Blessing: school is canceled today because of flooding, high winds, icy roads. I have time to grade 23 more Kent assignments.
Curse: We may not be able to have rehearsal tonight. I shall have to post spies in the area to tell me if road conditions improve, as the big boss has said that I can go ahead with it if things get better.
How has Sandy affected you? Anything out your way?
Some directors call it “Hell Week.” We don’t. The hellish part is hopefully past by now. 
Production week for me begins right now, this morning, when I’m alone with my thoughts and my butterflies. The coffee doesn’t taste as great or feel so good going down as it usually does.
I think back to the beginning of this month, when I received a Facebook message saying that my friend Jenn (the coordinator for everything having to do with the “Dinner” part of Dinner Theatre) and her family lost everything in a fire. Suddenly, my big show didn’t seem so big anymore. Perspective was dealt all around, and priorities changed. Still, in the back of my reptilian brain, I knew we had to soldier on.
Enter an amazing group of smart and committed women, who took over an enormous job (RtB fiend Country Mouse can attest to this) and made it run like a clock. Everyone’s working together to make this monster fly, and 606 tickets later, they’re ready to put it all on the floor.
Now we have to do the show, and there’s precious little more I can do to make it much better. At some point this week, I will hand over the reins to the cast, and retire to my role as pit musician and nothing else. Giving up that control is difficult. 
In the big scheme of life, I suppose a theater production is small spuds. But to me, and hopefully to these young singers and dancers, it’s something special and life-changing. Anyone who’s ever been in a theater production gets it, right? I look at my seniors this year, and I think back to when they were 7th graders and I told them that doing theater is like a drug: once you experience it, you want more. I see it in their performances now; they love it. They’re hooked. I like that. And even if they never do another show in their lives, they’ll remember forever what it felt like to work with a troupe of like-minded people who get together to make art that hopefully brings some joy to folks. You can’t measure that.
Time, however — you can measure, and I’m clean out of it. Good to be back yapping at you. Have a great week — here we go!
FO
OK, luvs — I’m off the RtB grid for a couple of days. BEHAVE!
No, really. It’s funny, and I loved reading it.
Not the article, mind (although it’s, um…big, I’m sure), but rather some of the comments after the article. That right there was my coffee entertainment this morning.
Please don’t read meaning into anything — I’m not hating on The Donald. It doesn’t matter that I think he’s a cockadoody pompous arrogant jackarse whackjob with an orange face. It’s just that sometimes, the regular Joes and Janes of the world are better pundits than the ones on the payroll. That makes me happy. Cuz it’s funny.
Oompa loompa, doopah-dee doo. *sNOrT*
In other news: there cannot possibly be only a dozen days left till we open, with four nearly-sold-out shows, and when everything onstage is still horrible.
What a nice weekend.
Everything turned out to be as perfect as could be, from the decorations to the ceremony to the reception to the day after. Even the music was decent.
Although we obviously didn’t get any candids from the wedding itself, here are a couple of before-and-afters.
Fink at the church, playing ancient Chinese ballad called Too Ning.
The reception hall was a 100-year-old school building in a small rural town nearby. This photo was taken mid-setup (decorations beautifully designed by BFF Kay).
Jake and Justin, being great helpers as Kay and I cleared the center table so the dancing could start.
One of the best pictures of the night: the Thriller, lost in conversation with his little girl.
And we danced (and danced and danced) the night away.
Their joy was contagious.
Last I heard, they were about halfway to their honeymoon cabin in the mountains. It was a fantastic weekend of reuniting with family and great times with friends.
After the marathon clean-up of Saturday night, the Thriller took me on a day trip to Cleveland yesterday. It was lovely to get away one last time before the true madness of the next 14 days begins (that would be today).
We had some casino fun (and came home with more bones than we left with — score!), had lunch out, then stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the way home. What day that ends with chocolate cannot be called fabulous? I ask you.
So now: the look ahead. Kent State class begins tonight, and the push to opening (and Suzanne’s impending visit, YAY) begins tonight. Gonna be an interesting couple of weeks. Let’s roll!