Last night: Cabaret tech week, week 1, night 1. Not bad, not bad at all. Steve hadn't put in the cues for act 2 yet, so I got to sit and knit in that bit, hah hah. I actually managed them pretty well this time, HUZZAH. Most people had the masks off again, except one cast member, me, Montana and Steve, who has a sinus infection.

No, the roof isn't leaking yet again...however, Steve noted that the outside wall that leaks was just painted with waterproof paint. Uh-HUH. Kimmie was all "I HOPE SOMEONE WALKED OVER HERE WITH LIQUID, PLEASE TELL ME SOMEONE DID THAT," but they figured out it was a sponge or something...at any rate, no wet stage all night, so there's that.

Montana, acting as pianist for this show, is doing the "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" tenor solo. That's random.

Joshua, playing Ernst, wasn't there for some reason. I guess it wasn't covid, though. Jan said she wouldn't recast the gorilla role that Shorthaired Sarah does until the 29th or so in hopes she tests negative before then. They will, alas, have to do promo stuff without the emcee though. "Maybe we can Photoshop him in."

Schulz and Schneider are supposed to kiss, I guess.. I note they're real life married, so I'm not sure why why they seemed squeamish about it? Omar was all "oh my god, he's blushing" and Kimmie was all, "it's okay, she doesn't have cooties!"

Omar while watching Kost parade in yet another dude (who is all the same dude, Taylor, playing every extra dude) and claiming he's another relative: "She's fucking her cousin?!" Me: "I hope they put different things on him (like wigs, beards, whatever) in every scene."

Gill, presumably blanking out on what he was supposed to be saying: "I swear to God it means....????"

Jan: "Tomorrow is going to be--" Omar: "Hell." Me: LOL.

Steve, as musical director: "See that TV with the strange looking Jewish guy on it? Look at him once in awhile... I'm pretty good looking beneath the mask."

Today: I slept in this morning and it was glorious. I also, weirdly enough, had some dream about going to a CBD/edibles event, taste testing, and enjoying the mildly pleasant high. I really wanted to go back to bed and dream some more of that :P Which is a totally weird thing for me of all people to do since I don't really have any interest in pot stuff. I don't care if others do it and from what I recall of researching drugs in college (my ex wanted to do X, DON'T DO IT, people), pot consistently seems like the least bad one ever, including alcohol. However, I don't want to inhale smoke and I never really had interest in drugs anyway, so never tried it.

It was a pleasant enough dream that I actually woke up and started researching this stuff since we have a dispensary in town and the gummies sounded good...and then was all "oh, right, all that stuff about edibles coming on strong gives me the willies, NEVER MIND." I'd wonder where the hell this dream came from, except I can pretty much figure out it was last night because I heard Kimmie saying, "If you vape, do it outside and don't get it on your clothes, we can smell it. I don't judge" (I note Kimmie smokes cigs).

It's Boxing Day (well, for me, anyway, since I spent yesterday driving) and I am taking the day off to veg out at home, in my Hallmark hoodie blanket, watching television. All I did today was book a hair appointment for the 31st--my hairstylist left, sigh, but hopefully a new one can look up the formula in the records or something? and I went out to mail a package, get gas, and fruitlessly search for yesterday's newspaper (not available anywhere today either). I bought Cameron a card and wrote her a card-letter. And Ashley called--said she was sick on Christmas Day but is better now. Debated going to karaoke, but she said she was going later and I'd have to go earlier, so eh, never mind.

Otherwise I am in a sad funk since the movies I am watching (but not posting the reviews of today since two others are ahead in line) kinda suck or are boring and not distracting enough to get me out of said funk, it isn't raining but is otherwise quite dreary out, my cross stitch project is going sketchily and at this point I'm so out of room on this that I am fudging everything, and I keep thinking about a certain person who was crappy to me and how I'm mad and I can't do anything about it, and how I wish things hadn't gone that badly and I feel like I caused it al somehow, but it's too late now.

I'll post tonight's tech week report tomorrow. Here's some more Hallmark reviews I had left over from last week, one of which is Quite Delightful and the biggest upper in this entry (other than all the drug talk).

Three Wise Men and a Baby:

Don't you love it when Hallmark SHAMELESSLY rips off a regular non-holiday movie and then slaps Christmas onto it? They even do the bottle catch from the original movie in it! I hope they keep this up and do "Three Wise Men And A Little...um, Gentleman," I guess, because the baby's a boy in this one. THIS IS A DELIGHT. This is one of the funniest and most adorable movies of the year. The three brothers are a delight. Andrew Walker is Luke the hottie responsible fireman. Stephen (Paul Campbell, writer of the show) is a pet therapist (????). Taylor, my favorite, is played by Tyler Hines (i.e. The Only Guy Allowed To Have 'Tude in Hallmark) and he's an attitudinal game programmer who gets himself fired for Christmas by objecting to a snowman being plugged into the game. All three guys live with their mother in various regions of the house.

Then someone leaves their baby (Thomas) at the fire department, with a note to Luke saying she'll be back by Christmas. Everyone is all, "Is this your baby?" and Luke is all, "No, it is not my baby!" Their mother is all oh, sure, we'll take care of it, then immediately decamps to look after her sister with a concussion. The brothers swap off on raising the kid (Taylor gets himself into big trouble in a few hours, Luke thinks he's doing great until he ends up with the wrong baby), then start to have some fun with it, like buying themselves all elf outfits for a Santa photo. They realize their mom had a very hard time of it in life and vow to make things better and deck the house without whining and pouting.

This is probably the least romance-y Hallmark ever because it's literal bromance, but Stephen's hot redheaded pet therapist client is clearly super into him, and Taylor's ex and ex-coworker Fiona (a lot like Penelope from Criminal Minds), well, obviously she broke up with him for being a pain, but he's working towards being less of one without even trying to win her back. (As for Luke, that baby has a mother...he helped deliver the baby.)

Fun things they do in this movie I haven't mentioned yet:

* Call each other "Dungeons and Dragons" and "Pet Detective."

* I note that Taylor's ex-job is at "Funnen Games."

* THERE'S A CORGI IN THIS MOVIE AND IT'S SPLOOTING. I'm unclear if this is a client dog or Stephen's actual dog since sadly it's only in the one scene.

* They do a synchronized dance to Sugar Plum Fairy, which is the best.

* They are all annoyed at the neighborhood jockboy (Mark LaClark!) who wins the house decorating contest every year ("Medieval Christmas is still being considered."), so they attempt to compete by doing a Three Wise Men setup, with bad acting, no directions, and "we forgot to cast a Joseph" because none of them hang out with any men, but there's a giant star hanging off a fire engine.

* I'm pretty sure this is filmed in the same fire house as The Nine Lives/Kittens of Christmas. Seems like the same layout.

* Speaking of, Kimberly Sustad (!) makes a cameo as an ER doctor. "Three grown men with a baby, you just can't write this stuff, can you?" she says. I am pretty sure she and Paul Campbell are a Hallmark Christmas movie writing team, including this movie.

Four stars. Highly recommended to watch.

When I Think Of Christmas:

This one was on the bland side of things and I found myself intermittently paying attention. Sara and Josh were/are musicians. Sara's mom went on about her going to college, so she went to Yale instead of having a music career and is now a lawyer. Josh is still plugging at it, but I guess he's never become a success, and now both of them are in the olde hometowne while he puts on a concert with locals or something. There is a lot of rumination about whether or not Sara should have gone for a career or not, if it worked out for Josh to do so, and how it went for Sara's musician parents (not great for dad, which is why mom advocated for college). Sara and Josh as a couple seem nice enough, but the movie seems more into the "what could have been" and past angst than rediscovering a new future. Pretty much in the "not going to remember this movie, but it doesn't totally suck either" three star category.

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