Good thing I just got some groceries

Accomplished today (since last post): Worked the show and...God help me, that's all I've done. Studied lines (a little) and chatted with friends and...(---sigh---)

So, sadly, there just isn't much to report. I have taken a few more pictures that I need to download onto this blog and I've been working at trying to get these stupid lines figured out (there is a LOT to memorize, in case I haven't said that before) but that's about all that's gone on.

We were joined yesterday, for a few days, by an actor who used to work here. He showed up at the tail end of last night's rehearsal and then dropped by Delta House to hang with the other shows' actors. They all went out and ended up waking me up when they returned (and dude decided to take the room next to mine, of all places). He seems like a nice enough guy, but it's weird how a little intrusion just threw me way off. I went from living by myself and doing whatever I wanted in my "space" as recently as 8 days ago to living in a house where I was fortunate enough to have a small bank of rooms (or "wing", as I like to call it) pretty much to myself to having a loud drunk neighbor for the night. Odd. Not that I said or did anything about it...didn't really warrant it...but I realized how easily I can slide myself into a groove and stay there. It's something I've been doing all my life, I guess. From apartments to home cities to girlfriends to theater companies...once I find myself in a situation that I even half-way enjoy, I still with it until I'm literally clinging to nothing. Seeing only how things were in the past. And refusing to make a change.

Although when I do make a change it's usually a big one. Moving out on a girlfriend or changing cities entirely or quitting theater companies burning bridges as I go. It's good fun. But it's also responsible (that breaking wide open the groove in which I find myself) for some of the happiest accidents in my life. Finding Memphis and the theater program at Memphis State. Going to Chicago. Most of the girlfriends I've had in the past decade or so.

Yet it all also adds to that feeling that I have nothing permanent in my life. And that's a bad thing. I think that once I get to a certain age (an age that seems to have come and gone, by the way), I maybe don't want to be the guy bouncing around and trying to live as fast and loose and I want to. A little stability in this unstable existence might do wonders for my psyche. And the collective psyches of those who are around me.

I dunno.

Aaaaaaaanyway, rehearsal this morning was absolutely maddening. I tried to run Act I off-book and it went as poorly as...well, I don't know...my last few relationships? I'll say that for now but just know it went VERY badly. I would get nice little runs where I would be alright for two or four pages at a time, maybe even more, but then come to a screeching halt and have to rely on the script like I'd never even read it before. It was crazy. The blocking is easy. That's never been a problem for me. But the lines...God, they're tough. And while I guess they're coming somewhat, they certainly aren't coming as quickly as I would like. Maybe studying is really the way to go. I'll have to look into Act II before this afternoon's rehearsal. See if that does me any good at all.

And, finally, SP's car is having trouble. On our way out of rehearsal earlier today, we noticed some antifreeze leaking from the engine. Not a big deal, but we then noticed on the way back to Delta House that the engine was heating up a little too much. Getting into the "red zone" there. So we pulled over and, when nobody was found to be at home anywhere close by, we eventually pulled into a driveway and used a garden hose to put water into the radiator to get us home. So he took it to this place down the road a mile or so and they said they could fix it but it won't be until Friday and it's probably going to be pretty expensive (the labor will be the bitch of it because the engine of this van is so pulled together and tight). So I feel badly. I'll probably insist on helping him pay for it (because I'm kind of a sucker that way) and it might just get in the way of driving back and forth to Chicago as much as he was planning during the run of the show. Which would not be good. I want to go and sleep at home!!

And now we're in this awesome position of being TOTALLY stranded here at Delta House for the next two days. Since I don't have a car, we're probably going to rely on fellow castmembers to give us rides to and from and other than that...we're here. And stuck with it. Ah, the subtle joys of living in the middle of nowhere.

It makes me miss the city that much more.