Monday, June 26, 2006

WHERE WILL YOU STAND WHEN THE FLOOD COMES?

It all started with a few dark clouds on the horizon. I was smoking my pre-show cigarette with my red bull(what I call my warm-up), and I noticed some ominous clouds moving in. I recall hearing something about a flood watch, but not really registering the fact in my muddled grey matter. As I flicked off my cigarette and looked to the sky once more, I thought..."hmmm...hope we don't lose power...".

It was Pride night on the Sunday evening performance, and the audience was wonderful and very responsive. Towards the "Ford" scene, I started to notice the sound of rain coming down in rivers. There was the rain that those black clouds foretold.
Then I forgot about it until the end of the show, when we all sang the final, "Everybody's got the right..." (there is a silent pause there...and during the pause, all you could hear was what sounded like rivers being dumped on the roof).
After the show, there was a reception, and even though it was pouring out, we all thought little of it. Slowly, people decided to brave the elements and make a run for it...I thought, forget that, I'm staying right here until the rain dies down a little. I am a notoriously bad driver, and when the elements of rain and darkness combine, forget it. Then my friend Caroline left the theatre, only to return 3 minutes later, claiming that she couldn't see 3 feet in front of her. This cemented my decision.
Suddenly, there were about 20 people left, give or take a few, and we started noticing cars stalled out from the high water on Four Mile Run. Then we noticed something much more disturbing...water started rushing in the double doors of the lobby...We ran and grabbed towels and put them down.
The water kept coming.
We started unplugging low electrics and moving important things to higher ground.
I ran back to the lobby to discover the water level had risen to the level of the lobby windows. Unreal. Trash was floating by. The water that got into the theatre was never more than an inch or so deep, but it got pretty far in as we tried to push it back with brooms.
Finally, the water subsided out front, and we made a break for home.
Home, flooded home.
Our basement flooded again. Nothing too bad, just totally soaked carpet. So yet again, as in the great sewage spill of March, we are making our bed on the couch.
We gathered around my NOAA weather radio and listened to the surrounding havoc while enjoying a soothing late night snack of mozzarella sticks and Pizza. Buddha was pleased. And after all of that, we settled down for the night and to comfort myself, I put on the new Mommie Dearest DVD with John Waters commentary.
I have never seen anything like the flood of last night, and I hope I don't see any repeat of that in the next few days.
Bedless...Day one.
Luv, SGS

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