on saturday, i am supposed to be going to a dress rehearsal for the u.n.d.e.r.g.r.o.u.n.d s.h.a.k.e.s.p.e.a.r.e company's spring "cafe" (show with random scenes from random plays by the bard and his contemporaries, directed by many different people). i'm playing two bit parts. 1. i get to be the worried queen gertrude from hamlet, the rosencrantz and guildenstern bits, and question them about the mental health of my off-his-rocker son. 2. i am a handmaiden to princess imogen from cymbeline during a scene when the rather dim prince cloten comes to visit her. the plot is unreasonably twisted, involving love triangles, death by beheading, jealousy, an evil stepmother, betrayal, a secret marriage, a sleeping potion, cross-dressing disguise, several mistaken identities, and long-lost brothers.

i will not be going to the dress rehearsal because instead i will be at a horse show. it's just a small local show at the barn i ride at. john, the trainer, asked on tuesday (yesterday) if i'd like to show. yes, yes, i would. fun! i expressed a bit of concern about katie's actual readiness for even the local show ring. he said he'd give her "a little somethin somethin" to calm her down. not technically allowed, but hell, it's his show and he can do what he wants. i'm entering the beginner hunter division (for horses of any age in their first or second year of showing). i'll be in at least the flat classes (walk/trot and walk/trot/canter), and maybe the over-fences classes, depending on how katie is tomorrow when i ride her over a full course of fences for the first time. first show in... let's see... 9 or 10 years.