Opening Weekend

Maine in the summertime is a great place to be if you can avoid mosquito interaction. I've been doing pretty good so far. Rance and I went on a bike ride yesterday on the carriage paths in Acadia park. History has it that Rockefeller once owned about 80% of Mt. Desert Island and he had all of these carriage paths built with beautiful stone bridges and packed gravel roads. At his death he bequeathed the island back to the state and it's now a national park. There's over 42 miles of paths and the pass through some of the most beautiful scenery these eyes have ever seen.

I haven't been on my bike since early fall last year so it felt good to be back in the saddle. Especially knowing that in early August I'll be back in Portland, OR riding with my girlfriends (The Bellas) in the MS 150; one hundred fifty miles in two days.

Rance brought a couple of cameras and we got some fantastic photos of Witch Pond, a deadwood forest in the middle of a body of water, dragonfly and snapping turtles. I preferred to keep riding because it was only when we stopped for photos that the mosquitoes invaded. But the shots will be well worth it.

So now I've vowed to ride at least two days, preferable three a week to get my body ready for the ride. And to hike at least one day. Lofty goals since we've been staying up until around 2am every night after the shows and not dragging my butt out of bed until around 10:30 or 11am.

Speaking of the shows, what a great opening for the theater. We were sold out on Friday night the crowd was great and we delivered a solid show. Last night the early show was one of those audiences of quiet enjoyers. If you're a performer you know the type, they don't want to laugh out loud, but you can see they're enjoying the show. Then afterwards they can't tell you enough how much they liked it.

Before the show there was a young girl and her mom in the bathroom area which is right outside of our "green room". The two are separated but nothing but a large canvas cloth so we can hear everything that goes on. The young girl was having a complete anxiety attack because she didn't want to be called up on stage, crying and whining in real worry. There seemed to be nothing the mom could say to relieve her fears. Finally, after our hearing this go on for an inordinate amount of time, Jen knocked on the bathroom door and told her that we couldn't help but overhear and that none of the actors would "pick" on her and she could relax and enjoy the show. You should have seen her beaming during the show, laughing and clapping her hands. Sometimes it's hell to be nine.

After the quiet 8pm show we decided to let that one go and vow to have as much fun as the audience in the 10pm show. Preparing us for Jen's first night off she had handed the hosting duties off to Rance for the 8pm show and I took the 10pm show. The crowd was definitely ready to go by 10pm and so were we. Especially when during our first game, "Replay", we got Kung-fu porn as one of the suggestions. Jen, Rance and Mike played it beautifully and we continued rolling in the fun the rest of the night.

We've scheduled our nights off for this week which feels kind of weird this early. None of us really want to take a night off because it's been so much fun but we all understand the need to, to keep our heads in the game. Rance is taking tonight off and I'll take tomorrow. Already it will feel weird not to have one of us there.