Two Very Long Weeks

I'm exhausted.

The past two weeks have been busy, terrible, and great.

To begin, my sister-in-law graduated from Yale School of Drama on the 26th. Congratulations Sarah! I'm so proud of you, you Master of Fine Arts.

Then, the next morning, my housemate and company manager Ashley woke up with bed bug bites all over her legs, so we moved out of our housing and washed all our clothes in hot water at the laundromat. Good times. We moved into the Sharon Motor Lodge, temporarily.

We taped the rehearsal hall floor and played kickball on Wednesday. Both were fun. I did not get injured, but we were all pretty sore.

Friday and Saturday were spent loading in and otherwise prepping for a fundraiser for the theatre.

Friday night we drove to Poughkeepsie for the Sex and the City movie, particularly funny was the Poughkeepsie reference.

Saturday night was the fundraiser--Joan Rivers was there! And I got to meet some of the actors for the other shows and see my friend Scott for the first time since August.

Sunday we moved out of the Sharon Motor Lodge and two of us moved into the dorm at the theatre. The dorm I've lived in before and clearly stated that I would not live in again. Yes, that dorm.

Monday was a fantastic day off. I lunched at Irving Farm with my friend Caitlin, we had some tea at the Harney and Sons tea store, we ran into 7 of our cohorts at the waterfall in Kent, we had our first Away Game of kickball. We set up for the orchestra rehearsal and then Caitlin, Justin, Annie, and I had dinner in Kent. After dinner, I cleaned up from the orchestra rehearsal and then we made a bonfire and played mafia. Like I said, it was a fantastic day off.

Tuesday was our first day of rehearsal, and since then that's all I've had time to do. And since we don't have any time to return to any of the scenes before we tech, I am frantically trying to generate my shift plot and preset list and mic plot and various other important documents while taking blocking and dealing with a rather ridiculous helicopter parent.

Saturday night we played kickball after rehearsal, and for the first time since I can remember (possibly in TAPIOKA history), we had enough players that no one had to kick again after coming home. It was wonderful. We had 21 players!

Today one of the board members had the crew over for lunch and a pool party. It was 96 degrees out, so the pool was amazing. I missed a couple spots when putting on my sunblock, but I think I'll survive. This afternoon I went for pedicures with Aneta, Holly, and Ashley (though I only got a manicure), and this evening 10 of us went to the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, MA for dinner and their Chocolate Stout Cake. Justin finished his slice but none of the rest of us did. I will be having Chocolate Stout Cake for breakfast tomorrow. I can almost hear my father saying, "Beer is not just for breakfast anymore."

We were supposed to move out of the dorm tomorrow, but a couple of things have happened. My two former housemates went to the prep school dorm we were to move to and discovered that it is worse than the dorm at the theatre and they said they would not live there. I can't move tomorrow anyway because I have meetings all morning and rehearsal all afternoon and evening. I know that we have to be out of the room we're in at the dorm right now by the 16th when the other team of stage managers arrive and move in, but I am almost at my breaking point right now. I am working 14 hour days and then I come back to a moldy bathroom where ants climb freely over my toothbrush (yes, as disgusting as it sounds) and an IKEA bunk bed which is causing me not to get quality rest and to have back and shoulder pain. But I'm so busy with rehearsal and trying to be ready to start tech in 4 days that I just don't have the energy to fight my cause right now. Thankfully the other two girls are doing a fair job without me.

Anyway, aside from that everything is fine. I like my cast. My show is very funny. I love my directors. I like the rest of the crew. It's shaping up to be a good summer, so long as the housing situation sorts itself out asap.

How's that Mom? Are you caught up? :)