cassaclyzm

New Year Survey

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 19:11:51 GMT

I keep forgetting that it's not the new year already; I think I've already moved on in my mind. Not that this was a particularly bad year for me, overall. Apart from a recurring health issue over the summer/fall, I felt pretty good about the year. But I'm ready for it to be twenty twenty.

So having said that, here's ( this year's survey: )

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_oOc3Zj0KU

This year, I want to do the following things:

- Create.
- Cook.
- Move.
- Listen.
- Audition.
- Appreciate my friends.
- Have fun.

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Well THIS is fun...

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 04:01:07 GMT

I've had a stupid recurring health issue this summer that I'd hoped I'd kicked after taking antibiotics for the ENTIRE month of July, but it reared its ugly head again last week and required actual medical intervention. Of the "go to the hospital and make them fix it" kind. And while I've continued to be fully ambulatory and able to mostly put on a guise of being normal, it took a lot out of me.

What's funny is that I didn't even really notice at first how tired and out of it I was, especially when things came to a head Monday-Thursday this week. I hadn't washed a dish in forever. I meal kits in my fridge waiting to be made but I couldn't bring myself to go through the steps of making them. Stupid little messes popped up all over my house. It was a bit like the odd time when I have a depressive mood - my environment starts to be a reflection of what's happening in my head. This time my head and heart were not feeling great either, thanks to the pain, and the uncertainty, and the worry. I very keenly missed my grandmother this week. She'd have known what to do, or who to talk to if she didn't. She always made things better.

Yesterday, after getting a couple of hearty doses of antibiotics and getting this thing on track to actually heal, I just found myself... tidying. Seeing mess and actually doing something about it. Little bits at a time, because I still get tired easily. I cleaned my sink so I could wash my hair in it and get something resembling a bath.

Today I worked a full shift for the first time since Tuesday (though I did it in three chunks of a couple hours each - I don't think I could have handled seven hours straight). I went and got my dressing changed. I did all of my remaining dishes, even the cast iron pan that needed some scrubbing. I cooked a meal kit and put away the leftovers for tomorrow. I thoroughly washed and picked through some produce that my landlord gave me from his garden.

It feels REAL NICE to be functional again.

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New Year Survey

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 03:26:48 GMT

( Hidden for your convenience. Grief talk pops up a bunch of times, fair warning. )

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How to tell you're a boring adult, part 4,539

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 04:47:31 GMT

Tonight, I had a choice between pizza and pea soup.

I chose pea soup.

(I would have had to cook a pizza in the oven and then store half of it away for later, and I had a salad that I was going to eat with it for some ruffage. Pea soup was fast and tasty and I got to eat a delicious dinner roll with it.)

I'm still fighting the tail end of last week's flu, which made grocery shopping tonight a real slog. I only got a dozen things, but I'd forgotten something in produce and remembered when I got to the freezer section, which is A MILE AWAY, and looking back across the store I just... sighed. And then had a coughing fit on the street car on my way home. I need to remember to keep taking it easy.

Pizza tomorrow night, and I'm making a chicken soup to have later in the week. I don't even have to cut up vegetables for it. I do need to make some sandwiches tonight before I go to bed. Which should be shortly.

I may be boring, but being able to do things again (in fits and starts) is pretty nice.

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Adventures in home entertainment

Fri, 19 Jan 2018 03:09:26 GMT

I got what I think was the flu last weekend. It was a typical illness for me except that it was backward. Usually I get sneezy, then coughy. This time it was the opposite, and it also included a fever of 38 degrees that lasted three whole days (one day it was closer to 39!) I lost the whole weekend and had to take two days off work, plus work a third from home (by Tuesday my fever was gone but I was in the throes of SNEEZEDOM.)

Today I finally got myself to work, albeit with a late start. My co-workers and my boss seemed happy to see me (once I confirmed that I was over the yucky, easily transmittable disease stuff). It was so nice to get out of the house. I didn't leave my house for SIX DAYS! The farthest I went was to the garbage bins in my driveway, and that was just on Wednesday evening.

I experimented with grocery delivery for the first time in the mist of Flu Week, and it was a big help to me. Most stuff is exactly what I picked or would have substituted, and I got a call asking about alternatives for a couple things. Unfortunately instead of ice cream I wound up with "93% fat free frozen yogurt," which tastes fine except that to make up for the lack of fat it's filled with MOAR SUGAR and it's so sweet I can barely handle it. I don't think I'm a convert - I really like picking stuff out myself - but I sure do love living in the future where I can pay 20$ to have actual groceries brought to my sad, sick face.

Speaking of having cool things delivered, I had cat litter delivered the other week. It basically cost me an extra 10 bucks, which is what I'd pay for a cab from the grocery store anyway, and it had the bonus of I DIDN'T HAVE TO CARRY A THING OF CAT LITTER, LIKE, AT ALL. So this is one I will DEFINITELY be doing again.

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Oooops

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 05:00:06 GMT

I completely forgot about my writing prompt book the past few nights. I'd been pretty good about getting a little prompt written every evening for the first week, but the excitement with the new bed must have thrown me off. I think I'll take a little time to catch up over the next couple of days, rather than try and blast through them in one sitting. I might need to set myself a little reminder on my phone, too - something that has the # day of the year. (I'm counting entries up to 365, which will get harder to track after January.)

The forecast today called for warmth and rain in the morning, freezing rain at noon, and bitter cold in the evening, so I worked from home. It's so very nice to have that as an option. I don't want to make TOO much of a habit of it, but wow. Having that dread about getting myself home just... go away? IS NICE.

Also I figured out how to patch the work phone system into my cell phone, so I could make and receive calls. It worked remarkably well. I'm surprised that I'm actually... wanting to be able to call people?? This is something I couldn't imagine while I was in the drudgery of customer service. It makes a huge difference that I'm the one in power - I need information from them, and I call them because I want it, when I want it. I'm not at their beck and call anymore. Clearly I AM DRUNK WITH POWER!

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I HAVE A NEW BED

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 03:46:31 GMT

Today a couple of nice fellas came and took away the caved-in piece of garbage I've been sleeping on, and replaced it with a bouncy new foam mattress (with a pillow top for extra COMF). This evolution in my sleep quality has been brought to you (read: me) by my completely amazing parents. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME (I made them promise not to get me anything this year. This is already too much.)

I went shopping for it literally the day after I got home after Christmas, because my bed was actually that bad. The weirdest thing was that I didn't even notice it was starting to go until September. I was away from home for four nights, and when I came back my bed had a dent in it. Clearly it had been there before. Clearly I had become BLIND TO THE TRUTH. And it got worse fast. I started feeling individual springs. (Part of the reason why I'm trying a foam mattress this time. Fingers crossed!)

In order to facilitate this delivery, I worked from home today for the first time. (Well, for the first time while doing my actual new job.) The first couple of hours were rough; going from two monitors to one tiny laptop screen gave me an actual headache. But then I engaged my COOL NEW FREE ~~totally not stolen from work~~ MONITOR (they're renovating and had marked a bunch of them to be thrown out. Yoink!) and the day got soooo much better. I wouldn't want to do it every day. Sleeping in is nice, having access to my couch and fridge and kitty is nice, but I like getting out and doing a little exercise and socializing with my work people.

Besides, in February I'm going to start working Saturdays regularly from home. That'll be an interesting change. (I'm hoping I'll be able to mold my hours around D&D games. Will have to see how that shakes out.)

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Two posts in two days? Madness!

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 03:56:41 GMT

I think I might make resolutions this year? Mostly because I feel like it. A few things are bubbling to mind. I'll decide by the end of the week if I want to articulate them into specific goals, but I might just go for a mild shift in attitude instead.

One thing I'm definitely doing is writing a little every day. A friend back home gave me a book with 500 writing prompts and space to write. Usually just little reflective questions - the one I did yesterday was "What makes you nervous? What do you do to calm yourself down?" They have different lengths, some 1/3 of a page, some 1/2, some a full page. Nothing overly daunting. Instead of going through from start to finish, I'm going to open to a random page every day and pick one that I like. This will get trickier as the year goes on, but I think I'd rather do that then plow through the front 2/3 of the book and have a bunch of empty stuff at the back come year end.

The long weekend was a nice chance to do some meal prep for the week. I went through my freezer and fridge and came up with some meals that used up things that were languishing in there - a few wrinkly potatoes, some black frozen bananas, portions of soup and chili and rolls to go with them. I think I'll clean the fridge out this coming weekend once it's well and truly empty (aside from condiments and, like, onions.) I need to clean my oven, too. We'll see if I get up the gumption.

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A New Year's Survey

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:11:50 GMT

I did this last year, when I was in a pretty horrible frame of mind. I hadn't been able to go home for Christmas because of work (in fact, I didn't even get three days off in a row over the entire Holiday season... and through to Easter, if I remember it correctly.) Considering it was a job I was utterly DONE with, this didn't improve my outlook at all. 2016 had also been a year with a lot of physical challenges, with my knees going "haha NOPE" to any real attempt at physical activity. I felt stagnant and frustrated.

2017 was a year of finding stasis. I didn't do anything wild, but I found a little bit of the "sense of purpose" that I was struggling for at the beginning of the year. Things aren't perfect, but I'm comfortable. I feel like I have a solid platform. And if I want to jump from it, I'm on solid footing.

( Read more... )

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Is this what it's like to... be motivated to do things?

Fri, 13 Oct 2017 01:52:08 GMT

I don't know exactly why, but over the last couple of weeks I've started actually being able to go "I should do X thing" and... do it? This shouldn't be surprising, but here we are. I finally set up the new monitor I got (cue SICK-ASS DUAL MONITORS), did a whole bunch of little household tidying and chores that I'd been putting off forever, and sucked it up and bought a decent budget vacuum cleaner. And I vacuumed tonight, for the first time in... too long. I didn't go nuts - just got the really high traffic and visible areas in my living room and office - but oh god. When I emptied the canister it was like, half a pound of dirt. I am not exaggerating.

I also DMed D&D 5e for the first time! A few weeks ago I decided to buy the Curse of Strahd module so I could see how a module is set up (I've watched a group of players go through it, so it's neat to see what was in the published module and what was altered on the fly or as they progressed to fit the direction of their campaign.) I happened to be talking to a couple friends from back home on Skype later that day who were lamenting not being able to roleplay lately. So I offered to DM Curse of Strahd for them, and in the weeks since we made characters and I have whisked them into Barovia for what I'm sure will be a graaaand old time. It's kind of the perfect month for that module, now that I think about it. I learned a lot from my first session as a DM, but I think I'll go into that in another post soon.

A possible side effect of this "I can function and do things!" bent is that I seem to be having trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. Going to try reeeeal hard to rectify that tonight. Like, shortly.

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Out with the old, in with the new

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:22:40 GMT

I'm deleting my old profile on OKCupid, so I thought I'd save a copy of it here. I've edited it a few times since I first created it in... I have no idea when. Maybe 2007? 2006? Either way, I think it's time for a clean(ish) slate.

( My old OKCupid profile. )

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I have homework! I'm not doing it!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:59:45 GMT

Am I surprised that it's having something to procrastinate that has brought me back to the Livejournals and the Dreamwidths? No. No I am not.

I have a couple of journal entries to write and a "narrative essay" (read: story) due a little later in the week. And that's pretty much it. After doing a whole undergrad degree, this stuff is... "easy" isn't even the word. "Trivial" is more like it. I'll do it - well, and on time - but... not yet. Later. The night before. Oh yeah, that feels good.

School proceeds apace. I hope we really sink our teeth into stuff this week - last week felt like we were still testing the waters, getting READY to start working. We're ready. Well, I'M ready anyway. HIT ME WITH SOME WORK.

I've been kind of scoping out the class to get a sense for who I get along with, who I think I'd like to work with, etc. Today I asked a couple of blokes if they'd like to meet up and write together sometime. It was weirdly like asking someone out on a date. I think. I don't know if I've ever actually asked anybody out on a date. I... wow. That's kind of sad. (But great stand-up material, AMIRITE?!)

The commute to school has been fine so far, I've been listening to comedy podcasts and music and kind of enjoying that headspace. And I must be pretty comfortable in general, because my body decided it was safe to give me a raging cold last week. Finally getting over it today and I feel GREAT, except for my knee which I bashed when I fell down today, because I am a GENIUS. But the fall gave me great material for Yon Aforementioned Narrative Essay so I'll take it.

Every now and then I catch a glimpse of the CN Tower and go "Hey! I'm living in Toronto! Neat!" And it is. It is neat. I believe I like it.

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Theatre, School, Moving, Etc.

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:21:21 GMT

I'm not sure how I managed to go half the year without updating this thing. But now that I'm back*, let's GET READY TO UPDAAAAATE!

This could get long-ish (as much as it can do in the, say, half hour before I have to go to bed), so I'll cut for your reading pleasure.

( On writing, and having my work produced. )

( On going to Humber to take Comedy Writing and Performance. )

( On moving to Toronto, living amid million-dollar homes, and commuting. )

That's enough for tonight. Did you know that there's a seven o'clock in the AM? Craziness! I have to make a post about my big ol' trip to Europe, too (which I did in June), but it'll have to wait. It's past my bedtime already.

* I've never really been away. I've been reading LJ and Dreamwidth pretty regularly (except in June, when I was out of the country.)

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A shadow of an update

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:16:16 GMT

I have too much stuff to say, so I'll just put the basics here. A real post to come soon.

I'm moving to Toronto in a few hours.

I'm going to Humber College to study Comedy Writing and Performance.

Two of my short plays were produced this summer.

I am in love with making people laugh.

I have amazing friends.

I am the luckiest bastard in the world.

That is all.

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Update-O-Rama

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:02:02 GMT

Guess it's time for me to pop in for five seconds and make an update about my life, huh? For the tl;dr crowd, basically I spent two months doing not a lot and have now suddenly started doing a lot again. Exciting!

My short story, "You in the Mirror", is going to be published in this summer's edition of Khimairal Ink. My first publishing credit, and in a (token, very token) paying market!

( Read more... )

Two of my short plays, "Don't Jump!" and "Trivial Things", are going to be workshopped by the Saint John Theatre Company with an eye to producing once of them in this year's Theatre on the Edge festival. "Don't Jump!" was particularly well received, and I'm really looking forward to working on both plays in the coming months.

I've applied to Humber College and am working on my distance audition, which involves writing and performing some stand-up material, writing a short skit, and making a four-minute video essay about my life.

( Read more... )

I'm stage managing a production of The Pride of Parnell Street which we will be taking to Calgary in May for an Irish theatre festival. The show is great: technically simple, really well written, and we have a couple of superb actors to tackle it.

Speaking of May, I'm leaving my job on May 4th. "May the Fourth be With You!" I could have worked for another week, but that date just seemed so auspicious that I went with it. I'll be busy with preparations for the aforementioned trip to Calgary (and Fredericton, but that isn't as big a deal, travel-wise) and with my not-yet-mentioned trip to Europe (well, probably more like England and France), which I'll be doing in late May / early June.

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Various Cassbits

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:55:58 GMT

I am totally stealing this format from clawfoot. 'Cause I can! And because writing about myself makes me feel sort of self-conscious, and putting my life in point form helps that feeling go away.

- Dinner Theatre is winding down. Only two shows left: this Friday, and next Saturday. I'm going to miss playing with this group, and especially singing with them, because by all hell we are one smokin' band with epic, and I mean EPIC vocals.

- The timing is good, though, because my backstage theatre life is ramping up. I'm stage managing a production of The Pride of Parnell Street. If you ever get a chance to see this show, do it. It's the most basic kind of theatre: two characters, standing/sitting/lying on the stage, and telling their stories. And it's wonderful.

- I have a big "to do" list of vague projects in my head that NEED to get done, not the least among them being my application to Humber. The deadline for distance auditions is in April, which gives me WAY too much time. I think I've convinced myself that I need to take a few cracks at it rather than pouring my energy into one go, so I can build up my video editing skills. Either that or I need to do a couple of tangentially related things. Either way, I need to get moving, and pronto.

- Speaking of "getting moving," I am making a concerted effort to get off my ass and do just that. I meant to spend January recuperating after the craziness of... um, most of last year, but that turned into a month of general slothiness that didn't do much except make me feel tired and aimless. I also ate way, waaaayyy too much fast food and junk, which I'm sure didn't help. So I am focusing on two big things this month: cooking more, and moving more. I worked out today, and walked a bunch, which means that I will be IN PAAAIIINNN tomorrow, but I'm telling you, I already feel like I've recovered from a long-term sickness. Moar of this plz.

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For shame!

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:19:04 GMT

Sorry, Toronto folks, but it looks like I won't be visiting in early March after all. The cheapest flight that I've been able to find was from Moncton (a two hour drive from here), and that clocked in at over 400$. Flying from Saint John would be about 500$. I'd rather be present to audition at Humber, but this IS what "distance auditions" were made for, and I'm sure I'm not the only person from outside of Ontario who can't make it for financial and/or logistical reasons.

The up-side is that there will be more focus on my writing (there being a bunch of essay questions on the distance audition) AND there will be a video component, which will give me the opportunity to flex my skills-of-a-videographer. And blooper reels to share with friends.

It's taken me a stupidly long time to make it happen, but as of this Friday I am FINALLY taking voice lessons. The more I have been singing (what with Marco Polo last fall and the Dinner Theatre through Christmas) the more I have been getting frustrated with A) not being better and B) not knowing how to GET better. I inherited and osmosed (is that a word? I've decided that it's a word) a lot of raw talent from my family, but I need guidance. Exercises. An outside ear.

Other than that, things are slowing down a bit for me; there are only a couple more Dinner Theatre shows, and I am (GASP! SHOCK!) not involved in any theatre until March at the earliest. I am reading a lot of plays and I have a couple of one-acts of my own that I need to polish and submit before the end of the month. I might have a third, even, if I can recreate the writing retreat from a couple of weeks ago, but it'll be hard with so many tantalizing social opportunities at my fingertips. And Peggle. Dear lord, the hours that I have lost to that game...

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Dear Toronto People:

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:58:02 GMT

I am likely going to be in Toronto for March 4th and/or March 5th so I can audition at Humber College for their Comedy Writing and Performance program. Would anybody be willing to have a Cass as a houseguest?

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A Magical Mystery Trip

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:19:20 GMT

You know what? Last year was crazy. In a good way, but still. I was going to start this entry with something like, "December was a crazy month," but then I realized that November had been just as crazy, and October - well, hell, that month was NUTS, and... yeah.

I did a lot last year. I stage managed a great production. I directed a one act / series of monologues. I came out. I performed on stage for the first time in forever. I wrote thirty short stories. I wrote a couple of one-act plays. I went to three incredible workshops. And on top of it all I took a temporary second job at the dinner theatre - y'know, just to keep things interesting.

So as the intense family social time (and work overtime glut) period of the holidays came to a close, I decided to run away for a few days. I booked a hotel (yay for online discounts) and a train ticket and disappeared to Halifax. The purpose of this trip was two-fold:

1) To recharge, socially, mentally, and physically;
2) To get some serious writing done.

In both of those respects the trip was COMPLETELY successful. I woke up every morning in my secret hideaway hotel and swam in my private pool (okay, it was a public pool, but all three days I had it all to myself), then slipped out into the world to explore and find a library or pub or coffee shop to sit and write in all day. Then I would hunt around for beer and rations to bring back to the hotel and I would relax for a couple of hours before hitting the hay at the ridiculously reasonable hour of 12:30.

During that time I finished a rewrite of one one-act play (some 10-12 pages of new material), did some polishing on another, got some brainstorming done so that I can tackle a third one in the coming days, and got a bunch of short stories ready to enter round two of edits / rewrites. I also read five plays. All in all I think I hit just the right blend of "productive" and "restive".

In just under 23 hours I'll be at work again for my regular work week. I told myself that I was allowed to take today off and do NOTHING, but man, it has been hard. There are, of course, things that I could be working on, and I'm not sure if I've been successful in enjoying my day off because even now there's this cloud of guilt looming over me, and the wind is whispering "graaad aaapps" and "jouuuurnal articleeee" and "paaassport reneeeewal" but DAMMIT IT IS SUNDAY AND MY LAST DAY OFF, SCREW YOU OBLIGATIONS. I'll get to you tomorrow, I promise.

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I am not doing a "haul" post...

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:29:50 GMT

... partly because I'm not really into that kind of thing, and partly because I didn't get a hell of a lot of stuff this year, which is how I like it. I don't like accumulating stuff because I am a cluttery person and the more stuff I have the clutterier I get. I also find it hard to get rid of it once I have it, because I am always worried that I'll suddenly need it. So I don't tend to buy a lot of stuff in the first place, though this extends to stuff that I legitimatey need, like clothes and kitchen utensils and what-have-you. If I kept up a public "serious needs/wants" list I might be an easy person to shop for, but because I don't (and because if I really, REALLY want/need something I'll buy it for myself) I am a terrible person to shop for. Mom asked me about sixteen times what I wanted for Christmas and I managed to tell her exactly one thing.

However: gift cards are awesome, especially when they're for food and/or experience-based things like going to movies. I got a lot of those, and a lot of nice cards, and a few really thoughtful and awesome gifts (like an awesome calendar, BEER, the iPod nano my folks got for me, which I am listening to at this very moment, and BEER.) I was VERY excited to watch my folks open the stuff I got for them, particularly mom's wine kit (which is already in the process of being wine-ified and will be ready the first week of January). As usual we found ourselves staring at the swath of things under the tree yesterday evening and going, "Holy hell, we are spoiled."

This has been the most wildly social holiday in a while, which has been great but also a bit draining. My aunt is visiting from Saudi so we've all been vying for as much time as possible with her (I hope the snow storm doesn't screw up her travel plans.) I'm also realizing that if I do move to Toronto as (vaguely) planned next year, it's up in the air as to whether I'll be here when December rolls around. And my grandparents are not getting any younger. Anyway, my family is awesome and I genuinely enjoy spending time with just about everybody, but seriously: alone time. I need it.

Luckily (?) the coming storm and my injuries (incurred as I fell up the stairs for a completely non-ice-related reason, no word of a lie) will give me an opportunity to VEG OUT tomorrow before I start an absurdly long work week.

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Dear Hive Mind:

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:29:38 GMT

I'm in the market for two (well, maybe three) things, and I'd like them to live in the same object if possible:

1) A new phone. Mine is ~4 years old and the battery is dying. I don't text a lot but it would be nice to have something with either a QWERTY keyboard or a good swype-like input method. I don't anticipate doing a lot of web surfing on the go, but a minimal data plan would be nice so I can look stuff up, update facebook/twitter, etc. My plan is to A) travel in Europe for a bit and B) move to Ontario (from NB) next year - not sure what carrier would be the best to cover those geographical bases.

1.5) An mp3 player. I don't need tons of capacity, but space enough for a few albums would be great. Long battery/recharge power = my friend. (This would be a bonus - it might make more sense for me to have a separate mp3 player.)

2) An e-book reader, with the condition that I can find a service somewhere that has access to a lot of plays for not a whole lot of cash, since that's what my main reading focus is these days. I really don't want to pay 10$ and up for a play that I'm probably only going to read once. (I'm getting a lot of mileage out of the library, and I can find older plays online. It's the post-1970 plays that seem to be a pain to get my mitts on.) I am a novice in this realm so I have no idea whether this is a reasonable request. If not, my phone needs will probably get a mite simpler.

My limited research has turned up phones like the Samsung Fascinate as contenders. Any thoughts / suggestions?

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The Weekend That Wasn't

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 06:09:55 GMT

I like being busy. I will admit to this without reservation. When I'm unoccupied I get bored, and then I fritter my time away doing nothing, and then I get depressed. But it's kind of nice to get some time off, y'know?

This weekend I had two things going on: an improv workshop (Friday evening, Saturday & Sunday 9-5) and one night of dinner theatre (Saturday 5-11). So Saturday was slated to be a long-ass day, but I'd have Sunday night off. Things went a little like this:

Friday: Got off work (from Job #1, the non-dinner theatre job) at 9am. Slept from about 11-3pm. Got up, went uptown, got some breakfasupper and did a bit of writing and Christmas shopping. Orientation for the workshop from 7-9pm, then we went out for drinks until 10:30. I think I was asleep by 1am.

Saturday: Got up at 7:45. Went to workshop until 5. Ran down to dinner theatre and did that until 11. Went home and watched SNL. Was wired and couldn't get to sleep until 3:30am.

Sunday: Got up at 8:30. Went to workshop until 5. Started planning what I was going to do for supper, whether I'd rent a movie, etc. AND THEN there were Unforseen Circumstances and I got a call Sunday at 6:15 to please oh please come in immediately for another night of Dinner Theatre. So after two nights in a row of ~5 hours of sleep and working pretty much ALL DAY I am, as it were, really fucking pooped.

The worst thing is that now I finally have a couple of hours off... and I'm wired bored and restless. I think I have a problem.

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100 Plays to Read

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:02:29 GMT

Now that NaNoWriMo is over (and a winnar is me!) I'm switching my focus to new things (other than work and more work): finishing / retooling a couple of one-act plays, reading, and cobbling together a few grad applications. More and more I'm wondering if I should actually pursue some aspect of theatre as a career, or at least throw my cards in that hat for a while to see where it goes.

Of course, with that thought comes the reminder that I am VERY poorly read. One of the grad programs I was looking at required students to read a list of 100 plays. I couldn't find that particular list, but I found another one, and I am guessing that they're pretty similar. So for the heck of it, here's a list of 100 plays that I have read and/or intend to read over the next... y'know, however long it takes me.

( 100 Plays )

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Ahead of the Curve

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:19:30 GMT

I baked a cake today! It's my dad's birthday and he wanted a chocolate cake, and I'd never baked one from scratch before so I decided to give it a whirl. I found a simple and safe (yet decadently chocolatey) recipe and the results were, to put it politely, FUCKING AWESOME. I am a little concerned that I know how to make a great chocolate butter-cream frosting now, because maybe one day I'll just decide to have that for breakfast and I'll go into a sugar coma.

For a while there I was breezing through NaNoWriMo. This was thanks in large part to having a job where I can write, and also being a rebel and writing short stories, which my brain is MUCH better at processing. And then I came up to a story that needed some serious brainstorming before I could make any real headway. Goodbye, security wordcount! The upside is that when I spend some time brainstorming a story I am always, but ALWAYS happier with the result. It doesn't hurt that this story is a delicious blend of "awesome" and "academically stimulating" and "silly as all hell."

My vague theme this year has been "cross-genre wackiness" (present in all but the first story I wrote) and this has resulted in the following scenarios:

- high fantasy fairy tale gender-bending satire
- financial drama meets Western (the hero is an auditor, the baddie an embezzling VP)
- madcap sci-fi adventure (wherein my lady scientist was sent to the past while wearing a robe, fuzzy Cthulhu slippers, and carrying a modified sciencey flamethrower gun called "Precious")
- a Sherlock Holmes story told as a Restoration comedy of manners (which necessitated my making Watson a young lady ward of Mrs Hudson's who cross-dresses as a man so she can learn to be a doctor, and various regular characters vying for the affections of others in quasi-love-triangles... amid a murder mystery. Y'know, like you do.)

After I finish that last one, I'll probably need just one more to bring me to 50K. What will it be about? Beats the hell out of me.

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NaNo and New Things

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:41:18 GMT

We had the NaNoWriMo kickoff on Saturday. It was the best attended event we've ever had with 14 guests, and this was even though we were missing a number of old faithfuls. I was worried that we'd drop in numbers this year because I was so busy with Marco Polo last month that I didn't send out any press releases, was a bit late with the posters, etc. For the first time EVER we had the prospect of not having enough swag to go around (we managed - barely.)

I think I wrecked my immune system, though. I made the incredibly intelligent decision to stay up for 30+ hours in order to work and socialize and host the above Kickoff and then run off to some Halloween celebrations, and now all of a sudden the cold I thought I'd defeated last week is back for more. So I'm staying in tonight to do a tiny bit of cleaning and hopefully get a nap in before work. I'd love to slack off completely but I'm busy for the next two evenings, and then I'm working some overtime at Job 1 and working a Saturday evening shift at Job 2. This is my last chance to get anything in order until... Sunday.

I thought I would have some free time after Marco wrapped. Why do I feel like I'm as busy as ever? At least it's a more varied kind of busy.

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