No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on July 12, 2011

I could also call this one the “my eyes are barely open” edition.

We are home. We made it back about 11:30 last night after a rather long drive from Wheeling to home.

Mystery Trekkie went over very well. Peter pulled off the open sketch called “Red Shirt Riot” to the tune of “Zoot Suit Riot”. I would like to thank everyone who participated willingly or was dragooned into participating at the last minute. Y’all did a great job and that was probably one of our best looking sketched. We tossed Nicky into the mix because he was wearing a red shirt.

The evening before there were two participants in the Masquerade who were dressed from the Star Trek episode called “The Way to Eden” which happened to be this year’s episode for Mystery Trekkie. The costumes they did were just wonderful and Peter convinced them to participate in the opening sketch which added a whole other level of insanity to the whole thing.

Here is a photo of the Avenue “Q” puppets from Shoreleave 2011

Avenue “Q”
This photograph is copyright Dawn Swingle who was kind enough to take the photo and share it.

(For the VI: From left to right Meg is holding a Mr. Sulu puppet. She is dressed in black with a black hat on her head. Her puppet is yellow with a yellow shirt and black hair. Her puppet is kissing the Rod puppet that is blue wearing a blue shirt with white hair and blue antenna. Ariel is standing off to the far left wearing black clothing and a black hat on her head. Under these two puppets is me in a Q costume holding Nicky who is green with an orange nose wearing a Star Trek original series red shirt)

We ate dinner and then got on the road to get to West Virginia. Peter got us there by 2:30 AM so that was night number 4 with not a lot of sleep. I got up about 6:30 and took care of some stuff before going down to breakfast. I met up with my parents and sister there and worked out the rest of the day.

The funeral mass was what most Catholic funeral masses are. The internment at the cemetery was done very nicely by the priest. The family gathered at the church’s community center and a nice lunch was had by all courtesy of the ladies of the church. It was a good day of remember my aunt and what she meant to all of us.

I didn’t take Caroline to the funeral or the internment. She is rather young for that. However Peter and Caroline did join me for the luncheon. She got to meet a bunch of my family members that she had only seen in pictures. And they got to meet her who they had gotten to know through pictures and e-mails from my mom or from Aunt Mary Ann. Peter met a few new people and caught up with a bunch of my family members that had been at our wedding when we last saw them. We talked about things we had done since we last met up. We reminisced about Aunt Mary Ann and comforted each other.

We departed about 2:00 for the trip back with a slight detour to the Toy and Train museum that is in Wheeling. If you are in the area, it is worth a trip especially if you are into old toys and the history of toys. They also have some kicking train set-ups. It left Caroline in a good mood for the ride home and gave her another memory of Wheeling besides the funeral. They were working on a temporary exhibit on building toys like legos and blocks. They have some really old examples of blocks through the ages.

The trip back was long but uneventful which is how you really want these sorts of trips to be. The only really traffic snag we had was figuring out how to get through a mess on the LIE and the Cross I. We managed to wend our way around it and got home about 11:30.

I woke up at my usual 6:30 because of a cat yowling outside the door. So I got up and am letting Peter the Iron Driver to sleep in. Today is about unpacking and unwinding. Tomorrow we move onto the next project.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 10, 2011

The trip down wasn’t bad. We hit a little traffic but we still made it in time for Peter to get to his rehearsal for the Bob Greenberger roast.

Friday was mostly about the roast which went off very well. Peter did his version of Carnack the Magnificent which had the audience going. We figured out belatedly that probably half our audience didn’t know about the original Johnny Carson character but the response was still good.

Afterward Caroline went up to the room with Peter and I went out and caught up with various friends. Got back to the room rather later for me.

Saturday I had a couple of panels on costuming and puppetry and the final prep for the Masquerade. Most of this was the final stitches and tweaks that always need to be done before going on.

This was one of those sketches that really came fully formed once the idea was thought of. George Takei recently did a YouTube video in response to the Tennessee law that teachers can’t use the word gay in the earlier grades. So George invited the teachers to say Takei rather than gay. So you can have a Takei Pride parade.

We then found out that John de Lancie was going to be there. And, among his many roles, was playing Q in Star Trek the Next Generation. So our minds went to Avenue Q and the song “If you were gay” which we replaced with the word “Takei”. I built a Star Trek version (original series) of Rod and Nicky along with a George Takei puppet. I put Nicky in a red shirt and Rob in a blue science shirt. We had a Q costume left over from one of the many Mystery Trekkies we have done. I wore that and made everyone Q hats. I had Ariel and her friend Meg as the other puppeteers.

Peter wrote us a wonderful introduction which set up what we were going to do perfectly. The kids did great and we entertained the audience which, at this point, is our main goal in all this. We walked away with a 2nd place for Science Fiction and the Best Presentation Award. Not a bad nights work.

I plan, with some tweaking, to present it at DragonCon at the puppetry slam but I am going to need two warm bodies to help me operate the puppets. So that would be the chance for anyone who is at DragonCon to see it in person.

Today is pretty much about Mystery Trekkie Theater and then we are driving to my Aunt’s funeral which is on Monday.

I am grateful that the audience appreciated what we were doing.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 9, 2011

Thursday I was informed that my Aunt Mary Ann had passed. It was not news that was unexpected, but it was still sad. She passed away after a 2nd stroke. She was working on recovering from the first one before the second one hit.

My Aunt Mary Ann travels rather back in my memory along with my cousins Jimmy and Jerry. She was a salt of the earth kind of woman. If she had grown up in the south, she would have been the prime example of a Steel Magnolia.

I loved my Aunt a lot. I really hope she knew how much she meant to me. I think she did. I think in some ways I was a little strange to her. But I do know that she knew that I loved her with my whole heart.

She was there for me on her 75th birthday for my wedding. She helped my mother get me ready for the next step in my life. I will always remember that morning. She was there in the thick of the fray of getting the bride ready for what happens next.

Our political views never matched on a good day but we still supported each other no matter what. But even with our differences, she was there for me. I still have the cross she gave me for my conformation.

I will miss her greatly. However I also know that she would not have wanted to live in a vegetative state. I know she would have found it boring. She was a very active woman who hated stagnation.

I will miss her.

I am grateful for all the times that Aunt Mary Ann was active in my life.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 5, 2011

This is me under a serious 8-ball. Today I need to get two to three puppets down to the hand sewing. However the wrinkle is that I am creating a new pattern for two of the puppets. So there is going to be a lot of extra work and things going not exactly right.

Tomorrow I need to find some fabric and make one more costume. Then Thursday is finish up and pack day.

On crunch days I tend to break things down into time frames that I want to accomplish. I know how long X is going to take me under usual circumstances. I also know there are some things that are immutable. Glues dry at a certain rate. It takes x minutes to stitch a seam. Time is added into the mix when I sew something wrong. Things that are glued wrong either are dumped or tossed into the random puppet parts box. There are some things that just can’t be repaired so that time just goes out the door.

There will be process pictures next Tuesday since I don’t want to give away the costume until we perform.

I am grateful for everything I get done today.

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Posted By Kathleen David on July 4, 2011

‎”You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~Erma Bombeck

Today is American Independence Day aka the 4th of July. I think just about everyone has traditions for this day here in the USA. Ours is to watch 1776 and grill something. Fireworks have been going off at various towns around us since Friday but tonight is the big night for fireworks and Sousa Marches.

I am doggone proud of my country. Yeah, I know it is not perfect and the political system is fodder for late night comedians but it is my country and, for the most part, it works. And it works against the odds. We allow people to speak their minds without the fear of being locked up. We do allow for each citizen to have the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This country gives everyone a chance to make it by their own bootstraps.

Today there will be a parade in town. I have already seen people walking to the ferry from the first train to come in and others going to the city today on the first train to go out. There will be baseball and fireworks and watermelon.

Today I celebrate because my parents were given opportunity here that they would have never had in the countries of their parents’ birth. I celebrate because America allowed my parents to meet and marry so I could be here. I celebrate because I have had opportunities I would not have in any other country. I celebrate the United States of America which is not an old country but has done a lot in its short time in existence.

So have some fun and some good food. Be care if you are using fireworks today and have a good holiday.

I am very grateful that my country exists.

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