No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on April 30, 2016

Well that was one of those one of a kind adventures that you end up telling tales about for many years. AJ is going to hear all about the past couple of days when he gets older.

The drive home was pretty much pedestrian. We hit a couple of short traffic snags along the way but managed to get ourselves onto the Island before the construction cut off most of the ways onto the Island.

The cats were stand-offish last night but are cuddling up to us today.

Today is about restoring order to the house and getting fresh fruit and veg into it along with a couple of other staple times that we need.

This next week is going to be a busy one. We have all kinds of activities planned. Including Peter attending a Free Comic Book day event down in Atlantic City.

But right now I need to get the road noise out of my ears and back to the here and now.

I am grateful that we didn’t have much in the way of traffic either direction.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 29, 2016

Meet Anthony Jack aka AJ Peter’s first grandchild

(for the VI this is a photo of AJ. He has a head of black curly hair and his eyes are closed. He is wrapped up in a white, pink, and blue blanket.)

He was born yesterday at 7:47 pm Weight 5 pounds 11 oz Length 18 ½ inches. Small but feisty.

That’s what has been going on for the past two days. Ariel’s water broke on Wednesday while she was at her doctor’s office. They admitted her and yesterday was about convincing AJ that he wanted to leave his small living quarters for the world at large.

Mother and baby are doing fine as is Dad.

Peter hasn’t stopped grinning ear to ear.

Caroline is over the moon that she is an Aunt and got to hold her nephew.

I am grateful that AJ made it into the world safely.

Ariel and AJ
(for the VI; This is Ariel in her hospital bed with AJ on her chest. Her hair is brown as are her eyes. She is wrapped in hospital gown and bed clothes. AJ is wearing a diaper and a pink, blue and white striped cap)

Anthony and AJ
(for the VI: This is Anthony with a black shirt, brown hair and glasses holding AJ in the blanket and hat)

Peter and AJ
(For the VI: This is Peter holding AJ. Peter has on a red hoodie. He has his hand on AJ’s chest. AJ is in his blanket and hat.)

Aunt Caroline meets AJ
(For the VI: This is Caroline holding AJ. Caroline is wearing a black t-shirt. She is looking up into camera. AJ is in his hospital issued blanket and hat)

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 28, 2016

I spend almost 20 years as a Stage Manger.

I fell into theater after a bad break up with a boyfriend and my friend Terri decided that I moped around enough and needed to do something.

So I came to a meeting for the new Theater at Emory called Theatre Emory. The play on the table was “Everyman” and it was being done in various buildings all over campus like the morality plays use to be done. I signed up for crew and ended up running lights at the Nursing School for the play. Through that play I met a group of people that I am still friends with to this day.

I discovered that I like stage managing but I learned to run lights and sound. I was really good at running the very old lighting board and the sound board. I learned costuming and props and box office.

I stage managed at the Academy Theater, Theatrical Outfit, Horizon Theater, the Alliance, and others while I was in Atlanta. I had a lot of fun and a lot of adventures.

Then I went to the Yale School of Drama and got my MFA in stage management and direction.

The summer after I graduated I worked at the Williamstown Theater Festival and then the Barter Theater.

Various theaters over the years became my temporary home as I went from show to show.

I moved up to New York and stage managed Tony and Tina’s Wedding for a while including the traveling show.

I was asked recently if I wanted to get back into theater full-time as I am watching a tech rehearsal for Little Mermaid JR. I thought about it and said ‘Not Really’.

I enjoyed my time as a stage manager and I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything as these were the stepping stones to where I am today. I could do the job in a heartbeat because those skills haven’t gone away. Would I? Depends on the circumstance. I have done some workshops/reading in NYC for friends but that’s the limit of my patience these days.

I am grateful for all the people I met through theater.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 27, 2016

According to Sandra Boyton, who has been keeping up with this sort of thing, it is tell a story day.

Of course there are a myriad of ways to look at that one phrase.

Do you read a story to someone else that is much beloved to you?

Do you write a new story for people’s amusement?

Do you just listen to other people’s stories?

Do you tell a story about something that happened in your life? Your family’s life? Your ancestors lives?

There are all kinds of ways to look at this.

Personally I am holing up in my hotel room working on my novel for the day while Peter gets some time with his girls. So I will be telling a story that won’t be seen for a little less than a year.

It is also new comic book day so there are lots of stories to be had there.

Our stories about ourselves are our history or how we see our history.

I have a number I could tell today. There are the classics like Guava Paste is People but both Peter and Harlan told that one so much better. There are the Caroline stories, which we tell her of her youth. We have been telling her what she was like as a baby. There are my theater stories, convention stories, travel stories, and family stories. I have a lot of them and have written many of them down over the years in the web log. There are painful stories and happy stories and some that don’t have an ending yet.

So ask me a question and I’ll tell you a story based on that question. Might not be long but it will be a story. It can be fictional or non-fictional. Something about my past or my future. Puppet or not. I will put a caveat that there are some stories I am not going to tell for a variety of reasons so please understand this.

I am grateful for all the stories I do have to tell.

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Posted By Kathleen David on April 26, 2016

I have been expecting this since the whole bathroom thing has become front page news along with the stupidity trying to legislate something that is so personal but apparent the public at large needs to know what is (or was) in our pants at the time of our birth.

It was a Cheesecake Factory in Knoxville. I was there with Peter, Caroline, Ariel and her fiancé Anthony. I had put my bag on the chair next to me so I didn’t have it over my shoulder.

Now I am not the most feminine person on the planet. I have broad shoulders compared to most women and large hands, which is great for a puppeteer. I don’t wear make-up. I was wearing a loose t-shirt and black sweatpants with black shoes. I had my hair pulled back behind my head.

(For the VI: This is me with a black shirt and black pants and two puppet fish on my arms. Blue on the right and Red on the Left.)

I walked into the bathroom to find two older ladies washing their hands and chatting.

They saw me and stopped talking and gave me such a look. They turned back and I heard one say to the other, “Are they in the right restroom?” not exactly quietly.

It is not that I haven’t seen that look before in my life. In fact it is one that I have gotten use to over the years. But now things were a little different. I knew that they were trying to figure out what my “deal” was and this was happening all over America to people who are just trying to pee. It annoyed me in a way it hasn’t annoyed me not because I gave a crap what they thought my gender was but because walking into a restroom should not be a gauntlet of proof to just use a stall.

I had become an it.

So I did something that I hate to do. I straightened up and thrust out my chest and flipped my hair to make my ponytail come over my shoulder. They saw my shape and relaxed. That I had to do that to walk across a room to pee makes me very angry.

It is sad that going to the bathroom has become such an adventure.

I am not going to start wearing make-up or tighter shirts to make others more comfortable in a restroom. I will go with anyone who needs to use the women’s room and defend their right to use the facilities.

I know what I am. I feel for anyone who had doubts about being accepted for who they are.

All I needed to do is pee and I have spent the entire afternoon stewing about just walking into a restroom.

I am grateful to those who just let people be themselves.

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