I had a boy and his father come up to me after the second show and say, "We wanted to say hi to you again. You were the Fox weren't you?" I said I was. "We were the ones who also saw you this summer in The Sound of Music."

I have my first fan!

Am very busy.

Moved.

Close Pinocchio Saturday.

Open Elves and the Shoemaker tonight.

Trained at new retail job.

Housesat three dogs at two houses.

Went home for dinner on Thanksgiving.

Have 14 performances in next 10 days...

Want to sleep for a long time.

Another tearing round of insomnia last night - frustrating after a six show weekend, capped with an Elves rehearsal and a photo shoot.

Much upheaval with a show running, a show rehearsing, a move needing to happen by the first, and a sudden declaration from the company I gave up two other jobs to work for, only to be told several weeks later that they've decided to downsize due to the current economic climate - and will only be using their 65 new hires for the two weeks right around Christmas. I have put calls into one of my other options, offering my services, but have not heard back yet. Am supposed to hear back today at the latest.

And at this moment, of course, Murphy's law being what it is, my brakes decide to go out. That however, was Miles' fault. We were talking a week ago about how nice it is to finally be earning enough to keep an even keel for a while. He said, "Well, you know, now it's time for your car to break down."

Waiting for the other shoe to drop - as Becky took it upon herself to mention aloud the unmentionable "Scottish Play" the next night. Am fully expecting to be hit by a bus now.

Pinocchio going very well. One of my Kurts (see sidebar for that exchange) came to Pinocchio yesterday! It was so exciting to see him out there. He was in the second row but I didn't notice him until curtain call. I got to say hi for a few minutes after the show. He's going to re-audition. I'm very hopeful to get another round with him. His sister is auditioning this year, too.

The library has started sending me Buffy seasons. This should keep me busy now that I've finished all three seasons of Slings and Arrows.

The bald patch in my right eyebrow grows larger every day. 'Til now I could pretend lik it was a rather narrow wax job, but in a few days I fear I'll have a strip of skin showing right through the middle.

It's all because of a monacle.

The Fox, being very dashing, has a top hat, a cane, and as a last minute character choice, a monacle to make me look less human, since we don't wear much animal makeup.

Monacles, as a rule, sit on one's cheekbone and wedge in under the eyebrow. In a ver physical comedy, I thought it might be difficult to hold it in he traditional way. The alternative? Spirit gum around the rim, glued to the inside half of my socket.

So far it's been fairly effective, only falling out on occasion. Sometimes, though, it's glued in so well that it actually makes it to the end of the show. Herein lies the problem.

The end of the string tied to the monacle is safety pinned to the inside of my collar. After a quick run, in the haste to get out of a very sweaty costume, I tend to forget this and rip my dickey off. And the monacle comes with it - along with the dried spirit gum and portions of my eyebrow.

Ah...the hazards of the workplace.

It's that time of year again. Time to suddenly be doing everything at once and wondering where all the lovely freetime went that I was complaining so much about having too much of.

I have three job offers for Christmas. I'm waiting to see which one offers the most, and should know early this evening.

I'm moving again. In a few weeks. I've just taken a second load of books to add to my credit at the used bookstore. Which is like moving, but in smaller batches. I have some furniture items that need to go away, but basically I've been downsizing since I've been home, so it should be an easy move. Relatively.

Last night I was on Capitol Hill when the election results came in. It was a good thing Obama won, because it was already a riot - and they were happy about it. Masses of people everywhere, running up and down the streets, waving signs and red white and blue banners, horns honking, news trucks pulling up. One entire intersection blocked by people. People kept dashing into the little bar I had holed up into yelling for a shot, slamming it down, hooting, and running back out into the melee. What a night!

My cast will be very happy tomorrow.

I've started booking auditions again for winter shows, and thinking about the generals which start in January. I need some coaching for my monologues. There is a sad lack of things worth doing right now on the auditions pages. I hope that rectifies itself soon. I'd love to have another show or two to add to my spring schedule.

I'm off to enjoy the sun which is making occasional appearances. I may head to the library to find more episodes of Slings and Arrows to watch. Very good Canadian Series.

"It's a Wrap!" -- Goofing off on location in Vantage.



Standing in for the leading lady - on the set of "The Comet Chronicles"

Been sick all week. Just managed to keep my voice through four performances of Pinocchio and then lost it for days. Been sleeping nearly round the clock, except for nannying. By lucky coincidence, this is my understudy's week to go on for me, so I had five days off. I can speak now, and sort of sing, and should be good to go by saturday.

I've been making a Halloween costume this week - an airplane - for a woman's 6-year-old nephew. I finished this morning just in time for her to come pick it up. It looks pretty cute, but I did have to punt a bit with the materials that were purchased for me.

My third Lindy Hop class tomorrow - followed by a class outing to go swing dancing.

Batboy the Musical for Halloween going dressed as Elizabeth Bennett.

Saturday shows.

My roommmates and I have been talking about moving - and finally squared it with our landlord today. I've got to find a new place by December 1. I'm trying to stay in the neighborhood - easier to move, and near all the places I already know.

I'm ready for a break, (one that I don't spend sick) but next month will be spent running one show, rehearsing another, and moving.

I have a very busy weekend ahead. Today I costumed a short film competition submission. At 7pm I dropped off a stack of distressed scrubs and tea-dyed lab coats. Now I'm waiting until midnight when the writing team will send me a final synopsis of the shoot tomorrow, and I'll send an email to the actors telling them what of their own to bring, and how to do prepare hair and makeup.

Tomorrow I have two performances of Pinocchio, and another two on Sunday. Sunday night is the premier of "November" - the film I costumed last march. Its being shown at a cafe on 5th along with two other shorts. I will, of course, utilize the opportunity to dress up.

Pinocchio is finally going well. The first two performances were good, but felt like a dress rehearsal. The rehearsal process involved a significant amount of cutting and re-writing. We got two new songs on our last two days, and much of the expositional dialogue was curtailed drastically. I spent a lot of my first performance trying to remember WHICH part of that line had been cut, after I'd already memorized it the old way. Our third and fourth performances suddenly clicked, and we're feeling solid. It's fun to do a physical comedy role. Each show I find something new to do with the cane, a clever way of sliding about, or a way to reinforce that our comic duo is more than just funny. We are, after all, the bad guys.

Next week I get a bit of a break. We've only got one weekday show, and it's the one my understudy is taking over. I've come down with Pinocchio's cold, so I'll be glad to have a few days to recover. It started as a sore throat, too. I'm such a baby when my throat hurts. I spent most of my day in a fuzzy bathrobe alternately napping, and checking on the progress of the costumes I'd poured a liter of bleach over. I'd kind of hoped they'd smolder a bit, but I guess it takes longer than I left them. There was a nice mottled look to the formerly-solid colored scrubs. The white lab coats got modified with tea dye and soy sauce, leaving a nice streaky finish. Then I had a hayday tearing out cuffs, ripping off some buttons, and whipping together a few holes with dark-colored thread. It was a fun day, all in all.

I'm reading Harry Potter. All the books I've been checking out meaning to read have gone by the wayside. I'm just too busy now to start anything new, and too tired to absorb a new cast of characters.

My corset-making class finished last week, though my corset still needs to have its edges finished. I also need to embroider flowers on the stems I ran up all the seams. I'm hoping to get it done to wear to Batboy on Halloween.

Two more weeks of Lindy Hop class before Elves and the Shoemaker rehearsals start. I"m hoping to pick up some more extras work to fill in my empty days. And I'm gearing up to vote, trying to be informed, but feeling woefully unable to sort through all the propaganda to get to any sense of what's real. Even something as simple as Prop 1 - a tax increase to fund our mass transit - gets murky once shunted around the commercial circuit. I'm all for more public transportation, since I use it pretty often, but then I read that the last proposition fell quite short of the intention, and is now overbudget and a decade behind. Sigh.

I'll be glad when the election is over.

I got a call this weekend from a director wanting me to costume a shot film for a competition this weekend. Today I met with him on location to discuss options. As with most of these short film things, only a general sense of characters and setting can be determined until the criteria are assigned by the organization. For this film the crew will get the topic friday night, shoot all day saturday, post on Sunday, and mail the film on Monday. I'm putting together a basic wardrobe setup for them to pull from once they officially script and cast the short. So for the next two days I'll be assembling wardrobe pieces and distressing them to fit a post-apocalyptic world. On the day, the director will pull from the pieces I've assembled to make the shooting wardrobe.

Pinocchio is going well so far. Our two audiences found wildly different things humorous. Yesterday was a bit rough, but today began to feel like a cohesive show. There were a few line flubs, but nothing major, and I got my first Q&A comment from a boy who thought "The Fox is my favorite because he's funny!" YAY!!! Then every kid had to tell THEIR favorite, so everyone got their kudos today.

Two shows tomorrow, Lindy Hop class tomorrow night, and in between attacking lab coats and scrubs with bleach, tea, and soy sauce.

Today I left my house at 5am to meet the crew of "The Comet Chronicles" for our day on location filming near the gorge.

It was a very windy day, with clouds of dust being kicked up with each step. Within minutes our dust filled hair was matted, our faces dirty, and our teeth gritty. After a day of shooting here in the rain last year, and a pickup day with a snowstorm, wind and sunshine was the better combination.

We had a lot of fun today, getting every shot we wanted even as the light faded on us. My costumes held up for the most part, except for a split seam up the leading lady's left leg, that I sewed back in on set four times (we didn't have time to take the costume back up to the base camp where my machine was set up) Eventually even the basting between takes was given up, and she was stuck together with double-stick wall mount tape for the final long shots.

The lady working hair and makeup was the extra who saved my butt by helping me sew the cape for the snow shoot on the first day of the "November" set. We may get to collaborate in the future - which would be great! She's very determined, and wants us to submit ourselves as a team for some big budget feature films coming up.

Tomorrow we're greenscreening in town. Hopefully there will be less dirt. Except on the costumes which have to maintain the dust level for continuity.