Well, dear readers, the day has come when we’re finally being moved to what will hopefully be a new server home that will work properly and well. We have all digits crossed. Now, as occasionally happens, everything should be fine and work the way it should, but last time they moved us a couple of years ago, we had a couple of hiccups. I do know he’s been testing for a while so it should all be fine, but if there’s a problem they’ll solve it instantly. This has been a public service announcement brought to you by Prell, leaves hair radiantly alive.
So, what kind of a day was yesterday? Well, it was a hit and miss day. The miss was simple: I awoke after ninety minutes of sleep and could not fall back asleep for several hours thereafter. I slept until ten, for a total of about five hours. Once the helper was gone, I got back in bed and relaxed but don’t think I actually slept any. That was about it for the miss.
The rest of the day and evening was perfectly fine considering I didn’t do anything and that I attended a wedding. I did find a dead squirrel in the hot tub. If only the squirrel had asked I would have told him it was a really bad idea to go in the hot tub without permission. So, the dead squirrel is just lying there like so much fish and I’m not of a mind to move it from there to the trash because it will attract all manner of unpleasant things and smell up the yard, so I’ll just let it remain underwater until Mr. Pool Man comes on Wednesday and he’ll remove it.
I did do some work on the computer and at the piano and then sat on my couch like so much fish and watched a documentary on the Flix of Net entitled Kids for Cash. It’s a powerful little cautionary tale of a tough judge who regularly sent kids to a correctional facility no matter how small or silly the issue. Some of the kids were put away for three to six YEARS – well, I think we can see the problem here. The parent were regularly advised against getting lawyers, which, of course, was illegal, and later it was revealed the judge took money from the people who built the correctional facility. To hear these kids and parents tell their tales is heartrending. No one, after their incarceration ended, came out unscathed and most have had their lives scarred forever. Now, the judge was not actually charged with getting cash for kids, he was charged with money laundering and all the things stemming from taking the dough. He is currently serving twenty-eight years in prison, as is the other judge who was involved (serving less time). A justice for juveniles group got involved and actually got at least one of the kids’ sentence overturned and got the kid out of jail. But all those convictions have now been overturned and everything has been expunged from the records. It’s a very well done film, moving, and infuriating. I recommend it highly.
Then it was time to mosey on over to the Castaway, a Burbank institution located high in the Burbank hills, with a spectacular view. It’s been host to every kind of event and celebration, including, of course, 1000s upon 1000s of weddings. In fact, there were four going on at the same time last evening.
It wasn’t a huge affair – it seemed like there were under a hundred people, rather similar to my darling daughter’s wedding. I only knew a handful. Now, I don’t like Bar Mitzvahs or weddings or funerals or anything like that. I never have and although I keep hoping that will change, it really doesn’t. This was friend Doug Haverty’s daughter’s wedding – I’ve known her since she was in high school. Her boyfriend and now husband is a very nice fellow. I sat next to Adryan Russ for the ceremony. Thankfully, it was not a religious ceremony – it had an officiant who spoke nicely, read some quotes, talked about love, and then married the cute couple. They’d each written something for the other to hear – it was all very short, very sweet, and it was even touching, so given it was a wedding I didn’t really mind it at all. The last wedding I attended was my very own darling daughter’s wedding, back in 2001 in this very month of October. Then everyone mingled for a while, then we all went to the reception room. We were all assigned tables and our table was rather fun, with one woman who got drunker and drunker with each passing minute. Like most drunks, she veered from being funny to nasty, but we were all having fun and so it was all fine. I had the filet mignon – it was teeny-tiny but very good, in some kind of brown sauce. There was also a dollop of mashed potatoes and some veggies. Prior to that there was a nice salad with candied walnuts. I left before the cake was served – I’ve been not feeling up to snuff vocally, and I’ve had a kind of inkling of a sore throat for weeks, but it never comes and most of the time it’s not there at all, and then suddenly I’ll feel it, then it goes away again. So, I came home so I could rest my voice, take an allergy pill and a Sambucol and relax.
I watched an hour-long PBS thing on Robin Williams – it was short and didn’t really dwell on whatever dark stuff was going on in his life, but I enjoyed it.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. Then I’ll relax until Sami and her mom come, and then we’ll mosey on over to Dan Tana’s for our postmortem dinner. Last I was there was three and a half years ago and prior to that it had been at least five or six years. I don’t know why I don’t go there more often because I really do love it there. Of course, I’ll be having my beloved table-made Caesar salad and then my beloved spaghetti carbonara. Or maybe I’ll try a different pasta – we shall see.
This week is crazy. Because of musical director scheduling issues, our rehearsals are unwieldy. So, we have three people coming tomorrow night, then some on Tuesday, everyone on Wednesday, then Thursday I teach a musical theater workshop at LACC, Friday night I see the opening of Damn Yankees, Saturday is our stumble-through, and Sunday is sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, relax, and have a yummilicious postmortem dinner. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, having had not such a bad time at a very nice wedding.