Well, dear readers, I’m just going to ask a simple question, although I already know there is no answer, simple or otherwise: WHAT IS IT ABOUT THURSDAY AND TRAFFIC????????? There, I’ve asked it and I’m glad. Do people just put on their stupid hats on Thursday, group together, and then decide that Thursdays will always be the most horrendous traffic of all days for no reason whatsoever? Can someone please explain this phenomenon to me because it makes no earthly sense. I say this because I left to attend an audition session at the theatre at 2:50 in the afternoon. I purposely stayed away from the freeway, just because. I took Beverly Glen. And I had the drive from hell and WHY? I was behind a huge line of cars, each driver worse than the last. When we finally got past Sunset I’d already used up twenty-five minutes of the twenty-five minute drive. Funny that. Then as we approached Wilshire Blvd. the line of cars was backed up a full two blocks and WHY? It’s basically a one-lane street but a wide one and at Wilshire it splits into two lanes. But there’s also a parking lane to the right and there were no cars there, so I pulled over and began to whiz by the line of cars. Great, eh? Well, great save for the texting moron who suddenly veered his car slightly into the parking lane, which caused me to veer my car slightly to the right and right into a trash can, which neatly decapitated by passenger side mirror clean off. I was so furious and so wanting to take that texting moron OUT that I didn’t stop to get the mirror, I immediately called Glendale Infiniti and ordered a new one. Happily, once I finally got to Overland things were better, but the twenty-five minute drive took close to fifty minutes and I got to the theater just in time.
Now, keep in mind that I really wished I didn’t have to attend these auditions. We were supposed to see twenty ladies. We saw three. The others were never confirmed. So, a complete waste of my time and energy – I wanted both my time and energy used for writing and as you’ll shortly see, I hadn’t really done any prior to that due to a bunch of other moronic things to deal with. All the auditions were awful, but one of the gals was very tall and that reminded me of Tall Girl, the singer I used to work with and whose act I directed. I called her, and I think she’ll be taking over for Dana Dewes, at least for six performances, and then after Dana returns, she’ll cover Jane for the rest of the run. She’s the only one I know who can do both. At six-thirty I met Sami and her mom for a snack and that was at least fun. Then I went back to the theatre – I thought about staying for the show, but we looked online and the freeway, while having a yellow line, seemed to be moving at about forty miles an hour, which was okay by me and I really wanted to get home and write. Big mistake. I forgot – THURSDAY – MORON ALERT. I got on the freeway at seven-twenty and at seven-fifty I’d gone exactly one mile. I got off the freeway and took Beverly Glen and was home about forty minutes later – one hour and ten minutes to do a twenty-five minute drive. Had I stayed to see the show, I would have been home an hour later, yes, but I would also have avoided all that frustration and I would have apparently seen one of our best shows with one of our most vocal audiences.
Prior to all that nonsense, I’d gotten up around nine and was immediately dealing with the first of several moronic things, all having to do with CDs coming this morning. Apparently there was a problem with some of the print – very minor, but they weren’t going to be able to get me what I needed in terms of a full run. We assessed the situation and she pulled out the most minor of the smudged booklets, where you could barely even see the problem and she squeezed out our full order. Then it was the same problem on the other title, but she squeezed that one out, too. But it was ninety minutes of my morning making calls and sorting it all out. Then I finally began futzing and finessing the previous day’s pages, but kept getting interrupted. I did get through that part and then wrote a little less than a page – I’d intended to do three in the morning. Oh, well. I then went to eat. The good news was that I had no queasiness. I still didn’t want to eat any meat, fish, or chicken, so I ordered a Cobb Salad and had them leave out the turkey, ham and bacon. It was really good and I had a bagel with it. Then I came right home, but only had an hour before I had to leave, so I showered, wrote the rest of the page and that was that.
When I got home, I had to do some invoices, the helper came and picked them up and then I FINALLY began writing and I was FINALLY doing what I’d wanted to do all damn day. I wrote over four pages and I think they were pretty good and this morning I just have a paragraph to do to end this current chapter and then I begin the new chapter and I shall be over 100 pages in.
Now wait just a darned minute, I do believe I promised you some photographs that were taken of the benefit, the actual show photos, so here are a few. First up, my wonderful Fugue for Tinhorn gals, Lisa Livesay, Susanne Blakeslee and Marsha Kramer.
Next we have the still cute as a button Daisy Eagan.
Here’s Gary Morgan and the Flying Morgans – at the beginning of their act they bring out a table on which sits a tiny box, which they open and out of which comes Gary’s contortionist daughter – the audience could not believe it.
Here are my adorable You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile girls, left to right, Brooke, Hadley, Skylar, Oliviana and Brennley.
And here’s a real Monkee – Micky Dolenz, doing his hit, I’m a Believer.
Of course, you know this cutie pie, Jenna Lea Rosen as she prepares to get one of the biggest ovations of the evening.
The beautiful Kerry O’Malley going into Karen Morrow territory with I Had a Ball.
Here’s the electrifying Obba Babatunde.
The one, the only Jonathan Pendragon and his amazing rings. He really is the lord of the rings.
And finally, our co-producer Juliana Hansen.
Today, I shall be up early, the plumber may be returning to finish up some odds and ends, then I’ll futz and finesse and really try to write at least three pages of the new chapter. Then it’s a two-hour work session with one of the And the World Goes Round singers, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, eat (maybe another Cobb Salad without meat), and then write at least three to five more pages.
The weekend is mostly writing, with a little time off to watch a motion picture or two, have a celebration dinner at the Smoke House, and attend the matinee on Sunday because Tall Girl will be there to see the show. She’ll then have ten days to get it under her belt. Next week is endlessly busy with writing, doing a four-day musical theatre workshop at LACC, and rehearsing singers for the recording, writing the commentary and all that jazz.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, have a work session, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, write and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, a new Kritzerland release for February. Blu and Ray, finishing The Cassandra Crossing, then moving directly to the new Twilight Time release of Man in the Dark, much of which was filmed at Ocean Park Pier where my grandparents lived. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, firm in my resolve to drive nowhere after two o’clock on a Thursday.