Yesterday Donald and I met with the minister. He was a very likeable guy, and I'm sure he'll marry us up in a satisfactory way.

Donald and I saw the Narnia movie again yesterday. It was my dad's birthday and that's what he wanted to do. It wasn't playing at the Plaza, so we went to Ward Parkway. I think it's the first movie I've seen there since Donald's car was broken in to. I hope the mall gets enough new blood in it that AMC will renovate the movie theater and put in new seats at least. My mom always sits at the end of the row so she can get out to go stretch her legs, which she did. 2 1/2 hours is pretty long. I wish 3 hour movies had intermissions. I could have used a break half way through all the LOTR movies.

Afterwards we went for some dinner. Towards the end of the meal I was ready to go, and unreasonably annoyed with my family. My dad kept cracking dumb jokes when I'd ask him a simple question, which is always tiring. My mom implored the waiter to make sure my sister's pizza wasn't too cheesy. My sister kept waving her hand in her face and insisting that the (small amount of) cigarette smoke was making her cough. We were talking about wedding planning, which isn't my favorite thing. I want the wedding to plan itself. I'm just not that interested in working out all the little details about everything. I know it has to get done, but it isn't very fun. And by the end of the meal, I was ready to go home to my apartment with Donald and the cat and nooo family.

I wish I had more of that ice cream. I'm gonna go eat breakfast.

I have already started this day in a productive manner, even before I went to bed. Last night at 12:30 or so, I decided to caulk the bathtub. I don't know why I feel the need to do these things in the middle of the night. But it's done. It isn't perfect, but it's better than before which is what I was going for. That was my same thought when I painted the bathroom. It looked so awful before I painted, that anything I did to it would just be better.

When I got up, I put in a load of laundry. Now of course, I'm sitting in front of my computer. I will work on my plot more today, yes I will.

Yesterday was fun. Robyn and Joe and Mike came over and we went out to eat. We considered seeing a movie but didn't. Instead, we got ice cream from coldstone creamery, which I hadn't been to before. Oh it was tasty! I had dark chocolate mint with oreos mixed in. Then we went home to play gamecube. Lovely cube. Everybody enjoyed Mario Party and Mario Kart. Then we got coffee and played phase 10, which takes much much longer with 5 people than it does with 2. We played one game, and it probably took 2 hours. We came back here and more Mario Kart was played.

The highlight of yesterday's Plaza experience was Asshole McHonksalot. This guy was trying to go through the intersection, but there were pedestrians there, so he laid on the horn, and then again when he got to the other side of the street. Seriously jackass, if you're in a hurry, don't go through the Plaza. Way to stomp on everybody's holiday spirit. I flipped him off but he didn't see.

Yesterday I quit procrastinating and worked on my damn plot. I got a lot done. I worked several hours in late morning /early afternoon. Another strike against getting up in the morning: The bright sun makes it hard to see my monitor.

Donald and I went out in the afternoon to do an errand or 2, and get coffee. This was a mixed success, since I wanted to go to the Post Office and they were closed. Holidays, I guess. The barista at Muddy's commented on our presence so early in the day. It is always odd to be there in the daytime. :) We played some cards, I got Donald a card game called Phase 10 for x-mas. I had played it years ago with relatives, and it was pretty fun. It'll be much much better with more than 2 people, though. It's also odd to go the the coffeehouse, hang around for awhile, and come home on a weekday before Donald would have even gotten home.

Random coffeehouse experience: A middle aged couple and 2 small kids were sitting at the table next to us. They all got drinks, I heard the boy (about 7 yrs) order decaf. I thought they had given the little girl (maybe 2-3 yrs) a 16 oz mocha, but I eventually came to realize that it was chocolate milk. The boy proceeded to dump about a cup of sugar into his drink as the dad watched. Into his DECAF. I thought it was odd that a kid that small was drinking coffee at all. And more odd that his father let him pour a cavity and a half in.

After we went home, fully caffeinated, I worked diligently for several more hours on the plot. Then I played Morrowind until 2am. :D Willpower, o yeah.

And there it goes

Thursday I was saved from doing anything useful at all. Mike and I went shopping all day. We didn't actually buy very much, but we did look at 4 pet stores. Oddly, we didn't buy anything from them. Once we made it home, we played some video games and convinced Robyn that cleaning her house wasn't necessary and that she should come up here and join us. She did, we got some dinner, and played some 4 player Mario Party. Then we got tasty tasty coffee, and played more Mario Party. That took rather too long, and when we were finally done everyone went home and Donald went to take a shower. I gave 1 player Mario Party a try, and wasted 2 hours of my life by losing. Bah.

Friday we got up early for the get-Joe-at-the-airport party. Robyn and Mike met us here, then we all piled in the car and went to get donuts. The donuts were all fine, but the coffee was lacking becuase Mike finally threw his out the window. I was driving, so I missed seeing this. I have no doubt that iw was hilarious though. We got the Joe, and did some shopping up in the north area of the city. We made it back home by about 1:30, and were magically tired. Donald slept on the couch, while I played more Mario Party, this time set on Easy so I could win. :D

I wanted to have cherry pie. I was going to make it myself. I called my Grandma and she told me how to make the pie. At about 6, I went to my folk's house to make pie. We made 2 pies, one from store-bought frozen cherries, and one from Grandma's frozen cherries. The experiment was necessary, because Grandma's cherry tree is pretty much dead so I needed to see if store cherries would be acceptable. When the pies were ready, we ate hot pie and enjoyed it. Mmm... pie...

Saturday my grandparents came in to town. We took the pies to my uncle's house where they all were, and everybody had a small slice of each with vanilla ice cream. My pie experiment was a success. The store bought cherries were an acceptable substitute. Later in the day, Donald and I opened presents with my folks, and went back to my uncle's for dinner and some cards.

Sunday we were at Donald's grandparents' in Independence at 10. We did the present thing, and I had a great time playing with the new kitties. They're very playful, and then happy to sit on your lap once tired. We ate tasty food, and went to the other grandparents' for more present stuff. This one took forever because donald has a helluva lot of relatives.

And then it was done! We finished off the evening by sitting on the couch watching TV and happily relaxing.

procrastination continues

I was busy enough yesterday that I felt justified in not working on my plot. I know my logic is flawed, but I don't care. :D

I got up early and drove Jon and Jen to the airport. I made it back in one piece, despite semi's trying to squash me. My mom and I went to a fabric store, and I think I've picked out the one I want for my dress. We will order it soon, I think. When I got home I did some emailing, washed some dishes, and made chocolate covered pretzels to complete my food presents. I made more than twice as much as I usually do, and it was barely enough. But I have something to give to family now. I didn't even turn on the morrowind until 6:00. Then, I pretty much played most of the evening, except for the part when we watched the second-to-last episode of Dead Like Me.

Today is Donald's last day! And he's coming home early. It'll be weird for that routine to be gone. For example, I usually turn on the lamp in the bedroom before he gets home because it's dark then. But now I won't. It'll be nice to have him home for awhile.

We did not leave the house yesterday. At one point, going out for coffee was considered but the idea was abandoned due to inertia. Yesterday we did laundry and sat on the couch. We ate leftovers and played video games. I made tons of chex mix, and we finished up the holiday cards. It was a nice day.

holiday rush

I thought about sending out cards this year. Then I thought it was too late and gave up on the idea. Yesterday I was planning to make about 5 or 6 cards, just for my grandma and such. I ended up making abut 30. I was only stopped there by the amount of paper I had available. :P And the pain in my arm from tedious X-acto work.

Donald and I went to the Plaza to buy a couple more controllers for the gamecube, because they were cheapest there at EB or Gamestop or whatever the hell is is. Hard to believe but true. We got another madcatz mini one for $15, and a regular sized one with a cord extender and a memory card for $13. I don't get it either. We got free stuff though, so yay. That brings the total to 4. We also went to the paper store so I could get envelopes for my cards. All in all, this outing was taken care of in a speedy manner, and we haven't left the house since. Chinese delivery food, you are the best. Will we leave the house today? I dunno... looks awful cold and damp out there...


How evil are you?

Friday went by as usual, with me doing pretty much nothing all day and feeling guilty about it. I did some tidying up, and a few errands. Then- I started a new game of Morrowind. You see, its sequel doesn't come out until MARCH and I want it NOW. Sigh. I'm not going to spend my life on this game though, my plan is just to enjoy myself poking around and joining some factions that neither Donald or I did before.


I also did some ebay research into decoration for my dress. I found these 2 silver appliques. The plan is to deconstruct them and re-form them into a band of embroidery that will run vertically along a split. The v-shaped one is 11" across and there are 2 available, and the other is 10" tall and 21 available. There will probably be a few sparkly beads in the equation as well, naturally. :)


Mike came over and went to the coffeehouse with us, which was nice, since I'd been thinking about coffee all day. When we got back home, I wouldn't let them play with the gamecube, as I already had dibs on the xbox and we only have one TV. Take that! The day ended with donald sleeping on the couch as I "one more thing"-ed my way through about 45 minutes more video game.

tricksy present giving part 2

The conspiracy to trick dad into giving my mom a present she bought is succeeding apace. But the other day, a new layer was added in.

Dad called me from work. He wanted me to look at a website with a vest on it he thought mom would like. I told him which one I thought she would like most, then called the store to see if they had them in the store. Naturally, the store neglected to tell me that they had limited sizes and colors available. (no surprise really) Dad also was going to check out some fleecy pants to lounge around the house in. He said if he liked them he could buy them and give them to me to pretend that I bought them so we could give them to him for x-mas. LOL!! Dad went there after work. When he called me to ask if I was at home, I told him I was at his home so he said to come out to the garage to look. Mom told me that if he'd bought a Roomba to tell him to return it because she doesn't want one. I went to look, and told him that I thought the vest he bought was too big, and not very pretty. He said she could return it if she didn't like it, and at least there would be something under the tree, then went and hid it in the garage.

Yesterday, mom calls me. She says, "What's this receipt I found in the garage for a vest? I don't want a vest, we already bought me a vest that I love! Make him return it!" I replied, "Well go on an errand then so I can bring this other vest over to finally show him, and put the receipt back where you found it." She said "Okay, I'll go to the library." So she went to the library, and I tried to get dad to return the other vest. Well, he won't, and he made me bring it back here to wrap it. This is my life! My parents are truly wacky. Wouldn't the holidays be easier if we just bought ourselves stuff we like?

To finish off yesterday, I did plant myself back on the couch. Donald got home around 7 or so, and around 9:30 I peeled myself off the couch and went to bed. That's pretty damn early, but it seemed to work because today I feel human again.

ungghhhh

Today sucked. I woke up very early with stomach pain. I thought that I must be hungry so I ate a few saltines, drank some water and went back to sleep. An hour later, I woke up again, went to the bathroom, and had the sudden realization that I was going to throw up. So I did, washed out my mouth and went back to bed. I woke up again around 10:30, dragged myself out of bed, and ate a little bit of oatmeal and drank most of a mug of tea. I decided that there was no way I would be able to remain upright the rest of the day, and went back to bed until about 1.

When I got up that time, I took a blessedly hot shower and got dressed, then made some chicken noodle soup. After that I went to the couch with a blanket and book, and lured the cat underneath with promises of pettins. I read for awhile, Anna warming my lap like a purring hot water bottle, then went to sleep again. I got up about 4:30, since I needed to eat again and had a meeting to go to, which turned out to be blessedly short. Now I'm home again. My stomach seems almost normal again, but I have that awful achy tired feeling all over. If feels like a huge effort just to move. I'm probably going to end up back on the couch in moments. unggghh...

We finished Season 1 of Dead Like Me and have started the 2nd. You see, Donald is weak so he went and bought it today. I'm not complaining though, it's a good show.

I'm back in the land of no motivation. I have a production meeting for a show tomorrow that I know nothing about. The Stage Manager will give me a script, and maybe I'll get some set drawings. I just looked at my calendar. I have a plot due for a different show in 3 weeks. Ugh. Faculty is always saying that to succeed in theatre, you have to really want it, have a "fire in your belly." I really really don't. And yet, I'll get by. I just slog through, until the short time where I actually like what I'm doing, and then wait for the whole process to be over. And then it starts again.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be doing something else. But although I can think of a lot of things I'd like to be doing, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do. You know, there are millions of people who don't "do" anything. Any lots and lots of them are perfectly happy. In this sentence I should come to a point, but I don't have one. So, off to bed! Tomorrow is another day.

Take that, ice!!

Donald and I thought the driveway might have melted enough to drive up it. We were almost right. It was fine until the part right next to the house, under the gutter. Yep, there's a huge piece of ice there. And the spinning began. You know that if you can just get about a foot further up, you might make it! So Donald went and got sand, and more sand, and more sand, and then we gave up and were going to try to back down. We switched spots and he made it that vital foot! We went a few more feet, then the tire spun again. I went and got some sand. Then we made it! Needless to say, we have the parking area all to ourselves right now. Stupid Missouri, stupid ice. Tomorrow I think we're gonna go knock the rest of that ice off.

This morning I went down the street to print some show pictures. Then on the way back to the apartment, I helped push my downstairs neighbor's car. The car was dead, and she and her dad had gotten it out into the street. They were trying to push it, and with Donald's and my help we got the front tires onto the little trailer dealie. and all was well.

This afternoon we met Mike and Robyn and Chrissy in Independence to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was pretty good. Then we went to Ihop for breakfast food.

Donald stayed home again Thursday. We attempted to move the bed to a warmer location where our heads wouldn't be up against the cold exterior wall. Well, there really isn't any such viable place in the bedroom so we put the bed back. In the process we vaccuumed where we seem to have never vaccummed before, judging by the amount of dust. :P Around 3 we decided to go borrow shovels and clear the driveway. Nearly a foot of show is no easy thing, but this snow was very light and powdery so it wasn't too hard. We also did a bunch of laundry.

Friday D went to work. The streets were clear enough. I had an appointment to talk with a local costume designer, and she is going to make my dress. It will be mostly blue with silver parts. Now the fabric needs finding. It can be any number of things, but I think the leading fabrics are silk and satin. It will be all one or the other, not some of each.

score!

Donald and I went to 51st St. about 7. We had dinner at Kin Lin, then went to Muddy's. We played Scrabble, and I made "portents" on an existing E. Oh yes, that's right, I used all 7 of my letters. W00t! Then Donald made a word with a Z on a triple word, and then a word with an X on a triple word, effectively destroying my lead. Sigh.

OMG, snow

I walked in to the theater today in the snow. I bundled all up in my hat and scarf and gloves. Hats are brilliant. Why did I ever go out in the cold without a hat? There wasn't much snow on the ground yet, but it's still coming down. It's pretty to walk in, but I wish I didn't have glasses 'cause they get spotty. I guess it would blow directly into my eyes without glasses. Bah.

The first year from Texas thinks it's icy and slippery out. At the time, there was maybe an inch. Ha ha!! This is Missouri. The icy is yet to come. Then he asked if I thought the scene shop would have scrap wood that he could put in his truck for for weight. It would take a lot of scrap wood to add up to the 50 pound sandbag he's going to want.

Donald stayed home because of the weather. Maybe we can get some wedding planning done. We have some caterer's websites to check out.

no subject

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x3/Trailer for X3 is out. looks good.

A good time was had by all Saturday. Robyn and Mike come over and we all ate food, and played games, and looked at x-mas lights.

Sunday Robyn and I went shopping. I didn't find much but she found some really good deals and a couple of presents. Then I went to see a play at school. It was long.

Yesterday I rejoined the school world. I'm glad that this is the last week before finals, becuase I'm so not interested in it all. Ugh.

Today I shall tidy up the house and try to stay warm.

they were anticipating finding the part

I checked out at 11, got picked up and went over to the theater. Then I walked around a bit and took a few more pictures. At noon, I was driven to the airport by a nice person who is also creeped out by the aforementioned Person of Some Importance. She's the company manager here, and at one point the Person asked (told?) her to make him some tea. Yeah. Anyhoo, go to the airport, did all the check in stuff, ate some lunch. We took off a few minutes late, got to Salt Lake City and then the waiting fun began. I was so ready to be home, and we were delayed for 2 hours, dammit. I finally got home and all is well!

and

Other than weird ass dreams, my last day was nice. The weather was great. I walked in the theater a bit early,dropped off my bag an walked downtown to get my sister a t-shirt. I did a bit of window shopping, and got an iced latte from a local coffee shop, Ike's. I think I may be in the one place Starbucks hasn't infiltrated... I don't think I saw a single one here!

I went back to the theater and met up with the electrics folks to do a bit of work. I printed some paperwork, updated some stuff, and printed some other paperwork.

The resident LD treated Don and I to dinner at a fancy-ish place. If I'd known we were going somewhere decent, I would have put my fleece on over my star wars t-shirt. yeah, I was a bit our of place. The food was tasty, and we had some wine which I actually liked. I wrote it down so that I may be able to enjoy it again in the future.

The last preview went well. There's just something really special about being in the audience during a curtain call where everyone is on their feet, cheering. They're just so many happy people, it's nice. I had a good experience here, and more than one person told me I did a good job and they appreciated that I was here.

I'm off to check out!

Dream 12? I've lost count

I had weird ass dreams last night. At one point, there was a baby bird that I was raising outside the apartment. It was going to be big, and it was kind of like a pet. If I wanted it to fly over to me, I would call kitty kitty, (because calling birdy birdy would be silly,) and it would fly over. I think there may have been a bunny as well.

Also, my dad was raking the sand in the garage. The concrete floor was only in the middle and about 2 1/2' around the edges of the garage were just sandy and pebbly like the grund around here.

After that my aunt and I were in the next door neighbor's yard and it was dusk, so kind of dark. (This whole thing happens facing east, towards my apartment) A woman came around a house across the street with a big huge gun and tried to get into a house. My aunt and I decided to call the cops, so she went off towards my apartment, and I ran over to this tiny house that was in the middle of the neighbors' yard. I was banging on the door, quietly somehow, to get somebody's attention. It turned out to be my uncle's ex Joe. He didn't open the door, but through the window indicated to me that he didn't have a phone. Meanwhile, gun woman and her accomplice had given up across the street and were heading my way up the driveway. Somehow I could see through the tiny house, and I was sidling around it so I'd stay on the other side from them and they wouldn't see me. I was thinking that I hope my aunt had gotten to a phone, since I didn't. At this point murderous people were heading towards my parents' house, crossing through the gate, and I was thinking that maybe I could get to my apartment. Just when they got to my parent's front door and I woke up.

Weirder that usual!

humor

Yesterday in a shop window I saw a T-shirt that said: "Would somebody please give this guy a blowjob" then there was a picture of Dubya, "so we can impeach him?" Yes yes.

The musical director likes to tell music jokes.

What do you say to a drummer in a 3 piece suit?
Will the defendant please rise?

What's the definition of perfect pitch?
When you chuck a banjo in a dumpster and it lands on an accordian.

Some can be adapted, like so:

What's the differnce between a Packard Bell and an onion?
Nobody cries when you cut up a Packard Bell.

What's the difference between a Colortran and a trampoline?
You usually take off your shoes to jump on a trampoline.

day 11

Last night after the preview Don and I went to a bar to hear some live music. One of the cast members had said he might go and join in on the bluegrass jam. Well, he didn't, but we enjoyed listening anyway. One guy in particular was really good, he played mandolin and guitar. If we get out at a decent time tomorrow night, we might go back over there for the blues jam.

Today there was a photo call, and I amused myself during it by playing rollercoaster tycoon. After that we walked to a newsstand store and I bought a magazine to read, since I've finished the one I brought. Then we stopped in at a music store just to look. This place was like Those Were The Days, only with musical instruments. There were hundreds of them lining the walls and stacked up and every possible accessory too. It was pretty cool, but dusty smelling. Then we went to Subway for dinner, and back to the theater.

I'm so looking forward to my own bed. Actually, it isn't even the bed so much as my pillow. The bed here is pretty comfy but the pillows suck.

Holy crap, tomorrow's December.

still full

This morning we did notes and then had rehearsal. That got done early, about 2:30. Don and I drove out to the desert to the Saguaro National Park and looked at the sights. It's pretty out there, just cactus after cactus. The saguaros get really huge. The don't grow one of those arms until they're already pretty old, so if you see one with a lot of arms you know it's very old. There are a lot more plants than I thought there would be in the desert. It's packed with them, all prickly and such. We saw a roadrunners and hawks. Let me just say, real rodrunners look nothing like cartoon roadrunners. :) I took some pictures, so they may make it up here eventually. I don't have a digital of my own, and I didn't borrow Robyn's, so I'm using a little disposable one. With film! The sun was SO bright out there. By the time we got back to town I was ready for a nap.

Don and I went to his friends house for dinner. They made roasted chicken and vegtables, salad, and cake. It was great to have a home cooked meal for a change. I'm so tired of eating out.

I am doing so much nothing. If I do end up going to Dallas, there's no way I'm staying until opening.

"day off"

We started our day off at the normal time of 10 am, and worked on the star drop. It was built for a different show, so it was too small. We added to it and spread it out. Those damn little sockets are a real pain to install.

The highlight of the day was our tour of the Fox Theater. It's an old theater that had been used for vaudeville and later movies. Right now it's being restored to a performance space. Two of the people working on it are friends of the LD's, so we got to go look at it today. It's in the middle of everything, and nothing is done. The electricity isn't hooked up yet, the linesets aren't installed, it's still being repainted. Basically, it's the nakedest theater I've seen. I always like touring theaters, and it was especially cool to see on in progress.

Then we had thai food for dinner which was very tasty. That is all!

also

Yesterday before dinner we went on a walk around a residential area. Vicky wanted to take pictures of some neat fences for references. I also took pictures of neat houses and yards. It's amazing that a house here can be green with rust colored trim and look very nice. In Kansas City, it would look like crap. I think the bright colors for houses here must work because the natural scenery doesn't have a lot of color. There used to be a house by Ward Parkway mall that was painted four different colors. Each row of siding was one color. That was pretty odd, looking back. Of course, as a kid I thought it was great but dad wouldn'd paint our house that way.

day 8

It got "cold" here today. Yesterday was very windy, and today its' about 10 degrees colder than it has been. It's still nice. Nothing much of intrest is happening. Right now is intermission of the second preview. Last night's audience gave a great big standing ovation, so we must be doing something right. Every day we continue to do small focus notes, change a few colors and that sort of thing. I mostly do nothing. By the end of tonight, I'll have read the entire Achewood archive.

A Person of Some Importance is here from KC. He came yesterday to the preview and is here tonight too. In talking to the LD and Set Designer, it seems that it's widely accepted that he is rather creepy, and looks at ladies' chests. Also, he's staying at the same hotel that we are, which amuses me because Don and Vicky think it's a dump. (I really have no complaints, despite the fact that there is a gum wrapper under my bed that's been there since before I checked in.)

The other night I dreamed that Donald and I moved into a tiny apartment and were trying to find somewhere to put all our stuff. There was a corner where we were going to stack boxes. In the bedroom the windowsill was letting a draft in.

Intermission's over, time for act 2.

Day 6

I finally did something where I felt actually useful. Yesterday, Don drew the light plot for the next theater this show is going to, in Phoenix. In many ways, the Phoenix plot is very similar to this one. We printed it out this morning, in pieces and taped them together since they don't have a plotter. I took the lightwright from here, and adapted it to match the plot for Phoenix. Mainly, I went position by position on the new plot, found the channel in LW, then changed the position, unit number, and sometimes instrument type. That took much of the morning. And was kind of fun. I found a few glitches between the two, asked Don about them, then updated the plot too. He uses a Vectorworks add on called Autoplot, which I imagine is kinda like Autoblock is for AutoCAD. Well, I don't have that so editing his plot is slow and I have to do everything manually. The other version of the plot is much easier to edit using Spotlight.

P.S. My pocket knife is hella gone. goddammit.

holiday

My first holiday out of town was pretty nice. In the morning we went to the grocery store to get food to take to the pot luck. On the way, we drove up a mountain nearby. The view was really great, we might go up again so we can take pictures sometime. When we got back to the hotel, I sat around and used my computer for a while. Then I took my book outside and sat on the porch outside the restaurant. I found some shade and some (plastic) wicker furniture to sit on to read. It was very quiet and relaxing. Also warm, about 75.

Dinner was at 4. The group was mostly actors, as well as the director and designers. There was a LOT of tasty food. Afterwards, they took some of the leftovers and made up plates to give to homeless people. There are a lot around here, because the weather is mild. We hung around for awhile, letting food settle.

It wasn't the same as being home with my family. (That includes you, Donald.) But it wasn't too bad either. I've been feeling a bit sad about it all week. It doesn't help that my aunts and grandparents were in KC when I wasn't. But I guess I should get used to it. Theatre takes you away from home a lot, even over holidays. But I won't like it. :P :)

so dry...

This climate does weird things to me. My nose is constantly either stuffy or runny.

In other news, I'm sort of getting my feet wet with Vectorworks. I can see why people say it's easy, now that I've dabbled a bit. It does some things a lot easier that AutoCAD does.

I'm glad to say that I won't spend thanksgiving in my hotel room eating peanut butter crackers. There will be a potluck thing. Yay. :)

P.S.

I am so bored. The designer keeps taking his own notes out of habit. Sigh.

4 more hours.

itsa Tuesday

During rehearsal yesterday I mostly updated Lightwright. All day long when I was doing absolutely nothing, I COULD have been doing it, but they didn't give me the stuff until right before we went to dinner. Thanks folks.

Today we came in at 9 to do some notes, and also sit around doing a fair amount of nothing. It is now 12:54, and we just started teching the opening of the show. That's about 54 minutes arter when I expected us to start,

Also, one of the actors is named Margaret, so my name is being called a lot, but it isn't for me. Rather distracting.

I think I lost my Gerber again. I remember using it a couple days ago, and now I don't know where it is. The stupid thing falls off my pocket. I'm annoyed enough that I may give up entirely on it. I don't want to keep getting a new one and losing it. I also left my leatherman on the bed this morning. I really really hope it's there when I get back tonight. It will certainly get moved in some way when housekeeping comes, I just hope it doesn't disappear. Hope hope.

Random theatre stuff:
- They bought S4 PARS for worklights. They use regular PAR 64's for shows. Technologically, this is pretty back-asswards. Also, financially silly since you can get many a worklight that costs less than a S4 PAR.

-They have an Obsession 2. The elip-scans are not, however, programmed as fixtures. To move the mirrors, they have recorded the individual channels into submasters. Or they just call up the channels individually. Very inefficient. At the least, you should be able to move them using the track pad.

Slow going

I bought me a hat today, to keep the sun off my brains. Still without sunglasses, but it's a LOT better.

Yesterday we finished about 7:30. Then Don and I ate at a nearby Mexican place. After that we went "home." I got in just in time to talk to Donald a bit and then watch Grey's Anatomy. I used my computer for awhile, watched some TV and went to bed.

We weren't coming in to the theater until 11:30 today, so I ate breakfast and struck out in search of sunglasses. I walked to the downtown area and eventually found a souvenir shop. I got a hat, becuase I didn't find any sunglasses. Then I went back to the hotel to pick up my stuff.

We came in to the theater, for no real reason it seems, since nothing is really happening. They're just working on stuff. I have volunteered to update the paperwork, but they seem to want to do it themselves. So I asked if I could do anything, and the ME had me cut some gel for a lightbox. I can't put it in yet though, since it needs to have the paint touched up first. Don told me earlier that I should feel free to go take a walk around downtown if I got bored, so I may do that. I'm a bit bugged by the leisurely pace we seem to be taking here. I'm used to having focus and lightover on the same day, and then tech the next. Well, focus was yesterday, lightover will be tonight but not until 6, and tech starts tomorrow. Time to rest is great, but I'm just sitting around a lot so far. I predict more sitting around too, since Don's already done this show several times.

day 2

Last night I fell asleep watching Harry potter 2 on tv. I was planning to read or do a puzzle, but it was not to be.

This morning, I went to check out the "complimentary full american breakfast." I ended up eating 4 tiny boxes of cereal. Take that, breakfast! On my way back to my room, I saw some sparrows taking baths in a leak from a garden hose. The hotel has a nice looking (heavily watered) lawn.

We got here at 9 but didn't start focusing until probably 10 or so. Now lunch break is just about over. We took lunch from 2-3:30, of al the weird times. We will probably be done focusing in another few hours. Everybody seems nice here.

Ha, ha Robyn!!

You are 'French'. In the nineteenth century, it
was the international language of diplomacy.
It is a 'beautiful' language, meaning that it
is really just a low-fidelity copy of Latin.

You know the importance of communicating
'diplomatically', which for you means both
being polite and friendly when necessary and
using sophisticated, vicious sarcasm when
appropriate. Your life is guided by either
existentialism or nihilism, depending on the
weather. You have a certain appreciation for
the finer things in life, which is a diplomatic
way of saying that you are a disgusting
hedonist. Your problem is that French has been
obsolete for a long time.


What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Tucson day 1

Started out early again. My flight was at 6am, and it was on time. The flight wasn't full so I was able to move and had 2 seats to myself. Took a nap, landed in Salt Lake City. The airport there was really different. Instead of exiting the plane into one of those tube dealies, there was just a stair unit rolled up to the plane, and I was actually outside. It was rather cold. I got a bagel and boarded my second plane.

The second part of the flight wasn't as empty, so I actually had to sit in my assigned seat. Uneventful flight, landed about 10:15, got my suitcase, and called Adam, who was picking me up. He's a nice guy, very friendly and chatty. We were picking someone else up too, so we drove around a bit and then picked up the sound designer. After that we went to the theater. It's a good size, and very southwestern looking. Naturally, everything here looks very different. It's desert, so there isn't grass everywhere, only where people planted and water it. Everywhere else is just kind of pebbly. There are great big cacti and smaller cacti and generally, a lot of weird looking plants.

After a short tour, we went to the hotel to try and check in, but they weren't ready yet. So, we drove somewhere for me to get some lunch, and then Adam dropped me off at the theater to eat while he went to pick up Don, the lighting designer. Then I got to take me a little break. I sat comfortably in the greenroom and ate my sandwich.

At 1 there was a runthrough to watch. Let me just say that Hank Williams music isn't that bad. The performers are really good. After the runthrough, Adam drove us to the hotel and we finally checked in. Then he drove us to a grocery store and we bought some stuff to eat. Don bought a whole lot of stuff, and I just bought a little. Mainly for lunches. Then we came back, and I unpacked. A little while later, Don and I went to the nearest restaurant for dinner, and now I'm back in my room.

It's a good sized room, even has a loveseat that folds out into a bed. Not that I need it, I've got a great big queen bed already. It has internet though! But it isn't wireless, so I had to get an ethernet cable from the front desk. It's a short cable too, so I have to sit at this desk instead of comfy in the bed. :P The theater also has wireless, so I'm all internetified. I'm not even stealing any of it!

why?

Why am I suddenly plagued with AIM spam? In the last week I've gotten several offers for sexy chats with locals who have apparantly checked out my profile and want to hook up. Wait, no, I don't want to look at your profile. No, I will not be clicking on that link. Of course, warning or blocking them won't do any good because it's friggin AIM. All of you using aim, just go and switch to yahoo. They have offline messaging! It even works sometimes! It even delivers my instant messages... most of the time. Oh well, it's free.

Leaving town in absurdly short time. I seem to be staying at a nice enough hotel. It will provide me with breakfast every day at least, and the website boasts free high speed internet. It'll be kind of nice to have a hotel room to myself. I greatly appreciated the couch in Brooklyn, but a bathroom with actual doors and no other people very nearby will be pleasant.

It's friggin cold

I can't believe it snowed yesterday. It was too warm to stick, but still damn cold, and windy, and generally craptacular. Donald stayed home to get stuff done and avoid nasty weather, which was a nice treat. It was like a mini-weekend, which we needed because I'm leaving before we have another weekend.

We worked on wedding announcement stuff some. I'm formulating an excel file with all the names and addresses to make labels, and it's also great for making a count. At this time, we have a grand total of 145 people, but a total of people that will probably actually show up of about 93. Donald has a lot of out of town relatives that we should apparently invite, but aren't likely to show. At least, I hope they don't. We have no possible way to fit 145 people.

We went downtown to pick up my ring again, and actually got it this time. We're calling it done. It looks very pretty. A picture will happen sometime. Then I got a re-haircut. It seems that if I want an actual haircut, I shouldn't go to the barbershop. I have to go to a place where they shampoo your hair and, well, actually know what they're doing. I've learned that the word for the way I wanted the back of my hair is "stacked." I feel bad for poor Donald waiting though, after the haircut she must have spent 20 minutes styling it. Which I will never do again.

Then we ran a few more errands, came home and did some laundry. In the midst of the laundry, we made a slightly bland but perfectly edible casserole. We also went to Muddy's for a bit and played scrabble again. I might actually win this game.

Today Jen is going to show me some stuff about Vectorworks. No more putting that off.

At least the sun is out today. I can always sit in a sunbeam and pretend I'm not cold. Seems to work well for the cat.

NYC pics 5

This picture begins my trip. Here I am, all comfy in my 3 entire seats. Nearly empty airplanes are the best!

Pretty tiles in the subway. It's a good thing they built the tunnels back when people cared about nice details. They're filthy now of course, but still! This is the stop where I got off the L in Brooklyn.

On my last day I went into a yarn store. This extremely expensive yarn was also extremely soft. I was strong though, and did not buy any overpriced New York yarn.

NYC pics 4

These are at the theater. It was quite small, as you can see. There isn't anything behind those curtains but wall. All the gear was rented, and installed before we got there.

I took this one from the back of the house.

And this one from the back of the stage area.

The ceiling was very high, and very useless with no hanging positions. The front of house stuff was all on those booms.

This is the stairwell up to the theater. The whole thing is inside a church, and there's some pretty architecture.

NYC pics 3

Here are a few pics of beautiful Brooklyn. *snicker* Sorry, I couldn't keep a straight face saying that. It was dead ugly, where I was. This first pic is the actual building I was staying in. Right behind that One Way sign was the front door, where you could push a buzzer for each apartment. They gave me a key so I didn't need to buzz after the first time.

This one is down the street a bit.

And the lovely subway station, which took me into much less ugly Manhattan every day. Hooray subway.

NYC pics 2

Here's the kitty, same one from Sacramento. She got to fly to NYC on a plane, drugged out of her tiny mind. She managed to get much bigger in the 6 months since I'd been there.

NYC pics, finally part 1

Here's the apartment I stayed in. That lovely couch was my bed, and surprisingly comfortable. On my "bed" is my unhelpful laptop. On the left is the mac I used to post that one time. :)

Here's the view from the other direction including bathroom and kitchenette. One big room. This apartment costs about twice as much as mine in KC, and it's way the hell out in Brooklyn. Oy.

bah.

Yet another ring derail. We went to pick it up again, AGAIN, and they still didn't have it right. There was a gap where one stone was set, and the guy who wrote down what to do didn't write it down clearly, so they didn't fix it. So Tuesday. Hopefully. Once I get the damn thing, I'll put a picture up. I should have taken a picture before I gave Robyn's camera back. Dammit, I want my friggin ring.

I need another word for minutiae

I didn't even turn on my laptop yesterday. I am so unmotivated. Instead I read a book, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, author of lots of Sandman goodness. It was pretty good, but rather short. I also made some dinner, and it was almost but not quite actual cooking. I made chicken and vegetables from the freezer and sweet potatoes that were fresh. So I did 1/3 Real Cooking. It was a decent dinner, but the mixed vegetables were mostly broccoli stems.

Donald got home, I fed him the dinner, we set the VCR to tape Alias and went for coffee. We played scrabble and had a nice time. Last time we played scrabble I could have made an excellent word combo, where I was going to put the word "unholy" parallel to another word and all the letters lined up would make little words. It was going to be great. But we both figured that "el" wasn't an acceptable word. Turns out that it is, dammit! That'll teach me to leave the scrabble dictionary at home. /boring Such is my life. :D

When we got back from Muddy's, Donald went to take a shower and I sat on the couch to read. Anna hopped up to sit on my lap. Then she stayed there for about 2 hours. By the time I got up my feet were cold and I had to pee, but I didn't want disturb the cuddly warm cat. Cat wins! We watched Alias and I read more, way too late but I wanted to finish the book. I finally got up, resisting the urge to fall asleep on the couch and went to bed.

daily minutiae

I've always wondered why the cat insists on sitting in front of the refrigerator door. I go to open the door, and I either have to push her with the door, or my foot. She won't move until you actually force her to. A minute ago, I was getting something out of the cabinet across from the fridge and I finally realized why she loves that spot. That's where the fridge vents heat. For some reason, it never occured to me before, and for some reason, I'm finding it pretty funny.

Other non exciting things have happened this week. We focused lights for the opera. I bought groceries. I got my glasses adjusted. That's about it. Today I should open up my laptop and work on learning Vectorworks, and getting familiar with Lightwright 4. Will I do it? Who knows! What I actually want to do at this moment is make raisin bran muffins, but I don't have any raisin bran.

what to do?

I hate being busy for so long, and then it just stops. I don't know what to do with myself. I have to be somewhere in an hour, and I don't know what to do until I leave in 45 minutes. I could read, but then I'd feel like I should be doing something else. I guess I'll just kill a few minutes posting about my inertia. 45 minutes isn't really long enough to get started on something.

Yesterday I read the 12th Lemony Snicket book. Those of you who have read such things know that isn't saying much, they're short and the print is big. There was a critique that took longer than it should, because Victor's meeting ran over. But I did enjoy holding a kitten, which Rocco kept trying to give me. I resisted the kitteny goodness, and came back home sans cat. Thne I read more, and waited for Donald to get home because he was working late. Then I fell asleep on the couch, and wasted most of the time he was home by sleeping. I woke up somehow at 11, used my computer a bit and finished the book. Why am I not doing something useful??

Only 5 minutes have gone by. I guess I could go eat something. I should, but I don't feel very hungry. I guess I'll eat anyway.

"Who the hell is Uncle Denny??"

Donald is on the phone with his sister. They're talking about the list of people on his side of the family. Apparently, Donald's grandpa has a lot of sisters. And somewhere there is an Uncle Denny. Donald is trying to convince his sister that if he doesn't know who they are, they probably won't care to come to his wedding. It's pretty damn funny from my end of the phone.

By the way, the date is May 14, 2006. Mark your calendars!

Cambodia review

Here's a link to a review of the show I worked on in NYC. As for my opinion, I'll put it this way: If I were doing the show here, I probably wouldn't try to get any of you to see it.

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/7029

My lighting in a magazine!

At the coffeehouse tonight, I was looking through a magazine when I came across an article on the Urban Culture Project. I turned the page, and there was a picture from Quixotic in June. How great is that! My name isn't on there, but it's still pretty damn cool. The shot looks decent too, it's amazing what you can design with 12 Source 4 Juniors. :-/

annoyed

Yesterday I found out that for assisting on Harry, Jen's getting paid more than I did to assist on Carter's Way. Goddammit. Putting up with the evil LD from hell for a week, and getting paid less for it. AND Jen will get twice as much as that to remount it in the spring. Life is not fair, but I will get over it.

I've been working on dance all week. When I'm not teching my own pieces, I've been at school working on other stuff. There would be no point going home when I'd have to go back a couple hours later to work on notes. Therefore, I've been getting home lateish, about 7. Then I eventually fall asleep on the couch, until Donald wakes me up. Why have I been so tired? Sitting around the 5th floor isn't really that tiring. I have a meeting today to talk about Lost Highway stuff, which is still all up in the air right now. It needs to get nailed down FAST.

back home

Friday: more tech, then Chinatown dinner at 11. Got home about 3am, went to bed.
Saturday: got up, packed, went in to theater and left my stuff so I could walk around a bit. Then retrieved my stuff, went to the airprt and came home.

My plane got in on time and in fact even a little early Saturday.

Then all day yesderday was dance hang and focus, which managed to take longer than I thought it should, as usual. I got home at about midnight. I was going to write some cues with the offline editor, but I was entirely too tired so I went to bed and got up early today instead.

I will fill in on NYC stuff as I have time this week.

a bit of wireless

I've managed to connect a bit today during breaks, so maybe it isn't the laptop messing up after all. That would be nice. Still don't have a lot of time at the moment, but here's a list for today.

Thursday: Got up, showered, went in, (:45 ride, finished a book on the subway) met Victor at 11:30 and ate a variety of dumplings for breakfast/lunch at Ollie's. Went to theater, kept working on cues, did stop- and- go run through. Went to dinner at 4:30 and now back at theater.

That's the summary. I'm drowsy, and full from dinner. I wish I had coffee. Tech isn't bad, but the seats aren't comfortable, and they're too far away from the board so I have to keep perching on the edge of my seat which makes my back hurt.

This sucks

I want to post here and tell you all about what's going on, but I can't get any fucking wireless. I can get connection and signal, but can't get any internet. It may or may not have something to do with "clearing DNS cache' according to Windows. I know there is wireless available, but I can't use it. I'm posting from a mac, fer pete's sake. (hee hee)

So I'll make a list, and elaborate later.

Tuesday 4am, got up. 5am, left for the airport. Got to airport, plane delayed an hour. Eventually took off, landed, waited for Victor. Got on a bus, (raining) took it to a subway, took subway to 34th st, went to theatre office. Left luggage, got lunch, watched run through. Left, took subway to 86th st, went to theater, focused lights, rode in taxi, went to eat japanese. Took subway to Brooklyn, (took about an hour) saw a rat. Got out (still raining) walked to Malinda's house, went to bed.

Wednesday. Got up, took shower, left for subway. No longer raining. Got off subway, 1 hr later, bought breakfast, went to theater. Nobody there, as I was half an hour early. (9am) Ate breakfast, walked around, got into theater, waited for Victor to show up. Wrote cues, somebody brought us sandwiches, teched more cues, went to dinner. More tech, got a snack, took subway "home." Failed again at gettng wireless, gave up and used Malinda's computer.

And here we are. This is really frustrating. If I ever get my goddamned laptop online, I can upload pictures (thanx to Robyn for camera loaner) and show you stuff.

In 5 hours..

...I'll be off to New York.

Today was long and hurried. I ran around and did a whole mess of errands. Now I get to rush off out of town, then rush around there. Well, at least I can sleep on the plane. I have earplugs, and a new neck pillow. Oddly enough, the fine print on the neck pillow tag says not to sleep on it. Too bad, I'm gonna anyway.

That is all, until I find some wireless.

Warm and chocolatey

Hot chocolate is delicious. Even if your marshmallows might be 2 years old. (They're still soft, so they're still good dammit.)

I can't wait until smoking is banned in Missouri bars too

Donald and I went out to shop yesterday, mainly to get a present for his nephew's birthday. We got him a cartridge for one of those educational-type game systems, since Donald's mom suggested it, and told us which one they'd already bought so we wouldn't end up with two of the same thing. Donald also wants to get him a some games for his old NES, which the nephew has been playing with. I told Donald not to buy too much stuff, not just because I'm cheap, but because a lot of people are buying presents for this kid. As he gets older, the presents decrease, and that's disappointing. So my advice is not to go overboard now. After all, last year we bought him a cartridge for a different educational-type game system, and it's probably collecting dust or something. Kids have short attantion spans, and this kid has more toys than I think I had in my entire life. He's turning 5, btw. Seriously, LOTS of toys.

Unfortunately there was also an Old Navy near, so we went over there and bought some clothes. We have given up. There can be no resistance to the low prices and cottony goodness that is Old Navy.

Robyn came over, then we all went to Lee's Summit and ate at IHop, then met Mike to play pool. We played several games, had a few drinks and had a generally good time, as well as some tasty queso. Mike's pretty good at pool, Donald and I are both kinda crappy, and Robyn learned last night. Therefore, we had pretty balanced teams. Then we played some darts, and that was fun too. The smoke wasn't too bad at first, but by the end of the night my eyes were stinging.

Today's plans include laundry, packing, and maybe getting a new battery for my cell phone.

Last night Robyn and Mike came over to join Donald and me in getting coffee. We started with eating Kin Lin, always good, and then moved over to have coffee. Luckily Pissy Coffee Woman wasn't there, so we didn't get any shit for being inside Muddy's with leftover Chinese food. A couple of years ago, PCW actually gave me the choice of throwing away my leftovers or leaving. Now that's customer service. Anyway, we enjoyed our coffee beverages, except for Robyn who had her usual hot chocolate. Then we came back home and played a game of Clue. I thought I was going to win, but I had one thing wrong and Mike beat me to it. Good fun.

Anna is warming my lap as usual. Sometimes she purrs so loud that she seems to choke a little and then has to gulp a few times. I think she might have some respiratory issues.

The microwave returneth

Sears was supposed to return the microwave to me last week. But they still didn't have the part. My dad went down to Front St, did some dad stuff, and they agreed to let me exchange the broken one and get a whole new one. This is why we have dads, so they can Get Shit Done. So my dad picked up the broken microwave and brought it back home. Yesterday I took the thing back to Metcalf, where a helpful guy named Gary got me a new one, no problem. Then I got not one but two new coats, from the JC Penney Outlet. Neither is the coat I really want, but having 2 new coats is about 200% better than having no coat at all. And my old coat is in terrible shape. So I paid about $55 for TWO coats, and I'll be warmer this winter than I was last year.

Right now I'm printing pictures for Robyn. I'm waiting for the printer to wake up and realize that there is something in its print queue. It's a very lovely printer, but damn slow.

picture

Here's one pic of Donald and me at Robyn's wedding. (click to enlarge) Check out my hair! It took some woman a brand new hole in the ozone layer to do that to my head. She sprayed hairspray all over my glasses too, but luckily Robyn had awesome jewelry cleaner that took it right off. My hair was one solid bouncy mass. It looked very pretty, but I'm thinking the hairspray woman could have used a bit less. More lovely pictures can be found on Robyn's wedding blog.

Air

If felt like spring this morning. I was walking to a light hang at about 9am, and the cool air and smell of the outdoors reminded me of camp. I had a great time at camp when I was younger. Hiking in the woods, doing crafts, challenge course. That stuff was so fun. Then again, I'm glossing over the heat, the bugs, and the crappy food; but let's not dwell on that. We also did weeked campouts in the spring and fall. More fun stuff: cooking over a fire, building a fire, sleeping in a sleeping bag. I haven't camped in a long time.

Dream 10

I might get my microwave back sometime soon. It seems like an awful long time to wait. All I can say is that it had damn well better work for the next 20 years with no problems. After all, that's why people buy stuff from Sears. It should never die. My parents have a Sears washing machine that my dad bought before he met my mom, and he bought it used. It still works. That's what I expect from Sears.

Sunday Donald and I went to Costco. I love going there in the middle of the day, because the people with the samples are out. I had a mini quiche, (kinda squishy) a taste of take-and-bake pot pie (not bad) and a ghiradelli brownie. (delicious) Of all the samples I've tried, I think I've only bought one thing because I tasted it. But I sure love samples. :D In the evening I went to a dance rehearsal, and when I got back we watched Grey's Anatomy. We're hooked on that damn show. It's pretty soapy, but quite entertaining.

Last night I dreamed that there was a big hole in the kitchen floor between my apartment and the one below. It wasn't my apartment here though, it was the apartment where I stayed in Sacramento, and the people I stayed with had already moved out. Part of my floor was gone, and the ceiling below had linoleum on the top side, just like a kitchen floor. Anna hopped down there, and wandered around between the floors. Then she fell through to the downstairs apartment. So I could now see through clearly to the other apartment, and I told the preson downstairs I'd come down to meet her and get my cat. The problem was that she'd go to the front door, but I'd be at the back; and then we'd switch. And that's all I remember.

Today was a light hang in Spencer. My arms are quite tired, but we got to leave a little before 5 so I have no complaints. I have another dance rehearsal to go to tonight, and hopefully there will be time to get some coffee too.

Tuesday and such

It's been awhile since I posted, but none of you can bitch. Everyday when I check the blogs, maybe one person has posted. Boring friends. :(

Since I last posted,
Tuesday evening we went to eat barbecue with the Rep designer. This time, due to some whining by students, we didn't go to Arthur Bryants. We went to Fiorella's Jack Stack, which is right around the corner from Union Station. Aside from costing way more than Bryant's, I didn't like their sauce as well. The spicy wasn't. It was an actual sit-down restaurant with a waitress and cloth napkins, so it has a totally different atmosphere from Bryant's, where you get your food and beverages in/on the finest of plastic. Or Perry Foster's (yum yum) where you get a styrofoam plate. If it's to-go, they put another stryofoam plate on top and saran wrap the whole thing. That's the kind of barbecue I like best. It's cheap, and unpretentious. And damned tasty!

A few people from out of town complain that they don't like Bryant's, and they do so in such a way that they make it seem that Kansas City barbecue is no good, and everybody else's is better. This rather pisses me off, since I'm FROM here, and I LIKE KC barbecue. If you don't, that's okay, but barbecue comes in many varieties all different, and all equally as good. It's just what you like. So quit bashing my barbecue. (I'm getting hungry...)

Thursday morning I was planning to see Man and Superman. But I got the week wrong, it had a performance the previous week. Whoops. Anyway, I was up at school good and early so I got some stuff done. I chased down choreographers to get rehearsal times and locations. Now my calendar is getting crazy. I think I'm doing 4 pieces now, 3 of which should be pretty simple. But oh, the rehearsals. I was going to see Pippin, but I forgot to go. I was watching Alias, when Robyn reminded me that I was supposed to be somewhere else. I felt pretty stupid, since I told several people that I'd be there, and I just completely forgot.

Friday I ran around and did some errands, and got to a dance rehearsal in the afternoon. They had less than a minute done, so I didn't stay long. In the evening I went to see Pippin. Sigh. The biggest problem is that the narrarator-ish character was played by a girl whose voice was the wrong register for the songs. So she was either singing too low or too high, and not very well either way. I'm pretty sure my high school production was better. Had better production values, without question. The only time the singing was really good was the few times when everybody was singing, and it all came together. Individually, they just weren't good. After, Donald and I went to get coffee. I just love sitting around at that coffeehouse, reading or using my laptop, surrounded by warm tasty coffee smells.

Yesterday we cleaned house, played video games, and went to dinner with both our sets of parents to Accurso's, to officially get it over with. We ate lots of tasty garlicky Italian food, and had a nice time. And now I'm caught up again!

NYC bidness

Yesterday Victor tells me that I need to find a place to stay when we go to New York. I can stay in the Bronx at Temishia's with her sister, or I can find something else. Well, I'm trying to find someplace else. Closer, ideally, and with people I actually know.

So last night I emailed Malinda, who I stayed with in Sacramento and had a very nice time. I also emailed Kristen from CMSU, who has recently moved to NYC. She lives on 43rd St. right by Times Square, which is very cool, but hasn't gotten back to me yet. Malinda wrote back already, and I can totally stay with her but she lives in Brooklyn. Through careful analysis of our subway map, I've concluded that Brooklyn is preferred to the Bronx, because Malinda is near a subway and I'd only have to switch trains once to get to the theater, which is at 86th St. near Central Park.

I'm feeling very proud of myself that I can look at a map and figure this stuff out. I'm really looking forward to going back there in May with Donald, and hopefully Robyn too. This year we want to stay a few days longer than last year. All the touristy stuff should be less crowded on weekdays. Well, a little less.

Whew.

It's been busy busy.

Friday Donald stayed home. We went and picked up his tux, did some errands, and waited until rehearsal dinner time. Dinner was very nice at Garozzo's, even though we were surrounded by people we don't know, grandparents and parents and such.

Saturday we started out by getting up as the crack of 6:45. We were on our way to Harrisonville by 8, and by 9:30 Robyn and I were waiting to get out hair and makeup done. That took until about noon, somehow, and a lot of hairspray. Wow, the hairspray. We went back to the apartnment, got a bite to eat, and got to Powell Gardens about 2. Then we got dressed and took pictures. At 4 we went over to the chapel to get set up there. The ceremony was at 5, very nice, and by 6 Jo and Robyn were all married up and were receptioning. A long and tiring day, but good overall. Everyone had a good time I think, and looked nice, and we got to meet some new people. I was asleep at 11.

Sunday it was universally decided that breakfast was required. Joe and Robyn joined me and Donald and we went to Chubby's on Broadway. It was cheap, and they have breakfast 24 hours. I'll be going bac, you can bet on that. Later we all drove to Independence to return the tuxes. We shopped and window shopped, and hung around in Barnes and Noble until 5:20. Then we saw Serenity again. :)

Amd that's that! Monday I had to go back to the normal stuff. Now that the wedding's over, I have to jump into doing a million other things. Bah.

More quiz

FiREFLY QUIZ
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Simon, the Doctor. Simon Tam, a former well-to-do young surgeon and bachelor extraordinaire. You gave up everything to help your sister, which I respect. However, you are also pompous and talk too much, which I also respect.

New accessory

I got a new mousie today:

I got the blue one, of course. Is pretty.

The cord wore out on my old laptop mouse, and it was really too small anyway. Thank you newegg, for making it that I don't have to leave the house and go to a store to get new stuff.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=8142

Etc, and Dream 9

The coed bachelorette party went well on Saturday. We did some useful stuff and had a good time to boot. It was fun to see Kristin and Jim and Chrissy, who I don't get to see very often. So thanks Jim and Kristin, for making the long drives; and thanks to Chrissy for making the shorter drive. But to hell with Mike, I don't care about him now that he lives close. [/kidding]

Saturday night I dreamed that we were going out to dinner at a fairly formal restaurant, but we weren't dressed up. We were sitting in the waiting area, waiting to be seated. There was a tall counter with a wine glass full of big, red raspberries; the same way that there would be a bowl of candy or mints. Kristin dumped the raspberries out, and in the spirit of "oops, these raspberries spilled, I guess someone will have to eat them," ate them.

Sunday I went to hang lights at Union Station for Harry. It was long and dull and slow but it eventually got done. Monday I did all the normal stuff, and went to help finish hanging Harry for a few hours. Today was focus, which went a bit slow, but got done in good time. I like working at the Rep, but it isn't as much fun as it used to be. Damn you, Kevin. The new guy gets on my nerves. He isn't a bad guy, but he keeps telling us to do things different ways, which don't really make anything better. He's the new one here after all, I don't need him to tell me how to do stuff. I don't know everything by a long shot, but I'm not interested in taking orders from the new guy. I take orders from the boss guy. Even though I'm just acting as an overhire, I think I'm at least equal to the new guy, having worked for SMJ for 3 full years already.

Stuff to do this week:
Work on/ finish Robyn's photo
Finish my folk's anniversary present (Their 27th was last Friday)
Try on whole bridesmaid outfit at once
Clean silver hinge backs, change earrings

Big Damn Movie

I have to say that's the only time I've ever seen a movie twice in one day. We went at 4:10, but Robyn' didn't make it up here in time, so Donald and I went again with her at 10.

Sigh. So very good, but with sadness at the end.

Well, when to see again?

hee hee

i am stuck at margaret and donald's house... and margaret has left her computer open to random blogging!!! ha ha ha

~ Robyn

Dreams 7 and 8

I dreamed that I was working in the shop painting, and the crew was assembling a huge piece of scenery. The scene shop was big and empty like a warehouse, but brightly lit. The scenic unit was about 30' long, with at least one level, so all the guys were working. They were fastening an electics batten to it, and had hung lights too. SMJ was asking if they had though of putting on the right caps and accessories, in a annoyed voice which made it very clear that they had NOT done so. So the impression was theat they plowed ahead and did something without letting him prepare on his side. Bill, as usual, didn't really care.

In my other dream, Kevin and Denise had left a bunch of junk behind which was intended to be thrown out. I was sorting through it to see if there was anything to keep. There were a bunch of My Little Ponies and things, so I was picking them out with the intention to sell them on ebay if I didn't want to keep them. All the while, I had the impression that I should hurry, because I should gt back to work painting.

Now for the waking world:
Yesterday I was supposed to have a meeting and a class. Two phone calls in the morning, and they were both cancelled. So I went along to Target with my mom, and ended up getting a new scarf and 2 new hats. They are knitted, so I feel a bit silly buying something that I could concievably figure out how to make. But they were so nice that I got 'em anyway. That brings my scarf count to 5 or so, and my hat count to 3. How can you have too many hats and scarves? They keep important things warm.
In the afternoon I tidied the house and worked on Robyn's photo. In the evening I watched Alias, and then Donald and I took our laptops to the coffeehouse, where I downloaded about 20 scenarios for rollercoaster tycoon.

Today I have a meeting, and in the afternoon, the Big Damn Movie. Finally!!

Jewelry

Yesterday Robyn and Jane (Robyn's mom) and I went jewelry shopping. We found many pretty things. This is the jewelry we picked out for me. (Click to see larger) The dark silver matches my outfit nicely. It looks black in the picture, but it's actually a pewter color. We couldn't decide which earrings so we got both. But as I was trying them on last night, I discovered that I don't need to pick, I can wear both. The dangly ones first, and the other ones second. My ears are pierced twice, after all. I'll just wear a stud in the remaining hole in my left ear. I tried to take a picture of my ears but it didn't work well.

Robyn has 2 different options for necklaces, both very pretty. One is the same as mine but in a whiter silver, with tiny pale blue stones. The other is bright silver, with a different flower that will look great with her dress. So hard to pick!

In non wedding news, was there a natural disaster this morning? I thought it was just rain but the radio informed me that there were about 50 car accidents. Have you people never seen rain before??? Every time it rains, this happens. What the hell.

more questions

I swiped these from Tom

What is your occupation?—student. But theatrical lighting designer/technician to be specific.

2. What are you listening to right now?—Buy a Dog, Luce

3. What was the last thing you ate?—Bo Lings’ tasty Chinese

4. Do you wish on stars?—Nah, I usually try to pick out a constellation though

5. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? – my favorite Prismacolor pencil is Copenhagen Blue

6. How is the weather right now? –terrific! It’s cool and not humid!

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone?—Donald. Before that, Robyn

8. What was the best day of your life so far?—I don’t know

9. Favorite drink?—Strongbow. And the elusive Sunkist Sparkling Lemonade

10. Favorite sport to watch? –Gymnastics. I actually enjoyd watching a lot of the last summer Olympics.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? –who hasn’t? last time I dyed it the wackiest color of all- brown. I got tired of trying to maintain blond streaks.

12. Do you wear contacts?-- No, but I’ve tried. They aren’t comfortable.

13. Pets?—One Anna Banana Prettykitty Puddin’pop Spare

14. Favorite month?-- That’s tough. I don’t’ know

15. Favorite food? So many! One is Pie. Okay, strawberry or cherry pie. Not that crappy cherry from a can pie, either. The kind with real sour cherries.

16. What was the last movie you watched? – May have been Sin City

17. Favorite day of the year?—a holiday when I spend time with my family and eat stuff.

18. What do you do to vent anger?—yelling works, as long as the people in the offending car can’t hear me.

19. What was your favorite toy as a child?—Legos, Barbie and My Little Ponies

20. Fall or Spring?--Fall.

21. Hugs or kisses?--hugs

22. Cherry or Blueberry?-- Cherry

23. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?—If they want, but I didn’t email it so whatever!

26. Living arrangements—apartment with Donald near campus

27. When was the last time you cried?—when I bit my tongue really hard

28. What is on the floor of your closet?—laundry baskets, a space heater, old shoes, a suitcase

29. Who is the friend you have had the longest?—I rarely talk to anybody from high school or before

30 What did you do last night?—Watched TV, read comic books

31. Favorite smell?-- cloves

32. What/Who inspires you?—random stuff when I’m reading usually

33. What are you afraid of?-- not having enough money to eat

34. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?-- cheese, but it must have onions and mayo and ketchup to be really good

35. Favorite car?-- Reality car- Toyota corolla. Fantasy car, Prius, Mini Cooper

36. Favorite dog breed?—cat.

37. Number of keys on your key ring?-- Five, but I can probably take one of them off. I keep my theater keys on a separate keyring.

38. How many years at your current job?-- As grad student, 2. As theatre person, almost 15

39. Favorite day of the week?--Saturday

40. How many states have you lived in?—just the one.

A survey

I swiped this from Sam, and deleted some stupid or boring questions. Not to worry, I left many stupid and boring question for your amusement.

Here there be useless information, yarr!

What is your name? - Margaret

Do you drink? – not very much

Do you cuss? – more than I ought to

Do you use drugs? – only the legal ones

Have you ever or will you ever steal? – Oddly worded question, that. Yes?

Are you dependable and/or trustworthy? – I’d like to think so

Do you play in a band or play an instrument? – nope, not since middle school

Do you have any tattoos and/or piercings? –just the usual ears, 5 total

Do you suffer from depression disorder? –not really

If you had a choice about how you wanted to die what would it be? –something fast and painless

What subculture do you belong too? –nerd. :D

Are you evil? –mwah ha ha… well, no

Do you believe that you can be possesed? Um, no

Are you a paranoid person? –not at all actually

Do you ever get jealous of somebody else? –all the time, but it’s only small stuff

Are you obsessive and/or compulsive? –a bit at times

Are you a violent person?—no, I guess not

Do you take your anger out on other people? –I try not to

Do you blame other people for your mistakes? –only it it’s their fault

What is your favorite game? --Cranium

What is your favorite movie? –Garden State, at present

Who is your favorite band? --Hmm, Pink Floyd

What is your favorite song? –at this time, Buy A Dog by Luce

What kind of books and/or magazines do you read? I read fantasy and some science fiction. I read Time, Entertainment Weekly, and Wizard

What is your favorite color? --blue, but lately I’m very into purple

What is your favorite food? –this question is too narrow, it should be broken into categories such as dessert, entrée, etc. I just love food in general, dammit.

What is your favorite drink? –strongbow, mmm…

Do you own a pair of converse? I own 3, I think, but they don’t fit any more. 

Do you own a pair of dickies? –No, but I have 3 dickie’s purses

Would you ever kill yourself or someone else? –There’d have to be a good reason, like if we were going to die of radiation anyway or something like that

Are you a virgin? --nope

Are you kinky? –not really, only mildly at best

Do you like biting? –I like to bite a bit

Do you masturbate? –not much

Do you watch pornography? –not compulsively

Have you ever dyed your hair an unusual color? –not lately. In the past, blue and green

Have you ever shaved your head in a socially unacceptable way? –no way

Are you hyper active person? –no, I’m rather the opposite

Are you religious? –hell no

Do you have any self inflicted scars? –yes, but it was an accident. When they tell you not to cut towards yourself with an x-acto knife, they’re right!

Does pain turn you on? --no

Do you stand for originality and creativity? —usually I sit, but yes

Do you like meeting new people? –sometimes.

What do you like most about life? –food. Er, videogames. Er, Donald. Lots of things.

What do you dislike most about life? --cleaning

Do you believe in love at first fright? –who wrote this stupid question? It thinks it’s clever

Have you ever pierced a body part yourself? –oh no.

Have you ever had to beg for dinner money? --nope

Have you been to jail, yet? – again, no

Are your clothes held together with safety pins? – they are not

Do you have actual scars from punk rock shows? – first, one would have to attend a punk rock show

Do you own more than two pair of jeans? -- Who doesn’t? Jeans are the perfect pants

Have you ever had to fuck stuff up for no good reason? –Does strike count?

Does the world piss you off? –usually, yes.

Today was one of those days when I wasted too much time and felt bad about it. I didn't do anything useful, except a bit of vaccuuming. And strike for Killer Joe, but that's different. Oh well! I should just enjoy the time while I have it, I know damn well I'll be busy soon enough. Strike went very quickly, since pretty much all we had to do was gather up our stuff and strike the practicals. A short strike is rare, and I sure appreciated it.

Yesterday evening Donald and I saw The Importance Of Being Earnest in 116. It was pretty good, the performances were mostly enjoyable. It was done essentially in the round, which I don't think was the best way it could have been done, but it wasn't awful. The costumes were great as usual. At least the costume students here won't have to worry about whether or not they got a good education. The lighting was... adequate. The angles were too steep, causing shadows under the eyes as well as The Hat. Had I been designer, I may have been driven insane by The Hat. Then again, it might not have bothered me as much since I would have hung the lights farther away to get a shallower angle. It's tough to light in the round. If you do a decent section, or just stand in the space and look around, you can see very clearly what the angles will be.

I did do one useful thing today. I patched the knee holes in my paint jeans. I have this miraculous stuff called Stitch Witchery that is like iron-on glue. It comes in a roll that is 3/4" wide, and you just cut off however much you need. here's a picture It comes in other forms, but this is the one I have. You put it between two layers of fabric, and iron it on with steam for about 10 seconds. So easy!! This way, I can use whatever fabric I want for a patch, and there are no seams to rub and annoy me. I love an easy solution. And it's safe to launder and dry clean it.

The Scenic Route

Or, Why Mapquest (edit; correction: Google Maps) Really Isn't That Useful

Mapquest doesn't know when a street is closed. Donald and I went to the Sears Repair Center on Front St. to turn in our microwave. We thought we'd go a non-highway way, because the highway directions seemed convoluted. Well, the street we intended to take was closed for construction. (The devil you say, there's no construction in Kansas City!1!!) So we drove around the historic northeast area for about 20 minutes, enjoying the scenic and very windy Cliff Drive and driving past the Kansas City Museum, twice, until we gave up and got out a map. Once we'd determined that there was no friggin' way to get there without getting on 35, we went back the way we'd already been. We got on 35 and took it to Front St, where we successfuly avoided the piles of old tires lying in wait on the side of the road and arrived at Sears. They took our microwave, and told us it would be ready the 3rd of October.

Whaat?? It takes 2 weeks for Sears to pony up a functioning microwave?? Any other store would just take it back and give you another one. We got home quickly, taking 35 to 71 south. And so ends the tale of the Microwave and the Closed Street in Historic Northeast Kansas City.

Bridesmaid top has arrived, and it looks very nice. It isn't quite that dark in reality. Overhead lighting causes shadows. I like the beads a lot. Nothing much else going on. I've been painting when I can, so I'll have a nice paycheck. Maybe Donald and I will get coffee tonight.

Woohoo!

I'm going to New York to assist Victor for a week at the end of October. W00t!

I swear by my pretty floral bonnet

More Serenity clips!

http://serenitymovie.com/nonflash_site/video.html

Only 10 more days...

Robyn and I went shopping again, and decided on a bridesmaid outfit for me. (Don't bother clicking on it, it's a small pic) We had to order both pieces (they are separate) from different locations because they didn't have the right size where we were. They also don't usually sell you the ones they have, you're supposed to order them 8 WEEKS early. Well, as you know we don't have 8 weeks. So they kindly sold me the ones in the stores. The top is coming from Illinois and should be here in about a week. The skirt is up by Barry Road and Robyn will pick it up on Sunday.

So that's one more wedding thing Robyn can check off her list. In other news, I'm still painting for dollars when I have the time. The show doesn't open until next Wednesday, so I'm likely to have work all week. Yay, dollars! I really enjoy just going in, somebody tells me what to do, and I do it. It's nice not to have to think. And then it's nice to come home, eat, and hang around watching TV or playing video games. I guess that's kind of how a normal job works. I'll try not to get used to it.

Update: can't get a new microwave today, it has to go to a Service Center, and they aren't open on Sundays. Dammit.

But I didn't focus anything

Yesterday was one of those hurry up and wait days. It was a Rep focus, so we're all required to be there. Problem was that there wasn't anything for all of us to do. I literally didn't touch a single light all day. I was on genie-moving duty. And I moved and respiked 2 electrics. So it sucks that I was there until 6, doing nothing, but I did read my book some which was nice.

I'm reading a novel from the library, and enjoying it greatly. I'm enjoying the reading more than the actual book, but that's okay. I'm determined to read more, dammit. Jim suggested short stories, which I'll have to look into. Finding books is a pain sometimes.

Our new microwave crapped out, so we have to go to Sears today and exchange it. I hope. It's a Kenmore from Sears, so it should have worked for the next 20 years. My parents have one that's at least 15 years old. Anyway, it's been a month and a half tops since we bought it. While in the area I can head to Jones and check out their dress selection. One of the dresses I tried on at Dillards was really nice, but the wrong color. So I want to try to find it in the right color, and in my searching I found another by the same brand that I like even more. Now I just have to try and find it in a store. I don't want to buy a dress online, unless I'm 100% sure that it will fit and not have some huge defect or something. Additionally, I didn't find the damn thing anywhere onlin to buy in the right size. So here's hoping to find the right dress. So I can take it to a tailor to be shortened.

Shopping is hard

Robyn and I went dress shopping tonight. I probably tried on about 20 dresses. We have a maybe on one, but no sure thing. We both bought some shoes. I bought black and silver, so I can just return one pair once I have a dress. Tired now, work tomorrow.

Wednesday in class, Felicia said that how you use language dictates how you think. That's an interesting thing to think about. My use of language is very informal, and I swear too much. Lately, I think my mind isn't as sharp as it used to be 5 years ago. I'm pretty sure that one reason is I don't read as much as I used to. I used to read at least one book a week. College doesn't allow me enough time to do that any more. Not that I used to read philosophy textbooks (ugh) but I read all the time. These days, most of my reading is done while I eat breakfast. Mostly, I don't even want to start a book because then I'll get into it and want to keep reading it but I probably don't have time. I'm reading magazines, because the articles are short. I need to find more time to read!

Somebody in the scene shop today suggested that theatre will always take care of you. He meant in terms of employment, or getting by, or whatever. I wonder if it will. Employment is something I worry about. I don't want to be constantly searching for jobs. So theatre, go ahead and take care of me.

I feel like I should talk to people, but then I don't. I worked in the scene shop again today, surrounded by people and noise. But they aren't MY people. I'm like a visitor in there. I show up and work every now and then. People are friendly, and they kind of know me since I've been around for about 3 years, but they aren't really friends. Two of the scene design students were talking, and I know both of them and am pretty friendly with them. At first I thought I should go talk to them, but then I thought, what's the point? They're certainly talking about something I wasn't there for, and I'm not a part of. So why bother? That right there is a huge flaw in the department. There is no community. At CMSU, we had a greenroom where we would hang around between classes and eat lunch. We got to know each other and be friends there. At UMKC I don't even remember the names of the first year students, and why would I? I never see them. About 95% of theatre is networking, and UMKC's whole dynamic works against it. It's a real flaw in the program.

In other news, I realized this week that I got royally screwed. I was planning to assist on "Give 'em Hell, Harry", which is an MRT show. It's a Rep show at Union Station, which means it's a good responsibility, and I might have been paid. I had to give it up because it overlapped with "Pippin," which I was to be designing for the conservatory. I would have gotten paid for that too, but it still would be a crappy job. Just to compare, "Pippin" is like the generic vanilla sandwich cookie, and "Harry" is more like a chocolate torte. You get my point. Anyway, Harry runs this fall, and then closes and reopens for a few weeks in the spring.

Then Robyn's wedding came along, and I realized that it's the same time as "Pippin," which I didn't want to do anyway. So as I'm trying to get out of Pippin so I can participate fully in the wedding, I find out that Jen is going to assist on Harry. AND not only did she get MY job, but the designer can't come back in the spring so SHE will get to remount the show. GODDAMMIT!! She will get paid again to do that, and will (sort of but not really, let's just say almost) be designing a Rep show. To reiterate, If Pippin is working at McDonald's, Harry is managing a restaurant on the Plaza. Fuck me.

So in the end, it's good thing that I'm not doing anything during Robyn's wedding, so I won't be distracted. But I got screwed out of a real job that would have been good for my career at the Rep. I could have done both, if it weren't for that stupid damned PIPPIN. Argghh!!

I wonder how the show went last night? Thursday night's preview had gun issues. The gun gets thrown on the couch during a fight, and another actor has to retrieve it and use it. Well, she couldn't find it, so she ran offstage to get the other gun, which wasn't loaded, so she gave up on that one and went back to looking for the first gun. She finally found it, and it went fine from there. Friday night had another gun problem, it jammed. Props! Glad they aren't my responsibility.

Friday I went to work in the scene shop. I spent the day putting plaster bandages over cracks in the set or sanding styrofoam, a messy and annoying job. Yesterday we had a light hang for a student show. It went quite well until the end of the day when we had a snag, and wasted an hour fixing it. We were dropping color (putting gels in the lights) at 7 when we decided to quit, and drop the rest of the color on friday at focus. I went home pretty tired, and Donald and I watched a couple movies witht he projector he's "field testing" from work.

Today I could have gon to the scene shop, but I didn't. I wanted my day off.