passive agressive backpack

I'll admit it, occasionally when some "stand on the right"-er is leaning into my "walk on the left" zone as I'm zooming upward, in a hurry to get home, I'll turn my shoulder slightly so they get the brunt of my backpack. Call it escalator rage.

So it's only twenty after midnight and I'm home. Load-in went very well. I think it's because we all knew each other and had fun, and the set didn't weigh seven thousand pounds. Also it was not ninety degrees in the theatre. I am absolutely knackered though. The only reason I'm writing now is I turned the heat on so I can have a heated towel for my post-load in shower. Ah. Crap, I meant get-in. We're in London, so it's load-in...oh, I'm going to have to ask someone how the "five minutes, places" thingy goes again. Whatever.

I skipped out for a couple hours to go see Chinatown since today is Chinese New Year. Happy year of the Pig! I even wore a red shirt to load in. This is the way to celebrate New Year's: overpriced Chinese food, eaten standing up, while being buffeted by thousands of other people. There were several "lions" parading around Chinatown, Lisa explained that if businesses gave the lion money, they would have good fortune that year. So these teams of dancers, a few in the lion costume, drum players and flag carriers, go from business to business, dancing for money. Only the business doesn't just hand out cash, they attach money in a red packet (red is good luck) to a bunch of lettuce (not sure why lettuce), then dangle it from the end of a pole out the first (American second) floor window, so the lion has to jump up and get it. Then the lion eats the money and spits the lettuce back out at the business--spraying anyone who happens to be nearby with leaves. Once we were so close I could see the dancer drop kick the lettuce back up onto the roof of a restaurant. It was well cool. I'd love to see how those costumes worked from the inside. I bought a little pig pendant for happiness (figured I'd hang it in my car if I get one) and a little paper dragon, for good luck. I promptly tucked the dragon in the back of the set--I just hope that it doesn't get noticed for the first time when someone is preparing to go on and they're startled out of their wits!