Disintegrated

So "Arabian Nights" fell spectacularly apart. Julianne dropped out, leaving us not only without a Perfect Love, but without a choreographer. Kevin and Frank said that her reason was that she wasn’t comfortable with the dialogue. She’s only 18, just graduated high school and some of it is VERY sexual, including a fairly lengthy list of euphemisms for vagina. Seriously. My initial reaction was that it’s not like the dialogue was a surprise since she was one of the first people cast. And why did her discomfort with the role mean that she had to stop doing the choreography for our bellydancers?

Well… Kevin wasn’t exactly telling the whole truth. Julianne had talked to Danielle about the script when she first agreed to take the part. And when Danielle had to quit, she talked to Kevin about the changes she and Danielle had talked about. All Kevin could do was whine about how Danielle hadn’t given him her notes when she left. And that’s not Julianne telling me that – I heard Kevin say exactly that more than once, including in reference to Julianne’s departure. What he never said is whether he even tried to contact to Danielle to get those notes. I have a hard time believing that he ever called her.

So while I’m still a bit miffed at Julianne for being the last bucket of water in our floundering little raft, Kevin was the bigger issue. I honestly can’t blame her, no matter how annoyed I might be for sinking time and money into a show that never happened. I thought about giving up more than once too. And if they couldn’t respect her limits when she was clear about them from the beginning, then I think she was justified in stepping away from the whole situation.

The theater does already have the rights to produce "Little Shop of Horrors," and they’re starting right away. It should draw a larger, more varied group being a well-known and fun musical. I wish I could be in it myself! And I’m definitely curious as to how they’re going to build and operate Audrey II.

Unfortunately, it might be the last show the group does. They’ve been having a very hard time dealing with the MWR and the solution they were given to solve the problems has caused even more problems, particularly with getting the money released from MWR funds that we made during "Legally Blonde." It’s a huge fucking mess is what it is. I wash my hands of it. I’m going to watch the auditions tomorrow night and hopefully do a bit of shameless begging to get people to help backstage and with sets and costumes, but otherwise I’m done. There’s some community theater in Olympia, so I may very well try my hand and talents over there when we get settled.

The move is coming up very fast. Someone from the moving company came through to do a walk-through this afternoon to get an idea of how much weight we’ll be shipping with them. We still have to get the trailer hitch installed on our car and arrange the rental with U-Haul. Alan is going to try to get us into the temporary lodging that takes pets, so we need to get the cats to the vet for their shots. At some point I also need to make a list of what’s going with us so that we can put it all in Pippa’s room while the movers are packing everything up.

My dad is coming for a visit this week. I talked to him the other day and he asked me how he should approach Pippa so that she’s not upset by him. My response was to smile and say hi. She’s really just that friendly. She doesn’t have any magic tricks to make her like you. She loves everybody and I’ve never seen her discomfited by anyone for more than a few minutes.

Missy Moo has been showing a lot of interest in the potty lately, so we bought a ring seat to go over the toilet seat and have been letting her sit on the potty whenever we change her diaper. She’s much less ornery about diaper changes when she gets to sit on the potty. She even peed in the toilet after nap yesterday. I know, I know… it’s such a "mom" thing to be excited about. I wasn’t sure if I should forge ahead with full-on toilet training with the move approaching, but after some thought and outside advice, I’ve decided to just keep doing what we’re doing for the time being and wait until we get settled in Washington before we actually pursue it.

She’s turning into such a big girl, such a little lady sometimes, it’s hard to believe how tiny she used to be. I’m definitely having baby fever. I really hope it doesn’t take too long to get pregnant. I’ve decided not to go off my lamotrigine this time around. My dose has always been on the low side and it’s apparently one of the safest options during pregnancy. Doing some research on it, it’s entirely manageable, though I may need to have more regular ultrasounds. Lamotrigine lowers the levels of folic acid in your blood as it is, so that’s where the primary risk during pregnancy comes in. Low folate can be responsible for neural tube defects and malformations like cleft palate and cleft lip. So in addition to a multivitamin, I’m taking folic acid. I should also eat more dark leafy greens.

Anyway, I’m off to finish "Goblet of Fire." I’ve been on a Harry Potter kick. Funny little side note. I always read in bed and until May, Pippa slept right next to me. Now when I close her door and say goodnight, she goes and gets books to read in bed. By the time she falls asleep, she’s got them scattered all over the bed, including tucked down under her blankets. Like mother, like daughter.

~Liz