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Sunday, February 25, 2007

New show, new town

Well, I just arrived and in my new digs, so it might be a day or two before I can get to any posts; although I do have a few half written.

It always takes a few days to acclimate, to make the place my own which, for 7 weeks, is well worth the effort. It usually entails several bottles of heavy-duty cleanser, several sponges and a slew of paper towels. Actors have a tendency to be piggies (oops), particularly when they know the place is temporary. And the cleanup crew, between casts, never does a very good job. I always like to leave the place cleaner than how I found it, which isn't that hard to do, considering.

The apartment they gave me is a small, functional, downtown studio, a few blocks from the theatre. So we can walk there, which is great, but I noticed I might have some roomies, of the insect kind, which is not so great. I have roomed with roachies before and it is not a pleasant prospect. I already found one, on its back thankfully, in the closet. So tomorrow I'll spray a can of insecticide before I go out and buy some boric acid. Would that be considered overkill? Not sure if it will help, because I believe that roaches are the terrorists of the insect world: nasty and extremely hard to eradicate. One apartment I was provided with, several shows ago, was riddled with roaches and, in spite of the piles of boric acid, they still came out in droves. I still shudder at the memory.

Actor housing is always a crap shoot, you never know what you are going to get. The Union specifies that housing must be supplied to all out-of-town actors, but it doesn't dictate how nice the place has to be. And believe me, I have lived in some doozies. At least I have cable (which isn't always the case), and the city has wireless, so I don't have to deal with dial-up (yippee), but the electrical outlets are all 2-prong, which presents an interesting challenge for all my 3-prong machines, including the computer. Guess I have more than boric acid to purchase tomorrow.

Well, I better get off before the battery dies. Until later. Blessings to all.

UPDATE 2/27/07:

Turns out the wireless internet worked only Sunday night, so it's back to dial-up.

21 comments:

Blazingcatfur said...

There's no business like roach business like no business I know!

Rick Rockhill said...

hey there...like your blog...I can appreciate who you are. I am somewhat of an enigma to many people...but I relish the position.

stop by and say hi sometime.

www.rickrockhill.blogspot.com

Dave Gorman said...

I checked out your blog...good karma comes from checking out my blog in return...peace.

Papa J said...

In the first apartment I rented the cockroaches outnumbered the people by 20 to 1. You could beg management to do something about it and they would bomb your apartment (leaving a greasy film on EVERYTHING.)

After months of killing the buggers, we finally learned a neat trick. Once you have poisoned all of the roaches IN your apartment, plug the drains. If you're not using them, plug 'em up. It made a world of difference. We went from at least one kill a day to maybe one every other week.

Good luck.

Incognito said...

Yup BCF, show must go on.. roaches or no.

And thank you Papa J, for your suggestions. Actually, haven't seen any live ones, yet. Couldn't find boric acid, so I bought some roach bait/trappy things. Will place them around the place, for good measure. meanwhile, I keep checking around corners and walls to make sure I don't see any around.

I had put some sponges on top of some gaping drains, last night, because there were no stoppers. But was unable to find anything to cover the drains in several stores I went to. Oh well. Will keep them covered with the sponges.

We shall see what happens. :-)

Incognito said...

And I will def. check both your blogs out, PSS and Dave. Thanks for stopping by.

Lutheran Enigma said...

I hope that everything works out well for your temporary housing and that you enjoy your new project.

A friend of my daughter works with a theatre company where summer interns are housed in nearby convent. My daughter stayed over one night and thought it was really cool.

MUD said...

A couple of posts back, I wrote about the hissing cockroaches my wife has at school. I fight them all the time and keep a supply of baited traps near. About once a month or so I get really crazy about the mice and bait all the mouse traps with peanut butter. I have killed six this outing. Just got back fro a week in Arizona and am about to get over a cold I had the entire time I was there. Lots of drugs in the body and lotion/bag baum/mentolatum on the nose. Perhaps I'll be better is a day or two. MUD

Incognito said...

Thank you Lutheran.. and the housing will be fine. Met the cast today and everyone seems very nice, so should be fun.

Yes, I'm sure that would be fun for your daughter and all the interns working summer stock, but the older one gets the more comforts one expects. :-)

Incognito said...

Are those Palmetto Bugs MUD? Not sure which are worse, palmettos or roaches. Both pretty disgusting. Brave wife!

So sorry you got sick on your trip. Fun. Was once sick the whole 2 weeks of a European trip. Feel better!!

All_I_Can_Stands said...

Incognito,

I think I know where you are because I lived there a few years. I won't out your location, though. Good luck on your new show and new location. Watch out for those drivers. If you are where I think, they are the worst.

AICS

Anonymous said...

You want to come and try the cockroaches here in the Big Lychee. In my first apartment I used to get woken up by them crawling over my face and under my back. Nice. Hundreds, if not thousands of them infested the building.

Luckily, I'm now increadibly rich and successful and cockroaches are a thing of the past.

I have no doubt that in the not-too-distant future, after you've collected your oscar, they will be a thing of the past for you too.

Enjoy them while you still can.

MUD said...

I started life in a shack and thought that as I grew older and richer roaches and mice would be a thing of the past. At the pinnacle of my success, the wife found acres in the woods to build on and we invaded the forest blindly unaware of the habitat for creatures it truly was. Mice and bugs of all types seek out a home for the winter in the fall and as spring arrives they begin to look for food. All inside Barb's house at Rabbit Run. It takes a steady hand to keep the traps loaded with peanut butter but the view is well worth the effort.
A friend of mine once lived in Houston and said there the roaches never took time off to hibernate. He fought them year round and never eliminated them. Oh well, in every garden a thorn or two must live. (Is that a metaphor?, without like or as, is isn't a simile- Can you tell who has been working as a substitute teacher?) MUD

Anonymous said...

Try teaching them about paragraphs next tme, MUD!

Blazingcatfur said...

Oh man dial up! I remember way back in 01, we still had dial up then, now that was the Interweb! None of this new fangled cable, dsl stuff - we waited hours for a page to load, and were glad of it!

Incognito said...

Hmm, now you have me curious AICS. And, the drivers *are* pretty horrific here. There are quite a few states that have large roach populations, though. I did a show in Arkansas years ago, and it was like an obstacle course, at night, walking from the apt. to the theatre. And the apartment was crawling with them, as well. I guess they were in the walls. So... :-)

Incognito said...

Hey Purist, glad to know you are done with your roach-days. The idea of having them crawl on you is revolting. I can imagine Hong Kong would have problems with roaches.. all that tropical weather.
And thank you, I will look forward to the day I am housed in luxury apts.

Incognito said...

Yeah, MUD, there are always trade-offs, but it sounds like you have a great place. Your wife is truly brave!!
Simile.. metaphor... who knows. A nice phrase, whichever it happens to be.

Incognito said...

Yeah, MUD, there are always trade-offs, but it sounds like you have a great place. Your wife is truly brave!!
Simile.. metaphor... who knows. A nice phrase, whichever it happens to be.

Incognito said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Incognito said...

Yup,BCF, dial-up is a pain in the....

I did get connected to someone's wireless today, during lunch, but felt guilty so I switched back to dial-up. That's what happens when you are overly conscientious.