Photo of the Day: I took this shot from a bridge over the lake in St. James Park. To see a site like this in America you have to go to DisneyWorld and buy a $70 ticket to see an artificially reproduced scale model. St. James Park is free. It also happens to be the tube transfer station for my ride to work every day. The interesting thing about this photo is, everyone else on the bridge that day was taking a picture of the view to my back on the other side of the bridge. I was the only one taking a picture from this perspective. Directly behind me is a view of Buckingham Palace. It is more famous but not nearly so beautiful.

NOTE: This is the first picture I have been able to post on my blog in a couple of days. Don't know why. It is either my slow WiFi at the apartment, user error, blog fatigue or censorship from the UK. I did not get a photo of the police task force at the bar. (Eleanor) Photography of police at work is prohibited. Just know that when I have a good and relevant photo I will try to post it if I can. When I can't, you will just have to imagine what I am talking about, you know like the radio.

There is a young usher at the theatre named Marina. I don't know where she is from.  I can't tell about accents, she could be German, Russian, Scandinavian or she could even be from Minnesota. I don't possess that Henry Higgins ear for language, and I don't know her well enough to ask in my Texas drawll, "Where ya'll frum?" I am very aware that every time I open my mouth to talk, the locals know I am not from around these parts.   All I do know is Marina smiles a lot, is very friendly and I have trouble understanding most of what she says.

Today when I got to the theatre Marina was sitting on the stairs that go from the stage door to the theatre stalls. I said hello and she said in her thick accent how much she loved the show and couldn't wait to see it again today. (Actually she could have said the show sucks turnips in the garden, but in my actors ego, anything  I don't really understand becomes in my mind a compliment of the show.)

  

I said, "Thank you, Marina". She was genuinely touched that I remembered her name and lit up.

She said, "Pleise tell da wooden I say hallo. " I assumed "da wooden" are the wooden Americans in my cast. I said okay and she then said, "I like Squeaky da best. He es mine favorite." 

As I continued up the stairs I said to her, "I guess that makes me a little jealous". She giggled.

On the way to the dressing room it struck me how perfectly natural this odd conversation had been. Squeaky is such a complete individual to both of us.  We communicated in complete thoughts and emotions about an imaginary person.

It reminded me of junior high. I'm now supposed to run up to Squeaky and say, "That cute girl, you know the usher, Marina, she told me to tell you hi. I think she likes you, she said you were her favorite in the show." 

Squeaky would say, "No way." 

I would say, "Way."  

Squeaky would say, "You're puttin' me on. " 

I would say, "If  I'm lying I'm dyin'."  

Squeaky would grin,  we would give each other a high five and head off to Geometry class.

I guess on some level that all happened tonight as I smiled at Squeaky during our scene in the show. Maybe it was just the angle of the lights I never noticed before. Maybe it was the fact that tomorrow is a day off and it has been a long week. Whatever, there was a new twinkle/reflection in Squeaky's eye and for a millisecond it reminded me of the brief conversation with Marina earlier.

It is a wonderful thing to live in a world where entire conversations can happen in the flash of a glass eye. And the best part is I am paid to experience it nightly in a London theatre.
As you were,
Jay