Someone I really could care for

Well, there is a sweet furry little addition to my home. Boogaloo Jake arrived yesterday from CAHS. He is an orange kitten. I saw him online first and, even though he wasn't my first color choice, I fell in love with him on the spot. Stephanie and I were going to go today after 3 but I wanted to get him before someone else snapped him up, so I booked over there alone. God, that's a long drive! I got more and more anxious as I drove along. What if he was gone? What if I got there too late to do the adoption? What if we didn't get along?

When I got there, I told them I wanted to adopt a kitten. They directed me to the nursery and I began my search. There were lots of cute ones, but the shorthairs were all girls. I didn't see him (his name was Travis at the time). A clueless volunteer finally got me someone who could help me. I saw three girls sleeping together and asked if the orange one was gone. She said, "No, he's still here". She opened up this--I can only call it a cubbyhole--and there he was, bright and chipper, a little cutie with worried eyes and a high squeak.

She took us to a room where we could get better acquainted. He ran from me and rushed like a crazy person around the room, meowing in panic and looking for a way out. "Oh, no", I thought, "He's a scaredy cat". But there were dogs barking all around, the room was cinderblock, and there was nowhere for him to hide in the big room. (Big compared to what he was used to). I asked the volunteer if there were any cat toys and she went and got one--a feathered toy attached to a string on a stick. I dragged it across the floor and talked to him calmly. Finally he started to play. He still had that worried look in his eye but he would take periodic forays into my lap and back out to play some more. Finally he curled up in my lap and I knew we were meant for each other. The volunteer came back in and took him from me and he started to fuss, so I said, "Let's do this". I held him and he snuggled right up to me. :)

We took him back to the nursery and I reluctantly put him back in the cage where he would wait while we went through the adoption paperwork. The volunteer remarked to me that he was pretty aloof from his sisters and didn't seem to care about them. I took this as a good sign, knowing he wouldn't feel much separation anxiety.

The adoption paperwork took FOREVER. I had to fill out a bunch of forms and they basically quizzed me to see what kind of parent I would be. I dealt with three different people so we went over and over the same stuff again and again. I just wanted to get my Boogaloo! Finally they brought him out and we were able to go to his forever home--home with me.

They recommend giving the kitten time to explore one room before heading out into the big world of the house/apartment. So I put him in my room with his potty, food, water, and a few toys. He explored for a little while but then, when I opened the door to come see him, he bolted out. He was free! He ran like a banshee around the apartment. He didn't even do that tentative bobbing up and down cats do when they're cautious, and he didn't run under the couch like Dante did when we moved to Lansing. He explored everywhere and ran back and forth to the bedroom, then to the living room, then to the kitchen, back to the living room, meowing all the way. I got him to play with some toys. He LOVED Da Bird and the laser pointer. He started to scratch the furniture and I showed him how to scratch the scratching post. Now he scratches the post! So smart and obedient!

He also knows how to go in the litter box--and man, is his poop stinky! Also almost as long as his body. Food was no problem--I gave him a little hard and he ate some of it. My book says a kitten's stomach is the size of a walnut so he doesn't eat much yet. I gave him a Pounce and he liked that, but he wasn't crazy about it. So not very food-motivated...at least not yet. :)

Last night he was very good. He started meowing like crazy so I put him up on the bed with me. He immediately found a spot and settled down. We slept for a while and then I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. So we played for a while and went back to bed. I woke up early to him snuggling under the comforter with me. We ate and started playing again. He likes it best when I chase him through the house, saying "I'm gonna get you!". He also found a plastic ring from a milk jug and likes to throw it up in the air and pounce on it, and then carry it around in his mouth like prey.

He's good about being by himself and doesn't need to play with me all the time. Right now he's dozing on the futon as I write. He was good while I went to Soldan's today. And he's wonderful in his carrier! He actually fell asleep when I was bringing him home last night, and he didn't make a peep while we took a little ride today.

So I have a good, perfect boy. It's just a joy to be with him, to train him and love him and sit with him. He can be mellow and playful, and he's very loving. Just an all-around doll.

Just what I was there for

Checking Out just closed Sunday. It was a HUGE success. Several sold out houses and a standing ovation the night my parents came. However, Miranda had to make some big cuts to the script. She found out Monday of production week that the show was *4* hours long! So she cut it down to about 2:20. With this in mind, I cut ten pages out of Blue Moon. It's now just under 60. I don't want it to be more than 2 hours, and I'd like it to be less. I cut a whole scene and made many cuts within scenes, cutting several monologues. I'm even considering cutting a CHARACTER, but I don't want to. We'll see.

Miranda's sending me the cut version of CO and I will cut more. Unfortunately, I'm thinking of cutting a whole scene that Adam's in. I wanted his character to have more to do when I initially wrote it, but it's just so small talk-y. I'm going to go through and see where there is no point to the dialogue. The Blue Moon scenes have more of a point to them, with very little fat and mostly meat. But I think I can still cut more. It's 60 pages now and it should probably be 50.

After the cuts are done, I'll send the script to the CTAM contest. If I win, the play can be produced by any Michigan community theater for a year. I also get $500, but I don't care about that. I just love the idea that my work will get seen by another audience.

We're doing CO again for Pride. I'm really excited about this. Another great way to get it seen. We didn't have drag queens in this production because someone didn't come through, but this summer we will. That's pretty cool!

So I'm feeling like a "real writer". Scott said it's still a career even if I don't make money from it. I'd like to think that's true. I have lots of plays in me. A friend has a theater company in Indiana and I'm going to send her a two-person, one-set play I wrote years ago. It's 40 pages, so that will probably be a full (albeit short)play. The more I do, the more I feel like it really is a career.

In other news: Scott and I are doing workout dates. My weight went up again but my measurements are great. The veggie stuff is going well; my main challenge is finding alternatives at restaurants, but that hasn't been too hard in the Lansing area. I'm still going to eat fish, so I can have sushi and eat the lake fish we catch this summer. I don't think I could give that up.

I lost Spot on February 26. It was her time. She was diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma behind her left eye. She went down quick, about a week after she was diagnosed. She was in a lot of pain, especially her last night. Through a friend's help, I contacted a vet who does house calls, including home euthanasia. She was very kind and professional. It was quick and dignified. I bawled and she shed a few tears too. They cremated Spot and made a clay paw print of her little paw. I got the paw print and the ashes along with a copy of "The Rainbow Bridge" about a week later.
It was all very sad but I took comfort in knowing I did the best I could.

The best part about losing a pet--if there is a good part--is getting a new little one. Boogaloo Jake will be coming into my life soon. I want a little boy gray tiger-striped kitten. I'm not TOO picky, but that's what I'd like most. But I really want the one who's best for me. Kitten season is coming up and Stephanie's going to CAHS with me to pick him out. He's going to be spoiled rotten--I've already got a bunch of toys for him, both store-bought and homemade. I'm going to call CAHS right now to see when they will start getting the Boogaloos in.

Yours in words.

...Now I'm No Longer Alone...

The second draft of Blue Moon is in the script drawer and a copy is off to Mom to read (my first cheerleader/critic). I've been neglecting it since Company has been taking up a great deal of my time, but the show will close next weekend and then I will have more time.

The show went really well. I think we peaked tech week and had a great first weekend of shows. We got a standing ovation two nights in a row. I'm happy with my performance, although I still haven't quite got the choreography or lines in the first big number down. They will just never happen, I guess. And that's okay given the work I've put into other parts of it.

And who sat front row center opening night...? My new guy. I met him on OK Cupid. He contacted me and we started IM'ing. He asked me to dinner and we went out. Then we went out for coffee, and dinner again...So on and so on. Things look good so far. I like him and he's good for me. He writes as well, and I've given him CO to read.

And speaking of which...the play is cast. We have a wonderful cast and rehearsals have started. I plan to be there on the 13th. Miranda doesn't have rehearsals scheduled every day, so I have just a few to pick from. That's fine. I don't want to intrude too much. Several of my friends got cast and I've been avoiding answering all their questions. They need to figure things out on their own.

I am at my goal weight of 145. I've gone veggie and I think that may help me get down more. However, I like the way I look and I don't mind if I don't go down any more. We're doing measurements tomorrow so we shall see how that goes.

Well, I have an early day tomorrow so I need to get to bed.

Yours in words.

New beginnings

I've put "Monsters" on the back burner for now. Why, you may ask? Because I'm rediscovering and rebuilding an older play. "Blue Moon" takes place in three different time periods (or "zones", as I call them in the play). It starts in the seventies, then goes to a fifties scene, and then a nineties scene, and then repeats. The story centers on Naomi, a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality, and her aunt Lola, who made different choices and ended up talking her own life. Parts of the play are based on true events and people, but most of them are made up. The characters are the most true to real people. In the play, Lola is a lesbian and Naomi journeys from initially coming out as a lesbian and then realizes she feels more at home with the bisexual label. The woman upon whom Lola is based, my aunt Val, was not a lesbian.

I'm very excited about this new play. It's got really strong themes and characters. The idea that "Monsters" might be part of a syllabus one day made me happy, but I think "Blue Moon" (not gonna shorten that one to initials, am I?) could also be part of a curriculum. I also see scenes that people could do in an acting class. Many of the scenes are short, two-character pieces. The play itself is very streamlined--it's only about 70 pages. I'd like to get it up to that magic number 80 again like CO. I'm working on what may be the last scene of the play. When I do that, I'll have finished the second draft.

The scenes are chronological in their own timelines, but the play itself leaps from one decade to another. All the characters except Lola and her lover Cory appear in more than one time zone. The actress that plays Cory also plays a character similar to Cory in the nineties scenes. So the play has seven actors. This means I'll be able to submit it to more contests and theaters. Most don't take stuff with more than seven actors. Someday I'll write a four character play. But not this year.

Things other than writing, just to catch you up...I got into "Company". I'm Susan, the Southern belle. We have 2 1/2 more weeks to put this puppy together. We've gotten through all the music and most of the choreography. Tonight we start blocking. I have all my lines learned (at least for my two big scenes). I really like being Susan. I have a REALLY high solo in one of the songs; that's my bogey.

Weight is down to 147.8. Happy with that! I like the way I look and I'm fit for the dance (no breathing hard for me). My goal of 140 by April Fool's Day may be a silly one. If I get to 145 that should be good enough. I'm good where I am.

So happiness and work, the kind of work I like to do. Auditions for CO are fast approaching. I'll write more about that later. Right now I'm going to check my email to see if I have a message about a particular job I applied for...(no need to talk about that right now; I don't want to jinx it.)

Yours in words.

The fruits of my labor

So I was on Facebook today and saw that a friend had tagged me in a comment. I go to the comment and what do I see but a publicity poster for Checking Out! It is really cool! I feel like a real live playwright now.

Kind of hard to think right now as I have an audition coming up in about an hour. It's for Company, being done by HDCP. The format of the audition is cool; we have to bring in a monologue and sing a song. I've done MANY auditions where a monologue was required. All my auditions at Michigan, my auditions for grad school, and my auditions for pro theaters here required monologues. This one had to be only 30-60 seconds long. I had a hard time finding one that short. I ended up putting one together from several smaller speeches in Jeffrey. It's a pretty crazy one.

My song is That'll Show Him from Forum. She wanted us to pick a Sondheim song. I've done it for auditions before and I worked with Kelly on it, so I feel pretty good about it. I think I'll go over it a few more times and then go.

I finished the first Act II scene and am into the first SB scene. Nice.

Breakthrough, kinda

I wrote a bit today! I'm planning to write more soon. Mom and I talked about the craft of writing, how I needed to do it every day. Dave says this in CO as well, that he works hard every day. We saw Hugo and it's all about working, that we are all part of a machine and there are no extra pieces. We all have a job to do. And my job is to write. So I've set the goal of working every day.

I decided it's too hard to make myself go to Interval every Monday. So I'm going to another class, an aerobics class, at Parkwood. I want to take a Pilates class there too and stick with the S and S. So that will be the three classes I will take next semester. I haven't run but I have done the Arc Trainer. My weight seems to have stabilized at 150, but I have set a goal of losing 10 pounds by April Fool's Day.

It is the Nurse who suggests the name of Konstantinos. That occurred to me this morning. Mornings are good epiphany times for me. I think that's why I sleep in so often. I do my best writing when I first wake up. There is a time after which it's just harder to write, about 8 or 9. Last night I wanted to write but it was too late.

This first Act II scene takes up about two pages so far. I want to write another two pages today, or at least one page. I'd like it to be a five-page scene. After this, I want to have the other siblings and Haemon arrive in SB. I see the stage as divided in half, lit to create two spaces. A designer can do a lot with light and sound. Set should be minimal, mostly chairs and tables. Tiresias can be in the middle or off to the side. Originally I envisioned her/him off to the side, but it might be more interesting to put him/her in the center, since s/he lies between the action.

Okay, time to get back to it.

Mired

The relationship is over. Sad. I have to keep creating, though. Dave in CO says nothing else matters when he is writing, that writing is his true love. I get that way sometimes.

However, I'm blocked as far as Monsters is concerned. I'm using Konstantinos but I haven't gotten any farther. I remember long periods when I didn't or couldn't work on CO so I may just need a break. Writing takes time. It's also hard to keep from languishing in FB and not trying to write. I don't do well with disciplined writing. It seems to either come or not. I should probably take time every day to at least try.

Workouts are going well. There's a new woman doing Strength and Stretch. I went Friday and had a good workout. Sunday I did the ArcTrainer and today I rode the bike. The SparkPeople program is great. I spent some time tonight looking through healthy recipes on the site. My eating has been not so great but I'm going to try to do better.

I'll be home for Thanksgiving and I'll try to eat healthy then. I'm making butternut squash from a recipe in the SparkPeople collection. I have just recently discovered butternut squash and I LOVE it. It's easy to make, too.

So, I'm having vegetable fried rice for dinner and trying to create later tonight. We'll see.