Murder Mystery Dinner theater!

John and I are performing in a mystery dinner theater that's a fund raiser for the non-profit Hammonton theater group.

2^nd and Vine Players

presents

A Fund Raising Event

written by Erin Blackwell

(me, not the famous playwrite!)

A Comedy, Interactive

Dinner Theater

Price: $25 (includes dinner and the show!)

Plus!

A Grand Prize for the person who correctly guesses the murderer(s)!

September 18^th, 2010

7:00pm

at

The Eagle Theatre

2^nd and Vine St

Hammonton, NJ

Explore the mystery!

Enjoy the laughs!

See the clues that will help you figure out the ending! NOT!

Enjoy more laughter!

Call for Tickets: 609-704-5012

http://www.theeagletheatre.com

John's enjoying the drive-in!

John's enjoying the drive-in!, originally uploaded by eblackwell.

We're at the drive-in theater, waiting for the first movie to start. You can see John's already having a fantastic time!

COBRA bill came in.

It's more expensive than we expected: $1300 a month.  It doesn't change anything, we knew we couldn't afford it.  Still, it's amazing to see that number in black and white. 

We'll have to risk having no insurance; the first big problem is John's medications for high blood pressure.  They're expensive, but he needs them so we'll have to find a way. 

We've been trying to get any doctor appointments we have done before the end of the month, like my post-surgery checkups.  Some we can't, but we're doing what we can.

All right! A new "Simon's cat" cartoon!

Rifftrax LIVE tonight!

My friends Tootie and her husband Kyle are going with me, and they're bringing a friend of theirs too.  I've been looking forward to this for over a month. It's always a lot of laughs and a great time, plus I'm really looking forward to hanging out with Tootie and Kyle!

The guys are being interviewed all over the place because of the event.  Here's one thajavascript:void(0)t I really liked: my favorite part is the section on Crow and Servo slash fic. LOL!

Updated with summary:  a good time was had by all!

Another really funny event from the guys!  It started with their own slides instead of the usual theater advertisements.  I'm still laughing over one of them: Betty White signs up to replace Megan Fox in Transformers 3.  Let me tell you; that's the only way I'd go see Transformers 3!

A few shorts led up to the movie.  One called "More Dangerous Than Dynamite" that really makes you wonder how human beings are supposedly sentient.  Women cleaning clothes in GASOLINE!  It must have been really done or they wouldn't advise against it; the best parts were the cheap and therefore hysterical animated flames on the one woman, and Bill pointing out that the headline for one gas fire placed more importantly on hundreds dying in a disaster!

A short on the arts and crafts kids can make out of grasses made me exclaim out loud (and more than once) who actually spends money on this garbage!  Not to mention, why torture kids into making grass headdresses when they should spend their time usefully like the rest of us: watching cartoons!  Every one of those kids in the short knew it too; not one of them had any sign of joy in what they were doing.  Quite frankly, they knew they were being set up for bullies in their neighborhoods and lifetime therapy.  On the other hand, Kevin running with a grass headdress and bowing to the screen should be a desktop on everyone's computer.

Last in the shorts line was the cartoon Frozen Frolics (I think).  As someone who has heard way too many times about how much better the good old days were in morality, wholesomeness, and entertainment, seeing a 30s cartoon where an adult sees a smaller person or a child dead and immediately rifles his pockets and steals his shoes, and then later, shove the kid to a bear to be eaten while he steals an expensive object (looking like he's humping it....)  yeah, this is what I got to say about the "wholesome good old days" myth.



Did I mention this was a cartoon? A cartoon for kids to watch of an adult feeding them to a bear so the adult can save themselves and steal things!  And what was that Bugs Bunny - Mickey Mouse mutant near the beginning?!

 

Then the main event!  The poor colorization alone made the movie hysterical!  Every joint had a different, bright color smoke.  It was like Skittles made a drug: smoke the rainbow!  And thanks to the guys for pointing out the stupid, constantly drug dealer has to bum a ride off his clients to pick up more pot! The guys had so many great riffs, I'm having a hard time picking out a couple to give you.  Like "Kramer!" and "I hope they don't cut away before I see if he's really going to write this down" and "I'm so busy, I'm thinking of getting a third clipboard."

And am I the only one who thought the blond guy looked like Criswell from Plan 9?

As always, Rifftrax gives an address with goodies for people attended the event, including great avatars of Reefer Madness characters.

Kudos to the people who won the competition for getting their jokes into the scripts.  Rifftrax is great about rewarding fan riffers and this was a great part of that.  Plus, they gave away an ipad with custom art on the back.  Hey, the ipad would have been great, but what really got me was the fun artwork.  I sincerely hope they'll just remove the apple and iPad logos and release this art on a shirt.  It's exactly what I want in a shirt talking about my love for Rifftrax.

We had a great time and we're already looking forward to the Halloween event on 10/28: House on Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price (who thankfully survived the dry cleaning fire).

Smile! Darn Ya, Smile!

This little song was made famous by the movie Roger Rabbit.  The toons sing it when Eddie first enters ToonTown and then as a finale.

I've been teasing my friend Joe that this is the song you hear when you drive into work.  So I just made it a ringtone for when he calls me.

Here it for yourself: Smile Darn Ya Smile Ringtone

Imagine me with a 7 year old.

Now that I'm out of work, I don't have to know the date so I missed it yesterday.  Today, I realized that if I hadn't had the miscarriage, little "Dex" would be seven years old now.

I can't imagine it.  In the middle of everything that's going on, we'd be having a birthday party for him, getting ready for him going to the second grade, and worried about making sure he had everything he needs with my unemployment and John's peak sales season ending in a couple of months.

But even putting all that aside, just imagining him in our lives.  How we would have told him about losing his "MomMom" (that's what her grandchildren called my Mom) 2 years ago, and one of his childhood dogs, Morgan, this past March.  And then little Rico coming into our lives...  I remember John saying how important it was for a kid to have a dog, and him jokingly talking to Casey and Morgan about how they'd have to protect him and be careful with him.  There's a quote like that:

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.  ~Robert Benchley

The funny thing is, Dex would have been much younger than his cousins.  When he'd have been out with Rob, people would have thought they were father and son instead of first cousins! But then, I got that with my sisters when I was little and they were in their 20s.

I remember reading Erma Bombeck when she talked about her miscarriage and how she always would think the rest of her life about what that baby would be like.  I didn't understand then, but since mine, I now do the same thing.  Every woman I know in the same situation does the same thing.  Like one article said, we mourn the future we never had.

But I'm not like I was, torn up and not able to discuss it. Now I'm wistful and I wonder, and I picture it quietly.  What would he have been like?  Of course, look who his parents are: the kid had a lot of strikes against him in the gene pool!  ;)

So, just a little thought: here's to Dex!  Who would have been son, grandson, nephew, cousin, and somebody's best friend.  And this is really odd to think about, someday maybe he might have been husband and father.

To Dex.

Next week starts unemployment.

I start filing for my checks on the 18th. I'm glad that it's starting as far as getting some money in the house, but ugh...

And to continue the ugh, I've been updating my resumes and my cover letters for job postings I've seen. I have no problem writing or presenting myself in interviews, but I hate resumes and cover letters. Especially resumes. Even after working for hours on it, I don't know if it hits the right notes.  It's like asking a fiction writer to do non-fiction and vice versa.  They can, but it's not the strength.  It's a whole different style and approach.

Asking me to say 5 times over "I managed web sites projects and updated the sites" in new ways is my less strong areas.  Looking at it, it's a mental block I have just from hearing the word resume.  Besides, taking what I do and thinking of the 1000 people out there also saying it adds to the block.

Basically: with a touch of .

Insurance company says they won't pay the surgery bill after all.

I was told before I agreed to the surgery that it was covered 100%.  Now they say my doctor isn't in network (he is; the insurance company gave me his name) and I didn't have a referral (I did; I even had my primary care doctor sign off on a medical exam for surgery; they wouldn't proceed without it.).  The insurance company wants a big chunk of money from me.  I'm on the phone now with them.

I just lost my job.

My supervisor came near the end of the day to get me. I didn't expect anything because I honestly have been working hard with no looking at personal sites, emails, nothing. But he told me "they" (I'm not sure if that's upper management or who) reorganized their plan for the website and eliminated my position. They packed my things up and brought them to me. That was it.

I don't know what else to say.

Fantastic Disney World photo!

Cinderella castle lightning, originally uploaded by eblackwell.

Lightning crosses the sky and lights up Cinderella Castle! Incredible! And get this: a friend of a friend, Jason Doran, took this from the Grand Floridian boat launch with his camera phone.