Shakespeare in the Park

Richie is the one on the far left.

"Midsummer" opened on Friday and we went back to Hoboken to see the show. Richie was asked to do this show by the director of "In the Sawtooths" who has a theatre company in Hoboken called Mile Square Theatre (the city of Hoboken is exactly one square mile in size). Richie played Snout, the tinker (aka wall). He is one of the mechanicals that does the play within the play, if you are familiar with the show.

This was a fun project for Richie to work on, he enjoyed his role and he really likes the director, but because it is a small, non-profit company, the cast is also the loading crew. They set up and take down the set each time they perform, so we had to get there a few hours before the show started. This meant Little Richie and I had three hours to kill before the show began. He was thrilled to have all that time to walk, and walk, and walk, and walk, but my tired pregnant body was not as excited. There was a little playground nearby, but the equipment was a little too big and dangerous for Richie, so we only played there for a little while. We did A LOT of walking along the waterfront, that boy never seems to get tired.

Luckily, all the walking wore him out enough that he actually sat still for the entire 90 minute show. I was a little nervous about how he would do during the show. I didn't know if he would sit still or if he would get super fussy because of staying up past his bedtime, but he was amazing. He sat and cuddled with me and watched the entire show. A couple times he seemed like he was going to try and go to sleep, but he was always distracted by the action and just wouldn't let himself miss out on anything. Of course big Richie was great too. He always does great work and I like seeing him do comedy. His role is not huge, but he was very entertaining. It was a long night, we had to wait for Richie and the cast to take the set down and put it away, but little Richie fell asleep in his stroller, eventually, so I could just sit and wait. We had a fun time that day.

In other news, I am 24 1/2 weeks along and everything is going fine. I feel the baby moving a lot, and that is always a reassuring feeling, just knowing that she is still there. Little Richie is talking more and more. Most of his sentences are just gibberish, but he says whole long phrases to me that I know he understands, even if I don't. Big Richie finally started working in the theatre office at the beginning of July and that was a huge relief. He was out of school for two months without a job, and we were a little nervous about that. Richie has been cast in the first mainstage show of the Rutger's season and he is really excited about that. Rehearsals start in August and it looks like he will be done before the baby comes.

Richie's dad had a heart attack a few weeks ago. He had to have a couple stents put in and an angioplasti to clear some blockage, but he is doing well now. It was a pretty scary few days, but luckily we have a brother who works in a cath-lab and was able to give us comfort about what Richard was going through. Thanks again Tim. The whole thing made me really worry about my husband who has high cholesterol and high blood pressure, so we have started to change our eating habits and Richie is already seeing weight loss results. Hopefully we can change our lifestyle for the better and be healthy and fit for the rest of our lives.

That is all from New Jersey.