Mom's been stage manager for "Guys and Dolls" at the local community theatre in her town, and I heard nothing but great things about the show—including that the performances have nearly been sold out the entire run. It was a crazy month, and I was lucky they held over the show one extra weekend to finally get to see the show.

My roomie Mer has been my theatre buddy this year, which has been a lot nicer than going to everything alone. Live theatre is great, but when I was seeing show after show alone, it was starting to grate on my nerves. I've been thankful that Mer likes theatre too. She hasn't gone to everything, but many. And occasionally I've taken other friends, like Dayle, so I've enjoyed having season tickets (in pairs) to treat my friends.

Well, originally I bought an extra ticket for Geoff since the two of them were going to help me with the moving truck. That fell through for today, but we went the show anyways.

First we stopped off at the "new" mall (built during the 20 years I *haven't* lived in town, so to me it's still supposed to be an empty field) and BJ's Brewery was packed. But next door was an Argentinian place, and we opted to eat there since we only had an hour to make curtain. I've never liked any salsas or spiced oils that are set out with bread, but this one was absolutely fabulous. Seems that parsley, spices, oil, and a ton of garlic is what I was looking for all along. We scarfed down two baskets of bread with the oil & garlic parsley, finally just scooping up forkfuls of the dip on our bread.

I ended up with a spinach-filled ravioli in a some kind of tomato/cream/garlic sauce, which I scarfed up nearly as fast as the bread. Mer had a chicken/ham/parmasean conncotion with mashed potatoes and zucchini, and Geoff had a lemon/garlic/butter pasta with chicken, asparagus, and artichokes. We were all stuffed, but couldn't resist a "Zinderella" (or something like that) which was a layered flan, chocolate, whipped cream, almond confection. Definitely worth it. We'll be going back to this restaurant for certain.

Then as we sat down in the theatre, flipping through the program, I found out that my sister was one of the choreographers and my bro-in-law was actually in the show. Sheesh, doesn't my family tell me anything? *laughs* Ah, it's probably my fault for forgetting—I'm sure they must have told me.

Overall, the show was great. The singers had good pitch, good ranges, good stage presence, and good projection. The bugs with the sound system (from previous shows) seem to have finally been worked out. And best of all, the scene changes were AMAZINGLY tight and fast. Of course, my Mom basked in the glow of that compliment, since she was the stage manager and those scene changes were her doing. The lighting was also really well done, with some great techniques for the scene in Cuba and the scene in the New York sewer system. And finally I was able to place where "Luck Be a Lady" is sung in a show, since so many musicals are buried in a blur from my childhood.

And they did some really innovative things with the set, including these rolling/flipping open sets to change from on-the-street to in-the-mission. Think of how a book opens and closes, stand the book on end, and put rollers underneath. That's how they opened and rolled and flipped the side walls on the set.

Finally, the costuming was also really well done—why don't men still wear brightly colored suits and matching hats? They looked *great* and I told several of the actors that men should dress like this again. They looked fabulous!

Well, now that we're home, it's time to collapse in bed. G'night!

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Recently Listened to: Kate Bush, "The Dreaming"