Category: Nonfiction

Categories
Awesome Beginnings Nonfiction Religion Sentiment Uncategorized Work

Congratulate me, O Friends!

Elton Richards – the pastor out of pasture – broke down prayer for me into four types.  It’s a handy mnemonic: ACTS.  A for adoration (praising God).  C for confession (telling God your sins).  T for thanksgiving (being grateful to God for what you have).  S for supplication (asking God to help you).

–The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs

Like most people, I’m pretty good at Supplication.  But I also think that I’m good at Thanksgiving: when it’s an especially pretty day, when I get home safely in the pouring rain, when I get a sweet parking space.  I try to get some Adoration in there too: it often goes hand-in-hand with Thanksgiving.  I don’t do a lot of Confession, but maybe that’s something I should explore.

Last week found me supplicating silently all the time.  Sometimes specific, sometimes just “Please please please.”  When I was being specific I couldn’t quite bring myself to say, “Let me get this job,” but rather, “Give me the confidence and courage to nail this interview” or “Let this job be part of your plan for me,” since even I don’t presume to know what’s best for me and my life.

But on Friday, when I got the job, I was equally as enthusiastic (and speechless), sticking mostly to “Thank you thank you thank you!”  I threw in some “You’re amazing!”s to mix it up.  It’s things like this that make it really obvious that there is a plan for each of us, and that God has a hand always in our lives.

The job in question?  Sales Manager at one of the major Bay Area theatres…incidentally the exact position I held when I worked at this company for four months in 2009.  Which is another story altogether.  But now I’m back, and while they have done some major renovations and overhaul on the building, it sort of feels exactly the same.

So here’s to the first day at a new job  career, and to getting what you need (not always the same as what you want), and to prayers being answered.

And let’s not forget, a (brief) moment of silence for my (brief) subbing career.  Which I enjoyed but was perfectly willing to give up.

Categories
Awesome Memoir Nonfiction Technology

I’m too texty for my phone

Recently I teetered on the edge of a disaster – having to go all day without my cell phone.  Luckily, I found it in Michelle’s car and all was well.  But maybe it was all just foreshadowing.

Last Thursday I checked my Verizon online account and noticed that I was getting perilously close to going over both my minutes AND my texts.  It’s bad enough I was close to my minutes: but I spent a lot of time on the phone this month for the teaching stuff, and then with our insurance trying to ask questions about our plan.  So I accept that.  But 1500 texts this month?  I try to make it sound less bad by saying it’s sent and received texts, but I know the truth: I just text too much.  I feel slightly ashamed.

That was Thursday.  So I’ve just been limiting my phone usage, and over the weekend I could use it to make calls to my heart’s delight, but I’m finding this whole thing restrictive, overall.  NO tweeting, NO Facebook status updates, and NO FEWER pointless texts to Drew (“Hi! What are you doing?” etc).  It also means no texting things to my email, which I do all the time, either pictures or reminders of things I have to do.

Either I don’t always realize, or I purposely block out, how much I rely on texting to keep me entertained.  I text so much at work, disregarding all rules, although I did refrain from that while in the classroom, my mom would be happy to know.  I’m one of those people texting while walking, while eating dinner, texting without looking at the phone.  Texting while talking.  I have truly embraced texting.

There are many useful things about it, especially in terms of my job.  It’s a great quick form of communication, instant and no pressure.  “Can you please turn over the laundry?”  “Are we still good to carpool?”  Things like this don’t require a phone call and who has constant access to their email?  (I know, I know: people with smartphones, that’s who.)  I don’t like some of the texting abbreviations (UR, nite, C U L8R), and I struggle to maintain grammar and punctuation, although sometimes I have to sacrifice those for 160-character limits.  But I do find myself using LOL, bc, and np on a regular basis.  So who knows, maybe it’s just a matter of time.

I have a friend who doesn’t text.  She says she could get a text plan on her phone for $10/month, or she could save that $120 every year.  And texting isn’t worth that $120/year to her.  I wish she texted, I’d love to have her just a “how’s your day going?” message away, but I’m not going to drop her just because I have to make a little more effort to talk to her.  (Dare I say I appreciate our conversations more because they don’t get watered down?)

I have just about made it through the end of my billing cycle (an hour and 25 minutes to go!) with 11 texts and 14 minutes to spare!  Tomorrow I can text and talk to my heart’s delight.  And my phone will no longer be just a calculator/timekeeper.  Glory be to God for dappled things and electronic communication!

Update: It’s after midnight!  Time to email myself some of the pictures you’ve been missing out on.

Not sure what kicky pants are, but I'm excited that they're on sale.
Bright purple fingerling potatoes in a homemade Valentine's Day curry.
Hard to resist a wig...especially a blonde one.
Categories
Beginnings Nonfiction Theatre Work

Bit by bit, putting it together

So this is what’s going on right now, just because I know that sometimes a “this is what’s up” post is necessary.

Seagull goes on, 8 or 9 shows a week.
Meanwhile I’m trying (and failing) to keep up my hours at the Opera.
Meanwhile meanwhile, I have been working on paperwork etc to start substitute teaching for two of the Peninsula school districts.  So I finished that on Tuesday (it was a super busy day, with me at 3 different school locations between 8:30-11:30, and then heading to Redwood City to see my friend Sam while she’s still pregnant).  Tuesday is yesterday.  So this morning at like 8:30, the HR person from one of the districts calls to tell me that my prints cleared and she’s lined up 3 jobs for me.

Wait, wait, though.  Because this is how our interactions have gone so far.

(December)
Me: Hi, I want to sub for you guys.
HR: We don’t really have work right now, maybe after the New Year.

(January)
Me: Hi, I still want to sub.
HR: Great, I’ll call you this week to bring you in.

(Later in January)
Me: Hi, are you going to call me?
HR: Well, we don’t really have a lot of work right now, but I said I’d bring you in, so okay, I guess.
Me: *doesn’t respond to email for a couple days because that doesn’t sound promising*
HR: Are you going to call me or what?
Me: Okay…

(Today)
HR: Hi, I lined up 3 jobs for you next week.
(Later today)
HR: Hi, also for this Friday, at a preschool.
(A little later today, on the phone)
HR: Hi, are you busy now? Want to go on a job?
Me: I’m at work already!

Anyway, that’s that.  So hopefully this is what she means by “not a lot of work” and I can get work at least 3-4 days a week.  Fingers crossed majorly.

So work plus Seagull equals I haven’t been to the gym in a week and I haven’t seen anyone besides Drew or people I work with in almost three weeks.  They just asked me if I want to do this same job on the next show and I’m praying that I won’t have to do that.  But…you know, I’m grateful the opportunity is there.  That’s really, really nice to know.

Other activities in my life:

-Reading Oliver Twist, which is taking so much longer than I’d anticipated.  Maybe because I keep cheating with other books.
-Watching Dexter (we’re only on Season 2 and are creeping through it at a snail’s pace.  But if I had a whole day I think I would tear it up.  It took me about half the first season, but I’m interested now).
-Still attempting to write, which I can totally do backstage on paper.  And today my producer (!) and I submitted 2 short plays to the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Play Festival, which is in July.  So, you know, fingers crossed on that too.

All in all though, I’d say I’m pretty happy with 2011 so far.

Categories
Awesome Beauty Being a girl Friends Memoir Nature Nonfiction Sentiment

50 Reasons I’m Thankful To Live In San Francisco

In November, the Village Voice published 50 Reasons To Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live In New York City.  I’m not arguing with them – God knows I miss NYC – but I immediately started thinking about a similar list for San Francisco.  I haven’t been here too long, and my activity in the city is limited, so this is just one person’s very specific list.

(I gladly welcome input on this, especially when it comes to something I’ve left off, which will probably be because I just haven’t experienced it yet.)

50 Reasons I’m Thankful Every Day To Live In The San Francisco Bay Area

“San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality.” -Jefferson Airplane

50. Apartments come stocked with dishwashers. Not necessary, but very convenient.

49. It’s easy to avoid Starbucks and patronize independent coffee shops. (But it’s also easy to find a Starbucks if you need that peppermint white mocha.)

48. The carousel at the San Francisco Zoo.

47. There is always someone crazier than you. Always.

46. The view from the Golden Gate Bridge.

45. The many views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

44. Cable cars: the city’s moving landmarks.

43. Driving around the city and realizing you’re on the street where Full House was filmed…or Mrs. Doubtfire…or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You know, any of your childhood favorites.

42. You don’t have to be a kid to love the Exploratorium.

41. Or, for that matter, the California Academy of Sciences.

40. That sense of superiority when you get to tell someone, “Don’t call it ‘Frisco.’”

39. Because the city is not strictly a grid, the feeling when you conquer the streets of San Francisco is one of invincibility! You are now unstoppable!

38. I’ve never seen curved escalators anywhere else besides Westfield Mall.

37. Some people are into tea. Those people love Lovejoys in Noe Valley.

36. “It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world.” -Oscar Wilde

35. I’d rather have a spider or two in the corner, than a kitchen full of roaches (yuck).

34. Just south of San Francisco is Colma, where dead people outnumber the living.

33. Watching the fog creep in. You know it’s ruining the sunny day but you can’t stop watching.

32. Baker Beach (under the Golden Gate Bridge) is “frequented by clothing-optional sunbathers.” Our very own nude beach, so close to home!

31. Napa Valley and its myriad vineyards and tasting rooms are but a short car trip away.

30. The Crème Brûlée Cart: food always tastes better when you’ve had to hunt it down.

29. The other day, I saw a homeless man with a cat carrier. And he opened the door and a chicken walked out. And the chicken was on a leash and pecked in the grass while he smoked a cigarette. This was at 8:30 in the morning, and set the tone for the rest of my day: bizarre and wonderful.

28. Spending a summer afternoon browsing the boutiques. Even if you don’t spend anything.

27. There are streets, where you can look up, and even though you’re within the city limits, you’d never guess it.

26. On paper, it sounds kind of pathetic to take a number and wait in line for a half hour for an ice cream cone. Yet at Mitchell’s it’s worth it.

25. Descending into SFO through the fog and over the water…always takes my breath away for a second.

24. You gotta love friendly small talk with your Target cashier.

23. Checking out the pre-Broadway runs of shows that will be Tony winners in just a few years. Oh, to be able to say, “I saw it when.”

22. The Stairway Walks.

21. How many cities have built their own island, just for entertainment purposes?

20. The Giants winning the World Series – if you were in the city that night, you really felt like part of a 1,000,000-person family.

19. Can’t afford tickets to the SF Opera? No problem. They perform for free in Golden Gate Park, and simulcast certain operas to the big screen in AT&T Park.

18. Who needs Missed Connections? We’re not afraid to just talk to each other.

17. Visit the Dickens Faire at the Cow Palace in December, to get your 19th-century-London fix.

16. Sourdough bread is everywhere. Often scooped out, with soup in the middle.

15. If someone says, “How are the reviews for that show?” a valid answer is, “The little man is sitting up straight and clapping.”

14. If you don’t mind battling the tourists…a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square sure hits the spot.

13. San Francisco is like a thumbnail version of all the things that are awesome about the state of California.

12. Having the choice between taking public transit or driving yourself. San Franciscans love choice. You might even say we’re pro-choice.

11. Even the homeless people are friendly. San Francisco has some of the most polite homeless people ever.

10. You gotta give this city bonus points for springing up on those crazy hills.

9. I love me some shopping in Union Square. Especially at Christmas time!

8. The BART platforms have marks on the ground where the doors will line up. Make prewalking even easier.

7. Right across the Golden Gate Bridge from the bustling city, you can visit ancient, immense sequoias in Muir Woods.

6. This week, State Sen. Mark Leno introduced legislation that would require history classes to teach LGBT history, in an effort to increase awareness and thus reduce bullying.

5. 60 degrees year round, with a week of summer and a week of winter. Just enough time to enjoy the heat or the rain, and then back to regularly scheduled programming.

4. Drinks and dancing in the Castro.

3. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, Jack London said, “San Francisco is gone.” Well, we certainly proved him wrong. We are a resilient city of tenacious people.

2. I mean…I’m here. : )

1. In fact, lots of people leave the Bay Area…but lots of people come back home. There must be a reason why. I suppose it’s because it’s awesome!

 

Categories
Drew Nonfiction

“I’ve got the TV, the laptops, I’ll just grab the dishwasher and then I’m outtie”

So we come home from grocery shopping today, and when we come around the corner to our door, Drew looks back at me, panicked, and then pushes the door open.  And I realize that the door, which we definitely left locked, was open.

Once we’re both inside we see there’s a guy, dressed in the maintenance garb of our apartment complex, crouched on the floor in front of the dishwasher.

I think we say something like, “Um, what are you doing here?”

He says he has a work order, with our apartment number, to fix the dishwasher.  We say we did not place a work order and that the dishwasher works.  He says it was draining, so he was confused.  We send him out.  He leaves.  We both take deep breaths.  Then I get on the phone with the office to try to find out what the deal is.  It’s like 10 minutes to 6:00 on the day before Thanksgiving, and I’m glad they even answered.

The woman who answers the phone is the dumbest one in the office, so Drew and I both roll our eyes and he says things loudly like “Ask if Diana is there, put her on the phone, this girl doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

The dumb girl says things like, “Oh, maybe there was a mistake” and “I’m sorry if there was a mistake” and I say things like “No if there was a mistake” and “We didn’t request this and there was a man [who I’d actually never seen before, although Drew said he’s seen him before] in our apartment.”

About five minutes after we got off the phone, Diana called me back to apologize personally, because she’s the one who wrote down the wrong apartment number.  That was nice of her, she didn’t have to do that, and I appreciate that.

Overall, it was fine.  He was a maintenance guy, he just wanted to fix a broken dishwasher in the evening of the day before Thanksgiving.  Neither of us meant to give him a hard time for doing his job.  But it was frightening to come home and find our front door not only unlocked, but cracked open.

And while I don’t mean to come across as a bitch, shooing him out and then being on the phone with the office, clearly upset, when he walked back in there with his bad work order…what if it had been just me coming home alone?  I would have freaked out.  I only stayed fairly cool about it because I came in behind Drew and so by the time I caught on to what was going on, we already knew it was a maintenance guy.

And he wasn’t in the living room flipping through DVDs…he was crouched on the floor in the kitchen with a wrench.  Worst thief ever.

Adrenaline rush!

Categories
Drew Nonfiction Theatre Work

Straightforward

This weekend we started tech.  The show in the other theatre at MTC closed this weekend, so there was an unfair juxtaposition there.  I spent a lot of time daydreaming about the close of this show and my return to normal life.

I guess what I’m saying is I don’t know when to leave a party.  I always have to go back for that one last show – that one last production – I thought I got over this in New York, I thought I figured it out.  But no.  And the first three shows at MTC were great and I had a great time, but then I had settled it.  And it’s not like, this time, I made some grand choice – I mean I literally took this gig as a job, but still.  I feel like I should have learned a lesson by now.

I’m waiting to hear back about a job application at another theatre.  I really want to at least get called for an interview.  I had good, really relevant references for this one.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Yesterday, thanks to Columbus, Drew had the day off and so I didn’t go in to the Opera either.  We woke up at a time which I once would have called early but now call semi-sleeping in, ate breakfast, hung out, went to the 11:45 matinee of The Social Network, did 3 loads of laundry, caught up on new episodes of The Office and 30 Rock, caught the very end of the sunset, shopped for and made dinner, and watched Date Night.  A really busy and fun day…but I could use another week like that.

Today it’s back into tech, but I don’t have to leave here for another hour and a half.  So far I have been cleaning.  I’m going to tackle the bathroom next.  Glamorous life here.  Hope your Monday-Tuesday is going just as well.

PS. Upside-down tomato branches have actually resulted in red tomatoes.  Wow.  We tried one and it was not very tasty.  Waiting on the others, maybe we got a bad one?  Oh well.

Categories
Nonfiction Religion Tomato

Motherhood, and the harvest

Remember back in May when I got a dinky little tomato plant from the Davis Farmers Market?

And I predicted that it would explode into a tomato tree?  Well I am a proud proud mommy because that is just what it has done over the last 3 months:

Tomato plant is a survivor and has flourished despite the infrequent days of sunlight and the blustery winds at night.

And now I count 5 or 6 (that I’ve found so far) little tiny marble-sized green tomatoes.  I couldn’t be happier (true, dear?).

I just can’t wait to eat these.  Is that wrong?  It sort of feels wrong.

Categories
Nonfiction Theatre Work

Sweet, free mandolin.

Tonight I broke out the mandolin (the musical kind) in the closet.

To make a long story short, I have this mandolin, which one of the musicians in Woody Guthrie loaned me, and when I tried to give it back to him closing night, he told me to go ahead and keep it, and keep practicing, and if he ever needed it back, well, he had my contact information and we’re both in the Bay Area.

I looked from him to the mandolin (in its Trader Joe’s bag, because he said he didn’t have a case for it) and back to him.  “How many mandolins do you own?”

“Oh, about eight or nine, I guess.”

“And is this your cheapie mandolin?”

“Well, you can tell how long it’s been since I’ve played it, by how out of tune it is,” he replied.  It was indeed out of tune.

At this time, I should admit in the interest of full disclosure that I had had a few or maybe several drinks, to celebrate closing night.  So while part of me kept saying, “Give him the mandolin, this is crazy,” the other part was like, “Sweet, free mandolin.”

So tonight, in admiring the craftsmanship of a friend’s mandolin (the kind you have in your kitchen and use to make crinkle-cut vegetables), I remembered my musical-type mandolin in the closet (still in its Trader Joe’s carrying bag).

We tuned it using a Droid tuner app, and then Dale attempted to play “Losing My Religion” (Drew’s request).  Allen Joe then played it like a guitar, quite successfully!  Here’s what I learned:

a) I forgot the chords I learned,
b) Maybe it’s my fate to listen to and admire the playing of stringed instruments, but not to play myself, and
c) I seriously miss that show and that crowd.  I kept wanting to announce, “I can restring and tune a guitar.”

Maybe this reaffirms the decision and phone call I made today – I’ll be back at Marin Theatre Company for at least 2 more months working on 9 Circles by Bill Cain.

Categories
Memoir Nonfiction

The Internet, with the email and the wikipedia

Our generation will have some really interesting stories to tell our grandchildren, the kind that begin with “Back in my day” or “When I was your age.”  For instance, I remember before CDs or DVDs, I must have been in middle school and a teacher who worked with my dad at the high school was showing us these “laser discs” he used in his classroom instead of videotapes.  I remember thinking, Psshhh, that’s ridiculous, but look what happened within the next few years.

I also remember when the “computer lab” at school was a happening new addition, and we each had a Mac to work on.  We would practice typing, ClarisWorks, and SimCity.  Eventually we even went on The Internet.

When we got The Internet at home, my family had one computer in the middle of the kitchen, and my brother and I would monopolize it to “do homework.”  If we were doing something private we would turn down the brightness of the screen almost all the way.  We would have to squint to see it, so how could someone getting a glass of water glance at the screen and see what we were doing?  (I guarantee you I was writing poetry.) 

Of course we couldn’t sneak onto The Internet because our parents would hear the telltale sound of the modem dialing up – and will anyone born in the 80s ever be able to forget that sound?  I think not.  We quickly figured out how to turn the sound on the modem off, and I definitely remember my mom picking up the phone to make a call and realizing we’d been on The Internet for hours now.  Oh such fun.

Now I realize how annoying it must have been for anyone trying to call us between the years of 1999 and 2002.  That busy signal drives me crazy now when I try to call home, and it only happens every so often.  I bet back then it was constant, and more irritating with every redial.

I got my own phone line sometime in high school, although that was only because of all my long-distance phone calls to Mendocino and Ft. Bragg.  I even remember the phone number (-9096) although I only had it for a couple years before I went to Davis.  Then that phone line became the internet line, and now I wonder what happened to it, if it even still exists.  Maybe some other kid has my 9096 number as their personal phone line.

My parents have, of course, graduated to a cable internet line for more rapid downloads, a much sleeker Mac, and constant internet connection.  They are now a house with a computer in one room chiming with each new incoming email.  Along with these chic new changes came cable TV, three years too late for Robb or me, which I think was deliberate and my parents’ brand of dark humor.

When we were having all the carpets in the house replaced with hardwood, I was the one who opted to keep the carpet.  (I still prefer carpet to wood floors, one big check mark in California’s favor.)  While the rest of the house was torn up, the computer, TV, and VCR were moved into my room.  I have a vivid memory of renting old movies from National Video (they did 3 movies for 3 days for 3 dollars) and watching them while emailing people and talking on my own phone line.  It was so luxurious.  Amazing.

My grandchildren will probably roll their eyes at me while they pick up whatever tiny miracle devices also happen to suffice as cell phones (or maybe they’ll be implanted in their heads so they’ll roll their eyes while they tap out codes on their temples?) while I try to tell them about the days of busy signals and not everyone had an answering machine, and sometimes you just had to make plans to meet up with your friends at a certain time or place, and then everyone would just go there.  If you didn’t know how to get there you had to ask someone for directions or look at an actual map you would keep in your glovebox. 

I’m absolutely not saying it was better back then, I just like the way our generation balances on the divide.  Sometimes I see old people with email addresses and it makes me smile, and sometimes I see old people who refuse to get email addresses on the grounds that they’re too old, and that makes me smile too.  My parents have adapted somehow, better than I would ever have guessed (especially given that they still don’t have call waiting or caller ID, and they screen their calls, so I always have to leave a message going “Hello?….Are you guys there?….Hello?”).

But some older people are trying to adapt and just haven’t quite made it, as evidenced by this conversation I overhead at work between two (ahem) older folks:

-Did you watch that video I told you about yesterday?
-Yeah, I watched it last night.
-On the youtube?
-No, not on the youtube, I just googled it.
-You what?
-I watched it on ebay.  I mean, not ebay.  On yahoo.
-Oh really?
-Yeah, I googled it.

Bless their hearts.  Of course, I know this’ll be me one day, with phrases and trademarks I can’t even imagine yet.

Categories
Beginnings Drew Endings Nonfiction Sentiment

59/100

A year ago, I made a list of 100 things to accomplish in 2009.  Some things were kind of a stretch and I could have guessed wouldn’t happen:

-visit Madame Tussaud’s
-see a Cirque du Soleil show
-buy a Macbook (and pay it off)

Some things were relatively minor and should have happened but never did:

-read in a bath
-buy a lottery ticket 5 times
-stay up all night

Some things were too general, not easily quantified, and I learned a lesson about that:

-stop saying Oh my God
-drink 32 oz of water a day (I know, I know, but it’s harder than you’d think to do something EVERY SINGLE DAY)

Some things I didn’t do before we left New York:

-Top of the Rock
-Tryon Park with Erin

But I checked 59 of the 100 things off of the list, including:

-Move back to California…by driving
-Watch a sunrise
-Send Valentines to my family
-Read the classics I own and haven’t read yet (Wuthering Heights, Mrs. Dalloway, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, etc.)
-Stage manage another NYC show (2 this year)
-Go on rollercoasters (Six Flags New Jersey)
-Take the CBEST (and pass it!)
-Go gambling (and win!)

I also had some experiences this last year that I didn’t put on my list, but consider noteworthy:

-Get engaged
-Run around the reservoir in Central Park
-Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
-Get married
-Get a pedicure (my first, and then second)

Good times, 2009.  I knew it was going to be an exciting year.  I look forward to a happy and calm 2010, filled with paying off debts and enjoying California!