Haines His Way

Other than hectic, busy lunches during a work shift (which were handled in the usual way: just keep moving like a shark) the one time which springs to mind as to being completely and totally overloaded was quite some time ago.
I had just finished up playing Nugget in a four week run of EQUUS, when I began my next project. The theater company which produced EQUUS, Laurel Highlands Regional (with whom I had a three year working relationship) accepted my proposal to stage Harvey Fierstien's SAFE SEX with my fellow actors Denise Pullen and Mark Calla.  Our intent was to each direct one of the one-acts and give the box office take to the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force.  The theater agreed to a 70/30 split of the profits and we were set to go for two weekends in August.
At the time, I was working at Carnegie-Mellon, as was Denise, and my job involved walking around the campus as supervisor of dining services' Mobile Carts Units. I was in before seven and out just after four, Monday through Friday AND I had just begun a live-in relationship with someone I had met on the closing night of EQUUS.  For safety's sake, I'll call him Greg - the name which I used for his character in my play THE END OF THE WORLD ON NEW YEARS' EVE.  Greg was a skilled carpenter and worked on several films (THE DARK HALF, CREEPSHOW) which were filmed in Pittsburgh; he asked to be a part of SAFE SEX as designer and construction foreman.
As part of his plan, discussed with the theater, Greg also took it upon himself to redesign the theater's auditorium - a converted church sanctuary - by building seating platforms, creating a more indoor amphitheater feel to the place, with three moveable levels of seating platforms, reconstructing the sound/light/stage mangement booth, as well.
So in those fateful days in the 80s, I roamed the campus, went home to dinner, then off to rehearsals.  After rehearsal (I was directing "Manny & Jake") I'd arm myself with a powertool and go to the theater's basement and help on the construction of sets and platforms.  On weekends, it was more building and getting the pieces into the theater proper, as it was when I wasn't rehearsing my two actors.
At the end of the day, a quick stop at a bikers' bar for a brew was in order.  
Don't even go there!  I didn't survive through the drinking, but, from an offshoot of that drinking: POOL.  I learned to play a nice relaxing game of pool.  I didn't know that pool could be such a savior.  Thinking, skillful and sometimes arguementative, the game captured me and let me take the worries of the day out on the cue stick and the balls.  Pool also brought my first soulmate to me, for when I declared that I was tired of going to str8 bars to play and that I knew of other bars in the city with pool tables, our little troupe trooped over to The Norreh.  A private club -open all night.  Those pool sessions led to a couple of singing gigs at benefit performances.  It was during one of those gigs that I finally noticed The Norreh's bartender, John, who had  certainly been noticing Greg and I.   Not only was John an incredible person and a great bartender - he was a mean pool player, too.
So now, whenever I know that I'm about to be inundated, I find the nearest pool table, grab a partner and have a nice relaxing time.

There's so much more to this tale, but, the important parts concerning the TOPIC OF THE DAY have nearly all been told.

And you came by this information...how, exactly?

 

My Mom always helped Dad build his TV sets!  She kind of had to, since he always appropriated the dining room table as the HeathKit construction area, and it was the easiest way for her to get the table back quickly.

I came by this information through association with OTHER manly men.  

Dude!  Take a chill pill.  The comment was tongue-in-cheek.  

And it had nothing to do with "building" anything.

 

It's almost time to go home.

I come by this information from 1) knowing how to read a clock, and 2) knowing that the end of the day is at a specific time.

Just in case...

I am a spy!

A grocery store from a rival chain has just opened across the highway from where I work.  I couldn't resist, and dragged der Brucer with me to see what they had.

I'll admit, they have the snazziest store in Rehoboth.  Lots of mirrors (no smoke, however, in honor of the Great American Smoke-Out and, well, there's no smoking in stores or restaurants in Delaware in any case), to make the displays look even larger.

And they have a great produce department.

And they're offering loads of discounts...for the first sixty days they'll be in business.

But I have to question the wisdom of opening this week, one week before Thanksgiving.  Sure, they'll get the crowds, or at least some of them, but the staff seems horribly undertrained.  For example, we bought some items (they had a great price on steaks), including Brussels sprouts.  The checker didn't know what they were.  (No, I didn't tell her what the PLU code was, that would have been too rude.)  And she was having problems with knowing how the register worked, which isn't a good thing, particularly in the express lane.

There's also a serious problem with their parking lot.  Parking lots in Delaware are a joke anyways, but this lot has no exit!  OK, exageration, but there's a clearly marked entrance to the lot on the highway, but no exit on the highway at all.  Instead, there is a poorly marked exit on one of the side streets.

The store itself is fine.  But whoever planned that parking lot got paid plenty for nothing.

Tonight at 7 we have an HOA meeting.

Dang!  It's a week early, but Thanksgiving will do that to schedules.

I wanna go.  I don't wanna go.

I wanna go.  I don't wanna go.

No matter what, I'm outta there before 8 p.m.

Is this really news department:  the new Harry Potter film made the front page of The Oregonian today.  Oy.  The reviewer said it's easily the best film of the bunch.

It should be since the book was better than the previous ones.

Vixmom, thanks for reminding me why I don’t always miss the days when the children were little.  I didn’t have a job outside the home.  I did have a husband who was rarely home and often out of the country.  I remember days when both children needed to be someplace at the same time and their mother to be with them.

See you in May, 2007.

Good Evening!

We ran the first act today!  -Well, almost all of the first act - we need to finish up choreographing "Who's Got The Pain?"  But we ran the act, and it went pretty well for a first time.  And by the beginning of next week, we should have the second act sketched in.

Tomorrow will be a choreography clean-up day.  All dancing, all the time.

Bruce, FJL and Skip- I agree with the great review.  

JMK turn on the discovery channel and Betsey will love the new HDTV.

Cillaliz, congratulations!!!

TCB the trip sounds fantastic, one I would like to do.  Did your back ruin it for you, or should I ask if the trip is why your back never healed?

Guess Who!

As for the Topic of the Day...

Well, tech weeks are supposed to be "overloaded", so... I've been through plenty of those.  I'd have to say the hardest ones were when I was working on shows for my alma mater.  Since we were working around a college student's typical schedule, we never really started rehearsals until 7:00 or 7:30, which meant that tech week rehearsals would routinely go into the wee hours of the morning.

There was a time when I was in college - I forget which year right now - where I was going through one of those periods where "everything" just seemed to be closing in on me.  Classes, financial issues, family issues, personal issues... the whole shebang.  *Of course, in retrospect, a lot of "it" was just in my head, but at the time...)   Well...  I just decided to take a break from my life at that point, and I headed down to Charlottesville to visit a friend of mine. I basically went into hiding for a few days. I hung out with my friend and her friends, and basically did not give a thought to anything else going on in my life at that point and time.  Yes, the time away did end up complicating some of the other "issues", but being able to come back and face things with a clear mind and a rested body (ah, sleep!) made things a bit easier to deal with.

There were other times when I would "escape", but it was after that particular episode when I started to make concerted efforts to not take things too seriously... all the time.

DR Jason - I remember having two similar breakdowns when I was in college.  And they both happened to happen in the middle of flute lessons I was accompanying.  Both sobbing fits were the result of not letting myself cry when I needed to cry - I just kept all of it in.  So... In the middle of playing a Bach sonata, the waterworks just turned on.  Thankfully, the flute teacher was sort of a friend, and she was very understanding.  Needless to say, I was very embarrassed.  Both times.

Thankfully, most of the times I cried in my piano studio was not during a lesson.



*Nowadays, if I know I'm in need of a good cry, I will watch one of the following movies: "Cinema Paradiso", "The Joy Luck Club", or "The Color Purple".

 

 

RE: Terrance Mann - I've actually hung out with him a few times at various theatre conferences.  A very nice guy, very "cas" - as in casual.  And I have to say that he cleans up very nicely.

DR Cillaliz - Here's to the next 23... and 2300 hundred smoke-free days!  Congrats!

Thanks Jose, I actually got upset about something tonight and went out for a drink....but I did not smoke.  That's a real test for me.