You Can't Take it With You

I can't remember if I talked about the play I'm in on my blog. I may have just mentioned it on Facebook. In any case, I'm in the play You Can't Take it With You right now. The performances are this weekend so I have rehearsal every night this week. (In other words, I'm going to be posting a couple reruns this week.)

I've been in a play once a year for more than 10 years. This has been my one outlet throughout the years, where I've been able to do something for me; something that I enjoy; something for Dawn the person, not Dawn the mom or Dawn the wife. Of course, now my life is a little different and over the past year and a half I've had the chance to do many things for myself. But in the past especially, this has been the one thing I've taken time to do for myself simply because I enjoy it.

This year I'm playing the part of Gay Wellington, a drunk actress. I go on stage, get drunk, and pass out. So easy a caveman can do it. It's actually a really fun part to play. At one point, I have to flip over the back of the couch. I'm afraid I'm going to tumble head-over-heels one of these times. It hasn't been a big deal, however, because I've just been wearing jeans at rehearsals. Today, I had to do it in my costume (which is a dress.) Because I had this overwhelming tiny little fear of flipping over the couch a little too energetically and ending up with my dress over my head, I made sure I put on a pair of Spanx under my dress. For those of you who don't know, Spanx are a type of undergarment that takes me 25 minutes to put on because I have to hold my breath and inch these up over my hips that have given birth to 6 kids. It's not an easy task. The wet suit I wore while swimming with the dolphins was easier to put on than these Spanx.

So, after 25 minutes of wrestling with these things, holding my breath, sucking in all my fat, and struggling to pull these stupid things up over my butt, I got them on. Then I remembered that Spanx just happen to be crotchless which, of course, makes sense because who wants to go through that routine every time they have to pee, right? Not that I've ever peed while still wearing my Spanx, come to think of it. I take them off anyway which pretty much defeats the whole crotchless idea. Anyway, as I was saying, after going through that whole routine, I remembered that they were crotchless which pretty much defeats my whole reason for wearing them to begin with. I think I'll be wearing shorts under my dress tomorrow. Just in case. Don't want to scare anyone in the front row, you know.