I miss my babies!!!

For those of you who don't know: My chins have been at the vet for most of this week. They say they're doing fine, they're just waiting on a urine sample to prove everything is okay. I know it sounds weird, but pray for the poor innocent creatures. Pray that they're not sick and nothing is the matter with them... and that they're not pregnant (yes, they're both male, I'll explain later, just pray that they aren't).

Chimmy ................................................................................................................ Champ

As the World Turns

BIOHAZARDOUS

WARNING: DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER! YOU MIGHT CATCH THE PLAGUE!!!

That's what the door to my apartment should have said this past week. As you know, if you actually read this blog, I've not really had a voice since Wednesday, December 21st. Well, I guess that and an overly sensitive sinus infection put me out for most of this week. Monday I got back into Montgomery by plane, and was tired, but home. Tuesday I went to work, not a problem besides sounding like I was a 12 year old boy going through puberty. Then at around 7:35pm (I know it's precise but I remember looking at the clock, going "that's strange. Hold still!") I decided it might just be a good idea to lay down because the world was now spinning at an outragous pace. I get up at 3:00am with a caughing fit... I down some medication and watch the world spin for a half hour till it all kicks in. At 6:40am I lay there with my hands over my face telling the world to "just stop it now, it's not funny anymore." I tell myself to get up and get dressed, but it won't oblige until the world stops for it. Which isn't going to happen any time soon. My vertigo has set in. I somehow get up, get dressed, and make it to work. But just barely. I quickly set myself down in front of my boss and we agree, after a caughing fit, that I shouldn't come in to work today. I go home and prompty fall asleep. Until it is time for my doctor's apointment. I drove, I know... bad me, but I had to get there somehow and I was feeling a bit better by then. The doctor prescribed me some real medication, which I went and got at the local CVS. There was a little trouble with my insurance, but all is solved now. I really don't remember much after that. I know I must have taken it and just passed out for the rest of the night...
Until 3:00am. When I woke up, once again, to a caughing fit. Stumbled out of bed long enough to down caugh medicine and went back to sleep. Woke up at 6:00am got dressed and headed for work with the world only slightly spinning more than it should. I was still dizzy, but I figured I'd be okay. The rest of my body was feeling fit and fine, not quite 100%, but definetly better than it had been. I get to work, start mixing paint... and have to sit down every two minutes because the world is spinning way more than it should. Everything is tilted a bit more to the right than I feel comfortable with. Unfortunately, my stomach agrees.
After my friend Sinus Infection invited over his friend Vertigo, the party got a little out of hand, and I started the pagan ritual of worshipping the porceline gods... and decided it was time to go home.
I got my coat back on and told Dusty "I'm going home now" and walked straight to bed. It knew I was coming because the one stuffed animal I currently have on it was sitting upright with a waved hand and the other on the pillow, calling my name. I fell asleep, after reluctantly eating something. I know I woke up, on and off, but it was mainly to ward off the spinning earth in a feble way.
It's still spinning more than I'd like, but I went back to work today and was able to stay the whole day, minor medical halucinations and spinning spells aside, and it was a good day. I got all the planks painted and am on to a new project... kind of.

Oh, but everyone in my apartment was home those days, it was rather odd because we still didn't see each other except in fleeting moments tween our rooms and the kitchen or bathroom. Everyone seems to be better than they were, and we were all back at work today. But apparently the rumor is set that our apartment is quarenteined due to the plague that has hit ASF.

Christmas Pudding

Merry Christmas, Yaáll!
My Christmas was spent with most of my family, here in London, so read this excerpt with a British accent, if you would. Christmas morning we all actually slept in. Once we awoke presents were abound.
Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts!!!
It was a beautiful winter's day here, and the sun was shining. We crossed the river and took a cab to Greig's
where we met Stewart Nicolson and his family for Christmas Dinner.
Yummy!!! I had roasted Asparagus for starters; Traditional Turkey with stuffing, potatoe wedges, carrots, and parsnip, a creamy jacket potato with butter; and for dessert Chocolate Mousse. We had Christmas Crackers (poppers) here as well (the count is up to three), where I got a heart-shaped lock and keys. When Stewarts girls looked like they were starting to fade after the desert, I taught them a few "etiquette" tricks for entertaining guests at dinner parties.
I'm not sure their mother will enjoy the new found fun, but everyone else seemed to get a laugh out of it.
Happy Holiday's everyone.
I'll be back in Alabama tomorrow, but I'm enjoying my time here in London as I can.

MoTown Christmas Eve

Pop surprised the family with tickets to "Dancing in the Streets' Christmas Special." It was a lot of fun. The M.C. for the show, Ray Shell, was the original Rusty from Starlight Express (my favorite musical. sorry theatre people, I like ALW). It was exciting to hear him belt out songs I love. Also the guy who sang Simba in the theatrical version of Lion King sang the Marvin Gaye songs. It was a lot of fun, and everyone got up and danced... even the elder british couple that shushed the family in front of them. After that we came back and chilled. We watched Sahara. Right before bedtime, Pop could stand it no longer... he broke out the cake he'd stashed away.
It was a nice quiet evening of frantic wrapping with the family.

Friday Night Fever

My friday actually started earlier than the rest of ya'alls. Technically, it started at around 3am, CST, but it was a bright and early 9 am London time when my plane landed at Gatwick. It was around 11 am when I arrived at the apartment, just in time to miss the rest of the family I drop off my bag, freshen up and head out. After that, I quickly leave to go pick up the tickets. I try to drop them off at the conciglier's desk, but the Sainsburry guy is making a delivery, so I have to let him in and put up the cold grocieries before they go bad. I leave the tickets on the front desk and head out, so I'm not caught. I, with my voice dragging behind me, went to eat at Wagamamas, yummmy. Since I still had time, I went shopping. The used books under the bridge had a few books I wanted, so I shelled out a few pounds. I also stopped by the National Theatre and picked up a theatre newspaper. Still with plenty of time, I went to the local corner shop and stocked up on juice drinks, dr. Pepper, and kinder eggs. I still had plenty of time by the time I reached the old vic again. There's a lovely little pub there called the Firehouse, and I was able to get some hot chocolate there before heading back to the theatre.
Oh, I guess I should clue you in on what was a little secret: No one knew I was going to be in London (except my Mom... who told Stewart, who told his wife... so that I could get a seat for dinner and a ticket for the Eve show). I had purchased tickets to see Ian McKellen in the Old Vic's production of the pantimime Alladin. My family thought that that was my christmas present to them, and that I hoped they enjoyed it. They were scheduled to call me afterwards so I'd get to hear all about it. The truth was that I was going to meet them there, surprise them. I get there, and I'm all ancy. I take my time getting to my seat, just in case they're allready there. But they're not. So I go back out to the stairwell to wait for them, suddenly I see Jeni and Mom heading up, so I rush back through the crowd to get in my seat. I whip the paper out of my bag and turn away from the isle. Pop is lightly arguing with mom on where to sit, because he doesn't want to sit by some "young girl". :) But Mom makes him. I turn to hiim, and he says "Good day, Miss." and turns back to mom to argue a bit more. I just sit there and smile. He turns back to say something polite, stops, does a double take, and asks "What are you doing here?!" I just laughed. Mom was laughing too. Jeni and Don were looking on, trying to figure it all out. Everyone was so surrised, it was great. Pop quickly, after gathering himself somewhat, whips out his phone to call up Stewart. "You knew? Was I the only one that didn't know?!" Stewart, as previously mentioned, already knew and was waiting for the call. It was quite a lot of fun.
I don't remember seing a panto before, though I'm sure I did in elementary school. It was a ton of fun. Pop even got really into it. Ian McKellen played the part of the Dame... which is always played by an elder man in drag, playing an older woman. So, if you will: Imagine the man who was Magneto in X-Men, and Gandolf in Lord of the Rings as Widow Twanky. Very very fun.
Once that show was done I had a snack and took a snack while the rest went to Chemises (the Italian Deli) before heading out again. Then I headed out to see Edward Scissorhands. I thought it was going to be a musical, which I was really looking forward to... turns out it was a ballet. Imagine it as you will. It was visually beautiful. And siince I knew the story, I could follow it really easy, unfortunately not everyone had watched Tim Burton's "classic" so they were a bit lost. It was very Burton-esque. The ending was a beautiful scene that needed no words during the beatiful love sequence between Kim and Edward, the fight happened quickly. When the curtain call came, all the dancers went out of character to bow, except Edward, who came out on his own at the end, fully in character. He rose his hands to the audience with roars of applause, and when he bowed and brought his hands down, snow fell into the audience. It was absolutely beatiful. A lovely night over all.

Thursday... the longest shortest day

Thursday morning I woke up and quickly finished packing. Set my bags by the door and headed out to work. Despite the fact that I couldn't talk (still) it was going to be a good day. It was the last work day before Christmas, and I dearly needed a break. No offence, love you all, but... you know what I'm saying.
I showed up early with a hop in my step. My phone was dead, but Matt let me use his charger to boost the battery. The planks got glaized and I went to meetings. Lunch time came and the day was still determined to be a bad one, because it had tried so hard the day before. I had a couple of errands to run today as well, but only got one done. When I got out of the meeting, no one was in shop. They'd all gone to lunch, so I ran back to my apartment, cleaned the Chins' cage (I really do need a bigger one), and loaded them up in my car. The car didn't start. I tried again. Still nothing... Hope! A clicking sound, so it was just the battery (I think). I call up Dusty and ask her if she minds picking up the chins instead of me bringing them by. She was such a sweetie and did so. She even dropped me off at Smokey Bones, right in time. Everyone was getting their checks. So, I quickly washed up and headed back out with them. Chris was a dear and had ordered me some food ahead of time (when I called in to tell him I'd be a little late I told him what I wanted). I got back, started typing up the meeting minutes, got planks moved, and the paint area somewhat cleaned up (even though I know it needs more), and cleaned up myself a bit. I had, sometime durring the day of glaizing, gotten paint globbed in my hair. When I walked out, I was a vision in pink. Chris took me by the house, we loaded up my luggage, and headed to the airport. I got there with plenty of time. The plane, was late... by thirty minutes. I only had, originally, 45 minutes between flights. So I was very very worried. The person beside me had even less time. I hope he made it. I barely did. I power walked as fast as I could. I got to the right concourse right when I heard the last call announcement. I started to run... on about 4 hours of sleep over the last two days. Not a good feeling. My bag kept falling over and I kept yelling out profanity... but noone heard it because my lack of voice. I got there, and luckily someone was arguing with the ticket man about an upgrade. The lady at the counter shouts behind me where I was headed "London Gatwick! Flight 58!" She doesn't say anything back. The ticket man was not happy to see me, and didn't want to give me time to get myself together, but my ticket was out, so he had to at least run it. I was allowed on, and he closed the door behind me. I looked a wreck, I'm sure. I was not in the greatest of moods, but I'd made it. I couldn't sit with my bag because all the seats had filled up space, so a nice young couple volunteered some space around their seats. The seat I had booked had people all around it, but I had spotted an empty side set of seats on my search for luggage places. I quickly moved there, and passed out. Actually I stayed up long enough to get dinner and watch a little of the movie (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), but then I streatched out and slept through breakfast. Luckily I had packed the Slim Fast snack bars, which provided me with just what I wanted. I layed back down for another nap, and then we started to land. And Friday starts...

Santa and His Merry Elves

'Twas the week before Christmas, when all the the shop
Everything was buzzing, especially the chop;
The stockings were hung by the paint cans with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The carpenters were nestled all snug in their beds,
While painters grew weiry instead;
And Dusty in her blacks and Lee in his hat,
Had just settled in to talk with Will and Matt,

When out on the floor there arose such a painter,
Geni lifts sprang to life with banter.
Away to the lunch break we flew in a flash,
To gobble up the bar-b-que and mash.
The spray paint on the wallpaper
made the whole place look dapper,

When, what to our wondering eyes should appear,
But another truck, and loads of steel.
With a master carpenter, so lively and quick,
they knew in a moment that it must be Rick.

More rapid than eagles Brian builds flats
While Neil and Shanley sit and talk of cats.
"Now Andrew! Now Christopher! Now Brian and Grant!
Come on Matt! Come on Will! And don't say you can't!

To the top of the platforms! To the top of the deck!
Now push it! Pull it! Such a pain in the neck!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mout to the sky,
So up on the deck-top the welder did sit
With railings and santa's hat for a bit.

And then, in a twinkling, I saw on the flat
The painting and texturing, Emily did that.

As paint got on me, I turned around,
Down the staircase Tim came with a bound.
He was dressed all in orange, from his head to his foot,
I noticed a lack of the steel toe on the boot.
A bundle of not-a-checks he had in his hand,
of which we all did demand.

Our eyes -- how they twinkled! We wre all merry!
Now we could buy food, like an apple or cherry!
Will's little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And then his butt crack he did show;

The stump of cigs the opps held in their teeth,
And the smoke encircled the break room like a wreath;
After Blue Burrito we all had a little round belly,
That shook, painfully, like a bowlful of jelly.
Chris kept the holiday cheer up with something phat,
By dawning an Okie style Santa cowboy hat.

In the wink of an eye, and a twist of the head,
Soon I knew I had nothing to dread;
I spoke not a word, but went straight to my glaizing,
and painted planks with cheer that was amazing,

And laying aside my brush and my pallat,
I ran upstairs to see who won the auction ballot.
Rick spring to horn, to give his team the whistle,
And away we all flew like the down of a thistle.
And I heard all exclaim, as they drove out of sight
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Wednesday Auction

Events today:
I woke up and found that, in addition to only a few hours of sleep, I had lost my voice. This was not due to any bug going around or deadly pneumonia... just my own stupidity. I had left my window open last night because my roommate likes to keep the house temperature at about 78... not good for me or the chins. The Chins can't have a temperature above 80, so 78 is cutting it really close. So I opened my window... on what happened to be the coldest night Alabama had all winter so far. It was even suposed to snow last night. Oops. Well, I knew I'd get it back, and I did about mid day (not to say in the days that follow I lost it for good).
Also, My glasses broke... so I walked in without them, and couldn't tell anyone I needed to fix them. Some people picked up fairly early on that I couldn't talk. Emily, for instance, caught me on my way in, and found out that my whispers were raspy. Dusty, on the other hand, didn't realize it until after our morning meeting, when she kept asking me questions and getting no answer other than the hand signal for "rock on" or a feverant head shake "no." Today we also opened up the stockings, which was a lot of fun. I had so much fun putting them together for the girls, it was so nice to see their smiling faces. Dusty gave out some lovely Burt's Bees stuff... which I love!! I love the lip gloss they make! Thank you Dusty!!
Also today was the ending of the Emergency Fund Auction... on which I bid on two things, and won both items!! I won the mini-sewing machine, which will be put to good use. I've got a ton of patches and holey jeans that need mending. The other one was kind of a whem... a lovely chocker I hope I can wear sometime. It's quite beautiful.
Oh, we also had our company holiday lunch. I won a free ASF cookbook, which is awesome because I'd been in debate about getting one for a while. Emily won The World's Largest Hershey's Kiss, filled with something like 2 pounds of chocolate! I thought it was quite funny. They also handed out lovely little ASF diaries (date books/ day planners)... which I later (Christmas day) handed out as stocking stuffers. They're really cool because they come with a pen.
I went to the bank this day, with some slight complications, to see if they'd do money exchange... they do, but it'd take two weeks. So I decided against it.
At about 3, I got my voice back, but the rest of my body was feeling it. I was aching so much. I didn't want to move. I still had to get a suitcase, too. I went home and passed out. Chris and Andrew woke me up to do a gift exchange, which was nice and fun. I got a lovely scarf that matches my AE bumb-gloves from Chris (Thank you!!! I've been wearing it a lot here), and some nice bath stuff from Andrew (Thank you!!!). Chris drug me out of the house to get me drugged up, because he'd been sick the previous week, so he knew exactly what to get... including a suitcase and food. We ended up eating at IHOP due to bad service and closing times. It was good. He was good enough to help me pack up the suitcase with all the goodies I had to take with me. Thank you, most of all, for that.
So, if you weight the good and the bad, it probably evens out (if the bad doesn't actually outweight it), but I had a good day. Busy, but good.

No time

I don't even have time to post this blog... but I will anyway.



I'm fine, everything's okay. Talk to you soon.

And On Until Morning

This was me Sunday Night/Monday Morning.
I had to redo the floor I had just textured and painted. The kicker is: In order to redo it, I had to sand the whole thing down and start from scratch. So this is somewhere in there, around 2am when I decided to take a break, but didn't want to take off my protective gear until I documented it for all you lovely people.

Spun Mess

I am aparently the texture queen here at ASF. As such, my responsibility is to do allllllll the texture the paint department wants. Today's texture was for a raised wood-grain effect, that is way cool (if I do say so myself). It's supposed to look like an old wood floor. Well, since it covers every plank of wood on the floor, I needed a lot of it. I even did the math for it (which I'm sure, now, it's quite wrong). Because I have to keep stopping for one thing or another, because I am still a painter and should paint something ever so often, it took all day to scoop up the largest quantity of stuff. After that I had to add a hazardous powder, which ment I was to take it outside. Not a problem. I get everything measured out (I'm smart enough to keep seperate the powder to slowly pour into the mixture while sturring) and start sturing. Well, it's already late; past quitting time. But I'll be, I wanted to get that done. It starts spinning (like adding flour to cake mix, but in a 5 gallon bucket), I pour a little, it mixes, I pour some more. Eventually I get really good at this. But, like I said: it's late, and, of course the one time I'm actually outside, it's pretty darn cold. FYI: Yesterday was 78... yes, Fareignhight (but don't hate me too much, right now it's a FYAO 35). So, due to all these factors, and the factor that I'd been mixing for a while so my arms were getting tired and I was getting a little too confident for my own good. The mix decided I must be brought down... the tyrany must stop! And so it splattered all over me.


This isn't a picture of the actual mess, but it's a good representation of it. Consider the substance very thick and very all over the place. My clothes can stand up on their own (hopefully not after the third rinse cycle I've put them through tonight), my once soft shoes can now be mistaken for steel-toes, and my face (under the dust mask) was agast. I just started laughing as I scraped it off my clothes and then proceeded to take what is possibly the smallest spatula the paint department has (1x2 inch blade) and scrape it off the deck floor before proceeding to the vertical chunks. Thankfully, Dusty came out. She saw what happened and thought I was crying, because I was bent over and she couldn't see my face, due to the mask. But no, I was smiling, having just had a good, hearty laugh. I think she still thinks I was crying, but no. Anyway, Dusty helps me pick it up. She used a putty-knife... smart girl. That's why she's the boss. Anyway, I got home around six, tired as all could be.
Hope ya'll are having a great time. This is me, reminding all you cool cats out there to take it slow, it's less messy in the long run. Signing off.

New Blog

Okay, in light of all the Christmas questions ("What do you want?") I've started a new Blog of all the things I'd like to get. Mind you, I've been thinking a lot. Most of it is movies, but I've got stuff for every price range. I'll try and include websites that have it for a reasonable price. So, to check out that site you can either just go to:
jranowishes.blogspot.com
or click on my profile; and check out my other blogs.
Happy hunting.

Myron's Back!!!

This is a post I just found, dated March 11, 2005:

I just got a hot tip, straight from the horse's...er, the author's mouth. Harlan Coben informs me that Myron Bolitar is back!Okay, before you get too excited, he's not returning in a novel. But he will appear in an exclusive, original short story, "The Rise and Fall of Super D," to be included in the hardcover edition of Coben's new standalone thriller, The Innocent.This comes as very welcome news for all fans of Myron Bolitar, and there are lots of them out there. (Including me.)

Girls On High

These are the girls I work with. After work on Fridays we all chill and have a beer. The carps just built this amazingly tall platform; and for once, they have to look up to us painters.







This is Erin.

This is Emily.

Duty Tootsman

This is my boss. Dusty says "hi."

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

I have a feeling that this



will be the only snow Montgomery sees all winter. It's around 70 right now and it's dark out. 88% humidity... yuck. So cherish your snow, my friends, cherish it.

Baby's First Hair Cut

I cut my own hair today. Yes, I cut my own hair today. I'd been dying for a hair cut for a while because it's been getting in the way, and cleaning paint and texture out of my hair every night was not fun. Being sick and tired of it, I decided today was the day, that it must be done before Thanksgiving. Not thinking that I'd cut my hair, I go out, as normal. But because no salon would take me with such short notice, and no respectible walk in would allow me through the door wearing my work clothes, I decided to go to the local Cut By Us for an $12 hair cut... which is exactly what I got... if that. She boufonted my hair. No, I will not show you that picture, the world will never see that one. I had even brought in a picture, and anyone who knows me knows that I like things a certain way when it comes to hair (and shoes). She didn't even look at the picture, she just started cutting. Not even asking me what I wanted, she just talked away so I couldn't get a word in edgewise. She put so much product in it you would have thought I was the cause for the global warming. I wanted to cry when I put my glasses on and saw what she had done. It's length hadn't been touched, which is what I wanted gone. She had flipped it and sprayed the daylights out of it. I was mad, but before I could object she shuffled me to the front where another lady rang me up. All I could do was grit my teeth and smile as I signed over $12 of my hard earned cash. I rushed to the car, cursing under my breath, and quickly searching for my work bandana. The blank bandana did not hide the fact that my hair was now about a foot and a half in diameter around my head, but it did help me feel slightly better about it.
By the time I'd gotten home (all of 3 minutes)I'd decided that I was going to do this myself. I knew what I wanted, and if I really messed up, I could always find someone who'd fix it. But I was not going to walk around any longer than necessary with what was currently holding my hair hostage. Besides Mom cut her own hair sometimes, and she always got what she wanted (the new due makes me look more like Mom, I've realized).
Running in, I grab my scissors and a comb and take to the shower. After Rinse and repeat 5 times, I decided that if it didn't look good by now, or at least normal, I'd cut it (I was still a little apprehensive about cutting it myself... due to past experiences. Anyone else remember where those bangs went?). When I got out of the shower, semi-dried my hair and looked in the mirror I was so mad that it was the same length that I took a handful at the back and hacked it off. That was a beautiful beginning. After that, I just went from there and cut off whatever I wanted. At the end, I got a little crazy and cut it a bit shorter on the sides than what I'd thought about. But I'm reallly happy with the overall product. My bangs aren't in my way (but are still there), I don't have to do much with it, just let it dry, and it's off my neck (which is still a little weird).
I was so happy that I'd done it myself I had to share it with everyone that though they'd seen me take off to search out a cut, I had to do it myself... despite the $12.
That's what really burns me: I have never cut anyone else's hair before, let alone my own (bangs disaster when I was 7 doesn't count). She's a professional and been doing it for years. Who should have gotten it right the first time? Grrr... It's only high dollar salons for me from now on... like Che Rano.

What I can remember of this past week

Hecktic, as usual. Here's the lineup of the last few days I can actually remember...
Sunday: Civil War Reinactment. Quite fun, but quite loud for my onset of headaches. Had to rest after all that fun.
Monday: Sick. I had the day off, but because I had a massive migrane I really couldn't do much of anything. Loud noises, bright lights, not for me. I'm just glad I wasn't at work with all the power tools. I did get some cleaning done between doses of migrane medication that knocked me out for hours at a time.
Tuesday: Back to work. Migrane is lessened to a mild headache, so I can handle work, but not necessarily all the saws, so I stayed working on stage for Christmas Carol touch ups and last minute stuff (like windows)... So for the morning, I did all the windows I could reach without having to get in the genii. The afternoon I spent working on props for OHenry.
Go out shopping with a friend.
Wednesday: All better and somewhat refreshed. The afternoon we're kicked off stage again, and work on more furniture props for OHenry.
Thursday: Things are getting interesting. I'm all better, enough so that I spend all morning in the new Genii lift. Thursday nights are the nights a group of us get together and have dinner at my apartment while whatching CSI... all those cool props would be fun to make. Tonight, there aren't many people since we open C. Carol on Sunday, and everyone's trying to stay late and get stuff done. So we have breakfast for dinner. Eggs, pancakes, bagels, bacon, good stuff. Since there are so few of us, and we're all tired from work, we decide to spend time in the hot tub at the apartment. Very, very nice. After that, at around 10:30 pm, I've gotta go back to work until about 3:30 am (nice overtime). I finish the windows (the people rejoice) by spending most of the night singing to myself in the genii to calm my nerves. It seems to work well. When I got back, I think I got some sleep...
Friday: with about 4 hours of rest under my belt I get up and go to work at 9 am. No more Genii work, but we're on to OHenry only, which is nice. I was told we might finish early, like 3 pm at the latest, which is why I came in earlier than what I wanted to. At around 2:30, after I kept looking up at the clock, I was given the assignment of going to the OHenry stage and filling in all the 1/4" and 1/8" cracks inbetween all the wood floor planks that line the floor... of which there are literally thousands of feet of to do. So I'm given a small brush and a bucket of paint. With a look of shock and distain I go in and start trying to put paint in the cracks. I have to get all sides of the cracks, which is virtually impossible. Luckily, the lack of sleep had improved my mental creativity (the small amount of left brain attributes I might have had leave me with the slightest lack of sleep, so one can only imagine how my mind was working at this time.) causing me to think up a crazy scheme. "What if I had a hypodemic or something? Because it's just like pumping paint into wood veins!" So I ask a Prop Tart if they have anything like that... they give me an eye-dropper (reasonably safer in my hands than any needle). It works like a charm! Dusty comes in to help me (BTW: Dusty is my boss), and is armed with paintbrushes, which she quickly throws down when she sees what a genius I am with the eyedropper. She runs and gets puff-paint holders (holds more paint, but has the same size spout), and those are even better. But then we're kicked out of that space at around 4, so we only get part of the floor done. I'll happily do more of it if I can use the puff-paint stuff rather than the brush. It was rather fun, zen like. So around 4:30, we got everything cleaned up and left (30 min earlier than normal... ugh). I didn't go home and sleep. Of course not, that would be too logical, and one must remember that at this point, I'm not thinking logically. I go home and get ready to go swing dancing. I knew the instructor, Mark, that teaches swing dance lessons... in Auburn (an hour away). It's every Friday, and I hadn't gone yet, but had made plans to do so earlier in the week. And had invited a couple of friends to go with me, Chris and Emily, so I couldn't back down. When I walked through the door, I had a few minutes to spare, and so called for directions. I was promptly asked if I wanted to join the swing dancers to the 9:30 showing of Harry Potter, since it'd just came out. Of course I did, but I also knew a little secret about Saturday, and I had guests to consider. So I called my friends, which, of course, where at their respected places already in their showers. So I get a hold of Emily, who says yes they'd love to, but to make sure it'd be alright with Chris, since he was driving. I wait and wait, and decide I can wait no longer, so I hop in the shower. Right as my hair is getting wet, my phone rings (they were in my pants, so they were in the bathroom.). I turn off the water, almost fall out of the tub and answer my phone after covering myself in a towel... because that made sense to me that I should not be undressed while on the phone. It's Chris and he says he'd love to see Harry Potter. I quickly hang up and call Mark. "Hi, we'd love to go. There's me and two others, so three tickets total. We'll pay you back when we get there. Thank you so much. I'll call you back for the directions, I've got to finish this shower. Ta-ta." I think were my exact words... no break. I finish, get out of the shower and get dressed. I'm still putting on my socks when Chris comes to pick me up. I grab a handful of make-up (it's not every day I wear it, and it's nice to look nice every once and a while). So I sit and put on make-up while waiting on Emily to get in the car. Yeah! Everyone's there and we get on the road, after stopping at the ATM... I realize, I haven't gotten directions yet. I call and get them, really easy, actually. We get there right on time, before Mark, the instructor, even. Oh my! It was so much fun! They broke us up into advanced and basic, and you could decide where you fit. So Emily, who had been swing dancing for a while, went into the advanced class, while Chris and I went to the basic lesson and learned the East Coast Swing, which Mark was teaching. It was sooo much fun! After an hour of lessons, we combined and everyone danced with everyone. It was a lot of fun, because everyone got to dance. Warning to all those taking a dance class: Dancing with the instructor can cause major leg pains and dizziness from going so fast. Easy to follow, but hard to keep your eyes on them. We got so caught up in dancing, we almost forgot about the movie. Chris, Emily, Mark and I ran out and went to the movie theatre. Got there in time for Emily and I to go get popcorn since we'd not eaten anything yet for dinner. Go see it, it's Harry Potter, but it's not the book. It was a good movie, enjoyable... and sad. Everyone's happy, it's been a good night. I give up the navigation seat to Emily so that I can sleep. She's just happy she doesn't have work in the morning... I couldn't bring myself to tell her my secret. My secret is this: Since I'm Assistant Scenic Charge, I go in whenever my boss does, weither or not the other painters do. And Dusty was going in Saturday morning to work on the floor Emily had so diligently worked on the past few weeks. I didn't say anything and just fell asleep.
Saturday: Somehow I had made it to my bed and set the alarm for 7:45 am. Urg. Got up and went to work. Not cracks, luckily, but I had to make the floor look as though it'd been waxed, but worn down after years of wear and tear. Did that until around 12:30. I just wanted to go home, but after talking with Dusty I convinced myself that since I was up I should eat, and since I was going to eat, I shouldn't go straight to sleep, so I'd go with her to the Zoo. We ate at McDonalds and then went to the Zoo for free so we could take pictures of her Elephant Mural, which I have to say was very impressive.
I was on a fifth wind by the time we walked around there, so we took our time taking photos of other animals. By the time I got back to the apartment I was beat, but before leaving work that morning Dusty had made dinner plans with the designers of OHenry, since they had the night off and were going to see Christmas Carol. But don't fret, I did take a nap. Around 3 till about 5, because dinner was at 5:30, but we didn't leave the theatre and get to a place to eat until 6ish. We ate at the Fox and Hound, which is actually decent food for a pub (London, take notice! Pub food can be good!) But the food took a while, so we were late getting back to see C. Carol. I wanted to take pictures, since it was photocall. So I sat in the audience during the performance taking photos with my digital camera, and during the set-up photos I took it with my nice Nikon camera. But of course, that meant I didn't get back home until around midnight...
Sunday: Missed church, but still woke up at 8 something to hear my roommate’s cat trying to get into my room to munch on my babies. The cat has gone to throwing itself against my door trying to break it down... oye. I go back to sleep until about noon, and get up talk to my parents, take a shower, and go out shopping with Chris. Don't worry, I didn't spend much money. I just went to exchange a pair of gloves, and buy a soduko book... I couldn't resist. Then, after much discussion over dinner about BLogging, Chris shows me how to set up my own account, which is this... I'm glad I have, because now you can read it if you want and not fill up your mailboxes. Well, it's night now, and I've got work, once again, in the morning. So long, and thanks for all the fish!!!

First Post

Finally a way to talk to ya'all without mass emailing.

National Peanut Festival

This one goes out to Tracy Aksamit, a little blast from the near past:

I had been talking to Tracy about birthday presents and I said that I was desperately looking for a CD by Josh Turner, a wonderful singer with a bass voice like molasses. Well, in my search for the CD I looked up some of his tour dates, just out of curiousity, and previous talk of people going to random concerts in surrounding cities (this is aparently a good central location for concerts). Well, it just so happened that just a few days after my birthday he would be performing in Alabama... Dothan, to be exact. Which is about 2 hours away... not a bad distance to go for a concert, problem being I don't know exactly where Dothan is... or much of anything, including inside the city limits of Montgomery. But that does not deter me. I'm determined to have a good birthday for myself even if it kills me. But I eventually wisen up and talk to one of my friends and she just happens to know who I'm talking about, which is kind of rare because he's not only country (I get the feeling not a lot of people in Dixie actually like Country Music), but because he's still an up-and-comer. I'm excited and she agrees to go with me, and convinces her boyfriend to go with her. I figure if I'm no longer going by myself I'll gather a possie together and get a move on. Other friends agree to go, Chris, Erin, and Emily, and the date is set. The 11th of November, Veterans Day, fell on Friday this year, so I was still at work hours before the concert... covered in paint. For those of you who haven't seen me paint I should probably explain something (because luckily noone has gotten pictures of it yet): Regardless of what I'm doing, the day does not go by unless I end up with paint on me somewhere. And if I'm doing a project, my hands are often stained whatever colors I'm working with that one would think I'm wearing gloves. If I do a texture, which I love to do, or aging I spatter... which means the entire right side of my body, including my back sometimes, is covered with millions of paint freckles. It's an interesting sight which promotes many comments like: "You've got a little something right there." or "That's a nasty skin disease, you should have that checked out." Which I promptly reply, "Yes, I'm alergic to paints."
Anyway, back to the concert: Because I've been spattering all day I'm covered, and refuse to go to a concert looking like something out of a B-horror flick. Get off work at 5, and on the road by 6... country music the whole way there. The concert started at 7, but luckily a band opened for them, so we only missed that. We got there for that band's last song, which was great for us.
Now I should explain that this wasn't your ordinary outdoor concert... no. This was at a festival... and not just any festival: THE NATIONAL PEANUT FESTIVAL. I didn't want to miss Josh Turner, so I just went on down and paid to get a seat, rather than stand. Chris went with me, which was nice, because I didn't want to go alone to the concert part. The rest of the gang heads up to see the rest of the festival (more like a carnival with sideshows and fair food... and peanuts, of course). It was amazing! If you ever get a chance, listen to on of Josh Turner's songs. He's got a new CD coming out early next year (January, I think), and 1 of his songs is in a movie. He was introduced by the Peanut Queen, which was funny. But Chris and I got really good seats, and I was able to take tons of pictures... untill my battery ran out. **tear** Which of course it did towards the begining, so I didn't get a close up of when I got to go up to the edge of the stage for his encore performance, or when I got his autograph afterwards. I was as giddy as a school girl, and annoyed all the others. But I had fun, and that's what counts. Since the other's had gone around already, when the concert was done they were ready to go. But Chris and I hadn't seen the rest of the place. So, we convinced them that we had to do two things, and we do them quickly. 1) Eat a funnel cake (you simply must if they are available to you) and 2) Buy some peanuts (you can't go to a peanut festival without getting peanuts... and this was the national one... though it resembled the fair at Yale). We found the peanuts, which I took home and had in the bag for a week, and when I poured them into a bowl to slowly eat them for a week or so by myself... I think I got two, maybe. But they were really, really good. But it took forever for us to find the funnel cake. We knew they'd be mad at us, so we started to just get an elephant ear, but then we saw somebody with one and I quickly asked "Where did you get that?!" We ran to the booth that was selling them, ordered, waited... and ran and ate funnel cake. We were done with it by the time we found the others, so we thought they didn't think we got it, but the powdered sugar around the mouths was a little bit of a give-away.
On the way out there was a barrel of peanuts, so each of us grabed a handful... unfortnately since I was carrying a purse, it ended up with a number of those handfuls. I'm still finding peanuts in it. The way home was a quiet and content one. I slept with a smile. I recommend seeing him, or at least listening to Josh Turner sometime, even if you don't like country music. Thank you, Tracy and Chani, for the Brooks and Dunn concert that introduced me to him. **sigh**

Birthday Bash

Yes, I'm devolving into the past again, so this post is for November 8, my birthday:

Thank you for the gifts, cards, calls, thoughts. I appriciate them, big or small. I had a great birthday due to all of you guys. The opening picture is of the beautiful flowers, and cute teady bear, Mom and Pop sent me... with Godiva Chocolate that I'm hording away (though I did share it with the other painters). They're so beautiful and they lasted so long, they just started to wilt, so I made a batch of potpori with them. The bear stays on my bead, because it goes with both sets of sheets. Other items of interest were: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Rascal Flatts new cd, a lovely picture frame for Scorpios, bath soaps, and Battle Royale. One of the electricians made me cupcakes to share with everyone, which I did, and I got "Durged"... which is where everyone in shop sings their own renditions of birthday songs off-key and as loud as they can. I turned a bright shade of red... from laughter, I assure you.
For my birthday I had to work, which was not a big thing. I didn't really expect anyone to know it was my birthday, but my roommate reminded the carpenters, and Dusty reminded the painters. So I got a lovely card from the ASF group, which was very fun. Since it was Tuesday, the assistants got together for lunch. The Assistant TD (Will) and Shop Forman (Matt) took me out to the Blue Burrito for lunch. It was very nice and relaxing. They talked about all their birthdays. The combined age at the table was around 80.
That night, right after work (so I still had some paint on me), Dusty and Larry took me out to another mexican resturaunt, Del Radoes, which is really good. If you ever come and visit I'll take you there. They've got amazing margaritas, which is why we went. The whole paint crew joined us, and a few extras. It was a very nice birthday get together, relaxing and very chill... just what I needed after a few days of freaking out over roommate problems. Once again, thank you everyone for making my day that much brighter. I really needed it.

From Left it's: Tabitha (Stage Ops.), myself, Erin (Paints), Emily (seated is Paints), Dusty (Scenic Charge), Larry (Dusty's husband, head of Stage Ops. for Festival Stage), and Guy (Erin's husband, overhire Stage Ops.).

Fortelling the future: On the 10th, Thursday, since it was our get together night everyone had BBQ brisket but myself and Sandy (who had her birthday on the 9th) had Steaks... which were cooked just right. They were very, very good. I took a whole one, and couldn't stop eating the mashed potatoes. There were a number of birthday cakes there, and all were exceptional. Thank you everyone.