The podium was fixed for the performance tonight...almost. About halfway through the first act the sqeak returned, and with a vengeance this time! Oh man it was bad...it wasn't so bad when the orchestra was playing a pretty loud piece, but when a soft ballad was being sung, oh wow...it was bad. Just imagine a really rhythmic loud squeak to every single beat. It was distracting, but it almost made me giggle! LOL
During intermission a guy came down with some power tools and 2x4s and fixed it. I think it is fixed this time for good. It sure was a nuisance.
Oh man my chops are hurtin'! I don't know how my lips are gonna make it through 4 more shows...2 on Saturday! Ugh! I think they are swelling! I need to ice my lips! I could have sworn that after the last note tonight they were bleeding! LOL
The performance was sold out and it went very well. All is well. Except for my lips.
Thursday, August 07, 2003
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
The Pit
Hello Dolly had its first performance tonight. For those of you who don't know, I am a trumpet player and I am playing in the pit orchestra for this musical. It was an interesting experience tonight!
There were a couple of trouble spots that I was dreading getting to. I had practiced and practiced, but still not as confident as I would like to be on performance night. The first half of the show was superb! The orchestra sounded as good as you will get after only one rehearsal and two run-throughs with the cast. At one point, something really funny happened in the show and our conductor started laughing and almost couldn't regain composure! I was bumming that I couldn't see what was going on! We do have closed circuit tv down in the pit, but it wasn't working for the first half at all and actually, when I am playing the music, I can't really watch tv at the same time anyway. All I am able to get are the dialogue parts in between the music sections, which, since Hello Dolly is a musical, there are a lot of.
The second half, through it went well, we ran into some minor bumps along the way. I had to laugh at Donna, who is playing the second trumpet part, when she asked after finishing one song, "have we ever played that before? I don't remember rehearsing that!" LOLOL There is so much music to play that sometimes it can get to that point. It's like driving somewhere and you don't recall making all the turns to get there.
Then, while playing I started to hear this annoying squeaking sound. I couldn't exactly tell where it was coming from but it was loud and started to get distracting. The music changed to a slow dramatic ballad type piece and the squeaking was really not cool at all. I then noticed that the squeaks were simultaneous with the conductor's movements. The podium that he is standing on was built very tall because the pit is rather deep. I think it is at least 8 feet deep and in order for him to see what is going on on stage, he has to be up high. It is actually a difficult set up because it is hard to see him directing us because he is out of our line of sight over the music stands. Anyway, the podium is what started squeaking as he moved around. He tried not to move a lot, trying not to activate the squeaking, but you can't conduct and not move. It is virtually impossible. I hope they look into that because it was very distracting and I am sure the audience up front could hear it too.
When we got to the trouble spots I had practiced, I crashed. Drat! But...luckily there was a chance for me to redeem myself which I did! I nailed that puppy the second time! Woooohooooo! I have five more performanced to prove that I can do it! Oh yeah! I played better tonight than for any of the rehearsals, so that is good. Hopefully each night will get better and better.
Being in the pit I can't see what is going on in the audience, let alone what is on stage, but the people were laughing and seemed to really be enjoying the performance. I think it is possible that the show got a standing ovation because it sure was a hearty applause at the end. Many times throughout the show there was spontaneous applause at the end of some really spectacular scenes. It is fun to hear all that going on. I can't wait for tomorrow night now!
There were a couple of trouble spots that I was dreading getting to. I had practiced and practiced, but still not as confident as I would like to be on performance night. The first half of the show was superb! The orchestra sounded as good as you will get after only one rehearsal and two run-throughs with the cast. At one point, something really funny happened in the show and our conductor started laughing and almost couldn't regain composure! I was bumming that I couldn't see what was going on! We do have closed circuit tv down in the pit, but it wasn't working for the first half at all and actually, when I am playing the music, I can't really watch tv at the same time anyway. All I am able to get are the dialogue parts in between the music sections, which, since Hello Dolly is a musical, there are a lot of.
The second half, through it went well, we ran into some minor bumps along the way. I had to laugh at Donna, who is playing the second trumpet part, when she asked after finishing one song, "have we ever played that before? I don't remember rehearsing that!" LOLOL There is so much music to play that sometimes it can get to that point. It's like driving somewhere and you don't recall making all the turns to get there.
Then, while playing I started to hear this annoying squeaking sound. I couldn't exactly tell where it was coming from but it was loud and started to get distracting. The music changed to a slow dramatic ballad type piece and the squeaking was really not cool at all. I then noticed that the squeaks were simultaneous with the conductor's movements. The podium that he is standing on was built very tall because the pit is rather deep. I think it is at least 8 feet deep and in order for him to see what is going on on stage, he has to be up high. It is actually a difficult set up because it is hard to see him directing us because he is out of our line of sight over the music stands. Anyway, the podium is what started squeaking as he moved around. He tried not to move a lot, trying not to activate the squeaking, but you can't conduct and not move. It is virtually impossible. I hope they look into that because it was very distracting and I am sure the audience up front could hear it too.
When we got to the trouble spots I had practiced, I crashed. Drat! But...luckily there was a chance for me to redeem myself which I did! I nailed that puppy the second time! Woooohooooo! I have five more performanced to prove that I can do it! Oh yeah! I played better tonight than for any of the rehearsals, so that is good. Hopefully each night will get better and better.
Being in the pit I can't see what is going on in the audience, let alone what is on stage, but the people were laughing and seemed to really be enjoying the performance. I think it is possible that the show got a standing ovation because it sure was a hearty applause at the end. Many times throughout the show there was spontaneous applause at the end of some really spectacular scenes. It is fun to hear all that going on. I can't wait for tomorrow night now!
Quote of the Day
The Quote of the Day, as posted on ABC.com, concerning the Episcopal Church's recent decision, really summed up my thoughts.
Unfortunately, as Ganns pointed out in the comments, the quote changed. That explains why it is called "Today's Quote", and since it is tomorrow today, the quote I linked to changed. :-( Bummer.
I can not remember the quote verbatim, but to paraphrase, it was from another bishop in the Episcopal Church that opposed Robinson's appointment. He said that the fact that he (Robinson) is living outside the bounds of holy matrimony goes agains the tradition of the church and teaching of Holy Scripture. He asked God to have mercy.
Drat! It was such an awesome quote too! If anyone can find that thing, I'd love to see it again. I wish abc.com had a "Today's Quote" archive. That would be too simple.
Unfortunately, as Ganns pointed out in the comments, the quote changed. That explains why it is called "Today's Quote", and since it is tomorrow today, the quote I linked to changed. :-( Bummer.
I can not remember the quote verbatim, but to paraphrase, it was from another bishop in the Episcopal Church that opposed Robinson's appointment. He said that the fact that he (Robinson) is living outside the bounds of holy matrimony goes agains the tradition of the church and teaching of Holy Scripture. He asked God to have mercy.
Drat! It was such an awesome quote too! If anyone can find that thing, I'd love to see it again. I wish abc.com had a "Today's Quote" archive. That would be too simple.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Hello Dolly
Well, it figures. Hello Dolly opens tomorrow night and I have a zit...right on my lip! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Insanity
Does one who is going insane know that they are going insane?
Today, I had such a horrendous morning. I actually wondered if I were going insane because my mind is not able to handle much more these days.
I know that most of what I think about and "dwell on" (Katie says I dwell) is unnecessary, but how do you stop thinking about things? I am constantly thinking about everything I have to do at work. It is a lot. I am also thinking about the fact that I am probably the only one thinking about everything not getting done, when I really would like some of my management staff to carry some of the load. I feel so alone at work these days. I have a good staff, it is just weak in the management area right now with a lot of inexperience. Training is straining!
Well, my day started out with the copy machine at church not working properly. This frustrated me. I thought I didn't know how to get it to do what I wanted it to do (copy 2 sides to 2 sides) and I kept trying to figure it out. I wasted about 20 minutes trying different configurations and nothing was working. To normal person it is no big deal, but I am going insane, so this was very irritating. I was also running late and I hate late. It makes me insane too! Finally some church people arrived and I asked for help and discovered that it wasn't me, it was the machine, it is broken. I was able to make copies, I just had to use the feeder tray and go one by one. This is not a good thing for a very impatient person who was already 10 minutes late to work. It made me insane! But, I got the copies of the newsletter done and left for work.
Stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and got irritated at the drive thru. One of my pet peeves is when a person who is waiting for their order is asked to pull up. This happens to allow those behind that person to get their order and go on around the person waiting. My pet peeve is when the person who pulls up does not leave enough room to go around and then sits there oblivious as you carefully maneuver around them. I was getting very frustrated at the day already and I knew all of what needed to get done. I only stopped at McDonald's because I was so late anyway, 5 more minutes wasn't gonna hurt anything, but that woman in the car ahead of me was driving me insane!
So, I finally make it to work and proceed to print out the daily paperwork and reports. I was already irritated, and the printer decided to push me closer to the edge, and malfunctioned. It took me about 20 minutes to purge all the documents and "fix" the printer so I could start printing again. For some reason the pages wouldn't feed correctly and it would jam. This is the short story...I wasted a heck of a lot of time with that piece of equipment and really wanted to rip it off of its perch on the desk and slam it down to the ground in a bazillion pieces! I was so ticked! I don't have the time to mess with that kind of stuff! I was talking to myself! I was yelling at the printer! It didn't respond! THAT MADE ME EVEN MORE ANGRY! This sure sounds dumb to blog. That's where I started wondering if I were insane.
My brain felt like it was going to explode. I was talking to myself. I was so on edge. It was as if satan was hitting me with small arrows, but LOTS of them. Everything was going wrong. It was like that Alanis Morissette song from years back "Ironic" (yes, I know it was the wrong use of the term ironic) but the song was about how everything seems to go wrong..."no smoking sign on your cigarette break", "rain on your wedding day", "free ride when you've already paid"...that kind of stuff. That was my morning. Thing is I have a lot of those mornings/days. When I was talking to myself I started telling satan, "you are not going to break me", but then I would say to myself "ummmmmmmm, I think he has!" and I would say "NO!" and then "Sue, you are talking to yourself. You better hope no employee shows up early to work, you may be committed." Then I sat in the chair that I had pulled up to the stupid printer so I could feed the paper through by hand and just sat there with my head in my hands. I sat quiet. I was screaming inside. I could feel my heart beating in the veins in my head.
I tried to calm down. I knew that I needed God to help me with my burdens. With my stress. I just didn't know how to give it to Him and to be honest, I was upset with Him. I even asked why He was allowing all this stuff in my life to go on? What was His point? What is He trying to teach me. This is not just about broken copy machines and printers. There's more stress than that....staffing issues, financial issues, framily issues, nothing is serious in and of itself, but all put together, it weighs a ton!
It was about 20 minutes until the store was to open. I decided to sit at my desk and pray. And listen. Tears came. I want my heart right and I don't know what to do.
It was time to open the store and I was feeling better. Then, I opened the store and my employee who was scheduled to be there was not. I immediately was very irritated by that and just about all the comfort I gained in my prayer time went right out the window. I am sick and tired of working understaffed with the labor hours I am allowed, and when someone doesn't show up on time, it really really really gets me upset. It makes me insane! Also, I plan to work on certain projects, some of which are time-sensitive and when someone is late or doesn't come in, it throws off the plan. I hate that! It was just another thing piled on top of my giant irritating mountain of annoyance! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
So, I am looking forward to my vacation. I am hoping that time away from my store and time spent at home in Ohio will do me good. I do need time away. I don't want to be insane. It scares me.
Other than that, which all happened before noon, the day went well. Made sales goal. My new hires are doing well. I had Potato Buds for dinner even though Katie protested "That's all you are having for dinner? Fake smashed tators?" Is that a sign of insanity?
Today, I had such a horrendous morning. I actually wondered if I were going insane because my mind is not able to handle much more these days.
I know that most of what I think about and "dwell on" (Katie says I dwell) is unnecessary, but how do you stop thinking about things? I am constantly thinking about everything I have to do at work. It is a lot. I am also thinking about the fact that I am probably the only one thinking about everything not getting done, when I really would like some of my management staff to carry some of the load. I feel so alone at work these days. I have a good staff, it is just weak in the management area right now with a lot of inexperience. Training is straining!
Well, my day started out with the copy machine at church not working properly. This frustrated me. I thought I didn't know how to get it to do what I wanted it to do (copy 2 sides to 2 sides) and I kept trying to figure it out. I wasted about 20 minutes trying different configurations and nothing was working. To normal person it is no big deal, but I am going insane, so this was very irritating. I was also running late and I hate late. It makes me insane too! Finally some church people arrived and I asked for help and discovered that it wasn't me, it was the machine, it is broken. I was able to make copies, I just had to use the feeder tray and go one by one. This is not a good thing for a very impatient person who was already 10 minutes late to work. It made me insane! But, I got the copies of the newsletter done and left for work.
Stopped at McDonald's for breakfast and got irritated at the drive thru. One of my pet peeves is when a person who is waiting for their order is asked to pull up. This happens to allow those behind that person to get their order and go on around the person waiting. My pet peeve is when the person who pulls up does not leave enough room to go around and then sits there oblivious as you carefully maneuver around them. I was getting very frustrated at the day already and I knew all of what needed to get done. I only stopped at McDonald's because I was so late anyway, 5 more minutes wasn't gonna hurt anything, but that woman in the car ahead of me was driving me insane!
So, I finally make it to work and proceed to print out the daily paperwork and reports. I was already irritated, and the printer decided to push me closer to the edge, and malfunctioned. It took me about 20 minutes to purge all the documents and "fix" the printer so I could start printing again. For some reason the pages wouldn't feed correctly and it would jam. This is the short story...I wasted a heck of a lot of time with that piece of equipment and really wanted to rip it off of its perch on the desk and slam it down to the ground in a bazillion pieces! I was so ticked! I don't have the time to mess with that kind of stuff! I was talking to myself! I was yelling at the printer! It didn't respond! THAT MADE ME EVEN MORE ANGRY! This sure sounds dumb to blog. That's where I started wondering if I were insane.
My brain felt like it was going to explode. I was talking to myself. I was so on edge. It was as if satan was hitting me with small arrows, but LOTS of them. Everything was going wrong. It was like that Alanis Morissette song from years back "Ironic" (yes, I know it was the wrong use of the term ironic) but the song was about how everything seems to go wrong..."no smoking sign on your cigarette break", "rain on your wedding day", "free ride when you've already paid"...that kind of stuff. That was my morning. Thing is I have a lot of those mornings/days. When I was talking to myself I started telling satan, "you are not going to break me", but then I would say to myself "ummmmmmmm, I think he has!" and I would say "NO!" and then "Sue, you are talking to yourself. You better hope no employee shows up early to work, you may be committed." Then I sat in the chair that I had pulled up to the stupid printer so I could feed the paper through by hand and just sat there with my head in my hands. I sat quiet. I was screaming inside. I could feel my heart beating in the veins in my head.
I tried to calm down. I knew that I needed God to help me with my burdens. With my stress. I just didn't know how to give it to Him and to be honest, I was upset with Him. I even asked why He was allowing all this stuff in my life to go on? What was His point? What is He trying to teach me. This is not just about broken copy machines and printers. There's more stress than that....staffing issues, financial issues, framily issues, nothing is serious in and of itself, but all put together, it weighs a ton!
It was about 20 minutes until the store was to open. I decided to sit at my desk and pray. And listen. Tears came. I want my heart right and I don't know what to do.
It was time to open the store and I was feeling better. Then, I opened the store and my employee who was scheduled to be there was not. I immediately was very irritated by that and just about all the comfort I gained in my prayer time went right out the window. I am sick and tired of working understaffed with the labor hours I am allowed, and when someone doesn't show up on time, it really really really gets me upset. It makes me insane! Also, I plan to work on certain projects, some of which are time-sensitive and when someone is late or doesn't come in, it throws off the plan. I hate that! It was just another thing piled on top of my giant irritating mountain of annoyance! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
So, I am looking forward to my vacation. I am hoping that time away from my store and time spent at home in Ohio will do me good. I do need time away. I don't want to be insane. It scares me.
Other than that, which all happened before noon, the day went well. Made sales goal. My new hires are doing well. I had Potato Buds for dinner even though Katie protested "That's all you are having for dinner? Fake smashed tators?" Is that a sign of insanity?
Friday, August 01, 2003
Earthly Cousin, Heavenly Sister
I just finished having a conversation with a long lost cousin. We have never been really close in the past but recently we both discovered that each of us is a Christian. Now, I am not talking about somebody who said a prayer, goes to church and lives holy holy on Sunday and helly helly on Monday thru Saturday. I'm talking about a sister in Christ who dies to herself daily... moment by moment. She is such an inspiration to me. She has this insatiable hunger for the Word of God and feeds daily on the Truth of His Word. She focuses her heart on hearing His voice. She told me about how God placed a conviction on her heart because she gave credit to a woman for the tribe (seven children) she created. The conviction was a still, small Voice that said...."No, I am the Creator". I am so touched.
My cousin, Kathleen is coming to visit in December and I can't wait! It is so nice to know that somebody in my Earthly family is on fire for our Lord. Heck she's not even insane! (I don't think.) I am amazed at how relationships change when God is the foundation. My Earthly cousin is five years born again! She is adopted by my Father and we are now sisters in Christ......that's what it's all about my fellow bloggers! We are family! I got all my sisters (and brothers) in me! Wooohooo! I pray that God will use us to strengthen and encourage one another towards the goal.....Christlikeness. I want to be more like Jesus.
My cousin, Kathleen is coming to visit in December and I can't wait! It is so nice to know that somebody in my Earthly family is on fire for our Lord. Heck she's not even insane! (I don't think.) I am amazed at how relationships change when God is the foundation. My Earthly cousin is five years born again! She is adopted by my Father and we are now sisters in Christ......that's what it's all about my fellow bloggers! We are family! I got all my sisters (and brothers) in me! Wooohooo! I pray that God will use us to strengthen and encourage one another towards the goal.....Christlikeness. I want to be more like Jesus.
The Friday Five
The Friday Five
1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings? Normally, if I haven't been working way too much, I will wake up around 8 or 8:30 on my days off or on the days I don't go in until noon. When I work, I get up around 6:30 am.
2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late? Not usually because I usually work Saturdays and if I have Sundays off I get up for church around 7:30-7:45 am. Sleeping in for me is usually 8:00 am. That is how I determined that I got old!
3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning? Head to the bathroom! Then turn on the computer and let the dogs out.
4. How long does it take to get ready for your day? about 30 minutes
5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast? Cathey's Restaurant in Trenton! Matter of fact we are going this morning! Woooohooooo! It's a small town family type restaurant, and the best waitress in the world, Faye, works there and we are such regulars, that the cook starts making my shredded hashbrowns as soon as we walk in!
1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings? Normally, if I haven't been working way too much, I will wake up around 8 or 8:30 on my days off or on the days I don't go in until noon. When I work, I get up around 6:30 am.
2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late? Not usually because I usually work Saturdays and if I have Sundays off I get up for church around 7:30-7:45 am. Sleeping in for me is usually 8:00 am. That is how I determined that I got old!
3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning? Head to the bathroom! Then turn on the computer and let the dogs out.
4. How long does it take to get ready for your day? about 30 minutes
5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast? Cathey's Restaurant in Trenton! Matter of fact we are going this morning! Woooohooooo! It's a small town family type restaurant, and the best waitress in the world, Faye, works there and we are such regulars, that the cook starts making my shredded hashbrowns as soon as we walk in!
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