So yesterday I tried to get Jim to replace Omar, which would have been great casting, as he is tall and blonde and handsome and the mental picture of Philip calling him "me little man!" was classic, but he's going camping with his kids during the rehearsal period, and had too complicated a work schedule besides, so he turned us down.

At least he did so right away, for once, as opposed to the rest of these damn actors who take days and days to get back to me.

Le had given me a big list of actors and said I could choose in what order I wanted to offer them, and one was this guy named John, though he said that he thought that we didn't get along and maybe I wouldn't want him. Now, this is true, I don't like John, or it was true until recently. I was holding a grudge from years ago when we did a show together and he was a real asshole, but a few weeks ago I was running the front of house for his show and he was so nice and so helpful that I threw off that old grudge like a cloak, and now I'd really like to work with him. Plus he's great casting for the brother.

So I called him, and he called me back during rehearsal so I didn't pick up, and I didn't check the message right away, because it came up "Caller ID blocked", which is usually my Mom, so when I did he had left work and I didn't have his home number with me, so I called Cynthia and had her call him, but she tried several times and the phone only rang and rang. He is interested, so hopefully it will work out, if we ever actually speak to one another.

So I went into the show yesterday. I like to get there at 6p for a 7p show, but as long as I'm there by 6.30p that's plenty of time, so I leave the house at 5.30p. Well yesterday I left at 5.45p, but that's not really so bad considering it's a 15 minute trip, but first I couldn't get a van and then when I finally got on at 6.05p, we went about two blocks, then stopped.

I won't bore you with every tedious minute I spent in traffic, but suffice it to say that it took an hour and a half to travel the five minute journey to the tunnel. That's to the tunnel, going through the tunnel was about the speed as usual. I always forget that rush hour goes both ways, it isn't just cars coming back into New Jersey.

So I actually got to the theatre at 7.05p, i.e. exactly when the show usually starts, but there were two ushers instead of the one that I had booked, and one of them actually had been trained to run the box office! She had been supposed to be there the night before, but had gotten mixed up and come last night instead, a fortunate mistake, due to the traffic from Hell. So since there were two of them, I split!

Omar and I had talked about going out last night, but only because the movie that we had planned to see next was, I thought, closing this week, but since it turned out that it is playing for one more week, I called him and told him that we didn't have to go. It's too soon for us to see each other since we are taking this little break, and it's not as though I didn't know that we wouldn't be going anyway. I know him.

So I went to see Spellbound at the Film Forum. I am so glad that I didn't miss it, because it is an absolutely spectacular film. It's a documentary about these eight kids who go to the National Spelling Bee in Washington. They're from all over the country of all different economic backgrounds, some with immigrant parents or from single parent families, some whose parents really push them, and some who don't--all these kids have in common is the fact that they are all brilliant, not just in spelling.

Anyway, it's hilarious and moving and very very suspenseful. These filmmakers sure picked the right kids, they could have all been knocked out in round one for heaven's sake. My favourite was Angela, this skinny, gawky girl with braces from a small town in Texas whose parents don't speak English. They snuck over from Mexico twenty years earlier so that their children would have better educational opportunity, and here's their daughter, going to Washington with the smartest kids in the country.

Plus, it's fun to see how many of the words you can spell.

Lenten entries missed:

Mimi Smartypants narrowly avoided becoming crack ho, took a trip to CrabbyWorld, made non-poisonous muffins, summarized every entry she has ever written, and had a dearth of toiletries.

I have no doubt that Mimi is a perfectly ordinary person and that being around her is just like being around everyone else, but when I read her entries I wish that I lived in Chicago so that I could follow her around all day singing about how cool she is like Sir Robin's minstrel in Holy Grail.

Today's horoscope:
Pay attention to why you might need your reflexes. As long as the user interface is working well, put some time into improving the back end. Be ready for complaints before they happen.

One year ago today:
Which means that I still have to follow the worst show of the evening and will thus get no laughs. It's my cross to bear--that, and the death of the children. Sorry, that's a quote from the play.

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