quick note on a lazy Sunday

Today was sunny once again with snow covered streets and sidewalks. I didn't go too far, just wandered into Georgetown and saw Up in the Air with ACC (no cultured museums today! too worn out). It was very good, but I found it depressingly real - at least each of the characters seemed depressingly real to me. We stopped and had pain au chocolat though and that really does make the world better. They are very big on the whole "communal" table idea here, a few of the local chains do it. So we sat at a big communal table and ate croissant with strangers. Not terrible I suppose.

Huge full moon tonight. Not sure if it was actually full last night because it was cloudy so couldn't see it. But tonight it was massive. I couldn't really get a good picture of it though unfortunately.

I went back to work for an NSO concert last night (Mischa Maisky, cellist, he was quite brilliant) and realized when I got up this morning and was stiff that I'd walked 8 miles yesterday, 6 of them in the snow. So then I didn't feel quite so bad about it.

This week should be less hectic. Tomorrow after work I'm venturing to Arlington where a friend is going to take me to a British food store. Yay! We'll see what they have anyway. The work week should hopefully be manageable, though busy again. We end the week on Saturday with a performance by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and their cast party (it's their closing night, they perform all week). It's hard when your job requires you to go to cast parties with a bunch of extremely handsome and fit dancers. It's a tough job sometimes, but someone has to do it - and it might as well be me...

OMG why does Bell suck so much?? I've had to email them for the second time since I've been down here because they keep charging me for things that are theoretically included in my plan. So irritating...

It sure snows a lot...

for a place where it never snows...

8 inches today so far apparently - it is another "snow emergency"!!! Though I managed to walk to and from work somehow (well actually it hadn't started snowing when I left this morning) but people are driving like crazy people it seems. All but one of our callback actors made it in today too. Brave little soldiers...

Today was long. I spent pretty much the whole day in our Hall of Nations registering people for our McNally auditions. It was interesting to see the differences in the type of city DC is from Toronto after casting the last two seasons at Canstage. Today was a mix of scheduled appointments and "open" call- which essentially means you didn't need an appointment, you could just show up. In Toronto, any open call would be swamped (I believe the open call for Hair at Canstage had over 1000). Here we had five walk ups the entire day. Five. Apparently last year for Ragtime they had hundreds but still you would think anyone in this area would really die for a chance at a KC contract and to be seen by this theatre department.

The other major difference was the huge number of people who just didn't show up. We'd get that in Toronto too, but it might be one a day, today easily 10 people didn't show up. Didn't call or email just didn't show. This is not a sophisticated arts town and here is just another way that it comes through. In Toronto, there is such a large acting community that you show up, you crash, you do what you have to do to get seen. I think I'd hate to be a talent agent here!

Apparently too, the Hall of Nations is where I should have been hanging out all along to meet men. I was asked out twice this afternoon! Perhaps it's because I was wearing lipstick. Lipstick is one of those luxury items I've cut back on. I used to wear it every day, but being here on a fixed income and out of reach of my friends with MAC discount cards, I've gotten out of the habit. But today since I was going to be dealing with the public, I figured I should make an effort. Who knew?

Long day, very busy, but good I think. Joe, the coordinator in theatre programming, gave me a full backstage tour today, which was great - though I think he chose particularly confusing routes just because. All the backstage areas are linked somehow or other, mostly through the bowels, so you are walking under the stages to get from one to another. It really is a rabbit warren. The three theatres I'll be working in are basically on top of each other (two quite literally are stacked) so the distance travelled is not that far, it's just remembering the most efficient way to get there that will be the challenge. It is actually faster to walk outside around the building to get from our offices to the opera rehearsal rooms, so I may do that a lot. Especially since I'm not really afraid of the cold like the locals are. Well, this sort of cold anyway.

The rest of the day I had two seminars, helped with the first afternoon of auditions for our McNally plays and went to the ballet. No down time at all.

I know this is sacrilege but I only stayed for 2/3rds of Romeo and Juliet tonight. It was American Ballet Theatre and the danced beautifully (and there were something like 90 of them on stage which is impressive in and of itself), but at over 3 hours long, my stamina just ran out. Tomorrow is a full day of auditions so I just wanted to pace myself a bit. Boy, I'm getting old...

The State of the Union

So being in DC, I felt it only appropriate that I go to a State of the Union party. Initially I thought that going to a bar near the Capitol would be a good idea (there is one next to the Canadian Embassy I've been wanting to try since the Canadians hang out there) but with the very severe road closures in that area, I thought better of it. So a couple of my fellow fellows and I ended up at a place right across the street from my apartment (I didn't pick it, I swear!) It was actually where the Young Democrats DC were having their party which is why we went there.

It was packed - apparently there are a lot of young Democrats here. I thought at first that I'd have to move us back to my place if we were going to actually hear the speech, but the place went silent (after the cheering) once the President came on. The crowd of course reacted as you'd imagine a group of young democrats would. Going wild appropriately and booing and taunting the Republicans to stand up and clap the tax cuts etc. The speech actually re-iterated to me what an amazing orator the President is - I mean truly brilliant. It would be difficult to poke too many holes in any of what he said. I do lean (okay teeter) left myself, but regardless I do think it's important to remind people of where the American deficit actually came from and who caused the collapse in the housing market here. Who started the Iraq war. But I digress.

When I've been to events or bars in Toronto where the Democrats Abroad are hosting the crowd is significantly older, so recognizing that this is DC and everyone is political, it was nice to see young people engaged in what was happening around them. I chatted with two young guys who had worked on the Virginia Governor race (Democrats lost) and these were guys who worked full time other places but interned and campaigned for weeks (without pay). It's impressive and probably pretty rare outside this area.

Harman Center tour was pretty lame last night - not backstage at all, only the lobbies and the auditorium which I'd already seen. So that was disappointing. Tomorrow I'm seeing the American Ballet Theatre production of Romeo & Juliet. I haven't seen many full length ballets as I only go if I can go for free, so I hope to enjoy it. Otherwise work is a bit nutty, but am getting through it...

Another thought for the night...

Why are books so cheap here and vitamins so expensive? I mean seriously, they don't fund their schools so the population is illiterate and they don't fund health care so...

(seriously vitamins are easily 1.5x the price here - even at Target!)