DON'T Wish Me Luck!!!

Boy, have I got a full schedule on tap today!

First, it's dear ole Mom's grocery shopping day... (oh, joy...), so, I'll be taking off from home here in Cloverdale, California about 8:00 am and traveling to her house in Santa Rosa, California about 35 miles away, then driving ACROSS TOWN to take her to her "favorite store", after which, it'll be back to Mom's to unload. 

Then, I'll be off to a friend's house in Sebastopol about 12 miles from my Mom's to pick up the two HUGE "apple crisps" (ELEVEN POUNDS EACH!) that my friend is donating to the Cemetery Walk fundraiser this year which, later, I'll be taking to the "Caretaker's Cottage" at Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm in Sebastopol (where the "dessert portion" of the Walk will be taking place this Friday & Saturday nights) and dropping them off there BECAUSE THE WALK IS THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHTS!

The "Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk" is the biggest annual fundraiser of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society (HQ'd in Sebastopol) where I still serve on the Board of Directors as "Past Co-President".

This is the Cemetery Walk's 5th year and I have written and performed a "ghost story" at each one of them...

       (Me as the Russian Storyteller at the 2006 Walk)

 I have written previously here on Gather about my involvement in the Walk and each of the different ethnic roles I have played there in my article "I'm a Ghost Each Year at the Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk in Sebastopol CA". (You can access that article at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977098166 .)

I'll also be changing into my costume at my friend's house before I head over to the Farm BECAUSE TONIGHT IS THE CEMETERY WALK DRESS REHEARSAL!!! 

I will be performing a vignette I've entitled The Ghost of Annie McGregor Tells the Amazing Story of the Clan McGrew this year that I wrote in honor of my friend's (the one who is donating the apple crisps) family who own a large plot in that same cemetery. (In fact, my friend's niece, her daughter and her daughter's best friend purchased tickets to the Walk this year and are coming, one on Friday and the other two on Saturday night, I believe).

After I change into my costume, put on last-minute make-up and costume touches and drop off the apple crisps at the Farm Cottage, I'll be going immediately on to the cemetery where I will be offering last minute stage directions to the 5 other vignettes' casts in the last 2 hours before the rehearsal starts.

After one rotation of the cycle of vignettes (starting a 7:00 pm) at dress rehearsal tonight, we'll also be having a little cast (and crew) party next door to the cemetery at Burbank's Farm, so, I should be good and EXHAUSTED by the time I drive the 30-odd miles back home to Cloverdale afterwards! (Only to have 2 LONG nights of performances ahead of me for the following 2 days! :^s)

This year is the first year that we've ever had a "central director" in charge of directing all of the skits and I was chosen by the Cemetery Walk Committee to serve in this capacity.

Even though I now live 30 or so miles away from Sebastopol,  I've managed to carry out my newly-assigned duties by using a combination of emails, email attachments, phone calls, and by traveling down to Sebastopol to view each vignette's individual rehearsals a few times over the last few months while the cast members also met more frequently for rehearsals on their own.

We will be putting on 4 performances each night on Friday and Saturday nights and the last report on ticket sales was that we were SOLD OUT for ALL EIGHT PERFORMANCES since last week -- as a matter of fact, one of the lady's who sells tickets confided to me that they've actually OVERSOLD a few of the performances by several seats!

So... Just so you know -- I won't be around Gather too much in the next 3 days BUT, whatever you do, DON'T WISH ME LUCK!!!   8^0    Just say: "Break a Leg"!!!   ;o)