Category: Dreams

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Awesome Beginnings Being a girl Dreams Drew Exercise Food Friends Love Memoir Nonfiction Sentiment Theatre

Connecticut & New York City, October 2011

So, Drew and I are back from our East Coast extravaganza. We had a great time, and I’m so happy we went, but I was also totally ready to come home. Which is just about the perfect balance, I guess.

I’m going to start with a Dear Diary overview of the whole thing, then fill in specifics after. I just can’t bring myself to start one, long, DD post of the entire week.

So: last Tuesday night I flew out of SFO on the red-eye to JFK. I got in Wednesday morning, and dropped by my old work to say hi to the people I know who are still working there (there aren’t many left!).

Wednesday afternoon I took a Metro North train to Waterbury, CT, where Megan (the bride), Dawn (the maid of honor) and Toni (the mother of the groom) picked me (the matron of honor) up. We did wedding party things, checked into our hotel, and then Toni and Ken (the father of the groom) took us girls out for dinner.

On Thursday, we had Megan’s bachelorette party in NYC. That deserves, and will get, an entire post.

On Friday, Drew drove up from NYC, where he had arrived late the night before. That afternoon, I had to call in to work for 90 minutes for an interview that I was missing, being out of the office. Friday night – rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Saturday was the wedding! Yay for the happy couple!

On Sunday, Drew and I drove back to NYC. We saw an off-Broadway show at Roundabout called Sons of the Prophet, and hung out with Joe and his bf. We had dinner at 5 Napkin Burger, which is always good. We stayed at their Hell’s Kitchen apartment, a luxury and VERY convenient!, and watched Bridesmaids.

On Monday we did some touristy stuff – Wall Street and the protestors, walked along the Hudson, saw the bull at Bowling Green, etc. Then we took our luggage and checked into our Queens hotel, which was in the same neighborhood where we used to live. We had lunch with Jared, our old roommate, and saw our old apartment. That might have been the weirdest part of the whole trip for me. Then in the evening we went to see Sleep No More in the meatpacking district (?).

On Tuesday, we went into Chelsea and I had lunch with Sara, an old coworker who promises me she’s going to come visit San Francisco next summer. I saw the people I didn’t see in the office on my first pass. Then Drew and I did Union Square, The Strand (18 miles of books!), etc, and walked up 5th Avenue. We intended to walk all the way to Central Park (40ish blocks) but couldn’t handle it, so we took the train. We did more 5th Ave, then Rockefeller Center, back through Times Square to the Marquis Theatre to see Follies. Then a late dinner with Kaitlin and Joe on 9th Avenue (at Whym).

Today we checked out of the hotel and took the train to Penn Station, where we got chopped salads for lunch (I miss them so!) and then took the train to JFK, where we were hideously early for our flight. Drew read The Hunger Games, and I called in for a second interview at work. Then a 6 1/2 hour flight and we’re home!

Our apartment is bigger than I remember. And I missed it. It’s really nice to be back.

Okay. I promise to be more interesting in the details. A whirlwind week! But everything went as well as can be hoped, thank God.

I miss things about new York. Other things I don’t miss at all. Bad smells, crazy crowds, the humidity. I definitely am happy that my home is in California. But I hope we can visit NYC again soon!

Categories
Beginnings Dreams Drew Memoir Sentiment

First of many (?) vacation posts

So I’ve basically been stressing for the last two days over this trip, which has been in the planning for really over a year. Mostly I’ve been worried about getting through security with my very large carry-on and tons of travel-sized bottles of liquids. (I can hear Drew telling me NOT to WORRY. You were right! I know, you’re always right.)

Speaking of Drew, he dropped me off at the terminal at about 9:35. We embraced tearfully, being that we’re never apart for more than a day. (I’m totally kidding. But I do miss him already.)

I walk up to security and there are 5 people in line. So I demand that they open a new line just for me, which they do, because that’s how I roll.

After some tense changes (lol), and about 8 minutes later, I found myself through security, with 45 minutes till boarding began. So I got me a pomegranate pinkberry, and found a place to plug in my phone because it’s gonna have to make it through tomorrow.

This is my first blog post from my phone. My first plane trip by myself in about 20 years, my first trip without Drew forever, and my first trip back to New York since moving back to California. I expect this to be emotional.

Oh, also, I deliberately left my childhood security blanket behind (because, really…) so that’s kind of weird.

Onward! I know to take advantage of some prime reading time when I’ve got it.

Categories
Being a girl Dreams Sentiment Theatre Writing

gambling debt / running from

I found this in some stuff from college. My sophomore year, I think? I’m not sure what it is. Maybe some kind of half-dreamed idea for a play? I like that my handwriting hasn’t really changed though.

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Beauty Beginnings Dreams Memoir Nature Religion Sentiment

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face” – John Donne

I woke up this morning with my socked foot sticking out from under the covers. I felt very warm under the covers, and outside (while still the inside of my apartment) felt very brisk. This is the point at which I gave up and welcomed in fall.

It’s been feeling more and more autumny for days now – I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly. A smell? A certain snap to the air? Maybe the trees are changing colors and I just haven’t really been paying attention? Suddenly all I want to do is shop for new boots and sweaters. Not to mention school supplies…oh, the school supplies…

I can’t stop reminiscing, as of late. Mostly I’ve been thinking about being in high school. Which isn’t to say that I want to go back to high school. I mean, even the memories I’m getting trapped in are of being in bed when the alarm goes off, and it’s so early and dark out. It’s not particularly welcoming.

I will try to steer my thoughts toward fall in college – with its classes that start later. (Remember when we were all in high school and we would get up at like 6:00 to go to zero period? And it’s just what you did? That ish is crazy.) College is good fall memories. I’ll have to buy some strawberry conditioner (works every time) and a pumpkin pie spice candle.

Or I can think about being in New York – working at the haunted house in October (October is even the coolest word!), and everything gets windy, but not cold yet, and leaves are everywhere, and you’re just so freaking happy that it’s not summer anymore. The landlord turns your heat on for the first time in 6 months… Everything is burgundy and burnt orange and brown. I mean the clothes, of course.

I’m really looking forward to the fact that this show and the next show we’re doing are in Mountain View. Downtown Mountain View in the fall is pretty darn perfect. Again with the leaves and the wind. And soon it’ll be Halloween. I don’t like dressing up for Halloween, but I love every other single thing about it.

I will bemoan one more time the fact that, living where we do, we don’t really get seasons. This just means I’ll have to be sure to go to Lake County this fall to enjoy it. And take advantage of every second I’m down at work.

I love spring and I love summer and I even love winter, but above all else, man I love the fall.

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Awesome Dreams Friends Theatre Work

A Week In Review

How can life have gotten so away from me? Here are the things I intended to write about this week:

Sunday
I worked at our New Works Festival, which was awesome – I watched 2 shows and then the Meet the Artists panel, and there was a food truck there, serving up delicious Asian tacos! Could my day get any better? Yes it can! Because late Sunday night I picked up Megan at the airport!

Monday
Megan’s dress fitting in San Francisco! So fun. Then Drew and I hit Costco and I picked up my brand new card.

Also of note, today, while waiting at a stoplight, I heard a giant crash. The light turned green and I pulled away, looked in the rearview mirror and saw the car right behind me pulling over. I’m pretty sure someone rear-ended them. I was so grateful it wasn’t me.

Tuesday
Sam and I went to a yoga class. We spent the first 10 minutes sitting criss cross applesauce while the instructor had us “feel the universe” and read us the longest Carl Sagan quote ever. Then we did 45 minutes of yoga. Then we laid on the ground in corpse pose, but with our limbs flailed out to more fully “embrace the universe,” while she reread the longest Carl Sagan quote ever. I like the parts of yoga where you move through fluid stretches. But I don’t like all the politics that comes with us.

Also, most exercise classes make me feel all strong and healthy. Yoga makes me feel roly-poly and incompetent. Plus, I can’t help but notice all the long, lean people around me. (Including the 7-months pregnant woman in the front row.)

Wednesday
Jonathan and I went to Google for a seminar on using Google Apps for businesses. Then we had a brief tour of the campus with a friend of his who works there. Did you know that food there is free? We had frozen yogurt and sandwiches. Also, they have a slide, cool art everywhere, and one of those treadmill swimming pools. Also, I couldn’t take many pictures because it’s not really allowed. But I did make this Google Doodle on a little artsy kiosk.

Google was kinda amazing. I have never really wanted to work there, but after seeing the campus, which is really very college-y, but with a side of cutting edge and more responsibility…I so want to work there. I’m not sure how anyone ever gets anything done. Not when you can go to breakdance class or take a walk outside or go have the deli people make you yet another sandwich!

But I just keep telling myself, I have nothing to offer Google. They are not looking for someone with my skills. Better to just visit people who work on the campus, than keep hoping to somehow get a job there.

They say that the reason they provide so much on campus (and I love that it is called “the campus”), is so that their employees never have to leave, and can work 80-hour weeks. Well, if I was single and career-minded, I would totally love to devote 12 hours of my day to Google.

Google bikes are everywhere! And you just take one when it's available. If it's broken or needs maintenance, you remove the seat and put it in the basket, and someone comes and fixes it.
The "Android" section of the campus has several large dessert sculptures.
Categories
Celebrities Dreams

Someone has to win.

So, I never call into radio stations. But Sarah and Vinnie are doing this Vegas trip in August, and they’re taking a bunch of listeners, and even though I have no delusions about my chances, I like really want to go…so this morning when I heard the secret song, I called the radio station. Thirty-three times. Until the phone screener picked up and said, “We’ve already got our winner, sorry,” and I said, “Thank you!” and he said, “No, thank you.” Aww.

Maybe it’s worth it to keep trying. I mean, someone’s gotta win. Why shouldn’t it be me? I’ve never been to Vegas!

I also texted Sarah and Vinnie this morning and they read it on the air, making it my third email/text appearance on the show. Celebrity! I’m almost there!

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Awesome Dreams Memoir Theatre Work

Of smoking and drinking. And parachuting dogs. (And Hugh Hefner.)

While reading this, please listen to this song:

The show that we’re opening on Saturday is set in 1965, against a backdrop of the NYC blackout. One of the best pieces of dramaturgy they had in the rehearsal room is a copy of LIFE magazine from November 19, 1965, which has a giant spread on the blackout. The story and the accompanying pictures are crazy beautiful – pictures of the city from Brooklyn, with zero lights on and only the light of the moon and cars on the road; ditto a picture of the Statue of Liberty as the only light around. Breathtaking.

But then I started flipping through the rest of the magazine, and I was hooked. The 60s! Such a decade! A decade where they ran ads that would never run now.

This perfume ad:

Gender conformity, I say!

This insurance ad:

I love the quaintness of the idea of both husband and wife working.

Fourteen ads for alcohol – well, at some point I stopped counting:

This cigarette ad! This almost makes me want to pick up a pack of Chesterfields!

This ad for bikes. Look at these kids! Where are they now?

Look at him, doing a little BFF pose with that Bronco.

This article about parachuting dogs! I’ve totally heard this story recently – meaning within the last year – but I can’t remember where.

Speaking of things that never go away – these are letters to the editor, and even in 1965 they were talking about Hugh Hefner. We still talk about him today! Jeez.

I just googled Hef - apparently he's 85. Huh. I would have guessed older. Like 10 years older.

But life wasn’t all fun and games and Hugh Hefner. They had to worry about the draft:

And this is my absolute favorite thing. I don’t know why. I just want to be with these people, in autumn, in this tree, drinking a Coke from a glass bottle, without even knowing how bad it is for me. It looks so nice.

I could look through this magazine all day. Just imagine all the things I didn’t scan – the actual pictures from the blackout, the coupon for a 59-cent bottle of steak sauce (the coupon unfortunately expired April 30, 1966), and more ads for alcohol!

I never really cared about the 1960s before…well, that’s not true, I did a whole History Day report on the 60s when I was in middle school, but what do you know in middle school? I just liked Simon and Garfunkel. But this magazine made me wish for a time machine so I could experience the 60s just for a little while. You know, the Golden Age. (I guess I didn’t learn a thing from Midnight in Paris.)

PS. The show that we’re opening on Saturday is called Fly By Night – it’s a World Premiere musical, I love the music, it’s going to be great, it’s running tonight through August 13th, see http://www.theatreworks.org for more details. There. What kind of marketing person would I be if I didn’t at least mention that?

Categories
Celebrities Dreams Memoir Sentiment

Top 5 Memorable Moments

Sarah and Vinnie (a San Francisco radio morning show, that I probably spend too much time listening to) reported a recent poll from the UK, in which people listed the 5 most memorable experiences of their lives. Women and men actually had the same top 5, albeit in different orders.

(The poll and more info is here.)

On the radio show, they start by asking each other what their top 5 memorable moments are. I took that time to think of some of my own: getting married, sure. I’d like to say stage managing something – my first show, my first big show, my first NY show? Maybe seeing my first Broadway show?

I bet buying a house will be quite memorable when we get there one day; ditto having kids.

But “leaving home” doesn’t really feel like a single quantifiable act – when I left to go to college I was still basically living at home, and then it’s been a gradual purging, thanks to my parents, to get my stuff out of their house. I’d say that process is still ongoing.

And I’m not even sure what to count as my “first job.” I guess my first full-time adult job was Samuel French, and I do remember getting that job, so maybe that counts.

I intended to wrap this up with a really concise list of my most memorable life landmarks. I’ll just say:

  1. Moving to New York – and the second day when we took the train to Bryant Park and came up out of the subway and all my worried about moving, and my anxieties about how ugly Brooklyn was, melted away;
  2. Getting engaged – specifically the moment I realized what was going on, and by that time we were really into the actual proposal; and
  3. Getting married – after I was all dressed and everyone but the photographer had left the suite and Drew was going to come in, and I realized I didn’t have any of my jewelry on, and I had to shout through the door, “Wait, I need another sec, don’t come in yet!”

And that leaves me room for more things on my list. Because there’s lots of good stuff ahead!

Categories
Being a girl Dreams Endings Not awesome Self improvement

Getting schooled

Sometimes, you make plans for something in your life – something you really have no control over. Things like hitting the lottery, or getting an unexpected gift from a wealthy family member, or winning a competition that over 1000 other people participated in.

Sometimes, even though people in your life tell you not to count your chickens before they hatch, you still totally count your chickens before they hatch, and you talk about how you just don’t know how you’re going to manage to find time to fly to New York City this summer when there’s so much other stuff going on.

Sometimes, even when you’ve told yourself not to count too much on something, you have still secretly let your hopes creep up until you’re expecting a final specific outcome.

Then, when that outcome doesn’t happen, you may be understandably let down. You may also be a little upset, although it’s hard to say where that should be directed. Probably at yourself for not taking the advice of everyone in the world, and just staying humble and unassuming.

Possibly you should just be grateful for the opportunity to learn a lesson…and a lesson during which no one was harmed or even seriously offended. Also be grateful for the blog post topic, since the only other thing you could think of to post today was (yet another) discussion of Rebecca Black’s “Friday.”

Update: I’m not sad. Don’t worry about me. I’m not super bummed. Just reflecting on what I learned here.

Categories
Dreams Self improvement Technology

Contact lens blues

Finally changed my contacts today. I probably waited too long. The brand I use is super expensive for some reason – I should probably go to an eye doctor and switch to a different brand. One pair of contacts is supposed to last me 3 months. I definitely wear them longer than that though. Four pair come in a box, and I just switched over to the third pair of four. Since moving back to California. In July of 2009. I figure I probably went nine months on these babies. They must be wrecked.

I just looked up the cost of Lasik. Under $5000 for both eyes? I am excited to make this happen one day. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to open my eyes in the morning and see clearly.