Alright, so I'm not sure exactly how exactly this is working (because it's late at night and I'm tired and I basically just skimmed the project information) but apparently a graduate student is doing a project to figure out how quickly memes travel around the blog world. And since I came across the project on someone's blog today, I figure it would be skewing his results ever-so-slightly if I didn't acknowledge that I'd seen it. Plus he told readers to " Relate sob stories about poor graduate students in desperate circumstances. Imply I'm one of them." And since about half the time that describes me as well (especially as Ph.D. application deadlines and the end of the semester loom) I figured the least I could do was link to his page and play along.
So here. Check this out. Contribute to the experiment.
And now I have a question for you: What do a digital camera, a set of five pound weights, and a package of rainbow-colored Sharpies have in common? If you answered, "Well, Ashley, they are all things that were stolen out of your apartment last week while you were out of town!" then you win the prize.
Yeah. Apparently someone came in here and took stuff while I was staying in Austin. It took me a while to realize it, and to convince myself that I'm not just crazy, but now I'm positive that someone broke in here. I know, I know. You're rolling your eyes and saying, "Come on, surely you just misplaced those random things." But hear me out.
Let me set this up by reminding you all that I am almost freakishly organized. I have a very little apartment, and it is a very neat and organized apartment. I'm a "place for everything and everything in its place" kinda girl. I straighten up as I go, or at the very least straighten up the apartment every night before going to bed. This is not an apartment where it is easy for stuff to go missing. Which is not to say I don't misplace things once in a while, but...
Monday night I used my digital camera here at the house to upload Cohen's Christmas card pictures and my pictures from Ohio. That was the last time I used/saw the camera. On Tuesday evening after work I drove up to Austin. From that point until last night (Monday), I was only in my apartment for five to ten minutes at a time every other day or so. I'd come in with my duffel bag, toss my dirty clothes into the hamper, grab some clean clothes, and then head back to Austin. To anyone watching my apartment, it would have been obvious I was out of town.
Saturday afternoon after work I stopped by the apartment to grab some clean clothes and get my camera to take it to the concert. That's when I discovered my camera wasn't in its usual drawer. I didn't think anything of it at the time, though. I just assumed I must have misplaced it somewhere else in the apartment or thrown it into one of my bags and taken it to Chelsea's house with me for some reason (maybe I wanted to take pictures of the dogs? I didn't know, but it was entirely possible it was already at Chelsea's). When I got back to Chelsea's I searched all my bags for my camera, but it wasn't there. Oh well, I thought, it has to be somewhere in the apartment because you used it on Monday night.
So last night I finally got home for good, and the first thing I did after unpacking was search for the digital camera, which was nowhere to be found. Still, I didn't look EVERYWHERE everywhere, so I figured I was just overlooking it somehow. I once misplaced a battery charger for several months, so it is possible. I wasn't worried. But then I went to get my Sharpies so that I could mark my calendar. [Pause for a moment and keep in mind that I am a huge dork before you continue reading. Ready? Okay.] I have this package of rainbow-colored Sharpies, and I use them for one thing and one thing only: putting a star on my wall calendar on the days I work out. I don't use these Sharpies for anything else. I don't take them anywhere, I don't do other projects with them, they stay in my desk drawer unless I'm using one to mark my calendar. So I was puzzled when I went to mark off the days I'd worked out in Austin on my calendar and my Sharpies were missing. Huh. I knew I wouldn't have taken those somewhere with me, but I thought maybe they'd gotten stuck in the back of the drawer or I'd grabbed them and carried them into the bathroom or kitchen and gotten distracted and put them down, blah, blah, blah. I searched around a bit but gave up and went to bed, sans camera and markers but not all that worried about it.
Then today after work I decided to search for my camera AGAIN. I couldn't shake the thought that I was just not looking carefully and missing it (I'm notorious for missing things right in front of my face, so I still figured it was just my own stupidity at this point). I began by thoroughly searching the camera drawer, and that's when it dawned on me for the first time that the cord I use to upload the pictures to my computer was missing. And that's when I got chills for the first time, because here's the thing: there is absolutely no reason in the world why I would have taken that cord anywhere. There's just not. The fact that the cord was missing, too, made me realize that someone must have taken the camera. So I called my dad, because I needed someone to tell me that I'm crazy and stupid and had obviously just misplaced the camera somewhere and was overreacting. But instead Dad said, "File a police report." And I said, "What if I file a police report and then find the camera somewhere totally random three weeks from now?" and Dad said, "That happens. Don't worry about it. File the report."
But I felt so stupid. I mean, the only things missing were a digital camera and a set of markers, I figured the police would just laugh and assume (probably rightly) that I'd just misplaced my own stuff and was an idiot. After all, there was absolutely no sign of a forced entry. There was no sign that any of my things had been rifled through. And why wouldn't the burglar have taken anything else from the house? (I still don't have a good explanation for this, other than the fact that thankfully every other small, valuable, easy to steal and conceal thing that I own--my mp3 player, my cell phone, my laptop, my nice rings--were in Austin with me, and I guess the burglar didn't like my taste in DVDs).
Anyway, I talked to Mike to get his opinion, and while I was talking to him about whether or not I should call the cops he triggered a memory and I realized that last night when I'd gotten home the drawer to my bedside table was lying on the floor. Now, it's a rickety drawer. It does fall out once in a while, and that's why I didn't really think anything of it last night. But it has never fallen out on its own, ever. It has only fallen out when I've been trying to open it. And it's sort of tricky to jimmy it back into place once it has fallen out, so I guess the person must have broken it and been unable to get it back and and just had to leave it lying there (because other than that, the entire apartment looked perfectly normal) So basically, the drawer alone wouldn't be suspicious, but the broken drawer along with the missing items was enough for me to call the police.
So I called the police and filed a report and talked to some people in the apartment office (although not the manager, since she was already gone for the day). I was still feeling like I could have been panicking about nothing, though, until I went to work out a couple of hours ago. I went in my closet to get my weights, and they're missing, too. And that was my 100% positive sign that someone broke into this apartment. Because as much as there's no reason that I would take the camera cord or the markers out of this apartment, there is absolutely ZERO reason at all whatsoever that those weights would be anywhere but their spot in my closet.
So yes. Someone broke in here and stole from me for sure. And the worst part is that there was no sign of a break in. I came home to an apartment that was as fully locked and burglar-barred as it had been when I left it. Which means that whoever came in here is someone that works here, someone with a key (I've never made a spare key, so the only people that have one are me and the apartment complex office). I just feel so betrayed, especially since this is a small apartment complex and I chat daily with both maintenance men and the women that work in the office. I'd hate to think that someone who loves on Cohen and chats with me every day stole from my apartment, but there's really no other explanation.
I'm going to talk to the apartment manager tomorrow, but I'm not sure she can do anything. I don't think I can legally change my locks and not let them have a copy of the key (can I?). I just want her to figure out which one of her employees broke in here. If she can't do that, she needs to figure out some way to make me feel safe in this apartment. I'm not big on the idea of breaking my lease and moving at this point, but I'm also not big on the idea of staying here as long as I know that someone untrustworthy has access to my key and can come in at any time.
Ugh.
I tried to make myself feel better by decorating my apartment for Christmas instead of the school-related stuff I should have been doing. And it mostly worked. My apartment kind of looks like Christmas threw up all over it, but it's very cheery. I'm happy that I'll be able to enjoy my decorations for the next two weeks. I love Christmas. I would take pictures and post them, except, hey, I don't have a camera anymore! My mom said that she'd get me a new camera for Christmas, which is wonderful because I'd started entertaining the thought of buying myself a new camera anyway, but this isn't the way I wanted to get one.
Finally, I'm getting a little annoyed with the whole PC, "Happy Holidays" thing. I get that not everyone celebrates Christmas and it's nice to ere on the safe side, but it's getting out of hand. This evening at Target I bought a mini Christmas tree, four new ornaments (one of which was an angel), and a box of candy canes, and as I finished checking out the cashier said, "Happy Holiday!" Happy holiday. Lady, there is a CHRISTMAS TREE, a BOX OF CANDY CANES, and an ANGEL ORNAMENT in my cart. I may be mistaken, but I think you can be safe in assuming that regardless of whether or not I am actually a Christian, I am planning to celebrate CHRISTMAS, and you can express appropriate wishes.
It's a crazy world.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Remember Pete and Pete?
I'm watching The Squid and the Whale right now, which I've been meaning to do since last spring but I just never got around to it. Tonight I found it sitting here on Chelsea's coffee table along with some other movies she borrowed from her neighbor, so I figured I'd see what all the hype was about. Anyway, it's very good so far (I'll have to see how it ends since I'm only an hour into it) but I can't stop thinking about how the oldest son in it reminds me of the older Pete from that old Nickelodeon show Pete and Pete. I know it's not him because the resemblance is not that exact and this guy wouldn't be the right age, but now I have a craving to watch an old episode of Pete and Pete. There should be a television channel that shows all those old Nickelodeon shows. Hey, Dude! was pretty awesome, after all.
I'm starting to feel pretty ready to move back to my own apartment. Staying at Chelsea's hasn't been bad. I hate her shower (no water pressure) and that she doesn't have a dishwasher (I'm lazy) and I've been having allergy attacks every day (because I'm allergic to all furry animals that I don't live with on a daily basis so all the Cedric/Morty hair is messing me up) and I've walked into the same oddly-placed dresser every single day at least once and now have a massive bruise on my right hip (because running into it once wasn't enough to teach me, apparently) but other than that I feel pretty settled in up here and I've had a good week. Plus I was able to do laundry for free and walking the dogs in her neighborhood is much more fun and exciting than walking them in mine, so there's that. Really, I've been having a nice time. However, Morty got out of the yard not once, not twice, but THREE times today and each time I had to chase him through the neighborhood wearing just my pajamas. His legs are about as long as a pony's so each time I had to rely on someone else to finally notice that I was running a block behind the dog shouting his name and tackle the dog for me and then hold him until I finally caught up. And of course Morty was absolutely gleeful and so proud of his antics. So yeah, thanks for the workout, Voldemort. You're a very sweet, crazy dog, but I'm glad your mom is coming home tomorrow.
Last night Amanda, Richie and I went to the Imogen Heap concert, and it was awesome. She put on a great show, once again. Her set was almost the exact same as the concert Matthew and I saw in May (almost all the same songs, different order), but that's not a problem considering she plays all my favorites. Her opening acts were great, too. There was Kid Beyond, this beat box guy that blew us away. I have no idea how one person can make so many sounds with his mouth, or how he discovered he had that talent in the first place. And the other opener, Levi Weaver, impressed me so much with his grace under pressure during some technical difficulties that I actually got all cheesy and sent him a myspace message telling him how much I'd enjoyed his set in spite of everything. I don't know what possessed me to do that since it's very unlike me to gush to total strangers, but oh well.
Anyway, catch an Imogen Heap concert if you can. She's a good performer and seems to be a genuinely nice person who cares about her fans. She actually recorded an outgoing voicemail message for Matthew when he waited for her after the Houston show. Who does that?! So cool. So yeah. All three of you that read this should check her out, and do it now before she disappears at the end of this tour to record a new album.
I'm starting to feel pretty ready to move back to my own apartment. Staying at Chelsea's hasn't been bad. I hate her shower (no water pressure) and that she doesn't have a dishwasher (I'm lazy) and I've been having allergy attacks every day (because I'm allergic to all furry animals that I don't live with on a daily basis so all the Cedric/Morty hair is messing me up) and I've walked into the same oddly-placed dresser every single day at least once and now have a massive bruise on my right hip (because running into it once wasn't enough to teach me, apparently) but other than that I feel pretty settled in up here and I've had a good week. Plus I was able to do laundry for free and walking the dogs in her neighborhood is much more fun and exciting than walking them in mine, so there's that. Really, I've been having a nice time. However, Morty got out of the yard not once, not twice, but THREE times today and each time I had to chase him through the neighborhood wearing just my pajamas. His legs are about as long as a pony's so each time I had to rely on someone else to finally notice that I was running a block behind the dog shouting his name and tackle the dog for me and then hold him until I finally caught up. And of course Morty was absolutely gleeful and so proud of his antics. So yeah, thanks for the workout, Voldemort. You're a very sweet, crazy dog, but I'm glad your mom is coming home tomorrow.
Last night Amanda, Richie and I went to the Imogen Heap concert, and it was awesome. She put on a great show, once again. Her set was almost the exact same as the concert Matthew and I saw in May (almost all the same songs, different order), but that's not a problem considering she plays all my favorites. Her opening acts were great, too. There was Kid Beyond, this beat box guy that blew us away. I have no idea how one person can make so many sounds with his mouth, or how he discovered he had that talent in the first place. And the other opener, Levi Weaver, impressed me so much with his grace under pressure during some technical difficulties that I actually got all cheesy and sent him a myspace message telling him how much I'd enjoyed his set in spite of everything. I don't know what possessed me to do that since it's very unlike me to gush to total strangers, but oh well.
Anyway, catch an Imogen Heap concert if you can. She's a good performer and seems to be a genuinely nice person who cares about her fans. She actually recorded an outgoing voicemail message for Matthew when he waited for her after the Houston show. Who does that?! So cool. So yeah. All three of you that read this should check her out, and do it now before she disappears at the end of this tour to record a new album.
Friday, November 24, 2006
The Day After
The only thing bad about going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving is that I don't have all the leftovers to make my standard day-after-Thanksgiving sandwich. So instead I just ordered myself chicken and artichoke fettucine from a restaurant around the corner that I like and it is going to be delivered any minute now. An okay compromise, I suppose.
Thanksgiving ended up being a lot of fun. Everyone seemed to really like Richie and he liked everyone, my cousins and cousin-in-laws and Richie and I drank several bottles of red wine and had some entertaining conversations, Richie had his first ever experience with green bean casserole (you should have seen the jaws drop around the table when everyone realized the Canadian had never had green bean casserole...which admittedly was never a standard at my family's Thanksgiving dinners but even I know it's like, THE traditional sidedish), and I got some good laughs from the antics of my cousin's four year-old daughter. It was a really good day.
I have nothing else to say, really. Good movies are on Bravo tonight so I think I'm gonna stay in (I say, as if I wasn't planning on staying in anyway even if there hadn't been good movies on TV). Maybe I'll even work on some application. Maybe.
Thanksgiving ended up being a lot of fun. Everyone seemed to really like Richie and he liked everyone, my cousins and cousin-in-laws and Richie and I drank several bottles of red wine and had some entertaining conversations, Richie had his first ever experience with green bean casserole (you should have seen the jaws drop around the table when everyone realized the Canadian had never had green bean casserole...which admittedly was never a standard at my family's Thanksgiving dinners but even I know it's like, THE traditional sidedish), and I got some good laughs from the antics of my cousin's four year-old daughter. It was a really good day.
I have nothing else to say, really. Good movies are on Bravo tonight so I think I'm gonna stay in (I say, as if I wasn't planning on staying in anyway even if there hadn't been good movies on TV). Maybe I'll even work on some application. Maybe.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Time Goes By So Slowly
I can't wait to grow up and become Madonna.
I thought I'd be sad not being with my family for Thanksgiving, but honestly, I haven't minded nearly as much as I thought I would. It helps that I just saw them last weekend for my show. That was fun, by the way. Did I mention that the fire alarm went off in the middle of the show the night that my family came to watch? And that I was house managing that night and that the stage manager and I had to be in charge of evacuating the theater? And that we had never actually discussed an evacuation plan so Laura and I had to just kind of make it up as we went along? Oh, and that before all that even happened we had to delay the start of the show because one of the actresses got stuck behind a big wreck and was running incredibly late? It all went fine, and all the troubleshooting was even kind of exciting in a way although I had to make three or four announcements to the entire house which is a lot more work than I usually do for my salary on any given night.
Speaking of money, at the restaurant job I've already made $100 this week just from working lunch yesterday and today. Since this is the job I got stuck working over Thanksgiving weekend, it's nice that I'm actually making some money. It makes staying here feel somewhat worthwhile. Although technically I did sort of travel for Thanksgiving since I'm staying at Chelsea's house while she's in El Paso. I brought Cohen and Jose up here and I'm watching all four animals over the long weekend. At this exact moment, three out of four of them are on the couch (Chelsea's cat Cedric is shunning the rest of us for some reason).
Anyway, I'm gonna go do some reading or studying and try to be productive since I'm taking the whole day off tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be busy introducing Richie my Favorite Canadian to the joys of Thanksgiving, America-style. We're going down to San Antonio to hang out with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, which should be fun. And then Saturday is my second Imogen Heap concert this year! This time I'm going with Richie and Amanda, which should be a lot of fun, too. So yes. Stuff to look foward to, which is better than stuff to stress about.
Alright, I'm boring myself. Good night.
I thought I'd be sad not being with my family for Thanksgiving, but honestly, I haven't minded nearly as much as I thought I would. It helps that I just saw them last weekend for my show. That was fun, by the way. Did I mention that the fire alarm went off in the middle of the show the night that my family came to watch? And that I was house managing that night and that the stage manager and I had to be in charge of evacuating the theater? And that we had never actually discussed an evacuation plan so Laura and I had to just kind of make it up as we went along? Oh, and that before all that even happened we had to delay the start of the show because one of the actresses got stuck behind a big wreck and was running incredibly late? It all went fine, and all the troubleshooting was even kind of exciting in a way although I had to make three or four announcements to the entire house which is a lot more work than I usually do for my salary on any given night.
Speaking of money, at the restaurant job I've already made $100 this week just from working lunch yesterday and today. Since this is the job I got stuck working over Thanksgiving weekend, it's nice that I'm actually making some money. It makes staying here feel somewhat worthwhile. Although technically I did sort of travel for Thanksgiving since I'm staying at Chelsea's house while she's in El Paso. I brought Cohen and Jose up here and I'm watching all four animals over the long weekend. At this exact moment, three out of four of them are on the couch (Chelsea's cat Cedric is shunning the rest of us for some reason).
Anyway, I'm gonna go do some reading or studying and try to be productive since I'm taking the whole day off tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be busy introducing Richie my Favorite Canadian to the joys of Thanksgiving, America-style. We're going down to San Antonio to hang out with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, which should be fun. And then Saturday is my second Imogen Heap concert this year! This time I'm going with Richie and Amanda, which should be a lot of fun, too. So yes. Stuff to look foward to, which is better than stuff to stress about.
Alright, I'm boring myself. Good night.
Monday, November 20, 2006
It's That Time Again
Yes, it's that time again. That time that occurs every two months or so where I proceed to freak out about THE FUTURE and have an entire day where I feel on edge and uneasy before finally half-heartedly convincing myself that it's all going to be okay somehow.
And it will be. I know that. I'm a smart girl with a lot of marketable skills. Even if I don't get to do exactly what I want to do with my career right now I'm going to find some way to make a living and be somewhat successful and not starve to death. I guess I'm just a little freaked out right now because the first of the applications for PhD programs are due in three weeks and I honestly don't know what my chances are. But considering most of the programs I'm applying to take two people--TWO PEOPLE--the chances are probably not great. I don't know how many people apply, but if they're only taking two people each semester, statistically there's not a very good likelihood that I'll be one of them.
And that scares me a little, mostly just because I don't have a good plan B right now. And I feel like I really, really need to start making a Plan B, because spending the next year or two bartending in El Paso doesn't sound very appealing. But that's as far as my mind has gotten: PhD program, or back to El Paso to regroup. And I think I'd be able to regroup pretty quickly and not have to spend much time living in El Paso before I found something better to do, but ideally I'd like there to be a seamless transition from this step to the next step so that I don't have to spend time in El Paso at all.
(Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that going back to El Paso really isn't my only other option, but like I said, that's as far as my mind has gotten).
(Oh, and also, please don't interpret this as El Paso bashing. I actually like El Paso, I seriously do. It's just that there's not much theatre there so going back to El Paso automatically feels like quitting/giving up my dreams and that's why I'm against going back to El Paso. It has nothing...okay, very little...to do with the actual place or the people there)
So yeah. My plan is to work a little bit on my applications every day and get them all sent off before Christmas break is over. I'm freaking out, but I'm going to be okay. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to, even if it doesn't work out the way I hope it will. All in all I'm lucky. I need to remember that, always. And hey, maybe if this whole school thing falls through I'll at least get a boyfriend out of the deal. Because apparently I can have love or I can have career success but I can't manage to have both at the same time.
I was feeling bad because I feel like I didn't really do anything productive today, but then I realized I
A) Closed the box office down for the semester and compiled everyone's hours
B) Took down my lobby display
C) Took Cohen to his obedience class in Austin
D) Did laundry
E) Caught up on uploading all my pictures
F) Designed and ordered my Christmas cards*
G) Made a detailed list of what I need for each application and when they are due
And really, that's not bad for a Monday.
*If you'd like a Christmas card featuring an adorable basset hound, a somewhat pissed off tuxedo cat, and me, e-mail or myspace message me or leave me a comment if you're not paranoid about internet weirdos and I'll send you a card full of holiday cheer!
And it will be. I know that. I'm a smart girl with a lot of marketable skills. Even if I don't get to do exactly what I want to do with my career right now I'm going to find some way to make a living and be somewhat successful and not starve to death. I guess I'm just a little freaked out right now because the first of the applications for PhD programs are due in three weeks and I honestly don't know what my chances are. But considering most of the programs I'm applying to take two people--TWO PEOPLE--the chances are probably not great. I don't know how many people apply, but if they're only taking two people each semester, statistically there's not a very good likelihood that I'll be one of them.
And that scares me a little, mostly just because I don't have a good plan B right now. And I feel like I really, really need to start making a Plan B, because spending the next year or two bartending in El Paso doesn't sound very appealing. But that's as far as my mind has gotten: PhD program, or back to El Paso to regroup. And I think I'd be able to regroup pretty quickly and not have to spend much time living in El Paso before I found something better to do, but ideally I'd like there to be a seamless transition from this step to the next step so that I don't have to spend time in El Paso at all.
(Incidentally, I'm pretty sure that going back to El Paso really isn't my only other option, but like I said, that's as far as my mind has gotten).
(Oh, and also, please don't interpret this as El Paso bashing. I actually like El Paso, I seriously do. It's just that there's not much theatre there so going back to El Paso automatically feels like quitting/giving up my dreams and that's why I'm against going back to El Paso. It has nothing...okay, very little...to do with the actual place or the people there)
So yeah. My plan is to work a little bit on my applications every day and get them all sent off before Christmas break is over. I'm freaking out, but I'm going to be okay. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to, even if it doesn't work out the way I hope it will. All in all I'm lucky. I need to remember that, always. And hey, maybe if this whole school thing falls through I'll at least get a boyfriend out of the deal. Because apparently I can have love or I can have career success but I can't manage to have both at the same time.
I was feeling bad because I feel like I didn't really do anything productive today, but then I realized I
A) Closed the box office down for the semester and compiled everyone's hours
B) Took down my lobby display
C) Took Cohen to his obedience class in Austin
D) Did laundry
E) Caught up on uploading all my pictures
F) Designed and ordered my Christmas cards*
G) Made a detailed list of what I need for each application and when they are due
And really, that's not bad for a Monday.
*If you'd like a Christmas card featuring an adorable basset hound, a somewhat pissed off tuxedo cat, and me, e-mail or myspace message me or leave me a comment if you're not paranoid about internet weirdos and I'll send you a card full of holiday cheer!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Everybody in the Club Rock On
It's only 43 degrees outside right now! Given, it's the middle of the night and earlier this afternoon the temperature was close to 70, but still. Cold(ish) weather! I'm wearing my favorite lounge-around-the-house sweater right now, this big blue cashmere thing I inherited from my brother several Christmases ago when he opened it and immediately decided the cable pattern makes it "too gay". I love it, though, it's so cozy. Definitely one of my top five favorite items of clothing. And Jose is curled up with his head on my chest. He likes the sweater, too.
Anyway, I have plenty to talk about, which is why I haven't been updating lately. Haven't you all realized yet that I only write when I have absolutely nothing of interest to say?
So, Rocky. I completed my lobby display on Tuesday afternoon about three hours before the show opened. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. My thesis committee members gave it their seal of approval and the director seems pretty thrilled by it, and that's all that really matters. Well, and the fact that I'm pleased with it. That matters, too. My parents are flying in to watch the show tomorrow night, and my siblings, my sister's boyfriend, and my Adopted Mexican Brother Gus are all coming to watch, too, so that should be fun. Since I'm still having a hell of a time describing exactly what I do as a dramaturg (I've now had about three conversations with my mother in which she says, "So you're the director?" and I have to say, "Um, no...") I'm glad there are at least tangible things like the lobby display and my name on the front page of the program to show everybody. I mean, there's a lot more to it than that, but if that's what people can understand about my job, well, at least that's something. And eventually in the spring there will be a thesis to read, but that's the beauty of my thesis topic: everyone can watch the show and go, "Oh, okay, cool" and then nobody has to feign interest in a 1oo-2oo page document. Haha.
Oh, and the show has been incredibly popular. We sold out every show but one last week, and by yesterday we'd sold out the entire rest of the run. Which is great and all, but last night was hell, though, because there somehow ended up being several double sold seats and no way for me to fix the problem since the show was sold out. It was frantic, people were angry, and there was nothing I could do about it. I hated everyone by the time last night was over. Luckily I was able to trouble shoot as much as possible and I decided on a few things I can do the rest of the week to hopefully avoid similar problems, so we'll see. Tonight went much, much smoother and I'm hoping Friday and Saturday will go okay as well. I'm supposed to watch the show with my family tomorrow night but I may not be able to actually go in and relax until intermission if front of house is as hectic as it has been the past couple of nights. I did already watch the show with a full audience on Tuesday night, though. Matthew came into town for the night and I watched with him, Claire, and Amanda. Afterwards we went to Applebees for drinks and dinner and because I was still dressed in my Rocky Horror outfit and telling anyone that asked, "Oh, I just came from my other job" I think half of my coworkers now think my other job is "prostitute". Awesome.
In other exciting news, Kymberli bought a plane ticket to Las Vegas today. YAY! Chelsea and I are supposed to go up there a couple of days before Christmas for our cousin's wedding (have I already talked about this?) and Chelsea decided to bring her boyfriend and since I'm not in a relationship (unless by "relationship" you mean "strange lingering undefinable thing with an ex that is almost certainly a bad idea because it's ultimately nothing and he's a bit of a man whore right now but at least I know exactly where I stand at the moment and we're actually getting along really well as friends right now so why quit?") I invited--okay, begged--Kymberli to come to Las Vegas to hang out with me. And she actually is!!! I'm so excited!! I didn't mind the idea of being there with just Chelsea and her Mike too badly (yes, her boyfriend is named Mike), especially since a lot of my relatives will be there. But having Kymberli there with me will be much, MUCH more fun, plus I don't have to be in a lonely hotel room by myself. Yes!
Finally, the Ohio trip went great. I had a good time hanging out with Amanda and Dr. C., Ohio/West Virginia is surprisingly beautiful (I don't know what I was expecting, exactly, but I didn't expect it to be as pretty as it was), I met several Canadians that have way stronger Canadian accents than my favorite Canadian, Richie, and my paper presentation went fine. Better than fine, actually. It was supposed to be a panel of three people but only two of us ended up actually being there, so I was a bit stressed when I realized our question and answer session would be longer than the norm since we had all the time that would have been taken up by the third paper. And then all three of the people Amanda and I had secretly been making fun of all weekend ended up being in my session. One of them was this guy Dr. C pointed out who had been staring at me in sort of a creepy manner during the conference luncheon, one of them was a guy who asked really difficult questions in each session seemingly in an attempt to throw presenters off on purpose and not because he was actually interested in the paper, and the third one was this senile old man. Fortunately Difficult Question Guy directed his difficult question to the other panelist and left me alone, Creepy Guy wasn't that bad after all, and Senile Man made such a stupid point that I was able to just reply, "Well, that's not within the scope of this paper, and at any rate I disagree with you" and that was that. My paper sparked some interesting discussion, and afterwards I had several people come up and tell me it was an "excellent" paper, so I feel pretty good about it. And Amanda and I were by far the most stylish people at the conference, which is of course the most important part. Ha.
Anyway, I'm gonna get some sleep so I can get up and go to the outlet mall tomorrow morning. I've pretty much exhausted my imagination making up slutty/sexy Rocky costumes from items already in my closet, so I've turned it into an excuse to use some birthday money at Victoria's Secret. And possibly Hot Topic, although I kind of hate Hot Topic. Yeah. Good night.
Anyway, I have plenty to talk about, which is why I haven't been updating lately. Haven't you all realized yet that I only write when I have absolutely nothing of interest to say?
So, Rocky. I completed my lobby display on Tuesday afternoon about three hours before the show opened. It came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. My thesis committee members gave it their seal of approval and the director seems pretty thrilled by it, and that's all that really matters. Well, and the fact that I'm pleased with it. That matters, too. My parents are flying in to watch the show tomorrow night, and my siblings, my sister's boyfriend, and my Adopted Mexican Brother Gus are all coming to watch, too, so that should be fun. Since I'm still having a hell of a time describing exactly what I do as a dramaturg (I've now had about three conversations with my mother in which she says, "So you're the director?" and I have to say, "Um, no...") I'm glad there are at least tangible things like the lobby display and my name on the front page of the program to show everybody. I mean, there's a lot more to it than that, but if that's what people can understand about my job, well, at least that's something. And eventually in the spring there will be a thesis to read, but that's the beauty of my thesis topic: everyone can watch the show and go, "Oh, okay, cool" and then nobody has to feign interest in a 1oo-2oo page document. Haha.
Oh, and the show has been incredibly popular. We sold out every show but one last week, and by yesterday we'd sold out the entire rest of the run. Which is great and all, but last night was hell, though, because there somehow ended up being several double sold seats and no way for me to fix the problem since the show was sold out. It was frantic, people were angry, and there was nothing I could do about it. I hated everyone by the time last night was over. Luckily I was able to trouble shoot as much as possible and I decided on a few things I can do the rest of the week to hopefully avoid similar problems, so we'll see. Tonight went much, much smoother and I'm hoping Friday and Saturday will go okay as well. I'm supposed to watch the show with my family tomorrow night but I may not be able to actually go in and relax until intermission if front of house is as hectic as it has been the past couple of nights. I did already watch the show with a full audience on Tuesday night, though. Matthew came into town for the night and I watched with him, Claire, and Amanda. Afterwards we went to Applebees for drinks and dinner and because I was still dressed in my Rocky Horror outfit and telling anyone that asked, "Oh, I just came from my other job" I think half of my coworkers now think my other job is "prostitute". Awesome.
In other exciting news, Kymberli bought a plane ticket to Las Vegas today. YAY! Chelsea and I are supposed to go up there a couple of days before Christmas for our cousin's wedding (have I already talked about this?) and Chelsea decided to bring her boyfriend and since I'm not in a relationship (unless by "relationship" you mean "strange lingering undefinable thing with an ex that is almost certainly a bad idea because it's ultimately nothing and he's a bit of a man whore right now but at least I know exactly where I stand at the moment and we're actually getting along really well as friends right now so why quit?") I invited--okay, begged--Kymberli to come to Las Vegas to hang out with me. And she actually is!!! I'm so excited!! I didn't mind the idea of being there with just Chelsea and her Mike too badly (yes, her boyfriend is named Mike), especially since a lot of my relatives will be there. But having Kymberli there with me will be much, MUCH more fun, plus I don't have to be in a lonely hotel room by myself. Yes!
Finally, the Ohio trip went great. I had a good time hanging out with Amanda and Dr. C., Ohio/West Virginia is surprisingly beautiful (I don't know what I was expecting, exactly, but I didn't expect it to be as pretty as it was), I met several Canadians that have way stronger Canadian accents than my favorite Canadian, Richie, and my paper presentation went fine. Better than fine, actually. It was supposed to be a panel of three people but only two of us ended up actually being there, so I was a bit stressed when I realized our question and answer session would be longer than the norm since we had all the time that would have been taken up by the third paper. And then all three of the people Amanda and I had secretly been making fun of all weekend ended up being in my session. One of them was this guy Dr. C pointed out who had been staring at me in sort of a creepy manner during the conference luncheon, one of them was a guy who asked really difficult questions in each session seemingly in an attempt to throw presenters off on purpose and not because he was actually interested in the paper, and the third one was this senile old man. Fortunately Difficult Question Guy directed his difficult question to the other panelist and left me alone, Creepy Guy wasn't that bad after all, and Senile Man made such a stupid point that I was able to just reply, "Well, that's not within the scope of this paper, and at any rate I disagree with you" and that was that. My paper sparked some interesting discussion, and afterwards I had several people come up and tell me it was an "excellent" paper, so I feel pretty good about it. And Amanda and I were by far the most stylish people at the conference, which is of course the most important part. Ha.
Anyway, I'm gonna get some sleep so I can get up and go to the outlet mall tomorrow morning. I've pretty much exhausted my imagination making up slutty/sexy Rocky costumes from items already in my closet, so I've turned it into an excuse to use some birthday money at Victoria's Secret. And possibly Hot Topic, although I kind of hate Hot Topic. Yeah. Good night.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Round on the End, High in the Middle
Here are a few observations that I feel completely qualified to make about southeastern Ohio and the mid-Ohio valley region considering I have now spent two full days here:
- These Ohio Valleyans (?) love them some taco salad. There has been a taco salad on every menu I've seen since I arrived in West Virginia, including the menu for the pizza place where Amanda and I ordered dinner tonight. Odd.
- They also love those check-cashing places. I've seen at least five places with variations on the name "Cash Stop" since I got here, and this is not exactly a big, bustling town.
- It's exactly like most towns in Texas in the fact that the Super Walmart is one of the most happenin' places in town after 10:00 PM.
- Their local commercials are even more cringe-inducing than the ones in central Texas, which shouldn't be possible.
But I like it here. It's beautiful (actual autumn weather, complete with colorful leaves! What a concept!!) and the conference has gone surprisingly well. More on all that when I get back to Texas, though (maybe). Pizza just got here, so I'm outta here.
P.S.-Someone please explain this to me: The Comfort Inn offers free wireless internet, but the Four Seasons charges $10 a day. I get free internet in the hotel room we're paying $62 a night for, but the Four Seasons can't handle shelling out for free internet? Seriously?
Sunday, November 05, 2006
24
Why yes, I did have a birthday today.
I'm 24 now. Do you realize that 24 is only SIX YEARS away from 30? I got my new drivers license in the mail and when I saw that it expires in 2012 and I realized that I'll be THIRTY in 2012, I had a moment. It's not that I'm worried about 30, exactly. Age is just a number, blah, blah, blah, and honestly, 30 doesn't sound too terribly old to me (not when I can look at my parents, who just turned 50 and are busy running off to Las Vegas five times a year and have greater drinking stamina than I do). It's just that I can so clearly and vividly remember getting my last drivers license six years ago. I was a senior in high school so I went to the DPS before school that morning. It was the day of the Celebrity Waiters Luncheon, this charity event I used to volunteer at every year to get an excused day off from school, and I remember standing with a group of my friends getting ready to carpool over to the luncheon and saying, "Wow, this doesn't expire until 2006! I'll be 24 then!!" And because I was 18, 24 was this impossibly old age, and I never imagined how quickly the time would pass.
But now I know better, and I know I'll be turning 30 like, tomorrow. And that's weird.
It's also weird because my parents got married at 24. Not that I ever imagined I would be married at 24, or even thought I wanted to be married at 24. In fact, I had a whole conversation with my dad today about how crazy he and mom were for getting married so young. But the honest truth is that I also didn't imagine that I'd still be completely single at 24. I want to get married eventually, and I want kids (I know, how many times do you all have to listen to me blab about this?). Because of the whole wanting kids thing, in an ideal world I'd like to get married before I'm 30. Especially because I want kids (plural) and I realize that kids plural is much less likely if you don't even start trying until you're in your mid thirties. I know I have a lot of options for becoming a mother even if I don't get married by 30. I also know that there's a good possibility I have nothing to worry about and when I'm 30 with a crying baby and a cheating husband and I hate my life, you'll all say "Remember how much you thought you wanted this, and how you thought it would never happen!? Haha!" But admit it, at some point in your life you daydreamed an ideal life for yourself. And my ideal daydream involved marriage by 26 or 27. And now that I'm 24 and still very much single, I don't see that happening. I don't see myself suddenly becoming the type of person that can meet a guy and progress to marriage all within the course of just a year or two, and since I'm not that kind of person, my little ideal life schedule is no longer a feasible daydream.
I guess that's what it all boils down to, ultimately. My little "professional career woman settling down to take a few years off and raise a family by thirty" daydream isn't really something that is likely to happen anymore, so I'm having to reconfigure a lot of my dreams.
And that reconfiguring isn't a bad thing, actually. I've spent a lot of time over the past several months imagining things I could do with myself if I do in fact end up Single For Life, and my ideal single life daydream can make me pretty happy, too. The hard thing is that I would like to believe that my ideal single life daydream can be the same thing as my ideal married life daydream if I happen upon the right person, so it's hard to feel like anything I imagine myself doing as a Single For Life isn't settling for second best, somehow. It feels like anything I can do by myself would be even better if I wasn't by myself, you know?
And I hate that I feel that way. I hate it for a lot of reasons. A number 1, I hate it because it's illogical. I look around me and can see that out of all of my friends who are coupled up (and that's the majority of them right now) there are maybe only 2 couples that have the really good, strong, happy relationship that I'd like to have for myself. So I know it's illogical to believe that any relationship in my future is going to make me perfectly happy when probably 90% of the couples I know do not have great relationships. What's the likelihood that any relationship I have would be any different? So why do I persist in feeling like having a committed relationship could make me any happier than I am right now? Statistically, it's more likely to just add a lot of complications, right?
B number 2, the feminist in me HATES IT. A lot of my thesis project has ended up focused on the sexual revolution and the women's liberation movement, and while a lot of the more radical stuff just makes me want to say, "Whoa, chill," I read all these inspiring essays and articles and I'm left wondering what all that passion and rallying and revolution in the 60s was all about if 40 years later I'm sitting on my couch an intelligent, self-sufficient, creative, successful, sexually confident woman knowing exactly how strong and capable I am of being on my own but still whining about how I'm 24 with no prospects for marriage. I mean, what the fuck is that?
I get angry at myself for buying into the marriage hype. I can try to justify it by saying that the need I feel to be with someone and have a baby is a physical need, a primal need, so deep inside of me that I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't feel it. But that need didn't get there by itself. Do you think nature can really be that strong? Because I don't. I know that my "need" is at least half the fault of society, and if we all lived in Transsexual Transylvania or some such place I'd only be worrying about which guy I should sleep with tonight and whether or not I'd look hotter in the black corset or silver sparkly fishnets. That's a silly example, I know, but it's also true.
I guess I just can't shake the marriage dream because there's always the chance I could get lucky. That I could in fact somehow be one of the blessed people that finds someone on this planet that enhances my good points, accepts my bad points, and let's me do the same for him.
But I want to shake that dream. I do. I want to shed the part of me that thinks of marriage and family as the best option and instead I want to see it as just one of many equally terrific options, possibly not even as terrific an option as some of the others. I want to be cool enough to think like that. I'm going to keep working on it, anyway. Do a little mental and emotional deprogramming this year. Yeah. That sounds healthy. And I think it would be beneficial even if my future does end up containing marriage and family anyway.
Anyway. I'm looking forward to 24. I felt some trepidation about being 23. I remember telling Kymberli how 23 is one of my scary years. There's something about the 2 and 3 combination that I don't like. I tried to psych myself up last year but frankly, I was getting a bad vibe from 23 right from the start. And maybe it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but this has been the first year of my life that wasn't better than or at least as good as the year before. Careerwise I've had a great year. I feel smart and successful right now and that's a good feeling (and a feeling I'm going to enjoy for the next six months because after that who the hell knows what is going to happen). Socially, it has been a pretty good year, too. It started out kind of slowly and for the majority of last winter and early spring I still felt like my best friends were elsewhere and Austin was just full of acquaintances for the most part (before you even say anything, Matthew, you were an exception!). But I finally got really close to some people here over the summer, and then this school year started and brought the new wave of grad students and now I once again feel like I have an awesome core group of friends, friends that know my favorite sex position and the meanest thing I've ever done in my life. You know, things all close friends should know about one another. Haha. So career and money=great, social life=good with a last minute upswing to awesome, but my love life has been pretty damn sucky for most of the year. It started out as confusing, was perfect for about a month (honestly, only about a month...that's all it was...funny how one perfect month can then proceed to screw up the entire rest of the damn year) and then it was just sort of a mess. I'm out of the messy part now, but obviously I'm still figuring things out and ready for a clean start. Here's hoping 24 has that in store.
I feel better about 24 than I did about 23, anyway. Now it just needs to be 2007 because I don't know about you guys, but it seems like 2006 has been a rough year for the majority of people I know. Lots of transitions, lots of sad things. It's gettin' to be clean slate time, don't you think?
So yeah! 24 in 2007! 24/7! Hey, look at that! That's promising. My life is about to take on the characteristics of a convenience store!
And no, my birthday did not totally get lost in all the business this weekend. Rocky opens on Tuesday so I did have to spend the majority of my actual birthday working on my lobby display and watching the dress rehearsal (and oh. my. god. The costumes for this show! They are incredible. We had a guest costume designer and he did some beautiful, crazy things. I was drooling over practically every costume on that stage tonight. I feel inspired to try to make something crazy/gorgeous/slutty and wear it for box office managing on opening night, although in actuality I'll probably chicken out and draw the line at fishnets and hooker boots). But on Friday night Mandi threw a birthday party for me and her boyfriend Jason (we share a birthday). We went barhopping and then back to her house where Richie and I attempted to consume our weight in Jello shots, and Debbie and Mandi did some booty dancing, amongst other things. It was a fun party, and Chelsea and Shane are taking me out for dinner sometime this week, which is very nice of them. So there have been fun birthday celebrations. And the happy birthday phone calls today were interesting, mainly because a couple of people I was positive would remember it was my birthday seemingly almost forgot it, and people I never expected to hear from and hadn't actually heard from in a long time called to say happy birthday. Go figure. In the end I did in fact hear from everyone I feel I "should have", though, plus a few others. So that's fun. I feel loved!
Also, I keep forgetting this fact, but I'm going to Ohio on Thursday for that conference. I won't be back until Sunday and even though I'll have my computer with me I'm kind of doubting I'll have the time or inclination to update this thing. And there's no way I'm updating before Ohio because with Rocky opening this week I don't even think I'll be sleeping, let alone writing.
So expect an update next week, probably something about how this Texan froze her ass off and totally botched her conference panel.
Peace.
I'm 24 now. Do you realize that 24 is only SIX YEARS away from 30? I got my new drivers license in the mail and when I saw that it expires in 2012 and I realized that I'll be THIRTY in 2012, I had a moment. It's not that I'm worried about 30, exactly. Age is just a number, blah, blah, blah, and honestly, 30 doesn't sound too terribly old to me (not when I can look at my parents, who just turned 50 and are busy running off to Las Vegas five times a year and have greater drinking stamina than I do). It's just that I can so clearly and vividly remember getting my last drivers license six years ago. I was a senior in high school so I went to the DPS before school that morning. It was the day of the Celebrity Waiters Luncheon, this charity event I used to volunteer at every year to get an excused day off from school, and I remember standing with a group of my friends getting ready to carpool over to the luncheon and saying, "Wow, this doesn't expire until 2006! I'll be 24 then!!" And because I was 18, 24 was this impossibly old age, and I never imagined how quickly the time would pass.
But now I know better, and I know I'll be turning 30 like, tomorrow. And that's weird.
It's also weird because my parents got married at 24. Not that I ever imagined I would be married at 24, or even thought I wanted to be married at 24. In fact, I had a whole conversation with my dad today about how crazy he and mom were for getting married so young. But the honest truth is that I also didn't imagine that I'd still be completely single at 24. I want to get married eventually, and I want kids (I know, how many times do you all have to listen to me blab about this?). Because of the whole wanting kids thing, in an ideal world I'd like to get married before I'm 30. Especially because I want kids (plural) and I realize that kids plural is much less likely if you don't even start trying until you're in your mid thirties. I know I have a lot of options for becoming a mother even if I don't get married by 30. I also know that there's a good possibility I have nothing to worry about and when I'm 30 with a crying baby and a cheating husband and I hate my life, you'll all say "Remember how much you thought you wanted this, and how you thought it would never happen!? Haha!" But admit it, at some point in your life you daydreamed an ideal life for yourself. And my ideal daydream involved marriage by 26 or 27. And now that I'm 24 and still very much single, I don't see that happening. I don't see myself suddenly becoming the type of person that can meet a guy and progress to marriage all within the course of just a year or two, and since I'm not that kind of person, my little ideal life schedule is no longer a feasible daydream.
I guess that's what it all boils down to, ultimately. My little "professional career woman settling down to take a few years off and raise a family by thirty" daydream isn't really something that is likely to happen anymore, so I'm having to reconfigure a lot of my dreams.
And that reconfiguring isn't a bad thing, actually. I've spent a lot of time over the past several months imagining things I could do with myself if I do in fact end up Single For Life, and my ideal single life daydream can make me pretty happy, too. The hard thing is that I would like to believe that my ideal single life daydream can be the same thing as my ideal married life daydream if I happen upon the right person, so it's hard to feel like anything I imagine myself doing as a Single For Life isn't settling for second best, somehow. It feels like anything I can do by myself would be even better if I wasn't by myself, you know?
And I hate that I feel that way. I hate it for a lot of reasons. A number 1, I hate it because it's illogical. I look around me and can see that out of all of my friends who are coupled up (and that's the majority of them right now) there are maybe only 2 couples that have the really good, strong, happy relationship that I'd like to have for myself. So I know it's illogical to believe that any relationship in my future is going to make me perfectly happy when probably 90% of the couples I know do not have great relationships. What's the likelihood that any relationship I have would be any different? So why do I persist in feeling like having a committed relationship could make me any happier than I am right now? Statistically, it's more likely to just add a lot of complications, right?
B number 2, the feminist in me HATES IT. A lot of my thesis project has ended up focused on the sexual revolution and the women's liberation movement, and while a lot of the more radical stuff just makes me want to say, "Whoa, chill," I read all these inspiring essays and articles and I'm left wondering what all that passion and rallying and revolution in the 60s was all about if 40 years later I'm sitting on my couch an intelligent, self-sufficient, creative, successful, sexually confident woman knowing exactly how strong and capable I am of being on my own but still whining about how I'm 24 with no prospects for marriage. I mean, what the fuck is that?
I get angry at myself for buying into the marriage hype. I can try to justify it by saying that the need I feel to be with someone and have a baby is a physical need, a primal need, so deep inside of me that I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't feel it. But that need didn't get there by itself. Do you think nature can really be that strong? Because I don't. I know that my "need" is at least half the fault of society, and if we all lived in Transsexual Transylvania or some such place I'd only be worrying about which guy I should sleep with tonight and whether or not I'd look hotter in the black corset or silver sparkly fishnets. That's a silly example, I know, but it's also true.
I guess I just can't shake the marriage dream because there's always the chance I could get lucky. That I could in fact somehow be one of the blessed people that finds someone on this planet that enhances my good points, accepts my bad points, and let's me do the same for him.
But I want to shake that dream. I do. I want to shed the part of me that thinks of marriage and family as the best option and instead I want to see it as just one of many equally terrific options, possibly not even as terrific an option as some of the others. I want to be cool enough to think like that. I'm going to keep working on it, anyway. Do a little mental and emotional deprogramming this year. Yeah. That sounds healthy. And I think it would be beneficial even if my future does end up containing marriage and family anyway.
Anyway. I'm looking forward to 24. I felt some trepidation about being 23. I remember telling Kymberli how 23 is one of my scary years. There's something about the 2 and 3 combination that I don't like. I tried to psych myself up last year but frankly, I was getting a bad vibe from 23 right from the start. And maybe it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but this has been the first year of my life that wasn't better than or at least as good as the year before. Careerwise I've had a great year. I feel smart and successful right now and that's a good feeling (and a feeling I'm going to enjoy for the next six months because after that who the hell knows what is going to happen). Socially, it has been a pretty good year, too. It started out kind of slowly and for the majority of last winter and early spring I still felt like my best friends were elsewhere and Austin was just full of acquaintances for the most part (before you even say anything, Matthew, you were an exception!). But I finally got really close to some people here over the summer, and then this school year started and brought the new wave of grad students and now I once again feel like I have an awesome core group of friends, friends that know my favorite sex position and the meanest thing I've ever done in my life. You know, things all close friends should know about one another. Haha. So career and money=great, social life=good with a last minute upswing to awesome, but my love life has been pretty damn sucky for most of the year. It started out as confusing, was perfect for about a month (honestly, only about a month...that's all it was...funny how one perfect month can then proceed to screw up the entire rest of the damn year) and then it was just sort of a mess. I'm out of the messy part now, but obviously I'm still figuring things out and ready for a clean start. Here's hoping 24 has that in store.
I feel better about 24 than I did about 23, anyway. Now it just needs to be 2007 because I don't know about you guys, but it seems like 2006 has been a rough year for the majority of people I know. Lots of transitions, lots of sad things. It's gettin' to be clean slate time, don't you think?
So yeah! 24 in 2007! 24/7! Hey, look at that! That's promising. My life is about to take on the characteristics of a convenience store!
And no, my birthday did not totally get lost in all the business this weekend. Rocky opens on Tuesday so I did have to spend the majority of my actual birthday working on my lobby display and watching the dress rehearsal (and oh. my. god. The costumes for this show! They are incredible. We had a guest costume designer and he did some beautiful, crazy things. I was drooling over practically every costume on that stage tonight. I feel inspired to try to make something crazy/gorgeous/slutty and wear it for box office managing on opening night, although in actuality I'll probably chicken out and draw the line at fishnets and hooker boots). But on Friday night Mandi threw a birthday party for me and her boyfriend Jason (we share a birthday). We went barhopping and then back to her house where Richie and I attempted to consume our weight in Jello shots, and Debbie and Mandi did some booty dancing, amongst other things. It was a fun party, and Chelsea and Shane are taking me out for dinner sometime this week, which is very nice of them. So there have been fun birthday celebrations. And the happy birthday phone calls today were interesting, mainly because a couple of people I was positive would remember it was my birthday seemingly almost forgot it, and people I never expected to hear from and hadn't actually heard from in a long time called to say happy birthday. Go figure. In the end I did in fact hear from everyone I feel I "should have", though, plus a few others. So that's fun. I feel loved!
Also, I keep forgetting this fact, but I'm going to Ohio on Thursday for that conference. I won't be back until Sunday and even though I'll have my computer with me I'm kind of doubting I'll have the time or inclination to update this thing. And there's no way I'm updating before Ohio because with Rocky opening this week I don't even think I'll be sleeping, let alone writing.
So expect an update next week, probably something about how this Texan froze her ass off and totally botched her conference panel.
Peace.
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