I woke up yesterday with a tight feeling in the right side of my throat. It only worried me a little - about a week and a half into this trip I felt something weird with my throat but let it work itself out. Luckily it did. I think the majority of the cast participated in the AIDS Walk, which took about two hours. I opted out of it, primarily because I had to do my hair (really! it takes an hour!), but I'm glad I did because it was pouring rain and I'm sure that wouldn't help my voice. Once everyone from the walk arrived we packed all 15 cast members onto a 4x9 section of stage that was protected from the rain and sang Seasons Of Love. Our audience showed probably as much enthusiasm as they could muster while soaking wet in cold weather.
Casey's mom, who drove Casey Michael and myself to the park, also drove us back to the theatre where we had about an hour and a half until show time. Most people used this time to warm up and get into dry clothes, and I used the time to try to convince myself I'd do great. It didn't help that after the first number, someone in the girls' dressing room said "I think I saw Daphne Rubin Vega in the audience". Whoever this was wasn't the only one to notice either. I personally refused to even look at that side of the stage until my song Out Tonight was over. I don't want a surprise visit from the original Mimi on a night where I'm afraid my voice will go out at any second! As a matter of face though, I think I performed that song the best I have yet since opening, at least vocally, probably because I was being so careful not to push anything. Daphne or not, I felt good by the end of the number. When I got a chance to look over there later, I was certain that it was in fact not Daphne at all. Just an old lady with vaguely Daphne-esque features. She and the two other older women she was with did not return for the second act. That's the first I've noticed anyone had left before we were through. Well, good riddance.
To celebrate the completion of out first weekend of shows, we hotel people took ourselves to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Our waiter was fantastic, so friendly and helpful. I suggested we let the manager know how good he was before we left, but the boys shot down that idea. I don't think they wanted to wait around much, we were expected at Dylan's place. He lives in a great place very close to Five Points, a populous and collage-y area. Us and a few other members of the cast and Dylan's friends relaxed with some wine and passed the guitar around. It's difficult not to have at least a little of singing with so many musical theatre people in one room. We only got in trouble with D's neighbors twice, the we were actually pretty mellow.
I had a tough time falling asleep last night because of the dry burning on the right side of my throat and the coughing that came along with it, but managed to catch at least a few hours. When I woke up I was sure that whatever this is wasn't going to pass quickly if I just decided to ride it out. The pain was now in my entire throat, I had a bad headache, mild body aches, and my lungs felt slightly constricted. I waited about an hour to see if any of this lessened as my body woke up, but any dissipation was so minimal that I took myself over to the clinic that's conveniently just down the street from the hotel. When Casey had to go during the first week I'm pretty sure he waited 3 hours before he was seen so I was prepared to wait. It only took me an hour and a half in the waiting room, and another 40 minutes in my own room to get seen my an actual doctor. He said it probably wasn't anything more than a virus, but when I told him I'm a professional actor and I needed to be better asap he prescribed me 3 medicines and I got a steroid shot. In me bum. I haven't gotten a shot in the ass since my family went to Mexico when I was in second grade. Ouch. Those hurt.
For some reason I don't have my health insurance card with me, which worries me because I don't know where else it would be besides my wallet. I took my g-status hobble and my prescriptions over to the super Walmart. I was told it would take a half an hour to get the meds so I got a few things over on the market side of the store. I returned exactly 30 minutes later, only to have to wait another hour and ten minutes. I'm pretty sure they forgot about me. I was lucky (or unlucky?) enough to have a man with two little girls wait for a prescription at the same time. The girls, 3 and 5 years old, kept me company by asking which dog food container I thought was prettiest and asking me what happened to all the other people waiting. Adorable. I just hope I didn't get them sick.
After five hours or trying to get a goal accomplished, I arrived back at the hotel with a z-pack, prescription strength cough syrup, more steroid pills, and a bunch of soup. It's already easier for me to breathe, and the z-pack has never done me wrong so I'm sure I'll be at least 50% better by tomorrow. And only $200 for all this fun! Next step, find out what happened to my insurance card...
What dog food container is the prettiest? ;)
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