Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Why'd they always have to give the ethnic kid the sissy power?


Okay, this is really weird, because this just occured to me, and my roomates are going to question me, but Tyler looks really attractive in this picture. Even though he's very compacted. And holding a razor. And pretending to be a gargoyle. It must be the fridge. Domesticity makes men attractive. If you ever read this, Tyler, "all morality issues aside," you look really good. =)
I'm back, as you may have gathered, from my blogging haitus. Except I just might have to take another one, because listen to this...
The First Presidency requested last year that we perform "Savior of the World" this fall. It's been a huge process, and a very sacred and powerful one for all involved. I was working nights the first half of this semester, so I didn't have the opportunity to be involved. However, I'm now free nights, and my friend Kristi (the stage manager) asked me last Friday if I'd be willing to come help with costumes, and a few quick-changes, etc. I jumped at the chance, and went to my first rehearsal on Friday night. I was grateful to be involved, but after just the first night, I knew I'd be bored. I had NOTHING to do the whole second act, and only 4 costume changes in the first. Well, be careful what you pray for.
Tonight was final dress rehearsal, and about 2 minutes before curtain, Kristi comes up to me and says "Jillian, the assistant stage manager in charge of stage right just quit. Can you be on headset?" I said "Uh...yes, of course." All of a sudden, I am now ONE OF TWO ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS OF "SAVIOR OF THE WORLD." We open tomorrow night. By that time, I am in charge of and must be knowledgeable on the following things:

All of my origonal responsibilities as a costume mistress and dresser (checking out and in costumes and doing 4 quick-changes, 2 of which involve putting on pregnant belly pillows)
Being on headset for trouble-shooting at all times
Orchestrating the traffic backstage right
Knowing and orchestrating all scene changes from stage-right
Knowing and setting all props stage-right
Full charge of the angel chorus, which consists of roughly 30 people, though triple cast, so the entire angel chorus is of about 100. I'm in charge of sending all communication from the director to them, knowing their cues and entrances and exits, and making sure they're all there.
(All of this is done in cooperation with a cast and crew totalling roughly 260 people.)

I don't even know everyone's names. What an adventure this is going to be. I feel honored to have the privelege to be involved in this sacred show, and I'm very grateful for the experience I have that allow me to take this position. I'm also really scared. But aside from the one girl who hates my guts (who is frustrating but I'm able to laugh it off because she's just ridiculous), the cast and crew has been very supportive and very cooperative. Like Nephi, I trust that if the Lord wants me to do this, He will help provide a way. Keep me in your prayers, and I'll do my best to live up to them.
That's sort of overwhelming most of my thoughts right now, but it has been a pretty exciting week. Let me share just a few of the highlights.
We got the first Rexburg snow of the winter--horrah! If it's going to be cold, there might as well also be snow.
I went and saw the movie "Elizabethtown," which I LOVED. I thought it was wonderful...well-written and well-done. And yes, Kirsten Dunst and even (it kills me to say this) Orlando Bloom began to redeem themselves.
We attempted a prank on our FHE bros. that turned into a hostage situation, but that's much too long and exciting a story to tell here. But we were pretty proud of it.
Two major accomplishments!
I finally got the courage to play with Shaun's hair. For those of you who don't know this about me, I've got a thing for curly hair. Sometimes it turns into a thing for guys WITH curly hair, but mostly it's just curly hair in general. And Shaun's is perfect. Everytime I see it, my fingers literally itch to run through it, but I've always felt that maybe we weren't good enough friends or that he'd be creeped out. I was just too shy. But yesterday, things reached a climax.
(Um, I really hope that Shaun never reads this; or that if he does, he won't be freaked out. NOTE: I'm dramatizing things in this story for comedic effect. The basic point of the story is that I really like Shaun's hair, which he is aware of.)
He was sitting in front of us during church, and he kept sort of playing with his hair, including the one curl that always just sort of falls onto his forehead, and I just watched. I sat on my hands for a full 30 minutes to keep them from reaching out of their own accord. Later, we were at their house, and he was sitting down on the floor. I went to put some sunglasses on his head, and his hair was right there. I couldn't help myself. My roomates just laughed and told him that I've been waiting to do that for MONTHS, and as weird as that was, I confessed that it was true. HOw could I deny it? We all laughed and then settled down to watch a movie. Jenny was sitting on the end of the couch and me next to her. Shaun was sitting on the other couch perpendicular to ours and closest to Jenny. But he started playing with his hair again and I couldn't concentrate on the movie. Jenny noticed my face, gave me a look, and said "Wanna trade me places?" I just said "Yeah," and moved and started playing with his hair again. Shaun laughed and asked what I was doing, and I said "I just can't watch you do that, it's too stressful." He didn't mind at all (who would?), so I definitely just ran my fingers through Shaun's beautiful, perfect curly hair for like 45 minutes.
Nobody is allowed to judge me for telling that story. I'm not creepy. I just like curly hair a lot.
The next story necessitates photographic explanation, but it's a funny picture anyway, so please examine for a moment.

That's Shaun. (See, how could anyone resist those locks?) And the Orb. It's a giant excercise ball that looks like a germ. But we call it the Orb, and it provides hours of entertainment. For example, in this picture, the boys attempted to fit both Shaun and the Orb in...the Rameumpton. That's what we call the podium that they found in a dumpster and saved. It's now in their apartment, and it also provides hours of entertainment. (B.T.W., that's a pumpkin on top.)
Last night, I was sitting in the Rameumpton, just listening calmly to the conversation, when all of a sudden, three of the guys slammed the door closed, and spun me around so that the door was facing a wall and I was trapped! That little dark brown flap thing at the top opens up, though, and so they just talked to me through it and taunted me a lot. It only opens about 2 and a half inches, but Tyler and Shaun asked if I thought I could catch some M&M's in my mouth if they dropped it through the top. (I don't know why, it's just how these boys' minds work.) So we tried it. And I totally did it! It was awesome. But the real accomplishment was this: As a joke, Tyler got a bottle of water and threatened to pour it on me. Then we decided to see if he could really get it in my mouth, and if I could really catch it. Ladies and gentlemen, it was totally successful! And it made this really cool noise too. We were pretty proud of ourselves. =)
I just realized how hard it is to tell that story in an understandable way. I hope that it made sense. Maybe you'd have to be more familiar with the structure of the Rameumpton. Oh well.
Hey, it's 1:30 am. I think I'm gonna go to bed. I hope you've enjoyed this odd little entry. I love you all.

1 comment:

williez said...

Congratulations on the promotion! I'm sure you'll stagemanage the everlovin' pants off the production. (In retrospect: odd way of phrasing that.) Good luck opening night!

The Rammyoomptator (or whatever it is) is wonderful. I wish we had Rammyoomptators in Oregon.