Curtain In Five

My last night off before three dress rehearsal nights and three performance nights. It will be a looooong week, but I bet it will also be a lot of fun. It's hard to believe this show is finally here--I've been rehearsing since September! I went straight from Twelfth Night into this one without a break, so I feel like I could probably use one now. Two weeks of holiday cheer should leave me right as rain.

The day after the show ends I'm going to help my littlest sister assemble her baby registry. I can't wait to get my hands on that gun! It's been way too long. Not that I'm profligate about it. I feel like I've learned a thing or two in the past five years about what she's actually going to need and want (though I'll have to be excused for my love of all things fruity, man, do I miss that stuff.)

Jarrah has been sick the past few days with a fever/coughing/malaise type of ailment, and has been refusing all food. In classic Jewish mother fashion, I rushed to the store and procured ice cream, Popsicles, Scooby Doo-shaped mac and cheese, fruit leather and chicken nuggets (hey, they were organic!) in the hope of changing her mind. The nuggies got both thumbs down--"the ones at school are much better"--but the rest has been popular. When she woke this morning, her first words were "I think I'll start breakfast with a bowl of ice cream." I think maybe I'm being played.

Today I did all the normal things I won't do for another week now. Swept. Washed dishes. Three loads of laundry. Folded clothes. Made dinner for my family. I wanted Jarrah to have a bit of air so I dragged her on my errands, and perhaps it wasn't business as usual when she told the clerk in CVS "My mommy needs this makeup for her play" or when she modeled a bra for the mile-long line at Marshall's by telling her reflection, "Thank you, mirror!"

Tonight we'll catch up on some bad TV, loll on the couch, go to bed early. I'll continue with Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life and feel pretty normal, if all goes well. And in the morning, if Jarrah goes back to school, I'll go shopping for a gold tooth to cover one of mine, because true artistry is never vain.

And pray that I don't get sick before I have to belt solos to a lovely little dimly lit theater audience in Rolando. It's so close now.