My giant org is officially closing (almost everything) for the holidays! In addition to the four free days we normally get, we are getting SIX extra days off starting on the 21st. Which will be paid if you have vacation time or otherwise borrow against your vacation time. This is usual policy for this joint, so really the only thing is that it's a lot MORE days. Usually you get four off and if you don't want to work the three days between Christmas and New Year's, you have the vacation time using issue.

My new teammates, on the other hand, have only been here for a period of months and don't have the vacation time to cover six days, and now don't have the option to work either (and at least one doesn't want to have to borrow 6 days ahead of time), so they are not happy. Which is legitimate. And then there are the people being all "but what about processes? What happens if anyone has problems?" Uh....I dunno....I guess maybe have my teammates work if they are allowed?

Anyway, I am selfishly grateful to have two weeks off at no fault to me, more or less. I can't go anywhere or do anything fun, mind you, but at least I don't HAVE to work. Or feel obligated to work. Maybe I'll come up with a project to do for two weeks?

Later, Mom asked if I was coming home and I said I can't.... "Okay, just checking." I suppose technically I could quarantine for two weeks beforehand and then go home, but I really don't want to be trapped in Mom's junky house for two weeks and REALLY NOT BE ABLE TO LEAVE AND GO ANYWHERE ELSE. The year she had the flu was bad enough.

Other than that, it was delightfully quiet again!

I didn't take too many notes during therapy, it was mostly just filling in what I did for the last two weeks. My therapist asked about Baby Yodas--she'd like at least two--and then mentioned maybe making requests for others in the future. I did send her my craft blog, shots of Baby Yodas, and the Robin Hood link (still not offline yet!). So maybe I just do commissions for two weeks? I dunno.... She gave me a bit of shit for not wanting to be Too Much, again.

She is taking the week after Election Day off from work. Think about that one for awhile...

Rehearsal:
"Hello, barnyard lunatics!" -Paige
"I just love it when someone says that to me." -me
"It's a compliment!" -Paige
(Paige is my kinda girl. I feel we would have hung out had we been in the same location.)
Paige is dancing in a jack o' lantern shirt.

Sean's day: he tried going to a corn maze in hopes that it wouldn't have a lot of people, but it did. Luckily for him they cleared out around the time he arrived.

"Are we going to do a full run through today?" -Paige
"I think we're going to have a full stumble through." -Sean

Today was the first full run through of the play. What I was not thrilled about was Michael the tech guy wanting us to do full body shots today, at least once. This apparently entails TURNING THE LAPTOP ON ITS SIDE, which I consider to be a giant pain in the arse to turn the sound/camera off and on, which was also requested. I don't like how I have to stand six feet away (blech) to get even my feet in there, and really, are my feet important in this show? I think not. Even Michael the tech guy said something along the lines of my not really needing to do that and hiding me behind barrels or tables or something. (Which is what I guess they will do for anyone who can't go full body or doesn't need to?) We shall see, I guess. But whether or not everyone can go full body was kinda so-so-ish, not everyone is rehearsing where they will perform, etc. Anyway, it was more of a trial tech run for this, I guess?

I do not love flipping the laptop and standing at least 6 feet away for this. The sound can't be great for that. He was all, we'll get you bluetooth...something or other, I forget. Is that really what all the big shot pros do, have their gadgets sideways?! Trying to turn the camera off and on SIDEWAYS and showing my whole body and not my face IS A PAIN IN THE ASS AND I DO NOT LIKE IT. Nor do I like trying to watch the show with people SIDEWAYS. This is a PAIN IN THE ARSE. I feel like all my facial expressions are gone and mostly I just stand around and...feh?

Names people called themselves on Zoom: Katherine, playing Templeton: "RATherine." Jett, playing Avery, did a name mashup of his name and character's name and came out with "Javery Carable."

Sean called what we did "lightly jogging" and we were further along than he thought we'd be, afterwards. Katherine and I said it felt weird to just be standing around and Sean said that "if it looks weird, Michael will turn your camera off." "The blocking is stand in front of your camera. We are all figuring that out together." "We threw a snowball of stress at you right before your first runthrough." -Sean.

Sean told a story about someone getting a laugh the first night of a show asking for the butter, and then not being able to replicate it afterwards and asking for help. "You asked for the laugh." "What did I do opening night?" "You asked for the butter." Don't know that the line is funny. It needs to be something you just say then in the moment. I agree. The strongest choice is to be here right now. Sean said that he gets a week of runs "and then it all gets built into the set." They are switching us to Google Meet from now on because of the Zoom window wiggling issues, and during performances, we will be on Google meet and then be captured by the technology team, who will move us around, and then they will send it to a Zoom meeting.

Kearsten said that whatever we have is enough and is perfect (I wish my work felt that way) and it's their job to figure out the rest from there. Yay.

After rehearsal I watched the Sarah Cooper Netflix special, "Everything's Fine," in which she plays a newscaster in 2020. 'Nuff said on the title, eh? This gives her opportunities at times to of course imitate Trumps, and do a weird QAnon infomercial about dolls, and a corona pillow, and a "close up card act" at a drive up show. Megan Thee Stallion shows off her ass and dance techniques. Fred Arnisen has every COVID precaution he can manage. I wasn't really feeling it until the weather report section, in which every day goes from boiling hot to freezing cold to snowmen on fire. Sadly Netflix will not let me take a screenshot of the five day weather report, which is fucking priceless. Then Maya Rudolph as the weatherperson snaps and tells everyone they should not be going outside.... That was THE BEST. Everything else I was not as into. But she got a lot of celebrities in this, so that's rather impressive. The show ends with Sarah on a golf course running from a meteor while the song "It's So Nice To Be In Hell" plays. I dunno if I'd recommend it or not because I was really only into one bit of it....

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