Well, dear readers, it is late and she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon, so I must write these here notes in a hurry, by gum and by golly and buy bonds. Not only that, I’m so tired I can’t even see straight. That is because I was up at six in the morning thanks to an attack of allergy. That kept me up until nine, I fell back asleep, but the telephonic device kept ringing – I think I managed to get an additional ninety minutes of sleep to add to the three hours I had prior to the attack of allergy.
Once up, I had to answer lots o’ e-mails and had a few telephonic conversations. Then I did some work on the LA show, and best of all Lanny sent my a synth mock-up of his orchestration for C.C. Brown’s and it was just beautiful. We’ve decided to do these mock-ups so if there are any adjustments I can figure them out so all that isn’t last minute after the sitzprobe. There were only two tiny adjustments to make – I’d changed the ending a bit and it wasn’t quite right, and there were two little notes missing in the bar before going into the bridge – they should have been in the chart, but weren’t. But I was really pleased by what I heard. He’s working on the opening number now – he told me he thought it was a great opening for the show.
Then I went and had a cup of clam chowder (not as good as usual and I didn’t finish it) and a turkey sandwich and no fries or onion rings. Certainly under seven hundred calories all in. Then I did an errand, after which I picked up some packages, which included the softcover of the new book. That’s always a big thrill but I never consider it real until the hardcover arrives, which should be in about three or four days. But there was a problem with the printing – some of it was perfect, while other pages printed way too light and that’s completely unacceptable. So, I contacted my person and they’re looking into it and will insure that it doesn’t happen again – they have to have better quality control than that, like maybe actually looking at what they printed. It’s never happened before, so maybe their machine was misbehaving. And I’d purchased a softcover from Amazon as well, which also arrived and that had the same problem but worse, in that there were no correctly printed pages – everything was too light, although not as light as the other copy. I took photos and sent them as a reference, although the problem doesn’t look as bad in the photos. Anyway, I’ll hear on Monday and as long as they understand that if I receive any books that are like that I will return them immediately.
Then it was time to mosey on over to LACC for my meeting with the set designer for the LA show. He showed me several options of what he’d basically come up with, and I really liked one of them a lot, especially as the seats will be in an “L” and playing center will be right between the two sections. It will be fun to stage that way. There are levels and we’re trying to decide if the entire front area should be one level only (but built up – not the actual floor of the theater), or if we want this really fun level he’s got in the middle, and if we do we want the sides to be the actual theater floor or do we want to build our false floor and then add that other level to THAT. At this point I need to see a model and he’ll do that and I’ll see it next week – with those three options. But it’s designed for projections, the band is on an upstage level, which is visually nice. The only problem for me was there was only three entrances, but I made a suggestion, and then he improved on it and it’s going to be really fun and will make about eight entrance points, which I love. It’s the kind of collaboration that’s so much fun.
They’d posted the cast list and I saw a couple of our kids, as they’re in tech for a show right now. I also had a brief conversation with the lighting designer – he’s a great guy. So, we’re moving right along. I’ve decided to take on the task of writing a monologue about the Pan Pacific Auditorium, one of the most beautiful buildings this city has ever seen and one which the city shamefully let go to hell until it burned down. But that’s LA – no pride in its history, ever. They don’t care what they tear down.
Then I came home, did some work on the computer, did a jog, had a bunch more telephonic conversations and by the time I finished all that it was once again too late to watch anything. Instead, I did a jog, so that my net calories were under 500, then I went to Gelson’s and their salad bar. I got a bunch of lettuce and added some multi-colored peppers, olives, mushrooms, scallions and other veggies, then put one little shake of oil on it, and went a wee bit overboard on the red wine vinegar, effectively drowning everything. I just didn’t know how to gauge how much to use, but next time I’ll know better than to drown it. I also got some shrimp cocktail shrimp. The salad, of course, had virtually almost no calories and neither did the shrimp so I don’t think I even reached 700 total for the day. The horrible thing is the weight is very slow to come off – it’s very frustrating to me but I have to lose twenty to thirty pounds, I just have to and I will continue down this road until I do. The salad really filled me up, as did the shrimp, so I immediately think I feel bloated and like I’ll actually gain weight – but there were almost no calories so hopefully I won’t. I haven’t had anything resembling dessert since dinner at Muse Margaret’s and prior to that I hadn’t had a sweet in over two weeks.
Today, I must be up early, I’ll jog, do some errands and whatnot, then come home and get everything ready for our stumble-through. Then I’ll do some work on that monologue and see how I feel about it. I have to find a way in – whether it’s just someone spouting words or whether I create a character – just not sure how I want to do it yet. I still have to complete one other song – it’s two-thirds done and I just have to sit down and do it. Then we’ll have our stumble-through, and then some of us will go eat – the question is WHERE. I think Casa Vega is a possibility, although I’d rather go to a more calorie friendly jernt. We shall see. Then I’ll definitely watch something in the evening.
Tomorrow is a ME day – I’ll write, I’ll relax, I’ll watch stuff, and just enjoy the day and evening. Monday I have a bunch of stuff to do, but basically I have to keep slogging forth on the show so we have something pretty concrete to go into rehearsal with. I have figured out the first seven things in act one – just have to decide where to put a monologue or longer bit – we’ll probably have three to four of those in each act. Plus I do have to write some lead-ins to a couple of songs that need to be set up. Most of the songs stand on their own just fine without any preamble. Tuesday is sound check and show, and then the rest of the week is meetings, meals, working on the LA show and figuring out the April Kritzerland. It’s going to be a little nutty for the next few weeks. The April Kritzerland is just fun and eclectic so that won’t be hard, and thankfully I already know what May will be.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, do errands and whatnot, have a stumble-through, eat, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Everyone has their own way of dieting or has used various kinds of popular diets. Which have worked for you? Which were the easiest and which were the hardest. And were you able to keep the weight off once you were done? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping I don’t have another attack of allergy.