Jun. 30, 2005

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music outside [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:40 pm
this evening i saw the spfld jazz band “real time” perform outside at Cheddar’s. cheddar’s has a new outside patio, and there is a row of bushes along one wall, at least sort of giving the illusion of nature, as opposed to only being separated from vast amounts of parking spaces by a wall. the music was great, and it was even better that i didn’t have to travel 100 miles on a sweltering bus to get there.

there’s something pretty perfect about listening to live music outside. i wish i could do it all the time, or at least more often. real time will be at robbie’s downtown tomorrow night from 5:30-7:30, but of course that won’t be outside, but still, they will be good.

tomorrow night i’ll be enjoying outdoor entertainment again, this time “ragtime” at the spfld muni. i missed the first show, “the sound of music,” which is too bad, because i heard it was really good. i’m looking forward to ragtime because i’ve never seen it or even heard any of the music. margaret b. gave it a glowing review, and basically ordered everybody to go see it, so i’m doing my duty tomorrow night.

i don’t have any more outdoor music planned, but i’m sure it wouldn’t be so difficult to find.

after the music tonight, i took gizmo and shortie for a ride on my parents' pontoon boat. just me and the dogs, a beautiful night for it, the sun was setting in a spectacular way. i passed a guy in a prety big sailboat, the kind with a cabin underneath, and he beckoned me over. nobody has ever beckoned me while i’ve been in a boat before, so i steered over to him. did you see the weather? he asked me. he was alone on his boat, and i could see the cabin down below, which looked inviting. i didn’t quite understand him - did he mean, did i see the weather forecast, was it supposed to start storming? i said “no,” and he shrugged and gestured over his shoulder, where the sky was all deep pink and purple. “oh,” i said, “the weather, yep,” and cruised away.

shortie and gizmo didn’t care about the sky. i’m not sure exactly why they love to go on the boat so much. they’re mad for it, though. sometimes they just sit there looking up at me, waiting for me to give them a treat. other times they sit on the arms of the chairs in front, looking out over the water. lots of times they’ll just lie on the back seat, lolling about as they do wherever they go. maybe it’s just the change of pace. i’ve said it before, but i really think that if dogs had more to occupy their time, they wouldn’t sleep so much. shortie and gizmo certainly couldn’t do something like being seeing-eye dogs, but i’m sure there’s something they’d be useful for. besides their daily eating/barking/sleeping/begging for treats.

they’re kind of good watch dogs; maybe they need more to watch. they’re always crazy to hunt for the dog living next door to my parents. the poor old crabby dog, maggie, is old and can’t see or hear very well, but she is the mortal enemy of shortie and giz. whenever i’ve taken them for a walk, they stop at the neighbor’s yard, peering around, looking for maggie. they bark like crazy if they see her, and sometimes even if they don’t. mom has big cuts all over her legs, because she took shortie and giz for a walk and maggie was out and mom’s dogs were so frantic to try to ATTACK MAGGIE that they twisted their leashes all around mom’s legs and cut them up.

they’re small but ruthless, those dogs.

tomorrow, friday. plus, coming up, the 4th of july, where we celebrate fireworks.

ok then,

grace outside as much as possible except i guess i could take a sleeping bag and sleep outside any time if i wanted to, and i’m not sure why i haven’t, and maybe i’ll start tomorrow night.

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thursday [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 2:56 pm
swimbikerunswimbikeruhnswimbikerun...

ok, i’m not really doing that much, but maybe if i keep thinking about it, i’ll be training. like the “think system” that professor harold hill did such a good job of doing in the music man. i did bike then swim on tuesday, which was fine, except i had to take an unscheduled nap in the afternoon because i was ready to fall asleep. swimming, very tiring.

last evening i went on a bus to st. louis. not a greyhound, but a chartered bus, to see the marvelous bluegrass musician Wil Maring and her band Shady Mix. they played at shaw’s garden, and the concert was fabulous.

the only slight issue was the bus trip. 18 people got on the bus, and it was warm. “the air conditioning is going to cool down any minute” people kept saying. an hour and a half later, nobody was making that claim anymore. luckily there was lots to eat and drink while we sweated, and we managed to do quite a bit of both even though it was at least 98 degress there in the bus.

i figured that somehow the driver would have fixed the bus by the time we got back on at 10:30, or that it would have least have cooled down.

nope, and nope again. the bus seats had gotten quite a bit harder and more uncomfortable, and my personal space was invaded a lot, and i decided that i had somehow died and gone to hell without even knowing it. we stopped at a gas station briefly, and were going to get right back on the bus, but we had to stand outside in between two hot trucks, feeling the blast of their heat, waiting for the driver, who seemed to be making many purchases. hadn’t he had plenty of time to buy refreshments while we were at the concert? we would have gotten back inside the bus, but the door was closed and the few people still inside couldn’t get them open.

hell, i kept muttering to myself, listening to a loud and drunk argument about politics and all kinds of blather. B. sat next to me, and at that moment i wished he was fat, so i could have rested my head on his shoulder and it would have been soft like a pillow, instead of full of uncomfortable muscle.

in “paint your wagon,” the guys sang a song called “there’s a coach comin' in,” which was about how eager they were for the arrival of us can can dancers, and a line in the song says something about waiting for “arms like pillows,” which always cracked me up. would a man really long for a woman with big fluffy pillow-like...arms? clearly not. right after the song we made our entrance, and i always thought, here we come, the tantalizing women with the big pillow arms.

dave bakke mentioned this very blog in his journal-register column yesterday, which was very nice of him. he talked about some spfld blogs, and said that the vast majority of them are boring, and people don’t keep up with them. he also mentioned a few by name, and he didn’t say he actually liked my blog, but he did say that if you missed my IT column, that here i am, which was a very good thing. thanks dave, if you ever actually read this.

so, look up will maring online, and order some of her cd’s. you’ll hear some great music, and you won’t have to travel to hell and back to listen.

ok then,

grace here in springfield


Jun. 27, 2005

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whoops... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:41 pm
i should be in bed right now, in order to get up early to exercise yet again tomorrow morning. this morning i took a bike ride, and then i ran. i was going to swim instead of running, but i suddenly wanted to see how i’d feel after biking for almost an hour.

it wasn’t very fun, to be perfectly honest. i started running down the road and thought I’M GOING TO TURN BACK NOW AND GO HOME.

i thought, OK, i’ll go five minutes. but i kept going, because occasionally in my life i do keep going, instead of just giving up. after 15 or 20 minutes, it wasn’t so bad.

tomorrow, i swim. no matter what. even though i said that last night and then didn’t do it at all today. i don’t know why it’s so difficult to get motivated to put on my swim suit. maybe it’s the goggles issue - i always have a problem with water in my goggles, and also, they leave deep marks all around my eyes for at least three hours. maybe i’m wearing them too tight.

randy had us over for dinner, and he served basically everything you could think of. it was bigger than thanksgiving. turkey filets, baked beans, green bean salad, pasta salad, potato salad, green salad, fruit salad, all the salads a person could think of. lots of food. this is good, because i gave blood today and they told me to eat well for...how long did they say? i know they said to eat a good lunch, and they encouraged me to drink juice/eat cookies before i left the place. i’m pretty sure one of the nurses said to eat well for at least a couple days. maybe all week. perhaps just from now on.

and what, exactly, does “eat well” mean, when it comes down to it? i believe that finishing a meal with a bowl of chocolate ice cream certainly make the meal better. eating well, it’s all in the interpretation.

OK, swimming. swim swim swim.

grace


Jun. 26, 2005

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sunday night [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:31 pm
the weather is still hot. probably will be for...months. but that’s ok; consider the alternative.

ok, i have to confess something to you here, and maybe the act of doing this will then therefore force me to actually do it. i’ve sort of started training for another triathlon. unlike the “try the tri” which i did on may 1st and was VERY VERY SHORT, this one is a little longer.

the bad thing is that it’s in THREE WEEKS FROM NOW. and although i did run then bike then swim in the lake a little yesterday, i haven’t really been doing anything to get faster/better at the biking or the swimming.

tomorrow morning, bright and early, i’m going to bike, then swim. i PROMISE.

NO EXCUSES.

which is why i’m about to go to sleep even though it’s only 10:18 p.m. luckily, i’m exhausted from my day so hopefully sleep will be swift and uninterrupted (as much as is possible, anyway).

today i went on a MOTORCYCLE to hannibal, MO. B. (Bixby) drove the motorcycle, which is big and heavy and therefore won’t tip over easily, or at least that’s what he claims. it wasn’t the MOST terrifying thing i’ve ever done, but it did last about an hour and 45 minutes each way. on the way to hannibal it seemed to be awfully windy, but on the way back i thought my head was going to POP RIGHT OFF because of the wind.

luckily, it didn’t.

i held onto the back of my neck with one hand, in order to keep it from twisting unmercilessly. i hope to have at least a little neck mobility tomorrow.

B. claims that you get used to the riding. i guess we’ll just see about that. i felt pretty darn exhausted when we finally got home. one thing is, the helmet feels like i’m wearing a bowling ball on my head. very, very heavy and weighty and full of weight. he insists on wearing the helmet and i WOULD NEVER RIDE A MOTORCYCLE OR REALLY ANYTHING AT ALL WITHOUT ONE.

as a matter of fact, i’m thinking about wearing the helmet around all the time, in order to get used to the heaviness, plus to keep from smacking my head against things, which of course i have a tendency to do.

when i was in college, i was in a car accident and was struck unconscious because i didn’t have a seatbelt on and smashed into the rearview mirror and then the door and the ambulance people had to pull my inert body out of the car and i finally woke up in the emergency room and didn’t know who i was.

since then, i DO NOT GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY SEAT BELT. sometimes if i’m sitting in a movie theater, i suddenly panic, worried that i’m not buckled in. so far nothing bad has happened in the theater, luckily.

i can’t imagine always wanting to wear a helmet, but on the other hand, i always wear one when i bike (have i mentioned that i tip over very easily, sometimes without any kind of cycle underneath me?), and if i continue to go on the motorcycle, well...

if you see somebody walking around wearing a helmet all the time, that would be me.

anyway, hannibal was a cool little town; we walked through the house mark twain grew up in, and had a delicious lunch in the mark twain dinette and walked up many many steps to an old lighthouse.

it started to rain just a little bit as we walked back down, and this felt good because it was so darn hot and humid out, and then it started to rain a little harder, and then a little harder...and we sat under an awning as it suddenly POURED. nice and cooling, but not good for the motorcycle riding.

so instead we waited out the storm in a little shop and had some ice cream, and when the sun came back out we strolled around town, in order to let the storm move way on.

we saw many interesting stores, including a place where they make dulcimers and other various instruments, and a fine-looking glass shop, and i’m eager to return to look at them more closely. i know the town has a bunch of very old houses, too, but there was no time for that today.

survived my first long motorcycle ride. now i need a t-shirt that says “I SURVIVED THE BIKE!”

ok then,

grace about to train vigorously even though it’s MUCH TOO LATE and i should have started MONTHS ago.




Jun. 24, 2005

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friday night [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:21 pm
but it feels like sunday night, because i just got back from st. louis, where i had a wonderful time. i got to sit in the VERY FRONT ROW at a cardinals game. i could have easily jumped over the low wall in front of me and ran out onto the field, but there were plenty of people there who would have tackled me/hauled me off to jail, and i didn’t want the night to go like that.

but i could have.

i’ve been in some fancy seats at sporting events before, but nothing was like sitting that close. they played the pirates, and a bunch of pirates fans came down to where i was sitting, because they wanted pirates autographs. we were sitting right near their dugout, by third base. i was amazed, looking at these players, with their massive forearms. i’m assuming their upper arms were just as big, but i couldn’t really say, “would you mind pulling up your sleeve, please, mr. ballplayer?” they were all very friendly to their fans, which i thought was nice of them.

there are some photos of me at the game, but i don’t have them just yet, but soon, i promise.

it was hot hot hot in st. louis, as it is here, but it didn’t matter. front row.

here are a couple more photos of me in “paint your wagon.” first is the costume i wore in the first scene i was in, where i said a total of four lines:



and this is my can can dress:



here’s something nice: in her review of the show, margaret wrote about how good the men in the chorus were, and she wrote “they can sing ‘there is nothing like a dame’ on my front lawn anytime.'”

so don, the music director, asked the men if they’d do just that. they planned to meet thursday night. i was going to go with them to show them where she lived, but i was in st. louis SITTING IN THE FRONT ROW at the baseball game, so mom went with them instead. i’d been afraid that only a couple of guys would show up, because i hadn’t heard any of them saying they’d do it, but mom says a whole lot of them were there, and margaret was surprised and delighted. in addition to “dame,” they sang “there’s a coach coming in,” from our show. this was one of my favorite numbers, because it’s the only one i got to see every night. they’re singing about the coach (we didn’t have an actual coach) that was filled with us can can dancers. after the number, we sashayed down the hill at the side of the seating area and onto the stage.

i liked doing that, the sashaying. i had a few sashaying opportunities in the play, which was a lot of fun, because the only thing required of me was to not stumble and fall. not a difficult thing, usually, but i’m very stumbling-prone. the sauntering was fun because i could be full of character, but not actually having to do anything. later in the play i got to saunter up the stairs in my can can dress, which was even more fun, because of the big crinoline slip thing underneath it. lots of swooshing around in that thing, very fun. plus i got to toss my ridiculous long blonde banana curls.

FIRST ROW. life is good.

ok then,

grace making the most of summer.


Jun. 22, 2005

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one more thing, before it turns into thursday... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:50 pm
here’s a photo of me in my waitress costume, for the tv commercial about the IL state fair. allegedly it’s going to run all over illinois, so maybe you’ll get to see it. hopefully i’ll put it up here on my site, and then you can definitely watch it. kurt will actually put it up; he was in charge of the commercial, and he knows how to put the video onto the site.

that is all for now.

gs


cotton candy fabulousness

p.s. erica loaned me her wonderful waitress dress for this. she got it on ebay, for a halloween party. i don’t know if you can read it, but the nametag says “alice.” nice.

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wednesday night... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:45 pm
...and a beautiful night it was. i hope you saw the moon - it’s full, and looked kind of orange.

there are many many things i want to write right now, but i just don’t have time. soon i will post photos from the exciting and fun commercial shoot, not to mention photos from the play. but right now, here’s the thing i wrote about camping:


storm survivor

Grace’s First Rule of camping:

Take along a former Boy Scout.

I suppose, if you have to, you could take a current Boy Scout with you, which would be OK. But I highly recommend an already grown one, because that way you can both drink wine at night around the campfire. Or in the tent in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.

I went camping at Lake Sangchris last week, and now all I want to do is camp. I love camping. Is there a way I could make a living, somehow, at camping? Doubtful. Unless I decide to write a book about camping, and then the camping would be research for the book. Perhaps I could get a large book advance in order to fund future camping trips. I must look into this immediately.

Lake Sangchris is only about eleven and a half minutes from Springfield, which was a good distance for a first-time camping foray. If I’d have gotten really scared in the middle of the night, it would have been a short drive home.

Oh yeah, I was really scared in the middle of the night. The first night of camping was the night of the horrific storm that caused all of Springfield and the surrounding communities to be plunged into darkness, plus I understand there were 500 mile- an-hour winds.

I was in a tent.

We got to the campground Monday afternoon. Weekday camping is a great idea, because most people camp on the weekends. To me, the whole point of camping is about getting away from other human beings. We first pulled into the large Type “A” campground, which was chock full of campsites right next to each other, with nothing to separate them except a driveway for pulling the RV into the space. There were about a half dozen campers in the place, but it all seemed too…structured.

We headed over to the primitive campground. The Type A place had about 80 campsites, but the primitive campground, only five. Each one was its own little secluded space, surrounded by tall trees. There were two tents set up here, and we chose a site as far away from the others as possible.

The Former Boy Scout (let’s just call him B.) and I unloaded his van, which was piled with all kinds of stuff. B. was fully prepared, with a big new (six foot tall) tent complete with doggy den for Mollie the dog, a two person kayak, plus all the camping equipment a person could ever want.

The primitive campsites have a picnic table and a grill. There’s a water pump out on the road, and a porta potty down the way. You can also go use the shower facilities at the great big campsite.

We piled all the stuff on the picnic table and set about “making camp.” I was impressed with the ease of putting up the tent. We arranged sleeping bags and set up folding chairs and B. started building a fire.

Here’s where the Boy Scout thing comes in really handy – B. is an amazing fire-builder. The whole time we were camping, he was obsessed with keeping that fire lit. Even after the frightening storm, he managed to get that fire going. I don’t know how this was possible, since all the wood was soaked, but he did it. Former Boy Scout. Don’t leave home without one.

After we set up camp, we hiked through the woods. We started to see little sign posts with information about the flora and the fauna, but the signs were set up for people hiking in the opposite direction. We walked through some low plants, and when we reached the far edge, our legs suddenly stung like crazy. A sign announced that these were stinging nettles. Ouch ouch ouch. Don’t walk through stinging nettles, that’s something I learned while camping.

We got back to camp and opened a bottle of wine as storm clouds started to roll in. We retreated to the tent as raindrops started to fall, and watched the downpour, snug as bugs in rugs.

The rain let up and we grilled our dinner, and the rain started again. It would have been nice to spend the first camping night outside under the stars, but it was perfectly cozy in the tent. We ate, we drank, and a good time was had by all.

A truck rushed by and stopped at the campsite down the way, and then it roared out again. It came back after a while, and sounds of chain sawing filled the air. What were they doing? Was somebody being murdered? We didn’t hear any shrieks, so probably not. The truck roared away again.

Later, we lying in our sleeping bags and B. was sound asleep and there was lots and lots of lightning and thunder, and more lightning and more thunder…and I decided that lightning was definitely going to hit a tree, which would fall and kill us.

On and on the storm raged, and I worried. A lot. B. and Mollie continued to snore softly. Finally I poked B. I hate to wake up somebody sleeping so peacefully, but this was an emergency. “Are we going to die?” I asked him. “No,” he said, and went right back to sleep.

So I had to stay awake, in charge of making sure we weren’t killed in our sleep. Not to mention the possibility of the chain-sawers returning and murdering us.

The next morning, all was sunny and lovely, and when I woke after about two hours of sleep, B. was cheerfully chopping wood. Like I said, I don’t know how he managed to get it to burn, but soon he had a big blaze going.

He’d brought along a camp stove, and made oatmeal pancakes, which were delicious. Everything is more tasty when you’re camping. I felt no need to worry about eating too much, because of all the energy I burned watching B. chop wood and make breakfast and stoke the fire. Not to mention the calories burned while staying awake panicking.

There were quite a few limbs down in the campsite next to us, and the truck from the night before roared in again. These were Department of Natural Resources guys – last night they’d been cutting up a tree that fell, and they were back to clean up the other campsite. They chopped and chopped like crazy, leaving plenty of big logs when they left. We collected a bunch of them for our fire.


mollie keeping watch

In the afternoon we kayaked, with Mollie sitting in the middle, and we all did really well. Nobody tipped it over, which was quite an accomplishment for me. I can tip anything over – last summer I tipped over a wave runner that was just sitting in the water. But the kayak was quite untippable.

Tuesday night there was no more rain, and we sat around the campfire, and it was wonderful. The great thing about camping is how it made me feel – so peaceful and calm, for a change. There are generally about 400 thousand annoying thoughts buzzing around in my head at any given moment, but being out in all that nature made them all go away. Being “in the moment” is something I always struggle to achieve, but while camping, I was right there, enjoying it.

We kayaked again on Wednesday, and the weather continue to be sublime. In the afternoon we packed up and headed back to civilization. We drove through Rochester, which looked like a war zone, with big tree limbs down everywhere. I’d gotten several frantic messages on my cell phone from my family, all worried about us out in the storm, and now I understood why. We definitely didn’t have the mighty winds, but we did get plenty of thunder and lightning and rain.

Last night I sat backstage at the Theater in the Park at New Salem, waiting to go on stage. I smelled the fires from the campers down the way, and the fireflies flickered, and that peaceful camping feeling washed over me again.

My new goal in life is to camp again soon, before the camping feeling leaves me. If you’ve never camped and you like to be outside, you should try it.

But don’t forget to bring along a former Boy Scout.

Ok then,

Grace in love with nature.



Jun. 20, 2005

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busy busy busy [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 10:14 pm
the thing is (and there always seems to be a thing), i’m so busy, and i don’t like to be this busy, and i’d like to sleep really late and not do much...but then when i have too much free time, i don’t like that either. so my chief problem is that i’m never satisfied, and i need to work on that.

why does there always have to be so many things to work on all the time, anyway?

today at the hospital i gave massages to a family of about 15 people. each was ecstatic to get a massage, and i do think it’s interesting that i managed, in not a very long period of time, to make an entire family sleepy.

tomorrow i’m very busy with the massages, and then i’m going to be in a tv commercial that my friend kurt is shooting. he was going to send me the script, but as of yesterday he hadn’t actually written it yet. i’m going to be a waitress with hair made of cotton candy. it’s a commercial for the IL state fair, which i think is FABULOUS, because i love the fair. at one point i’m supposed to take a bite out of my cotton candy hair, and i don’t know logistically how this would happen, but hopefully it will be fun and interesting.

i called erica to see if she, too, wants to be in the commercial, but she hasn’t called me back yet. i hope she does. i signed her up for “paint your wagon,” too, but i hope she doesn’t hold that against me. this commercial certainly won’t take as long as our rehearsals did, plus it will probably be fun. fun in jacksonville, where i haven’t been much. i usually have no reason to be in jacksonville.

B. (Bollingford) was in the Ironhorse triathlon on sunday. he tried to talk me into doing it, but i’m very very happy that i didn’t, because it appeared to be GRUELING, plus most of the people in it are HARD CORE ATHLETES, and i’m barely an athlete, and will never, ever, be hardcore about it.

i have to go to sleep now. i hope your monday was good; at least it’s OVER, anyway.

ok then,

grace looking forward.

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late sunday night... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 12:28 am
our last show was tonight. there are things about it i’ll miss, but mostly i’m going to be glad to have free evenings once again. also, i want to get to bed earlier.

surely you have more goals in life than that, miss smith.

things went very well tonight, as they did last night, and the crowds were huge. tonight a guy with a scraggly beard sat in the front row, and i noticed that during our final number, he was singing along. he was incredibly enthusiastic, and when we were done bowing, he lept to his feet.

there was talk of a cast reunion and a viewing of the video of the show, but i feel this won’t happen. this same kind of talk occurred for the last play, “you can’t take it with you,” and i’ve given up on that happening. it’s ok, though.

i’m going to post some more photos of the play pretty soon.

i will miss driving to and from new salem with erica and bev. i don’t normally have an extended period of talking to other women like that. tonight driving home, erica talked about a fellow who is in need of a lot of help, in her opinion. she said he really needs somebody to take care of him. i said, “don’t we all?” and the thing is, on one hand, christine says she wants to be completely self-sufficient and doesn’t want to have to rely on anybody for anything, and i think that’s a very fine thing to aspire to, and i do think i achieve that a little bit, anyway.

but on the other hand, don’t we all need somebody to care for us? maybe we don’t really need it, but it would be nice, just like it’s nice to care for another person. because if we’re talking about what’s really, truly important in life, in the living every day, the breathing in and out, the getting up and doing stuff each and every livelong day and going to sleep at night - isn’t it more nice to do all this stuff with the feeling that somebody cares for you? and that you have somebody to care about.

not to get maudlin and/or philosophical on you here late sunday night, as i wonder why i don’t just go to sleep already.

i wrote my account on camping, and i printed it out and am taking it around to places tomorrow. but i’ve decided i should also post this writing online, because i know there are people in other places who would like to read them. i’ll get right on that.

here’s one thing i didn’t get to include in the flyer, because it was getting too long - we stopped at a little store up the road from lake sangchris, where we were camping. the sign out front said “live bait” and “have ice cream,” so we figured we’d better have ice cream.

the store was very minimalist, and taped to the glass counter was a list of the different kinds of live bait. how does one make a living selling bait, that’s my question.

we bought bottles of iced tea and a couple of hostess ding dongs, but when we opened the tea, it was very bland. i looked at the date - it had expired in march. the ding dongs expired in may, but they weren’t too bad, because of all the chemicals they put into them to keep them delicious.

the next day we went to the establishment across the street, because we’d run out of food and needed lunch before departing. this place looked more promising, larger, with a bigger sign.

inside, there were piles of odd things, i wish i could remember even one of them. the food section included a few random bags of chips, some hot dog buns, and some very dusty-looking syrup. there were several other items, all of them looking like they’d been there a very long time. but no sandwiches or even bread. well, except for the hot dog buns; i guess we could have bought them along with some ketchup and had ketchup sandwiches.

we got a couple of sodas after checking the dates on them - they had a few more hours before they’d expire.

when we left, i noticed a sign on the door that read “sale on out of date soda.”

strange place, that corner of the world.

i think one of the random things for sale was something somebody had crocheted. is that how you spell that?

must sleep. i hope your week is fun-filled, action-packed, and involves at least one nap.

ok then,

grace continuing along as best as possible, which is all one can really hope for.


Jun. 18, 2005

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L.ATE friday night... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 1:22 am
christine left me a message today; she’s having grace withdrawal. erica told me she was concerned about me because i hadn’t written all week.

where has the week gone, is my central question.

camping on monday and tuesday. got back wednesday, gave massages, recovered from camping. thursday, more massages, and the PLAY again. tonight, also the play. i had my best performance tonight.

and then, another cast party, i believe i ate all the food there, i hope other people found something in the refrigerator to snack on.

and now, now, i’m tired beyond belief. i have photos to post, i have a million things to do tomorrow, but more important than anything is sleeping.

we had a huge crowd tonight, and it’s expected to be a sell-out again tomorrow night. i saw almost nobody i knew tonight, though, also last night.

here’s one thing before i collapse right here on the floor - i hurried to finish fixing my hair and wig and getting my costume on, so i could sit outside backstage on a bench. i just sat there quietly, as it got darker outside, the fireflies twinkled in the bushes, and i could smell the campfires burning. a perfectly perfect night, one that makes me glad to be alive.

i really liked camping, by the way. i want to camp all the time now. is there a way i could make a living camping? please let me know, and i’ll pursue it immediately.

i fear, that like many things i relish doing, that camping is not going to be a thing i can do exclusively and can earn a living at. perhaps someday i will find some way to make that living.

until then, i’m trying to plan another camping opportunity.

i might have gotten a little bit of poison ivy, but if so, it’s negligible.

fatigue taking over all my body now. must sleep...

gs


Jun. 13, 2005

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late sunday night.... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 12:31 am
...and i’m really looking forward to sleep. but first, i have to tell you this...

we were driving to the play tonight, and i told erica and bev that i was going to get a ride home with B. (Best Boy) on his motorcycle. Bev was concerned, and Erica said she’d like to ride on a motorcycle, without a helmet. i told her B. would never allow that.

in case you don’t remember my views on motorcycle-riding, i’m basically in the scaredy cat category here. afraid of falling and crashing and dying, mostly.

i didn’t have a lot of time to worry about the ride, because B. didn’t tell me he was going to come to the show on his bike till the very last minute. and then during the show, i had to focus on curling and re-curling my hair, broken up occasionally with brief moments of going on stage.

when the performance was over, there was B., spare helmet in hand. oh. oh boy. oh dear. hmm.

i climbed aboard, and we headed out of new salem.

it was incredibly fun. i loved the wind rushing by, as i sat there secure in my helmet. i felt perfectly safe and protected. it was great to be right there, part of the passing landscape, instead of observing it from the car. and let’s face it, if i’d been in a car, i wouldn’t have paid much attention to the outside world. but on the motorcycle, you’re right there in the outside world.

i didn’t want the ride to end.

and now i must sleep.

i hope your weekend included at least one fun thing. more than one - two, or three, even.

ok then,

grace late.


Jun. 12, 2005

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the show goes on... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 4:29 pm
first, here are my new glasses:



ok...whew. i hope you weren’t at opening night of the show on friday night. halfway through the first act, in the middle of the bottle-throwing “Whoop ti ay,” here was a huge noise, like a bomb going off. this was the amplifier on top of the keyboard exploding, complete with sparks. after this happened, no playing at all could be heard from the orchestra.

the women don’t come in till the end of the first act, and we weren’t aware that the sound problem was quite this serious. later, brad barnes told me he had to sing the rest of the song a capella, as the rest of the people on stage kept looking at him, nobody knowing what to do.

the guys sang a rousing “there’s a coach comin' in,” which directly preceded our entrance, and they sounded great, and we thought things were ok.

but no, they sounded great because they’d sung the song a million times together and they could do it with no music to guide them.

dancing without music is another matter entirely.

we sauntered down the hill and onto the stage, not aware of what was to befall us. we could sort of hear a little music coming from the orchestra - a little drum, a small amount of brass instruments of some sort? so we plunged into the dance, and quickly realized we COULD NOT HEAR ANYTHING.

the guys normally whoop and holler during the song, but they kept quiet, so that we could try to hear the tiny bit of music that wafted our way every once in a while.

it didn’t help.

there we were, up on the stage, trying to do this dance and having absolutely no clue about where we might be in the song.

i have never had a stage experience like this in my entire life. i’ve been trying to think of horrible dancing moments, but i think they mostly just involved forgetting steps or briefly losing the beat. never, never, have i tried to do an ensemble dance with no music to guide us.

somehow, and i have no idea why, we managed to end the dance together, and then hurried off the stage, relieved and shell-shocked.

shortly after this, the rain started and they called the show.

i feel bad for the people who were there that night. they did see more than half of the show, so they didn’t get their money back nor did they get a rain check. but they didn’t get to HEAR even half of the performance. and not hearing a musical would be an unsatisfying experience.

here’s me in my traveling dress:



and here are ashlie, heather and deb in their traveling dresses:



it was quite a letdown, opening night.

so last night really felt like opening night, and it went really well. i didn’t stay long at friday’s cast party, but last night i stayed at gil’s house for a while and didn’t get to bed till two, which is very late for me. i’m about to nap, as a matter of fact, because i’ve been staggering around all day, trying to keep my eyes open.

here’s one more photo - it’s kayla and don, who play a mormon couple. kayla had the party friday night. they’re much more fun than they look like here.



soon, more photos. well, we’ll see when i manage to get them up here. i’m going camping tomorrow, a vacation from dancing the can-can (although i’m sure i’ll have to practice the dance while camping, so i don’t forget it by thursday).

you have tonight, and next thursday through sunday to see the show, so i hope you make it.

whoop ti ay,

grace


Jun. 10, 2005

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TOMORROW NIGHT’S THE NIGHT! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 1:04 am
if you saw the journal-register article about the show today, and you saw the inside photo of all the women dancing, i’m the one in the red and black dress and the long blonde curls.

so...WHEW. things went surprisingly well tonight.

i realized when it was over that mostly, most of the women spend most of our time during the play putting on/taking off costumes, plus putting on wigs and doing our hair. i’m already obsessed with curling and re-curling my bangs, which immediately get limp when i step outside. by the end of the run, i’ll probably have fried it all off.

so many things i want to say now, but it’s almost one a.m....

on the way home, erica was explaining her theory on how the characters on Sesame Street are a lot like those in “paradise lost.” i had to read paradise lost, more than once i think, a very long time ago, so of course i’m a little hazy on it, but she explained how satan is like the cookie monster, because both use the same kind of syntax...satan always says stuff like “me hungry.” maybe he doesn’t actually say that, but he starts things incorrectly with “me” which is an indirect...something...i was also impressed with the way she rattled off the parts of speech. indirect pronoun? yeah, maybe that’s it. i’m impressed by her knowledge, and at the same time i want to go get a textbook to remember what all the parts of speech are.

anyway, she went on to say that miss piggy is like eve, because they’re always talking about eve’s hair in paradise lost, as does miss piggy. and adam, even though he’s supposed to be the hero, has no backbone, like kermit.

“And they’re both green,” i said, just to show that i’m not completely without any knowledge of anything. almost, but not completely.

she then explained how bert and ernie could be compared to sin and death, who God put in charge of guarding the gates of hell (they didn’t do a good job of this, apparently). i said, “how are bert and ernie like sin and death, exactly?” and she said they’re not EXACTLY like sin and death, but satan tempts sin and death, and she clearly remembers one Sesame street episode where the cookie monster tempts bert and ernie to do something.

and she talks about this in classes she teaches at lincoln land (the community college here in spfld). I know she must be a really fun and interesting teacher. maybe she’ll let me come and sit in on a class one day. perhaps i could say i’m her sister...

i just like the fact that she sits around thinking about stuff like comparing sesame street to paradise lost. she talked a lot about the collective unconscious, and how all stories through time are basically the same, which of course is true (especially all movies are the same, i believe). but also she makes me think that i should sit around and think of things like that, instead of obsessing about stupid things, which seems to be how i spend much too much of my time.

tomorrow night is our opening! and then we’re having a cast party! which i’m looking forward to a lot. yet ANOTHER reason i should be asleep right now instead of staying up writing. erica isn’t sure she wants to go to the party, but bev and are pretty much insisting that she goes. i used to hate going to parties - i never, ever talked to people. i mean, never. ever. one time i went to a party with my then-boyfriend and his brother. my boyfriend’s brother didn’t talk to anybody ever, either, so we sat and talked to each other for a while, and then we left.

i don’t know exactly when the change took place, when i finally started having a better time. i mean, sometimes i have moments of panic and don’t feel i could possibly have anything to say to anybody, but mostly, things are much better. actually, if i think about it (and i try to avoid thiking about it), there were lots and lots of times earlier in my life when i went to parties and was utterly miserable. i could start recounting some of the more hideous ones right now as a matter of fact, but then i’ll be all bummed out and that’s no way to be THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BIG OPENING!

tonight when i was standing backstage - well, backstair, there really isn’t any backstage to speak of - i thought about how fun it is to be in plays, and how i’d like to do it more and more. this is how i get when i’m in a play, it makes me want to do more of them.

gee, maybe i could list that as a “hobby” when i have to write down what my hobbies are. i always hate that question; it makes me panic (i don’t really panic as much as you might think) and i can’t think of any hobbies at all.

i bought TWO new pairs of glasses today, and i was going to put a picture up here of one of them, because they’re so cool, but of course it feels like i did all that about a million years ago and i didn’t take the picture and maybe i’ll do it over the weekend, when i’m not sleeping and resting up and lounging around. and maybe riding my new bike which i also want to take a picture of and put it up here because it’s so lovely.

please, PLEASE go to sleep now.

ok, just this one more thing - last night, erica, bev and i marched down the hill to the dressing room at new salem singing “i was born under a wand'rin' star...” and it was quite fun. it’s the perfect song for marching down a hill, especially someplace all rustic like that, and i think bev said we should do that all the time. i think more people should burst into song at odd times of the day; it’s quite uplifting.

if only life was a musical...

goodnight. grace smith.




Jun. 09, 2005

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late on WEDNESDAY [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 12:10 am
ONE MORE NIGHT of rehearsal before the show! how is this possible? i have no idea.

ok, here’s the thing i wanted to say about losing my glasses - at first, i feared the worst, that they were gone forever. this is all part of how i always “panic first, ask questions later.” and then i found them, which was a relief...but then they were badly damaged. but then they were fixed, but who knows how long the tenuous fixing will last. they could go at any time.

so, what was the point i was going to make? who am i, again? i went to wal-mart after rehearsal, because right after i found my glasses, my hands-free thing for my cell phone spontaneously broke. i didn’t step on it this time or anything, it just quit working, poof. so i got two new ones at wal-mart - i was so enthusiastic about them, i almost bought three, but i decided that was perhaps a bit overboard.

anyway, then i was looking for a new journal, because my old one is almost full, but i couldn’t find the perfect notebook. i need one that’s smaller than 8 1/2 x 11, but has lots of pages. i gazed at the display of notebooks, and it suddenly seemed completely overwhelming. they actually didn’t have anything i needed, but i kept staring at them, thinking that somehow one would materialize. this is when i realized that i am, indeed, very tired.

so, the glasses...first, i guess i should have more faith, because i did actually find them. and then, they were damaged, as many things/people are. nothing is perfect. and then, there was a lot of uncertainty about them being fixed, but i knew i had no alternative but to try to see if they could fix them. and they did - once again, that’s about having faith in fixing things. seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...where IS that pot of gold, anyway?

this guy named jeff plays an irishman named mike in the play. he makes a damn good irishman.

but then, the glasses were repaired, but they kept telling me that they can BREAK AT ANY TIME. and i guess this is like life, in that you should hope for the best, and have faith, but, of course, you’ll never know when things will be destroyed.

hmm, i don’t think i was thinking of things quite that bleakly this afternoon. but that’s when i had a lot more brain power than right now. i guess i mean that things could be destroyed at any time, just like you could walk out the door and get hit by a bus tomorrow morning. so it’s CRITICAL that you try to make the best of this imperfect life, because it’s the only one you have, and you have no idea how long you’re going to have it. and maybe things won’t be lost forever, and there is always a glimmer of hope, no matter how small, that things will actually be improved.

perhaps i should take a philosophy class.

chistine has been crabby for a while, which is perfectly understandable, because she’s alive and dealing with being a person and all of that weighty stuff, but i know she’ll snap out of it. maybe tomorrow morning i’ll call her up and sing the “can o' beans” song for her. that should cheer her up considerably, since “paint your wagon” is one of her FAVORITE movies. it is kind of tragic that she won’t be here to see any of the performances.

“when i learned to talk, the word they taught me was good-bye. that and ‘where’s my hat’ are all i need until i die. aching for to stop and always aching for to go...searching but for what i never will know...”

i just typed those words from memory, i’ll have you know. i’m not entirely sure i’ll be able to remember them in the finale, but there’s always that hope...

whew. GO TO SLEEP NOW. i was going to turn the light out at 12 exactly, but now it’s 12:10.

good night. if you come see the show, i’ll be the one with the very very long very very blonde banana curls, plus the french accent.

ok then,

grace who should have been asleep an hour ago, or at least 20 minutes ago.


Jun. 08, 2005

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NO TIME!!!! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 5:34 pm
I have NO TIME for this! i have to GO TO REHEARSAL right now!

but i had to share this with you - the ending to my glasses story.

erica didn’t have my glasses, as i’d feared.

i drove out to new salem today, was going to spend the afternoon in petersburg, looking at the shops and stuff, maybe getting a cone at the dairy queen...

i got to new salem and looked on the ground for the bright blue glasses case. not there. surely, lost forever.

i went to the desk inside, and there was cheerful bill bauser, who i told my tale of woe to...and there were the glasses! somebody had turned them in.

that’s the good news.

the bad news is that they’d either been stepped on by somebody very big, or they’d been run over. they were very, very bent up. bill said i should take them to lens crafters, where they’d straighten them for me. unbelievably, they weren’t scratched (not any more than they already were).

so instead of going to petersburg, i went to lens crafters. (luckily i didn’t go to p'burg, because there was a STORM WARNING there, complete with DAMAGING HAIL).

the lady at lens crafters said she didn’t know if she could fix them, they were bent so bad.

she warned me that she might break them when she tried.

i said ok and steeled myself for the worst.

she broke them.

but she then gave them to another, stronger woman, who put a screw in them.

this woman, too, spoke in dire tones of imminent breakage. i gritted my teeth and continue the steeling of myself.

they didn’t break.

so that’s more good news.

however, they could BREAK AT ANY TIME. THE EYEPIECES ARE DAMAGED AND FRAGILE.

so right now i’m ok, at least.

all right, i wanted to make a point about this, an analogy of the glasses being lost/broken, but now i’ve REALLY RUN OUT OF TIME.

i just want to post this photo.

and i’ll continue tonight when i get home from rehearsal...


glamour grace with bent glasses

ok then,

grace in a VERY BIG HURRY.

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one more thing, while i’m up... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 1:16 am
here’s another photo from the show, the delightful “whoop ti ay” song, in which the men sing and dance AND toss bottles to one another:

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ridiculously tired on tuesday night... [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 1:12 am
i just looked at the last entry, and it was monday night and i thought, “oh, monday night, so long ago...” However, as i’m sure you’re aware, monday night was just LAST NIGHT.

i should be sleeping right now. it’s almost one. but the finale kept going through my head, it’s “wand'rin' star.” and the thing is, we just found out that we have to sing this for the finale, so the women have to learn the words. that is, we were supposed to have ALREADY learned the words.

so over in my head it’s been, “i was born...under a wanderin' star...” but then i don’t remember the rest of the words.

we’re going to all get into VERY VERY BIG TROUBLE if we don’t know the words. and some of us women don’t. but here’s a trick i told a couple of them: you just open your mouth really wide and look very enthusiatic as you pretend to sing. it totally works. as long as you smile and open your mouth wide, nobody will know. eddie izzard, my favorite comic who is a genius and i hope you know who he is and if you don’t you need to find out, does a very funny thing about this very thing, about how you can sing the national anthem but not know the words, as long as you look enthusiastic.

but i want to learn the lines anyway. so here there are, the tricky ones - “When i learned to talk the word they taught me was ‘good bye;’ that and ‘where’s my hat’ are all i’ll need until i die. achin' for to stop and always achin' for to go; searchin' but for what i never will know...”

that’s the trickiest part. but maybe because i typed it out, i’ll know it.

you’ll have to come to the show so you can try to see if i’m really singing, or just mouthing the words. i bet you won’t be able to tell.

ok, here’s my tragedy for the day - i lost my glasses. i hope they’re in erica’s car, but i suddenly decided that they’re probably not there, because i didn’t dump my purse out in her car.

however, as we were walking to the car after rehearsal, i groped around in my purse for a flashlight, and i know my glasses case was right on top. and so it could have easily fallen on the ground...and we were walking on the roadway.

so now i’m certain that i’ll get up in the morning to the sad message from erica that my glasses aren’t in her car. and then, even sadder, i’ll get to new salem, and there will be my glasses case, flat as a pancake, having been run over countless times by tomorrow night.

i’m lost without my glasses. right now i’m wearing an old (and very ugly) pair, and they’re too strong and they’re already giving me a headache.

so now i’ll have to get a new pair (i’ve already given up hope of ever seeing the other ones again), and it will cost a million dollars and it’ll take a long time to get them and in the meantime i’ll have a headache all the time or i’ll try to wear my contacts but they will be painful because they usually are.

ok, trying to think of SOMETHING good tonight...

actually, i was lying in bed thinking about how a person sleeps. i always sleep on the left side of the bed. since i sleep all by myself in this big bed, why don’t i just sleep smack dab in the middle? wouldn’t that be more comfortable, in the middle, all that room, no danger of accidentally rolling over and falling right out of bed (i’ve never done this, which is quite a feat for me)?

in my life there have been various other people (only one at a time) sharing a bed with me, and i think i’ve always slept on the left side. but there have been long stretches when i’ve slept by myself, and surely, surely, i must have slept in the middle some of that time, instead of crowding over on the left side.

and then i started thinking about all the other people who sleep alone - do more people sleep in the middle, or on one side? or do they mix it up? and if you sleep in the middle, does that mean you’re happy about your freedom and space and not having to share a bed with somebody who may or may not snore and keep you awake? or does it mean that you’re resigned to sleeping alone?

and if you sleep on one side or the other, does that mean you’ve just been conditioned to do that, or does it mean that you hope to share a bed with somebody again someday, and so you want to keep in practice? and if you’re doing that, is that a pathetic thing, or a hopeful thing?

and THEN i started thinking about my mood earlier in the day, which was not particularly good. right now i’m feeling kind of OK about life, but earlier, i was in a much different place. i wonder at how i’m able to look at my life right now, the very same identical life i had earlier in the day, and how now things seem entirely different to me.

so really, what everything seems to come down to is perspective. i mean, tonight when i got in erica’s car to go to rehearsal, i’m sure i sounded like a mental patient, so woeful and full of woe and woe-ness was i. but when we drove home, the wind blowing our very ratty-looking hair because it was up in big wigs all night, i was darn happy.

it’s surely because we got to sing and dance “hand me down that can o' beans.”

ok, this is why i should be asleep, too much thinking about things.

that, plus the fact that i have to GET UP in the morning, YET AGAIN, and i’m going to be tired. perhaps i’ll have time for a nap.

hey, we did get through the entire show tonight, which was quite a big deal. it was kind of touch and go there for a while, but we made it, just barely. i had been thinking that maybe we’d have to end the show at intermission, or somewhere randomly in the second act, because it was going to run too long. they’re VERY VERY VERY STRICT at new salem about how late a show can run. VERY VERY STRICT. which is good so we can get home at a “decent” hour, but not so good for the running of the show. which had better KEEP MOVING, or we won’t finish in time and then you’ll never see how it ends up...and, more importantly, you won’t get to witness my singing in the finale, to see if i’m really singing or not...

ok, i’m attempting sleep yet again. boy, i’m going to be surly and tired in the morning.

but i know i don’t HAVE to be surly and tired. well, not surly, anyway. i could, instead, choose to be happy to be alive, or something like that.

that’s easy to say now, but morning grace will probably have none of it.

ok then,

grace in need of maybe a nice glass of wine to make me sleep soon.


Jun. 06, 2005

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monday! night [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:48 pm

glamour erica!

this is kind of a huge photo of erica, but i don’t have time right now to make the photo smaller and then re-post it because i MUST GO TO SLEEP NOW. erica is wearing the fetching wig she gets for the show. my wig is long and blonde. quite a sight.

i’m not feeling particularly tired, but it’s almost midnight, and i have to get up tomorrow. this seems to be a pattern, having to get up. tonight at rehearsal andy v. said this morning he got up at a quarter to nine, and EVERY DAY NO MATTER WHAT, he always gets up at six. so you can see the toll this thing is taking on us.

three more rehearsals, and then it’s SHOWTIME, whether we’re ready or not. will we be? my family is coming to see it on sunday night, and i’m hoping that by then it will be more musical-like. you just never know. at least we haven’t had any rain so far, nor hail for that matter. hail was predicted last night, but it missed us entirely.

summer seems to be here already, and the air conditioner is broken in my house. they’re going to fix it on friday, maybe. it actuallly doesn’t feel so bad.

here’s something funny about the play - this nice guy named don plays a mormon man, and this nice woman named kayla (EXTRA nice, because she keeps bringing treats to rehearsal!) plays one of his wives. Last night i noticed that don had a HUGE gut. i kept looking at him - was this part of his costume? or was his stomach actually that large, and somehow i hadn’t noticed it? this was entirely possible, because sometimes i’m completely oblivious to everything (maybe this is why i bump into stuff so much).

i decided the stomach probably wasn’t real, but on the other hand, i figured i couldn’t go up and ask him, because if it was real, we’d both feel bad.

luckily, tonight, his stomach was flat, and i could confess to him that i thought he was actually rotund.

and kayla - she wears this black dress as the mormon wife, and in the play she has enormous mormon bosoms, but tonight i noticed that in addition to the padding on her top half, that her hips were pretty huge as well. once again, i had to ponder it - i’d seen her in shorts; surely they couldn’t hide hips like that? they must be padded...but still i wondered. I was in the dressing room when she took off the dress, and i was relieved to see that she wore a big padded thing that covered her hips. whew. kayla and don, very tall and trim individuals.

kayla is also hosting the opening night party, which i’m sure will be quite a party. no matter HOW the show goes (and i’m not saying we’re going to have any problems or anything), the party will be good. i heard somebody say, “kayla throws a great party,” and then i heard kayla say “i don’t have the whiskey for the whiskey sours, but i got the tequila for the margaritas.” she’s clearly an A+ party planner.

i must go to sleep now, in order to rest up.

for the show, of course, not for the party...

that is all for now.

ok then,

grace prepared to can-can (pretty much).




Jun. 04, 2005

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stuff on saturday [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 4:20 pm
here’s one more photo from my birthday party, which feels like it was one million years ago:



and i have to show you this dazzling photo of randy:



and now, finally, a photo from the show:



brad barnes, the lead, is singing and playing the guitar, and behind him playing the banjo is andy vandervort who kind of looks like a zombie here, but not in real life. behind them, left to right, are brian, dave s.(you can’t really see dave), dave e., another andy, and gil.

that’s all i have time for now...i hope your weekend is going well.

ok then,

grace keeping cool.




Jun. 03, 2005

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WOW! [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 1:51 pm
Christine just re-designed my site! pretty cool, huh? christine is an AWESOME person, in case you didn’t know. not to mention very very talented.

i’m going to post some photos from the show this weekend. last night we tried on costumes. so far the can-can dresses i tried on are perfectly hideous - they looked like short ugly 80’s prom dresses. we’ll see if things improve. i can’t worry about that right now.

i just ran into this woman named Brigitte, who i see pretty much everywhere, all the time. she asked me if i was training for anything right now, and i said i’m devoting most of my time to rehearsals. I told her that last night, B. (Bartholomew) invited me to be in the Ironhorse Triathlon, which is in two weeks. it consists of lots and lots of swim/bike/running, PLUS it takes place on the last sunday of the show, so it would be logistically impossible.

Brigitte said that tri would be too much for me, but then she mentioned the stoneman triathlon, in july. it’s not one of the hardcore, millions of miles of swim/bike/running kinds of things, so i’m suddenly thinking about trying it. i mean, i did manage the baby triathlon. and after the play is over, what else am i doing anyway? training sounds like a good idea.

i just went to the Subway at the mall, where they are very confused. they gave me an iced tea so strong that it was barely in liquid form. everybody seemed to have the wrong sandwich, and a girl wandered in and said she also got the wrong sandwich; hers was a toasted chicken. they looked and looked for it, and finally opened the oven - and there it was, black as all black blackness. the place sort of filled up with smoke after that, and i was glad to get out of there, and out of the mall itself, actually.

i had a little free time early in the afternoon and thought i’d look for a new cute skirt or dress, but it became too much. famous was having a 15-hour sale which was going to be over in 20 minutes, and that sent me into a (brief) panic, until i realized that even the sale price on most things was much too expensive for me, plus i couldn’t find anything in my size. i went into a couple of teeny bopper type stores, but nothing there appealed to me, either. clearly, i wasn’t destined to make any purchases today. i’ll just have to wear some of the millions of things taking up way too much space in my closet.

rehearsal last night involved a lot of tension and some yelling, quite dramatic and exciting, but we didn’t accomplish a whole lot. on the weather channel today they called for rain for all next week. hmm, it’s going to be interesting.

ok then, must get back to work...

grace with a fabulous newly designed website!


Jun. 01, 2005

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wednesday morning [ General ] -  grace - grace@graceuncensored.com @ 11:45 am
just one quick thing - this morning i saw a woman, and i thought she looked like somebody i knew. i kept looking at her, and after a while it hit me - she looked EXACTLY like one of the evil aunts in “james and the giant peach,” one of my favorite books. i can’t remember the aunt’s name; there was a short and fat one, and a tall, thin one with a tight bun at the top of her pointy head.

this woman was the precise image of the tall, thin one. her name was stryker or something like that, i’d look it up but i don’t have time right at this moment.

rehearsals are making me very tired. last night i was home by 10:45, but had to sit around for a little while to unwind. we did the can-can a few times, and the last time we did it, i only screwed up once, which i was quite pleased about. the hair woman, annie, brought me a fall, which is like a wig only it doesn’t completely cover your head. it’s going to look good, i think, and hopefully it won’t come off while caleb is lifting all around.

the forecast calls for lots and lots of rain starting on saturday, which i’ve decided will definitely not happen, because that would be completely disasterous for the show. we start our tech week rehearsals on sunday, and rain would ruin us. so it won’t rain, at least not at night.

i got to say quite a few of my lines last night, and one guy in the cast who was sitting out in the audience kept laughing when i said them, because of my inspector clousseau-like accent. this made me happy.

later, we were sitting around watching the people rehearse, and a woman came over to us. she’d been sitting with a few people over in a corner of the seating area, and we didn’t know who they were. “we can’t hear the show,” she said. she was under the impression that this was an actual performance taking place, instead of a rehearsal. we thought this was funny, and agreed that the real show will probably be at least a little better than the rehearsal, plus we’ll have costumes and makeup and microphones and theoretically, at least, we won’t be stopping every few minutes to fix things.

whew. i’ve already had a starbucks bottled light frappaccino, and i’m about to have an iced tea, which will hopefully help to get me through the rest of the day, which is going to last quite a few more hours.

ok then,

grace now even thinking things with a french accent.

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