The "Balloon Girl" story boxes are done, and those look terrific. For such a last-minute idea, I like them best of all. I'm hoping that inspiration hits me for "Shoe Tree"; something that isn't going to take as long as the boxes did. (Constructing boxes isn't hard. Painting boxes isn't hard. Gluing stories into boxes isn't hard. Making soap "balloons" isn't hard. Doing it all in two nights? Is hard.)

If I have nothing else, I'll have at least those two book-like objects to display. Honestly, I'm not trying to make any money at this show; I just wanted to participate, and since book binding is one of the few things I've done before, I thought it would be a good idea. Next time, I'll know better. Stick with what you know.

One thing I found while I was out and about looking for craft supplies was a box of mini-CDs that are shaped like business cards. I've seen them around before, but never gave them any mind. I bought a box, with the idea that I would do some sort of Flash animation of "Circles," my short-short story, using actual photographs of crop circles.

Instead, I finally finished "Stoplight Stories" (for those of you who've been reading long enough to remember those). I cheated; I took two existing stories and re-named them using the letters "Y" and "Z." (The "Z Story" is actually a poem, meaning I cheated even further.)

I had already set up a website for the stories, then took it down in the hopes of selling ths stories individully. However, the nature of the stories meant that they were very short, and not really written with an eye towards publishing. The fiction/playwriting part of my brain has been turned back on, so I don't feel bad about letting these stories stand as they are and distributing them in a funky fashion. I don't know if anyone in the Consulting Company is going to be interested in reading 26 odd tales that I wrote over the span of a couple of years, but the business-card CDs are utterly cool, and I made great-looking labels for them. If I don't sell any at the show, maybe I'll put them up for sale here. A bunch of people asked me, after I took them down, if I could send them individual stories that they liked in the past. It wouldn't be for profit (I've spent so much money on this damned art show, it isn't even funny), just to let people have the stories if they want them.

In burning the stories, I learned how to create a self-extracting CD. Who knew it was two lines of code contained in two separate files? It's so damned easy! It's really thrilling to put a CD into the drive and have my website instantly pop up.

I was at work at 7:30am today, and it was fairly slow in the morning, so I got the bookblocks for "Elephant" completed, as well as printing out some transparencies to glue over the covers (I found a royalty-free photo of an elephant that's really cute). If I had spent some actual time re-learning how to make books, I would be more pleased than I currently am with them, but since there isn't going to be another book binder at the show, at least I'll have the novelty factor going for me.

It's a good thing Chris' table is so fantastic. Everyone will be looking at that instead of my crummy work.

I worked in the design office until 3:30pm, and then spent the rest of my shift setting up the fine arts section of the art show with a couple of other members of the Morale Committee.

Because I have gallery experience, plus that helpful Art History degree (with a whopping couple of Museum Studies classes thrown into the mix!), I was elected "curator" of that part of the show. (Actually, I asked if anyone was curating, and they all said no, so I volunteered, and everyone was okay with that.)

The artists who are participating are incredibly talented (making my own crappy craft stuff look even worse...I'm glad they're on separate floors), but a tad overzealous. One painter sent in at least 30 pieces, and we had made it explicitly clear that only a few pieces from each artist would be shown. (The space we're using wouldn't be enough gallery space to effectively show a single artist's work, and we have 12 participants). I told the women in the Morale Committee that we'd take three pieces from each artist, and if we needed to, would backfill with other pieces.

I made executive decisions as to what would be shown. If the artists aren't happy about it, they can make changes, but they're going to have to be sure that their work fits into the overall layout of the room. The women on the Morale Committee told me, after I picked out the pieces, to stay up in the "club room" and place paintings and photographs while they schlepped them in from the storage area.

I had a bunch of help/input from everyone, but the show itself is really my vision. I put all the photography in one area, and the paintings/drawings in another. I varied colors, putting saturated pieces with more monochromatic pieces. One woman on the committee had paintings which utilized a lot of black (they remind me of John Singer Sargent, in the best way), so I put them on easels in front of a set of folding black doors, which really set them off.

The only thing I'm not happy with is the lighting. The club room is lit from above with halogens that shine directly onto the floor, and the lights can't be repositioned. There are two incandescent lamps in the room as well, but they just throw funky shadows on the pieces.

No matter. Nothing is so severely compromised that it's not going to look good enough for the purpose of this show. We have a great flow, with varying sizes and heights being used, and the variety of work is quite amazing.

The Morale Committee women acted pretty impressed with my insane curating skills (they could have just been humoring me, but honestly at that point, I didn't care), and we locked up the doors for the night. I hope the crafts portion goes as well as the fine arts portion did.

I didn't have much time to dawdle, though, as I had rehearsal to get to.

I haven't had time to so much as look at my lines between Monday's rehearsal and tonight, but since we're still blocking Act One, I don't feel too bad about having the script in-hand.

It's tough to block, as we don't have the use of the main stage, which is pretty common. However, the room we do have to rehearse in is very, very small, so every movement is just a hint of the movement we'll be doing in the larger space.

Still, we all have a good idea of where everyone is going to be moving once the stage is ours, and we've all gotten our blocking down pretty well so far. It's a fun group of people to work with.

The assistant director said that I didn't look like I was having any fun while I was onstage, and I told him that it was because I thought my character was a bit of a worrywort, so I played him that way. He said it would be nice if I loosened up a little bit, since two hours' worth of worry isn't going to work for an audience. After that note, I did have more fun with the character, and I actually got some laughs, which is nice for a role that's basically written to give the "stock" characters someone to bounce their own brand of craziness off of.

So not only do I get kissed by a woman in this play, I also get slapped and crawled all over by women in this play, and we're not even finished blocking Act One. The woman who has to slap me feels terrible about it, even though I keep telling her it's okay to slap me harder, in order to get a decent sound out of it. (There's no chance of using a stage combat move, and honestly, I can take a slap.) By the last run-through, she hit me but good, and I deliberately spun my head around, which made her fall completely out of character and ask if I was all right.

I felt like getting all John Lovitz on her and say, "I was only ACTING!" but I refrained. I told her I was just trying out reaction shots. She said next time, she'll wind up and knock me on my ass. Fine by me; anything for the sake of "art".

I've finally warmed up to the idea of being the lead in this show. I get to be onstage almost the whole time, and I interact directly with every other person onstage. It does mean that I can't miss a rehearsal, but that's fine. I started auditioning in order to find another social outlet, and I certainly have that now.

If anyone in the Boston area is interested in seeing an extremely silly show in May, let me know and I'll give you the performance information. If you're related to me or are Laurie, you're pretty much required to come.

Sean and Heather have narrowed their daughter's name down to three: Madeline, Emma, or Alexandra. Any one of them would be very nice. Of the three, I think I still like Madeline the best, but you never know. Chris and Susan had a name picked out for Julia until she was born, and that name didn't suit her at all, so they changed it on the spot. She's such a "Julia" now that I can't imagine her with another name.

Heather sent me an e-mail thanking me for stopping by yesterday. We got into an e-mail exchange about whether or not I would like to have kids. The short answer is yes; but only if I'm sure that I'm settled, and preferably with someone in my life.

I don't know why she asked about it. Maybe just idle curiosity on her part, but it did get me thinking about it again. I haven't thought about the idea of having kids for quite some time, but I think I'd make a pretty good dad.

Not that the possibility is even remotely close right now. Somehow, I don't think Mom wants two people living with her, especially if one of them needs such constant attention. And the baby might need some special care, too.

I got a tremendous amount of e-mail today, but because I was so project-focused, I only had enough time to skim through it. I promise I'll write back tomorrow after the art show is done. It'll be great to have that particular project off my plate. I still have the design department party to coordinate (I promised Dan that I'd still do it, even though I won't be in the department when it happens), but other than that, I can't really start any other long-term projects for the department. It feels weird to have this end-date looming. It's a good feeling, but definitely odd.

I suppose if I'm going to get through all those books tomorrow before heading into work tomorrow, I should get some sleep tonight.