This is from the Broadway production - the L.A. cast went intact to Broadway - of the "Aldolpho" number.

But on top of that, I am getting ready for my first time directing.  Well, not technically my first time.  I wrote and directed a parody back in high school called "A Day In Elizabeth's Court" - all about Queen Elizabeth I and 1/2 (she wasn't quite a whole) and a satire of political issues at the time.  I had a LOT of fun doing that.

And last Spring I co-directed and music directed "Scream Queens: The Musical".

But this time, it's all on me directing-wise.  I'm directing my good friends Steve and Linda Ryan in "The Gin Game" at CVLT's River Street Theatre.

I won't be able to fully make up my mind until the show has opened, but I don't think directing is really my thing.  There's just WAY more to think about and delegate than I realized.

It's time for me to go alcohol free, cholesterol free, almost gluten free (have to have oats to lower the cholesterol) and time to go Facebook free.  Let's see if I can do it.  Let's see which one is the hardest to give up.

Since I seem to always somehow set someone off on Facebook, it's time to give it up.  If you don't like how passionate I am about what I believe - NOT MY PROBLEM.  But since it seems to twist so many sets of knickers....  Whatevs.

Time for me to do this more often.  And I'm NOT linking my posts to Facebook. 

Kiss my ass Zuckerberg (and several others).

what I find most interesting is that I get along great with my most conservative friend.  It's the ones who somewhat agree with me who get all butt-plugged when I act more like a Republican in the way I fight, defend, and declare my beliefs.  As Keith Olbermann said, "One party is destroying this country.  The other party is too timid."

But I have yet to see anyone talk/write anywhere about the reason I really don't like it (and it's what I think is the real reason most people don't like it but haven't put it into these words yet - or so I'm guessing anyway).

I don't care that he's a loud Christian.  I don't care that he prays at the sidelines.  I'm sure that MANY of the players on that field pray before, during, and after the game.  It's not about the fact that most people don't like that Tebow thinks God is favoring him over all other players - although believe me, that is a BIG factor for me not liking him.  That and the fact that he has also talked about how "evil" gay people are.

No, the biggest problem I have is that the way he does it does not really have anything to do with the fact that he is praying.  It's the fact that he's show-boating when he does it.  As I said before, many other players are probably praying on that field. 

But Tim Tebow has to do it in a big Bart Simpson "NOBODY'S PAYING ANY ATTENTION TO ME!!  LOOK AT ME!!  LOOK AT ME!!" kind of way.  He has to make sure that he makes himself the center of attention when he does it.  He has to clear space and give this sort of "IS EVERYONE WATCHING ME??  I'M ABOUT TO PRAY!!  WATCH THIS!" deal every time he does it.

Some Fundamentalists would say, "Well, that's how Christians should be!!  They should be proselytizing and trying to convert people!  Besides, you gays flaunt yourselves and force yourselves on us."  But what these Fundamentalists consider to be flaunting is if we want to just hold hands walking down the street like any other straight couple might do.  There is a difference between flaunting and doing what heterosexuals do all the time and take for granted they can do without fear for their lives.  But Tim isn't proselytizing when he does it.  He's plain and simple showing off, making himself the center of attention and outright acting as if God must disfavor all the other players.

Tim, I think God has a lot more pressing matters than your stupid doofball game.

Hope this one works!

Eric

And I never thought I would ever say that of any spider - ever!

When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer only two years after my grandmother passed away, it really scared me.  Now I realize that sounds selfish, thinking about me.  But I was scared for my mom and my family.  And as "grown up", old and "adult" as I am, I am not ready to be an orphan.  That might sound strange, but I have a feeling that everyone goes through that - no matter how old you are, you are not prepared to be "on your own", even if you've been out from your parents' wings for a very long time.

What made my mother's diagnosis even harder was that I could not be there for her.  I did drive her to a couple of appointments when I was there last Christmas, but the fact is that being in Ohio meant I couldn't be there in times when I really wish I could have helped.  My siblings all have their own families.  I don't.  I wished and wished that somehow I could be of independent means so I could be out on the West Coast to help my mom as much as possible because I knew my sisters and brother were having to do most of it.  I felt like I had to so... something.  And I'd heard about The 3 Day.  It is for the Susan G Komen Foundation.  You walk a total of 60 miles over 3 days to raise funds for breast cancer research.  Someone I knew at work had done it two years ago.  I called her about it as soon as I'd heard about my mom and asked her about it.  Turned out I had just missed it by a week or two, so I started planning for the next one.

I called my mom back when she had finished both the Chemo and Radiation treatments and told her I was considering doing The 3 Day.  She asked what that was.  I told her about it.  She asked when it was happening.  I told her that in Cleveland it was July 29th through the 31st.  She said,

"July 29th is the day I got my diagnosis.  I will always remember that date."

I told her, "I'm doing it then.  If ever there was a sign, that is it!"

I was more worried about raising the required funds.  You are required to raise at least $2,300 to be able to walk.  That is a LOT of money to raise and I worried more about raising that than I did about being able to do the walk.  And let me tell you - the walking AIN'T that easy!!

Well, I did manage to raise the funds.  And a lot of people surprised me.  People I didn't expect to donate, did donate.  And I started walking.  And walking and walking.  I became rather addicted to it.  I wanted to walk Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday and Sunday days.  If I missed those days for some reason, I really wanted to get out there, so I changed it up wherever I could.

Then just 3 weeks before the event, my back started to ache.  And after a really intense training weekend - 10 miles Friday night, 18 miles Saturday and 15 miles Sunday, my back completely seized up on me in the middle of the night.  I almost could not drive myself to the ER.  Luckily, since it was the middle of the night, I could drive nice and slow and had no other cars to worry about.  Every bump was pain, though.  Long story short, ended up on two different muscle relaxants, unable to lie down, so I slept upright in my recliner.  I was out of it for an entire week. 

But I went to my doctor, who sent me to physical therapists and between muscle relaxants and PT, I got myself ready to do The 3 Day.

Normally as a participant, you sleep in tents at the campsite.  And you're supposed to share the tent.  If you don't have someone to share it with, they assign you a tent-mate of the same gender.  Between my back, my claustrophobia and being 6'2" trying to share a 6'5" square tent, that was not going to happen.  They had a deal with the Courtyard by Marriott.  They ran a shuttle for those who wanted to stay in the hotel and offered a discount fee (although it didn't seem like much of a discount to me at $170 a night).  But it was completely worth it.

I did not know what to expect at the event.  My alarm woke me up at 3:15 in the morning on Friday the 29th.  I was out the door at 4:15 and picked up breakfast along the way since they were not offering breakfast that first morning.  I wanted to be there at 5am since I didn't know how crazy it would be.  Parked downtown on the west side of the stadium and followed the other people heading to the opening ceremony.  Here are pictures and videos from that event.  At times, it was very hard because it was very emotional.  I also could not tell whenever the video was actually running or not, so they may be choppy.

One of the "Sweep vans" to pick up people who can't walk any further.  The girls driving it were dressed as Batman and Robin -

The William G Mather Steamship and Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame behind the Event stage.

News helicopter hovered overhead for a while -

The next picture is of breast cancer survivors bringing in flags to a raised stage where they would also raise the The 3 Day flag to signify the event as "open".  The man pictured is Lee Giller, himself a survivor of breast cancer.  Turns out he carries a gene which makes all in his family susceptible.  In fact, just before the walk, his 28-year-old daughter was diagnosed.  They stayed in the hotel also and I had a chance to meet them.  There is an article about their family here -

http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2011/07/akron_couple_leads_fund_raiser.html

And we were off.  We started with a walked that zig-zagged all over downtown.  At one point, we walked by right where I work, so I called up a co-worker and told him we were about to pass by my window (11th floor).  Told him to come and look out the window.  Asked everyone walking with me to wave up to my co-workers as we crossed the street and they did!  Some of the sights along the way -

And about 15 minutes after we passed work, it started to POUR down rain.  Got my emergency poncho out, but the shoes were soaked through.  And even though I had a dry pair of socks in a baggie inside my waistpack, it rained for about an hour, so by then the damage was done and I had blisters started.  All those weeks of training without getting any blisters and I got two HUGE blisters - one on each heel.  But those didn't become a problem until the 2nd day. 

We walked out of downtown down to Edgewater Beach and up through Lakewood.  Lunch was on the Rocky River just south of the Yacht Club.  Then we walked south through the Rocky River Metropark and back up into Rocky River, Fairview Park and finally into camp at the Westlake Rec Center.  Some pictures I took at the camp -

The Memorial Tent, for those involved with The 3 Day who lost their fight against breast cancer.

The "self-help blister tent" was quite busy the morning of Day 2!

The sun breaking through at breakfast in the dining tent -

There was a big man-made hill right next to the camp.  I went up to the top to get a video of the entire camp.  A lot of volunteer hours went into putting this place together!

They have 4 or 5 "pit stops" along the way with snacks, water, gatorade, medical tents and toilets.  So you only have a few miles to go before you're making yet another stop, which really helped to get through the day.

The walk was not split up into three 20 mile even days.  It was 22 miles each the first two days and 16 miles the last day.  By the end of the first day, my back was seizing up on me again and I was worried as to whether I was going to make the next two days.  I barely managed to get through the camp and over to the dining tent.  I was going to leave straight from there to go to the hotel, but in talking to someone who could see I was having a lot of trouble, they convinced me to go to the medical tent because there were physical therapists there.  And they worked some magic on me!

First was a PT who worked me through some stretches, then started applying pressure to various pressure points on my back.  She then pulled over a doctor, told him my issues, but said also that she found the my right hip was "pulled forward."  I told him I was also starting to get a migraine, so he said, "Let's see if we can get rid of that first.  Is the migraine more on the right side or left?"

"Right."

"About right here?"  He squeezed this place on my shoulder where I about went through the roof.  Oh yeah, that's the spot.  He sprayed this ice cold stuff on my neck and shoulder a couple times and stretched my neck and the migraine was GONE in a minute!  I want that stuff.  Turns out it's called spray and stretch and is pharmacological only.  It actually cools the skin, so if it's used by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, it could actually damage the skin.  Next, he had me lay back and then found this knot along my left lat, close to the armpit.  He told me to take a deep breath, then he squeezed and held that not.  Yee gawds it hurt like a son of a bitch, but he told me to keep breathing through it.  And after about 5 minutes, it hurt less, plus the right side of my back started to completely loosen.  Magic, I'm telling you.

I took the bus back to the hotel and sat with ice in huge Ziploc against my back for about 30 minutes, then a hot shower.  Got there just in time for the 7pm news and they happened to show The 3 Day camp live and interviewed one of the guys who was walking and who was also "Mr. June" - apparently they have a calendar a la "Calendar Girls" of guys who have done more than one Three Day.  While he was interviewing, he talked about his wife having breast cancer and how he didn't want his daughters to lose their mother and then he started choking up - this big brawny guy choking up live on TV - and it got to me too and I had a good meltdown.  Very needed.

Put Capzasin all over my back and got into bed.  Very nicely, the hotel added LOTS of extra pillows to all walkers who had a room that weekend.  I made a nice little nest of pillows around myself in the best position for my back and got to sleep by 9pm.  Up again at 4am and was very surprised to find that my back seemed to be great.  It was just the blisters that were bothering me.  Covered them up with moleskin and off on the bus to camp.

The doctor wanted me to come back in before I walked the next day.  He did a couple more stretches, then sent me off on my way.

I was going along at a good clip.  My back felt great, no more rain in the forecast, hot but very early and we headed due north through Westlake into Bay Village, which is a town I've always liked.  Then we turned east going back into Rocky River and south again through Westlake.  I was bookin' it!  I was going at my clip that I was doing my training walks - about 3 - 3.5mph.  I was passing a lot of people and some were even a little perturbed that I was "passing on the left."  It wasn't like I was speed walking - I just have VERY long legs.  And I know how to use them!  The problem came at lunch time, right after I finished eating and wanted to check the blisters, which were really killing me.  Went to change my socks, but the blisters had grown beyond the moleskin.  The one on the right heel was about the size of a credit card.  I barely managed to get over to the medical tent in my bare feet and they lanced the blisters and dressed them.  Man did they hurt!  I did the first mile after lunch on the balls of my feet and FINALLY got to where I could walk through the pain and get back to walking on my heels again.  Then I was doing okay for a while.  But the last 4 miles I slowed way down, mainly because I could feel every single bone in both feet.  They ached and hurt so bad.  But my spirit never flagged.  I just kept telling myself:

"This is nothing compared to what people fighting breast cancer have to go through."

And though it hurt, I never let my spirit down.  There were SO many people at houses and businesses along the way every day who were cheering us on, had water and popsicles and candy (and one or two even had beer and my favorite - frozen pink lemonade vodka shooters) and they also let you dunk your bandanas in ice water, or asked if you wanted to be "misted" and every time I would see people cheering us along the way, I would raise my arms and yell "WOO HOO!!" no matter how much my feet were hurting me.  It really helped keep me going. 

Back to dinner and back to the medical tent for just a little more stretching before heading back to the hotel.  Out cold again at 9pm.  Up again at 4pm.

I loved how everyone on the 3rd day kept saying "It's only 16 miles".  "Only"!  But strangely enough, 16 miles really did sound easy compared to the first two days.  I was much slower that last day.  Started out pretty good and for about 6 miles or so, I ended up walking/talking with a woman named Pat Miller.  Talked about why we were doing the walk, etc.  In fact, most of the people if there were passing you or you passed them, they talked for a bit.  Being one of only about 100 men walking (about 950 walkers total), we were the "novelties" and the women always wanted to know why you were walking.  I had a sign pinned to my shirt that read "I walk for my mother, a one year survivor as of July 29th!"  Everyone had a story, a reason for being there.  Even Pat said that she wasn't doing it for anyone in particular, but like everyone else, just wants cancer gone.

The 3rd day, we zig-zagged south through North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls and finally into Berea because we were finishing at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.  Berea was the one part of the walk I did NOT like.  HOT HOT HOT and completely treeless going down Bagley Road.  I was roasting and moving very slow.  At lunch, I managed to find a picnic table way off from the parking lot under a tree.  All of the walkers were at the front of the lot under the trees there, sitting on the curbs or the grass.  I was so grateful to find that table because I was afraid that if I sat on the ground, I would not be able to get back up again!

Some pictures from Day 3 -

We walked right through Baldwin-Wallace College, where I got my degree back in 2003.  The building in this picture is where I took all of my computer classes -

Crossing that finish line was very emotional for me.  I took video as I was crossing into the fairground -  

I then headed to the medical tent to get my blisters re-dressed.  Once that was done, they had us all waiting in that area until the last walker had arrived.  After I got my shoes back on, I wanted to go sit, but there was no place to sit down other than the ground.  So I went to sit in the shade of a large tree where a lot of other people were.  I really needed to support my back, but with no actual chairs, I finally decided to lay back on the ground.  Big mistake.  Five minutes later when I tried to get up, my back seized up on me.  I had to ask the people next to me if they could get someone from the medical tent.  A doctor had to come over and put me through about 10 minutes of stretches before I could attempt to get up again.  Then they brought me over to the medical tent to ice my back until it was time to go to the closing ceremony.  They walked us over to another area and I was quite surprised to find a couple thousand people there.  I took some pictures as we walked -

The closing ceremony was also very emotional.  I have a few videos I took.  Problem here was the same - in the bright daylight, I couldn't tell if my phone was actually recording or not, so it was cutting on and off.

I have quite a few more videos, but they're taking forever to upload and "transcode", so I am going to put those in a separate entry.

"That's the day I got my diagnosis - July 29th, last Summer.  I will always remember that date." 

That decided it for me - I would do The 3 Day.  What I didn't realize until after I'd signed up was how involved it was.  I mean, I knew about having to raise $2,300.  But I didn't know that they expect you to camp overnight both nights of The 3 Day.  I also didn't realize just how hard walking such a long distance can be.  I have been training for just over 5 weeks now.  There are two different "training newsletters" that go out via the Komen website, one for 24 weeks of training, one for 18 weeks of training.  Well, by the time I signed up, I only get about 10 weeks of training.  But I was already used to exercise since I've been doing the P90X DVDs for about 3 years.  Man, though, was I sore after the first long walk!  And over the past several weeks, I've had to buy quite a few things to make the walks easier - two sets of shoes, shorts, walking pack, sunscreen, bug spray, anti-chafing items, moleskin to protect my heels, wick-away socks and T-shirts, etc.

I do love the walking, though.  It's helped me discovered various trails nearby.  And though it's a chore to get myself together and out the door walking, once I start the walk, I love it.  Only once or twice has it been difficult.  One time was when Kourtney walked with me on the Chagrin River Trail, and halfway on the first leg (it was an out and back trail), the thunder started rumbling and 30 minutes later we were caught in a torrential downpour.  The rain and getting soaked to the skin I didn't mind too much - it's the lightning and the possibility of hail that makes me nervous.  But I really wanted to show Kourtney this trail.  Starting my training back in May was the perfect time of year because we'd has so much rain and so much was in bloom.  I will be sharing part of the trail with you in a bit. 

Another "side-effect" of the walking I did not expect was the first time I bumped up from a 9 mile walk to a 14 mile walk.  By then, I was walking on Hawthorn Parkway, which has a great paved trail that is through the trees at the first part of the walk, but a lot of it is just enough away from the trees that on hot days, it really gets to you.  I expanded upon the walk I was used to by going into the Bedford Reservation, which I'd only been through once in a car the first year I moved to Ohio.  Adding that extra 5 miles really hurt a lot more than I expected (however, 14 miles is now easy for me!), but more than that - my mind really began to wonder. 

I bring the iPod with me and for most of the past few weeks I've been listening to Lady Gaga's new CD "Born This Way", which, the more I listen to, the better it gets.  It's very, very good - however, every now and then I read some of the things she says some of the songs are about and I think, "Really?  Not what I got from the song at all."  But the one thing I really love about it is the beats are so driving on these songs that it really keeps me moving when I'm walking.  But that day on my first 14 mile walk, it was very hot and about midway through, I suddenly wanted to stop and just rest for about an hour - or even call someone to come and pick me up.  But I had to stop and think, "Okay.  This is NOTHING compared to what my mom has been through.  KEEP GOING!"  That was only part of it.

There is something very "Zen" about walking.  Once I get going and am really digging the music, I go into this state that's hard to describe.  Your mind just sort of drifts off and doesn't really think about anything in particular.  It's probably the closest thing to a true meditation I've ever had.  Anytime someone has said, "Meditation is all about clearing the mind and not thinking about anything," which I always thought was impossible.  But this comes pretty close.  And there is a high that comes at points as well - I just get giddy with the right music, the right temp, the right sights around.  And I love it.

Gerri, a friend who has done 100-mile-runs, marathons, etc, asked me if I'd found my mind lately "in a fog."  She said it comes from running for her.  When she gets to where she is running many days a week, at times when she's not running, her mind can go into a bit of a fog, sort of a happy, but inattentive state.  And I have had that happen several times now that I am walking 4-5 days a week, so I knew exactly what she was talking about.

The one bad thing is the first time I bump up my walks.  During that first 14 mile walk, about 8 miles in, my mind got out of that "Zen" state and instead started dwelling on many negative things.  Walking that far without anyone else to talk to can make the mind start wandering and on that day, my mind started thinking about regrets in my life - not of things I haven't done, but of things I HAVE done.  And two big ones in particular - why did I hold on to the ex as long as I did, and would my life be better if I hadn't moved to Ohio?

During that walk, I really wished I had let my ex go when he got the job in Chicago about three years into our relationship.  It was really pretty obvious he didn't want me to move with him and he told me that since my company was paying for my continuing education at the time that I should stay and finish my degree.  Yes that made sense to me, but I was in denial that that was the real reason.  Instead, I hung on to a long-distance relationship for 7 & 1/2 more years.  Of course, it didn't help that he was too chicken-shit to break up with me like he really wanted, but I was too insecure to let him go like I should have.

Then the other was wondering how my life would be if I hadn't moved to Ohio and whether I should stay in Ohio.  Still dwelling on that one.  I even looked at homes in Santa Maria where my Mom and my nephew and my nieces are.  One interesting thing was the number of 55+ neighborhoods there are out there.  You have to be 55 and older to buy/live there and MAN they are cheap!!  $89,000 for a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath in a neighborhood filled with people all over 55 years old?  So it's something I'm thinking about - especially since, somewhat scarily, 55 is only 7 years away.

Finishing that first 14 mile walk was tough, especially since I just became overwhelmed and wanted to break down and cry at that 8 mile mark.  But I took a brief break (most walks, I only stop for potty breaks) for about 10 minutes, pulled myself together and started walking again.  It was also a bit therapeutic because I cried for a while when I resumed that walk.  I'm thinking maybe it was a combination of stress and other factors all built up and I got them out of my system on that walk. 

Back to the trails.  One of the first routes I did was on the Chagrin River Trail, just a mile from my place.  It is mainly a bridle trail, so it's not paved.  There are two creek crossings, one of which is impossible if you're not on a horse, so you have to detour the road and back.  But it is a gorgeous trail.  It's mostly in the woods, but there's two sections through big open fields.  After the first open field, it comes into a forested area that was just amazing - the forest floor was completely covered in this light purple flowers.  I have no idea what type of flower they are, but I took pictures, because it looked like something out of a fantasy movie.  LOVED it.  I also came upon an actual polo game happening on the Moreland Hills Polo Field.  As many times as I've been past that field and only once have I seen polo actually being played there! 

Here are pictures I took during two separate walks on that trail (Click on a picture to take you to the photo blog, then click on the picture in the photo blog to see a larger version) -