You would think

You would think

That it wouldn't be so hard to pick up the phone and say, 'hey, I'm not coming." How much effort is that exactly? Aarrgh.

It must be Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays

It must be Thursday. I never got the hang of Thursdays.

Another long work day. I'm about ready to take my lunch break, but I can't leave until Nan gets back. We have money missing from our register, and until it turns up we've taken our regular employees off the till. This morning was prayer breakfast. As the first Mission function post-rumor I wore grungy jeans, a grey top and no makeup, just to send definate "Not interested" signals. Didn't work though, I got hit on by some random guy on the way in the door. I wasn't even wearing my fuzzy sweater. Maybe just owning them gives interesting luck. Not necessarily good luck. Just interesting.

We're clearing the main parts of the shop of all Christmas. Hurrah! No more chintzy christmas nic-naks. I hate them. Oh the little santas and snowmen running around underfoot. Stupid pre-lit decor. Ugh. I like Christmas, but why do we need all the crap?

I'm starting to get really hungry, but the longer I hold out, the less time I have to work after my break. And I need to deposit my Christmas checks to pay some bills. And I've got to run by St. Paul's to turn in my hours so I can get paid on the 15th. I hate that they've moved our payday. I was all set to have my credit card paid off by the 1st. Messes up my year end report to have that debt.

And speaking of which, January 1st is annual Year-End-Report day. Those of you that ledger don't forget! And if you haven't, you should invest in another credit report to check on any glitches.

Office Romance

Office Romances

So from what I hear, some guy on the program at the mission has started the rumor that we are dating. In spite of the rather obvious facts that 1) I'm never at the mission proper, and 2) I've said hi to the guy once. Nancy wasn't going to tell me about it, but her parents let it slip.

Isn't it funny how I can have whole dating lives and not even know about them.

Bar Study

Bar Study

Another day at work. Another employee calling in sick so I had to work the register. I don't like that part of retail. People are difficult. And I get worn out quickly trying to small talk with everyone. I suck at small talk.

Then, after a several hour nap and a no-cook dinner of crab and cucumber wrap with ranch dressing, it was time for our weekly Bible study at Jackson's Sports Bar. No, really. Denise and I are quite proud of ourselves. We've finished Genesis as of last evening, and will be moving on to Exodus Saturday. Jacksons has good crinkle fries. Needed fry sauce though.

Then kareoke. Another great evening. Minus Mexi-pro getting completely hammered. But Metal/Hella/Pro-pro showed up for the first time in months, which was awesome. He must take naps on tuesdays every week. Hail, hail the gang's all here!

Alright, back to the grindstone.

Post-Christmas Jubalation

Post-Christmas Jubalation

Last night I rushed home from Seattle for a semi-annual meeting of the girls' night out. Bean called and was only going to be in town until this morning. So I had Denise do the calling while I tried to make it over the pass quickly. Two years ago we met at the Barrel House, but the lateness of the evening being a factor, we opted to hang out at my place this time. Unfortunately sans multiple bottles of wine and Godiva hot chocolates. We did have a pot of Pecan Praline coffee and some leftover Christmas exchange cookies.

We talked for about 5 hours about everything under the sun. Well, ok, we didn't cover that much ground. Mainly recent flings, new boyfriends, related miscelaneous, I talked about the Calzones, Denise had stories of Oklahoma!, Bean and I exchanged teaching anecdotes, and we ended with a rather heated discussion about Harry Potter.

I'm glad I've stayed in touch with everyone. And it's great when we get to meet up again.

What it takes to make a Pro blush

Just what would it take to make a Pro blush?

I think that the Calzones need to do a cover of Bette Davis Eyes just for the sake of these lyrics:

She's precocious
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush

So this morning,

So this morning...

I awoke to knocking on my door, and thought it was Nancy. So I dragged myself up and opened the door. Standing in my hallway was the jail force work crew and their warden.

Nine men saw me in a pair of black lace boy shorts and a white tank top. This has capped off my week.

Sleep...FInally

Sleep...Finally

I got nine hours of sleep last night after four nights insomnia lasting anywhere from 2-4 hours. Not being able to breathe is a pain.

Today we skipped prayer breakfast. The mission staff is on vacation now, so we felt we could use a break, too. It was nice to sleep in.

Last night I watched "While you were Sleeping." It's a good flick.

Today is more of the half off sale. The merchandise is starting to clear out, finally. We've been needing to dejunk this place for a while. Once we get the trees down in January we're going to be able to rearrange the store. It will be nice to refresh the place. It's been just stuffed full of things since thanksgiving.

Hopefully my lunch break will be at New Thai today.

The Voiceless Wonder

The Voiceless Wonder

I have a killer cold. Exacerbated, I'm sure, by the fact that half of our building isn't heated, and band practice. The only bummer with being an "above the garage" band is trying to play in sub-freezing temperatures. Sunday Mini-pro had the heat cranked from 8:30 until noon, and it was still unbearably cold. I do alright because I pile on the layers. I'm not sure why the guys still show up in t-shirts. Amazing amounts of machismo or something. Speaking of which, today I dressed for the arctic to go to the annual gift givaway at the youth center. All hands on deck. The boiler has been out for weeks, so we were told to come prepared. They didn't send out a second memo telling us they'd brought in propane heaters. So I showed up in my two pair of long underwear, nylons, jeans, three shirts, wool sweater and two pairs of socks, and it's the warmest I've been since the freeze happened.

This half off sale is going well. I'm tired of Christmas retail, and I don't think I've told a single person "Merry Christmas." The Christmas station finally got bored of the same 15 songs and have started playing the Muppets and Barbra Streisand's Christmas album. And the Oakridge boys. We've had trees up since September, so I'm a little Christmas-ed out. I almost didn't put a tree up in my place. Last week an entire box of victorian ornaments in white, pink, and red came in, so I took them upstairs and filled a four foot. We've sold almost all of our pre-decorated trees today. Note for next year, instead of selling boxed trees, we should just decorate them all and sell them for an obscene amount of money. At least the smaller ones.

My last day of teaching was today. Two week break! Hurrah! In the absence of my voice (I'm singing notes I'm not capable of hitting) we watched the Disney 12 Days of Christmas. I saw it three times.

No symphony chorus tonight, so I have a few hours to sit and read before the Tuesday Evening Activities commence. I hear we're forgoing Jackson's in favor of the Kareoke competition at Suzie's Saloon. Sean and Angela are both in the finals. Denise and I have yet to come to a concensus about where to have Bible Study beforehand.

Mary Hunt Revisited

Mary Hunt Revisited

I had to go to the bank again. True confessions time for all of you financially confident ones out there. I had an unexpected expense, then let my accounts go for a bit while I was out of town, and realized I'd gone over too late to stop a three check landslide (ouch). So today I went to the bank to see if any of my overdraft charges could be waived. Luckily one could.

The guy I was working with was very polite. As long as I was there I wanted to get a truly free checking account (My California one was free as long as I had direct deposit, but I don't anymore), and see if there was anything that would link overdraft into my savings, instead of a credit card. He said there was, but with a minimum daily balance of $1,000. Ha. As if THAT'S ever going to happen on my paycheck. Anyway. So he kept pushing the credit card option, which I don't want to do because in college that was the beginning of my debt landslide. I continued to "Roll over" things from my checking onto my credit card, and I maxed it out three times, my limit was increased, and I continued spending. So that isn't really an option for me. I'd rathe rpay the occasional overdraft than be tempted to spend money that isn't there. Once he heard about that he kept pressuring me "Based on my financial history." But he wouldn't believe me when I said that I've had things under control for a while, and it isn't really a problem anymore. I mean, one landslide in a year isn't bad compared to my college years. But he only saw me for what I had been, not the progress I'd made, and I'm so frustrated!

Luck of the Pink Sweater

Luck of the Pink Sweater

I have a pink sweater. It was a present for my birthday. It happens to be the softest sweater ever made. Turtleneck, long bell bottom sleeves, the bottom cuts right across my hips. The sleeves are a little long for me, but it's like a cuddle sweater I used to wear with (gasp) leggings in front of the fireplace in winter when I was little. All in all the perfect article of clothes for me.

My luck began the first time I put it on. At my early birthday party a few days after Thanksgiving. I bowled well for starters. But that could have been a fluke. Later that evening, Grant hugged me goodbye. Then hugged me again. And a third time. "Man, that is the softest sweater ever. I'm going to just take it with me."

Tuesday I wore it again to kareoke. A total stranger came up and asked if I would dance with him. I did.

I've worn the sweater several times since then, and each time something like this has happened. So, I'm going to start a chronicle of the Luck of the Pink Sweater. Starting tonight. Because I'm not feeling well, and my pink sweater is just the thing.

Sick

Sick

My lovely roommate decided to share her even lovelier cold with me. I worked half a day and then retired at 3 for a several hour nap. I'm taking the day off tomorrow. Stupid sore throat/headstuffiness/eye itching/body aching cold.

Bored at Work

Bored at Work and Running like Crazy

Today is another one of those packed full and overlapping days. Today we got up early for our 9am tutorial on the new alarm system. I showered last night and put my hair in rollers to take a few minutes off the morning ablutions, and woke up with a serious case of 80's hair. It has been tamed. Barely.

I relied on Sharon, Lois and Brahm today for a lesson plan. My entire semester of teaching is on their live concert video, so it was nice not to have to think or entertain for a day. My 1st grade overachiever made sure I knew that they didn't know any of these songs...but the next song was "Fish and Chips and Vinegar" so that put the end to the frantic hands in the air. They really liked "Jenny Jenkins." And I still have half of the video left to use for another day. My John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album is going to take care of the rest of my classes until Christmas break.

Then I ran to Gilbert to pick up old Wilson band uniforms. Our "Drummer Drumming"'s costume needed some attention. I hope he's my size. I grabbed the one that fit me. I am about the size of the average 5th grader. As my tourmates told me as I got lost in a crowd of schoolchildren touring a museum in Sacramento.

They played the Muppet's 12 days of Christmas on the Christmas station about an hour ago. That made my afternoon. Even though in general hearing that song, after singing it six times a day, three days a week, and playing learning games with it, makes me want to curl up in a ball, rock back and forth, and mutter gibberish (Too many rings, precious, only need one...).

My big triumph yesterday was: During the dress rehearsal all of my kids sang all twelve days and impressed the heck out of the other faculty that they all knew it. (Ok, true confessions, my kindergarteners got a little lost after 8 Maids a Milking ... but they sang REALLY LOUDLY on FIVE GOOOOLD RINGS!)

I'm blogging between trips to bring stuff in from outside. It's COLD out there. Duh. The freezing fog can stop. Can't. Feel. My. Fingers.

Tonight is my Christmas Program. Finally. Then Symphony Chorus, if I make it to any of it, then Bible study and finally, yay, kareoke. Which I rarely partake in, but it's fun to watch the pros get up there.

Brrrrh. Three trips that time.

Alright, I guess I need to go do stuff. Like finish that pot of coffee I brewed. Pecan Praline. Wouldn't want that to go to waste.

Drea

Hey Drea

As per your request, my "Recently Overheard" has been updated and moved up the sidebar. Merry Christmas

More Christmas Ideas

More Christmas Ideas

Might I recommend the World Vision 2005 Gift Catalog. For only $75 you can provide school for a child for one year.

Nitpicks

Nitpicks and Accolades of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

1.Lucy steps into the wardrobe as they explored the house, not in a game of hide and seek. (Query, wasn't it also a hide and seek game in the 1897 version?)
2.Wardrobe was "the type with a mirror in the door." Nope. Carved and Ornate. And huge considering that an apple tree was cut down to make it.
3. When Lucy opens the wardrobe two mothballs fall out. One point for the movie.
4. Mr. Tumnus had "a red woolen muffler around his neck." Two points.
5. Above the mantlepiece was a "picture of an old faun with a grey beard." In the movie it was on the sidetable?
6.All of the book titles in the case come straight from Lewis, including "Is Man a Myth." More points indiscriminately tossed about.
7. Mr. Tumnus asks if he may keep the handkerchief.
8. Aha. Hide and Seek was why Lucy got in the wardrobe the second time and Edmund followed (And not in their bathrobes either).
9.The dwarf doesn't attack Edmund for not recognizing the Queen. The White Witch calls him to task herself.
10. The White Witch tells Edmund that his brother and sisters will be Duke and Duchesses, not servants.
11. Susan, not Peter, says "it's not as if we're taking them out of the Wardrobe."
12. A general observation, it was really nice to see the talking animals in proportion. In "The Magicians Nephew," Lewis said that all the small animals were made larger, and the larger animals smaller, when they were given the ability to talk. In older versions, full sized humans played some of the animals. Regardless of the reviews of the CG, more points for the relative sizes of the animals!
13.The Beavers and Peevensies don't make a treck to the Witch's castle, but go straight to Cair Paravel once Edmund is found missing. (Speaking of which, did anyone else think the Witch's castle looks a good deal like the castle at Minas whatever in The Two Towers where Frodo and Sam start climbing the stairs towards Shelob's Lair?)
14.Needless to say there was no frantic escape from the Wolves scene, including the ice flow. They and the Beavers had quite a head start, so by the time the wolves got to the dam it was cold and dark, and the snow had begun again, so there was no trail to follow. Except that Edmund had heard about the Stone Table.
15. "Come in, come in, fortunate favorite of the Queen...or else, not so fortunate." My second favorite line. Another point.
16. They spent the night in the hollow underground before they met Father Christmas. (Another scene that looked a good deal like LOTR -- where the four hobbits are hiding from the Nazgul under the hollow)
17."Battles are ugly when women fight." I'm glad they changed that line. I've never liked it. One commenter and Cinema Veritas says it best. 'I have to say that "Battles are ugly when women fight" struck me as a bizarre remark even at age eight--what are battles when men fight, ballet exhibitions?'
18. Susan in given a "little ivory horn," not the big brass sucker in every other movie. More points for accuracy.
19. Here's a change I liked very much in terms of Edmund's character development. In the book he was never in prison, merely given dry bread instead of Turkish Delight while waiting for her sleigh to be hitched up. But putting him in the dungeon with Mr. Tumnus, forces to see the direct consequences of his actions was an inspired move. Way to go in terms of departure.
20. Also the fox was not a spy in the book, but a member of a Christmas party that was turned to stone. We can pretend, since I very much liked the bit with the fox apologizing to "Your Majesty" and then telling the Witch that he wasn't speaking to her, that they skipped the Christmas party altogether, and met with another fox in the woods. That takes care of both contingencies.
21.The instructions given to the Wolves was to go to the Beavers' house, and if they were gone already, proceed directly to the Stone Table. Negating the ice flow scene. Those wolves then treed Susan (but not Lucy) allowing Peter his first battle experience. The other wolf stays hidden in the forest until he runs off to find his mistress, promting Aslan to send his rescue party.
22. In the book it refers to the Pavilion at the Stone Table, and the 1987 movie does as well, but I was rather glad to see a camp that looked more like an army and less like a garden party.
23. "The witch, after staring for a few moments with her lips wide apart, picked up her skirts and fairly ran for her life." That would have been way cooler than her looking startled and sitting back in her chair. Although I suppose running would have been difficult in the spray on insulation they called a costume.
24."Despair and Die" intact and well delivered.
25. The entire scene with Aslan on the Stone Table was very well done.

George Muller

The Orphan's Friend

I skipped church today and instead read the biography of George Muller. He was an amazing man. Enough money was found to build an orphanage capable of housing 3,000 children without him once in 50 years soliciting money. Every day he prayed, and every day somehow the money came in. God provided for his needs and often just his wants. Muller said "We do not serve a hard master."

Nancy and I have noted this phenomenon, as did the Wycliffe team on tour. One day a girl was at the end of her rope and prayed for internet connection and a hottub. We arrived at our house for the day and found a computer in the guest room and a whirlpool bathtub. I was grateful that I got in on the blessing. A few days ago, just as I was having a major craving, a box of gourmet french chocolates appeared in a donation box. I suppose I could brush it off as coincidence. But I prefer to see it as a gift.

I love how Muller depended on God entirely to support his ministry. The fundraising part of show always rankled, even though all excess funds beyond the cost of the production were given back to the church. There is a fine line I suppose between making people aware of an opportunity or need and soliciting funds. I once donated to a certain organization, and they've kept better track of me than my credit cards or student loan company through all my moves. Once a year I get a call reminding me that they care. I'd rather they leave me alone about it. I found them once unsolicited, and if I want to donate again I will. Anyway, back off the soapbox.

I've had Muller's story in my head since I heard an Adventures in Odyssey sketch about him years ago. This is the first time I've read the whole story.

And Dickens stopped by the orphanage once to see if conditions were better than the workhouses he abhored (hence, Oliver Twist), and left favorably impressed. Yay Dickens.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I saw the movie yesterday. It was amazing. As far as adaptations from a book go, I think I was more favorably impressed with this than with Lord of the Rings. I had read some reviews that were not happy with the computer graphics animals, or the pacing of the movie. For the first, go watch the BBC production from the 80's. Anything is better. I didn't notice a problem with the pacing either. The book kind of takes a good long time about actually getting them all into the Wardrobe and the races through the rest.

I didn't understand why they inserted the ice flow scene. That was the only glaring jar to me.

I loved the additional Edmund footage. Especially the scene imprisoned in the Witch's castle. He ends up face to face with Mr. Tumnus, who he betrayed. It's the first time Edmund is forced to see the consequences of his selfish actions. In the books Edmund is self centered and greedy, then he disappears while the others look for him, and he reappears after Aslan's scouts rescue him. The character development happens mostly behind the scenes. In the movie, a few extra seconds of footage gives Edmund much greater depth. Susan seemed more harpy to me than I remembered, but I'm going to have to re-read the book. Lucy nearly stole the show, and Liam Neeson is a superb Aslan.

As a sidenote, I was more moved by Aslan's death than the entire Passion of the Christ.

Foolanthropoy 2005

Foolanthropy 2005

Donate to this year's foolish charities. Heifer International made the top 5.

Good Heavens

Good Heavens!

The sixth book in the Wheels of Time series has a 72 page prologue. That's almost a tenth of the book.

The best part

The best part...

...Of having a grandmother who marries a vitner is having her buy you your yearly Brighton accessory (This year a pair of Secret Garden sunglasses). Which comes in handy when you are called by Miles to help him buy Christmas presents for his wife, Becky.

She sent us with a list of possible gift ideas (hoping for forstall another year of two nearly identical pairs of earrings purchased in the same Christmas). Item two was "Brighton - belt or other fun thing." So to Brighton we went. As we walked in, I realized I was wearing no less than seven Brighton originals, and I commented to Miles that we should have salesladies flocking to us by the dozen. True to prediction, they were coming at us from all sides. The combination of my wardrobe and Miles' "lets get that too" attitude towards shopping got us all the attention we could ever want. Three purchases and some extensive gift wrapping later we were ready to move on to the next place.

I'd always wondered what Julia Roberts felt like in Pretty Woman. Now I know.

Run Run Run and never stop

Spinning Wheels Got To Go Round

Still to do tonight: practice My Immortal for tomorrow. Finish learning Jungle love, and shape up ending to Mr. Brightside and Boys of the Summer. Do month end spending log entry, update ledger, pay bills. Read more of the Robert Jordan Wheels of Time prequel (I've lost track of the titles. Numbers only from now on)

Tomorrow: Work, Teach, Work, get dressed in a hurry for Calzones gig, Load Equipment, Show, tear down.

Saturday: Drive to Seattle to help with Logsdon Christmas Present. Spend Night.

Sunday: Drive home. Watch Lost with Denise and Nancy.

Monday: Begin week over again.

'Tis the Season

'Tis the Season

The annual Kunzepalooza is over. Or at least, everyone's gone home. And we still have trees to decorate. Mom keeps hinting that it would be "fun" if I would come over and finish it. Usually she says this from a ladder halfway up the 12 foot tree which she is festooning with angels and beaded garland. My tree is "A disaster." Maybe if getting the last two strands of bubble lights hadn't taken three hours, we could have finished it. And having the stand break twice and the tree fall over didn't help either (Note for next time: HGTV showed how to cut a piece of metal conduit to convert a live tree stand to one that holds and artificial one. Wish we'd thought of that. We cut dowel rods to make shims. Not as effective.)

Yesterday I spent seven hours as the Designated Driver on a Lower Valley wine tour. We went everywhere. I smelled some good wine, then got bent out of shape that I couldn't have any, so went back to the car and read 150 pages or so of my book. I'm within 100 of the end. I should finish that tonight. That means another $8.65 and a trip to Inklings in my immediate future.

Tonight I have band practice. I finally figured out how to burn Sean's MP3's onto a CD using our brand spanking new eBay computer. It's so fast! Our last one took for flipping ever to download anything, and we didn't know how we would ever get it to upload pictures. One of our regular donors was talking to Paul, our technology guy, and he mentioned our need, and the guy decided instead of giving a check this time, he'd buy us a new one. Oh how nice it is!

Something just flashed out of the corner of my eye. Someone ran blinker lights around our display window. I wonder when that happened. This is what I get for taking off early friday. The whole store gets rearranged.

My New Resolution

My New Resolution

Ok, so it's a little early for official resolutions, but on the wall at Inklings was a newspaper article about local shops going out of business because everyone is going to Walmart. My last favorite bookstore, Sunshine and Wisteria, went out of business a few years ago. I didn't shop there very often. They had a very small selection and were a bit pricey, but I must have had them order five copies of "The Phantom" by Susan Kaye when my friend group went through them so much we kept having to duct tape the cover back on.

So here are my new substitutes:

1.Instead of Safeway, Wrays Thriftway.
2. Instead of Borders, Inklings or Off the Record.
3. Instead of Starbucks, Find another coffee shop. That one is difficult. I have a local drive through that I like, and Inklings has great Spiced Chai, but Starbucks is opened later than anything in town other than bars.

Some things however, I still will buy at regular retail. Some stores include:

1. Walmart. I'm sorry. I hate what it does to the job market in our country, but there are some beauty supplies that the mission stockroom doesn't have and it's the cheapest place to buy them on such a limited budget. (But I did have extra money last week and bought shaving cream at Wrays.)
2. TJ Maxx. It's new, but discounted. It's a chain, but I love it for things like stationary and underwear. I'll wear anything else thrift store, but that I want new.
3. Taco Time. It's a chain, but it's a local chain. So I'll keep on with the crisp meat burritos.

Black Friday

Happy Black Friday!

And it's snowing!

Bloomin' Onions

Bloomin' Onions

ANDREW
You sure you don't wanna stop and pick up some burgers or something, you know, road trip food?

SPIKE
It's not a road trip. It's a covert operation.

ANDREW
Right. Right. Gotcha. (beat) I - I bet even covert operatives eat curly fries. They're really good.

SPIKE
(rolls eyes, then) Not as good as those onion blossom things.

ANDREW
Ooh, I love those.

SPIKE
Yeah, me, too.

ANDREW
It's an onion... and it's a flower. I - I don't understand how such a thing is possible.

SPIKE
See, the genius of it is you soak it in ice water for an hour so it holds its shape. Then you deep-fry it root-side up for about 5 minutes.

ANDREW
Masterful.

SPIKE
Yeah. (beat) Tell anyone we had this conversation, I'll bite you.

ANDREW
Right.

I'm so tired. I hated it when Kevin said that every day in response to "how are you." but I am. All weekend I turned down every invitation and slept. And read. 1200 pages of the Wheels of Time series. It's very good. I'm on book five now. I think I might take a break after this one and read the prequel.

Today was idiot day again at the shop. For the morning at least. People kept coming up with problems, and even when I gave them the answer they wanted to hear they wouldn't stop talking about it. One lady wanted me to track down the safety key to a donated piece of exercize equiptment that came to the shop about when I did. If they ever had it at the warehouse in the first place, and if they kept that sort of thing around, no way would anyone know where it is. I put in a call to mollify her. Then, after she and our new handy man took it apart to see if it works, and put it back together, all the while carrying on a monolgue about how she doesn't know how much it costs, and without a key there's no way to tell if it will work, and she already plugged it in on saturday and the other lady said to talk to Nancy on monday, and she said Nancy would be here monday morning, and why isn't she back yet, and the other lady said that Nancy could tell her how much it was. Finally I walked away, placed a few calls, and came back with a price of $50. For a treadmill, that's really cheap. And for the hundreds of dollars you aren't paying for a new one, I bet some sporting goods store would know how to order a replacement key. But the monologue kept on going. And I kept giving her the information, and she looked right at me and KEPT TALKING. Later she came to the register sans machine, but with several pairs of earrings and balked at the price I gave her (alright, so I was wrong. Earrings are .50, not $1, but I gave her the second pair for .10 because she just wanted the backs.) Another monologue commenced. I'm not kidding, her shopping experience took up almost an hour of my morning.

We have a new handyman who worked at Goodwill before this. We put him to work testing appliances, but that meant me running around to hunt up power cords and batteries and USB cables and such so he could test them. He reported that we have many appliances that don't work -- but it turns out that they just don't work because he needs something else to test them. I gave him my personal cables to hook a VCR to a TV, and I haven't seen them since, and my batteries, also MIA. Tomorrow I'll have to track them down.

My Immortal is kicking my butt. I am so nervous about that song, and I feel I'm wasting everybody's time at practice playing the whole thing over and over again for the 16 measure they actually join in. I don't have a pop voice, the microphone barely picks me up, and I can't play and sing at the same time yet. And I've practiced for hours and hours.

On the brightside (Speaking of which, Sean, our drummer, won a karoeke contest this weekend singing Mr. Brightside, and $300 to go with it.) tis the season to decorate for Christmas and enjoy the wonderful rush of holiday shoppers. Or perhaps retire to my closet, whimpering in the fetal position until after New Years.

Birthday Wishlist

Birthday Wishlist

Mom's been on my case to get my wishlist published, since my birthday is in a few weeks. (2 1/2?) So here you are. Vain advertising. Whatever.

1.Wheels of Time series by Robert Jordan. I have books 4 & 5, but I'd love the next ones and especially the prequel.

2.Gift Certificates. Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret, Off the Record, Michaels, Craft Warehouse, Inklings- anything splurgy that I can't afford working here.

3.I would kill for a pedicure.

4.Anyone who wants to gang up together, I have literally hundreds of out pictures that I need to print out and get into scrapbooks. If you wanted to take my CD's and get a few printed up, I'd love it!

5. Or in another vein, go to Heifer and buy livestock, go to Compassion and sponsor a child or donate to their Christmas fund, or go to your church and pick up an Angel Tree kid.

Or if you were really nice, pay off my student loans so I can move on with my life! :-)

Ideas for Christmas

Ideas for Christmas pt. 1

Go to Heifer International. Instead of loading down that special someone with more crap they don't really need, buy livestock and have it shipped to a poor family overseas. They will use the livestock for food and income, and in turn pass off some of the animals to others in their village or town. Give the gift that keeps on giving!

Horrible Customer

Horrible Customer

I had a teapot snatched out of my hand. This horrid customer was making comments about everything (Look, you can get this set of glasses for 2.25, or just go to the dollar store), pointing out how poorly the shop is run (That camera is pointing the wrong direction. What are they trying to look at?) and as I put her one teapot into a paper bag (could you wrap that), then tried to take the lid off to wrap it -- it wouldn't budge, so I wrapped the whole thing and tried to put it in the bag again while holding onto her credit card. At which point she snatched it away (The purpose of wrapping it in paper is so that it doesn't break when the teapot rattles!) and did it herself.

I'll admit, I'm not in top form today. I'm very tired. In fact, after her, and the lady who was NEXT in line who bought cart loads of stuff (totalling 75.15) which I had to wrap - All of it. Under the watchful eye of the first lady - I've been on the verge of tears for the last hour or so.

My saving grace was the couple who were shopping while all this was going on who roundaboutly maligned all and sundryafter they walked out the door. It's lovely when someone that can SAY something, does. When you can't. I liked them very much. Half an hour more and I can close the doors, close out, and go to dinner. I'm taking me out tonight. Since I'm apparently not going to see a movie this evening.

Operation Christmas Child

Operation Christmas Child

And keeping up with a years-old tradition (thought it's been years since we've done it) Teri and I filled several shoeboxes last night.

They're due Sunday if anyone's thinking of participating. You can print out labels online.

The more you know...

The more you know...ding. ding.

Just when you think you might get a good night's sleep, we get broken into. I, of course, had moved to the guest room. No locks on that door. Nancy called me when the alarms went off to find out if my cats were out. They weren't. And since the alarms had just set themselves, someone could have been in the building for hours and just tripped it. Nancy ran downstairs with a bat to check the alarm, and one door was opened. That's when we both stopped being brave and started cowering in her apartment behind locked doors.

She called her Dad and Sam. Sam, luckily, had just returned from picking up some "mystery meat" for the kitchen, and came speeding over with an economy sized maglight. Nan's dad arrived right behind him and searched the building. They think someone unlocked the door earlier, and then came back.

The good news in the whole thing is: we had alarms. Our system had been out for days and had just been online since that morning.

Hark the Royal French Hens Sing

Hark! the Royal French Hens Sing

How on earth am I supposed to keep my kids from cracking up in the Christmas program when they're singing songs like:

Hark! the royal french hens sing, "Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck, Cluck Cluck Cluck Cluck!"

?

She had my second graders singing it, but it will be my firsts. 2nd grade wouldn't make it through one class, much less a half hour program. And they'd be making chicken sounds the whole rest of the song, and someone would beging flapping their wings....

I wonder if she wants hand motions...

We made it

We made it

We got all the way through one concert. There were some technical glitches, and loose endings. We got all the way through Jenny was a friend of Mine before anyone clued into what I was saying about not hearing myself. My keyboards had power, but the PA wasn't turned on. We played the song again at the end of the set just for another chance at it. All in all we had a pretty good run of it for a first go around. We play again in a month or so. And we'll have plenty of chance to practice before then. Hurrah for adding Evanescence!

Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night

Tonight, tonight, won't be just any night

I'm running out of heading ideas. I wish I could figure out my formatting problem.

I tried a new type of sleeping pill last night. Hurrah for eight hours of sleep and a two hour nap after work last evening. I think I only woke up three or four times. I hate that I have to rely on drugs for this - I don't even take pain killers most of the time. Stupid sleeping.

I'm ready, I think, for the Calzones first gig this evening. I'm all memorized, we have the new and improved set list down, and I'll be typing up a cheat sheet with my keyboard sounds numbers on it. We'll be heading to load our stuff at 5, eating dinner, sound check, and start after 8 sometime. I've never done anything like this. I hope my t-shirt is ok. Really, I'm more concerned about what to wear than how to play. And have you ever tried to nail guys down on what the band is going to look like? "I don't know. Don't worry about it." Ha. I'm a girl. It's my job.

I think Bible study was cancelled. I can't get ahold of Aimee. She was supposed to be out of town, but the passes have been closed a lot this past week. I'm going to go call her.

And we have no hot water in the building, so I'm off to my folks' house to shower. Gross. Yesterday I had a sponge bath in my sink with a teakettle of boiling water. I feel gross. And I couldn't get all the conditioner out of my hair. Or shave. Ok, enough ablutions talk. See some of you tonight at Grants.

The Insomnia has to End

The Insomnia has to End

I haven't slept through the night more than a couple of times since, well since Proof opened I think. Last night I was up for an hour at 4:15, finally got back to sleep on my loveseat and Cai decided he needed to join me. I moved to the floor and then the guestroom around 6:15 and got two good hours with no kitties, no squaling, no automatic litterbox noises, no Cai mewing to get out. Hm. Maybe this isn't a me problem. Maybe this is a cat problem.

Finds of the Week

Finds of the Week at the Lighthouse

Rachel got a Pierre Cardin vintage tan wool coat, and a pair of skis and ski boots by Rossignol.

Kris got (soon) a stack of music from the late 18- early 1900's.

Nancy, whom I'm never speaking to again, got a pair of PRADA shoes.

I think if anything comes in from Gucci, it better be in my size.

Calzones at Grants

Another Choir Concert

Another thing I'd never thought I'd do again

I'm on my way to a choir concert. The Symphony Chorus fall concert. In a dress I altered with safety pins a few hours ago. Size 12. (I'm a 4) And it belongs to someone who intends to use it again, so I'm not allowed to alter it to fit me. Fair enough. The hem is horrible, but at least it isn't dragging on the floor. I am in the front row, though, so someone is bound to notice. If I weren't worried about stickies I would have used duct tape. Works better than safety pins. Ah well.

I have a solo this evening. I used to be a soli but the sopranos didn't know it so Dr. P auditioned for it. Well not really. He asked who knew it, panicked when he thought no one did, asked his section leader to learn it, showed up to the last rehearsal, she found out that I had known it, and told Dr. P I would be singing it instead. Not much of an audition. But still a solo. In Hebrew. Which is a great language for singing. Lots of consonants and ornamentation. Anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.

Charlotte's Advice

"It may perhaps be pleasant," replied Charlotte, "to be able to impose on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to bleieve the world equally in the dark."
~Jane Austen

A Passing

Teri Peterson's mom died yesterday. Teri's flying in from Egypt. Everyone keep her and her family in your prayers.

The highlight

And the highlight of my Halloween Party was:

Having run short of time to invent a costume for myself, I drew on last year's standby and made a quick pregnancy pouch to throw under a jumper. It worked. I was a very cute petite pregnant woman.

At the party Matt and Kris received word that Jackson's was having a costume contest, so I drove them there. And as I was standing there, someone called my name, and there at a table was half a dozen members of my graudating class. Sean Gilbert was there as David Severn. Then he asked, "so what's your costume."

The rumors should be abounding at my ten year reunion.

Have you ever

Funny you should ask...

So the music leader at my church asks me, "So, have you ever played keyboard in a rock band before?"

Officially Fall

Officially Fall

Today is the first really fall day. Last night it was below freezing, and today hasn't gotten much above it. It's wonderful. My emergency pepsi was 39 degrees at noon today. There's nothing better than almost frozen pop.

Weird Day

Weird Day

Not the day itself. Although we got a shipment of clothes in, and Nancy and I weren't feeling in a customer-ish mood today, so we opted to hang the new stuff up. And amazingly - we processed an entire load in one day. It would take, and I am not kidding, a week or two for our employees to do the same amount of work. And we weren't booking it, either. Just moseying, for us.

And it was a good thing that we hid in the back, because today was Weird Day. What strange people. I came back from teaching and a lady was back in our sorting area going through bags and clothes on the racks. I assumed it was some eccentric friend of Nancy's, so I didn't say anything. Nancy was sorting clothes chatting to her. I'd hang things on our "to-be-put-out" rack and she'd take them off, try them on, wander around with them. At one point she grabbed a man's blazer off the guys side and went on and on about how lovely it was, and is it too big for me, and oh, did it come with a skirt? I told her that it came out of the guys' bag and if it had two pieces probably came with men's slacks. She was crestfallen and wouldn't believe me. I don't know if she ended up buying it or not, but she found two more pieces from formerly two piece sets and held them up for us to get a look at and made us PROMISE that we would CALL HER if the matching pieces came in. We promised. I hope she doesn't have her hopes up. We have several single shoes waiting for their mates to appear as well.

And everybody was like that! I would turn around to hang somethings on the rack, and there was someone going through it. And while I tried to keep my glaring at a subtle minimum, I also endeavored to send off some "you shouldn't be back here" vibes. And NO-body got it.

Well, I must cut this short and run. I have an original Adam West batman costume to finish before Lost comes on. Nancy and my Wednesday night girls night in. Huzzah.

Mr. Darcy's Daughters

Mr. Darcy's Daughters

I just finished reading a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. Normally I'm wary of any book that tries to copy an author's style in a sequel. There is a book out at Inklings that immediately follows the wedding, and as much as I can tell from the chapter I perused in the bookstore, it's just about them having a lot of sex. Ruined my pristine viewing and reading experience.

In Mr. Darcy's Daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Darcy don't even appear. They have been called on a diplomatic mission to Turkey. Elizabeth accompanies her husband, and the five Darcy daughters go to stay with Colonel Fitzwilliam and his wife Fanny to spend a year in Town for the Season. Sometimes the writing came dangerously close to be a rehash of the original book. Daughter number one is the beauty. In personality she is more like Mary than Jane, at first merely concerned for appearances and decency, but later she becomes an evangelical and spends most of her time at meetings and handing out tracts. Daughter number two is not a beauty, but has dark hair and "fine eyes." The majority of the narrative focuses around her time in London. She is almost engaged to a Sir Sydney, but upon being enlightened about his extracurricular hobbies she puts an end to it, causing plenty of gossip. Daughters three and four are twins, with characters similar to their Aunt Lydia (who also makes several appearances). Their fates are similar in the end, though not so dramatic, with Uncle Gardiner again having to rescue his neices. Daughter number five is a musician under the care of a governness whose attentions are more focused on her writing than her ward.

Several original Pride and Prejudice characters appear or are referenced. Lady Warren (formerly Caroline Bingley) sends her son on a mission to bring the Darcy girls down a peg. Mr. and Mrs. Gardener, whose fortunes have risen and removed the from Cheapside, are co-guardians with the Fitzwilliams. Mr. Bennet is taking care of the Darcy sons at Pemberly. Lydia, formerly Wickham, has been widowed and remarried, and now runs a rather dodgy salon in her home. The Bingley's reside primarily in the country.

All in all it was an interesting read. Elizabeth Aston does a good balance of introducing the flavor of Jane Austen without trying to copy her style of writing. Some of the subjectmatter is a little modern, but it was handled well. The only original character that comes off badly in the new version is Colonel Fitzwilliam. He was charming and easy formerly, and now is rather harsh and pedantic. And not very considerate of his wife. All in all, a good read. Not quite up to the level of the original, but it stays true to Austen's story.

The Last Sun of the Season

The Last Sun of the Season

Finally, a whole day with nothing to do! I slept in for me, but not late, finally crawling out of bed at 9:30. I ate a leisurely breakfast, showered, and finally trimmed my hair. I've been needing to do that for a month or so. Just a trim and some shorter layers. I never thought I'd reach the day where I'm brave enough to try hacking away. But necessity is the mother of desperation...Or something.

After brunch I packed up my spending logs, calculator, and ledger and headed to the park to finally finish up my September, do my quarterly reports, and fill out spending logs for most of October. Plus updating my actual ledger part, balancing the bottom of one page, and starting a new one. I've been very bad about this since the Texas trip. It was tedious, but it's finished now. I then allowed myself the luxury of a short nap in the sun, and got a rather mean little sunburn on my back. Who thinks of sunscreen in October. That's what I get for living in a windowless apartment. Pain aside, it felt wonderful to be outside in such an Indian summer. It was perfect. Low 70's, sunny, with a little breeze just as you were getting a bit too warm. Ahhhhh. Now for the other major undertaking. Cleaning my apartment.

I love my Job

I love my job

What did I do today? Decorated one tree with red and gold ribbon and glittery apples. Made miniature blue paper chain garland and hot glued mini metallic balls on another. Bent a three inch christmas tree into a Charlie Brown tree and put one red ornament from it's tip. Then spray painted plastic easter eggs, covered them with glitter, and dried them for our Peacock tree soon to be up in the romantic room.

Where else can you do stuff like this?

It feels like College Again

Beginning to feel a lot like College

I was driving through my umpteenth fast food joint yesterday and couldn't figure out why it felt familiar. Then I thought back over my week. Last Wednesday - line through at Starbucks. Thursday, Friday, Saturday - Shows. Sunday and Monday - Band Practice. Tuesday Night - Symphony Chorus Rehearsal.

I remember how this goes. It's amazing to me that I'm this skinny eating as much drive through as I have been in the last month. Yesterday was KFC and Taco Time. Hurrah for the Popcorn Chicken and Crisp Meat Burritos.

Never let it be said I don't get myself involved...

The newest Calzone

The Newest Calzone

So...um...I joined a rock band. I think rock band covers it. They play covers of The Killers (My new favorite), Outkast, Greenday, Good Charlotte (yay!) and Jimmy Eat World, Queen, along with things like Money Money, My Sharona, and Margaritaville. Quite an eclectic mix.

They needed a keyboard player, and a token chick to occasionally fill in on vocals. So they asked me to sit in on a few rehearsals, and learn a couple of songs to play with them. I learned "Jenny was a Friend of Mine" and "When I Come Around". And Sunday night they asked me to join. So there. Now I'm trying to learn their original 25 songs, and the 25 they added last night. So as of last night I can play "The Distance" by Cake I think. And all of "Mr. Brightside" except the last solo. Anyway, I'm having a stinking good time. I spent three hours last night trying to futz out parts by ear. I'm getting an entire pop-music education in one week or less.

It's over

It's Over

What does it say about the show that none of the cast went to the cast party?

That's what I'm saying.

Frustrations

Venting Frustrations

This is officially the show that no one cares about. Not the audience. Not the actors. (I just realized it looks like I said the audience and actors don't care. Actually, it should read that we're the only people that did) Performance-wise we think it's very strong. Our house count is at aout 75% -- great for a fall show.

Backstage however, it's a "whole nother" story. We haven't seen our director in two weeks. We never have the same crew two nights in a row. Saturday we're losing three people and our sound and lighting guy to homecoming. Our dresser just isn't coming this week. The people in the light booth have been talking so loud we can hear them onstage.

There's no one giving us notes at all, and this is a tough show. I feel like I'm flying blind up there after 6 shows. We need someone to tell us what isn't working, but there's just no one around to do that. Professionally speaking, it's normal to lose the director after final dress or the first performance, but usually they appoint someone to carry on in their stead for the run.

The actual play is going very well, and we're getting great reviews, but the cast in unison agrees that after sacrificing 6 nights a week,most of saturday for months, three nights a week of performances, and one more night a week for line run throughs after our four day break, we'd like a little support from the rest of our team.

Ok. I'm done now.

I would like to say I am here, but I'm not.

I would like to say I am here, but I'm not.

Everyone breathe a big sigh with me. Yes. And enjoy the feeling of air rushing through your nostirls, because it hasn't been doing that in mine for days. Finally I broke down and bought some Tylenol cold/sore throat/runny nose/conjestion/fever reducer/pain reliever stuff and...do it with me...*sigh*. A sigh for two reasons. One, I can breathe again, and two, tonight I have 2 hours after work before I have to be anywhere. *sigh*

Monday night I raced from work to go hear my friend's band play, and figure out if I want to be joining it as token chick/keyboard/occasional backup vocals. Good band. I have their music burned for me and we'll see if I can transform into what they want by next monday.

Tuesday:I worked both jobs, and in the afternoon the whole world was at the shop. A slew of foreign exchange students led by my mother tackled the piles of garbage sacks full of clothes in our backyard. I was sent running errands to the mission and for pizza all afternoon, joined by Kris, who had free time after his voice lesson at 1st Pres and hung out with me as I ran errands. Then, after work we three -- Me, Kris, and Allie went out for a blizzard, which I owed her for cleaning out my litterbox. Then I ran allie to band practice, laid down for 20 minutes, then put my contacts back in and went to two hours of Symphony Chorus rehearsal, followed by Kareoke. My self imposed curfew was 11 this time instead of almost-2.

Today: Worked both jobs again, closed the doors, counted money, and *sigh*. I don't have line-through for Proof until 8 this evening. I think I'll go indulge in Chinese takeout and a good book. Or perhaps learn the rest of "Mr. Brightside" on keyboard. *sigh*

End of Week Two

End of Week Two

Week two of shows is over. They went well, I think.

Thursday was a hellish day all around for me. I worked 7:30-5:30, spent my lunch break in a meeting with my principal, and ran to dinner and the show after that. I felt terrible. It was like pulling teeth to get up enough energy to start the show off. And then I hear the sound of my parents in the audience. The show went off alright. Kris and I nearly chipped teeth in our drunken lunge. Ouch. My folks seemed pleased with it, other than giving Kris a hard time about making out with me in front of them. And mom was upset that my black dress doesn't fit correctly. Well, it did several weeks and about 10 pounds ago. Oh well. There will be time to eat later.

Friday I called in sick to both jobs and slept all day. I felt terrible at the show, but it was a great audience. They laughed at odd stuff. Things that others didn't laugh at. It threw us off a little because we'd become accustomed to the "pause for laughter" moments, but where we paused, they didn't, and where we didn't pause, they did. Oh, and a lady in the front row had a breathing machine that sounded like Darth Vader. Every quiet moment was dominated by sssssss....tssssssss. And then she'd start choking or hacking up a lung. What a way to get in the mood in the kissing scenes, I'll tell you. And on that subject, they were much more docile after the painful night before. Claire skipped several lines in the confrontation scene, but that happened at the dress rehearsal to, so we're prepared for that jump. After that I went straight to my folks' house to watch the dog while they're away, and crashed until noon.

Last night. Wow. What a silent audience. It would have been disheartening, but we could tell they were into it, just quietly. Claire keeps getting more and more emotional in our confrontation scenes. Friday night she almost cried in the last one, and had to shove past me to get offstage. Last night she almost lost it in the second one as we're screaming our heads off about whether or not Dad should have been put away somewhere. And Dad and my cold scene has been really emotional the last few nights. He's been getting crazier as I try to pull him back inside the house and then screams at me to open the book and read him the lines, so I have more reason to be afraid of him. It works well for the audience when I'm trying to mollify him instead of just giving in to a little whining. And, the crowning moment in the first scene, Kris and I did our lines entirely out of order in one part, but we kept up with the right answer, and somehow ended up right where we needed to be, at the same time. It was lovely.

So, I'm spending the day in bed once I get home. Have a great Sunday!

Sick

And now I'm sick. Gross! Sore throat and exhaustion, I staid home from both jobs today, but I'm on call. So several times I've been downstairs in my pajamas to take care of things. yay.

What I love about Washington

What I love about Washington

Having long, involved, passionate conversations about fry sauce.

Letters to the Editor

10/06/05 Letters to the Editor

'Proof' impresses

To the editor — My wife, Michele Besso, and I had the chance to see the Warehouse Theater's production of David Auburn's "Proof" this past weekend and were very impressed. Rachel Kunze's portrayal of lead character Katharyn was exceptional. The three other actors did a great job as well. The play explores sibling rivalry, trust, loyalty, the meaning of sanity, love and gender equality in academic circles. Congratulations to Leah Hieber on her directoral debut and bravo to all involved.

We encourage all theater lovers and anyone interested in a rich story to buy their tickets now for the remaining two weekends' performances.

MATT FAIRBANK

Yakima

I keep trying to catch up

I keep trying to take things one day at a time, but lately several days have attacked me at once...

I was so excited coming into this weekend about resting, finally. But it wasn't to be. Sunday I ran around half the day -- and watched about 20 friends episodes, one of Lost, and Hitchhiker's Guide. Monday I worked morning on my sleep in day because a girl no-showed again. Then Jeff came into town for a suprise -- yay -- and I spent the rest of the day with Wycliffe people until 10. Then tuesday was two jobs day, Symphony Chorus, and Kareoke. Some friends of mine have been bugging me to go for months. It..wasn't...that...bad. I had fun. But stayed a lot later than I meant to. Which brings us to today, another two job day with horrid little second graders. They are out of control most of the time. Then a line through at Starbucks. I had to eat crow and talk it out with a cast member who thought I hate him. I don't. But we got off to a bad start and never recovered. Then running lines and gabbing with Claire. And finally the new Lost episode. I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow is my 7:30-5:30 day followed by a show. Arrgh. If I can only make it to Saturday!

Review of Proof

Here is what the Herald is saying:

Human conflict propels drama past cold academics

By DEWEY MEE For the Yakima Herald-Republic


I always bristle when I have to see a play that's been heralded as a modern masterpiece. David Auburn's "Proof" has received the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award, but this only made me skeptical as to whether the play was worthy of the awards and acclaim.

In my mind, "Proof" is a thin, rather self-important play with grand ideas. By sheer coincidence, the Warehouse Theatre Company's production opens just as the film version goes into wide release.

It helps, though, that director Leah Hieber has a good fix on the play. She writes, "It is particularly interesting that Auburn's play combines two extremes of where we build our belief systems; mathematics and family."

Thankfully, the play is more about family dynamics than dry, academic mathematics. Subtract all the dialog about mathematical and scientific theories - and there's plenty of that - and you still have a play about family; specifically parents and children, and good and bad traits that may or may not be inherited.


Rachel Kunze gives an outstanding performance as Catherine, who has sacrificed much of her young life to care for her father. As the play flashes between the present and the past, we see Terry Langley as her father, Robert, a brilliant man who, ironically, after writing complicated mathematical theories and theories on rational behavior, has gone insane.

Langley is especially good at communicating Robert's futile attempts to grab a semblance of order and reason as both slip away from him. In addition to his death and the legacy he leaves behind, Catherine must contend with big sister, Claire, (Aimee Hostetler) who arrives for the funeral and seems intent on taking Catherine back to New York City with her.

There's also Hal Dobbs (Kristofer Sundquist), a persistent but worshipful grad student of Robert's. Hal insists on looking through all 103 notebooks that Robert let behind in the hope of finding proof that, even as late as four years ago in his last lucid period, Robert was brilliant, not bonkers.

Catherine insists that all the notebooks are full of disconnected ramblings - all except one. In that notebook, Hal discovers the gem he has searched for; a groundbreaking, 40-page mathematical proof that will confirm Robert's genius for all time.

When Catherine says it was she, not Robert, who wrote this proof, Claire and Hal react with complete disbelief. At the moment she reaches out for some desperately needed support and validation, she is literally and metaphorically slapped down by the last two people she thought she could trust. Hal, in fact, says Catherine could not have written the proof because it is "too advanced."

"Proof" is best when the characters are in conflict, either with each other or themselves. Kunze and Hostetler are especially strong in their many confrontational scenes.

But when the play tries for hope, a tidy ending, and its own theories as to Catherine's fate, it is terribly contrived. The suggestion of a romance between Catherine and Hal is worse than contrived - it's cheap, since it appears that Hal feigns romantic interest for completely self-serving ends.

Nobody is completely what he or she appears to be. For instance, Claire is not the cold, self-involved sister, and Hal comes off as less than sincere and genuine.

The only thing that "Proof" absolutely proves is that life offers proof of absolutely nothing.

But, as a theater critic I can tell you that Kunze's extraordinary performance (which earned a "Bravo!" from me at curtain call - and I never shout "Bravo!" unless it is richly deserved) elevates "Proof" to the level of greatness to which it aspires.

The Warehouse Theatre Company presents "Proof" at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Oct. 13-15 at the Warehouse Theatre in the Allied ArtsCenter, 5000 W. Lincoln Ave. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, and are available through the Warehouse Theatre box office. Call 966-0951.

* Dewey Mee has been involved in theater for more than 30 years. The veteran free-lance arts critic is based in Ellensburg.

I suppose you can't get much better than that. He was also quite impressed with Aimee, who plays my sister. And rightfully so - she's a great actress that has gotten overlooked by the Warehouse in the past. And he's right. Aimee and my scenes together are the best in the show -- thanks to a four hour shouting marathon at Starbucks one night.

Basic Exhaustion plus Euphoria

Exhaustion + Euphoria

Last night was opening night. It went very well with great feedback at the post-opening night reception. Then the whole cast went out to Gasperetti's for drinks. Not me. I mean, I went, but I had mine virgin. Anyway. Lovely flowers from Grandma and Ken and my parents. The florist was working overtime. The same shop had orders for me and for the director.

Today I was supposed to work to make up for missing Thursday. I made up 4 of the 7 hours and called it good. I'm so tired it's not funny, but I'll have a few minutes to rest before I have to be at the theater. My favorite part of the show? Sitting on stage as the audience comes in napping and reading magazines. Lovely bit of downtime.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I had no idea

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 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. 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. Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Roverandum Roverandum One costume piece and bit of prop at a time I am building up my wardrobe for the show. Usually I come into rehearsal with an armload, leaving with one article. Repeat. So far, for sure, I have one pair of over/undersized grey sweats, on blue chenile bathrobe, one black dress, one pair fuzzy leopard print slippers, one pink and greeen swirl beaded shoulder bag, one pair of dilapidated UGGS, one quilted headscarf, one key on a chain. Nary a full scene anywhere. Well, I suppose the bathrobe counts as a whole costume. Today at work we hung up a bejillion clothes previously sorted by Nancy (and myself and my mom) into black trash bags. Now the racks are completely stuffed just in time for our impromptu 50% off sale happening Thursday through Saturday. Those in the area might consider stopping by. Denise. I heard from a very sleepy Jeff this evening who is in training with Alaska Airlines and working horrid hours. Eventually he gets all the flights he wants, so it all makes up for it. He may even fly in for a show. And he mentions a possible trip to New York. Lucky. On a completely unrelated sidenote, we Americans need to be more careful what trashy shows we're airing abroad. A foreign exchange student came to our country with most of her knowledge derived from MTV and Oprah. Now she's having to buy all new clothes for school because she thought everyone here dresses like Paris Hilton. Not the case, I can assure her, but far too many. I'm in the throws of preparing to teach. I can play anything on the guitar as long as it's in one key (D) and doesn't require more than three chords (I, IV, V). I can even play "The Wheels on the Bus" and hold onto the guitar as I go "up and down." Allie humored me the other evening as I had her help me practice singing all the kiddie songs I know. Tomorrow I need to go to school, touch base with the teachers, and find their classrooms ahead of time. Exciting Day Exciting Day! We got milk in that HASN'T EVEN EXPIRED! Hurrah! Huzzah! And rice-a-roni packets. My favorite! Sunday, August 28, 2005 Last night's misadventure Last Night's Misadventur So, I locked myself out of my room just before the alarm set itself. Not out of the building, just into the hallway. And the alarm is motion sensored. So I dashed around trying to turn off the alarm before I set it off. I called my parents, but they didn't answer the phone the first several times. So when they did call me back I was sitting in the hallway trying to alternatly pick a lock and break the door down. Neither was succesful. Finally Dad remembered a set of keys in the store. Maybe one of those keys would work. What do you know? One did. Long night. Friday, August 26, 2005 Sorting the Motherload Sorting the Motherload I'm getting very tired of having to invent post titles so that my whole post font style won't be screwy. Anyway. Nancy has been all week in the "cage" sorting about 500 black plastic trash sacks of clothes. In theory, all clothes are sorted at the Warehouse and then sent to us. But we've been looking at the clothes that are on the racks, and the selection is primarily polyester. Blech. So, rather than continue the trend, she decided to sort all future loads herself. And what did we find? Lovely things. Lots of polyester, which we threw into the bins to be baled and sent to poor countries, but plenty of lovely things made of natural fibers, and quite a bit of vintage. Where has that all been going? Our guess is that the error is happening here. We have a wonderful woman who sorts and hangs up our clothing, but she is an older lady. She wouldn't know a brand-name if it wore neon lights, and polyester double knit would appear to be...nice. *Shudder* Henceforth, all clothes shall be pre-sorted by Nancy, Me, or my mother. Period. No more doubleknit. We've declared war. Thursday, August 25, 2005 Do it again. Directions Do it again, more. Do it again. More. Do it again. MORE. Act II,2 was an emotional scene to block. The last time through, I almost teared up for real. Raahaah. And I got my fuzzy leopard slippers put into the show. I have the feeling they may upstage me. Highlights from Denise Highlights from this post by Denise: You Know You've been in Theater too long When: ...Your weekend consists of Monday, and only Monday ...You can't remember what daylight looks like. ...95% of your wardrobe is black. ...Your diet consists of fast food or microwaved food. ..."Practical," "Drop," and "flat" are nouns. You know you work in non-profit theatre if... ....your living room sofa spends more time on stage than you do. ....you've ever appeared on stage wearing your own clothes. ....you can find a prop in the prop room that hasn't seen the light of day in ten years, but you don't know where your own vacuum cleaner is. ....you have a Frequent Shopper Card at the Salvation Army. (Or in my case, Goodwill) ....Rogers and Hammerstein is synomous with 3 months of rehearsals. ....you've ever cleaned a tuxedo with a magic marker. ....you've ever said "Don't worry -- use the duct tape and if that doesn't work we'll just hot glue it." So I guy walks into the lighthouse and says: "So there ARE pretty girls working here." I was the only person here, so that must be me. Compliments are nice. Especially when you're trying to live up to your poster. Wednesday, August 24, 2005 Phase Two Phase Two: Begin unpacking small items without having moved big items into room ...COMPLETE. Hey Eric Hey Eric I found a picture of you in my scrapbook. Remember Rocktober? The youth conference. You, Kris and I were a team on the canned food drive. And I think in the picture you might have been shorter than me. But maybe not. :-) Tuesday, August 23, 2005 Wow Wow The poster for this show makes me look hot. It's very disconcerting. It's a Whole Other World A Whole "'Nother" World I'm at in-service all day. Lunch was provided at a local Mexican Restaurant. Reaching the table I'm greeted by a Father in a reverse collar saying, "The only thing you need to decide is what color margaritas!" They're a whole lot looser on that side of Christiandom. Monday, August 22, 2005 Phase One Phase One:Taking all items from truck and trailer up 22 steps of the fire escape into the second story -- COMPLETE. I'm back I'm back 80 hours of driving in five days. I am so tired. At 70 mph, "99 Bottles of Pop on the Wall" will take you 19 miles from beginning to end. Christmas songs cross language barriers and have lots of verses. Brushing your teeth feels really good after two days without. Kansas: One Question! Ooh Ooh! Corn. Wednesday, August 17, 2005 Off Off Excuse the absence. I'm off on a five and one half day trip to Texas and back. Insane. I'm not sure now, at 5am, why I thought I could do this and retain sanity. But I'm finally going to empty my storage unit and collect my things about me again. At this hour, if it wasn't for my victorian circa 1840's red velvet tufted loveseat, I would be tempted to leave it all. Oh, and my scrapbooks. And some other stuff, too. But really. 5am. What was I thinking? Monday, August 15, 2005 Like and unexpected song Like and Unexpected Song Today. In one of the boxes I was sorting through. Was. A battery operated device. That luckily was in several plastic baggies. Because I didn't want to touch it to throw it away. Who DONATES stuff like that? Long Day A Very Long Day Ending with taking Allie and Linda, our new exchange student from Lebanon, to see Monsters, Inc in the park. Linda slept through it, being very jetlagged from her flight. Allie met up with one of her friends. Never take three teenagers to a movie is my new motto. Not if you want to hear the lines, anyway. I threatened that if they didn't shut up I'd never take them anywhere again, and I'm the only one with a drivers license. Sunday, August 14, 2005 Math for Fun And for tonight's entertainment, Several hours of research on prime numbers and slogging through a College Level Algebra/Geometry/Trigonometry book. And one call to a friend of the family who also happens to be a Professor at UW to try and understand Eberhart's Hypothesis. Some luck there. Friday, August 12, 2005 Act I, 2 Act I, Scene 2 I walked up to my director's door and saw yet another of her collection of bumper stickers: "Republicans for Voldemort." I was laughing as I walked up the steps. We had a great first rehearsal. Yesterday was our first re-through (which I've always called a read through, which makes more sense in my opinion). Today Aimee and I ran our first sister catfight, which went well. Especially brilliant were the between scene banter that we had going. The director was relieved the we understood our parts well enough to keep up the running commentary. Aimee had spent a great deal more time researching motivation and beats. I, having been around people who won't take no for an answer and push, push, puss, felt I had plenty of life experience in acting defensive. Thursday, August 11, 2005 Roadkill Roadkill I was having a conversation with Nancy this evening, who is also my manager. We often talk shop at 11pm because we don't have time for a debrief during the insanity of our normal day. Tonight, while discussing special pickups by our donations crew, this conversation occurred: Nancy: "It has to go through Faye because I never know when the trucks will be in use, or there will be too many pickups that day, or a food emergency might come up." Me: "Oh, you mean like a semi drops off an entire load of green beans (it happens, people)?" Nancy: "More like if the forest ranger calls us about fresh roadkill so we can send the truck up with people to get it." Me: "We eat roadkill? That explains the "mystery meat" in the fridge." Nancy: "Oh yeah, we have guys that go up for fresh meat, skin it, chop it up right there, and then we have a butcher in town who will process it right away at a moment's notice. That's where most of our hamburger and stew meat come from." Me: "Hmm....so, what about the steelhead in the freezer?" I'm guessing he was too slow. Wednesday, August 10, 2005 Sometimes the Customer isn't right Sometimes the Customer isn't right I tried to close the store at the regular time. No one was leaving. I did all the shut down proceedures, then wandered around flashing lights, darkening rooms that no one was in, asking people if they were ready to ring up, etc. What do I get? "I just found the kids clothes way there in the back, but I couldn't shop because it was too dark to see anything." Right. Headshot alteration My face on the cover They just stopped by to pick up my headshot to turn into the program covers and posters to advertize Proof. How bizarre it's going to be to see my watercolor face all over the place... I wonder what it feels like for those models who do covers for bodice-ripping romance novels. Monday, August 08, 2005 I got it Catherine I got the role of Catherine, the slightly unstable younger daughter of a crazy mathmetician who takes care of him in his decline. She also has a fling with Harold, one of her fathers former students, now a math professor in a rock band that plays "Imaginary" songs. And her sister is trying to sell the family home and move her from Chicago to New York where she can really keep an eye on her. Sunday, August 07, 2005 Proof Proof I just got done with the audition for Proof, by David Auburn. There were 9 people there and 4 parts. I was among the 7 who were still reading in circles at 4. By 7:30 all of our fates for the next two and a half months will be sealed. Saturday, August 06, 2005 Guitar Guitar I'm teaching myself to play guitar. It's very sad sounding right now. I know four chords, sometimes. Thursday, August 04, 2005 Jumping Beans Jumping Beans I saw Bean today. She came into the shop to suprise me! Was I ever! I went over to her house tonight and had dinner with her and her mom. Mostly we talked highschool alumni tidbits. The usual, who got married, who didn't, who has lovely children now, and how is it we're the only people we mutually know that aren't having a heigh-ho time in suburbia. (That is a gross overgeneralization. Actually, none of my close friends are married yet.) Tuesday, August 02, 2005 Speaking of poor choices Speaking of Poor Choices And now Chris and I have pledged to each other that we're going to stay clean. We really and truly are! We've given our sacred oath and promise. In San Francisco we won't know a single soul that uses it and it will be easy to stay off. ~from Go Ask Alice Go Ask Alice Go Ask Alice It's a completely new world I'm exploring, and you can't even conceive the wide new doors that are opening up before me. I feel like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe Lewis G. Carroll was on drugs too. Ya think? (From Go Ask Alice, the diary of a 15-year-old drug user) Cookies Cookies "Oh! There's no cookies!" "Nope, no cookies." "There aren't any cookies!" "No cookies?" "Why aren't there any cookies?" "I guess they forgot to put any out." "Yep, 'cause there's no cookies." "Look, Hannah, they don't have any cookies for you." "No cookies?" "No cookies." "Why no cookies???!!!" "I guess they forgot to put any out." Nope, no cookies..." If they want cookies that badly, they should try donating them sometime. Cheree Jones Might I draw your attention to this site? Monday, August 01, 2005 Frivolity Basking in Frivolity After being a hermit for a long time post-tour, suddenly my social calander is quite full. Friday I worked four hours for the Saturday manager after running errands all morning. I bought new pins at JoAnn's. As soon as the store closed I went wild in the vintage clothing room looking for a dress to wear to the theater. I found the perfect one. Black knit 1950's scooped back dress, three quarter length sleeves and a t-length skirt with a foot border of satin. Only it was just a bit big - me not having a pointy bra and all. So I did a quick alteration job that will be easily taken back out. I put on seamed black stockings and my highest heels. There's so little dressing up in the Northwest. Guys wear flannel shirt to the Seattle Ballet. The ensemble was completed with black earrings and a pearl necklace Kevin and I ate dinner in a hurry, having discovered the show started at 8 and not half an hour later. We got to the show in plenty of time to be seated next to the older brother of the guy we went to see. The show was good. I was leary of a "rock n' roll" version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but the dialogue was in tact. They added snippets of 50's songs, and the costuming was vintage. I found myself getting caught up in "the magic" in spite of myself, and had a great time. Afterwards, Kris invited Kevin, Denise and myself to hang out at a local pub. I called my boss to establish an alibi and promise that I wouldn't drink, and off we went. As I walked in, Kris' brother said "It's Cheers." I didn't understand until later. It truly was a "place where everybody knows your name." One guy came up to Kevin, "Hey man! I remember you! I used to treat you like s**t. Man, I'm so sorry." And Denise was getting snuggled by some random guy who wanted her phone number. Sunday, finally!, Jeff came into town. We went out for *dun* *DUN* *DUN* Bur-ger-r Ra-anch. I hadn't had fry sauce since I moved back. After that we drove around and amused ourselves, doing nothing of importance. But, we ended it with Ice Cream from Coldstone. Hurrah. I couldn't finish mine. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) Beyond Personality Rachel LeAnn I've come a long way since beginning this blog more than ten years ago...I'm a professional Actress and Costume Designer, DIY enthusiast, Zero-Waste/Locavore and still enjoy reading as many books as I can. View my complete profile Present Concerns Free Boy, AMT, 5th Avenue Theatre A Proper Place, Village Theatre Squatch, Centerstage Theatre Dreamgirls, Village Theatre 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress, Valley Community Players Romy and Michelle, 5th Avenue Theatre Lost in a Good Book The Memory Keeper's Daughter A Circle of Quiet Certain Women The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency The Business of Heaven Facing Homelessness: Seattle World Relief: Seattle International Rescue Commission Seattle Muses: Fashion Conscious Studio Heifer International Kiva PBS World Vision Compassion International Tremendous Trifles Lachellybelly @ Etsy.com Lachellybelly @ Scott's Marketplace Lachellybelly @ Green Life Center Lachellybelly on Facebook Lachellybelly on Instagram My Pinterest Till We Have Faces A Very Cute, Little, Bright Blue T-Rex Clever Title Here Elizabeth Esther Grok Nation Little Red Boat The Story of 39...my version. 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