Galveston. G-A-L-V-E-S-T-O-N, Galveston.

9:08 am. I am dropping in for a quick post from the lobby of the Best Western Beachfront Inn on the Seawall in Galveston. I got up about 7 am when my roommate's alarm went off on his phone and came down for some continental breakfast and to finish "Eclipse". Went back to the room, changed, grabbed "Breaking Dawn" (roommate still crashed) and came back to the lobby. Probably going to head over to the Starbucks next door and then over to the beach. Saw a gorgeous sunrise when I came out of my room at 7...there was an amazing pink/orange line dotted by some scattered clouds hanging right over the Gulf. I took a picture with my phone, but I don't think it did it justice. Note to self: get a decent camera. Do they sell digital versions of those little disposable cameras at Walgreens? Hmm. Trying to decide if I'm going to go with some castmates to watch the Texas/OU game at a bar or if I'm going to hang around here with Billie and have some lunch.
Yesterday (Friday October 16) we had 2 shows at Corsicana High School, 9:15 am and 1:15 pm. Both went really well. The kids were a bit youngish for what I thought our target audience was, but I knew we were in for a good experience when they screamed and yelled when the picture of President Obama appeared in our pre-show video. They also impressed me by really screaming when Martin Luther King appeared, and also when Rosa Parks appeared. Kudos to those teachers for giving them their history! We ran into a bit of a snag between shows when we found out that some parents of the kids who were at the first show complained because we use the "N" word so often throughout...naturally, the parents were not at the show and had no idea the context of the use of that word. Note to parents: Do some research, for the love of Pete. If you know your child is going to see something, odds are you can find something out about what they are seeing...it's not that hard to go on the Internet and get an idea.
As a result of that, Rick, who is playing Jackie Robinson, was given a curtain speech explaining some things about the show, and that seemed to go over OK for the second performance. And the kids seemed to really get into the show again. We all got some reaction applause during some of our big speeches, which was fun.
We had a LOT of student help for load out, so that process was not painful at all. Special shout-outs to all the CHS students who helped us, and most especially to Dusty, who ran our video for all 3 performances, and to Casey, who not only helped us out a whole lot at load in, but really got in there and worked his butt off to help and organize other students at load out. You guys helped us more than you will know!
We got on the road around 5pm to head to Galveston. Brief stop for dinner in Centerville (Dickey's BBQ, yum!) and then a pitstop just south of Houston to pee, and we were here. We got checked in to the hotel and I took a shower, then several of us went across the street to hang on the beach and have some beers. Phil G, our SM, brought his guitar and we chilled on one of the rock breakwaters and had a late-night sing-along. Phil G, Billie and I made a quick trip to the all-night Kroger and then it was back and to bed.
One of these posts pretty soon, I will be funnier and more insightful and this won't read so much like a travelogue...haha...but I'm still getting my feet wet on this whole thing.
Off for a bit...will probly check back in later.