Day 2 In The Land of Corn…

There’s something about me and Iowa weather. The day I arrived here last winter they had a huge ice storm and had about a foot of snow on the ground. Around 7:30 this morning I woke up to a tremendous downpour pounding the roof. It was kind of soothing so I went back to sleep. When I left the house today it was raining so hard that I decided to drive the block and a half to the theatre. And it continued to rain all afternoon. And then…around 6:20 tonight I was in rehearsal for the dance show that I’m doing. A person came in and interrupted rehearsal to let us know that a tornado had been spotted several miles away and that the entire area was under a tornado warning. And what did we do. We finished the dance which had about 4 or 5 minutes left in it. And then. Only then, did I head to the basement. And it was about 15 minutes before everyone else got down there. And I yelled at my mom for sitting in the living room under a warning. We were downstairs for about 45 minutes before security called to tell us the warning was lifted. We were inside the theatre so we never heard the warning sirens which are on campus. The only way people knew was because security sent a campus wide email out letting everyone know.

It’s many hours later and the weather is still kind of scary. While I was typing the previous paragraph thunder shook the whole house. I have the TV on a local station just in case it gets bad again. The weather here is insane. It was almost 60 this afternoon before the cold front started in. This time tomorrow we are supposed to be getting snow. How fucked up is that? Only in Iowa, folks. Only in Iowa.

So what new things do I have to share today.

My day didn’t really start until 9:30 when my friend Michelle called. We only talked a couple of minutes before she realized that it was still early here. Yes, 9:30 is early. So we chatted for about 30 minutes and I said what the fuck and got up. I came downstairs, praying that I wouldn’t see anyone else. I found coffee in the cupboard (I like that word. CUPBOARD) So I made coffee waited for it to brew and then settled in front of the TV. Unfortunately by the time I got to CNN Headline news it was the entertainment show and I really don’t care if Heath Ledger had a mystery son. Of if Britney is out of rehab. So I channeled surf not really watching anything. After three cups of coffee and nothing to watch on TV I decided that maybe a nap was in order. So I went back upstairs and set the alarm and settled back into bed. The next thing I new it was 12:30. The alarm was supposed to go off at 11:45. I didn’t turn it on. Whoops. So I jumped in the shower, got dressed and ran to school.

And this is where my day got fun. Today we focused lights. For all you non-theatre types out there this is how it works. The project I was working on over the weekend is called the light plot. It is a blueprint of sorts that explains where each and every lighting instrument in the show hangs. This is very specific. Sometimes for the light to do what you want it to do it has to be in the exact designated spot. So all of that is detailed on the drawing. It also has to be specific because as a designer I don’t actually put the lights into the air. I send the plot ahead and a crew has the job of following the plot and hanging the show. Several days later I arrive and the first thing we do is focus.

And focusing is what I did today. There are people in the catwalks, on ladders, and in Genie lifts that move from light to light pointing it exactly where I want it. Cutting the light off the things it’s not supposed to hit and making sure each light is able to do what it was intended to do. In a perfect world with a great crew you are able to focus one light about every 45 seconds. Yes, that’s indeed very fast. You have to be on top of your game and know exactly what you are doing. It’s easy to make a mistake and have to come back and fix it, but the idea is get everything roughed in and clean it up later. Today we were doing a light about every ten minutes. I was working with a student crew (the joys of doing educational theatre, which I don’t really mind) and so the going is slow. Some of them have never touched a lighting instrument before so you have to explain everything to them. We still have a LONG way to go to be done by Friday at end of day. But we’ll get as far as we can and finish it when we finish it.

And then I was in rehearsal for about 4 hours. I don’t mind rehearsal usually. And I didn’t mind today. It was the first time I was seeing the dances so it was fun to sit there and try to figure out what they are going to look like. Two of them are so so. They’ll be fine but they don’t excite me. The third one though I can’t wait to get into. It is going to be lots of fun and I’ll post pictures of the main idea I have for this piece next week. We focused most of this today and it’s going to work much better than I expected. Which excites me.

So what’s new that I have to share with you.

There’s a new grocery store since last winter.

The Kum & Go still has 44 ounce Diet Cokes which makes me happy. The thing that’s new at Kum & Go is that there’s a black man working behind the counter. The entire time I was here last year the only person of color, and I mean any color was in my class. He maybe the very first one in town. I’m sure it’s made the papers.

I discovered that clicking your heels together and asking to go home in the middle of a tornado does NOT work. I did it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and when I opened my eyes I was still in Iowa.

The guy they hired last year instead of me is very pretty. Actually he’s very cute. I wonder what he’s doing Saturday night. Perhaps he could come over and keep me warm while it’s snowing.

Going to Wal-Mart puts me in a good mood. I’m fat. But when I got Wal-Mart I’m the skinniest one if the store. It’s a nice feeling.

KFC only sounds good. It actually isn’t good. I felt gross ever since I ate dinner.

And now for the best part of the post. I went to the grocery store at Wal-Mart last night. And I think I mentioned the sandwich I bought.

My browser just crashed and wouldn’t you know, Word Press saves a draft every three of four minutes so I only lost about two sentences.

I knew the minute I saw the sandwich I had to buy it no matter what it cost.  It was making me laugh.  As it turns out it only cost six dollars.

And here it is:

The sandwich is the same size as the microwave.  And it’s about three inches tall.  What the fuck are you supposed to do with that.  I have had two sections of it and at least 3/4 of it is still in the fridge.  And if you weren’t a trained professional like me, you’d never be able to get into your mouth.  It’s HUGE!!!   It made me laugh so I had to get it.

And that my friends was day two.