THINGS THAT HELP

(because I need to focus on the positive little things rather than all the obnoxious negatives)

* hug sandwiches!

* random post-its left on my desk

* a certain Famous Actor's faces made while sitting in the far corner during rehearsal

* discovering the backyard had been weeded for me by the complex

* library books on hold

* remembering the number of people who want me to stay sane (vs. the ones trying to drive me crazy) is really quite high

* focusing on being flattered that so many people think I'm the most responsible one to handle their problem

(I'm trying to use Twitter less and blog more. I don't know that it'll help expand anything.)

I love buying a new CD because you get to discover what song you'll be obsessed with for the next few days. (Oh, Sia, why must you be so pretty?)

Further goals for the day: watch some Netflix, accomplish some fix-it stitching on Spotlighter dress options (fun fact: my costume class dress fits me better now than when I made it for a grade), and take care of designer certificates before tomorrow morning.

Hey! Look at me posting again!

There's not a single time I'm at the front of the New Testament and don't think to myself "Matthew-Mark puked on John."

(And then I was chased by bad guys, action movie style, after I'd run into college pal Courtney and her husband, who were in town and are apparently good to have around in an extended chase sequence.)

I dreamed last night that I was in England, took a tour of a giant (outdoor? I think it was outdoor) opera company that somehow allowed me to sit in on a rehearsal with the other techies, and--when they saw that I was instinctively taking down blocking--offered me a job. [Recap: a job, in theater, in *England*] Wow, hugging, joy.....and then I decided that I couldn't actually take the position because I have commitments with my current job.

I don't know that I would be this loyal in real life.


[What's extra interesting about this to me is that earlier in the week when I had made my way to the travel guide section of Borders, like usual, I asked myself where I would go if money, language, whatever was no issue. And then I promptly walked to the Greece section. I'm not sure what to do with that information, except blame an early love of mythology and the Traveling Pants series. Also, who wants to go to Australia while I try to learn Greek?]

on a palm tree plate

Cold piece of pizza, you and this glass of milk are the cool, dairy-licious caper to the end of this very long day. Bless you and your bits of bacon.

"tidbits" should be the name of this blog, since that's what I post in

A bulleted list! Aren't you excited?

* Watching "The Departed" on basic cable just doesn't have quite the same effect as the DVD cut. Such as, you start making fun of Leo and Matt for all their substitute cuss words.

* When you wake up due to an overly itchy bug bite, and the first solution your brain springs up is to chew your finger off, you maybe shouldn't have read the zombie book before falling asleep. (Or, you should stop going outside without bug spray.)

* I imagine my microwavable lunch of today was on sale because it takes 11 minutes to cook. What the what, people. (Note to future self: check cooking times before buying things because they are a dollar.) [Edited after a few bites: actually, it's probably on sale because it's *awful.* Who knew the vegetables would ever be my favorite part of a meal?]

okay, so...life

I got back from vacation a week ago, though the majority of my unpacking boils down to pulling out toiletries and shoes as needed. As much as I like coming back to the routine of work (and I really do), I often feel like fleeing back to where I'd been for the first couple of days. [Side note: it seriously doesn't help this how many people tell me how much they've missed me, especially when it starts coming from those I don't deal with often. I like you all, but you scare me a little when I come back from vacations. Just so you know.]

Of course, who wouldn't trade in sitting behind a desk or running rehearsals for eating homecooked meals, having surprises at pizza parties, shoe shopping, canoeing on the local lake, visiting with college friends, watching my cousin as Elvis, cooking hot dogs over an open flame, rereading childhood books, crafting at 3 a.m., assembling classroom bulletin boards, and discovering Seventeen magazines from over five years ago (or, more specifically, making fun of their Next Big Thing lists). Sadly, none of these things come with a paycheck (maybe the bulletin board thing if I'd worked it right), so back to Texas it was.

Rehearsals have been fine, if a bit dull, so far. We were supposed to start blocking on Tuesday [after the week of read-throughs while I was gone], but have continued to be mainly around the table. It's not like it'll be complicated to block (probably 3/5 happens while seated in a car), but it'd be nice to have something else to do besides keep an eye on the script and make lists. (Getting out early each day has been pretty nice, though.)

Spotlighter is Spotlighter. I did pull rank and decide not to stage manage *and* be the blue bug this year, but that's also somewhat because the earlier entrance (compared to last year) would mean I'd have to call places already in the suit. Amusing, yes. Productive, no. (For once, productive is going to win. Clearly, I'm maturing.)

Things to do the rest of today: unpack, watch Netflix, go grocery shopping, weed plants, bake brownies, clean out DVR.

Texas tree frog says cricky cricky crick

There are too many thoughts in my head to blog properly. (But at least there's now a new nonsense title phrase at the top of the page. No, *you're* welcome.)

chicka-chicka-boom

We're back in Missouri, which is one of those sentences I only get to type about twice per year. It makes me happy, with a twinge of "eee!" attached. (A happy "eee!," don't worry.)

I am concerned with my mother's T key, as it apparently doesn't like life. I'm afraid it might do something desperate if its demands are not met soon.

Ways this was a good day (in no particular order, because I'm getting sleepy):
* steak for dinner (which is a big change from high school Hannah, who wouldn't've come anywhere near such food)

* managing to finish three books before showing up in the world of Babysitter's Club Super Specials, the only thing I seem to read when I'm in MO and have access again

* running into dear Lemon Drop in the Kirksville Hastings, just one week before he flees to Chicago (leaving my college town devoid of the last student person I knew in town). There was lifting-into-air hugging.

* I thought of something else while in the car, but I didn't write it down and it is thus lost to history.

I could do a list of why this weekend has been awesome, but I need to take a shower and go to bed so I can be up and ready for things before eight tomorrow. (Such is my love for my Mom and decorating her school room.) It basically boils down to seeing so many people I haven't seen in ages (some cases years) and getting to sit around eating food and swapping stories with most of them, so you can fill it in for yourself. I'm going to wash out my traveling pigtails, crawl into bed, and read a few more chapters about the BSC's adventures out west.

Happy birthday, Jo and Harry!

(My mom has pulled up this page each time I've seen her do her internet loop [email/facebook/blogs], so I thought I'd add something. That's all.)

Happy fourth, self!

It's a joke I've already used today (Hi, Paul! New letter soon! Possibly with a MO postmark!), but part of my brain wonders where my Texas degree went. Surely I've been earning a Masters in Humidity or B.A. (Bachelors of Ate-Stuff) in Queso rather than living the past four years as an adult.

Clearly I've only managed to pass courses in denial, but my thesis on quesadillas in the River Oaks area will hopefully send me over the top.

What? I don't know either. I'm a little bit two-days-from-vacation bouncy (and a touch of Spotlighter-meeting-canceled-hurrah! slaphappy), so it's okay if you don't follow the above. I'm currently listening to RJ yell at her Excel file and trying to find better info about whether or not I can bring half of pan of brownies in my carry-on luggage.

early '90s mix in the S Office today

My favorite part of Len's "Steal My Sunshine" is the line
"L-A-T-E-R that week..."

(edited to add)
Why, YES, we do need to hear Freddie Mercury at that volume. Please turn it into thoughts about "Shaun of the Dead" if it bothers you.

(edited edited to add)
zed-word violence!

calendaring

This time last year I was on a flight home from London (after a last minute stop at the airport duty-free candy store, where I splurged on a better Kinder Egg price rate than Candylicious has ever offered).

Next Tuesday is the four year anniversary of my move to Texas. I'll probably eat at Chuy's to celebrate, especially since I think there's a Spotlighter production meeting that day and I'll want something positive to look forward to at the end of the day. (The Tex-Mex light at the end of the tunnel, if you will.)

A week from today I fly home to Missouri for a week of family, lessened humidity (maybe?), and no work. For a moment I thought I was flying on the day of my anniversary, which would've been it's own blog post of weirdness.

Today: I am going to take lunch, hurrah hot pocket!

1868 68 155

I'm sorry for the absolute dead air, but I promised I would be less flippant the next time. Sadly, it's a lot easier to just talk flippant things (I have a doozy of ridiculousness I want to showcase) than to go over the rollercoaster of the past week.

Let's focus on the positives: I get to come home for over a week...and it's happening one week from tomorrow. Fun! When I started reminiscing about driving curvy country roads at night, the oldies station fuzzying in and out while watching for deer trying to race across your path, it was extra time to head to MO. (It helps that the same week, my Mom mentioned that she wasn't going to be able to do a Texas trip and we worked out that I could head north instead.) Taking this trip will pull me out of the first week of MS1 rehearsals (Have you heard? I'm stage managing two mainstages next season....would you like to point me toward an affordable scooter store?) and I'm not a fan of that. But, choosing between a week of tablework with the artistic director and my mother's caramel brownies on the weight scale tends to tip toward chocolate.

The impending trip home has helped my general attitude toward Texas, which was on a downward spiral (even farther than I realized before I knew I was going to leave for a week). I love what I do here (more so when I'm actually working on shows, but not all desk days are boring), and don't feel like I'm supposed to pick up my tent yet, but it's hard to live so far away from family.

Anyway. Here's a bit of flippancy to get us back where this blog normally heads:

Yes, it's a giant purse that looks like a horse. Not only that, but it's a giant purse that looks like a horse and cost over $100 dollars. For that much money you'd hope it wouldn't be so creepy. (I think Coraline's Other Mother has one of these for her evenings out.)

I think they're pretending to be sea lions???

Goodness, these children in the pool are LOUD. Also, lesson that I should've learned by now: never wear a skirt when you're going to be sitting outside near water at dusk in Texas. (Though it apparently leads to sentences with bouncy rhythm.)

I spent my day off by getting out of bed when I'd normally be pulling up my email at work, watching an old Muppets sing-a-long VHS and most of a disc of Wonderfalls, reading through cookbooks like I actually use them, and cleaning while wearing the above-mentioned skirt (which lends a nice '50s housewife vibe, with or without an apron).

I didn't get to most of my to-do list (dang it, Katie Finneran, for being so entertaining!), but my kitchen floor is glistening with a freshly bleached shine, so I still call today a win. (Though my bottle of chocolate milk is still at work, and will probably stay there until at least Wednesday before I can rescue it.)


Things I Should Be Doing Instead Right Now:
* revamping my grocery list (now that I've looked at all those recipes)
* (actually, that's all I can think of...short of promising a less flippant post, as I will likely spend a day at work before posting next?)

I don't have a reliable pterodactyl impression.

This is called "Hannah had a bad day:"



You may note that it's the large half gallon size. (So we can also call it "Hannah was being economical?")

On the plus side, since they added a speaker to play the preshow music in the lobby, I'm currently rocking out to "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Thanks, John Denver.

side note: the Houston skyline fireworks made me miss the St. Louis extravaganza

(side-side note: I started this Sunday night, but was kicked out of the pool area by a maintenance man locking the gate. People actually enforcing pool closure hours? Crazy!)

Ways in which I've been all patriotic-like today:
* grilled chicken for dinner (bonus points for doing so on a George Foreman grill?)

* watched Apollo 13 and cried (like usual) during the radio silence section toward the end

* prayed for country leaders during morning service

* um, I'm currently wearing blue?

Okay, so I also spent a fair amount of the day with the BBC on in the background (which is likely less than American), but I did so while crafting with American newspapers, so it evens out, right?

Is it alright?

Without going into the whys and whats for those not familiar with the show, but--were I still in school and needing a paper about a broadway musical--I'd totally write about the song "Cue Music" from "Passing Strange" and what it says about the playwright/lyricist/inspiration of the show, Stew.

Also, I might write about how a guy gets the nickname Stew.


I'm torn between completely chucking the old stage manager handbook (Updated August 4, 1999!) and continuing this process of section by section editing. The problem with it is that it's set up to be both a general "so you want to be a stage manager?" handbook AND a more detailed how-to on our specific venues, often at the same time. I'm trying to seperate both out to their own sections (and then subcategorized between Grace and Rotunda), so I'm constantly moving back and forth between sections. Also, a bigger problem is that I'm tired (what up, three a.m. bedtime! how's it hanging, 6:30 stomach clock?) and only care so much at the moment.

Yeah, I totally bit off all my fingernails this morning.

Someone's been sending my parents baby coupons and samples in the mail in my name, so if whoever's trying to imply to my mother that I'm pregnant could lay off the false hints, that'd be great. Also, send her some free chocolate, because she doesn't need baby formula.

I went floating down the Guadalupe River this past weekend [life checkmark!] with a church group, so my back currently features an interesting red design of cross-crossed marks. It took a long time to drive up there....and to stand around for a bus to get to the river....and to be organized enough to leave and drive back (Fun fact: some of the people we knew were told to get on a differet, less-full-to-capacity bus and were then not seen again for about four hours, as they were taken to a different drop point. Whoops.), but it was lovely to float down the river. At one point, a person's radio started playing "Sweet Child o' Mine" as a breeze rustled the cypress branches blocking the full sun and if that isn't summer's version of heaven, I don't know what could be better.

Phew. For a moment, I was stuck with a preposition at the end of that sentence, and that's not going to fly.

Probably bad (but amusing) idea: saving my Walmart trip for tomorrow evening/Wednesday morning, as I'll be at the AMC all evening for the Twilight bonanza with Deb. Crazy Dunvale Walmart at 3 a.m.? Oh dear. (Of course, the same "oh dear" could be used to describe spending one's evening at the Twilight bonanza, but let's not judge things here.)

bumblebee

Apparently all it takes to make me happy is a letter from a far away...and the enclosed stickers only sweeten it. Thanks, Sad Monkey.