St. Paul Minnesota -Week Twenty Nine

My last week in St. Paul.
It has gone by really quickly.

I did the inevitable this week. I went to the Mall of America. The last time I was here, I was completely overwhelmed and left. This time however, I just made believe I was going to 4 seperate shopping areas and that helped. It really is obscene. There are times when I look around at stuff like this and I really do think of people in less fortunate countries in the world and get a little disgusted at the over blown lifestyle in the US. I mean, why do we need a place like that mall? Who needs a ferris wheel in the same place you buy underwear? Why would we WANT a roller coaster in the same building as Easy Spirit?? It's crazy. maybe I am just getting old.
Anyway, my disgust did not keep my wallet from smoking, and I dropped some cash on new shoes and an entire new toiletry travel system. Being female, I do carry a lot of products and found my current system of shoving them into different plastic bags sort of embarrassing. You know those TSA bag checkers at the airport were lauging.
Monday night, after The Mall, I went over to Robins place for a home cooked meal of swordfish, veggies, and cauliflower mash. It was soooooooooooooooooooo good. I had such a great time with her family, that I forgot about you guys and my camera never came out of my bag. Which blows. I would have loved a picture of Robin and her son. It was one of the nicest evenings. Just completely relaxed.

My week with the crew was pretty good. This one woman is really too much. She was irritating me all week, but then I really just started to laugh to myself about her. First off, I want to say she is really intelligent and unique. There is an arty wisdom to her that is appealing, even though it went hand in and with a flakey arrogance. Her manner of dress is very very disturbing. She has enormous boobs and always always wears the most revealing clothing. It is not enough that she wears blouses and shirts cut down to There, but just in case your eyes weren't naturally drawn there anyway, she adorns herself in huge chunky necklaces made of sparkly chandelier parts so that you REALLY can't keep yourself from staring. At one point, I was hunting and searching for a missing $900 hat she couldn't find, and she said to me "Your psychic energy is disturbing me" Ah, so many really mean horrible nasty things flew through my brain to say. If she had said that to me when I was 25, my tongue would have split down the center and I would have lashed her to ribbons. I am not sure where my restraint has come from over the years. I really don't. She was a decent dresser though.

On Thursday I finally had my date with the Cathedral on the hill. It was in the 90's that day, with not much of a breeze at all, but the sun was shining and I enjoyed the walk. That was until I got to the base of the hill and ran into the Crackhead Hangout of Greater St. Paul. That was fun. Nothing better than a group of 15 tweekers in 90 degree heat looking for money.
Once passed that tension zone, I walked up the hill. This is actually the 4th incarnation of the Cathedral of St. Paul.The first mass was held in 1915 even though it wasn't finished for another 30 years. It is really a stunning building full of a range of artwork, which I found confusing. There were the standard Renaissance Catholic images, but then over one wall was a large painting of a family circa 1910 walking into the church. I bet you didn't know that St. Paul was actually called Pig's Eye. Pig's Eye, Minnesota. I think that's really really funny. Well the citizen's of turn of the century St.Paul didn't think so. So the church offered their name to the town and the town accepted. can you imagine if no one had changed it. The Minneapolis-Pig's Eye region....
Anyway, the Cathedral was really spectacular and you gotta go visit if you are here. They had chocolate squares with the dome of the church on it in the gift shop. I bought a bunch to bring to work and told everyone it was holy candy and you wouldn't get fat or cavaties if you ate it.

It was a great last weekend in town. saturday between shows I went to the Irish Festival of Minnesota, where my people gather to celebrate our hertiage and drink a lot. Because it was between shows, I held back on the latter, and focused on the hertiage part, although 2 amber ales were consumed. It was for Charity!!! The money went to the homeless!!! Don't judge me. LoL. It was so much fun. I walked over with Mitchell from the hair department. He was the perfect person to go with. Not a drop of irish blood in him, but even better, he has adopted the Irish as his people. We immediately went over to the Native Dogs of Ireland tent, and hung out with Haskell, the most fantastic Irish Wolfhound ever. That's his big noggen with Mitch's in the pic. Look at the melon on that dog! I love that picture. He was 135bs. This means he weighs more than every ensemble girl in my show. After hangin' with Haskell, we walked around and listened to some pipers and some traditional folk songs and headed into the swag tent. I picked out a new ring which I really love, and am now afraid I will lose, like I do with every ring I ever get. It was EXTREMELY hard to go back to work. Mitchell's favorite Irish band was loading in as we left. Gaelic Storm is the name. I have never heard of them but we all know who my favorite Irish band is...

Sunday was Hormel Day!!!!! Hormel bought out the matinee and gave the tickets to their employees. Before the show they had a picnic in the park across the street from the theater. I have never seen so much SPAM in my whole life. ew. People were gobbling it up though. Roy, Ken, and I walked over and joined in the festivities. We ran into Spammy the official mascot, and ken enjoyed some of the food served. (again...ew.) We acquired Spam beach balls and Spam magnets. Once the show got started however it wasn't so much fun. Most of the people who come to see this show are Monty Python fans. They usually even applaud specific characters they recognize. If they aren't Python fans, then they are regular theater goers who appreciate this calibre of production. These people from Hormel fit neither of those catagories. So it was a very very quiet matinee, which is unusual for the cast and I think it rattled them a little.

So many great things happened in St. Paul. I got to see my friend Anne. Reconnect with my mentor Robin. Got my teeth fixed and now wear a geeky mouth guard. Met Haskell the Wonderhound, and took embarrassing pictures of my Stage Manager with Spammy. All in all, I really liked St.Paul. The Theater was nice. The crew was good. Lots of fun was had.
But that all changes when I leave to go to Kansas City. Oh yeah. It's a doosy people, but you will have to wait until next week to hear about it.

Love you all
Fran

The Extra Pics:


This is a model of the first incarnation of St. Paul's. I guess this was the Pig's Eye era.




A closer view of the altar at the Cathedral. Beautiful. The feel of the building reminded me of St. Peter's in Rome actually.




Haskell and his girlfriend, whose name escapes me.




Irish singers at the Festival.




That's mitch on thr right in the green T-shirt, being a groupie as his band Gaelic Storm started their load in. I told him to go say hi. He was shy.




The Spam mobile made an appearance at this venue. They were the people giving out the beach balls.



Nate blowing up said beach ball. I thought he was going to pass out. I love that he is smoking. That's hilarious.




A Spam slave at the picnic servin up the goods. I am surprised the smell doesn't make him hurl.




On Sunday between shows Roy and I took my two favorite dressers out to dinner. That's Dale and Deb. Deb worked with me on Sweet Charity. Dale was so great. The best laundry person I have had yet. He is completely anal rententive. I love that in a worker!!! I will miss them. I told Dale I was going to shove him in a gondola and take him with us. He laughed but he looked scared.