Thursday, September 29, 2005

We made it through

We made it through...

Dress rehearsal was tonight, with the entire Wycliffe team in attendence plus everyone's highschool students. Terry got stuck in a line loop in the opening scene, and of course those of us that never have line trouble got stuck in places. That's the nature of having an audience for the first time. You end up in an adrenalyn cycle. We skipped half a page in one scene, and I muffed some lines at the end, but the good part is we recovered and went on without an obvious hitch to the audience. So it was good. And the team member who came strictly to watch me mack on a guy walked out satisfied, so there.

Tomorrow is the Wycliffe show, and then opening night!

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Testing Lipstick

Last night I discovered an immediate need for kiss-proof lipstick. I bought one variety and tested it last evening. Works like a charm and no smearing. Thank goodness, because otherwise I get tickled at the mess and can't make it through the scene.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Dress Rehearsal

Not so slowly anymore...

Going crazy that is.

Yesterday was our first tech rehearsal. It went well. A little slow, like usual, and it seems like we spend a lot of time doing scenes at night, but our soundtrack/transition music is awesome. One song by Coldplay. Very nice. I had another costume vetoed, but the pink flowered shirt that I thought was too inimitably girly for Catherine was suggested. So there we go. And they nixed the skirt that was taking me forever to get into. Thank goodness.

Today I'm at work all day to make up hours from the half day I took last week. I had big plans for getting things priced and put out around here, but as usual around here, an employee isn't coming in because she has to pick up her boyfriend in the tri-cities. So much for the big plans. We can't get anything done. I'm going to work Saturday instead of Thursday this week in the hopes that while mari runs the place I can organize the linen room, sort merchandise, and further divide ornaments by color in the Christmas basement. We have boxes stacked all the way up the ramp and spilling over. Because the spilloever blocked the door to the linen room we've just been throwing bags of things through the doorway. Now that room is a disaster, and we haven't priced the bargain room half of our last three deliveries, so we have boxes stacked waist high on one side of the sort room. Then the arehouse sent us another 40 boxes of goods on Friday. We are swamped. And our volunteers are all at the fair. Rargh.

Speaking of the fair, half of my classes won't be here this week because 1st, 2nd, and 4th graders are going to the fair. So I'll have large gaps in the my schedule. I haven't looked to see where the gaps are, but I'm hoping it will leave me time to come late and leave early, not sit around for an hour between two other classes.

I can't wait for payday. And I need to put gas in my car.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Bisy. Bak son.

Um.

I have time to eat or sleep, but not both in the same day. I lost a pound and a half last week. Busyness is the best diet ever, not that I even remotely need it.

Teaching is going very well. I'm getting better at the teaching part, and slightly better at the discipline. I need some new songs for next week because I'm starting to get bored. At this point all of my classes are singing variations on the same songs. Fun for them at recess, a little monotonous for me. But my fourth graders combined forces yesterday on the way back from a field trip and "One bottle of pop"ped all the way home. That made me very happy. And my third grader today, when I taught them a new song, said that thei older sibling has been driving them CRAZY walking around the house singing it. Ha. Their parents must hate me.

The lighthouse is frustrating. Not the job itself, but the variables week to week. We never know which employee is going to call in sick, or have a doctors appointment, or a sick kid, or an interview, or decide they need to hand out resumees that day (most of our employees come from a program to faze people off welfare), or whatever. You can't count on anything. And this week our stable volunteer base is either volunteering at the fair, or out with a sick relative. They started fixing our roof this week without warning, and waking up every morning at the crack of dawn with the sound of people walking over our heads is exhausting. Especially when you don't have to get up for several hours but can't help it.

Rehearsals are going well. We have most of a show now, and adding an audience should take care of the last of it. We're just doing a line-through tonight. (IE: run lines as quickly as you can, no blocking or costumes) We have no set construction tomorrow, yay, because I'm going to the fair and the sunfair parade. And sunday we have a full dress rehearsal, with makeup I'm assuming because we're having our pictures taken again. Final Dress is next Wednesday. The show opens a week from today. I'm getting ill thinking about it. In the meantime...

...Wycliffe Dinner Theater will be in town Wednesday through Friday. Their show is on our dead night, and a few of my friends will be coming to the dress rehearsal. Coordinating that right now has made for more insane busy-ness, but we've pretty much taken care of everything, and now all we have to do is wait for them to come.

And I'm going to go do something now. We are so backed up around here that if Nancy and I each cloned ourselves three ways, we'd still have plenty more to do then hands to do it.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005












Tara Maclay

45% amorality, 36% passion, 81% spirituality, 81% selflessness

What a woman! (Or man, as it may be...)


Tara is a moral, centered, spiritual and selfless person... rather, I
suspect, like you. People like this make those around them love them.


Congratulations! (and stay away from windows, just in case)



Thanks Again! -- THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST
















Link: The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

I had no idea

I had no idea I was that girlie

Turning on the lights in the kids room this morning, I almost stepped on a dead rat. Not a mouse. Not a big mouse. A rat. The exterminators don't believe me. "We don't have rats in Washington." I've never seen a mouse longer than my hand. Anyway, I let out a bloodcurdling shriek and went tearing up to Nancy's apartment. She told me to get one of the guys fixing the roof to get rid of it for me.

I was halfway to the roof before I realized, this is stupid. I've disposed of carcases of voles, mice, lizards, insects, and goodness knows what else living with Cai in California. I can handle a dead rat. In theory. It took several minutes of what can only be described as "girlie noises" and cringing to maneuver the darn rat into a newspaper into a bucket.

I would have thought that after the vole that attached itself to my finger, I would be immune to this.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Some Stories from Here

Stories from Here

I was out to lunch with my director after a very long day of set painting, and I she said I must have so many stories working here. And wanted to know if I ever wrote them down. Of course, I blog. Up until now I've been hesitant to put some of them on here, confidentiality and all that, but here's one.

We had a girl working for us. She'd worked before I got here, left on maternity leave, then came back. She'd had several children taken away by the state. Drug use. This pregnancy she kept clean all the way through and had a beautiful, healthy baby. Then she came back to work. Her behavior was erratic. Finally, after almost a month, the story came out. She was living with a man, the child's father, also a drug pusher, He had begun to beat her up. She'd gone back on drugs. She got tested at work, but they were too dumb to monitor her and she'd got someone else to take the test for her. Because she'd come for help she was bundled off with her baby and anything we could give her, since she had to run with the clothes on her back. She's presumably safe now, sheltered at an agency, getting back on her feet. Being taken care of. And we had to watch our backs for a while in case the child's father came by to find her. He called looking for her, but I never saw him.

Another girl came into the store with my mother. She had fresh bruises from her last beating. She'd been in foster care. They took to hammering away at her at the slightest provocation. She left and ran with nothing but what she was wearing. Mom brought her to the store to outfit her with clothes and school supplies. Now she's living in a group home trying to start over.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

HG

Ok guys, tell me because I honestly can't remember...

To whom did I lend my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I want to lend it out but I can't remember who has it!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Christmas

The bummer with putting up Christmas trees...

...is your arms look like you fought a losing battle with several mangy cats.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Today

Today

Wycliffe Dinner Theater Meeting
Work
Other Work
Back to work
Rehearsal
Symphony Chorus
Memorize Lines
Sleep.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

We Got Carried Away

We Got Carried Away

There's a quark. There's a quark. There's a quark on the subatomic particle on the atom on the mitochondria, on the paramecium, on the amoeba on the germ on the speck on the flea on the fly on the hair on the wart on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea...

Another Saturday

Another Saturday

Today we painted the set from 8am to noon. It looked beautiful at 10:30. By 11 we'd distressed it down to where it needed to be. Now it looks vaguely like a haunted house. Very nice. Especially the dirt in the windows and the front steps. LOADS of fun!

I went on a spending spree. I bought a pair of shorts to wear as a base under my costume and then did the unthinkable and...got my eyebrows waxed. They'd been resembling small forest roaming predators for some time now, and it is beyond my skill with tweezers to do more than maintainance. So hurrah for Alma who put them back into order.

Now I'm off for Lebanese night at my folks' house. I'm not really excited, but Mom says she needs reinforcements for all the company.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Hurrah! I'm getting a piano

Hurrah! I'm getting a piano. I've been trying to work out a way to practice. I have all my music books out of storage, so I should start whipping myself into shape after two years off. My folks had a piano that they'd let me use, but we coudln't seem to get it moved. And the idea of hauling it down several steps and around the side yard, or the alternative of taking it up a whole flight of stairs, was just daunting.

Yesterday I was kibitzing with a guy from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and out of the blue he asked if I knew anyone who needed a piano. *Hand raised violently in the air* It turns out that my church was donating some cabinets and the janitor mentioned to Bob the ReStore guy that they wanted to give one away. Ahhhhh. the joys of networking.

And the best part is: If all else fails, and I can't find anyone to move it for me, I am perfectly capable (with some help) of rolling an upright piano six blocks. I think. Usually I manage these things somehow.

So, Denise. Wanna help?

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Yesterday Sucks, and Today isn't turning out much better

Yesterday Sucked.

And today hasn't started out much better. My second day of teaching was yesterday, and my first problem class. I couldn't get them to pay attention, sit down between songs, stop goofing off, sing and not shout, and the teacher didn't step in to run herd on them until right at the end. Then I ran back to work and sorted merchandise for three hours. Then rehearsal -- a travesty. We were supposed to be off book Act I. I was last week, but we've been running Act II since I came back from Texas with Act I down. The night before last I ran until late evening, still had an alteration to finish for someone who needed their clothes for a conference this weekend, and was so tired I went to bed near midnight without running lines first. I guess I don't have to tell you how rehearsal went. It. Was. AWEFUL. I sat onstage for scene one and went completely blank. I couldn't tell you what the scene was about. Anything. And matters didn't improve. In the third scene, where we're supposed to be a little bit tipsy, I had neglected that part in the last rehearsal, but trying to add two elements at once (tipsy and line memory) proved to be my undoing. I could have cried. I've never been so glad to see the painful end of an act before.

I think I'm tired.

After rehearsal I kidnapped Denise and she watched me shovel food down my gullet. I remembered that I'd only eaten a Carnation instant breakfast and a pepsi and 1/4 of a barbecue chicken breast that day. All I could grab after school. Pizza tasted really good. Then we went to Inklings until they closed. I went home and watched tv -- Nancy had on two episodes of Lost. Good show. Merry was in it. And then I ran lines until I crashed at one. I should have run more lines as I was lying awake from 5am-6. Then of course I overslept, and forgot I'm the only one running the store this morning. And to cap it off, I opened the door to put out the sign on the sidewalk and the door locked itself behind me. So I stood outside for half an hour waiting for Mom to let me in. And that brings us up to now.

I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Teaching

I began teaching today. I survived. I didn't realize "I'm in the Lord's Army" could cause a controversy because of the "gun" thing. But the principal ok'd it. And adding the wart to the frog n the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea led to quite an interesting discussion of someone's brother's best friend who has warts.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

I'm a genius!

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Above Average

I didn't know which countries were allies in World War 2. Didn't Italy switch sides a few times, or was that WWI. Wait, China must have been because it's a founding member of the UN.

All a Dither

Pleasant Meandering, the rest all a Dither

Thank God for a few days off. This week has been insane. Yesterday I worked an extra hour after we closed, and today I spent another 2 1/2 hours trying to get materials donated so we could put back up a rack of clothes that had pulled out of the wall. Thank God again for the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store which donates us parts when we need them. Last time they gave us several brackets and a couple of coat closet shelves for our linen room. This time they gave us primer, wall brackets, and several planks of 1X12s. They are so kind to us in our endless spending freeze. Lights are burning out all over the shop and we can't afford to replace them. The end of summer vacations should have also corresponded with renewed interest in donations, but of course Katrina has changed that. Rightfully so. They have more pressing and urgent need. But things are very difficult here for the time being, and may be for some time to come.

I went for a walk today in a little circle around downtown. I had a library book to return, then window shopped a bit. And I went into a bookshop I've been meaning to visit. It's a lovely used bookstore. And by lovely I mean chock-full of books floor to ceiling with a great ginger cat in the window. Of course the place reeks of Cat, but I'm inured. I didn't see any Dorothy Sayers in the mysteries -- my new collection, but there was a Mary Martin book of Needlepoint that I'd like to acquire. The Mary Martin of Sound of Music, Peter Pan, etc.

I like walking around. That narrative in Sabrina about walking around Paris, stopping for coffee and pastries at your favorite cafe, then strolling to your bridge to journal always gets me. I strolled this evening then sat on my back fire escape with Letters to An American Lady by Lewis.

On a personal note, I'm in a slump and have been for some time. I think I traced it to the end of tour, but it may have started around mid tour when I was struggling so much with the complete inability to do even the littlest thing I knew I ought to. First tour was a learning experience, a chance to learn things about yourself, to correct bad habits, and to be forced out of your comfort zones. Second tour I think I rode the wave of success from the first, until mid spring. My devotions are almost non-existent, praying is a slap-dash affair, more based in guilt and scruples than an actual desire to talk to God. (And the fact that I still thing of it as to instead of with seems and indicator of the state of things) I find myself completely disgusted by the "Positive Life" radio station, mad at Christian fiction (because really, being religious is no excuse for bad writing)-except Lewis and the rest of the Inklings - and cringing at anyone trying to tell me "what God is doing in their lives." At Thursday morning prayer breakfast I stare at the table during the sermon. And I don't disagree with what he's saying, I'm just in no position to hear it, or draw anything from it. The people around me have very real needs and a very real dependence on God for every meal and every item of clothing. But it doesn't feel real. And I'm in a place to represent not just one, but three ministries. The homeless shelter, the Dinner Theater, and the Catholic School. And all I really want to do is have a Godiva Hot Chocolate and sit in bed and read paperback fiction. And I wonder, am I really a Christian, or merely "religious" by habit and inclined towards "do good" projects. I may have a beautifully underlined (quite colorful too) and personally cross referenced Bible, but aside from one time six years ago, I can't say I've felt God. I'm very aware that he answers prayer -- Good Heavens he sent me here with point for point matching -- but it's all I can do to pray more than a sentence. I'm sure I'm where I'm s'posed to be, and I'm even doing what I like most of the time but I'm so flat. I don't feel depressed, really, not like those horrid years. Some days I'd call what I am contented, but really it borders more on resigned. And resignation is horrible. Resigned to what? I don't know. I'm not even unhappy. Just drifting.

Really, this should be in my journal, but somehow this post ran away from me.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Deck the Halls

Decking the Halls with boughs of...various tree parts...

I am in the middle of putting up our first Christmas tree at the store. The process would go much faster if I could find a single solitary strand of white lights that worked. The WHOLE strand. I have plenty of half strands. I need to learn how to splice them. I could cover three trees floor to ceiling in half strands of white lights. Then I got the whole thing up to discover -- there was no topper in the box. I was not taking the whole thing back down, so we found a treeless topper downstairs, and now I just have to find enough lights for the whole tree. Heh.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Katrina Relief

Katrina Relief

Alright bloggers, we've been commended in the past for having a great networking system for disaster relief. Here's one way you can help:

Please ship your used eyeglasses or new disposable contact lenses in a padded envelope to:

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity

Attn: Katrina Relief

2065 Half Day Road

Bannockburn, IL 60015

Those in Yakima, I will be sending a package in the next day or two, so if you have old glasses or unused soft contacts, please coordinate with me soon.

Courtesy of Intellectuelle.