Houston - Week Eighteen

I started writing this entry last Monday, before saying goodbye to Mike.






The flight to Houston was rough for me. Normally, I travel really well, but not Monday morning. Is it possible that watching a TV show on an iPod made me altitude sick? I dunno, but right after I stopped watching it, I felt like total ass. Nauseated and fainty. Jaki is an awesome friend. She nursed me though. That is all I am saying bout that. It really blew chunks. (LOLOLOL. GOD I kill me. Jak c'mon that joke was hilarious.)
We only had to travel on Monday because our trucks carrying the show couldn't make the 1500 mile trek to Houston in time, so load in started for me at 5:30am Tuesday morning. Making Tuesday a 15 hour day. Oh yeah. That was fun. Still, the rest of the crew, I believe, started at 10:30 the night before. By the time we arrived, there were reports of yelling matches going on, and locals threatening to walk off the job. Nice. Way to keep that bad reputation going. (I spoke to some friends out on the road with other shows and, apparently, our tour has the worst reputation. Oh Yeah. -"Bad Boys Bad Boys whatcha gonna do Whatcha gonna do when they come for you Bad Boys Bad Boys") ( Whatever, I still stand by my assessment that this tour has great potential and could turn around) Man, I just try to stay out of it. That's the nice thing about being in wardrobe on load in, when things get really ugly, you can hide out in the basement until the carnage is clear on deck.
But then of course there's the carnage of my own local crew.
My natural instinct is to be a nice person. Even though there is a hellion that resides in my brain, spewing sarcasm regularly, on the outside, I endeavor to be kind and nuturing to everyone I encounter.
But then Honesty gets in my way.
Some of these dressers are just flat out dumb. Jaki got her wish. My main dresser for the ladies is just LotsaBoxaRocksa. Dumb didley Dumb dumb dumb. Bless her. She is a really sweet lady. Wants to do a good job. Has her heart in all the right places, but truly has no ability. It's kinda sad if you think about it. No ability to put clothes on a chair and then hang them up. Wow. I have to spoon feed her everything. The second I try to let her stand on her own she, literally, walks in circles. I have to tell her where to go and what to do. On Thursday, I thought maybe I was doing her a disservice by feeding it all to her. So I tried to keep my mouth shut and let her try to muddle through, while making sure time didn't run out on her. Some people, I find, if you feed everyhting to them, don't learn. They just listen and rely on being told what to do. I wanted to give her a chance to figure it out.
Ah, no.
I actually at one point Had to leave for 5 MINUTES during our third performance, ( 5 measley minutes!!!!) to go talk to our stitcher. I came back and the quick change booth was a SHAMBLES. Costumes that were used ages ago were still sitting in baskets (which is no big deal really, they weren't being used anymore so no harm no foul) but when I walked in, she looked up at me with this wild look in her eye, surrounded by Can Can skirts, White beaded Grail dresses, and just a plethora of shoes. I was torn between laughing and slapping my hand against my head repeatedly. Sometimes, you just have to help them through everyday. I don't think I have had a dresser this bad since Naples. I wish I had my camera on me when I walked into the booth. That shit would've made you laugh. She really is just as sweet as she can be though, which makes helping her through it every single day a little more bearable.
Jaki, with all of her cursing me, actually, once again, has it harder than me. LOLOLOL. I think there is some divine poetic justice there. There was one point where her dresser came down to our office to discuss it all with her and I was standing behind the dresser, so only Jak could see me. Later, Jaki said all she could see out of the corner of her eye was my gleeming teeth as I sat down, put my feet up on the desk, and watched her try to navigate through that harem scarem moment where you want to throttle them, but be kind and explain what went wrong as well. That was awesome. good times good times. That's a picture of Jaki at the airport standing next to our sleeping Sound guy. He was snoring SOOOOO loud. The whole gate area was giggling.

The beginning of the week was the same as it is in every city as far as my exploring quotient. Tuesday was Tuesday. Wednesday was recovery from Tuesday - lots of in-bed-watching-tv-cutains-closed-feet-up time. Thursday I had a very busy daywork/craft call. Then Friday finally arrived. I had mixed feelings about what to do with Friday. Jaki left to go on vacation for a week. moowah. Mike was leaving in two days. Double heartbreak moowah. Part of me just wanted to stay in my room and sulk. I did go out for a walk around in the early afternoon. Houston has a series of tunnels under the city that are full of shops and stuff, so I wandered through them. It is quite a complex arrangement of hallways. I was making my way to what I thought was a groovy historic area, but when I came up from the tunnels, alas, it was nothing. On top of that, it started raining, so that was that. Not a whole heck of a lot to do in Downtown Houston. the last time I was here was on the Producers Tour and that only lasted 2 days. I figured I had missed something. Um. Nope.
However there is supposedly a ton of stuff on the outskirts of town, so maybe I will rent a car on Monday. I might even head out to The Gulf or somethin fun like that.

Wednesday Night a group of us went out to The Flying Saucer. Ft. Worth has one as well, where some of you will remember the coaster throwing contest. While we had no such contest this time. It was still a good laugh. I haven't gone out with anybody from the show in quite awhile. So, as I said last week, I am trying to integrate myself back in. It was a very fun evening. That's Patrick, Nate, and Cuz at the dartboard.

By the end of the week, my dresser seemed to get the hang of things, and actually thanked me. I did see panic in her eyes when I told her I was leaving for the last weeks of this stop. But Todd is here covering me. She has nothing to worry about. It is really great to see Todd. I was nervous -cuz that's my way- but the minute I saw him, all that just went away. He is out here covering Jaki while she is gone and then jumping over to my gig when I go. He is invaluable. And a laugh riot.

Saturday was the show's 500th performance. We had a barbeque in between shows with the whole local crew. Just about everyone was there. It is rare that we all, the company as a whole, actually sit down and have a meal together. People brought side dishes and a ton of deserts. The boys were out grilling all kinds of flesh. I actually opted out of meat and had a grilled portobello mushroom which was kick ass. It was a nice time.

Honestly, with everything that is happening, the boss change and all the turbulence from before, I kinda can't wait to come home. Yes, I am moving out of my apartment which is a MASSIVE event, but I feel like I need to go away, regroup, see my people and my mom, and come back fresh and ready to embark on the second phase of this gig. Amazing that I have only been out here since late January and a new phase is in order already. Just a week and I will be going to Steinhof with Kricka, sitting with Jim on the couch, and sleeping in my bed.

Sunday Mike left. That little weasel snuck out without saying goodbye to me. He does that. It's better. The last thing I needed was to be a useless blubbering mess in the middle of the first show. I miss him already. How anyone cannot just adore him is beyond me -such a good good person, wickedly smart, and so much fun. I have learned a ridiculous amount from him while laughing my head off. I can only hope that the Vegas Spamalot shits the bed, so we can tour to California and I can go hang out on Goat Mountain with him.

Monday is my first day off in 5 weeks!!!! I have big plans people. Then again, I could also see myself laying in bed all day and reading. It will all depend on the weather, which has been very rainy. Either way is just fine by me.

The Extra Pics




This is the Hobby Center, where we are doing the skit.




Everyone chowing down at the BBQ




This is how boys grill in the rain.




This is how girls grill in the rain.




On Friday Jim called me at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am to tell me he would be on the Today show. There he is being bent like a pretzel. They were explaining some kind of massage you can get at the Mandarin Hotel where he works. He said that he and Matt Lauer made out, but I won't believe it until Matt calls me and tells me so himself.




This is the newest member of the Spamalot Pooch Pack. Oscar. OK. I am not big on little dogs, but he is pretty damn adorable.