off the hook

It's ok, really, you are all so busy, I do understand, so please don't feel guilty, or like you need to make excuses, but I'm still going to go on about it for me. (How was that for a horrific use of the comma?)

I started my novel thingie. They closed the library all morning yesterday because of the paint fumes making the upstairs staff sick, but they weren't able to get hold of me in the morning, so Devik drove in to tell me when I came in to work. However, I have story time Tuesday mornings and I have a developmentally disabled woman (and her care person) that volunteers at storytime by helping me prepare the crafts who was already there, parents were coming, and so I stayed open for storytime. Then I just stayed at the library afterwards and I had until 1, plenty of time to get a good start on the novel.

I was rather pleased at how it all worked out.

I had my Small Group Ministry meeting last night (from the Unitarian Universalist church). I've grown to think of it as more of a philosophy group - sometimes we cover the existential intangibles, sure, but it's a nice balance between that and other discussions. The subject last night was "play". I love to play and have managed to incorporate play into nearly every part of my life. Something that I was aware of, but thought that perhaps it was just something I did quietly. However, my opinion of that changed after the opening words were read and I found eyes upon me, expecting me to be the first to speak up on the subject - as some sort of expert on the subject of adult play. So, ok, yeah, I play - and it's most excellent! It keeps me energized, young, happy to be alive - that I've been able to make it a part of my work and volunteer life means that I love what I do.

Anyway, (this was far more articulate in my head and I don't feel like making the effort this morning to pretty it up) just a reminder to go play. Whether it's knitting, reading, playing D&D, video games, blogging, surfing the net, whiffle ball, flinging leaves, theater, whatever - go make some time to do it!

And, Jess, I saw the thing about your D&D group - um, that sucks. Unquestionably. Look, I'm done with the module that I used with your group - it's based on Eberron, but, well, you know how the story goes (I didn't deviate that much - except at the end), and if you'd like to use the module and run that game let me know and I'll send it to you. "Haphazard D&D" should be my middle name.

OH!! Before I forget, a small announcement that I can now make (because I promised not to say anything when he told me last week, but now that it's done I'm free to post it) Kyle had his rat tail cut off. Yup, that little piece of hair that *some* of you have threatened to do away with is now gone. Apparently he was tired of people pulling it - fine, if that's the excuse he wants to go with, then I'm good with that. :0)

And speaking of D&D there is now a change in the schedule that I am responsible for. And happy about (although *shifty eyes* I might have come across some grumblings....). Can you believe we've been meeting every Friday for the last 2 years!!! Jake and Kyle are planning some sort of D&D party to mark this momentous anniversary. That's a lot of Fridays. Plus, there are some people that have been DMs for nearly all of it that are feeling like they're not getting a chance to play and have begun resenting Fridays - forgetting why they liked D&D in the first place. So, I wanted to give them a chance to play. However, I did not want to be at the library on another night that late. So, now the first Friday of the month is DMs game, that way the DMs can play - have fun with the game, stay interested in DMing, and I can plan for Friday night downtime, which I rather need right now.

And speaking of play....my next play is coming up!!! I'm performing in "Under Milk Wood" a staged reading on November 12th - 2 performances, one at 3 and one at 7 at the basement stage in the town hall. I just love this play. It's one of the last things poet Dylan Thomas wrote before he died (in Chelsea House for those of you that read Sarah Vowell's essay).

It was written as a play for voices for the BBC. It is a slice of life in the Welsh fishing village of Llareggub" (which is "bugger all" backwards - in fact, when unsure of what Thomas is getting at with the poetry in this play, it's simply the best idea to assume the worst most perverted interpretation); starting from morning with the various private dreams, desires, and thoughts of the town, to the morning and the day when the town goes about it's business, and into the night when it all winds down ready for the next day.

And the characters are hilarious, lively, and interesting!! One of my dream things that I really want to do is be a voice over actress - not necessarily for an anime, I'd be perfectly happy being the lead in any Disney or Dreamworks feature animated film. However, I'm realistic enough to know that this play for voices is probably the closest I'll get. And in this play I get to perform as several characters - my favorite is pretty Polly Garter, who sings nearly all of her lines, who is something of the town slut, everyone in town talks about all her babies and the various wives spread gossip about who saw her where with whom - great fun! And her song is a beautiful piece that I just love (ok, the lyrics are a little, *ahem* questionable), but it's just gorgeous and I get to sing it completely a cappella. Anyway, as I was saying, the characters are a hoot!! There's Mr. and Mrs. Pugh; Mrs. Pugh described as a "stalactite nag of a henpecking wife" and Mr. Pugh who in the course of the play recieves a book called "Lives of the Great Poisoners" (which he tells her is "Lives of the Great Saints") , all the while dreaming of how he's going to kill her. There's the postman Willy Nilly and his wife who steam open all the mail, read it, and not only do they tell the person to whom they're delivering what's in it, they tell everybody else what is in everyone else's letters and packages as if some sort of small town news crier. There's NoGood Boyo who really wants to be a "Good Boyo". And so many more.

It's almost worth reading first, because there are some great pieces in it that are very easy to miss. For example, in the very beginning, the night sequence, there is a description of P.C. Attila pulling out his helmet and using it for a chamber pot, a mean voice whispers in his head "You'll be sorry for that in the morning.", it's so quick and so easy to miss a set-up that later on in the morning when he runs out of the house putting that same helmet on his head and swashes out of the house you might not "get" what has just happened.

Or Mrs. Dai Bread one and Mrs. Dai Bread Two!! I love this image, see Dai Bread has two wives. One of them does the begging for the family and the other is a one-legged, fortune telling, pipe smoking gypsy. And Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard is just hilarious - the only husband she can tolerate is a dead one.

There are some sad moments as well. Captain Cat a retired, now blind, sea captain spends a lot of his time listening to the dead - hearing the voices of his ship crew talk to him asking him what it's like to be alive when they've all died - including the one woman that he loved. Even Polly Garter is quite a sad character, all of her songs are about remembering the one person she loved while other men use her.

This is my second time performing in Under Milk Wood - and I love it, just love it. Thomas had a compassion for the small dramas of the everyday and a belief that is that which is commonplace that unites us all.

Between the play and the novel I've no time to read anything at the moment.

Min-edit: Do you other bloggers know about the RSS feeds? If you look at the bottom of my blog (especially if you've got Firefox - I'm not sure about Internet Exlporer) you'll see an orange square at the bottom of the screen. That tells you that something is available as an RSS ("Really Simply Syndication"), click on it and you can put that site on your toolbar as an RSS feed. Then click on the title in your toolbar and you'll see if there's a new entry for that site. It's rather handy a tool.

Second-edit: Holy crap! Have any of you noticed how many times I use "anyway" in these posts. I just pulled out about a dozen from this post alone. *sheesh*

Third-edit (I've really got to stop this) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAITLIN!!!!!