Nicole, good luck with the crazy work schedule.

Gronklies, my lovlies.

So last night was the last night of our show. I hate it when shows I'm working on close (even though I usually don't like how actually working running crew for a show pretty much devours my weekend).

Now I'm all sad.

This show in particular was a lot of fun. It was a musical, in fact, it was Musical of Musicals, the Musical. It was a really fun show -- four actors (two men, two women) on a bare stage with a piano, doing the same short plot ("I can't pay the rent," "You must pay the rent!") in the style of five different musical composers. The first act did the plot in the style of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, and then in the style of Jerry Herman. For the second act, they did Andrew Lloyd Webber, and again in the style of Kander and Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago).

The music for the show was really sensational. Each scene managed to perfectly capture the essence of each musical style, and skewer the little conceits and cliches of each composer, mostly with much love and affection (though the show is a little mean to Lord Webber, but I'm sure he can cry himself to sleep on his giant piles of money....). The cast was utterly fantastic. In fact, we were selling CDs of the original Broadway (Off Broadway, maybe?) cast, and I wasn't interested. I'd heard songs from the CD, and our cast was much, much, much better.

I only bring this up because so much of the music from the show is playing in my head now, as it has through pretty much the entire run.

Seriously, sad now.

Yesterday I confused the grocery cashier by giving her exact change. The bills I had stuffed in my pocket but she kept adding up my two quarters, one dime and three pennies and coming up with $0.68. This may have had something to do with the nickel that I had dropped on the belt but I took that back. She was staring at the $0.63 in her hand and saying $0.68 over and over while the people in line behind me were probably wondering why I didn't just take the damn nickel and go. Finally the developmentally disabled bag boy convinced her to put the $0.05 change that she kept trying to give me back in her drawer. I left saying, "I work in cash handling and I just couldn't leave knowing your drawer would be short, not even by a nickel."

This morning I went to put the wad of bills in my pocket and I had to go through my OCD bill facing but I was having trouble with the five. This was before coffee so I turned it over a couple times before it dawned on my that It Had No Face!!! Finally I realized this was two $5 bills stuck together. Oddly enough, no part of me wants to go back to the store today and give them the five dollars.

That sounds like a great show, Sean! I love that sort of thing. Wish I could have seen it.

This morning I went to put the wad of bills in my pocket and I had to go through my OCD bill facing but I was having trouble with the five.

Oh my God! You do this too? Oh thank goodness. They all have to face up! Otherwise, CHAOS WILL REIGN!

Yes people think I am a special kind of crazy when they watch me count a stack of random bills. My right hand pivots 180 degrees every time I encounter one facing the wrong way but I still go through them quite rapidly. It probably looks like I am doing card tricks.

I don't think I did it when I was working a register, but in my wallet, they definitely have to be proper.

OCD bill facing

I'm a server/bartender. Everything has to be faced.

I treat my bills like I treat my underwear--just shove them all willy nilly in there and let them revel in their anarchy.

Wish I could have seen it.

The producers of the show have been franchising it all over the place. Other productions of it are opening in Milwaukee and Chicago (I think), and I just heard last night that there was one or two other places they're taking it very soon.

So, eventually, it may just wind up playing in SF. Your cast won't be as great as our cast, of course (unless they all decide to go to SF for a run), but keep your eyes peeled in the theater listings up there. You may get your wish, sooner than you think.

OCD bill facing

I was a cabbie in Ann Arbor for six years, so I regularly face my bills, but I was, as I said, a cabbie, so I'm not at all OCD about it, and only do it when I feel like it or think about it.

I will, however, usually face all bills before handing them to the person at the register.

I, like my wallet, am currently going commando.