Sunday, December 23, 2007

Happy Holidays

I'll be off-blog for the next several days, so Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone in advance. After tomorrow's "Rudolph" performance, I'm headed down to beautiful Peoria, IL to visit the family...

After tonight's performance, I had a quick drink across the street at Joey's with castmate Robert Bouwman of Corn Productions, who plays Sam the Snowman and his friend Sara, who's teaching acting right now in Iowa and is in town visiting. (Turns out she was also the director of Corn Productions' marvelous production of "The Bad Seed," in which Robert played Rhoda to hilarious perfection. The sight of him with a stack of about 10 peanut butter sandwiches was one I'll not soon forget!) Then, back over to the theatre to catch "Bare Naked Lads," featuring our own Rudolph, Corey Mills. Yes, he was naked. Yes, all the cast members were, except for the girl. And yes, Corey is definitely one of two great reasons to catch this show if you get a chance (the other is John Cardone, who does a hilarious turn as a "has-been-who-never-was" alcoholic, politically-incorrect chanteuse--rolling all over the stage while never dropping or spilling from her martini glass). They are wonderful to look at and listen to. Catch it if you can!

So tomorrow, I head back to Peoria to see my mom and the family. I bought the last of my presents tonight (a few Deep Purple CDs for my dad which I found at Groovin' High, a collector's music shop on Belmont), and finished wrapping and packing my car when I got home.

Although mom's apartment is officially open until the end of the month, my aunt tells me that they've gotten everything moved out...so I called ahead and booked a room at the Super 8 through Wednesday (I come back Thursday afternoon). Somehow, I just couldn't face being in an empty apartment knowing that it's not ours for much longer...(also, I got a smoking room at the Super 8, which I couldn't get at mom's place!) Since it's so close to her apartment and the nursing home anyway (literally around the corner), it's perfectly located and the rooms are reasonable...

Today I had the pleasure of seeing my friend Stephen in the children's show "Lyle, Lyle Crocodile" at Lifeline Theatre. I'd never been in the space before (surprising, as it's literally across the street from my house), but it's really charming, and the set design was brilliant. Each cast member plays several roles (except for the titular Lyle) and their performances were marvelous. Such fun to watch. Since it was a children's show, I fully expected all the little rugrats to be on their worst entitled-urban-brat obnoxious behavior, but they were very respectful during the performance and really seemed to enjoy themselves. I know I did--and I'm not even a kid! And, probably out of relief for their children's good behavior, the parents had fun too! Afterwards, I came home and finished baking my cakes (lemon with amaretto-orange glaze and slivered almonds--one for the nursing home and one for Aunt Fay's house) and wrapping the presents (I bought "light" this year--no apologies)...

So now, I'm all prepared for whatever Christmas brings...this is the first one I've actually been apprehensive about, under the circumstances...but I'm determined to make it as happy as I can for Mom...thank God for supportive relatives.\

Have a great holiday, all! I'll be back on Thursday night...

"Rudolph" runs one more weekend! Get tickets now...I understand that Saturday is already sold out, but there are still tickets available for Friday and Sunday.

Also, after Saturday night's performance, The Joans are playing at the Flesh Hungry Dog show at Jackhammer. This month's show is called "Christmas With The Crawfords." We'll be playing with The Pussy Pirates. Show starts at 8:00, $8 cover. 6406 N. Clark Street (at Devon).

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, I will resist the urge to speak about your smoking habit. I used to smoke and also was a bad boy getting in trouble with the law so I have no right to judge anybody. I have spent time behind bars. It was a nightmare experience. They put me in with the Sheriff's brother and he made me do stuff I'm not proud of.
Have a wonderful Christmastide and I'm sure Peoria will have a homecoming for you. The Super 8 has thin walls so bring something to drown out the noise. Ed

4:06 PM  
Blogger Johnny C said...

Happy Christmas and all that... I'll see you at the Joans show on Saturday.

10:54 AM  
Blogger Steven said...

Here's hoping that your stay in Peoria was a memorable one and that time with Mom and relatives was special. You missed a good snow storm. Luckily not much, except up here in Lake County. ;-)

9:14 PM  
Blogger Gregory said...

I love and miss Robert Bouwman. I hope he and the Cornservatory are thriving. (I was in "Floss" for about three runs!)

10:59 AM  
Blogger Aaron said...

Ed: Not to worry, as of yesterday all of us smokers in IL are out in the cold (literally, at least for the next three months!). Which makes me do it less anyway.

Johnny: Thanks for the wishes...sorry I missed you at the Joans show, but we got there late because of "Rudolph." We'll be out again soon, I'm sure...:-)

Steven: I did, however, catch the storm coming home from MI yesterday. It started there about 9:00 in the evening and continued all through the night. It was fine and powdery, but it made driving mighty interesting--it started clearing up once we got around Chesterton, IN, so I was able to make up some time. (I'll blog about it in the next two days.)

2:08 PM  
Blogger Aaron said...

Catty: Sorry, I hit the button too fast! Robert is doing well and Cornservatory is also. He was a fun snowman, too. (Pictures will be on the next blog!)

2:10 PM  

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