Shoulda just stayed in bed (mostly)

'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There's gotta be somebody for me like that
'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own
And everyone wants to know they're not alone
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There's gotta be somebody for me out there
-"Gotta Be Someone" by Nickelback

I heard that song on the radio at least five times today. And don't get me wrong, I actually really like it - most of the time it hits me as a very hopeful song - but with everything else that happened today, it kind of drove me up a wall.

First off, I wake up a lot later than I had intended to and discover Teddie has made a rather disgusting mess on the bathroom rug, right in front of the toilet and less than a foot from his litter box. (He's mad at me because he's back on a dry food diet - he much prefers tuna.) Get that cleaned up, and check my phone (I've taken to turning it to silent during the night. Mornings are happier that way). Missed call from one of the PCPA numbers. The TD wants me to explain one of the notes from the report this weekend. Why the hell is he calling ME? And on my day off? Do I LOOK like the person who sent the notes out? I'm the employee whose contract is getting cancelled, remember? Grr! (And I'd like to point out, since in all fairness I do proofread the notes before they get sent out, that I TOLD Chrissy that if she called a certain piece that, no one would know what she meant and she decided to leave it because it was cute.)

Deal with that phone call, decide I have enough time to do laundry before my dentist appointment, and haul dirty clothes down to the laundry room, including the soiled bathroom rug, which of course gets all over the shirt I was wearing. Ugh! Toss THAT shirt into the wash, which I had planned on wearing to class since it was my last clean school shirt, and walk back to my apartment in my sweatpants and sports bra, which got a really odd look from the super as she was sweeping the sidewalk. (And it was still more covered up and modest than most of the swimsuits people wear to the pool, so I don't know what her problem was.) Go back down (in a new clean shirt) to put laundry in dryer, and one of the dryers doesn't work. Of course. Put laundry in dryers that do work, and go to dentist appointment because my back teeth have been hurting (You have no idea how much I HATE going to the dentist. I didn't have any weird experiences to turn me off of it, not even a cavity or bracers or anything, it's just the feeling of metal scraping on and between my teeth. It's worse than nails on a chalkboard!)

No cavities (which is what I was afraid of), but not only have my wisdom teeth come in and are smashing up against my molars, my x-rays show that I have at least one extra molar! I tried to argue that too many teeth was better than too few, but the doc says they've all gotta come out, the sooner the better. Fantastic. Now I get to go make an appointment with an oral surgeon (cue creepy shudders of horror) for a consultation on what exactly needs to be done and how much my insurance will cover. (All I can say is they'd better knock me completely out, and it's a good thing that they're literally less than a block away from my apartment.) Oh, and I have a minor gum infection, too, which is also contributing to my teeth hurting, but that should go away on its own soon.

Finally get done at the dentist's (and I didn't even get a plastic dinosaur, I was so disappointed! I did get a new toothbrush, though, and it's purple!) and have enough time to make it up to CalPoly before the admissions office closes. Get up to the school, explain my situation to the initial admissions lady, and find out that CSU schools, including the CalPolys, don't accept students seeking a second bachelor's degree. You have to be a graduate student or have never earned a degree before. The hell?! What's that say? You'd better choose right the first time, because heaven forbid you change your mind in your career? I'm willing to learn, I'm willing to pay, but I can't be a student. Part of my brain says that can't possibly be right, maybe the lady was mistaken or I misunderstood her, so I need to seek further information, but it was incredibly disheartening! No other local universities have an aerospace engineering program (the nearest one is UCLA). Gah!

Two of my friends (Mel and AF Guy) have tried to convince me to join the military (there's my aerospace schooling and career right there, as well as better-than-current paycheck and benefits), and while that is actually really tempting, there are two problems with it. The biggest one being that I would have minimal to no control over where I got stationed, and I really want to stay around here. The second one being that no matter if I enlist or get a commission, I will have to go away for training, and what am I supposed to do with a cat while I'm gone? I am, however, going to go talk to the recruiter's office and see if they have more specific contacts on civilian jobs. Another friend (John) would really love to see me move back to LA. I want to stay here, though. I like it here. My friends are here, my training is here, my kitty is here, and my family loves to visit me here. What more can one ask for from a location? (Okay, a job, yes.)

Finally get to class, which was mostly good. I actually partnered up with Mrs. S tonight in kickboxing and we added a haganah twist to our partner "crunch & punches" that the rest of the class seemed to like. (She'd originally had us doing them with one partner doing the situps/punches and the other just kneeling and holding the pad. In haganah, we do it with both partners doing situps together - one is the target and the other punches. We just used the pad for a target instead of hands, but it worked.) They all started copying us, anyway. Regular class was okay - Sir had the black belts work some grappling stuff tonight, and I got the second technique pretty well. The first one I need to work on a bit more. He only had us go through four forms (white, purple, red, and first degree) in instructor class tonight, and I knew all of them. I made a few technique mistakes, though. Then we did weapons, and I only got a few comments on my form, but I am *really* having trouble with one of the single bahng mahng ee drills. I can do it as an attacker (strike block strike block strike block), but not as a defender (block strike block strike block strike), for some reason, even though it's just the reverse. Definitely will be working on that this week! I also found out that there will be an instructor certification test before the end of the year. I don't know if I will be eligible or not. I don't think I will be - I have the memorization down, but still have some technique problems and am not sure that I have the "eye" yet to really help anyone else. I am pretty sure I'll be mid-terming, though. There's also going to be another women's self-defense seminar on November 15th, so mark your calendars!

Anyway, I've finally gotten tonight's episode of Heroes, so I'm going to curl up with CP2 and watch it. And maybe re-watch an episode of Fringe, too. Tomorrow's gotta be better!

This amused me

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Bette!

You are a Bette -- "I must be strong"

Bettes are direct, self-reliant, self-confident, and protective.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Stand up for yourself... and me.
• * Be confident, strong, and direct.
• * Don't gossip about me or betray my trust.
• * Be vulnerable and share your feelings. See and acknowledge my tender, vulnerable side.
• * Give me space to be alone.
• * Acknowledge the contributions I make, but don't flatter me.
• * I often speak in an assertive way. Don't automatically assume it's a personal attack.
• * When I scream, curse, and stomp around, try to remember that's just the way I am.

What I Like About Being a Bette

• * being independent and self-reliant
• * being able to take charge and meet challenges head on
• * being courageous, straightforward, and honest
• * getting all the enjoyment I can out of life
• * supporting, empowering, and protecting those close to me
• * upholding just causes

What's Hard About Being a Bette

• * overwhelming people with my bluntness; scaring them away when I don't intend to
• * being restless and impatient with others' incompetence
• * sticking my neck out for people and receiving no appreciation for it
• * never forgetting injuries or injustices
• * putting too much pressure on myself
• * getting high blood pressure when people don't obey the rules or when things don't go right

Bettes as Children Often

• * are independent; have an inner strength and a fighting spirit
• * are sometimes loners
• * seize control so they won't be controlled
• * figure out others' weaknesses
• * attack verbally or physically when provoked
• * take charge in the family because they perceive themselves as the strongest, or grow up in difficult or abusive surroundings

Bettes as Parents

• * are often loyal, caring, involved, and devoted
• * are sometimes overprotective
• * can be demanding, controlling, and rigid

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz

Be careful what you wish for...

So...remember this post? I found an escape. I talked with the Big Boss this afternoon, and my employment contract will now end in January. It ultimately ended up being PCPA's decision - the upcoming season is full of shows that give me a headache just thinking about them, and the Powers That Be know that - and while I would of course have preferred it to have been my decision, it's also the sign I needed. I'm a little nervous, but I'm okay with it.

Unless something really irresistable comes up (and John is calling tomorrow, so we'll see), I'm going to get out of the theater world. I really love working on shows, but frankly, I just can't afford the time, the stress, and the pay. It hasn't gotten any better the five years I've been in the industry, and getting advanced degrees doesn't really help either (Chrissy has a MFA from Yale and is making only slightly more than I make, and I have better health insurance!). I do want to stay on the Central Coast, though. My current plan (and I've already started the balls rolling on this, so we'll see how it pans out) is to try to get an office-type job at Vandenberg AFB (Mr. C from the dojahng works there, and said they are getting ready to start a new project, so they will be hiring lots of officey types soon and he'll send me the webpage of openings) and work that while I go back to school and finish my BS in aerospace engineering at CalPoly. (My friend Matt's reaction to this idea, which I've been throwing around for a while, actually, was "You'd be a total nerd wet dream...Good shape from martial arts. Attractive besides. Engineering degree. You'll have to beat them off with huge sticks," which I thought was hilarious!) It might be a lot of driving, but we'll see. If that doesn't pan out, Ma'am recommended a few of the employment agencies in town (she's a CPA and works with lots of businesses) to at least find some work while I go back to school. My parents also are very supportive, of course (and they love the Central Coast, too, and are okay with me staying here as long as they can continue to come visit).

So, I'm pretty sure life will be okay. Now I actually have a chance to work normal-people hours (with evenings, at least until I can start classes) which include weekends! Maybe even make some money, or save up a little! It will be hard to tell the kids tomorrow - PCPA is going to let me handle this however I want, and I think I'm going to play the "pursuing education" angle - but it's also like I just got a fresh start and I can do whatever I want again, which is kind of an awesome feeling. It was kind of a blow this afternoon, but if there's one thing I've trained to do, it's roll with punches. I did end up bowing out of rehearsal tonight (which was apparently not as disastrous as taking Wednesday night off turned out to be - one of my favorite students/one of our best dancers came out of a lift wrong and I ended up going to the ER after classes to sit with her and her new severely sprained ankle, yikes! - although Chrissy said they had a lot of minor things go crazy tonight), mostly because once I had the idea, I really wanted to talk to Mr. C about it (which was a huge gamble, because he doesn't always come on Fridays, but he ended up joining us for pizza), and I wasn't quite ready to tell people at PCPA at that point. I didn't know if I was emotionally controlled enough for sparring class, but it turned out to be perfect. Kids always are amusing, and just being there always makes me calm down. Plus, since it was Friday, Ma'am, Mr. C, TKD Grandma & grandson, Sir, Mrs. S, Baby S and I all headed down to Klondike's afterward. Having good friends helps fix anything (and boy, did we hear stories tonight!), and pizza and beer don't hurt either!

It's been a weird weekend (really long and absolutely no knitting whatsoever)

I think not eating (or maybe drinking water) properly on Saturday is what started it. I just wasn't very hungry all day, did a double rehearsal including the first run of Act I, then went running at the gym. I did my normal run (20 minutes at 5 mph, which I know is slow to all you "real" runners out there, but I'm working on it!), but it was really hard that night for some reason. Normally, I go from running to bag work (only about 5-10 minutes, I get bored on the bags fast without a partner) and then go through all of my forms (except weapons, of course) with the rest of the PT alternated in between each form. That night I did the running, skipped the bag work completely because the running was so hard, and only got about 3/4 of the way through my forms without any of the PT when my brain just refused to compute anymore. I got stuck on a form I never get stuck on (Choong Jung 2, the red and recommended black form, which I know inside and out, as I've tested on it twice) and realized I was just done. I wasn't sore or anything, just really tired. I got home, showered, settled in for the night, and just as I was about to fall asleep, my legs started hurting. The front of my legs, just above the ankle, just hurt to the point where I couldn't relax enough to sleep. I rubbed some IcyHot on them and took some ibuprofen, and was finally able to get a little rest.

Sunday was just a loooong day. My legs didn't hurt anymore, but all of my muscles still just felt tired. I decided to forego the gym Sunday in order to give my body a rest for Monday's classes, but I still couldn't fall asleep until almost 4:00a Monday morning. I woke up, wide awake, around 9:30a for no particular reason, had a bowl of cereal, was up for about an hour and a half, and then crashed again. I didn't wake back up until almost 3:45p! Realizing I had class in less than two hours, I had a pb&j (protein, carbs, sugars), a thing of oranges (more sugars), and a glass of milk (calcium) and felt okay, just kind of like I hadn't completely woken up yet, if that makes any sense. I was also very cold - to the point where I didn't want take my sweatshirt off until right before class started (the dojahng is often warm to the point of boiling, which is probably another reason I love it there - the windows steam up quite frequently in the cooler months). I started the class okay, but even though it was one of the relatively easier workouts, like the running on Saturday night, it was just so hard. I just didn't have whatever it was that I needed to get me through the class - Mrs. S came up about 3/4 of the way through and asked me if I'd eaten that day, because I looked "ashy." (She knows about my sometimes struggle to fuel my body correctly.) I assured her I had, but I just felt like I couldn't warm up - temperature-wise or muscle-wise. Even though I was dripping sweat, it felt like I was trying to do everything in a pool of icy water. Normally if I haven't eaten properly, I get shaky and a little dizzy. This wasn't that at all. After class, Mrs. S told me that next time I wasn't allowed to have regular water in class - she wants me to drink Gatorade or something with electrolytes and a little sugar. I normally drink Propel water during the day, but that has a tendency of coating my mouth, so we'll see. Normally between classes, I'll get an organic shake from Healthy Palate just a few shops down, come back, and either chat with Mel or work on forms on the carpet. Yesterday, I got my shake (it was much colder and sweeter than usual), put on my sweatshirt, and laid down on the carpet with my head on my gear bag (honestly, I really felt like I was back at a swimming Invitational - curled up on the comfiest bit of floor you can find, with whatever you have handy as a pillow, wrapped in sweats that get wetter the more you wear them and the liquid on your body is so cold. It was a little comforting, oddly, and made me smile). It wasn't that I was feeling sick or shaky, again, I was just tired and cold. I felt more alert by the time my tkd class started, but it felt more like being on autopilot than anything else. Not dazed or unclear, I knew what I was doing and why and was even helping a few people with self-defenses and forms, but it just felt like my brain had taken a backseat and was letting the body (and mouth, apparently I was very good on kihaps and counting last night) take over. (Oddly, my techniques felt really solid last night. Maybe I normally need to turn my brain off?) I was still cold, though, and actually did keep my sweatshirt on for almost the entire class, which is not something any of us ever do. I was sweaty, but anytime I went to take it off, the air would just feel like ice on my skin. I kept it on for most of instructor class, too, although it did start to get in the way for forms and I ended up asking Sir to close the door to keep some of the air out. Surprisingly, I did pretty well on forms this week overall. I have never felt that way in class before, though, and this will be the start of my third winter at the dojahng. It was just so weird.

Today, I'm still tired (I slept just under eight hours last night), my hamstrings are a little sore (most likely from the millions of crescent kicks we did last night - I think I might be getting better at them, though!), and I have a good chance of getting tomorrow (Wednesday) night off of rehearsal, so I didn't go to the gym tonight. I don't know if I'm simply over-training (I didn't think I was doing that much, though), or if my already-pretty-high metabolism has just kicked itself into a higher gear due to going to the gym regularly and is burning through things faster, or if it was simply not drinking enough water (I've been so good about that, though!), or what it was (maybe I'm allergic to the MMA class I watched on Saturday morning - I hope not, cuz I'd like to get more involved in it!), but I really don't care to repeat it. I'd like my energy back, too, please!

(And no, I am NOT getting sick. I just got done being sick two weeks ago. Possibly anemic - I haven't taken vitamins in a while - but NOT sick!)

Back to catching up on tonight's Fringe and working on CP2!

Not me!

An addition to the previous post, which I swear I typed the first time, and apparently didn't.

I had a huge craving for frozen yogurt on Monday, ending with Ma'am and I going to the very yummy Yogurt Creations after class. (There was a bit of a discussion in which Ma'am offered to let me use a gift card she had recieved from another student, then decided she wanted to go too, so it worked out.) We started talking about the student who had given her the gift card. Apparently, he gave it to her as a thank-you for helping him with his form, which I thought was rather sweet. I don't know him very well, although he often comes in on Fridays for a private lesson as I am finishing up. He's always been very kind, just very quiet and shy. Ma'am agreed with that assessment and added, "Yup. He works hard. He gets nervous because he wants to do every thing perfectly. Remind you of anyone?" She gave me a very direct look. I just grinned at her. "Nope!"

Hearing the pin drop...

Sorry it's been so quiet around here. There just hasn't been much going on. Rehearsal and work continue to suck up the majority of my life and energy right now, although I must admit that this show isn't even close to being the most stressful I've ever worked on, and for the most part, we're keeping our working hours to a minimum on it. Last week, with the Gala, was really long and hard, but this week has been pretty light. We're only planning on working four afternoons - two in the office and two in rehearsal, which is pretty amazing. It may be only a 50+ hour week! The flip side of that is that, for all intents and purposes, I've got three shows to be thinking about right now, plus the two Outreach shows to keep tabs on. Having good interns has helped out a lot, although I still find it a little difficult to delegate work and not try to do all of it myself. Oh, and publicity photos are up, too.

Still going to the gym at night after rehearsal. I think I need to start pushing myself a bit more, though. I got kind of frustrated the other night in class. I've been working on my forms at the gym every night. I was so proud of myself because I was able to actually get through all of them without having to look at any notes, and I'd go through every form every night. Then comes class time on Monday, and I mess up. Little things, but still. Grrrr! So frustrating! Baby step forward, big step back. Sigh. I am getting dojahng time in again on Friday afternoon. The same thing happens there - I'll get through everything fine, and then come class time, I'll screw up again. I just need to work on consistency, I guess. And technique. I still have problems with balance on a few moves, even in the lower belts, so I've been trying to drill those skills as much as possible, too. I've finished learning my weapons form - Sir pretty much left it up to me to figure out the second half, which is the exact same as the first half, only with the bahng mahng ee in the left hand instead of the right. Now, I knife-fight with my left hand quite a bit, mostly because I prefer the stance, but a big stick in your non-dominant hand feels very awkward! I think I'm getting it, though.

CP2 is still coming along, despite the fact that I apparently bought the last skein of the color I need in northern Santa Barbara County. It should be fine, though, the shop swears they're getting another shipment in a few days, and different dyelots shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm at a pretty mindless point in the knitting, and have been using what free time I have to both knit and catch up on my shows. I'm probably watching way too much tv lately, but I'm hooked on Fringe (I think that the other regular FBI agent is the real traitor, but that remains to be seen), NCIS, Bones, Law & Order: SVU (okay, that's not new), and Pushing Daisies (honestly, can a show really be more fun - it spoofs both crime dramas AND musicals! Mom, I think you'd like this one.). I'm also a few weeks behind on House and Ghost Hunters, and have finally caught up to at least the current season of Heroes (so I'm a little late to the bandwagon on this one, and nothing is particularly original about it - I think I've seen most of the plotlines so far in old X-Men comics of my brother's - but yet, it's somehow addictive. Maybe the hot guys sans shirts have something to do with it? Or maybe it's the idea that a story cannot be told in one episode and you actually do have to watch the whole thing to get the story arc. I like that. At any rate, I'm only about two weeks into the current season, so don't tell me! (Plus, Maya hasn't cried and Caitlyn hasn't shown up for a whole two episodes! Elle is extremely annoying, though, ugh!))

Anyway, long day of meetings tomorrow, so gonna crash.

Excuse me, you must be tall, blond, and fabulous to work here...

...and the positions have been filled.

The 2008-2009 Stage Management department:

They let us out pretty much unsupervised tonight - we had our annual fundraising gala. Chrissy and I actor-wrangled, with the interns' help, but honestly, it would have been just fine with the two of us. I think they had fun, though. I hope so.

I'd also like to point out that the dress is the same dress I wore to the Seussical opening two years ago. It looks a hell of a lot better on me now (you think maybe two years of martial arts and exercise had anything to do with that? nah...), although I've really got to get a pair of nylons that don't roll at the waist! Ugh!

Anyway, kind of a slow week. The weather suddenly decided yesterday that it was fall, and dropped from a comfortable 70 degrees to a rather unfortunate 50 degrees during the day and into the low 40s at night. Whine! I've discovered a hanging bag and a set of mats at the gym, so I've been working on forms and bagwork there this week, which has been nice. We had a double rehearsal yesterday instead of today, due to the Gala, so I went to the dojahng over dinner break and talked to Sir and Mr. R a little bit and watched the first 15 minutes or so of the aikido class. It looks like it's all about joint manipulation, which is actually a little scary. Some of the teenyboppers in the tkd class are taking the aikido as well, but you can tell that they aren't really "into" it and that worries me a little. Sir's already messed up his shoulder in that class, trying not to land on one of them. We'll see. Mr. R is also taking it, as is one of the parents that I know, and Gil is teaching it. I'd trust them.

Knitting is still plugging along, although CP 2 is going a bit slower than I'd like. It's still in a good place, though, so I'm not too worried, yet.

I'm thinking about taking the train home for Christmas. It will be slower, but a lot cheaper, and I think I could handle the trip without a sleeper car. My laptop won't, but maybe I can be near an outlet. Anyone have experience with train travel? I don't...any advice would be appreciated!

Parent as he was coming in the dojahng on Friday: "Dodgers lost."
Me: "Aww! Really?! Poor Dodgers! What a shame?"
Parent (grinning at my sarcasm): "I take it you're a Cub fan?"
Sir: "You can't tell from the hat she wears all the time?!"

It is that time of year now...

The first of the rains. For those who don't live in this part of Cali, it's not all sunshine and warm beaches. Only about six months of the year. The rest of the year...well, it's still often sunny, but it also rains a lot. From October to April-ish. It's not too bad, really. It's still sunny quite a bit, just cooler. And wetter. Ah well.

CP 2 is now going well, although the first part dragged like crazy. I don't get quite as much time to work on it as I'd like, but I did get a nice four-hour music rehearsal this afternoon and got a decent chunk done.

I got a membership at the local Gold's Gym this week. They are right next to our rehearsal building, and open 24/7. I've taken to going in after rehearsals at night and running or cycling for a while, then working abs and doing some light weight work since I can't be in class. I love it so far - it's quiet but not empty at that time of night, and I can get in a workout on MY schedule without having to feel rushed or give up anything. Afterwards, I can just come home, take a warm shower, and crawl into bed. So far this week, I've ran almost 4 miles. My pace is still kind of slow, but I'm mostly working on endurance. I've done two 15-minute nonstop runs (one was a random hill course, which was okay, but hell on the quads!) on Wednesday and Thursday, 5-miles of cycling on Friday, and then 20-minutes of cycling followed by a 20-minute fast walk last night, with almost no soreness at all. I decided not to go tonight, to give my legs a break before classes tomorrow. I still vastly prefer being in class - for one thing, the air conditioning in the gym screws with my perception of how hard I've been working, and few things are as fun as working out at the dojahng - but this is an acceptable alternative. (I did see part of their "kickboxing" class when I was given a tour before I signed up. Yeah....no.)

Anyway, I am definitely looking foward to class tomorrow, although the Vikings are playing the Saints tomorrow night. Sir is a huge Vikings fan. I am currently a big Saints fan (Drew Brees will always be my QB!). So we'll see how that goes....hmm...

Stayin' on track...ish...

September 30th, and CP 1 is done! And man, *I* want one of these things - it's SO comfortable! Now I must get some yarn shopping in (I have a 20% off coupon for Michaels, yay!) so I can start the next one. I haven't quite decided which project will be CP 2 yet. Basically, I was doing this by people. Person 1 is now done. Originally, Person 2 was up next, to be the recipient of the not-really-sure-I-can-do-this project, but I'm not quite ready to get that started yet and I don't know how much time I will have to work on it this month. So my thought now is that I will skip ahead to Person 3, now that I've decided on a project for this person (and got a very simple request, too!), which is going to be another new-yet-easy project and a repeat project and work on that while I get the rest of Person 2's figured out.

Yay!

A comforting reminder in a surprising place...

"My art...if you can call it that, is just such an attempt. People will take the words you've read - my people - and they will speak them in front of an audience, and they'll speak them as if they were their own words. They'll lend the words emotion, strength, that you can't see....They will be like your paintings, or like your sculptures - they will be true, in some fashion. They will evoke something that the reality itself can't evoke as cleanly or as easily. We don't consider them lies, just a different way of getting at a truth that might be too big - or too small - to be seen. People are busy. They know their own problems and their own fears and they have no easy way of letting everyone else know what they are. And if I'm being truthful - which you seem to prize - most of us simply don't care what other people's fears are. Ours take up too much of our time. But when someone watches one of my plays, they leave those problems behind. They signal, by being in the audience, that they're willing to be lifted out of their own lives, and concerns. It's only for a few hours, but for those few hours, they're watching and they're listening to things that they would never otherwise think about."

-spoken by Richard Rennick, a playwright character in Michelle Sagara's "Cast in Fury"

I spend too much time in fictional worlds...

...or not enough, depending on how you look at it, I suppose. I did learn, though, that one needs to treat bookstores like grocery stores - NEVER go shopping when you're hungry. I had planned on getting two books - Son of Stitch-n-Bitch, which contains a pattern I need for the Christmas projects (while I do understand and appreciate the idea behind copyright laws, I would REALLY have preferred to just copy the pattern out of the book and not bought the entire thing. Alas.), and Cast in Fury, the latest in Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series (aka the Cast In... series). I did leave with both of those. Plus...um...A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton (author of some incredibly fluff knitting mysteries, but the characters are fun), Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (the start of a new series for me, assuming this one is any good), Haunted Heartland by Beth Scott and Michael Norman (which I'm now not exactly sure why I bought, as it will probably scare me half to death, but it was on sale, go figure), and The Harmony Guide's Cables & Arans stitch dictionary edited by Erika Knight, which also figures into my Christmas plot. I guess I felt the need to have some good new stories near at hand for some reason.

True to form, though, as soon as I got my greedy little hands on Cast in Fury, it was all over. (I've been waiting a year for this book!) I paid for the books and got all the way out to the bench outside the front door of Barnes & Noble before pulling it out of the bag and starting to read (about 2:00p-ish). It was quite pleasant there in the sunshine. I probably wouldn't have resurfaced in time for class at all if Mom hadn't called. There was no way I was going to make it to kickboxing, but I already had all my stuff with me anyway (I do know myself well enough to plan ahead for such events), and got back into Santa Maria with not enough time to go home and read, so I went to the park instead. I did make to the dojahng in time for tkd and instructor class, though, and I finished the book about an hour ago.

I really liked it, but it followed a totally different storyline than I thought it was going to. It explains a lot about certain comments that were made in the first book, Cast in Shadow, though, which is really kinda cool. And it involves a playwright, and there is really great passage about what theater does that I might have to type out and quote. I also really like the fact that, despite the long wait (okay, so it's actually relatively short, in publishing terms) between books, only about six weeks have passed since the beginning of the first book. (This book is the second one that has mentioned the full moons, so we know it has to have been at least a month. Where month literally means moon-cycle.) It's nice to know there isn't any backstory to have to get caught up on. I want to know exactly what Erenne means, though, and how it pertains to Kaylin in relation to both Nightshade and Severn! I was under the impression from the first few books that she was Nightshade's Erenne, but in this book, he refers to her (and he, sadly, is not very present at all in this book) as the Erenne. Like, maybe, there's only one. Maybe he just meant there is only one Erenne in Nightshade. But we do know that he claims her, and she is growing slightly more comfortable with him. So satisfy a girl's curiosity, lady! If I was a fiefling, I'd bet that she ends up with Nightshade, or at least living with him in the Castle, with Severn as her protector. (It is implied very early on that Erenne has a vaguely similar meaning to "consort," if far more specific - what that specification IS is what we don't know - and that it is a relationship that must be consumated in some fashion to be fully claimed. As Nightshade is the only character that has expressed any kind of physical attraction to Kaylin, I'm going on that basis. It can also somehow give the two of them more power, not that either of them really need it, or, in Kaylin's case, want it.) And why IS Nightshade Outcaste? He is still very much on top of things that happen in the Barrani Court, and is obviously not entirely hated there even now, based on Cast in Courtlight (the second book). The next book, Cast in Silence, is slated to come out sometime in late 2009, and it can't come fast enough!

In other news, I've now officially learned the first half of my weapons form and now have the lovely challenge of figuring out the reverse and repeat of it - the second half of the form is the same as the first half, just with the bahng mahng ee in the opposite hand. It's a LOT harder with the left hand than the right! White Christmas starts rehearsals tomorrow, and while I'm fond of the cast and the show actually seems pretty fun and fluff and we're already in FAR better shape than we were this time last year, I'm still very much resenting how much time I will be out of class due to it. Which is ridiculous, because it's not like I'm still a color belt with a new test to worry about every few weeks (and come close to failing, like I did this time last year). I just got my belt two months ago; I won't even be eligible to test for rank again for another ten months. So I don't know what my problem is. I do know that I may break down and pay for a Gold's Gym membership, though - they are open 24/7, and I've found the time I am best able to work out is after I get off work, no matter what time of day that is. While I did pretty decently on my PT last time, I want it to be easy next time. Or at least, I want to still have a lot more energy for the sparring part of the tests next time. So I might as well start training now.

I think I'll eat some breakfast, then change the world!

Or, at least maybe help make a difference in someone's life. I spent the latter part of this morning and early part of this afternoon helping teach the first of a series of women's self-defense seminars offered through the dojahng. I wasn't really supposed to be teaching, I was supposed to be there as moral support for some friends who had said they were coming. However, said friends never showed up (you know who you are!), we had more people show up than expected, and Sir had done something to his shoulder in aikido last night, so I ended up helping out. We had about 20-25 women, I think. A few were from kickboxing, a couple more had kids in the tkd program. We went through all the strikes that we normally do in our haganah warmups (punches, wedge strikes to the neck, elbow strikes, knees), then divided into groups of 2-5 and did two choking attacks and a knife threat. Each instructor (me, Ma'am, Mr. R, Morgan, and Gil) worked with a group, and then rotated so that the ladies could practice on different body types and strengths. Some of the ladies picked it up right away and had some good stuff going on, others had some problems just working up to the idea of hitting someone else. It takes all types, I guess. All of them afterwards said that they'd really liked the class and were looking forward to next month's.

Other than that, not much is going on. After the previous post, I got a chance to talk with AF Guy (who is currently stationed in Hawai'i, the lucky dog), and he kind of brought me back down to earth a little. (He did offer the AF as an alternative career to consider several times, though, which isn't as out-there as it might seem.) I also talked to Chrissy and I may not work on Les Mis in the spring now, and just pick it up for the summer, which would give me a decent break from shows for a while. White Christmas honestly shouldn't be that bad, I just have to live through a month of rehearsals, and then I can go back to having class five nights a week for almost two months straight. Then another month of rehearsals for Midsummer, then three months of class, I hope. So it might work out. Doesn't help the money, but it does help the emotional and mental stress. I miss haganah so badly right now!

Anyway, my allergies are driving me nuts, and I have a show tonight, so I'm going to go take a nap for a while. Go Boilers!

Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

Long post about career thoughts behind the cut. It's not particularly exciting, just needed to get thoughts down.

Ever been in a place where you really really really love what you do, but it doesn't feel like enough? Even though you enjoy it, it's not challenging enough (at least, not in ways you'd like to be challenged - seeing how many times you can beat your head against the same wall isn't my idea of a challenge), it's not important enough in the grand scheme of things, and there is absolutely no way to advance in it? That's where I am right now. The hobby that I have turned into a career is right now feeling like a quicksand bog - doing nothing will prevent me from going down, but it won't get me out, either, whereas trying to get out will cause me to sink before I'll be able to swim. But what else would I do? There are two or three other professions that absolutely fascinate me, and I think I would be really good at, but two would require going back to school and starting completely over, and one would require six months training and then assignment to somewhere out of my control.

This is not to say that I don't like my current job. I do - I love working on shows, and with the students. I'm just getting burned out a little, I think. I've been in rehearsal or performance for various shows since March and there is no relief in sight - my current show closes Sunday, I start rehearsals for the holiday show next Tuesday, get two weeks off for Christmas, and come back to start rehearsals for yet another show, which will then go straight into the spring musical as well. Yes, I know, welcome to the adult world and full time jobs. Suck it up, right? I've already gotten a whole week's vacation this year, and get two weeks off at Christmas! Lucky! The way things work here, if I ONLY went in for rehearsals/performances (as in, came in the door at call time and left at end of call), I would work 40 hours a week. That's a full time job right there, and that's not even HALF of what I do. And I get ONE day off a week. And no, I don't get paid overtime, and my salary (with a college degree, no less) is barely better than if I worked at McDonalds. (We had to get raises last year so we could meet minimum wage requirements. The health insurance is better, though.) I'm just getting tired of having to work so much and carry so much responsibility, but still only living hand to mouth. I'm tired of having to be perfect all the time. I'm tired of being the middleman in EVERYTHING. I'm tired of not being able to bring myself to care anymore. I can't pay off debts like this. I can't save any money. I can't travel. I can't date. I can't enjoy anything else in my life on a regularly scheduled basis, because my schedule changes every few weeks. Right now, pretty much any job that works steady hours and that I can put away when those hours are done sounds absolutely fantastic.

I just feel like I have something more to do with my life, but I'm not quite sure what that is yet.

In happier news, CP #1 is very close to done, I'd say about 80% right now. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the week. My problem, which I didn't think of when I created this evil plot, is that none of the rest of my projects are of the true mindless knitting variety, which I will need in the booth. Curses! I may have to modify one thing now. It shouldn't be too bad, I don't think.

Also, because of my crazy, weird schedule, the first part of this week is back to 9:00a - 5:00p days, so I can go to class tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday! Yay! Seven classes in three days! I will be so sore! And I'm going to be at the self-defense seminar on Saturday morning! A few of the girls from PCPA have said they're interested, but they would only go if I went, too. Sir said it would be stuff that I can already do in my sleep, but he's okay with me being there to help out my friends and pointed out that it would be really nice to be in a situation where I only have to dish stuff out, I'm probably not going to have to take much punishment!

Self-defense

We've been having problems with our rehearsal building being left open at night. We aren't the only people who use the building, and with regular classes starting up, it's hard to find a solution that is convenient for everyone involved. However, it's not very fun to come back from Solvang at 11:00p at night and realize that the building is completely open, and completely empty, and you have no idea how long it's been that way. There are no windows back where my office is. I told my higher-ups that if I ever found the building like that again, I would lock the front doors without going inside the building, and go home to do the paperwork. I am lucky in the sense that they seem just as concerned about this as I am, and we are currently working together with the other departments who use the building at night to form some kind of security plan. Between that situation and my car getting broken into, I've had self-defense on the brain a lot lately.

It's great that people are concerned and all; really, I do appreciate their work so far in this, but I have had three seperate people say something along the lines of "You're a black belt. What are YOU worried about?!" I usually respond with a gritted-teeth smile and say "Yes, I am. And the first rule of self-defense is to NOT PUT YOURSELF IN A SITUATION WHERE YOU MIGHT HAVE TO USE IT!" Then I try to say something more benign, like, "Fighting is a waste of energy. I don't go looking for fights." They usually blink and agree after that. I know it's not their fault for automatically falling into Hollywood stereotypes, but honestly. I'd like to think that I could hold my own in a fair fight, but an attack, by definition, is NOT a fair fight. The attacker has surprise on his side, and more importantly, wants to fight and cause pain. I don't. The idea of actually doing full-out some of the things we do in haganah is a little stomach-churning, actually, although if it came down to me or him, I know which one I'd pick. I'm a black belt, yes, but not Superman, and the style I rank in isn't the one I would instinctively turn to in a dangerous situation. If someone really wants to hurt me, they could, and all the martial arts knowledge in the world isn't going to help you if someone has a gun aimed at you and is pulling the trigger. My goal is just to be able to survive something like that, God forbid it should ever happen. And if it turns out that I can say, "Yeah, but you should see the OTHER guy!" at the end of it, that's just icing. Of course, should that person survive, he'd then get hunted down by my daddy, my baby brother, and all my FIGHT guys and I would not pity him in the slightest.

Running with scissors

As in, do they really trust me with these things?

Regular class tonight was all about self-defense. We had a whole family of white belts start tonight, which was cool, and I ended up working with two of them on the color belt defenses. Then, when they split off to work forms, Sir had the black belts start working and reviewing the haganah defenses with one person in the middle and the rest of us doing the different random attacks. Then he wandered off to work with some of the higher color belts on their forms (we had a really big class tonight), and after we'd finished that drill the rest of the black belts start looking at me like I have any idea what to do next. I answered a few questions for them (none of the other tkd students do haganah as well, so I guess most of this is relatively new stuff for them, and very old stuff for me), and then started teaching one of them, a kid who has recently aged up to the teen/adult class and had therefore never done ANY of the haganah defenses, the basic punch defense while the others paired off. It was just weird that I was the lowest dan there, but they were asking me what to do next.

Other than that, and the giant headache that has been hanging around my right temple since I woke up today, classes were really good. Mel was back in class tonight (it's a year today since she had her knee surgery, and about fifteen months since she tore it up in my first sparring class), and it was fun to have her as a partner. She's been training for the past few months, but now is getting ready to test for her third degree, and her knee has been officially deemed good enough to be back in regular classes with us. She was my first sparring partner tonight, too, and we kept making cracks about the last time we'd faced each other (that first class). It felt good to spar tonight in general, though. I feel like I'm maybe starting to lose the fear of injury again, since we've been doing it more regularly, which is a good thing. Instructor class also went pretty well, I think. Tonight we did the higher belt forms, and I was really surprised to discover that I knew them (with a few small mistakes) without even really thinking too hard about them. The switching back and forth between form styles, though (dan form techniques are slightly but significantly different than gup ones), takes some brain power still, though. Sir watched me go through my regular form, corrected a few things (a foot angle and a balance issue), told me I was doing really well with it, and then started teaching my weapons form! I'm still doing single bahng mahng ee (one fighting stick), and I only learned the first dozen or so moves of it, but I like it so far. Definitely more than I thought I would, although I have to admit to liking the weapons drills better than the forms. There's just something very satisfying feeling the sticks crack against your partner's. The other thing is that I will NOT be midterming in October now because we started the weapons so late. This is actually a really fabulous thing because it means that my first midterm will probably be in December, after I'll have been able to be back in class five nights a week for a month or so. It should be absolutely no problem at all now. And, I get to go back in on Friday and work by myself again. Yay!

Anyway, CP #1 is still cruising along, my sleep schedule is back to its no classes routine and is not being helped the fact that I don't really need to go to the office at all during the day right now (pretty much, I'm not sleeping any kind of normal hours right now, which sucks), my right forearm is definitely going to be sore tomorrow, as I am not used to the weight of a weapon, and I have to go in early to babysit Outreach tech, so I'm crashing.

Sometimes I'm not so dumb!

So, I'm pretty pleased with myself. For one thing, I made a mistake while working on CP #1 during the show tonight. A simple, not paying attention to the pattern because I *was* working, mistake, and I didn't catch it until a few rows later. After a few moments of mentally kicking myself, I realized I could fix it without having to frog or tink back. I just waited until we were back on the bus (where I had better light), and, being a smart knitter who carries her notions bag, which includes several sizes of crochet hooks, with her at all times these days, was able to carefully drop and rework each of the sixteen stitches I'd messed up two rows back. No frogging or tinking and having to redo work! Hooray!

For another thing, the insurance company is being unusually cooperative and karma may be on my side for once. Not only are they reimbursing me for the window, but they also gave me a generous overestimate for the repairs to the lock on the door. On top of that, I got an email from our equivalent of a CFO today - AHC once again screwed up my paycheck this month and will reimburse me next month. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop - the company screwed up, or the deductable wasn't paid correctly or something. We'll see, I guess, but for now, it's really nice to think I might actually still be able to eat and drive this month.

Can't wait for class on Monday!

Hoofing it

So, after two days and more money than I really have, my car once again has all four windows. It's now sitting, probably cold and damp and lonely, in the parking lot at the dealership, where the damage to the door lock must now be inspected and assessed and hopefully repaired tomorrow. It's not a complete nuisance - I did have a perfect excuse to spend 40m in the car with Cute Guy on the way back from Solvang - but it is enough of one to count. The good news is that it should all be over soon. The police think they may have caught the...irritating people...after they broke into another garage last night and stole a bike. I really hope that not only the fingerprints the police took from my car are useable at all, but that they match up to one or more of these people, and a little karmic justice wouldn't be sneezed at, either. A scratch from all that broken glass gets infected or something small but irritating like that. Not that I'm petty or anything.

In other news, I finished the second part of CP #1 today and am moving on to the third and final part. Tech in Solvang is going well, although it's FREEZING down there and I'm really glad they moved me up to the booth and out of the wind a night early. (And I can knit up there!) I got my free upgrade cell phone today, and am really excited about it. (It's basically my Sony Walkman and Sony Ericsson phone's lovechild - and it's blue!) The keypad is a little small, but I can live with it. Now I just have to get a headset for it!

Picking up the pieces...

...luckily of nothing earth shattering or overly dramatic. I did get to spend a good 45m sweeping up broken glass from my garage floor this morning, though. At a time far, far earlier than anyone should ever be awake on their day off (okay, so that is slightly exaggerated - it was, like, 9:00a, but given the fact that I'd already been up for two hours, and had only fallen asleep four hours before that, it felt wayy too early).

Why the sudden urge for cleanliness? Because some jackass (pardon my language, but I'm not really in a mood to be polite) decided to break into my garage...AGAIN. This is the third time in less than three months my garage has been broken into. Oh, and the third time's quite the charm, too - this time he/they decided to break into my car, as well. Luckily, I apparently keep nothing of fenceable value in the car; I never leave my purse or phone in the car, my stereo is crap, I don't really listen to CDs, and my portable XM radio was brought inside at the beginning of the summer in order to better listen to Cubs games. Things *I* consider valuable, like the over $150 worth of sparring, kickboxing, and haganah gear and weapons I keep in my duffel bag in the very back, apparently aren't worth stealing. Which is good, because I also keep my current belts in that bag, and I'd've been REALLY pissed if someone had stolen my black belt. As far as I can tell, the only thing missing, oddly, is the little binder that contained the car owner's manual and my registration and insurance cards. (A fact that I didn't notice until much later, when I realized it wasn't on the passenger floor with the rest of the stuff from the glove compartment and notified the police promptly when I saw the registration was gone.) The back window was shattered, and the lock on the front passenger door is broken on the outside. There doesn't seem to be any body or paint damage, though, which is good. Insurance will cover anything over my deductable, and the police have filed a report and even dusted for fingerprints, though they aren't sure there's anything useable.

But still...why me? This time, mine was the ONLY one hit. Why my garage AGAIN? And how in the world can I prevent it? Padlocks, as we know from previous experiences, just get cut. And completely negate the point of having a remote door opener. I told Gil about it before kickboxing today, and he volunteered to sit in my garage for a few nights with a comfortable chair. As he's a big guy, does haganah and aikido, and is literally covered in tattoos, *I* wouldn't want to mess with him if I came upon him in such a situation. I was talking with Mrs. S and Ma'am about it after classes tonight, and Mrs. S said that they'd had both their vehicles broken into on the street in front of their house. She has a couple of numbers for repair shops for me, which I'll call tomorrow.

The ladies (Mrs. S and Ma'am) taught tonight, as the guys were apparently watching Monday Night Football (yes, it's that big of a deal in our dojahng, you can even forego uniform shirts for team jerseys on Monday nights during football season). It was fun. It always makes me a little nervous when Mrs. S is there, because I'm just not used to working with her in that context, but it would be fun to have her in class more. Ma'am did kickboxing today, too, which was fun. She partnered with one of the newer ladies, as Gil had already claimed me as a partner after I'd told him about my morning. That was good - I'd really needed someone like Gil or Mr. R or Sir as a partner today to work off some frustration. They can hold the bag really well and don't look shocked or surprised if you just pound the hell out of it (some of the newer/less active in the school people look like I'm trying to break them sometimes). It was the first time I've really been angry enough to imagine a face on the bag, even though I have no idea whose face belongs there. We also started regular class with sparring, and I initially got partnered with Mr. M and Bob (our punching dummy), so by the time I got to the lower belts, I didn't have quite the anger energy going anymore. No instructor class tonight, since Sir wasn't there, so I didn't start my weapons form. I don't really get any new material in regular class at all anymore; it all comes in instructor class now. Mrs. S told me afterward that if I'd mentioned it, she would have started teaching it to me, but alas. Someday! I have hope!

In happier news, CP #1 is moving along quite nicely. I seem to always jinx myself if I say that I'll have something finished soon, so I won't say that. I will say that it is going much faster than I had anticipated, although I think I might have to rework something after I block it. I'm going to finish another section of it first, though. And I've finally settled on the yarn for CP #2. I still have no idea what I am going to use for CP #3, though. I have a few ideas, but not sure if any of them will fit into the budget. I'll have to shop around and see. Yarn shopping, sigh, life is so rough!

Plotting! Muha!

(ETA: Um, duh...I forgot to mention that I did finally finish my third Olympic project a few days ago. I now have a new pair of socks to wear next week in Solvang, yay!)

Okay...so by my reckoning, I have four projects to get done by Christmas. No, I will not be sharing specifically what these projects are, and no, they aren't for family members (mostly - one person has made a few not-so-subtle hints, and it's actually not the person who reads this the most!). Okay, one of the projects is in the "I want to make something for this person but have no idea what" category, so it might drop to three projects. One project is new for me, but easily do-able. One is a repeat for me (if I can find yarn I like). One is totally new ground and I'm not 100% sure I can pull it off at all, if I even work up the courage to try it. I hearby dub them Christmas Project #1, 2, 3, and 4. I started working on CP #1, the new but easy project, Sept. 1 (not on purpose, that was just the day that I finally got the right gauge going and could start the real project), so the way I figure it, I have four months to do four projects. At the rate #1 is going, this should be plenty of time, if I can do a project a month. #2 will be the new ground project for October (or whenever I finish #1), mostly because if that one takes me longer, I can fudge on the repeat project (#3) and the no idea project (#4). Sound like a plan?

I got to go to the dojahng for about an hour and a half on Friday and just worked on forms. I had the place to myself and it was so nice! I felt like I had actually accomplished something, and was able to focus on things. I hadn't realized how much time had gone by until Sir came back from whatever errand he'd been running. I was able to make it to FIGHT on Tuesday and most of kickboxing on Wednesday, so I haven't been completely out, but it will be good to be back in on Monday night. I can't wait to start my weapons form!

They're also doing a women's self-defense seminar on Saturday, Sept. 27th, from 11:30a-1:00p. I will probably be there, and I have at least two girls from work who have expressed an interest in it (although one did say it looked like fun. "Fun" isn't generally the first word that pops into my head with "self-defense," but whatever). Sir said it will be a lot of the basic stuff we do in haganah, just kind of broken down a bit more and more focused on female sizes and strengths. If anyone is interested, let me know and I can get you more info. I can also get you a discount, if that helps =)

I've also started reading, well, listening really, to Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series (I have the current four books in audio format, which I'm discovering I really love and I really wish the Cast In... series could be on audiobook, because I really want to reread them all before the new book comes out next month, and I just don't have time right now). Anyway, if anyone has thought about checking out the series, if you're really into teen vampire romance, characters you want to slap upside the head and knock some sense into, and lots of angst, this is totally for you. If not, well, check it out - it isn't bad fluff reading - but don't spend money on it (and that's saying a lot, as I'd rather spend money on books than food, usually). I love my friend dearly, and normally agree with her literary tastes, but this is definitely NOT the "next Harry Potter!" Harry Potter does have its angst, but it also is full of literature and history and growing up and learning to stand up for yourself and for what you believe is right. I look forward to the day that I can read that series with my children. This series, so far (I've finished the first two books and am seriously considering just skipping to the end of the fourth one, which is not like me at all), is about a girl who needs to grow up and get over herself. I'd be really, really surprised if it lasted long enough that any children of mine would even want to read it.

Titles and Quotes

I've had a couple people ask me via emails about the changes to my header and blog title. Honestly, I didn't know that anyone but me ever paid any attention to them, so getting questions from three different people was kind of surprising. Anyway...

1. I changed the blog title after earning my black belt. I thought it was a subtle way to try to incorporate the three main things I talk about here. Black. Stage. Stitches. The black is probably a little obscure, but it works for me.

2. No, I have no suddenly become dissatisfied with my professional life. I still really like the original quote in the header - "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life" - and think it is very much applicable to me. I've been using the new quote as a binder cover for my production calendar for the past year and a half, though. I see it on there every time I need to check a date or time. It really struck me, though, when I earned my black belt - I had attempted something that seemed absurdly out of my scope in every way and achieved something I never thought I could do. The new quote is a personal reminder to me to not be content with what I always do, even if it's good, and look into the "this could be ifs" instead. (ETA: The runner up quote was "All the world's a stage...and I'm calling my own damn cues!")

I hope that clears things up. Opening went well tonight, although we're all dead and doing a matinee and an understudy rehearsal tomorrow is not appealing in the slightest. (Insert standard understudy rehearsal rant here.) I did tell my kids (my ASMs, we have a running joke about me being Mom and they're my kids, although I drew the line at having the deck crew as grandkids) that if I was there, they had to be there, so now they're plotting ways of holding me hostage so I can't go into work. The latest plot that I know of involves something with zip ties and tugboats. I'm curious now. (This is what happens when you have three stage managers in a tiny office after the second show of the day on the Saturday after tech. It's a bad, bad situation!)

Btw, it's not unusual, in fact, I've come to expect, dreams about the show during tech weeks. Normally they're just the show itself, with something weird or odd going on that I have to deal with - trying to do The Sound of Music in a different theater, for example. Last night, however, I had a dream that one of my ASMs, my ALD, and myself were running a halftime show at a little Khorey League-type baseball field (yes, I know, baseball doesn't have halftimes, your guess is as good as mine). Afterwards, we went to this sports tourist shop. It turns out that this shop was in my house (um, mansion), and when my ASM went to buy something, I told the cashier to put it on my tab because I was Mrs. Roarke. (Sadly, Roarke himself never showed up...) Clearly, running a zany musical comedy, checking baseball scores, and having a J.D. Robb book on the nightstand creates some weird subconscious realities after a 60+ hour week...

Tech has eaten me, and other minor things

Just a quick note to let people know I'm alive. I really haven't even been reading anyone else's blogs lately, either, although what I have read seems to indicate that most people are just as busy as I am, since they haven't had any new posts either.

We're opening Hot Mikado Saturday night (tomorrow for me, since I haven't slept yet). It's wicked fun and I'm really proud of it. Production photos are up here. Our set is like a page out of a giant coloring book. I love it! We had our first real audience tonight, and they made it clear they had a good time from the very beginning, which was awesome. It's pretty rewarding to see that the two 15+ hour days and the two 13+ hour days I've put in so far this week haven't been completely in vain. Now just two more 12 hour days to go and then we get a well-deserved day off. Oh yeah, and we teched the entire show in less than nine hours. Coulda knocked me over with a feather! And, can I just say, my ASMs rock. Not only are they good at their jobs, but they are also people I enjoy being around, even after a 15 hour day. It's nice on so many levels! I'm definitely buying them drinks tomorrow night!

Let's see. I don't have class this Monday because of Labor Day, but I was able to talk Chrissy into letting me have Tuesday evening off from callbacks, so I can at least go to FIGHT this coming week. I finished my form this past Monday, and Sir said he'd start teaching me my weapons next time I'm in class. (I REALLY hate being back down to one night a week!!!!) He also said he'd look at his schedule and see if there are any times during the day that he might be able to come and "just happen" to unlock the door for me so I can have somewhere to work on my forms. The new class schedule there starts Tuesday, so we have to wait for that to settle in with everyone first, but he said it should be possible. There are two kind of big changes. The first is that sparring is back in the dojahng on Friday nights now. The second is that sparring is later on Friday nights than before because they are adding in an aikido class on that day! Gil, who is a black belt in it, will be teaching it. I'm excited, even though I can't start it until November.

There's a fight at the casino near the end of September, too, that I know people are going to (at least Mel and Ma'am are going). I can't make the fight, as I have a show in Solvang that night, but we're hoping to meet up for drinks or something afterwards. Should be fun. I went into the dojahng over dinner the other day to deal with some contract stuff, and ended up talking to Mel for about twenty minutes instead of eating. Oops...

I did not get the rest of my Olympic knitting completed. I still have about an inch and a half on the sock leg, and haven't gotten to touch the Tumbling Blocks scarf. Tech kind of got in the way of that. Again with that work thing being really inconvenient!

Have not gone out with Cute Guy pretty much since July. We keep saying we need to go out again, but it just hasn't worked out. He's going to be working on some other shows in the area for a while after this one ends, though, so there might be a possibility. I kind of think that's probably pretty much done now, though. We'll see.

Anyway, I'm out to try to get a decent amount of sleep and still wake up early enough to grab a rehearsal room before tech to work on forms, if one is open. I haven't gotten to all week because of my own rehearsals and classes, and I REALLY need to! Two weeks out of tkd class is two weeks too many!

Perspectives

Remember how I posted that I was having trouble adjusting to the learning pace of my new tkd curriculum? It was so slow and all? As I was leaving after class last night (which felt really good, even with kickboxing, and I nailed all five of the color belt forms we worked on, including the two I so royally screwed up last week!), I got into a discussion about my upcoming schedule with Sir. I guess normally people are expected to know to the second kihap (the halfway point) of the regular form and I think part of the weapons form for their first midterm. I have seven more moves to learn tomorrow night and then I'll have the entire form. I might start weapons tomorrow, which means I will probably learn the whole thing by the end of September. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, and including the fact that starting next week I'm back to only Mondays until after White Christmas opens in mid-November - sighcryweepsobboohiss! - he's expecting me to be eligible to midterm in October! Boggle! HE thinks I'm working extremely quickly!

I don't want to be totally gone again for the next two months just as I've gotten back into the routine, mostly because I know myself and I have a really hard time working on forms on my own because it's such a hassle to find space to do it. I might ask if there is a time I could come in either for a private lesson, or just come in and work on my own. I doubt there is too much free time, and the private lessons can add up quick, but it'd be really awesome to have just one extra day in there a week. Particularly since I'm not only giving up half of my tkd and kickboxing, but also all of my haganah for the next two months. NOT a fan! (Frank swore tonight that if I wasn't going to be there, he wasn't going to come in either - "I don't like the new girl. She doesn't hit very hard!" She JUST started this week, and I assured him that she was in kickboxing too and we'd whip her into shape soon enough if she stuck with it.)

I did strike a deal with Chrissy, though. If our evil plot goes as planned, which I'm pretty sure it will, as our interns rock so far, I will call all of the Thursday morning brat mats for the run of White Christmas. In return for letting her sleep in and save on gas, she'll call all of the Friday night performances. Which means...once that show opens, I can go to class five nights a week AND to Klondike's after sparring on Fridays! Muha! She wanted to know why I wanted Friday nights off, if I had a hot date or anything. Yup! With my sparring gear, a hot pizza, and a cold beer!

Pics as promised!

First across the finish line was...Boatneck Bluebell!

Pattern from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits. Yarn is Caron Simply Soft (100% acrylic) in Berry Blue. I like it, although if I made it again, I'd add another inch before starting the ribbing on the body. I haven't worn it other than to try it on yet, it's a tad heavy for the weather right now, but I'm hoping to soon! I think with a good bra the body will fit fine, but we'll see.

My new sweater was followed a few days later with...the dropped lace stitch scarf.

Pattern by Dee Jones for Mountain Colors. Yarn is Mountain Colors Twizzle (85% wool, 15% silk) in Sweet Pea. The picture doesn't show off the stitch pattern very well at all, but actually this was a pretty quick knit - worsted weight yarn on US 10 needles. I just put it down for a few months at a time. I really cannot say how much I love this yarn, though! It was so soft and squishy to work with, and got even softer after washing and blocking. Fabulous! Can't wait to wear this scarf! (Okay, so actually, I didn't wait - it wasn't completely dry, but I took it to rehearsal Saturday so I could finish unravelling the dropped stitches. It was just a bit damp, but good enough!)

Next up is the second of the Wendelin socks. I did end up frogging the heel (again), and when I went to re-knit it, I realized that the reason I'd made such crazy mistakes with it was because I'd started doing one type of heel then switched for some reason to another type halfway through it. Short row and gusset heels don't mix well. At least, not the way I was trying to combine them! Now all is back on track, though, and if I did nothing but knit tomorrow, I could probably finish it then. I probably won't, but it's possible.

Last up, and the one that will definitely take up the most time, is going to be the Tumbling Blocks Scarf. Cashmere laceweight is heaven to touch, but does not knit up particularly quickly on US 4 bamboo needles. I really don't like the needles, btw, but I'm a bit worried that if I change to my favored Options, my gauge will change too noticeably. Plus, cashmere and slick metal don't sound like a good combination. I kind of wish I had a Harmony wood needle for it, but oh well. I'll make do.

And, remember how excited I was about these guys? Well, that particular pattern just so happened to be in my mailbox the other day! Thanks, Mom! It's taking a lot of willpower to not make one immediately, but I don't have quite enough black and white feltable yarns right now, which forces me to be good and finish my other projects first. They're awfully darn cute, though!

I did get to help with Day in the Park today for a few hours before rehearsal. It was fun. Mr. R led some of the Leadership kids in a short demo, and then we had a booth where kids could come and learn to punch and do an easy board break. I mostly watched Sir, Mr. R and Ma'am work with the kids and help keep equipment organized while I was there, but it was still fun. I got to spend a tiny bit of time with Mrs. S again, which was nice. She seems pleased that I'm hoping to get reinvolved with kickboxing, and encouraged me to watch and learn from the instructors this morning, although I did get a "Well, I'm pretty sure I've seen YOU there on Mondays and Wednesdays, too," from Ma'am at one point when I was trying to decide if a kid was really interested in trying out a board or not and asked her to go talk to him.

Ma'am and I saw a gorgeous dog there today, too - calm, friendly, completely gentle, five months old, and paws the size of salad plates. Purebred Great Pyranees. Beautiful coloring, and literally sat almost to my waist. At five months! That's going to be one HUGE dog someday! Just from a brief interaction with him, I'd say they have the intelligence and friendliness of Labs and Goldens, but just don't really feel the need to get excited about much of anything, not even retrieving or running. I guess when you're that size, there's not much to get excited about!

The Halfway Point

We're halfway through the Olympics, and I am halfway to my goal of turning four UFOs into FOs! One is in the wash and the other is drying on the blocking board covered with a towel (Teddie seems to have decided the wet yarn is his perfect soulmate, which necessitates the secrecy). I'll try to get pics up tomorrow or Sunday (tomorrow might be a little crazy), and you'll have to find out which ones hit the finish line then! Muha! (Okay, so Ravelers can probably figure it out, but the pics still aren't up there yet either.)

I've also hit the halfway point in learning my new regular form. The form isn't really all THAT much longer than any of my previous forms (81 moves), but Sir (who was back in class Wednesday night) and Mr. R have only been adding five or six moves, if that, per class. It's definitely the slowest pace I've ever gone on formwork, and it's taking some getting used to. I'm used to having to learn an entire form and get it to testing level in eight or nine weeks, which means that normally at this point I'd've learned the whole thing and would be starting to clean it up, really drilling stances and chambers and that sort of thing. It's like we've suddenly hit the brakes and the new pace is throwing me just a little. My life runs in rush mode; bad habits are hard to break.

We are going to keep up with the instructor class being half colorbelt forms and training drills, and the other half is going to be our (Ma'am, Mr. R, and Jorge, another second degree) time to work on our own forms and drills. (I also work on my new form during regular class, but I don't get anything new added to it until later in instructor class. Sometimes I help the lower belts with their forms and other black belts with the self defense in regular class, too.) We go a little longer at night now, but I like it. It's neat and kind of inspiring to see the teachers learning new things. Apparently I can do all the colorbelt forms just fine, unless Sir is in the room. I was nailing them with Mr. R, Ma'am and Jorge, but Sir comes back and I got stuck in both the camo form AND the green belt form. Bah! I am, however, actually helping out with a Day in the Park kids' event on Sunday morning, which I think will be fun. I'm a little nervous about it, though. I think it will be Sir, Mrs. S, Mr. R, Ma'am, and me, and I'm DEFINITELY the lowest and most inexperienced out of that bunch. But, on the other hand, how am going to learn if I just stay in class the whole time? I just hope I'm at least useful to them.

I did get to go to kickboxing on Monday (the routine hasn't changed that much) and my hamstrings kept reminding me of it on Tuesday. It was really nice to get back into the swing of it, but it was a little hard to realize that I'm not in the shape that I need to be in order to do that classload. I did want to make it again on Thursday (Wednesday is just too soon after rehearsal), but I got stuck at work with new interns and was only able to make it to FIGHT - just in time to get more bruises on my arms from knife sparring. Shane has really sharp fingernails, btw. I know. He dug them into my wrist and I still have the marks today!

Anyway, meeting for Midsummer tomorrow morning and then lunch with Cute Guy and the girl who is taking over his internship for this coming year before rehearsal tomorrow. Might go see Ragtime tomorrow night with her, too.

Go Phelps!

Olympics! (And a mental slap upside the head)

Okay, I love the Olympics. I know some people are boycotting watching them because they don't like China. I say that goes against the entire concept of the Games - that the whole point of the Olympics is that you can compete against each other without hating each other, despite politics and world problems, and look what we can do when we all work together just in sports. What could we do if we worked together on the really important stuff? And despite its flaws, China has opened its doors to the world at least for a brief few weeks and invited us to come in anyway.

Anyway, I love the Olympics. Sports (well, except basketball, which I still think is boring to watch) that I'd never THINK about watching before are suddenly fascinating. I've watched swimming (of course), badminton, equestrian something, men's and women's volleyball, boxing, men's gymnastics, fencing, and even a judo match. So cool! Of course, I want to try to see a tkd match, but they are next week and being broadcast online at strange hours. And I could talk about how cool the Opening Ceremonies were for hours. The "artistic" portion was just plain jaw-dropping, the Parade of Nations was really interesting and educational (I didn't know the Chinese didn't have a set alphabet!), and the lighting of the torch...well...just go to NBC Olympics and watch it for yourself. (Btw, can I just say that I LOVE the design of the Cauldron this year! It's gorgeous!)

Anyway, I'm not doing any of the formal knitting-related Olympics KALs, but I've decided that the Olympics are for my four UFOs: the Boatneck Bluebell Sweater, the second Wendelin Sock, the Dropped Stitch Scarf, and the Tumbling Blocks scarf. Just before the Ceremony started on Friday, I was getting everything ready, found my place in the pattern for the BB sweater, counted stitches, and realized I was four stitches short. I don't know how I got to be four stitches short (well, obviously I decreased four times but I don't know where), but it was correct on the other sleeve (the ribbing columns make it easy to count), so I had to frog back and fix it. Now I'm pretty close to being finished with the stockinette portion of the sleeve and then just have the cuff to do, seam it, and be done.

It's been really tempting to knit on either the sock or the Tumbling Blocks scarf during rehearsals, as we've been doing tons of choreography this week (one of the bad/good things about heavy dance shows is doing choreography overandoverandoverandoverandover) and the director is a knitter herself, but I haven't yet. I might check in with her about it today, though, since we aren't doing ANYTHING new, just cleaning. This show is going to be awesome, though - if you love to watch swing dancing, or just guys dancing, this is your show. The first eight numbers are ALL guys, then we add the girls in and swing for a while longer. It's pretty cool, although I'm going to have to build in lift calls before the performances for this one. First time in about two years we've had a show with mandatory daily lift calls and warmups.

I did get a sort-of answer to my ponderings about my board breaks in class, too. I had been under the impression that once I chose my options, I was stuck with them until my next test. Mr. R explained the other night after FIGHT that I could try different options as much as I wanted and figure out what I like best. Yay! And I didn't make it to kickboxing last week, but I'm going to tomorrow. I made the mistake of making brownies the other day, then we had an Opening last night with lots of food and alcohol, and I haven't done anything since Thursday night, so I'm going to need to burn off some empty calories! I am going to stay after rehearsal today and work on forms, though, as I need to have brown belt (my assigned form) down cold for tomorrow night.

We've had a bunch of new white belts in the adult class lately (two young teens, an older teen, and two new women older than I), and I worked with one, Chad, the older teen, Monday night. I remembered how I felt when I was a white belt working with a black belt, and since he seemed to be fairly intelligent for a high school boy and asked questions, I did a lot of explaining and demonstrating that day, but didn't really think anything about it. Apparently it made an impression on him, though - Thursday before FIGHT I was stopped by a gentleman coming off the mat from kickboxing class:

Him: "Hi...do you remember Chad? He's new in the taekwondo class?"
Me: "Oh sure. I worked with him the other night. [me realizing that this is probably a parent, turns out he was the stepdad] He seems to be a good kid."
Him: "Yeah, he is. He's been talking about you all week. He said that you were really great to work with - that you knew what you were doing and helped him out a lot...[him realizing what class is next] Do you do this, too?!"
Me: "Yeah. In a really good week, I'll do the kickboxing class, as well."
Him: "Geez...no wonder you know what you're doing!"
I looked around to make sure Mr. R wasn't listening, leaned over, and told him the truth - "I just have really great instructors!" He laughed. I made to shake his hand:
Him: "I'm [I don't remember his name, sorry]."
Me: "Nice to meet you. I'm..."
Him: "Katie. I know."

The whole conversation kind of threw me a little - Mr. R teased me that Chad has a teenboy crush on me - but I don't generally expect total strangers to know me, or to compliment me like that. And then I slapped myself upside the head. I'm in instructor class, this is what I'm training to do - to help other people learn what I've learned so far. Obviously white belts aren't the only ones learning something!

Ooo...beach volleyball now!

Colors and things...

you are gold #FFD700

Your dominant hues are red and green, so you're definately not afraid to get in and stir things up. You have no time for most people's concerns, you'd rather analyze with your head than be held back by some random "gut feeling". Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Totally stolen from Inky. Most of it is right, except for the whole not listening to people's concerns or my gut feelings. I can't honestly claim that, seeing as how the biggest decisions of my life, so far at least, have been along the lines of "this feels right" even when I had no real rational reason to think so. And listening to people's concerns and making them work is kind of what I do...

Anyway, picked up the sweater again the other day and am starting the increases for the final third of the sleeve. After that, I have several inches of stockinette still, but my plan for Friday night is to curl up on the couch and watch the Opening Ceremonies, and I figure that will be a good time to knock that out and finish knitting the darn thing. (I STILL can't figure out why I didn't knit the darn sleeves in the round. Stupid me and actually following the pattern when everything in me is saying "You HATE knitting sleeves flat and seaming them! You know how to adjust the pattern, just do it!" I need to listen to me more often, apparently.) I also worked on the sock the other night during the show - oh yeah, I've been deck crew for the past three performances of Ragtime, due to a crew member getting bit by a spider! Luckily, I got out of it tonight - and when I got home found the most godawful hole that I've ever made picking up gusset stitches. So now I'm debating whether or not I can live with it or just bite the bullet and frog it back. (Probably the latter, but I haven't quite worked up to that yet.)

I have a couple of ideas for some Christmas presents, not counting Chrissy's, but am not 100% sure I can pull them off. Someday when I have free time (yeah, right) I'm going to sit down with a stitch dictionary and see if I can chart out what is in my head. I know I can do all of the techniques, it's just putting them together by myself that is a little daunting.

Class stuff behind the cut. I didn't think I had anything to say, but apparently I did.
Class tonight was fun. Instructor class has been far more interesting than regular class now that all of us are black belts. At least while Sir is still on vacation, it's kind of been more of just a black belt class - that's where I've been really learning my new form, and we've been going through all of the self-defenses again. We've been working on the color belt forms, too, but Mr. R's been doing it a little differently, and I, for one, really like it. Monday night, he assigned each of us specific forms to bring in for tonight. Tonight, we each led our assigned forms and then got assigned new ones for next Monday. It's a little like homework, but I'm remembering and focusing better this way. I wonder if that is something the Mr. R just does or if Sir asked him to start it while he was gone. I hope the latter, because I like it.

Mr. H came in tonight to help Mr. R out with the adult class, and before we got started he asked me why I wasn't an instructor yet. I've only had my belt for ten days, geez! And I still have to get completely solid on form memorization (I still tend to blank easily, even though I can do them almost fine when I'm not leading them) and I have almost no weapons training whatsoever. I kind of feel like I was holding the rest of the class back, but I can't imagine trying to start re-learning color belt forms now. I think going back and trying to learn eight or nine forms again while trying to learn this new form would make my head explode. The black belt forms start breaking habits that you learn with the color belt forms (like aiming before you punch, and telegraphing what hand strike is next during the chambers), so it's almost like having to learn basic techniques all over again.

I also have to figure out what I want to do for my board breaks now. I have the options of any hammerfist, knifehand strike, elbow strike, or palm heel for the hand technique, and a jump side kick over two obstacles (yeah, I will NOT be doing that one, seeing as how it's my favorite break and all and adding obstacles just doesn't sound like a real good idea), a jump reverse side kick, or a spin hook kick for my foot technique. Mr. R said technically I could do palm heel strikes until kingdom come if I wanted to, but somehow I suspect Sir would want me to do something different this time around. (The exact phrase that sprang to my mind was "He'd tell me to grow up and learn something," which Mr. R agreed with wholeheartedly.) Knifehand strikes and I don't get along very well, either, but I was always pretty good with elbow strikes. I've never actually had to do a hammerfist break of any kind, but they seem like fun, too. I'll have to think about this. I have at least a year to learn. Do I want to challenge myself and try techniques that I find scary, or go with ones I am already more powerful with? Hmm...I have to have at least an idea of what I want to do by Monday so we can work on it in instructor class. This will take some thought...
I might try to do kickboxing before FIGHT tomorrow. I got a new sleeve-style brace that I actually REALLY like a lot. We'll see!

Too Many Goodbyes...

It's been a long week...

First, our resident LD left for grad school in Boston this weekend. He and I weren't especially close, but were friends all the same and we worked pretty well together. Then, our TD, Steve (yes, THAT Steve, my ex), left the next day for grad school in New Haven. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to him, due to the craziness of work this week, and I regret that. (Although, in all fairness, I have no idea what I'd say to him. I really hope that Yale keeps him busy and it's everything he was hoping for!) Then our recent SM grad, who was also my ASM for the Solvang run of Godspell (we decided it was fitting that she did her first show here, Dames At Sea, and her last show here with me), moved down to Fullerton today to finish her undergrad, and stopped in rehearsal yesterday to say goodbye. It's getting to be that time of year again, I guess. I made her a pink hedgehog =)

I was supposed to go down to LA today and stay through Wednesday working on shows for John, but Saturday one of the Ragtime crew was admitted to the ER with a possibly infected spider bite, so Trey (one of my Mikado ASMs and will be a year-long intern) and I had to cover her track all weekend, plus do my own rehearsals. She has to go back in "to have another procedure" on Tuesday, so we're not expecting her to be able to run her track for Tuesday or Wednesday's performances either. John is understandably NOT happy with me right now, but it actually does take two people to cover her track when neither of them are particularly familiar with the backstage of this insanely crazy show, and frankly, PCPA has the much stronger claim on my time, as that salary pays my bills and rent. Plus the idea of driving three hours each way and adding yet another show into my brain and working almost three weeks straight without a day off kind of made my head explode, particularly after doing back to back 14 hour days here.

The good thing is that now I can go to class tonight and not miss an entire week of tkd, so I'm not really broken hearted about not going to LA. I know about the first dozen or so moves of my new form now! Sir said he wants me to get at least to midterming point with my regular form before starting weapons, but he'll let me do single bahng mahng ee first, which I'm excited about. I might even go to kickboxing today. We'll see. Sir and Mrs. S are on vacation for a few weeks, so it will be Morgan teaching FIGHT and probably Mr. R and Ma'am teaching tkd. I think Gil, the guy I mentioned in my last post, is teaching kickboxing, since I haven't been able to be there regularly in about two months and I'm sure he knows the current routine better than I do! I want to start getting back into kickboxing, but it's just at that perfect time of the day, where if everything goes right, I can make it, but if someone needs me for five extra minutes, I can't. I'm also still a little concerned about my elbow. I did classes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday last week (I can't make sparring on Fridays at all, as they start at 5:00p and I'm in rehearsal until then), and it was....okay. The guys got a little rough on Thursday, and Morgan seems to have a love affair going with pushups and planks, which I agree I need to work on, but really hurt after the first two sets. We're also doing a lot of blocking and choreography in rehearsal right now, so I'm writing for almost four hours straight, which doesn't help the ligaments, according to the doc. I think kickboxing aggravates it more than the others because of the last ten minutes or so, which is usually medicine balls and floor work on hands and knees. I kind of feel like I should be involved with it again, though. I'll try it tonight and see how it goes. It would be great to at least do it on Thursdays before FIGHT.

In fibery news, I mentioned earlier that I did make another hedgehog. I purposely didn't felt this one quite as small because I wanted it to be a little more huggy. Still working on the crocheted Log Cabin, and realized today that if I just sat and worked on it, I'd be finished knitting the Boatneck Bluebell sweater really quickly. I just have about a third of a sleeve left to do and then seam them up. (WHY didn't I do the sleeves in the round?? WHY?) I'm kind of in a blah knitting place right now. Nothing is particularly interesting or inspiring to me. The new Mystery Stole signups are open, but as last year's is still languishing in my WIP basket, I probably shouldn't start a new one. I finished the heel on the second Wendelin sock about a week and a half ago now and haven't picked it back up since. Chrissy says she really really really wants a Lady Eleanor "like mine" for Christmas, and I saw a yarn at Michael's (I think a Patons) that I think would work really well for her, and is far cheaper than Noro (which I never want to work with again, although I do have to admit my stole is gorgeously painted), but I also found another stole pattern a few weeks ago that just screams Chrissy to me. I haven't seen a yarn or beads for it that I really like yet, though, and I can't decide which pattern to go with, the one I KNOW she likes because she keeps stealing mine, or one that's different that I'm pretty sure she'll like? I need to get something like that started fairly soon. It IS August now, after all...

Now, because I randomly woke up at 6:30a for no reason on my day off, I'm going back to bed.