I'm damp. For the last five days it's rained. Some days, a little bit... with a lot of cloudy hours before and after the actual rain. Last night and today it has been rather Ark like. Raining so hard that the sound of the rain on the road outside my window was loud enough to make me think there was a car accident happening this morning.
There has been no wind with this soaking rain. So all my windows have remained open -- allowing the cool mid-August night air in.. along with all its dampness. I woke up this morning when the aforementioned deluge woke me, and just felt cold and clammy. My sheets were damp. My pillows damp. Cold and almost comfortable, but noticeably damp.
I'm wondering when we all beginning to grow mold spores on our bodies.
Right now it isn't raining, but I bet it'll start up again. You just watch.
I don't mind the weather like this for a while in the middle of summer. The grass is amazingly vivid green instead of dead, burned brown. The plants and flowers are thriving. I don't have to pay the electric department for AC and fan usage; and I don't have to worry about just selectively watering the plants only and letting the lawn die. This is our third summer here (if you can believe that) and the yard has never looked more amazing. I love it.
But I want it to sunny up and warm up a bit here, not too much. It can stay cool if it wants to... I don't mind that. But the rain has to stop by August 22nd so the kids can do the Romeo & Juliet tour.
I'm still looking for a location in Beverly for the show. I'm finding it nearly impossible to get the Parks department to return my calls. I'm not sure if my persistence annoys them and they're not calling me back for spite or what ... but really. I have 10 days until that show, and I have nowhere to stage it.
Everywhere else has been a breeze. I've been treated with respect, the people I've been working with have been kind and amazing. Everyone has been so supportive and encouraging and interested in what we're doing. Just this one town is posing a problem and it's hard because a mess of the kids live there and want to stage the play in their town. I could do a sixth show in Salem, or go to Danvers or something... But I want the kids to represent in their home towns... I emailed one of the moms from that town and asked her to pull the "I live here, book it" card. I hate having to do that. This is supposed to be MY responsibility. I shouldn't have to call someone to pull townie rank.
While that has been frustrating, everything else is going great. Jess is off book and totally into her parts. The kids are amazing. The photographs that we've taken are amazing. I look forward to picking her up each day and hearing all they've got planned. I cannot wait for the shows.
Each show will be different and amazing, unique in its own way. From a playground to a castle; a ball field to a bustling inner-city historical square, no two shows will be the same.
Friday, August 22 @ 1pm - TBD
Friday, August 22 @ 5pm: The Athanaeum, Salem MA
Saturday, August 23 @ 1pm: Mary Jane Lee Park Playground, Salem MA
Saturday, August 23 @ 5pm: Fort Sewall, Marblehead MA
Sunday, August 24 @ 1pm: The Rose Garden, Lynn Woods Reservation, Lynn, MA
Sunday, August 24 @ 5pm: Derby Square, Old Town Hall, Salem MA
Tuesday, August 26 @ 1pm: The Senior Center, Salem MA
Tuesday, August 26 @ 6pm: Palmer Cove Ballfield, Salem MA
Wednesday, August 27 @ 1pm: Moseley Woods, Newburyport, MA
Wednesday, August 27 @ 5pm: Winnekenni Castle, Haverhill MA
Thursday - collapse and break. And then my journal entries won't involve Shakespeare for quite a while. :-)
There hasn't been much to write about I suppose. There are some incredibly random things that don't really MAKE an entry on their own, so I'll just list them out here.
Olympic Opening Ceremonies
I wasn't going to watch them. I am really not a big Olympics fan in general... for as much as I like sports. I think it is a spectacular waste of time and money, especially when you know that the Chinese government built these amazing structures and pushed people out of homes to make room for this, what, ten day event? Ruining lives left and right so they look good. Nice.
Well.
I happened past the 2008 drummers drumming and was astonished and I stopped to watch.
Nothing in recent memory has made me say "wow" as many times as these vignettes. I was absolutely moved by the beauty and scale of the whole thing, the combination of really high-tech visual amazement and sheer number of humans out on the pitch making all of the things run. Some of it was hokey (Oh look, here come the children. Horray for Children! Aren't they cute!? Oh yes, they are our future! Horray! Feh).
Overall, it was fantastic and then I got horribly bored with the parade of nations and oooh this designer made this country's clothing for tonight's parade and oooooh don't they look darling in their little hats. Whatever. I liked the more traditional garb that a lot of the African countries were wearing, and the sweet humility of some of the smaller countries who showed up in khakis and polo shirts or T-shirts with their country flag on the front... looking like tourists, strangers in a strange land.
And I might just say that no other Olympics after this need bother having an opening ceremony. Nothing will top this. Ever. Nothing. So don't even bother planning, London. Just have everyone show up and do the parade of nations and shoot off some fireworks and go out for a pint.
China did something right, and better than anyone else ever will.
Brains are Mysterious
Has this ever happened to you? I get up once a night to go to the bathroom (sometimes I'm able to sleep all the way through the night but I wake up at 6 and really really need to pee!). I don't turn the light on, because I'm a girl and don't need to SEE to pee. And if I do turn the light on, my eyes don't adjust to the dark well enough to walk back to my bedroom without tripping on a dog.
So I'm sitting on the lou, in the dark, and I look out the window. And I see a SNAKE on the garage roof! A SNAKE! I swear to God! And I look at it for a long time and say "Why is there a snake on the roof of the garage and how the hell did it get there?" I slowly start to realize that it isn't a snake. It's a serpentine branch. Sitting in the moonlight, being a stick on the garage roof. My mind registers that and I say "Oh, okay," finish up my business and go back to bed.
The next night, it happens again. I look out, see the snake, wonder why it is there and how it got there, ponder, and realize. Accept and then go back to bed.
Over and over this happens.
Do you have any weird brain not absorbing things adventures you'd like to share.
At least I don't SCREAM when I see the snake on the roof. That would be bad. A nightly scream of terror when I see the stupid thing.
TV
I watch a lot of DVR'ed TV shows. Doug recently started DVRing two shows that I highly recommend. Normally, I don't tell people what to watch because someone will take me up on a suggestion and say 'ugh, that was AWFUL' and then I feel like I've let them down.
But if you get a chance, AMC has a TV show called "Mad Men." It takes place in a hoity toity advertising agency in Manhattan in the early 60s. It is really amazingly beautifully shot. When I first saw it on the screen as I walked through the living room, I thought Doug was watching a movie, it was that good. TV normally doesn't have that kind of a super detailed amazing eye to the period. But this does. The dialogue is snappy, rude, smart, amazing. And everyone smokes, just like they did in the early 60s. And you can see smoking etiquette taking place. A man lighting two cigarettes to give one to the dame on his arm, huge fancy lighters as table pieces. Astounding.
The other show is "Aliens in America" on the CW. I don't know how long they can ride this show, because it is about a Pakistani exchange student living with a family deep in Green Bay Packers' territory in Wisconsin. The characters are great, the dialog is really believable and funny, and I love it, even when it is cringe-inducing. Watch it.
Alright. I guess that's it. I have to get some work done this morning. Geoff started football last night and came home a sopping, disgusting mess. So all of his stuff is in the wash. I'm going into the office later this afternoon and hope to not have to eat any vacation time this week thanks to him not having anyone to be with him. Sigh.
More later.
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