Monday, April 28, 2008

The weather hates me and other random things...

This time yesterday, it was 80 degrees, sunny, perfect beach weather. Today it is is 65, sunny, with a cool breeze - still a nice day, but certainly not perfect beach weather. And I really wanted to go to the beach today. Sigh. My only consolation is that I'm sure the rest of the county also figured it was perfect beach weather over the weekend, so the beach and parking was probably crowded. Oh well.

On a happier note, I do have some knitting to report, although no pics. (This is a knitting blog, isn't it?) The HSS3 socks are almost finished and ready to be sent off. Only two weeks late, sigh. I've also been working on the Boatneck Bluebell again lately. I'm about a third done with the second sleeve, so I'm hoping it will be done soon, too. I'll get pics of them both. I'm having a terrible case of startitis lately and am fighting the urge to start about twenty new projects. The preview of the Summer IK issue didn't help - I really want that Drawstring Raglan now! I might even see if I can splurge and get the actual yarn used instead of substituting anything. We'll see. I think the next actual project, though, is going to be a beret to match my fingerless gloves. I will need them in Solvang! I'll cast on for that once I finish the socks, I think. I also got the pattern for the Curve of Pursuit afghan, which I am thinking about using as a baby blanket for some friends who are due over the summer.

In real life news, the first week back at class was fantastic. I even have bruises again from knife sparring on Thursday! My muscles absolutely got tired - I am definitely not in the shape I was before rehearsals started - but I was never sore, which surprised me. I've found a brace for my elbow that I really like. It's sort of Z-shaped when laid flat, and then wraps around above and below the elbow. I've been wearing it in Haganah and kickboxing, and it seems to help in class, although my elbow still hurts at random times throughout the day. Sometimes it throbs for a while, and sometimes it just flashes a pain and goes away. I put some ice on it and/or take one of the anti-inflammatory meds. I'm not sure if it really helps or not, but it makes me think I'm doing something about it.

I also hung out with the cute guy again last week. We're both far too busy for anything right now, but he's definitely a fun guy to hang out with.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Hrm...

Normally, I can live with the clothes the Weather Pixie in the sidebar wears. Not so sure about today's, though! Yikes!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

It's Good to Be Home

Man, I've missed my guys. I walk in to FIGHT for the first time in almost two months and (besides the catcalls) get:

Shane: Well, well, look who's here! Our better half!
Frank: I have died and gone to heaven - an angel is here! It's good to have you home!
Zach: It's been too long!

Sir told me I could hit them extra hard, although he gave me a squeeze later, too =) A couple of new guys started tonight and I'm pretty sure we totally confused them. Being in class felt soo good, although I could definitely feel it. Got to break in my new boxing gloves, too.

The guys all asked if I was coming back on Thursday. Three classes yesterday, FIGHT tonight, three classes tomorrow, two on Thursday. I told them if I can still walk, I'll be there. (Zach understood.) Sir's response? "You'll be there. You'll be walking. You're hardcore."

The only bad thing? My elbow hurts again =(

Friday, April 18, 2008

Yikes...

Me: So, starting next week, I should be back in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.
Sir: Good. We'll get you back into shape in no time in that case!

Thinking: Yikes! Was I that bad tonight in class?? I know I haven't been in for about two weeks and I haven't had a lot of conscious free time to work on any forms. I thought my current form was pretty okay, though, for only the third time through it with an instructor watching, and I'm still learning the mid- to higher color belt forms for instructor class. I was really tired by instructor class, and my balance was off, admittedly, and he's making me do that #$^% jump side kick for a break again, which he knows is my weakest break. Did I really look that bad??? Did I lose that much spending time in rehearsals? Is he now worried that I can't handle it?? He won't let me continue in instructor class if I can't keep up with all of that plus my regular curriculum. What if he thinks I won't be ready to test at all now? Ack!

Definitely working on forms over dinner tonight now, yeesh! And now I'm wondering what kind of tortures he has planned for me next week...

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Sleeping

The good news is that Godspell is open and is a pretty darn cool show. The bad news is that I have been so bloody tired that I haven't done a whole heck of a lot other than sleep and clean since. (I know this question comes up every show, but who the hell decided that having understudy rehearsals AND a matinee the day after Opening was a good idea? Obviously people who have not had to work 16 hour days for the past week just to get the damn show open!)

I really really really wanted to go to knitting on Monday morning, too, but I just could not wake up. I finally got up around noon, cleaned for a bit, went up to SLO and got the final pieces of Chrissy's birthday present, and came home and crashed again. Seriously crashed - I didn't even attempt or want to attempt going to class last night. That's how freaking tired I was. For the first time in over a year, there was absolutely nothing to convince me that class that night was a good idea for anyone involved. So I didn't go. (Of course, I regret it now, but I still think it was probably the right call.)

I did get my apartment cleaned (finally) and put the fresh, new, pretty spring-colored sheets that I splurged on my bed. (I probably have more sets of sheets and comforters and quilts and general bed coverings than anyone I know. I splurge about once a year on a new set. It's a weakness, but hey, if you're going to make any room of your house gorgeous and relaxing and comfortable, it might as well be your bedroom, right?) I woke up this morning without feeling like I'd forgotten something totally important and earth-shattering on the show for the first time all week, although the songs that are constantly in my head when I wake up are really starting to get irritating.

Today was Chrissy's birthday, so we had a Wizard of OZ marathon party at her place this afternoon and then she, Aleah, and I went up to Sycamore Springs for a soak, wine, and girl talk (which translates into yet another evening of not going to class, sigh!). It was soo relaxing, though, and fun - usually we have to be all professional and whatnot when we're together at work, so it was nice to gab about boys and gossip and girly things. I'm not usually that girly, but it's nice once in a while.

Oh, and the sort-of date Saturday was okay, although I haven't really talked to him since, and have been trying not to be the pestering girl who calls afterwards. He said something about wanting to do dinner soon, but the ball's in his court now. Knowing my luck, he'll want to do something tomorrow evening, and there is NO WAY I am skipping a third night of class in a row.

Now off to bed, as I have an understudy rehearsal in the morning (you have no idea how much I absolutely detest understudy rehearsals right now!).

Friday, April 11, 2008

Psst!

Publicity photos are up! You can find them here! I'm really glad they didn't give away our surprise, though!

Monday, April 07, 2008

I CAN has...!

This post has been about a week in the making. I keep adding things to it, but was too lazy to put in pictures until this morning. The only knitting I've done lately is to get almost done with the heel on the second HSS3 sock (which is supposed to be finished and sent out by the end of next week), so if you're here for knitting content, you might want to move on...

1. ...panini! The Easter bunny brought me a new Griddler!


I used to have one of those small George Foreman electric grils, which was great. I literally used it to death, even though it was a pain to clean. This one is much bigger, can be used as a griddle, panini press, or grill, and totally dishwasher safe. I broke it in by making homemade quesadillas the other night. Yummy!!

2. ...clean clothes! The uniforms and bags haven't come in yet, but some of the new tshirts have!


Mrs. S gave me one of the new generic tshirts (the ones with all three classes listed acrosss them) because I "help teach. We think of you as staff here." and I got one of the new kickboxing shirts as part of my package payment this month. I thought that was really sweet of them. They are trying to weed out any and all ties to ATA now, including the old tshirts. They're helping that by giving the instructors and long-time students some price breaks on new gear. It's nice. And the new logo is much cooler than the ATA one:


3. ...new socks!!! The package from my HSS3 pal arrived!!!
It is awesome! The socks fit perfectly! They are so comfy! She also threw in some extra treats, including the Bellatrix socks pattern, some candy, some soap, some truly gorgeous stitch markers, and set of KnitPicks Harmony dpns!! She even threw in a couple things of dye, which I have never tried before, but sounds like a fun way to make a mess!

4. ...a date for Opening! (Sort of. Obviously no pictures of that, since it hasn't happened yet!)

There are 72 hours in a weekend. I spent 43.5 of them working. That left only 28.5 hours for things like sleeping, bathing, taking care of the kitty, talking to friends, reading blogs, etc. Needless to say, sleeping came in last on the list. We finally finished teching the show Tuesday night (another glass of wine with Chrissy was in order - the Finale is totally awesome, but very very scary to call!), ran it twice yesterday (another drink was offered by a cute guy afterwards, how could I turn that down?), are working notes this afternoon, and then we have our first paying preview audience tonight! Wow! It's going to be about two hours including intermission, which is really short for us! Chrissy is jealous - she always gets the monster three hour plus shows. I get the really short but insanely complicated shows. It works out. Godspell will be fantastic, though. I still have a couple of timing issues to work out with the call, but I don't think the LD and the director are ready to kill me yet, so that's a plus.

Have to stop by the dojahng this afternoon and drop off Sir's birthday card. Tomorrow I'll have to check in about the demo. I'm supposed to help with it on Saturday afternoon, so I really hope that the director stays true to tradition and doesn't make us work the afternoon before Opening. Still no new uniforms or bags, but kickboxing has been HUGE lately! We need the new bags to come in (and not just for me!)! We've had all of the school's bags out, plus both Bobs (the human shaped punching bags), and all of them were at least doubled or tripled up! It's great! Sir is also going to add a second instructor class during the week (I'm still not completely convinced that I was the best choice to lead the blue belt form during instructor class when that's the form I JUST started learning for regular class, but it did force me to go through the whole thing step by step), so starting next week, I'm hoping to be back up to nine classes. (It helps that the sort-of date cute guy has rehearsals of his own next week in the evenings!) Only a few days left of my exile! I still miss sparring, though.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

A very quick update

My week so far has been exhausting, and it's only Wednesday.

Monday was spent running errands, watching the Cubbies lose in extra innings on Opening Day (yes Mom, I did get to see Fukudome's home run. I also got to see my beloved Kerry Wood struggle spectacularly =P ), kickboxing, and tkd (no instructor class). I had to get my new uniform ordered - they didn't have heavy weight leadership uniforms in my size in stock - so no pics of it yet.

Yesterday was all about meetings and admin changing things on us and rehearsal. I also got the honor of seriously upsetting one of my interns (understandably, but a job's a job), which did not make the end of the day any better. I ended up going to Chrissy's for a glass of wine and venting for a while afterwards.

Today was less about meetings and more about rehearsal, although I was able to make it to kickboxing (which was desperately needed). We have all but, like, a page left to stage, but we do move into the space on Friday and tomorrow night's rehearsal MUST be a run through for the designers and crew. There are only so many hours in a day, sadly. I have a dreadful feeling that Friday is going to turn into another triple rehearsal day, even though the director and I are already booked for the second half of paper tech on Friday morning. We'll see.

And now, off to bed, since I have to be up for paper tech tomorrow morning. At least they didn't have rehearsal tomorrow afternoon, so I can come home and nap if needed. I do have to stop by the dojahng, though, to drop off Mel's birthday card and see if they have any of the old beat up bahng mahng ees left for sale.

Mel: You're here on your dinner break?! You give up eating to be here?!
Me: No, I eat small stuff throughout the day (although I wasn't very smart about it today) so I don't need a big meal over dinner breaks. Besides, on days like today, punching something is very necessary.
Mel: Punching something is very necessary on most days.

Me: Mrs. S! Can I ask a question about my new form?
Mrs. S: The one you started learning Monday?
Me: Yeah
Mrs. S: Not if it's one of your anal questions. It's too early to be that picky already.
Me: No, it's just a "which way do I turn to get into this move" question. Is that okay?
Mrs. S: Oh. Then yeah.

TKD Grandma: Katie!
Me: Yes?
TKD Grandma: Are you coming Friday?
Me: No, I have to work. I have to work every Friday until the end of May.
TKD Grandma: We miss you! Come back!

I love being around people who speak my language.