spring ahead

Amazing, incredible, full to the brim day. But first,

Here’s a big old love-fest shout-out to my FABULOUS FAT BOYS! They gave me a “Hooray, you quit smoking!” gift bag this weekend that nearly brought me to tears. Full of, of course, all sorts of things to do instead of smoking. Labels for my famous label-maker, several kinds of gum, ring-pops and bottle-pops and push-pops, tiny alcohol bottles, a notepad, a magazine, and a million other wonderful things. They are my favorite girls in the whole wide world and I (heart) them all. Okay, back to your regularly scheduled diary-style daily blog update.

Slept in until noon after spending last night at the DEMOLITION DERBY in beautiful Monroe at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds! Yes, I have seen a figure-eight race run by school buses, and have watched cars towing boats behind them beat the shit out of each other. It was thrilling, and I spent the evening giggling furiously while sipping on a huge diet coke with a mini bottle of caramel liqeur poured into it (thanks, Fat Boys!) It was moderated by an aging hipster (who doesn’t realize that he’s past his prime) and his mascot sidekick, a large goggled racoon named Racey. We were going to end the evening by going to Cowgirls, Inc. but instead just went home because we were exhausted by the sensory overload that was the entire surreal evening. And the worst part was that we missed ALPACAPALOOZA, which had occurred earlier in the day. (Can you fucking imagine?)

Crave had rented the Flex-Miata for the day, and so we drove around the city in a convertible with the top down, playing our music too loud and (at least on Crave’s part) messing with random people we passed by. This was curtailed by our final FringeAct performance of “Subterranean Chicken Fiasco”, which I thought went swimmingly. Yellow Dog took a picture of Scotto, Michaela and me during the performance - he promised to email me the picture, so if he does I’ll put it up here somewhere. I’ve never had another actor take a picture of me while we were onstage together before - I think it has serious artistic merit and should be incorporated into more performances in the future. ;)

Afterwards, we went to Crave’s aunt and uncle’s place up in Edmonds, where I got to meet and have dinner with his aunt, uncle, cousins, cousin’s girlfriend, grandmother, sister, and parents. His immediate family I’ve spent time with before and absolutely adore, but everyone else was new to me. I was expecting it to be a nerve-wracking experience, but I just loved all of them - and I was leaving, his grandmother (who is quite frail) hobbled over to me on her walker and gave me a big hug. She said “I am so glad I finally got to meet you … you will be coming to see us again soon, won’t you? I look forward to it.” Crave will never get to meet any of my grandparents, since I don’t have any left - and I got a little choked up for a minute. I wish my Grandmother (my father’s mother, the only grandparent that I ever knew very well) could have met him. I think she would have been quite pleased.

After dinner, we hopped back in the Flex-Miata and drove all the way around Lake Washington, going up and down hills and in and out of special forest roads that Crave discovered in his twenty-odd years of being a hooligan in this city. The weather was beautiful and the moon was out, and it was a pretty fantastic way to end the day.

Now, I am going to watch the Sopranos, eat some chicken noodle soup, and go to bed. I hope you all sleep as well as I’m going to.