So Saturday at work, we had a huge function. Oh yes -- all the ritz and glamour, and hanger's on and lushes that you could want for a nights amusement. There was very expensive wine being poured -- the cheapest of which was $900 a bottle. The most expensive was $22,000. I got a glass of french dessert wine (we all got to taste the leftovers) at the grand total of $2,000/bottle. Anyway -- they brought on cocktail waitresses (presumably) to help pour all the expensive wine that the wait staff was uncomfortable pouring. Nope. Got there and the 'other' manager was in charge. "You. Help Abe. Pour the Dunn." That was all the instruction I got from her. No help there. I tried again later. She just looked at me like I was the dumbest thing that had ever crawled out from under a rock, then said that the WAITORS would handle the expensive wine so it didn't get mixed up. Needless to say, Tina and I were a little perterbed. Finally, late in the evening, when everything that coule possibly be considered "our job description" was being done by someone else, we begged for something to do. "You know what you could do if you REALLY wanted to help?.....Put knives on the cheese platters as they walk by." ? ? ? ? We were not pleased. So we went and ate dinner...she came tearing in to find out if we'd poured the second dessert wine....after spending the whole evening telling us not to touch the expensive stuff. I said, "Nope, the servers have it covered apparently." "Perfect", she said. Huh. I'm going to human resources today to discuss this turn of events. Don't you think I ought to?

Oh I love a neck brace. Stylish. White. Matches every possible wardrobe....blends in to an ensemble. Hides under a turtleneck -- assuming I own one, which I don't. Ah yes. The perfect conversation piece. Now available in multiple colors (listed in the catalogue). Oh yes...neck braces are wonderful!

Did I mention I threw my back out?

Well, I have screwed up my comments beyond reason...I have no clue how to fix them, and so I'll be working on that in between actual, you know, work at my other job. Yes.

So beyond that, life is pretty calm (and might I even go so far as to say boring) now that tourist season is over. Out at the Alisal we dropped from full occupancy to less than fifty people. It feels like sleepwalking around there. At my other job, I'm only getting about 8 hours a week for the time being. Just enough time to feel like I have to get up in the mornings, but not so many that I can get really confident about any of the extraneous miscellaneous weird things -- like a guest that wants to pay partially in cash and partially on a credit card. I've done it once, but that was two weeks ago, and I've only worked twice since then....

And speaking of new career: I trained last night to become a bartender. Or, at least that was the plan. Nobody ordered any drinks last night ... or at least none that I hadn't already made (rum and coke...ooooh...tough that one). So now I know how to break down the bar, and set up the bar, and clean the bar -- but if anyone actually orders a drink, I'm toast. But it was fun to get to stand around watching elimidate with the bartender. Oh yes, I forgot, I can make cappucinos. That's my other marketable skill! Except for foam. I suck at foam. I'm so bad Sergio is threatening to send me to Starbucks to learn. I got some good foam yesterday -- too late to put on an actual latte. Oh well.

Michelle Pfeiffer is very nice...tips well too. And Jennifer Aniston has very nice parents....

Oh where, oh where did all of my faithful followers go? (all three of you!). Is it because the comments don't work? Or is that just at other peoples' sites? I'm BACK!

I'm alone at work! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can check my email to my heart's content. Unless my boss walks in and catches me...in which case, I can go back to checking my email at the library.

Bloody Bank.

I deposited $600, some in cash, some in the form of a check, into the ATM. Someone decided that my handwriting didn't look like myself and sent the check to me in the mail. In the meantime, the money had shown up in the account, and I promptly opened another acount and transferred the total into said account. So now I'm overdrawn in my savings. with a fee to boot. So i go to the bank, freshly mailed check in hand, and tell them to deposit the check and take off the overdraft charge. I thought it was all taken care of. Suprise Suprise. The teller deposited the money to my CHECKING account, instead of into my overdrawn savings. So, the quandry is this. Just suck it up and absorb the overdraft fee, or waste another 15 minutes worth of gas to go back to the bank and get her to fix it.

And why aren't comments working anymore. Teri, if you read this, I've been trying to comment on your webpage, but it won't ever show up when I refresh.

On a sidenote, why can't broadway write a lead for a freaking soprano once in a while?

Yesterday I made a rather rash purchase of a CD just because I liked the title. "Jane Eyre: The musical." Have I mentioned how much I love that book? Probably only a hundred times to my nearest and dearest (not to be confused with 'Gone with the Wind:' which is not my favorite, merely an annual tradition). A few months ago I splurged for a CD of "Jane Eyre: the opera" for the same stellar reasoning as the binge in question. What have I discovered? There must be SOME WAY to hold the two together, shake REALLY HARD and combine them into something that resembles the actual story.

Allow me to explain. Starting with "the opera." The opera is very modern. It makes Marc Adamo's Little Women pleasing and melodic (another editorial comment here -- I LOVE that opera, and think it is very pleasing, and melodic when it should be. My sister says it drives her crazy). This is so modern that there doesn't appear to be a melody present in the entire two hours. It abandons the plot entirely, focusing on the section from Jane's entrance and Thornfield, and ending, well, at the end -- with several major leaps...it relies heavily on the hope that someone out there has actually read the book. The libretto consists mainly of instrumental cacophany, Jane singing frantic atonal recitatives, and Mr. Rochester staggering across the stage doing glissandos to the tune of "Jane." Even the happy moments with Adelle are underscored with tension. In fact, really, the whole point of the show seems to be -- lets make this show darker and more mysterious. Question: If the subtext is on top, doesn't it negate the mystery?

So, on to Jane Eyre: the musical. I like this better of the two...at first. It at least opens up more of the plot, introducing Jane at Lowwood school, and all, and starting with an orphan scene that tries it's best not to be the all female cast of Oliver. Kudos to the composer for giving Helen Burns a song to herself. Jump ahead to Thornfield, and introducing Mrs. Potts as Mrs. Fairfax (even Andrea thought that this role was obviously written with Angela Lansbury in mind). When she started going on about tea, and how her head was all muddled it just SCREAMED beauty and the beast...but maybe only in my twisted little head.

I love the song given to Blanche Ingram. I intend to sing it once I buy the score. Written for a coloratura soprano. The lady in the recording wasn't bad. I think I could do it justice. The only think I didn't like was that after a while all the music started to sound the same. And it failed to move me in the opposite way of the opera. It was all light and playful, and only once even tried to switch to a minor key. So where the first one was all subtext on top, the second had no subtext at all. It's like if you had "Titanic: the opera -- which played everything off kilter for the whole show, making it slightly more sinister than nightmare before Christmas; and then Titanic the musical (I am aware that there is one which is NOT like the comparison I'm making) that played everything happy, even with a nice "it's a little nippy in here' chorus when they're all in the water. Combine the two and it would be just about right. But that's only my 6am opinion.