My sister is here for a visit this weekend, with Tiny Nephew and Slightly-Larger Nephew. It’s excellent to have them here. CC and all the kids are thrilled because they haven’t met Tiny Nephew before, and we don’t get to see most of my family more than once a year, tops. I’m happy to report that Tiny Nephew still has itty bitty feet.
The Puggle and the Fuggle are fascinated by the sounds Tiny Nephew makes. They like that he’s small, and smells like milk and poop. They’ve found a kindred spirit.
CC and I both had to work two shows yesterday right after they got here, but my sister kept me updated with pictures. This is the one that broke my heart:
The clown, the baby of our family, bacon-crazed, never-serious #5, with Tiny Nephew, sitting up straight, being responsible, resting his hand on the baby’s belly. I showed it to someone at work and she asked, “When did he grow up?” and I said, “Apparently, right then, when he had someone to be older than.”
Yes, they keep asking for a baby. No, we’re not going to have one.
***********************
CC and I have a party to go tonight for his work.
We both have pretty cool jobs. Speaking for myself only, the fact that I have this job is proof of some benevolent force working in the universe because if I had the job I deserve, it would likely involve cleaning up after an exploding whale.
Last night a man came up to me at the end of the show and insisted that my main speakers hadn’t been on all night. He had an English accent so he already sounded smarter than me. I told him I’d check it out, but I think he was looking for a different answer, because he wouldn’t leave.
English dude: You must believe me. I’ve seen it three times. Your speakers weren’t on.
Me:
Because really, I’ve got nothing for that. Nothing at all.
The Tony awards, the reason for tonight’s party, don’t mean much to anyone except to the people that work in theater. Okay, let’s be honest: Theater doesn’t mean much to anyone, unless they work in theater. There is a small and mighty cross section of die-hard fans across the globe, small being the key word.
When CC was touring with Phantom in the 80’s, the crew once exchanged house seats for tickets to a Space Shuttle Launch. That’s badass. By the time I got on the road, it didn’t matter how big or high-profile the show was, nobody had heard of it.
I toured with Aida (the musical written by Elton John and Tim Rice) and largely, if people recognized the name, they thought it was the opera (by Verdi). If they saw the commercial, they thought it was about interracial love.
*sigh*
Loading out the Hairspray tour in Providence, sun coming up near the end of a twenty-two hour work day, a minivan pulls into the alley and flags me down.
Me: Yes?
Woman in Van: Are you with the Wiggles?
*sigh*
It ain’t rock’n’roll, that’s for sure. But once a year we get a shot on prime time TV. Broadway has some ridiculously talented people and you should tune in tonight, CBS at 8pm EST, and check some of them out. You won’t get to see the stagehands though, unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong.
CC’s show is up for practically every award tonight. I’m stupidly excited for them.
The first Tony for Sound Design was given in 2008. My two very favorite sound designers are up for the award tonight, my designer (Steve Kennedy) and CC’s (Brian Ronan). I have a million people to be grateful for, but I am deeply, deeply indebted to these two men. Without them, all this would have been a very different story.
**************************
Last night I dreamt of zombies. It was one of those dreams where you look around and you gradually see that the situation is worse than you first thought, and you realize that you’re the only one who knows it, and you keep looking around and all of these very normal seeming people are actually all zombies and they get more and more zombie looking and therefore more dangerous every second, and one, who had been holding my hand was suddenly grabbing my wrist and he twitched and I recognized him for what he was and started punching the crap out of him.
CC, springing straight up in bed: Jesus Christ!! WHY ARE YOU PUNCHING ME?
Me: ZOMBIE! ZOMBIE!!!!
CC: STOP PUNCHING ME!
Me: I HAVE TO, YOU’RE A ZOMBIE!!!
CC: STOP! I’M NOT A ZOMBIE! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?
Me:
Because I had nothing for that, either.
And now, I have to go see if I fit into any of my party dresses.
Tell me about your blessings, theater opinions, or zombie experiences.
JM Randolph, accidentalstepmom 
My blessings are my granddaughters, who are unfortunately away for the summer. It leaves a hole in my heart. I love the theater. I don’t get to go as much to New York as I did when I lived upstate so I have to settle for the touring companies that come to San Antonio. The last show we saw was “Wicked.”
Wicked is a great show. I took #2 and #3 to see it for Christmas a couple years ago. I have fond memories of playing San Antonio.
I want to have a pithy comment but I’m laughing too hard at the zombies…
Some people make that mistake, laughing at zombies.
My husband once knocked over a glass of water on his bedside table while reaching for a football pass taking place in his dream but I don’t remember either of us attacking one another because of a dream. Good thing CC is forgiving.
Saw The Motherf**ker With the Hat last night and it was excellent. I’ll definitely be rooting for it tonight. Will be rooting for Mormon as well even though many wins will mean that I will have to wait a very long time or sell a valuable, needed organ to be able to afford a ticket.
That’s pretty funny. As long as the water didn’t spill on you.
Not sure why my above comment says awaiting moderation. There will be no moderating. It is what it is.
I was going to edit your line “sell a valuable, needed organ” to read “give you my life’s savings” but I liked the way you said it, and I can’t actually get you tickets.
I am one member of that small group who adores theater, and I would love to go to the Tonys one day. Congrats to both of your “bosses,” and I hope you all have a wonderful time….and steer clear of zombies!!!
Thanks! We have remained free and clear of zombies for a few days now.
I have too many blessings to type about, but one of them, which I thought of after reading Older Eyes’ most recent post and seeing your picture of the Baconater with Tiny Nephew, was the chance to help feed my twin nephs in the wee hours when they, too, were wee. I felt like whichever Wee One I was feeding and I were the only two people in the world in those moments. We do the bonding.
My theater opinions are varied; I don’t know shows like I should, and I tend to tune in more to musicals than plays. I did just see “Follies” with Ms. Bernadette Peters while I was in DC. I was with my playwright friend who is a Sondheim freak, and what I didn’t know, he educated me on. Also, your info that CC’s show is up for like every award leads me to wonder if he’s working on “The Book of Mormon,” which I’d love to see. And when you referenced “Phantom,” did you mean the Webber or the Kopit & Yeston? (I sorta like the Kopit & Yeston better, despite the fact that “You Are My Own” is kind of stupid – “Oh, of course I forgive you for hiding me away for my entire life because I’m hideous and never telling me you’re my dad until now. The music makes all of my horrible suffering worth it!” Yak.)
One last offering: I hate Rodgers & Hammerstein, except for “Carousel,” which I saw on Broadway when Audra Ann McDonald was still doing actual theater and played Carrie Snow… and when I was in ‘The Sound of Music” my senior year of high school, I mentally wrote a Monty Python version of the show, which I called “Mutiny In the Abbey.”
Good luck, CC, and have fun at the party and with the nephews!
You know more about theater than I do. I mostly only see things I’m working on. Bernadette is badass, BTW. It was the Webber Phantom. I would dearly, dearly love a Monty Python version of Sound of Music. I would pay to see that.
Love your memory of your wee nephews!
My hubby wakes screeching with zombie dreams regularly, the poor man hates them. He continues to watch zombie movies and plays zombie video games and I just stare at him gobsmacked, sheesh! He hasn’t tried to kill my zombie self whilst asleep (yet) but your sleepy punches made me giggle 🙂 Poor CC.
That’s hilarious. My husband also loves to watch movies on TV that he hates- not zombies, just bad acting. And I don’t think he’s afraid of that. I’m baffled by this. I hope your husband never thinks you’re a zombie.
Love the photo of #5 with Tiny Nephew – very poignant for you to see him being so responsible and ‘grown up’.
It’s become one of those “I have the picture to prove it” moments, because the moment most definitely has passed. Which is as it should be for now.
Laughing out loud at the zombie! I can relate so much about the thing. I have seen so many zombie movies and sometimes I will ask my husband “where are we going to hide if there will be zombies all over the place?! ” And he will laugh at me and the day after will be a story about my dreams about the damn zombies! I thought I was the only one ,really!
Anyway, I love the picture so sweet.. 🙂
You’re not the only one. Apparently, it’s a minor epidemic.
The Wiggles. Ach.
I wish I could go to the theater. Aside from the money issue, the lack of time, and very little opportunity down here in Savannah, my husband hates the very idea of it. It’s not as much fun going alone. Oh well, I go to the local venue about once a year and pretend I’m seeing the good stuff. Phantom comes to Atlanta next year and I’m saving up for a day trip, in the hopes I’ll find someone to go with me. It’s the only one I think I can use to convince someone–if they made a movie of it, it can’t be all bad, right? *sigh*
Sometimes the local stuff is the good stuff. Some of my favorite theater moments happened while working for local and regional companies in Phoenix.
Just don’t save your money and then go see the Wiggles. I won’t let you.
Blessing: Just tonight my daughter flat out laughed at me. Not giggled…outright laughed. It was the coolest thing in the world. Another Blessing: My husband loves me despite my mom brain. I used to be smart…now I am not…and he still loves me. Thank goodness. Theater: I bought Mormon tickets 4 weeks ago…they are for October. It was the fits set of cheap(ish?) tickets we could get. It’s a long way away, but we are looking forward to it. Zombies: Who can top you punching your zombie husband in your sleep???
Baby O laughed! I am not surprised. How cool is that? Was she wearing her mittens? You’ll love Mormon. Maybe you can punch your husband in your sleep if you dream about Mormon zombies.
Were the Tonys this year better mixed for broadcast than the Tonys of last year? I swear to God, last year, they live ADR’d the singer of that South African thing.
They did it completely differently this year. The guys inside took control. Shows didn’t bring their own mics and there was a new truck. Night and day. It came off really well, and Broadway as a whole didn’t look like a pack of incompetent boobs.
Hehehehehe, poor hubby 🙂 at least you aren’t mad at him after you wake up…are you?
I can’t remember the last time I’ve woken up mad at him from a dream. Maybe never. But he was a little pissed when he woke up from this the next day. I didn’t even remember it until he told me.
So I don’t have much to say about Tony’s or Zombies, but I followed your lead and blogged about my own blessings in today’s post. Thanks for the inspiration.
This made my day!
Love that picture, so sweet. I am babysitting a three month old now and my kids ask me daily if we can have another baby brother or sister for them. My four year old daughter is a little mother hen. My blessings are having my family around every day, as much as they drive me up a wall sometimes.
Dear Ms. Maineiac,
Mother Hen greatly approves of your four-year-old imitating her. Just look out if she starts laying eggs. It’s a bad sign in a human child.
Maternally yours,
Mother Hen
Although I am a huge theatre fan I wasn’t able to watch the Tony’s last night. Hubs got early control over the TV so it was basketball for us. Going to google the winners now. Hope you had a blast. And what techies do not get by way of public acknowledgement they make up for (in my opinion) in salary range and longevity of career. And actors REALLY love them, ’cause they make us look and sound good.
Good performers make our job easy! I did hear there was some rather important basketball game on.
I now find myself envying you more than I did before. Before it was that you were still experiencing all the little, childhood moments that have long since passed for me, and now because I realize how interesting your life is. Good for you! We only have one life, and it’s nice to see that some of us are making the most out of it!
When did he grow up – When he had someone to be older than. I think we also grow up , hopefully, when we have to be older than ourselves. Many still have not into their 40’s and 50’s.
You have an amazing life! No zombies here, or parties (yet – planning one when warmer weather arrives) but finally got the blessings! My family 😀 😀 😀
I have a zombie fear, strange thing, where I have to watch the movie, but they scare the heck out of me. The weirdest part is that, if I dream of zombies, they’re kind of benign. They never come after me, I never see them attacking other people, no blood, no guts – they just walk around and do nothing. Maybe my subconscious knows that I just couldn’t take much more than that.
That picture is priceless!
Blessings, I have many. Today, I’d have to say Netflix and earplugs… but other days, I’d probably say my amazing kids and brilliant husband.
Zombies: It’s funny that you posted this. We were watching “The Walking Dead” when it was airing originally. After the Season Finale, I had a terrible time sleeping, but of course, hubby fell right to sleep. I was lying there, when the cat started creeping around the room with a piece of paper, making an eerie noise, and right then, hubby started to snore, which amazingly, at that moment, sounded EXACTLY like the groaning of zombies. So, I’m right there with you… I punched him, and I was wide awake 😉