Ale In The Morning

The window in our office faces the back of a big block of apartments with balconies. It's 9.30 in the morning, and a girl in jeans and a green t-shirt has just walked out onto one of them and lit up a cigarette. And she's holding a bottle. It looks like either a bottle of beer or a bottle of brown sauce. Either way, it's a little early.
She just swigged from it. I'm going to have to come down on the side of beer.

On another note, this afternoon I'm auditioning for summer Shakespeare again. Last year Krissa and I were part of a hugely fun production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, performing in neighbourhood parks across Brooklyn. Krissa's not doing it this year in order to concentrate on her writing, but I thought I'd have a go! I just finished reading 'As You Like It' for the first time ever - I'd never seen it or read it before.
Seeing as the play involves cross-dressing as a pivotal point, I have to wonder, when a girl character dresses up as a boy, and that girl character was, in Shakespeare's time, played by a boy in the first place, how many audience members followed what the hell was going on. I pity the Elizabethan theatre buff who arrived late to the show, sat down with a bag of peanuts and a tankard of ale and whispered 'Sorry I'm late. What's going on?' to his friends.

"Well. That bloke there is actually a girl, right?"
"A girl in the theatre? That's against the law! Is it Gwyneth Paltrow?"
"Prithee, no."
"Holla. So there's a guy dressed up as a girl dressed up as a guy."
"Right on, cuz."
"Isn't he hot in all those costumes? Who's on first?"
"Hoo's on first."
"What?"
"Nevermind. Give me a peanut."

Um. Anyway. I'm off to buy breakfast for my sleeping beauty. Wish me luck for the audition.