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.

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!

Christmas

The bummer with putting up Christmas trees...

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

Today

Today

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

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.