sleeping through christmas

can anyone guess what i did the majority of my holiday weekend? no emergency surgery assistance, no extra dogs to babysit, just one get-together with friends and a LOT of snoozing. then back to work in time for a shortened work week and another long weekend. i slept for about 13 hours last night, and woke up still exhausted. can we ever really catch up after insomnia?
can't believe in just over a week i hit 1 year of home-ownership. and i haven't destroyed the place yet, despite consistent effort by the critters to assist in said destruction.
still got the writers' block i guess - this post really isn't going anywhere.

catching up

in the juggling of a million things, i'm learning that some things fall through the cracks. this wasn't a problem before my ocd spontaneously cured itself almost 2 years ago. but now. oh, but now…
how to judge which things matter most? my cats miss me. they talk to me more now, when i'm home. and that isn't often. i'm out doing worthwhile things. i performed a heartwarming show. i helped decorate an art gallery. i cooked and baked and made people smile. i signed up for another international spay/neuter project. i connected with old friends and went to the beach to connect with the world at large. and i sat around dinking on the internet for a while too… bittersweet musings, but i feel like i'm going somewhere.

the "to-do list"

i get a couple of days off next week. to "relax" and "regenerate" and all that stuff. so i made a to-do list. and it's RIDICULOUSLY LONG! there is no way i will ever get all that crap done in two days. so i started this afternoon to try to get a couple of things done. i cleared out a bunch of salal in the trees in front of my house (thank you, new machete!) and got all ready to paint a board for shelving. oh yeah, then the mist rolls in. i called the bank to finish setting up my hoa online banking. oh, but they can't set it up in one day. so despite the fact that i told them exactly what i wanted back in june, they still haven't been able to put it together. phone tag is really, really old by now. other fun things today: i took hobbes and teddy to the old folks home again. boy do they have fun! and the old folks like the critter fix too. and i got to help take care of a fawn. that had been hit by a car. on SUNDAY. note that it is currently tuesday, and that someone let the poor thing lie in her yard for nearly three days before calling anyone about it. so i'm a little bit sad about that. because i was in a vehicle that hit a deer on sunday, and we didn't wait - we called the police right away and had the poor broken thing shot asap. i felt bad that it took the cops a half hour to arrive, and this poor little guy was hurt the same day... NOT such a fan of humans now. and then when we get there it turns out i know the person. *grits teeth* poor fawn.
fun things since my last blog: too freaking many to remember them all. great reason not to wait months at a time in between, hey? some toppers include a camping trip to mt. rainier and becoming the passenger on a motorbike. also, enter: the boyfriend! wow, it's only been about 11 years since i've had one of those. i think i like it!
did i mention that i got a car. that really works? the heater and spedometer work too! and some menfolks glued rubber duckies to the hood.
which reminds me - those same menfolk stuck a rubber duck on the front end of our cardboard boat, of which i was made pilot. i capsized fairly early into the race, but i rescued the ducky.
i played the part of "sylvia" in the tender trap at driftwood theatre in aberdeen. i've just been cast as "caitlin" in over the river and through the woods, and following that, i've been asked to be "rita" in educating rita. yep, i'm getting back into the drama thing, fairly big time.
and my enthusiasm just disappeared with my blood sugar or something so i'm gonna go get a snack now. yep.

life is good

i'm sure you've seen those t-shirts: they have stick figure doing some activity and they say life is good. then the people who like that activity buy the shirts. so far i haven't seen any shirts with a billion things at a time on them, but that's when, like now, i notice that it is very good.
i haven't done any fascinating adventures lately, or had a ridiculous mishap, or any of the things that normally make for an entertaining story. just good interactions with good people, fun times in a fun place, and of course, critters being critters.

responsibility

has anyone else ever been roped into babysitting an adult? i went to dinner with a group last night, and during dinner some people had beer. someone had a bit much beer and decided that there needed to be more drinking after dinner. by the end of the night, only two group members were left trying to minimize the damage. i think we prevented two bar fights and nobody had sex with anybody at the bar itself, so that was a success i think. i didn't even know this troubled individual before the group got together for dinner, and yet somehow, i end up feeling and taking on the responsibility of making sure she didn't get arrested or injured over the course of the evening. why would i do that? biologically, why would a human need to preserve another human that is not part of its own "herd"?
as ridiculous as the evening was, i did enjoy bits of it though.

sore throat

so i got a sore throat on sunday. no biggie, i'd had a really long shower (i sing in the shower and sometimes i get really into it) and i thought it would go away by monday. monday rolls around, and whoops, still kinda sore. i get to work and not only is another coworker out with the sickies, but our acupuncturist/chiropractor has called in - i guess she came down with it on saturday. so she feels guilty about exposing us all... so my boss sent me home after about 10 minutes. i was functional, just not comfortable. so i went home, had me some theraflu, and went back to bed. for 2 days. the fever set in, i got all achy, started congesting and coughing... blah! getting better now though. so i should be able to work again tomorrow. which is a half day. and after taking part of friday off for a migraine and the last 2 days for this silly flu thing, yeah, i'm not making a whole lot of money right now. but at least i've been able to avoid sickness on performance days (so far - knock on wood!). so today, after i started to feel better, i went to driftwood for my first read-through. i don't often get nervous about things lately, but i was for this! don't tell anyone there though - i tried to play it cool, and i think i pulled it off. we perform in july. until then, i'll get to do lots of driving, but i think it'll be worth it.
and other than being sick and going to aberdeen, the big news here is that i put my foot down, and won (sort of). i have been working with a nonprofit group for about 2 1/2 years, and recently started trying to make some changes that i believe would have been beneficial to the critters involved (yeah, so it's an animal group). anyway, the "old guard" as they are called, made it pretty clear that no changes were to be made - by saying they'd change and then not changing. also by lecturing me about you can't expect volunteers to do as they're told anyway. so i offered an ultimatim: either stop one specific action, or i walk. and they decided to let me walk. so there went a huge load from my shoulders. i no longer have to feel responsible for what they're doing. on the other hand, now i need to come up with some other activity to occupy my time. hmmmmmm. perhaps i could take up darts?

made it to the big leagues

sort of. i auditioned for a part with the driftwood theatre company in aberdeen. they're cool enough that people who don't personally know cast members go to see their shows. and i'm in. i shall be sylvia in the tender trap during the month of july. we do our first read-through on tuesday. i'm more nervous about that than i am about the remaining 3 narnia shows. combined. butterflies in the tummy. and something in the throat. i'm pony today (a little hoarse, get it?). heehee
but seriously, i'm out of popsicles again, and this isn't cool. i really would rather not lose my voice prior to a stage performance.
in other news, the cocker spaniel has gone home after a month at my house, and it is so wonderfully peaceful here now. and i spent most of the day watching the office again. great way to relax after a week of basically nonstop events. which i plan to duplicate again this week. and i don't have rehearsal on monday or wednesday. made plans for monday, but i've still got to fill in my thursday evening schedule. any ideas?

backstage shennanigans

today i got a cast member's brother to tell me, not only which other cast member the first cast member was crushing on, but also the specific type of axe the cast member was wearing to attract said other cast member. so i kept walking around sniffing and asking everyone except the perp who was wearing "the new axe - what'sitcalled - excite? i really like that one!" until he fessed up. then i pointed out how obvious it is that he is crushing on said other cast member. his poor little fallen face... but don't worry. i promised not to tell her.
and then there was much sword fighting and we played stop'n'go while the new lights were installed - i.e. motion was only allowed when lights were off. each little freeze-frame offered a brief glimpse at just who might win the epic tweedle beetle puddle battle. of course, i "won" when i slammed my foam fake sword over the crossed swords of the other two contestants. my sword snapped in two and one half went flying across the stage and into a tree. yeah, we have a bunch of fake christmas trees on set.

prom-crashing

so we've heard of wedding crashers (shoot, i've been one...) but has anyone else in their upper twenties crashed a high school prom? me neither, but don't tell the other stage west folks that!
long version of the story:
ashley and i arrived at the play venue early saturday afternoon to paint the set backdrop. we were surprised to find a venue full of balloons, lights, streamers, and other party paraphanilia. said stuff didn't quite block our painting area, but we were told by what turned out to be a prom prep person that, because of the fumes our non-fume paint would cause, she "don't want no painting" there today. so we took the moveable props with us and went to paint them in a convenient garage. while painting, we mused on how awesome it would be to crash the prom dresseed as rival-school people or some such nonsense. which would have been awesome except that we don't know who this school's rival is, if they even have one. so we discussed crashing the prom regardless. then someone mentioned that we didn't need to ruin anything for the kids, because is isn't their fault the planning lady was rude. so the compromise was to arrive at midnight to paint, but to spread the story about how we put on dresses and crashed prom and didn't get caught (our painting was behind a curtain, after all...)
so if anyone asks you where i was on saturday night: prom. backstage. with a paintbrush hidden in my purse.
heeheehee!

after such an illustrious beginning

the blog-drive has faded, not the incidents about which to blog. for instance, just yesterday i got attacked by a vampire (i'm not all that far from forks, after all) and escaped with some neck slashes - i don't think he really broke the skin though, so no sparkles for me. ok, so really it was a flailing irish setter who clocked me with a hind foot, but it looks like vampire fang slashes on my neck. and the kids at rehearsal sure found the story entertaining. speaking of kids at rehearsal... the other day, an unnamed source let go a really raunchy fart backstage and blamed it on one of the kids. yeah, that was pretty low of whoever it was. shame on them!
we are getting ready for opening night a week from today. i showed up in costume last night and the kids said i looked twelve. i was thinking, gee, pigtails and a sports bra will do wonders, but then one li'l guy said that it was because taht outfit "wasn't really working" for me, so i looked younger.
backstage antics are hilarious, as usual. the majority of the cast is convinced that i am fluent in asl because of random sign flashing. if only i knew what the heck i was "talking" about, that'd probably be pretty cool. also, there is a pretty narrow hallway behind the stage - narrow enough that i was able to brace against both sides and "climb" the wall. super awesome. i got in trouble for that one though - liability or something. sheesh.
mister is being much better behaved since the cocker spaniel came back. we're on week 3 of random frantic whining and rushing about bumping into furniture and other critters. during week 2, she tried to eat mister's breakfast. teddy intervened and a fight broke out. while the dogs were rolling around brawling on the floor, li'l chubby twilight came flying in hissing and growling and slapped the hell out of poor ladybug. mister's food has been safe since then. go twilight - the kitty police!

lazy weekend

so i finally really started using a calendar. old dog haven sent me theirs, and i like looking at it, and ever since my ocd mysteriously disappeared last year i've been struggling to remember all the things i used to double-check relentlessly. until now. how freaking easy is it to just write stuff down? pretty easy, and it's kind of nice to not live in a panic all the time. i even wrote down my major expenses for the month in the margin, so i can cross them off as they get paid. voila. instant peace in the brain. and it's such a busy calendar! there are rehearsals, meetings, workshops, pet sits, social events, and all kinds of crazy stuff on there. but somehow today managed to avoid all of that, and the only thing on the calendar is to make amish bread, as the goo has fermented on my counter long enough. which means, by default, that today should be the day i clean my house. will this happen? we shall see... dun dun duuunnnnnnn!!

the problem with being a sucker

is that i end up with things like a clingy cocker spaniel at my house. trying oh so very hard to be in my lap. also that i deal with poo-coated mister on a daily basis. okay, so i deal with mister daily. sometimes he does other annoying things besides throw a techno poo party in his kennel. i couldn't actually find the main chunk of poo - i think it had all been reduced to kennel, blankie, feet, and face smears. except for the dab right on his id tag. and i think it was ground into his fur some. i washed him off in a tidy cats bucket in the shower. the kennel was left to soak, and i was late for work. he is the danged cutest little thing though. and the most endearing little weirdness-noises come from his bed when he's rolling around all happy.
he behaves wonderfully for everyone except me. i think he's making me out to be a liar.

in the meantime, our spay/neuter clinic was a success. 32 critters owned by low-income families in my area will no longer have the opportunity to reproduce. we did the math. we prevented about 1200 dogs and about a billion cats from needing homes here in the next few years. pretty good deal. so maybe we can focus a little more on finding good homes for the critters already here - and maybe educate some people about better care for the animals they have (like that an obese animal isn't "happy and healthy"). yeah, that.

also, i have the best insurance guy ever! i gave him all my car specs yesterday, and today i got a whole packet of coverage comparisons, with suggestions and explanations and all kinds of stuff. and i found out that if my car was in "fair" condition (without significant cosmetic damage, and all the parts working) it would be worth about $1100. so if i totalled it as is, i might get about $20 towards a new car. if i get a low deductible. methinks i'm gonna go with just liability coverage here...

some fun things i've done lately

i had friends in town. which was awesome. also, we got out and did stuff while they were here, which is even more awesome. a reason to not spend the evening dinking around on the internet has got to be a plus.

i went hiking out at griffiths priday state park. it's got standard woods and dunes and such, as well as a creek, a dead end road at the edge of a cliff that eroded all away, and my favorite cold-weather beach ever. i tromped around in dune grass, built a slide out of logs to get down a cliff to the beach, felt the wind (and felt amazing) at the beach, tromped around in sitka pine woods, saw a baldy, followed the copalis river for a while, and then tromped around in what turned out to be a sulphur marsh. eewwwwwww! good thing my asics, socks, and pants below the knee are washable!

i went to the pacific science center in seattle center. the current special exhibit is all about star wars! they made sure to tell us ahead of time that there is no re-entry to the exhibit. also that there are no bathrooms in the exhibit. did i think about much else besides potty while i was in the exhibit? yes, by sheer willpower. also the star wars stuff was cool. i got my picture taken with darth vader and built a magnet-lego car that didn't slide along its track as well as most of the small children's magnet-lego cars. after star wars, and a visit to the coolest public restroom i have ever seen (complete with bright, colorful cartoons and random entertaining urine/feces facts posted on the walls), i went to the fake dinosaur exhibit. the fake dinosaurs roar and electronically jerk about fakely. i noted that the "apatosaurus" is finally admitting that it is "also referred to as brontosaurus" since that was the ORIGINAL FREAKING NAME!! seriously! for some reason, at this point i was introduced to charlie the unicorn. also, the fake dinosaurs were scaled down significantly - horse to elephant sized instead of real sized. one of the features of the exhibit was the fake dinosaur skin that patrons were allowed to feel - so we would know just what fake dinosaur skin might have felt like if people had any idea what it was really like. after the dinosaurs i went around the rest of the science center and participated in multiple random science thingies: i turned on a lightbulb by pedaling a bicycle, demonstrated how tides work by dumping ink into the water in a topographical-ish 3-d map, watched naked mole rats burrow around in plastic tunnels, made a silhouette on a shadow wall, found out that my eyesight is, indeed, horrible - by reading the E and the next line below it on a sight chart... and more cool stuff like that. made me wish i could do fifth grade (or 6th form) again. then i got cotton candy as we left the science center.

while in seattle, i indulged and got INDAN FOOD! it's been about two and a half years since i've had real, non-pre-frozen indian food, and goodness, it was wonderful! now i'm craving more, despite the frozen version i ate yesterday and today.

i went to astoria and visited a bunch of goonies sites. the houses are real, and currently inhabited, so they don't have tours. the residents are pretty good sports about it. there was a guy pruning his yard at mikey and brand's house. he ignored us, but i'm sure he's used to random tourists in pirate garb photographing his house. yes, we dressed up as pirates. arrrrgh! i broke my first fake cutlass on the... um, the air while i was prepping for the trip. so i got another cutlass on the way out of town. i went to the county jail, which is now a film museum, the bowling alley, mikey's dad's museum... and haystack rock, which, despite being depicted as close to astoria in the movie, is really about 15 miles away. teddy and mister had gone along on this day trip, so they got to go out to haystack rock and explore the beach and tide pools with me. mister got lots of funny looks. i don't think people are used to seeing a chihuahua running around at the beach.

a different day, i flew a kite on the beach, for the first time since i moved to the home of the national kite people champion-thingies. guess i should have tried it earlier. my kite flew for a total of about 43 seconds all together, in between multiple repairs and reinforcings. i probably should have gotten it somewhere other than the dollar tree, what with the winds gusting at ridiculous speeds that day and all. also, it was raining. some park rangers stopped by and suggested, as my kite whimpered along the ground like an injured stingray, that today might not be the best day for kite-flying. i agreed that it was stupid, but said thanks and i'd stick to it anyway becuase it was fun. i think they think i'm retarded.

speaking of which, i had had dinner with the park rangers the previous night. lots of people didn't show up to a spaghetti and game night, so the rangers got invited over for food. they did not stay to play uno.

that was april first - the same day i masterminded the best april fool's day prank ever: my coworkers and i prepped a dummy medical chart, told the vet that she was going to check a dog's ears, and sent her in to an exam room where she found waiting... the state park's mascot: Eager Beaver! he got his annual exam, and we took pictures for the local paper. there was much laughter.

another thing i did: i purchased new laundry bags in flourescent colors that say things like "grimy" on them. i didn't notice until i was emptying a bag into the washer that the bags' tags say they are to be hand washed only. yes, the grimy bag from the dollar store is just that delicate.

i made amish friendship bread a few times. every 10 days the bag of starter goop quadruples, so i have to pawn the goop off on other people. i'm running low on people i hang out with who want goop any more. some random clients and church ladies have taken some. next victims: volunteers at the spay/neuter clinic tomorrow. there are 31 patients lined up. here's hoping they all show!

i have slacked

so i've got a few minutes between my workout and rehearsal, and i haven't blogged for a while, so what the hey. yes, i said workout. they got me hooked down there at curves - not that i'm a huge fan of the workout itself, but after a month i feel healthier and more in control of my muscles - i can tell where my muscles are. so i signed up for a year. we'll see how that goes. i got miss connie adopted out just over a week ago, so i'm down to 2 dogs now (and i'm bound and determined to keep it that way! 3 was too many for my lifestyle and little house). theodore is still an immensely good dog with medical issues coming out his ears. well, no the ears have been okay lately, but he has the flaky skin and a bad tooth, and i've had to change his diet, and now we're going to see if we can wean him at least partly off his prednisone. yep, my dog is on roids.
not sure if i mentioned that the next play is the lion the witch and the wardrobe, or that i've been cast as one of the children. yep. i get to be a twelve year-old. as my boss says, "that'll be a stretch, usually she acts about ten". speaking of boss, she's in ecuador with blue and colleen on another world vets project. world vets also has teams in belize and japan. i'm insanely jealous of the team in japan. if i had more time, i'd blog all about the tsunami and whatnot, but i'll have to come back to it later. my public awaits...

...and i'm back

so my laptop got broken in the move somehow and i've been using computers at work to keep the world updated via facebook. until now. i have purchased a new hp laptop. at the expense of not having purchased laundry machines. yet. so i'm listening to pandora again and i watched a bunch of better off ted yesterday. that was fun.
i crossed an item off my list of goals - i entered fudge in a recipe contest at the chocolate festival last weekend. i contend that they must have lost mine as they somehow failed to award it the first prize. but winning wasn't the goal. entering was, and i did that. it's amazing, really. just over a year ago, my boss told us all to write down some goals: short term, long term, in between. and i set some. and then a few months ago i found the list, and darned if i didn't get to cross off a few items that i actually did. and that was pretty darn empowering. so i got all motivated and did some more goals. and now here i am entering fudge contests and going to the gym. yes. i did. i was given a gift month at curves and made it three times in the first week. go me. woooo.

mister

got a new old dog haven dog. he's terribly cute. and i have to admit that he is both a chihuahua and currently wearing a sweater. i know, but he was shivering, and he seems to like wearing clothes... about 12 years old, failing kidneys, but he doesn't know about either one of those things. also, his name is mister. see, you'd thought i was crazy for that weird title, right? or just thought i was crazy anyway.
so the little football is fitting in really well at my house. the cats don't like him much, but they don't like any dogs, so that's to be expected. speaking of my house...
i loooooooove my house! mostly unpacked. still need to purchase an additional closet and a shed so i can finish putting stuff away. but oh! despite some more boxes, my house is incredible. i sleep in the loft, where the whole south wall is windows. when i wake up in the morning, it looks like i'm in a treehouse - just birds and leaves and clouds... my kitchen is wow. just that. wow. super space efficient, super modern and fancy. and the shower... i could go on. and in. and stay there. ahhhhhhh.
not having carpets is incredible too, especially with a bunch of senior critters. yesterday, for example, when i had to clean up every conceivable bodily function at least twice, i did not curse at all - the messes simply wiped away. none of that shampooing and worrying about stains. bliss, i tell you!
in further adventures, i learned that if you tell a fancy hotel front desk that hotels.com told you that you would get free breakfast, they'll give you a free breakfast? in their fancy restaurant? made to order? i didn't know that for sure until last weekend. and after paying a whopping $4.15 for the room (no, i am not kidding), i'll just go ahead and call that the most economical work trip EVER! also, the conference itself was at a marriott, and the catering was ridiculous - local cheeses paired with appropriate fruits and wines, grilled asparagus, mushroom quiches... quite the spread for a free event!
then i went to ikea and faced the grim reality of living in a small town and how that makes dealing with large crowds and commercialism a bit much. i didn't like all the people. there were too many things. too much moving around. by the time i left i was sick to my stomach. and i used to enjoy manhattan for crying out loud. bah - i gotta get into some more cities more often. or just never ever leave shores again.

being a real grown up

so the mortgage finally went through. and escrow closed. and the title got recorded. and then they decided that i'd put down too much earnest money and i got a check back. and my first payment is due in march. so i have funds to purchase things like a laundry machine and mattress and table and oversized recliner...
and then as i'm contemplating these purchases i hit some black ice (i was driving at the time. on the highway. fast.) managed to spin around so that when i slammed into the guardrail the engine didn't get damaged. i lost the bumper and all of my rear light covers and the use of my trunk. i'm uninjured except that i jammed my finger while stuffing the damaged bumper inside the car. so now my poor trooper of a car is even less pretty than it used to be, but still chugging along.
and there are so many other things going on, but those are the two biggies.
that's it for now.