Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Trying to Make Lunch

Go Ahead, Envy Me


At the last minute, I was offered a ticket to last night's performance. It was two hours of non-stop laughs - all new material. When he did casually mention old material like flags or the Pilgrims, the entire audience would cheer and scream. One long joke absolutely took my breath away with laughter and admiration. For 5 minutes straight he switched between Latin, German, and French as part of a joke about how Latin is so convoluted, the Romans couldn't communicate urgent messages.

Monday, April 28, 2008

So I Left

Today, I decided that I'd rather spend time looking for work than spend time at a temp job that pays me to surf the internet. I went in for half a day and had my realization when my boss asked me to do the same task I did last week. I need this time and the fear to get my butt in gear to rejuvenate my job hunt. My temp agency is pissed that I walked off a job even though I have been telling them for weeks that I wanted to leave and the job was an absolute joke.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Everyone Has to Go See The Drowsy Chaperone



This is hands down one of the best musicals I've seen in my entire life. My enjoyment is totally disconnected from the fact that we had kick ass seats. I laughed, got touched, groaned, and laughed. The storyline and set-up is very ingenious - it kept me totally immersed. From the opening blackout monologue, I knew it was going to be a good show. If you are a musical aficionado, they make swipes at almost every modern musical out there and it is AWESOME

The cast is top notch and I have to particularly mention the Man in the Chair. When I saw his name in the program, I got ridiculously excited - it was like 11 year old Anna took over. Why? Because I was 5 rows away from GILBERT BLYTHE!



Also, I should warn you that Anne of Green Gables was made 23 years ago. The show is in town until May 4, it's playing at the Opera House, and isn't very long so I highly recommend getting tickets.

Friday, April 25, 2008

TGIF

Since it's Friday and my job is boring, I have had lot of time on the internet. Remember how I took the Enneagram personality test over a year ago? So much has happened in the past year, I decided to take it again. I got one same result and two new ones

Type 8: The Leader - this is my highest score out of the whole test. It basically encapsulates my life. It's kind of cool how my other two personality types kick in when I am in the unhappy place of being dependent/submitting to others. My fear of being rejected throttles my controlling response so I just withdraw. If I have to allow someone else to drive, why get anal about which maps to use, the windows (open vs crack vs closed), or music to listen to? Just quietly submit and go along. That is the driving metaphor but on the health and medical front I am 100% type 8 leader. Okay, as I was composing this, I had a personal epiphany. Read to the end to see it. I had a bunch of medical crap that put me in a powerless position in my 20's. When you're stuck in that kind of situation you are aching for just something to do, you mentally run-down a list of things you can do and a lot of the time you can only do one thing: listen to the doctors and nurses. They will get you out of pain and into full functionality. That is my shut-down and go with the flow fatalistic response time. It might look like despair or giving up to the outsider but it is really just a shut up, conserve your energy, and get the hell through this strategy. But man, when there is a ray of hope that I could be in charge or control something I am all over it. Like crazy all over it. After my stroke, I switched primary care doctors and researched malpractice suits. I also read as many books/articles on neurology as a way to analyze and control what happened to me.


Type 5: The Thinker - this is probably why I enjoy analyst work and am looking for an analyst job. I even love troubleshooting computer programs thanks to this analytical side of me. I do go through hermit phases but I never had considered that they are tied to feeling overwhelmed by the world. My go to detachment mechanisms are heavy tv watching or Sims playing.

Type 3: The Motivator - my same result from last year tied with type 5. This is probably why I was so happy in graduate school and also this trait has saved my sanity over two lay-offs.

Epiphany - so I am strongly a leader type, right? That is all about being self-reliant and independent. Then why the hell am I pursuing a lifestyle that is guaranteed to lead me to diabetes and heart disease? I ate a half gallon of ice cream and a bag of M&M's yesterday. That was my lunch and dinner. The taste of chocolate cannot compare with the shame and fear I felt as two EMT's struggled to carry me down to the ambulance when I was having my stroke. That fear and shame did help me lose a lot of weight in my post-stroke years. But those emotions can't fuel sustained healthy living and weight loss, they just lead to feeling resentment and despair. I just need to find new emotions to spur me into getting healthy. Maybe I can tap into my need to be independent and to be admired personality traits? If I can keep myself in the postive Thinker cycle, I can read up a lot and use Excel to chart progress. I also have to avoid negative motivator cycles too which lead to the whole society is pressuring me to be skinny pissiness.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Cat Learning Curve


Since this is my first Spring with Rasputin and he's a Mainecoon, I have been basically breathing and swallowing cat hair for weeks. I can't wear anything black because it attracts fur. Not only is he shedding, he's getting these nasty mats. I was doing my biweekly combing the other night when I tried to untangle a nest of mats he had under his legs. Rasputin was not having it. See above. Imagine blood bubbling out of each scratch and not clotting for a while (stupid daily aspirin regimen). I wound up using scissors on the mats (very carefully - a lot of cats get badly cut this way).

After doing some reading about grooming techniques and products, I decided to try again today. I picked up some supplies at Petco and decided that I should groom in a loving, calm manner where Rasputin is happy. So I laid out a towel on the dining room table right by an open window with all my tools and commenced.



This is the Furimator and it is absolutely amazing. Rasputin was purring the entire time I used this on him. I was being very methodical: left side, neck, right side, bottom and Ras seemed to get the gist and rolled on his back so I could get his tummy. Purring away happily and me cooing to him that he's a "Good boy."


When I did find mats, I used this type of letter opener to attack them. It is very efficient and not too painful for the cat. But the furimator got a lot of mini mats out. I ended the fur regimen with a wide toothed comb. I gave him a treat and am pretty darn pleased!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Lunch View

Generation Sniff

The other day I was reminiscing with a friend about the toys we used to play with in the 70s - 80s. One thing I noticed was that a lot of childhood toys/art supplies were scented.

The first toy we talked about was Strawberry Shortcake. I used to smell her constantly. Plus, I had a vanilla friend doll so I'd put each doll to a nostril and get a yummy scent combo.


Of course there were mimeographs. That delicious purple ink smell... If I had to use paste surrounded by mimeographs, I would have been in scent heaven.

Then there are these markers. I sniffed all scent out of the orange. I remember hating black.



The smell was so strong for Play-Doh, it gave my mother headaches but I loved it


And finally, we had scratch and sniff stickers


I don't know if a bunch of coke fiends developed kids toys when I was little or if as a child smell sense is so strong that any toy would deeply imprint itself on the memory. I gotta say, I think my generation had the most fragrant toys in history (unless I count Iron Age manure toys...)

Yet Another Reason to Move Out of Waltham

Okay, I know I can be a shitty driver. I drive too fast and am sometimes that Masshole who drives up your ass to force you to change lanes. But I do use my directionals all the time and look before I change lanes. I also come to a complete stop at a T intersection especially if there is another car in front of me waiting to turn.

This morning within 2 blocks of my apartment, I got waved over by a cop who claims that I didn't come to a full stop at a T intersection. I told him that he was wrong. When he insisted that he was right and gave me attitude, I told him that I would fight his claim. He took his sweet time writing up the ticket while I sat there stewing and trying to estimate how much the ticket might be. Since he was forcing me to be late to work which was costing me money, I started getting really pissed. So, I blasted my radio as I sat there waiting (Oooh loud NPR). I got off with just a warning thank God - since I really can't afford to humor an asshole cop who needed to make a quota. A warning to fellow commuters in Waltham, there is a blind cop on route 117 right by Bank of America who is bagging drivers.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

High School Musical: The Real World

When I was a little kid, I hated musicals and love scenes. If it was on tv, I would leave the room groaning about the "Mushy stuff." Yet when I was in high school, musicals were the Thing To Do if you were a music geek. Every January there were auditions and that process defined your life for the next couple of months.

High School
Auditions in January and four performances in March (3 nights and 1 matinee)

Anything Goes - I missed auditions my freshman year due to an awful ear infection. All my friends got into the chorus so I wound up working tech as the next best thing. This show was heavy tap dancing and our directors took a wimps way out for casting: there were two sets of leads. Since I saw all the shows, I could say there definitely was one perfect set of leads but the directors mixed them up between the sets. It was awful, you had to grit your teeth while the awful lead performed and cling onto the memory of the good lead in the same role. This was my first introduction to Cole Porter and I was very impressed with his music.

Carousel - I got into the chorus. This musical has a horrible, horrible message about an abusive husband but a lot of us ignored it or joked backstage. The opening waltz is purely amazing music. The entire cast pantomimed with a fully functioning carousel on-stage. The fun part of high school musicals are that they transform previously ignored/geeky students into hot talent. So many crushes are fed through the rehearsal process. My favorite rehearsals were the ones where we put together the music and dance. Music only was pretty boring. Dance only, I dreaded because I wasn't that coordinated. The music itself was pretty decent. Rodgers and Hammerstein are never difficult or innovative.

Man of La Mancha - I was a chorus member again but I was given a random line - which I became ridiculously proud of. Hands down one of my favorite musical experiences. The lead was so talented, he gave me chills. Aldonza was a jock who didn't have a lot of singing experience but she was a senior so she got the part. That's another dynamic with musicals - you get students trying to pad their college applications in the cast. Sometimes, they are diamonds in the rough and other times they are complete assholes who drag down the rehearsal process. The tech crew went above and beyond with the set. We had a real lowering staircase on-stage. Technically, this musical has no use for a chorus but our directors finagled the musical enough that we had a couple songs and scenes. Basically we were backstage or onstage audience members. The leads were so good, none of us retired to the dressing rooms when we were offstage, we watched from the wings in awe of the talent we were seeing.

Oklahoma - I played Aunt Eller. It was ironic that even though every year I had auditioned for a lead, when I finally got a lead it was a horrible ordeal. The directors never liked my acting. My singing was what got me the part so that was my safety zone. Dancing-wise, I was pretty good by now but the famous two-step scene had to be modified since I had to dance with a guy over 6 feet tall and my short legs couldn't keep up with him. The last week of rehearsals, I finally got a compliment on my acting. Other than that, it was just months of criticism. Since I had come up from the chorus, I knew that there were probably a handful of girls who had really wanted the Aunt Eller part and every critique of me confirmed their opinion of a casting mistake. I used a real rifle with blanks to break up the farmer and cowman fight (the days before Columbine). At one of the dress rehearsals, the tech manager told me that he had some extra gun powder so that night's bang would be a lot bigger. I fired the rifle in the scene, lost hearing in my ears, shot out a light, and deafened half the orchestra. Gamely, I tried to continue on with the scene. The directors were screaming at me and then went backstage to tear the tech manager a new one. The show was sold out every performance and we got standing ovations each time so I felt pretty satisfied with the months of work and self-doubt. I went to the prom with the guy who played Ali Hakim. Yeah, the Oklahoma song requests throughout the night, got old pretty fast.

Summer Theatre
One of my friends who knew I was upset about missing Anything Goes auditions, got me involved in a summer theatre. Auditions were in June and performances were at the end of August (in an un-air conditioned gym). The directors were college kid volunteers.

Showboat - I was a chorus member and "Man on the Levy" (since we didn't have enough guys). Lots of really memorable songs and yes we had two cast members who used face paint to look like African Americans. Since this was a summer theatre, things were a lot more lax. It was tradition on the last night's performance for the leads to ad lib. Some were more successful than others. I learned some raunchy versions of "Fish Gotta Swim" and "Old Man River" this summer. This theatre was also a proving ground for hidden talent since the high school musical directors checked out performances. Music-wise, it was not too challenging - Kern and Hammerstein.

Brigadoon - wool kilts in the summer. I was a chorus member with a solo in MacConaughty Square. This is the summer when I figured out a way to nail complex choreography. It also turned out this summer theatre has a casting couch. I found out many years later, that the female lead slept with the director to get the part. During that summer, I thought it was odd that the female lead was so bland and weak voiced but I was naive and didn't know how show biz worked. The music is much trickier, Lerner and Loewe.

Kiss Me Kate - my first real role. I played Hattie and opened the musical with "Another Opening, Another Show". I loved this part because Hattie was enough of a cipher in the script that I could put my own stamp on her. I decided that she was nosy and liked working in the theater with all the glamour. So when her boss decided to leave, Hattie was sulky and truculent. I was allowed to ham up a scene for laughs which was so much fun. This is a difficult musical because it's about a show within a show. Unfortunately, my character was a "real world" character so I had a limited amount of scenes - no Shakespeare. I think Hattie got me the Aunt Eller role later that year. I thought this wasn't on par with typical Cole Porter musicals. The songs were way too catchy and commercial sounding.

Oliver - I was a staff assistant this year with a minor role - the dying woman with the mother's locket. I hated this show because we had to open up the auditions to little kids (ages 5 - 11) and a lot of parents basically treated the theatre like a daycare. As an adult now, I look back to this summer and am amazed at the liability we opened ourselves up to. It was sheer ignorance and lucking out with a decent batch of kids. I begged to be given one song to teach the chorus and I was given "Who Will Buy". I was psyched because it was one of my favorite chorus pieces. I think I did a pretty good job teaching and I really have to rave about the choreography too - it wasn't a bustling market scene, the choreographer had the chorus morph through various poses throughout the song. I got a lot of compliments on this one song. This musical is like The Sound of Music with most of the songs so familiar with growing up hearing them.

Annie Get Your Gun - this was the summer between my freshman and sophomore college years. I was co-music director, in charge of teaching music, while my other co was in charge of the orchestra. This was a tough year since the two leads couldn't read music and had developed great voices just by using their ears. Since I approached teaching music from a purely technical stand-point, I had to adjust my methods - basically finding the best recording to have them practice to. The musical itself has okay tunes. Nothing too spectacular.

42nd Street - I was music director with two assistants. I was really happy that this was my last summer theatre musical. We had an amazing cast who could sing and act. Plus, this was a tap heavy musical so our choreographers really stepped up to the plate. The musical was so catchy and vibrant, I really missed not being on-stage.

Monday, April 21, 2008

No Airlocks in My Future



"You are LEE “APOLLO” ADAMA.

Your idealism seems to keep getting you into trouble, but it hasn't kept you from becoming the most trusted (and trustworthy) officer in the Colonial Fleet. Lately you've become torn between military and political affairs, and your loyalties are constantly being tested. Nevertheless, your ability to see the “big picture” makes it seem likely that you're destined for great things."

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Passover in Pictures


Cooking all day with lots of onions. I'm lucky that I can actually open my eyes.


My prized Spode seder plate laden with symbolic food.


The set table with name cards.


4 glasses of wine and satiated with a savory brisket(SO GLAD my first attempt was successful).

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Office Submarine!





Darnit why did I just read this today? Seeing them live is beyond funny. The last time I saw them live, the manservant Hecubus skit killed the audience and performers. Now, I'm stuck thinking about Tony. Where he is, what he's doing...

The Job, It Stinks

Over a month here and I have run out of energy trying spin this job positively. Bottom-line it is awful. The pay isn't too spectacular. The work doesn't require a full-time person. The commute I have already complained about. My boss is disorganized, slow, and scattered. Managers around here are short-tempered and shouty.

The straw the broke my back was the other day. I know the little work I am given requires a great deal of attention to detail so I am working really hard to triplecheck my work. Satisfied, I sent an update to my boss saying all done. She sent a message back saying I had missed a step and have to really start paying attention more. I could feel my face turning magenta with rage. I knew I hadn't missed the step and that she was wrong. So I spent a couple minutes in my cubicle until I could slap on a politely confused look. It turns out she was looking at the wrong screen - oops! The rest of the day I wasted resending emails I had sent her last week because she needed updates on a project. It would be nice if she had actually read her email.

So, I contacted my staffing agency and asked for a new assignment. There are two possibilities with a much shorter commute. Hopefully, I'll be outta here soon!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Catching Up

Friday night turned out to be all kinds of awesome thanks to Jenny for allowing me to host a Mary Kay party at her place. I met a bunch of wonderful gals and sold some merchandise too. By the way, I guess I think a sexy look = vomiting up a boulder look. Ironically enough that night I discovered that drinking tequila and wine in one night will lead to hours on the edge of vomiting. I did discover a new sign of impending puking for me. Excessive salvia production. I think the actual act of swallowing that stuff triggers vomiting.

Saturday was a bit bleary. My tummy was still a bit hit or miss so I caught up on TiVo and watched the season finale of season 1 for The Tudors. It was sheer perfection. Violence, sex, intrigue, and Catholic bashing. Saturday night, I picked up one of our favorite wines and watched Pride and Prejudice with Megg. Upon rewatch, now as an adult rather than a dreamy teen, that movie has a ton of hidden meaning and significance. Making fun of Jane turned out to be a fun past-time as we totally MST3ked the movie.

Sunday was full of errands and a visit to the parents. Trader Joes has this deadly delicious flourless chocolate cake that I basically inhaled over the weekend. I took yesterday off to meet with a couple staffing reps and battled a migraine/sinus headache all day. You know it's pretty bad when you can feel your brain sloshing around in your skull and each slosh kills.

Weekend nerd reactions: the new Battlestar episode didn't explain anything but there was abundant coolness like Baltar halucinating himself and the cylon massacre. It was nice to see Captain John back on Torchwood and the backround of the whole team but Ianto's story was lame squared. Plus, it didn't really explain the whole Lisa plot. Why didn't Sims University build in woohoo influence? Ever since I found out they have released an Intel patch for the Sims 2, I am amazed how well the game runs on my computer!

Friday, April 11, 2008

This Week's Drama

I have a love/hate relationship with staffing agencies. I appreciate their advice and I like how they cut down on the number of interviews to land a job. It took me one interview to get my current (temp) job. Usually, I get along really well with staffing representatives because when I meet with them, there isn't too much pressure to say the right thing and in fact honesty is the best policy with them!

But I do have one staffing rep who is looking for jobs for me that I LOATHE. She gives crappy advice, I don't hear from her for months on end and then she acts all bitchy to me that I find a job without her help. She's an absolute beast. But, beggars can't be choosers, right?

Wednesday she did one of her patented drop out of nowhere communiquees except that it was extremely urgent. So, I call her. She has found me a potential job that would give me 1/3 of my current commute and pays a lot more at a growing company. Yet, it was another temp position. I was about to turn it down and then the beast hit the mark with a snivling comment, "Huh, even though it pays you $10 more per hour?" Of course, any out of work person is extremely stressed and worried about money so, this remark did the trick. My no turned to yes.

I felt nauseous. I hate being asked to make a decision quickly where I have no power to influence the outcome. I called my dad from work just to vent and weigh pros and cons. It seemed like I would have to make a decision within 24 hours. The rest of the day, I went over and over the decision, weighed as many possibilities as I could imagine, freaked out to other family members and barely got 4 hours of sleep that night.

Thursday morning, I got the call that the company isn't interested in me. Argh!! Thank you for the stress, the unrealized hope of making more money, and generally being an asshole. Just wondering, is there a way to switch staffing representatives within a firm?

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Lunch By the Sea

Mid-60's and sunny. Job on the South Shore. Ahhh...

Better Late Than Never


I used to be a huge movie buff. There was a time when I ran out of things to see at the movies because I had seen everything. But since real world stress has taken over my life and going to the movie is so expensive, I am lucky if I have seen 1 Oscar nominated movie by ceremony-time. Over the past month, I have caught up on 2008's movies. Here are my rankings

1. There Will Be Blood - fascinating and surprisingly violent. The story and Daniel Day Lewis' acting make this film truly awesome.
2. No Country for Old Men - very gripping and not too violent, just extremely tense. Doesn't feel like a Coen film.
3. Juno - I saw this fairly early in the theaters and it is a true gem. Funny, touching, great dialogue and acting.
4. Atonement - no idea what the all the hoopla is about. It is a very pretty film but all the characters are flat. Also, it pisses me off that a liar gets away with their lies.
5. Michael Clayton - seriously a legal drama is Oscar worthy? This was like Law & Order: Big Screen. Duh! Dunn!

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Chocoholic/Chocolate Connoisseur


Having been a lifelong chocolate fiend, I have developed opinions on certain brands of chocolate. And I am going through such cravings I have couple bars stashed in my purse for later. Mmmm...

Lindt - very rich and so decadent you can only eat one piece at a time. If you try to eat more, you can hear your arteries clogging and your heart slowing.

Ghirardelli - absolutely the best baking chocolate plus they make the most delicious cocoa mixes. Their candy bars are pretty rich but not as nauseatingly buttery as lindt.

Hershey - good solid, non-spectacular chocolate.

Dove - very good chocolate for their ice cream products. In bar or candy form, okay.

Russel Stover - absolute cheap crap which is perfect for boxed chocolates. My favorites are molasses chews and nut clusters.

Ferrer Rocher - very awesomely nutty, plus they have a new flavor that is nutty and mocha. Perfect size and delish.

Cadbury - it's very lucky that Easter involves chocolate for this company. Exceptional holiday treats. Their bars are decent but tend to get very melty.


Sunday, April 06, 2008

Spoiled Commuter

For the past three years, I only had to drive 10 minutes, 4 - 10 miles, for my commute to work. Sure I encountered some idiot maneuvers but on the whole, the entire trip was stress free.

Now, I have been commuting 62 miles round trip daily for a month and I have realized a couple things: 1) I have been completely spoiled for commuting, 2) Driver have gotten crazier and more negligent over the years and 3) Every time I make it to work or home in one piece is a freaking miracle.

The morning commute is usually not too bad but if there's a Statie or lots of tractor trailers on the road, driving becomes a whole new game. I do admit, I did enjoy driving behind an armored car acting like a tank in the fast lane a couple weeks ago. I saw him ride up drivers' asses and force them to change lanes. I got to enjoy the speedy wake. Then there is the mysterious spots where everyone drops down to 50mph for a mere hint of Statie. He doesn't have to be on our side of the highway or even in his car for every driver to freak.

The evening commute is when I chant internally, "I'm going to get home." over and over. People are distracted or shipping strange fauna in the passenger seat. I swear to God this actually happened. I passed a car going 45mph in the fast lane and I looked over and all I could see were palm fronds. The worst spots are the 3 to 93 transition (no one knows how to merge and ingore the fact that there are 2 additional lanes), the 95 split (the whole slam on the brakes and cut across four lanes of traffic section) and around the Needham Highland exit (catching route 9 backup). When I get out of my car at home, I feel like countless years have been taken off my life due to stress.

Luckily, if this job does go perm, I'll be moving within 30 minutes of work - no highway. Woohoo!

Friday, April 04, 2008

94 Days and 13 weeks

I finally got my Verizon HDTV today. There were a couple more screw-ups on Verizon's part (surprise, surprise). They didn't put down my street address so I got a phone call from Fed Ex at 6AM this morning for my street address.

The TV itself is pretty good and plus it has a built in DVD player. It's a 19 inch Sharp television. I still haven't figured out how to program my TiVo remote to control volume...

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

I Loathe Penelope Trunk

I was first introduced to her writing via the Universal Hub thanks to the outrage about her “recent” article about how women should have babies now because of infertility issues. I put recent in quotes because the article turned out to be recycled from years ago. Already due to the article’s subject matter, I had a low opinion of Ms. Trunk but, her cutting edge advice being years old and with absolutely no citations, she garnered my contempt.

She is one of those authors who think an idea is amazing just because they thought of it but ultimately her writing falls in the “No shit Sherlock” category. Just check out these article blurbs. Anything sound new or interesting? I don’t think so. By the way, the article dates aren’t accurate because I recognize some 2006 articles from the past couple weeks in the Globe. In her biography online, I find nothing that screams career expert to me. No company names are mentioned or positions. Volleyball gets a mention for some reason. Also, there is absolutely nothing about her education.

Hell, I think I can do her job better! I can write a bunch of opinion pieces on the business world with absolutely no citations, keep them in constant rotation ignoring the job landscape and get paid for it. I’m just waiting for her next revelatory piece about jumping on the dot com train and making millions.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

You Know You're Old When...

... when muggy weather like today makes every former injury site in your body ache. Sciatica? Check. Dull throbbing in the hand? Covered. Stabbing cramp in the arch of the foot? Crap, I forgot I had plantar fascitis a couple months ago. Thanks for the reminder! Knee going creepy ostrich-like - watch me hobble to work.