Coming Over to the Dark Side

So, tonight is the big New Hampshire Theatre Awards - kind of our version of the Tonys. A great number of my friends and a few plays I've been in are up for major awards, I've had my ticket for months, and yet... perhaps someone has noticed I'm here posting on my lj? And no, I don't have the type of phone that would let me post from the show.

So why am I here?

Well, I have a really nasty allergy to theatre fog and haze. Like, it sends a nice message to my autonomic nervous system that says breathing is not necessary. At all. I can make myself breathe if I want and work at it - but I don't, and get rather grumpily unpleasant about refusing if people prompt me to (as I'm waiting for transport to clinic or hospital for assistance).

Now, mind you, fog has been banned in equity theatres due to health risks, but community theatres don't have to follow those restrictions. It's always used on occasion and usually I can avoid it. However, lately it's become a problem.

I've been unable to go to a number of shows because they were using huge amounts of the stuff. I've had to flee from other shows because they've denied they were going to use any when I bought my ticket and as I'm sitting there suddenly the fog comes on. I've had to explain to multiple people that no, I'm not going to just go try and see if I'm still allergic to it and/or if this newer/different version will still affect me. Not unless they're willing to have an ambulance standing by and be willing to pick up all my medical bills, sorry. This isn't a nasty rash and a little wheezing that my inhaler and a benadryl will take care of. I. Stop. Breathing.

My friends have been very good about calling and emailing to warn me of fog in shows and today when I arrived at the pre-show dinner one of them pulled me aside and said they'd been at the theatre earlier and it had been filled with fog. So, I called and sure enough they told me yes, they'd be using haze throughout the show.

Which means, no show for me. I'm out $30, which is a lot for a poor teacher, I don't get to see the friends I generally only see at the awards, and if *fingers crossed* my friends or one of my shows wins an award I won't be there. I am an Unhappy Mai.

And, just to add insult to injury, when I got out to my parked car to head the 30 minutes back home instead of walking over to the theatre, I found that someone had hit my parked car and knocked the driver's side mirror all but off. So I had to drive around in the dark to find the police station, file a report (which necessitated a trip back across a busy and slippery street to find my car's VIN number), and then drive home on a busy highway while craning around to try and see something out of my crazily hanging off driver's side mirror.

Thank heaven there was Supernatural and Merlin tonight!

Well, another crisis weathered with my poor 16 year old cat. Threw up from Saturday afternoon/evening till late Monday night when it got really ugly. And then, just when I'd decided I had to bring her to the vets it stopped. She didn't eat anything till Thursday morning, but seems mostly back to normal now. (*knock on wood!*)

My youngest sister's cat, who's 17, didn't manage so well. YS lives in Boston and after several tough months made the decision today that she had to put the poor little one to sleep. After a whole bunch of crazy finagling, #2 sister arranged rides home for her kids from her youngest daughter's basketball game so she could head directly to Boston to be with YS. I came to her house to meet the kids and stay with them till the sisters can get back here. (We're weren't about to leave YS in Boston alone and luckily #2 sister was able to convince her to come here. I'm not quite ready to leave my cat alone all night, just in case.)

And a friend of mine died Wednesday night. He'd taken his wife to work so she didn't have to drive in the storm and later went to help shovel out her parents' driveway. His wife called to say she was ready to go home and her dad went out to get him and found him dead. Apparently he had a massive heart attack. The M.E. said he was dead before he even hit the ground and never even knew what happened. He was 43, just a little younger than me. He had diabetes, but never had any signs of heart disease. The M.E. thinks that symptoms from the diabetes masked it and in fact, his heart shows that he seems to have had at least one mild heart attack in the past few months that he never even was aware of. Scary.

I'm not as close to him as I am to his best friend who is utterly devastated. I spent a good chunk of time on the phone with him tonight before going to meet the nieces, but it's just all so sad. And his poor wife had decided she was never going to let anyone get close enough to her that she'd be devastated if she lost them. And then she met Shawn and they just fell in love and now... yeah. Sucks.

Anyway... consider taking a moment to tell the important people in your life how much you care about them. You just never know.

Anyway, anyway, it's a long weekend and I'm very grateful for that.

Love you all. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Happy New Year to all my lovely friends here. I hope that 2011 is the best year any of us have had yet!

I feel quite accomplished at the moment. Laundry is done (well, all the important laundry), bills are paid and ready to go in the mail, trash is done, rooms are straightened, papers organized, fresh sheets are on the bed... I'm all set for the new year.

My cat on the other hand has been quite distraught and following me around everywhere trying to figure out what's going on. Now that I've settled back down on to the couch, she's curled up next to me hoping that I'm done with all the madness.

I would have liked to vaccuum, but I have a roommate sleeping downstairs with what sounds like a nasty cold, so that can wait.

Anyway, I'm ready and happy and watching Criminal Minds, so all is right with my world.

*hugs to you all*

Stolen from caffeinified...

1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot chocolate! I love hot chocolate winter or summer.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
He does stockings, but sometimes there are little extras around the stockings, which are always so overstuffed that they're resting on chairs or couches. This is all at my parents' house where we celebrate Christmas.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
I'm not picky, but I have fallen quite in love with the more blue-y/pastely lights I've seen around this year. None in or on my house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope, but my mom has a plastic one she hangs up in the house... actually, I think it's up all year, come to think of it.

5. When do you put up your decorations?
When my mom bugs me enough I pull out my ceramic tree. She sets stuff up sometime after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
My favorite is the dressing at Thanksgiving. I loves me some dressing. - Same as Caffeinified

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child.
My sisters and me sitting on the stairs writing out our thank you notes (before we opened presents) as we waited for the parents to get up so we could go down and open things.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I honestly don't remember. I do remember passionately arguing with someone for his reality, saying that there had been shredded carrot pieces on the rug and anyone who knew my mom would know there was NO WAY she would deliberately put food on the carpet, therefore, there must have been a visit from Santa and his reindeer.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
On occasion we do, but usually we wait for Christmas Day.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
Mom does most of it and whoever comes in to visit gets to put on some ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
I love snow, but I absolutely DREAD driving it in. So... mixed feelings around Christmas based on how scared I'm going to be driving to and from my parents' house.

12. Can you ice skate?
I used to be able to - went through beginner's lessons as a kid.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
I couldn't pick one.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Cranberry or raspberry pie. Which I usually have to make for myself if I want it, so I usually end up going without.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Everyone being together and laughing and joking.

17. What tops your tree?
I have a tiny ceramic tree with lights that my grandmother made. I have hung a tiny angel ornament around the top.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
I like both, but I really do love watching people open what I got them.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
Spiritual: Silent Night
Non-spiritual: "I Hate Christmas" by Oscar the Grouch

20. Candy Canes?
No. I always think if I get the other flavored ones I'll like them, but in reality I always end up cutting my tongue on them when they get sharp.

21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized?
It's up to you whether you pay attention to all the nonsense or not. I don't.

22. Real tree or artificial?
I do love a real tree, but don't have one in my house and my parents just went over to artificial for the handiness of them.

23. Do you put lights up on the outside of your house?
Nope. But my mom does around her house.

24. Do you do a Christmas Dinner or Supper and who cooks?
We do a Christmas Eve dinner after mass, a Christmas morning dinner with the nieces, and a Christmas dinner with the family. Mom does most of the cooking and my sisters and I help out.

25. Is your family the everyone unwraps gifts at once sort or do you do it one gift at a time as the others watch?
Someone passes out a round of presents - one to everyone and we all open them at once and ooh and aahh and then someone else passes out another round and so on till we're done. Though often we save some to open later so there have been times when we opened our last presents a week or so after the Day.

26. Do your pets share in the festivities?
My cat likes to 'help' me wrap. And when we had a dog at my parents' she'd come join us.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

( Read more... )

I think that's... 53 I've read and 20 I've read at least part of. 73, that's a lot more than I thought!

Hey, a friend is looking for a short story - can't remember the author it's by, but it's Ray Bradbury-ish. It's about a boy who does some sort of test in school, but he does too well and is taken away... That ring a bell for anybody?

ETA: Found! Examination Day by Henry Seslar. Very eerie story!

Procedure went smoothly. Got back to my parents about noon and dozed/watched The West Wing most of the afternoon. Going to have dinner with them now then my dad will drive me home to sleep in my own bed. :)

For those of you who've been wondering where I am - not that I post much, okay, but I do chat with a number of you all... All right, come on, pretend you missed me or wondered, okay?

Anyway, I've been dead swamped in theatre land. It's been great, but, between that and the beginning of school, life has been insane. I barely manage to do more than check my flists and log into whatever RP stuff I absolutely must.

But now that I'm down to, um... *counts*... 2 full-length shows in rehearsal and three upcoming dinner theatres, I can breathe a bit again.

Two weekends ago I directed two ten minute plays - first real stuff I've directed since college - at a big festival based on the Seven Deadly Sins. I got to direct the two Envy plays and had a blast with that although it was insane trying to find time for that around the three full-length plays I was involved with at the time and school and finding a roommate and all that good stuff (found one by the way, keep your fingers crossed she works out!). It was easier once the first two plays closed, but then I had to go back into rehearsal for one of them since we were bringing it to the New Hampshire Community Theatre Festival for competition this weekend.

Long crazy and stressful! Still, the directing went fabulously - and one of the playwrights wants to work with me because she loved what I did with her play and a couple of people said they thought the other one of my plays was the best there. Absolutely great if exhausting experience.

And this weekend? The play where I'm part of the black gospel choir? (Yes, I'm white, shush.) Well, we won. We won two awards for excellence in acting for our male leads, Best Actress in festival, Best Director in festival and Best Play. Which means we go to the regionals. And if we can pull off first or second place there in March, we could go to nationals.

The adjudicators loved the choir, couldn't imagine how the play worked before without one, and one of them offered to help work with our group to tighten it up and revamp the problem spots before regionals.

It was an amazing day yesterday. I'm surprised my head still fits through the doorway!

>>Subject: wanted to borrow - EMF/ Gauss Meter reader


Hi all,
I know this is strange, but we are looking to move into a new home that has
power lines right in the backyard. I've read different views on this so we
would like to test the land before we sign on the dotted line. WOuld anyone
happen to have a tester we could borrow for an hour or so?? Or if you wouldn't
mind coming along, that is just fine too. They aren't sold locally so trying to

get one in the next day is near impossible. HELP :)

Thanks for looking and any help>>




Right. He's totally looking for evidence of ghosts. ;)

She's eating! Not a ton yet, probably less than a 1/4 cup so far today (she usually eats a third to a half a cup a day), but she's eating! And she's found her voice again and is following me around being demanding of attention and petting which she hasn't done in a week. And today for the first time in a week she did her normal poke and yowl to wake me for petting in the morning. I was so happy to be annoyed I can't even tell you.

I'm truly hopeful again for the first time in days. Even my mom yesterday was pretty convinced Kachina wouldn't make it through the night because she was so off.

Thank you for all the prayers and good thoughts and wishes and all and please keep them coming!

Also... I find it interesting that she got sick when my potential buyer moved all her stuff into my house last weekend and perked up when the woman moved it all out again today. Hmmm...