Less than 12 hours

Today I went in to paint at 9. At 11:30, we ran out of stuff to work on. Okay. So I got Donald to pick me up (he took the day off) and we went to Kinko's to print a lovely laser print of my resume to go on its merry way to Chicago in tomorrow's mail. We also went to B&N to get some reading material for the trip. I got Kafka's The Trial (Which I will be light designing next year,) Donald got Gaiman's Good Omens and I got a book of puzzles. We're all set for in-flight entertainment.

Then we went home to pack, play Kotor and nap. Another exciting day in the life of Donald and Margaret. we'd make a really boring zoo exhibit. And we walked to the coffeehouse tonight. This time, I got an iced caramel latte, to which both baristas replied, "whaaat?" Smartassey baristas. :) I've gotten too used to the irish cream latte, I need to mix it up sometimes!

Our plane leaves at 10am tomorrow. If the hotel has a computer, I'll post from the east coast. (Ooh, a rhyme) Otherwise, see youse guys in 4 days!

In a burst of productivity, I ran errands today and Got Shit Done. Sort of. First I went to the library, then to Osco. They didn't have the envelopes I wanted so I went to the Post Office, where I learned that one CD, one 6x9 envelope, and 4 sheets of paper will cost me $.83 to mail. Then I went to Office Depot to get 6x9 envelopes, ans successfully resisted buying other Crap I Don't Need. Then I went to the Utrecht art supply store.
I was planning to put three regular stamps on the envelope, but my mom (naturally) had a small collection of random old stamps that she got somewhere because she thought Lucy might like to have a stamp collection. Lucy did not, so now there are random stamps, which are actually pretty cool. So I have two .37 stamps, one .04 "Seattle World's Fair 1962" stamp, and one .05 "food for peace" stamp. My envelope is now very pretty, actually.

Tonight Donald and I walked to Subway for dinner, then back to play cards with my grandparents. That made the grandparents very happy.

Tomorrow: go paint in the shop for a bit, and pack for the trip.

Messages from my past

Doing more cleaning in my old bedroom, I came across a journal from my second grade class. After several typical entries we come across:

"Weds. Sept. 14, 1988

Today I learned that my mom can hollor real loud. She was trying to get my little sister to lick the muffin batter of her finger, but Lucy bit my moms finger instead. It was funny."

Ah- hah haaa haaaa!!!! Whew...

---From September 20 I learned that I was watching the Olympics (olimpics in 8-year-old spelling) when Greg Lougainis hit his head on the diving board.

--Another thing I had forgotten. The bus driver used to leave me behind, and my dad would chase the bus (in his car) and get me on anyway. That bus driver seemed to hate me for some reason, and would leave me if I wasn't On. The. Corner. She'd see me coming, but leave anyway.

--For Halloween I got 42 packages of candy, containing 65 pieces of candy. Oh yeah, I counted my candy. I used to sort out the M&Ms by color before I ate them too. That haul included: 6 suckers, 9 Tootsie Rolls, 4 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, and 5 bubble gum "things." Good to know.

--I saw A Christmas Carol December 1st at the Rep that year, and I'd already been once before. In 2nd grade, I was unable to spell "permishn slip." The part I liked most was when Jacob Marley "came up out of the floor" even though I knew it was a trap door.

--My taste in desserts hasn't changed much. I listed my favorites as strawberry pie, rainbow sherbert, mint chocolate chip ice cream, apple crisp, baked apples, cherry pie and pink bubblegum ice cream. And for birthdays, angel food cake.

And that's the news from the past. :)

Finished hanging lights yesterday. That took until 2ish, then I went home and had a snack and read a bit. I made frozen lasagnas for dinner. Stouffers makes a very decent one, but it takes about an hour in the oven. That's okay, it takes that much time for Donald to get home. We watched a Firefly while we ate, War Stories to be precise. Then I went across the street to play cards with my grandparents and get a few opinions on the cover letter. My dad asked if I ever got an electronic portfolio made, and I said no. But then it occured to me that I could just plop some pictures on a CD and send that. So I did that when I got home.

For the portfolio pictures CD, I resized them so whoever opens them won't have to zoom out a lot. I wrote a cover letter and printed a resume. Today I'm going to go buy envelopes big enough for the cd, and then I'll mail it. I'm sending this stuff to the Lookingglass Theatre Company. http://www.lookingglasstheatre.org/index.html THey are the people responsible for the very cool production of Metamorphoses last year at the Rep. Maybe I can do a residency there.

Another day, another directly-deposited dollar

Sunday went as planned, and boy was it nice. Lots of relaxing. I got the Lemony Snicket book, and then I read it. Damn you, short book!

Today I worked, hanging lights all day. Tomorrow I will hang more lights. Soon, we'll have to pack, since we leave for New York in essentially 3 days. Wow. We are going on a trip! Come to think of it, this is the first real trip Donald and I have gone on together. Hm.

I really need to find a residency. But it's very much like trying to find a job, and I HATE trying to find jobs. I hate asking people to hire me. I have motivational issues. Specifically that I have no motivation. Ever. People say that to be a successful freelance LD, you have to really want to do it, and have DRIVE and be persistent... and I just don't. I don't even know if I want to do this all my life. All the time, I think to myself, do I want to do this for the rest of my life? Right now, I just want to take it slow and see where it ends up. I'd like to assist for a while, because the one thing I'm 100% sure about is that I'm not ready to go out and design professionally on my own. I just want a steady job where I don't have to look for another job all the time. This stupid school has worn just about all the desire to do theatre out of me. I just want to, take a break. Summer kind of is a break. But the whole time, I feel like such a loser for not having a job.

Episode 3, at least it's over now

Saturday we slept in kinda. Once we eventually hauled ourselves out of bed, Donald did the dishes and I tidied up, so the apartment is clean again. Then we goofed around and played video games until people showed up for the 4:30 movie.

It wasn't AWFUL. It just wasn't any good, really. For so many reasons. I don't even feel like complaining about it. Sigh.

But a good time was had by all, it was nice to see friends. Then we went to dinner at a nice Chinese place. (Don't some of you forget you owe Donald $20.) (Not you, Jim,) It was a bit expensive, but we got appetizers and had leftovers. We had fun with chopsticks. Then we went back home, and played some good old monkeyball. When everybody left, I slept on the couch for a couple hours and Donald played Kotor. Then he woke me up around midnight, and I went to bed. Why was I so damn tired yesterday?

Today's plans include: Going to the grocery store, Doing some laundry, and Picking up another Lemony Snicket book at the library.

Ah, Friday

Friday, the day when people go home from work early. At least they seem to in the scene shop. I left a bit early too, but that was because I had to go to a dance showing at 4:30. It was at 105th and the Ass End of Nowhere, and I had to drive throught the friggin' TRIANGLE (of doom) at rush hour. I hates Grandview, and I hates 71 Highway.

OMFG. These dance people are freaks. What kind of freaks, you may ask? The worst kind: Jesus freaks. Seriously. When I got there they were praying before rehearsal. Okay, whatever. Later in the rehearsal, one girl slipped and fell, and had a little freak-out, as dancers do. The difference here is that then the whole group started going on about how they were being attacked, because the devil doesn't want them to praise or whatever. (By the way, the whole dance thing is bible themed. UGH.) Then, at the suggestion of one of the girls, to get their spirits up, they held hands in a circle and yelled "jesus" three times loudly. Then they did it again. Meanwhile, I'm frantically digging in my backpack for gum or mints or ANYTHING to avoid this freakshow. It's unreal that these people even exist...

Other than that their dancing was pretty good, and I would have liked most of the music if all the words weren't about JESUS.

Needless to say, Donald and I sacrificed an extra goat tonight, to cancel out all the piousness that may have stuck to my clothes or something. Maybe I should burn those clothes in an unholy ceremony?

Snickety cleverness

I like these books. They are full of cleverness. For instance, when Sunny says "Arrete!" when they are talking about the "stops" in telegrams. I finished the 7th one this afternoon, so I went to the library to grab more, but they didn't have any after the 8th that weren't checked out. But I know Robyn will hook me up Saturday. :)

Today I painted in the cave again. Boring, and tiring. That caves are kinda neat. When you drive in, it really looks like a video game. I expected some monsters to pop up for the shooting. But they didn't, which is a good thing as I had no gun and can't aim anyway. The whole place is pretty weird looking. There are huge carved out limestone pillars, and cinderblock walls dividing up the individual spaces. Therefore, the place is very maze-like, and the rooms are really strange shapes. Oddly enough being underground, it's warmer down there than I expected. And extremely quiet. I was planning to listen to my iPod, but the battery had run down. I think it might just be on its last legs.

I turned on the air conditioning before I left this morning, so it was nice and cool when I got home. (You're welcome, Donald) I took a shower, finished a book, and went to the library. When I got back, my grandparents wanted to play some cards. We waited for dad to come in from shooting squirrels. Squirrels are my fathers' mortal enemy after all, they EAT his home grown produce. (Those bastards!) So when he sees 'em in his cherry tree, he gets out his pellet gun and puts an end to their furry rodenty existence. Mind you, we live in the middle of the city here. You can take the man off the farm, but you know what they say. I wonder if shooting tree dwelling rodents with air powered weapons is actually illegal in the city? I hope I never find out.

Then I came home and ate some dinner and read a bit more. Then Donald and I went to get coffee and I read the Pitch. Ah, coffee, yum yum.

Tomorrow I shall paint again. Hooray paycheck! I love paychecks.

Painting is hard work

I spent all day working on painting a backdrop. My knees hurt. Tomorrow, I will take kneepads. Then, I watched TV for 3 hours. That's pretty much my whole day. Ugh.

Yeah, but she's our witch

So cut 'er down!

Ah, Firefly. Your movie will rawk.

Baking can be good

Yesterday's scone experiment was a success. Everyone agreed that they were tasty. My one problem is that the recipe only made 6. Now that I know it's a good recipe, I'll make more than that. I baked across the street because my mom is well equipped for cooking, having such handy things as utensils and ingredients. She said I can cook there, as long as she gets to eat some. And I'm guessing that it didn't hurt that I washed up afterwards either. I wish I had a scone now. Hungry. :(

Sometimes inertia leads to progress

Apparently, if I sit on my ass and don't try very hard to find theatre work, some will fall out of the sky and hit me on the head.

If I wasn't going out of town for Memorial Day weekend, I'd be assisting for the June show at the Rep. As it is, I'm (theoretically) assisting when I get back, and someone else will do it for the first part. So that occupies May 26 through June 8, all together. I say theoretically because I was told to send the designer my resume for approval. I hope she understands that there isn't anyone else to do the damn job. :P I'm not 100% sure I want to do it anyway, because this designer was here earlier this year and she is a bit difficult to work with, to put it nicely.

There is a dance concert that Sean usually does, but can't do because he's doing something else. It happens June 8 through June 12, ish. I'm a bit worried about it because it's a very short tech, and Sean knows how to do a lot of moving light trickery that I don't. We'll see.

I got an email yesterday, forwarded from Victor about an Urban Culture project thingy that needs some lights in June. I have no idea what this entails, or when it actually is. June sometime. I looked at their website and I still have no clue. It sounds like it might be fun though.

So there are 3 pseudo-jobs, none of which I'm very sure about. You'd think with 2 years of "professional training" I'd know what I'm doing.

Also, I'm going to repaint the bathroom this summer if it kills me. Oh yes bathroom, I will conquer you.

update: having gotten a couple emails about that urban culture thingy, it looks like it's rather over my head. Moving lights, etc. Sensing a theme here...

How pompous is this name?

Hopefully not too pompous.

There! Bandwagon has been hopped upon.

Today I was planning to go to the scene shop to paint in exchange for dollars. I set my alarm for 7am, so I could snooze awhile and then get there at 9. I went across the street to say hi to my grandparents at 8:45, and at 8:50 they called from the scene shop to tell me not to come in until Wednesday. Hooray for short notice. Therefore, instead of making a buck, I spent much of the day cleaning crap out of my old room, which my folks are going to be renting to a Chinese student for the summer.

I ran a couple errands around noon, and decided Anna must be bored at home, so I boxed 'er up and brought her across the street to keep me company. This was great kitty excitement. Anna and Blackout must be getting used to each other. I let Anna out of the box, she and Blackout sniffed each other, and proceeded to ignore each other. I cleaned for awhile, pausing every now and then to extract a squeaky kitty from behind piles of junk in the basement. She looks funny with dust in her whiskers. After I got tired of cleaning, Anna and I came back home. I checked my email and took a nap. Then I went back across the street to try out this recipe for scones. That turned out pretty tasty. That's pretty much most of the day.

My grandparents have parked their camper in my parent's driveway. They're going to be here about a month, while my grandpa gets a treatment that may help stimulate his heart to work better. My (other) grandpa was right when he said "It's hell to get old Margaret, don't get old!." I hope this treatment works. It's sad to see how difficult it is for him to get around. He's hooked up to liquid oxygen, and he has a walker which doubles as a chair for him to sit on. My grandma says he sleeps almost all the time. Sigh.