In which we diverge

From our WPBT trip reports to blog about life back here in the NC. When I got back it was time to get down and dirty in rehearsals for our revival of Taming of the Shrew, which opens this Thursday. Only problem with that was, several actors were having issues with attending rehearsals. Some things in folks personal lives had gotten all fucked up, including a mother in the hospital, a dying aunt, and various and sundry other shit, leading to us not having a full cast for a single rehearsal of the revival yet. Festive.

Pile on top of that the fact that one of the people with some personal life issues that necessitated her replacement in the show was the woman playing Kate, and it's been a wee bit stressful as I try to remember my lines, and try to break in a new(ish) co-lead. We promoted our Biance to Kate, so it's not like I've got to work with someone completely new to the show, and she's doing great, but tonight was the first night she and I have ever done the fight scene on stage and full out. So I'm a little sore, and we're getting together tomorrow early to work on the fight.

So with that stress, plus the stress of getting back to work, PLUS the stress of losing all my money in Vegas, it was great to have a pile of people over last night to play cards. We had a pretty decent crowd, with T, Special K, BG, Uncle Phil, Nate, Nick and Dan all hanging around. Phil nailed me with the high hand of the night when my gin card gave me the nut flush. "Phil, you should fold. I got there."

"I check"

"Ok, Phil, I told you to fold. I'm all in."

He rechecks his hole cards. "I call."

"Well, okay, the straight flush beats me, but otherwise I've got the nut flush."

"Well, I've got the straight flush." And he wasn't angle-shooting or trying to BS me, he really wanted to double-check his hole cards to make sure he had it, then he called. I was happy enough to lose to the King-high straight flush, but less than pleased that it also meant that I no longer had the high hand of the night. I haven't won the high hand jackpot since we started it into our home game, and at that point my Kings full was the best hand. Oh well, I'll get another shot in a couple of weeks.

It was an up and down game, up when my trip Kings with a Queen kicker busted Gregor's trip Kings with a 9 kicker. Down when T caught pocket Kings at least six times over the course of the night, catching a set a couple of times to hurt my rivered two pair. I finished up down about $40, not bad for six hours of amusement. I have acquired some more new chips for the home game (a recurring theme, I know) and they met with almost the appropriate adoration. I replaced the $5 chips I had from the Aruba Palm Beach casino with $5 Samurai Palace fantasy chips, largely because Suzy likes the Samurais better. I also replaced my Nevada Jacks clay fantasy $1 chips with chips from the closed Crystal Park casino in California. They're very pretty, with an inlay design that's very remniscent of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album cover.

Today we built the set for Shrew. Well, designed and built, as we kinda scavenged available flats and platforms into something usable and then made a set out of it all. It's beginning to take shape, but I gotta go sleep now before my crippled old body completely gives out on the keyboard.