Category: Sentiment

Categories
Exercise Family Memoir Religion Sentiment

Post-Easter Resolutions

I was home this weekend for Easter. The last thing I had to accomplish in April (not counting Script Frenzy, which is almost over, and anyway I can do it from my couch in pajamas).

A great weekend home, including a 6 am sunrise church service: although I balked at it last week as it became imminent, I figured I owed it to my-3-years-ago-self, who was, in another dimension of time, stuck in New York, doing 2 shows on Easter Sunday, and wishing she could be at her family’s church.

So, there was church, there was playing with cats, there was dinner with family, there was much driving.

But now life is “back to normal” and it feels so good. We went to bed at 10:15 last night.

In honor of being back to normal, I have set myself these goals for this week. (And if I make it public then I will have to follow through on them.)

1. Go to the gym 4 times – I’m trying out this Couch to 5K thing, and today I finished my first week (which is actually the third week of the program). So I would like to complete another week, this week.

2. Finish Script Frenzy – I have 26 pages (and one major plot twist) to go.

3. I want to start tracking on Weight Watchers online again. I’ve been half-heartedly tracking things, and then giving up mid-afternoon. So this week, I will track every single thing that happens. I mean, I pay the $18/month for the thing, I should use it, right?

4. Finish and submit a second guest commentary thing. Topic: ?

Totes do-able.

Categories
Memoir Sentiment

Search term showdown

I’ve been keeping an eye lately on my WordPress “search terms” – one of my favorite things about WordPress is the stats page, and I love that they tell you what people Googled (or Yahooed or Binged or whatever) to get to you.  I actually really dig the fact that a lot of my search terms are “cameraphone diaries.”  But some of the others are perplexing, or just plain amusing.

go to church – Well, I did at one point talk about wanting to go back to church. So okay.

gerchanovsky motorola – One of my proudest ones! I knew that if I was confused why “Gerchanovsky” showed up in my predictive texts, other people would be too. And I figured that if I Googled it, other people would too. So I just took advantage of that.

what the easiest temple to draw – I did crayon drawings of the sets of Aida after I saw it at the SF Opera…

miss america 2011 michael jackson ballet – Ditto writing a post on the Miss America competition this year

miss america 2011 irish dancing talent – See above

establishing windows and walls in a relationship – I am also so proud of this one! This was actually a post about the concept (and sagacity) of establishing windows and walls in a relationship. I love the idea that someone was actually searching for info about this, and I was able to provide said info.

what do you give a male actor on opening night of a show – I might have been helpful here, I might not have. Maybe they stole my whole pencil/pen/highlighter idea (which I also stole from someone).

“dead seagull prop” – I understand why they would find me; I just am curious why they were Googling this.

list of all justin beiber songs including the ones from when he was younger – Taking advantage of all the tweens Googling “justin beiber” and clicking on every link possible. As I recall I just mentioned offhandedly how, when I was subbing, I heard a lot of Justin Beiber songs.

why could i be be bruising – No idea

charlie sheen winning – I just wanted someone to Google this and find me. #jumpingonthebandwagon

i call the police due to aggressive nature of my handicapped client – This made me laugh out loud. Then I realized how many of my search terms include the word “aggressive,” thanks to my “be aggressive” post.

girl family undeveloped xhamster – No idea

i go to the bathroom frequently how will this work for jury duty – Also made me LOL. I don’t think I helped them out at all, but I wish them luck. And also one of those bags you wear at sporting events so you don’t have to get up to the bathroom.

Categories
"Other people" Awesome Books Memoir Sentiment Theatre Work

“I always wanted to be an expert at something.”

This morning I was thwarted – again – from getting my iced latte.  As I pulled up and parked in front of Starbucks (you park perpendicular), I watched this guy track in front of my car and then wait there for me.  I’ve seen him outside of Starbucks before* and he’s asked for money, and I’ve given it to him, but I wasn’t feeling it today.  I killed some time sitting in the car, avoiding making eye contact (easy because the visor was flipped down), putting on mascara and whatever.  Someone parked next to me, and he tracked in front of their car and asked for a dollar.  After a minute or so of debate I decided I didn’t really want to deal with this – I had $4 in cash, enough for a drink, not enough for a handout; I didn’t want to have to use a credit card so I could save him a dollar; etc. – and I just started the car back up and pulled out and went to work.  I drank my VitaminWater Zero and was sort of satisfied.

But tomorrow?  No one is standing between me and that iced latte.

(*One big difference between Mill Valley and Menlo Park/East Palo Alto…I liked the bourgeois atmosphere in MV.  I miss that.  Also it was so much easier to just “run out and grab some dinner” – at TW that involves getting in a car, and sometimes on the freeway, if you don’t have a hankering for Togo’s, Jack in the Box, or something from the Extra Mile, also known as Chevron.)

Tonight I worked front of house at Snow Falling on Cedars.  I was there partly for Patron Services, and indeed there were a few people who had tickets for the wrong night, or the wrong show (the curse of overlapping shows in different theatres).  I was there also to sell subscriptions and subscription renewals, which mostly entailed me sitting behind a counter smiling at people and telepathically instructing them to come renew their subscriptions.  I had two bites early on, and then another two bites, and I was like, “Yeah, four sub renewals!  That’s awesome!  Last night the person working got ONE.”  (No judgment, I know it’s all about the patrons there that night.)

Then the first act started and I got a sandwich, and I was going to read but instead I listened to Sarah and Vinnie because I’m still a week behind.  Then intermission happened and I majorly lucked out – a group was there and SIX of them wanted to renew their individual subs.  So there I was, filling out forms right and left and collecting credit card numbers.  Ten renewal forms altogether!  I’m pretty stoked.

So, the second act started and I’m half-planning on going down the street to the Starbucks, which I’m pretty sure is closed by now (when I get hooked on something it’s hard to let up).

Then this usher, Judie, starts talking to me.

[I just realized I totally slip into present-tense whenever I’m telling stories.  I’m constantly going back in my writing and just changing the beginning to present tense to keep it all consistent.  But whatever, it’s almost midnight and I don’t care right now.]

So Judie the usher starts talking to me, and then the second act of the show just slips away.  Because she is just talking and telling stories about growing up, and how she moved all the time because her father was a furrier and kept opening up new stores and getting them on their feet.

You know when you’re talking to someone and you’re just wishing you had a tape recorder?  I would have settled for a nice subtle way to take notes.  But there was no way.  For the next hour she and I just talked – I don’t want to imply that she talked the whole time, but she definitely held up the conversation.  But it was all stuff about how she worked as a shill at a carnival when she was a teenager…how she married her husband after 12 days…her college roommate asking her in a letter before they even met, “Who did your nose?”  She’s Jewish but she doesn’t “look Jewish.”

One day her mom met the rabbi in the street and the rabbi said, “Goldie, I didn’t see you in service this week,” and her mother replied, “That’s right Rabbi, you didn’t see me because I wasn’t there.”  …I mean, is she stealing that line from somewhere?

I just kept thinking, Judie, you should write a book.  She just had all these stories, but more than that, she told them really well.  Like, insanely well.  (One might say, as well as a certain famous Jewish writer?  She did remind me of him.)

OMG, Judie, I hope you come across this blog in the universe, and I hope you read it.  If you do, do you want to dictate all your stories to me and I’ll write them down?  I mean, you probably don’t even need me, your delivery is amazing and you clearly know how to tell a story, but I’d still love to be involved.  Thanks for saving me from spending yet another $4 on coffee I don’t need, as well as keeping me entertained for an hour.

I’m sure I’ll see her again – it sounds like she ushers all the time for TW.  So our paths will cross.  And I’m actually kind of excited for that.  (This is the first time, in all my theatre experience, that I’ve said that about an usher.)

Here’s to Judie!

(And also: more info about Snow Falling on Cedars here)

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
Endings Sentiment Theatre Work

Closing Seagull

Things I will miss about Seagull:

-The people, etc, etc (this encompasses everything about friendship and memories and good times I’ve had – the rest of my bullet points will be more specifics)
-Craig shouting “I forgot my walking stick” at me
-Kostya’s Act I monologue about his mother, while he plays piano
-All the piano music, actually (luckily it’s all available on soundcloud!)
-Masha’s beautiful hair
-Waiting for Act III to start and making faces across the stage at the people in the other wing
-The Act III-Act IV transition

Things I will not miss about Seagull:

-The schedule, etc, etc
-2:45 running time…and then a full reset at the end of each show
-Watching the prop grapes get ickier and ickier over the week
-Resetting air vibrations

My favorite lines (in no particular order, and completely out of context):

Sorin: Bring ALL the horses here, NOW!

Arkadina: Light as a feather!  I could play a girl of fifteen.

Masha: Once I get married, I won’t have love on my mind.  I’ll have new problems to worry about.

Trigorin (to Kostya): Irina Nikoleyevna said you are ready to let bygones be bygones.

Polina: I know I’m too jealous.  I’m so ashamed.  You must be sick of me.
Dorn: No, no.  If you must keep talking, do.

Seagull isn’t closing quite yet, but I’m starting to feel the first pangs.  I’ll miss you, MTC.  Can’t wait to sit in the audience and watch Fuddy Meers in a month!

Categories
"Other people" Children Sentiment Work

An ode to the smart kids

Another middle school today.  This one all around much better than the last one.  I think I’m sort of getting the hang of just NOT being the students’ friend.  I like it, in a way.  It gives me an outlet.  No worrying about making a great first impression, or being charming or funny.  Just no-nonsense, sit down, shut up, take out your lang arts book.  Love it.

I always notice the one smart, bookish, no-fuss kid.  The one who rarely says anything (I’m not talking about the raising-her-hand, I’ve-got-all-the-answers kid).  Just the regular kid who is going through middle school.

Last week there was a kid who finished his worksheet, turned it in, put his pencil away, and then pulled out a book and started reading – all silently.  Love that kid.  Loved him even more when I saw he was reading Stephen King’s Misery.  I kind of wanted to say something to him (like, “Have you read it before?  Do you love it??”) but he was still near the beginning, and I didn’t want to be a total creeper.

There was a kid this morning who also silently started the worksheet.  When I said they could work QUIETLY in pairs, he raised his hand and said, “Do we have to work in pairs?”  No, no you don’t – I hated group work also.  Much easier to just do it and get it done.

In my sixth/seventh period today there was a kid who looked annoyed/fed up with his classmates’ antics (and there were a lot of them).  At one point he said, “Can I talk to you?” and I said, “Yeah, what’s up?” and he said, “Can you make a list of all the names of the kids who were being good?”  I guess he could foresee the mediocre report I gave the teacher about that class.  Then he said, “I finished the reading questions.”

“Did you finish the worksheet too?”  He nodded, face in hands and elbows on desk.  “Both sides?”  Another nod.

Then he said, “I’m bored.”

All I could say (and no one else was listening, so I felt it was safe) was, “I know you are, I know how you feel.  I promise you it will all pay off one day.  Don’t let it discourage you.”

He just nodded some more, looking resigned.

Oh, smart kids.  Please don’t let the monotony of middle school (or high school, or life) get you down.  Eventually you get a chance to stretch out and grow. 

And then in college you’ll learn the joys of skipping class.  So work it while you’ve got it.

I bet Smart Kid would know better than to put unnecessary quotation marks.
Categories
Drew Sentiment Theatre Work

Greener grass on the other side

I am so far behind in things I want to talk about.  Case in point: I wrote this yesterday (Saturday) in a notebook sitting backstage at tech, but this is the first chance I’ve gotten to sit down at a computer.  So here goes:

I’m working on The Seagull at MTC, and we started tech today.  Yesterday during our staging day, I was moving props or something and I had one of those “oh snap” epiphanies where I realized how crazy lucky I am: working backstage at an actual theatre, and getting paid real money for it.  I had a nice little glowing ten minutes or so, but like all good things, the euphoria didn’t last forever. 

(Although I’m still happy.)

Yesterday was Drew’s birthday and I wish I had been able to hang out with him.  Or even hang out today.  Or tomorrow.

We spent so long on opposite schedules that, last fall, when we were suddenly both working daytimes, home together in the evenings and on the weekends – well, I just got used to it quickly.  Used to it, and you might say, taking it for granted.  So now, even though it’s just for the next month, it’s frustrating to be back on that schedule.  I always feel like I’m missing out on something.  For example:

-Drew’s birthday
-Glee, and friends dinner night for the next 4 weeks
-2 out of the 3 episodes of Watson on Jeopardy (Watson is the computer competing against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter – I’ll get to the see the first episode but not the second and third)

I guess I should worry less about missing TV.

I remember I survived this before.  This is temporary.  Paying dues.  Eye on the prize, and all that.  But I think it’s clear what my goal is here for 2011.

PS. The grass really is greener onstage – check it out!

Categories
Awesome Being a girl Family Friends Memoir Sentiment

What’s “film”?

Also in the boxes from my room at my parents’ house – 3 rolls of undeveloped film.

One of the rolls is not a typical canister, and Walgreens told me they don’t develop that stuff anymore.

One of the rolls ended up being blank (bummer).

The third roll (or the first roll, depending on how you look at it), ended up being random pictures from…2001? 2002?  Who knows?  It’s all pictures around my house, or Kirsten’s (my high school bff) house, those are her ducks, that’s my brother on the ground, having apparently been bested by Kirsten’s dog…I don’t know what this is.

Actually, this is the exact reason that I’m so grateful for digital cameras.

And no, I did not get doubles of this.  (I actually just got the negatives and a photo CD – yay 2011!)

Enjoy.

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Categories
Being a girl Sentiment

Cleaning house

Every time I think I’m making headway on cleaning up all my childhood stuff left in my room at my parents’ house…I find another box or bag filled with angsty poetry, drawings of faces, or birthday cards from ten years ago.  Last time I was home I brought back 3 or 4 boxes to go through.  I have just done so, and filled a box with trash.  But there is some interesting stuff mixed in.

Unfinished cross-stitch
Drew and I agreed to keep the dinosaurs.
So much paint!
The colored pencil version of the watercolor painting that is my header.
Categories
Beginnings Being a girl Endings Exercise Home improvements Sentiment

Resolutions

I’ll be revisiting the New Year’s Resolutions concept in a little bit, but for now I’m off work until January 4th, so I’m doing…old-year resolutions.  End-of-the-year resolutions.  In the 2 weeks I have off work, I am determined to accomplish the following:

-Hit the gym 6 times.  It sounds pretty reasonable, but I’ve also booked myself into seeing everyone who’s back in California for the holidays, including 3 overnight trips in Lakeport.  So basically every day I’m not on the road, I’m at the gym.

-Do some deep cleaning of the apartment.  Specifically I want to clean out the fridge, scrub the bathroom, and organize all the stuff that’s just been floating around.  Tonight I unpacked and shelved two boxes of books, so there’s my head start.

-Write another short play to submit to the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Play Festival.  Then assemble my applications and send ’em in.

-Organize my iTunes and sync up my iPod.  Since I got my new laptop, I’ve managed to transfer all my music, but I haven’t really done anything to clean it up.  So I’ma tackle that.  Also, I have a list of new songs I want to download, just to make sure I’m up to date with Bruno Mars and Pink.

And tonight I added to that list:

-Manage to make a dinner that makes Drew go, “Mmm!  This is DELICIOUS!!”  He’s been pretty complimentary about the stuff I’ve been making lately, but I want to really impress him.  (At least I know he won’t fake it on me.)

New Year’s Resolutions are being crafted.  Also a confessional post.

Merry Christmas!