Monday, January 30, 2006
World through the eyes of a child
Here's the one I was planning to post yesterday... it didn't get as hopelessly lost in cyberspace as I thought it did!
So. Every year I say that I'm going to work on being better-read, especially in the classics, and I think I've found a list (which, by the way, I found here) that I'm going to work on for this year. It's a good one--it encompasses both current and classic literature, and should be a pretty good all-around overview of books that every well-read person should have covered.
It occurs to me here that I've definitely got my work cut out for me. Anyone want to join me? Kim? Lindsey? Anyone? I also need to find a list of classic movies that are "must sees" for anyone who wants to be well-versed in more than just the blockbusters. So, if you find such a list, send it my way. I'm going to link this list over on the side menu and update it throughout the year; let's see how far I can get on this thing.
Classics
- The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
- A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
- Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
- The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
- Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia De Burgos by Julia De Burgos
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse
Hamlet by William Shakespeare- Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel KeyesThe Story of My Life by Helen Keller- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank- Time and Again by Jack Finney
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Sybil by Flora Schreiber
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Cousin Bette by Honore De Balzac
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
- 1984 by George Orwell
- The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Lord of the Flies by William GoldingThe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. SalingerThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath- The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Emma by Jane Austen
- On The Road by Jack Kerouac
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Current
- A Month of Sundays by Julie Mars
- Small Island by Andrea Levy
- My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
- A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
- My Life in Orange by Tim Guest
- Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
- How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson- Nervous System by Jan Lars Jensen
- The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland
- Oracle Night by Paul Auster
- Quattrocento by James McKean
- The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan
- Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
- Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom- The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
- Old School by Tobias Wolff
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duff
- Brick Lane by Monica Ali
- Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
- Property by Valerie Martin
- Rescuing Patty Hearst by Virginia Holman
- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
- The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
- Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
- Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
- Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
- Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
- Unless by Carol Shields
- Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
- When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
- Songbook by Nick Hornby
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Extravagance by Gary Krist
- Empire Falls by Richard Russo
- The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Life of Pi by Yann Martel- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
- Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Normal is all in your mind...
Heard in the office today:"Ja Rule is coming to the show tonight."
"He's a rapper?"
"Yeah."
"I'm down with that."
"How do I greet him? Ja Rule? Mr. Rule? Ja?"
"Well, when Mos Def came to my show, I called him Mos."
Sunday, January 29, 2006
This is how to make banana bread
Gah. I love it when a long post is mysteriously altered and will take much patience (which I don't have at the moment) to fix. Oh well. I'll put it up tomorrow.I feel a cold coming on, and I've been craving orange juice today. Coincidence? I think not. For some reason, the acid feels good on my throat. Yes, I know I'm weird.
This was supposed to be much longer, but I don't feel like trying to re-create everything now, so it'll come later. I'm trying to plow through some writer's block right now, too--I'm working on the next chapter of my latest fic, and I'm having some troubles getting the story to go where I want it to. It's okay, though, because I've got the next two chapters almost completed, so at least I know where the big picture is heading.
Anyways. A not-so-fun side effect of that impending cold is going to bed early. And that's just where I'm headed. Soon.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
No gingerbread, no safety net
So tomorrow morning, Allison and I are going to get together and discuss our small group. I'm really excited to do this book; it's been one that has really impacted me, and I'm excited to get more opinions and discussion on it. I think that our group will be quite small--there are only 5 of us, including Allison and me, so we'll be able to hang out and get to know each other really well, which is exciting.
The biggest group so far is (no surprise here) Blue Like Jazz. Definitely the Christian buzz-book for the past year. It's good, but it's the... I can't think of what I want to compare it to, though. Anyways, it's been one of the biggest books of the past year, so it's to be expected that it's one of the most popular groups.
Hmmm. It's been nice having my Tuesday nights--Kim and I have been hanging out, and that's been really great. I'll miss that once small groups start up again. I'm really looking forward to my group, but I have such limited time to spend with people that I miss having the chance to hang out with them.
Ah well... we're going next weekend to see "Safety" (I can't find a show or company website to link to for it...), and then hopefully she and her roommate Polly will come with me to see "Dog Sees God" sometime next week. Daniel, the company manager for DSG, was asking me today when I was planning to come see it... I'm just getting some people together... he made a point of telling me to bring people, which is cool. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to just be getting comps for myself, or if I could book 2 or 3 comps, and I guess that answers my question.
Today I was in both offices--church and Roy Gabay. Definitely prefer the whole office job thing to the whole food-service job thing. I'm finished writing my curriculum through this unit, which puts me at 3 weeks ahead. This one was pretty easy--we just took a curriculum that the staff had brought with them from their old church and tweaked it. Nothing too difficult there. We'll probably do that again, but I might write it a bit more than I did with this and make it more uniform, especially since I have more time to work with. So... yeah. That was my day. Running errands and working on the computer in both offices.
Oh yeah. And looking for a couch. I guess that they needed a couch for Barefoot in the Park (which I'm excited to see), so I spent a good chunk of time scouting out Ikea's couches (among other places) and phoning to see if it could be picked up tomorrow.
Exciting, n'est-ce pas? It kind of floors me, though, that I'm working on shows that have the kind of budget to buy a new couch (even a relatively inexpensive Ikea couch) specifically for the show. I have to pull up the ticket sales reports, too, and the numbers are completely out of the league of anything I've ever worked on before. Mind-boggling. But I guess that's what makes Broadway, well, Broadway.
Wow. Lots of links here. So if you're bored and need more things to do to procrastinate, you can just follow all my links, and it'll take twice as long as simply reading the entry would.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
There inside your mind
I really, really, really miss doing shows. I've gotten offers in the past several weeks to stage manage a few shows, or to be involved with running crew, or to ASM, and I've wished more than anything that I could say yes. It's been... what? 8 months since I did a show, and I don't think I've gone that long between shows... ever. Last show I did was UBAR, and that was back in May, and somehow, doing the business end of things just doesn't cut it. Yeah, it's a good learning experience, but I need to get back inside a theatre. Preferably on the artistic side of things, but I'd settle for something else, just as long as it got me back into rehearsals and tech week and the routine of it all.
*sigh* And it'll be at least another 8 months before I get to do another show. How am I supposed to handle that?!
The whole concept of taking a year off from hands-on artistic involvement was a great one in theory, but when it comes down to actual fact (and now that I know people who are able to offer me positions, or at least give me places to apply), it feels like a freakin' long time, and it seems so pointless to not be able to take advantage of the opportunities. And yes, I know that there are so many other opportunities, but I hadn't realized how much I depend on that particular creative outlet.
So I'm releasing my creativity in geeky and odd ways. I'm writing lots, and I've actually started writing some fanfics. Please don't tell anyone who's supposed to take me seriously. And actually, it's kinda cool, because it's a different kind of writing and character development. It's a totally different discipline to write within the bounds of an established character with a history, personality, and relationships. In some ways, it's more restrictive, and in other ways, more freeing than creating a brand-new character from scratch.
Anyways. That's my whine of the day. I miss it. I want to be in it.
I walked through a backstage door of a Broadway theatre today, and it was like going home. I haven't been in a true backstage in forever, and today, I just had to pick something up and take it back to the office, but still. That's the heart and soul of the theatre. The seats are an extension of everything that happens everywhere else, and it pains me that I'm just in the seats.
But tomorrow morning, I get to sleep in, so it's all good.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Rest is still unwritten
Cold. The boiler stopped working, and now we have no heat. It makes it very, very difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Very.
I wanted to go see Match Point last night, but it was sold out at every theatre I went to. That's what I get for trying to see a movie last-minute on a Saturday night in NYC. Has anyone seen it? Want to review it for me? Maybe I'll go Tuesday night--it'll be less crowded.
Random thought that I meant to post almost 3 weeks ago. When I flew out of Calgary to come back here, my plane flew almost directly west over Country Hills, and then veered south along Stoney Trail, basically, and then followed Crowchild past downtown before it went east. I think it's the first time I've ever flown out of the city on that route, and it was pretty cool to be flying so directly over all my favorite landmarks. The church, Superstore, and the Quiznos strip mall; Market Mall; Rocky; the approximate locations of my previous houses and several friends' houses; Crowfoot... I could point out everything until we got out of the city, pretty much. Most of the time, I've flown out over Airdrie or directly south, or even straight east, so this was pretty cool.
Second random thought. Last night, when I was trying to find a theatre that wasn't sold out, I ended up at one of the ones in Times Square, and I was pushing my way through the Saturday-night throng of tourists, and the thought struck me that, "I'm in Times Square, and it's not a big deal. I can come here any day I like, and, in fact, I walk through here any day that I work in the office." It was just such a strange thought that it's not a novelty. You know? I'm starting to realize that about a lot of well-known landmarks. They're part of my day-to-day scenery, and they're still amazing, but it's not like I'm seeing them for the first time.
By the way, thanks for telling me all your slogan generator results. It seriously made my day. Tell me more, if you come across some good ones! :o)
I've decided that if I want to pursue fame and fortune in New York, I should publish my own guide to the city. They all seem to serve some niche, right? So, I'll seek out, review, and publish every independent coffee shop in the city. That would go over well, wouldn't it? And it would completely justify finding every funky cafe that I can find. ;o) Teehee...
Anyways, I'm off to hunker down with my blanket, watch a movie, and try to stay warm. Wish me luck--I'm kind of attached (hee) to all my extremeties, and I don't want them freezing off!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Top Breeders Recommend Alida
Hee. Check out this slogan generator. Some of the ones it came up with for me?
"It's Shake'n'Alida, and I Helped"
"Splash Alida All Over"
"Is it Live, or is it Alida?"
"A Day Without Alida is Like a Day Without Sunshine" (awwww)
... among others. It's funny.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
All you wish for and all you dream
Happy Hump Day!
And here's hoping that my mail-in ballot comes in time that I can actually mail it in. Does it count as being an apathetic, irresponsible citizen if it's the government's fault that I can't vote? And just to clear that up... I faxed in my registration the day after I got back to NYC and had all my paperwork with me to actually send. Faxed, not mailed, thus cutting down the amount of time it took to get there and expediating the process.
Anyways. The first day at the new job went well. Uneventful. I was only in the office for about an hour and a half--just learning some of the programs I'll be using and so on. I start full hours sometime in the next week or so.
Hmmm. Perks of my job? Free tickets, and I get to go to the opening night galas for this company's shows. Right now, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead is playing (a Charlie Brown as a teenager kind of thing), and Barefoot in the Park opens shortly, and I get to do the whole opening night shindig for that one. Fun times.
Umm... what else? Not much. Can I just say how much I'm loving having my Wednesdays off, though? It's pretty fantastic, especially because it means that I can have a "normal" Tuesday night--I don't have to be in bed by 10:30, and that, right now, is a pretty sweet luxury.
However, tonight's Wednesday, not Tuesday, and I need to go to sleep, because 6:00 will come far too early tomorrow morning.
Monday, January 16, 2006
An exploration in four movements
Oh yeah! I completely forgot to mention my change of plans (thanks for the reminder, Janna!).
I had accepted an internship at Vital Theatre Company before I left New York for Christmas, planning to start there when I got back, but while I was home, I actually heard from a second theatre company, Roy Gabay Productions, offering me an internship there. I went for an interview with them the day after I flew back in, and then had to decide which one to take.
Ideally, I would have loved to combine the two into one position--Vital is artistically more what I'll be doing (in terms of educational theatre, community-based), but I'm not planning to run my company as a not-for-profit; I'm planning to incorporate and run a business model. Roy Gabay is a commercial company (Broadway and off-Broadway), so even though the productions themselves will be more slick and professional than what I'll be working with, it'll be a more similar business style.
Like I said, in a perfect world, I would be able to combine them into one position, but I couldn't. Also, in a world where my schedule doesn't revolve around Lourenzo's, I could have actually taken both internships, potentially--neither one was looking for full-time hours. Of course, in a world where I wasn't bound to L's schedule, I probably would have had to be working, actually making money, so I wouldn't be able to work more than half-time anyways.
But, since I had to choose, I decided to go with Roy Gabay. Partly because of the business model; partly because it seems like there are more chances to take initiative and learn as much as I want or can. Chris, the office manager, said that, basically, I'll pick up duties as I discover what I like, and I can choose to shadow a producer, or shadow various elements of a production, sit in on production meetings, etc... so even though my job description at Vital would have included more of the artistic side of things (in some aspects), this one seemed like it has more doors that are there for me to open.
So, I start in the office tomorrow--I'll be working 2 full days a week (spread out over 1 full day and two half-days), and then from there... we'll see, I guess! The internship goes through May--basically until the theatre season is over--and then after that, we'll continue to take this whole thing one step at a time. As if that's not what it's been all along, anyways.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Diamond in the sky
Well, I am still alive and somewhat kicking... it's just been a while since I've had much of anything to say.
I started working in the church office this week--it's pretty much all what I've done many, many times before. Reworking curriculum that was written for 200 kids, making it applicable to 7. Buying Sunday School supplies. Printing and folding bulletins and so on. Phoning, scheduling, etc, etc. It's fun times, though. I'm really looking forward to it--it's good to feel like I'm doing more than just going on Sunday mornings. You know?
Other than that... it's been same old same old. I start at the theatre company on Tuesday, which is the other big impending thing. But this week has been lots of fighting over piano practice, getting re-used to dragging myself out of bed at 6 in the morning, and yelling at my computer. Again.
Heh. Nah, it hasn't been all that bad, actually. I'm making it sound like such an angst-filled week, when really, it's just been uneventful.
As this evening will be, I believe. I think I'm going to go see a movie, but it's not going to be anything spectacular. I may, however, take a notebook with me and try to write. No, not in the movie, silly. At a diner or something before or after the movie. I haven't had a chance to touch base with anyone and plan something, though, so unless I end up hearing from Naomi or Kim or someone in the next half an hour, chances are I'll go alone. Which really isn't all that bad. Right, Aaron?
Anyways... I need food, or caffeine, or stimulation, or all of the above. Wow. I hadn't had a Lourenzo weekend in quite a while! And this is a long weekend, so I get Monday, too... but.... I talked to Alexandra, and I found out that when Jen comes to visit me in February, Lourenzo and Alexandra are going out of town, so I don't have to worry about scheduling my Jen time around my Lourenzo time. Excellent...
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Sit down, Mary Martin
So yesterday, I finally got my butt in gear (literally) and got myself a membership at a gym. A very inexpensive one, too. It's part of the city's Parks and Rec department, and a year is just $75. Anyways. It's just a block and a half down from the Barnes and Noble where I used to work, and it's right next door to the Neighborhood Playhouse. I totally didn't realize that the Playhouse was so close to where I was working!We visited when we were here on Testament, but I really had no concept of the layout of the city, especially for that. I didn't navigate it myself--Cindy walked us over from Rockefeller Center, and I really didn't know, at that point, how far we'd walked, what direction we were going... anything like that.
But there it is, in all its red-door glory, right beside my gym.
On a... I was going to say "on a completely different note," but I suppose you could argue that the two are related, since they both have something to do with my education and training...
On a slightly (but only if you reside in my twisted mind) related note, I got the email from RMC informing the alumni of their proposed merger with AUC, which, it seems, they are taking far too seriously for my liking. I know that Kim, Esther, and I had this discussion at Christmas, and my opinion hasn't changed. It's not a good idea. I don't think that it's the route they should take.
And I know it doesn't really affect me anymore, since I don't go there, but still. For as many fallabilities as that school has, it's still my alma mater, and I don't want to see it make more dumb decisions than it already has. It wasn't a perfect experience, but it was where I spent four years, and I still want to see the best things happen to it.
So, my reasons? Several. The first one, which is a tie-in to things that both Kim and Esther said, is that it eliminates competition. RMC and AUC are Calgary's two biggest Christian colleges, and if you put them together, you remove so much choice. Not to mention the biggest sports rival. Each of the schools easily outnumbers any of the smaller Bible colleges 2 to 1, and both of them together would almost create a monopoly on Christian post-secondary education.
The second, and more significant, is that AUC is an Alliance college. RMC is multi-denominational. That's a huge difference, and I don't want to see RMC lose its multi-denominational qualities by merging with a school that's so denominationalist. Yes, I was raised in--and loved--the Alliance Church, but I also loved the fact that my education wasn't fully determined by the doctrine of that particular denomination. I love the fact that RMC has students from across the board--Catholic to Pentecostal--and that the professers and the theologies taught are just as diverse. I wouldn't have wanted to go to a school where I was only taught from one point of view.
Third, Rocky is a very arts-centred school, as well as offering some majors that are far less common. I've said it ever since AUC moved to Calgary, and I'll keep saying it. Rocky should continue to try and build its identity around that. They are far stronger in both of those areas than AUC is, or will ever be, and they should dig deeper into that niche. Realize that they fill a need that very few Bible colleges fill, and build their identity in that. I would hate to see them lose that sense of identity, and those programs, by merging with a school where they're not as high of a priority.
I know that there are valid reasons for merging, but to me, the cons definitely far outweigh the pros. I don't think it's a wise move, and I know that I don't have the final say, but I think that Rocky should, if they want to move to a university status, choose to do it independently, so that they can maintain their sense of who they are, apart from having to move with another school that is just too different.
Besides, who really wants to have AUCNUCRMC written on their college sweatshirt? And really, how does another syllable, particularly one with only the letters "RMC," fit into "uck-nuk"?
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Yes, the hoods are cute, but it's always cold
So I've spent the last couple of days hermiting. Bliss, actually. Heh.Anyways, I'm slacking in my "year in review" entry (but Linds, you're just as far behind, so I expect absolutely no heckling about it!), so here we go. It's less ambitious than previous years, but, hey, it's here.
January:
- Did you have a new year's resolution this year? Of course I did. A few of them, actually. And... yeah. I just looked at the list, and it's not looking too good. I don't think I actually accomplished a single one. I had the best of intentions, but this year's going to be better. Isn't it always?
- Who kissed you at midnight? Ed, actually. At Denny's. On the cheek.
- Did it snow where you live? I don't remember, actually. Probably not.
- Do you like hot chocolate? Absolutely. Who doesn't?
- Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop? Actually, no. Not even this year, when I live here. I was in Calgary for New Year's.
February:
- Who was your valentine in 2004?I didn't have one. It has been quite a number of years since I actually had a valentine. I think I might have had a rehearsal that night or something. Oh yeah. And I put red and pink ribbons in my hair, and baked cookies for work.
- What did your valentine get you? Well, seeing as how I didn't have one, it would be kind of hard for him to get me something, wouldn't it?
- When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class? Of course I did. I think we weren't allowed to selectively give Valentines until at least junior high.
March:
- Are you Irish? Nope. Swedish, mostly. A little English (that's the part that responsible for anything that goes wrong). No Irish.
- Did you wear green on St. Patty's Day? Probably. Ah, wait. Anne Frank opened on St. Patrick's Day night, so that night, I'm sure I was wearing all blacks. During the day, I think I was at work, and fortunately for me, Quiznos uniforms have some green in them.
- What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2005? Stage managed a show.
April:
- Do you like the rain? Definitely. Although, this year, the June rain was a little much.
- Did you play an April fool's joke on anyone this year? I walked into work to find that everything that could be had been turned upside down had been. We left all the display menus upside down, and it was surprising how many people didn't realize that it was even April Fool's Day until they asked why the menus were upside down.
- Did you get tons of candy on Easter? Some, but not tons, I don't think.
May:
- What's your favorite kind of flower? Gerbera daisies, I think. I can never completely decide.
- Do you like the spring? I love that first whiff of spring when there's that first day when things get warm and you don't need a jacket. It's perfection. And then, in Calgary, it usually snows. But those few days are beautiful.
- Finish the phrase: April showers bring may flowers, what do May flowers bring?I agree with Morgan's assessment: "In Calgary? The last huge snowstorm of the year, usually."
- What would you think of as a spring color? Bright colors. Pinks, greens, yellows...
June:
- What year did you graduate from high school? 2000. Some called it the first class of the new millennium; the class of 2001 insisted that we were the last class of the last millennium. We said that we were so special that we didn't need to be associated with one millenium. Heh.
- Did you go on any vacations last June? I think I went to Creston. By then, my shows were over, so I was just working, so I had some time to go out there. Actually, I know I did, because I left when Calgary's rain started.
July:
- What did you do on the 4th of July (Canada Day)? Ahhhh... I was in bed recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed the day before.
- Did you go on any vacations during this month? Nope. Just work. Nothing too exciting.
August:
- Did you do anything special to end off your summer? Yeah, I moved to New York. If that's not "something special," I don't know what is!
- What was your favorite summer memory of '05? Stampede parade, movie nights, walking in the park, road trips to Creston, not having to take road trips to Creston anymore...
- Did you go swimming a lot in the summer? Not at all, actually. I don't think, anyways.
- Did you go to the beach a lot? Not in Calgary, I didn't. So, no. Not this year.
September:
- Did you attend school/college in '05? Just one class. My "Arts and Education" class in November.
- Where did you go? For school? To an office building in midtown Manhattan.
- Did you like fall better than summer? It was definitely different, that's for sure. In general, I like summer better than fall, but this year, fall was just such a change in everything that I can't even compare.
October:
- What was your favorite Halloween costume ever? I don't usually do good costumes. This year, I was sick, so I spent the whole day in bed.
- What's your favorite candy? Chocolate.
- What did you dress up like this year? Someone very sick. In many layers, because I was freezing.
November:
- Whose house do you usually go to for thanksgiving? Usually, the farm, for Canadian Thanksgiving in October. This year, I had Thanksgiving at Nick and Amy's, with a bunch of people from church.
- Do you like stuffing? It's good. Depends on whose recipe, but generally, it's good.
- What are you thankful for? The opportunities I have here in NYC. My family and friends. My health. My churches--both of them. The internet.
December:
- Do you celebrate Christmas? Absolutely. I celebrate Jesus' birthday. But this year, it was strange because I didn't celebrate by putting on a show.
- Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe? On the cheek. But not under real mistletoe. The plastic stuff.
- What do you want this year for Christmas? My 2006 resolutions (which are almost verbatim to my 2005 resolutions) to actually happen.
- What's the best present you ever got for Christmas? A plane ticket home. That was pretty sweet.
- Do you like cold weather? Not particularly. I don't mind the nip in the air of fall, but I really don't like winter cold.
- How would you rate your '05? Pretty good, overall. An eventful, and I wouldn't have had any clue of where it would have gone a year ago today. It's been a good one.
And there we go. I'm not slacking any more. I have to get back into some sort of habit and pattern for tomorrow. Urgh. No more hermiting for me. Back to the land of the living.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Must cover with chenille
Christmas pictures!
The cousins--the height order's not quite the same as it was when we were younger, is it? Becky (17), Alida, Jessica (20), Carl (17), Esther (20), Brittany (12), Michael (10), and Zachary (8).
And the girls. My camera wasn't on for our family pictures, so I've got everyone else's individual families, but not mine! :o)
Jakob is getting so big!
Coke's new ad campain--Jakob and Aaron try it out.
And hanging out with Mommy before bedtime...
Laura and Ed (starring Ed's adam's apple)--the happy couple at their engagement party, the night before New Year's.
The swooping bridesmaid strikes again--here for the engagement party and the wedding. That's it.
And that's it for now.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Why are you going all Valerie Cherish on me?
I'm baaa-aaack!And, of course, as exhausted as I was during the day of travel, I'm now slightly wired. Only slightly--enough to check my email and open my mail; by the time I crawl into bed, I'll be asleep in minutes. I'll leave the deconstruction of my suitcase for tomorrow.
Impressive: I managed to come back with one less bag than I went with. I went with a suitcase and a checked backpack, and then my carry-on backpack and my purse. I came back minus the checked backpack.
Not so impressive (but pretty funny, I think): I couldn't quite fit my cosmetic case and one sweater into either my suitcase or my carry-on, so I packed them in a shoebox, taped it shut, and checked the shoebox.
Yes, one of my pieces of checked luggage was a shoebox.
No major delays this time--no sleeping in hotels, although this time, I wouldn't have minded. Not that it was a huge thing last time, but you know.
I had something incredibly witty and fun to say, but I lost it. Maybe I'm more tired than I feel at the moment. Probably, actually.
And fun? Being a vagabond, taking the bus slash subway home from the airport at 1:00 a.m. Dragging my suitcase down the street behind me, walking in the rain, talking to Kat on my phone, wearing high heels. I couldn't tell if I felt homeless, displaced after too much partying, or just plain strange. It's not that long, though, to take Metro to the airport from my house, though. As long as there's no strike, of course.
Anyways, I should probably drag my tired bones and my well-travelled suitcase upstairs and crawl into bed. More (plus all those pictures I promised) tomorrow.
Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow
I must say, this is far nicer than a 7:00 a.m. flight. My flight this time leaves at 2 p.m., meaning that we don't have to be at the airport until 11:30. Still turned out to be a short night, since I didn't finish packing until 3:30, but at least I didn't have to roll out of bed at 4.And here we go... let's see if they have to delay my flight again!
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Pay me back with 1,000 kisses
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2006... the year of the successful resolution. Won't it be?
Speaking of which, I have a list of good ones that were sanctioned by Pastor James in church this morning, so if anyone thinks I'm crazy... well... just tell them that it's straight from the pastor's mouth; therefore it must be a direct line from God. Or something like that. Twist your theology to make it fit.
- Quack like a duck in three important meetings.
- Walk like a penguin down the mall.
- Say hi to everyone I meet today as if I've known them forever, and then walk away without saying anything else.
So, New Year's Eve. Kim, Janna, Jen, Chelsea, and I (along with Jen's sister and Janna's friend) went to see The Family Stone, which was actually really good. The first choice would have been Memoirs of a Geisha, but it was sold out. Still. Solid second option. Plus, it was kind of fun to have a bunch of the theatre majors all hanging out. Just like old times. Heh.
Then, Kim and I went to Laura's to ring in the New Year with the usual crowd--Ed, Laura, Mike, Andria, Esther, Justin, Edwin, Kristin... that crowd. It was fun, but Mama Bear feels more like a Mama every time! Still, we kicked at Taboo, proving once and for all that we've still got it!, and I got my fabric and pattern for my bridesmaid's dress for Laura and Ed's wedding.
Oddly enough, it's rather familiar. Let me just put it this way. With this dress, I'll have four red formal or semi-formal dresses, and two of them will have the exact same skirt, and similar tops. I think that pattern (Jen, it should be more than a little familiar to you!) is the bridesmaid staple! No more red weddings, please! :o)
Anyways... that was about it. Pretty low-key, but still. Good times. Now, I'm cramming as much as possible into the last two days--I leave Wednesday, so that's pretty much a write-off, so there are just two days left. So far, on the agenda, we've got coffee with David MacKenzie (I know!!! SO random!), IKEA-ing with Kim, potential coffee with Becky, family movie night, lunch with Laurel, and a movie night with Kat and Aaron. Anyone else want to add themselves to that list?