Alright, be prepared for a shock.

Last night, Brian and I went to see "The Sound of Music". It was playing not too long a drive from here, and some friends of Brian's had tickets they couldn't use. So they called him...

And we loved it.

It just isn't the kind of thing I see myself enjoying. A rock concert, opera, perhaps, but not a '50's musical. I don't remember being very impressed by the film the one time (I think) that I saw it.

I guess there's something different about a stage production. Something more natural (now, isn't that odd? How can a play be more natural than a movie, which is filmed on location, where you can't see a stage? But that's how it feels) and refreshing. You can probably tell from a couple of stories (such as Parents' Night and Julio and Juliet) that I have a thing for plays, especially small productions, but I couldn't imagine enjoying a musical.

Well, was I surprised.

The quality of production had something to do with it. This was straight from Broadway. The actors were magnificent, and I mean that without reservation. Even the kids, the youngest of whom was about 7 or 8. The orchestra was good, and the sets were wonderful - there were banks of candles in the wedding scene, including an altar with dozens of candles lowered from the ceiling (they weren't real candles, but they flickered just like the scores of others, which were, and I couldn't tell the difference until they dimmed the altar at the end of the scene :-). The opening, the choral music in the abbey, was so perfect I could have cried. Not what I would have expected from a popular musical.

I don't think I've exhausted the romantic and erotic possibilities of the theatre in my stories. There is just such an excess of emotion. I don't want to risk the idea getting stale, so I won't be revisiting it any time soon, but expect a theatre/musical story again at some time.

 

July 10th I'm due in Vancouver, for 2-3 weeks. Ken told me Friday. Not a big deal, but it made me realize that I'm losing time in good-sized packets. I think about maybe setting a date for our wedding, then suddenly we're two to three months from it and we've done nothing.

Not that I'm in a hurry. I think I've made that clear. I just hate to decide by drifting.

So I sat Brian down on Saturday and told him we needed to set a date. He was thrilled. Then we spent the rest of the weekend trying to see what we could put together.

And we've set a date in September. I didn't think we'd be able to do it so soon, but the had a cancellation. We gave them a tentative booking, scurried around to be sure we could get everything else together, and I confirmed it with them yesterday. I wanted to get the same band who played at my birthday party / engagement, but they've split up. The singer and bass player are still together, with a couple of new guys, and Bev says they're even better. I haven't been able to contact them yet, but Bev's trying for me.

Now comes the hard part. Figuring out what to do about my mother. I will invite her, I can't do anything else, but I wish I could think of a way of mitigating the damage she'll try to do.

And I hope Clarice has had her baby by then... she *should* have had, but we're cutting it a little fine.

Speaking of weddings, we're going to one this weekend. An Indian friend of Brian's is getting married. It will be an Orthodox Christian wedding, which is unusual enough of itself, but we've been warned that the entire service will be in their native tongue.

As before, I'm not going to invent names for them. If I ever need to, I'll get expert advice first :-) Brian's friend is a couple of inches taller than me, and he is gorgeous. Dark-skinned, even by Indian standards (or what little I know of them, I guess) with an oval face and high forehead. He could be a actor. Or a model. And his fiancée... it's just unfair. Couples should just not look as good as these two do.

Not that Brian isn't every bit as good to look at as his friend. Not at all... it's just... <sigh> :-) (And I think if he was being honest he'd have to admit I'm not in the same class as the fiancée. It would take a Halle Berry or Thandie Newton to be that.)

I'm sure we'll have an interesting time, though beyond that I have no idea what to expect.

I finally uploaded the two new stories last night. I talked to Jill, and she promises another story soon. And I like the premise. I'm not sure if I should mention this, especially since the story isn't written yet, and she may go in a completely different direction... but y'all who've written me asking for a female/female story, well, she just might make you very happy.

 

Oops. How does two weeks slip by like that?

Oh. Wait. It didn't. That was just the odd syntax I use to create these diary entries - there was a link back to an earlier one, and I thought that was the last entry.

So it's good to know I'm not completely losing my mind. I know I've been leaving some gaps lately, but 13 days was just too hard for me to believe.

When I started this new diary format, where the pages you see are generated by a script from text, I did it so that it would be easier for me to maintain. I was typing them in using FrontPage, which isn't the worlds greatest text editor.

And it is easier. Much easier. So much so that it's so little effort to sit and type that I don't do it at all. Before going to this, I would know that I had several minutes of preparation and badgering FrontPage to do what I wanted, and by the end of that time, I'd usually have figured out what I wanted to say. Now I know that I can sit to type - and can't think of anything. So I procrastinate.

Plus, as you've seen, sometimes I key in an entry without uploading, and go for several days (okay, a week or two) without actually transferring the file. Because now it's just one step - but it's an extra step, and I don't get around to it.

On the other hand, sometimes I create an entry in a place or at a time when I really wouldn't have bothered the old way. I don't think I'd have rushed off those lines in Florida. And I know I wouldn't have written anything on the plane back, because I would have been keying in a large font on a bright pink flowery background (yes, it's gold now, but it wasn't when I used FrontPage), which would have drawn all the eyes in a six seat radius, and been readable for several rows behind me.

And I probably wouldn't be sitting outside right now, typing by candlelight. (Okay, it's a bug-repelling oil flame, and I have a small electric light too :-)

Texas is so lovely at this time of the year. Today was hot, tonight is warm, with high humidity. I'm surrounded by fireflies. Little flashes of light keep drawing my eyes from the notebook. I can hear at least five crickets nearby, from the pitch of the sounds, and many many more just a little further away, keeping up that soft pulsing chrreeee sound. Occasionally a cicada fires up and drowns out even the sound of the air conditioner.

The spa has been getting a workout the last few weeks. It seems almost automatic now that we shed our clothes at dusk and rest for an hour. Except during thunderstorms. (Although the shedding our clothes part seems still to happen :-)

Tonight, though, Brian was wiped out from work, and he has gone to bed early, so I decided to catch up with my journal.

Fourth of July is next week. A year ago this weekend we were in San Antonio. I wish we were doing that again this year. But it could only be for a weekend, this time, we'd have to come back on the fourth in the traffic, or early early early morning on the fifth. Although that might almost be worthwhile. But then, we're going to see Rob and Clarice Friday, and I haven't seen them in a while.

I have no idea what I'm going to write next. I like the IRC story, but I haven't figured out how to make it work. I have another idea, which could be great, but I don't know quite how to tell it.