Ah, East Texas.

Last couple of days in Galveston were pretty relaxing...Monday's load in was a breeze with the Union crew at the Grand Opera House. Spent the rest of the day hanging...had lunch at the Stork Club right across from the theatre after load in, then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening walking along the seawall and relaxing with my book. Missed sunrise by a few minutes on Tuesday morning, but that day's performance was well-attended, a little low-energy from us but not awful. Lunch again at Stork Club before I climbed into the cab of the truck for my first time driving it. Joe was my navigator. I had to drive it onto the ferry in Galveston to shave some time off our drive, but despite some initial nerves, it wasn't too bad, and we got to see more dolphins on the journey across the harbor. Passed through miles and miles of neighborhoods that are still recovering from Hurricane Ike. Made it to Lufkin ahead of schedule, so we checked into the Super 8, where I was scheduled for the single occupancy room...wahoo! Load in was smooth again...not only are we getting better with it, but there were tons of volunteers there to help us with it as well. I was a little worried because the volunteers were all older gentlemen, but there was no need for concern...they were kicking ass and taking names.
Super 8 had a hot tub and pool, so I spent some time in there relaxing before bed. We got word on the way to the Lutcher Theater that a school had pulled out because they had been sent a letter by some "concerned parents" regarding the language in our show. That put us all in a contemplative mood, but really informed some things for us in the show and we had probably our best performance so far. It sucks, because the people who wrote the letter more than likely have not seen the show and are just complaining based on hearsay...everyone who has seen the show has come away with positive things to say (and hopefully with a bit of a different outlook than they had coming in). But...ultimately, our job is just to tell the story in the most honest way we can, and whatever people take away from it (or don't) is their own business. Who knows...maybe we can drum up some publicity from it. haha!
The lovely volunteers from the Lutcher Theater prepared a huge lunch for us...I called it the "Baptist Paper Plate Buffet" because it was just like the old days at church...everyone behind their own dish making sure you tasted it. Top it with some good old Texas sweet tea and a big plate of deviled eggs, banana pudding for dessert, and we were all good and stuffed for load out.
Another relaxing evening post-show at the Super 8. Did some laundry, watched SYTYCD (Nathan got top 20! So excited!!) and Glee, then hot tubbed again before re-packing my luggage and heading to bed. Got up early this morning and found out most of East Texas was under a tornado watch. There was some heavy rain and hairy weather for the first part of our drive, but it cleared off as we got closer to Lufkin. Checked into the Quality Inn here a few minutes ago and are about to go to the Temple Theater for load in and hopefully lunch.