Dress Rehearsal Night

Tonight is dress rehearsal night for "On Borrowed Time". I officially finished sewing my last costume at 6:45 this morning! (Last minute changes brought about decisions made during a by full costume, full make-up and hair rehearsal last night.) Hope the changes go well. The sets are beautiful, the props are very interesting, and hopefully the costumes all fit people!

Last night, I left rehearsal at 8:30 in time to make one more trip to the fabric store for patterns and fabric to make this last costume change. Luckily, the fates were on my side, and I was able to find what I needed in 20 minutes before the store closed. Darn, patterns are going on sale today, so I had to pay $12 for a pattern that would be $1 in 3 hours. But I did not have time to wait. I went home and in a frenzy of activity made a retro style apron, and started on a retro style dress. Got up early this morning to finish the dress. I didn't get much sleep in between those two sessions, so that made for a VERY SLEEPY DAY for me!

This afternoon, I took a nice long nap! After my frenzy of activity last night and early this morning, I needed it. Tomorrow, I hope to be able to sleep in, knowing that NO MORE COSTUMES need to be provided for this play, and we can all say, "Break a leg" and let the show go on!

Happy Halloween!

OMG! Precious! The M & M's on Halloween!

Batman and Batgirl had a lot of fun trick-or-treating last night! Their last stop of the night was to Aunt Monkeygirl's house, where Grandma Sew What was also visiting! This is how the little Bat pair looked!

Little girl M had three options for costumes. Two were Grandma's creations. She had Tinker Bell wings from last year, that was option #1. Then Grandma made a "Glinda of Oz" beautiful long sparkly dress for Option #2. But when she saw her brother's Batman costume, and saw that there was a pink /purple sparkly Bat Girl option, she wanted that also. So Grandma happily obliged and made Option #3.

This is a little girl who, true to womanly whims, changes her mind OFTEN! Sometimes it cycles on a 30 second basis! When the Tinker Bell option was mentioned by her, Grandma cringed! NO, I MADE YOU TWO OUTFITS--AND YOU WANT TO WEAR LAST YEAR'S COSTUME? Luckily for my blood pressure, she cycled through BatGirl and got dressed at the same time!

They look absolutely precious. They are so photogenic, love to pose to get their pictures taken. So many kids run from the camera, but not these two! And they did get their pumpkins full of candy, and a liberal chocolate fest followed the trick-or-treating, once we retired to the house to warm up!

Oh, Aunt Monkeygirl was precious also. She was a ???, (I forgot what she called herself), resplendent in blue neon hair tied up in pixie pony-tails, butterfly wings and black knee high boots. Why didn't I get her picture? Sorry, Monkeygirl, you were so cute! Mommy was a bad girl for not taking your picture.

P.S. The dog wanted to eat the butterfly wings, he kept lunging toward them all night. The zap collar kept him under control, and nothing was lost to his waiting jaws, not even the chocolate bars the M & M's waved past his face as they were feasting.

P.P.S Our 4th annual Halloween party on the court was non-existent this year. For the past 3 years, we've gathered on someone's driveway, brought food and drink, had a fire in a firepit, and waited for the kiddees to make a one stop download of candy to their bags. Last year, we only had 8 kids come to visit, besides our own. So this year, everybody exited the court, and only 4 out of 15 houses were giving out candy. There is a street in our neighborhood that has FULL participation, about 600 kids per year! Every house participates, more than one make a haunted house tour, and the cars were lined up for blocks looking for a place to park so the kiddees could participate in the fun. I drove past it last night on my way to Monkeygirl's house, and it was really jiving! That must be where they all headed, because our street was extremely dead. We maybe had 15, including our own families.

Priestly garments

Choice A for white--Chi Ro is bright gold, even though it looks dark in this picture
Choice B for White

Fr. Flynn wears this one as the play opens.

Making these has been mulling over and over in my mind for months. Yesterday, I finally got the time to do them.

The green was not a problem. I made the center motif months ago, and showed it to you in my blog. The white one required some thinking, because in the script, the playwrite describes it as "blue and white vestment". In Catholic liturgical circles, blue was not a color of a vestment that was used within the past century.

Some churches would make/buy a white vestment with blue trim for feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The vestment would only be used for feasts honoring Mary, such as her birthday, Sept. 8, the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, Annunciation, March 25, Assumption, Aug. 15. So it was used very sparingly, and most churches couldn't afford to buy something that was used so little.

In the progression of the play "Doubt", the wearing of the second vestment, the white one, could have been in late fall/early winter, and may have been the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Dec. 8. So I chose a motif picturing the Blessed Virgin Mary as a possible embellishment for it. But to make it more generic, or possibly usuable for other occasions, perhaps they used the typical symbol for vestments, the Chi Ro, which symbolizes Christ.

So what do you think? BVM or Chi Ro? I'm on the fence. Comment to tell me which you think looks best.

The green one is finished, and will not be changed. It is what it is.

Need to get all the "On Borrowed Time" things organized today. The actors and actresses will try them on tomorrow.

Two by Two

What does that title remind you of? Animals gathering in pairs, man measuring in cubits? Storm clouds gathering? Noah was building his ark and planning his journey when there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

We here in St. Louis have barely seen a day during the last month when there weren't clouds in the sky! It has rained and rained. And I'm listening to the weather right now, and he promised anywhere from 1-5 inches of rain today! Wow, where is all that water going to go? Hopefully not into my basement!

We've set the record for all time rainiest month. Any day now, they're going to recommend that we start measuring in cubits and build our own ark--water of epic proportions here on our fair city!

One more down....

Got one more costume dress down. Now, I think I only have to make a pair of shorts, alter some pants, iron some rumpled dresses, find a XL plaid shirt, and organize my "On Borrowed Time" costumes. Then, hope they all fit and the director approves! Hooray, this one MAY be somewhat finished!

I graduated!

For the past 6 weeks, I've been going to physical therapy. My hip and lower back were so painful I could hardly walk. So my doctor prescribed physical therapy and told me that was the first step to get better.

After my first couple of visits, I doubted that anything was going to help me, especially not physical therapy. And the worse thing is, YOU HAVE TO EXERCISE AS HOMEWORK!

Now, in this class, I'm not the best student. I rarely do my homework, and I do poorly in class. But the physical therapists I've been working with show no mercy. After the first few sessions, it was "boot camp" for me, for sure!

My weak area is the abdominal area. One can look at me and know this. And after many years of neglect (no crunches for me, No sireee!) it has been a painful, uncomfortable ride to get improvement.

But lately, I've been able to do a little bit more in the strength area. I've noticed a small improvement in my posture, and I can do more "bridges" than I ever thought I would be able to do.

Today was my graduation day. I could do my bridges and planks and hold on for 25 seconds. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it is better than when I started when I could hold it for 2 seconds.

My therapists get a charge out of my comments when they ask me to do stuff. Last week, I told the one, "You've got to be kidding!" when she asked me to do this one exercise. But this week, I can do it and hold it. They seem to get a kick out of listening to me grunt and groan and collapse when I'm done! One day they sold me a stretch band to do my glutemus maximus exercises. The receptionist asked me if I wanted a receipt. I told her "No, my tight butt will be my receipt!" They all got a charge out of that one!

Today when I left, they gave me a graduation present, a t-shirt with their name on it. MY GRADUATION PRESENT. And they all said, "We're going to miss you, you are a riot!"

Guess they'll have to deal with older, fatter, more out-of-shape and not so hilarious patients in the future. Goodbye, therapists--thanks for your help.

Oh, and my hip only hurts a little bit now, so at least I got some relief!

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

I'm so done with it!

Wallking across campus in the rain!

Wearing my unstylish but dry parka every day!

Wearing out the wiper blades on my vehicles!

Having wet feet and trouser cuffs all the time!

Resisting the urge to nap all day because it is dark outside!

Wondering if I'll ever get to put the top down on my convertible this year!

Could care less if we broke a record for the wettest October EVER in St. Louis!

Listening to the cat meow to get out, but knowing he wouldn't stay out for more than two seconds!

Getting the newspaper that is all soggy from sitting on the lawn in the rain!

Chasing the worms out of my garage, where they are seeking asylum from drowning in the lawn!

Get out of here rain clouds, we're tired of it!

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come again another day (season) so little SewWhat can go out and play!