Friday, May 30th
I've been fairly infrequent in updating recently as there hasn't been a whole lot to say. 'The Music Man' is marching towards its opening night - one week and counting. I have my lines down, but they aren't completely second nature and I get a few things wrong in Shinn's fractured frazology but it should be more or less there over the next week. The house as disappeared under the costumes for the show as Tommy does the costume thing on a cast of 55. The Pickalittle ladies made their hats all over the living room this past Monday and it led to much hilarity and many feathers all through the sofa and on the carpet. It should be a good show. Performances are gelling and there are some good moments.
Had a West Virginia trip in there. I'm getting too old for that drive. Nothing terribly eventful other than my having to pull off a couple of times to snooze. I think my stamina is dribbling away with the years.
Today is my little sister's Delta Dawn birthday and my little brother's 4-0 is in a few weeks. I guess we're now all officially middle aged. I better call her and wish her a happy happy.
Work is the usual. There are feelings of uncertainty as there are some changes happening in the upper echelons of management of the hospital and health system and we don't know where that's going to leave clinical geriatrics. It's too big here for there to be a repeat of the UCD disaster but, having lived through such things before, I am a bit apprehensive. Should all come out in the wash.
Friends wrote a musical about five white trash ladies living in a trailer park that we went to see this past weekend. It was a good deal better than I had anticipated and has some real potential. Needs one character reshaped and a bit more of an even flow between song and story and some lyric rewrites, but on the whole, nicely done. No word yet on 'Terrorist' for next season. If Birmingham Festival passes again, going to shop it around to some others.
Wednesday May 14th
Another year older as of this past Sunday. It's a little disconcerting to recognize that it was the silver anniversary of my 21st birthday. I am very definitely far older than I ever intended to become and the time keeps sweeping along, faster and faster. I expect to see a wizened oldster in the mirror any day now.
Didn't do anything special for the day. Called my mother for mother's day, sang at church with the choir and had two rehearsals, one for 'The Music Man' and one for the Men's chorus.
The Magic City Men's Chorale's spring concert was last night. We had a full house of 500 or so show up for it and we did pretty well. No major cock-ups and from what I can tell, the audience really liked the program, as opposed to politely liking it. It was an interesting mix of pieces from soft classical works to the obligatory gospel and show tune numbers. It's been fun singing with them and I think I'll be back next year.
The Music Man is the next project out of the gate. I have got to get my script out and learn my lines. Tommy is out trying to figure out how to put 55 people into period costume for $1.98 each. If anyone can do it, he can. If he gets stuck, I may put out an SOS to my cousin Jenny in Seattle and get her out here. She's a miracle worker on limited time and budget.
Wednesday, May 7th
RIP Patrick Flanagan Spivey Duxbury Thompson: April 1993 - April 30, 2008. He was a good cat but it was his time to go. At least he had fun up through the last few days. I guess he can go play with Steve now.
Other than having to put Patrick to sleep (he lost the ability to walk and could not eat or drink), things have been relatively calm around our place. Tommy finished all of his finals, passed all of his classes and is out of school until August. We have lots and lots of projects to get under control so its not like we won't be busy.
In order to celebrate, we were in New Orleans this past weekend. The weather was lovely, we had lots of good meals, including a great dinner at Bayona, our favorite restaurant down there, and did quite a bit of gallery hopping. Didn't buy anything. Art purchases will have to wait until after the remodel is finished and paid for. I'm not quite sure where we'd put anything at the moment as we haven't got what we already own back up on the walls yet.
The other reason for the weekend was for me to give part of a symposium on surgery on the aging woman to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. I did the geropharmacy portion. It went relatively well. I and my compatriots have done this for ACOG several times in the past. Much better attendance this time around and folks seemed interested in what we had to say.
The next big thing that happens is the spring concert of the Magic City Choral Society's Men's Chorus (The Birmingham Gay Men's Chorus but in the usual circumspect Southern Way, 'Gay' is not part of the formal title). Next Tuesday evening. We sound pretty good on most of our numbers but there's this hoedown folksong that really isn't a good fit for us as singers and emphasizes all the worst things about gay men's choruses in general. This too shall pass.
I will eventually get into rehearsal for 'The Music Man'. Frank seems to have designed a schedule that maximizes my absences due to conflicts. Better get out the script and come in off book.
