don't feed the plants!

Late notice here, but I'll be in the pit for Elyria Summer Theatre's Little Shop of Horrors this Thursday through Sunday. One weekend only, sadly. Thu-Sat are at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday is 2:00 p.m. Performances are at Elyria High School (311 Sixth Street, but you'll need to park in one of the 5th Street lots due to construction). Tickets are $15 at the door, or $10 if you call ahead (440-284-8340). You can also hear a brief phone interview with Mike, our music director, on WEOL's website.

I'm using my digital piano to provide synthesizer voices for all the instruments that aren't piano, guitar, or drums. This forced me to learn some things about my keyboard that I had been putting off. Namely, I had to combine several voices into a single patch, add splits so that only some of the keys do certain voices, and line up all the patch changes in a sequence so I can just tap a pedal with my left foot to switch to the next voice I need. In addition, because there are 100 such changes in the first act alone and I'm limited to 128 in the sequence, I actually had to save Act 1 and 2 as separate files on a USB flash drive, and will load Act 2's sequence during the intermission.

And why yes, it was rather time-consuming to program the sequence, thanks for asking. :) Mike and I were on the phone over two hours just to page through the score and decide which voices to use, and I finally finished sequencing Act 2 after last night's rehearsal.

blue flash

When I was a kid, I longed for the day when I could have a rideable model train running through my living room like on Silver Spoons.

Now, I have a new goal:

Blue Flash, the Homemade Roller Coaster

an exercise in flying time, part 2

I wrote a post like this back in 2005, and thought it would be fun to do again.

Ten years ago (1998) I was doing web design for the Elyria City Schools with Tom as an "internship" and looking forward to freshman orientation and registration at BGSU the following week, if I recall correctly.

Five years ago (2003) I had scattered rehearsals for Once Upon a Mattress and was preparing for my first quasi-attempt at music directing with All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, where I taught two songs and provided background music and sound effects. Both shows were with Elyria Summer Theatre. Kindergarten came at the end of a long string of shows I had agreed to in late 2002 and early 2003 before I had a full-time job, and I was quite glad when it was all over.

Three years ago (2005) I was dealing with a horrible pain in my esophagus as a result of radiation therapy. It hurt to swallow anything, including saliva, for about a week. It almost ties with the bone marrow biopsy for the worst pain of my life. At least the biopsy was over within minutes rather than lasting a week.

Two years ago (2006) I spent the weekend with my college friends at my parents' cottage.

One year ago (2007) was the same story as 2006, although around that time I was also in rehearsals for Joseph, which was one of the dominoes that led to 2007 being my favorite year.

Six months ago (January) I had a CAT scan, and the results were good.

Three months ago (April) I was rehearsing our first cabaret gig for Elyria Summer Theatre.

Two months ago (May) my week looked like this: Monday, rehearsal with Elyria High School Theatre Repertory class; Wednesday, accompany said class at performance; Thursday, see preview of My Favorite Year at the Beck Center; Friday, see Spelling Bee at Playhouse Square; Saturday, rehearse cabaret, then Relay For Life chicken BBQ, then perform cabaret at Jim's Coffeehouse; Sunday, attend Spencer Myer concert at LCCC, then auditions for Company later that evening. The next day, I turned 28 and went to Cedar Point.

One month ago (June) I was at the cottage for Father's Day, then watched the Tony Awards askance that evening as I continued packing for my apartment.

One week ago (July 8) I got the results of my latest CAT scan and was given a promising prognosis for my remission.

This past weekend was "Cadre Cottage IV," the same as the last two years. It's a bit of work to coordinate, but always fun.

Then last night I went over to Stu & Laurie's to watch the next episode of the Legally Blonde reality show with them, since my gimpy cable plan doesn't come with MTV.

cleveflight, part 2

From today's Chronicle-Telegram: Cleveland's Population Plummets

And from the Plain Dealer: Cleveland leads big cities in population loss, census figures show

The PD article touches on something the Chronicle's (AP) doesn't, which is that it's also a regional issue; even some of the burbs are losing residents too. Some of that is from people moving to Lorain and Medina Counties to escape property taxes -- great time to do it too, what with the cost of fuel [/sarcasm] -- but it's no secret that all of Northeast Ohio is in a decline, as evidenced by this report I linked to last year.

However, I do believe that fixing Cleveland first will also fix the region. Number one on the list is jobs, jobs, jobs. Preferably ones that last more than a couple years before all the new hires are laid off.

three years out

After a little delay due to my vacation, I got the results of my CAT scan today. We're all good. My oncologist said 90% of Hodgkin's patients who relapse do so within the first three years after treatment. If I were to have Hodgkin's again in the future, I would be in a class of 10% of the 15% who ever relapse at all.

Something that scared me a bit was some sun exposure I got on Sunday. We were at the beach a mere hour and a half in mid-afternoon, and apparently I had missed a swath on my left arm with the sunblock -- very strange, since that's normally where I start applying. I hesitate to call it a "sunburn" since it was just a dark pink, not red, and it didn't hurt. I only noticed it when I was getting ready for bed that night.

It's already fading, and I've been putting some menthol aloe vera sunburn spray on it occasionally. My oncologist didn't think it was a problem, and said my skin by now shouldn't be much more sensitive than it was before chemo. I don't know if that really jibes with what my radiation oncologist told me three years ago ("You've received several lifetimes' worth of radiation, so we're asking the skin to work extra overtime to repair it, especially in the first year") but there you have it. At least now I have a better idea of my limits.

He also said that my next checkup, in six months, will just be a chest X-ray; the CAT scan will just be once a year now. Hurrah!

I'll get to the vacation writeup soon, I hope. For the first few days, I wrote a little bit each night, but I still need to sort through and edit the photos.