HG

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

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

Christmas

The bummer with putting up Christmas trees...

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

Today

Today

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

We Got Carried Away

We Got Carried Away

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

Another Saturday

Another Saturday

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

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

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

Hurrah! I'm getting a piano

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

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

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

So, Denise. Wanna help?

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

Yesterday Sucked.

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

I think I'm tired.

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

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

Teaching

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

I'm a genius!

Your IQ Is 125

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

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

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

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.