Slept in, feel fine except I keep having vague panic moments of DOES SOMETHING IN MY THROAT FEEL SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT?!? I haven't gotten gas in 12 days because I have just driven around town except for one out of town trip, and that was 8 gallons and $40 of gas. Whee. I picked up my iPod at Best Buy and I guess it was so busted they decided to give me a new one instead, so I'm setting that up, and then went to Target for grocery shopping while I was over there.

Heard from Mom: I'm trying to get her to come see the show tomorrow before people all get sick and the entire run gets canceled or something. Who knows there. Then she was all "did you test your electric blanket?" and I was all "it broke on day 3 when I saw you, I didn't have TIME to do that."

Heard from Robert: is considering seeing the show but is afraid, various relatives of his are coming down with it, he had a scare recently but came out ok, and he heard about Ashley.

Ashley called: Sounds like she definitely got it AT karaoke. Said she went Monday night, then went on Rae's birthday trip Tuesday/Wednesday (GLAD I DIDN'T GO NOW), started feeling weak at the aquarium but thought it was her heart, doctors thought it was just a cold, she stood in line to get tested Friday and guess what. I asked if anyone else has been tested and she said she didn't know on Rae and her mom, but her parents haven't and while the new Tuesday night karaoke gig may not continue but her dad so far is still intending on going Monday night. DUDE, GO GET TESTED YOU PROBABLY HAVE IT is what I was thinking. I said I wasn't going to karaoke. Ashley said she's going to be a princess in a tower for at least a month and her doctors at Stanford don't even want her to come in in February any more since they think she will still have it then, and of course it's likely to make her heart even worse than it already was....

Other than that, she sounded....usual? Vaguely chipper? Like "I'm fine, I'm tired, everything's awful," but "I detangled my yarn!" Otherwise okay-ish? I don't know. "It is what it is," is her usual attitude about health stuff, which is reasonable. I don't really know what to say about the whole "I know darned well it'd be super bad if I got it, but I still went to karaoke for months without my mask on at any time" thing. She knew it was a deliberately bad decision and did it anyway, you know? Because who wants to go back to health jail? Except well, then you end up in health jail. I don't know.

Did text Rae's mom and she said they were testing tomorrow and the day they found out from Ashley, both of them had been exposed (the mom at work and Rae from a classmate) that day anyway. This is all hopeless and depressing.

Other than that, I went to the library in the afternoon, having a feeling I'd find a certain book there, and I did. I walked around the neighborhood a bit and did some reading outside since the weather doesn't suck today. I also talked Mom into getting tickets for herself and Roger for tomorrow--fingers crossed everything goes well there. My new iPod works great, even though I literally dropped it face down again on my way out the door...but that time it didn't shatter or even dent at all, thank goodness. Imagine my reaction to that one if it had.

I also found a random...prayer card from a funeral home, from someone's funeral in 2016(!?!) on the street, with the whole "love is patient, love is kind" quote on it. Why the heck would someone's prayer card from a funeral in 2016 with a love quote on it be in my path? Especially these days?!

Second night of show! We made it! Nobody sick! No major flubs that I noticed except for one thing (see below).

Funny stuff:

* Michael said that some of his ancestors were first cousins. "Explains a lot, doesn't it?"
* Isaiah asked if he can fake pee on stage. Steve: "No, that's in Urinetown."
* Evan said his last name is misspelled in the program ("meanwhile, Arie's is correct" and his is Ukrainian), but he thought it was funny. Dannette fixed it anyway and said it'd be in updated programs once these rotate out.
* Jean has been hiking up her dress and flashing leg before "Along Came Bialy" starts backstage. Hubba hubba!
* Elizabeth has worn the sausage costume in 3 versions of this show now. At first she thought it was a pain, then got used to it, and now it's kind of a thing. "Sausage girl is my legacy."
* Dannette got distracted by conversation backstage, didn't hear "places" being called for act 2, and forgot to go hide behind the couch before Act 2 started. She crawled on and nobody noticed.
* There were some cheerful drunks in the audience and the people who selfied were having a GREAT time--some of Jean's friends, I think.

Mic check:
* Arthur's mic check: "Tessa! What are you doing with that sound system?"
* Jean ranted about people missing the show for being in the bathroom.
* Nate was echoing Scott's lines. "Stop being my echo!"
* Arie on pi again: "I wouldn't miss any digits, that's the important thing."
* Isaiah: "I'm a little wooden boy! I do stuff!"
* Tessa, on sound: "Sometimes I just want to let them keep going."

Bios:
* Isaiah calls himself "Woodland's favorite son" and dedicates his performance to his dogs.
* Elizabeth "is proud to once again wear a giant sausage in this show (for the third time!)."
* Arie writes software to pay the bills, "but really is looking forward to eventually leaving it all behind to be a semi-starving artist," and he fences at Renaissance faires.
* Evan: "This is Evan's first show at Davis, and like every show he dose, he tries to make his parents proud. And this musical, in which he plays a gay Nazi, is no exception."
* I note that Scott said in pre-Covid times he liked to sing karaoke and hopes to do so again someday. To which I was all O RLY, texted it to Ashley. He said later he felt like he had to put something personal and still might "but not until after this show." Though given what I told him about Ashley and Jim not getting tested and doing it anyway...uh, perhaps not.
* Nate, in his first show ever, wrote a very touching bio about how he grew up a jock and his brother was the theater kid, apologized for the "athletes are better," stereotype, and "This is Nate's first show and he'll happily tell you that the jocks have it wrong; incorporating emotion alongside talent is much more challenging than they could ever imagine, and he is proud to have a foot in each world." Awwww.

Backstage I asked Jean about performing at Woodland. She said they had real masks on for everything but tech and the performance, but they were required to have the clear tray "masks" with open tops for shows. You do not have the option to wear a real mask there. This makes me still rather hesitant to audition there, especially with omicron now and whatever other variants will be out there by the time auditions for Bye Bye Birdie come up. Dammit. I really like that show, but if it's not safe to be sharing air over there...and they don't check for vaccination either. I feel pretty safe at DMTC but other places, I dunno.

In general, people were talking about whether or not to travel places these days and Jean said it best: "It's hard to make plans when you can't rely on the plans."

Scott and I went to Woodstock's, I guess more or less together? I think(?) he waited for me to come out before leaving, we left around the same time, parked nearby, sat together. I note that Steve straight up didn't recognize Scott (thought he was some friend of mine) when Scott took off his mask to eat, due to lack of mask. I was all "yeah, every time he takes that off" myself. He was all, yeah, most of my friends these days haven't seen me without the beard.

Other conversational topics: knock wood that nobody's sick right now, that they had pretty much enough guys audition for the show and didn't have to recruit anyone but Richard, how Jan likes Carousel (I disagree, but eh....), other shows people have done. Danny was in some very strange Christopher Durang play in which the parents refused to find out what gender their baby was, and I was all "what about diapers?" and um.....let's assume that kid probably had a lot of infections down below.

Scott and I left together and he's still hedging on auditioning for Urinetown--hasn't finished watching/listening to it yet, maybe wants to bow out because of his knee (I said I talked to Sherilyn and she thought they wouldn't start dance rehearsals right off), if he does it he won't until Monday, blah blah blah. We'll see.

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