Testy, testy, testy

Had a conversation with a co-worker who has two young'uns yesterday. Her husband was commenting on the 'P' that Grover or someone was showing on Sesame Street. Their 3 1/2 year old insisted it was an 'H'. Dad said, "no, it's a 'P'". Youngun says "No, it's an 'H'". Dad says, "No, that's a 'P'". Youngun says "It's an 'H'. NO FAIR!" Mom looks at Dad and wonders why in the world you would argue with a 3 year old...
This rang a bell and maybe even touched a nerve. This has been my life for about 6 months now.

LK: Is today a school day?

Beast*: Yes. It's Wednesday.

LK: Today is Saturday.

Beast: No, today is Wednesday. It's pizza day at school.

LK: But Miss Betsy said it was Saturday.

Beast: Actually, Saturday is a few days away. Today is Wednesday.

LK: NO! It's Saturday. YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS!

Beast: Well, I'm not going to argue with you about this.

LK: Well, you're not the boss of me.

Beast: Well, actually, I am.

LK: NO, YOU'RE NOT! You're not the boss of everything.

etc. only I typically strive to end these conversations before the ongoing Who's the Boss episodes run through my brain. I hate that.

So we're running into this 4 year old AT. TI. TUDE. And it drives me nuts. This, coupled with the great fun of running away whenever I call her, and the lack of cooperation with little everyday things is making this a challenging time in the life of this family. The hardest part, I think, is keeping the other old people in my house OUT of the conversation! My 25 (almost 26) yr old just LOVES to get into it with her, and will go round after round about which day it is, or which vegetable is on her plate, and then of course, who's the boss. And that drives me even more nuts!

So apparently I'm a little testy these days.

I read a couple of blog entries by l'il sis, and empathized with her reaction. I understood it and thought I'd feel the same way. Did not feel it was "over the top" as she did. So I left a short comment, in effect, saying I didn't feel she needed to clarify or backpedal or any such thing on this subject because one of the persons involved found out about the entry. In much less words and not at all as direct as this. But she pointed out that an excuse was given and that was all that was needed.

So testy little me thinks - un, unh (how the heck do you spell that?). I don't think so. You just don't ignore when it suits but jump on it when criticized. The only thing that stopped me was that subject of controversy said "apologetically yours" on her comment. OK. That was nice and probably enough to smooth raised hackles. But I stand by my initial reaction and comments.

Last night, DDD had her callback. She felt it was a good one. They asked her to wait around to read a little later with a couple other characters, so she waited an hour and 1/2. When they all went back in, the director pulled the stage manager to the side and said something really quickly, and next thing DDD knows, she's being led out of the room and told she can leave. But she can come back tomorrow (tonight) for another part. WHICH SHE IS GOING TO DO!!!

My little testy hackles are all up in arms again. You don't have a person sit around for an hour and 1/2 waiting and then unceremoniously single out and dismiss them in front of all the other actors! In my little (inexperienced) world, that is unacceptable. Even if it was someone's mistake - you put them through the paces anyway, and discuss the mistake with the person responsible later. I do not want to work with that director at all. I do not want to give that director the time of day. I, I, I. I apparently have a much shorter fuse than others, or maybe I'm just more sensitive. Don't know. I just know that these people I'm related to must be nicer people than I. It also points directly at why I am not cut out for more than recreational dabbles into this theatre stuff. I've always known I can't take the rejection. But now I know, it's not really the rejection I can't take. I actually find that fairly easy to deal with. It's the potential rudeness. Every time you audition, you put yourself up for someone else's examination and the potential for rudeness. I don't tolerate that well.

So this will be interesting - we're both going to the callbacks tonight. But my heart is REALLY not in it.

* BEAST came about when a commenter on l'il sis' entried happened to agree with me, and wrote: "Beast. Amen." Making both sis and I laugh out loud. I like it and I'm keeping it!
For those uninitiated to my strange family- I am "Be-a-starz-mom". "Be a star" has been a catch phrase around here since DDD was little. I even used it as a password for a while. So when I started this blog, DDD was going through college as a theatre major and that was a huge focus in all our lives. We'd arrange our trips back there to see her shows. So I became beastarzmom. And that's that. But I like Beast almost as much, (and it certainly seems to fit me, at least these days...) so that's who I'm gonna be! Thanks to MamaLee!