Every Day an Adventure

Relatively boring day I guess. I wanted to go out and experience the lovely weather, except I noticed that my car tires were looking relatively wimpy, so I experienced the lovely weather by going to the gas station and pumping air into my car tires. It may explain why my gas mileage has been (relatively) low (for a hybrid). The two tires on the passenger side of the car were in the 15-20 psi range, when they're supposed to be 30-35. Oops.

Ran some errands, then went over and played volleyball. My arm is fine but now my neck aches. I can't win. I did overhand serve quite a bit though and did fairly well at it, but it was mostly a last resort because I was sick of hitting the ceiling serving underhand. BG has returned after a several-week hiatus, but I avoided being on his team all day so he only got to tell me what I was doing wrong in hindsight once.

After vball I wasted the evening! Wheeeee. I watched another episode of Brother Beat (how I can enjoy a show with no plot so much is beyond me, but I do), and sang some songs, and wrote a parody of "I Hope I Get It" from A Chorus Line about Spring Training, and I think I should work more on my Vegas pictures so I can put them online, or something. Oh, and I should go to sleep at a reasonable hour. I hope.

I'll lj-cut the parody lyrics because I'm nice and I doubt anyone out there actually likes baseball AND is familiar with A Chorus Line, although I suppose the chance is higher on LJ than it'll be on Marinerds :) I really ought to get back to working on Moneyball The Musical.

( God, I Hope I Get It )

Today was Tuesday. I stayed at work late and went over to the 5th Avenue Theater to see their production of Sweeney Todd. Man, every theater should do Sweeney Todd at Halloween... it's just so appropriate. Anyway, the lady who played Mrs. Lovett was really quite perfect, and the guy who played Sweeney Todd was pretty good as well. Believe it or not, I've never actually *seen* a production of the show -- so in my mind it's Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou and Victor Garber and all. It's funny, I guess I'd never realized how much of an... opera, it is, really? There's not much speaking between the music. Of course, it's all very very Sondheim; I especially noticed how it had a lot of musical similarities to Into the Woods, which I'd never thought of until I saw the Johanna character singing Green Finch and Linnet Bird, and suddenly I thought: "Holy crap, it's Rapunzel!" (And of course I couldn't help but think "I bet that kid played Jack recently" when I heard Tobias sing)

Anyway, it was very good, especially "Try the Priest"; I was surprised by how few people were laughing during it, honestly.

Also, the theater had a deal in the program that said if you come back with a paid stub from a Sweeney Todd performance, you can see it a second time for just $20, sitting anywhere in the theater. I might be tempted to do that, because I'm crazy. (PS - as a note, maybe dvarin will care, I noticed that the theater has mp3s of some of the songs from Princesses on their archive page.)

And goddamnit, I still have to go back to New York and see Wicked sometime.

Man, I've seen a *lot* of Sondheim. I've really been in a "Company" mood lately, too.

Yesterday was Monday, but I don't have a lot to say about it. I didn't bother wearing any sort of costume to work, which is good, as I don't think anyone else did either. I didn't give out candy because nobody trick-or-treats in Seattle and my building doesn't allow it anyway. What did I do? I went to choir and kicked ass, and I went to the gym after that and despite a sore left arm, did lifting anyway. I also ran/walked for 15 minutes, and I got myself to run for 4.5 minutes straight, up another half minute from last week. I ran into Jen from volleyball again -- her knee is still too hurt to play, but she goes to the gym almost every day to do other stuff anyway. She had some advice for me on running with my bad knees, which was good.

In Puzzle Pirates, I've spent 225k in the last few days on portraits. No, I'm really not kidding. Since October 22nd and the "New Clothes" portraits, I've bought 15 portraits. Oh well. It's not like I have anything else to do with the poe. And I probably put WAY too much effort into coordinating amusing titles, outfits, and locations, but ah well.

An interesting way to say "Take a deep breath and sing *through* the line, you idiots," but it worked nonetheless.

Choir was decent tonight. We picked up another tenor and another bass this week. We finally rehearsed "Their Sound is Gone Out", and I kicked butt, at least compared to the rest of the tenor section. I also kicked butt on "Let All The Angels" or whatever it's called, because, well, I can hit a high A in full voice, and enjoy it, too. It's funny, I was at first sort of scared about doing all the choruses in the second section because we didn't do them last time, but I'm familiar enough with the music and can sight-read well enough to handle it. Get it? Get it? I can handle Handel. Ha! I kill me.

This was also a food-and-socializing week, so I had some food and tried socializing. Of course, I have absolutely nothing in common with anyone in the choir, so I got to listen to everyone's stories about performing Verdi's Requiem last season.

I lifted weights after choir. I decided it's better for me to lift weights after choir late on Monday than to lift on Tuesday, since then my arm will be sore for playing volleyball on Wednesday.

Also, I'm thinking of going to see The King And I at the 5th Avenue Theater sometime this weekend, most likely either Friday night or sometime on Sunday. If anyone's interested in seeing it as well, let me know. I'm *definitely* going to see the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd, which is the next play in the queue.

Oh, and I finally bothered writing some words to Scutaro (to the tune of "Sussudio"), because, like, Marco Scutaro is awesome, and he deserves a song. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the original song on any of my tapes, so I can't quite tell if it scans the way I hear it in my head.

Also, Eli informs me that I am a Sea Slug.

I'm pathetic, aren't I? I had this idea while walking home from the gym tonight, and rather than going out to eat sushi or maybe go see Must See Dogs by myself, both of which I was seriously considering, I just sat here for the last two hours dumping all of my song parody ideas out of my head.

I think I've come up with the opening number for "Mariners! The Musical", though...

"What do you do with a Major League Contract? / It Sucks to be Us"
To the tune of "What do you do with a BA in English? / It Sucks to Be Me" from the musical Avenue Q
New lyrics by Deanna Rubin.


(The stage opens on a sidestreet in Peoria, Arizona, near the Mariners Spring Training complex. A rookie, Jeremy Reed, stands there with a suitcase and an envelope containing his invitation to Spring Training. He looks out and sings:)

JEREMY REED
What do you do with a major league contract?
Where's my career going to go?
Four years of minors with all of those whiners
Has earned me a shot at the show

I can't play the field yet
'Cause my feet ain't healed yet.
And Safeco's a big scary place..

But somehow I can't shake
The feeling I might make
A difference
In the pennant race.


(Lights up on the clubhouse, where players are starting to arrive.)

SCOTT SPIEZIO
Morning, Ryan.

RYAN FRANKLIN
What's up, Sandfrog?

SCOTT SPIEZIO
How's life?

RYAN FRANKLIN
Disappointing!
( The rest of this song has been mercifully lj-cut. )