13 posts tagged “dreams”
Wow. I just suck. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Sorry, guys.
Christmas in retail is crap. I feel like I haven't gotten to spend any time with my friends lately, not the online ones, anyway. Thankfully (ha) after next week, I'll have one more night where I won't be doing anything specific, so maybe I'll have a little more time for all this again. Maybe not, but a girl can dream.
Next week a friend of mine (And J's, and Evan's) is having a little to-do to celebrate his leaving town. He's getting the hell out of Morgantown and moving to live closer to his girl, in Missouri. I really hope things work out for them, but in light of the recent news that another friend and his fiancee have called it quits, I'm going to admit to a little worry on this one. The fact that he's been able to change enough to maintain a relationship this long is impressive, so hopefully they'll continue along that path. Alternatively, if they don't, at least let him learn what he needs to learn from the relationship and then not dwell on it for the rest of eternity. He's taking a big risk and I'm happy about that. I'd hate to see it turn out to be pretty useless.
In completely different news, it appears that just as our cell-phone contract is running out and as we're about to receive our deposit refund, both of our phones are suffering from issues. Evan's phone seems to have had complete loss of microphone function. Mine is developing a crack in the hinge, and the front faceplate (when the phone is closed) is a little bit loose. Not loose enough that I can tell what's wrong and try to snap it back, but just loose enough that dust is getting down on the little LCD screen. Ugh. In light of the fact that I really desire very little for Christmas, however, I'll probably settle on calling that a Christmas present.
I'm just not big on the gifts for myself these days, I guess. If someone sees something neat, thinks of me, and feels like I should have it, I'm not going to complain, but long gone are the days of keeping a mental list all year so that I can spout off a list of my desires come December. When asked what I want, my mind always drifts immediately to "What do I need?" and usually I respond from there. Right now, other than money, I really don't need anything.
I'd like a round-trip plane ticket to and hotel stay in San Francisco. Somehow I don't think this one is quite so reasonable. At least, not for and certainly not by Christmas (though I do have that week of vacation coming up in January...). On a random internet travel search, that one's going to go for around $800 if I pick my cheapest options. So, yeah. No.
As far as other luxuries in life, I already have a digital camera, an iPod, a computer that (mostly) still works, a PS2, a GameCube, at least two or three DVD players, a bunch of movies I never have time to watch, and a whole host of other things I'm lucky to have.
I really don't need more. So since I do need a new cell phone, that will be my requested Christmas present from the boy. I'm not going to say no to the cool stuff my friends usually find and give to me, but I'm going to devote more of my energy to finding the perfect things for them instead of the perfect things for me.
Today is Friday. I have the weekend off--I think that, most likely, the fact that I worked last Saturday and had my parents over on Sunday is why I feel like I haven't spent any time with my friends on here lately. That will be resolved this weekend, though I'm pretty sure the 'rents are going to drop by again. They'll come bearing food and/or furniture, however, so it could be worse. Mom actually wants to see Stranger than Fiction, which surprises me, but I'm not going to deny a free movie ticket, especially since I want to see it as well.
Speaking of dreams, I had a rather interesting one this morning before the cat-alarm woke me up. I was with a group of friends and we were touring luxury cars and luxury boats. I suspect this spin-off came from a comment I made as we caught the tail end of last night's Smallville (waiting for Supernatural), regarding Lex Luthor and living on a yacht. Anyway, the boats in my dream were the most fantastic things, bigger than houses on the inside without being so on the outside, and full of beautiful kitchens and living spaces but also containing great gaming areas, mini-movie-theaters, and that sort of thing. It was a cool dream.
I suppose I'm going to wrap this up for now, though it feels like I have so much more to add. I suppose that's what I get for not writing in here for a week and then having so much to cover to get back up to date. I guess it really doesn't matter--not very many people reading here anyway, so this is mostly for my own edification. Sometimes it feels nice just to get it all out there on the page and out of my head and hands.
So, yeah. Feeling a bit lonely, hating that I've been lacking time lately, and missing everyone a bunch. Hopefully I can resolve that this weekend. I know I certainly want to try. And maybe I'll get to write about the books I've read recently, too.
Last night's dream, or at least, the dream I was having when I woke up, involved visiting the house that my grandparents lived in when I was a little kid, and also the actor Alan Cumming having decided to be a woman instead of a man. I wouldn't be completely surprised if that was the case, but a quick visit to his website shows that it hasn't happened yet, at least.
Night before last I dreamed that my pregnant co-worker is going to have a girl. I told a couple people at work, but not her, as I didn't want to be right and spoil things or be wrong and be disappointing. Plus, even if she does want to find out when she can, that's still a couple months away. Anyway.
Lost premiered last night, and as promised, the first five minutes were especially wtf-worthy. The fact that two different Stephen King books popped up is still tugging at my mind, but given that they were the old covers, I can't tell what books they were. A lot of folks have been suggesting that they're part of the Dark Tower series and everyone knows that King is interested in the show because he's written a couple commentaries on it, and allowed them to reference his work. Not to mention the little rumor that's floating around that he was the real author of Bad Twin, the book that the franchise released last summer... It's an interesting thought, at least, though I don't like the implications of a Lost/Dark Tower parallel. (cough)
Oh, and of the three of us, I was the one to guess correctly on the new station's name--"The Hydra." Go me. The whole Juliet/Sarah/Penny thing is irritating because the actresses haven't been around long enough, screen-time wise, for us to differentiate, and they've all become significant in the last two episodes--the last of Season 2 and the first of Season 3. Also, Ben. If that's his real name--given that I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it's another alias. And dude, is Mr. Friendly gay? "You're not my type, Kate." Eheheheh.
I know the six-week miniseries (first section of the season, then they break for a couple months and come back until the real end of the season) is supposed to focus on the Others, but I'm just dying to know what's going to happen with Michael and Walt, and what's going to happen on the other side of the island. Next week's promo looked promising, at least, for a look at them. Here's hoping.
Do you play any musical instruments?
I do, or rather, I did. It's been a few years and I'm not exactly in practice. I've managed to teach myself a little about the piano over the years, but my only formal instruction (if you can call being in the band in sixth-twelfth grade and one year in college "formal") is in flute/piccolo. By my senior year, I was actually pretty decent, and even got to pick up a solo during our spring stage show. Of course, it was during a movie montage segment so when they did the video they played the movie directly, which resulted in not being able to see who was actually playing. That year he did list soloists in the credits, however, so you'll have to take his word for it, I guess.
Last night was odd. Between Evan and I we kept waking up for stuff, including one point during the night where he thought he needed to turn on the light (which woke me up) and look for something. Apparently he has pretty vivid dreams.
Waking up was also difficult because I was dreaming when the alarm went off. What I remember now is writing an essay to try to get accepted at some store that involved scent stuff and maybe cars. Megan, the girl I worked with who's about to have a baby called me on the phone and we were talking about jobs. The interview I had involved them asking me why I was there, if I was such a decent writer, and I think the lady who interviewed me was the chick who played Ana-Lucia on LOST. Shouldn't be much of a surprise then that later on in the dream she got shot by all of her co-workers and her husband--apparently it was some sort of suicide thing that she'd talked them into.
So once she was killed, the rest of us (though I'm not sure where all the people came from) were going to walk home, except the bridge we wanted to use was kind of messed up, so we were going to have to go around the long way.
Then we went to this kind of mall-type place but we were also living there, and I got into some kind of radio competition trivia contest thing. There were four questions and I'd been the first to answer the first three right. I was just getting ready to answer the fourth question when my headphones/microphone died on me, despite the fact that I was yelling as loudly as I could into it. So someone else won, and when I tried to get ahold of the radio guys to tell them what had happened, they were gone.
Don't remember much else because the alarm started going off.
Work today and the next five days. Need to drop off the rent check and water bill on the way out this morning. Feeling sleepy, and kind of hoping I get put on void/overstock/comping duty so I don't have to run register. Kind of tempted to call off, but money is good.
The cat is yowling rather insistently, but I can't tell why.
Time to get ready.
I just woke up from dreaming, and my, was it odd.
At first, I was at this small convention that was, for some reason, being held in a grocery store or something of the like. They put out food and expected us to eat it, and we did, because it was stuff like really good sandwiches and crazy kinds of Pop Tarts. They were also selling some stuff, just random things like out-of-date planners and kids' bags; silly stuff.
When we went outside to get into the car, there were a couple of parents in front of us who were helping their kids cross the road. I applauded their efforts, but once I attempted to participate, the mom seemed to get really mad. So when it was our turn to get into our car, she gave me time to get in (to the backseat) and then she pushed the car, really hard. I started traveling backwards at a really fast pace, so she must have been really strong. Ahem.
Anyway, usually when I have dreams about being in a car that's moving but I'm not driving, I'm in the passenger seat, which at least lets me get some sanity and climb over the middle of the car and get into the driver's seat. This time, however, I was in the back seat and thus had a lot more to do to get up there. At first I actually considered not getting up there and letting the car do what it may, just to show her what she gets for being stupid, but eventually I climbed into the front seat and got the car moving properly again. I always wonder what effect the fact that I don't actually drive has on these dreams and their potential realism. Perhaps that's why I feel threatened by a car that I'm not driving but am expected to drive. Anyway.
Once I get the car under control, I pull in to a fast food restaurant and go inside. In one of the booths, there sits N, diligently working on a new song, I presume. I squeeze his hand for just a moment and then have to go back outside, because I see the angry mom lady and everyone else (including my mom, I think) show up. I go outside and tell my mom that I think angry lady did it on purpose, but angry lady overhears me and gets upset. I try to play it off as a joke, and give her a helium balloon, promising her that the man she's looking for inside is there. Her husband doesn't seem to mind, even though she clearly has amorous intentions for this guy.
Unfortunately, then I wake up, and notice the time (just about pill time) and so I run out here to fill up a few minutes by putting this all down to remember.
Yesterday got better, thankfully. I spent some time working on RP with Tarsis, and showered, and when Evan came home we talked a good bit and eventually got around to doing things that made me feel much better. I feel kind of pathetic for that being the solution to my mood, even when my brain and logic had been sated beforehand, but eh. Endorphins (dolphins!) for the win.
Grabbed dinner out and went to the store for a few things, then came back here and did a good bit of nothing for several hours, then crashed. So yesterday ended up not so bad after all.
Monday is here already, much to my disappointment. It was such a relief to crawl into my own bed last night, blast the AC, and burrow into my pillows while wrapping up in my down comforter that I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I tried to go to bed early but ended up watching MythBusters for a while (they were doing movie myths!), and whatever time I did manage to fall asleep was definitely the wrong one.
I was in the middle of a sleep cycle when the alarm went off, which is the rare occasion that I don't just hop out of bed and instead mutter groggily and smack the Sleep button. I was dreaming, which is a sure sign of this for me, and half of my reluctance to wake is because I want to finish the dream.
All I know is that it was definitely related to being at my parents' house yesterday, because it had a lot to do with football becoming the religion of the country or something. There were nuns in very special hats (that they only wore once a century or something), and despite the fact that it was Sunday, it was my alma mater's football team playing. I don't remember the score, but I do remember that a bunch of the other team's players got thrown out of the game for ganging up on and kicking one of ours.
There was also some sort of vaguely-connected bookstore type dream where we set up giant displays for celebrations or something. And I had a room (which was a mess) somewhere in the dorms, and so did J, just like old times sort of.
Anyway, yeah, it was pretty vague and weird.
I dunno, not much else to say right now, I guess. Back to work today, though my first day back after a few off is usually pretty fast, which is nice. And I only work four again this week, so after Wednesday, I have two days off in the middle of the week, which is just absolutely lovely.
Anyway, until then.
Apologies to anyone out there who's actually listening, as it were.
Life lately has been pretty much the same routine we've come to expect, with very little sticking out and demanding to be made note of. Get up at 7:30, leave at 8:30, work until 5, stay at work until 7, come home, make dinner, go to bed and do it all over again. There's really no point in making a post every day that says that.
Last night I fell asleep with my head in Evan's lap as we watched Law & Order. Much to my chagrin, we've both become fans of the show, even in spite of the negative associations I have based on an ex who was in love with it as well. I had withdrawn from internet-ly things early because I had a headache, and once I got comfortable it seemed natural enough to fall asleep. At some point Evan went to bed, and eventually I woke up on the couch and dragged myself in there as well. This resulted in more sleep than I usually get, which is good, I guess. And the headache seems to finally have subsided.
I was dreaming that I was working in a restaurant when I woke up--basically, something I've sworn up and down I would never do. I'd then compromised that point by taking a non-waitstaff job at this place, but then my boss (who turned out to be my grandmother) decided I should be crosstrained. She was a very demanding customer, and I kind of failed miserably as I didn't know where anything was in the kitchen there. I know there was more to that dream but it's all too fuzzy now, and was already interrupted by my morning cat wakeup call.
I've got a short work week this time around, which is nice, save for the fact that I only had one day off between last week and this. But I only have two days after today, and Friday off. At some point in these next two days, Evan and I need to do laundry. Friday morning I pack while Evan puts in a half day at work. Then we load up the car, drop the cat off at my parents' house, and head to Evan's hometown, about four hours away from here. I think I've probably mentioned before that his mom's getting married.
Well, this is the weekend--also being the weekend of the five-year anniversary of our first meeting and when we started dating. That particular day is Saturday, the day of the wedding, and we'll be going out to dinner with the rest of the guests (more of his family that I've yet to meet and he hasn't seen in years, so fun), so I guess that's something. I had been planning for us to go to dinner at the local little Japanese restaurant that we've always gone to for special occasions like Valentine's Day and anniversaries (and also where he proposed--we haven't been back since then, actually), but we'll have to do it another time.
We've worked extra and saved up some money for this coming weekend, so I'm trying to figure out what I might get him as a little sort of gift, but I really don't know. It's entirely possible that I'll end up asking him, even though I hate doing that.
The other notable thing about last night was that I just felt really really good. All of my close friends and loved ones had at least fairly good days, and it made me feel happy. So that was nice.
I guess that's about all for now. I'd like to at least get in one or two more posts before I go, but the QotD prompts lately have been descending into levels of blah yet unseen, and other than that there's not always something I feel like writing about. So we'll see. If nothing else, pictures of this weekend will possibly be forthcoming after that whole shebang.
Until next time~
Last night (or rather, this morning, as I'm fairly certain most of them happened after, say, 4am) was an interesting one, dreamwise.
Of course everything gets hazy once you woke up, and the cat was fairly insistent this morning, but I managed to ignore her, more or less, anyway. There were a few different scenes, but the most memorable was running around inside this building (library?) in order to visit a friend. It was set up like a video game, almost, where we could go the long way or the short way, but the shortcut involved pushing this panel that was hidden behind some fake bushes. Then you had to run either left or right (it alternated between pushes) and up some stairs, then down the other side. If you went the wrong direction, you ended up in front of the panel again. There were actually two friends there, I think--a girl I graduated high school with, and a friend from my Japanese class. The high school friend was decorating her room with the weirdest shit--which was completely normal for her.
Also, I apparently went to England. I don't know if that part up there was after England (I think it was, oddly enough), or if I'm joining together two dreams that happened on either side of the cat shrieking at me to wake up and feed her. I remember walking around with someone as my guide and watching the traffic patterns and talking to people. There was some sort of special thing going on that Friday night and my host's friends wanted to take her out that night, and asked me if it was okay. I said yes, even though I'd already privately made some plans for that night.
Evan was around in some of them, but the only scene I really remember was one where my parents completely ignored us to talk with their next-door neighbors. I was suspicious that they were having sex with them because I couldn't think of any other reason that they would actually associate with anyone else, especially when we were around. Self-centered as that may seem, you have to understand that my mom makes friends with just about no one.
Anyway.
That's about all I remember, but it was nice to get enough sleep to be having dreams when I woke up, so I could remember them.
Yesterday was interesting. Morning was spent running around in a panic along with everyone else because we were informed that our company's Vice President of Operations was coming to visit our store. He's visited us before, about six months ago, along with a bunch of other big names from the company, from our district leader on up (though the company president didn't show, as we were led to believe), and was apparently quite impressed. So he'd asked to come back again.
This led to all of us running around like crazy trying to do fifteen things at once to get things ready. For my part, I had to herd about six different varieties on this idea (Teh Ugly) back into their respective trays, because they don't easily stay there on their own. Also, of course, general tidying up, making sure things were placed where they were supposed to be, and fixing our journals displays so that they didn't look like utter shit. Same thing for all of our pens. Normally, they wouldn't have been bad enough to worry about, but come on? VP of Ops? You better bet my ass was on the line, especially because the one thing they found to complain about last time was some of the stuff that's my responsibility.
The thing is, though, while everyone else was exhausted by all the pressure and trying to live up to it, I was completely relishing it. I work best with some big godawful event hanging over my head--and I blame high school, and that teacher that I mentioned a while back (The EBMoD? Her.) because we always did the essays she assigned us at lunch and rarely earlier, and I learned how to function best under pressure. And now I'm a terrible procrastinator. But back to the story!
Of course, in the midst of all this, our shipment came, and not only was it big, but it was stacked badly and a lot of things had fallen off the tops of the pallets, which had to be picked up and re-packed before they could even take the stuff off the truck. Then three or four more deliveries of various other things came while my manager was trying to get the cafe supplies unpacked (because one thing that they were really impressed with was how good our cafe backroom looked, I suppose).
Finally, around noon (which came faster than I could have possibly thought it would), our store manager called from the district meeting and said Mr. VP-man had a change in plans, and would now be visiting at a later date, "sometime between now and Christmas." So we all relaxed a bit.
D, the manager who isn't the one who left but is now pretty much my favorite (not just because of this!) bought us yummy blended coffee-chocolate drinks from the cafe as a pick-me-up, and I didn't get lunch until 1:30, but I didn't really care. This, in turn, made the rest of my day really, really short. Which rocked.
The rest of my day at work (working or otherwise waiting for Evan) was spent reading Ender's Game, which is one of those things everyone says to read but I had never gotten around to doing. One of my co-workers mentioned it when I whined about what to read, and I finished it right as Evan came to pick me up from work. Mira most wholeheartedly approves, and is deciding now whether to pick up the rest of the series until something else catches her eye.
The ending, of course, was just as "Holy crap, did that just happen?" as it was supposed to be, and despite what Card admits to being fairly un-sophisticated writing, I really liked it. It was a quick read with a good payoff, and sometimes that's exactly what we need, I think.
Also, and I'm sure he'll be pleased to note the garnering of another mention here, things with N are really looking up. We had a good long talk last night and sorted a few things out that had been bothering him (I hadn't realized! Bad Mira!) and got things on more of an even keel between us, I think. It's still coming along, but I dare to say that it's going well so far. So here's hoping, eh?
Finally, before I sign off of here and actually start getting ready for my day, let me whine about the fact that the manager that no one likes is opening today. Boo. I strongly suspect today will be a lot longer and less enjoyable than yesterday. Ugh.
Until next time~
At first I was with L (California) and he and I were part of some group that did mascot performances/musical performances (he played guitar, I was learning to sing with the group) for conventions. There were other people there who spoke Vietnamese, and at one point he spoke to them and I got a little upset because I was the only one who couldn't speak it. We'd just booked a con that would let us see each other for the first time (despite the fact that in the dream we seemed to be in the same time/place) Not sure how that worked. At some point, the group became larger and we watched others compete in a song/dance sort of competition on an indoor field. One of the groups kept messing up and then we were all dancing on the field together.
We were all taken hostage by a group of people who threatened to kill us--had bodily explosives, etc.
We were herded into this commune where we all didn't do much of anything except for eat together. One day, somehow, we knew it was our last. I walked around the tables and finally found a seat. One of the guys who'd presumably made fun of me earlier with L offered me part of his chocolate dessert thing, when he saw I was going after scraps from the plates of others. It didn't matter much, because then the crazy/evil woman sprung her trap on us. She reminded me of a teacher I had in high school who was almost as bad as the other one I mentioned recently. All of her minions (the guys who kidnapped us), she ordered to leave, then she stood there and threatened us. She had bugs at her command, and filled the windows, floors, walls, and the like, with spiders and bees so that we couldn't escape (not sure what fate held for us if we weren't killed by those), and then she left, too.
As she walked away from the building with her thugs (who had somehow morphed into quite the literal definition in a stereotypical sense) I told everyone to be quiet, because she would expect us to yell/cry. We didn't, and instead quietly were planning our escape--her bugs had been less interested in us than she thought they would be, and left to their own devices had wandered away instead of attacking us. Out of nowhere (I'm not sure now if she was with us when we got there, or if she found me), my cat meowed, chirruped, and came running to me.
She got suspicious, though, when she couldn't hear our cries of pain, and sent two of the thugs to check back on us.
Then J (Ohio--a big dude) and Evan were there, apparently had been all the time. J shoved the one thug out of the way, and he was surprised enough that J fought back that he didn't go after him. Then Evan, looking rather pissed off, told me to take the cat (I did, saying "Yes, dear."). I scooped her up in my arms, and he and I walked out, but went separate directions. Somewhere along the way I lost the cat (She ran, presumably), and I remember having to go down this long tube slide that had spiderwebs across it, so we had to be careful. When we finally escaped, there were a lot of people waiting for us, sitting on bleachers there until we got back.
I found Evan, but the cat wasn't with him. I asked why, and he evaded me, telling me about what happened to him when we parted ways. Finally, I pressed the question again, and he told me she did a great thing, but wouldn't "go" any longer. I asked him, "Do you mean go like walk, or go like breathe, or did she die?" She died, I assume saving him from someone/something. If the source I blame for the dream is right, it would likely have been a giant spider. I was so thankful to be back in his arms that given everything we'd been through, I didn't./couldn't cry.
And then I woke up.
I've been having a lot of vivid dreams lately, but mostly they're short and disconnected. This one was long and at least somewhat coherent, plot-wise. The kicker? Yesterday I mentioned that book about the Dark Tower series. I've been reading it, am almost through with it. Apparently that series just makes me dream weird shit. Why? I have no idea. But now that I've recorded this, I'm going to try to go back to sleep until the alarm goes off.
What's the nerdiest thing about you?
I almost decided that the answer to this was too similar to yesterday morning's post (about high school band), but one of the dreams I had last night suggested to me otherwise. To be fair, upon recollection of it, a lot of this dream is a re-hash of what I saw/said/did yesterday or was thinking about when I went to sleep. But not the bit about him.
In said dream (which makes no sense, of course), Andrew Lloyd Webber was on a tour bus with his pregnant wife--or so I thought--and they were, for some reason, outside my store. I think at the beginning of the dream it was someone else on the bus, because I remember having a secretive phone conversation where we caught one single glimpse of each other through the store/bus windows as we talked. Anyway.
The bus pulled away but went to another store nearby. I considered it for a few minutes before running down there--I remember at one point thinking I might even jump over the counter if it was quicker. There, I found him, with his mom, Jean (true), and I chatted him up. Someone took pictures of all of the people who were there, but he paid special attention to me to the point of outright flirting. I asked him, "Isn't Maddy pregnant?" (Again, true--that's the right name, or something really close to it, and they have, like, five kids) He told me no, of course not, and apparently that was enough for me.
We wandered around together and ended up almost-but-not-quite messing around at this old house where we were. At some point we got separated as other people showed up--S, and my mom. I found him out wandering around in the neighborhood where the house was.
That's about all that I remember that pertains to him, at least. There was more to the dream, including a new house where we tried to throw garbage down the toilet, where the back of the shower was the door into the next room, where I had two freshman roommates who I told outright that I refused to put up with partying. Yeah, it was just a little bit weird.
But! Back to the topic at hand. My nerdy self.
A little background. In May of 1995, I went on a school trip to New York City. We did all the requisite touring of the day--Radio City Music Hall, Statue of Liberty, and yes, the World Trade Center (some of my pictures from the ferry from city to the Statue are a bit haunting, knowing that I was there when they stood). One of the other things we did was attend a performance of The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic theater. This was before the city cleaned up Times Square. Oddly, to this day, I can remember all the smutty sex shops we passed walking to and from our buses, and not quite understanding what they were about. I also recall a T-shirt that was for sale with "Ten uses of the f-word" on it that our chaperons quickly herded us away from. Hah. Anyway.
We saw Phantom from the second row of the balcony--which really isn't too bad, and had the added advantage of being able to see what was going on behind a lot of the scenery. I didn't quite get all of the storyline, being ten years old, but I knew that I liked the spectacle and the music. On the birthday that came after that, I received the soundtrack (on cassette!) and fell deep into love. My mom still has those tapes in her car, because it doesn't have a CD player. A subsequent birthday and musical-loving boyfriend (no surprise when he turned out to be gay/bisexual) brought the soundtrack on CD, which is getting on in years now as well. I still haven't replaced it.
Twice in my life since then have I found myself "two degrees of separation" away from Lord Lloyd Webber, of whose life I know far too much, having collected biographies and visited websites, buying DVDs of his 50th birthday concert and other live performances, and know almost all of the work of. The first was when my high school band visited Toronto, affording me the chance to see Phantom again with a much more intimate knowledge and greater appreciation of it. I found, in the theater's lobby at intermission (placing myself via a picture that I could reference), a spot where I knew with an absolute certainty the man himself had stood. I thought it was the closest I would ever likely get to actually meeting him.
In a way, I was right. In a way, I was wrong.
Last summer, while working for the WVU Conference Services program, I spent a good deal of time at the front desk of the building where all the summer-stock theater people were staying. One of the guys who was in Miss Saigon (the Engineer, no less!) was Herman Sebek. Unfortunately, I can't find his website right now to link it, but nonetheless. Herman was a really sweet guy, and in the process of interacting with me, I confessed that I'd love to go see Saigon. He exclaimed that all the cast got two free tickets for every night of the show--which night did I want to go to? So I got tickets and saw the show, and was happy. I was even more excited when, looking through the program, I found that Herman had been a member of the original CATS (another show by ALW, in case I hadn't made that clear) cast on Broadway.
When I got home, I checked my CD (I prefer the British cast, but it's hard to find in America) and what do you know. There he was in the liner listing.
So when I went back to work I kept my eyes open, and finally snagged him on his way to the building's gym. Had him sign the program, and playfully demanded to know why he hadn't told me he worked in CATS! He didn't know I was a fan, of course, and told me a little bit about not only working on the show, but working on the recording--with Andrew. So my second "two degrees" instance was with him, when I knew I had talked to and shaken the hand of someone who had also done those things with Andrew.
So. The nerdiest thing about me, by far, is that I can be completely and utterly in love with an old British man who writes musicals that are often very, very silly. I don't care. He's just my Andrew, the cause of an entirely new passion in my life that still exists today. I have managed to branch out a bit, but Andrew's work will always be near and dear to my heart. And, occasionally, my dreams.
How well do you know your next-door neighbors?
Not at all! We presume that he's a grad student, and he has a pretty spiffy new car that he didn't have when he moved here--the first one was a sky blue junker that he got rid of shortly after we got our new car as well. i deduced that he must have a cat of some sort, probably a kitten, because shortly after he moved in there was Kitten Chow in the back of his car. He's Asian and very quiet, and is home probably a little less than we are. He has a grill on his porch that, to my knowledge, he has yet to use. From what we've seen of his decorating, it's fairly sparse, which lends to the grad-student thing, I guess.
Our neighbor on the other side is some grass, and beyond that the laundry facility, so I don't know about the people who live on the other side of that. We're not terribly chatty anyway, so I doubt we would even if we had more--which I'm glad we don't.
I'm a little torn about my schedule for work next week. For the first time in months, I actually have five days scheduled, and in a row, at that. Granted, I'm happy I at least got my two days off together, but I'm not sure how I'll hold up to the big block out of my time when I'm much more accustomed to doing two or three days then having a day or two off. The good news is that one of those days I do get to work in the cafe, and I also am going to be opening cafe tomorrow, since one of our guys turned in his notice and then just stopped showing up. TIps, here I come! I have to be at work early tomorrow anyway because they decided to have the monthly staff meeting then, so it's not like I have to be there earlier than I would otherwise.
I actually slept all the way through until the alarm this morning, which I haven't done in a couple of weeks. I think it just had to do with my sleep cycle more than being more or less tired than normal, though. I was dreaming, again, though the most of it I can remember is moving into some new apartment/dorm type place and having to have two roommates. One was J, of course, and I don't know who the other was. When I first got there, all the stuff from the previous person was there, including a lot of really neat furniture. There was more to the dream than that, but already it escapes me. Bah.
The university here starts up again this weekend, and classes start on Monday. It's hard to believe the summer's gone so quickly, but there you go. It'll be nice and simultaneously strange to be here in town but not with the students anymore. I'm hoping that the quiet trend out here maintains, as the last thing I want is more crazy party neighbors like I had last year. Ugh. This is the first year that Evan and I both will be out of classes. I find myself hoping, mostly, that it won't make traffic too bad on the ways that we normally go more than anything. But then again, the traffic effects everything.
Don't think I've mentioned it since then, but the doctor's visit went fine, aside from some minor (and probably to be expected, given the circumstances) discomfort afterwards. I kind of don't like the idea that I'm going to be doing that every year from now on, but I suppose the benefits far outweigh one day out of 365 of feeling nervous and uncomfortable. It wasn't even the doctor so much as the environment. And the waiting! So much waiting. And stupid videos, though I'm pretty sure I only have to do that part the first time. And, of course, as Eve Ensler so brilliantly put it, "the scary paper dress that scratches your tits,"* and in my case, was a source of 'wtf is this supposed to unfold like that?!'
Anyway. I think I'm done for now.
