helter skelter in a summer swelter

So Saturday’s rehearsal was with the soloists. Jum wasn’t all that bad, but there was someone singing in his ear then. It was also clearly obvious that he didn’t know the music at all. But Sunday was us alone first and then the whole show. Jim was still clueless but he was starting to do those little things that annoy me. But back to Saturday after rehearsal. I have given Justin a ride to rehearsal and DeDra had called, wanting to go out. She lives basically en route to my house from rehearsal. Justin wanted to go home (my home) to get his car. She and I convinced him to come out with us for a little while instead. We ended up going to the town block party. It wasn’t that bad, but not something you stay at for hours at a time. We ran into Mr. Phillips and a girl I used to work with. It was great to see Phillips. He was such a great teacher and he retired in June. It really was great to see him. He asked about Manny, cause Manny is the son Phillip’s never wanted (Manny’s line, not mine). After spotting more than ten people I knew and didn’t want to see we decided to leave. The party was winding down anyways. We did a little musicial cars so Justin could go home. DeDra and I went to Lily Logans. It was nice, complete with an Irish bartender. I know they are hardcore Irish over there – they constantly paint shamrocks on the street – but I’m not sure on their feelings about Scots. I’m not sure I want to find out either. For a Saturday night it was fairly empty but there was a creepy guy who was hitting on us. No bar experience is complete unless you’re hit on by a creepy guy. But it was still nice for a few beers.

Sunday morning I realized how late we had stayed out. I was playing in church with Bob and I had to be there at 8:30am. It was early and I was so tired. I was going to go home after church and take a short nap before rehearsal, but that didn’t happen. I ran into Marie who was home for a few days and we decided to go out to brekfast together. It was really nice to spend an hour catching up on different things with her. But if did rob me of that hour nap. Sierra was then running late from work, which made both of us late getting to rehearsal. That wasn’t such a big deal because Jim was really starting to wear on my last nerves. Sunday’s rehearsal actually ended on time which was a nice surprise.

Monday was our night off. Grace was still out, so I had to do all of her duties. I had told Val I couldn’t stay late this week, so Sharon had to stay. As a compromise, I came in early Tues and Weds. But I forgot how much all that running around makes me so tired. Grace had been out since Weds last week and when you add the long late-night rehearsals to that, it makes for a very long week. Work isn’t bad. I’m counting down the days. But having to spend two days not doing my work because I have to do Grace’s work makes me nuts. I don’t want to leave with projects half finished, but there isn’t going to be time to finish them. My biggest concern is the tickler letters. They haven’t been done in so long and the database is so messy, there is no working procedure for how to do things like this. My concern is that I’ve been kind of just doing things off the cuff with this project so far. Basically I’m making it up as I go along. Which is fine for me because I know what I’m doing and whats going on. But I’m trying to figure out a way to pass the information along to the next person who is going to be finishing the project. I don’t have a prodecure written out for this yet. And I know on some level, I should just say, “Its not my problem.” But I can’t. I don’t want to leave a mess behind me that someone will have to sort and clean. I’ve done that for others and its not fair. So I’m feeling the work stress.

Tuesday was bad. I came in at 8:30 no problem. DeDra and I were going to go out Monday, but we didn’t. Grace was suppose to be back but Val didn’t know for sure at 8:30 if she’d be in or not. I figured no news was good news. Grace called at 9:10 and spoke with Val. I saw Val shortly after that and she didn’t mention anything about Grace. So I assumned Grace was coming in. Sharon came in at 9:30 and I went to my desk and started working on my mess. At one point I thought I heard Grace’s voice. But when Sharon called me at 11, I knew I must have been hearing things. No one had done the mail and LK was climbing the walls looking for the checks that come in the mail. SED also was starting his whining. Of course this was my fault to them. Why didn’t I do the mail if Grace wasn’t here? Evidently the fact that I didn’t know she wasn’t in was irrelevant. How could I now know? Maybe because I was working!!! I’ll amit I don’t like doing the mail. But I’ll do it when asked. The big thing there is when I’m asked. There are plenty of thigns I do around here without being asked and generally speaking, I don’t mind. But when I don’t even know about something that needs to be done, don’t blame me for it not getting done. And people wonder why I have guilt issues.

So finally after a million errands, I left work. Justin and I went to rehearsal. Now the real fun of the day begins. Marty Purdy had called Monday and told me how well I was doing. She said Jim is an arrogant egotistical creep who always needs to have the last word. But Marty said she sees him respecting me more than she’s seen him ever respect anyone before. Unfortunately he’s still an arrogant egotistical creep. I’m not going to list all the injustices and annoyances but there are a few that really smoked me.

He’s big on “Follow me! Follow me! Ignore the singers and follow me.” One of Meghan’s solos is slightly faster, but only slightly. In rehearsal, he took off like a bat out of hell. I decided to swallow it and follow him. Poor Meghan lookeds at me with this horrified look and then saw my face. Amazing kid, she pulled off the line before stopping and asking him to play it slower. Jim had the fucking audacity to look at me like it was my fault. I just said “I was following you, but that was obviously wrong.” He just muttered and scribbled something down on his music. Thankfully Meghan could see I wasn’t doing it to mess her up, but rather to Jim. I swear, that man. And then he had the gall to say at least we were together! Asshole, sure but no one would have understood what Meghan was saying. The second time was thankfully without singers, although the characters were acting on stage. Jim has a lack of a down beat or any beat for that matter. There was a transition and I tried to follow his maniacal waving but it was totally off. We stopped and he asked me what I was doing. I told him I was attempting to follow him but his beat was impossible to see. He just told me it should be slower. He makes me so mad!! I knew it should have been slower but when you’re waving your arms like a madman, I have no idea where your stupid fucking beat is. How am I suppose to follow when he has no beat. I swear, I’m going to ignore him during the show. For rehearsals, I’ll attempt to work with him and keep things together within the pit. But opening night, I am an accompanist, not some floozie in your jazz band. And this is NOT A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. We are a pit orchestra, an enhanced accompanist. We follow the singers and take our lead from them. I don’t know why he seems to th