A thing I hate about winter 2020: I can't wear my glasses and a mask at the same time any more. I have breathing tricks (which usually boils down to "try to breathe down, not up or out" and "don't breathe out much") that have worked with masks so far, but NOT IN WINTER. I absolutely couldn't see with glasses and a mask in 30 degree weather to get the car's oil changed last week, so I ended up driving without glasses--which I am not supposed to be doing, but at least it was all short distance driving and I didn't have to read long distance on the freeway so I could still see enough to get there.

I thought not leaving my house until about 9:30 this morning would solve this problem, but NOPE. Reggie was giving me shit for driving with my mask on, but I was forced to not do it today because I immediately steamed them up so bad I couldn't see again. Sigh. At 55 degrees? Waaaaaaaaah. It apparently needs to go over 60 before this isn't an issue. Sigh.

Anyway: today I had to go to FedEx to mail back all the green screen/lighting/costumes to Neon Spark. The guy had to custom pack it into all one large box for $125. Well, I am supposed to get reimbursed for that, at least. I was in there for 20 minutes, all were masked, and I picked up some packaging stuff and envelopes while in there, so that's done, at least. Should I return to mail anyone anything else. The FedEx experience was pleasant and not too many people were in there, so yay. Then I drove for what felt like a long-ass time to go drop off stuffed animals I made at Christine's house in Orangevale. I hadn't been to Orangevale before really, but it involved getting off the freeway and slogging through town for a long boring time. Well, at least the car got its exercise, Christine got animals she's happy with, and I got $100.

Yeah, that exact sentence. I'm not sure how the podcast was on my phone, exactly, but it turned itself on and that's what it said. There's your sign. I have to keep it up....though I don't think I can do 400 texts a day or whatever, for god's sake. Hell, I can't even get up the nerve to do it tonight.

Then I went home, did the decontamination shower, had lunch, walked around a bit, then settled down to watch Charlotte's Web.

* The chorus is on a green field, in black, with Wilbur walking out from nowhere. There's a barn frame over them. I do not see animal filters.
* Paige seems shorter....? Everyone walks in from the side. Yikes. Mine is in a weird box frame. Everyone is just standing in space. They did get full body even on me, though. Looks so weird to have people walking in from a box.
* Random rooster noises going off? Oinking? I think this sacrifices facial expressions here and that's a shame. Tiny bodies/faces is...eh....?

* Slightly different field and barn in the background for the Zuckerman farm. Homer and Edith look good. Ditto goose/gander. Templeton's head is cut off, as is putting her stuff down. Lena's brown pants are fading into the background somehow.
* The "it's raining" scene looks...ridiculous with no rain background and a sunny day.. Has sound effects though. The Free Time dance is great. No trough. The sulfur feeding is...spaced out?
* Charlotte climbs out from the eaves. This actually looks cool. Her head is cut off though.
* Paige is seriously really excellent in her enthusiasm.
* I'm not even sure what's going on with Fern and Avery pushing?
* Oh, they did add "some pig" in the web there but it's hard to read/a bit cut off. "Terrific" comes off better.
* Wilbur's acrobatics are awkward but cute.
* Did not know Avery was making faces during the photography.
* The 'fair set" has a half cut off booth on each edge and otherwise is a yellow field.
* The pig bath isn't too bad. Mostly rubbing Wilbur's knees, I guess.
* Fern walking and out of box is hilarious.
* Aw, Wilbur asleep is cute.
* Yes, Avery does have a balloon.
* "Humble" is really hard to read, sadly. You can tell where they edited it!
* Wilbur glitches in and out behind and in front of the stool.
* Lurvy splashes right into Homer's back. Oops.
* Wow, the forty cents thing didn't work at all.

Anyway....I'm kinda disappointed in the look of the show, mostly because full body people kind of minimized the acting that a lot of us were doing. I'm glad they figured that out since they wanted it so much, mind you. And who's to say about the difficulties that they had going on techwise, so they had to prune it down to being simpler anyway. But that said...Well, visually it was awkward. Oh well, I guess.

Later on that night I watched a play of Almost, Maine, which is a show I pondered auditioning for last year but didn't get around to it for whatever reason--I think that might have been during Coney Island or something and I hung out with cast members instead, and also it was at Chatauqua and they weren't going to take me anyway :P This is a mix of mini-scenes between people in the not-a-town of Almost, Maine, which I guess is....territory or something? They repeat actors but not characters, though characters do mention other characters. Except for the opening/closing, anyway.

Prologue: two characters outside.
"Right now I think I'm as close to you as I could possibly be." "Well, not really." "If you think about it really, you're about as far away from me as you could possibly be"--these lines take on a whole new meaning over Zoom, even though he's just talking about circumnavigating the earth.... and she edges away off camera.... *

Her Heart: Girl randomly camping in a guy's yard wanting to see the Northern Lights. He is all, "I saw you from my window and I love you." "I'm not really here for that....I'm here to pay respects to my husband...." "OH GEEZ." "On Tuesday, actually." Anyway, she claims to carry around her literal broken heart. Her husband left her, then wanted to come back and she said no, and then he got hit by a bus. The guy, Easton, is a repairman and offers to fix her heart. I will note that her ex was named "Wes." Har.

Sad and Glad: Exes meet in a bar...and she's having her bachelorette party. Meanwhile, even the guy's fish has left him. I will note that he has a tattoo of the word "Villian" on his arm--misspelled--and then it turns out the waitress is named that.

This Hurts: Girl with shitty boyfriend meets guy who has weird ailment that means he can't feel anything in the laundry room. Guy says "My brother Rob" over and over and over again in a way that makes me think he just doesn't get out much. By the end, she manages to get him to feel pain.

Getting It Back: Girl decides to break up with boyfriend, hands back the bags of love she gave him, gets tiny bag back in return....engagement ring sized. Has happy ending.

They Fell: gamer guys keep falling over, maybe fell in love, not sure where this went.

Where It Went: married couple fights, the girl loses her shoe.

Story of Hope: Hope got proposed to, freaked out and ran off, and now she's returned...and of course, the guy has moved on.

Seeing the Thing: I think this was the best one for me, as a total tomboy/bro-ish (but straight, I guess) girl finally gets asked out by her guy friend, and is totally confused as to how this works.

At the end, we go back to the opening couple, as the girl returns.

It was an okay play. I kinda wish they hadn't done the magical realism aspects of it since I didn't like those so much, but overall it was pretty good.

Quotes from the talkback afterwards:

* "Get back in here, everybody trying to escape." "I thought we were free!"
* "Hello, I'm Mr. Snowball, I was acting in this show and working on this show." "I'm a busy boy."
* "Scenes that were most effective when people were looking at the camera."
* "Was this whole show an excuse to Rick Roll us?" "Yes."
* "How did you come up with the idea of using Zoom?" "THE PANDEMIC." Director watched Zoom Theatre as well. They contacted those people and asked how they did everything.
* They had a lot of fun with Zoom chat. "Theater kids could bond with a chair if they were left alone with it long enough."
* "The snowball is from Target."
* One guy was working from his closet so that it looked like he was at a front door. "There was a brief moment where we couldn't figure out how to turn on the camera while in the closet."
* They said it was "really difficult and complicated" to try to look at other people, and got easier when it didn't. Same for my show.

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