Rain, cars, and bears

  Yesterday a storm came in about 5:45, right in the middle of fondue. It was bad enough that they shut down the fondue for about an hour and then brought everyone back from their cars and fed them. We had to wait for it to torrent rain, hail, blow open doors, get one of the trucks stuck in the mud, all proceeded by a lovely dust storm. It was serious, but sadly only about an hour long so we still did the show, but starting at 8:15 not 7:30. It was our biggest house of the night at just about 2,300 so there was no way they were going to cancel.
But everything comes with a silver lining. While I was waiting for the show to start I was sitting around with Hannah in the costume room and I was cold.... so I put on the extra bear costume.

josephine and Blosephine

 Last week some of the tech crew and the town employees put on a the Medora Musical Parody. There were tears of laughter on my face for most of it. instead of casting people as the band they put blowup dolls in our place. Mine's name was Blosephine.

 We also played a rodeo around the same time. It was fun to watch! No one cared about the band, but i didn't care. I just liked going to a rodeo and watching all those cowboys. Ahhhhh....

Pasta sauce plus surprise visiter

 We had a sudden rain storm in the middle of a show. Right on the singers heads. Then when they were running off stage Candi fell and sprained her thumb. But slipped and fell SO hard and it turned so black so quickly everyone thought it was broken so she was rushed to the ER in Dickinson.

Post storm sunset

 My car broke down about a week ago. As it turns out the exhaust pipe was old and had come loose and was funneling the exhaust up against the trunk instead of out of the way. Luckily there just happens to be a nice teasing hillbilly who also happens to be a car magician. So my car is not only getting fixed but getting other things fixed that I had given up on, like the use of my drivers door handle. Honestly I was over it, I'm used to reaching around at this point. But Daryl says he can fix it. So I'm happy. At this point my car has all the amazing features: only one of the windows goes all the way down, the back windshield/tailgate is taped into place since the latch fell off, the drivers door handle doesn't work, the doors don't seal so it's pretty loud on the highway, and now it has a melted spot in the carpet in the trunk about 6" in diameter. But Daryl has hope for my car (he's not scared by a dump, in fact, I think he kind of likes them) and so I am going ahead and having him fix the handles, replace the timing belt and see if he can get the doors to seal properly. As my mom said, the car is just getting some character.

Obligatory running picture

And another

Blacula and Hands

I have been trying to get the show memorized so we can move the music stand that sits in front of me in everyone's way. I did the show twice with the book closed, so last night I told Patti I am officially off off book and to move that bad boy. I probably could have been off book a long time ago if I had tried but I kind of just let it happen. 

Obligatory running photo

My other goal has been to get in 10 miles of either hiking or running. I mostly haven't been doing it but it's been a good goal. Basically my life consists of running, hiking, playing fiddle, getting creative trying not to hate dinner, hanging out at a bar in Medora. It's a good life, although, I woke up pretty homesick today. Mostly I just REALLY miss my kitty cat. I've haven't gone this long with out my little black furball since I was 19. Sometimes I sit cross legged on my bed and think "If Blacula were here he would be sitting in my lap even if it wasn't comfortable for either of us. He would be purring and wiggling trying to get comfortable then he would suddenly freak out for no reason and run away."

We are playing about 40 hours a week and my hands are feeling it. I already have tendonitis in both hands but it doesn't flare up much. but both hands are feeling a bit stiff and achy. Not terrible yet but as a precaution I'm trying to ice them as well as my shoulder at night. I don't want them to get any worse.