Jerry Harper: The Legend Continues

ghost_light: So, Don comes in the office and says Angela told him that Sandy told her that Jerry's last breath was "Encore.."

Mark: Oh my God. is that true?

ghost_light: It is now.

Jerry Harper: The Legend Continues

ghost_light: So, Don comes in the office and says Angela told him that Sandy told her that Jerry's last breath was "Encore.."

Mark: Oh my God. is that true?

ghost_light: It is now.

so much to say....

....and so little desire to write. I took my MRI and bone scan to the therapist with me on Tuesday so she could get a gander of the back she had been working on for so long. I also let her know I really didn't know what it all meant, so after reading all the comments and looking at all the sheets of pictures she finally gave me what I consider the definitive diagnosis in English: I've been lifting more than I'm physically capable of for years. I am not, in spite of my years of pretending otherwise, a 6-foot man able to manhandle flats with a single arm. I am, in fact, not allowed to lift anything until I have done a minimum of 3-6 months of weight training. She said one doctor will look at it and say "arthritis", another will say "excessive wear and tear" but the upshot is that, at 34, I have worn out my back. I mentioned that the Doc suggested I go to a gym since he thinks therapy is "too passive". Game on. I'm supposed to add back all my exercises this week after not being able to do them for over 2 months. Yep, curls with a Nalgene here I come.

I got my hair cut today. I love the cut, but I am not entirely pleased with the color. It's pretty but not quite what I was looking for today. See, I have sort of dishwater blonde hair. I'm proud of being blonde, but I look better with reddish hair. I've colored my hair 3 times and 2 of them the friend doing it ran out of coloring before she made it all the way through my thick, thick hair so I had this really beautiful calico cat effect where my hair was predominately red with random threads of gold and darker red. I went in to the salon and explained that I wanted to be strawberry blonde again and sort of explained the calico effect as well. The (wonderful) stylist (who I just realized I FORGOT TO TIP! Shit!! Guess where I'm going on the way to work tomorrow...) asked if I wanted highlights. I said "yes" thinking I would get red hair with gold and dishwater highlights. I have dishwater hair with red and gold highlights. Pretty, but....
The haircut is great, however. The stylist made the mistake of shaving the back of my neck just a little in 3 tiny places so I have what I refer to as "scruffa hair". This is very bad. It's like giving a man breasts.

The final shows at Cyrano's went pretty well considering everything. Having this week off has been a blessing. Mark went to play disc golf on Monday and I hung out at home with kornopolous and my brand new copy of King Fu Chaos which I have been playing into the ground. We made quesadillas and tequila lime shrimp for dinner. I want to know what planet the original cooks are from that you're supposed to cook the shrimp in a pan with onions for 3-4 minutes, add tequila and have the pan hot enough to flame that off, then cook 3-4 minutes, add lime juice when the shrimp are halfway cooked and still need to cook the shrimp 3-4 minutes longer. Those shrimp were pink as soon as they hit the onions. Luckily it all tasted fabulous.

We went to play bar trivia with geolinguist, scooterpbakes, kahteeyah and some non-journal friends on Tuesday. Team Meatwad once again made a strong showing until the picture round when we utterly sucked. We need a ringer for next week.

Last night Mark, kornopolous and I went to see "Bad Education" at Bear's Tooth. If you are in Anchorage, you NEED to go see this movie tonight. If you are not, you NEED to rent this movie. I have always been luke-warm about Almodovar and I was utterly blown away. It was utterly Hitchcock-ian, from the music to the treatment of obsession. I have not seen a better movie in a very long time. I have stories about Midsummer, but this post is getting too long, so that will be a page of its own.

so much to say....

....and so little desire to write. I took my MRI and bone scan to the therapist with me on Tuesday so she could get a gander of the back she had been working on for so long. I also let her know I really didn't know what it all meant, so after reading all the comments and looking at all the sheets of pictures she finally gave me what I consider the definitive diagnosis in English: I've been lifting more than I'm physically capable of for years. I am not, in spite of my years of pretending otherwise, a 6-foot man able to manhandle flats with a single arm. I am, in fact, not allowed to lift anything until I have done a minimum of 3-6 months of weight training. She said one doctor will look at it and say "arthritis", another will say "excessive wear and tear" but the upshot is that, at 34, I have worn out my back. I mentioned that the Doc suggested I go to a gym since he thinks therapy is "too passive". Game on. I'm supposed to add back all my exercises this week after not being able to do them for over 2 months. Yep, curls with a Nalgene here I come.

I got my hair cut today. I love the cut, but I am not entirely pleased with the color. It's pretty but not quite what I was looking for today. See, I have sort of dishwater blonde hair. I'm proud of being blonde, but I look better with reddish hair. I've colored my hair 3 times and 2 of them the friend doing it ran out of coloring before she made it all the way through my thick, thick hair so I had this really beautiful calico cat effect where my hair was predominately red with random threads of gold and darker red. I went in to the salon and explained that I wanted to be strawberry blonde again and sort of explained the calico effect as well. The (wonderful) stylist (who I just realized I FORGOT TO TIP! Shit!! Guess where I'm going on the way to work tomorrow...) asked if I wanted highlights. I said "yes" thinking I would get red hair with gold and dishwater highlights. I have dishwater hair with red and gold highlights. Pretty, but....
The haircut is great, however. The stylist made the mistake of shaving the back of my neck just a little in 3 tiny places so I have what I refer to as "scruffa hair". This is very bad. It's like giving a man breasts.

The final shows at Cyrano's went pretty well considering everything. Having this week off has been a blessing. Mark went to play disc golf on Monday and I hung out at home with kornopolous and my brand new copy of King Fu Chaos which I have been playing into the ground. We made quesadillas and tequila lime shrimp for dinner. I want to know what planet the original cooks are from that you're supposed to cook the shrimp in a pan with onions for 3-4 minutes, add tequila and have the pan hot enough to flame that off, then cook 3-4 minutes, add lime juice when the shrimp are halfway cooked and still need to cook the shrimp 3-4 minutes longer. Those shrimp were pink as soon as they hit the onions. Luckily it all tasted fabulous.

We went to play bar trivia with geolinguist, scooterpbakes, kahteeyah and some non-journal friends on Tuesday. Team Meatwad once again made a strong showing until the picture round when we utterly sucked. We need a ringer for next week.

Last night Mark, kornopolous and I went to see "Bad Education" at Bear's Tooth. If you are in Anchorage, you NEED to go see this movie tonight. If you are not, you NEED to rent this movie. I have always been luke-warm about Almodovar and I was utterly blown away. It was utterly Hitchcock-ian, from the music to the treatment of obsession. I have not seen a better movie in a very long time. I have stories about Midsummer, but this post is getting too long, so that will be a page of its own.

The Best of Midsummer

We leave for Kodiak tomorrow and have 2 shows of Midsummer. I'm actually looking forward to it. The show grew a lot while in Anchorage. There were some amazing moments during our run. My (very) Mark-centric list of highlights....

1) At least the lamp had a sense of occasion.
We are using a clip light with a blue bulb for the moon in Pyramus and Thisbe. My dear husband plays Peter Quince and he as a bit where Lion steps on the cord, he yanks on it in disgust while being heckled by the court and it comes unplugged. Lion pulls Quince off the box in his zeal to get it plugged in again, the pages of Quince's script and much hilarity and a pratfall ensue.
Or at least that is what is supposed to happen.
Opening night, Quince yanks the cord, the lamp unplugs, Lion grabs the cord and hauls Quince off the box. Quince loses his hold on the lamp (but keeps a grip on the cord) so the lamp swings free, hits something (probably the side of the box) and the bulb shatters. Lion picks up the lamp, plugs in the cord and looks into the lamp just as the filament flares. ghost_light attempts to race from the booth to where the cord is plugged in backstage to prevent something really happening but there is an actor between her and the booth door. ghost_light whisper-yells for the actor to go pull the plug but he insists "They got it" and never looks away from the stage. They did have it, the audience was in hysterics, especially as Quince stares at them in utter panic and simply says "All I have to say is that this lantern was the moon" instead of his actual line of "is the moon". People were laughing so hard I thought we were going to need to order in oxygen.
Noe, fast-forward to closing night. Lion and Quince have changed the bit so the lamp never flies free. All goes as normal, Quince hits the floor after Lion yanks the cord.....and so does the bulb. It doesn't shatter, it just snaps off at the base and clunks to the floor. Quince immediate takes off his hat and snuggles the bulb into it as thought it is a rare and precious egg that must be protected at all costs. His one regret is that "this lantern was the moon" didn't get as big of a laugh this time.

2) Pussy Willow Apocalypse.
Quince also carries a thorn bush in Pyramus and Thisbe. Finding that bush was a thorn in my ass most of the rehearsal process. The directed hated the greenery I came up with, everything that looked like a thorn bush in Alaska in January actually turned out to be thorn bushes with rather deadly-looking spikes I was not going to let NEAR my actors, so finally I just cut several sticks from a bush growing right outside the office and gave my Quince the world's saddest, most straggly thorn bush. A few days into our run at Cyrano's, Bottom adds a bit of running up to Quince during Pyramus' death scene, latching onto his shirt and pulling back and forth on it as he yells "DIE!" The next day, Quince added a bit of whipping Bottom with the thorn bush in rhythm with each tug (do you see why I don't give my actors real thorns?) We were giggling about it in bed the next morning and Mark asked just what the thorn bush was (to make sure it wasn't some priceless, obscure tree, I suppose). By this time, I'd figured out it was a pussy willow and he got the idea that it would be hysterical if he came out with blooming pussy willows, not just with a collection of sad sticks. I refused to get it for him, utterly convinced the director would kill me since getting a thorn bush he approved of in the first place had been such a trial. Mark let it lie for...about a week...then came in with a fully pussied out pussy willow collection (which the director laughed at). Unfortunately (but hysterically), the first time he whipped Bottom with it, all the little white pussies went flying all over the stage and part of my pre-show checklist became picking up pussy willow remains until the entire branch had been utterly denuded in one stunning pussy willow apocalypse.

3) The Helpy Helperton Award.
Snug (also Lion) wears a pair of Carharts in our production. For those not in Alaska, these are versatle, tan work-overalls. At the end of Pyramus and Thisbe, the Mechanicals do their Burgermask Dance which includes a samba, waltz and conga line. Closing weekend, the fastener on Snug's Cartharts fell off during the samba and the more he conga-ed, the more his pants fell down until they were past his knees (he wears tights under that, so there was no under-age nudie show, luckily). He got to the turn in the dance, grabbed them with both hands and hauled them up with a mighty hop. Quince, standing right behind him in line but not knowing what was happening, conveniently grabbed him around the waist and held up Snug's pants for him until the next turn. Sadly, Bottom, who was on the other side of Snug, did not return the favor and grabbed too high so Snug's pants slipped down until the next turn-pull-hop sequence when Quince began acting as a belt again. Mark swears his has no idea this happened.

The Best of Midsummer

We leave for Kodiak tomorrow and have 2 shows of Midsummer. I'm actually looking forward to it. The show grew a lot while in Anchorage. There were some amazing moments during our run. My (very) Mark-centric list of highlights....

1) At least the lamp had a sense of occasion.
We are using a clip light with a blue bulb for the moon in Pyramus and Thisbe. My dear husband plays Peter Quince and he as a bit where Lion steps on the cord, he yanks on it in disgust while being heckled by the court and it comes unplugged. Lion pulls Quince off the box in his zeal to get it plugged in again, the pages of Quince's script and much hilarity and a pratfall ensue.
Or at least that is what is supposed to happen.
Opening night, Quince yanks the cord, the lamp unplugs, Lion grabs the cord and hauls Quince off the box. Quince loses his hold on the lamp (but keeps a grip on the cord) so the lamp swings free, hits something (probably the side of the box) and the bulb shatters. Lion picks up the lamp, plugs in the cord and looks into the lamp just as the filament flares. ghost_light attempts to race from the booth to where the cord is plugged in backstage to prevent something really happening but there is an actor between her and the booth door. ghost_light whisper-yells for the actor to go pull the plug but he insists "They got it" and never looks away from the stage. They did have it, the audience was in hysterics, especially as Quince stares at them in utter panic and simply says "All I have to say is that this lantern was the moon" instead of his actual line of "is the moon". People were laughing so hard I thought we were going to need to order in oxygen.
Noe, fast-forward to closing night. Lion and Quince have changed the bit so the lamp never flies free. All goes as normal, Quince hits the floor after Lion yanks the cord.....and so does the bulb. It doesn't shatter, it just snaps off at the base and clunks to the floor. Quince immediate takes off his hat and snuggles the bulb into it as thought it is a rare and precious egg that must be protected at all costs. His one regret is that "this lantern was the moon" didn't get as big of a laugh this time.

2) Pussy Willow Apocalypse.
Quince also carries a thorn bush in Pyramus and Thisbe. Finding that bush was a thorn in my ass most of the rehearsal process. The directed hated the greenery I came up with, everything that looked like a thorn bush in Alaska in January actually turned out to be thorn bushes with rather deadly-looking spikes I was not going to let NEAR my actors, so finally I just cut several sticks from a bush growing right outside the office and gave my Quince the world's saddest, most straggly thorn bush. A few days into our run at Cyrano's, Bottom adds a bit of running up to Quince during Pyramus' death scene, latching onto his shirt and pulling back and forth on it as he yells "DIE!" The next day, Quince added a bit of whipping Bottom with the thorn bush in rhythm with each tug (do you see why I don't give my actors real thorns?) We were giggling about it in bed the next morning and Mark asked just what the thorn bush was (to make sure it wasn't some priceless, obscure tree, I suppose). By this time, I'd figured out it was a pussy willow and he got the idea that it would be hysterical if he came out with blooming pussy willows, not just with a collection of sad sticks. I refused to get it for him, utterly convinced the director would kill me since getting a thorn bush he approved of in the first place had been such a trial. Mark let it lie for...about a week...then came in with a fully pussied out pussy willow collection (which the director laughed at). Unfortunately (but hysterically), the first time he whipped Bottom with it, all the little white pussies went flying all over the stage and part of my pre-show checklist became picking up pussy willow remains until the entire branch had been utterly denuded in one stunning pussy willow apocalypse.

3) The Helpy Helperton Award.
Snug (also Lion) wears a pair of Carharts in our production. For those not in Alaska, these are versatle, tan work-overalls. At the end of Pyramus and Thisbe, the Mechanicals do their Burgermask Dance which includes a samba, waltz and conga line. Closing weekend, the fastener on Snug's Cartharts fell off during the samba and the more he conga-ed, the more his pants fell down until they were past his knees (he wears tights under that, so there was no under-age nudie show, luckily). He got to the turn in the dance, grabbed them with both hands and hauled them up with a mighty hop. Quince, standing right behind him in line but not knowing what was happening, conveniently grabbed him around the waist and held up Snug's pants for him until the next turn. Sadly, Bottom, who was on the other side of Snug, did not return the favor and grabbed too high so Snug's pants slipped down until the next turn-pull-hop sequence when Quince began acting as a belt again. Mark swears his has no idea this happened.

grrr..

I offically hate that meme now. It messed up my ability to post and now some of my entries are not appearing...

grrr..

I offically hate that meme now. It messed up my ability to post and now some of my entries are not appearing...