This is my third day of jury duty. I can't really say anything about it, but I will say that it's interesting, and a nice diversion from my regular work week. The only bad part is, I never expected to be chosen, so I didn't rearrange my schedule this week - instead of my usual day off today, I have to be in court by 10 a.m.
Anyway, that's all I can say on that.
Last night we did a special performance of "The School For Wives" at City Garage for a class from LMU. It was definitely a strange night for me.
During the day, during jury duty, I went to lunch with one of the other jurors to Subway and tried out a salad for the first time. Don't worry about me: I had a tuna salad: I had plenty of calories, I'm sure. It was really good, and definitely a good switch up from my usual, boring turkey sandwich. After lunch we walked back to the courthouse, and did what we had to do as jurors. When I got home, earlier than my usual workday would've ended, I took a little nap (I was out late Wednesday night with the cast of The Bourgeois Gentilhomme, preparing to re-open tonight), played on the computer a little, and ate some dinner. I had time for half of some prepared pasta salad thing, with shrimp, from Fresh & Easy. My friend Bo arrived to pick me up at around 5:45, and we went to Santa Monica.
Nothing unusual happened on the drive. I did and said all the same types of silly, stupid, and crazy things I usually do. When we got to the theater, I sat around and chatted with Charles a little, figured out what I had to do to get ready for the show (because we're running two different shows at the same time, there's a change I have to make to the giant plugs that connect the lights to the light board; Charles told me what those things are called but I can never remember. To me, it is, "doing the thing with the things"), and relaxed. I've been doing the lights for The Bourgeois Gentilhomme for awhile now; it's pretty simple. Having Charles there did make me a bit more nervous than usual but having that kind of small pressure is okay sometimes.
One funny thing that happened before the show started, while I was up in the booth re-reading my notes for the opening, I happened to say something out loud, softly, related to what Bo and I had talked about in the car that I'm not gonna share with you here - it was the wittier response I should've made, doesn't everybody do that? - and this beautiful blond girl who was standing in the area in front of the booth happened to see me. She smiled and waved, and I smiled and waved, and blushed, which hopefully she couldn't detect through the wavy glass or my face full of BareMinerals makeup, which I've been wearing for about a week now and really like.
The show started up just fine, and the audience, a mixture of ages and majors, was great. They laughed and seemed to be enjoying the first half. I felt a bit tired, but fine.
Then, at intermission, I went out and helped Charles a little in the lobby with making change and talked to a couple of the students, and I got myself a Diet Coke and went back into the booth for the second act.
During the first ten minutes I was fine. Then, while Bo was on stage (Bo is always on stage!), I think with Jessica, explaining again why she's to marry him, I suddenly felt like I had been raising my eyebrows for a really long time. You know? My forehead was really tense. So I decided to relax my forehead - my first thought was of wrinkles, and that's it. I felt fine: tense, but fine. So I did. I relaxed my forehead, I relaxed my shoulders, I took a big breath... and a few moments later, I started to cry.
I was sitting there, waiting for the next oral cue for the lights and/or sound that was to come, and I was crying. Not really hard, sniffling mostly, but tears too. It only lasted about 20 minutes. The bad thing is, the second half of the show is a little more complex than the first half, so I had a lot more to do. I stopped at one moment, and thought, good, that's over... and then I started again.
I finally stopped. I did think for just a second that I wouldn't make it to the end, like I needed a break, but I didn't know where Charles was and I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. I did stop, I felt okay, and nobody noticed, which was great.
Now, the end of the first act is powerful. My friend Cindy, when I mentioned this on Facebook, referred to Bo's "beautiful performance," and it is exactly that. His character is complicated: he gets to show a whole range of emotions, including being surprised by his own gentle feelings, and yes, that is affecting to me. The theme of this show, as I've stated before, is something I totally understand. It could be that there was a tone in his voice (because though I do watch the shows, my habit in the booth is to read my script and listen very carefully) that touched me. It could be that I suddenly had a bit of low blood sugar. It could be that I was just really tired. It could be all of this. It's never happened before like that, and I was glad when it was over and we could go home.
On the drive (and thank God Bo drove) I rested my forehead on his shoulder, and for some reason that was really comfortable (though the guy has very hard shoulders), and I felt better.
Patrick said that's happened to him before, so I'm not really worried about it. I'll just make sure I eat better today.
And, Charles told me last night that I don't need to be there for tonight's show, so Patrick and I got tickets to go the Jazz Bakery to see Ron Carter. Awesome.
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