A Gypsy Once More

It's the most idiotic understatement to say that London was bloody marvelous!!! I missed some of you - didn't think about most of you (hehehe)!! I always feel that Europe is my second (and perhaps future) home anyway. We arrived and hit the ground running - it was a bright and gorgeous day - atypical for London in April. We checked in to our hostel and set off for Hyde Park. On Sundays, it's a free for all, frisbee, football, runners, people all about on blankets, talking, reading.....my favourite were the archers that were practicing. Walked ALL about, met some intriguing people from all over. Went to shows, haunted the theatre district... and I struggle to capture this well in words - my apologies - you need to go for yourself!! (grin). Bottom line - I'm not finished with my wanderings by a long shot.

LONDON BOUND

24 hours from now - I'll be flying over the Atlantic somewhere on a plane bound for London!!! Good times indeed - land of C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, Coward, Harry Potter, Arturius, Maggie Smith, scones...and, well you get the point. It's been almost two years since I've been to my beloved Europe, much much longer since London. I've got a tentative list, and tis mostly theatrical - shows, the Globe, the theatre museum....however, our hostel is somewhat near the Russian federation, and I seem to be destined to meet a "Sergei" EVERYWHERE I go...so there it is.

Had "family time" with Gigi, Jeremy, and Travis tonight - SOOOOO good to be back in a routine at El Charro's.

The whole military law brouhaha at school the past few days has actually been QUITE enjoyable - we have the force to back the rules for ONCE, so seemingly little things like tardies and not loitering and hall passes - things that get overlooked, are actually being enforced and I love it. Three of my new friends include, Copper, Niko and Kilo - from the K9's (Is kilo just the coolest name for a drug dog???)

Alecia's got a stellar prom date and I'm thrilled that she'll really get to enjoy her senior prom!!! She DID get into Boston U. Now we trust that the Lord will provide her a way to go.

Yellow or just BAD journalism took a whole new meaning for me the past few days - it's like the former staff of "The Enquirer" or "Weekly World News" decided to all go and work in Blount County at the same time, be it for print or media - sigh - I've never read such drivel and just out and out fabrication. It's made me rethink EVERYTHING I read in America - from the shooting up on Ojibwe land, to the Petersen case. Since the media was inane enough to contribute to what didn't have to escalate to major - our numbers were staggeringly small today. Jackson and I even ended up combining our classes for 2nd. However, it was a highly enjoyable day - I had a subtle teaching day of combining acting with politics (albeit, it's ALL the same!) and threw a West Wing marathon, as season 4 came out Friday.

So, until I get on the net again - TA!

Tales from the Theatre

Or to be more appropriately titled, "Heigh-ho the glamourous life!" I've had a play come and go, and am three weeks out from the next one, and just (here at the "what in the world?" hour of 6:30 AM) thought I'd take a minute to convey some amusing little anecdotes from the theatre. Me, being me, and not telling stories well, this will probably only amuse ME, as more than half my life is a, "You had to be there," moment.

For the recent, "Radio TBS" , in the second act, the story line revolves around a drive-by nativity scene that the residents of the 'Luna Del Mar' trailer park are producing. (And I use the word 'producing' here, loosely) There's a scene where Pauline is frustrated with being the wise-man who offers up myrrh, not knowing exactly what myrrh really is (does anyone really?) and not seeing the pracitcality of such gift to bring to a "baby shower." Therefore at one point, as the other "wiseman" (yes, there were two for this scene, the Bible never says ANYTHING about the number of the magi) offers up GOLD!, FRANKENSCENCE!, instead of offering up MYRHH, she scratches around and finds a pot (A pot, not pot) and offers up, triumphantly, POTTERY!!!! (Bet all of you who missed the show feel bad about it now - I havent even gotten to the part of, "I'm an independent sheep, I don't NEED 'tendin'"). I said all that to tell THIS: On night two, backstage, pre-show, said pottery was broken by an actress who shall remain anonymous, by exclaiming, "See, it's just plastic" and proceded to thunk it against a wall, to which it did break!! The best part of this, and the part I like because it was handled BEAUTIFULLY by my tech-goddesses WITHOUT me having to make any decisions, was that they scrambled to find a replacement, to no avail. All I was told via headset was, "Housam, we've got it covered." Music to my ears!! So, by the time we reach said scene, I'd forgotten all about it, as I was busy managing light cues and sound cues and quite honestly, doing medicore at best. I see "Alvin" proclaim GOLD! FRANKENSCENCE! and then "Pauline" scratches around and produces TUPPERWARE. I was thrilled.

The first act revolves around a radio talk show (hence the name of the play) that takes place in the trailer park club house. Part of the show revolves around on-air commercials, one being for "Luna Del Mar's Monkey Emporium" . This causing much glee for the set designer, oh wait, that's me, as I found a few monkeys to put up in our HORRIBLY tacky fake palm trees - which DID NOT match - hehehehe. At one point, "Virgil" moved a long-tailed stuffed monkey from the tree to the table and plays with it, hanging it by the tail from his microphone. The table for the broadcast was up on a platform, so when the monkey inevetibley falls to the ground and was virutally irretrievable, it's quite obvious. I could not resist whispering over the headsets to my crew in what I'm sure was a bad Scottish accent, "We've got a monkey down!!!" (Which will only be funny to people who've seen, 'So I Married an Axe Murderer.")

And finally, lesson learned from last minute set-dressers - Hay is slippery on wooden floors/platforms!!! We didn't set the hay until the DAY of performance, due to our general laziness about not wanting to clean it up for mere rehearsals, as just having it up there plays hell with everyone's allergies, but I was going to have real hay, as I gave in on not having a live-baby cow up on stage. (sigh) My tech goddesses are both very tall, willowy, lithe girls that move quickly and with grace, UNTIL they are trying to accomplish a rapid set change in dim lights with hay that they have never moved on before. HIGHLY FUNNY from my vantage in the crow's nest, not to mention the , Housam, I almost got killed!" exclamatories I heard on the headset. No actors or crew were harmed in the Vagabond Players production of Radio TBS.

I would LOVE to go into "Hay Fever" stories, as that is our next gem. (To be performed April 27th and 29th.) However, due to recent events, I'm hauling to school early. I'm sure I'll write about it myself sometime, however, this story has not played itself out yet, so you can just read what happened yesterday.

Leaving for LONDON in two days!!! WOOOOOOOOO