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You are here: Home / Archives for On The Road

Settling In

July 30, 2013 at 9:22 am by Claudia

Hello from Hartford. Same apartment, though some things I left behind (nothing big) are missing. This used to happen to me at the Old Globe apartments in San Diego; things seem to migrate elsewhere. I’ve fluffed the apartment as best I can. Here’s what it looked like pre-Claudia.

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These apartments are in an old office building and they have incredibly high ceilings, which help to make a smallish apartment seem more spacious.

After:

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I brought a quilt from home. I made this pansy quilt several years ago and it remains my favorite. I decided that if I had to be away from home for 2 months, I was going to secure that darned quilt to the wall with pushpins. Purple pushpins, I might add.

I also added that piece of barkcloth. It covers an incredibly ugly table.

I’m fortunate to have a television with a larger screen. Some of the TVs in these apartments are really tiny.

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I’ll try to get a crisper photo of the quilt another time. It’s a wee bit dark in this apartment at the moment.

tuesdesk

The desk – where I tap away at the computer and create compelling blog posts. I moved that covered canvas off the wall and decided to use it as a bulletin board.

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My director is a really nice guy. He left me this note with a bottle of wine. I’m crazy about him.

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We stopped at Trader Joe’s along the way, of course. Had to stock up on food…and flowers.

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Hello, pretty purple flowers!

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My own little sewing studio. There’s Mabel. She’s wearing her little cover-up at the moment.

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I brought my pink vase from home and filled it with pretty flowers from Trader Joe’s. That’s the wine that Darko left for me. I don’t really drink, so it will probably be in its intact state at the end of my two months here. Unless I have a particularly difficult time. Ahem.

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Bags of reference books ready to be transported to the rehearsal space. Quilt tops ready to be hand quilted. I haven’t a clue what kind of project I want to do, so I grabbed a lot of fat quarters and brought them with me. Hopefully, I will be inspired.

tuesquilltonbed

I snatched this quilt off of our bed at home. Don will be fine without it. But I wouldn’t be. There, ensconced among my pillows (also brought from home) are Wayfrum Holmes, Maggie Rabbit and Little Lamb.

They like adventure.

So, there you have it, my friends. My little home-away-from-home.

By the way, some of you complimented me on my new watermark. See it up there? A red circle with dots, along with the name of my blog and my trademark lamb-with-the-party-hat?

My good friend Dawn Cain of Creative Cain Cabin designed it for me. I have a full on crush on this watermark. Dawn lives in Michigan (my home state.) She’s preparing to move to WordPress and I’ve been helping her in my own small way as she navigates this transition. Oh, you’re going to love her new blog design!

I’ve never regretted for one minute moving to WordPress, by the way. I love everything about it. I did the whole thing myself and the transition was relatively seamless. It’s been nothing but a positive experience for me.

Anyway, Dawn made two versions of this watermark, one with black lettering and one with white. Once she moves her blog, she will be available to design one just for you. I’ll keep you posted as to when she’s up and running.

Rehearsals start today. I had dinner with my friend Mary, who is the stage manager, last night. Here’s to old friends and the new friends I will make during this process.

Oh by the way, one of the perils of staying in temporary housing? Not realizing the alarm clock has been set and being jarred awake by a continuous ringing at 12 am and 1 am.

Happy Tuesday.

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Filed Under: Fellow bloggers, On The Road 72 Comments

On the Road Again

July 29, 2013 at 7:39 am by Claudia

morningbackforty

I walked around the property a couple of days ago. It was a gorgeous early morning on one of the few humidity-less days we’ve had this summer. I wanted to capture the grass, the trees and the gardens so that I could take them with me as I head for Hartford. Then I sat on the bench and cried.

Silly, I know. I should be used to it by now. This time seems especially tough, however. We’re going to try to swing things so that I can come home for a couple of days every week or so but I also know that is entirely dependent on the rehearsal schedule. Don’s home. He’ll take over. If work comes for him that necessitates a lot of time away, he’ll bring Scoutie to me.

scoutiesleeping

My girl. She’ll be confused again. Too much coming and going. I feel like I’ve  just finished getting her settled down and in a routine and that wasn’t easy because she was missing Don. Now it will happen all over again.

Anyway, here I sit, blogging away. As soon as I finish this post, I’ll be moving around the cottage, grabbing last minute things to pack, checking and re-checking lists, taking one last walk in the garden. It’s a foggy, misty morning, we’ve had some rain the last couple of days.

I’ll see you on the other side.

Happy Monday.

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Filed Under: On The Road 28 Comments

Monday Thoughts

July 15, 2013 at 9:18 am by Claudia

sundaymorning

Sunday morning: waiting for the bus, my bag full of scripts and reference books, a Sunday New York Times (I treated myself) and some coffee. I read the Times online, but you know what? There’s nothing like holding the actual paper in your hands. I worked on the Sunday crossword puzzle, one of my favorite things to do, but I was a wee bit limited by the bus and its bounces and jiggles. My pen wanted to skitter right off the page.

We had a good day of text work, finishing the play. I was able to do some one-on-one work with some of the actors. What a great group of people! As always in this ‘small world’ of theater, I knew some of the actors and/or we knew someone in common and there were lots of interesting conversations. Since we finished the play, I am not going to have to drive up there on Tuesday. That’s good news. Instead, I’m going to try to combine watching a run-through with seeing Don’s play. The theaters are about a half hour from each other. All in all, a very good experience.

Now it’s on to the next two plays I begin coaching in two weeks.

gazingball

Writing a blog, as those of you who blog know, is hard work. Photos must be taken and edited. Words must be carefully chosen. If you post daily, as I do, you have to think of something new to write about every day. Then there’s the actual writing of a post, which is never done casually and is always edited and re-edited. Perhaps you’ve designed your blog, as I have. That takes time and, often, money.

In the case of this blog, which is a self-hosted blog, I pay a yearly fee to my host. I paid for the theme which was the foundation of my blog design. I pay a bit extra for additional security. Two years ago, I started to include advertising on my blog to help defray my expenses and, frankly, to compensate myself for the enormous amount of time I put into this blog. Hey, it’s a labor of love but it takes time.

With all the blogs that are out there in blogland, we should have no trouble finding several that are a good fit, that give us what we as readers want. And sometimes what we want changes, just as our tastes change. That makes sense to me.

Here is the curious phenomenon that I’m pondering. Why do readers leave comments or write emails that essentially castigate the blog author for having ads? Or for the design and look of their blog? Or, more ominously, for writing something from the heart? It’s as if they feel the blog author has betrayed them in some way.

I don’t get it.

This hasn’t happened to me specifically, although I did have a comment that criticized me for a very personal decision that, quite frankly, was my business only. But I’ve seen this happen to my fellow bloggers and it makes me mad. These comments are made under the guise of being ‘helpful’ – a passive/aggressive thing. It’s as if writing and reading in the online world gives the commenter permission to say things that they would never say face-to-face. Or, perhaps they would say it face-to-face. In that case, my response would be ‘It’s my blog.’

Some bloggers are sincerely trying to earn a living from their blog. They work very hard at it. You’re not going to be able to earn any income from a blog without ads. Just as shows on television have ads, magazines have ads, billboards have ads, heck, even public television has a sort-of-ad at the top of some programming, so must blogs that supply needed income. If a reader doesn’t like that, why not simply move on?

You can’t please everyone all of the time, we all know that. If a blog I’m a regular reader of changes in a way that I no longer like, I simply move on. The author doesn’t owe me anything. It’s his/her blog. She can do whatever she wants to with it; she can have lots of ads, she can change the focus of the blog, she can post only photos, she can speak about political issues I don’t agree with – she can do whatever she friggin’ wants. I may be disappointed. I may disagree. That’s fair. But I simply move on.

The only time I’ve ever commented on something I fundamentally disagreed with was in the case of a blogger who was repeatedly engaging in a form of bullying. I felt it was a moral issue. Would I speak out again if faced with the same sort of thing? I’m not sure. But surely, ads and blog design and posts written from the heart or any one of a slew of other things are part of that blogger’s own particular way of blogging. It’s what makes each blog individual and puts a personal stamp on things.

I have strong feelings and opinions as those of you who are regular readers of this blog know. I welcome discussion in the comments. Not everyone is going to agree with me and that’s okay. Not everyone is going to find my blog a good fit, either. That’s okay. What I don’t welcome, and never will allow, is sniping. And that’s what I saw in some of those comments on other blogs. Sniping, plain and simple.

It’s not polite. It’s not good behavior. It’s not right. If it came from my child, she would be put in a time out.

That’s what I say to all those who leave that kind of comment or send that kind of email. Put yourself in a time out by simply moving on.

Those are my thoughts on this Monday morning.

Happy Monday.

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Filed Under: blogging, coaching, On The Road 59 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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