While waiting for the next episode of OZ to load...

ACHOO!

I'm quite sure I'm coming down with a cold. Sore throat the last couple of nights which I attributed to the weather changing, but with the onset of snot today, I'm thinking I'm in some familiar rhinovirus territory. I blame Mitch. He blames the followspot he's been leaning over for his current job. We should blame our hand-washing habits.

I have a job interview tomorrow with this company. I'd be looking to be a telemarketer for them. Not an ideal job, but something part-time and NOT in food service. Pretty cool little niche they've got - and definitely one I have interest in. They posted a notice on Craigslist.

Attending a reading of a play Tuesday night which I was asked to come to a callback for. This callback part is SMALL. Like, miniscule. I have more to say about this, but at another time. I'm not sure if it'll be better or worse in the case I'm not cast...

Butch Walker called me a "lil thing" in response to a tweet I tweeted (...) at (?) him. OMG HE KNOWS I EXIST!!! Not likely. Still made my heart beat faster. But not in a creepy way. OK, maybe a little creepy.

A weird video, but a song worth hearing. Ignore the stupid hipster crap at the beginning and end.

IT'S YOU! IT'S ME! IT'S DANCING!

Hello!

Mitch is training for a marathon.

I hate my job and so am looking forward to stopping working early/mid-June to go "summer" in Michigan - and by Michigan I mean Lansing and by "summer" I mean get paid $100 a week to be in a play and have lots of free time.

We want a dog.

We're currently eating chips and salsa.

I got my mom flowers for Mother's Day (also my parents' 31st wedding anniversary which was this last Wednesday) and that's the first time I've done that so that's cool of me.

Penny is trying to eat a tortilla chip but she can't fit her mouth around it. Stella is lounging. They're still good.

OMG CONCLUSION OF 'GROOMER HAS IT.'

A funny story

So on March 14 a favorite musician-type of mine named Butch Walker played Webster Hall here in New York. Ariel and I went - this was the weekend of The Grampus and Friends, so Mitch was otherwise occupied. I was really excited; I've liked him for a long time but never seen him before.

So Ariel and I get dinner before and then show up like, perfectly just in time before he's about to go on. The ballroom space there is really very lovely; a big first floor and a balcony that goes around up top with these little individual booths around. Which aren't great for a show like this when everyone wants to see the stage, but I could see how they would work when it's more like a nightclub. We go up to the second floor and find a not-too-crowded booth where we can stand behind the people who've already staked out the railing but still see pretty well. There are these two girls who like like twins, three friends - two girls and a flamboyantly gay Italian type, and a mother and daughter. No one's really talking to people outside of their own groups, but we're all getting along quite well. The two girls with the guy leave to go get more drinks and Ariel and I hold their place while they're gone but give it back when they get back, because we are nice people. Ariel orders a beer. ($7 for a Coors Light? Yeah, New York!)

So Butch comes out. He's wonderful. We can't see him as well as I'd like all the time, but we're really pretty set up. And he's great to watch and I'm having a good time - and so is Ariel, who's just started listening to him and likes him and is liking the show. Then, a little bit into the set, one of the girls who was with the other girl and the guy leaves. Ariel goes up to where she was at the railing - kind of like holding the spot again? And to get a better view briefly - and she looks down and there's this empty spot in the crowd down below. Girl puked over the railing. People are looking up at this booth, all pissed off, and rightfully so. The girl who threw up, her two friends are equally trashed and totally oblivious. No, worse than oblivious, they know it's happening and they try and pretend like it's not their problem. Like, they go into the same mode the rest of us are in, like "oh my god did she just do that for real?" when clearly they know her and have been drinking with her and wouldn't you at least go and see if she's ok?

She comes back. She's bought a merch t-shirt and is wearing it over her first top. For two reasons I can think of - she vommed on herself and that's gross, or she's disguising herself. Which turns out to be smart because AFTER SHE VOMITS OVER THE RAILING FOR A SECOND TIME, this real tool comes up to the booth and is all "who vomited on my friend? You gotta pay for her dry cleaning!" Vomit girl, after vomiting the second time, has disappeared again. This guy is very confrontational with Vomit girl's friend who of course doesn't really know what to do. Just tells him to get away and it's not her problem and she'll go get security because he's kind of scary and stuff. So they walk away eventually and she tells security this guy is trying to hurt her and then he's all like "woah, ok, never mind." Ariel got in there a little too, telling the guy we all paid to enjoy this show and he's ruining it for us. Which the whole situation kind of is. I mean, now looking back it's hilarious but at the time of course I'm all anxious about the sick girl and the confrontation and I just want to ogle Butch Walker.

(See, very ogle-worthy)

Vomit girl comes back. She sits on the booth thingie VERY close to where Ariel and I put our coats. I go move mine. I care a little bit that maybe she'll realize that I'm moving my stuff because I don't trust her not to throw up on them and that maybe will hurt her feelings, but I don't care that much.

BECAUSE SHE VOMITS AGAIN! Yes, third time's the charm. Not where our stuff had been, but in the opening between the two curved booths so we're essentially trapped. By vomit. Which smells, by the way. Even in a club full of kind of sweaty people who smell like booze, you can still smell vomit. Especially when it's SO CLOSE TO YOU ICK. So when one of the waiters comes around and finds it - and they send someone to clean it up and man oh man I don't ever want that job - they get the manager or whoever and escourt her out. Her friends stay of course. They don't.. really care. Too busy "woo"-ing and taking pictures of themselves which I hope I'm not in because I was right behind them. Whatever. I hate those people.

So it was an eventful night. And Butch really was great, I just wish I could've given him my undivided attention. One good thing that came out of it tho - Ariel went to the bathroom at one point and seeing the waiter who had served her her $7 Coors Light - who remembered her because she's a good tipper - she tells him all about it and gets a free beer out of it! Which we shared, so that was nice. I wasn't drinking too much because the night before I'd gotten really drunk and had to pee so bad I almost went on the sidewalk I swear it was so bad, but that's a different story. But it was just Coors so you know, only 2.7% alcohol anyway.

In conclusion. Butch = good and I hope to see him again soon. The Webster Hall = a pretty cool venue even if security weren't great and kind of dumb and after the show (it was early) the whole downstairs started to fill up with losers who came in from Jersey to partay it up in the city and oh my gosh I hate New Jersey. But I would go back. Especially if it was a night which didn't also have a club night going on.

Vomit girl = very bad.

To the St. Catherine's Alums -

How many/are any of you all going to the reunion this year? Clare B. wanted to and convinced me as well, but neither of us really want to go to the like, actual reunion. She wants to see teachers and some people associated with the boarders; I'll take the weekend away. Are any of you going to be in Richmond that weekend?

I'm assuming M.C. will not make it back from where, France? for it. Also, isn't that like a stipulation of the Wilson? You must not touch your feet to your patria for a year-ish? Maybe? Did I make that up? Can I ask some more questions now?

Nope. No, I can.

EDIT TWO SECONDS LATER: "No, I can"?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

WHAT, JULIE? I'm tired.

So that picture down below was very sad, so here are two happy ones! I was trying to get a shot of Penelope, but, you know, she's not gonna sit still. Ever.





And just to prove that I love them equally, I grabbed Stella and got one with her too. You can probably tell from her face, but she was making this noise like "meeeeeeeeeew."

Update #1: About that Princeton show

Hello faithful reader(s? Do I flatter myself)! Let us go back in time. To a magical place called Princeton. And by magical I mean a-two-hour-train-ride-from-New-York-place which therefore sucks my butt.

So Allen (who works for Hopkins Theatre Dept. and Princeton and who hired Mitch for the Princeton Summer Theatre job this past year) hired Mitch to stage manage for this show he'd been hired to tech for. An undergrad had gone to her department, Slavic Languages and Literatures (ugh, Princeton, really?) and got some money to put up a showcase of two one-acts, Unveiling by Vaclav Havel and her adaptation of The Bedbug by some Russian dude named Mayakovsky. Her name is Nadia. She originally planned to cast from the Princeton community but ended up having trouble finding enough people so Allen gave her my name, we talked, I took the part playing the wife of a crazy married couple in Unveiling. She knows I'm in New York so, while tech week won't be fun, we'll only have three rehearsals - one each Saturday - before then for this little play.

The play is short, but very wordy. It's gotta go fast or everyone will fall asleep. They repeat things like they're crazy people. They're consumers showing off all their tacky crap in their tacky apartment but the play was written in a Communist world so ISN'T THAT INTERESTING. I'm pretty excited; it's a good part. BUT this guy she found to play the husband - hmmm, are you familiar with New Jersey? And those guys who live there who work out a lot and pay too much attention to their facial hair. Well this guy was kind of like that. He sounds OK but he clearly doesn't have a lot of experience - though enough enthusiasm - and he's not someone I would be friends with in real life. The third member of the cast is a lovely young man in his first year at Princeton; we quickly become bffs when I'm not making him uncomfortable. Somehow.

First rehearsal goes OK. For the second we need to have memorized the first half of the show. I do this. My husband...does not. He comes to the rehearsal and he's all like "Yeah I've been working on this so hard and I'm like dreaming about it even but it's so hard but I've been really trying." Also, at the first rehearsal he'd suggested the two of us try and get on the phone and run lines during the week since we don't have a lot of rehearsal together and then he doesn't call. And texts saying he's not ready yet. I'm not liking this guy. He just...doesn't get it. The importance of being word perfect? Not so important or maybe possible for him. We schedule a rehearsal for Wednesday. Things are still not good. Nadia, the director, calls me afterwards on Wednesday and is like, "Should I fire Paul?" And I'm like, "Ummm that's not my call but yeah he's pretty bad but I've never been in this situation before and can someone else do this in a week and a half?"

This is dragging so, long story shorter, we do end up finding a replacement actor - I have no idea how. His name is Ben and he is both very tall and a Mennonite and living in New York like me. I like him quite a bit and he really pulls through for us. Though when he wasn't off-book Monday (after having been cast Friday night) Nadia was all "I HATE HIM he's a professional I SHOULD FIRE HIM?" but yeah, girl was way overwhelmed with this project. First time she's ever directed anything. Mitch tried to give her help as stage manager, but in addition to that job he was also doing sound design and he and Allen were the only two people like, um, building the set, so he was busy. And tech week wasn't fun. Our show turned out great but the second one - I still don't know what it's about. I know they danced to Madonna and there were red masks and elbow-length gloves. And we ended up only doing two performances so it felt a whole hell of a lot like, not worth it, you know? But it was a good part for me, something nice for the resume; got me out of the city; got to hang out with Allen and his girlfriend Liz; met Ben who is now a friend; got paid $100 and reimbursed for my travel (yay?). So overall for the experience: a C+, maybe?

Also, I hate Princeton. After the show was done at about 9 on Saturday night Mitch wanted to dash over to see a production of A Streetcar Named Desire some friends of his from the summer were in. (They don't have a theater major there either, but you can apply for a "certificate" which means you do a "thesis" your senior year which is like "a big deal.") So this was the senior certificate project of a girl Mitch knew over the summer who very much had a crush on him and let's just say he didn't hate her - totally his physical type, I knew that when I saw her, don't get angry Julie - but he wasn't going for her, but for two of his really close guy friends who were playing Stanley and Mitch. ANYWAY, it wasn't great. But oh my god, the money there? The production value? Incredible. For this shitty undergrad show. Oh, a professional director? Yeah, got one of those. This is at the McCarter theatre too, which is really quite a prestigious regional theatre and yeah, it's just ridiculous. I got so jealous for so many reasons. But I was reassured that I am a better actor than the girl who shall remain unnamed. When I play Blanche - which I will - she will not be a drag queen.

And on that note, The End.

This is what I look like after I've been crying.