Sidelined!

It has been a seriously rough couple of days. Friday morning I was awakened early early early by nausea and stomach gurgling...never a good sign. I spent the next few hours in the bathroom (TMI) and called Dan, our stage manager, to say I was prob going to be late. Luckily, after several doses of pepto, my stomach settled in time to get on a bus to the City and I was actually a few minutes early for call, albeit green. At lunch I had my appetite back but was nervous so I had a roll and ended up nauseous again. By the end of the day I was so hot and my face was so red! I figured it was just that the studio was hot (as it is ALWAYS, thanks Pearl Studios!) and we'd been dancing and I hadn't really slept. I could barely move to get to the Port Authority and catch my bus back to Jersey. By the time I got to Jersey I was burning up. Checking my temp back at Dave's I was at a cozy 101 degrees. I went straight up to bed and tossed all night. I would be freezing and crawl under the covers then I'd be sweating and toss them off, it was horrible. My alarm went off Saturday morning and I was now at 102 degrees and dizzy and weak. I had to call Dan and say I wouldn't make it to rehearsal. You can't imagine what an awful feeling that is. I never get sick, at least not since I had my tonsils out in 2005 so to get THIS sick in my first week of rehearsals for a show that's a huge break for my career is just devastating. I'm paranoid they're going to fire me or put my cover in my place, that everyone's going to be mad at me, that the creative team will think I'm not professional for calling out and never want to work with me again. It's awful. But Saturday was so bad, even though I slept most of the time, that there's no way I'd have even made it to my bus stop let alone to rehearsal. I slept today until almost 1:00 and awoke to find my fever had gone way down finally. My sheets were drenched with sweat even though I have the a/c and a fan cranked in my room. I'm much less dizzy and a bit stronger. I managed to eat a half a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, do my laundry and have been working on my script so I can get completely off book for tomorrow. I also think I've lost about 10 pounds thanks to all this aerobic exercise on the Vince Pesce plan! My jeans are definitely looser than they were the last time I wore them a week ago. I've been in tees and yoga pants all week.

This week we start work-throughs of the show, an act a day, then we run. Monday the 8th we leave for San Bernardino where we will tech and open! We open on Saturday night the 13th with an 8:00 show at the historic California Theatre in the beautiful San Bernardino mountains. That Monday will be rough as we have a 7:30 flight out of JFK to LAX, our bus to San Bernardino then rehearsal at the theatre from 5:00-10:00 all jet lagged and tired. But after that cast isn't called until 1:00 for rehearsals. It looks like they are getting video on the Sunday matinee on the 14th for commercial footage as my schedule says B roll. I think we're all excited to get to California and really get going. We're flying Virgin America which looks amazing from their website. Tyler also gave us a data sheet on the town and our surroundings with the hotel, amenities, and where things are in town like pharmacy, movies, taxi, etc. We should have some free time the last couple of days we are there to lounge by the pool and do some sight-seeing. Most locations we won't have the luxury of time to do these things so I'm sure it will be much appreciated!

Just got a text from Rhiannon (Nancy) checking to see how I'm feeling. She's a really sweet girl. It's nice to be missed! Well, here's hoping everyone else tomorrow is as kind and I can make it through the day. For now, back to my script and resting!