And this is just one of the reasons that I love WordPress!
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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Now is the time to look back on 2011 and see which of my New Year’s resolutions I accomplished. I’m happy to report that this year went pretty well!
1. Get off of unemployment
In June of 2010 I finished up a contract job at Marin Theatre Company, and I spent the remainder of the year patching together work from MTC, the San Francisco Opera, and reading for Samuel French, as well as supplementing with unemployment. While it wasn’t the tightest things have ever been around here, it was frustrating to be constantly thinking about trying to get enough hours among all the jobs. My number one priority as the year turned from 2010 to 2011 was to get off of unemployment. Which I did, basically right away, when I started subbing in January.
2. Get a career type job
Subbing was very interesting and I learned something, I’m sure. But it was obviously not for me. And like I said before, I was tired of cobbling together a living. My number two priority was to get a freaking real job, with stability and health benefits. Which I did in February! So far, 2011 resolutions are going great!
3. Lose 30 pounds
Oops.
4. Pay off at least one credit card
Oops again. Well, that was a tall order and I might have guessed that it wouldn’t happen.
5. Help Megan to have the best wedding ever
Done and done. I might add, I also helped Liz have the best wedding ever. A good year for weddings!
6. Change everything to my new(ish) last name.
The things I hadn’t yet changed over to my new last name (from my 2009 wedding) were my Mastercard, my gym membership, and three store credit cards. As of this morning I had changed my Mastercard and my gym membership. I planned on just moving this resolution to my “2012 resolutions” list, but then I had this big burst of inspiration, and so I spent some time on the phone this morning calling around and changing the rest of it. 2011 ftw!
I want to mention that every customer service representative I talked to said, “Congratulations on your recent wedding!” when I told them why I needed to change my name. I was too embarrassed to say, “Thanks, it was over 2 years ago.” How time flies.
7. Remember birthday cards for important family members this year
Well, unfortunately I had a couple lapses this year, and for that I am sincerely sorry. I have changed my system because having them in my planner is not working out as well as it used to – I’m just not in the planner often enough. I put the birthdays that keep slipping past me into my gmail calendar so that I’ll get a reminder 2 weeks out, so I can actually get something in the mail in time. 2012 will my card-sending, offending-no-one year.
8. Get a passport!
Thanks to Drew and the scavenger hunt he arranged for my birthday, I am now the proud owner of a passport. And I used it to fly to New York in October, so I know it works.
9. Write!
This was broken down into 5 categories to make it more quantifiable:
I’m feeling pretty good about this year! So it’s time to start making me some 2012 resolutions. While I ponder over those and try to make them as specific and achievable as possible…let me know what your biggest resolution is!
There’s this neighborhood in South San Francisco, where they must have some kind of agreement or something that you have to sign when you move in, because everyone goes crazy during the holidays. I love it. I aspire to one day live in a place where I’m forced to put up hundreds of dollars of decorations every year so people can come park in front of my driveway and take pictures in my front yard.
Oh, that came out as sarcasm, but I’m totally serious.
Drew, Erin, and I went the other night, but we just drove through and so all my pictures are a little blurry, as Drew was reluctant to stop in the middle of everything and wait for me to get the perfect shot. I had to just magically get it while he was stopped momentarily in the line of cars.
Here are an assortment of – but not all of – those pictures:
That last house is the best house – it’s one of the first ones you see on your way in and the last one on your way out. It’s the prettiest and the cleanest-looking. There aren’t any weird creepy anamatronics in the windows, and what you can see of the inside of their house is also nice and Christmassy. It’s just the best house of the bunch.
I could have taken my blurry shots and been done with it – and supplemented this blog post with a handmade holiday poem or something – but then last night some of us went out for dinner and on the way back, the one person in the car who you’d expect to be the least excited about Christmas, said, “Ooh! Ooh! Have you seen the neighborhood with the decorated houses? Can we go look at it?”
I mean, that’s just adorable, you have to say yes.
Plus, we had Starbucks, so we were all feeling the holiday spirit.
So we parked and walked around, which means I got slightly less blurry pictures. Although I think that, without a real camera and a tripod, I was never going to get magazine-spread-ready photos. But I mean…cameraphone diaries.
Here are some details I didn’t get during our drive-by visit:
It sure feels like Christmas here – and I can’t wait to see my family tonight and Drew’s family tomorrow! Merry Christmas, all!!
1. Hard candies / lozenges that DON’T come wrapped in loud cellophane. Invariably, a senior is gonna want to unwrap one during a quiet scene. But what if they didn’t come wrapped? What if you – or any senior – could just reach down and silently pop a sugar-free candy or a Halls into your mouth, without disturbing every other person at the matinee? My answer to this is: the unwrapped hard candy / lozenge. You’re welcome.
2. An app on your phone that will allow you to “send” a text in the past. Picture this: you arrive home late, and it’s totally skipped your mind to text your parents and let them know. But you’ve used your past-text app, and in your texts, it shows that an hour ago you sent a message saying, “Sorry, Mumsie! Am running late. Love you!” But oops! It looks like that message was never delivered! Well, you had no idea because you were driving and not looking at your phone. Voila – family argument avoided. You’re welcome!
Yesterday, Drew and I went to see How to Write a New Book for the Bible, by Bill Cain, at Berkeley Rep. I worked with Bill on two shows at Marin Theatre Company – Equivocation and 9 Circles. (Kent Nicholson, who directed How to Write a New Book…, also directed 9 Circles. Kent and Bill are great together – I think that this play wouldn’t have been as good under another director’s hand.)
Bill was a very active part of both of MTC’s rehearsal processes, and consequently we spent a lot of time together. He is a very sweet and very quirky guy, and was always willing to talk to me about whatever – writing, theatre, etc – and after one conversation about self-editing, he showed me a draft copy of How to Write a New Book…, and the ridiculous amounts of notes he scribbles on every single page. I really liked working with him.
I don’t know what I was expecting from How to Write a New Book…, really – I knew the show was about the death of his mother and that it was highly autobiographical. Bill is a Jesuit priest, and religion is always a main character in his shows.
I’ve never seen a show at Berkeley Rep before. First of all, I loved the theatre – it was their thrust stage, which is a really interesting space. At about 5 minutes til curtain, the house manager (?) came in and announced the whole space, “Feel free to scoot inwards for a better seat,” and then Drew and I watched a bunch more people come in, and we decided that that announcement was the worst idea ever.
As for the show itself…it was about the death of his mother, and it was highly autobiographical. It created a lot of feelings in me. Feelings about writing, about religion, about family, about theatre, about God, about life, about being in rehearsal with Bill and hearing pieces of these anecdotes. I sort of loved the use of the small set, and the staging. The actors (2 playing themselves through the whole thing, and 2 playing multiple characters) were stellar.
There was a Bible passage that was repeated several times throughout the play – I’m not sure of the speaker or the location. But I believe it’s Peter or Paul, and it’s along the lines that “All things come together for the greater good.” (Uncle Pastor, help with this? Book of Acts, maybe?) In the play, Bill (the character – but also sort of the writer) repudiates this. I personally tend to think that all things do work together and work out – but I know that Bill would argue with me on that, and have lots of good examples and probably Bible verses to back it up. So I probably wouldn’t start that argument.
How to Write a New Book for the Bible is only playing through Nov 20th. I fully recommend it to anyone who can go in the next week.
We’ve seen a lot of theatre over the last 6 weeks. I probably walked out of this one with the most residual feelings at the end. Highest commendation?
Tonight I had dinner with Erin, Lysandra, and Lysandra’s husband Joe. We went to this awesome Thai place in SF.
I intended to write a post about all the amazing out-of-context things Erin was saying. But I forgot all of them except this one:
“Something about that shark. That shark was awesome.”
I know there were more, but I was too focused on how delicious my garlic noodles were. Sorry about that.
In the meantime, check out Rin’s in Noe Valley!
The scene: Drew and I are both sitting quietly in the living room, minding our own business. Minutes have gone by, silently. I am reading some blog I follow, which is talking about Adele.
Syche: “Okay, I know it’s not going to happen…but I SERIOUSLY wish Justin Beiber is that girl’s baby daddy.”
Drew: *stares* “Are you kidding? I was just thinking that. I was literally – JUST – thinking, I hope that’s Justin Beiber’s kid.”
A match made in heaven, am I right?
Before Liz’s wedding, as before Megan’s wedding, we got ready in a Hampton Inn. Apparently all Hampton Inns are created equal, meaning that yesterday I had a lot of deja vu of running around getting ready, on the same pattern of carpet, in a bridesmaid dress and flip flops, with my hair all did and my eyelashes all fake.
Liz and Molly and I had a kickass time this weekend, getting to hang out and drink wine and eat brie and watch Buffy – also, sharing irrational fears, turning off the lights to go to sleep and then continuing to talk, and all having the exact same (occasionally judgy) thought about the exact same thing at the exact same time.
Liz looked amazing. (Molly and I did too, but obviously slightly less amazing.) She was also over the moon, which is a good thing to see from a bride on her wedding day. I don’t know Bill super well, but I like what I do know, and he seemed quietly thrilled in the whole day. Also a little stunned. I get it.
I have that song “More I Cannot Wish You” from Guys and Dolls stuck in my head. It’s not totally applicable, since they have already found their true loves, but I still like the sentiment.
Velvet I can wish you
For the collar of your coat
And fortune smiling all along your way
But more I cannot wish you
Than to wish you find your love
Your own true love this day
Mansions I can wish you
Seven footmen all in red
And calling cards upon a silver tray.
But more I cannot wish you
Than to wish you find your love
Your own true love this day
Standing there
Gazing at you
Full of the bloom of youth
Standing there
Gazing at you
With a sheep’s eye
And a lickerish tooth.
Music I can wish you
Merry music while you’re young
And wisdom when your hair has turned to gray.
But more I cannot wish you
Than to wish you find your love
Your own true love this day
With a sheep’s eye
And a lickerish tooth
And strong arms
To carry you away.
Happy first day of married life, Liz and Bill! Congratulations, and I love you, and I’m so happy you two found each other, since you’re obviously two halves of one whole.
It’s the weirdest thing – I was OBSESSED with Sarah and Vinnie (morning radio show) for a year and a half. I listened to all the podcasts, all four hours of the morning show, plus their 18-and-up “Secret Show” that you can only get through iTunes. That’s all I listened to, because I was constantly catching up on whatever I had missed. I listened in the car, at work, sometimes at home while doing dishes…
Then we got back from New York and I was like a week behind in podcasts, and I went to iTunes and went to download them…and I just stopped. So many hours! And suddenly it seemed kind of pointless – and it’s not like I was really gaining anything from this, except occasional knowledge of news stories. So I just didn’t download them.
Well, that’s not true. I thought to myself, I’ll just download the Secret Shows, and listen to those. But then I never put them on my iPod, and that was two weeks ago, and…?
I’ve been listening to the Sarah and Vinnie show in the car in the mornings, the live stuff – and then just listening to my iPod on shuffle the rest of the time.
It’s weird how cold turkey I went – I thought for sure there would be a gradual decline in my interest. But it went from completely ALL IN (and I’m talking, like – obsessed with listening, obsessed with the stories, obsessed with the people) to apathy. People who know how serious I was about my love for all things Sarah and Vinnie (mostly Sarah) will understand how weird this is.
But it’s okay! Because I have a new obsession: this iPhone game called Harbor Master.
This game freaking rocks. Basically, boats come into the screen and you direct them into the harbor where they drop off their cargo. Then you direct them out. And you can’t let them crash into other boats. It’s so awesome. It’s called a “chaos management” game. Sometimes you have 10 or more boats circling on your screen, and you have to figure out how to get them all where they need to be. Amazing!
We found the free version of this game (before I paid for the full version, with more maps) through another game I was obsessed with, called Temple Run. Temple Run is just a continuous chase game where you collect coins and jump over or duck under obstructions. It’s so fun, and I couldn’t stop playing it. Temple Run is the reason my phone kept dying in New York – even though I knew I wouldn’t have a charger for 8 more hours, I couldn’t stop playing. It’s ridiculous.
And that’s the story of how I exchanged one addiction for another one.
The Cameraphone Diaries 