Meeting

At 10:30 this morning I met with Sharon Barnes, the director of The Secret Garden, to discuss the preliminary scenery plan. It was a good meeting, a few changes were made, and all for the better. You have to put something on paper as a starting point for making changes toward the final product. I learned that decades ago in the commercial art biz.

Her concerns were met - such as the bedroom being too small to fit the number of actors that are in certain bedroom scenes. My rolling double sided pieces were good, but we modified them to make them even better, hinging together clusters of them to make them easier to place and better looking. She liked the tree I described, and it is partially fabricated in my basement already. And we agreed that, given our space limitations, the gallery, the ballroom, the study and the library are all the same treatment.

So here we go. She will get information about my budget and the fabrication can begin in earnest.

Baggage Handled

Yesterday morning I sent the director an email asking her to let me know if she got my email and was able to open the Word document with pictures inserted. If she hated it, I told her, that's okay, we can work it out.

Yesterday evening the reply was in. Her husband had been home sick, throwing off her whole routine. She loved my designs but there are minor modifications to be made, and we're meeting as soon as we can manage it to hash out the details. So there, Dad!

Baggage

Last evening I went to my final Wildlife Rescue First Responder class, received my cute little diploma. Then I walked on up Main Street (up meaning up the steep hill) and prepared myself to hand over my drawings and descriptions of ideas for the sets to Sharon, the director of The Secret Garden. Unfortunately, she wasn't there. So this morning, before launch sequence began at 10:45, I scanned the drawings, inserted them into the Word document of descriptions, and emailed the whole package to her. Thirteen hours later, I have had no response.

I have vivid memories of my dad making up amazingly detailed stories about why he hadn't heard from someone. He dredges up a memory of something he thinks he might have said to offend them, or not said that he should have, or did or didn't do, and he believes in his heart that one of these scenarios must be true all the way up until he finally does hear from them, and it turns out that they were out of town, or caring for a sick relative, or just really busy in some way that made getting in touch impossible.

Well, my drawings were crap, my ideas were stupid, she's embarrassed to have to tell me how much she hates the work I have done, and that she's changed her mind about wanting me to design her sets. I don't blame her.

Thanks, Dad.

Free At Last!

We took Lucia to the vet yesterday morning to get her stitches out and, most importantly, her cone removed. It took her a little while to become accustomed to it once she came home and got over the trauma of yet another vet visit. Soon, however, she and Remus J. Lupin were charging through the house just like days of old. Up the steps to the big long attic room, back and forth around the upstairs, down the stairs, through the living room, dining room, bedroom, back up the stairs and around again. It was good to hear the pitter patter of little feet again!

Life In The Way

I have about twenty five minutes to post this before launch sequence begins to get me showered, dressed and out the door for the twenty-five minute walk to Sherwin Williams. It's hard to remember either direction from here: there was a time when I worked fifty to seventy hours a week and had no time at all to call my own; more recently there was a time when I worked zero hours and had nothing but time and guilt to drive my blogging efforts.

This is a twenty hour week, five hours a day, noon to five Tuesday through Friday. This schedule serves to maximize my effectiveness as delivery boy. They normally wait until later in the day to send stuff out, because orders come in later in the day, and things can be delivered all in one trip. Of course, it's not always very efficient. Yesterday the late-in-the-day order was for a client in Cochranton, which I included in my trip to Saegertown - which means I drove within two blocks of the store on the way between Saegertown and Cochranton.

But I'm here to talk about my day off - Monday, February 28th, 2011. My first duty was to get Carmen off to the Pittsburgh airport, which I did. She left around nine thirty. Then I changed out the three litter boxes and got the trash out to the curb. Then the big time pressure was to get to the church before the office administrator left for the day, so I could grab Carmen's check to deposit in the bank. I took along the technology to hang speakers in The Arthur Room, the temporary home of Sunday services during the lead abatement project in the 175 year old sanctuary.

All of those tasks done, I walked to the Downtown Mall to get my way-overdue haircut, and some last minute groceries before walking home again. I had less than an hour to put stuff away and eat lunch/supper before launch sequence began for the evening's activities.

I walked to Carnegie Hall - not in New York, but at Allegheny College Meadville - for my wildlife rehabilitator First Responders class 6:30 until 8:30. After that I climbed on up the steep hill to the Oddfellows Hall, home of the Meadville Community Theatre, for a meeting with the director of The Secret Garden, which opens in May. This was when it became clear to me that I had been drafted as set designer for that multiple set show. Sneaky, those theatre people.

Remember that long dry spell in my blogs when I was building the sets for Irving Berlin's White Christmas in Albuquerque? Well, here comes another one.