Nightmoves

I can't believe that I can stay up so late, not feeling tired while doing so, and then function all day the next day! I would like to be cured of this.

John and I fail at blogging! I for one, am sorry. Especially since that last entry was so dire sounding. Believe me, that time period sucked! I quickly got better though, so I am sorry for alarming you at the time.

I really should not post a long entry at the moment, so think of this as a place holder! We open the last big show, The Music Man, in just over a week, so we'll be pretty busy, but after that I get lots of time off, and I can make entries. I will bug John to as well. He has lots going on! Missing each other quite desperately, to be perfectly honest and vomit inducing!

Much love to you all out there!

In a dim place...

Folks, I have not forgotten this, nor has John. On my end, while the people here are fantastic, work has become a real struggle, and when we are on the other side of it, I will try to tell you about it in a way that does not worry or depress you.

Much love,
Lindsay

PS - saw my first kitty in five weeks yesterday. Was having one of the worst days I can remember in a long time, and I almost cried in happiness when the big black kitty let me hold him and purred.

Time gets away from me

It seems that the opportune time to write a post never happens in theater (spelled American style, just to mess with you), thus I am writing in the 45 min break between Tech run and Tech Dress. I'm sitting in the semi-darkness of my top bunk. Aimee Mann accompanies me in this brief spell of anti-social behavior, as does the last of my baby carrots. It's a stressful day, but there is no reason to resort to junk food. I already ate it all anyway!

Since my humungous first update from TriArts, a good deal has happened, as you might imagine. It seems silly to talk about going out for Italian food nearly two weeks ago, as I said I would, but I will say that the stromboli is delicious and you should seek it out!

I spend my day working with two girls, Madeline, the shop supervisor, and Mallory, the other intern in the costume shop. When prepping for a show, it's actually one of the less stressful areas at TriArts. Other production staff and interns often come by to escape, and we're more relaxed, have no clocks and tend to be watching film or television on our laptops. Our first production is A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, which coincidentally is one of the shows I worked on at Stratford. The funny thing for me is that today is the first time I actually got the complete rundown of the plot! Just in time, too, because tonight I will be backstage making sure the quick changes happen when they should. Something tells me I will sleep soundly tonight!

Sharon, Connecticut is a tiny, idyllic little place. It has a Main Street, a Gay Street, and roads leading away to other little towns with Main Streets and gay streets. I, of course, mean gay in the classic, happy way. That's how it is... in Connecticut! I'm lucky that most people have cars here, because it's a long walk uphill just to a convenience store, and a twenty minute drive to a grocery store. That's even worse than Stratford! Still, it's very beautiful here and in some ways it's hard to believe it exists. I laughed at young Phill when he told me that he had never been to a small town in North America, and thus doubted their true existence, but there is something to be said there. Living in the city, I do forget that people live so quietly, and in many ways: simply. This morning we joined most of the town at the firehall for a pancake breakfast. That same firehall emits the sound of a WWII air raid siren when there is a fire, which has happened twice just since I've arrived.

On the whole, wardrobe seems to get the most time off but the most panic backstage. It's a huge change working back in small theatre, but in many ways, a welcome one. I mentioned before that there are no clocks, and that's true, though we do check out laptops and phones to check on lunch time and dinner. At Mirvish or Stratford, it was a constant check on the time because each costume had a completion time target and each show had a time budget. It was like balancing a checkbook at the end of the day, only instead of dollars it was fifteen minute intervals. Now I feel more rhythm and less anxiety. I still want to be a faster sewer, and I think if I worry a little less about absolute accuracy (which is not the expectation here), than I get used to going quicker.

By far the greatest challenge, over top bunks and limited food and over eager teenagers (I am the oldest here by at least two years, in most cases, 4-7) is being away from John, Toronto, John, Cake, John and Grover... yeah, I can't help it, saying I didn't miss my co-blogger would be omitting a major element of this summer! The good news is that Skype seems to be working for the most part, and after the first little adjustment problem, we've been able to connect most days even for a few minutes. The hardest thing may be that I can't picture what he's up to day to day, but hopefully we can both start taking pictures... and posting them here!

Earlier I actually went to Tech Dress, and it went so much better than I thought it would! I actually managed all the quick changes, other than when Mallory took some costumes to the wrong side of back stage and I couldn't physically do the changes. No one in lighting or sound noticed the difference, and were impressed with how quickly I got the quick changes out. Tomorrow we finish off the notes as best we can, then Tuesday we do dress rehearsals most of the day, same Wednesday, and then Thursday we open. That means no day off in a two week period for anyone, which I wasn't expecting, but there isn't much way to avoid it.

Now, I think it's off to relax and try to get enough sleep to make it through tomorrow!

Sticky feet

A gecko just ran across my bedroom wall. I want to keep it and take it home.

That is all.

The first of my first impressions! (AKA: OMG I'M ON ANOTHER CONTINENT!!!)

Well, I've been down in Guayaquil, Ecuador for a few days now. It's been a really overwhelming first week, filled with some good and some not-great.
And because I'm a bad blogger, it's far too much to reasonably fit in a single post. So I'll be playing catchup with more posts to come.

Anyway, enough blathering and on to the trip:

After parting from Linds, I managed to get to Newark airport with plenty of minutes to spare. I even made my connection in Miami with perfect time. Saw the gate just as they announced the final boarding call.

It was like magical sleep-deprivation pixie dust.

Unfortunately, it turns out that there were also some gremlins hanging around.

The plane sat on the tarmac in Miami for an hour and a half. It's fuel and weight computers had decided they weren't going to be friends anymore. The pilot kept announcing in a rather uncertain voice that we'd only be ten more minutes. And that the technicians knew exactly what they needed to do. But after our eventual takeoff, there were no further problems.
It's the first time I've ever really flown south, and it was a little odd. About half the flight was over the Caribbean Sea and then the rest kind of followed the mountains down. I'm much more accustomed to east-west flights where you seem to be cutting across things instead of flying along them (the Prairies and Great Plains get a by).
The plane finally landed about 2 1/2 hours behind schedule, and then it was to the customs/immigration queues. They weren't bad, but the sleep-deprivation, anxiety about official questions en español, and a bit of guilt regarding the folks waiting to pick me came together to make it a little nervewracking. But it was painless. And there was a rather cool infrared camera setup at the airport that the police/health agency were using to scan people for "la gripe porcina"; yep, swine flu mania has taken over the entire world.

Los Campoverdes--Pati y Ernesto--were waiting for me with a little sign and greetings and questions for me in spanish that I could only understand or respond to in the most rudimentary way. On the drive to their (my/our?) house, two things quickly became apparent:
1. It is bloody well hot and humid.
2. The roads and drivers here are insane. Completely. No sense of self-preservation and no belief in lane markings.
Those two observations were based on conditions at 1am. In the middle of the day, it is sweating, speeding, shouting chaos. Yet somehow it works. More on that in later entries.

Upon arrival at the house I discovered there were other interns staying there (huzzah!). Two American girls, both pretty cool, one of whom is fluent in Spanish. They're definitely helping mute the culture shock. :) And after some chatting (which I was too braindead to contribute much to) it was finally time for sleep (Yay! That's where I'm an Inca!).

Next time: The terrors of driving! The terrors of buses! The confusions of working! Also cheese, sugar, rice and frying it all.

I think I'm leaving old New York behind...

I'm here! It's been such a great, relaxed first day. It makes the 72 hours leading up to it seem like a crazy dream.

I finished my contract at the Stratford Festival on May 29th. That was Friday. Finishing up at Stratford was a very odd experience, as everyone leaves at different times. The first wave of people left mid-May, with the largest exodus being the Friday before I was done. It's a huge wardrobe, but you really only feel it when there are only nine people in a room that usually has 25-30. That's just in the medium wardrobe. Because everyone finishes at different times, leaving doesn't have any grand sense of conclusion on the whole: usually the show you're working on isn't even totally finished yet. However, I had a very nice exit evaluation where I was "promoted" should I return to the festival in the future, which is the plan at some point!

John moved me out Saturday morning, and from there on I can barely tell you what happened until last night. A lot of packing. I packed twice in three days, essentially. It's hard to know what to do in Toronto when you won't be back for three months and you really haven't much time to spare. I decided to spend it doing the things I like most: walking the streets (not street walking. That's what I did the weekend before), petting kitties, watching a favourite movie, hanging out with my brother and getting all the John time I could get. As requested, I will not blog about my endless love all summer, but there you have it - just this once!

The Megabus... a lot less mega than before! It was hot and stale the entire trip. I went to use the facilities about 20 mins past Buffalo and there was no toilet paper. When I asked the driver for some, she shrugged like I was a fool for asking. She decided to humilate me for asking by stopping at the next rest stop (this is at 1am) and turning all the lights on, announcing that "this lady" needed to use the washroom. It's really best forgotten. I've still had worse on various Greyhounds, it's cheaper and the wifi is great.

Our arrival in NYC was more like 8am than 7, so we headed to Schwartz' Luggage Storage, a few blocks from Penn Station where John was catching a train to Newark Airport at noon. Murphy's Law: that was the morning the manager had a family emergency and no one showed up to open until 9:30am. The morning was greatly improved with lunchfast at the Tick Tock Diner around the corner a couple blocks. We had corned beef sandwiches at 10am. Why not? They were delicious.

From there we walked to Herald Square, one of the two wonderful recent urban planning oddities in New York. The other is Times Square, where I went by myself later in the day. These three street merges have been tamed by closing off Broadway along one section, and turning it into outdoor seating for pedestrians. Originally I thought the idea was a little silly, but it was the thing John wanted to see (geek!) and I have to say, the effect is quite special. I don't think many could be blasé about lounging casually on a lawnchair in the middle of Times Square!

Luckily retrieving John's luggage was much easier than dropping ours off, and all too soon I was saying goodbye - prolongedly, due to the train leaving late - to John, for three whole months. I know we're going to have the best times, I just wish that transporter beams existed.

I spent the remainder of my time in New York lounging in Times Square as previously mentioned, as well as getting a few last articles of clothing and the all-important flipflops. 4 pairs for $10 and no tax? Yes, thank-you!

Packing the way I did was a mistake. I had one large-ish suitcase that rolls easily, and a large duffle that was much heavier than I thought. Also, a laptop bag. Going through Grand Central Terminal was hellish and painful. To make matters all the more awful, after I had made myself and my oodles of bags comfortable in the first carriage of the train, I was informed by the driver that the doors of that car were not going to open at my stop! That I had to, in fact, move down three cars. This was quite irksome. For the sake of flow, "quite irksome" is all I will say on the matter. You can expand the situation to yourselves, add 25, then multiply by 3.

By the time the train rolled off towards Wassaic, NY, I had been mostly awake since 7am Sunday morning, about 34 hours. I fell asleep passing through Brooklyn, and when I awoke, all was green and silver. So surreal, to go from concrete to the lushness of so many trees and sparkling water. I watched the sun dip into the trees so that beams would shoot through and make shadows that danced on my seat. I passed out listening to Lily Allen, the only thing that would do in this new world was Nick Drake. I think the tension left me at "One of These Things First" and pretty soon I was calmly and almost easily hefting my things onto the platform.

I was greeted by Shelley, the Company Manager. I guess when someone told me to email the "Company Manager" about my arrival time, I conjured an image of someone many years my senior and not to expect them to be getting me! It was so nice to be greeted by someone close to my age, who is from somewhere I had been (San Antonio) and who I could freely be a zombie giggler with. She kindly took me to a grocery store where I bought the most random assortment of foods I may have ever purchased: one grapfruit, a box of raspberries, pink lemonade, seaweek salad, california rolls, bagels, chocolate, and Woodchuck hard apple cider. Actually, writing it out it sounds much healthier than some previous grocery trips in my life!

So there it was: I had arrived! Can you describe a whirlwind as chill? Relaxed? I was shown the house I'm staying in, the room, the bunkbed (top, as feared), the fascilities, the people, the fire pit, the office, the rehearsal hall, the stage, the person who hired me, and then the hot dog that the people had roasted me in the ten minutes it took to do all that other stuff. I ate it. I sat another hour or two around the fire, nodding and laughing while taking my first sweet sip of Woodchuck. Luckily, people here totally got it that booze would be in my first grocery list. Eventually, I had to crash. I really only stayed up that long to delay making my bed! Somehow, I did all that and showered 39 hours off of me. I didn't fall out of my bed.

Coming soon: brevity! Wardrobe! Road trips for Italian food!

Musings from a bus somewhere in Hamilton

At this very moment, Linds and I are sitting on a "Megabus", speeding through the night towards our respective summertime adventures, and away from our home, family and friends in Toronto. Seeing all the lights dotting the shoreline from the skyway bridge reminds me just how pretty it all can be.

Anyway, what makes this bus so mega, you ask? It seems to be a combination of free wifi and total disregard for the speed limit. It's a good combination, though perhaps a little motion sickness-inducing.
In 2 hours time we'll make history as some of the first Canadians to enjoy the new border-crossing protocols at Buffalo, then head on to New York City for a few hours of fun before we part ways and I hop on a plane bound for Guayaquil.

In all, there's less than a day left before I meet my new family for the next three months!
I hope they have cats. And a spare bicycle. And whatever else I forgot to pack. :)

Excitement! Terror! Thrills! Soup!