Do Not Pass Go

I woke up stressed out about my passport.

Sometime during the night it occurred to me that I hadn't seen my passport in a while. I didn't remember seeing it when I moved. I did remember at some time in the past year seeing it in a pile of *important papers*, picking it up, and putting it somewhere *safe*.

I could not for the life of me remember where that *safe place* was.

Shit.

After about twenty minutes of searching this morning I found the passport. It expired four months ago.

Now, usually people plan overseas trips months or years ahead of time. Seeing as I am not exactly a "normal person" I am now trying to make it possible to travel in the fall. Like, 4 or 8 weeks from now. Either right before or right after the wedding of the MB and the Stiles.

And anyway--it is always good to have an active passport readily available. Don't you think?

I had been following the passport trials of Jamy over at Grateful Dating and when I saw the date on the passport I thought. "I'll never be able to make this happen now. I screwed up."

But I looked around a bit online and it actually looks like I might be okay. Oddly--the link for "How to Renew a Passport" on the State Department website lead me to a totally blank page this morning, which was a bit disconcerting. Like--"Yeah, good luck with that renewal, sucka!!" Now it is coming up with pretty clear instructions on how to do it by mail (which, if done with expedited service, should be fine for me). And it sounds like they don't want me to go to the actual passport office unless I am traveling in the next ten days or so.

Does anyone know any reason why I should NOT go ahead with the expedited mail service at this point? Are they being realistic that it takes 2-3 weeks? I am planning to send it all off this afternoon, so if anyone has any great advice--feel free to comment below.

On a sentimental note, I will be a little sad to relinquish my last passport. It's my most official record (stamps and all) of the handful of life-altering overseas trips I took in my 20s--several of them solo. Do they send it back to you?

Update:

The gist I am getting from people's comments and emails is, the situation sucks, every stage of the passport issue/renewal is back-logged but I can't do anything about rushing the process until my own situation is truly dire. If I am down to ten days or so, I can go the office with a letter from our congressperson. But for now, I think I should just send it in with the expedited extra charge by overnight mail and then continue to track it until, again, the situation becomes dire.

Right?

You Really Like Us

Apparently, CAUTIONARY TALES and TRIXIE TICKLES won the "Pick of the Fringe" award in the Musical category for this year's festival. It was based on public voting through the City Paper Fringe Blog. I'm not sure what that actually means, but I'll take it as a good thing.

I was not present at the Festival's closing bash to witness this announcement.

Instead I was in my pajamas, sprawled on a couch. The equestrian made stir-fried tofu and broccoli and we watched 1/3 of Notes on a Scandal (will finish later, it's very good, but required too much thought) and then the whole of a Rowan Atkinson stand up act from 1991.

I was very, very tired. Ergo: very, very lame.

I miss my CT/TT lovelies already though and hope to see their smiling faces soon.

I wish I'd been able to see the other musical that got substantial buzz in the festival: Queen of the Bohemian Dream. There was a U of M grad in the cast, and I know we covered some of Landesman's material in musical theater class.

But I simply couldn't fit it in. I wasn't able to see anything that first weekend because CT/TT and Collaterally Damaged both opened and settled into their respective grooves. So while I was able to catch three shows during the week (Nutshell, Ninja Motorcycle Babes and the Pabst and Popcorn Hour's Tragedy of Faustus) most of my viewing was left to Saturday when I crammed four shows into my day. I won't ever do that again. My legs were all cramped and my bum atrophied by the end of it all.

That said, I'm very glad I saw such a wide and varied range of performances this year. I think last year I made it to, like, two.

On Saturday I saw A Most Notorious Woman, Local Story, Two by Mee, and Birds. Then I stood in the back for the final performance of Cautionary Tales.

There are enough reviews floating around the web for these shows--we hardly need another. Suffice it to say, there were notable strengths in each and every one of these shows and good work evident across the board. Certainly a wide range when it comes to level of professionalism in presentation and whether or not what was aimed for in each production was actually achieved, but everyone was indeed reaching for great things and for that I say Bravo.

Three specific shout outs:

To the Pabst and Popcorn crew for making me excited about theater again. Really great work, so smart and stylized and specific and no awkward attempts to hit me in between the eyes with some great *moral* or *lesson*. And hey, free beer. Did you catch that? Yeah, it made me happy.

To Cecilia and company for their sparkling presentation of A Most Notorious Woman. It was the first time I have watched theater artists in this community and had the distinct sense of "these are the people we will pass on the torch to". I guess I've always felt like I was the one waiting for the torch to be passed, and in this instance felt proud of the young-er visionaries fighting for their voices to be heard. They both deserve to be heard.

To the BIRD's design team, actors and Wendy for a stunning presentation of a very complex and layered play. Really beautiful work. Both Jacob (the set designer) and Wendy (directors) are NCSA alum. Hurrah.

I am sure I will have more thoughts to share in due time.

Catch Me a Catch

Taken verbatim from my voicemail today:

Hello Citymouse, it’s your brother, it’s 1:30 and I just had to call to ask you a question. Just talking with your parents here. They took Frannie in for her check-up yesterday and they said the veterinarian was uh, was your “ideal type”—in terms of type of man that you are attracted to?--and then they described him and I thought I just had to call you and tell you what your “ideal type” is. Apparently it is a tall thin forty-year-old with a ponytail who owns twelve cats. So as mom and dad said, that’s right up your alley, that’s just your type.

Tall, thin, forty-year-old with a ponytail and twelve cats.

(Beat.)

Yeah, so, talk to you later—bye.

The Rest is Silence

I have had every imaginable cell phone disaster since first acquiring one of the little buggers sometime around the year 2000. I've had them stop working, stop charging, dysfunctional keypads, I've had billing disasters, I dropped one in a toilet once--you name it. But I've never actually lost one.

Until yesterday.

Somewhere between a lovely dinner with Jackie at Kramer Books and leaving for work this morning, my cell phone vanished.

I'm trying not to freak out about it. But just so you know--now if I don't call you back, I really do have a valid excuse.

In the meantime, you can leave me messages, I'm still checking those. But it may not be until next week that I get a new phone.

Over and out for now. It's been a tricky couple of days. I will be very glad to reach the end of this week.

(Oh yeah. There are about ten tickets left for the midnight show of CAUTIONARY TALES, so if you are planning to go and haven't gotten a ticket yet, it may not be a bad idea to do so.)

I Just Wanted To Use The Phrase "Mea Culpa"

Trying to catch you all up on everything since fringe madness began would be silly. Suffice it to say--the four shows we've had since Friday's opening were stellar--crowds have been hot, reception has been great, and truly: I am having so much fun being in that theater watching people watch this show.

Rumor has it that the lovely Miss Rhea spit her gum out onto the stage mid-laugh last night. Seriously, that's the best kind of compliment we can get.

Personally, I will be glad to have a little break once this week is over. I have something of a respite now, but do need to do some Fringe viewing myself. Right now, I'm feeling a little bit reluctant to sit in a theater any more than I already have, but I know I will regret it if I don't get myself out and about to at least a handful of shows.

On another note, I've been thinking a bit about the negative qualities Fringe-ing brings out in me. Some of them flared up over drinks at Bar Pillar last night while chatting with Hannah and Sweet Charles. A mea culpa to them both.

I think because during Fringe you are directly aware of who is getting press, who seems to be getting advantages of location or schedule choices--and it's so present in every conversation and every various blog update--that it pushes my competitive buttons. Which is ridiculous and awful because that is so not what Fringe is about. And also ridiculous for me to fixate on this when I know we have been very fortunate to get the amount of press we've gotten, when many shows have had to fight for even a mention.

So it's like I'm looking the great gift horse that is the Fringe in the mouth and then pulling out it's teeth because I get kind of tired and moody and arrogant, sometimes.

I'll chalk it up to lack of sleep and a recent shitty diet, and hope that Charles and Hannah forgive.

I can be happy. I am happy.

If nothing else, Jason Linkins--and the fact that he will be at our show on his special day--makes me happy.

The Skinny

It looks likely that we will sell out tonight. If you are planning on buying tickets at the door for the 10pm show, it may not be a bad idea to purchase them between now and 8pm online.

STAY OUT OF THE ZOO...

Time Traveller

(This entry was from Monday. The day did eventually get better. Sort of.)

What a crappy morning. Which is a shame because the weekend (save for having to work six hours at the law firm on Sunday) was quite well spent. Fruitful, and even some flickers of fun.

But man, mondays, man.

I have one more week of teaching acting at a day camp in Silver Spring. It's a fine program, really, the kids are good, my highschool age T.A. is bright and so helpful, all-in-all much more painless than I expected. It's located a ways down Colesville (really only about 8 minutes by car but definitely not walk-able) past the weird Toll House Restaurant? Anyone ever been there?

Anyhow, I've had a lovely person-who-drives willing to get me there by 9am most of last week, which was amazing since the bus that goes there only comes every thirty minutes (why is that?) But this morning we hit traffic early on. I realize I don't have my ipod. He realizes he's left his phone back at the apartment. I look at the time and have to accept that we won't be able to stop for coffee. I start hyperventilating because the idea of going through three classes of 8-14 year-olds without caffeine in my system terrifies me. I've also left my suglasses at home. As well as the stacks of contentless scenes that we were going to start this week and continue to work on through the rest of the session--home, on my bedroom floor.

I now have no lesson plans, no caffeine, no sun protection, and no music to get me through the rest of my day. Plus my fabulous T.A. is gone this morning. I am suddenly and violently angry at myself for being forgetful, for stalling in getting up, for being addicted to caffeine, for being late all the time, for not getting it right. Life. Not quite getting life right. Other people do. What's my problem?

But I have people. I have great people in my life.

An energy drink and power bar are special-delivered to my second period class. The little ones are listless but by the second and third group I manage to make headway, teach something, maybe. At lunch a ten-year-old tells me that "acting class" is her favorite morning session. My T.A. is back and wants to know about everything she missed. On my way back to Silver Spring proper I talk on the phone with the writer of the play I am directing a reading of during the second half of Fringe (did I mention that?) He is excited and immensely passionate about this work. He thinks a play can change the world or at least how people think. When I hear him speak about it I start to believe it is true.

So, we are going to hope that the morning was just the morning. That the first 90 minutes of the day won't set the tone for the rest of it--including and expecially not for tech tonight.

Soon, more to catch up on. About shows seen and the work on my other Fringe projects and expecially about the CAT THAT NOW LIVES IN MY HOUSE!

Yes, a cat. Cute. Very cute.

Coming Soon...

Based on ticket sales so far, the popular shows are going to be the 21st at 4:30 and the 23rd at 7:00pm. If either of those are the shows you want to see, don't put it off, order your tickets now.

xo

Citymouse

Stretched Thin

Why do I want to eat all the time lately? I mean, really.

Nerves.

Life took a turn for the crazy this week. Over-booked myself, didn't even realize what I'd done until Sunday night when I looked at the contract for a teaching job I took months ago. A job that started this monday. Meaning I'd have to be in Silver Spring at 8:45am. Realized this at around 11:30pm. I guess I thought it started next week. Not that next week would be any easier, but it would at least be next week.

Anyhow, so it's teaching in the morning, then the day job, then rehearsals, sprinkled with brush-up rehearsals for the one-woman show I'm helping the lovely Ms. Zam mount for the Fringe. I guess my point is, I'm sorry if I'm a bit pissy this week. It's good for me money-wise to be doing so much but it means running and bussing around without a break for about two weeks.

"We'll act like we're all high on heroin. That'll be fun right?"

It was the last sort-of weekend I'll have in a while. Highlights included drinks with HPMelon, attending a Dream Play that was lovely and smartly directed by the super-cool Ms.Stockman, running into Gallu at Dream Play and getting to whisper with him when the lights went low (not during the show, silly), celebrating a great final show of 1776, costume shopping with Erin for the Fringe Show, and finally drinks and conversation with the equestrian and the super-fun Mister and Missus of Keegan Theater.

Swell.

Rehearsals are going well. Read more about them here and order your tickets here.

Beautiful Friday

Hello friends. I left my cell phone at home today and the internet connection at my day job has been down most of the day, so yeah, it's been a swell one.

But on the plus side, we are now about 4/5ths done staging the show, we'll finish tonight, and be in good shape for a tech run tomorrow afternoon.

Everyone seemed pretty beat yesterday. Casie was sunburned pink from her 4th at the Nat's game. Alessandra kept having me check to feel if I thought she had a fever. Mike was appropriately droll, which was at least par the course. Cesar found some things "fucking hilarious" but less so than usual. And Stephanie brought cookies.

We love Stephanie.

It's been a long week and change.

I love this crew. Working on these shows with Shawn is a little bit different than a typical rehearsal process. There is a familial atmosphere that I think serves us. The highlight of any run is when Shawn invites us all over to his mother's house for her famous lasagna. It smacks a bit of home, though my third generation Italian roots are not nearly as authentic as his first generation ones. Mrs. Northrip's sauce is really good.

My mother is now wondering if I think her sauce isn't as good as Shawn's mom's sauce. Of course it is.

But I digress.

(You know the drill. Post continued over here.)

July, July, Ju-llllyyy

"I write down good reasons to freeze to death in my spiral ring notebook"

I hate excessive air conditioning.

A coupla things:

- Happy Fourth!

- Thank you Grew for being you. Thank you for dry humor. Thank you for learning how to skip.

- Another fringe post here. The formatting is terrible and I can't seem to do anything about it. I know that Wordpress is the new pink, but I can't figure it out. Help, anyone?

- I saw Pan's Labyrinth the other night. Yes, visually stunning. But something in the storyline just didn't gel for me. I totally dug the self-stitching however. And by dug, I mean, wanted to poke my eyeballs out.

That's all I got. Rehearsals are going well. Melissa-Leigh rocks my world. And tonight we celebrate our nation. Eat a hot dog for me, will you?

Sorry-Grateful, Regretful-Happy

Many overdue thank you's...

To everyone who came out Saturday to my poorly planned, last minute, birthday gathering: big kisses, many thanks.

To the folks who started it out early with me (CP and Eliza and Ellen and Hairy Ape--what more could I ask for? A patio deck and great company, seriously, it doesn't get any better than that) and especially to those who stuck it out for the long run. To the other party for "Shirley" which seemed to somehow provide us with special service and celebratory balloons, as well as great people watching. To the crew at Tunni's who tolerated my ridiculous double-booking plan (don't let me do that again). To the amassed gang who made the trek over with me from one neighborhood bar to another neighborhood bar. To the good folks who initiated not one, but TWO renditions of "Happy Birthday". To Adrienne for the ridiculously large piece of chocolate cake slathered with redi-whip. To Gwen, Hannah, Randy and Deb for helping me eat it. To Blog-Prince for the BEST BIRTHDAY CARD EVER. To Miss Jackie for the fun and perfectly froufy girly gift. To J-Lo and HPMelon for coming by even after a long day and an opening and an opening reception and shmoozing. And to everyone who had a million other things to do that night (and I know--you all had them: openings, closings, out-of-town guests, monuments to see) who still came out to wish me a happy, happy.

So good to feel loved.

On another note: I am posting during the fringe over at DC Theater Scene [Hairy Ape shakes his head, "Will she never learn?"] so posting here might be a bit light this month.

But do check out the fringe blog over here and keep up with the City Paper Fringe and Purge feature.

Now go out and be good to each other, as you've all been so good to me.