Monday, January23rd - Welch,WV
I'm off again on my usual West Virginia mineworkers jaunt. It's wet and gray with intermittent showers and a lot of dreary skies and fog. Usually at this time of year, there's a lot of snow but this year has been unseasonably warm. I'm very fuzzy headed after yesterday's eleven hours in the car and I get to repeat it again tomorrow. It's somewhat restful to be away from everything but I'm starting to feel older and less able to drive long distances at night. C'est la vie.
Work promises to be awfully interesting the next few months. One of my clinical partners is going out on extended leave due to family issues and the other has to go out for eight weeks for surgery. I am not looking forward to having to handle everything myself. Especially as I'm directing this spring. The staff for 'Kate' is starting to come together and I think it's going to be quite a good show if I can get the right cast. There are lots of people in town who can do the parts but will they show up for me?
We're in the throes of putting together this years cabaret show. The material is done and we're trying to find time to get people together to rehearse which seems to be next to impossible. It should come out ok in the long run. It usually does. February 4th in Birmingham and the 11th in Atlanta. Last year there was no power. Our last venue in Biloxi no longer exists and we played an abandoned boot factory in Huntsville. We're up for whatever.
I have the viral cruds - six weeks and counting. I wish they would go away. I'm tired of barking. I can't afford the time to be ill so it better not become anything worse.
Thursday, January 12
Not an overly exciting week around Birminghamland. The clinic is swamped with all the people who put their health issues off until after the holidays. The first two weeks of January are always a disaster. The kids who come home and discover new problems with mom also add to the general level of pandemonium. Still, we're all keeping our heads above water and the fractiousness of the staff in general is at a bit of a low ebb.
The new Politically Incorrect Cabaret show is in rehearsal. It should be fun. I have to sit down and learn my lines which I'm not necessarily looking forward to - one of my least favorite chores, and Tommy and I have to get together on the costume plot. Should have it all down soon.
Trying to get committed staff together for 'Kiss Me Kate' - some bobbles with the music but I think it's now solved. The thing I'm really missing is a good assistant director/stage manager as I will need to be out of town on business commitments a few times during the rehearsal period.
Most of the home life has been about putting the christmas stuff away and starting a major closet/drawer clean out. We got the kitchen reorganized which has helped Tommy a lot. A bunch of Steve's family dishes are going into what may prove to be permanent storage.
Wednesday, January 4th, 2006
Happy Gnu Year - or something of that sort. The calendar has turned over, I remain older than I ever intended, and I continue on the ever speedier conveyor belt towards my dotage. I think 2005 was a pretty good year. No major personal traumas, unlike some of the years preceding it. The outlook for 2006 is semi-optimistic. Assuming I survive work and theatrical commitments, things should be pretty ducky for a while.
Tommy and I went over to Augusta, Georgia to a place we know over there to get away for the New Year's weekend. The usual destination is NOLA, but that just wasn't in the cards this year. Much of the downtown/Vieux Carre is back in business, but there's still no place to stay and we weren't going to spend $300 a night for one of the few rooms we could find. Instead we spent far less and had a rainy weekend where we spent a lot of time in bed watching back episodes of the new 'Battlestar Galactica' on DVD. It's a lot better than the original. We did get out for some decent meals and saw the remake of 'King Kong' - well done but badly in need of an edit. The original didn't require three hours, neither did this one.
Now we're both more or less settling in for routine schedules for the winter. I have staff out at the clinic which will make things a bit more problematic than usual. Tommy is working on his music. We get back to our various lessons and rehearsals this next week. I finished the script for the new Politically Incorrect Cabaret show, 'Blues in the Night: A show for blue people who are seeing red' last night and we have a month to get it in shape. It performs Feb. 4th here in Birmingham and on the 11th in Atlanta. The other project is 'The King and I' which begins rehearsal this weekend but for which I should not be needed a whole lot as my part neither sings or dances.
Andy on the road dates:
January 22-24: Usual WV run to Princeton, Welch and Beckley
February 22-26: Freeport, Bahamas (Society for Female Urology conference - I'm speaking on geriatric perioperative care - 45 min talk for four free days in the Caribbean in February? I'm totally there.)
