Sheesh, is the election over yet? I'd say that I'll be glad when it's over regardless of the outcome, but that's not really true. Not surprisingly, I've already voted for the guy born in the second half of the twentieth century and will be somewhat dismayed if he doesn't win. Please note that by "somewhat dismayed" I mean "will have lost what remaining faith I had in politics". If you haven't voted, remember that this election (like every election before it) is the most important election of our time. Or something. Seriously, go vote tomorrow if you're not lucky enough to live in a civilized state like mine that does vote by mail. There, now that I've made a plea for people to vote in a public forum, I have eased my conscience about my lack of political involvement. Yay.

Sigh...I finally gave in to peer pressure and did the unthinkable - I joined Facebook. At this point, I'm not even sure what my objections were, probably geek elitism since I had my own web site. That and perhaps normal elitism in not doing it because it was popular. Anyway, it is quite entertaining, if for no other reason than seeing what old high school friends are up to. I could see it being addicting, or I could also see getting bored with it very quickly. In the interest of social network fairness, I signed up for MySpace as well (with a definite bitter taste in my mouth), but I don't really see myself using it too much (if not for a couple people in particular, I'd probably forget about it altogether). Facebook has a feature to let you import RSS, so these posts will start showing up there as well, which might actually give me a reason to update more. We'll see...

I should probably just cut and paste from my entry back in March (which hasn't scrolled off the home page yet, holy crap I really need to update this more) talking about how wistful I am that the play is done. Same deal, I had a great time, I'm sad it's over, what am I gonna do with my time now, gonna miss the cast, blah, blah, etc, etc. Anyway, unless something unexpected comes up, looks like I'll be taking a break from theater until at least next year sometime (there's nothing I'm interested in at the moment).

So that theater thing is becoming somewhat of a habit, as I just started on my third play this year. I say third because Kirstin and I also recently finished up doing Seven Brides for Seven brothers. It was fun, although I doubt we'll do another one with that company because the drive was just to damn long (25 miles each way - don't want to think about how much we spent in gas or what traffic could be like at times). I played one of the brothers (Benjamin) and she was a townsperson. It was a little sad because I had a major role (or what passes for one in that play), and she had like 5 lines. I'm learning that the best way to get roles in community theater is to be...well...male. Seriously, there were endless girls available for roles, but we still hadn't filled all of the male roles until about 3 weeks before opening night (out of a 10 week rehearsal schedule). Still, It was entertaining being in a musical; remembering (learning?) how to sing in a group setting and now I can polka and almost waltz.

The new role is back at Slocum House (place where we did Taming of the Shrew) and it's called It's Been Wonderful by John Patrick (I play Hank). It's a slightly more adult play, which is a nice change after Seven Brides (both for themes and costars - much of the cast in that made me feel quite old). It's also a bigger role than the other two (more lines, more actual interaction with other actors as opposed to lots of standing around trying to look busy). Kirstin tried out but didn't get a role (you know, lacking that crucial Y chromosome), but somehow ended up in the assistant director/stage manager role, which she seems to be enjoying.

Yeah, I'm still alive. In fact, I'm so alive that tomorrow marks 30 rides around the sun for me. Oddly enough, I'm fairly unfazed about it at this point. I think it hit me about six months ago and it bothered me some then, but now I don't really care. I do get to see Eddie Izzard tomorrow, so that's something.