BIG LONG UPDATE

Okay. I know, it's been a while.

And I know, I'm a bad friend: I haven't been reading journals nearly as much as I should. No Time! Life is made of teh crazy.

Not that there aren't some good things happening, but really? This week has been twice as long and stressful as it should be.

There's some work-related crap, which is probably not of much interest to most of you and I may put in a flocked (for my protection) post later.

There was the site visit for AZKATRAZ, which was utterly fabulous and wonderful and I got to hang out with some amazing HP fans and also got to spend not one, but TWO evenings with the incredible and awesome rani23 whom I miss like whoa and love more than my luggage.

There was the RECOVERING from my first trip to California. I know, right? But the only time I had been planning to go before, there was a hurricane moving up the east coast that grounded my plane, so I had to cancel the trip. So YAY for my first time in CA and OMG, San Francisco is BEAUTIFUL. Except for the panhandlers. They're not so gorgeous.

There's hpalternity, too, which is EATING MY BRAIN because really I don't want to do much other than play, because it's so fun.

Then there's Tribute, which is the show I am stage managing. Now, ordinarily, y'all know, I don't like to stage manage. I really hate the responsibility and the pressure and yeah, I'm good at it, but I'd much RATHER be on stage, doing what I frankly do the bestest in the whole world.

But I agreed because I knew the players were in a tight spot and there really weren't any roles in the show for me, nor really any other shows I wanted to do this fall, plus of course, with all the travel, I knew my chances of getting cast in anything were slim to none.

I mention the travel. I've just completed Five (count'em 5) Weekends In A Row of travel, including TWO road trips to Western New York, a plane to Pittsburgh followed by a road trip down to WV, and two other airline trips: Orlando and SF. And yes, my arms *are* tired.

This means not only that I have a pile of laundry about as big as my bed, but that I had to miss a lot of rehearsals. Well. A handful of rehearsals. With a director who was not really invested in blocking, but more letting the actors mill around on the stage to "find what works" (gods, I HATE that kind of director). And I was *totally* up front about the travel beforehand. We tried to get an assistant stage manager, but she couldn't make all the rehearsals either and pulled out early. The producer was filling in for me on the nights when I couldn't be there.

And then. The director up and quit. This Tuesday morning. Three and a half weeks before opening. And his stated reason for quitting? "The Players do not share my belief in the importance of a stage manager." What. The. Frak? There's been never a word to me about any sort of difficulty. He's completely non-communicative, and IMO wasn't doing a great job, but that's hardly my fault, yo. The moment I read the email I thought, "You a-hole. It's not me. You want to quit for some other reason and you're just using my (hello: PLANNED) absences as an excuse." (Sure enough, I talked with the producer and the president of the group last night and there was, in fact, some other kind of reason.)

Anyway, so yeah - I don't take it personally and I'm not at all hurt or upset by his accusation that I wasn't being a real stage manager. There wasn't anything to manage yet, and besides, he knew I was going to be away and said in production meetings that he was okay with it. I can't help that the production meetings were held on days when I was out of town, either - my conflicts were known *before* the meetings were scheduled. So, yeah - not my fault, dude, and not like I'm sorry to see the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

We now have an amazing director, one of the best directors in this region, which brings me to a whole other level of angst, but that's okay. And in the three days since this director has been gone? Uh, yeah. Already a better show.

But. Something I didn't need among all the other stress.

Oh - And I've recorded two fics for SpellCast Readings this week. One is edited and off to the producer; the other needs to be edited (tonight or tomorrow morning).

Now if I could just find my bills to pay them....


In totally other news: I'm sure you've already seen this, but The NYT Editorial Board Endorsed Obama for President.

(And Yay, Connecticut. But that's old news.)

Hm. I also have to figure out how to get to the polls that Tuesday, between work and rehearsal.