Full Day

Whew, what a day!  Walked with Susan at 7:00, showered and dressed, then left for Betty's a bit after 8:00.  She had asked if I minded having Shirley B., an old friend of hers visiting for the week, come along, and no prob by me. 
It was fun to see Betty's DIL, Katie, and the three darling little girls, especially little Amelia, two months old today.  I held and rocked her and oh, what I'd give to have another precious baby in the family.
Betty asked if I'd drive to pick up Shirley, I did, and we went to a little restaurant called Brittany's in Chelsea (for the uninitiated, that's the area of Atlantic City closest to Ventnor).  Ordered scrambled eggs, but after hearing Shirley ask for poached, changed my order.  Haven't had them for awhile and with whole wheat toast, o.j., and coffee, they were yummy.
We visited a bit back at Betty's, I took Shirley back to her son's house, then went to the Plays and Playwrights meeting.
Hey, it was a good, satisfying one.  I've come to the conclusion--maybe prematurely--that I have little talent for play-writing.  In the future, I'll  probably stick to the kind of writing I do for The Breeze.   (That's not a promise, though!  If a good idea for a skit or drama comes along, I might just change my mind.)  Was asked to read the "Joan" character in a play called The Speaker, which was actually not bad.  I was amazed after to have someone praise my "acting"--all I did was put a little animation in it--and the whole room applaud.
Incidentally, the play had a bit during which a faculty chair offers the main character a teaching job at a university.  Wha'?  It doesn't happen that way in the real world; good grief, there'd be search committees, interviewing groups, and extensive vetting before anybody would get near a faculty position.  During the critique session, I mentioned this and, of course, John, our leader, who teaches at Stockton, my friend, Louise, and some others understood, but the author, who's eighty if he's a day, didn't.  I let it drop, though, no sense in beating a (almost) dead playwright.
We did other plays, including John's, which concerned a lesbian love triangle. Sounds gross, but really wasn't.  This was enacted by Denise and Dayle, two women I like a lot.  After, Louise, who's 56, and I talked a long time, mostly about her love life--or lack thereof--then parted.
Decided to stop at the cemetery on the way home.  This isn't a direct route, though, and by the time I got there, a summer thunderstorm was teeming rain.  As I had intended to water the flowers and Nature beat me to it, I didn't even get out of the car.  Was stuck in a terrific, miles-long traffic jam on the parkway, and didn't get home until after 5:30.  Nuked a bowl of broccoli for dinner, cleaned up a bit, and picked up Aline.
Groan--the audience was even more sparse than the first two nights.  We counted no more than thirty, a big disappointment.  I'm sure the weather was one factor:  The storm didn't move away until almost showtime.  I picked up on the fact that the performers were slightly other than their best--little stumbles and hesitations here and there-- and Aline agreed.
We did concessions, and then left before the second and last act.  Aline had stayed for the whole thing other times--geez, it's great fun and all that, but seeing it four days in a role seems a drag to me--but last night left with me and I drove her home. 
I'm not attending today; instead, will be going to the surprise party for the H.'s at SeaOaks.