Week 5

Tomorrow starts both week 5 of the second summer session and On the Town rehearsals. As I sit here on the couch in my disorganized apartment, I feel like I'm on the verge. Just as I felt leaving Atlanta, I really have no idea what's in store. Once my class ends on the 10th of September and then when On the Town closes on the 27th, I have NOTHING lined up.

Nothing.

Unfortunately, the bills keep coming and I will need to eat. But I am super excited for the adventures yet to come. Here's hoping that someone hires me and it's something that I want to do.

For the time being, here's the gratitudes:
1. BATHS - I have been devoid of a bathtub for the last 2 years. What a shame!
2. Wine. Um, it's delish
3. Energetic and caring castmates
4. A grocery store in walking distance to my house
5. Loving kitties
6. Cheese - both the kind you eat and some of the funny stuff in the show

Nighty, night!

Sitting here in my robe

drinking a glass of wine and piddling on the internet before I hit the hay. The best news of the day is that I took a bath. Yes, folks after 2 years of living in my small apartment in Davis with no bathtub, I got to relax and lie back and sing, sing, sing. Maxie jumped on the side wall which he used to do in Atlanta. It was funny seeing him remember his old routine.

Rehearsals have been good. Today, however was a long day. We ran the entire show with Company C, but the AC was not working or not on. Therefore it was super hot in the studio and very uncomfortable. It made everyone cranky and tired. Tomorrow we have the sitzprobe at 1PM so my morning is wide open. Looking forward to doing stuff around the house and perhaps heading to the 4th Street area to look for work. Maybe I should print some resumes out before I do that.

Ah, too tired to even think about it.

Gratitudes:
1. My friend Jamie for taking a load of crap in my car and coming into the Bay last night to party it up
2. My friend Chad for picking up my patio furniture in Davis and delivering it to me in Berkeley sometime this week
3. My partner in crime Mark for truly making our scenes exciting
4. Mindy Cooper for being a sensitive director
5. frozen yogurt - it's delish

Well it's Friday!

And it's been an equally productive and lazy day. I slept until about 9:30AM and then got up and moved to couch. I finally got my act together and moved my armoire across the room and unpacked my clothes and sheets. I also organized my bathroom stuff and towels.

I took a little break to walk and meet Mary Beth Cavanaugh, but it turns out that she was not available. Either way, I got a lovely walk in and treated myself to a milk tea at Tapioca Express on Shattuck.

Right now, I've joined Lincoln on the bed and I am trying to do a bit more cleaning and organizing before Jamie gets here for our exciting night in Berkeley. I really have no idea what we will be doing, but Jamie really wants to drink heavily so we may drink here grab some cheap eats and then hit the bars - wherever they may be. Randy should also be joining and perhaps Matt and Ara, as well.

Here's to an adventurous night!

life in berkeley

i am not sure why i titled this post as such since i really don't know much about life in berkeley, yet. however, i do live here with my kitties and most of my stuff is here. But I am by no means settled. In fact most of my things are still in boxes, bags or crates and I am not sure when I will have time to unpack.

Friday.

Here's to Friday.

I need to get out of bed and head back to Davis to clean my apartment and pack up yet another load of stuff. I don't have rehearsal until 7 tonight, so I will have an additional 2 hours after class today to eat some dinner and do some additional cleaning. I know, thrilling.

My roomie Tony heads to LA for a month on Wednesday so that's kind of a bummer since it would be nice to get the apartment set up and organized before he leaves. But, oh well. Here's to an easy day of driving, teaching, cleaning and rehearsing.

Hopefully I won't be too tired at the end of the day and can celebrate Tony's early birthday.

Ah, and my gratitudes:
1. employment
2. generous friends
3. nice weather
4. talented cast mates
5. a comfortable car

Daily duties

I finally saw Julie & Julia today. I have wanted to see it since it came out. Actually, I tried to plan a dinner party where everyone would bring a dish from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. That did not happen. It just seemed like no one was very interested. Well, Jamie was, but our schedules did not mesh.

So today after rehearsal and the canceling of our gig, I took myself to the movies. I truly admired both women. For their perseverance and diligence. The movie was certainly not a masterpiece, but my guess is that the book was a little lackluster. But again, it's just a guess I didn't read it. But it does make me want to learn more about both women. And why they never met.

But for bigger news, I got up on the early side this morning - mostly because I went to bed last night at 9:30PM. I was exhausted from my trip to Tahoe - and started packing. I met with Tony last night and found out that he would like to be in LA by Tuesday the 26th. That does not leave much time for moving. So I went through my closet and packed my shoes, hung all clothes stuffed willy nilly back on hangers and have a small pile to be donated. I need to go through my armoire and do the same.

On my way into the bay, I stopped in Berkeley and met with Erin and Karen (my new landlords) and did a walk through. I am starting to get excited. I am starting to get worried about employment and health insurance, but I trust that will come.

Rehearsals are going okay. I am truly starting to doubt myself and am completely frustrated with myself and getting flustered with the lack of the golf cart that we will use as the taxi cab. I need to do my homework for the next scene. I should probably do a mix of packing and learning lines tonight.

But for the time being, how 'bout a little gratitude:
1. fresh fruit
2. employment
3. time to go to the movies
4. caring friends and their facebook communication
5. my buddy jon and his sense of adventure

bon apetit!

Stupid and Naive

So after 2 years of living in Davis, I can finally get the stupid award. I kinda already got it when I decided not to lock my bicycle up at Sarah's house when we moved from the hot tub to her apartment to watch a movie. When I left with Jamie a few hours later, my bike was gone. Yes, stupid. Why would I think that someone would not take advantage of an unlocked bicycle. Yeah, dumb.

But this one really takes the cake. The weather in the summer here in Davis is scarily warm. We have been very lucky and it's been hovering around 90, but yesterday it was in the triple digits. When I got home from class I put the air on, but knew that when I would get back from dinner at Victoria's that it would be cool out. So I opened all of my windows and left my back door open. There is a screen door that's held shut with a cinder block, but that's so the cats stay in, not to keep anyone out.

I'm sure you know what's coming. And I should have known better.

When I arrived home around 11:30pm I came in through my front door and noticed that my back door was still open. I did see my top drawer of my night stand open and really didn't think too much of it. Until I walked to my back door and noticed that the cinder block was moved away from the door completely. Right then I knew that someone had been inside. I looked through the open drawer and saw that one of my earrings was missing. I knew that I took them off before bed 2 nights ago. Okay, I thought, so someone came in here and stole an earring. It was not until this morning that I looked up from my bed to the top of my armoire to see the empty spot where my jewelry box used to be. Granted there was a whole bunch of crap in it. Mostly sentimental stuff, but the box and most of the contents I've had since I was little. I think there was a gold childs ring and my mom's circle pin. I cannot see anything else missing.

My computer was there in the living room and my TV and printer were still around, too. I'm guessing whoever came in grabbed what they could quickly and left. Luckily he/she/they didn't come back and thank the lord above that that's all they took and they didn't harm my cats.

I did call the police and file a report. An officer came by around 7:30am this morning to take a statement, but there was nothing she could pull fingerprints from. The screen door handle and the night stand pull were both too small.

So, yes, lesson learned. I will no longer leave my back door opened or assume that living in Pleasantville is not subject to crime.

*sigh*

Tuesday gratitude

I went to the movies this evening to see Funny People and I can honestly say when the movie was over I had no idea what day it was. I had a hard time with the concept that I went to the movies on a Tuesday. A Tuesday??!! I was going to go by myself to see Julie & Julia since no one else seems to have the desire to see it, but Jon said he'd join me if we saw Funny People or The Hangover. Since I already saw the latter, we headed for the former.

It was good. I thought it was going somewhere and then it went somewhere else. It makes sense since the previews were all over the place. Action adventure, animation, love story. I really forgot what we were set to watch once the previews were over.

I am starting to get a little sad upon moving. It's hard enough moving to a new place, I just hope that I have a good support system around. With Tony gone most of the time, I will have to fend for myself. I was really looking forward to a roomie. But hopefully I will be busy with work and dating.

Keeping things in perspective. Here are some things I am grateful for:
1. a new kick-ass website
2. being surrounded by good friends
3. a slowly settling set of classes
4. clean clothes
5. nice weather
6. ravioli

Peace out.

Wow, this has been hard

Yeah, well it's not surprising that I cannot keep up with yet another daily task. I have not been super overwhelmed, but busy. Teaching classes during the day and driving to rehearsal in the afternoons. Luckily, I am not called until Thursday, so I have a bit of time to play and organize my life as I prep for the move.

Things to be thankful for:
1. Working internet
2. My friend Jamie. She is super cynical, but is a very generous and caring individual - with or without getting her drink on
3. My uberpals Chris and Angela for getting my website up and running
4. Mindy Cooper, the director for On the Town who has been gracious enough to hire me again
5. Air conditioning. The heat is back, y'all!

Off to dine at Jennifer's. Yum!

A Little Miss Lonely Hearts!

Miss Lonely Hearts on Facebook

Delinquent gratitude...

1. a working car that allows me to play my ipod through my speakers
2. 2 full hip hop classes
3. a great cast for On the Town - at least those I've met thus far
4. nice compliments from Mindy Cooper - the director for On the Town who also saw the showings last week with her young kids
5. cruise control in my car that allows me to eat easier while driving.

Gosh, this one was hard. There's lots of shit going on with housing and students who think they are entitled. Oh, and a pretty disorganized rehearsal schedule. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to Sarah's to watch Watchmen.

Tired.

Sunday morning come down

It's Sunday morning at 9:08am and I have been in this bed for almost 12 hours. After driving around Oakland and Berkeley all day yesterday I was completely wiped. And Tony did all of the driving. I start rehearsal this evening for On the Town and then my second hip hip classes begin tomorrow.

No rest for the weary.

The showings on Thursday turned out really well and the classes had a blast doing them. It's funny to see so many pictures and videos up on Facebook. I'm sure that will keep on expanding over the next few days. And I now have 20 new FB friends. I should have waited until the grades were in to accept their friend requests, but oh well. It's not that much of a difference and my department certainly couldn't care less.

On Thursday night I attempted another round of Linquini with Clam Sauce. My buddy Jon came over and we ate outside since the weather was nice. I thought I would have knocked it out of the park, but the sauce was just okay. There was definitely plenty of clams, but you could not taste the garlic, the wine or the complexities of the sauce. I think I put too much clam juice in. So next time more garlic (and minced or macerated), no additional clam juice and the addition of lemon. And perhaps some more fat (oil and butter) to hold the favors and adhere to the pasta. Luckily there were 2 bottles of wine and some fantastic tiramisu that one of my students made me. We were a little hedonistic because we did make a market run for more wine at around midnight. A brilliant idea at the time.

On Friday night, my regular posse wanted to have a wine and cheese picnic. I was excited about the cheese, but could have passed on the wine. I did have a glass to be social, but my body had enough the night before. We had a lovely gathering outside on the lawn in front of Sarah's apartment. We had tons of cheese and Tony bought 5 bottles of wine, plus he and Jake did Edward 40 Hands so there was lots of booze. I made a salad and brought the remainder of the tiramisu. I also bought some yummy Point Reyes blue cheese that may wind up in my eggs this morning. I started snoozing at the hot tub after we cleaned up the picnic so it was a good signal for me to call it a night and bike home.

Lots of stuff to be grateful for:
1. Jon for enjoying wine and laughter as much as I do
2. Tony for his good music and friendship
3. My enthusiastic and responsible students
4. Sara Zimmerman for recommending Bakesale Betty's in Oakland. Tony and I had an amazing lunch of fried chicken sammies, iced lemonade and strawberry shortcake! Delish.
5. Many friends who sent their good wishes and luck for finding an apartment yesterday
6. The delightful weather
7. Employment