she keeps her love away

So blah blah blah. We all know it's a new year. No news flash there.

I'm not a big one on the whole "resolution" thing, but given some of the shit that's been going down lately, I figure why not clean out. You know, get rid of the bad karma and bring in the good. All that jazz.

And so I am!

Today, I spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon on the living room. Cleaned it all up, threw out a bunch of stuff, boxed up some other things to go through at a later time (hey, with me, it's better to get things clean and THEN go through stuff that I wasn't positive on...I know how I work), that kind of thing. Not as many garbage bags as the last time, so that's a plus. Still, I've got a couple in the kitchen that will wait until the trash cans outside are empty (or until they're at the curb anyway...then I'll put them out with the cans) just so the cans aren't TREMENDOUSLY heavy between my stuff and other people in the building's stuff. I also moved the iMac and desk into the living room, so a portion of the bedroom is clean. Here's the living room as it looks now. :)



I will post a pic of the bedroom tomorrow when it's done. There will be more rearranging in the bedroom. All I really did in the living room was move the rocking chair over and the computer desk in.

The best part of this throwing out part? Getting rid of shit I have no need or desire for. Remember I asked about removing engraving? I decided to screw it and just throw the fucking frame out. I don't need that bad karma in my house or my life. I've reclaimed other parts for myself. This needed to be done. (I contemplated burning some cards, but I opted not to do that. I don't want to recreate the Valentine's episode of Friends. Throwing them out will suffice.)

Other than that, it's been a pretty low-key day. I was in bed before midnight last night. Yes, I'm a geek. So what? I was awakened by people yelling and either firing off fireworks (just single pop ones) or firing guns into the air. I was safely tucked in my bed, so I didn't really care. And the people above me didn't decide to move furniture back at 5am, so that was another big plus. I still don't know what was so fucking important last year (or was it the year before?) that they had to rearrange the furniture THEN and not at a semi-decent hour.

While doing all the cleaning, I finished up watching season three of Sex and the City so those discs can go back to NetFlix tomorrow. Since then I've been watching "New Year's Slay" on Logo (translation, a Buffy marathon.) Woohoo!

The nook didn't come yesterday. Not only that, I apparently got no mail. SADNESS! I'd put a note on my mailbox to let the postmaster know I was home so I wouldn't get that "come and get it" slip in my box, but apparently we had a sub. Who apparently called my actual postmaster - George. He had yesterday off, but came over to see if there was a problem or what. I gotta say, I was impressed. I'm hoping for tomorrow. (I guess it was asking a bit much for yesterday...I think it's 2-day shipping, and yesterday was 1-day from notification.) But since tomorrow is clean and rearrange the bedroom day, I'll be home, so nabd.

All in all, it seems to be a great start to 2010! Woohoo!!!!

Not quickly enough, but we're getting there.

I've got a workshop tomorrow. Woohoo! Then I'll head uptown to the chiropractor! Yay!! So ready for an adjustment! Then I'll probably either lottery something or rush something...still figuring that out.Thursday I'm going to the eye doctor. It's time for new glasses. So woohoo for that! Definitely getting non-glare coating. Probably scratch-resistant too. And then... Well, we'll see.

Got one heck of a Holiday Gift Basket from the landlords! I'm talking gourmet crackers, candies, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, coffee, etc. YUM!

Last night my friend RJ and I lotteried next to normal. And I was the third one called!!! So we got to see it from front row!!! woot!!!! RJ loved it, so big sigh of relief!! And I met friends of my parents who also loved it. YAY!!!!!!!

Um... I guess that's about it for now. Woo and hoo.

...but not in Brooklyn from what I can tell. Or not in Bed-Stuy. At least it wasn't the last time I looked. :( I WANT SNOW LIKE THE REST OF NYC SEEMS TO HAVE!!!!!

Anyhoodles...

Things seem to be going ok I think. School is school. I'm surviving. Which is better than not surviving I suppose. Right? Thirteen school days left and we're on break! Woohoo!!!

I'll be around here the 24th...packing and stuff. I think I'm going to go in and see the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA. They were out of entries the day Mom and Daddy and I went. I figure if I grab a ticket for the first time it should be cool. Christmas Eve service that night. Then on Christmas Day out to JFK by 1:30 or so for my flight to Nashville. I'll be there through the 30th and come home that evening. Amazingly I got a decent-priced flight. Woo!!

NO plans for NYE at this point. Keeping my options open I guess. LOL.

January 3 I've already got a ticket for the evening show of next to normal (bought that when that was was far out as they were selling tickets for the LONGEST time...now they're selling them further out). I'm planning to get a ticket for the closing show of The Marvelous Wonderettes, which will be the matinee. Do that after payday. Several shows are going down that day...Wonderettes is the one I care most about. And so I will go see it. I hope.

This past week on Thursday I got to see next to normal again! :) My friend Carli had a tdf ticket and she was really tired, so she let me have it and I'll pay her back when we get our teacher's choice reimbursement which should happen the 10th for those of us smart enough to have direct deposit. :) It was great! They were all on fire! Especially Alice, but what's new about that? :P

Today I went to see The Private Lives of Pippa Lee at the Angelika Film Center. I'd never been there, and I really like it. It's very art house - indie movies and the like. It's kind of cool to occasionally hear a subway train rumble overhead. :) Very New York! And the movie was really good too. I just got the book from the library (I think they had to restock because when I first heard about the movie I looked for it and don't recall seeing it) and started it last night. I'm not tremendously far in it, but to the point where I am, the movie was VERY true to the book. I guess that's an advantage of letting the author write the screenplay and direct, huh? Julianne Moore has a smallish part in it, and she continues to amaze me with her chameleon-like way of sliding into such different roles. PLUS in previews we saw one for A Single Man which stars her and Colin Firth and looks fucking AMAZING!!! Definitely checking that one out ASAP!! (I think it comes out December 11.)

Now I'm watching The nightmare Before Christmas for the first time. I know, I know. But at least I'm finally watching it!

Hmmm... I'm hungry and trying to decide if I should eat some Joe's O's, some oatmeal, or go get chips or something from the bodega. Course the latter would require getting dressed after my nice hot shower, so that may fall by the wayside. I should eat something...I haven't had that much today now that I think about it. Tea with honey for breakfast...Reese's Pieces and a diet coke at the movie...TJ's instant mac and cheese...and applesauce. No wonder I'm hungry. Should go remedy that. LOL.

Yeah, it's Thanksgiving. Two days off of school - that's what I'm especially thankful for right now! I feel like I sort of did the thankful litany with the 8 days of happiness things, so I don't really feel like doing the whole litany again. Ok? Of course it's ok...it's MY journal! :P Seriously, those I'm thankful for have been told personally. I don't feel the need to do it on here.

I'm pretty much packed. Just have to put stuff like deodorant, make-up, toothpaste and tooth brush in the suitcase and then put the electronic stuff (laptop, camera, etc.) into the backpack. Mom and Daddy get in around 2:30, so I'll hit the subway around 1 and head out to meet them. We'll take a taxi into Manhattan and get settled into the hotel. We'll do dinner at Junior's where Daddy can be thankful for pea soup and Mom and I can be thankful we don't have to eat it. HA! Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, which should make the trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island not as fun as it could have been. But we'll make it work. Tomorrow night we'll be MARVELOUS with The Marvelous Wonderettes. YAY! Saturday we have no plans for the morning, then it's the matinee of Ragtime. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure they'll love it. We're talking about the man who cries at the Hall of Presidents at Disney World, so he'll LOVE all the rah rah patriotism crap. I swear I was absent the day they handed out the patriotic gene. Or perhaps I'm more like Oliver in The Vertical Hour: "I do have a button marked 'patriotism'. But - let's say - I'm choosy about who I allow to press it." And then in the evening we're seeing South Pacific! Woohoo!!! Sunday it's church and brunch...and probably then American Girl Place and FAO Schwartz. All in all it should be a good time. :)

Watching the parade - or showcase of selected shows which is what the first hour tends to be - right now. Love how they jazzed up the Billy outfits. /sarcasm. I really HATE this song. And I'm not a huge fan of the show as it is on Broadway anyway. Yuck. Hair did well. At least it was a group number and not the overtired (I love it, but come on...) "Let The Sun Shine In". As for Stamos...that only proved why I have NO desire to see that show. I do wish either CBS or NBC had next to normal on, but it probably would have been "Superboy..." which is fine, but I'm SOOOOO tired of that being the showcased song for the show. Though it could be oddly apropros for Thanksgiving for some families. So yeah... That's my morning. Woo and hoo.

A couple of people have asked about the play. It's kind of hard to talk about right now since it's still in progress. Essentially it's an "aftermath and growth play" - meaning the characters are dealing with the aftermath of things in their lives and growing. Way oversimplified, but there it is. I know the most about Catharine (the primary character), then next most about Max (the stranger who comes into Cat's life), and then least about Tori ( Cat's sister). While the scene I turned in for critique had a flashback, I'm thinking I'll follow my instructor's thoughts and just have Cat narrate that - spare the audience the horror of SEEING what happened - so that means that right now it's a three-person play. Which may be ok. We'll see. The scene I turned in for critique dealt with Catharine revealing the darkest secret of her past to her sister during a storm (go me with the inadvertent symbolism), so it was pretty dark. Thankfully they all thought it was very well-written. There were some lines they thought maybe shouldn't be there...I don't know. I can see their point, but also I think with the right delivery they wouldn't be AS harsh as they read cold. So we'll see about that. It also didn't follow directly the other scenes I'd turned in, and I'm not sure everyone read the note because there were some who were like "But what about Max?" Um, I explained that in the note I put on the front of the stuff I gave you to read. But it's all good.

*random* Ok, this performance seals that I will NOT go back to Shrek. I'm sorry. They took the bullshit cop-out way of doing things when they inserted this stupid song. No no no no NO! /random

Um... Yeah, I think that's about it. For now.

Have a great day everyone!

Can't really explain what's going on. Just general GRRRR feelings all around. Let's see...

*NaNo
This is supposed to be FUN, right? Well, when all you hear about from the locals is "OMG, we're behind Chicago/Seattle/Belgium/etc. EVERYONE MUST WRITE MORE!!!!!" it kind of STOPS being fun. At least for me. I'm feeling basically uninspired to finish. And not so sure I'll do it again. These people just make it not fun at all. Hmmm...I should investigate if you can do it without being affiliated with a region. I don't think you can formally. Gah. :(

*School
Let's just say I think a lot of us are really wishing there hadn't been that hiring freeze last year. And hoping that there will be positions open elsewhere in the city this next year. Ms. New Principal has got the complex of all complexes. Not only that, she doesn't get alternate assessment and/or Autistic kids AT ALL. The policies she's instituting are NOT beneficial for our kids. The curriculum she's picking is geared for Gen-Ed kids. The latest? We are not allowed to use television, video, or radio without EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION from the principal - and we have to submit formal plans as to exactly why we need to use this. Hello? Video modeling, which has been proven to work with our kids? Also, you want technology usage to INCREASE in the classroom, yet you're limiting what we can do? Oh, and let's not even get into this "center-based learning" bullshit she wants us to use. All well and good when you've got kids who can work independently - and even then it's done with extra adults in the room. GRRRRR!!!!

*Church
Ok, I know it's standard operating procedure (in most cases Canonical requirement) that when a new rector comes in, all the current clergy (and possibly other staff...that I think varies) is required to submit a letter of resignation. In most cases - all that I know of - those letters are not accepted. Well, our new guy is apparently all into cleaning house. Two weeks ago, one of our assistants abruptly announced his resignation - we had a brunch for him and his partner last week. Then yesterday, only an hour or so after we got an email about our female associate being accepted to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia, we get notification that SHE is resigning as well. Granted she won't be leaving until the end of September, but still... I'm still pretty iffy on the new guy as it is. He seems ok...but with all this... It's kind of scary. All I can think is that they have been there for years and new guy is a bit insecure about that and people's ties to them. I'd like to think that isn't it, but my gut is saying all signs point that way.

And speaking of that... My gut is usually so accurate on things. I just wish it had been more accurate on other things like that what I thought was a friendship that started back in January. Hello gut feeling...please to start pinging when my own personal life is involved???? It would make things so much easier.

In other things... I now have a plane ticket home for Christmas. I fly to Nashville on Christmas and back on the 30th. Best of all, it was UNDER $300!!! I kid you not. I don't know if it was some kinf of error on the website, but the flight is booked and paid for (thanks Daddy!), so... The one icky thing is that we were waiting to order the nook until Mom and Daddy are up here next week so it wouldn't get all confusing since Daddy's paying for it for my Christmas present. Well, as of now, the next batch will be shipped on January 4. So I can only imagine when MINE will be shipped by that time. Oh well...I'll know it's coming. Just extend Christmas a bit. Yay?

This time next week, Mom and Daddy will be here and we'll be getting ready to see Ragtime. I REALLY hope I just caught it on an off-night and it's better than what I saw when I saw it. They get in Thursday afternoon. We'll take a cab into Manhattan and check into the hotel, then it'll be dinner...probably at Junior's. Friday we're going out to Ellis Island, hopefully hitting up MoMA for Free Friday, though time will determine that, and seeing The Marvelous Wonderettes - with hopefully a special twist, but I'm not going to be upset if it doesn't happen. Saturday is Ragtime matinee and South Pacific in the evening. YAY! Sunday is church, then brunch. And then we'll see.

And... Hmm. I guess that's about it for now. Just spending a weekend largely in. Library run this morning. And no plans for the afternoon/evening. Tomorrow, church. Laundry should be done at some point...trying to hold off to Monday or Wednesday perhaps. We shall see.

I'm boring. And feeling invisible.

I'm really sorry guys. Stuff is just nutty right now.

School is ok... They keep changing what they want us to do with things. My room has been rearranged like four times now. And it's more paperwork out the ass. But I'm trying my best. Hopefully it'll be enough.

Life in general is good. Theatre's still my main escape, and I love it. The apartment is good. I'm a little annoyed at the landlord right now because I was going to either see a movie or lotto something for the matinee, but he texted me THIS MORNING that the exterminator is coming today and will need access to my apartment between 1 and 3. I'm fairly sure he's supposed to give 24 hours notice...must find my lease to verify that. If nothing else, why can't I give the building manager my keys so I don't have to worry about being here when this shit is going on? And they STILL haven't totally fixed my door so it's leany and draggy and I can't open it all the way for fear of the screws pulling out. Still, the apartment itself is good. I'm not going to find something like this anywhere...especially for the price. So... I'll stay. The whole thing with today...it's probably for the best. I can make sure I take care of what I need to take care of.

Wednesday I went to a Halloween party. It was fun...the part that I was out for. Let's just say I got...well...fucked up. Oops? I'd never experienced "special" brownies before. I have now. And I learned that one is plenty. The good thing is I was in a safe place with people who care about me. One of my friends stayed in the bathroom with me for a while after she realized I'd been gone a while. She checked in on me other times also. Another friend was in and out. And two others kept close tabs on me as well. I didn't completely black out, so that's good. I saw the people whose house I was at last night (they kept close tabs on me...one of them said last night she did check on me a few times while I was sleeping) and it's all good. In their words, "hey, we've all been there. and who's to say when or if it'll be our turn again", so it's ok. It was overall a good time. And lesson learned!! :) Ok, so I'm just a little delayed in doing these things. :P

Playwriting is going well. My first bit that I turned in people generally liked. You could tell they're all New Yorkers (or the vicinity) because they didn't get the openness and hospitality that can exist in parts of the South over all and thought that something was too fast. My teacher didn't say that, but he said it felt like a play that would have longer scenes, so I could easily combine scenes one and two and thereby eliminate the whole issue the other people were having. So yay! Now that I've gotten those critiques back, I can work on more of it. I hadn't wanted to do that in case they all thought it was shit. So...I'll be going that AND working on NaNo.

Yep...NaNo starts at midnight! w00t!! I want to try and get pretty far ahead of the word count tonight so I can take my time with it later and still get work done on the play. It's gonna be an INTERESTING November, that's for sure!!