A Day in Long Beach (long and silly)

I'd been going back and forth all week about whether or not I wanted to make a trek down to Long Beach to see David Copperfield. I didn't get interested in magic because I dislike watching it performed. Plus, how often do you really get a chance to see one of the biggest names EVER in magic perform? So, I broke one of my rules, and used the credit card to buy the ticket as an early birthday present to myself.

However, John was most definitely against it, and that was a big deal for me. He gets compared to Copperfield a lot (they look eerily alike - John is cuter - and, after watching the show, they do have similar styles), so it's a bit of a sore spot for him. A long, rather hilarious text conversation ensued on the drive down (I got called a traitor, a Copperfield lover, and one of "those Chicago people!", and accused of plotting to run away to join Copperfield's show - all in good fun, though) and even as I sat in the theater waiting for the show to start. ("Just admit it, Katie, you feel like you're about to watch me for the first time live! lol!") Of course, it didn't stop there, either. I sent him a text as I was standing up from my seat after the show and hadn't even gotten to the theater door yet:

Thinking to myself, "Just sent the text, and 5...4...3..."
*RING*
"Hello, John Gabriel..."

I literally was not even out the door of the theater when he called, and we spent the next two hours on the phone discussing the show. And, yeah, it was good. I mean, it's David Copperfield - he didn't get to where he is now by being a terrible performer. He's so famous because he IS one of the best. Unfortunately, he doesn't let you forget that fact. The preshow video? A montage of all the awards he's won and titles he's been given. THEN a video about "Copperfield in pop culture" - various cartoons, tv shows, and movies his name has been mentioned in. THEN a video about how he always wanted to be able to travel at whim (I have YET to figure out how that tied into the show at all). No magic, not even any reference to magic. Just ten minutes (not counting the preshow looping montage) of literally nothing but "see how famous I am?!" It was very off-putting. I'm really anti-video intros anyway - John uses one for the smaller shows and I HATE it - so that was a big turn-off. My vote is always "screw the video and show me what you've got now!" (And yes, I've told John that, too. He doesn't use it for big shows, though, luckily.)

The magic itself - once we finally got around to it - was, of course, excellent. He did his signature appearance on the motorcycle, pushed his way through a steel panel, made a guy's tie dance and sing (such an old trick, but it IS pretty funny), a prediction, made a really pretty green old Lincoln car appear onstage (that would be the car I wanted), used a scorpion to figure out what card a lady picked from the audience (John is never ever allowed to use scorpions. EVER. Ick!), made a duck translocate ( the duck, "Webster", would also waddle across the stage to the tune of "Shake Your Tail Feathers" occasionally throughout the show), walked through a fan and appeared in the back of the audience (sans the dancing girl - video is in Spanish, but magic is pretty universal), did a dancing tissue paper/floating rose trick that I've seen before (same deal with Spanish as before), and, of course, made 13 people disappear on stage and reappear in the back of the house. The dialogue in most of the videos is exactly the same as it was last night, but I can live with that. After all, the dialogue in a play or musical doesn't change from production to production, and 90% of the audience has never heard it before. It's merely a way to keep everything going in order.

He seemed to have fun with the audience, although there was rarely ever any "reason" to do the tricks. It always had a kind of "and this is what's next" feel to it, no stories or history to anything except the car appearing and the prediction. I did like the overall style of the show - very urban. The crew (at least four guys and two girls) were probably my age or slightly younger, which I thought made him look older, personally. The audience clearly had fun, though, which is honestly the most important thing (it was nowhere near sold out, btw). Like I told John, I enjoyed the show and am really glad that I went. (Penn & Teller now remain the only modern illusionists that I would really love to see live but haven't.) It was fun. I would go again, too - if someone else paid. And the resulting phone call afterwards was worth antagonizing my favorite boss ;-)

Oh, and since I actually didn't get down to LB in time for the 5:30p show, I ended up with some time to kill before the 8:30p show. I decided to spend it here:
The historic ship (now turned hotel) the Queen Mary. (That's a Russian submarine there in front of it.) I've never really been around cruise ships before, so the sheer size of it was a bit overwhelming. I'm wondering what boggles the mind more - that 757s can actually fly or that these monstrosities can actually float. Seriously. (My maternal grandfather, an airline pilot, always said that planes don't really fly - it was all done with smoke and mirrors. Between him and my dad, I didn't have a prayer of not being interested in magic OR aerospace!)

It's also, of course, supposed to be severely haunted. I didn't go through any of the tours or anything, just kind of wandered around on the upper decks for an hour or so, but I can certainly see where people could get the impression of ghosts. For one thing, it's very open and empty, I'm assuming particularly in the off-season.


The deck wood is quite uneven and creates a little bit of a "fun house" effect. There is an air circulation system that creates a steady "whooshing" and "whirring" sound, not to mention all the creaking and groaning of a ship in harbor. Again, though, I only stayed on the upper decks. I saw a sign for their audio tour going downstairs to the isolation wards of the hospital and started down, but I think a combination of mild claustrophobia and a simple fear of getting lost (there was NO ONE around) in such an unfamiliar place made me want to leave after only a few steps down the hallway.

But I did get a shot for Mom:
So they aren't magical Disney pelicans, but they look pretty happy to me...

Oh My God

Oh my God, look around this place.
Your fingers reach around the bone
You set the break and set the tone.
Flights of grace, and future falls.
In present pain
All fools say,
"Oh my God"

Oh my God, why are we so afraid?
We make it worse when we don't bleed.
There is no cure for our disease.
Turn a phrase, and rise again,
Or fake your death and only tell your closest friend.
Oh my God.

Oh my God, can I complain?
You take away my firm belief
and graft my soul upon your grief
Weddings, boats and alibis
All drift away, and a mother cries

Liars and fools, sons and failures, thieves will always say
Lost and found, ailing wanderers, healers always say
Whores and angels, men with problems, leavers always say
Broken hearted, separated, orphans always say
War creators, racial haters, preachers always say
Distant fathers, fallen warriors, givers always say
Pilgrim saints, lonely widows, users always say
Fearful mothers, watchful doubters, saviours always say

Sometimes I cannot forgive
These days, mercy cuts so deep
If the world was how it should be,
maybe I could get some sleep
While I lay, I dream we're better,
Scales were gone and faces lighter
When we wake, we hate our brother
We still move to hurt each other
Sometimes I can close my eyes,
And all the fear that keeps me silent
falls below my heavy breathing,
What makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder
We all feel the need for wonder
We still want to be reminded that the pain is worth the thunder
Sometimes when I lose my grip,
I wonder what to make of heaven
All the times I thought to reach up
All the times I had to give
Babies underneath their beds
Hospitals that cannot treat
All the wounds that money causes,
All the comforts of cathedrals
All the cries of thirsty children - this is our inheritance
All the rage of watching mothers - this is our greatest offense

Oh my God
Oh my God
Oh my God

-"Oh My God" by Jars of Clay, from their album Good Monsters (hit the play button over to the right - I didn't like any of the YouTube links, so this is just the song)

Musical Memories (Random)

Isn't it amazing how you can not hear a song for literally years, but as soon as that song is even just mentioned in passing, you can immediately recall ALL the lyrics to it? In this case, Newsboys' "Shine." Amazing what your memory keeps.

Okay, music is an essential part of my life. As a kid/teenager, if I was awake and in my room, there was music playing. (Probably to the more-than-occasional chagrin of my parents, I'm sure, although I'm pretty sure I come by it honestly via my dad.) Even now, the only time there isn't music playing in my apartment is when I'm watching television. And I'll listen to anything - there is literally everything from Beethoven to Eminem and musicals to metal (though, admittedly, not much) in my music folder. However, two of the main bands in my life while I was growing up - and I mean, these are the ones that I got completely teenage-fangirl about - were DC Talk and Newsboys. I had all of their albums - which of course, I played obsessively until my mom threatened to take away my boombox (I don't remember if I got DC Talk's debut or sophomore album first, but they were some of the first tapes that were *mine*. Similarly, I clearly recall their third album, Free At Last, was my very first CD!), went to all their concerts, and I still always keep a copy of both Jesus Freak and Take Me To Your Leader with me. A convoluted series of conversations and thought processes lately prompted me to see what they are up to nowadays. DC Talk mutually dissolved several years ago - shortly after their final album, although they apparently all continue to help each other out in their pretty successful solo careers and collaborate a lot. Interestingly, however, as of last month, one of the former members of DC Talk is the new lead singer for Newsboys. That's intriguing...

Aaaanyway...oh wait, before I get off that topic, I have to say that one of my still-favorite bands from that time, Jars of Clay, just released a new album this week. ("Flood" was a big initial hit for them when I was in about junior high, I guess.) Their stuff has definitely gotten more sophisticated with time, and I have to say that I REALLY liked If I Left The Zoo and Good Monsters, and Long Fall Back to Earth, the new album, seems to live up to that, although there's something to be said for the more raw acoustic guitar sound they used to have. Oh well.

Other than clearly having too much time to think on the freeway coming home, today was a good day. I went down to Fullerton and had a long catching-up lunch with Wendy, and we were very randomly joined by one of our favorite actors from last summer, who was walking by the restaurant. Small world! John apparently got caught up in a meeting in LA, so we didn't get to meet up. I still left some things for him at his office, which turned into a long, funny text conversation with him trying to guess what I'd left (he promised he'd call when he finally got a chance to pick the stuff up and see what it is). I actually considered going back to Disneyland and watching the fireworks, but I didn't really want to pay the parking fee again for just myself, so I instead spent the next four and a half hours in traffic. Meh.

Shine - make 'em wonder what ya got.
Make 'em wish that they were not
On the outside lookin' bored.
Shine - let it shine before all men.
Let 'em see good works and then
Let 'em glorify the Lord.
Shine...

Catching Up (LONG)

Thanks for the reminder, Amanda. I keep writing blog posts in my head and then forgetting to type them up or get distracted by something else.

So, let's see...

Date with Cute Guy - um...it was good. We met up in SLO after his rehearsal for drinks at a place I'd never been to but really liked. It's called Koberl at Blue. It's a bit pricey, but I really liked the atmosphere. It was nice to catch up with him on his trip to NYC and current shows. He wanted to get a little more physical than I was really in the mood for, though, so we ended up calling it a little early. (It's all good, no worries.) So, all in all, it was a really nice ego boost, but nothing particularly major or exciting.

On the ego boost note, did you know that if you go into a dojahng wearing a bit of makeup, a sundress and sandals, you'll get some really strange looks? Well, not strange, but it will definitely garner some comments. I went in to watch the aikido class on Friday, and, since I had absolutely no intention of joining the class (last week was really hard for some reason and I figured getting my wrists, elbows, and shoulders stretched out even further wouldn't help), and it was warm for once, I pulled out one of my comfy sundresses. Gil teaches aikido, so Ma'am was there watching as well (they finally hooked up, it's super cute), Mr. R takes the class, and Sir was teaching a private lesson off to the side. Ma'am and I get talking, Sir finishes his lesson, walks past to the desk, does a double take, and walks back to me to shake my hand and say hi. Between him, Gil and Mr. R, I had to explain several times why I was "so dolled up." Boys! (I'll refrain from pointing out the perfect example that clearly all the good guys are taken!)

I'd only meant to stay for aikido, but then two of the other parents (including two of the tweenyboppers' mom) and I got talking about the Guard and working at VAFB, so I ended up staying through Weapons class too. They're doing ssahng jeol bahngs this unit, and the more I watch those classes, the more I'm convinced that those are REALLY not the weapons for me. I'll learn them, of course, because I have to, and I'll do my best with them and maybe I'll even really like them. But for right now, they seem like an incredibly good way to smack myself in the head repeatedly. And I'm a little disappointed, because I really like working with the bahng mahng ees and jahng bahngs and I'll bet that once I start learning the ssahng jeol bahng form, I won't get to work with them again for a while. On the other hand, I was able to help Viv (yay, Viv's back!!!) with the regular first degree form tonight, so maybe the classes are doing some kind of good. Of course, if I don't know that form by now, *I'm* screwed, not to mention TOTALLY screwing up BOTH my board breaks tonight, so maybe not. (In all fairness, though, that was the first time I'd ever done the hand break - an upset hammerfist - on the brown board, which is a lot harder! The kick - a spin hook kick - was just...bad and I know I can do it better than that.)

Oh, and since there's a big old sign up about it now, I guess I can share the big dojahng news - we're moving!!!! The company that is totally revamping our local mall offered them a space up on the second floor. It's about the same size as the current space, but they are completely customizing it for us, which will give us slightly more mat space and moveable hanging bags! There is going to be less-to-no room for spectators (parents) during classes, which is a good thing, but for things like testings and tournaments, we'll use the open area in the mall out in front of the space. Talk about publicity! It's a MUCH better location for the school - all those people, and kids, walking by all the time (although they're also putting in a Dairy Queen near us, which could be problematic) - and for me, as the mall is literally like five blocks away from my apartment. We officially move June 1, just in time for Sir and Mrs. S's 10-year anniversary of being in business here. As you can tell, we're all pretty excited about it! (And yes, I realize that I have no idea if I'm going to BE here for it or not, but I'm still excited about it!)

So that's dojahng news....and boy news...let's see...oh! Disney! Saturday, the girls (Jen and Sara, as opposed to Dani and Amy, who are our dancers, but are also referred to as "the girls" when Jen and Sara are already around) and I met up at Disneyland and had a ball! (Jen has clearly not uploaded the pics yet, I plan to steal them when she does!) We had lunch and maybe a drink or two at the Rainforest Café in Downtown Disney, and then decided to hit California Adventure, since I had never been to that side of the park. CA is smaller than Disneyland, I think, but the rides are cooler. We went on Soarin' Over California (Mom, you would LOVE that one!), Toy Story Shooting Gallery (or whatever it's called - I got my butt thoroughly kicked by both girls pointswise, although I had better accuracy!), a surprisingly good 'coaster called Screamin' California (or maybe California Screamin', not really sure. Anyway, you get a countdown and then literally take off at 70 mph from the horizontal start, which was awesome), and, of course, the Tower of Terror (which was not NEARLY as terrifying as it was the first time I went on it at Disney World. They've changed it, and I have to say I like it a lot better!). We didn't stay too late, because I didn't want to be driving late at night again, but it was very fun, and I have two more days' worth of parkhopper passes to use up before May 1, thanks to the military discount they're doing. We're plotting another day there, and trying to convince John that he really needs to come with us next time. (He was invited, but backed out.)

Still job hunting, still haven't heard back from the base interview, and am going back down to LA on Friday to have lunch with one of my friends from when we lived down there/previous summer interns. Have very tentative plans to meet up with John that afternoon, too - I have a CD he wants, and a toy for him. Unfortunately, I HAVE to come back Friday night, since I have ERAU class at the godawful hour of 0800 Saturday morning.

Anyway, between a new book series I'm reading (the Jaz Parks series by Jennifer Rardin - very light vampire hunter series, but not bad), homework, black belt midterm on Wednesday, belt ceremony on Thursday, LA on Friday, and class on Saturday, I'm hoping this week will be better than the last...oh, and I have to say, I LOVE this weather!! 95 degrees, sunny, and breezy...it's heaven! And yes, I'm wearing sunscreen - I learned the hard way that doboks and sunburns do NOT work well together!

"Wow...you look...nice! I almost didn't recognize you...except for the bruises. I recognize the bruises." - Sir

Out Of Town

Yay Disney! Had fun with the girls, went to California Adventure for the first time, too tired to write a proper post about it. Maybe after some sleep (and they have time to get some pics up to link to...)

One Big Bruise

is what I feel like right now. I don't know why, but this week was really hard with class for some reason. It was kind of hard in general, actually. Sore muscles, crazy bruises, minor nausea, fatigue. Must've picked up a bug somewhere. Or just overworked myself physically. I haven't done anything more this week than last week, though. Less, in fact, although it feels like twice as much. It didn't really help that I came in late to kickboxing tonight and was therefore cold when I joined the workout, Gil did a darn good job trying to dislocate my ankle during knife sparring, and my bad elbow decided to pop during one of my favorite drills (I privately call it "shark attack"...one person is in the middle of the circle, and everyone else has tombstones. When you get hit with a tombstone, it's triple punches, triple knees, a piston takedown, and another set of triple punches. It gets...umm...aggressive) forcing me out until I could get it popped back. Mrph.

And, I found out what's going on with my uniform - apparently the blue uniforms came in. Only...they aren't our really pretty blue (the only good thing about that uniform). They're a "hideous shade of OR scrubs blue," according to Mrs. S. Sir told me during instructor class that they were so ugly he couldn't even bring himself to let me see them and definitely wouldn't let me wear one. So it doesn't sound like I'll get my new uniform in time for testing. Sigh. At least I know my instructors look out for me, I guess!

Going to take tomorrow off to deal with homework (and hopefully physically recover some), and then I'm going to Disneyland with the girls on Saturday! Yay!

I was right...

40 pushups tonight (which isn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, to be honest). Bruises on the top and side of my thigh from getting partnered with Gil for the first half of class. Worked butterfly kicks with two of my also-tkd classmates before class. (Ma'am and TKD Grandson helped us out a little.) I think I'm going to wear my full uniform for tkd tomorrow night - gotta get used to the weight again before the midterm next week. I can't wait to get a new uniform, but Mrs. S is apparently having some trouble with the order for some reason. (I guess they changed who they ordered from, which is why the material is different, but the blue leadership ones have to go somewhere else to get silkscreened or something. I dunno.)

I want it to freaking warm up already. This wind is COLD and it's April! Time for warm sunshine!

Distractions (Warning - Contains Some Adult Language)

Normally, Teddie looks like this:
After all, it's hard work trying to find those 23 hours in a day to sleep. However, get the yarn out, and he starts to look more like this:

It's REALLY useful when you're working on a bi-color illusion scarf and trying to keep two balls of yarn from tangling, let me tell you! (Which, btw, I still have not found another ball of the red. Apparently it's a discontinued color. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go with an online order and pay for shipping. Sigh.)

Since I can't finish the scarf, I've been working on the blanket. I finished the next stripe repeat and put it on some scrap yarn to measure it. The second I got it shaped out on the floor, I watched Teddie walk quite deliberately to the center of it and plop down, then glare at me:

So hard to find good help these days. Anyway, after two repeats (each repeat adds six inches outwards from the center), the blanket is 26"x26". That would be 6+6+2+6+6 (the 2 is the width of the center square). One more repeat (6+6+6+2+6+6+6, or, realizing it's a SQUARE and therefore the distance across the middle is exactly the same as the length of a side - that's a little trick I like to call "that math stuff.") should make it about 38"x38", which I think will be a good size.

Anyway, I'm working on that, job hunting (hopefully I will hear back from last week's interview soon, because I'm not sure I have a contact number), trying to do homework and failing (the videos he had us copy don't play w/o the cd as far as I can tell, and the urls for the software he wants us to use don't work), and getting mildly addicted to Penn & Teller's Bullshit tv show. The premise is "you can't bullshit a bullshitter" and the topics they've covered on the episodes I've seen so far have been a little surprising but really interesting (everything from cryptozoology to environmental issues to aliens to free speech to mediums to animal rights. Really!) It's definitely not for the conservative viewer ("You'll notice more obscenity than we usually use. That's not just because it's on Showtime and we want to get some attention. It's also a legal matter. If one calls people liars and quacks, one can be sued and lose a lot of one's money. But "mother f%^&$#s" and "a#%@#s" is pretty safe. If we said it was all scams, we could also be in trouble. But "bullshit", oddly, is safe." - Penn Jillette...there's also occasional nudity, although what I've seen has been pretty tasteful and just, well, the human body looking like human bodies do - an episode on breast enlargements was hysterical!) Of course, it's all done in the sarcastic style of Penn & Teller, and seems to be fairly well-researched, even if I don't always necessarily agree with their views (self-proclaimed atheists). There's even been a few times that I've thought "Wow, that was unexpectedly sensitive," such as "You can't heal a broken heart by pretending it's not broken" near the end of their first episode on mediums or, "the time to treat people right is when they're alive. A ham sandwich, a soda, a joke now mean more to your loved ones than a $10,000 coffin after they're dead. Which brings to mind one more thing - if you're still lucky enough to be able to do it, call your mother" after one about funeral homes (my mother would not appreciate a call right now, as it's about 3:00a there). There's even occasional magic tricks being done in the background. So it's been pretty interesting.

Two classes last night (instructor class seems to have been moved pretty much to Wednesdays now), and Sir taught us how to do butterfly kicks! Mine are pretty sloppy and weak right now, but I still feel just a little cooler now =) Just haganah tonight, and I have a feeling after a post-class good-natured rant last night, we'll be doing a lot of pushups. The way I used to do pushups, with my arms out to the sides, while technically correct, put a lot of strain on my elbows and is what made pushups hurt so much. Mr. R won't let me do them that way anymore (he hasn't for a while, actually, he just felt the need to remind me last night). He has me do them slightly differently, with my elbows much closer to my sides, which is actually MORE correct form-wise. The good part - they don't hurt my elbows. At all. The bad part - a TOTALLY different muscle group is getting worked, so it's very much about learning how to do pushups all over again and having to completely rebuild that muscle strength and endurance. It's very slow going and slightly frustrating - I was the last person to finish the pushup drill last night, and I'm the "scary strong" one in class - but I guess at least I know I'm doing them right and, more importantly, I'm doing them in a way that will allow me to continue doing them and not tear up my ligaments more, which will probably save my butt not only in class, but in Basic as well. Darn instructors, helping me out like that!

Happy Easter!

I don't have too much planned for today. I had a bit of chocolate for breakfast and listened to the church bells ring. Talked to some family and friends, and have a really random date with Cute Guy tonight up in SLO (which feels a little weird). Really, not a bad day's work.

Saw Les Miserables last night - it's fantastic, as should be expected. It's a very simplistic version - there is not a lot of set, and people expecting the famous turntable are going to be disappointed. But the opposite of that is that is it very character-focused and story-driven, as opposed to spectacle, which is nice. It's great in the Marian, and well worth the ticket price, but honestly, I think it will be absolutely phenomenal outdoors in Solvang.

On a side note, I'm really really really tempted to get tickets to see David Copperfield either in Long Beach at the end of this month or Bakersfield at the beginning of next month. Not that I'm a particularly big fan of Copperfield's (in fact, I turned down a chance to be a personal assistant for him four years ago - less than two weeks later, I was sm'ing for this illusionist named John Gabriel), but with the exception of going to the Magic Castle with John and Steve before I moved back to Santa Maria, I haven't seen anyone else's live magic act since I started working for John. John's the best, of course, but I'm really interested in seeing what it's like to watch someone else now that I know a lot more about what is going on. And no, for me, knowing the secret doesn't ruin the trick. It's all about the showmanship and style. Criss Angel and David Blaine ruin tricks for me, simply because I don't care for their style. Knowing what they are doing doesn't, and, since five illusionists can do the same trick five different ways, figuring out how *I* would do it is fun. Oh, and if you're a nerd like me or just want to kill some time, go to YouTube - yeah, I know, but this is worth it - and search "50 Greatest Magic Tricks" (or just click the above link). A list of 50 videos will come up (I haven't been able to find it as one video, sadly), and while I don't agree with all of their rankings, it's an awesome collection of both modern and classic illusions and magic routines. Well worth watching! (In fact, I might go watch it again!) My absolute favorites are Paul Daniels' chop cup routine (#8), Harry Blackstone's floating lightbulb (#13) and Penn & Teller's magic bullet (#11). The shuttle disappearance (#50) is probably pretty good, except for one MAJOR clue that anyone who knows anything about the shuttle fleet would pick up on and squirm about and I just couldn't get behind the trick because of that. Anyway, lots of famous and not so famous, contemporary and classic illusionists in there, and definitely something for everyone!

Also started my next class yesterday. ASCI 511 - Remote Sensing and Observation. It's not bad. A lot of the guys in 512 are in this one, too, and I'm not the only girl for once! There are actually three girls (counting me). One spent the entire class talking to the guy next to her, and the other seems nice enough but "can't do that math stuff." Um, honey, you're in a masters class in aeronautical science, and the formulas we're using aren't exactly high-level calculus. Sigh. The teacher is this little Chinese guy and he seems very sweet. We probably won't have a midterm or final, but will definitely have a term paper/presentation and LOTS of homework exercises. (Which I should probably start working on soon...)

Looking at maybe going down to LA again on either Tuesday or Friday to do that house manager interview. It hasn't been scheduled yet, but those would be the days I'd miss the least amount of martial arts. Midterming on April 22nd, and if I keep at this pace, I think I'll be testing for second dan in October. Not sure, though. And, of course, it depends on when I get pulled for Basic and Tech School. I really wanted to go to Disneyland with the magic crew this coming weekend, but no one has responded to my suggestion, so I don't think that's gonna happen =(

Going to go find some lunch that doesn't involve chocolate. Happy Easter!

Fingers crossed

My plans for the day had been to head out to VAFB around 1:00p to get fingerprinted for my security clearance, and then hit classes that night. Around 12:00n, as I was starting to get dressed and ready to head to the base, I got a phone call. The guy wanted to talk to me for a few minutes about a secretary position at the base. I explained that I was actually getting ready to come out to the base, so I couldn't talk for more than a few minutes at that time, but I would be happy to talk in person once I was out there. He agreed. Didn't get fingerprinted (some drop in communication lines, have to go back tomorrow), so I headed over to the other building. Turns out, it's the PR squadron for the base - they need a secretary. One of my millions of job applications has finally at least gotten that far! So I interviewed with the guy there. I think it went really well, and they said my ANG training wouldn't be much of a problem, but they aren't going to be making any decisions until next week and "who knows how quickly THAT will get through the pipes." So...not holding my breath, but still holding my breath. Also, not five minutes after I got home, the phone rings again - it's a theater company down in SoCal looking for a part-time house manager. They want to schedule an interview in a few days. So maybe things are starting to look up?

The job at the base would be nice...full time, good pay, and I thought Sir was gonna do a cartwheel when I told him tonight. (He promised to keep his fingers crossed for me all weekend - no more class until Monday because of the Easter weekend.) It's a M-F, 7:30a-4:30p job, so I can easily do Guard, ERAU and probably even most of John's stuff (who, btw, has not responded to my email, although he did wish me luck on the interview via text), at least until he takes off. If that doesn't work out, though, I'd totally be cool with doing the SoCal thing. Even though life would be absolutely perfect if I could take Sir and the entire school with me down there ;-)

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that SOMETHING works out for me!

Weekend Craziness

Weekend rant/confusion behind the cut. Really weird weekend in LA. The show went well, but working it was strange. I got singled out a lot for really minor stuff - John greeting me with a hug looks "unprofessional" but everyone else gets one (and I got one from everyone else). It was a warm night, and after the show we'd been packing and moving the crates, and loading them into John's truck, with NO ONE else around but our crew, so I'd gotten hot and unbuttoned my black shirt (I was wearing a very modest white tank top underneath), and the two guys had also made similar accommodations to the temperature (the girls didn't have as much physical labor as we did). *I* got told to button back up, because I looked "unprofessional". The guys didn't. (New Guy, overhearing this, cracked, "Yeah, quit looking so sexy!") We ate at a private table at the theater after the show - it was a fundraiser/charity thing and we got the same dinner as the guests, so it was pretty fancy. (Armenian food is...interesting. Good, but interesting.) We'd been having fun all evening with the fact that they'd given us everything the guests had gotten - including a bottle of wine for the table (a Beringer cabernet sauvignon, was okay). We finally decided to break into it after the main course, but with seven people at the table and one small bottle of wine, we decided to use the tiny after-dinner liquour glasses instead of the wine glasses to make sure that everyone could have some. I was cut off after one and half glasses, because "I had to drive and follow him back to the house." Everyone else, including him, got several refills. His mom, who had joined us at this point, told me I could have another glass "at home" (she also asked why she hadn't seen me around the house much lately - his parents are very charming), but we ended up getting back to the house much earlier than they did and I literally got sent to bed. Sunday was spent doing everything (breakfast, unloading/unpacking at the warehouse, and cleaning/prepping Osmosis to ship it) as quickly as possible (although we still had fun, as always), and as soon as we were done, he was like "Okay, time for you to go now! The drive will be great this time of day, I won't worry about you getting caught in traffic." It was 3:30p and I'm really lucky I didn't hit rush hour traffic, even on a Sunday =P Very much NOT how our usual days go, they usually linger quite a bit and make us joke about the "time warp" at the warehouse, although I did get more "you're really rather be living here, though, right?" comments and even a "well, now you have an excuse to come back soon!" when I pointed out that he'd (once again) welched on watching the rest of the rehearsal video. And I got a text once I got home thanking me for all my help this weekend and how he really appreciates it. Not sure what triggered this babysitting/burden attitude, and I don't particularly care for it or the way it singles me out. Even the girls were like "Um, is something going on? Is everything okay?" Hell if I know - I thought everything was fine. I mean, we did have fun this weekend - this is the group that is wanting to send us actually TO Armenia to do some shows for, like, orphanages and charities over there. So that was cool, although John's not too sure about actually doing that. (I guess there's still a lot of corruption and instability in the government there, and they were joking that they'd take John's passport away and keep him there to do magic shows forever. One of the girls commented, "That's not a problem. He'll just call Katie and she'll come bust him out with her martial arts and military friends. Oh wait. That won't work. Katie would already be there with him. Hmm...") Eduardo had fun teasing me about my old engagement ring, so that had to get briefly explained. (I wear it when I go apartment hunting, so people will think that even though it's just me moving in, at least someone will be checking on my welfare fairly regularly. I'd left it in my purse from last time I was down there, and decided it looked nice with the formal black of the evening - it IS a pretty ring, after all - so I wore it.) We had a lot of fun in our "private party" - we could hear all the music from the actual event, had our own "dancing" (okay, Eduardo acting silly) and had all this good food and wine and company. So that part was fun. So...who knows? Meh.

In other news, I'd REALLY wanted to have the illusion scarf finished for this weekend, and I was on pace to do just that. However, on Thursday, with one and a half symbols left to go, I ran out of the red and CANNOT find that color in ANY of the LYSs. I can find the bright red, but not the dark brick/burgundy red. I'll have to check around again this week. I've picked the baby blanket back up in place of the scarf. I have half a stripe repeat left to do, then I'll put it on a lifeline and see how big it it. I do really like the colors - they're very bold and cheerful.

Woke up crying twice last night from dreams that shouldn't even remotely be sad or even emotional. Very weird.

Still job hunting and have no idea how I'm going to pay for May at this point if I'm still here for it. I guess my sgt is putting a blanket request out for Basic slots in May to get us out ASAP, but she may or may not get anything available. Argh.

Was a bit naughty and found a leaked version of the new Wolverine movie online over the weekend. It was very awesome, and rather than being a spoiler, it really makes me want to see the full, finished theater version now! (I'm really in love with Gambit, actually. It's the accent. It has been since the animated series when we were kids.)

New class starts this weekend. Hope it's more exciting than the book so far. (Zzzz!) The homework isn't really explained very well on paper, either, so I'm hoping I can get some clarification on that.

Did eight martial arts classes last week and loved it. It felt SOOO good. Even running barefoot in the parking lot during kickboxing. Can't wait to get started again this week. They had another women's self-defense seminar this past weekend. I told Sir that I wanted to be there for it, but would be out of town. He teased me that I was always out of town and I just needed to stay home occasionally! Oh, and big dojahng news is coming, but it's not official yet.

Les Miserables opens at PCPA this weekend. It's phenomenal. Bring tissues. I'll be there Opening Night.

I suppose I should go eat some lunch now so I have some energy for classes tonight.