Freshman Year at College
2004-09-28,

It's my second day here at Unnamed Corp., and things are as stunted and confused as expected, mainly because I'm trying to learn their product line and at the same time try and apply it to what I'm doing. Not easy, I assure you. Luckily, I'm going to be taking a 'class' on their product line tomorrow, which should be giving me a much better idea of what's going on.

The tech guy, Jim, with whom I've been working this week, likened the first day at a new job to freshman year at college; no idea what's going on, lots of important stuff to try and remember. I couldn't agree more.

Meanwhile, I just about threw a tizzy last night at rehearsal. It was a true diva moment for me. There's this scene toward the end where DQ dies and the Padre sings a Latin prayer, which one would think would be slow and reverent. Not a dirge, but deliberate. So last night, the choreographer - no, not the music director, the choreographer - comes up, stops the scene in the middle of my singing it, and tells the orchestra conductor that it's running too slow. He then looks up at me and tells me that we're going to be running the song significantly faster. It's now fast enough that it sounds like I'm singing at karaoke rather than a funeral. Heck, let's turn it into a swingin' lounge tune, while we're at it! <sing>Hey, de profundis clammo ad te�thank you�domine, domine, audi voce meam�I'm here all week�</sing> Seriously, not good. The only reason I feel justified in saying so is that the conductor had this 'you've got to be kidding' look on her face at the prospect, then threw her hands up in a 'whatever' and moved on - so I'm not the only one.

Afterward (thank goodness it was nearly the end of the show), I found myself practically storming off and throwing out a few poorly chosen curses (an event made sweetly ironic considering that I was dressed as an Inquisition-era priest) that I normally save for when I'm home alone and stub my toe. I'll have to remember to apologize later tonight at rehearsal, though I'm not really sure who was around me when they came out. Ah well. Regardless, I plan on seeing if I can conspire with the conductor to get things down to a more tolerable pace. I suppose I should go through normal channels and ask the music director about it first. She loves me to death, after all, so she might listen to my plea.

Overall, last night was definitely a Monday, as far as energy and performance levels go. Everybody was off in one way or another. I'd like to believe that we could pull this thing together by Friday, especially since we actually have the whole show done finally. If it's still like this on Wednesday, I'll really start to worry.

Did I mention that we didn't finally have every scene blocked until Sunday? Sunday! How's that for good management?

-- End Transmission --