Rehearsal and remembering Santo Cristabal

This afternoon Christopher and I had our first rehearsal together.  Mary came to help Rich and I adjust to doing the sound effects without her.  It is wonderful having Mary and Rich and I all together on the stage, and right there was Christopher.  Judy directing, Denise sitting in the back to listen along with Mr. King, a fellow actor, Mary, Rich, Ron, Pat, Carolyn, Christopher, such dear people to me, and I get to play with them.  It is always amazing to me how quickly the radio plays comes together.  We have many new people to work with, 3 siblings, which is very cool, and it will take them another week or so to really come to full terms with what they have gotten themselves into, but  by the end we will all be having a wonderful time on the boards and under the lights, in front of those who love live theater, and we will play and perform for three shows, and it will pass before we know it.  I am so grateful to be able to share this with Christopher, who seems to be having the time of his life.  When the harmonica part came up, I said, "play".  He said, "what???  I can't play"  I told him that it didn't matter, just blow.  And so he did.  And each cue his confidence grew, and by the time we are ready to do the performances, I am sure that he will be wailing away on that mouth organ, Oh Suzanne and Polly Wollly Doodle"  If I could just print the music, I can play it on the piano, and then he will be able to pick it up, I am sure.  And maybe by watching him I will be able to pick up enough so that I can play the second part, that is if we do not find a harmonica player before then.  Please let us find an harmonica player before then.


We made brownie cookies for Christopher to take to art camp tomorrow and then headed up to rehearsal.  Other then that we spent a pretty low key day.  The only not so great thing was that my windows were down during rehearsal and it rained.  It never used to rain, so I am still getting used to the fact that it might rain.  The car got wet, inside and out, very wet, but Ms Moon had towels in her car which she loaned us and there you go, we were just fine, and the car will dry.  We will take it out tomorrow and put the top down and in the heat, I am sure that it will blow dry out just fine.


There were 3 of us with our outfits set, so we took some photos for newspaper advertising.  Here is one of those photos:  

 There I am with our mini door, Christopher on the mouth organ and Karen reading script. 

And now we are home and dry and have had our dinner and watched a movie together.  I am trying to finish getting the posts of the trip completed, but I think Ms Moon is right, something is different in the blog world.  I made a comment to her about at rehearsal and she said something about the fact that I blog for myself, to put this trip to word.  And she is absolutely right.  That is the only reason I do this.  But it has still been very odd, not hearing from anyone.  I had hoped to hear from some of my friends in Spain, but I do not do this for the comments, but I admit that I do enjoy hearing your points of view.  But that not hearing from anyone, has not slowed me down.

I got a call from my dear beloved one, Geeta.  She came home this evening from Ohio.  She spent the weekend in Ohio with her family.  Geeta's Mother passed away this past week, and the services were this weekend.  I was so worried about her.  Geeta adored both of her parents, and her loss of her mother was hard enough, but to watch your father's life change so drastically is another hard challenge for a daughter.  I know.  I had sent a plant to the service.  It was a small gesture, but I had to do something so that she knew that I was there in spirit with her.  I love Geeta very much, and I am so happy that both her children and most of the family were gathered together in Ohio to celebrate her Mother.  I will so look forward to a hug from that dear one on Friday for the Full Moon Meditation.  I am taking Christopher with me to the meditation.  I think he will enjoy seeing new cultures and meeting wonderful, intelligent, interesting people and spending a little time meditating.

Here is another update, it is Sunday, June 26th, Corpus Christi, the day that the priests bring the statue of Christ out and walk him through town.  Some of the neighbors get together and paint salt and decorate the street with these intricate designs:  

 Here is one of the 7 altars set on the roads; you can see the design of the painted salt on the road.

 More of the painted salt on the streets, and all the streets, even those that did not have any designs, all had sweet grass, rosemary, jasmine and other scented branches and vines on the street for the procession to walk on

 Isn't this amazing?  It took 20 volunteers 3 very long days to get the designs down on time

 Here they made a flower out of painted wood chips with the scented stems of sweet grass

 Most of the houses hung banners for Corpus Christi or shawls.  It was all very festive.  

 The procession started with these lovely little girls all dressed in white throwing flower petals and the little boys dressed up so nice in uniforms

 Here is the priest carrying the gold and silver statute of Christ.  It looked heavy

 The priest is cleansing the altar with incense.  The incense gave me a headache and really upset my stomach

Aren't they precious?

The procession began with mass in the cathedral and then led out by these young people and the altar boys followed by the priest, they followed the path of flowers, branches, vines, sweet grass, potted plants as it wove between the 7 altars around town until it ended back at the cathedral for the final ceremony.  Candi, Fatima and I walked in front of the procession until we caught up with Isabelle and Ramon where we watched the ceremony at the altar in front of their house and then we headed back to Paco y Teresa's house to wait for the streets to clear to head over to Play de Maya for the banquet.

The procession was lovely and the faith and tradition of the people was so interesting to watch.  The entire town was out, the town band marched behind the priest and assistants.  The men leaders of the churches walked carrying the hoopa, or whatever it is called for the Catholics, the little tent like a bridal covering in a Jewish wedding.  I felt so fortunate to there on that day, to share this special once a year event with my friends.  To see the simply faith each of them have, and how tradition is such an integral part of their lives.

After the streets cleared, we headed to the banquet, but that is for another day.  Now it is time to lay down and rest.  A good day, a good rehearsal, and tomorrow, art camp for Christopher.  A busy day for all of us.  I need to get a new printer, trying to change ink cartridges today, I broke it.  sigh, it wasn't expensive, and I never cared for how it worked.  So I guess I will look into getting a new one tomorrow.  I need to print scripts and soon photos for dad. 

The rash has been tough this week, in my nose, on my eyelids, ankles and several spots on my face.  But the gel is working so well, my eye is almost completely cleared up.  I am slowly adjusting to this new dosage again.  This week is blood work, next week I will see the doctor.  

I am cranky and tired, but Christopher seems so forgiving that he claims he doesn't even notice. He is a great kid.  And so life is here in Monticello.  It rained today, glorious rain, we had rehearsal, time to bake brownie cookies, watch a movie together, and enjoy spending time together.