Tag Archives: Leading Ladies

Memories Before Murder

Today I am going to do a Throwback Thursday post, but I will call it Non-Sequitur Thursday, because that is what I like to call my Thursday silly posts.  I am in kind of a bad space lately, and I think some happy memories would help me out.  And this will be an easy post, so I can get back to watching 20/20 on OWN.  A little murder and mayhem always cheers me up.

I need a new 1920’s outfit.

This is my friend, Kim, and me at Gerber’s 1933 Tavern last year.  It was their Prohibition Party.  Good times.  Kim is the tall, gorgeous one.  I am wearing a tiara.

I miss that cute little doggy!

I mix things up a little with a picture of our late, much loved Spunky.  That is my crochet basket he decided would be a good bed for him.  Naturally I let him keep it, although I removed the unfinished afghan.

Now there’s a cast of killers!

And I zip back to the 1920’s with the cast of Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, the interactive murder mystery LiFT, the Little Falls Theatre Company, did at The Overlook Mansion in Little Falls last year.  Yes, that is me being strangled.  No doubt I was asking for it.

Not a murderer amongst them!

One more happy theatre memory:  the cast of Leading Ladies, the play I directed at Ilion Little Theatre in 2016.

Well, I think with this post I managed to be both Throwback and Non-Sequitur.  Yay  me.  Now for some murder and mayhem.  I hope to see you all on Lame Post Friday.

 

Picture Me Not Making a Blog Post

One of the finest casts ever to grace the Ilion Little Theatre stage.

When your brain fails, look for a picture to post.

Hmmm…  What kind of a Freudian slip do you suppose made me first type “ficture”?  Would that be a “fictional picture” or perhaps a combination of “fail” and “picture”?  That’s it!  I failed to come up with a blog post, so I looked for a picture!  These things are really very simple, when you get right down to it.

In any case, the above picture is from Leading Ladies, the play I had the delightful experience of directing for Ilion Little Theatre last spring.  I would love to work with any and all of those people again.

I’m the one with the really short hair.

This is a backstage selfie, done with a selfie stick (don’t judge).  This one includes me and the backstage crew.  It was a month after I participated in a St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser.  I miss my short ‘do.  I thought it was sophisticated (or do I flatter myself?).

 

And in this one, I seem to be getting what some people feel I richly deserve.

I don’t have another shot of the Leading Ladies cast, so I will include this one of the Rubbed Our at Ruby’s gang (I use the term advisedly).

I guess I’m going to call this a Wordless Wednesday post, which I understand is a thing.  It has a nicer ring to it than Wuss-out Wednesday, which some may feel is more accurate.  Then again, who am I to judge?  Happy Wednesday, everyone.

 

Theatre Memories on Tired Tuesday

I interrupt my reading of other people’s blogs to make my Tired Tuesday post.  I’d like to do the picture thing, but I think I’ve used all the good ones in our Downloads, and I haven’t downloaded any new ones lately. I wonder if Steven has.

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Photo by Mark Hanna, who is also a pretty good actor.

This is the cast of the murder mystery I wrote last year for Morning Star Methodist Church in Ilion, NY, Engaged to be Murdered.  I’m writing a new one for that church, to be presented April 1.  This one is titled He Laughed Himself to Death.  I intend to incorporate the April Fool’s Day holiday in the plot.  I shall write more blog posts about that, rest assured.

 

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They were all leading ladies to me!

To continue the theme of theatre memories, here is the cast and crew of Leading Ladies, which I was blessed to direct with one of the finest groups ever associated with the Ilion Little Theatre stage.  Perhaps you read one of my blog posts about it.

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Full disclosure: a selfie stick was used in the taking of this picture.

Is it silly of me to post two pictures of the same cast and crew?  No matter; it is what is in my downloads, I will post it.  We took a selfie of the whole group a few times before performances.  It was one of those casts that really bonded.  I’m hoping we take a few backstage selfies of Steel Magnolias.  I’ll be sure to share them here if we do.

For now, I must scurry off to rehearsal, which is a little earlier tonight.  Happy Tuesday, everyone.

 

Snow, Costumes and Oolong Tea

Well, I am going to try to make my Scattered Saturday post before Steven comes home and we go out to meet good friends for dinner.  For one reason, I thought I would refrain from drinking and typing, as I sometimes do on a Saturday.  At least for my blog post.  About Facebook I make no promises (note to self:  make a Facebook page for Mohawk Valley Girl, in case my readers would like to Like me there).

Mmm… I paused to sip my Oolong tea.  I LOVE Oolong tea.  Why have I not been drinking it every day?  Points to ponder.  Then I paused again, because my laptop told me the battery was low.  Silly me, not plugging it in between Facebook breaks.  I moved to a different chair, plugged the damn thing in, moved my tea, which necessitated moving a piled up lace dress (that I’ll tell you about in a few), sat down, remembered my mouse, went back across the room to get the mouse… I tell you, it’s not easy being me.

We slept in this morning, because Steven did not work till 10:30.  Oh, the laziness of staying in bed till almost seven o’clock!  It was great.  It was after eight when Spunky indicated it was time for his first business meeting.  I put on a bra (do NOT tell me TMI!), my flood boots and my warmest coat.  It was still pretty frigid out, and snowing.  Spunky barked at a neighbor as she came out of her house.  We exchanged good mornings, and I told Spunky he was a silly dog (he already knew).

Steven had sensibly put off clearing the cars since more snow would fall before time to leave, but I saw that we also had to shovel.  After I got Spunky back inside, wiped his paws and gave him a treat, I went back out and started.  Steven soon joined me.  At least the snow was lightweight.  Pushing it worked fine.  Our neighbor shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house and started helping on the driveway!  How awesome of her!  I thanked her profusely, and Steven and I introduced ourselves.  After she left and Steven and I had finished up, I paid it forward by doing the walk in front of the house on the other side.

After showering and getting dressed, I wrote my weekly postcards.  My first stop on leaving the house after Steven was the post office.  Then I gassed up, got some money from the ATM and a drink at the Nice N Easy.  The drink took some debate, since I am avoiding sugar (on a doctor’s suggestion) yet wanted more than mere water.  I finally got Poland Springs Sparkling, black cherry flavor.  That stuff is awesome!  It tastes like soda only not sweet (I often don’t enjoy sweet soda after the first few sips), but there are NO calories!  Score!

I drove to Ilion Little Theatre, where a few people were hard at work on the set for Steel Magnolias.  I hope to show you a photo of the beautifully painted backdrop when it is finished.  I went upstairs to look for 1920s type costumes for the upcoming murder mystery, Rubbed Out at Ruby’s, to be presented by LiFT Theatre Company in Little Falls.  I did not have a whole lot of hope, because I went through every dress in that place when we were doing Leading Ladies and I did not remember anything I thought would work.  However, I was mistaken.  I found a few things I liked, including the lace dress I mentioned some paragraphs ago (was that mention even worth foreshadowing?).

After those exertions, however, I started feeling not too well again.  How stupid of me!  Why can’t I just be healthy?  And why do I have to be such a baby about it?  And here I am, troubling my readers with my complaints.  So sorry.  This is what happens, though, when I’m typing away with one eye on the clock.  I have to plug in the curling iron and do my hair (an unaccustomed chore, to be sure).   Well, I hope you have been moderately entertained by my Scattered Saturday gyrations.  As for me, that Oolong tea has given me my first hot flash of the day and all I can say is, Thank God for menopause!  I have been freezing!  Happy Saturday, everyone.

 

Neither Wordless Nor Wuss

I was all set to do a Wuss-out Wednesday  post when I remembered that some bloggers do a thing called  Wordless Wednesday.   Not that I am usually wordless, nor do I intend to be entirely Wordless now.  But I do have a couple of pictures to share.  So here are two views of me.

 

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Do you even like my feet?

 

I was hoping for slippers for Christmas.  I quite frankly never pictured these, but I LOVE them.  You can’t imagine how cool it is to look down at your feet and see these big fluffy things.  Unless you have a pair too, in which case,  excellent!

The next was taken last night before Steven and I went out to eat.  I wanted to put on something cute and this is what I came up with .

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Steven said, “Hubba, hubba!”

 

Full disclosure  I purchased the shirt in the late 1980s, when I worked at JC Penney in Potsdam, NY.  I rediscovered them during Leading Ladies (remember?  the show I directed for Ilion Little Theatre), when I wanted to dress fabulously each night to make the curtain speech.  I added the Christmas vest and jewelry last night.

I confess, I thought I looked pretty fine.  So fine, in fact I was the one to say,  “Hey, Steve, take a picture!”

Oh dear, now I’m looking at the picture and seeing my pile of footwear at the bottom of the stairs.  Then again, maybe most people didn’t notice them till I foolishly pointed them out.  Oh well,  these things happen.

 

Lame Post, Not Really Friday

Full disclosure:  Even though I am making a Lame Friday Post, it is not really a Friday for me.  I have to work tomorrow.  However, this is not a blog about work, so I will not dwell on that but go on to attempt to entertain with random observations and half-baked philosophy (which, for anyone just tuning in, is what I do on Lame Post Friday).

Hmmm… I got nuthin.

I had thought I could share some of the observations I made when I went running on Monday.  I remember noticing a few things and thinking, “I’ll include that in my Running Commentary,” but I did not.  Do you suppose I remember what those observations were now?  Of course not!  I’ll let you come up with your own half-baked philosophy about why that is so.

Earlier today I observed the bright sunshine making things outside look quite lovely. I was about to remark upon it when a co-worker asked me how my play went.  Naturally  I got all distracted telling him all about how wonderful it was. And here I am talking about work again.  I’ll stop that now.

Last night was Ilion Little Theatre Club’s last monthly dinner meeting of the 2015-16 season.  Great plans are in train for next season.  I’ll most likely be writing many blog posts about it.  I do not intend to direct again.  Well, not before 2017.  Well, not a major production before 2017.  We’ll see what happens.  I might like to get back onstage again, although that entails a whole other set of trouble from directing.  So I thought maybe I’d take another season off acting as well.  Then I heard one director is doing Steel Magnolias.  What a great choice!

Well, that last paragraph was neither random observation nor half-baked philosophy, but merely me blathering on about the theatre.  I would imagine my readers had enough of that with All Leading Ladies All The Time and would appreciate a break.   Then again, there may also be readers who would like a break from foolish posts like this one, and they are doomed to disappointment.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

Some Post, Any Post

It is that time of day on a Saturday when I have to publish some post, any post, so I can get on with my weekend.  I am sitting on my front porch, laptop on lap, sipping coffee and enjoying the warm temperature.  I have invited members of my cast (remember that play which it seems I will never stop talking about?) over for a cook-out.  It was a bribe for helping with putting away costumes and props.  Also, I like to have people over to my house.

I’m actually not going to cook out, because it was supposed to storm.  No far it’s not, although it is quite cloudy.  However, I did not purchase any charcoal or lighter fluid, so rain or not, stove top it is.  The house was beautifully clean, thanks to my dear husband.  Unfortunately, that was a whole day ago.  I really need to have people over the precise moment when it is clean.  You blink and you miss it.

I have had a dreadful headache all day.  It is either due to some white wine I rather inadvisedly drank last night (isn’t that how you spell “inadvisedly”?  My computer thinks not) or to the weather.  The spring pollens are in full force (no, I’m sure that is how you spell pollen) (oh, the computer just doesn’t like me to pluralize it. Dumb computer), and I’m sure the barometric pressure is high.  I like to ascribe my headaches to barometric pressure.  I find it fun to say.  Try it.

So I guess this is my Lame Saturday Post.  I don’t even remember what I said yesterday, the nominal Lame day for this blog, but I’m sure it, too was lame. Well, I hope somebody found some entertainment in my words.  And I hope to see you all tomorrow, on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

Post-Leading Ladies Lame

I have found that it takes at least a week to recover from a major theatre endeavor, at least for me.  I’m old, remember?  But I will say, I am quite delighted to have a Friday when I do not have to hurry to the theatre for either a rehearsal or a performance.  Full disclosure:  I did hurry out to a wine tasting at a liquor store then to a restaurant for dinner and the grocery store.  Now  I am sitting in my living room sipping wine and composing at the keyboard.

The wine tasting was at Valley Wine and Liquor in Herkimer, NY, with the Adirondack Winery of Lake George, NY.  I have gone to several wine tastings there as well as a couple at Vintage Spirits in Hekimer and Ilion Wine and Liquor, none of which I have written about.  That is very remiss of me, especially as some of the people from the wineries have remembered me and are certainly deserving of a post.

Be all that as it may, all I want to do now is type in something vaguely acceptable and get back to enjoying my Friday.  Did I mention we went out to dinner?  We went to Jamo’s in Herkimer and had two carafes of Pinot Grigio.  Yum!  Dinner was yummy, too, so there is another blog post I ought to make.

Regarding Leading Ladies (that play at Ilion Little Theatre, remember?), I have to return to the theatre tomorrow to help take down the set and put away costumes and props.  It would behoove me not to drink too much wine tonight.  I shall take that under advisement.  Happy Friday, everyone.

 

Some Semblance of a Blog Post

I’m having kind of a Flustered Sunday today.  You know, I like that better than Wrist to Forehead Sunday, because it has that internal rhyme with the short u.  It is appropriate, too, because I have spent most of the morning saying, “Uh, what should I do now?”

Regular readers may remember that today is the closing performance of Leading Ladies at Ilion Little Theatre.  I directed.  My cast and crew are the most wonderful people you can imagine.  Other members of the theatre group are awesome as well.  I just love community theatre, because everybody lends a hand.   People who hadn’t signed up to work door sold tickets or refreshments if needed.  The people who had signed up worked hard to make sure our audience had a pleasant experience.  We sold out for the last two nights, which meant the box office people were setting up extra chairs and asking people to move over one, trying to get everybody a seat.

Oh dear, this is turning into a Scattered Post (neither alliteration nor internal rhyme!).  I started out crying about how flustered I am, then gave a brief shout-out to my cast and crew, then started praising the box office folks.  I’m jumping around like a maniac, mentally at least (physically I’m sitting on the couch with my feet up, feeling another migraine hovering just outside my head; SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!) (I’ll try heading it off with some blue Gatorade).

Where was I?  Ah yes, trying to type in some semblance of a post before I have to finish getting ready for this afternoon’s matinee.  I’m repeating an outfit I wore last weekend, because it was both fabulous and comfortable.  At least, I may have to re-think my shoe choice if I want real comfort, but we’ll worry about that later.

In the meantime, I’m just over 300 words.  I call that more than respectable.  We’ll see how quickly I can segue back into “real” blog posts once the play is really over.  Don’t count on it happening tomorrow, though.  After all, I have a cast party to attend tonight.

 

Rummage Rounds on Scattered Saturday

I had a long and varied Scattered Saturday today (and it’s not over yet), but for this post I shall only highlight the early portion of the day.

We slept in past 6:30 and it was great!  After some coffee, a little food, and a quick chat with my Mom on the phone, I wrote a few postcards.  Regular readers may remember it is a hobby of mine to send a few postcards to a few people, usually on Saturday.  I have been quite remiss in doing this for the past few weeks, due to theatre commitments (you may also remember I directed the show Leading Ladies at Ilion Little Theatre; we have a show again tonight, and closing performance is tomorrow’s matinee), so I was happy to at last check in with my friends.

I was also happy to walk to the post office.  I intend to start running again but I was afraid if I did it this morning, I might feel too tired for all the stuff I hoped to get done.  Oh, what a lovely spring morning.  I felt glorious, stretching my legs and checking out the leaves that are at last appearing on the trees.  One of my favorite sights is the pale, fresh green of brand new leaves.  That color lasts such a short time, I’m always happy when I don’t miss it for the year.

At the post office, I noticed signs for two church rummage sales, right along the way I often walk home for the post office. Dollar bag day was going on.  Score!

First I went to Christ Episcopal on Main Street.  I grabbed two beautifully colored blazers that I knew would look awesome over my black sheath dress.  I also found a pretty blouse, a biography of Louisa May Alcott (I have been WANTING to read a biography about her!), a green shawl and a small box or carrying jewelry when traveling.  It was two dollars worth.

I knew some of the ladies there.  One of them asked me if I had anything going on at the theatre.  Naturally I said yes, a play going on tonight.  They remembered seeing me in Roxy (a play we did back in the fall for the Herkimer Historical Society; perhaps you read some of my blog posts about it).

“Oh yes,” I said.  “They hung me good, after I killed my rat bastard husband with an ax.”

Another lady told me she could have thought of a number of other ways to kill him and I should have come to her first.  I agreed that would have been a better thing to do.

Moving on to the Herkimer Reformed Church, at the Historic Four Corners, I was also lucky.  I found a canister set such as I have been wanting but have not had a chance to look for.  It would have been five dollars yesterday, but I got it for a buck today.  It was the only thing I got, but I felt quite pleased with it.

Walking home was a little problematic with all my finds.  I had neglected to put my cell phone back in my purse or I could have called Steven for a ride.  Luckily, my house is not that far away, and I made it without mishap.

My Scattered Saturday has continued to go rather well for me, except for a migraine headache I am currently writing around.  Does it show?  No matter.  I have to finish getting ready for tonight’s performance of Leading Ladies.  I’m wearing one of my new rummage sale blazers.