Seattle Washington - Week Thirty Eight

UGH!! Blogger is making me INSANE today. IMpossible to get my pictures loaded up. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I am definitely going to be switching blog hosts people. Be ready for the change. I wasn't able to load up all my pictures for you and that makes me veddy veddy mad. Anyway, let's move on...



There was definitely a part of me that wished we had stayed in Denver just a little longer. However, I am sure I will go back with some other show, so I have a ton to look forward to. As I said last week, there have been quite a few people who have always told me how much I would love Seattle, so I was beyond excited to get here and check it all out. Again, the trucks couldn't make the journey here in time for us to have a regular load in schedule. This is a double edged sword really. I love being able to just travel to the next city and chill out without having to run to load in. Having the entire next day off is lovely as well. I will tell you though, once the week gets rolling, on this schedule, it is a freight train that runs you over. Everything gets bunched up into five days instead of seven. It was a long week.
BUT
It was a very good week too.
Don (you all remember Don from Portland, right?) being the phenomenal kick ass friend he is, made the trek up here and picked me up at the airport. Sooooo nice not to take a cab. We got me all checked into the biggest room I have ever had. This place is enormous. Ok, perhaps there are some questionable stains on the carpet and the furniture, and yes, it did smell a little funky, BUT I have a full kitchen and a ginormous living room with 2 comfy couches, a dining room that seats eight (but only service for four...and one spoon.) and a seperate bedroom with a king sized bed. Now other people got flat screen TV's and new carpets, but I am perfectly happy. I rearranged all the furniture so many of the nastiest things on the carpet are covered. I was going to take pictures of it for you, but my beads and jewelry supplies are strewn everywhere.
My first day in Seattle, I was expecting rain, but it was sunny with just a few clouds, so Don and I zipped over to the Space Needle on the fancy yet over priced monorail. Getting to the top gave us an awesome view of the city and Mt Rainier. (It is funny how when I go to a city, I will run and do the touristy stuff, but I still have yet to make it out ot the Statue of Liberty.) The Space Needle was cheesey good fun and we hung out up there until I was able to get that clear shot of the volcano behind the city. I find you just have to be patient out here, and usually, the skies will clear up for a spell. The weather reminds me of Scotland, actually.
After that high ride excursion, Don convinced me to do something I would normally never do. I had been talking to him about how I had never been to Seattle and it would be great to get a general over view of the city. He suggested we take a city tour. I am not opposed to this idea. When Jim and I travel together, the first thing we would do in a foreign city, is get on a bus and learn all the different neighborhoods and that helps us get an idea of what we want to do while we are there. However, this wasn't any old tour...I can barely say it...It was a Duck tour. You know, those big tank like things that can cruise around on land AND water? I can't tell you the number of times these things have passed me on the streets of NYC as well as other places. I have openly mocked the Duck and it's crazy driver's who yell at pedestrians and make their people do the macarena as they whizz down the streets. There was an element of revulsion at the idea, but the place was right next to the Space Needle and I really did want to check out the town. So I, Fran Curry actually rode on a Duck Tour. To be honest, I had a ball with Don. He thought it was stupid too, but he committed. If we were going to be on this thing, we might as well submitt to the humilation, and hell, earn the mocking glances and middle fingers we received from the savvy sophisticated Seattleans. Our driver obviously loved his job, changing hats, and playing loud music, making us clap and yell. Don was hilarious. I about peed my pants with him dancing in his seat and waving at EVERY SINGLE person we passed. Not only that, but I did get to see all around the city and find the places I wanted to check out during my three weeks here. Even if it was in a Duck, I got to go out on the harbor and see the city from the water. I hate to admit it, but I had a good time. Damn Ducks.
Once that experience came to a close, Don and I walked around the market area and had dinner at the Pike. This was the place I watched the Yankees lose to the Cleveland Indians. Which I do not want to talk about. It is also the place wear I dropped my camera in the toilet. BEFORE I sat down. Now I am sure some of my more imaginative friends are thinking something salacious, but it was in my pocket and just fell out as I turned around. Of course this would happen. That camera is not even old. It was only in the damn bowl for a second but the damage was done. Fried. I was more upset about the pictures I had taken of Don and Seattle than I was about the camera. I have a good job that pays well, technology can be replaced, but those pictures could not. So the next day Don and I headed out and we went to a camera place downtown who confirmed the death of my camera, but saved my card. Good thing to, cuz Kricka would have never believed I went on that Duck tour without photographic evidence. Don and I walked around the Pike Street Market, which was awesome. I had seen it at night, but everything had been closed up, to turn around the next day and see it hustling and bustling, full of people and flowers was quite a sight. I have to admit I was a typical tourist again and fell in love with the Pike Place Fish Co. where the boys behind the counter yell out what fish someone is buying and then hurl it at each other. One yells out something about Salmon, they all repeat it and the one who yelled first hurls the Salmon behind the counter where it is caught in paper that another one wraps up. Very entertaining. There is something about fisherman types that put them right up there with firemen and rangers. Those boys were easy on the eye.
My free time with Don was coming to a close. We strolled back to my voluminous hotel room, looking at architecture and trees along the way. We stopped by Seattle Glass Blowing on the way home, which was very cool. I was expecting to see some David Crosby look-a-like with a big metal tube blowing out a glass bubble, but the reality was waaaay more interesting. This was a much bigger outfit. No one looked like Crosby, Stills or Nash for that matter. This was a team of people working out of ovens and using all kinds of tools to create some really stunning things. Don and I must have stood there watching them for about a half hour. They have this little corraled area you can hang and just watch. I was disappointed we weren't allowed to ask any questions, because the entire process made me want to know exactly what all the rules were. The little arts and crafts fiend in me was just going crazy with quesions. All I could tell was that one guy was in charge of sand and one guy put the sand in the oven and heated it up to an ungodly temperature and then when he pulled the metal pole out of the oven the end was BRIGHT yellow-orange hot and the stuff would just drip off the end. That was the coolest part, watching liquid glass drip. Then he would sit down at this other station and swirl the pole, use tongs while he was swirling to shape it, blow into it, and then shape it some more. Wicked cool. On my way out they had a pamphlet that said you could drop 300 bucks for a 4 hour class. hmmmmmmmmmm. The class can have up to 2 people, so really if I found someone who wanted to go in on it with me, it would only be 150........
So I left Don at 6pm to go to load in. The Paramount Theater is small. Very small. this means everyone is scrunched together. Shrugs. It sucks for about two days while you figure out the issues and then it is fine. My quick change booth is tiny, but I have had worse, and I have a really good dresser, so whatever. It is just the setting up that is hard. All the dressers I deal with are fine. My Lancelot dresser, Bob, is very sweet, but I am gathering he and Patrick are not a match made in Heaven. Bob needs the routine to stay the same and when it changes it rattles him a little. Shrugs. Bob's a hard worker. He just wants things to be good. I guess he and Patrick have had "words". Whatever happens in the dressing room doesn't seem to be brought down on deck though. I like Bob. Besides, Patrick complaining makes me giggle. I don't know why, maybe it's the way he phrases his complaints.
Opening NIght was fine for me, but I am gathering it was a little bumpy in the men's area on stage right. Instead of having an area on Stage Left for the principal men, all the men in the show are shoe horned into this elevator on stage right. It worked out fine by the middle of the week, just one of those adjustments that was tough for the boys.
Don had to go home on Wednesday morning. It was sad seeing him go. I did get a little teary once the door shut. Sometimes I never know when I am going to see my people again, so I get a little blue. I still can't believe Don took the time to come all the way up here and hang with me my first couple of days here. I have the best friends.
Bye Don...

I didn't have a lot of time to feel bad because on Friday my sister Mary came out to visit!!! I was soooo happy to see her! Course she got lost on her drive from the airport to my hotel but I could barely contain my joy at seeing her. We didn't have a lot of time over the weekend, because of my show schedule, but we had cribbage at night. That lil biatch kicked my ass every damn game. I did not win one single game of cribbage the entire time she was here. No mercy. At least I know my competitive streak is hereditary and not singular to me. Friday we walked around town toegther while I was show shopping for underwear for our new Galahad. Saturday she got sick, bless her, with some horrible viral thing, which was short lived thank god. All I could think was how she had come all the way out here for a rest, and instead she got sick. She went to the show though, and got to meet Eric Idle. There are people in this company who have never met Eric Idle and Mary happened to be at the sound console when he came up to shake Cuz's hand. I told her it was verboten to ask for an autograph and she was a good girl and restrained herself. I was so pysched she got to meet him though, gives her something to make her own family jealous over. They are all Python freaks. By the second day she was here, I started panicking about her leaving. It felt like she was going to leave immediately, even though she had just arrived, so we tried to change her flight to Wednesday, but the airline wanted to charge 700 big ones. um, no. So we had to just maximize the time we were together
Mary and I were living for Monday when we planned on going to Mt Rainier, and we did go, and you can read all about that next time. I know this blog is way late, and it made me chuckle to receive a few "Where's the Blog this week?" emails. I just didn't have time to write with Don and my sister here. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them instead of being in front of the computer. Same thing is going to happen next week too, because I am going to Olympia to visit my buddy Derwood. Hopefully I will get this week's up on Saturday Night. We shall see. Either way, it's late cuz I am having fun with my people. This is good. After this stop, I won't be seeing anyone until D.C.
Meh.

Anyhoo. Sorry this was so late this week. Love you all. Gotta motor.
Fran

The Extra Pics:

This was our driver for the Duck tour. This dude TOTALLY loved his job.



This mural was located on the side of an old abandoned motel that the city was going to tear down. It is scheduled for demolition but the city gave the local artists carte blanche to do whatever they wanted to it before hand. Very cool.



These little shits were flipping us off as we rode by them in the DUCK. Who am I kidding I would have flipped us off too.



I really really like this picture. I was on Union Bay (in the Duck) and this woman had jogged up this huge hill and just stopped when she got to the top and looked out over the water.



This the Grey's Anatomy hospital...I love that show



This is the Sleepless In Seattle house. I love that movie.




This freakfest was on a corner in the Pioneer Square area. My guess is she is either the driver of the DUCK's wife, or she has the most mundane job in the world and on her lunch break she taunts the DUCK's as they drive by.




This is fair Seattle from Union Bay. I love pictures with people rowing crew. I have no idea why.




My first week in Seattle, this was one of the only places I ate out at. Von's is pretty cool, by looking at it you would never think the food there was so awesome...BUT IT IS.



This picture was taken at Vons. This is Don and his good friend Dan who lives here. Dan was pretty cool.




Pike Street Market at night




On friday I had to go to the boob doctor. This place had the best waiting area. big huge windows looking out over the water. And Not for Nothin, it was an efficiently run and very clean place. Of course getting my boobs mashed wasn't fun....neither the ultrasound where the hot young doctor came in...and then went to get a hot radiologist guy to come in. I am finally of an age where my doctors are younger than me. It is embarrassing having a crowd...or what felt like a crowd...of hot men staring at my boobs. Jeez.




The Space Needle from the ground looking up. this picture was off my phone. I was quite pleased!

I had a few more pictures but I am done fighting with blogger today. Sorry guys.