Okay, I feel kind of annoyed at the concept of green vegetables already, but I made it! I bypassed the "make your own sundae" party, I ate the good small meals I took with me to work, and I avoided the big pile of chocolate in the green room at the theater.

Now I just have to do that every single day, and I'll be fine.

Some say, "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels," but at this moment, I think that being thin feels about as good as a pile of chocolate chip cookies.

I have been notified officially that my play Hit Me will be featured in the ArtsCenter Live 10X10 Theater Festival in Carborro, NC. This is the second time I've been included in this festival (the first time was a couple years back, when The Illusion of You was included). I'm going to attend the festival this year (unlike last time, when I had to miss it), and will be able to see TeKay and Becky, who both live in the area.

I'm thrilled to have a play in production again. The fact that so many of my plays are sitting on my hard drive after having been produced only once is testament to the fact that I'm really no good at this "submissions" thing. I have a list of festivals and calls for material that came into my mailbox today, and all but a couple (I'm not a lesbian, so I'm out of the running for one of them) require scripts that fit with something I've already written.

Get my name out there; that's the key. Have productions in as many places as possible, and get published eventually. It's not rocket science to do this, just work. I simply haven't been doing the work.

At least this is a first step back into it. I have two full-length shows that I'm actively writing right now (the Mike/Will play and the solo piece), and I'll be working with Robert to get his show up off the ground, as well.

Little steps. It all happens in little steps. I have to remember that.

Just when I thought that the offstage drama was over, the director decided that the show (in its third-to-final performance) needed to have a somewhat large-ish change to one scene. Specifically, he didn't think the "flow" of one scene worked with interjecting lines in it, and wanted to turn it into what amounts to a monologue.

Which would be fine...in rehearsal, with the permission of the playwright. An hour before the lights are going to come up onstage is not the time to tell actors that you're cutting lines and stitching together a scene that's been running just fine every other goddamned show.

I bitched a little bit (for me), but I was beyond seething inside. I'm half-tempted to call Samuel French and let them know that a director has taken liberties with the script, but they honestly wouldn't care. I believe this silly play is something they get quite a lot of royalties from, and I doubt that Mr. Fred Carmichael cares one way or the other if the Christmas scene has interjections from two characters or not.

Still, it just burns me, both as an actor and as a playwright. As an actor, I finally feel 100% certain of my lines. I may bobble a bit or trip over my own tongue, but I know my lines cold (or at least the paraphrasing I've managed to use every time), and to switch things up so that my cue lines aren't the same as they've been every single performance and rehearsal before tonight for absolutely no artistic reason whatsoever (I don't really believe the director has an artistic bone in his body, at this point) is just plain stupid. As I said to several members of the cast tonight, "Apparently the director didn't like the fact that we all know our lines right now, so he's trying to fuck us up."

As a playwright, it makes me livid. Sure, it's a total of six lines, but playwriting is different than just about every other form of writing out there, in that, once a play is published, it is to be performed verbatim, unless you receive express written permission from the playwright to make changes.

Small liberties, such as changing the color of a character's hair to suit your acting pool, are expected, but every word in the script is to be spoken onstage. Period. When you get the rights to a show, you sign a document attesting to that fact. Maybe the flow isn't what you wanted. If that's the case, call the publishing company so they can make the decision about cutting (or adding) lines.

And for all that's holy, don't change something that's been getting laughs and moving along just fine during the final weekend because you've suddenly had some sort of artistic revelation! Enough, already.

I'm tired of getting upset at this show, and I try not to. When the fill-in stage manager (the assistant director) didn't set any of the props, I just put mine in place without a word. When the tech crew still can't get its gigantic list of 25-30 cues right (the clock struck midnight twice tonight, which is the best we've done, tech-wise, since the show began), I've been okay with it. But don't sidle up to me and say that you're going to change an entire scene just before a performance. It's distracting. It's unprofessional. It lowers my (already rock-bottom) opinion of you as a figure in theater.

Other than that, the show went really well, for a Thursday. Maybe other shows had raucous Thursday-night crowds, but this one is just an exercise in torture. The audiences are tiny, and they haven't been in any mood to laugh. This one wasn't the collection of corpses that showed up last Thursday, but neither were they worth the effort to tack on another performance to the weekend. Every theater does things a little differently, and I like the fact that there are three shows to end the run of this play, but still, it's tough to get out there to sort-of-polite chuckles from the audience.

They did warm up after intermission. I think we should hold intermission first on Thursdays (should I ever do something with this theater group again), just so we can get some sort of energy out of them.

Still, it was a fun show. It went by faster than I ever remember it, and the cast had some fun between acts (they might have had fun during the acts, but I don't have any time offstage in this one, so I wouldn't know).

After the show was over, I ran into a friend of mine named Jackson, who had sponsored one of my self-produced, self-directed shows at the Department of Transporation Building back in the day. He asked me if I was still writing, and I told him yes, and we chatted for a little while about the fact that paying venues are everywhere except, it seems, in Boston.

While chatting with Jackson, I saw Scott (my personal-ad responder) hanging around the lobby. I excused myself from Jackson and introduced myself. Scott said that he had a good time at the play and was happy he came to see it.

Scott is a big guy. He's taller than me and has that "football player build" that's bandied about on personal ads. He was dressed very nicely, wearing jeans and a nice shirt with a sport jacket over everything. Very classy, and very attractive. He smiled first thing upon meeting me, and I was a bit smitten.

We decided to go to Chili's for a quick bite to eat and a "get to know you" meeting. Unfortunately, Chili's was packed to the rafters, so we went across the street to Uno's. I had a salad with chicken in it (yep, even managed to stay on the diet going out!), and we talked about a good number of topics.

I like Scott a whole lot. I think he's really attractive and nice and funny. I hope we have another date sometime soon, though his schedule seems a little crazy at the moment. We'll see. The only drawback to him is that he lives about an hour away, but I'm willing to drive for a bit to get to know a really decent guy.

I hadn't told the cast that I was going out on yet another date tonight, because it's really getting ridiculous at this point. So far, I've gone out with Mark, with Eric, and now with Scott. You'd think I have a social life or something!

I said, "The next time we get together, I'll come to your turf," to Scott, and he didn't waffle about there being a "next time," so I'm working on the assumption that he's interested, as well. It was all very relaxed and casual, and I'm glad I followed through.

Tomorrow night, three aunts, a cousin, a niece, her friend, my brother and sister-in-law and Mom come to see the show. It's going to be a regular cheering section, just for me! That should be fun. This is the kind of play they can all enjoy.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I've enjoyed doing this play (for all my petty whining about it), and I'm going to miss getting together with this great group of people, but I'm ready to have my nights free again.

Maybe I'll use those nights to get in an extra workout. Cancun looms ever closer.