It’s Sunday and the first tropical depression of the hurricane season is rolling through. I’ve got the blinds up and the doors open (the storm doors are closed) to watch the rain. I can hear the laundry in the washing machine and there’s gentle music playing on my phone. Let’s get something to drink (your choice) and talk about the week that was.
With last week being so busy, you might suspect I spent this week recovering. And to a certain extent, you’d be right.
Sunday we had our World of Darkness campaign, in which my character, Cyrus, achieved his goal of having the vampires in his pack recognized and accepted by the Garou spirits. It was quite a moving episode, but I haven’t had the chance to write the notes up yet. I hope to get to them later today; we’ll see.
Monday was my first day back in the office after my conference across the state, and I spent the day giving and receiving updates, catching up on reports and emails, and getting ready for a work event held Tuesday night. I was pleasantly surprised to find someone had left a four-pack of canned coffee on my desk!
It took me three days to find and thank the person who did it.
When I made it home I was ready for bed but I was waiting for a phone call. I told you last week that I had auditioned for The Laramie Project, and the director told us she’d be making calls Sunday or Monday. With no call coming Sunday, I wasn’t exactly waiting by the phone (okay I was) but I didn’t want to miss the call by falling asleep.
When the call came, I was offered a part! The play is written to be staged by eight actors, but the director has decided to divide the nearly 60 parts among ten of us. For what it’s worth, some parts only have one line in the entire play.
Then I went to bed.
Tuesday was spent at work with an evening event that ended around 7:00 PM, and having a 11.5 hour day was tiring, and I went to bed almost immediately after eating. I don’t remember what I had.
Wednesday was another day of generating reports, and that evening we had our first read through for The Laramie Project. It’s a hard play due to the nature of the story, but it’s so very necessary. It will help that everyone involved believes that now is the right time for our town to hear its message. We’re already checking in with each other as we start learning our lines – and as two of my parts are the murderers, I appreciate that.
I picked up some pizza on the way home and got home even later than I had on Tuesday, did some light cleaning since our apartment complex would be spraying for bugs the next day, and went to sleep.
I had off work on Thursday for the July 4th weekend (we already have off Fridays) and did some more cleaning and just general resting. One highlight of the day was getting our photos back from the party we’d attended:
Thursday night Krystal and I went out to eat at a local Greek-American restaurant; I had a pepper steak sub with mushrooms: featuring “steak freshly sliced and cooked together with onions, peppers, and signature spices, then topped with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and banana peppers” – but I didn’t get the banana peppers. Krystal got a chicken gyro. Oh, and we had an appetizer of pita and hummus and I got some cookies for dessert (Krystal got tiramisu).
Then it was on to the movie theater for Jurassic World: Rebirth. It was a fun entry into the series, but I was unimpressed and in fact let down by the “big bad” dinosaur bookending the film. Don’t get me wrong: slap “Jurassic Park” on the film and I will see it. I will buy the merch. There were scary moments and awesome and terrifying dinosaurs, but that particular one was just . . . It seems they tried to pull a Jaws-like “less is more” approach – and failed.
Ignoring the chronological necessity of the Jurassic World trilogy to make Rebirth possible, I’d rank this film better than all three preceding Jurassic World movies but behind the original trilogy of Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Jurassic Park III.
And because others have asked the question, if a Jurassic Park opened in real lief – and even knowing what we know from the movies – I’d still visit the park (finances pending).
Friday was the Fourth of July and like many I didn’t feel like celebrating when the country in which I live is ignoring the lessons of the past and hurtling headlong down the highway to hell as those in power seek to do the greatest amount of harm to the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time.
I suppose it was best that I’m taking a break from volunteering at Tryon Palace this year, but of course this was also the year our governor decided to spend the Fourth at the Palace. I’m glad my replacement did a fabulous job and you know what? I’m okay not having performed for the governor. He’s a great governor, but it wouldn’t be worth my mental health. The reading of the Declaration is always interesting (shall we say) and I was told that this year there were no comments from the crowd, just stony silence. I’d like to think perhaps the words were piercing their stony hearts, but from experience, that’s probably not the case.
On the positive side of things, I made my Guinness sloppy joe for supper on Friday. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, but trust me when I say they were good. What makes them “Guinness” is that where the recipe calls for tomato sauce, I use a ratio of Guinness Extra Stout and tomato paste.
On Saturday I did some journaling and preparations for the storms that will roll through all this week. I went to the thrift stores and didn’t find anything I needed this week, but I did find the “How It’s Made” series on Tubi.
Today I’m taking it easy as possible.
What are you doing today?
How have you been?
What have you been up to?
Running In My Head 