Birthday Girl*

It has been one hell of a week. Aside from just having rehearsals, we started doing run-throughs. That’s exhausting enough, but because everything is still a bit rough and uncoordinated, they take longer than the show actually runs. So we haven’t been getting out until after 9 PM. By the time I get home, it’s at least 9:30. I’ve also been planning Pippa’s first birthday party so I was running around like a mad woman to get everything clean and decorated and set up. Needless to say, I’m very glad that the week is over.

Pippa’s party was yesterday and after being woken up Friday morning shortly after 4 AM with a National Weather Service blizzard warning, I was more than a little worried that we’d have to cancel. And since I already had plans for today, it would have meant all that prep for nothing and no party but me and Pippa. In the end, however, we got barely more than a dusting of snow, though the wind was nasty. Cassie and Tim came and so did Kellie, Laila, and Ryan. Alan even got out of WLC early and was home before everyone left. I think it went pretty well overall.

I am pissed at Charlee. When I invited her, she said that she’d love to come and that while she and Kelby might be doing something later for their anniversary, the afternoon should be free. Well, when it was 12:30 and she wasn’t here, I texted her to see if she was still coming. She texts me back an hour later saying she just got out of her math midterm. Seriously? She would have known a couple weeks ahead of time if she had a midterm scheduled. So she’s either lying about the midterm or she deliberately blew me off. I really wish they weren’t going to Lewis too.

Now my current stress is trying to find someone to watch Pippa this coming week during the overlap of my rehearsal and Alan’s class. Cast call this week is 5 or 5:30 and Alan generally doesn’t get out until between 5:15 and 5:45. We’re doing dress rehearsals so we have to behave as if it were a show. That means not a lot of hanging out with babies, although our director Aaron really loves Pippa. He even gave her his Princess of Snow badge from the UCPPE Winter Cotillion (he’s a drag queen named Valicityphenox Dubua). Right now I’ve messaged Kellie to see if I can drop Pippa off with her for a couple hours. I hate to bother her when she has Laila, but I’m getting crazy here.

The show is coming together nicely. We’re still a little rough around the edges, but it’s a fun show. Aaron ended up firing the sound guy because as far as I can tell, he got pissy when Aaron brought in another sound guy to help who actually had experience using the program that we needed. Then he fucked up the sound board and his wife is being nasty on the theater’s Facebook page.

My other stress this past week was Pippa’s one-year check-up. She’s been coming down with a cold so she’s had chest congestion. She’s had it before during check-ups. The first time the doctor said it was swollen adenoids. The second time it was post-nasal drip causing congestion. Now it’s "wheezing." Did I mention that it was the same doctor every time? And he’s asking about possible asthma. He was just really abrupt and unpleasant. I’ve never had a problem with him previously, but other people have and now I understand why they complain. A fellow cast member actually switched doctors for her kids because of him. So I’m planning the same thing and asked for a referral for a second opinion. He prescribed her a nebulizer with albuterol. I was concerned about giving her a bronchodilator when she’s only congested but the ladies on my birth board say it will help with congestion as well. We have a follow-up on Friday to see if the nebulizer helps, but she puts up a fuss every time so I don’t know how much it will help. He also wouldn’t let us do her vaccinations because of the "wheezing" (that sounds nothing like wheezing), which the nurse thought was nuts because she didn’t have a fever. And the fact is that she’ll probably be worse on Friday. Whenever she gets a cold, she gets this chest congestion for a little while, then the cold hits her hard for a couple days, and then it all goes away. So Friday will most likely be the worst day of the cold.

I also think the nebulizer is making her feel a little sick. Her appetite’s been a bit off and that’s never happened before except for when her first molar was coming in.

Today I have to go to a castmate’s house to learn the choreography for the Irish dance scene at the end of the show. Hopefully once I’m done with that and once I find a sitter for Pippa, my stress levels will come back to an acceptable level considering that we open on Friday. One reassurance is that we never get notes… by "we" I mean the girls of the Greek chorus. We all tend to be the "fake it till you make it" types so we don’t have a problem bouncing around stage being sorority girls and going over the top with our performances. Some of the other cast members, particularly the men, are quite a bit more reserved. I hope they get over it.

Anyway, fingers are crossed on a number of subjects.

~Liz

*Edit to show up in Bookmarks. 😛