Wish I had a camera...

All the times this week I wished I had my camera with me, and not once did I swing it.

1. Tuesday. I tutored a student who, to be honest, was smarter than me, in ACT Science. Not picture-worthy, but still.

2. Wednesday. Lunch with a theater producer with many helpful things to say and more energy than most four-year-olds. While waiting behind his South Austin house to walk to Guerro's, we chatted for a bit with a couple firemen, who had just finished a footrace through the neighborhood, ending at their firehouse. They were very nice, and one even scaled a rope hanging from a tree without warning while continuing the conversation, which was about bagpipers and (what else) fires.

Attended half of a sacred music concert at my church, and very much enjoyed the Anglican chants and other traditional music. Our choir is superb.

Then I jaunted off to a rehearsal for the Backyard Plarty. More later.

3. Thursday. From 4 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., we rehearsed for the Plarty outside, on what I'm calling the first real day of summer in Austin. In other words, you have to keep drinking water or else you'll have one of those hyperthermic seizures.

Then a lovely, enjoyable $8 boat ride on Town Lake to celebrate the birthday of my fellow playwright and collaborater, Aimee Gonzalez, and to watch the bats emerge from under the Congress Avenue bridge. The bats, oddly enough, just sort of dribbled out this time, unlike the fantabulous swarms that I've seen twice before. Maybe they were hungover?

Then the fellah and I dropped by the Salvage Vanguard opening night party for 15 minutes, long enough to get our picture taken for a certain publication's blog which gets no link because, let's face it, not the prettiest shot of either of us. But can you blame us? Check out what else we did that day! We're allowed a little smudgy frizzy frazzledness.

4. Friday. The Plarty was a roaring success! The scripts were silly, but I have nothing but compliments for the people who worked on it. The members of Full Service have never been in a play before and yet worked so earnestly and with such dedication, and it really did show. They were joined by two teenage neighbors, one of whom even learned his lines (we'd said it could be on-book). Our one professional actress, Laura Heidinger, of course did well, having just come off of playing Sonia in Uncle Vanya.

I am so honored by the hard work of the entire cast. They all tried different things, they took risks, and they offered their own ideas. As a playwright, you don't always get that much dedication from professional actors.

Then Full Service played a set from their CD Recess. It was lots of fun.

5. Saturday. Book sale in the morning! A charity event sponsored by Literacy Austin. I got four books for $8! That includes a $1 copy of Le Petit Prince in French, with a French-English dictionary of the vocabulary and a guide to the grammar at the back.

At night, I attended the bachlorette party of a lovely friend. Not my thing, but she's a sweet person, and I was happy to celebrate with her.

However, the next time I go to 6th Street, I'm taking a bunch of girls and sticking a dopey little mock-veil on somebody's head, because you would not believe how many free drinks we got. The bars there pay people to walk the streets and recruit girls to come and drink at their establishment, and bachlorette parties are top quarry. (Yellow Turtle: you game?)

Saturday was also the one-year mark for my fellah and me. I think that's just neat. Now, why, you ask, didn't I do something with him?

I wrote out the little dialogue of the amusing conversation we had on just that score, but it didn't play. So really, it boils down to a committed anti-sentimentalism combined with a shared bad memory and poor advance planning skills.

We were going to do something tonight, but then when I called him last night, he reported that his high-end monitor went kaput, and there went our budget for dates.

My opinion is that even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can be romantic, if served properly, so I'll just put on a pretty dress and bring the Smucker's and Jiffy sometime this week.

Finis.