Nauvoo Pageant (rehearsals), day 2

It all runs together. I have a hard time remembering what was today and what was yesterday and what was in that third day that had to have gotten in there somewhere because it all seems too long ago to have been today but I'm pretty sure it wasn't yesterday.

Anyway. This morning began with a "morningside" at which the mission presidency and temple presidency regaled us with spiritual thoughts, mostly relevant to their respective callings. I wanted to fall asleep. Something about the Nauvoo chapel is intensely soporific; I couldn't stay awake during Sacrament Meeting either. Then we moved to the grove of trees near the pageant stage, where we were told to drink water (two quarts a day), to not get lost or leave stuff lying around, to drink water (and/or Gatorade), to not die of heatstroke, to drink water, what to do in event of a tornado warning (go to an open area and lie down), not to walk through the grove at night, and to drink water. Then we had district meetings. Jarett refused to pray, the little bugger.

After taking absolutely FOREVER doing those things, we FINALLY got on stage at about 10:30 AM. And what did we do? I can't remember. I think we pretended to do the welcome dance. Oh, and we practiced meeting the Woodruffs arriving from yonder far off lands and carrying their luggage for them. And stuff about watching the Prophet. And exploding on stage. Then we ate lunch.

Thence we went to the high school for more rehearsal not in the sunlight but in an air-conditioned gymnasium. We tried to learn a long complex dance scene culminating with the Highland Fling. I didn't do so well at it. Then I got fitted for a costume. I GET A CRAVAT! IT IS AWESOME! But my pants are kind of tight. Then we went to eat dinner. But not only did we leave a little late due to the costume fitting, but my parents saw fit to visit some sort of extremely small farmer's market, leaving us with even less time. So when we got back to the condo it was a desperate race to consume enough calories to get through the rest of the night. This was at roughly 5:30, by the way. It had already been an eternity since I woke up.

We went back to the stage for our 6:00 rehearsal. Our family gets to falsify sickness while the Apostles come around and heal us. Jorgen and I get to lay out a long, wide burgundy ribbon representing Young Street after entering from upstage left. This fact they drilled into our heads. Street-throwing, as they call it, is an art. Then we marched in a parade. With guns. Well, fake guns anyway. And then it was over. Apparently we've learned half the pageant now.

On a side note, DEET is lame. Icaridin is way better.