Holy smokes... Time seems to fly when you are in Costa Mesa. I swear it feels like just yesterday I was talking about finishing up the load in for the show. *checks calendar* ummm.. yah.. apparently it is almost the end of November!
There is quite a bit to catch up on.. and honestly, I have to re-read my last entry to see where we left off!
OOhh.. So lets start from the beginning. At the end of October, obviously, there was Halloween! I had some awesome plans to go with Ian (one of the lost boys) up to West Hollywood and enjoy the big party. Unfortunately, a couple days prior to Halloween, I had a fall at work :( I was going to jump up through a trap door in the stage to move a piece of scenery upstage and, unfortunately, it didn't work out so well. I normally wait for all of the actors to come through the trap first, then jump up on a landing 'pad' (really a wood box with some industrial grade carpet taped on top) then use that to get up to stage height. As Peter Pan exited, he was off balance, and we collided mid-air. Sadly, I came down with my full weight on my knee. I was luckily able to make it up onto the stage (barely) and move the house upstage. When I went to jump off the stage though, I went to put weight on it (it had already been one of my most painful experiences ever to move that upstage bit after falling...even more then when I broke my wrist or anything else I have done snowboarding) and the knee gave out, which ended with me falling off the end of the stage. I bet you didn't know my middle name was graceful. I was able to crawl back towards the landing pad that originally caused all the problems, and promptly called on headset for an ice pack and someone to cover my next cues. I sat out the next 30ish minutes of the show, and the bits I did do were very... hobbily. Back to the original story though - so I was planning on going to WeHo, but this sidelined me quite a bit (as I was planning on taking the motorcycle up to WeHo and didn't trust the knee to make the shifts on the bike) and I had to pass on that adventure.
Instead I went out with some other people, including our puppeteer (8' werewolf), our tinkerbell (fallen angel), one of the pirates (Box of kittens), some of the wardrobe peeps (a cherry sunday and some other fun things). My costume was a rush purchase between shows... not sure if you have seen the lady gaga video where she wears the blue lightening bolt shaped swimsuit...but yah... that was me! Highly inappropriate and totally hot mess. We went to a failure of a club in the OC (I have decided that they don't like random club nights) but ended the night on a high note at a gay bar in Huntington Beach. By the end of the night, there was a lot less clothing on a lot of people, and one of the dressers was hiding in the free kittens box.
Besides the Halloween fun that night, we also found time to go to Knotts Scary Farm/Fright Fest which was a resounding success. As you all know, I am easily frightened. Unfortunately, so is Ian (who came with), but Tiger Lily and Slightly weren't quite as much. I would say that night was great fun... being chased around haunted mazes by random people and screaming like little girls! My favorite part of the night was when we were going through the 'London Terror' maze, which, oddly enough, was set in London. One of the actresses jumped out at Lee (who plays Slightly) and said something to him... not only did he not get scared... he proceeded to inform the actress she needed dialect work on her accent.
The next couple weeks were a blur of rehearsals and shows. There have been the odd night of going out in West Hollywood with some of the cast/crew, and some nights of going out here in Costa Mesa. Unfortunately, most nights in Costa Mesa end up with 1 too many rounds of shots being taken (usually my fault).
I was very surprised to see that South Coast Plaza mall was already throwing up Christmas decorations on November 1.. but all of the retail stores also switched to holiday music....weeeeee.... not.
One day (about 2 weeks ago) I did take the brave step of actually going for a ride on the motorcycle (along with my trusty bottle of ibprofen). I wrangled Jeremy (our Master Electrician) and Dana P (Technical Supervisor... who also came from the Seattle Rep!) into joining me on a jaunt up the mountains. We took a great ride up 18 to Big Bear Lake (along Rim of the World Highway) then back down 38. The cruise up was breathtaking. Nice, big, sweeping turns mixed in with some tight switchbacks, ending up on a ridge that overlooks the valley. Way different than what you would find in Seattle! At one point, we stopped for gas, and my buell wouldn't start. It took a local to hand over a wrench for us to figure out the battery connections were loose. A quick turn of the nut and we were back on the road. We stopped for about an hour at the base of Big Bear for some lunch (at a cute little diner) then hit the road for the return. Sadly, by that time that we left lunch, we hadn't anticipated the sun going down. While the Valley and Costa Mesa had been lovely in the morning, riding return from Big Bear (where there was snow), in the shade, was not the most pleasant. I think Dana suffered the most, as he had no gloves, skidlid (just a top helmet) and glasses... When we finally had a chance to stop at the bottom of the mountain, we all agreed we didn't want to repeat the last bit without more clothing!
That about gets me caught up to a couple weeks ago... I am going to turn out the light now tho and get to bed. Before I do though, we are heading to Atlanta next, but will be in Chicago all summer...which means I will get to see Chicago Pride! (after backing out last year).
Ok world... have a good night.. remember to brush your teeth and look both ways before crossing the road!
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