I'm about eight minutes from my airport ride showing up in the office, Les Miz is blasting from the speakers, I have the MS1 script packed to read on the play (because I'm super excited about "---"), and my vacation outbox message has been on for I-won't-say-how-long. Let's do this.

things are gonna be great / at 28

So maybe it'd be considered cheating to specifically pick the new birthday song, but I don't really care. My rules, my game. Besides, "In the Light" reflects (ha) what I didn't feel I did well this past stressed-out year, and hence what I need to keep working on this year. (And isn't it nice to have a song that I actually know the words to rather than a general knowledge of melody and chorus?)

[Fun fact: it's the Truman male a capella group True Men's version that plays in my head, no disrespect to dc Talk. (I wish I could find a link to share.) Further fun fact: it's the same version I played over and over the first week I lived in the new apartment (before Jessica moved in) to help me fall asleep. I was on a flat mattress--or the couch, depending on the day--and there was crying. Bless you, younger Hannah.]

Sometimes I like playing "follow the margin citations," which is how I jumped around the Old and New Testaments last night, though originally starting in Psalms. We need the light, whether as a scientific principle or a symbolic representation of God. Light warms us, nutures us (whatever vitamin I don't get enough of because I'm always inside a dark room ... and growing the leafy things I don't usually eat unless there's a burger attached), and guides us through and out of darkness. One of the first verses I've learned due to theater is from the top of John: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it." The light that we need so badly to survive is a mystery to the darkness it conquers, just as it is a mystery to us who naturally have that same darkness in us. (Who here really remembers all the talk in science class about photosynthesis or electricity? Science Major David, please don't buzz in.) Maybe all this made more sense in my brain last night at midnight-ish, or even this morning drafting it on the bus. I just know I can be petty, and intentially mean, and I sometimes lie to actors (even when it's not to their benefit), so I need the light as much as I can soak up at any given time.

I don't care that there's now a separate spot to add a post title. I'm going to keep using the one bit of HTML programming that I know to make this line appear like it does.

I'm still at work for a couple of reasons, though none of them are that it's weird to have a show tonight that I don't have to stay here to run. (This is such a good thing, I cannot even express it.)

At this point, I'm still here because (1) the internet is slow, and things I wanted to take care of during the day haven't been accomplished yet and (2) I was gifted a large mug of Butterbeer (oh, the sweet caramel literary-inspired goodness), and I'm not going to let it go to waste (or sit in a spot where actors will drink it instead of me. The jerks.)

"Jerk" seems to be my insult of the moment, which I guess bears documenting. I don't know; I'm full of sugar right now, I fly to Missouri in a week, see "The Avengers" at midnight tomorrow, and I was handed Cardinals tickets for this weekend to go with my Butterbeer. This is either the universe apologizing for my often stressful 27th year, or wishing me an extra special early 28th.

Something Missouri Hannah never would have said: "Guacamole, I love you."

(I just said that sentence aloud in my otherwise empty office. Of course I did.) It's still weird not being at the theater in the evenings. (I guess other people think so, too, as I had a few ask me if I was at Saturday's rehearsal because I missed being part of the process.) It's really on this week that I've started spending more time out and about, rather than clinging to all my precious time sitting on the couch. (Dear couch, I love you. Yes, more than guacamole.) * I'm helping out with props right now, which is how I've quickly learned how to address letters, German-style. (Hint: the numbers are switched around from American.) This is also much better than typing scripts for captioning. * These fish tacos I have for lunch are *so good,* I'm actually glad that it only takes one to fill me up. * I feel like there's something a bit off with Whataburger sponsoring the Bollywood film I'm watching on Hulu right now. Are they aware of what happens to cows there? * Gosh, there's lots of open white space in the new Blogger template design. I am not a fan. * Someday, I will not be stuffed up or dripping from the nose or generally completely well once more, and then I shall celebrate. This is not going to happen for a few days, I think. * Probably a vital step to keeping the plants in the office window growing would be remembering to water them. Sorry, Easter-themed plants.

I'm still at work because this is where the internet lives.

(Not that I don't enjoy sitting by the side of the pool at my complex and picking up whatever unsecured wi-fi happens to be floating by on the breeze. I just don't want to be that person who is always there.)

C. suggested that Kat and I buy one of those themed party places, where kids come for fairy tale themed tea or whatnot. (These are the things people talk about when we're stressed about work, apparently.) I'd be all for that, if it wouldn't wipe out all my savings and force me to continuously work with kids and probably end in me punching a parent while wearing a frilly dress. (Let's call this post-ADP Plan E.)

Could someone else please be as excited for the new J.K. Rowling book as I am, regardless of the lack of new Harry Potter? Maybe my excitement is because I want to pretend that it *is* new HP, pre-ordering it and finding a place to pick it up at midnight, and then devoting the next few days of my life to finishing. (And then crying because there was no Hermione to be found among the characters.)

the word "volume" never looks like the proper spelling. In fact, I just checked it again.

So I guess it's good that I haven't bought any sort of plane ticket north yet, as the final audition day keeps moving all over the calendar, and especially all over the two weeks I'd originally blocked out for travel. I'd already given up on April as too soon (especially now that it actually is April), and at this point I'm fine giving up my birthday to auditions if that means I can still take the rest of that week for vacation.

Somewhat notice, ADPers: auditions might be May 8. Don't quote me.


The leftover ice cream cup from Saturday's rehearsal is about to become the best part of my lunch, as this Mediterranean chicken tastes neither like chicken or Mediterranean food. Dear leftover chicken casserole sitting in my fridge: I miss you.

check concession cookies

(stashed in my show notebook)

No one has asked, but how do I memorize my called cues? (I seldom know what light cue I'm in at the Mainstage, as the bright monitor decreased my ability to see in blackouts ... and that board doesn't tend to jump cues at random.) Sometimes it's as simple as "on the word 'please,' we're at SQ P" - sometimes a farther spaced association, such as "where the frak is [actor]?!" at SQ F.