Having a Ball

Having a Ball

Oh, shit, Blogger changed my interface again.  I don't know if I like it... although I do like that I'm looking at a serif font right now (looks like Garamond, but could be Bookman, I'm no expert) instead of the blocky sans-serif fonts they have used heretofore.  This is a more WSYWYG kind of thing (I've been waiting ages to use that acronym in a sentence), looking at the text without HTML tags, and oh I have a full-justify button now!  Yay!  And font-colors!  Well, we'll explore all of this later.



So I'm right in the middle of Ducal Ball weekend.  Last night was the In-Town/Out-of-Town Show and Roast at Club Rumor, and I'm told a good time was had by all.   I actually found it a little boring.  I was the hostess of the show, but somebody else was MC (Absolute Empress XXXIII of San Francsico Alexis Miranda, who did a wonderful job), and somebody else did the decorations (lots of balloons on the floor and a rainbow flag made of crepe-paper streamers), and somebody else took the music and organized the lineup.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you — all I had to do was introduce the emcee at the beginning of the show and thank her and everyone else at the end — but I felt more than a little superfluous. 

 

I suppose that hostess-duties required that I go about and chat with all the guests and see that everyone was having fun and encourage them to roast Frank and Angelique... but there's that whole Talking To Strangers thing that I have trouble with.  So I basically just stood around for the whole night (looking devastating in my new dress, soft black tulle with a ruched bodice and a handkerchief hem trimmed in baby-blue satin ribbon) talking with people I already know and slamming back glass after glass of tonic with lime (for my throat, which still hurts though the cold seems to have finally gone away).

 

Still, the evening went off fairly well (though nobody roasted the monarchs, I'm not sure if it's because nobody had anything to say about them or if it's because I didn't pressure anybody into it) without my having to do much of anything, which is good.  And I looked great, which is also good.  I got my nails done yesterday, and even had them painted the most amazing shade of candy-apple red with gold metallic effect; they're so long and lovely, I am going to be very reluctant to take the color off tomorrow and get them trimmed and French-tipped on Monday.  But even in as casual a work-environment as I have, inch-long candy-apple-red nails just aren't practical (not to mention what the Grandmother would say about them once she finally noticed them... she's a little slow on these things, it took her two weeks to notice when I started wearing acrylics, and it took her almost a month to notice when I got my ears pierced eighteen years ago).

 

And now today is Ducal Ball itself, so this morning Caroline and I are going down to Centennial Hall in Hayward to rehearse our parts in the opening and closing numbers of the evening.  We have to be there before noon, when we are going to rehearse our three choruses of "One" from A Chorus Line,  which will introduce Angelique into "Kiss Today Goodbye," her first step-down number (she's supposed to do three, I think).  It's going to be dazzling.  Then at one, we will rehearse the opening production number, in which we will all enter with "Seasons of Love" from Rent, and then Caroline will do a snippet of "I Enjoy Being a Girl" from Flower Drum Song and I will do a snippet of "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity (though the version is from Fosse); Grand Duke IX Norm Levesque will be doing a bit of "O, What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma, and somebody will be doing the end of "There's No Business Like Show Business" from Annie Get Your Gun.  Ducal Ball is a Broadway theme this year, you see.



What worries me, though, is the gaps in between things: there is going to be three hours between the end of rehearsals and the time the doors open for Ducal Ball, in which time I will want to come home, pick up something for Grandmother to eat for dinner on the way, shower and shave, get back to Hayward, put my face on, and be ready at 5 p.m. prompt (I'm pretty sure I can do it, but if there's traffic or any kind of delay in my program, I'll be screwed); and then there's God-knows-how-long between our opening number and our closing number, time in which I will have nothing to do but sit around and be bored (though I shouldn't be bored, I'll have plenty of friends to talk with at the Ball, and then there are always new people to meet, if I can get Caroline to introduce me to them).

 

Well, speaking of time, I'd better get on the ball with mine.  Caroline will be here at 11 so we will be sure to get to Centennial Hall before 12, and I still have to put on some clothes and eat something and get my dresses organized and find my tiara and all that jazz. 

 

Chat at ya later!