Friday update: Did more sets today. We're still not done and today was supposedly the last day to do them. January 1 the stage managers are going to figure out set Tetris and who's moving things and whatever and then we start tech week January 2. A lot of stuff got done, mind you, but they're still working on the pigeon coop, at least. This involves adding wings to the pigeons, spray painting them (that got done, at least), rigging them up to move their wings and reveal swastikas...pretty crazy. I did ask Jan what they would have done if we were having a show tonight and she was all "I have no idea what we would have done." About what I suspected. Later she said that due to squeezing Camelot into the production schedule, things were a little off this year and under normal circumstances they usually had more time to have everything done before the 31st.

I painted stuff and moved stuff again, more or less. I'm not as tired as last time, most people did end up dropping in at least for a few hours, Everyone kinda petered out by 4. I did get a tour of some areas of the stage (mostly the pit area) by Jan, who talked about how they got this theater built and how the musicians prefer NOT to be seen. (I sent Scott a list of the musicians down there and he was all "they don't have half the instruments this show requires!" and I was all "volunteers, and they have double the instruments for this one than they do the upcoming shows from what I can see.")

Quotes, since I did have some time to write some down:

* Steve to Monica on her "distressing" a building set: "This looks great! Actually it looks like crap, which is perfect."
* Alexis apparently hates crows and wore a shirt today that said "Birds aren't real" on the front and had a pigeon and "I am a lie" on the back. Steve on the birds in the show: "They're ravens."
* Monica: "Uh-oh, Steve has an idea."
* Steve, continuing to be death-defying: "I killed a black widow with my foot the other day."
* I missed the context of this one entirely, but Steve again: "Or we could staple Stacy to the wall."
* There was conversation as to what people look like without masks on. "You look better with the mask on," Steve said to Danny, who responded, "Why, thank you!"

Steve also said he knows Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez--he's social media friends and talked to Bobby on the phone--and at one point they wanted to use the theater for Book of Mormon auditions, except they were already showing Hairspray at the time.

A few things came up:

(a) Rae started calling me around 11ish saying she had no food in the house and needed lunch and could I take her somewhere. Okay, fine. I'm not sure WHAT drama apparently went on with her and her dad, or what exactly the food situation is, but I did text her mother (at work, apparently) afterwards to say "Just so you know, this is going on." Which is to say, we went to Panera again with her gift cards. Hopefully whatever drama went on with her dad gets sorted out. I never did hear back about it.

(b) I did try texting Scott today and that actually went on for a few hours. He was obviously not going to come down here today even though he said he might ("maybe" always means no with him) yesterday, but presumably that wasn't a biggie since his work closed at 2 and we had at least a fair amount of people wandering in and out. Anyway, his dad has to have his gallbladder out, presumably tomorrow, he's still in the ER but they need to transfer him to the next town over and there's no rooms...that kind of thing is going on. He did ask about tonight's party at DMTC, but I know better than to believe him when he says he might go :P Would have been nice, but YEAH RIGHT. Even if he didn't possibly have stuff going on with his dad, he wouldn't have. It was nice to actually have a text conversation with him, though. I haven't tried to do that much of late.

Anyway (I write this around 5:15) they said it was at the theater and Dannette was going to set up karaoke. I think very few people will be going, though? Nobody in the cast here today other than me said they'd go, feh, and I don't see them sending invites otherwise? Oh well, I'd rather have something to do than sit around feeling sad and alone for another year.

In other news, I SHATTERED my iPod screen, goddammit. Weirdly enough, Best Buy is open tomorrow to make an appointment to get it fixed. It's not like I have anything else to do, so... I also had to reconfigure my TV so HOPEFULLY it will get the Rose Parade on it tomorrow. I hate that you have to pay for cable to get reception with digital TV channels.

My deep thoughts on 2021: STILL NOT AS BAD AS 2020. Even if it was pretty bad, and surprisingly bad with the fucking uprising and the variants literally ruining everything forever. We still got vaccines and Trump is out of office. Even if every single other horrible thing has gone on this year, WE STILL GOT VACCINES AND TRUMP IS OUT OF OFFICE and the uprising didn't actually work.

That said, I'm not expecting that 2022 is going to get any better in the way that 2021 improved from 2020. I've given up hope on us having a back to normal life ever again, or that I can continue to be covid-free in 2022, or that much of anything isn't going to get worse. The midterms will put us back under more Republican rule and there ain't shit one can do about it. I will still hate my job and remain forever single, most likely. I just hope I can still do shows and not get hugely sick.

One last Hallmark review: "Our Christmas Journey." This was the movie I least wanted to see this year, and sure 'nuff, it lived up to my not wanting to see it and only seeing it for completion's sake. It's about a family in which one of the kids has autism and they're trying to put the kid into a program all by himself. I do not enjoy watching a movie in which the main character seems to have little or no personality (it doesn't appear that he can speak much, so that unfortunately doesn't help), and it's all "Look me in the eye, Marcus." God knows I'm not an expert in autism and I can't say I know that many people with it, but um, the ones I know actually HAVE some personality? I can't say I usually like how anyone's depicted with it on TV most of the time either, as usually the character's either throwing a fit or off in their own zone, and this is right in that wheelhouse. Though it seems implied that one kid from the 1930's on the new 4400 show has it, and I actually LIKE that kid and find him interesting. Would have rather they did something along those lines.

Update about last night's party: it was great! Had about 20 people there, almost all of them from Mary Poppins, so I thought of it as a Poppins Party, hah hah.

I did eat beforehand and what I did eat, I ate next to the open door. Other people, well, as usual on eating indoors, but they put on masks afterwards. And this is a vaxxed crowd, so that's the best it's going to get safety-wise and I did not want to sit at home alone and sad again (I note Don hugged me after I said this). After dinner, there was karaoke, but not "scaryoke," which Jan said she's used to saying.

Covid watch: did hear Steve say that Evan had a second negative test, so he'll be back Sunday. Good. Jan and I were both totally confused on the whole "never mind about testing to see if you're negative or not" thing these days. So how does that work? I don't know.

I did end up hearing from Scott, wanting to know how many people were at the party and who. Against my better judgment, I started attempting to encourage him to go again even if he doesn't know everybody there, and then he was all "Oh, all the Winters people and I are playing an online game right now, I probably can't get there till 9:30," and I was all NEVER MIND, YOU'RE GAMING, have a nice night. Then he eventually said he was too tired after being up last night and was going to bed at 9:30 instead. Yeah, why bother. Seriously, after January ends, I'm done trying here. I also heard from Robert, being all "I still have to deliver gifts," and I thought, dude, it's literally been over a year since you said you wanted to do a gift exchange in person, now it's getting ridiculous. I seriously debated just saying "Dude, let's just declare present amnesty and not bother at this point, I don't think this is working out for you," but just said happy new year instead. As people sang tonight, let it go.

Notable dinner-ish moments:

(a) At dinner, we had an entertaining conversation about jury duty. Ed said the one time he got on jury duty it was just as dramatic as it is on television--crying, drama, etc. I told him about my dumb jury duty stories. Don (a former lawyer) said the one time he got on a jury it was an indecent exposure case, but the guy got off because they couldn't prove the ladies who saw the guy exposing himself were displeased by his actions. So ladies, when a stranger shows his dick, you must openly show displeasure at it!

(c) Ed also wondered if you committed a crime after it's turned 2022 in New York, is it a 2022 crime or 2021 crime...here. Everyone made jokes about time zones and "didn't your father have the talk with you about time zones?" over this, and then it led to "what happens if you commit a crime on a plane" (good point) and "that place in Yellowstone where you can get away with murder."

(d) Several people had straight up shiny bling masks and a few had shiny clothes. I kind of wished I'd worn mine, but I wore my shiny teal mask that hasn't been out yet. Anna had on a LOVELY sparkly blue dress and has amazing long curly hair, so she was pretty as all heck. Beth Ellen had on a hot pink top.

(e) At one point Steve was all, "Did you know that I'm sarcastic?" Gee, we had no idea!

(f) We heard various things about Beth Ellen being in The Sound of Music (as the Baroness) elsewhere. I can't speak as to the performances of the kids being cited, hah. Beth Ellen did say she made cookies for the cast and then put a note on them saying that they had everything in them, so if they're allergic...Meanwhile she's sitting right next to Stacy who IS allergic. and I felt bad for her.

On a related note, when I went out and got cookies before this, I got a box of Duet Bites and a box of Oreos since I know the latter are dairy-free. I debated on doing this since Scott would flake, and then thought, "Well, Stacy will probably be there and she's allergic too." Turns out she brought her own, even the same kind :P

(g) We all had champagne or Martinelli's at midnight and shot off some poppers and took a group photo.

Notable karaoke moments:

(a) Morgan (from Shrek, who has not been in the IRL shows recently), after doing her first song, was all "Singing with a mask on is hard!" Yup. Well, somewhat. You have to project, really.

(b) Beth Ellen is on fire at karaoke, particularly doing "Bugle Boy."

(c) Also on fire: Morgan doing Adele and a song about auditioning from The Last Five Years, Kyle doing "Macavity,"

(d) Apparently Jan only heard the song "Elvira" a few months ago and it's pretty new to her.

(e) I attempted "You Can't Stop The Beat" but HOLY SHIT THE CD WAS WAY TOO FAST ON THIS, like the lyrics were OFF THE SCREEN by the time the music was on the right lyrics. I plugged along anyway but was exhausted after that!

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