MOOP!

SamSam is visiting, and I'm quite chuffed about it!

They have been very obliging as I drag them hither and yon and have us spend very little time at home cozily reading books (although we are getting a bit of that now, as I write my words and they start in on the sixth murderbot, which is my favourite so I'm excited for them to read that one). Hopefully though, yes we will get a bit of time to ourselves as well as going out and about in the world.

Last night I collected them from South Station, which involved making Bad Gambles with the red line shuttle bullshit, alas. We did eventually manage to be in the same place at the same time, and then we got some basic dinner and walked from SoSta to Advent for Friday night handling practice.

It was a good -and crowded!- practice! JohnB got put in charge of the advanced beginners¹ so SamSam and 'liska and Rebecca were off doing some dodging and places and the like. I was working with Jackie, who's been ringing about four months now and just never managed to cross paths with me, and Greg was with JdC, who was visiting for the second time.

I felt quite jolly about it all, like I could mostly say useful things to a very novice ringer, and help her improve her form etc. Afterwards, the four of us headed back to Somerville did a somewhat meandery route to Park Street so that we could Not Be On The Hell Shuttles In The Rain, Thanks.

There was quite a lot of rain --I think Friday legitimately had actual inches worth, and today was just very damp everywhere, which is good because Boston has gotten no other rain in two months or something. Glad for the flowers, sad for a weekend when I'm doing a lot of travel into Boston and the red line is fucked.

Today was regular bells --Sam and I did not manage to get ourselves together in order to walk with the group walking from Davis to Old North, which is just as well because we've done plenty of other walking today. Regular bells was already a pretty big practice --I think we totaled 12-- and extremely startling to walk in on, since Josh had gathered about fifteen church members from the brass polishing event and invited them to see the tower and watch us raise some bells. Luckily (or maybe un?) they all wanted to return to brass polishing after, and so I did not have to suddenly adjust how to run practice for fifteen brand new ringers.

Running practice was...fine. Sam mostly knitted. I enjoyed ringing some Double Beryl that otherwise fell apart, and deeply did not enjoy a touch of Cambridge Major that i had thought was going to be a plain course and then had thought was going to be not starting wtih two singles, and basically I spent the whole time pretty fucked up about it (both internally and externally, sigh). I managed to not actually get into fights, although I was snappy a few times and I managed to not actually dissociate more than necessary even though there was a whole lot of depersonalization happening to try and keep myself together through the back half of practice. I think most people got what they needed, at least, which is my goal.

Lunch was very damp and windy, and I spent some time assessing my friends based on vibes as to whether or not they know how to use lockpicks and/or are any good at it. I made some correct guesses, and apparently flattered the hell out of Hannah by being all "yeah, you probably don't know how, but if you ever picked it up, I expect you'd be amazingly good".

It is fun to flatter your friends by giving random vibe-based assessments of how they'd do at absurd skills! It is also fun to gossip about your friends by being extremely excitable by how good they are at sport.

Sam and I went home --just green line, which was nice and easy-- and did get a wee bit of layabout time. Part of that was me reading them Holes --they've never read it, and by god, I am learning a number of my people have never read this book I legitimately think is one of the best written books ever-- and part of that was them napping and me playing Balatro, so all of it was good.

Then this evening we went out to see ASSASSINS at MIT. Yes, this is the same run as I saw eight days ago with Tuesday and Seramay. How many regrets? Zero regrets, baby! Guiteau was still glorious, the Fromme/Moore chemistry was still super fun, and Booth was still enjoyable weird-edge-of-predatory-gay especially to Czolgosz. I think Sam legitimately enjoyed the show, and I know they enjoyed watching something I love with me, which is very sweet.

Unlike when we watch Sailor Moon musicals², we could not pause Assassins for question-and-answer time, so instead I infodumped on our entire walk home from MIT to Harvard (because, say it with me, red line shuttles are bullshit). Quite a bit about the Pie Shop, and when we got home, I managed to guess correctly which sketchbook would have the most cringe and showed them a bunch of drawings, including Guiteau fucking a staircase³. On the one hand, being a horrible nineteen year old fan with no chill was, well, probably kinda annoying and definitely somewhat over the top. On the other hand, I do miss having a regular excuse to draw a lot. My current sketchbook is much more barren.

We got home and had leftover ravioli that Ezri and Rey had made, and some ice cream, and now we're aforementioned curled up with me doing words and them reading. Our favourite⁴ SecUnit has found a body!

Taaa

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Accidentally typo'd as "Begingers", which I kinda like as a horrible portmanteau for beginning ringers.

2: This is a thing SamSam very much loves and so has been showing me, which I object to zero because it's really fun to watch people you love enjoy things they love

3: This makes sense if you know all the lyrics of his ballad really well. (no it doesn't)

4: Well okay, actually my favourite is Three, but I need to euphemize somehow because I am a human who does not have permission to call the SecUnit narrator by the private name they use and don't share with humans.

I didn't really do any of those things except see Assassins, but seeing Assassins was *extremely* good! It was my first time seeing it with an equity level cast, and wow, the performance was just gorgeous! I want to see it a dozen more times, and cast my attention to a different actor every time to see how they are handling their background role.

The absolute standout was Zangara, who was played by an opera-trained baritone who brought a richness to his ballad I've never really heard before. Too easy for that particular role to be played solely comic, with the accent and the goofiness of the stomach, but I loved hearing that deeper tone. Squeaky was a close second, with an actress who was *mostly* the perfect sixties drifty hippie without a thought in her strung-out head, until suddenly she says something deeply and totally horrifying, usually with a beatific smile and a "Charlie told me!".

Both the proprietor and Booth had devilish tendancies, the one subtle in the background, the other raging and stalking around in the fore. Booth played his role like an evil vizier, and my absolute hats off to the costumer for dressing the man so incredibly fine. Silk brocade trousers? Like, be still my heart. I loved watching Booth and Czologosz exchange background looks every time they had to sing with Guiteau, who absolutely ate the stage every second he was on it as he should.

Speaking of Czolgosz, he managed to fully sell himself as an entirely sympathetic character. Like, I'm a little unhinged and feel fonder than I should for most of these fuckasses, but oh. _oh_. Working man and that says a lot in a world where billionaires fuck up the lives of the rest of us and never even notice what they're doing wrong.

As a staging note, there were no guns onstage until the grand finale --everyone just crooked their hand into the position of holding a gun, and mimed that out. It made it all feel more solid and real to give Oswald his rifle, and then the sense of connection coming through and giving the rest of them life in the final song --he has become real, and so the rest of them can be as well.

Few surprises, but it didn't need them: it was just stunningly performed, well-sung, and in a space small enough to feel utterly intimate. I loved it, and almost want to go again this weekend.

Everybody's got the right to their dreams, after all.

~Sor
MOOP!

"Are you alright?"
"I am more then alright. I am extrodinary. I am to be reckoned with. I am...the next ambassador to FRANCE!"

From approximately 6:45 to 8:00 this morning, I was Perfect.

It was the most beautiful morning of my entire life.

~Sor
MOOP!