Car 2

I am not feeling very full of blog fodder lately.

Monday night I had band practice and husband joked that riding in our truck was always an adventure- as you never knew if you would reach your destination or not. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned out other vehicle, a 1990 Mazda pickup. It leaks oil and the pipe from the engine to the muffler fell off about a year ago and the bumpers are covered in rust- but it goes and it is helpful to have a second vehicle sometimes, though we cannot legally transport our child in it.

I mainly take it to band practice as out practice space is in a bit of a sketchy area. The truck has been much more reliable than the beamer of late so I laughed at Husband's comment and went merrily on my way to practice. When we left at 12pm I went to start the truck and.....nothing happened. At all. No lights on, no turnover of any kind, nothing. I didn't realize I had jumper cables in the truck behind the seat or we would have given that a try, as it was I caught a ride home with another band member.

After work yesterday, Husband and I sped over to see if there was anything we could do. Wondering if this was "it" for the truck and it had finally died forever. Or at least where the cost of fixing it would outweigh the value of the vehicle. Husband tried to turn it on. He opened the hood. Swore a little. Pulled at the cables connected to the battery. Decided to check if the connectors were loose. They were. tightened them. Got back in the car and it turned on. Huzzoo! Too bad I don't know anything about cars or I might have figured it out myself Monday night. Although in my defense, neither of the two band members that were with me made any suggestions either.

Yesterday was SO beautiful. I sat outside and let Miss D run free in the playlot outside her school for an hour after school.

3 Things:
- Sunshine
- working vehicles
- watercolor paint in spray bottles

If it’s not one thing…

It’s a goddamned nother.

There are some minor sniffles and itchy eyes, but for the most part we are on the mend. Then on Friday night our car broke down. That’s right, our 2004 BMW that recently ended dealer warranty over the summer. Oh we had a full overhaul before the warranty ended and we purchased a new warranty, which was cheaper than BMW and is looking like it might be not as good an idea as we thought it was at the time. (sigh)

We suspect it is a ghost in the machine, on Friday the car shifted into neutral after coming to a stop and refused to go into gear. After several frustrating hours for Husband, (call the dealer for a tow- oh no you have to call the warranty company and they will tell you a tow company to use- oh by the way shop is closed all weekend.) The car went into gear and he was able to get it home to our garage. Amusingly enough on Monday when the tow company came it refused to shift out of 1st gear so the regular tow truck was unable to move it and Husband then had to wait an additional 2 hours for a flatbed to arrive.

So the service shop will not even be looking at the car until tomorrow. And you cannot get a loaner or be reimbursed for a rental until the service shop and warranty hash it out over the phone and it is proven that the car will need to be serviced for more than 4 hours.

Hey Hey! Good times.

So we bit the bullet and will be shelling out the dollars that we do not have for a rental for today and tomorrow as public transportation is not an option for all our morning travel needs. (Getting child to and from school, husband work is not conveniently located, etc.)

I am doing my best to stay very zen about the whole thing. After all, we all have our health and these things are minor in the grand scheme of things. But they are VERY ANNOYING!

Feels Like –6, Biking, Batshit?

Yes I am. I actually ordered some winter tights but decided I couldn’t wait until I got them. (Danger Will Robinson!) My skin is unhappy with me. The ride was actually ok other than my eyelashes kept getting stuck together and my gears kept getting stuck. (The gears being the more major issue of the two.) I’ll have to do some research and see if I need to do some winterizing.

NEW TOPIC - CHILDCARE

Last night Husband and I spent trolling the internets looking for part-time daycare for the Dukes. Apparently, if you want to get into a reputable program in the Chicago area, you need to put your kid on a wait list at least a year in advance. (For those of you smacking your heads saying “Duh!”- where were you a year ago?) I actually had started looking into preschool over the summer for her for Fall of 2008. Most of the public school ones do not even have applications available until spring, but I am starting to think I have missed the boat on getting her on a wait list for a private one (in case I don’t get her into a public one) Gah! I’m not ready for this.

We did bite it and spend the $40 to join the North Side Parents Network which has already proven to be a good source of knowledge and resources through the discussion boards. After quickly realizing a daycare center situation is not going to happen in the near future we are looking into home daycare and/or nanny share options. Then hopefully she will be able to go to preschool in the fall. Assuming I’m not too late. Gulp.

Producer's Lament

Well, the one LA review from Harvey Finklestein's Sock Puppet Showgirls is in and it is...not good. Not terrible, but not good.

I try not to get too upset at the crusty old bitch (kidding,kidding, sort of.) as it is more than obvious this type of humor is not her cup of tea. (When a reviewer begins their review of this show by disparaging the opening warm-up speech you can tell the reviewer doesn't enjoy our sense of humor as the warm-up speech was basically designed as a warning to the audience and actually tells them "If you don't find this funny, now is your chance to leave." Of course if you are a reviewer, I guess you don't have that option. But I mean- hey! We told you!)

For all of my readers who have never produced a show, which I suspect is all of you, what does this mean?

Reviews can be the angel of mercy or the kiss of death for a show. Ironically, a pleasant review was the impetous of this show becoming more than a 2 night lark with friends and grew it into a cult phenomenon. I have also experienced the killing of a show due to terrible opening reviews (google UU7: A Magician Never Tells His Tricks). This situation is a little more maddening as the crowd on opening night was so explosively responsive and so clearly enjoying themselves and that was not mentioned at all in the review. Whereas for the UU7 opening, everything went wrong and we all kind of saw the response coming.

For the review is essentially, one person's opinion of the show. You probably read movie reviews or music reviews and maybe you identify with certain reviewers whom you trust and others you think are crazy. Unfortunately in the theatre world on a street paper level there are so many reviewers that people don't really get that opportunity to know if they share somebody's opinions or not.

So the question is, does this review have the power to kill this show? I'm not really sure. For one thing, LA doesn't seem to have the plethora of street papers that you find in both NYC and Chicago. This could either mean that it consolidates the influence of the one that is out there or that no one really pays attention to it in general. Sometimes just getting a review, even if it is not particularly glowing, is enough to bring people in the door. We have tons of great press from other cities, but does that mean anything to people if they don't read it? Will word of mouth be enough to bring the people in the door regardless?

Nothing to do but wait and see.

Apologies

Sorry posting has been brief and uninteresting of late. Work has been insane. In fact, it is Sunday and that is where I am. :(

So far, Miss D has only had the one potty success previously reported. :(

It is really beautiful in Chicago today. At least it looks like it is, from here in this office....

sob