supercheesegirl

Last night F and I went to a performance of Twelfth Night by Pig Iron Theatre Co. at Swarthmore College's Lang Performing Arts Center. This production has been selling out in both NYC and Philadelphia, but several of Pig Iron's founding members are Swarthmore graduates, so they brought the production to Swarthmore and tickets were free. It was a fantastic show.

With the play's setting in Illyria, the company decided to use Balkan-inspired music. A gypsy band threaded their way throughout the play with violin, bass, accordion, trumpet, trombone, sousaphone, and drums. They were an integral part of the play and the music really set the tone. I need to look up Rosie Langabeer, who played the accordion and composed all the music.

I think often Feste (the Fool) is the character who steals the show when this play is done. However, in this case, it was Sir Toby, played by James Sugg, who infused the role with such a wonderful sense of cheery drunkenness. Sir Toby came across as the kind of constant drunk who is nevertheless a good-humored host and fun guy to be around. We first see Sir Toby in a loosely tied bathrobe and cowboy boots and he just got better from there. The level of physicality Sugg put into the part was amazing. He riveted my attention every time he was on stage. If I ever see this play again, I know no future actor will be able to stand up to my memory of Sugg in the role.

I also liked the way they handled casting and costuming for Viola and Sebastian. Early on, as she's dressing to go out as a man, a door opens and Sebastian, in the same outfit, acts as her mirror. It's clear that she's modeling her look and behavior on her lost brother. Subtle and really nicely done.

Some of my favorite things in this production were things Shakespeare never wrote: the gypsy band, Sir Toby's wedding scene with Maria (which was unexpected, wild and hilarious). I've never seen Shakespeare done so raucously, and I love that Pig Iron was so willing to be crazy and loose and just have fun with the play.

The other awesome part about last night was - F and I went out. Just us. It was the anniversary of our first kiss - seven years. We had a nice dinner out, and then we went to a play! My mom hung out with Freyfrey and they had fun together, and I didn't even have to feel guilty about the free babysitting because I helped my mom with an MS Word project this morning. We went out on a date!! I didn't realize how desperately I needed to go out on a date until we did. It was lovely. The dinner and the play were nice enough, but underneath it all was the knowledge that no one near me was screaming or throwing food or falling down or escaping, and if anyone near me did start doing anything like that, I would not be in any way responsible for controlling it. We've decided that our new goal will be a date night at least every other month. We had our hotel night date between Christmas and New Year's, and last night was March 1, so we're roughly on track. Late April/early May, I'm looking at you.

Saturday night we went to see Sleep No More in NYC. It was amazing, and I have pretty much been talking it to death, but I wanted to get something down about it here.

Quick summary: Sleep No More is an interactive, immersive, film noir version of Macbeth in which you roam around a five-story hotel and let the play build around you. Sometimes you're in a room in which a scene from Macbeth is taking place; sometimes you're in a room with an actor and something odd is taking place; sometimes you wander around by yourself for half an hour without seeing a single actor, but that's okay because the sets are beautiful and intricate and you can sit down at a desk and read all the letters on it or explore the graveyard or any number of other amazing rooms. Seriously, I wandered around for 2+ hours, and on the way out, we walked past a room that I somehow had not seen. (It was full of dead birds hanging from the ceiling, which I *would* have remembered.) It's all very episodic and odd, and the actors don't speak, you don't speak, the choreography is intense and wild, and by the way you're wearing a white Venetian-style mask and so are all the other guests. There will be times when you'll see an unmasked actor rush past, followed closely by 15 people in masks, and it's intensely creepy like the actor is being chased by evil ghosts. The sets and scenes are creepy enough on their own but then you yourself add to the creepitude. The masks give a sense that this isn't a play, you aren't really there, you are a ghost spying on the real events. Catching a glimpse of yourself in a mirror is scary. This is all just the beginning.

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And this is just a snapshot of my night. Can you see why I want to go back and see it again?

::edit:: Just bought tickets--we are definitely going again, on Friday April 8. Woohoo!!!

The Proposal:

F's flight arrived in Philly around 4:30 PM on Tuesday 12/23. I met him at the airport, brought him home on the train, and we spent the evening relaxing. At one point, F claims that he needs to go out to my car--he says he hid something there the last time he was in town, which at first I completely don't believe, but he explains that he saw this perfect gift last time he was here and thought I'd find it for sure if he hid it in the house, so he found a secret spot in my car. I am gullible. He goes out to the car, where he secretly calls my parents and asks for their blessing. My mom is totally awesome, and doesn't let on a thing when I talk to her maybe an hour later. Instead, she tells me about how my dad spent like two hours at Home Depot buying this thing for the lawn that he's now assembling. Go Mom.

On Wednesday 12/24, I took the day off, we slept in a little bit, and then did fun holiday things. F had a lot of gifts to wrap, and I went to the grocery store and then baked yet another batch of cookies. In the early afternoon, F mentioned that he had one or two more gifts to pick up in my neighborhood (full of cute little stores and bakeries, FYI) and went for a walk. When he got back, I was finishing up the cookies. F took over in the kitchen for a bit and I tidied up the living room and put away the wrapping things; we had the holiday music on, and F popped into the room for a minute, said "This one broke!" and gave me half a cookie. I was so happy in that moment, just having F there and doing stupid domestic holiday things, that I burst into tears right there in the living room. F was very sweet about it.

A little while later, F told me that there was a poem he really wanted to read to me on Christmas Day, but he needed to check the book out of the library, which he couldn't do without me and my library card, so could we walk up to the library? I thought, You couldn't check out the book from your library before you left California?! But the cookies were done, and we had time before my parents were coming over for dinner, so I said sure. It's only maybe a ten-minute walk to the library in my neighborhood. We get to the library, and F says he doesn't want me to see the book he's getting, so I need to look at something else for a minute. Okay. He comes to get me, holding one hand behind his back, and says there's another book he wants me to look at. I turn to the shelf and I see...( Read more... )

I am wondering just how much cool stuff I can afford to do. 'Afford' here refers both to limited funds and limited vacation time.

- I am getting a new apartment. I think that if I get apartment #4, I only have to pay 1st month's rent and the security deposit, for a total of $1450. That would almost clear out one of my savings accounts, but I have way more money in my ING account. If I need to do 1st, last, and security, that would be $2175, which would hurt a bit more, but I'm pretty sure I can do it without touching my ING account. I plan to take at least one day off work for use in moving.

- I need to reschedule a time to go to Denver with Sarah to visit Amy and Josh. We've already paid for this, so we just have to find a weekend to do it and US Airways flights under $404, which was high to begin with, so it should be do-able (even though I'm not finding much at the moment. But I'm also searching for President's Day weekend, which is probably bumping up the prices). I will need 1-2 days off for this.

- I want to visit Fritz in California. Flights to San Francisco/Oakland are not looking cheap at the moment. They are looking like the only flights under $300 aren't nonstop and therefore will involve 8+ hours of traveling each way. Ugh, I say. And I will want at least one day off for this.

- Fritz mentioned that he's going to AWP in Atlanta. I haven't gone in two years, and I had promised myself I wasn't allowed to go again until I started writing again and therefore it would be "worth it" to go. But Fritz is going, and he says Xina and JT are thinking about going, and there's apparently a bunch of Greensboro MFA people going, like Stuart and Jim and Terry and Dan. So it could be really fun. I could get a flight in the mid-$200s, and then I would have to eat and pay for a hotel room. It would be awesome if I could share a room with Fritz and Xina and JT. And maybe going to AWP, and seeing writing people and going to sessions about writing and publishing, would kickstart me into writing again, and being excited about writing. Because afterwards I would be coming home to my own apartment, and my current lack of a social life, and it's possible all that drive and excitement might not go to waste because I'd have time and space to actually write. If I went I would try to fly on Thursday night and take only Friday off, so I would miss a full day of the con, which would be okay. It would be a compromise with the me who doesn't want to waste money and vacation time on writing stuff when I'm not writing. (However, we all really know that my major motivation for wanting to go is to see Fritz and Xina and JT. Although I need to do something to start writing again.) Also, if I see Fritz at AWP, I can then put off visiting him in California for a bit, which I don't want to do, but you know, the whole killing multiple birds with a rock thing.

- Oh, and I'm a bridesmaid in two weddings, and I need to plan (and fund) Missi's bridal shower in April-ish, and I'll need to buy two dresses, and I'll have to pay for three nights in a hotel in June for Missi's wedding. Which will also require at least one, possibly two vacation days. And we're not even talking about the other three weddings I'm attending this year, two of which will require travel and possibly time off, all of which will require gifts.

I get 10 vacation days per year. I get 3 personal days. I carried over 3.3 vacation days from 2006 which must be used before the end of March 2007. That gives me a total of 16.3 days for the year, not counting holidays like President's Day. The carryover days will go towards 1) moving, 2) Denver, and 3) AWP if I go, if I take one day off for each event. Ideally I'd like to take two days for Denver and two days for moving, but I must be thrifty. If I do a very, very good job of planning my vacation time and being a very good girl, then I will have time left over for Christmas 2007 and hopefully to carry over a few days to 2008. If I make it to 2009 at this job, I'll get a bump up to 15 vacation days per year. Let's not think about that now. Need to be thrifty.

In terms of finances, I'm doing pretty well. I've been really careful about charging things this month, so I won't have a big credit card bill and that will help. Oh! And my credit card company reimbursed me for the bad Indian jeans! That paid for half the bad New Year's Eve party, so I feel better on both counts, like I'm getting a discount on my stupid tax. Thinking now as I type this, I think I can afford to move, go to Denver, and then take one trip, either Cali or AWP. I won't be able to pay extra on my car payment for a few months, or put extra into my savings. But moving and taking trips will both do a lot for my mental health, and that's worth it. Crap, that reminds me, I didn't include my therapist in my budget! But I still think I can manage. Le sigh.

Today was a good day. I slept in till almost 10am, had breakfast with Sarah and my parents, showered up, and then Sarah and I went to the mall to find me a prom New Year's Eve dress. I took my Awesome Sexy Shoes with me so that I could try them on with the dresses and make sure they would match. We were looking for something black or silver, with the idea of getting me a basic black dress because I don't really have one. And we found an excellent dress. It's long, long enough that I could possibly stand on it in two-inch heels. It ties around the neck and it's classy and also a size 8, which was very exciting for me. I look great in it. I also bought dangly sparkly earrings, because since the dress is so plain and the shoes are so sparkly I wanted to add some more sparkle to the ensemble. Then I dropped Sarah off at the train station so she could take the R5 to 30th Street and from there take Amtrak back up to Hartford. She had some train issues, but hopefully she'll be making it home soon. I had dinner with my parents and the Chancellors and then tried on the dress and shoes and earrings for them. They all very much approved.

I started feeling really melancholy tonight, but I averted it by going shopping again, this time for a new dressy purse, since my silver one is starting to fall apart and, I've been told, it's totally 80s. So I tried Kohl's first, and found no bags, so I went back to the mall. I found a pretty silver beaded bag for $16 at JC Penney's, and then got myself a black Amy-pashmina at Boscov's. Don't worry, Amy darling, it was on sale for $9.97. I figure the pashmina can be my scarf while I'm wearing my coat, and it can be my shawl after that in case I get cold at the prom party. (Oh, and there were several autumny-colored pashminas there--rust-red, redder red, mustardy orange, ivory--which I noticed with interest now that I'm thinking color palette for Amy's wedding.)

Oh, here's the link to the info about the prom party. With 1250 people there (all aged between 25 and 40), I'm hoping at least a few of them will be single men who might appeal to Lauren. That's kind of the goal of the thing. And it's sold out. It's funny, this is the kind of thing I could never, ever have done while I was still with Jorn. He would be thoroughly miserable and would spend the entire night at the bar, probably, if he could even be coerced into attending at all. But I'm actually really excited about it, now that I'm going. I'll be with good friends, and I am going to look amazing, and I'm fully planning on drinking my money's worth of white chocolate raspberry martinis. And Missi's poor fiance, Mike, is our DD for the evening, so I can drink as much as I want! (When told he was going to be the DD, Mike sighed and commented that those hors d'oeuvres had better be spectacular.) I figure I can probably down seven or eight tasty martinis, easy, between 9pm and 2am, and if I eat a lot of the hors d'oeuvres I will totally consume my ticket price's worth of stuff!

It's Rug Moving Day! You have no idea how this has brightened my morning. I completely forgot that Rug Moving Day was scheduled for November 15 this year. How terrific. I wish I had some rugs to move here at the office. I'll have to move some when I get home.

Happy Rug Moving Day!

Boston people: would anyone be interested in doing this with me sometime? It looks so freakin' cool.

From the website: 5W!TS premier show, TOMB, now at 5W!TS-Boston, is a 40-minute interactive adventure experience set in an incredibly realistic pharaoh’s tomb in an archaeological dig site in ancient Egypt. Explore TOMB with your team, working together to overcome each of pharaoh’s challenges as you make your way through the intricate rooms toward the burial chamber. Your journey is loaded with stunning special effects, from lasers and fog, to water and air, to dazzling computer-controlled lighting and booming stereo sound. It’s like being in the movies! Success is by no means guaranteed. If your team fails you’ll learn how pharaoh deals with inferior performance. Be on the lookout, because there’s never a shortage of surprises in the TOMB! A new TOMB adventure begins every 15 minutes during peak times, and every half hour during weekdays. Tickets are available at the door for your adventure today!

If we went Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday right after work we could catch a matinee time and it would only be $14 each, or even a weekday evening would only be $16 each. Plus I signed up to get some coupons in the mail so that should save at least another buck or two. I've actually been wanting to do this for a long time but thought from the brochure that it was just a thing for group events, but no, small groups are fine and reservations aren't necessary! Give in to your inner Indy and do this with me, pleasepleaseplease??