CLOSING DAY- Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day. I slept in until 10. I wrapped all my Valentine's presents and wrote all my cards. I ate a banana and got to the theatre at noon. I thought about the previous show and thought, "I NEED to do things in the correct order today." I reviewed what had gone wrong with Saturday's performance and attributed the mistakes to the following factors:

1. Mandy did not put my mic on
2. I forgot the shimmery eyeshadow
3. I forgot to wear lipliner
4. I put my wig on first instead of the make-up
5. I didn't review all my notes before the show
6. I was late to sound check

One by one cast members walked in with a mood of, "Last one guys." I was more excited than nervous and sad. Kinda' hyper actually. And then Jeremy walks in our dressing room. No exclamation of "Genitalia!" Instead, his face was long and without saying a word, he went around and hugged each of us balling his eyes out in the process. "YOU NEED TO GET OUT!" Becky yelled. "WE STILL HAVE A FREAKIN' SHOW TO DO." Laughing, I turned away as Jeremy tried to pull me in for another hug and sob on my shoulder. "NO NO! GO DO SOME BACKHANDSPRINGS! SAVE IT FOR THE FINALE!" So he left and Laura pulled out 2 boxes full of cds. (Preface: Laura is a former Miss Delaware that used to be in a rock band. She's basically a rockstar. A real one :))
"So my husband told me to pass these out to anyone who wanted a copies of my old band's CDs." "OMGGGGGGGG I DO!!!!!!" Becky and I sounded like obnoxious teenage fans. "OMG WILL YOU SIGN THEM?!?! KRISTIN! Do you still have your sharpies?!" Becky yelled. So right then, we held a cd signing in our dressing room. "Wow this is the first cd I've ever gotten signed by the actual singer," I said to Mo. "Wow, me too. Good times." :) I stared at the cd cover admiring the picture of sparkly orange doc martens and the one that was labeled, "Pop Tarte." "omg I love pop tarts," I said.

So after sound check, we were called to the green room before places as always. Each director gave a tiny speech and then Chris got up and thanked us. He barely got the words out and I shoved the lump in my throat back down. "Does anyone have a pack of mints they don't need?" I asked. And about 10 people came to my aid with altoids, and gum and the sadness disappeared.

Throughout the show, I was relaxed. No nerves. No out of breathe moments. I sat back and watched numbers offstage that I had never watched before. I noticed cast members giving random hugs to each other before going on for certain numbers. I saw people high fiving as they walked by each other backstage. No one was sick of each other. No one wanted this one to end. No one was ready this time.

I guess it's a good the show was emotional enough in itself without having us all crying through it. Backstage crew blowing their noses off stage and the audience sniffing here and there. I was cool. I was good. And then I did Out Tonight and the throat lump resurfaced. Yeah. WRONG SONG for that. But it was all good. Until Without You. But I pushed it back down again. And then Contact ended and we came onstage for I'll Cover You reprise. And we made it through again. And then it was the finale. And I was fine. Until I was supposed to be dead and I heard cast members sniffling all over the set. Eff me man. I'm trying to be dead. So when I woke up and said,"Angel was there," and saw Tim's face, well that was it. And we cried and I couldn't wipe my face until the video played and we were in darkness.

We ended the curtain call to a complete standing ovation.

I rushed to get my make-up off and went to the lobby to see Gina, her mom, Suzi, Daisy, Kayla, Lisa, and Tati. I saw Tati first. And she screamed and hugged me and told me she missed me and called me big sis. And I didn't want her to leave. And I spoke to everyone and hugged them all for coming. These little girls I did shows with and they are teenagers now and it's so strange. They had to leave right away and I really wanted to see them longer, but I couldn't. And I saw B's Mom and she said I made her cry and she never cries. Shweet. And then Christine G. screamed and could not believe the show she just saw. "This show was not like any other show I've seen. I didn't check my program once! And I didn't even look at my watch!And omg is that your seussical nailpolish? I could see that from SO far away!" Haahahahaha.

Sadly, we had to strike the set immediately after the show. And as people left, we hugged and said goodbye and hoped that we would see each other again. You always say that but how often does it happen? And it made me think about everyone had has come to see this show to support us. All the people I rarely get to see but love so much and wish I could see them a lot more than I do. And it sucked. That I know it won't be the case b/c everyone has his/her own life to lead and as much as you want to you can't fit every single person in all the time.

SO when we were finished cleaning, me, Matt, Caroline, Laura, and Tim hung around and talked for a while. I guess not really wanting to leave each other's company even though we were all tired and starving. People were taking their own souvenirs form the set and I suddenly remembered. I went to look for the candle. And my heart sank when I saw that the prop shelf had been completely emptied. Oh well. I think I have enough souvenirs from the show as it is :)

I got home and saw that Marley and Me had come through my netflix. And I decided that I had enough emotion for one day.