PART 4 - THE STORM BLOWS THROUGH

Monday the 7th…
Who said we had a day off?? There was no “day” in my day. I slept through most of it only to begin the whole cycle again today. Who invented this thing called 530 am?? Marquis de Sade? Musta been… only he could come up with this form of torture. I set 3 alarms to get me up. THREE! One wakes me at ::::shuddering::: 5:30... Then next at 5:45 and the last at 6:35 letting me know I have missed the “early” train and I had better get my derriere in gear or I will miss the 6:51 also. Then I will be forced to take the 7:00 which means I will have to change in Jamacia - ruining the nap I could be taking on the express to Penn. I hate that thought. All sleep at this point is crucial to my charming personality and sense of humor - both of which seem to get less charming and less humorous with lack of sleep.

Tuesday - we have been looking for 2 boxes of costumes that were supposedly shipped last Thursday here to the Garden from Montreal. We have been searching the WHOLE place for these boxes for 5 days. Everyone from Production Mgmt down has been informed they were “in the building” but no one has located them yet. They are some spare things but only about $30,000 worth of spare things. How do I explain to the Cirque people that the costumes are “on vacation” without a chaperone? ::::sounding like the Aflack duck here -à:::::::ACK, ACK, ACKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!! Lol. Ok so I can only laugh at it now because guess what I found this afternoon hiding in plain sight in a place that no one walks through but me obviously. Two boxes of costumes that will now, somewhat make me able to sleep. While the were extra stock - from that stock I was supposed to fit 4 new people - and there are no other costumes like them back in Montreal… and they are pretty crucial in the story line … soooo you can understand my teeny tiny bit of anxiety when we couldn’t find them. I immediately called my left and right hands ( go back and read the last chapter of this blog) to tell them our cargo was found. In less than a blink of an eye they both fly into the theatre. Left hand says right hand is sooo happy that she was going to , and I quote you on this “ kiss the person that found them - with tongue!” my response is “ best offer I’ve had in weeks!“ which sends us into fits of laughter. I can now go back into the theatre for rehearsal . It is a bad move to put people who are severely sleep deprived into a dark theatre.

Wed, Thur ...my day starts by laying on the power track ( a fancy name for the trampoline) and sewing velcro strips on it by passing a needle through it down to a guy laying under it who then passes it back to me from underneath. How bad can your day be when it starts lying down?

Friday and Saturday - more long days in paradise and people are getting testy from lack of sleep. I sit, like a mushroom, in the dark cool theatre, finally eating dinner from 2 nights ago. I cant remember the last time I sat and ate without interruption. It is slow going and much of the “hurry up and wait syndrome.” Running back and forth between the theatre and the wardrobe room checking costumes onstage and costumes being repaired/altered/purchased. I think I walk between 7 and 10 miles a day. I need to get a pedometer to check the reality of that….my knee, however , think it is a million miles. It is far from happy, my knee I mean. I start the day with three flights of stairs going up to the train platform, three more sets get me from the train up to street level. Once inside MSG its 3 more flights up to the wardrobe room or “Big Igloo” as Billy has affectionately named it. I am the “Ice Queen my assistant is the “Ice Princess the Cirque coordinator is “Snowball.” .Dressers have given themselves names like Snowflake, Puddles and Heat Miser and Zamboni. When we have to use the walkies..they call each other by the code names…when others break into our channel and hear the conversations they think we have really lost it. It is nothing new…we are just loosing our last grasp on sanity.
I have been asked if I can have payroll in by tonight, Saturday. Yeah, RIGGGGGGHHHHTTTT! It is now 7 pm and we leave at 10. I try to sit at my niche and concentrate on just payroll. The Ice Princess takes my notes and goes through them asking appropriate people which tasks have been completed/are in the middle of/havent been started so we can cross stuff off the 3 - 4 pages of notes I have daily. I cant help but respond when there is something someone cant answer but that keeps me from payroll… which is rather confusing with varying rates of pay, different hours, schedules and holiday pay thrown in. I move to the empty green room. As soon as I sit down Martin comes in and sits down to chat. OYI! Lol… politely I answer his questions while trying to continue. He leaves after a few minutes and the next person pops in and OF COURSE they want to talk to me about something! Here is not working out either. :::HUGE SIGH::::: Ok back to the Big Igloo. I tried again ..they have dismissed the cast except for a few….I told my staff that they could clean up their rooms and leave by 9 instead of 10. This will give me peace and quiet and I can work on payroll. Its just me and the laundry guy. No more noise overload for me - blissful peace. I sit and go through payroll again as I think it should be done. I have to redo the ones I have already done because I estimated our time out as 10 pm….now I have to readjust them for 9 and I have another laundry guy in for the morning and me on 7th day. I am sure there will be some mistake….but I have 2 other sets of hands it will go through to check it before it gets to the people that actually cut the checks.
I am done …catching the 1140 pm home. Already I am thinking about having to catch the 730 am back in because the trains only run hourly on the weekends. My mind hurts!
Sunday. Back in at 9. Laundry boy reading while clothes spin and whirl in dryers and washers. I try to clean off the bomb blast that is my desk and catch up on paperwork.
By noon laundry is done and I am completing a few more things. At 1230 I think I can make the 1240 home if I run. Not a great feat its just down 6 flights of stairs, sort of. So I throw my computer into its case grab my coat and head out the door. As the door locks behind me I notice my keys and ID arent around my neck and I remember I dropped them on the desk when I came in. So much for catching the early train. I have to wait for security to come let me in to get my keys!!!! I reallllllllly need sleep. I have worked 74 hours this week plus 15ish hours of train travel back and forth. Somewhere in those days I slept a bit. I am going to put Vaseline on my abused fingers and cover them in bandaids. Time for sleep….NOW!!!! Coma time!!! Night!

PART 5 - WE PASS THE EYE AND BACK INTO THE TURBULENCE

Tuesday the 16th.... we start the day getting things together to go shoot at the Rachael Ray studios. I have a handful of artists going to be on the show. I am supposed to have 2 people going to be with them and all of their costumes. I am told that i can only have one - that would be me!!!! I told them i would need a rack to transport the costumes too as the dog costumes they want will take up a WHOLE lot of room. So i cram all the dog stuff into three rows in the van - because NO ONE LISTENED TO ME ......regarding the space needed to get these things across town. We are in 2 14 passenger vans, and there are 3 PR people, 9 artists, myself, a prop person, a make up person, 3 rows of dog costumes, 2 already pumped up acro balls that take up 2 seats by themselves, 15 hula hoops, 4 spears, 4 laundry baskets full of accessories and two donuts that the acro balls sit on to keep them from rolling across the floor when not in use. Once i have left i get a semi frantic call from my left hand asking if some of the artists are supposed to have on costumes. I said they were - but of course there was a mis-communication and they had to be sent in a cab with the second dresser that i had wanted in the first place. Luckily Rachael Ray has pushed our taping back an hour and there is no hurry and the costumes here. BUT it ticks me off that it got screwed up in the first place. Stage management says that Cirque didnt want them involved so... that is how things get crazy. A doesnt talk to B and so on. So we are supposed to be out at 4! on the dot...but Nooooooooo of course not. Rachael wants to do some teasers with a few of the artists so some are sent back with one van and the other dresser and all of the dog costumes. The second van will take back some of the others and the first van will return for us. HA!!! Well, it is now 5 pm and rush hour. We have sent back the rest of the artists as we have an invited dress at 730 tonight. We will wait for the first van to return for us. That doesnt happen. It is rush hour as i said and getting across town is nuts - so is trying to catch a cab in rainy weather. we try for a cab while waiting for the van.....signals get crossed with the Rachael Ray staff and they CANCEL the van to come back for us....and we aren't having luck with a cab.....did i mention i still have an armful of costumes needed for tonight's performance? F! F! F!!!!!! this is not good. Luckily i am with the PR people and not really crazed , to much anyway, at the moment. Finally a cab comes and we make it back to MSG just seconds behind the second van. Time to get moving and get everyone ready for the performance. I have missed lunch and dinner and hundreds of questions are thrown at me as i enter the wardrobe room. Good thing i can think fast under pressure and we get everything ready for showtime. Oh well.. it went well... and the Rachael Ray episode will be aired the 23rd.

ok.. so i have been a bit negligent about keeping up with the blogging thing.... but what can you expect from a sleep deprived woman?? Last week on my 2nd to last day of work i went home - i SWORE i had let the dog out..... went to the bathroom, had something to drink, put fresh water and food in her dish, went back out to collect aforementioned dog......she was no where to be found. Now you have to understand that i have a fenced in yard - the dog is up there in years so hopping the fence isn't an option for her.... at least i didn't think so. I went back to the house for a flashlight to be able to look in all the dark crevices of my yard to be sure she wasn't hiding herself, or because she has a tumor that is just waiting to end her life, make sure her life didn't end while outside. I searched, confused, for a good three minutes....thinking where the hell did she get to?? Just to be sure ... i go into the house one more time... and check her bed... and there she is ..laying like a lump....i shake my head in the sad resignation that i realllllly need some more sleep.....maybe come January 10th! OYI !

12.5.10
The crazies have brought in donuts.... i yell a them for bringing in sugar and chocolate....we live on that stuff and its not good.... sugar rushes run rampant...and we are all getting a bit crazed. Elaine from hair dept is leaving and they have chocolate covered strawberries and quiche and scones laid out....that on top of the fact that they will feed us in between shows makes for ALOT of damned food all day. They at least get a bit more sleep that i do now that we are on a regular schedule.... My regular schedule is still the same 8 am - 11 pm....5 days a week on the 6th its only 8 am - somewhere between 3 and 5 pm.. or maybe the latest 7 pm.... ::::huge sigh::::::::

we are at the end of the 11 show week with 2 1/2 shows still ahead of us....Elaine from the hair dept is leaving and the dreaded PAYROLL.......I have broken down though and bought Excel so the MSG people (ie TIM) can send me his files for payroll and i have all the formulas. I am not sure i will trust them all but i will give it a go. If he was waiting for me to figure out all the formulas he would have to wait til mid Jan - which kinda defeats the reason for buying the program. Come next week when everyone complains about things being wrong in their check - i will blame if on TIM!!!!! lol......Technology - fuckit!
i am actually taking off 2 days this up coming week and i will leave as soon after the middle of the third show as i can IF payroll is done... IF people stop asking me questions ...IF we have no emergencies that require us to work other things while trying to complete payroll. we will see... coma-land is calling me tonight.... and maybe it will snow and i will be able to crawl under the covers tomorrow and not be seen til tuesday. :::singing::::: Wouldn't it........ be loverly, love...r...ly, lov...er...ly??

12.6.10
ok.. so on my day off.... i woke up at 830... texted my assistant Ellen at the shop... who promptly told me she was going to shut off her phone if i didn't go back to sleep and leave her alone. Well, thats like throwing down the gauntlet... and of course i had to do some more texting...then i texted another employee to tell her i had "eyes" everywhere......i cant repeat in mixed company what she said then! lol... then i did go back to sleep and woke up at 130.... ahhhh, feeling semi human. went to the bank, the fabric store, Michaels - craft store to shop for work stuff, grocery shopping, toys for tots shopping, and i am exhausted. Time for sleep again so i have strength for tomorrow.
12.7.10
what do i do on my day off from theatre??? why , spend it in a theatre of course. We got a free tkt to see Mary Poppins. It was great but i think i should have stayed home and taken full advantage of the day off... but , hey, you're only young once!

the end....
well, things finished ..this is being written WAAAAYYYY after the show has closed. Which may be a good thing. I LOVED my job....but i hated the way that i found out that someone i THOUGHT was nice... wasnt so. I was rounding a corner and hear someone telling someone else that i wasnt doing any work .......and all the slack was being picked up by others.

This to shall pass.....and those that know me -know ME!
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

PART 3 - SURVIVING THE EYE OF THE STORM

OK.. made it through the week. Didnt kill anyone....YET! lol... I still think there is going to be a huge explosion come Monday...but maybe i will be pleasantly surprised. I am tired i think but to exausted to be sure......someone check on me sometime Sunday afternoon to be sure i dont sleep the whole day and am awake all night. NEEED to get on the "normal" sleep routine. ACK!!!

going to sleep now... i think.. yes, going now!