Things to be happy about: A quick reminder.

Desktop Tower Defense
Good Lord this game is eating my brain. How fun! If you’ve not tried it, give it a shot – strangely addictive. It’s like that time I got hooked on eating Strawberry Quik Powder with a spoon, except without all of the running and twitching.

Surprise Gifts
Today I got a call from a company called Production Advantage. It’s a theatrical supply store – lots of theatres all over the country order gels, tape, phone ringers, lighting equipment, etc… from Production Advantage. Well, the last time I went online to their website to check out some prices, I filled out a contest they had for the folks visiting the site. Today in my office I get a phone call: Williamston Theatre won a $1,000.00 Gift Certificate to Home Depot!!! This is a huge thing! That’s a whole lotta set being bought at Home Depot this winter, my friends, and I’m totally thrilled, and grateful and appreciative to Production Advantage for it! Our little not-for-profit company can certainly use every penny of it. What an out-of-the-blue blessing.

Fun In The Car
We had some errands to do this evening, so as soon as I got home from work, we all jumped in the car and headed to town. While driving, we started singing silly songs, and eventually it turned into us rapping, and then became us taking turns each rapping a line or two as we created a rap song about our trip to do errands. Oh, my, gosh. We were just cracking up, listening to the kids come up with rhymes and rhythms – so much fun. “We got into the car, we’re driving very far, we have some stuff to do, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh!”

Tickets Are Selling
Holy Mackerel. We have a small theatre, and I’ve certainly blogged a lot about how we’re working to build our audience. However, this past weekend was essentially SOLD OUT for the closing 5 performances of Guys On Ice. We had about 20 seats unsold for the Saturday matinee, but out of the remaining performances two had only 3 or 4 seats left, and two were completely sold out. ALSO, we’re bringing back a show that we did last year with much success, and on Monday when tickets went on sale for this season’s special 2 week run of Every Christmas Story Ever Told, the phones went nuts. Between yesterday and today, we’ve sold so many tickets that a couple of the performances are nearly sold out, and the rest are over half full. Yay team!

Babies
My friends Mike and Sarah have added another member to their family, bringing the total up to 2 wonderful sons. Yay! Also, our neighbors /friends are expecting, and they’re wonderful people with a couple of kids already, so it’ll be a wonderful thing to add a new brother or sister to the mix! AND our dog Sneakers got fixed, so she WON’T be having any babies, which is okey-doke with me.

Some Good TV
Okay, Heroes and Chuck were great this week. Also, I’m falling in love with Pushing Daisies.

I’m sure there are more, but right now the last thing is…a comfy bed to sleep in, which is where I’m headed now.

Hope everyone out there has a list at least as long as mine!

G’night!

So, we close Guys On Ice this weekend. It’s been a good run, and while last week’s houses were wonderful, this week is tremendous! 1 empty seat in the house last night. Only 5 tonight. Saturday matinee has about 9 left, but Saturday night only has 3 or 4, and Sunday matinee has none!

I had a moment tonight. It’s been a while since I had a moment like this one – in the creation of a company, and the everyday running of it, it gets easy to lose the excitement, the joy of what you’re doing. Lately it’s been a lot about the nuts-n-bolts of things: schedule, budget, are we bringing in enough money, are we prepping for the next 3 projects, etc… Tonight, though, I house managed the show. And it was the second night in a row of house managing, and it was the second night where we had a packed house, and they were loving the show.

So, Act I went wonderfully, and then I’m standing inside the theatre at intermission, watching people mill about in the theatre, and in the lobby – they’re chatting, they’re laughing – the place is loud with the excited hubbub of people having a good time. Some are drinking their concession sodas, or eating their concession beef jerky (yep – there’s beef jerky in the show, so for fun we sell it at intermission, and people love it!!). Some folks are standing around the theatre laughing and comparing the show to others they’ve enjoyed, or talking about where they’ve seen the actors. A couple are onstage (yes – in our theatre the audience walks ACROSS the stage to get to the back lobby, art gallery and restrooms – it’s fun), it’s not unusual to find people at intermission onstage inspecting the set for this show, and this particular couple is checking out the details of the ice shanty and, as they make their way back towards the seats, they do an impromptu re-enactment of a couple of lines from the show, cracking themselves up and laughing as they cross to their seats – they’re clearly having fun, and the show will stick with them.

So I’m watching all of this, and it occurs to me – We did this. Not We Did This, but We DID this. It was less than 18 months ago, June of 2006, when we opened the doors on our first production and prayed that someone would come.

And here we are, wrapping up the first show of our second full season – and wrapping it up with style. We’ve got a sold out weekend, we’ve got a new facade and marquee on the building, we’ve got season subscribers and people wanting to usher shows. We’ve got monthly donors, and classes for young people. There’s a Christmas tree in our lobby that’s being auctioned off as a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser, and next month we’ve got 2, yes 2, holiday concert events. There are things going on that, well… give the place a life that astounds me. I was hugged this evening – hugged – by a season subscriber who came out after the show laughing with her friend, and hugged me saying “Oh, this was just the best one yet!”. I mean… amazing.

Of course, it’s not all perfect yet – people aren’t getting paid what they’re worth, yet…but we’re loving what we do.
Are we as integral a part of the local community as we’d like to be? Not yet – but we’re getting there, and more partnerships and collaborations are on the way.
Is every week as sold as this one? Not yet. But, if tonight is any indication, someday.

Someday.

And, thanks to Mary919, I’m addicted to Desktop Tower Defense as well!

It’s very fun, and very challenging – a little more so that Ant Buster, because it’s a little faster moving!

Try it – have fun! Let me know how you score!

🙂

Ant Buster

Need something to do for 10 minutes? Or how about 90? A couple hours?
This thing is silly, ridiculously fun, and challenging!

Have fun!

(Best score so far… 9708, at level 61)

Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
-Shakti Gawain

Since this couple was from Michigan, I couldn’t resist posting this story about how they were almost killed by a flying cow:

AND THEN A COW FELL ON OUR VAN!

I mean, that’s a story you pull out at every party you attend!

Last week I finished the novel I was reading, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it since I put it down. To say it had a big impact on me would be putting it mildly – it’s been a long, long time since something had this type of effect on me.

A couple of links to reviews or stories about the book:
A review and synopsis.
The NY Times review
Powell’s Review

The book is just incredible. Published late in 2006, it’s an amazing, heartbreaking story – yet at the same time it’s about love, and hope, and faith, and perseverance.

Be warned, the following contains some mild spoilers (nothing too big), and some graphic language.

The story takes place a few years from now – most would call it a “post-apocalyptic” novel, although it’s not a sci-fi novel. It follows a man and his son as they struggle to survive several years after the onset of nuclear winter. They’re trying to make their way south, into the warmer climates, pushing a shopping cart with their only possessions, and trying to survive the savage weather, the lack of any food, and the encounters they have with other roving survivors – many of whom are savage, murderers or cannibals…”The Bad Guys”, as the father and son refer to them…and they work hard to not become like them. The world is a bleak, horrible place – almost no one is left alive, and even those are to be avoided – and yet the story is one about love, and ethics, and devotion.

At one point, after a particularly horrifying experience, the boy asks of his father:

“We wouldn’t ever eat anybody, would we?”

“Yes.”

It’s my first Cormac McCarthy novel, but I’ll be reading more of his work now. His use of language and metaphor is marvelous in this novel. The “world ending from nuclear war would be bad” message is not a new one, but here it’s told so beautifully, and so chillingly, that I could not put the book down.

There is a passage that, from the second I read it, I’ve not been able to let go of. I re-read it several times, and it’s been in my mind for days. It takes place right after the father and son have met up with a man – “a bad guy” – and the father has to protect his son. The bad guy gets killed. During the incident, the boy winds up getting filthy – covered in blood and gore from the dead man – and the father has to find them a safe place to stay the night, and finds some water to clean the boy up. He washes the boy in the freezing cold water, and, despite the danger of a fire alerting others to their presence, starts a campfire so they can sleep in warmth. The narration at this point is this:

The boy sat tottering. The man watched him, that he not fall into the flames. He kicked holes in the sand for the boy’s hips and shoulders where he would sleep and he sat holding him while he tousled his hair before the fire to dry it. All of this like some ancient anointing. So be it. Evoke the forms. Where you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.

The love between a father and son, the struggle to fight off the evils of the world, and the desire to create a place of belonging…it’s all there. Evoke the forms. Where you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them. The power, and beauty, and hope, and desolation in that phrase…I’ve not been able to get it out of my head.

I can’t recommend this novel enough – it’s not an easy read, I’ll grant you that. It’s brutal, and heart-wrenching, but it’s beautiful, and moving. When I finished it, late at night, I went and laid down next to my sleeping son, put my hand on his chest, and just listened to him breathe for a long time.

Where has the week gone? Halloween, performances, leaf raking and burning, family birthdays…all of a sudden it’s Sunday! I’m posting this from my Treo as I watch the leaf pile burn, and I’m thinking of all the things that happened this week that I want to journal, and how I don’t have time to do it right now! *sigh*

Fun conversation today:
Dad, can we have some Halloween candy?
-A couple pieces.
Okay! How many’s a couple?
-Two.
Can we have a couple couples?
-Nope.
Can we have three?
-Nope. You can have a couple of pieces, that’s it.
Okay. Wait. How many’s a couple again?
-*facepalm*

A beautiful Fall day.

Leaves covering the yard. A full acre of shin-deep, crinkly colors. In a week or so, I’ll be raking and burning, but right now I love them.

Pumpkins wonderfully carved during a tremendous evening with the family. The kids selected their own pumpkins, designed the carving, and did most of the work (minus any potentially dangerous stuff, of course!).
They even picked out a tiny little pumpkin for the dog.

Fresh chocolate chip cookies, right out of the oven. (Forget the “no sugar” challenge my wife and I are having – it’s Sunday, and there are fresh cookies!)

A few errands to run on my own, I left the family to their own devices for a couple of hours. While driving, I marveled at the amazing colors and the perfect chill in the air. Also had time to reflect on a few recent events from the last couple of days that were so good, just thinking about them made the day better:

Thursday – at Williamston Theatre: A great house for the show, but 3 related events were just wonderful. 1) 3 or 4 couples who’d never been to our theatre came in, saw the theatre and commented on how much they loved the layout, the space, the building, etc… Then after the show, they ALL said “We’re so glad we came! We’ll be back!” or “We’re coming back, no question!”, or some variation on that. 2) An older couple, after the show, came up to me and said “This is the first play we’ve seen in almost 20 years – it was wonderful, we can’t wait to come back for the next one.” 3) 4 Teenagers, maybe 15 to 17 years old, came with a group of adults. After the show, they came out speaking in teenage-ese, “That was totally sweet! What an awesome show! Dude, we totally gotta come back for the Christmas one.” It was an incredibly moving, affirming evening – so much positive energy – and tremendously rewarding: those people came to be moved, and we accomplished it.

Friday night, we had one of the most amazing sunsets ever! Just gorgous – bright reds and oranges,fading to pinks and blues, filling the sky, the trees reflecting the light. We went out into the yard to just admire it for about 20 minutes. Cars were stopping in front of our house to take pictures of the sunset over the cornfield directly across from our house. Standing there, the crisp fall smell was in the air, the sky and trees were filled with color that made your jaw drop… a wonderful moment sitting in the yard, taking the time to soak in and appreciate, with the whole family, just how beautiful the world can really be.

Saturday night, we watched Muppets In Space with the kids. It was one of those odd realizations: My kids are so young (or I’m so old?…nah, let’s go with them being young), that they aren’t familiar with the Muppets. After the fun we all had with the movie, we’ve vowed to have more Muppet Nights at home!

So all these things, and more, going through my head as I’m enjoying a spectacular Autumn Sunday.

Some days, I think, are God’s way of saying “Yep – it’s tough right now. But here’s what’s worth fighting for. Keep it up.”

I’m very thankful for those days.