I didn't participate in this year's online Halloween party this year, which I know is crappy. I actually tried to post a picture of my Wall from Midsummer Night's Dream, but for no discernable reason my Zoom refused to show the picture, so that was a complete bust. Most people just wore animal hats. My boss was a safari park worker with her dog on a leash, Penguin Girl was a Laker with a trophy and ring. I think they won? A trivia game was played. Also, we found out that Penguin Girl, a shoe fanatic, does NOT mix brands of shoes and other wardrobe items, oh NOOOOOO. We found out that another coworker--the one throwing the party--had her husband surprise propose on Halloween. "Are you sure about this?" she said. "He seemed pretty sure." She also said that a lot of her husband's stories start out with, "No one died, no one went to jail."

At lunch, we found out that Yemi "has schemes" for wrapping, like "arboreal theme this year," and makes her own boxes out of posterboard if they aren't suitable. Lori Ann said she'll just give Yemi an empty box, as long as it's beautifully wrapped. "I need someone who can control my kibble." -Lori Ann Other Jennifer's kid is in Maine, where it was snowing. Poor California kid, he was wondering if the snow in Maine was really ash.

Mom sent me some cryptic texts during the day--I wasn't sure if she was missing some texts in there or not and she never explained even when I sent a screenshot of what I was getting--but apparently she did watch the Zoom funeral and then they were chatting in there by themselves. I said that sounded typical for them and she agreed. She tried to call during lunch, but I was busy.

As for work, I got my Important Document Ordering done without issues this time, thank goodness. It went a lot better the second time, lemme tell ya, even if I discovered yet another weird computer glitch. At least that one I know how to fix.

I got a work email on my personal email from someone at the CC, which I was Not Thrilled About. Somehow she thought I was a manager and she's been getting the runaround on getting something physically printed in the office all week and someone told her I would call her (huh?!?) and she couldn't believe that nothing got done all week. I really wanted to say that actually um, I would not be at all surprised to find out that not much got done since the printer has been broken for like 3 weeks and I know they only had one manager in at a time this week, and I have a hard time finding out if any of the mailing is getting done or not myself. I just said to contact those two directly next week, but they are limited on when they are allowed to go into the office, they can't go until Wednesday, and I still never heard if the printer ever got fixed. She was happy with that. Well, okay then.

I talked to Christine a bit again, and said she thinks the strongest relationships are when you're friends. She said I should invite him to socially distant (hah, we've already hugged, I dunno there) activities like the bookstore or something where we can chat....but can I say that when he works 11 hour days and works all weekends? Probably not, sigh.

I'm so tired of trying to figure out this issue. Working around his limitations doesn't give too many options, I technically have no idea if he got texts or not (Christine suggested asking and then I thought, how awful would it be if I said "did you get any texts from me?" and then he was all "yes, I just didn't write back," Excruciating.) but can reasonably assume he just didn't wanna bother, and if my options are (a) going into the store or (b) texting when he sometimes does it and sometimes does it and (c) hang out otherwise doesn't seem to be an option.... really, is this working? Not so much.

Which is to say I am having doubts once again. I would absolutely tell me to give up on this under the circumstances. Like, should I even bother trying when not much goes on? It's easier for me to think "maybe someday" when not talking to him rather than trying to and not getting a response and then I feel like an idiot who needs to back off for being too much even though I sent like, a few one off texts for god's sake. It's not that I only do this with dudes--I'm kinda feeling similarly with Redhead Sarah but after she said she was freezing up and not doing anything, I gave up on trying to check in with her as to her lawyer situation. But with guys....ugh, I don't even know. Why bother? Seriously, sometimes I am just all "maybe I should fucking sign up for (Insert Whatever Awful Dating App Here) and just find someone else who does definitely want me, even if odds are very high I won't want him." Or contact Frank. Except that's not nice to use other people you're not into to get over your frustration at wishing you were with someone else.

Rehearsal did not involve the costume people (sigh, disappoint, I even dressed up), but brought back Spadoni the tech guy again, so we had to have the laptops sideways again as long as he was in. He did more tech stuff again, asking me to measure how many inches I have in here, can I plug more stuff into my laptop (probably not?), etc. Spadoni said he'd build a set based on our sets--there can be a set piece that gives you reason, set building around blocking. "It's actually a unique situation that's a gift, honestly." I'm glad he's happy with it(?).

We only did "scene work" today, so we just ran one scene about three times in a row and then we did an exercise in which we said one of our lines in three different ways, causing our scene partner to respond differently. Which is fun stuff. I said "Conspiracy? Where did you get a word like that?" suspiciously, stupidly like I couldn't spell the word, and then like I thought it was hilarious, and "Fern, your Aunt Edith is doing lots of baking for the visitors today, Let's go help her," in super pissed off, super perky, and super bored. Fern/Illy rolled with it all beautifully, she's a lot of fun.

Names being used on Zoom today: Oovery Oorable = Jett "Homeric"

Paige is wearing a shirt that says "My Lazy Scary Costume."

Sean asked what people are dressing up as. Paige is dressing up as Jason Voorhies's mother and said she can imitate her. ""You can't say popcorn and no butter, come on," Sean said, encouraging her to do the impression. Afterwards: "That's terrifying. Sarah, please remove Paige from the Zoom call." Trinity will be Nacho Libre. Others are making fancy origami masks.

On a related note, the animal costumes are to SUGGEST animals, and then have filter masks for animal costumes.

Quotes:
"Probably the whole world would end if I go any bigger." -Paige
"...Then we would have 2 Homers, which would be cool if we were doing a version of Watchmen....." -Spadoni.
Kearsten on doing lines differently depending on intention: "I might say I like your shirt, but really I mean, you stole my shirt!"
Sean demonstrated bird calls since that comes up in the narration: Paige: "GIVE ME THE BIRD CALLS!"

After rehearsal....well, there was a show that got canceled due to unforeseen surprise circumstances recently that apparently did a filmed version of it and sent it out to some people secretly and said to not send it out, and one of those people sent it out secretly to me and others, with the caveat that I can't say this happened or where I found it....ahem.

I will say that it looks like this phantom show that never existed was using OBS software and nice backgrounds and special effects, which is interesting as a foreshadowing thing to me here.... and then they cut to everyone in Zoom boxes in a bar, presumably. Then they go back to a group scene and one person seems to be standing on another's dress...hahah.

They have one person wheeled out on a wheelie table (how?!) and then it cracks me up when the guy magically changes sizes from smaller to larger somehow.... and then his arms cut off when he sticks them out of frame.... LOL. Then Young Frankenstein knees the guy in the crotch....which worked great until the guy's head goes out of frame.... It's just cracking me up how this is going, I wish I could show it!

I will say that a love interest who doesn't want her boyfriend to touch her ("Taffeta, darling!") works great over Zoom . The wedding night is going to be greaaaaaaaaat, I see.

I love how seeing how a ....divey servant character....just walked out of nowhere from his box and was creeping around the lead. They did manage to pull off a 2 person dance scene, though, so that's good. But getting them on the same level in this show is a hoot.

They set up a hayride scene well, I gotta say. The servant guy looks like a spider somehow driving the thing.

Note to myself for the future: do not stick my arms out of the box! Then somehow the hay background goes to...Vegas? The moon? Mountains? UNDERWATER? This thing is crazy!

During the big dance number, they have separate shots of legs vs. bodies that are totally off from each other, heads being blocked...it's Very Silly.

Oh no, I think I'm about to watch a rape on Zoom....Then the bodies fade out, we hear a giant zipper noise...and O noises....scenes of rushing trains and volcanoes and fireworks going off....OH DEAR LORD.

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