunch provided by work is always a positive.  Some delicious Zingerman's.

Page Break

I haven't read anything in ages, and I feel really guilty for not, and I would like to, but I can't seem to get the energy to pick anything up and actually start reading it.  I know part of it is that we're working on a show right now, so that's really something that is taking up a ton of time.  I pretty much have about an hour and 15 minutes between rehearsal and work, and then about an hour and 45 minutes after rehearsal.  That's not a lot of time to devote to reading, especially when I have to eat, walk the dogs twice, exercise, and do anything else that needs.

I think it's kind of draining to have all that to do that I come home and I just want to watch an episode of Orange is the New Black or something, because it doesn't require any sort of energy at all.  But I do need to get back into reading, I think I'm only about halfway through my goal.  I can make this one!

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 213

Another Jasmine doodle.  Gross.

Stalling

Could someone please explain to me why it is we can't make private bathroom stalls?  You're telling me we can build jets so fast they can get somewhere before you left, build a bridge from two sides of a ravine that meets in the middle perfectly, put a man on the moon, but we can't make a bathroom stall that doesn't have a huge gap in it that I can actually make eye contact with the guy taking a dump while I'm washing my hands.

What insanity is that? Might as well just make some bench seat shitters where you just find a whole and sit and mingle with everyone else trying to pinch one off.  It would be the trough urinal of the fecal world.  I'm just saying people should be able to crap in privacy, and I should have to see them straining to pass their corny brown fudge.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 213

Jasmine doodled this while we were in Rhode Island.  Cute huh.

Back To The Grind

Well, it was back to the normal daily life today.  Work, rehearsals, trying to get everything done that you need to in very little time.  It probably would have been better to have more time after the vacation to really finish up rehearsals of the show, but there's not much I can do about the calendar.  The show is a bit rough right now, but I was surprised at how well everyone did since today was the first day off book, and I'm not sure if anyone even called line once.  That's probably a first.  Though, if they did call line it was maybe once, so still amazing.

I think at some point I need to take a full week off from work.  We've done two mini vacations, but haven't done a full week off, which would be nice.  Having 5 days off in a row is great, but having 9 is way better.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 212

Breakfast while back at work.  Pretty good, but not as good as vacation breakfast, especially those blueberry pancakes.

Holiday Fail

Today we drove home, it wasn't too bad.  We actually ended up letting Keely drive, and she did most of the driving while I got to rest in the back and watch some Netflix, while Becky got to Nap.  It was a pretty uneventful drive, and went by pretty quickly.  Driving can be draining, but relaxing in the back seat isn't so bad at all.

However, we did end up having a bad experience at our Holiday Inn Express.  I booked the room online and specified that we wanted a room with two beds.  However when we checked in and headed up to our room we opened the door to find that the room was very hot, and was a king bed with a pull out couch.  I was not happy at all and Becky called down to request we be moved.  However we found that there were no rooms available with two beds.  We specifically booked two beds so it's really annoying that we ended up like this.  However, everyone was tired so we pulled out the couch to get it set up and found the sheets in the closet for the bed were stained.  Rather than wait for ages they ended up just using their blankets on top of the mattress and we went to sleep. 

Overall I was not at all happy with the room.  It was in kind of shabby shape, and Becky found there was something on the light switch that she took a picture of and went down and ripped them one.  We ended up with half off the room for now, and then a call from the hotel later to discuss what else they wish to do.  Haven't taken care of the call yet.  So, kind of an annoyance in the last 24 hours of our trip, but overall it was a wonderful time.  We certainly need to go back to Maine at some point.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 211
Jasmine painted this on a rock that she found while we were out an about in Maine.

Arthur, You Asshole!

Last year our trip was interrupted by Tropical Storm Andrea, this year we got the remains of Hurricane Arthur (though by the time it reached us it was downgraded).  When I checked the weather last night it didn't look like it would be all that bad and that the storm was heading out to sea, but it apparently came close enough to where we were that we got a ton of rain.  It was pouring when we got up and tried to load the car.  It rained for much of the way through Maine, but by the time we hit the New Hampshire border it was sunny and beautiful out.

We drove about six hours in the morning and then arrived in Newport to take a look at some of the mansions and meet up with Wendy, Jenna, and Josie.  We started with Marble House, probably because it was the easiest to find parking.  We headed to the Breakers first, but there was nowhere to park so we ended up at Marble House.  This actually worked out because the tickets to see the Breakers included one other property so we got to see both.  I love the grounds at Marble House, it's absolutely beautiful, and the tea house in the back yard is crazy.  The breakers is grand and really awesome, but I don't care for the outside or the grounds nearly as much as I like Marble House.

After some time at the houses we headed toward the downtown area to find some food and ended up eating at the Gas Lamp Grille.  There was a bit of debate about if that was the same place we at the first time we went to Newport probably 10 years ago, no conclusion was made, though I imagine I have the bank statements from that time somewhere if we really want an answer.  Dinner was good, and it was nice to spend another day with the Rhode Island friends!  After that we just headed out to drive back toward home so we would have a shorter drive tomorrow.  A good closing day to our trip.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 210
This is the church that John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy got married in.  A few blocks away is a church that George Washington attended.  Lots of history around here.

Pancakes, Shopping, And Climbing A Beehive

Happy Independence Day! Today we started by heading to downtown Bar Harbor to get some breakfast and happened to arrive just as everyone was lining up for the 4th of July parade.  Turns out that probably worked really well for us because the wait for breakfast was only about 10-15 minutes, and from what I read that's really pretty short for the usual traffic at Great Maine Breakfast. I read up on Trip Advisor on where we should eat while we were in town and the over all feedback was that if we wanted a good breakfast, this was the place to come, though some said it was a bit too pricey.  In terms of breakfast it was a bit more expensive than you'd get at your average breakfast cafe type place at home like the Golden Egg.  It was actually more along the lines of perhaps Zingerman's Roadhouse in terms of pricing. 

Regardless we decided that it looked delicious and we should try it so we waited our 10-15 minutes and then headed in.  We were actually amused to see that on the sign in the front door they alerted everyone that this restaurant was a cell phone free restaurant.  I guess they aren't Applebees as the inside joke with our friends would go.. I was actually delighted to find they had a breakfast that combined all my favorites.  Eggs, potatoes, bacon, and pancakes.  Usually you get the first few and toast, or pancakes and bacon, but I always have a hard time getting all them on one plate.  I decided to go with the upgrade and get the blueberry pancakes.

Now, pancakes generally make me very nervous.  There are not a lot of places out that I actually like the pancakes.  They either have terrible flavor, terrible consistency, or end up making me feel like booty after eating them.  To add I wasn't sure if I really liked blueberry pancakes since I've never had them, but Maine is known for blueberries so I figured I had to try it.  Turns out it was absolutely delicious! And the quantity of food was so high that I wasn't able to finish.  The breakfast defeated me!  I was so full I couldn't eat another thing, and that meant I left nearly an entire pancake on the plate.  Probably the best breakfast I've had in I don't even know how long.

The other bonus of our restaurant was it was right on the street where the parade was going on, and our table was at the window so we got a pretty good (though sometimes obscured) view of the the parade.  I don't' know if I've been to a 4th of July parade since I was a kid, but it had a ton of fireworks, local politicians running for office, and some interesting floats.  There was even a guy with a very well done Batman costume.  It was cool to be able to watch while we ate our delicious breakfast.

After our time eating, which ended shortly before the parade did, we decided to hit the streets and go shopping.  The biggest disappointment I had though, was that the shops were very tourist focused.  It seemed that every shop sold sweatshirts, t-shirts, mugs, glasses, and other things you'd expect in some tourist site gift shop.  There were a few shops we did get to go into that were actual shops.  We went to a few art studios, which were pretty cool, and I got some homemade fudge that was delicious, but generally speaking the shops were kind of disappointing.

After hitting most of the town and picking up a few souvenirs, we decided it was time to heard into Acadia for a day in nature before the rain showed up.  Since it was sunny our first stop was Cadillac Mountain.  This is actually the highest mountain within 25 miles of the east coast in all of North America.  That being said, it's not all that tall, about 1500 ft.  But the view was pretty good.  It's a rather flat topped summit, so there was plenty of walking around and lots to see.  You could see all around the park/island and it made for some great views of Bar Harbor, as well as the cruise ship anchored off the coast of town.  This was a pretty convenient stop also because you could drive right to the top and park.  The drive up was nice too because every so often there was a pull off where you could stop and take in the view.

After our drive up the mountain we decided to do some hiking up a mountain.  To do this we headed back to the beach area we were at the night before, which was packed.  Somehow we ended up finding parking and walked across the street to the start of the Beehive Trail.  Now this trail I found a few days before heading out to Maine and showed the group a video of the climb to see if they were interested.  I was a little surprised to find that they were.  Just looking at the video it actually gave me a squeamish feeling and I wasn't so sure I wanted to.  But, when the time came everyone was interested.  From the parking lot you could see the mountain behind us, so you got a good idea of what you were into.

Having done it, I feel like the path leading up to the base of the mountain was possibly equally tiring than actually climbing up the mountain itself.  Now, when I say climb the mountain I'm not saying just a winding path around the mountain.  This was straight up the side where you had to pull yourself up with hand holds on the rock, or in some places they installed some iron rungs to help get up to the next part of the path.  It was exhausting and totally awesome.  When I watched the video before I left I felt very uneasy about it, but once you're climbing it's really awesome and there weren't really any times where I felt bad about the height or the lack of any kind of railing.  The way down was the winding path down the back side of the mountain.  It was a nice hike, and despite only being about 2.3 miles, it took us about 2 hours to finish it.

We finished up our day by going back to the hotel and cleaning up then heading into town for the fireworks.  They were scheduled for 9:15, but we wanted dinner first so we went in a little early.  Turns out there was nowhere to park so we went back to the hotel and walked.  It was about a mile walk according to Google maps, but it felt like it took forever.  It didn't help that as we got to town it started raining.  We stopped to buy some umbrellas and found out the fireworks were moved up to 8:30 to try and avoid the rain.  That didn't so much happen as it started raining really hard at 8:30.  But rain or not the fireworks started going off.  It was quite impressive for a small town.  I almost felt like they were trying to light them off faster in order to get them done quick, but it lasted for about 30 minutes so I don't think that was the case.

While this was going on Becky went around the corner and checked on the wait for a table and found that they could seat us immediately, so we skipped out part way through the fireworks since we were all wet, and starving from our climb.  Turns out we could almost see the fireworks through the window of the restaurant.  We ended up eating at a place called Galyn's, which was also highly rated online.  Turns out it was a good choice.  We got appetizers of crab cakes, and spinach artichoke dip, salads, bread, I got a cup of Lobster Bisque that rivaled the soup at Epcot, then we got our entrees and dessert.  There was no left over food, and it was really delicious.  The only downside was the mile walk back to the hotel.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 209
Group selfie at the top of Cadillac Mountain.  A lovely view

Rocks, Ocean, And Lighthouses

Today was a relatively early morning.  I certainly did not get as much sleep as I would have liked, however with a timeline for meeting Wendy and family, we had to be on the road as soon as we could.  Our first stop of the day was the Portland Head Light.  This is a very recognizable light house not far into Maine near the city of Portland. It's actually the oldest lighthouse in Maine and was completed in the late 1700s.  In fact, the first master of it was appointed by George Washington.  There's a good chance that this picture of the light house will probably look familiar.  The grounds to the lighthouse are actually part of a park, and there is a small museum that is $2 to go into.  I was all about going in, but everyone else was more keen to just look around the grounds instead, so we walked around the park getting some great photos, and enjoying the cooler air coming in off the ocean.

After that we took a path that led a bit North of the lighthouse and found there was a path that took you down to the beach which was incredibly rocky.  There were smaller rocks, but then there were also some giant rocks, one which the kids called the Lion King rock because it juts out and looks a lot like Pride Rock.  It was pretty fun walking around the rocks, but we decided to move along and went to explore the ruins of an old mansion.  It was built in the 1800s but then served as a military house.  now it's pretty much just the outer walls.  It was kind of neat, but we ended up just going down the coast a little more and walking out on the giant rocks that line the ocean.  It was a good time, though we probably spent far too long there.

We headed out of Portland and began our journey up to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  Everyone was hungry and at first we discussed stopping at a fast food spot on our way up, but it turns out that we couldn't agree on a location.  We ended up looking for somewhere to stop and eat and accidentally ventured into downtown Brunswick in search of a restaurant that we never ended up finding.  Instead we found Maine St. which had a nice selection of places to eat.  We decided to give it a try and walked down the street to see what caught out eye.  In the end we ended up at The Great Impasta, an Italian place with decent food.  There was some fun with our waitress because she heard us talking about a bad experience where Becky ended up getting us a gift certificate because of the poor service and she chimed in and saying she did all that so don't tweet anything bad.  Some funny banter followed, and it was overall a good time.  We also decided to try some dessert at Gelato Fiasco, a local gilato shop.  I got Rocky Road and it was delicious!

Once everyone was well fed and ready we did the rest of the drive up to Acadia.  We ended up ahead of Wendy and family so we checked into our hotel before meeting them at the park.  By the time we made it up to Acadia the weather had gotten a bit worse and the clouds and fog had started to roll in.  We decided that given the weather it wouldn't make sense to go up any of the mountains, so instead we decided to take the cliff walk trail.  We started at Sand Beach which was nearly empty and then walked a bit up the trail to Thunder Hole.  Along the way we took a lot of time to walk out on the rocks that the ocean crashes into.  It was actually a really nice time.  There were hardly any people, probably on account of the weather, but that meant we had plenty of space to explore and climb.  We stayed out until it was about dark, and decided to head back to the cars.  At that point Wendy and family headed back to Rhode Island since Jenna had to work on the 4th.

We decided that it was about time for dinner and headed into Bar Harbor to find somewhere to eat.  It was pretty late at this point, so we didn't do too much exploring, but looked at a few locations before settling on Geddy's, which had pretty much a little bit of everything.  I ended up getting the Shrimp Scampi on some pasta.  It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't anything to write home about.  The girls got pizzas which seemed pretty good, and Becky got some fried shrimp and some delicious fries.  It was a decent meal, but we were all pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest.  Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking, shopping and weather permitting maybe get to the top of the mountains in the park to get a good view of the island.  Fingers crossed that mother nature works with us on this one.

Picture(s) of the Day:
Picture 207
A lovely view from the gift shop up to the light.  They don't actually let you go in these, which is kind of disappointing. But I did find out that once a year there is lighthouse day, and all the light houses in Maine are apparently open for visitors to go into and climb to the top.  That's pretty cool.  It also turns out that if I had known I would have rearranged our trip because the West Quoddy lighthouse at the far east of the state was doing tours on the 5th where you could go up into the light.

Picture 208

This rock is peeing.  Ok, there was a little stream and it was leading to this rock and as you can see flowing through the rock to a crack in the side of it.  It of course was also trickling down the side of the rock, which you can see along the bottom edge of it.  It was a pretty place to visit, and I enjoyed how empty it was.