I worked on a benefit for a couple of dance companies last night. It went very well, overall and I believe they made quite a bit of money, which is very good for them. Working events like this, though, point out to me how accustomed I am to the relative discipline of the traditional theater. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but work an event where you get a bunch of artistes in a room for a one night hang loose event and you realize just how regimented things get in a �real� performance. I am also much more relaxed than normal at this thing. It is a lot of fun and there really isn�t a whole lot of pressure for everything to be perfect and there is plenty of wine, so it is relatively easy to stay laid back. Certain thing happen during the evening, though which draw out the bitchy Stage Manager that lurks inside me. I want to grab some of these people and just scream, �YOU ARE NOT A BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE! YOU HAVE THE SAME REQUIREMENTS AND DEADLINES AS EVERYBODY ELSE!� a la Fight Club. When the salsa dancer comes in after all of the guests have arrived, 5 minutes before the show starts and wants to listen to her music over the sound system� �YOU ARE NOT A BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE! YOU ARE LATE!� You should have listened to your god damned CD in the car on the way over or brought a Discman like everybody else, or, oh, I don�t know, showed up on time. There�s a novel thought. Same goes for you, swing lesson girl who didn�t even bother to pick a track number before she showed up halfway through the show asking for a stereo to listen to her CD on. �NOT A UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE!� Lastly, the aerialist, who had a lovely performance she did with another woman. All was well with her until she came up to me, also halfway through the show and told me she was tired and wanted to leave right then, but she needed to get her T-bar down first� which was rigged from the rafters 30� above the stage� where two lovely donors were auctioning off $600 bottles of wine. She wanted me to get it down right then. There was no discussion about her striking her equipment with a big ol� ugly extension ladder DURING the performance at any time prior to this moment when she got tired. Lady, you are an aerialist, not a baton twirler. You know what it takes to set your shit up and take it down. You know how ugly it looks and how many people it requires. What made you think you could just decide on a whim that you could stop the show for 20 minutes to � hour to take all this down in front of the entire audience just because you�re plum tuckered out? �NOT�UNIQUE�SNOWFLAKE!!!�

Other than those minor irritants, all went very well and a good time was had by all. It�s just funny to me when I have those small moments when I realize just how trained I am at this point as to how I expect things to go and what I expect from other people in a show setting.

Other than that I spent the weekend sleeping a lot (insomnia was my worst enemy last week and it finally broke Saturday night) and working on my Hallowen costume. I found out Saturday I need to have it finished for a party on Friday. Eeep! I think I can do it, though. I got a good chunk done on Sunday, while watching old horror movies to get myself in the spirit (hee, spirit.) of the season. Now I just need to find the wig. I may take a look around tonight and see what there is to see.

Also, today is my sister�s birthday. Happy Birthday Sister!