publication and other noteworthies...

i know it's been forever, but we all know how life is. i'll keep the catching up as brief as i can and stick to the important points:
1. the upcoming (august2008) akashic collection trinidad noir will contain one of my stories. i'm not important enough that my name's on the cover, but i'm "and others" and so fucking excited! i can't wait to read the rest of it, too...
2. grims had surgery to deal with a herniated/fragmented/extruded disc. it was a long, tough summer, followed by a scary, but seemingly simple, fix. knock wood/bone/whatever. but as good as dr.levine was to him, i take issue with sitting for hours in the waiting room for a loved one having spinal surgery and being forced to deal with er on the damn tv- that shit is ridiculous- 2hours back to back of people dying horrible bloody deaths? so wrong.
3. chronologically #2, a respite for grims; just pre-surgery we went to a family wedding in bim, which was excellent, and i would love to say more about but i'm waiting for grims to post some damn pictures already. but it was a good time- me+grims, my parents, the gremlin, her girl ariam all stayed @ this guesthouse with some very cool friends of the bride-our-cousin. we limed, went to the beach, cruised on a catamaran, wined+dined+danced @ the wedding, went to bars and out dancing, partied with old friends+family all together again...wonderful. grims had a great time swimming with turtles and bobbing in the ocean (good for him, too) just chilling out so i was happy for him.
4. we also had a thanksgiving gremlin- when she heard dionne was coming by us, she got jealous and started looking @ ticket prices, which were crazy low. next thing we knew she was on a plane to us. grims was well enough to cook (provided i got the turkey into the cart, into the car, into the house, into the fridge, onto the counter, into the oven, back out+in+out again, and into and out of the fridge a couple more times before it was light enough for him to manage on his own) and he outdid himself. and the 2rounds of turkey tetrazini after were also most excellent. the only shitty thing about thanksgiving was waking up thursday morning (and every one after for a week) with a terrible and worsening pain in the jaw. it's good now, but it made thanksgiving and rehearsals awful- i always forget there's nothing like pain in the teeth.
5. again with the poor chronology- rehearsals for the house of yes commenced for me as soon as we got back from bim. they actually started the day we left the country and i was to return to d.c. off-book, so the other thing i did in b'dos was learn lines. on the beach and the catamaran and shit. i did good, though. i came back off-book. i don't think i've really talked about this show yet and tonight's our last preview, opening night tomorrow. i love this play, and it's amazing to have a chance to be in it before i leave d.c. it's one of my 2 long-time-favourite american plays; i actually saw the company i'm working with (also the children's hour, equus, edward3) do my other favourite (tiny alice) years ago. the house of yes is the kind of show i'll never do in trini because part of its plot hinges on a certain fascination with the kennedy assassination, which just isn't that important @ home. not that i care about it either; i think it's a very well-written script (she calls it a "suburban jacobean play"). i assistant directed and stage managed a university production of it, and being in it now as my last d.c. gig is cool. we have a brilliant director+cast and it's such good work. the only shitty part of the gig is that my character gets treated like crap by everybody else for most of the play, enters dripping wet from a hurricane with smudged mascara (line comments on it) that gets cleaned up during the make-up phase of the quick-change for 'thanksgiving dinner' which entails not only getting made up in the dark backstage, but putting on evening dress+heels and letting dreadlocks down to hang dripping wet down my back for the entire scene. like equus i have to be waxed and otherwise prepared to be seen in bra+panties, and bawl, and i have a scene that involves frantically packing+unpacking a suitcase in the (relative)dark on my knees while maintaining dialogue with specific lines that revolve around what's happening with the suitcase, thus requiring the suitcase prepacking and onstage unpacking into the drawers then frantic repacking then frantic re-repacking then latching for exit on a specific line to be perfect every time. i'm tired just thinking about the scene now, so i'm guessing this one won't get easier. but i love the piece.
6. dj-friend-of-bajan-cousin-bride who was lovely company all wedding-week spun a righteous set on brap.fm while i was getting ready for rehearsal/photocall last wednesday and is on again this wednesday 10pm-midnight/gmt (5-7pm/d.c.)- big up evilkeg+giraffedog.net (who doesn't love "technological innovation without aggravation"?)!
i'm all typed out, and pretty much caught up with promise of photo-linkage to come and more regular blogging as things settle into performing, selling the house, packing+preparing to move...talk soon.
walk good.