Categories
Home improvements Not awesome

A day of repairs

A week, maybe 10 days ago, I went to lock the deadbolt before going to bed, and stepped on the welcome mat next to the door.  My sock was instantly soaked through.  Upon closer inspection, water was leaking under the door and filling the little area right in front of the door.  We’ve had a lot of rain lately and it’s sounded especially loud right outside the front door, but I guess it’s been coming inside as well.  We kept saying to each other, we have to get this fixed.

A few days later, the front door started splitting – the front and back panels coming away from the frame – leaving splinters of wood and paint all over the (still soaking wet) floor.  We finally made the trek to the office to tell them that we needed a new door.  They sent a guy out who spent all of 3 minutes here, and put some screws in the two panels to keep the door together.  Yay!  We then pointed out the wall by the front door, which the other day formed a huge bubble of water from a leak inside, as well as the ceiling where you can see water stains forming.  He said he’d have to wait for it to dry out and then they would repaint.  (Good luck anything drying out here right now.)

Today two new guys came out and looked at everything.  They radioed the office and called it a “huge mess” and I think once or twice stopped themselves from saying bad words.  (“Hey, look at this.” “Oh, shi….”)  They tore up part of the wall, pulled out all the soggy insulation, disconnected the wiring (did I mention this is the wall with the main light switches and outlet?), and cut a vent in the ceiling so it could dry out and stop storing water.  They promised to come back to shave part of the door: since it’s so swollen, it’s really difficult to get open or closed.  They also made many disparaging comments about the other guy, who didn’t really do anything and also didn’t have us sign anything, so there’s no record of what he did do.

We actually kind of need a new door, I think, especially since we’ve both been having difficulties with getting our keys in both of the locks.

So today ended up being sort of productive, not that we had to do anything, but we did oversee it.

Also today, we took my car’s right front tire to Firestone to get it patched up, after a kind patron at the show yesterday tracked me down and told me I had a flat.  I thought I could put the spare on myself, just to get home, but then Jenn the Production Manager said she’d help.  Then while we were assembling our tools (thank God I have a spare tire and a jack, although no wrench, but she had one in her trunk), Margot the Literary Manager was walking by and stopped to hold an umbrella over us.  Then while I loosened and pried off the plastic “hubcap,” two of the tech guys came walking by after gorging themselves on burritos, and said they didn’t want to get in the way.  I said please get in the way, and then they proceeded to put the spare on.  But I still think if I had to, I could have done it myself.

When I picked up my newly repaired tire today, the woman behind the counter asked if my husband was going to put it on the car for me.  I said, “We’re going to put it on together.”  Then she gave me my receipt and a free wall calendar of Pacifica.  Bonus gift.

Don’t worry, we still had time to watch lots of TV, including The Pregnancy Pact.

Trash bag-covered hole in the wall
Categories
"Other people" Being a girl Theatre

I think I got hit on today: an update

Oh, also!  I found out the story behind the hitting-on-me guy.

After a couple more Incidents which were puzzling to me (aside from the “no thank you” conversation, he is just not the type of guy who I would expect to be hit on by), I confided in Liz the Stage Manager.  She laughed a lot but told me that she thinks he’s just a friendly theatre guy.  I said, “You’re right, you’re right,” and let it go.  Then the next day, she leaned over during notes and said, “I have a story. About HENRY*.”

Later she told me (and then even later Henry himself confirmed) that Henry moved to the Bay Area for a girlfriend 3 years ago, thinking they would be engaged within a year.  After being in a relationship for 5 years, she broke up with him on Christmas Eve.  This last one, like less than a month ago.  Ouch.  So now we’re both really really sweet to him, and let him talk on the headset about wine and steak au poivre.  He’s actually a pretty nice guy.  (Although whenever he says “Woot” over headset I can’t help but groan a little inside.)

*Name changed to protect the innocent (if not innocent, then at least not guilty).

Categories
Endings Not awesome

Germs?

While brushing my teeth, I got a little overexcited and flipped the toothbrush out of my mouth.  It hit the edge of the counter, the toilet seat, then somehow fell behind the toilet into a puddle (I think from the shower).  What should I have done?

A. Finish brushing, then throw it away just to be on the safe side.
B. Stop brushing immediately even though I was barely halfway done.
C. Rinse it off and it’s fine.  Five second rule.

Weigh in.

Categories
Being a girl Endings Fiction

Maybe less caffeine before bed?

Last night I had trouble falling asleep.  As I lay there listening enviously to the even breathing of a certain other person who could obviously fall asleep just fine, I slowly didn’t know where I was anymore.  I lay on my side facing the outside edge of the bed and realized that the wall in front of me had two closet doors, one open and overflowing, one closed.  The bedroom door further down was closed for privacy.  The fan at the foot of the bed was off (this is the middle of winter after all) but I could sense it there.  I could feel the dusty curtains somewhere behind me over the grated window that led out onto the fire escape, and then I heard (faintly) the 7 train go by outside.  I reached a hand out and touched, not the smooth polished wood of the nightstand I was somehow no longer expecting, but the rough unpolished birch of a $7 Ikea side table.  Covered in piles of books, papers, and dust.  I let my fingers trail up over my head and I stroked the headboard I remember leaving behind.

I kept my eyes closed because I could see so clearly through the bedroom door, down the hallway, into the living room glowing in the light filtered in from streetlamps.  The ugly couches and the TV we paid off for a year were outlines, dusty ones.  If I went to the window the sill would be cold even with the heater blowing warm air from the vent below it.  Out the window the Manhattan skyline glittered: the Empire State Building, its lights already off due to heavy fog; the Chrysler Building, my favorite, sparkling like a Christmas tree; the CitiBank Building a blight as always on the otherwise perfect view.  Inexplicably an older woman would be pushing a cart down 61st Street even though all the stores and laundromats would be closed.  Would it be snowing?  Sometimes I could only tell by looking at the beams from streetlights – and sometimes it was everywhere.

The elevator rumbled innocuously past the 4th floor, delivering home someone who had just disembarked the recent 7 train.  The parquet floor was cold and the rug gritty beneath my bare feet.  If I knocked on Jared’s louvered doors would he answer them, wearing a t-shirt from God of Carnage or [title of show]?

I kept my eyes closed tight, rolled around in the so familiar feel of this bedroom I had lived in for 3 years.  I tried not to move so I wouldn’t disturb this feeling.  I wanted to peek and see if it was true.  Before I looked though, I wondered what was more likely: that the last year had been a dream and it was the beginning of 2009, I was gainfully employed in a job that challenged me and gave me health insurance?  Or that this was an alternate reality where I was in January 2010, but one where we had stayed in New York?  Would anyone else realize this was wrong?  Would Jared be happy or disappointed to have us back?  Would I be happy or disappointed to be there?  Would Drew?

Eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up I was in San Bruno, California, married and fully admitting it was 2010.  It seems silly and a little dramatic to imagine being back in Queens.  Of course I wasn’t back in Queens.  But it was nice to feel it, is all, around me, for just a little while.

Categories
"Other people" Being a girl Theatre

I think I got hit on today

Here’s what happened.

On a ten-minute break I went to the kitchen to wash the myriad glasses we use in Sunlight.  Two of the tech guys were in the kitchen (both of whom I’ve tried to talk to in a friendly manner in the past, and who have been hella socially awkward/rude back to me).  One of the tech guys said, “I have a question for you – are you a vegetarian?”  I said I wasn’t and he said, “I like you more because of that.”  Then he said, “What’s your favorite hard liquor?”  I admitted I like tequila.  He said that’s better than vodka.  Is it?  Then he noticed (?) my ring and asked if I was engaged.  I said I was actually married.  Then after a weird pause he told me my ring looked durable, and his friend makes rings out of titanium.  Or something.  I left shortly after that.  The weirdest part was the other guy watching silently the whole time.  He has a huge beard.

I guess what this teaches me is that, those socially awkward tech guys from college may grow up, but they don’t always gain social skillz.

Categories
Awesome

Size matters

I haven’t shopped at Costco very often.  Molly and I would go pick up stuff to sell as concessions for Studio 301 fundraising, but other than that I haven’t spent that much time there.  Drew got a gift card to Costco and so last Friday we picked up Allen Joe (who has a Costco card) and drove over there.

I was expecting to stock up on cartfuls of things (maybe not really) and I was a little taken aback when we reached our spending limit with about 7 things in the cart.  But as Drew pointed out, we didn’t get a big selection of food but we got a lot of food.

That reality hit me tonight when I opened the freezer to get some chicken nuggets and was faced with bodybags of food:

7 pounds of corn dogs
60 potstickers (the soda can is for scale)
and a sleeping bag full of Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets

But don’t they look delicious?

Categories
Sentiment Theatre

Christmas

For Christmas we went to Lakeport (we drove up on Christmas Eve really late) and spent the first Christmas ever with my parents.  My mom made cinnamon rolls and we ate candy all day.  Then we went to see Sherlock Holmes, but it was basically sold out (Lakeport Cinema 5 what??) but we saw Brittany and her HUSBAND and her dad and her brother.  That was weird.  Then we bought tickets for a later performance and came home and ate more candy.  When we went back to the theatre we got really good seats, and then sat around…and then saw Jacob and his entire family, and Ian Fuller and his dad, and the Andres.

I used to get so annoyed whenever I was in Lakeport and had to go out in public anywhere…because EVERY time you go out, to the store, to the gas station, wherever, you WILL run into someone you know.  But this time it was fun.  And the last time I was there, I hung out with Kirsten and her mom and her brother, and then I went to Alyssa’s house and hung out with her and met her husband…Lakeport is super fun when there are people to hang out with.  So this explains why Drew used to like to come home to Pacifica from Davis – because he could hang out with people.

Then Jacob texted me in the movie and told me to come over to his house and hang out with him and Ted and Ian, but I declined because of my family Christmas time.  Finding balance.

Sunlight

This is the show I’m working on right now at Marin Theatre Company (www.marintheatre.org).  It’s a world premiere and the show is GREAT.  I love the script, I think it’s so well-crafted, and relevant to today’s world.

I am a production assistant (basically a combination of ASM and wardrobe) and yesterday I got told I am “great at being on book.”  That might not sound like a great compliment, but it sort of made my day.  I’m going to be with MTC for the rest of their season so I’m getting really invested in it.  So far I really like all the people, and it’s been a really fun couple weeks in rehearsal.  (And payday is tomorrow, thank God.)

Everyone should come see this show.

Categories
Family Fashion Memoir

The danger of scarves

The room we rehearse in is always freezing (except when all the actors leave the room and Liz the SM and I turn the heat up and sit under the vents).  I’ve been wearing more and more layers every day; I’m two steps away from bringing a blanket or buying a Snuggie.  The last couple days I’ve even resorted to wearing scarves, which I thought I would never need in California.  Today I had wrapped my scarf around my neck twice when I recognized a familiar sense of anxiety…

…which I then placed as coming from the fear that, when I wrapped my scarf fully around my neck, someone could come up behind me, pull on the end, and break my neck, or strangle me, or otherwise cause me harm.  Where did this fear come from?  I thought of Isadora Duncan and her untimely scarf demise, but this feels like a deeper fear, something that would have had to be instilled in me at a very young age.

Of course, it must have been my mother.

Here are some other things I’ve recently realized I still (sort of) believe in, leftover from my childhood, even though my brain tells me it’s stupid:

-Premade chocolate milk: made from the milk that comes out bloody from the cows
-Don’t sit directly in front of the TV: the radiation comes out and then down (I guess I know where my brother and I used to sit)
-Reading in the dark ruins your eyes

What did you get told that you still believe?

Categories
Beginnings

Happy New Year! Welcome to The Ten.

I’ve been hearing a lot of people refer to 2009 negatively…most recently – and colorfully – this afternoon when someone said “It’s the last day of the year, I’d just like to say F*** YOU 2009!”

But I thought 2009 was a pretty good year.  I just wanted to point that out.  Parts were stressful and as a country we didn’t have a great year, but personally?  My 2009 was pretty rockin.  FYI.

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!