Elvis has left the building

Today is Saturday, and I have nine days left in the countdown to departure date! Lots of trip chores completed yesterday and today - downloaded latest version of iOS onto cell phone (royal pain in the ass, but mostly a pain for Ron and not me - I contributed about 3% of the solution and he waded through everything else); got seven day supply of sleeping pills free j-i-c; photocopied passport etc for emergency backup; bought a couple of little traveling things (I love little zip bags and travel-sized doo dads); picked up English pound notes from the bank, and figured out how many undies, pj's and outfits to take (8, 2, 4). I amplanning to do laundry once or twice during trip and I have never minded wearing the same trousers two days in a row as long as I don't get rained on or have to slog through muck. Went to Brian and Chasity's at 6p to celebrate Sara's 60th. Her birthday was actually Thursday and R and I had taken her out to lunch at Cracker Barrel but tonight was a surprise hot dog dinner with Brian, Maggie et al. Ethan ran into the room, saw R and me, and headed back out the other way! He was not afraid of us, but very happy to ignore our existence. I left the part early because tonight was the Little Theater presentation of "Elvis Has Left the Building". We (the Culture Club, as Ruthie grandly calls us) have season tickets and this is the next to last show. We have seen Smoky Joe's Cafe (terrific - could have seen that three nights in a row at least) and Dracula Bites (okay with a couple of laughs) and Sherlock Holmes (Elizabeth came with me to that one)., I am truly amazed at the fantastic performances we have seen. Not the typical little theater presentations. There is rarely a weak actor in the cast, and the stage sets and lighting and direction and everything are always wonderful Tonight's performance was amazing. The story is about Elvis' manager promising to provide a free Elvis concert to erase gambling debts. The real Elvis disappeared so his manager (Colonel Tom Brady maybe? I can't look in the program to check the name because the programs are collected at the end of each performance in an attempt to "go green" and reduce the number of programs printed. Anyway, the manager tries to train his awkward, nerdy assistant Roscoe to impersonate Elvis. The first scene sets up the characters and the situation, and it is a little heavy and slightly painful as the first acts of most comedies seem to be. The laughter starts in the first second of the second act, and the audience is almost hysterical after about five minutes of watching Roscoe the nerd faithfully follow every one of the instructions given to him (tilt your hips, jiggle your knee, lower your chin, lower your shoulder, etc). Roscoe is a master performing increasingly grotesque gymnastics, and they managed to keep the hilarity going the entire second act. What a great show! I am not going to give in to my compulsive side and review and rewrite this. It is too awkward on this midget keyboard and I don't even have a mouse to help me edit so I will post without editing. If I can actually keep a journal for a week, I will commit to keeping it up for my trip. I hope I will, because I love rereading the Elizabeth's journal entries and my replies during her semester abroad.