Look around

(Jeannette took me to see Hamilton!!)

I keep thinking back on Hamilton, and remembering how even when I was watching it, how sharply aware I was of it as a fleeting moment.

Also, while watching, I kept imagining Isaac watching it and wondering what he would think of those silly musical theater tropes (someone swoops in with a chair, sits on it, pretends to talk to another actor, dances off, the other actor twirls away with the chair...) I mean, I love them, but what would he think?

Come to think of it, 21 year old Isaac might scoff a bit, but nine or ten year old Isaac (I can't believe I'm not remembering specifically how old he was) was a superstar on the stage in Oliver! Singing, dancing, the whole nine yards. He really was great, in a role as one of the pickpockets with one line that got laughs, as I (his proud mother) recall. That was an era of Cockney accents and little tweed vests and hats and urchin shoes around here. Not just Isaac, but Zoë and a few of their best friends too.

They were urchins for Halloween that year.

A bunch of pickpockets.

Don't tell Isaac (right) I said that he is still this adorable.

The guy who played Fagin HATED the kids who played the pickpockets. They cast so many of them, so there were hordes of rascally children running around the theater all the time, and more than once Fagin had strong words, mainly directed to their MOTHERS specifically.

So, actually, that kid has some experience with twirling around with props and posing stage left, etc.

Also, Hamilton was just amazing. It totally lived up to my expectations. I feel like I had one item on my life list (I will not call it a Bucket List because it's against my religion to use that phrase), and now it's neatly crossed out. Not to say I wouldn't love to see it again.

days

location scouting in bayside.

lulu's long lost cousin?

waiting for godot in deering oaks (he never showed up. at least i don't think he did).

a date with mark at red's. we split a peanut butter cup nor'easter.

did i mention it got really hot and everyone freaked out? and then it was over, since we live in maine and these things never last very long?

every day: procrastinating, reading books, watching treme, eating popsicles and drinking iced coffee and going for walks and burning things in the back yard. avoiding vacuuming up tumbleweed dog hair and doing laundry and cleaning the bathroom and working quite as many hours as i should.

home

my home. i'm not sure what it is about this image (seen here as sticker art on the maine state pier), but it makes me want to get a maine-shaped tattoo. and it's pretty popular on tumblr today.

oh, friday night lights. i loved you so. and after hearing this fresh air interview with kyle chandler, i love him too. even more than before, that is.

it's hot, and i have NO COMPLAINTS. though i should have made three times more iced coffee than i did last night.

i want my yard to look like this place.

i have been reading gay classics and maine classics and a fabulous japanese mystery. piles of books from the library. if only i had one of these i'd never get anything accomplished.

words, words, words. i seem to have a problem turning nouns into gerunds and not noticing i've done it. gerunding.

zoë and mark and i are planning to wait for godot in deering oaks tonight. care to join us?

friday the thirteenth

unlucky, or lucky? consider the following:

*zoë's bike got tuned up and rode like a dream.

*i came upon a human person sprawled on the bathroom floor in the portland public library, surrounded by bloody cotton balls and drug paraphernalia.

*my dad came to visit and we went to see twelfth night (it was my third time).

*there was a horrible-looking accident at the corner of park and state, right down by deering oaks, that involved two cars and a tree.

*zoë got a new job at a place that's closer to home, pays more, and is less of a fast food black hole than her current place of employment.



so. friday the thirteenth: lucky for zoë, unlucky for unknown strangers?

an improbable fiction

despite my baseline "hot and cranky" status, it turned out to be a pretty great day. i have my team of melissas to thank for that, actually; the dancer inspired me to get up and get going in the morning by meeting me at north star for coffee (mine was iced) and a walk. then later i had an exclusive tea party with my other favorite melissa at her lovely new apartment (which is magically only an eleven minute walk from my house). i am still thinking about her jasmine iced tea now, seven hours later. and finally, the dancer and i met up again this evening to see the fenix theatre company's production of twelfth night at the deering oaks wading pool. it was so incredibly funny. i think i may try to go back and see it again on saturday night.

weekend

here's how cultured i was this weekend:

saturday night i went to the maine short play festival with the dancer. some of the plays were good. some were...not. there was one which shall remain nameless that was so painfully not good that i couldn't even look at the stage for a long while. dancer was shaking with silent laughter beside me and i knew i was dangerously close to breaking into uncontrollable giggles. i'm afraid that if you wanted to know exactly what was so painfully bad about it, dancer and i would have to act it out for you.

this afternoon i drove bean and a schoolmate to merrill auditorium to see spirit of uganda, a wonderful music and dance performance by ugandan kids and teenagers. the audience was wildly enthusiastic -- there were a lot of african students there, including a bunch from bean's school.

when we got home, bean and i joined m and boo to watch the final five minutes of the kansas-davidson game. anyone who knows our family knows we're not sports fans. by any stretch of the imagination. but we have a weak spot for kansas basketball (at least m and i do -- boo and bean pretty much just humor us). woo-hoo, k.u. won!!