Friday, July 22, 2011

Friday, July 22nd

I've been very bad about keeping this up to date recently. Bad Andy. No Pizza for you... (And if you recognize that reference, you're over the age of 30). I seem to have missed the entire month of June and most of July. Some of that is due to craziness in both careers and some of that is due to my just being lazy in the writing arena.

June started with the usual WV/KY run (Tommy went along this time) with a little time spent in the usual places including a very nice lunch in Berea with an exploration of the local artisans. We returned home in time to attend Birmingham's first society gay wedding (which coincided with the Birmingham Pride Parade) and there was much festivity both inside the temple and on the street outside. Most of the rest of the month was devoted to the usual work stuff and rehearsals for the musical version of '13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey' in which Tommy and I both had parts.

'13 Alabama Ghosts' quickly became the project that ate most of July. We were engaged as performers but it became clear that the producing organization was out of its depth with the piece so Andy and Tommy theatrical producers came to the rescuse, spending enormous man hours on set construction and painting, costumes, wardrobing, props and stage management. Fortunately for the show, I had scheduled a couple of vacation weeks, ostensibly to do projects around the house and Tommy had finished his summer school classes so we were able to rise to the challenge. It wasn't what I had intended to do with my time off, but we were able to knock the production into shape and it came off rather well in the end. I don't have any decent pictures yet. I'll post some if I can get my hands on any.

Now the show is over, I am back at work (Tommy is still off for a few more weeks) and the usual grind descends. We did find time to carpet the basement, finishing up his studio and we're putting the finishing touches on that. It's the last major decorating project in the house. We will then strictly be left with little things here and there. The yard needs attention next. Our garden service seems to have gone out of business and we haven't found a new one and the entire lot is becoming the set to the movie 'Predator' more rapidly than I would like.

One more show to go before I knock off for a while, I'm playing Mr. Kopecki in the musical 'Big' in August. I seem to be all through the opening sequence, then vanish for the rest of the show. If I can show up at half hour, do my bit, then leave, I'll be able to do the run on less than an hour a day. Wouldn't that be nice.