Pop Pop get Grisham?

Donald and I bought all 3 seasons of Arrested Development for a grand total of about $30 this weekend. (How's that for a good deal??) If you have not seen this show, you must, for it is both smart and funny. You know it's true, because Fox cancelled it.

Also funny: this morning I saw a red car downtown with a 32 oz drink sitting on the trunk. The car was traveling north on Broadway, and the drink seemed to be staying put. The car turned onto 10th, drink in place. That drink must have been on there awhile, since there's no Quiktrip anywhere near downtown. Of course, it could have been a fake drink glued to the car, but that's even more unlikely than an actual 32 oz drink staying on a moving car.

much driving

I've been doing a lot of driving down Broadway this week back and forth between 2 theaters. Everyman closed last night, so I now there's just one show to contend with. This morning is my first time to slow down in a few days. It was a nice surprise, since the schedule said we'd be in early again. I was happy to sleep until 9, very very happy.

Wed. I got to go to the Lyric and spend all day discovering exactly what a mess it is down there, then I rushed to get some food at 5 and get to the other show. Thursday started with an Everyman matinee, then downtown to light focus at Lyric, then all the way home for dinner, then back to another Everyman. Friday was all day starting at 8AM at the Lyric, then just enough time to rush home for dinner, then back to Everyman. Yesterday, same thing, only without enough time to go home for dinner. Wendy's side salad sucks, no big surprise there. It's really hard to find something quick to eat that isn't crap. I LOVE fries and hamburgers, but sometimes I just want real food.

The disorganization at the Lyric was sadly NOT exaggerated. The smallest things take them forever, and may still not be done right. It's pretty damn ridiculous, for people who do this for a living to be so incompetent. The lighting designer is pretty annoyed at it. Luckily, it is clearly not me fucking things up.

suddenly employed

I got called out of the blue to ALD at the Lyric today. I'm not sure yet if this is a good thing, but it should at least be a profitable thing. The assisting part should be fine. The rest of it, where I have to do stuff that the ME should do, is the part I'm not so sure about. I'm told that I have to watch the guys to make sure they do what they're supposed to. So, I guess I'm babysitting IATSE guys? I sure hope that was exaggerated. They seem to be generally disorganized. That won't be fun.

dream

I dreamed last night that I was a girl who ate cars. There wasn't any chewing involved, I'd just look at a car, then it would be gone. I was just walking around the neighborhood, devouring cars. Then the people whose cars I'd eaten were coming after me, so I went to hide in my house. I locked the deadbolt on the front door, and the back door, then 2 more doors inside with deadbolts. Then I went to the basement, which had a garage exit, and my brother was there. I was worried that he would be angry too, but he said he'd help me escape.

I've had a busy couple of days. Friday I hung lights for a show 9 - 4, then got sushi for dinner with Robyn, Mike and Donald. Then I ran a performance of Everyman. Today, I went to light focus for a Rep show from 9 - 5:30, then grabbed dinner and ran a performance of Everyman.

It was the first Rep focus of the year. The designer has been there several times before, so she knows most of us well enough to chat, which led to the inevitable question of "What are you up to?" I hate that question. Every time I get it I feel like a huge fucking loser. What am I up to? Not damn much. I went through 3 extra years of school to "enter the field at the highest level of experience" and now I'm... running the light board for the most amateur production I've been involved in in a long time. It seems that people expect me to make something of myself. I hate telling people I'm not doing anything. I also hate not doing anything, because I KNOW I'm going to forget the small amount of AutoCAD that I know without using it, not to mention the even smaller amount of Vectorworks. I also feel insanely jealous whenever somebody talks about a job, even if I don't want it. Argh! I'm in a weird lull. I'll be plenty busy in January, but until then I have very little to do other than feel like a giant loser with no friggin work.

dull

It seems like a whole lot of nothing is going on everywhere this week.

Monday I hung lights at the Rep until 5:30, then I was tired when I got home so I took a nap. I was still tired, but also hungry so I got up and made dinner. Then Donald and I got coffee. When we got home we watched the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip pilot on DVD, and enjoyed it very much. That's one I'm going to have to tape if I won't be home. It was fast paced and had actors we like. I think Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford will be good. I'm not sure about Amanda Peet, and the blond chick annoys me for no reason. The guy that played Danny on the West Wing looks like crap. Somehow he looks about 15 years older than the last time I saw him on TV. I hope the show will be as good as the pilot was.

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty uneventful. Today will be probably be uneventful too.

carrying my house on my back

It's agreed that I look like a turtle in my new backpack. It's a combination of shape, size, and color that does it I think.

We got our damn fool Japanese food last night. The president didn't come back to stop us. We tried and very much enjoyed 2 non-fish maki (roll) sushi treats. One had sweet potato tempura in the middle and the other had mango and avocado. For all the details on what's what in sushi check wikipedia, of course. We enjoyed our dinner very much, and estimate that by next weekend we'll be craving more. This looks much like what we ate:

I had an interesting dream last night, but I can't remember what it was now...

As Robyn mentioned we had an abrupt change of dinner plans last night. The most annoying thng about it was how unhelpful the traffic-stopping cops were. They just said, "turn around, or wait." Wait for what? How long? What all are you blocking? Since I had zero information from the po-po, I ended up making 3 U-turns in 3 blocks before we gave up and literally ate at the closest restaurant. Not a well planned thing. Also, Donald's car isn't the easiest car for U-turns.

Thursday I got a haircut. It's just above my shoulders now. I think it's a little funny shaped somehow, but it feels great to be rid of the length. Friday I took Anna to the vet for her shots. They told me she has tartar buildup, and should have her teeth cleaned. That would take anesthesia, and a lot more money than I'm gonna spend. They also said I should brush her teeth daily. Who the hell brushes their cat's teeth?

My new backpack arrived Friday too. I'm not quite sure what I think of it. I've had the old backpack since sometime at CMSU, so getting used to a new one will be tough no matter what backpack it is. My goal was to have a laptop backpack that isn't gigantic and bulky. The problem is that my laptop isn't a mac, and is too big to fit in the smaller laptop backpacks. The laptop is 12.25" x 10.25" x 1.25." All the smaller backbacks will only fit laptops 10" deep and 1.25" thick. The other problem is that I carried a whole hell of a lot of stuff in my old backpack. I'm going to have to try to eliminate some of the stuff. The new backpack is taller, but less deep.

mind over pretzel

I got smart tonight. I wanted chocolate covered pretzels. But instead of melting the chocolate, dipping pretzels in it, putting them in tidy rows on a sheet of waxed paper and letting them cool in the fridge- I cut to the chase. I melted the chocolate, dipped the pretzels in it, then put them directly in my mouth. This, besides cutting lots of time out of the process, has the added benefit of delicious melty chocolate. Ahh, chocolate.

P.S. Arrested Development is HI-LARIOUS. Chalk up another cancelled Fox show.

We helped Mike move yesterday. The "helping" was pretty minimal though. Donald and I got to his new place about 10:45, and he'd already moved almost everything. He doesn't have that much stuff to begin with, and he'd gotten up at 5:30 AM (!!) so they had a real head start. I helped put legs on a table, carried about 2 boxes, and other minimally difficult tasks. Anyway, Mike's new place is neat. It's a nice size for one person, and couldn't be in a more convenient location for him. He can easily walk to work. And we can easily walk to many delicious restaurants when we go to his place.

cell phones can be a real pain

It's almost funny, that after waiting on hold for 5+ minutes for Cingular customer service, that once I finally got through to a person- it dropped my call. I'm pretty tired of being on the phone with Cingular, since this is the 3rd issue I've had within a month. Now I'm not receiving messages, or some calls. Other Cingular customers have told me that a lot of people are having the same problem. Yesterday, I talked (in person) to someone who called me earlier in the day, 3 different times and left messages. I didn't even get the calls, much less the messages.

I just got through to a different guy, who says the problem is in both Kansas and Missouri. He said that it should be fixed soon, and offered to credit our account $5. Well okay. It doens't make up for the lack of service, but I do feel less cranky about it.