Smells Like Christmas!

I baked cookies today. I had to replenish all the ones I obviously made too early because they are gone! These ones will go in the deep freeze instead of the kitchen freezer and that should 'help'. I am enjoying having more nights home. I have a few things to get done and this is the last week of school before Christmas so I have to get a lot of it done before the kids are off. We are no longer YMCA members so I am not doing the YMCA camps this year. It's getting easier with both boys. They can usually do 3-4 hours of relatively pleasant interaction and play before a flare up. I am waiting for the day when Gibson is big enough to teach Oliver that it is not a good idea to hit him. I discourage the violence, with consequences, discussions, strategies for better communication etc... but nothing beats a once smaller child standing up for himself and teaching the older one that it's time to stop or get hurt yourself.

My sister comes to visit tomorrow. It is a busy weekend, but I am looking forward to it! Yay! I told Mark he needed to get his present for her before she leaves on Tuesday morning so he is likely shopping tonight before coming home from work.

Cold.

I'm cold. It's cold. I don't want to complain, because we actually got off pretty easy in it coming so late. It's like Oliver cutting 3 teeth in one weekend - it was a pain of a weekend, but I preferred it to when Gibson took two months to cut one tooth. So, when the dump of snow came on Friday and the temperature plummeted over 2 days, it was fast and shocking, but at least we didn't have weeks of chilling temperatures and having to shovel a cm a day for weeks. I don't know. I am trying to be positive in my funny winter hat.

I Could Understand If I'd Been Drinking...

But I wasn't. I was just out really, really late chatting with folks. However, my 40+ body interprets anything short of 8 hours of sleep as call for a hangover and my head is killing me. Oh, it could be other things, like the temperature drop creating some sort of pressure shift in my body. Usually I feel that in my right foot though (I have broken it twice and I can now predict rain with it). Or, maybe it was caffeine withdrawal because I didn't drink my usual gallons of diet coke yesterday. In any case, I am waiting for the ache to stop because I have the delightful task of driving my go-cart on city streets today and I don't know what kind of shape the roads are in. They were plowing last night in the area I have to go to. I could be lucky.

Last night was fun. A wee wine and cheese and tree-trimming at Joyce's where I visited with folks I like to see and chat with but don't always get a chance to. Much talk of theatre because that is 90% of my life it seems. Some comic banter and mocking and that's all fun!

Tonight I have to go to the auditions for The Mail Order Bride at Walterdale. I will be used in whatever capacity needed, but I really hope to be in the room. I may be manning the front desk. Whatever helps the team best I will do. Another show lining up. It's all good.

Snow Falling on Cement Patio...

Well we finally have winter. We were a little spoiled in it coming so late so I am not going to complain about it. Between Mark and I, the sidewalks were shovelled 4x today and although I have not looked in a few hours, I am willing to bet you can't tell. I also did the driveway and that will help in future as the layers that pile up should be thinner. Let's hope.

I am also hoping the weather did not deter people from getting to Lend Me a Tenor at Walterdale Playhouse. I saw the show in all it's glory on Opening Night and I think they did a fabulous job. It isn't 'high art' but it is hilarious! I could sense some Opening Night tightness off the top, but about 10 minutes in they heard the laughs and loosened up and just ran with it. That's what you do with a farce, get it rolling and hang on! I heard lots of wonderful comments afterwards and I laughed quite a bit despite knowing the script inside and out. Loved so many of their choices!

I cancelled a Best Little Whorehouse (BLWIT) meeting tonight. I did not want to brave the streets in my go-cart, particularly not with the boys and I would have had to drop them off at the store first. Everyone seemed relieved at the cancellation. I did some of the meeting work via email and will try and get more of it done that way since many of my team-mates are super busy people so getting them all in the same room will be a challenge. I am getting excited about the show and now that I cleared a few things from my life I can refocus on the work I started in the spring on it. Yee haw! I get very excited contemplating possible casts and I know I need to banish those thoughts until I see people at auditions, but it's fun to speculate!

I baked cookies today and froze some for Christmas. I will have to hide them in the big freezer so they will still exist at that time. All 3 of my boys snitch if things are too readily accessible! Not fond of the monster cookies and I won't make those again. The shortbread is delightful!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Louisiana...

I has a great evening last night. It was surreal some of the time, but I really enjoyed the show. The casting and choices were very different from the production that I was in, that I was able to see them uniquely and I could appreciate each for what they were. It is so very cool to see this show with a different but totally legitimate ensemble work, but work in ways different from how my show worked. It was also fun to sit outside the action and laugh at the things I couldn't before. The changes surprised and delighted me. It was well-paced and honest and that is what you need to do to bring that show to life.

A funny thing happened in the second act that totally caught me off guard. After the 3rd scene I suddenly went to the head space I was in while doing the show. I guess the patterns of dialogue and situation sent me back there and before the lights came up on the 4th scene I was crying and emotionally distraught. I am sure the people on either side of me couldn't figure out what was up because let's face it, we didn't even know that Shelby had died yet. For that entire scene I rode those familiar achy emotions from 3 years ago. After the show I was glad to get out and decompress a little because it was weird.

After the show we struck the set (very smooth and very quick) and headed to Chez Marsh for festivities. Usually I don't go to cast parties for shows I am not involved in but I felt right at home. It was nice to see the gang from Sky and others that I have worked with in the past. A really fun evening, and a very late night!

Deja Vu

Tonight I am going to see Steel Magnolias in Spruce Grove at Horizon Stage. It is the closing night of a three show run and they have been sold out or close to that for all the shows. It was directed by my bf AM and I know most of the cast. It is going to be weird. I am hoping that I can separate my experience from being in the show a few years ago from the experience of watching this new production. I will do my best to do so, but don't hate me if I am not able to! I am sure I will enjoy the evening, it's just going to be weird because I know ALL the words!

Where did the week go?

Okay, I did stuff this week, but I didn't get everything done and that makes me feel like it just flew by. I had some interpersonal angst at the beginning of the week and that caused a lot of unnecessary stress that sucked up oodles of my mental time and brought up all the stress from a month ago that I thought I had pushed into the void. Oliver was sick and stayed home Tuesday, so that day was a write-off. On Thursday, I touched base at the theatre and Theatre Alberta on Thursday and ran into people I hadn't seen for a while so I spent a few hours that day just talking to people. I can't even remember what I did on Wednesday. Oh, where does the time go?