Take Your Own Advice

I keep telling my cast and crew that it's all about perception. It doesn't really matter what your intentions were, but how they were interpreted does. For instance: if you're in the audience talking to your friend the entire time you watch the show, it says to the performers that you don't care about them and the work they're doing. Even if you were just raving to your friend about the greatness of the 3rd dancer on the left.

I should take my own advice. Sometimes I get caught up in things and I forget to take a step back and look at the big picture. Sometimes I over analyze and over justify things when I should just take them as they are and shut up. Sometimes I'm just a pretentious so and so.

I hate apologizing because it means I did something wrong.

I Love When I Fail

I'm on a baking spree. Again. Tonight it was rice krispie treats (not baking, I know), chocolate chip cookies, and a shoofly pie. Well...the pie FAILED. The crust, to be more specific. I made an awesome pie crust for the Key Lime Pie experiment of 2 weeks ago and saved half the dough. The dough did not want to be saved and refused to become the shoofly pie I know it could have been. So...I'll have to make more pie crust on a day that isn't today.

I am drinking a lovely Jack Daniels and ginger ale right now. So tasty.

My dresser has gotten me reading vampire books. I read the first two of the Anita Blake series, which is nice and gory, just like I like it. Now I'm on the True Blood books. I've seen the first season, so the book is just taking me down that path again, but E says that it gets different around the 4th book. I think she has them all. Yay!

Work has been a little bleah lately. I succumbed to stress. I didn't realize how draining it's been lately until I imploded on Tuesday night. Thank goodness I had friends to escape to. B and S are the best. So is Epic Scrabble. And fire.

I Forgot I Have a Blog...

I did. I really did. Good thing I saved blogger.com in my bookmarks at the top of my Firefox browser. Whew. Thanks again, Firefox.

We completed Detox. I lost 12 lbs. I have since gained some of it back because I got super lazy so it's back to Detox on July 5 for a week to see if we can't reverse this turn of fortune. It's the working out part that I'm having trouble having consistently in my life. After 7-9 hours of work a day, who wants to go to the gym? Not me. I've been attempting morning gym sessions, but that requires motivation to outweigh sleep deprivation. I went yesterday. I did not go today.

I've started baking. A lot. Like...since I started 2 weeks ago, I made 2 cakes, 2 cookie cakes, a pie, several batches of cookies, and buttermilk pancakes. All from scratch because boxed baked goods aren't allowed in our house. There's a pic of the first one: a 3 layer white cake with layers of lemon curd and raspberry jam with lemon icing. It was amazing.

I'm also planning an epic birthday party that is in...2.5 days. It's for Nadia's 20th birthday. She knows there's a party, but not much else. It's fun to plan surprises for people. I'm just hoping it's as much fun as I want it to be. It should be...3 cakes means a good party, right?

Anyway...it's time for work again. Why does it feel like all I do is work?

My Brain is Irritating

So I should be on day 8 of 9 with Detox, but we're amending the diet. It's not really fair for my cast and other co-workers to suffer from my lack of carbs. We moved on to Phase II a couple days early, except we're amending that too. It's supposed to be adding back in meat, some more dairy, and some grains, but not enough. We're making it fit our lifestyle better and working out more frequently to make up for the food choices we're bound to make. For instance: I want to make dishes that I can easily pack to take to work and eat between shows. Pasta is excellent for such things, but isn't supposed to be eaten for 3 more weeks. Screw that. I can have coffee again though. Thank god.

I came to an interesting conclusion around 10:15 pm last night though. We were sitting at Applebee's, preparing to officially end Detox by ordering formerly forbidden food when I realized now that I can have pasta again, I no longer crave it. My pasta craving was intense on Day 3 and Day 6 of Detox, but the MINUTE I told myself I could have it again, the craving lessened. Thus: My Brain is Irritating.

All in all though, the diet has been a good idea so far. I'm slightly more motivated to work out, I lost some weight and intend to keep going (albeit in a healthier fashion), and I had the willpower to not consume pasta, bread, cheese, or coffee for a week. I thought I was going to FAIL on the coffee part, but I am stronger than I thought. Huh. Go me.

Fast Forward

Apparently I spent the last 2.5 weeks at the Pantry. Gosh that'd be amazing. And expensive. And delicious.

Really I just had tech for my show and 3 separate visitors on 2 separate occasions. It sounds simple. It wasn't. There were some long hours and some random errands to run. Shows have been open since May 29 though and so far it's been going pretty well.

The best part of my 2.5 week hiatus was Venezuelan Surprise. My friends Erin, AraBella, and I were all apprentices at Orlando Shakespeare Theater in 2007/2008 and we all parted ways that spring. I've seen them both since, but they have remained apart. Sad. Luckily, AraBella and I planned an epic surprise. Erin was visiting and was unaware AraBella had arrived 5 hours before she did. Since it's not abnormal for me to ask my friends to look in closets for their birthday presents, she didn't think anything was amiss when I sent her on such an errand.

And that's about it. OH! No. Lies. Steven and I are doing this diet thing. It's the Fat Smash diet. It seems less insane than other diets. I mean, it has a book to guide you. Anyway. We're in day 2 of 9 of the Phase 1: Detox period. So far...I'm really, really hungry and CRAVE bread, but I have also lost 5 lbs in 2 days. So...yay? The WORST part of it all is I'm supposed to avoid caffeine. It's impossible. My caffeine headache is RAGING along with my bread CRAVING. 5 lbs in 2 days is mega incentive though. I suppose I could keep you posted.

Also, I played poker tonight.

Also, last week I invented cookie cake.

Bliss

I am going to the Hershey Pantry this morning.

That's all.

Rehearsalness

We're on Day 11 of rehearsal. It's about halfway through the process. This basically means you're incredibly lucky I woke up too early and can now blog about life. I'm averaging 9 hours a day at rehearsal, though that average is steadily creeping up to 10. The set looked better every day until we stopped working on it. Our scenic people come back next week so it will exponentially improve again once they make their return.
The trophy case drop. This is my favorite. Our scenic painters are the BEST.


A dancer in front of the talent show drop.


I finally got some time over at the other show. They did a run for me (sans diving and sea lions), but it was still funny. They're going to have a great show on their hands.

Things are going pretty good in the non-show aspects of life too. The last of the entertainment folk showed up this weekend. There are people to gather with for every kind of mood. We bought a grill and intend to use it 4-6 times a week, just like last summer. I do need to work on hanging out with the people who don't live in my apartment complex. I have rehearsal fatigue as an excuse now, but that won't matter in 2 weeks.

Roommates are good. The herb garden is thriving. I tried growing dill from seed, but only one wee seedling made it...so I bought a whole dill plant to inspire it to grow. We haven't used the mint much yet, but mojitos are on the horizon.

So really, all is still good in Chocolate town. I'm getting anxious for friends to visit, but that starts all too soon so I should rest up and get ready!

We're All All Right

Pretty much everyone is in town now. A fantastic amount of people arrived in the last three days; it's been so great. All my favorites are here now. The people I have been spending time with are wonderful, of course, since I don't associate with un-wonderful people, but the two I spent the most time with last summer are now here (one being my roommate!), so all feels right in the world. Also, we saw Pwese, which was a delight as always.

Different dynamic this summer. It's kind of interesting to watch it form. Not sure yet how I feel about it. I want to make an active attempt to be less bitterly sequestered than last summer...only time will tell. We had an impromptu cast get together, which isn't as impromptu as it seems since a) 2/3 of the cast lives next door to each other, b) we actually kind of planned it, and c) who else would we hang out with? I like it though.

We embark on Music Rehearsal #3 today. Adventure? A little bit since we're going to try to actually be IN our venue for part of the day. Eep! It's been rather cold here lately. The Floridians and Texans are not pleased. I'm okay with it, but not so happy about it either. Good thing the park is closed today and I can wear a hoodie.

No new pics of the set, maybe later today. I haven't been to the venue in 3 days due to orientation and rehearsal. Really, things are going quite well and the only thing that would make this better would be Life-Changing Chicken Dip, constantly available. Mmm...chicken dip...

Also, allergy town, population: my nose.

Read Thru Eve

We have orientation and a read thru tomorrow. YAY! I'm excited. Some of the guys and I went out to dinner tonight and then came back to my apartment so they could meet my roommate. We ended up playing Catchphrase for a few hours. Fantastic. Things are finally rolling along. The set looks great (see below), people are texting/Facebooking updates from the road, and very, very soon I will be all set for the summer.


I got to bind scores today with this crazy mad hole punch thing and the plastic spiral binder things. Basically, I want my own now so I can turn everything into a book. Office supply joy.

2 of my 3 roommates bake banana bread. We're going to have a banana bread-off. Awesomeness, I am sure.

Scenery and Such

As promised. Top one is at the Amphitheatre, the foundation of the set for Crystal Sneakers. The others are for the Aquatheatre show, Showdown at Cocoa Canyon. If you aren't already planning a trip to Hersheypark to see these, get on it!