"May His Pernicious Soul Rot Half a Grain a Day!"

Mr. White: If you could have another three wishes, would you have them?
Mrs. Morris: I don't know...I don't know! Better to let it burn!

"It" refers to the magical, wish-granting monkey's paw. "Burn" refers to the stove into which I (Mrs. Morris) am supposed to fling said monkey's paw. Ah, but what then, Mrs. Morris, does one do if there is NO STOVE.

Yep, they forgot to place the stove at the top of the act. I spent the first six minutes of Paw in a cold sweat dead panic. WHAT TO DO?! Not only was I supposed to throw the thing in the fire, my lines not only referred to the "burn", but go on further with "I threw it on the fire!" and "Pitch it on the fire again, like a sensible man!"

Even though deviating from the script is frickin unbreakable commandment number one around here, sometimes a creepy widow's gotta do what a creepy widow's gotta do, and wing it. I took a deep breath, and what came out of my mouth was:

Mrs. Morris: I don't know...I don't know!
(Honestly, this time, I didn't know. Truth in acting, people. This was a 'real' moment. Stanislavski would have been proud.)
Mrs. Morris: Better to let it rot!

"Rot." Genius, eh? And thus I chucked it under the platform, as if I were trying to bury it in the floorboards of the home. I then followed it up with "I won't, I threw it away!" and "pitch it away again, like a sensible man." Hoo-ha!

Man, it is always darkest just before the dawn - and by dawn I mean the sweet, sweet dawn of Thanksgiving break, where I will return to home and hearth and friends and civilization!!!
And by darkest, I mean yet another subterranean dressing room sitch. (This one wasn't too scary, though.) Likewise, it is an uphill battle. And by uphill I mean that the load in-dock was up a 45 degree ramp that necessitated a PULLEY SYSTEM to tote up all of our evil road boxes and platform carts. (Like the subterranean dressing room, it also wasn't as scary as it sounded. The pulleys were surprisingly effecient, and the crew did all the pulleying. I concentrated on prancing about in my new Wonder Woman tee and trying not to slip in the rain.)

Even with the general clusterfuck of today, as always it was sort of a relief to get back to work. Sunday was a long, long day. I hiked up a mountain to a target. I browsed the TJ Maxx homegoods. I spent a couple hours (yes, hours) reading baking books at Books-A-Million, then did the exact same at Barnes & Noble (there was a different selection.) We spent the late afternoon at a coffee shop in downtown Asheville NC, which is actually pretty charming. And full of delicious vegan-y green coffee shops. Never thought I'd see tempeh again in this lifetime...

Here I am now in Hickory, NC - a town synonymous with Freedom. Ah, sweet sweet freedom! Don't get me wrong. The show is great. Socially...tour is wearing on me. Let's just say that the ABC Family Original holiday movies in the Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas are the only thing that's keeping me together at this point.