So yesterday I finished the mango orange scarf. That meant that it took two days to do 2/3s of it, so at 1/3 a day top speed, that's pretty fast.

Of course, top speed is not something I can keep up, but I'm hoping that possibly I can do at least two a week (or most of two at any rate) and get some done in time for Xmas. Who the hell did I give them to last time? Mom, Melanie, Omar, Cynthia...anyone else? If you got one, tell me so I don't accidentally give anyone two.

Finished the mango orange one, started the dove grey one. Bet I can be finished by Friday!

Have I mentioned that I'm directing Vanities in February? Well, I am!

I was going to do Ninth Month Midnight, a show of Le's that I have been dying to do for years, but he decided to switch the schedule around and now I will have a slightly short rehearsal period, because of performing in Miss Reardon in January, and Ninth Month needs every second of rehearsals that it can get.

So he suggested Vanities! Now, I haven't read it in years, but I remembered clearly loving that show, so I said yes right away. He gave me a really good list of women to choose from--I honestly could have cast the show three times with the people he gave me without ever having to go to the B list.

I decided on Sri, Deva and Marisa, all actresses that I have not yet worked with, but have wanted to. Sri I have seen give good performances, but I think that if I direct her, she'll be better, Deva I cast in something in the summer and she had to turn me down because she was getting married, and Marisa is the one whose wedding pictures I want to take, so why not have her around so I can grind her down? Kidding, she's also an actress that I've wanted to work with since seeing her in Pie Supper last year.

I called them all--Sri was the only one whom I reached, and she accepted right away. Hooray! I really need to pick up the script, though, because I have no idea what the roles are and no idea of how to cast these women. They are different enough, though, that I am sure that they will slot into the roles fairly easily and it won't be that one will be in the wrong one because two fit one role and no-one fits another one.

So last night was opening night for The Long Christmas Dinner and Christmas Lullaby for Momma.

There were only a few people in the audience, which ended up being quite a blessing. First of all, in the first show I made a small but amusing line error: I'm telling how my parents met and the line is, "She married a young John Wainwright, a congregational minister. Her saw her in his congregation one day and right in the middle of the sermon he said to himself, 'I'll marry that girl.'"

Well, I managed to leave out the key words "to himself", so it seems as though he was standing at the pulpit, saying" And then Jesus said, 'I'll marry that girl!'" Anyway, not a big deal, just thought it was funny. In the other show, however...whoo doggies! I'll start from the beginning.

How Lullaby starts is, there is a ghost light, music is playing, I set myself on the sofa, the lights come up, the music goes out, Lee rattles her keys at the door, I realize she's coming in and pretend to be asleep.

Well, last night Pam was a bit rattled in the booth, so she forgot to do the music until the very end of the ghost, so she sort of started and stopped it right away. Now, the music stopping is Lee's cue, which she did not here. So the lights were up on me on the sofa...and nothing happened.

Now, I have nothing to do, there is just the sitting and then the door, I don't have anything to occupy myself with, so I'm sitting and sitting and sitting, and it occurs to me that nobody is going to run into the dressing room to tell Lee to start the damn play, so I kind of had to.

Remember, I'm playing a very old lady, so I picked up my cane and, in character, hobbled across the stage to the door, opened it as though I was looking to see if my daughter had arrived yet, and mumbled at Lee, "You have to come on stage now!" then hobbled back to the sofa.

I found out later that I mumbled too quietly for Lee, and she had no idea what I had said, so she turned to Gregg David and said, "What did she say?" and he answered, "Um, I think that the show has started!" Anyway, she came onstage and I had enough time to get back to the sofa without having to dive for it in a non-90-year-old kind of way.

We exchange a few lines when I realized there was another problem. I am supposed to give her an envelope with a check in it later in the play, and I had forgotten to put the envelope in my pocket! I didn't want to think about it the whole time for crying out loud, I had a page-long monologue coming up that I didn't want to fuck up, but I had to decide what to do about it. Should I say that I mailed it to her? Should I say I was going to give it to her later? None of these ideas seemed to work with the lines.

Inevitably, the time came where I actually had to give her the envelope, so instead of holding my hand out and handing her the envelope that I didn't have, I motioned her over with my head, then sort of slipped my hand into her hand, like I'm Sinatra tipping a doorman. "Here you go. It's your Christmas present." She gazed blankly at the handful of nothing that I gave her, then pretended to put it in her purse and we went on.

I'm just glad that we did this interesting exhibition of problem-solving onstage in front of three people.

The funny thing is that we had planned what to do if the phone didn't ring, as it didn't properly at tech, to skip to the next line, then go back if the phone rings, and if it doesn't I was going to go to the phone and make a call. "Hello, Elsie? You were just going to call me? I knew that."

After it was over, I went into the dressing room and put and envelope in the pocket of my dress and another one in the cushions of the sofa. I am set for envelopes now!

Remember, if anyone who wants a Xmas card from me this year had best send me their address, because remember? No computer means no Xmas card list!

Today's horoscope:
You're quite ready to say what's on your mind -- and quite unwilling to temper your rhetoric, not one teeny iota. Good. Just be ready to face a bit of opposition from others who aren't as fervent about your cause.

One year ago today:
We went home on the bus together, meaning that I took his bus and got off at the end of Park and walked home six blocks or so, and right before I got off, we kissed goodnight, and that was where it all flared up again, on both sides might I add, but that was okay, too. We can be together like this for awhile.

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Last Updated Sat 11 December 17:45:09 2004