from June 3

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Here's what I wanted to post here. I ended up putting it on an empty blog I have and linking to it. I'm putting it here now so when I archive my LJ, it'll be there.

Last week, we took Sarah to see the Wiggles at Six Flags New England. When we got home, the camera was gone, and their Lost & Found doesn't have it. So somebody somewhere is looking at my camera, trying to use it, deciding it's a piece of junk and throwing it away, and I'm without a camera.

Yesterday, Cathy was going to go with me to drop my car off at the Saturn place to get the AC fixed, and then we were going to go places. Maybe look at cameras. Instead, Sarah swallowed a coin, so Cathy went to the hospital with her while I waited a couple of hours to find out that my car will cost another thousand to fix (in addition to what it cost to find that out). When I got to the hospital, they couldn't find them and said they must not be there, but as I was leaving the parking garage, I saw Cathy's car, so I went back in and located them in the X-ray department. Then we ate at Friendly's, and I burned the roof of my mouth on my first bite of clam chowder (which was otherwise tasty).

This morning, Sarah was up bright and early for no good reason. I asked her if she wanted to take a walk to the park with me, and she did, riding on her scooter, which I carried halfway there and all the way home. She played on the swings. We had the place to ourselves until we were about to leave, when suddenly two or three other families showed up. It was thundering, though, so we decided to head on home. After that, we went to Friendly's for breakfast (not the same one as yesterday -- that was a cafe-style mini-Friendly's at the hospital) and walked home in the rain, carrying our umbrellas. I carried mine right-side-up, over my head. Sarah swung hers and then asked me to carry it for her.

Later today, Cathy & Sarah might be at a picnic (depending on the weather) while I go audition for the Majestic's upcoming season. I have prepared a CD with the accompaniment to "The Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish," which I recorded, using Sound Forge to edit together a more-or-less adequate version. (It plays on our DVD player, not on the boom box. I wonder what they'll have. I can't try burning it again because the program says it won't do any more for free.)

Tomorrow I'll get back to the book I'm working on for my sister's layout business. When completed, it will pay almost enough to fix the car's air conditioning, if everything goes as it's supposed to go. I also have the option of calling salvage yards to see if they have a used compressor, but caveat emptor if I do.

After six attempts to post this at LJ, including breaking it up, I've given up and am posting it here.
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from June 4

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Here's what I would have posted here on June 4.

After almost two solid years, it finally happens. I got my audition at the Majestic Theater in West Springfield. If I can get into the upcoming season of shows, in any part whatever, I'll get to hang out with theatre people and (I fully expect) will show them that I'm capable of good things.

I think it went well. I rehearsed my prepared cutting for weeks, and practiced my chosen musical number, "The Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish." I practiced vocals and accompaniment, and a few nights before time to put it on a CD, I had a wondrous thought: I could edit a good performance in SoundForge! So, instead of settling for a relatively decent single take, I worked on getting each part just right and stitched them together. The result was seamless. I had to laugh like a mad scientist. It worked so well! MWAHAHA! (Wait, that's Blinky the Clown's laugh. Let's move along.)

Still there was a touch of uncertainty about the CD. As I took the disk out, JukeBox told me that was my last free sample of CD burning -- I didn't know these were samples! -- and after that they'd be slower. Wasn't that already the slow kind? Oh well. I tried the disk in the old boom box I used to use at work, and it wouldn't play. I tried it in the DVD player and it worked.

So yesterday I finally quit goofing around and went in to make my 2:45 appointment, printing out new copies of my theatre resume and head shot. It takes less than ten minutes to get from here to there. I love convenient venues! I filled out a form (neatly) and pulled out the head shot. Interesting -- the details of my appearance had been replaced by solid black areas. Good thing I printed more than one. I was given three cuttings to look at and some time to prepare.

Cutting number one was from "Guys On Ice -- The Ice-Fishing Musical." Number two was from "The Taming of the Shrew," and the third was from "The Full Monty." The director's assistant talked to me some, and was happy to hear that I have relatives in Escanaba (and thus might have some insight into da You Pee accent for "Guys On Ice"). I asked how to pronounce "satiety." Nobody was really sure, but we decided on a pronunciation anyway. After a while, it was my turn to go in.

On the way, she asked what I'd be singing. She knew "The Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish," which is apparently a big number in For The Boys. Maybe I'll see that some time. They said, why not sing first and get it over with, so I watched with some feeling of suspense as the disk was loaded into their boom box and the button was pressed. Nothing happened. She pressed it again and it started playing, so there was one obstacle out of the way. I read the three scenes, after which they gave me a couple of others to read, which I hope was a good sign. I had time to prepare a bit, as before.

Then they thanked me, and I went out to the car. I was just a little unhappy that I never got to deliver my speech (a compilation of Slanthead Elder's words from Mister Zip by H. Allen Smith), and almost went back in to do it. Prudence won out. Thanks, Pru!

Now I'm wondering what happens if I get in. To I have to shake my thang if I get into "The Full Monty"? If I get into the cast of "Guys On Ice," will I have to sweat under hot lights for a month of performances wearing a heavy coat and a cap with flaps?
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status quo ante

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My ponderings of what sort of camera to get were interrupted by a noise at the front door. Someone had opened the screen. I went to look, and it was a bulky envelope which (long story short) had our digital camera in it.

So I've been looking at the photos I took of the Chinese acrobats (they were good). Then I'll start keeping the camera in the pocket of the pack that seems to have been made for it, and evict the other stuff I had moved to it.

The camera is thinking, now maybe he'll appreciate me. We shall see.

Yesterday I took Sarah to the dentist in the morning, then to school after they filled her cavity with amazing rapidity. I was going to head for the Holyoke Mall vicinity to look into the possibilities of a new camera, but ended up heading West instead of East. I'd never been on that part of the Mass Pike before, so I decided to enjoy the ride until I got to the first exit, some 35 miles away. Nice thing about the Pike is that if I only travel one or two exits on it, it doesn't cost anything.

The ride to Lee was fairly tame. Mostly trees to see, and occasional houses or old farms. Unlike the trip through Florida on I-16, the ground wasn't completely flat, and the trees weren't all one kind, so it's not as dull as it sounds. I drove around Lee and Stockbridge a bit. I looked at the Housatonic river and wondered where the part was that inspired Ives to write "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," and whether it still looked the same. There were houses for sale, but it's more of a commute than I'm interested in.

Going home, I took highway 20. It wends through the hills, sometimes alongside a creek or stream (what we'd call a river in Colorado), and I felt at times as if I was driving down the Poudre Canyon back home, or maybe down 34 from Estes Park. I saw a giant cement statue of a beaver and wanted to reach for the camera. The feeling recurred a couple more times when I saw a historical marker or a shrine or other picturesque sight.

I reached Westfield and realized that it must be another one of these Manifest Destiny towns with a border way out in the middle of nowhere. It felt like another ten minutes before I was really in town. A pleasant drive, all in all, and a nice change from my usual routine.
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