hale pupule

1. This morning, I survived my first Hatha yoga class and then made it to work after instead of going back to bed like I wanted.

2. Frankenstein was brilliant. I saw each version once last year, so there was stuff I remembered to look for, and there were some details about the performances that I caught this time around. ronfaure is excellent company, and we ended up at a diner in Sunset Beach after the broadcast for a couple of hours. Last night was Ben!Creature, so next week is Jonny!Creature.

3. Father's Day party at the Jimbos' was very nice despite the fact that Boo-Girl was in Vegas with her father.

4. I have discovered Trader Joe's bagged popcorn with salt and olive oil. Nom nom nom. :D

5. Started a new embroidery project Saturday. This is like the Fourth Doctor's scarf bookmark that I finished last week: it isn't for anyone in particular, and it has no deadline. It's just something to do over the next several months when I'm bored and have nothing else to work on.

My Monday is slightly brightened, and I am content. *takes a catnap on the break room sofa*

It's Monday. Yay. Here's my weekly Cheer Myself Up to Get Over the Monday and Tuesday Blahs List of Happiness:

1. I proved last night that I definitely have one of those brains that will come up with SOMETHING if I just force myself to sit down and write. It's not fantastic, but it's words. One scene down, about a dozen to go.

2. Saw the family Saturday. Everyone was sick, unfortunately, but well enough to go through with Squirt's baptism and lunch afterwards. Had a nice chat with Boo-Girl about college plans.

2a. Neither Dad nor I has showed signs of getting the dreaded lurgy that the Jimbos have, though we won't be sure we haven't caught it until tonight.

3. Mom was home very briefly this weekend. Not long enough to hang out properly, though she did listen to an episode of Cabin Pressure and laughed her butt off. And she adored the Ottery St Sherlock crossover vid I posted here last month.

4. Finally bothered remembered to get iTunes so I could get the aforementioned Cabin Pressure from Audible and burn it onto CDs for the commute.

5. New-to-me books! A few overviews of subjects I might try at college and a novel sent by mistake -- I was ordered Bob Balaban's Spielberg, Truffaut, and Me (his diary of making Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and got the novelization of Close Encounters of the Third Kind instead. They refunded my money, told me to keep the book, and I'm trying my luck with another bookseller.

6. A clean-ish hobbit hole. I maintain a certain, slightly-below-average level of neatness and cleanliness most of the time (the black dog's visits and tech week of plays being the exceptions), but I make an effort when I expect someone else -- even Mom -- to set foot inside any time soon. And once it's halfway decent, I make an effort, at least for a while, to keep it that way.

7. Rain tomorrow!

Happy Monday, y'all.

1. Boo-Cat is in the vet's office for surgery and a dental cleaning, and then he'll come home this afternoon. This is the best weekend for it, since Mom will be here tomorrow and Sunday to look after him while I'm at rehearsals.

2. Got the best compliment ever when our Lucinda came up to me during rehearsal Wednesday and said she loves to hear me sing.

3. I get to use my Sinistra cosplay dress for Into the Woods! I thought Marla just wanted to see it, but she said she wants me to wear it as Cinderella's Mother. (Or Cindy's Mom, as she calls me.) Here's a photo from Portus three years ago. I need to touch up the glittery parts (the Milky Way and nebulae) that came off in the wash, and I may add some sparklies at the cuffs, but other than that, it's ready to go. Hooray for having a costume in my closet already!

4. Watching a shuttle launch or landing via the Internet makes me happy.

5. Thanks go subvers for the link to this article: Dan says Alan deserves an Oscar nomination for Snape. I agree.

6. Officially, the reason I'm taking the day off work is so I can be home when Boo gets out of surgery. The whole truth is that I knew I'd be too anxious about the surgery to sleep well last night, so I'll probably have a nap later. And I can get my weekend shopping and cleaning done today instead of trying to fit it in between rehearsals tomorrow and Sunday.

7. Boo-Girl will be in Utah with her father, but the rest of the Jimbos are coming to lunch with me, Mom, and Dad tomorrow to finally celebrate Father's Day. Dad's favorite restaurant is in Tustin, which is about halfway between us and the Jimbos' house, and it also happens to be about two miles from the Mysterium, so I get to see family before tomorrow's rehearsal.

8. Don't shoot me for this one, but I will probably see Winnie the Pooh before I see Deathly Hallows. I've been looking forward to it ever since I heard Bud Luckey's voice coming out of Eeyore in the trailer five months ago. (I fangirl Bud Luckey more than just about anyone else. He taught me how to count.)

9. Chiropractor just called; he had a cancellation this morning, so he's going to give me a damned good thrashing today.

Nothing except the most important stuff worked out the way it should have this weekend. Jimbo is home from surgery and as well as can be expected, since they removed his gall bladder AND repaired a hernia they found during surgery. And that's all that matters.

My flat looks awful and smells worse. The poor cats have been doing their business in a box that hasn't been scooped since Friday morning, I don't have a single clean cereal bowl or drinking glass, and the recycle bin is overflowing. It won't keep me from doing another play eventually, but I will plan better next time. I'll have enough vacation time to take Hell Week off, and I'll hire a cleaning service to dust and mop my floors when everything gets intense.

( Sunday. )

Today, my SED meme is what I've already hinted at: I'm gonna start cleaning so I have a nice, clean flat for Mom and me for the holidays. This morning I'll wash at least half the dirty dishes, scoop the Beastie Boys' box, organize the shopping (I only put the refrigerated stuff away Saturday), and take out all the trash and recycling. Also, I'll put a pound of frozen bread dough in the fridge so I can make myself a pizza for tonight's dinner (and a couple more meals). Then I'm off to work, where I will torture my coworkers with chocolate; I bought a big bag of Ghirardelli squares to share with everyone.

Mom's home for Da Weekend! She's exhausted and in need of serious quiet therapy, but I'm so happy to see her that I haven't shut up since I got home from the chiropractor. Mom read the first 500-ish words of celebrate_sshg fic and said "More, please." So I told here where it was going and what little I know about how I'll get there. She now knows who Mithridates was and one of the things he's famous for.

Sick-ish today. I thought I'd caught cold, so I called in to work, but now I'm feeling better. I think it was a combination of a bunch of factors: windy (and therefore dusty) weather plus dehydration plus poor nutrition over the last two weeks plus insomnia. Took two naps, cleaned the hobbit hole, watched a few Sherlock Holmes episodes with the lovely Jeremy Brett, and spent quality time with the Beastie Boys. I still feel slightly icky, but loads better than I did this morning. A friend scheduled a hafla for tonight, and I was going to go, but ickiness prevented it. I'll go to the next one if it's after the play is over. Mom and I got takeaway and watched Sherlock instead. She admires Benedict Cumberbatch almost as much as I do, but she doesn't get Martin Freeman's appeal. I'll keep working on that, because HELLO!

Phil made me giggle liek woah today. I told him I wasn't feeling well, and he said he'd keep good thoughts/prayers going for me. "On the airwaves. Prayerwaves." He invented a sniglet! I'd been sitting on the sofa during our conversation, but I giggled so much that I was lying down by the end of the phone call. So now when someone asks for good thoughts or prayers for themselves or their loved ones, I shall put them out on the prayerwaves.

Today was the last day off before nine consecutive days at the Mysterium: five days of rehearsal and then the first four performances. I have my lines down pretty well -- now I just need to make sure I have the order of Christmas carols and remember where and when we sing them. We had another dance practice at the studio on Wednesday, and it was such fun! A bunch of us went out for burgers after, like last week, only we had a bigger crowd the second time around. It takes some time for introverted me to warm up to everyone -- and for some of them to warm up to me -- but after four weeks of rehearsals, everyone is friends with everyone. At this time in six days, I'll be on my way home after my first performance! (Hopefully not wanting to slit my wrists.)

Our understudy for Bob Cratchit is from Boston by way of Brooklyn, and he can't do an English accent to save his life. A bunch of us stood behind the set last night giggling because the line "I would like to drink to the health of the man who employs me, and to whom we owe our support, and that man is Ebenezer Scrooge" came out like "I would like to drink to da helf udda man who employs me, anta whom we owe our supoawt, andat man is Ebuhneezuh Scrooge." I really shouldn't laugh, because we're all struggling, but it was funny anyway. We figure his Bob emigrated from New England back to London when he was in his late teens.

Our Ghost of Christmas Future is going to be awesome. He's played by a teenager who's 6'2" and has mad stilt walking skillz. He's going to be eight and a half feet tall! He enters from the back of a audience, climbs the steps to the stage (Marley will spot/help him), does his thing with Scrooge on the stage, and then stalks off stage right. I've told Mom to warn Squirt (six-year-old niece) so she doesn't freak out.

Must go to bed. My alarm is set for eight hours from now because of a 9 AM rehearsal. And then I have to shop for a wig or hairpiece after, because apparently Victorian women didn't have boy-short hair. Need to fit food shopping in there somewhere, and then Dad's taking me and Mom out to dinner.

Found my lost box of tea bags. ♥

Three photos of Jimbo and Chris's wee beastie under the cut. The happy grampa holding her is my dad. ( Read more... )