14.7.08 Monday
LIFE IS GOOD AGAIN!! Well. For some of us anyway. So, I’m really excited. Let me start at the beginning (wow, this sounds like a story beginning). So, first off. My dad was having wood delivered sometime in the afternoon (supposedly noon) because we have a fireplace and no wood and my dad’s obsessed with fires (in fireplaces only thank you very much). So, we were discussing what we would do until the wood people showed up.
We needed to go to the library to get the next book we were going to read (The Wizard Heir sequel to The Warrior Heir). We were also supposed to drop off our bikes at the place where we bought them so they can be fixed. And third we were going to ride to Burnside so I could 1) know the way and 2) figure out if I could ride in my skirt. We didn’t have time to all of those things, let along all of them.
My dad’s really obsessive about getting me into clubs and Burnside is putting on Grease in two weeks. So, my dad really wanted to go down to Burnside and check to see if the set crew was working. We both highly doubted it. I was going to wear my skirt, but my dad said I shouldn’t just in case the set crew was there because I wasn’t going to help out in my skirt. I agreed to that and we biked over to Burnside.
I waited out front of the auditorium while my dad went all the way around the building. Eventually (it took him forever), he came back and said that the set crew was working inside and I could help. I must say I was surprised.
But now I’m REALLY excited because I really love helping out with drama productions. My dad had to leave so he could wait for the wood (jtlyk, he dropped off one bike and the wood didn’t come until about 5 minutes before I came back home, which was like 5:30).
I started out helping Nichole paint the front of a car (I don’t know where the rest is). Here’s the problem. I don’t do detail well unless I’m using a really small brush and I can very easily reach what I’m painting. The car was painted in flames in the front and I was doing the black in the back. It was okay at first because I was avoiding the edges as much as I possibly could.
But once I finished that I got a small brush and got a little closer to the edges. It wasn’t too bad. But I did keep running into edges and I cut off the whole top of a flame accidentally. Did I mention I was using black? Apparently, the car was originally red flames and then a white otherwise. But Nichole (for those of you in the US, she’s in year 13, which would be a freshman in college. They’ve got a weird system here. Burnside goes from grade like 6-13) decided it would look better with red flames and black otherwise. So, that’s what I was doing.
I followed Nichole down somewhere else first where she talked to a couple people first. A little weird, but because they’re doing Grease, a couple people smoke and they’re not about to actually have kids smoke. So, they had some weird thing that looked like a cigarette and gave out smoke. Yeah. Whatever.
Then we actually went to help out with the set. We had to paint Sandy’s (main character) room pink. Unfortunately, we had to paint three walls (the room was about five or six feet by six feet) and one can of paint that tiny, like less then a foot tall. Joy.
It started out with me, Nichole and some adult helping. Then he left. Then Nichole left and it was just me. Which, is actually probably a good thing. Let me explain. We obviously had to spread the paint out really thin to get it to cover the walls. Other thing. The walls were cloth. Not wood. It was not fun to try and paint. So, last year while I was working on Jekyll & Hyde, I got really good at make a little paint last a long time. There were a lot of times where I had what was on my brush and that was it.
(When they left, the back wall and part of the side wall were done). I finished off the room and still had a quarter of the can left, so I did a second coat on the back wall and the fronts of the side walls. So. I’m not so sure that the paint would have lasted if the other two had been there (no offense).
Nichole and me were the only girls and Nichole is obviously the artist. She does little details. There were about five other boys and five adults. I can paint fairly well, but I spent all of last year building sets only a little time painting them. I actually spent a lot of time standing on ladders, but we don’t talk about that.
So, I went over to one of the adults and told them that if I’m ever needed to build something, I can do that because I built a lot last year. There was a bed that needed to be screwed down onto a wheely thing, so he gave me the drill and I bolted the bed down on one leg. Then we figured out that the bed wasn’t a rectangle. Like that makes sense. Somehow it was rhombus like…I’m not sure. While we were trying to figure out how to make the bed work our drill was stolen and we had to steal it back to finish. We did (later some else had to undo a lot of it and move the bed so it was flush with the side of the board it was on. Oh well) and then our drill was stolen again.
We then started working on the wall. Unfortunately, we needed the drill and couldn’t get it back. We only need to put like one nail, so the guy I was working with decided to put it in by hand. That took a really long time, so we started talking. I mentioned Jekyll & Hyde and how murderous being a stage hand had been last year. I named the musicals UA had done previously and asked what Burnside had done previously. Apparently they haven’t done a musical in eleven years. I’m lucky. 
Then what? Ah yes. We got the drill back and I drilled the wall down. Oh, by the way. I decided not to mention to the guy that I had a reputation of stabbing people with drills. Yeah…Then we carried that outside and I helped Nichole paint it bright blue.
Problem was that it was fairly large and set at a weird angle and it also had pieces of wood on the back so trying to sit on it wasn’t going to cut it. I did lean on it a little bit. Anyway, Nichole decided to do the edges first. Thank you. She’s shorter then me, so she couldn’t reach the center. So, I had to. I don’t mind, but I wish she hadn’t done the edges first. Here I am, trying desperately to reach the middle without leaning against the board. I might mention that it didn’t work. Also, I started out working with a really really small brush because all the brushes were taken, but I got a bigger brush pretty quickly.
But, one of her friends asked me if there was anything he could do. I didn’t realize he was talking to me until it was a little bit late to answer (I don’t know what I would have told him anyway. I mean, this was my first day). He left then and Nichole’s other friend kind of laughed at me for not realizing that he was talking to me, but whatever.
She later asked me if I could say goodbye to Nichole for her, which I just barley caught, before she left. Finished the wall and went in to see if there was anything else I could do. I helped lay down some rugs for the band, asked about T-shirts and a possible job on the tech crew and didn’t get much answer, but I’ll bug people more tomorrow. So, as for the set. There isn’t a lot.
So. There are two largish steps and then a largish platform on the right (this is as if you were in the audience). Sandy’s room is on the far left. I think it’s her room sometimes and a brick wall other times. Then there’s another square box the size of Sandy’s room in the middle. I’m not sure if there’s anything in the box or if it’s just a wall. On top of that is the band. I’m not sure how much of the band you can actually see.
Hm…that’s it. I really hope I get onto tech crew because otherwise I’ll have to watch the show and that will make me really depressed. That’s another weird thing I guess I should add. If I’m not helping out with sometimes in a show (whether it’s acting or tech) and I have to watch it or watch other people help out, I go berserk. At least, I think I do. I’ve never had it happen before. (This is school shows, not outside of school shows. Also, this does not apply to 7th or 6th grade because I didn’t care then).
