Blog Installment November 17, 2010

What a lucky bunch we are….having such wonderful people together doing something we all love, having incredibly gorgeous weather while the rest of the country has rain and yucky stuff going on…It seems the bad weather comes in after we have left a place. We just spent three nights and two shows in Melbourne, Florida. In my last blog I quickly mentioned a little bit about our stay. You will recall this was after our 12 show, 10 day, 8 city, 5 state marathon!! EVERYONE went and had a massage at the Hotel Spa. We all got a Fiddler Group Discount and the staff came to our shows. They really enjoyed it.

To back up a bit, we pulled into Melbourne Monday afternoon from Panama City. Now remember, we had been in Biloxi on Friday and a gorgeous beach in Pensacola on Saturday, so we had been starting to have beach time already. However, these stops were just overnight and we had a show in Pensacola so we only had 2 hours on the beach between getting off the bus and getting back on the bus to go to the theater. So now it is Monday, November 15 and we pull into Melbourne. I immediately went to do laundry as I had held out until now because I knew we would be there for more than two nights. This was a deluxe hotel laundry as they had more than one machine. We had actually been in another hotel where there were several machines. Real laundry luxury. Our bus driver, Dave actually took a bunch of the kids to do laundry at a real Laundromat one of our golden days. But enough about laundry!

Everyone else found out about dinner….the hotel has a beautiful deck right on the beach; the food is not bad either. Of course, I had eaten sardines and miso soup in my room while I was waiting for the dryer to finish. When I went back to the laundry room our violinist, who is a spectacular player by the way, told me they were all eating on the deck downstairs. So naturally, I went down and sat on the sofa facing the ocean for three hours!! It was heavenly. At one point all of the cast members came by and said hello. What a lovely evening. The next day we all had appointments with the spa. I went in for a massage, a manicure and a pedicure. That night the conductor told me I had never sung so well, so refreshed and relaxed!! I think we should have a masseuse every month or so, especially after we have had long bus trips through so many states!!

Today we have a travel day to Macon, Georgia on our way to Huntsville, AL. It started like any travel day. I slept for the first few hours on the bus. We stopped in Valdosta, GA off the highway at a mall. Most of us went into Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch. The salad bar there is great. (I had never been in one of these restaurants before.) We only have an hour for lunch so we all went back to the bus. However, instead of loading up and getting on our way, we had a flat tire. This is the first time anything untoward has happened to the bus. Our Fyedka, Ben, has been making a video of all of our stops with Kimmy, one of my daughters-Sprintze. They were interviewing people as to what they thought about the flat tire. I put on a funny accent and told them some sort of nonsense. And then of course, I started laughing. Well this is all on film folks and will probably be on YouTube soon for your viewing pleasure!! One of the other cast members, Kirk, also took some wonderful pictures of me laughing.

My laughter has become something of a happening. One night we were back on the bus after an especially grueling performance. Something struck me as funny and I started laughing. Well anyone who knows me knows that I have a very operatic laugh. (In fact I have messed up comedians’ timing at Comedy Clubs with my laugh!) Well, this particular night, I couldn’t stop laughing. Whenever I thought I was finished, someone would say something and I would start all over again. Needless to say, within a few minutes, the entire bus was laughing!! A lovely way to end the evening. Well, of course, now every time I start to laugh, everyone else starts laughing, very therapeutic.

Meanwhile back at the flat tire event, while I was laughing, the bus driver called to have the tire repaired and an hour later we are on the road to Macon. Very efficient. Just another day in the life of a working actor who is living the dream! Just to let you all know, we arrived safely in Macon, GA at 5:45pm. Andrew and Dennis and I had a lovely stroll through a little of the cute downtown area on our way to pick up take out Thai food for dinner.

Early morning tomorrow, 7:30 am luggage for 8:00am wheels up!! And we are on the road again…..we have a 5 show weekend in Huntsville, Alabama…..then we fly to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for the week. Wowie, zowie, a whole week in one place. What will we do??? Besides 8 shows and a Thanksgiving Dinner??? Who knows???  More later……………….