Category: Work

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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!

Categories
Sports Work

Love our patrons

Tonight at the theatre I overheard a patron telling his three friends this joke.

So these two guys are out on the golf course playing a skins game. [Note: in a skins game, the “winner” of each hole wins money. If two players are tied on a hole, the money doubles on the next hole.]They are at the last hole, and the winner will get like a hundred bucks.** It’s so exciting! The first guy lines up his shot, he’s got to make like a 5-foot putt to win the whole thing.

Just then, a hearse begins passing the golf course. The first guy steps away from the shot, takes off his hat and holds it over his heart, and waits while the hearse and all the funeral cars go by. Afterward, the second guy says, “That was a really great thing to do, very respectful,” and the first guy says, “Yeah, well, we were married for 30 years.”

LOL

**I tried to make the math work, but couldn’t. I thought about saying some mathematically-accurate number (“the winner will get like eighty bucks!”) but I opted not to. Well, I guess at this point I’ve split the difference and said too much about it.

Categories
Drew Family Love Theatre Work

It would probably cut back on my Starbucks habit.

At work we recently hired this woman, who everyone agrees rocks. She happens to be (newly) married to a guy who also works in our office, and who also rocks. Yesterday as I was parking, they pulled up across from me and parked. And I sat there with my head cocked, thinking about what it would be like to work right down the hall from your spouse.

I guess it would be fun…? But, on the downside, I feel like it would also be an infringement on personal space. What if you’re having one of those days where you’re annoyed by everything and everyone? Do you have to hide it from them? What if you have some story of work confrontation – but rather than going home and telling it, clearly skewed so you are the victim/victor, your spouse knows the whole thing because it’s their co-worker than locked horns with you?

On the upside, carpooling. So…there’s that.

Speaking of working with your spouse, two of my Facebook friends, who happen to be married to each other, are working on a show somewhere. She is directing and he is acting in it. He keeps posting things about how awesome of a director she is. That’s sweet, but also makes me cringe. Too close. Too much interaction. What if you were bickering on the way to rehearsal, and now you have to direct how your spouse is supposed to be acting with their play-spouse? I don’t know, man.

I guess that is extra cringey for me because I have residual trauma regarding directing. When I think about it, but put myself in a stage manager role instead of a director role, it’s not that bad. I guess I could do that.

Thoughts? Working with your spouse? My parents have been teachers in the same district forever, but at least they’re at different schools…sometimes.

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"Other people" Awesome Memoir Tomato Work

New York’s Weirdest Habit, And My Special Spinach Salad

Tonight was kind of a frustrating night at work. It had nothing to do with my own co-workers, for which I am grateful. However, it does have to do with people I have to interact with on a regular basis, so some of these issues will come up again. And probably again.

But, it’s come to my attention over and over again lately that I can’t really keep any secrets in this forum. That’s partly because I keep linking my name with this blog. So I guess it’s my fault. This is about 90% blessing and 10% curse. Sometimes I wish I could just bitch about something or someone – but I can’t.

That being said, in 2007 I worked at this deli-type place in New York. Every week we had a “special” salad, and one week, I convinced the owner to name the special after me! Here’s proof:

Anyway, I worked as a cashier, and took orders over the phone. It was often an annoying job. Also, it was way less fulfilling than my job now. Except I did get free food everyday. And I often took extra food home for Drew. We didn’t pay for very much food during the 8 months I worked there.

One day I made a list of all the things customers did at the register that drove me crazy. I have carried that list around – inexplicably – for 4 years. Since I can’t very well talk about all the things that frustrate me now, here is a list of annoying things that customers used to do.

  • Leaving trash on the counter for me to throw away
  • Setting things down and then going to get more stuff – especially when there’s a line behind them
  • Waiting until I’ve bagged all their food to say they want to stay
  • Wanting me to bag their drinks*
  • When I say “Is that all?” and they say “Yes. And also…”
  • Digging for change while I wait, and then they don’t have any change
  • A guy who only has a $5 bill out to pay for a tuna sandwich (it’s $5.75 before tax)
  • Paying with a credit card for a small soup**
  • Talking on their cell phone, then acting all “why are you interrupting my call?” when I try to talk to them
  • People asking for stupid things (forks, napkins, etc)***
  • Handing me money all folded up
  • Throwing their money on the counter
  • Giving me awkward change (like if their total is $11.65, and they give me $20.05, so their change is $8.40 – fail)
  • Looking pained while doing any of the above

*This still baffles me. The weirdest New York thing I discovered, was that they put your drinks into a bag for you. Not just your bottle of Snapple – but your coffee in a styrofoam cup, or your fountain diet Coke. Drew and I discovered this in Brooklyn, when one day out of desperation for normalcy we walked about 40 blocks to the closest McDonalds, and the bored cashier put our Sprites into a bag and handed them to us. We were all like, WTF is that about? But they do it there all the time! It’s so weird! Please don’t put my coffee into a bag – if it’s too hot to carry I’ll take a sleeve or a double cup…

**I am guilty of doing this now. So I can’t really complain anymore.

***I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. In retrospect, it’s okay if they ask for forks. I think it’s stupid because they just watched me put a fork and napkins into their bag.

There. I feel better. /rant

Categories
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
Beginnings Nonfiction Self improvement Work

Just Me & My Fear Of Heights

Yesterday afternoon I went with a couple co-workers to hang twinkle lights in the trees outside the theatre we perform in. Our New Works Festival is coming up in a week or so (eek) and twinkle lights are kind of a tradition. Anyway, hanging lights in the trees required ladders.

I kind of have a ladder phobia. These were relatively small ladders, and I was going up only a couple steps, so it was okay. But in general, I do not like ladders.

Ladders can fall over. Ladders could slip on the ground and slide out from under you. Ladders can be placed unsteadily on grass and tip you off.

Being a stage manager, I’ve been in contact with a lot of ladders. Usually I don’t have to be the one climbing them though – luckily that is normally someone else’s job – like the lighting people. God bless you, lighting people, and your CRAZY LONG ladders that you balance on unsteady rails in the air, and then scale like you have no fear. God bless you also with your scaffolding that you build as you climb it (I’m looking at you, Marin), and your genies. Ugh.

In New York I worked on a show where, to get to the booth, I had to climb a ladder affixed to the wall. I spent the entire 4-week run convinced I was going to slip one day and fall and die. Then someone told me that it wasn’t that high, and I probably wouldn’t die, which alleviated some of my stress. But I’m still grateful that I will never, ever have to set foot in that theatre again – it was one of the three worst spaces I’ve ever worked in.

I don’t mind being up in the air – as long as I’m on something sturdy, permanent, and preferably not see-through. I would definitely like to try out that glass walkway thing that goes out over the Grand Canyon, but I’m pretty sure it would scare the bejeezus out of me. But you know, in a fun way.

Maybe this fear came from my family’s infamous tree house story – my dad is probably rolling his eyes at the fact that I am bringing this up – but when my brother and I were kids, we were building this AWESOME tree house out in our back-backyard. For a little while, it was just a platform in the tree, and Robb and I used to climb up the ladder (see? no fear then) and spy on the neighbors while they lounged in their random hot tub. One day, as my dad, Robb and I were up there working on adding walls or something, the whole thing collapsed and dumped us out of the tree. We were all totally fine, and although we talked about rebuilding it, we never actually got around to it.

Possibly that’s when I started being wary of heights and ladders and genies and other things like that.

Anyway, I made it through yesterday afternoon: 
working with the scary, scary 6′-ladder and the towering, monstrous pretty purple trees, and the muy peligroso twinkle lights. I stayed off the ladder as much as possible and just climbed around on the benches under the trees. No biggie.

And hopefully now the courtyard will be gorgeous and lure in many, many ticket buyers. I guess it’s all in a day’s work.

If you feel like commenting, tell me the ridiculous thing you’re afraid of! Backstory speculation is welcome, but not necessary.

Categories
Not awesome Work

The tin is there to hold in the spam – potpourri

I just noticed this comment in my spam filter:

Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch! “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.” by George Bernard Shaw.

This person had googled “parachuting dogs” and found my 60s post. So I guess it might not be spam.

I don’t know what I’ve been doing lately, but it hasn’t been writing. Or going to the gym. But I definitely feel like I’ve been busy!

I did just finish The Help last night, and I loved it and would highly recommend it to all. Next up on my reading list is Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Last Friday we saw Tales of the City at ACT in San Francisco – I really enjoyed the show. But I think their marketing is bad. Based on the poster, I was picturing a 40s film noir, not a musical, and really boring. But the show reminds me of nothing more than The Wedding Singer – totally fun, funny, entertaining, and the 3 hours flies by. I’m really glad we went before it closes (this weekend). It definitely feels like a new musical – there is work they can do on it – but I had a great time.

On Saturday I got to go shopping for bridesmaid dresses for the second wedding I’m in this fall. It went well, and we picked a dress that all three bridesmaids can wear. So that feels like a good accomplishment.

On Sunday I went to Lakeport for the afternoon to hang out with my parents, and they bought me lunch, but then they tricked me and had me go through about seven boxes of Stuff From My Past. I thought that would be it, but apparently there is still more. Sheesh.

BUT, this means I am rife with poetry from middle school, and embarrassing adolescent pictures. Also plenty of pictures of cats. We had A LOT of cats. Anyway, there is blog fodder in there, I know it.

Categories
Friends Technology Work

To friend request, or not to friend request?

Everyone’s heard that horror story, about a friend of a friend, who was up for her dream job, but then her prospective employer checked out her Facebook page, and found some unsightly pictures there, and bye-bye dream job.

I’ve never had that happen to me. I’ve been diligent about keeping my Facebook clean, also partly due to the prevalence of family members there. Any rants or negative comments I make are directed only at faceless strangers (“that guy who cut me off today”) or things that everyone rants against (“injustice”). (Okay, not sure I’ve ever ranted about injustice, technically, but it’s just an example.)

When we moved back to California, I originally made the decision to not add work contacts on Facebook. I wanted the option to say something honest about my day, and not have to worry that I was FB friends with someone who had been in the room. Plus there’s the added issue of WordPress, which I frequently link to on my Facebook. (And WordPress links to Twitter…) Too many ways for someone to find me, and find me saying something I shouldn’t.

When I started my current job, it quickly became obvious that I was going to have to become FB friends with work people. Like, a lot of work people. It was partly strictly for work – part of my job is being one of the admins of the work FB page – and it was also partly for ease of access to people. Also, you want to be able to comment on your coworker’s funny status updates, especially when you get that in-joke.

I thought about starting a work-FB page, and just keeping that and my personal page segregated. But that seemed like a lot of unnecessary work. And then I’m going to have two pages. That sounds terrible. And for a little while at least, one page will be sadly sparse. So I decided against that, and directed everyone to my one page.

The lesson here is just not to say ANYTHING online that I wouldn’t say to EVERY single person in my life.

So now I just keep everything nice and clean and positive, and if I have to say anything bitchy or even questionable, I send a text.

Categories
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
Awesome Beginnings Family Tomato Work

Day 11: Expect more tweets.

My parents stopped by this afternoon. We did some catching up and they took me to my local Verizon store, where we picked up my first ever smartphone. I have now jumped on board the smartphone train! I honestly do think it’ll be really useful for work. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I see how this smartphone thing could become super addictive, super fast. Anyone want to play Words with Friends?

I mean, look up things for work?

Then we went out to dinner and sat there talking until 10:00. I miss my parents. They are significantly geographically closer to me than they were from 2006-2009. But I guess I still don’t see them enough.

PS. My basil is finally starting to grow. There are tiny tiny little sproutings. I’ll have to see how this goes. It’s very cold and windy right now, I feel sad for the plants stuck outside.

PPS. Just checked my weather app. For some reason the defaults are Cupertino and New York City. Looks like NYC is getting thunderstorms twice this week. I’m strangely jealous – those crazy summer thunderstorms are intense.