Got a phone call from Redhead Sarah today circa 9:15 a.m., wondering if I was okay since I hadn't responded to any texts she'd sent of unicorns, so clearly something must be wrong. (Answer: never got any. Same issue with Jackie's texts about not getting a job, I guess? This is concerning. Though I got other texts today when I did test texting, so who the hell knows?) Anyway, she said even if she's gone radio silent it doesn't mean she's not sending me unicorn energy and the like on her end. I said that a lot of people have been dropping off and disappearing and I just feel like I should take the hint and leave them be if that's happening.

Obviously, I am not doing well and said as much. She is also having a rough time: her therapist hasn't been in contact much and accidentally sent her a text that was supposed to go to someone else saying she needed to take time off (I guess over phone hasn't been going well), and her ex-husband knocked someone else up AND got abusive to her in front of the kids, so she currently has custody of the kids all the time with no swapping off and is going to court to get full time custody.

She also saw Robert twice--he came over to the house for six feet of distance in the backyard one day and they both went to a Black Lives Matter protest yesterday (she had on rainbow gear). She also is getting me a unicorn "with horrible teeth" (????) at some point soon and wants to drop it off, but will handle it however I need to with drop off or distance or what the hell ever, under the circumstances. I said to call me back after I'm done with stuff today and we'll figure it out.

She said she's afraid of Zoom and I said we can try doing a practice run at some point if she likes. I also said I'd met Shanna/Coleman and she's another unicorn type and she said, "yeah, Robert said he thought we should meet" and I was like YEAH.

The second half of As You Like It went great, the record button was on and everything!

Snarky lines about Shakespeare:
* It was decided that Parolles rhymes with raviolis.
* The original Parolles (Wolfman) had to go back to work, so the new Parolles (Matt) asked us which hat was more appropriate: fedora, red plastic hat, or strip of fabric around the head? We voted for fedora, but warned him he'd have to be blindfolded in the plot later. He realized he couldn't see through that fabric and said he'd just have to peek...which seemed like a very Parolles thing to do.
* I had some weirdness going on with the green screen. It was perfectly fine when I was playing Diana, but every time I grabbed my big black coat to put over the outfit to play Second Lord, somehow the green screen started acting weird on my face and I had some kind of...flickering mole on my damn face (or worse) every damn time. I don't know why putting that black coat on over myself (which I'd like to note I was using in Dropping Bombs, two days ago, and it was fine) suddenly had that effect, but it totally did. What are you gonna do.
* But at one point it flipped and to quote Matt, "someone is dressed as a living room."
* Katie explained the whole lost drum plot to Matt, finishing up with "you're not even TRYING to get it back."
"He talks a good game, but his follow through wavers." -Claire
"I can see why the fedora." -Matt
"He makes a lot of dick jokes in the first act, which I'm sorry you missed." -Claire
"Virgin jokes, procreation jokes,." -Katie
* As someone volunteers to message someone: "I appreciate you running down the rogue Jason." -Claire
* Jessica shared that she found a book with cutout masks for $5.99, which I declared to be a good purchase these days.

During the show:
* After realizing that we somehow didn't have someone reading "First Gentleman," Jessica read both First and Second Gentleman, and declared that they are identical twins, obviously. Lindsay (Helena) said "like Tweedledee and Tweedledum lol."
* I didn't write down who said, "by 'filling the time,' which is a great euphemism."
* "Parolles is such a fop, it's why Lafew is on his case in all of act 2," Katie explains that Lafew cannot stand his outfits. Matt got some scarves out to put on.
* "I, the king, make the argument that noble blood is not that important." -Colin, noting the irony
Someone else pointed out that is noble blood more important than being able to sit down.
"I do believe the king's posterior is more important than noble blood." -Claire

There was commentary on Bertram:
"No one cares with Bertram thinks." -me
"He does suck. I feel sorry for him, but he does suck." -Katie
"He does read like a whiny 15-year-old," -Claire, who then complemented Shanna on how she portrayed him.

On Bertram and Diana's scene together:
"Worst seduction ever: "be like your mom." -Jessica
"I love the whine! CHANGE IIIIIIIT" -Lindsay
"LOL, me too! I feel less bad for Bertram." -Jessica
"Why do I want to marry him?" -Lindsay
"Because you love meeeeeee." -Shanna
"He's the only guy around." -me
"Bertram the Gaslighter." -Lindsay

From Stage Directions to Everyone: 12:13 PM
"jade's tricks": Clown is going to screw the horses?
From Me to Everyone: 12:13 PM
OF COURSE HE IS
Isbel hasn't been around for a while and he's horny

Me on the Countess saying that she got a letter from Bertram saying he'll be there tonight: "Oh, sure, trust that a letter says he'll get here tonight. Meanwhile UPS still hasn't delivered my work packages for weeks."

Claire enjoyed catching up with the chat during break. "There are so many dirty jokes in this play." We then talked about how in her school they apparently had footnotes in the book explaining the dirty jokes. Sadly, my school did not.

On starting up again after break: "Go fiercely forward, like Parolles runs from danger." -Claire. I laughed, and she said, "Thank you for laughing."

During rehearsal, Shanna didn't like that Bertram was insulting cats (I pointed out that of course he hates cats). But hilariously, as the stage directions "Guards seize Bertram" were read, Shanna's cat Natasha jumped on her shoulder. I suggested that the cat plays the guards and presumably Natasha's name will now be added to the credits as such. "It's all the funnier because Bertram hates cats!" I said.

After that, Shanna and I got on Zoom and talked for hours, which was great fun even if part of it was pandemic talk, the risks of going outside, etc. We talked about her own Scott ("my lover boy") and how they were in an art store together once and checking each other out and then he ended up taking her class. Upon comparison later, yes, they do have similarities--I say the synchronicities keep coming! Similar looks, both do funny voices, etc. After three months, she saw him yesterday at his distanced birthday party where she stood far away outside until she had to go to the bathroom, because she has to go out to the vet a lot (one of her cats has face cancer) and is probably the more "dangerous' one. She thinks I should try something like that with me or at least drive by the store or something, but I don't think I could. I think I'd tackle him and cry and you can't do any of that any more.

We discussed whether or not Robert has hopefully gotten out of his funk (she hasn't heard from him since in the last week) and decided that if we heard anything from Sarah on how that was going, think about trying to reconnect if he's out of his black hole. Hard to deal with someone in a black hole (which heck, I'd been saying to Sarah earlier). Yes, we should all meet, presumably online, sometime. Her idea is that I (or both of us) talk to Robert about the issues going on with mine and get the guy's take on things. I love this idea because god knows I have not been able to spit it out alone to do that. Between talking to her and Sarah today, I am very cheered in general and even have a little hope about the situation.

I was going to watch the end of Femme Fatale, but apparently the show started at 3 my time instead of 4, so I missed it. Feh. I thought it was just technical difficulties. Did not notice a time difference whatsoever, and was chatting with Shanna till 3:30 anyway.

Never heard back from Sarah (I tried texting a few times, but kinda expected it....maybe I'll just actually call her tomorrow, distractions happen with her) but did spend the night having a great time emailing Kelly the playwright and Shanna. Very exciting. I love it when people want to write long juicy emails. Kelly is thinking about expanding "Dropping Bombs" and I offered suggestions, and we talked about asking the other ladies of the play (Mike...maybe not so much with that? If he cares, I dunno? Will let Beth judge since she knows him better.) Also wrote to Cameron (on paper) while I was at it.

So it's been a lovely day. This might be about my favorite day in quarantine so far, really :)

Oh lord, I 11:11'd again posting this....sigh.

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