Friday at work was a good day. One of my coworkers was retiring, so the day started with a 2-hour Hawaiian party (she's Hawaiian). It was pretty funny how she was all "I'm shy!" and didn't want to go to the party and kinda had to be dragged off to it. And forced to stay, even. I have been dressing up especially colorfully this week for her because she's said she'll miss my outfits, and she gave me a goodbye present of a purple flower hair clip. How perfect! She wanted to hand out gifts--she gave everyone a box of treats. She is pretty well beloved in the office, and someone even arranged to send the mascot over to take pictures with people at one point. Lots of photography happened.

We also got to hear crazy stories out of her. I did not know that in the past she used to literally nap under her desk, with curtain and futon and alarm set up underneath it. The manager telling that story was quite shocked at the time. The retiree's old manager was especially psyched for this event (she made a book of goodbye notes) and was all, "Oh yeah, I always knew she was sleeping under there, I just waited for her to come back out before I asked her anything." I did not know this was an allowable thing back in the day (of course these days that'd be a hell no). Oh, and at one point she made a comment about porn and everyone was kinda like, "Hey, you brought it up, but it's your last day, what the heck." My boss talked later about how the retiree tends to be accident prone and how they'd have to have a safety meeting every week after she randomly fell out of a chair or tripped over a squirrel (that happened). Since I think she's retiring because of her latest injury meaning that she can't type so much any more, ouch, irony.

Anyway, the rest of the day was surprisingly sweet and festive and not too insane, so that was nice.

I don't think I've mentioned this here yet, but I have signed up to do a "green show" (pre-show performance) with the town Shakespeare company during their last week of their run. (Figured the more time to prepare, the better.) I am going to do a monologue I wrote about doing jury duty. While I was e-mailing with the coordinator dude, he was encouraging me to go to the opening night--they have free ice cream. Oh, why not? That was the same logic that got me seeing The Brain From Planet X last weekend, after all.

I should probably explain that they're doing a repertory summer season, alternating "Much Ado About Nothing" (the show running the night I do it) with "She Loves Me," a musical I saw yonks ago and didn't remember very well beyond the fact that it's another "Shop Around The Corner" plot and the title number, which I enjoy. Turnout seemed small for the first night, or maybe it's just that they're in a larger venue for the summer.* I think that's a shame because I really liked their version of She Loves Me. To the point where I'm pondering seeing it again, perhaps dragging Mom if the opportunity arises to drag her.

* Though according to my friend Melinda who doesn't like She Loves Me, people go to a Shakespeare company to see Shakespeare, not them doing something else, so she thinks the other show would have more people. Erm, perhaps she is biased.

The plot features the employees of a perfume store, back in the days when people wrote lonely hearts letters without knowing the person they're writing to's name. Seems a little ridiculous to keep writing to "Dear Friend" to me, but anonymity is the plot. Anyway, it turns out that two of the store's employees have been writing "Dear Friend" letters to each other and presumably falling in love over them, but without knowing jack about what the person is like. IRL, George and Amalia tend to fight and feud a lot--he's kind of snippy and snotty to her and she thinks he hates her. It probably doesn't help poor George's mood that his boss has been picking on him a lot lately. This is because someone sent the boss an anonymous letter saying that his wife is having an affair with one of his clerks, and the boss assumes it's George because he's the one that comes over to the house the most and his wife seems fond of trying to fatten him up. In reality, it's the second clerk who sent the note about the third clerk. The third clerk is not only boinking the other female coworker, but the wife as well. Oh, the joys of juggling your social life as well as work drama....

Eventually George and Amalia set a date to meet and George spots who it is first--except then he blows in for the date without his identifying rose and proceeds to act like a jerk about the whole thing and not saying who he is. But eventually he mellows out and they start bonding and he spits out the truth and there you go!

I thought the production did an excellent job. I liked how the sets and costumes were all color coordinated with characters and uniforms, and the singing was great. Dare I say, it came off a lot better than the street production I saw earlier. Especially the "She Loves Me" number, which I get a kick out of. I like lines like "I'm trembling, what the hell does THAT mean?" And I start snickering at the part about how she doesn't know that they're lovers because I'm from the 21st century and think that sounds dirty. "Imagine how surprised she's going to be," indeedy. I have also come to the conclusion that the song "Perspective" sums up customer service in a nutshell.

I certainly hope that the crowds pick up for these shows. (Though I did see Bev there and I'm pleased that she liked their shows.) I do admit that I was a little surprised that there wasn't any "green show" going on tonight--I was curious as to how it was going to be handled. They also aren't advertising (at all, the only reason I know there is one is because I saw the one flier) about having a pre-show, which also makes me wonder if it's actually uh, going to happen. Kind of weird, that. Melinda said they probably didn't do it opening weekend and not to worry about it and if they end up not having one, then so be it, at least I rehearsed something. But more on that tomorrow.

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