(42) Des Moines, IA

Wednesday, February 18^th: The morning was spent making phone calls and emailing about how to fix everything from the accident. It kinda blew any real work that I was hoping to do, but it was what was important for the day. We had a load in at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines as well. It was really upsetting to be in such a large and beautiful venue with a fantastic, intelligent crew and not be able to use our largest scenic piece. The Head Carpenter and Technical Director were very nice about calling some local places to find pieces so I could fix my scenery. I did a lot of work during load in to fix what I could for use at this venue. I worked up until the last second which is the first time that has happened since we teched the show in September.

Thursday, February 19^th: We had two shows today at 10:00am(67) and 12:30pm(68). Both shows went over very well and were very well received. Load out was accomplished in a new record of 54 minutes with the drop, although we’re pretty sure it would have been just as fast if we had had the truss. We had a company meeting that evening where we talked about a lot of the issues that had come up over the past 7 weeks since we went back out on the road. After the meeting, Caroline, Jeffrey, Jill and I went to dinner at a friend of Caroline’s house. Mary Farrell is a very eccentric and nice woman who had worked with Caroline at the Des Moines Playhouse. When we got to her house, there was a sign on the front door telling us we should get ready to set sail on the Cruise Liner called the Queen Mary. She had set up a ship façade in her living room. In the dinning room, there were parrots in the trees and on the table runners. We had blue Hawaiian drinks, wine, a great home cooked meal and a really nice evening of conversation. The best part of the dinner was the sweet potatoes which I’ll have to get the recipe for so I can make them in the future. It was a really nice relaxing evening after a slightly stressful last couple of days.

Friday, February 20^th: The company hopped in the vans late in the morning and we drove the 190 miles (10,226 total miles) to Lincoln, Nebraska. As soon as I got settled in at the hotel, I immediately called Michelle and we celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We had a long compy date and opened each other presents. Later that night, I went over to Carolyn and Margo’s room to watch a couple of episodes of “Lost.”