I went to bed at 9-something pm, exhausted, and woke up repeatedly between 5-7, but at least I could go back to sleep. That was NICE. I kept dreaming of Tailwind and performing without masks.

This morning I took the second of five astrology classes online again. They announced midweek that they were making some changes, like cutting off the chat because the teacher (who is astrologically famous, but I'm going to not mention their name here because...you'll see) was too distracted by the chat, will take questions as the end, etc.

Now, I've read at least one book by this dude that I liked so much I somehow bought it twice. (Why? I have no explanation for this.) I read his blog, which is obscure. Unfortunately, his teaching is like the blog rather than the book. He's what I call a throat clearer, i.e. takes Quite Awhile to get down to Business Time. I know you have to do at least a little throat clearing for the late people who walk in and all that, but it took him 20 minutes to get going and the first 20 were (a) bitching like last week that he's been teaching for 30 years and he can't possibly distill it all into this short class time (then why are you teaching this, I ask? SEE BELOW,) (b) telling a charming story of being SO SICK he had to fly to SF and literally teach class from a bed (this is no longer a charming story in a pandemic, I'm afraid) and (c) last week he drew a sketchy flower and harped on how we were the flower, and he did that again today. As someone on the chat channel I hang out on said, if you complain about how the class time is too short to cover all your material, you're only making the problem worse.

This week was supposed to be predictions, which I'm down with--frankly that's why I got into astrology in the first place. I'd summarize the lecture, when he finally got to it, as being about solar progressions and every time your sun goes from your birth sign to another sign some years later, something drastically changes with you. Okay, cool, that's a guideline. I'm not really into progressions and don't get them much, but fine. Then he did this whole thing about "the last aspect your moon makes before birth and then the one it makes after your birth says a whole lot about your psych makeup and how you deal with your mother." Am I interested in this? Sure. However, how one calculates this was...confusing, and eventually he was all "I'm not very good at zoom. Have someone else show you how to do this, it's very important." Um, sure, the reason why I'm taking an astrology class three time zones away is because I totes have someone around me to ask about this. He seemed to feel pretty crappy about this, for the record, and at one point openly said, "Is there anyone in the audience who got ANYTHING out of this talk today?!?" Um...... He finished early to take questions, then didn't seem to get the questions, and one person said it took so long for her to get called on she'd forgotten her question. At the end, the lady running this thing was all "You did a good job!" and I was all "......" to this. He was grumbling that he'd have to rewrite the entire class now.

I'm not going to write an email of complaint with my name on it or anything, but if they sent an anonymous survey, I would certainly Have Thoughts. I went to the theater and bitched about this and Jean was all "I'd ask for the $25 back" and Steve asked how many people were in this and I said "probably over 100" and he said that was a lot of money the guy was making for this. YEAH. Seriously, if you can't teach--and from what I understand this guy does teach frequently enough--it's pretty ridiculous.

I am annoyed to find out that I will not be in the Buenos Aires dance number--only the three best girl dancers, Evita, and all the guys, of course. groans SERIOUSLY I CAN'T EVEN BE IN ANYTHING INTERESTING IN THIS SHOW. So annoyed. This show is not fun. I like the people in it, but overall what we do is no fun. I was hoping to have at least two fun numbers in this, but noooooooo.

(Seriously, if Scott wasn't also in the 10 minute show, I'd probably just skip going to all Evita rehearsals that conflict with their tech weeks for the next two weeks. IT'S NOT LIKE I'M MISSING DOING ANYTHING CRUCIAL HERE. But it's easier if everyone has us on the same schedule and he wants to be around for it, so...whatever.)

I was at the theater all day today. Did costume fitting and got my dresses from The Producers and Urinetown* (tentatively--Jean probably wants to yank them for "too many sparkles" and "too many blue dresses," SIGH) back since I pointed out we those go over the Tits o' Doom** and not too many other dresses around here do and they layer well and don't have too much in the way of putting them on. (Like if I have to put on a size 20 dress to fit them? SIGH. I can't exactly use boob tape with quick changes either.) The "poor" dresses in this one have tons of buttons and snaps, which strikes me as being a Very Bad Idea if everything is a quick change, to which Jean was all "Well, they did it before." Sigh. So for this one it's a "poor" dress, an "aristocrat" dress, an "Italy" dress (I note Jean did not care about trying to look like the country in question, it's more of an Audrey Hepburn-ish black and white snappy suit outfit) and a lab coat.

Jean: "Your friends will have seen that one already." Me: "My friends wouldn't go, so who cares?" *

* I have double D's on an otherwise small frame. This requires me to wear a lot of Spandex or else I can't wear something.

No painting today, which is a shame since that's my skill range. It was all construction: they have to build an adult bed from scratch, a literal revolving door, a platform to sing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" off of, and I forget the fourth thing. Should be finished in a weekend, right? But nope. Hardly anyone showed up at all for this. Rhiannon and Brunette Sierra, Sage, Hugo and Brooke later in the day, that was it. Thank gawd Rhiannon and Sierra grew up with builder dads, so they took the lead on building the platform, which is around 3-ish feet square and on wheels and it's supposed to be decorated. TOOK ALL FREAKING DAY ON THIS THING and they still weren't quite done by the time I needed to leave to get my hair done. I attempted to assist on this but wasn't much help beyond finding tools and holding things in place. I could un-screw screws but couldn't put them in and was ridiculously bad at that, and also hammering. God, I'm dumb.

Sierra is back from Hawaii and brought Hawaiian candy, even some for the dairy-free (not that Scott was there for that). That was enjoyed by those who came. She also got her hair redone by Morgan, a bit shorter and with more highlights.

We did have some entertaining discussions today about the worst TV finales of all time (we all agreed that HIMYM beat Seinfeld) and the Woodland production of Hunchback, which Steve thought was "just okay." I asked why and he had some good reasons, mostly compared to how they put on Hunchback with one set the entire show (I presume this is because their stage is small).

Jean commented that all the same colors kept being used and even the gypsy characters weren't that colorful

They only got one bell from us and they didn't even bother to make it ringable--Steve said he explained how to do that and they ignored him, and ditto some
stuff on the burning special effects

We all thought the imaginary prison door was pretty bad--they had no door but made a really loud door sound effect, so that was weird

No live orchestra, Steve said they haven't used that since pre-pandemic.

And OH YEAH, THE GUY PLAYING FROLLO IS A SEX FIEND. Specifically, he has the charming nickname of "Dick Pic Rick" and used to be a drama teacher who got arrested for sexting/soliciting teen girls. (I checked this, and YUP.) "They didn't check that?" This also sounds quite divey and creepy. At least no teen girls were in Hunchback, I guess...

After that, I went to get my hair done. I LOVE the new souped-up red my hairdresser came up with after I told her I wanted something showy for Tailwind. It's really pretty. I got several inches chopped off so hopefully it will curl better and be less sad and flat. I'd love it if I go in tomorrow and nobody recognizes me, heh heh heh.

Set construction quotes:

Steve section:
"I digress, most of the time."
"I had gray put in."
"I hate you. But that's a good thing." (I forget to who, probably Brunette Sierra)
"My whole life is quoting musicals."
"You're moderately nice, Jean." On seeing baby chicks: "Ohhh, dinner!"
"I am not as stupid as I look."
"I have underwear older than you."
(When someone asked if he was going to retire from the theater) "I'm going to be buried here."
"I like symmetry and I hate symmetry."
On his new hearing aids: "I can hear a mosquito fart outside."

Brunette Sierra section:
"His name is Matt, I picked him up on the island, I thought he was cute."
"Matt catches lizards wherever he goes. He caught a gecko."
"Dirty pictures? At worse you'll see cats."

Overall:

"How many people does it take to build a set?" -Rhiannon. "More than us." -Sierra

"I thought you might like a foot piercing.." -Rhiannon to Arielle, holding boards with her foot.

Rhiannon: "Sage, I wish you were older so I could be cursing." Sage (age 13): "My bad."

Rhiannon: "You want to feel old, Steve?" Steve: "Yes." Rhiannon: "My grandmother was a real hippie."

Steve made a reference to Morgan as Hugo's fiance, which Hugo apparently did not notice.

"It's part of my Jewish paranoia." -Arielle

"These bolts are doing me dirty." -Rhiannon

Jean to Steve on costuming: "You don't need a suit because you're Captain Ahab."

Steve has made up a backstory about his character being a trucker named Juan and his wife bakes bread.

"We're two peas in a pod, except when we're not." -Brooke on herself and Bella.

"I'm going to have noodle arms tomorrow. But that's okay." -Rhiannon.

"Apparently I know what I'm doing." -Rhiannon

Brooke: "I did not come here to be Bob the Builder."

Rhiannon: "I'm going to get safety glasses." Steve: "I have them, they're called glasses."

Rhiannon, while drilling: "Get in the hole, my dude."

"We're no longer super troopers, we're super screwed." -Arielle. Rhiannon has been screwing all day!

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