Today was long and somewhat cranky, but also good? A lot of driving. I was glad I downloaded an audiobook on my iPod from the library ("Victoria" by Daisy Goodwin, very good) to keep me occupied for all of that shit. It really helped. I think this is the book that...what was it called, "Victoria" or "Young Victoria" or whatever that show/miniseries was with Clara from Doctor Who? was based on. I did watch that and listening to this gave me delightful flashbacks. The friendmance between Victoria and Lord M is adorable.

Happily, the drive to Jackie's was pretty problem free, only 1 slow portion. I wasn't over there long because she was busy. She made some cracks along the lines of "I hope my grandma's still alive for you to go to her birthday next year" and "I still think this is more important than a play," but I can't say I'm surprised to hear her say/think it either. I'm sure she says worse behind my back, but I deserve it. Then she gave me some cupcakes/cookies and ah...homemade ice cream. The last one I was very excited about, but um....obviously gonna be a lot of hours before I got home? It's now refreezing, hopefully.

I got to San Jose about noon--I note that the theater now requires you to show up for the Covid checks at12:30 now--and that's when I discovered that the parking garage we usually use was closed. I called Mom to warn her about this and when she arrived around 12:30 it was still closed--we found out later the place opens at 12:35. Geez, really? MAYBE THEY SHOULD CHANGE THAT.

Anyway, at noon I had to drive down the street to a larger, cheaper parking lot which wasn't that bad EXCEPT for the fact that only one of the parking machines worked, and it was the one the farthest away from where everyone was parking, and it didn't work very well, probably took each person trying to use it 5-10 minutes to get their card to work, and they wouldn't take the cash at all.

Though I did have an entertaining conversation with a theater techie who worked there who thought I did hair and makeup? No, just a small town actress, I said. I told him I'd last worked on Mary Poppins and he asked, "How did you do the penguins?" Later on the acting he said, well anything can happen, if you let it...hahahah.

I tried calling Mom to warn her about this, of course we got into multiple screaming fights in public over (a) where is the park and why can't I give better directions, (b) I TOLD YOU THIS IS THE ONLY MACHINE THAT WORKS, (c) her running off to get into another line, forcing us to play Supermarket Checker Race as to who gets it to work first, I guess I won that one, (d) her trying to force me to bring her metal water bottle into the theater, which I said no to and then they made people throw out all water bottles like it was the airport. I had almost finished mine anyway so as I'm swigging the last drop she yells, "Why didn't you give ME that?!" and I look at the security guy and I go, "She's really fun at the airport too." Also at one point I started apologizing by reflex because my car is dirty (I did not feel like fighting the construction yesterday to go to my favorite lazy drive-through car wash) and she ALWAYS bitches about it, and then she acted like she had no intention of bitching me out about my car, but yeah right?

So yeah, that was fun.

However, I did get a lovely lavender "I will never be satisfied" T-shirt and the poster, both of which had not been available in Sacramento. And we had much better seats at this one than in Sacramento, Which, I must admit, really went better. It's the same cast, having moved to a different town, but I could really see the facial shenanigans, and things people were doing (like Jefferson wiping his hand off like people had cooties after shaking it at times), and I even HEARD the girl whispering "John Adams" into King George's ear! It was really clear and good to see. I enjoyed Eliza's "Burn" rage again, and really, both Mulligan and Jefferson--the actors REALLY HAD FUN WITH THOSE. Like hamming up like shiiiiiiiite. The dude playing Jefferson went full snarly hammy villain and was clearly having a delightful time.

But the best part? THE SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS. I already really love those ladies as is, but they had FOUR people doing it for this show, them plus 2 dudes that came from the SF Hamilton (I talked to them after the show, giving them my compliments). They said SF had had 3 interpreters, but...seriously, this show needs four. The guy playing Hamilton/King George was especially having a ton of fun, as was the redheaded lady (Steph). They acted out GREAT, their facial expressions (I note the interpreters were permitted to have masks off during the show. Off time, Steph had a great graffiti-ish Hamilton mask on) reminded me of acting out the show at home alone. Watching them act it out during the show was fucking brilliant and I wished I could have filmed that. Also notable: during "Say No To This," Steph was stroking the arms of the guy interpreter and looking seductive. It was a hoot. LOVED IT. THIS WAS MY FAVORITE SHOW OF ALL TIME.

(Really, not sorry I missed the birthday party for this. Well, very mildly, but I do not regret the choice.)

I also saw kids dressed as King George and Angelica--I gave her mom pins to hold up the dress, which was a bit big, and she was very grateful. Another guy said he'd seen 3 little girls in the dresses once, but they were triplets. I also talked to a lady who had a better clear mask than we'd tried at DMTC and got that recommendation. And one kid had on a mask that said "Talk Less. Smile More," which, GREAT for a mask!

After that it took like a half hour for us to get out of there, mostly because Mom decided to track down the whole "why can't I park where I want to" thing. I left around 5:30 and I'm glad I didn't agree to go to dinner with her because GOOD GOD, I DIDN'T GET HOME TILL LIKE 8:30. There was some horrible accident around Dublin where by the time I finally drove by the vehicles, one was a mail truck where the entire front of it had been ripped off somehow. I can only assume that person died horribly and some people aren't getting their mail. Then after getting out of that mess, there was another slog around Dixon and I just gave up and pulled off to get gas and Drano* to kill some time for awhile to get the traffic to clear out.

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