Category: Sentiment

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Endings Home improvements Memoir Nature Sentiment

Ready to be moved already

Every morning this week, when I’ve gotten up and come out to the living room, my first thought is always, “We’ve been robbed!”

I mean, I guess yeah, I would say I’m easily amused.

Although…maybe I’m just going a little crazy here and finding amusement where I can.

Also, having taken out almost all of the furniture, and everything off the walls, we’ve found that our apartment is delightfully resonant. Last night I was going on some little rant about something or other, and I realized in the middle of it that I could hear my voice reverberating in the living room. That had to drive someone crazy. Someone besides Drew, I mean.

It also means I don’t want to yell anything from the bedroom to the kitchen, like I normally would, unless I’m okay with all our neighbors hearing it. And, given that one of my priorities in life is to never be someone that other people eavesdrop on disdainfully, it makes for a lot quieter evenings.

Here are three things I’ll miss: the three cats that live around us. First, there’s Black & White Cat who mostly sits in the grass down the hill from our front door.

Then, there’s Backseat Driver Cat. I can’t remember the full story about him. But I’m pretty sure if you’re not looking, he’ll jump in your car while the door’s open, and then make annoying commentary from the back, like, “Why are you getting on the freeway here?” and “Oh…I would have gone to the other McDonalds.”*

Finally, there’s Ghost Cat. Ghost Cat is primarily seen at night in the fog, and is a swift runner. I took a picture of Ghost Cat but when I developed it, there wasn’t anything there and the inside of my camera was all melted. (Wait, that’s basilisks, not ghosts.)

I have no idea who owns any of these cats (well, I mean, Ghost Cat obviously has no owner). But I’ll miss seeing their tails disappear as they run into the bushes to hide. And I’ll miss Backseat Driver Cat telling me to turn on my headlights, even in the middle of the day.

*Sadly I have no picture of Backseat Driver Cat at this point, because once I made the decision to write a roll call of the Cats around here, he stopped showing up. I believe he’s self-conscious about his orange fur.

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Awesome Beginnings Being a girl Dreams Drew Endings Family Memoir Nonfiction Self improvement Sentiment Writing

2011 New Year’s Resolutions: Finis

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:

  • Script Frenzy in April
  • Submit to Samuel French Off-off-Bway Festival in July
  • Nanowrimo in November (I made the conscious decision to stay sane this November)
  • Blog 100 times over 2011 (the actual number is 168 public posts, counting this one)
  • Look into a Record-Bee column (I actually submitted about four of these)

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!

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Dollars Friends Nonfiction Sentiment Theatre Work

Happy December!

So here’s what’s going on lately around here.

The show I’m working on (not backstage, just marketing) is The Secret Garden. It opens tomorrow. This week was the Invited Dress (Tues) and previews (Wed-Fri). Invited Dress is always rough – particularly at this theatre and this time of year, where the lobby is small and it’s freezing outside, things get really crowded since people start lining up ~40 minutes before the house opens. It’s just a little stressful. So after the show started (and it’s been this way on all the Invited Dresses), Jonathan and I needed to sit in the lobby and decompress. Then we needed to go to Target for some retail therapy.

This weekend I’m working on another reading at Marin – it’s called Silent Sky and is slated to be in their 2012/13 season. I’m excited about it – but it got cut down from the original Wed-Mon schedule to just Fri-Mon, and since I already had a conflict this evening, I’ll just be in Sat-Mon. I’m still excited to get back into the rehearsal hall.

On Wednesday, Drew and Erin and I watched Martha Marcy May Marlene. Depressing! Also, I didn’t like the ending.

Tonight – my prior conflict – a bunch of us Davis alum are taking a little field trip to see a fellow alum’s new theatre company’s debut show: The Last 5 Years. It’s in SF somewhere. I’m pretty sure Drew knows how to find it. This started out as a relatively small gathering but has expanded rapidly to involve about 8 people. A diverse group of people – and we don’t all know each other, which is always fun.

Last night, TheatreWorks volunteered at KQED, answering phones for their pledge drive. Someone dropped out of our group at the last minute, so I enlisted Erin to help. It was fun, except that the phones went down at some point so for the last hour (?) we didn’t really have anything to do.

My last phone call before the phones went down was from this woman who started by launching into a story about how she was watching Frank Sinatra (the program was Sinatra Sings) and how she has always loved him. She wanted to know how she could get his music so she could play it in her house. I explained that the lowest pledge level was $75 and the gift at that level was the CD of his music. Then I had to explain what a CD was. She asked if it was like a tape, and apologized for not knowing, but she is “an 89-year-old woman” and just didn’t know what she had in her house.

After trying to explain CDs –  and a brief foray into explaining the DVD, which was available at the $100 pledge level – she said maybe she should ask her children if she had a CD player, and I agreed that maybe that was a good idea. I told her I would hate to send her the CD if she wasn’t able to play it.

She was totally sweet and very kind, and what I’m praying is that she says to her children, “I want this Frank Sinatra CD and I can get it from KQED if I pledge $75,” and I hope that they either help her do that, or just say, “Mom, if you just want to listen to Frank Sinatra, let’s swing by Best Buy and pick you up a brand new CD player and also his complete discography.” Or something. I just hope they’re not mean to her.

I mean, even if they just hooked her up to YouTube and made her a playlist of songs. Even that would be okay.

Anyway, that’s my week in review. I am currently FREEZING. Okay, now you’re completely up to date.

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Awesome Books Dreams Drew Family Friends Love Memoir Sentiment Theatre Work Writing

Thanksgiving

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Awesome Memoir Religion Self improvement Sentiment Theatre Writing

How to Write a New Book for the Bible

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?

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Awesome Beginnings Friends Love Nonfiction Sentiment

This Perfect Day

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.

Mrs. James, with her complimentary wedding day Starbucks

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.

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Awesome Drew Friends Love Sentiment

Disneyland Pictures

Oh yeah – we went to Disneyland this weekend. It was pretty awesome. Erin, Drew and I drove down Friday after work, and got there about 11pm. We stayed with our friend Travis in Santa Monica, and got up at like 5:45 Saturday morning to go to the parks. We were at the parks ALL DAY LONG – back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure – and went back to Travis’ around 11pm. Then on Sunday we had brunch with some other SoCal friends, and then saw Travis’ show, Dracula at the Long Beach Playhouse. Then we drove back to the Bay Area, getting home shortly after midnight.

I stole some pictures from the album Erin posted on Facebook. Here are four of them.

At first, I thought it was charming...
...but seriously, I don't think I'm a "character" person.
Love this picture! and Tower of Terror!
Waiting for World of Color to start

There are more pictures on my camera (which I have to find) and on my phone (which I have to plug in). First world problems!

Also, this is my favorite tweet I’ve ever tweeted:

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Awesome Beauty Beginnings Being a girl Endings Fashion Food Friends Love Memoir Self improvement Sentiment Work

Megan’s Bachelorette!

Megan wanted to go into New York City for her bachelorette party. So 2 days before the wedding, 9 girls piled into a limo and prepared to take the Big Apple.

2 Ms of Honor, 5 bridesmaids, 1 friend, and 1 bride!

It was about a two hour drive into the city, with one stop for orange juice (to mix with the champagne we’d brought) and another bathroom/snack stop (the first of many of the day).

The limo dropped us at Astor Place, where everyone grabbed some pizza to get us through until dinnertime. Then we walked down to our East Village nail salon, called Blush – a place I would highly recommend (I really need to write them a Yelp review).

I love this picture!

I originally wanted a French manicure, but ended up just getting a regular one with a super pearly pale white color. I really liked it – and the whole thing was worth it for the cuticle cleaning up and the hangnail clipping. Man, I love that.

A success!

After our salon time, we walked back to Astor Place to catch an N train to Times Square. A couple of the girls had never seen New York City, so we checked out Times Square, including the M&M store and the Hershey store.

Then we walked over a block to Megan’s favorite New York restaurant, La Masseria.

After that we wandered through Times Square, and down to 42nd Street. We went into Dave & Busters to find a bathroom, then we heard from the limo driver that he was trying to get back into the city but was stuck in traffic. So we decided to walk back up to Toys ‘R’ Us to ride on the ferris wheel. But we all got separated, so 6 of them went on the ferris wheel and 3 of us ended up watching.

Then, Megan realized she was missing her phone, so her cousin Emily called it about 20 times until someone answered. Turned out it was back at Dave & Busters. Then the limo driver called and was going to meet us at 42nd and Broadway. So I grabbed Megan and said, Let’s run back to Dave & Busters, the two of us can go really quickly. So we dashed back and got her phone, then back to the limo.

He drove us downtown past the Freedom Tower (I’m still not totally sure why) and then back to Connecticut. We got back to Mindi’s house and drank and talked and ate Cheez-its and played with her kitten. Then around 1:30 we divvied up the sleeping places (I got the couch!) and passed out.

The next morning it was back to the hotel via Dunkin Donuts breakfast, and then lots more to do before the rehearsal dinner Friday night!

A muy successful bachelorette party: a great salon, a great dinner, NYC fun, and Megan even got her lost phone back!

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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.