Between England and School

These will be pretty short posts since my life has been going by to quickly to catalogue with much detail.

14th -17th Once home I fell into a jet-lag induced sleep for a few days. I had to drag myself out of it for a dental appointment where they gave me a new fangled flossing device. It is like a toothbrush, but the head of it, which is strung like a tiny bow, is perpendicular to the body of it. It makes flossing much easier and I can now say that I am an avid flosser. I saw Collateral with my parents and really enjoyed Jamie Foxx’s performance. Tom Cruise wasn’t bad at all, but I still harbor a few hard feelings on behalf of Nicole. The big thing of this few days was my first gambling experience. I dropped 21 dollars into the Megabucks, in the requisite three dollar increments, and lost it all. I then tried my hand at video poker with the same level of success.

18-23 I visited my sister Christine in Colorado. Mom and I stayed at Travelodge because the house was full with the visiting sister-in-law, niece and three-legged dog named Tootsie. The second day there, we ate at Souper Salad (this may seem trivial, but it may be the key to my undoing). The three of us bought supplies to paint my nephew, Trey’s, room and the kitchen. Mom and I finished Trey’s room in one day. I never got to the kitchen, though, because I was sick all night and for the next three days; I lost 8 lbs. So, I just watched the Olympics and the painting of kitchen while intermittently scurrying to the bathroom. Of course, as soon as I started to feel better it was time to go home.

24-27 I called Lauren to try to catch up with her before heading back out to Utah, but he brother told me she had pneumonia and couldn’t see anyone. She’s fine now, but it was horrid for a few weeks. I had the opportunity to spend most of my time with Kayela. We saw Garden State, finally and she stayed the night. Garden State has to be one of my favorite movies and has prompted a love of Zach Braff’s work. We then rolled out of bed and saw The Village. I think I enjoyed it more than most of my friends did. I suppose I’m a bit gullible, so I didn’t see the twist coming and could enjoy it longer.
On my last day, I visited my sister Emily with her new puppy, Rio. Sadie will now have another friend to play with. While at my house, she plays with a chipmunk which evidently enjoys playing chase to much that when Sadie returns to her house for a long stretch of time, the chipmunk comes to the patio door looking for her.
I bought scrap-booking supplies. Who knows when I’ll actually crack down and do it, but when I get the urge I will have everything I need. I also got a haircut which I absolutely love. It’s shorter and flirtier.

Week 15 The End

Aug 9th – 14th

MONDAY the 9th was dedicated to rehearsal at Kelmarsh. We arrived and took a two hour tour of the entire house. The parts that had yet to be restored were more interesting than the pretty parts most visitors get to see. The tech rehearsal was not nearly as comprehensive as we had hoped.

TUESDAY, we rehearsed then ran away with Rob, Amanda and Chris to eat lunch and see I, Robot. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would considering the previews, and I really appreciated what Will Smith was doing. We all bought copies of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. Logan had started the book and got us hooked as well. Now that we all had copies, we could read at our leisure and not have to share the original. (If you are keeping track, yes, Logan has two copies. The UK copy had an extra section that made the second purchase worth his wile). We then labored through a dinner with Lynda. Though we were grateful for the dinner she prepared, too much damage had been done to really enjoy ourselves in her presence.

WEDNESDAY, we rehearsed for what should have been the last time but because of our crammed production schedule would be followed by an early rehearsal on the day of performance. To try to relax, we took movies out from the library and watched them on mats in dance hall where we rehearsed.

THURSDAY, we started late because of problems with the van and had one of the worst rehearsals ever. I just can’t go into it without wringing my hands to the point redness, so just know that after a scene between Logan and me, Lynda decided to never speak to us again. She didn’t say a word to the three of us for the rest of the rehearsal, the performance, the strike or any other time while in Northampton.
Because of the rain, we planned to have to outdoor scenes inside and started the show on this assumption. Well, it let up just long enough for us to move outdoors where we had never been able to practice because of the weather. The rest of the performance was as uneventful as possible, but not without a few huge mistakes we improvised through. After the hurried striking of the set, we made it to the end-of-the-program party for a while. Then, we just crashed.

FRIDAY the 13th, Logan headed to Edinburgh and Laura made a goodbye visit to London. Alone, I decided to hang out with Amanda and we went to Bourne Supremacy which I greatly enjoyed. Everyone stayed up through the night to pack and prepare to leave on the 4am shuttle on the 14th to the airport. Laura didn’t make it back for the shuttle - the story of which you will have to ask Laura to tell – but eventually made it home safe. I flew home with ease and couldn’t be happy enough to be home.

Week 14 Northampton

Aug 1st – 8th

Aug 1st Back on the island, we hurried to touch things up for our first performance on Monday. SUNDAY was a never-ending rehearsal that seemed to improve only in waves and receded as waves do.

MONDAY we performed for an invited audience at Lamport. It went well enough for a show going up a week and a half before its real performance.

WEDNESDAY the 4th, that some of you may realize has importance and the others may gloss over, marked my last visit to London. We saw The Goat or Who is Sylvia? featuring Jonathan Pryce. He plays a happily married man who has an affair with a goat. The show is not about bestiality, but rather about examining in us the things others do that will shut them off from our understanding and our love. Very powerful.
After eating at Mo’s Diner in Harrods, we went to Democracy by Michael Frayn. This man has such control of language and the ability to distil human interaction into something we can all relate to, no matter the subject. The play deals with East and West Berlin’s conflict by following a West Berlin politician and his assistant, who happens to play both sides.

THURSDAY we had an early rehearsal so that we could go with Lynda and Amanda to see Hamlet at RSC in which Joe plays a Switzer aka the third- spear-carrier-from-the- left. We made it there late because of trauma in rehearsal. We entered during Laertes reaming Ophelia (Leartes unfortunately being the same horrible actor who played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet). Joe had quite a lot of stage time, considering, and even had a moment where he took all of our focus. I had a somewhat tearful goodbye to Stratford-upon-Avon and we headed home.

FRIDAY the 6th The group went to Bath, thankfully, without Lynda.
She had to stay behind to work with our new actress. Our Mrs. Graves left suddenly because of her mother’s poor health and imminent death. The new actress was a local who was considerably more fun.
Back to Bath, we visited the Roman baths and the Costume Museum (this We does not include Logan since he had visited these sites last year with his family). We met with Sezzie who lives nearby. She showed us around before having to rush back to her fabulous life. Laura and I took half a bus tour on our way to the Museum and learned about the history of Bath - very interesting, you can write back for more information.
In our haste to take in the healing powers of the city, we almost got left behind. We had just finished eating at an incredible Indonesian place called Java's and were still recovering from the price that Logan and I thought we would share but had incorrectly ordered. We had to get help from a local who got us there just as the bus had started its engine to leave.

SATURDAY, the cast headed north in our own van. **I will publish the harrowing story of a velosaraptor-chicken chase I norrowly escaped from seperately, since it is a must read.** The house is lovely, but eclipsed by the splendor of the grounds. There are so many kinds of trees and grass to run through. There is a water installment that is like a waterfall over small stairs. We take off our shoes to walk up the water and continue on to explore the grounds as children would. We go, as one must do when there is one available, through the maze and squish mud in our toes. We run down hills and find little patches of the grounds all to ourselves. After one last walk up the waterfall, we have to go to make it to the hostel on time for dinner.
The hostel surpasses all of our expectations. It is in a little patch of wonderland wilderness. We adopt woodland names for the weekend and explore. We find a path to the dale and on the way we pick wild berries. We aren’t able to go as far as we would like because we have to make it back for rehearsal. Rehearsal finishes well after the sun has set, and we are all confronted with the pitch black forest to return through. Luckily we find a road which is dimly lighted that leads to a group of homes. There, we ask for a torch (UK term for flashlight) and make it home quite after the hostel is closed. Luckily, Doug hears our cries and lets us in. While in our room of six fun-loving college students, I can only divulge that we were asked to keep it down by a neighboring hostel tenant.

SUNDAY, we enjoyed a full English breakfast before heading to Castle Howard. The only reason I can think of for going there is that Brideshead Revisited was filmed there. If you’re wondering why that is important to our production, it isn’t. I would have been satisfied with Chatsworth - which was important because Nancy Mitford, a contemporary of Elizabeth VanArnim, -the author of the book our play is based on- designed most of the interiors of the home. The grounds were also lovely and far surpassed the house. There was a Temple of the Four Winds where we sat and let the wind play on our bodies. I have found a new appreciation for grass. On the drive home, the group made bets on arrival time, and we played 20 Questions to keep us occupied. We made it home earlier than most had predicted.

Velosaraptor-Chicken chase escape

We get to Chatsworth on a bright, sunny, afternoon, which makes what happens next all the more unexpected.

We sit on the grass near the car port to eat our lunch before going into the estate. The entrance grounds are populated by sheep and chickens, so their droppings are prevalent. We find a clear place to sit and dig in. A chicken walks by, then another, just passing. Then a chicken walks right past Laura and Logan to stand in front of me. I look at her,she looks at me, and then…she attacks. She jumps on me. Startled, I just sit there for a moment. Then she jumps again. I stand - barely, since the laughing has me doubled-over - and back away slowly. The chicken is between me and my camera. She matches my pace and walks towards me. I work like this until Logan can safely retrieve my camera. The chicken jumps again, so I take off. I run towards the big tree, no longer concerned by the little mounds of poo I am plowing through. Once I get there, I look back, only to see the chicken in hot pursuit. I continue to run to the entrance where cars are trying to find parking spots. Sure enough, the possibility of being run over stops the chicken in her tracks. We stare each other down for a while, and she retreats. By this time I am in pain from trying to escape during fits of laughter. Laura and Logan catch up to me and laugh about how they wish they had their cameras at the ready for moments like this.