The Insanity

As you might have picked up by the title of my last post, I've been a little busy recently. Let's see, where to start? My last significant post was last Wednesday, so we'll pick up from there, I guess.

Thursday was spent finishing up the Soyuz presentation for 512 and frantically searching for more information for my 604 paper and ultimately deciding to change the scope of it. I did not make it to haganah that night, sadly.

Friday was spent on paper research, applying at another temp agency (recommended by Eduardo), studying for the 512 midterm, then taking said midterm that night and freaking out slightly because it was harder than I had expected it to be. (It turns out that everyone else thought so, too.)

Saturday was spent discovering that the midterm wasn't as bad as I'd thought (90%), listening to the start of the presentations (I gotta say...rockets in general are pretty darn cool toys! We did Minuteman III missiles and Atlas, Delta II, and Pegasus rockets that day), learning about the orbital mechanics for interplanetary travel (doesn't that sound like that should be a line from, like a Star Trek episode?), reviewing for the final, coming home, and continuing to research paper stuff.

Sunday was spent dreading having to give my presentation, fumbling through it (EVERYONE else got asked tons of questions during their presentations, which made it feel like a back and forth discussion, rather than a presentation, but NO ONE asked anything during mine, so either I was extremely clear or extremely boring, which made me MORE nervous), listening to the rest of the class' stuff (LCROSS, THEMIS, TacSat III, and Launch Safety), taking the final (which, after knowing what the midterm was like, was pretty easy), coming home, and continuing to work on paper research.

Monday was spent down in LA. John actually followed through on getting the crew together to watch the show video for once, and "made it worth it" for me by having me come down earlier in the day and letting me reorganize our touring supply case, which had been driving me insane. It was a fun day - he had burned me a copy of a CD he'd bought last time we were at Starbucks (we call it Parisian wine music), we had lunch with his family (well, 4 of his 5 siblings, anyway), started taking Watertight apart to clean it, and then he went back to his office and gave me carte blanche to organize the case. (It's MUCH better now!) I'd finished with the case and was sitting at the table working on my paper when he came back with a brilliant (*cough*) idea. "Hey! Wouldn't it be awesome if you worked HERE?! You could always just BE here and help with stuff, I wonder if my dad has any openings in the office..." I'm not holding my breath for that, as they've been hit by the economy just as hard as everyone else, but it was sweet of him to think that. (I got several not-particularly-subtle hints throughout the day that "it would just be easier if you were down here," which I found amusing.) The girls and Eduardo showed up in the evening, and we descended on Ruby Tuesday's with enough laughter and noise between the five of us to scare other patrons away while we ate. Then we went back to the warehouse and actually got to watch the video of the show, which was very useful. The others took off around 10:00p, but John started tinkering with Watertight again, and my car was parked by his office, so we didn't get out of there until about 11:30p. Now, despite what happened last time I drove back late at night, this time I was actually okay to drive - it hadn't been any crazy long day, I'd gotten a good night's sleep the night before, and I hadn't been up for any 24 hours straight by the time I hit the road. I knew that Tuesday was going to be my last real chance to work on my paper, having finished the research at the warehouse while waiting for him, and wanted to be sure I'd have enough time to get it typed up. John, however, seems to have taken my "don't ever let me do that again!" impulse whine to heart and he kidnapped me! He usually fills my tank up for me when I leave, so when he drops me off at my car and says "Follow me," I figure we're going to the gas station. No, we went back to his place instead. His response to my "*I* thought I was going home tonight?!" was "Well, you can if you really want to...*I* don't think it's worth it, though, and you have a room to crash in here, so...why?" Mrph!

Tuesday started out pretty nicely, actually. Luckily, I still had my travel toothbrush in my bag from last weekend, but his brother sure gave me a weird look when he came into the kitchen the next morning and saw me, no makeup and in the same - now dirty from the warehouse - clothes as yesterday. John had asked me to not leave until he was up, so I ended up typing the first page or two of my paper (I'd finished the research at the warehouse) with the SoCal sunshine streaming onto me through their kitchen windows. I actually could have kept working on the thing (to a certain point) right there, but John finally decided he was ready around noon (with more "you don't really want to go back, you should be down here" comments), so I got back to Santa Maria around 3:00p (it's actually a more direct route from his house, one less freeway to navigate). I got about half the paper done, then said "Screw it, I need this!" and went to haganah for the first time in a week and a half. Getting beat up on helps clear the head, I swear! Came home, got about 3/4 of the paper done, figured out the correct formatting, and crashed.

Today, I finished the paper, threw some slides together for the accompanying presentation and went to class. This time, I was more nervous BEFORE the presentation, but during it, I was fine. Clearly, being nervous before presentations results in better presentations. It also helps that there were questions and comments during this one. All in all, I feel like I did much better with this presentation than I did with the 512 one, and I kind of slapped this one together at the last minute. Weird. I also just got the news that John met with another promoter today and they're interested in doing a series of at least five shows! So today's been a pretty good day - good news on the show AND all of my papers and presentations are now OVER! I have one more final for 604 next week, and then classwork is done for a couple weeks. I'm trying to decide if I want to do two on-site classes or one on-site and one online class next term. I'm leaning towards the latter, but I'm going to go register tomorrow, so we'll see.

Tomorrow is going to be spent SCRUBBING down the apartment. It's time for a good, thorough, spring cleaning, and then Friday is Baby S's second birthday party! (We'll see how much blue icing gets smeared this time!) I have to go down to Channel Islands at dark o'clock Saturday morning for my space flight physical, and then regular drill day on Sunday. Between the trips to LA and VAFB, I've put over a thousand miles on my car just in the past two weeks. Yikes! Time for an oil change!

Making some of the insanity worth it....

Course
ASCI 512
Title
Space Mission & Launch Operations
Final Grade
A - Superior


My presentation was mediocre - I wasn't nervous until I got up there and started talking, and then I got REALLY nervous and flubbed a lot - but I guess it was good enough.

Now to get some sleep (went back down to LA yesterday - Monday - and got back this - Tuesday - afternoon , more on that later), wake up, write the last two pages of my paper, and hopefully continue my A streak.

Whoever can be trusted with much...

Post delayed mostly because I've spent the last couple days hoping that the fatigue, sore throat, and headaches were the result of a very long weekend and not one of our dancers getting me sick. (Luckily, that seems to be the case, as I didn't wake up with a sore throat and actually have some sort of appetite today.) Not only that, but I've been working on my Soyuz presentation for 512, which is due on Sunday, and trying to convince myself to work on my 604 term paper, which is due a week from today. I have tons and tons of information for the presentation (it was interesting reading Cold War-era documents on the craft, all the "we thinks" and "from the available intelligence it was concluded" kind of stuff as both sides tried to build their own stuff while trying to figure out what the other was up to) - all I have to do is actually make the slides and rehearse the information at this point - but very very little information for the paper, which is worrying me a little bit. I can write a paper, no problem, but not having information makes it a little difficult. I'm going to finish the presentation today, and then focus all my attention on the paper. It might be a little hard with class this weekend, but we'll see what happens. Oh, and speaking of 604, we got our midterms back last week - I got a 94! Yay! He'd originally given me a 90 on it, but we were able to successfully argue two of the questions, so it got bumped up. I *think* it was the highest grade in the class, since he congratulated me when he handed it to me, but I was just happy I passed it. I will not be sorry when that class is over - the people are cool, but the topic is boring. Plus, the final will be similar format, which makes me feel a little better about the paper maybe not being so good. We'll see.

Of course, I'm doing everything pretty much at the last minute, since I was back down in LA this past weekend. I always bring my class stuff with me with the intention of working on it down there, and then never have time to look at any of it. I got down there late Friday morning to find that John had unpacked half the stuff we'd packed up on Sunday, so I ended up repacking it and then we loaded the truck Friday afternoon. (I'm really glad organizing the truck is NOT my responsibility!) Despite some initial qualms, we did indeed fit everything into one semi, then ran some errands and hung out with Eduardo, our new production manager (loading the trucks is his headache, ha! I like him, though. I'll let John keep him. He makes me laugh) until midnight or so. John and Eduardo both got to sleep in the next day, but I was on the road by 8:15a in order to get to the theater by 9:30a. The local crew was pretty cool, although it both amuses and irritates me to no end that they always put on this jaded "oh yeah, we know how all the magic works, we had SoAndSo here/worked with SoAndSo, it's no big deal" but yet they tend to hover over all the illusions and constantly ask questions. Luckily though, a strong but polite "Thank you, but I don't need any help right now" was enough to get them to get off our backs for the most part. (I've had to pull out Bitch Mode a few times when local crews just wouldn't back off, which is irritating.) Of course, there are always things that we just can't hide, but that's why they sign confidentiality forms. Plus, the theater has this really obscure loading area setup where you have to pull the truck into an alley, unload it, then use a double ramp system to get the cases over the 6" curb on the street side and down the 18" drop to the stage floor. The only logical explanation I can think of is that when the theater was built in 1928, the building behind it didn't exist, and so trucks/wagons could actually back straight up to the door, drop a ramp, and load directly into the theater. In 2009, though, it's a pain in the butt, or, rather, back, since our stuff is REALLY heavy, and thank goodness it wasn't raining! (The thing about Watertight weighing over a ton is not an exaggeration for publicity - the thing really IS that heavy!) However, we still had everything inside by 11:30a and my crew and I had almost everything set up and ready to go by the time John and Eduardo arrived around 1:00p. The afternoon was spent on lighting (we've finally convinced John that he just needs to have his own lighting guy), and then we had the show that night. 1700 seat theater, and rumour has it that we sold about 1000 tickets, which is great. The audience had a really great energy, too, which made it awesome. Everything went really smoothly, and even a couple of the "jaded" local crew said they had really enjoyed the show. Curtain went down at 9:30p, and we were out of there by 11:30p. The girls had to get home (they live in Burbank, so it was quite a drive for them), but Eduardo, Alfonso, John, and I went out for a little bit afterwards and ended up getting home around 3:00a. The next day, John and I had a "quick lunch" that ended up with us talking for about two hours, and then I got home Sunday night and pretty much crashed for the next two days.

This show was a big deal for us because (according to John, who told me this at lunch on Sunday) it was the first time that he had EVER done a show and not had to help with loading in or out or presetting anything. He was able to come in, deal with the lights, and just perform. It was a little stressful for me, because that meant it was also the first time that I didn't have him around as a safety net just in case, but it was also fun, too. John had promised that he and I would unpack the equipment together sometime next week so that he could check my work and we could check some equipment that we'd had trouble with, which I was looking forward to, but then he called Monday and said he'd already done all of that, so now I'm a bit miffed with him. I know they're HIS toys and he can do whatever he wants with them, but that doesn't mean that I don't like playing with them, too! I hate being so far away that it's inconvenient for me to help with things like that. (Of course, the fact that John actually is a great guy and I always develop a crush on him any time I'm down there doesn't hurt, either - not that I'd ever tell him that! Out of sight, out of mind helps a lot, though!) I'm actually considering moving back down there after I go through basic and tech school - no point in moving twice - but tkd and my dojahng family are the biggest obstacles to that right now. If we get to the point where I have to go down more than 2-3 times every month for shows, then I'll probably move. (Or, if I can get a job that pays full time!) I can still do Embry-Riddle down there and finish my degree, and I can come up and do my shifts at VAFB whenever it's convenient. Anyway, it's just a thought right now!

I'm also starting a new scarf - the Card Trick Illusion Scarf - that one of my PCPA knitters sent to me Monday. I think it's pretty appropriate, and I'm indulging in some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk goodness for it. I'm going to adapt the pattern a little to just use two colors - red and black - rather than three, and will switch main colors where appropriate. I'm looking forward to it!

Alright, enough stalling, back to homework!

Unexpected Valentines

Before anyone asks, no, I did not have a romantic Valentine's Day weekend. I did, however, have a blast.

Friday night was a test night at the dojahng. I didn't test or midterm, but I did get to help out with it. I "assistant floor conducted" for Mr. R, which basically means that I indicated where testers were to stand when they were called up, held boards for board breaks, and attacked people for self-defense. It was fun. TKD grandson really wanted to go to Klondikes afterwards, but his grandmother wasn't off work yet and most of the regular group had other plans, so I offered to take him down and keep an eye on him until TKD Grandma got off work. Mr. R ended up joining us down there, and it was cool to hang out with him for a while.

Went down to LA on Saturday for what was supposed to be an overnight trip to rehearse with John for the show next weekend. (California Theater of the Performing Arts, San Bernadino, Feb. 21st, 8:00p. Tickets are $20-50, and well worth it! We're doing Black & White, Mom! And Watertight!) Got down there around noon, worked with John, the girls, and a new guy (who I get good vibes from, I think he'll be a good asset for us) until 6:00p or so, then John and I got a lowkey dinner (a Greek salad and a really good bbq chicken pizza - not as good as Klondike's, but good) and went back to his place. He'd been going through some old show videos to find some promo clips and came across a video of one of our first rehearsals together (we don't know WHY this video exists, as cameras of any kind are obviously very strictly regulated when working with John, but it does). I started working with John four years ago this month, for his 2005 SoCal tour. We started watching this video and then just stared at each other. I have NO idea how we did those first few shows - the guys we had on crew were slow, unreliable, and not professional theater people, and that's about the nicest things I can say about them. I, having just started working with John and not having any idea what he needed or what he was like, was also pretty useless to him at that point. It was such a frustrating process, and I'm sure that John probably wanted to kill us all and run away to Barbados or someplace. We'd worked for a month straight, often staying at the warehouse until midnight or later (our record was 4:00a) and it still wouldn't be right and no one knew how anything loaded or preset, and John would have to be supervising all of us constantly. Somehow, though, we managed those five shows, and began slowly weeding out the weak links in the crew and in our own processes, replacing them with new people and new ideas. He told me once that he'd feel like the show was "ready" when he could rehearse once or twice with the crew and then not show up until curtain and still be absolutely certain that everything was set correctly for the show. Well, this weekend, we ran through the show once on Saturday and twice on Sunday, without John touching any of the presets (he does double check them, of course, because that's just smart), and he's not coming to load-in at the theater this Saturday. Our crew now rocks (*cough*including 3 former PCPA interns*cough*) and John's like "Oh, Katie will be there. She'll take care of it." Which is how it should be, quite frankly. It's only taken us four years to get to this point! We didn't get to see much of the video, because we kept getting interrupted by family members coming in and out of the room (again, secrecy is paramount), but it's amazing how far we've come in four years. We have tenative plans involving the rest of the video and a bottle or two of wine and next Friday night. (Of course, SOME of us have to be at the theater early on Saturday while others get to be the diva and sleep in now, so we'll see how that goes! =) )

So that was my Valentine's Day. Sunday was supposed to be a 12:00p-5:00p rehearsal, packing the equipment, and then I was going to come back Sunday night, but we wanted to run Watertight with water, which takes forever to fill (2000lbs is a LOT of water) and then it didn't work right the first time, so we had to troubleshoot it for a while (turned out to be an easy fix). By the time we got done with that, we were cold, wet, and dirty (the warehouse is....not the cleanest place in the world. It's a warehouse.), so we taught the new guy how to pack up his stuff as quickly as possible and sent the crew home, and John and I finished up. We finally got out of there around 10:30p, at which point John refused to let me drive home (plus he needed help getting the dogs back to his place), so we grabbed some food, stayed conscious long enough to get the dogs out, wash our hands, sit at their kitchen table and eat, and then went bed. (To be perfectly honest, given a choice between a three hour drive after a long day or another night in a gorgeous 8+ bedroom mansion - not counting John's apartment over their 8-car garage - where "my" room - I always get put in the same bed/bathroom, which used to be one of his older sisters', John calls it "Katie's room" now - overlooks the swimming pool/hot tub, sauna, gazebo, and full-size tennis court, well, which would you pick? My mama didn't raise no fool!) I was then going to leave Monday morning after John gave me a ride back to the warehouse to get my car, but of course, he comes down that morning with a list of little things that need to be taken care of. So, rather than getting to the warehouse, getting in my car, and going home, we get to the warehouse and go back to work, tweaking some things that had been bothering him, cleaning up some stuff, etc. Then he notices that one of the tires on my car is low, so then every tire had to be checked and filled while he lamented over the scratches on the rims and doors and harassed me about how often I'd had various maintenance things done on it. (John's a car junkie, and openly admits that not many people are as obsessive about cars and their maintenance as he is. He told me once that he collects illusions and cars, because, in the long run, they're less expensive and easier on the body than crack. Hard to argue with that.) Once my poor car finally (grudgingly) passed inspection, we grabbed a late lunch, and I finally was able to make it back to Santa Maria last night.

I have to go back down Friday morning to help load the truck, and I think we'll probably try to kick back and relax the rest of that day. I think he mentioned having to take the dogs to the groomers that day, but that was it. Saturday I have to be in San Bernadino by 10:00a (that's about an hour from John's place, I think) to start loading in, and then the show is that night, with load-out to follow. So I'll probably come back on Sunday - usually I help unload the trucks back at the warehouse, too, but I don't think they're doing that until Monday. Plus, it sounds like I'll be down there frequently in the next few weeks. Danielle (one of the dancers) and I really want to find a time to hang out, just because we never get to, and John, the girls, and I have been talking about doing a Disneyland trip forever now, and it looks like we might have a weekend available in March. John also has been playing around with a new idea for an illusion, and wants us to help him work it out, so there's more time down there. He has a new producer/publicist, too, so there *should* be more and more shows coming up (including a possible gig in France!). He's totally supportive about me being in the Guard and is completely willing to work with that schedule, which is good to know just in case it does get to a more full-time point (which would be awesome!).

It'd be really cool to be able to work full time with John and part time with the Guard (where the only requirements are that I maintain a California residence and show up for the shifts I say I'm going to show up for). I can even continue working on my degree with him because of the way ERAU is set up. I mean, seriously, being an illusionist's right-hand man AND having a military clearance - doesn't that sound like some kind of James Bond-flick type of character? (John teases me that I must be a very trustworthy person to have to keep so many secrets!)

First Drill

Easily survivable. There were four of us who are new, two prior service and two non-priors, and since we haven't been through training nor do we have security clearances yet, there isn't much we can do right now, plus someone has to babysit us while we're there, so mostly we just sat through a few briefings, started the paperwork for our clearances (some of you might be getting phone calls or visits, don't worry!) and met a LOT of people. Most of the people I met are with the 216th, which is the unit that runs JSpOC (basically, they decide when and how space resources are prioritized among the various military branches' needs) and non-priors aren't allowed in unless they already have a space background, which is pretty hard to get without prior service, so it's kind of a Catch-22. I'm with the 148th, whose primary and only function is to work with the communication satellites. It's a good place to start getting some experience in space while I work on my degree. A new range unit is supposed to be standing up within the next two years, and my recruiting sergeant had me meet one of the majors who will most likely be in command of that unit. He explained my background to the major (I had a LOT of people ask me why I wasn't an officer. Because there are no officer jobs open!), and then let me just talk to him for a while. He asked why I'd gone into theater, if I'd been an actor. I said, "No, I just wanted to run the show. You'd call my job the equivalent of a flight director," at which point he lit up. He directly challenged me to get through my training with good record, be "a hot s$%t operator" up at the 148th, get a good reputation going, keep working on my masters, and he'd help me get everything put together for an officer's commission with the new unit when it is ready. (A range unit directly handles launches, both missile and rocket.) Now, granted, this IS the military, so I'm not going to hold my breath waiting on that, but it's really cool to hear and I'm definitely planning on stepping up to that challenge! Not that I would have done anything less anyway.

Next month is probably going to be pretty similar, except on Saturday I have to go down to Channel Islands and get yet another physical. Yay. They said something about us non-priors maybe joining a student flight on base after that, and I'm not quite sure what that entails, other than training us for basic (which seems a little redundant, but whatever). I guess I'll find out. It sounded like they were still working out the details anyway.

Best quote of the weekend (from the same major I'd talked to, although he was quoting some general during this briefing to new people to the ANG): "This is the military. We break s&*t and kill people. That's what we do. If you can't support that, you can leave now."

One month in...

I started typing a response to Inky's comment two posts ago and realized I was pretty much typing up another post in her poor little comment box. So now everyone gets stuck with it, instead!

A few people, mostly PCPA people that I've run into out and about, have asked me if I "miss it" now that I've been out for a month. The answer, honestly, is no. Maybe it's still the novelty of everything, and of course I miss the people, but no, I don't miss my old job at all, actually. In fact, it's sooo nice to not to be in this weird "loving what you do but still dreading going to work everyday" place. I was always so afraid of messing something up, or forgetting to do something, or worse, just not measuring up to standards. It's...a relief right now to have a job with such limited responsibilities (I clock in, help people find things and take their money, balance my drawer, and clock out). I'm not even finding it as difficult as I expected to get used to working mornings, because by the time I get done with work, homework/errands/housework, and classes, I'm usually ready to crash at night anyway. And dudes...two day weekends! All the time! (Okay, so my weekends are currently all booked for February already. But still, it's cool that I can do that!)

It's really awesome to be excited about learning again, too. As much as I love theater and working on shows, classes about it never interested me much. In fact, I probably skipped more classes than I actually went to. But this. This is a field I've been interested in literally since the first time my dad took me outside and showed me the stars. I look at this stuff and just think "this is SO cool!" (okay, the HF class itself is a bit of a drag, but the tangents they go off on in class are pretty interesting). Honestly, we can put a man on the frickin' MOON! Over and over again! And we could do THAT forty years ago! Just think of where we could go now! (Once we get over this whole bone loss thing, of course!)

Anyway, the short answer is that even though I don't always know where the money is going to come from to pay the bills, I still feel lighter than I have in a long time. And, oddly enough, I'm still glad I didn't stick with the engineering degree. I was never really interested in HOW the things were built. I was always more curious about WHY they worked and how all these really different systems work together smoothly to make a mission. Face it, a flight surgeon and an engine expert are totally seperate fields. Not even remotely similar. But yet the data they each provide and what they each control during a manned mission is equally important and necessary. And THAT is what I'm getting to focus on now that I never would have been able to if I had stayed just in engineering.

There's a design to this ride, and I'm really interested in seeing where it's going!

Just my luck

So, not only is smokin' hot captain an officer (obviously), he's also going to be one of my tech school instructors after I get out of basic! So, pretty much completely off limits even if he is single. Sigh! He did want to know where I'd "learned everything" already and told me I would already know pretty much everything in his class (apparently he teaches mostly the telemetry and ground control portion of flying the satellites) and shouldn't have any trouble, but if I had any questions, we could talk tomorrow...

Class today was even better. Apparently, we're all picking things up much more quickly than most of his classes, so we got done about an hour and a half early today and will probably get out early again tomorrow (heaven forbid we miss the Super Bowl, you know!).

Nerves, Revoked

ASCI 512 is quite a bit bigger than ASCI 604. I'm still the only girl, and still the true newbie, but there is at least one person who is just in his second term at ERAU, so that helps a little. I think I might actually be the youngest in this class, too, although I won't swear to that. Again, everyone was pretty friendly (and it doesn't hurt that there is a smokin' hot captain in the class, too. I'm pretty sure I cleaned up all the drool before anyone saw, though). The guy from OS gave me the number of their HR director, too, and recommended that I look into the possibility of internships there, which was really cool of him.

The instructor is a little scary (he does prefer to go by General, because "he's put in too much to be just a 'mister'" fair enough!) but it's hard to be really scared of someone who confesses that the 8.5 minutes it takes a shuttle to reach orbit are "the longest of his life, every time. So many things can go wrong. Worse than getting shot at," is honestly disappointed and a little sad that "his birds" (the shuttles) are getting retired, and who deems that "anyone who graduated from Purdue should have no problems with this class" as we all went around and introduced ourselves. (I did say that my degree was from the SLA, I just didn't specify in what.) And man, the guys weren't kidding. He KNOWS. This is the guy that Johnson (mission control), Kennedy (launch operations), Marshall (engine and technical control), and Stennis (engine testing) Space Centers all reported to. He oversaw 20 shuttle missions, 19 of them successful (given that he said he was assigned to NASA in 1994, I would assume that the lone unsuccessful mission would be the ill-fated Columbia, which was only mentioned once the entire night when we were talking about the heat shield, but none of us were about to ask about the discrepency!) He also isn't just stuck on old techology. We have several missileers in the class, and as they'd mention systems or rockets or missiles, he'd say "Oo, do your presentation (we have to do a 30 minute oral presentation instead of a term paper, because "if you're gonna be in this business, you'd better know how to give a briefing") on that, I want to learn about that!" And the pictures he has. Oh my lord, the pictures. They're just breathtaking. I could stare at them for hours.

The class itself is just plain cool. Tonight, at least, was a "language" class, using the shuttle as the model, and surprisingly enough, it was a lot of review for me. From where? From Space Camp! Once he started talking about SSMEs and SRBs and ETs, it all started coming back. Orbital velocity, thrusters, rolls, EVAs, EMUs....oh, good times! I'm sure the rest of the class isn't going to be quite so easy, and honestly, the idea of giving a 30 minute presentation on the Soyuz program to this class is more than a little intimidating, but it was REALLY nice to know that I'm not in WAY over my head for this one like I'd feared!

And it struck me tonight driving home from the base. No wonder I haven't found a guy who measured up. Most dads only say they'd give their little girls the moon and the stars. Mine actually did.

Nerves

Getting ready to start my second ERAU class (Space Launch and Mission Operations) tonight. This one intimidates me a little bit, for two reasons. One, the prof is a retired Marine Corps general, test pilot, and was the administrator for NASA's Space Flight division for 19 successful missions. If this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, I don't know who will. I'm a little scared of him by reputation alone! I know he does have some sense of humor, though, from the stuff he's already shared on the class website, so maybe he won't be totally terrifying. Two, we're going to be going through an AWFUL lot of material AWFULLY quickly. Unlike regular classes that are spread out over an 8-week term, this class is broken into two weekends. Basically, we have 21 hours of class this weekend, then have a month to study for both the midterm and the final exams and prepare an oral presentation, which will also all happen in one weekend at the end of February. Plus, we get out of class tonight at 10:00p, probably will make it home around 10:45p (allowing time for questions afterwards and driving to SM) and then have to be back on base by 8:00a the next morning. I really hope we don't have any homework tonight due tomorrow! I keep reminding myself that it's an intro class, and the sheer number of topics we have to cover aren't going to allow us to go into too much depth in any one thing. I guess I'll know more after tonight. (And all this is on top of the slight nerves I have about my first drill weekend, which is next week!)

In other news, my job at the bookstore was supposed to end today, but they asked me to come in for a few mornings next week to "help things get settled back down" so I guess they kinda like me (even though I haven't been able to balance my drawer for three days in a row, ugh!). The sampler purse thing with the Philosopher's Wool woven Fair Isle technique is perfect for laundry quarters if you CO 1/2 the stitches. I had a mild case of both startitis and colorworkitis earlier this week and that little project seemed to satisfy both perfectly. I'll post a pic someday. I now have a vague inkling of knitting a diaper bag in the sampler purse FI pattern, with the colors that I'm using in the baby blanket. My concern is that I want the bag to be washable, and I don't know that that can happen and still maintain the squarish shape that I want. Pondering...

Back to the Grind

Met with my ASCI 604 class (the human factors class) for the first time last night. As par for the course in my life, I'm the only girl. There're only five student in the class: me, three active duty AF guys, and one guy who works for Orbital Sciences, the civilian company I'm trying to get an interview with. I'm definitely the newbie to the system, but they were cool. The instructor for this class is not bad, a little softspoken (I had trouble hearing him a few times) and teaches almost directly from the textbook which has its good and bad points. I'm not insanely behind or out of my league in this class either, which is nice. The topic isn't insanely interesting to me (basically, it deals with how humans work with systems), but it's okay. A couple of the guys (one of the AF guys and the OS guy) are also going to be in my ASCI 512 class, and they said that the instructor for that class is really cool. "The real thing," is what they said, so now I'm intrigued. That class (Space and Launch Operations) is the one I'm most interested in and also the one that I think will be the hardest and the most out of my league in. It starts next Friday and goes through next weekend, and then the weekend after that I have my first drill with the ANG. I think I'll be doing a lot of PT, coffee runs, and taking out the trash for a while, being the lowest on the totem pole there. At any rate, I'll be spending plenty of time on a military base in the near future.

In the meantime, I'm actually kind of enjoying working at the bookstore. I'm just working a register for a few weeks to help with the start of semester rush, so it's pretty simple to pick up. I was supposed to be working the morning shift, but on Wednesday they asked me to move to the afternoons because they needed another "capable" person there and are willing to work around my schedule so I can get to the base on time for class. I started that shift today, and I never thought I'd say this, but I actually really prefer the morning shift. It was nice to get up, go to work, come home, do homework or nap, and then go to either ERAU or martial arts classes. It was nice. Plus, even though the shifts are the same time length and about the same busy-wise, the afternoon just DRAGS. And I'd rather open the store than close it. But the girls I work with are nice enough, and like I said the job doesn't take too much brain power. They close early on Fridays, so most of the temps aren't working tomorrow, but they asked me to do a 10:00a-3:00p shift, so no long weekend for me.

In knitting news, some the PCPA knitters have begun taking over the new Panera here in Santa Maria on Tuesday nights. This past week, we had over a dozen of us there, including two guys! It was fun to see everyone again and get caught up on all the gossip. My blanket is progressing slowly - it's already reached the every-row-is-interminably-long stage, but it's still pretty cute.

Anyway, have to work tomorrow and then sparring. I have big plans to spend the weekend doing homework, writing papers and reading textbooks. The joys of being back in school...

Transitions

Okay, so I haven't been around much lately. Some of that has been due to busy-ness, some of it has been because my arm hurt too much to type.

Let's see...

1.) I'm officially in the military now. I had to go to the LA MEPS on Friday for my medical exam (which, let me tell you, turned out to be a Very Long Day, but more on that later), had to go back down to LA on Monday to retrieve my driver's license and SS card which I didn't realize until Saturday had never gotten returned to me. Then yesterday all I had to do was sign my soul away and take the Oath. =) Enlisted Air National Guard, assigned to the 148th at VAFB. I start drilling with them next month, but I won't go to Basic until the end of May at the very earliest. (Really kind of hoping I don't get a summer flight - I hear summers in Texas suck.) I'll have probably a couple months of tech training at VAFB after that, and then it's back to real life. I'm really excited about it!

2.) Kelly's slippers are done, sort of. I've finished knitting them and felted them once and I'm pondering if I need to felt them again. They look pretty good, though.


I've also started Bec's baby blanket, and it looks pretty darn cute so far, if I do say so myself. The ends are going to be a pain to weave in, though.

3.) I'm registered for classes at Embry-Riddle (thanks again Christina!). I'm taking two classes, ASCI 604: Human Factors in the Aviation Industry, which is once a week on Wednesdays, and ASCI 512: Space Mission and Launch Operations, which is the last two weekends of January and February. My first class was supposed to start last night (Wednesday), but got delayed due to "conflicting travel arrangements" for the instructor, so now it won't start until next week. It's weird to have homework again, though! Five chapters and study questions for next week, woo hoo! (This on top of the general AF learning I want to do before Basic, gotta keep busy!)

4.) I have a part-time temp job as a cashier at the bookstore at AHC. I'm working the morning shift, which is a little strange to me, but I guess I'll have to get used to it. I've got a pretty solid line on a full-time job at VAFB with a company called Orbital Sciences, but it will be a couple weeks before I know anything more on that. I'm not sure they'll be willing to hire someone who is then going to take 4-6 months for military training, but we'll see, I guess.

5.) Getting back into the rhythm of martial arts classes again, which rocks. It's good to be back. My elbow was REALLY bothering me on Monday before class, which of course didn't stop me in the slightest, but it ended up pretty swollen that night afterwards. Gil caught me in a piston takedown Tuesday night which really hurt, but then by the time I got home, it was perfectly fine and has only twinged slightly since. I didn't go to class last night because I was on base, and I think the rest might have helped. I'm going to hit class tonight and see how that goes.

6.) Went to LA Thursday and Friday of last week and did another show with John, which was fun as always. Drove down to La Habra Thursday afternoon to load in, stayed there until 10:00p, drove back into Los Angeles to the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) hotel, had to wait until my roommate got in around 11:45p so I wouldn't freak her out, got a wake-up call at 3:30a, reported to the MEPS at 4:30a, went through a FULL physical, done by 10:00a, drove back to La Habra, put the finishing touches on the show, which was supposed to start at 9:00p but didn't start until almost 10:00p, loaded out by 11:30p and drove back to Santa Maria that night, getting in around 3:30a. Let me state, driving 170 miles when you've already been awake 24 hours and only got 4 hours of sleep the night before is Highly Not Recommended. It's all sorts of fun trying to decide which lane you're driving in because they're all sort of blurring together. Given the fact that I hadn't yet realized that my driver's license was 170 miles south of me (see #1), I'm REALLY glad none of California's finest decided it was entertaining!

Anyway, that's the nutshell version of the past few days. Think it's enough, no?

In a Nutshell

1. Triple classes for the first time in two weeks are hard. Particularly when the kickboxing routine gets changed to include running. RUNNING! Argh! I'm totally keeping my mouth shut about what I think my sports-related weaknesses are from now on. (It's only 2 minutes at a time, which, honestly is not a big deal at all. I just really hate running and feel obligated to complain about it.) Anyway, between regular classwork, including not just the running but also a wonderful new backkick glute-working move and getting disarmed by both Sir and Mr. R several times - real good on the elbow, and helping Chrissy move (again), I'm going to be surprised if I can move tomorrow.

2. Due to helping Chrissy move, I now have a table and set of four chairs, at least until she can get a place they fit into. It's kind of nice. Teddie agrees - he's been under or on top of the table since I got it put back together.

3. Going to LA for the end of this week. Doing a small show with John this weekend in La Habra. Mostly helping load in/out, but it will be nice to see everyone again. Also, since I'll already be in LA, I'm going to do my physical at the MEPS down there on Friday. Should be interesting, particularly the whole getting up at 4:00a thing.

4. Still job hunting. Of course, the employment agency I talked to back in October now can't find my resume. Argh.

5. Made sugared pecans and what we always called "puppy chow" - Chex mix covered in chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. Yum!

6. Started watching the BBC's new(ish) Robin Hood series (the one Kelly got me for Christmas). It's actually really good. A few anachronisms, and quite frankly, Marian isn't hot enough to be with such a drool-worthy Robin, but her character is cool. The Sheriff is the "omg, you did NOT just do that, what kind of reprehensible being ARE you" evil, but the most interesting character to me is the Sheriff's underling, Sir Guy Gisbon. He's a baddie, don't get me wrong, but I'm thinking he either actually does have a conscience buried somewhere and/or he's totally got his own agenda. I'm really interested in seeing where his character goes.

7. Think I found the pattern I want for Beck's baby blanket. Just have to finish Kelly's slippers first (WHY are these slippers suddenly so evil?! WHY?! I've done this pattern a hundred times...well, okay, seven times working on number eight). I'm also oddly in love with the cardigan on the front of the new KnitPicks catalog. Although I think I would do the waistband in cooler colors. Must...not...start...new...projects...or...buy...yarn!

8. I got all of my new wallhanging things hung today (two posters, three sketches, a quote plaque, and collage)! Yay! Love them - it's almost like someone might live here now! The shuttle launch obviously goes right over my desk. Can't wait to start classes!

Anyway, since the cat is alternately chasing his own tail and sleeping under the table, and I, weirdly, have nothing to do tomorrow except laundry and class, I'm out. (And no, I'm not doing any resolutions this year. Clearly, I have enough challenges already to face this year and I see no reason to voluntarily add to that tally.)

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

First of all, thank you to everyone for your condolences and safe travel thoughts. All in all, it was a good trip. I got to cuddle with the recipient of the Circular Chevron Blanket, and if he isn't the cutest thing ever, I don't know what is. I got to spend time with my girls and found out that one of them is pregnant! Yay for more baby blankets!! (And whatever else I can come up with to spoil the kid rotten. I have until July, I think I'm good.) Most importantly, though, I got to spend time with my family. It's always hard to leave them (particularly Dad. Mom, pointing out that I am the fourth generation of women who have moved far away from their hometowns on her side of the family, gets it. She misses me, and worries about me, but she gets it. Dad just wants to take care of me and it drives him nuts when he can't), but I am now safely back in California (with my luggage, surprisingly enough!), and although making connections was touch-and-go for a while due to my first flight getting delayed yet again, I was able to make all of them. My carry-on even got to travel first class from Chicago to LA!

I do have to say, though, that I have been highly underimpressed with American Airlines. First of all, they charge $40 for checked luggage EACH WAY. Another $80 to take two small suitcases on top of what I've already paid for the ticket?! Secondly, they no longer offer meals of any kind on four hour flights, and the snacks they offer for sale are overpriced and wimpy. ($3 for one chocolate chip cookie? Really?) They also no longer show movies or radio or anything, which I can't say really breaks my heart, because I rarely watch movies on planes anyway, but still. Third, and most important, only TWO of their people I dealt with the entire time I was traveling, total, both ways, treated me like I wasn't interrupting something Really Important at the very least. And only ONE of those was dealt with face-to-face (the other lady who was really sweet was the one who patiently figured out and rescheduled my nightmare itinerary to get me to Illinios...over the PHONE). I'm sorry, I get that the holidays and winter weather makes for crazy delays and lots of irritated passengers who probably try your patience to its fullest and strain every nerve you have. I get that. I really really try to be polite, understanding, and as flexible as possible as a passenger because I know things are crazy for you guys. But you know what? It's still YOUR JOB to be the person that passengers go to for information and concerns. Do it. And if it's been that kind of day where you can't do it personably (we all have those days, again, I get it), at least do it professionally. Argh.

Anyway, enough ranting and on to the good stuff. With a little help from the Illinois Branch of Supervisory Cats (aka Scud, my parents' oldest cat)
I can now show off the results of the Christmas Present Knitting Extravaganza! Ooo! No peeking! (Okay, you can peek. In fact, if you have a Ravelry account, you can get even more details and views of each of these projects. Flickr account holders just the extra views.)

First up, we have a finished Christmas Present #1:
Now known as Dad's Cobblestone Sweater. This is the Cobblestone Sweater from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 issue, designed by Jared Flood. I did the Large diameters with the XL length. It's actually a bit baggy on him, and if I did it again, I think I might go down a size either on the needles or on the torso. The length turned out extremely well, though, and he loves it. He's decided that it should serve him very well on their annual fishing trip to Canada. It was an extremely easy knit (although you do have to purl in the round a lot on the yoke to get that garter stitch going) and went quickly. Took me about a month to make, but I literally only worked on it while riding on the bus to Solvang and occasionally during shows. Yarn is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in 152 Oxford Gray, knit up on my US 9 KnitPicks Options.

Next up, CP #2:

AKA Kelly's Hacky Sack Hoodie. Pattern from Son of Stitch-n-Bitch, designed by Stef Pulford. Extremely super easy knit-in-the-round, top-down raglan. Love This Pattern. The only thing I would complain about is that it doesn't tell you to make sure you leave a long enough cast-on tail to seam the top of the hood with, but that was fixable. I made the XL size and added about 2" length to everything. He claims it's a bit too long in the torso, but Mom and I agree it actually fits him pretty well. The sleeves came out slightly different lengths, for some reason (must have lost count somewhere), but since he pushes them up anyway and wouldn't take the thing off long enough for me to look at it, that is apparently okay. Knit in just over a month (tech and learning that I needed to go job-hunting got in the way) out of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Cocoa on US 10 KnitPicks Options.

Finally, we have CP #3. Now, this one actually got changed halfway through, if you recall. It was originally supposed to be a replica of this Aran sweater that my mom already has but can no longer wear. Either my great-grandmother or one of my great-great-aunts originally made it and any pattern, if there even was one, is long gone. I was pretty successful in re-creating it, but the knitting of it made me want to tear my hair out. It wasn't particularly difficult, but it did take more concentration than I was able to comfortably devote to it in order to get it done on time, and frankly, I prefer mindless knitting. So, instead, we have CP #3v2.0:

Mom's Rogue. Yes, my second Rogue (designer Jenna Wilson) , and this one actually turned out better than the first, I think. (Which makes sense, no?). I did the ribbed hem and cuffs instead of the turned ones, which I like better, although if I did it yet again (and I might), I'd change that to a twisted rib. I also added the kangaroo pocket to this one, and I really like it. I made the 44" size, with no modifications. (I think. I remember toying with the idea of adding an extra cable repeat to the sides to lengthen it a little, but I don't remember if I actually did that, and I don't have it noted anywhere that I did *shrugs*) It looks like it fits her pretty well, and she loves it, so I guess whatever I did worked. The yarn is, again, Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Fisherman, and this was knit on US 9 Options.

Three sweaters in just over three months. I have Kelly's slippers about 3/4 done (no, I didn't finish them while in Illinois), and then I think I might take a break from knitting for a while. There aren't any projects that are really grabbing me right now, although I'm sorting through ideas for baby blankets (this kid is probably gonna have too many, because I have so many ideas!) and I'm kind of in the mood for some socks, not that I need more. I really want to work on some cross-stitches and get those finished up. I got an awesome lettering sampler done by my friend Lorraine up in Alaska (they're a little weird up there, the cold freezes their brains, I think), and as soon as my camera battery charges, I'll post a pic of it, as mere description won't do it justice.

The TeddieCat is Mad At Me, although he's getting over it. He kept waking me up last night, though - no matter where I turned in the bed, he'd be there, batting my face with his paw or tail or tickling me with his whiskers. Today, he keeps jumping into my lap, which is fine, and then starts kneading my stomach, which tickles and is not fine and gets him kicked off. He's curled up in protest inside my duffel bag at the moment.

Gotta get out and run some errands today. Chrissy is going to come over to store some stuff in the garage for a while, and then I have class and pizza tonight, yay!!! It's good to be home!

Merry Christmas! (Really Long!)

Well, I am happy to say that I, personally, made it safely to Central Illinois for the holidays. I'm not sure I can say the same for my sanity, and I definitely can't say the same for my luggage. While I can grudgingly live with literally the clothes on my back and the couple clothing items I recieved for Christmas, it really ticks me off that they lost BOTH bags, including the one with CP1, CP2, and the I-just-need-to-do-a-quick-seaming-job-to-finish CP3! All three projects are missing! The local airport swears that that bag has arrived there, though, so I'm going up tomorrow to try to retrieve that. Sigh.

My Christmas traveling luck held consistent again this year. I was supposed to leave Santa Barbara at 12:15p on Monday and get into Peoria at 10:30p Monday night. I ended up leaving Santa Barbara around 2:00p on Monday (NO idea what the delay was there, although I can say that the logistics nightmare this delay created was completely and totally avoidable if the airline had made it clear what flight was on which plane when we started boarding - we ended up with two flights trying to fit onto one little commuter plane and it didn't work out well and caused another 45 minute delay!). Got into LAX just in time to miss my connection to Chicago, and got lucky enough to get rebooked on the next flight out. Do make that connection, and spend the next four hours getting subtly hit on by my actually very charming seatmate. Get to Chicago around midnight on Monday, find out there are no flights left to any of the local airports until the next morning, and get to spend the night at Chicago O'Hare. Joy of all joys. Glass buildings with concrete floors are NOT the warmest places to try to sleep. Just saying. Get on a flight to Bloomington the next morning (Tuesday) - supposed to be an 8:30a departure with a 9:30a arrival. However, since it had been snowing in Chicago since about 3:00a that morning (and believe me, I was awake to know), we got delayed and didn't take off until close to 10:00a (we found out later that we were probably one of the last flights to make it out at all before the airport shut down completely). I fall asleep on the plane (finally, warm sleepiness!) and wake up to hear the pilot say "Sorry for the inconvenience folks, but Bloomington is getting an ice storm and we can't land there. I think we're going to be rerouted to Des Moines." We land about 45m later, long enough to refuel the plane and for me to deliver two rather groggy phone calls to my parents saying something along the lines of "Dad/Mom, I think I'm in IOWA. I'm not sure, though, and I don't really know why or how." One lady on the flight was throwing a fit over the whole situation and demanding we land in Bloomington immediately. I'd just as soon any aircraft my butt is sitting in doesn't attempt to land on a dangerously icy runway, but I guess that's just my personal preference. (This is along the same lines as they can take as much time as they want to inspect, de-ice, and otherwise make any plane that I'm supposed to be flying in as safe as humanly possible. Again, that's just me, though.) We finally touch down in Bloomington, and conditions are absolutely terrible. My parents both had to work that day, and so they had driven up the night before and left their truck at the airport for me to get home with. By the time I'd gotten off the plane, I was so bloody TIRED of airports and airplanes and crappy service and overpriced food that I was willing and determined to get the hell out of there as soon as humanly possible, despite the fact that I'd had approximately six hours of sleep total over the past two nights, was not used to driving a big old truck in what were, in reality, really dangerous winter conditions, and the truck is horrendous in icy conditions under the best circumstances. I was going to get my suitcases (winter clothes take up far too much room), get to the truck, and get Out Of There, even if I had to drive five miles an hour or pull over for a nap in the forty miles to my parents' house. Of course, the luggage didn't arrive. It was supposed to come on the next flight, which would land in about an hour and a half. My parents would need about an hour and a half to get off work and get up here to pick me up, so I convinced myself to let them. It probably actually was much safer that way. Anyway, I finally got to my parents' around 5:30p on Tuesday, nineteen hours later and two suitcases less than I was supposed to. I have the WORST luck with traveling. I told them both that next year, we were doing the holidays in Cali and someone else was traveling!

The other bad thing about being so late is that we had known that my great-grandmother was not doing well, and my brother and I had made plans to go see her Tuesday afternoon. Since I didn't get into the area until Tuesday night, we never got the chance to see her that day. She passed away early Wednesday morning. I really wish I could have seen her to say goodbye. It's okay - she was 97, lived a long full life, is out of pain and reunited with her beloved husband, and her timing was perfect. All of her family, including all the grand- and great-grandkids are already in town. It's comforting, somehow, although I'll miss her. Funeral arrangements do put a bit of a damper on the holidays, but family is what the holidays are really about for me. Everything else is just icing on the cake compared to that sturdy and ever-present safety net of comfort and love and support my family gives each other.

Santa still came, of course, and I did get some really cool stuff, though. Three really cute sweaters, a new pair of Cubs pajama pants, a calendar, a new Dilbert book, the first season of Robin Hood (which I have not seen but heard lots of great stuff about and am super-excited to see), a new watch (yay!), a computer game, two posters, a little decorative sign, and a nice new sparring gear bag to haul it all back to CA in (that doesn't have the now-inappropriate ATA logo on it!) My brother's slippers are about half-done, and Dad has already mentioned a few times that his slippers need some love (it's easier to just make a new pair) and, oh-by-the-way-I-need-new-mittens-because-I-lost-one-from-the-pair-you-made-last-year-can-you-replace-it? At least I know that they use the things, I guess!

Happy Holidays to you and yours, and may all your travels always bring you safely back home!

Saying Goodbye

The matinee this afternoon was my last show. It's so weird. The cast and crew got together and "surprised" me with cookies and hugs at 1/2 Hour (I kind of expected that, since we've done that for everybody's final shows), and Chrissy put together a really cool scrapbook for me, with pictures and memorable paperwork from all of the shows I've worked on here (penguin plots, rehearsal and performance reports where things had been a little crazy, like the ONE show in the past twenty years that has been rained out in Solvang, or having to put three understudies on one night, that sort of thing) and messages from some of the other RAs. Of course it all made me cry. My second years were the worst, both acting and tech. I'll miss them, and assured them that of course I would still be coming to see shows. Then I had to pull myself and try to actually call a show. Sigh. I am excited for the future - honestly, I really feel like I'm getting an incredibly rare chance to really see "what might have been" and I don't want to waste this. But I will miss it. (On the plus side, I did finally find out who gave me the mystery penguin last year! One of my acting graduates!)

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
-Douglas Adams

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth:

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost

Where God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.

Reading Patterns...

...helps. Particularly when you're almost halfway done with a portion of a project, and thinking to yourself, "You know, self, the first time I did this, I was pretty sure the diameter increased by this point. Maybe I don't remember correctly." 52 rows in, I happened to glance a the pattern again, just in case. "Inc 1 st at beginning of row, work to first marker, inc 1, sl marker, work Chart, sl marker, inc 1, work to end of row, inc 1 st." Four increases every six rows, nine times. Yeah, I'd been doing two increases, and the chart itself has some decreases worked into it...so, over those 52 rows I'd been doing, not only had I not been increasing, but I'd actually ultimately wound up with FEWER stitches total. Sigh.

FROG! How many days until Christmas??

Things to do before the holidays...

1. Get a kitty sitter for the time I'm in Illinois (check - bribing neighbor kids is surprisingly easy)

2. Clean the apartment (sort of check)

3. Set up phone with mp3s for travelling (check)

4. Finish CP3 (almost check - cast on for the final portion of it today, we'll see if we actually make it)

5. Knit a pair of felted clogs (nowhere near check - possible, but not probable to have done for Christmas)

6. Pass the ASVAB with flying colors (check - the recruiter was practically drooling, and I even got a mock marriage proposal out of the deal)

7. Get a job (sadly, not check and it's getting frustrating)

8. Get financial aid sorted out and register for classes (close to being check)

9. Pack for Illinois (like that's going to happen before, oh, three hours before the flight on Monday)

10. Finish Christmas shopping (maybe I should get on that...)

Toothless

Well, it's over. I now officially have six fewer teeth in my mouth than I used to, and boy, does it feel WEIRD! I knew I would be nervous about the anesthesia, so I purposely went to bed a little later than I should have and also used my sleep aromatherapy soap when I took my shower in the morning. I figured being sleepy going in would help me relax. (The surgery was at 8:30a up in AG, which, as you know, is WAY too early for me to be awake anyway!) I think I almost fell asleep in the chair before they ever got around to starting the IV! Finally, the dentist came in and gave me the anesthesia, and I remember him saying, "Okay, you should start to feel sleepy in about thirty..." The next thing I knew, the nurse was telling me she needed me to open my eyes and I told her I didn't want to. She said I was only under for about half an hour! Luckily, I seem to have inherited my dad's reaction to anesthesia and not my mom's, like my brother did. Mom and Kelly both get really nauseous after they wake up. To Dad and I, it just feels like waking up from a too-short nap. The bleeding stopped after a few hours, and other than some minor discomfort (I wouldn't go so far as to call it pain, but there's definitely something not normal, nothing a regular dose of ibuprofen can't handle, though) and some swelling, I've been fine. I could have gone to class last night if I'd really wanted to, I was feeling that good! (We had pancakes for dinner last night.) Mom wouldn't let me, though, of course. Spoilsport. Today, it feels about the same - a little stiff/weird and a little swollen, but nothing major. Toast is still a little difficult for me to eat, so I had some of the tapioca my dad made last night for breakfast. I think we're going to go up to Pismo today and grab some clam chowder from Splash Cafe, which should be easy to eat as well. Should be fun!

Oh, and in other news, I'm really leaning towards taking this job with the Air Nat'l Guard - they're offering a really nice enlistment bonus, they'll pay for my degree, and they can guarantee me a job here at VAFB (in fact, my technical training will take place at VAFB, as well). The ONLY problem is that I'd have to go to Texas for two months for Basic Training and then I'd have to live in the dorms at VAFB for another 4-6 months during Tech Training, and I don't know what to do with Teddie. I'm pondering subleasing my apartment to maybe a student or intern, depending in what time of the year I go, and having cat-sitting be part of the arrangment. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I have to go in and take the ASVAB next week, and I have to score a 60 or better on the electronics section to qualify for what they need. When I did a practice test, I scored at 45, so I'm going to go see if the library has any study guides for me!

Preparations

Sorry all, it's been a bit busy here. Mostly good, fun, stuff, though, which has been nice. The important thing is that CP3 is actually cruising along again, although it will still be cutting it pretty close to have it done for Christmas. On top of the fact that I still have to make the slippers, too. And I think it'd be fun to make a hedgehog for Ma'am, given her reaction to the one I made for Baby S for his birthday.

Let's see...what have I been up to? Last Friday, since we didn't have class, I went to see the Twilight movie with some friends. It, like the books, is a solid Okay. The movie is better than the book, imho, for the sheer reason that they can cram 300 pages of angst into 2 minutes onscreen. The effects are kind of cool, and the cast is pretty good. Robert Pattinson is WAY hotter as a Quidditch player than a vampire, though. He's the kind of guy who is always nice looking, but is only really spectacular when he smiles, and angsty teen vampires don't really get to smile all that much, apparently. Ah, well. I did forget that there is a lot of pretty decent sarcasm and one-liners in the books, though, so that was fun.

Saturday, I called the matinee but had the evening off, so I drove up to Cambria with Cute Guy to see the show he'd directed up there. It was called Indoor/Outdoor and was about a cat who longed to explore the outside world. It is actually a surprisingly good script. It was actually really cute and, to Cute Guy's credit, there were a lot of laughs and even many tears at the end. He had a good cast to work with, too, which helped a lot. Afterwards, we went to this teeny little bar with an Irish bartender and a live band for a while. It was a lot of fun. He's going to New York in a few weeks for a short gig, so I'm not sure when we'll get a chance to hang out again.

I ended up calling both shows on Sunday, so I didn't get much else done that day. Monday was all about cleaning and rearranging furniture and going to class. There was a test this week (more on that later), so both Monday and Wednesday's classes were focused on testing criteria. I think I'm getting a cold, though - I was absolutely freezing again during classes and had a really hard time breathing during them for some reason this week. Because of the test, the fact that we'd been working in the office until almost 7:00p this week dealing with the weekend's audition tour, and the fact that I knew I'd have to call all five shows this weekend without any hope of backup, I decided to give myself a forced break and didn't go to Haganah this week at all, which near to killed me, I think. I missed my guys, but I'd also done a fairly decent attempt at breaking my finger on a board break Wednesday night and my entire right hand and up my arm to my (already bad and protesting) elbow was bruised and swollen Thursday, so it was probably a good thing to not go to class.

Instead, I spent Tuesday evening putting up my Christmas tree. It's nothing fancy, in fact, I know I need at least one more string of lights for it, and it just has plain glass ball ornaments on it, since all "my" sentimental ornaments are at my parents' house on their tree where they should be. I've always maintained that when I have a family, then I'll have a family tree, but for now this is just fine, and it makes me smile when I look at it. I've draped my Christmas stockings on it, as well, which I like. Teddie has decided it's his own private hideaway, though. He loves to curl up on the tree skirt and snooze. Oh, and I made cookie dough that night. Because it sounded good.

Thursday night was spent working on putting pictures into my jewelry box. My mom got me a really cool jewelry box for my birthday, if you recall, and it's actually been hanging and full for a while, but I hadn't put any pictures in it. I'd gone through and decided which pictures I wanted to put in it, I just hadn't gotten around to actually doing it. Since my parents are coming out next week, I thought maybe it would be nice to have the jewelry box finished. So I spent the evening carefully arranging, trimming, and taping the pictures I wanted into their respective slots. It was great, just the way I wanted it. Then, when I went to actually put the frame into the box, I realized my mistake - I'd had the frame sideways the whole time, and it didn't fit into the box in that orientation! Argh! A whole evening's worth of work wasted, and of course, the vertical pictures and the horizontal pictures aren't cut the same size, so I had to go to Target and reprint some of them today. At least it's finished now!

Today was a little crazy. I went to a meeting for one of the Outreach shows. While I really like the people involved in Outreach, quite frankly, the script choices they've made lately have made me scratch my head, and the shows just really aren't that good because of it. Anyway, that meeting, which was supposed to have lasted twenty minutes, went almost an hour fifteen. I knew I'd have to call the show tonight, so I'd made arrangements with Sir to do my midterm test at 4:00p with the Tiny Tigers. It was now 2:15p, and I still had to get the brakes on my car fixed. I called to see how long it would take, and was told an hour. Perfect. Get an hour of knitting time while waiting for the car, have it done by 3:30p, run home, get my uniform (stupidly thinking I'd have time to run home and get it, I'd left it home), and easily make it to the dojahng by 4:00p. Yeah, that didn't happen. I didn't get my car back until 3:50p, which meant I went flying home, changed as fast as possible, and went flying to the dojahng and ended up ten minutes late.

Of course, I was a bit frazzled and didn't get a chance to warm up or stretch out or prep myself at ALL (and it was my fault, I completely admit to that), but luckily all I had to do this time was my regular form, my weapons form, and sparring. I know I made a few small mistakes on both my forms, which was frustrating, and I know that I let the judges know that I made mistakes, which was even more frustrating (Sir and Mr. R are always on me to not make faces when I mess up), but I thought my sparring was pretty decent. I sparred Miss G, a third degree, and C, who is testing for his third degree, no contact. I still suck at sparring, but I thought that was probably my best showing of the day, which isn't saying much. It was so fun watching the Tiny Tigers, though. Of course, they thought my sparring matches were "awesome!", but each of my forms are about five times longer than their attention spans. Their parents seemed to enjoy watching them, though, since they all told me afterwards that I'd done a nice job. Meh. I had to quickly change clothes again to go back to the theater for the evening show, though. I would have liked to watch Ma'am midterm and C test for rank. Oh well.

Mom and Dad are coming in on Monday, so I've been trying to keep the place cleaner than usual. It's been a little difficult, though, what with the cat seeming to drag fake Christmas tree needles all across creation and the styrofoam from a new $9 lamp I was forced to get when my original living room lamp blew up over the weekend getting strewn all over the carpet. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out bright and early Tuesday morning, and if all goes well, I want to be back in class by Thursday night, but definitely by Friday. It'd be fun to have Mom and Dad see a sparring class and Klondike's (I think Dad would be interested in the kickboxing and haganah on Thursday night, too, but not sure how much I can get away with dragging them to ;-) ). We don't have class on Monday because of the belt ceremony, which I don't have to stay for, but I did say I would bring cookies for, and I'm sure Tuesday is going to be a wash for obvious reasons. I was thinking maybe catching the matinee on Wednesday and going to the Melodrama that night, depending on how things are going, though. I guess we'll be playing everything by ear.

Anyway, I also set up a job interview on Monday morning at VAFB (sort of, the job is through the Air National Guard, so I'd have to join that to get it and I'll have to think about that), so I really need a haircut, and the only time I'll have for it will be tomorrow morning before the matinee, so I should probably get some sleep.

ETA: Oh, and I wore my Boatneck Bluebell sweater yesterday, and got tons of compliments on it, even from total strangers!

In Which I Learn A Valuable Knitting Lesson

First off, of course, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone was at least able to talk to family and/or friends at some point today. I wasn't able to make it home for the turkey-fest this year, but Mom and I still watched the Parade together (sort of. It's hard when you're two hours behind). Then I spent the rest of the day with friends - in real life, on the phone, and online. It was nice. I'll see my parents in about two weeks when they come out for my wisdom teeth thing, and then I'll be in Illinois for almost ten days over Christmas, so there will be plenty of family time coming up, I'm sure.

The reason for the title, however, is CP3. I learned a lesson today - just because one CAN do something doesn't mean one LIKES doing something. Basically, the original plan had two parts: figure out how to do the project and knit the project. Part one: success, and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I'd expected once I finally put my brain to it. Part two: fail. I got about a quarter of the way into it (doing quite well, I might add) and realized I really just cannot bring myself to knit another stitch on it. I don't like working on it, and it takes too much concentration for the time I have left before Christmas. Eventually, yes, I will finish it, but for now, I started a new project that will go much much quicker and will be just as useful.

Other than that, I've been pretty much bored out of my head. Almost a week off with only one night of classes is Way too much free time for me, apparently. And with all the rain, I haven't dragged my Christmas decorations out from the garage yet, although I might tomorrow night if I don't have to call the show. Other than that, I'm planning on spending tomorrow finishing cleaning the apartment, running a couple of errands (some of which involve some Christmas shopping, so please pray for my safety!), supervising a quick dance brushup for the show, and knitting! 26 days left!

Unfaithfulness

Not really anything much to say today, I just felt like I needed another post this week.

Was able to make it to at least one class every day this week except Wednesday, which was nice. I even got to knife spar again! (And have the bruises to prove it!) Aikido was interesting again, and my neck and shoulders weren't nearly as sore today as they were last weekend! The Klondike's crowd was a little thin this week; it was just me, Ma'am, Gil and his son, and TKD Grandma and her grandson. It was cool to hang out with Gil a little bit. I learned that he is actually not only native Chumash Indian (the reservation is near Solvang), but also is a medicine man by heritage. Most of his tattoos (and he is literally covered in tattoos) are tribal rites, and are done very traditionally - with shark's teeth! Ouch!! His son, who is six years old right now and as blond-haired and blue-eyed as possible, will someday get similar markings, should he choose to stay with the tribe and go through the rites of acceptance/adulthood, but is absolutely not allowed to get any kind of markings until then. It was really interesting.

I got my Friday off this week, but it sounds like I'm going to end up calling all of the rest of the shows this weekend. I called both of them today, and it sounds like I'll probably call both of them tomorrow, although Chrissy hasn't decided yet. I know that at least one understudy is definitely going on tomorrow. It doesn't really matter, though - unless it's a Friday night, I'll probably be at the show anyway. After going through the entire holiday run backstage last year, I really just can't justify only working half the shows when my crew is working their butts off every time. This show is BUSY backstage! In fact, I almost prefer being backstage and being active and moving to standing in the booth and calling. Oh well. Oh, and the ONE Friday night I actually MUST call the show? Dec. 5th. The day of the midterm test. The casting office has decided that they really want an SM to come with them for an audition tour in the Bay Area that weekend, and since Chrissy is from the Bay Area and really likes audition tours, she's going. Of course. The ONE Friday...sigh...now I have to find another midterm date. Or just push the whole thing back another two months.

Also, I'm going to try to get my oral surgery pushed back a week so that my parents can come out for it. This should work out well for everyone involved - I can have people who are just plain stuck with me around me for the not-so-fun parts of recovering, Mom can get her clam chowder for her birthday, and Dad can come out and visit Pismo Beach again. They haven't been out here for a while, and never during the winter. Besides, it's a good excuse as any to really clean the place up and get my Christmas decorations out next week. Not that I have many, but I do have a tree and some ornaments. And my stockings.

CP3 is going frustratingly slow, and part of it is my own fault. I've restarted one of the first parts of it about four times now, and I think I've got it figured out, but it's just been so blasted hot this week that the idea of having yarn in my lap is frankly nauseating. So I picked up one of my cross-stitch projects (a rather large -2'x2'- Precious Moments Noah's Ark) instead and have been working on it for the past few days instead. I forget how much I enjoy cross-stitching as well. It's neat to see all those little x's turn into a picture. However, I do have a deadline for CP3, and sadly, it hasn't completed itself yet. I will really have to focus on it this coming week while I have time off for Thanksgiving if I want any chance of possibly having it done on time. We'll see!

Day of Reckoning

...is going to be Dec. 1st. That's when I get my wisdom teeth plus two extra molars removed. I've never had any kind of surgey before, not even any anesthesia, so I'm a little nervous. I know it's a very routine, minor procedure, and the doc says it should be very very easy (apparently all of my teeth are right where they're supposed to be - there's just too many of them) but still...sigh...

CP2 is done, and I think it might be okay. Working on CP3 now, and I now remember why I hate ribbing.

Today and tomorrow off, and classes both nights. Mrs. S promised a new kickboxing workout that had even the most hardcore of them sore last week, so we'll see how that goes. Definitely will have to eat well today!

ETA: And I found out this evening that I'm apparently supposed to midterm Dec. 5th. THAT should be an interesting test....sparring, form, weapons, and vicodin? I might have to rethink this!

Because evil plots don't make themselves...

It's been quite the week. Well, sort of. Still no solid job leads, although I've applied for lots of stuff, both at VAFB and "regular" jobs in Santa Maria, Lompoc, and SLO. (Mrs. S wants me to work at the newly-opened Panera so I can get discounts for her =) ) I saw Mr. C tonight, and he said that his team is working on a contract bid, and if it wins, he's going to need officey types and will have quite a bit of pull on who is hired, so think good thoughts for his contract! Anyway, this week in (boring) review:

Monday: Met with an advisor at Embry-Riddle. REALLY liked her, she was not only very informative and helpful, but also extremely supportive and enthusiastic for me. We decided that the program that actually seems to fit what I am looking for the best is a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Science with a focus on Space Operations Management. Classes usually meet once a week, often on Saturdays, for 4-5 hours, and only one or two classes are offered per term (every nine weeks). Of course, a masters degree also costs more than a bachelors, so now I'm not only job-hunting, but also scholarship hunting as well. Fun! Oh, and no class on Monday cuz of Veterans' Day (I didn't make the schedule).

Tuesday: Didn't do much of anything productive other than more job hunting, but did get to go to FIGHT for the first time in what seemed like years. My guys are awesome, and I missed them! I took an elbow to the eye from Gil (it didn't bruise, although the tenderness still hasn't completely gone away) and drilled a left hook into Frank's stomach when he decided to do his brick wall impression during a drill (hey, he moved!). Mr. R and Morgan taught, since Sir was visiting family in Minnesota, and other than Morgan's continuing love affair with planks, it was great. Ma'am was there too, and we partnered up for most of class. We did a drill where one person is on her back, with her legs wrapped around the waist of her partner, who is on her knees. Then the person on the ground crunches up like a half-situp and throws four punches to her partner's hands. The partner then "retaliates" by throwing four punches to the stomach of the person on the ground (teaching you to tighten your abs and breathe out when you take a hit). Ma'am and I have done this drill lots of times before, and it didn't bother me at the time, but man, my abs (right under my rib cage) were sore for the next two days! I felt a little mollified when Ma'am confessed tonight that she'd been sore from it, too! (Although I do feel bad about her bruise. But she's a big girl and knows to say something if people hit too hard, so it's only a little bit bad. She said to hit her harder!)

Wednesday: Sat in the booth for the matinee and started learning the call of the show at the first understudy rehearsal. (Yes, someone FINALLY listened to our rants about doing understudy rehearsals on the Sunday after Opening and moved them. We are SOOO grateful!!!) With two exceptions, it's not nearly as difficult a call as I thought it was, and it's most definitely not the hardest show I've ever called. We did, however, have the weirdest stuff happen in the audience that day - people falling, cars catching fire in the parking lot, school kids wandering, etc. Ended up working from 12:30p until 11:30p that day. Worked on the final part of CP2 and ran out of yarn with about 40 rows to go. Of course, no one in Santa Maria carries the color I need. Ugh! So I started CP3 (the big scary one) under duress. Not a good way to start a project.

Thursday: Sat in the booth again for a brat mat after tearing two actors into pieces for sleeping through their alarms and being EXTREMELY late (one actually missed his first entrance, and is a student that normally does not exhibit such behaviour. He apologized today with coffee, flowers, cookies, AND a card, though, and I'm sure it will not happen again with him!). I have little sympathy for actors coming in late to brat mats when the crew has already been there and working for at least a full hour before the actors are even called. Sat through the show, went to the office and helped teach the kids how to handle the audition tour appointments that are starting to show up, then went BACK to the theater and did a second understudy rehearsal. So yeah, I was at work from about 8:30a until 11:30p that day. And people wonder why I'm not exactly broken-hearted about leaving.

Friday (today): Got new tires for my car! Yay!! I felt so bad for my poor little car once I realized how badly the tires were worn down. I kept picturing my car as having sore "feet" but having to keep running anyway until I could get them fixed. But she got a full pedicure today and I swear I heard a sigh of relief when they raised her up on the lift. (Okay, I know my car is an inanimate object, but I did feel bad!) She still needs some new brakes and an oil change, but that will have to wait a few weeks. And, btw, the guys at Big Brand Tires here in Santa Maria were great, even though I did get a lecture on tire rotation. Apparently, the tires were in such bad shape that they figured the alignment must be WAY out of whack, but no. The alignment is pretty close to perfect - the tires just hadn't been rotated in far, FAR too long, whoops! Went to the office for a couple hours after that, then skipped the show tonight to go to class. (I told Chrissy way back when we started rehearsal that as soon as we were in performance, I was going back to class on Friday nights. I feel slightly guilty about it, after all, the crew and actors don't get any days off at all, but none of them (well, except maybe Michael) have been working straight through since March, either.) Sparring was great, as always, and pizza and beer were a lot of fun, of course, but what was really interesting was the aikido class. Gil's teaching it, and tonight was the first time I've been able to go. It's a really interesting style - lots of joint manipulation and locks - and very different than the other two styles. It's incredibly non-aggressive, for one thing, and relies a lot on pressure and balance. On an episode of Fight Quest, one of the hosts commented that "Western martial arts are about forcing your will on your opponent with power; Eastern martial arts are about getting your opponent off-balance and then helping them fall over," which became very clear to me tonight. Takedowns were the hardest thing to get used to. In aikido, throws go straight into some other kind of arm/elbow/wrist lock to simply keep control (although the locks can be plenty damaging done quickly, controlling the opponent is more desirable than damaging him). In FIGHT, and even in tkd to an extent, takedowns generally end with dropping a knee onto your opponent's ribs and a triangle punch to the neck - damage your attacker before he can damage you - and I didn't realize how ingrained that had gotten into my body until tonight. The hardest habits to break are the ones you didn't know you had, I guess. Yeesh! We'll see how sore I am tomorrow after all the throws and rolls (which we don't do in tkd). Gil promised us sore wrists tomorrow, so we'll see. He seemed to like having me in class, though - I'm "his girl" in FIGHT and he told the tweenybopper I was partnered with that I was a fighter and not only wouldn't just give him anything, but I'd also try to squirm and wriggle my way out of everything. The tweenybopper wasn't quite as bad as I'd feared, which was nice. There is hope.

The weekend (upcoming): Saturday and Sunday are both going to be spent at the theater all day, shadowing both Chrissy and a crew member I'll have to cover next week. (Mr. C and his son, TKD Grandma and her grandson, and Ma'am are all going to come see the show tomorrow night!) Luckily, I was able to find ONE skein of the color I need to finish CP2 at Beverly's in SLO today, so I'm hoping that that project will finally get completely finished this weekend. CP3 is actually going surprisingly well, sort of. I started it, realized that I didn't quite know how to do one portion of it, and so moved on to the next portion thinking that I could live with the way that I'd fudged the first portion. It started really bugging me today, though, so I frogged back and have been asking around. We'll see if anything useful turns up. If not, at least I know how to fudge it better now! Monday is the consultation with the oral surgeon about my wisdom teeth coming out. It'd be nice if they could do it over Thanksgiving break, when I have several days off and don't have to talk to anyone, but that might be too soon. Yikes, I don't really want to think about that...

Updates

Tech is pretty much over and we're in a really good place to open tomorrow night. The week has been a little hard, with long hours and knowing it's my last one. As much as I might complain about it, tech is actually my favorite part of the production process, even more than performance. It's when everything starts coming together and you can see the work that all these different people and shops and departments have done in different places and different times all start to work as one unit. As a stage manager, it's when the show becomes yours and you start to take control of the rhythm and timing. It's also usually when your patience and professionalism will be challenged and pushed to its limit - lots of people working long, sometimes frustrating hours, and decisions need to be made and implemented quickly. Tempers get short, muscles get tired, feet get sore, and you have to keep everyone wanting to give their 110%. It's hard, it's exhausting, and I love it. Rehearsals can get boring. Performance runs can get boring. Tech is a lot of things, but it's never boring. I will miss it. I hope that whatever I do next has that same sort of challenge to it.

Speaking of what's next, I am still sending out lots of job applications and have only had two turn-downs so far, but also no positive responses. The staffing place that was recommended to me seems great, but they say January is too far away right now and to check back later. Ugh. I thought the point was to start now so that when January came, I didn't have to worry. Oh well. I understand that they can't predict needs in advance any more than I can. I have an appointment on Monday morning to go talk to an advisor at the VAFB Embry-Riddle campus and get more information about costs and class work. They offer a degree in Technical Management with a few different specializations, including Engineering Sciences, which I am really interested in. I hope to have more news soon.

CP2 is so close to being done, but I've barely had five minutes at a time to work on it. I have both Monday and Tuesday off next week (no classes on Monday night, either =( ), so that should be enough to finish that right up and get crackin' on the next. Woo! I suppose that means I should actually plan out the next one then, huh? This one *is* turning out a little longer than I had expected, though, which might be a good thing, or it may be ridiculous, and I won't know until I see the recipient with it - there is at least a 6" height difference between us, so gauging what the right length should be is difficult. But too long is an easier fix than too short, so I'm not too worried.

And in a quick look around blogland, congratulations to Amanda on her engagement and Inky on her 5-year anniversary!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." - Douglas Adams

State of the Union...

I voted today! Mostly because Tuesday is a 10/12 and anyone who knows me in the slightest knows I'm sure as hell not getting up early to go wait in any line anywhere, particularly on what promises to be a very long day. Honestly, I really don't follow or even really care about politics much, in fact, this is the first time I've voted in a presidential election, but I felt compelled to fill in my bubble for this one. I don't want to get into any political debates, but I do have one thing to say.

Prop 8 Supporters - protect marriage from what, exactly? (For non-Californians, or for those Californians who live under a very large rock, Proposition 8, if passed, will ban gay marriage in the state.) I'm not homosexual and I do have religious objections to homosexuality (although quite honestly, I don't feel I'm qualified to judge anyone in that area, casting the first stone and all, not to mention 'love the sinner, hate the sin'), but *legally* it's unconstitutional to ban marriage from anybody. This *is* America, and ALL men (and women) are created equal. And frankly, since the current divorce rate is still hovering around 50% within the first five years, it's not like us heterosexuals are doing such a bang-up job at marriage, either. And, wow, children might actually get taught that not everyone is the same. Catastrophe!

On non-ranting notes, we moved into the theater tonight and tech starts tomorrow. We have more set pieces than backstage actually holds, so I spent the afternoon today playing a real-life game of three-dimensional Tetris, and you can put pieces on three different floors (can they possibly make service elevators any louder?). I think I won - at least, the game isn't over yet. We'll see how things go tomorrow. CP2 was not completed by the end of the month, but I'm hoping it will be done by the end of the week. I should have more knitting time during tech once things settle down a bit. I barely went to the gym at all this week - I just really have not been eating a lot and am trying to take care of myself better. Plus, I know that I only have one more week of exile - the week after Opening I can hit at least three nights of class, and after that should be able to go every night. (And I'd like to point out that at this point, I'm scheduled to call over half the performances because Chrissy wants time off. But they don't need me.) I really wanted to go running with the MMA class tomorrow morning, but I have to go babysit a voiceover recording instead. No word yet on jobs/schooling, although Christina from knitting found what seems to be a perfect educational program for me through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and I've been sending out lots of applications this week, including a secretary job at Vandenberg that I'd REALLY love to get. (It's been fun thinking of all the things I do and then putting them into business terms for my resume. "I send out schedules" turns into "I distribute and maintain interdepartmental schedules and make sure set production deadlines are met." "I can't tell you because it's magic" turns into "I act as a liaison between organizations to communicate information professionally and courteously while maintaining a high degree of confidentiality in order to protect trade secrets." Of course, I don't use all of those - mostly I'm of the opinion that one shouldn't use ten words when two will suffice - but it's still fun.)

Anyway, gotta crash or I'll need more Mt. Dew tomorrow. Ugh!