Life has been hectic over the last couple of weeks. All I can say is, please bear with me.
I went to the Minnesota State Fair on August 29. As a die-hard fair fanatic, missing out on the festivities was not an option, so on my Monday off I drove through rush-hour traffic from Eden Prairie to St. Paul and went to the fair. I decided that I would only eat truly Minnesotan fair food, so I stuck with cheese curds, hot dish on a stick and root beer. I also had something called an Australian potato that I'd never heard of and it was delicious. Upon arriving at the fair, I wanted to find my way as quickly as possible to the barns to see if there were any representative goats at the great Minnesota get together. After about 45 minutes of walking around to find the elusive ruminants, I finally had to go up to some sheep people and ask if they knew where the goats were and to my utter horror, they said that there were no goats at the fair. Can you believe that? What is a fair without goats? I did stumble upon the Grand Champion Meat Goats and in the Miracle of Life Pavilion there were several Boer does with kids, but that wasn't enough. Minnesota let me down on the goat front. Furthermore, the rabbit and poultry barn was closed for cleaning so I couldn't even look at them. In the main arena, they were having a draft horse show, so I watched that for a while. Then I walked around and through the midway. I stopped by the Minnesota lottery booth, as is tradition and played a few scratchers tickets. Then I decided to be brave and go up in a Space Needle looking ride that took you up 373 feet in the air and spun you around while you looked out over the fair and the Twin Cities area. It was totally worth it, because it was night and the view was breathtaking. I had a blast at the fair and took some great photos of butter sculptures, animal art and got my fix of fair for the year.
Most of my life has been consumed by work lately. We moved to the stage and had tech last week and now we are in previews for the show. We are talking over 60 hours of work last week, line notes multiple times a day, schedules, sign in sheets, etc. Lots and lots of time in the theater. I'm still loving it and yesterday I got to run a dance rehearsal on the stage and use the stage manager's headset and console and I got to announce breaks over the God mic. It was awesome! In other show related news, I may be appearing on stage at the Guthrie. We have had some trouble with keeping extras on the show and it is getting to the point where it is too late in the game to find a replacement to help with scene changes. The director mentioned that I could be dressed as a maid and help with the transitions because I already know the show and have proven myself to be trustworthy and responsible as well as professional. It's not a guaranteed spot or anything, but just being recognized as an option is amazing at this level. I won't know until the middle of this week, and it would mean a shift of duties for the second show I'm supposed to intern for, but I'm not about to pass up an opportunity like this. Also, during the first preview, I got a program with my name in it!!!!! I freaked out a little, but it's just so cool to have it in black and white that I worked at the Guthrie!
I'm finally starting to make friends with some of the actors and that is great, I don't feel so disconnected from them anymore. Several of the actors eat dinner in the building, and I was around so I started talking to them and I already knew they were nice, but it was so great to be welcomed into a conversation so readily. It's taken two months, but I've finally begun to feel like an "insider" at the Guthrie.
I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (forever ago) and got to see some great art. I may have already mentioned that.
My family is coming to see the show in a few weeks and I am so excited to see them! I can't wait to show them around the theater and let them see the show that I've been working on.
In addition to my family coming to see me, some of my friends are going to be in the area in a few weeks as well. It will be so nice to see them and catch up with them!
Time to get back to reading my book. It has taken me two weeks to really get into this biography of Mary Nisbet and I'm starting to get bummed about not keeping up with my "book a week" goal, but what can I say? I'm super busy.
I promise that as soon as the show opens, I will be better about keeping this updated...maybe.
