The Kitten from Britain

so technically, *technically*, I could propose to someone today and it would be within the rules of the game...
hmm...
:)


edit: I was totally wrong about the sadie hawkins day thing. apparently Sadie Hawkins day is a fictional holiday in November. but the sentiment is the same: girls get to do the asking. oops, my bad.
as always, I know half a fact, kinda, somewhat, maybe :)

Things I love about christmas (and the holiday season in general)! In no particular order...


lebkucken.
"Last Christmas" by wham!
seeing my family.
turkey and all the trimmings.
bailey's on ice.
caroling.
"all those christmas cliches".
fairy lights.
stars atop trees.
"love actually".
cranberry muffins for breakfast on christmas morning.
christmas eve in the pub with my friends.
tinsel.
"baby its cold outside" by tom jones and cerys from catatonia.
christmas day episodes of Eastenders.
leftover turkey sandwiches.
stockings.
candles.
sugar cookies.
christmas cracker jokes.
mistletoe.
mince pies.
"harry potter and the sorcerers stone".
holly and pine trees.
"let it snow, let it snow, let it snow".
"santa claus is coming to town" by the jackson five.
candy canes.
"all i want for christmas is you" by mariah carey.
the smell of real pine trees.
the smell of turkey filling the house.
"muppets christmas carol".
christmas number ones.
"the chanukah song" pts 1 & 2.
ice skating.
"winter wonderland".
"scrooged".
mulled wine.
"the christmas mystery".
advent calendars.
putting the presents under the tree on christmas eve.
"oh holy night".
pantomimes.
"fairytale of new york" by the Pogues.
"a christmas carol".
homemade cards.
a glass of wine while setting the table for lunch....
i could probably go on adding to this forever :) It's December 1st, it's snowing outside and I'm feeling kinda festive.
this is a good thing because i've been listening to christmas music for a little bit each day, i've bought nearly all my christmas gifts and wrapped all the ones that have been delivered so last night i was already starting to get slightly -::hushed tones::- bored of christmas ::gasp:: this morning however I looked over this list that i made last year on MySpace.com and it has re-inspired me!

Screw the iPod with video stuff, and the smart phones and all that crap I've come to the conclusion that I need something that can change my outfit depending on what music is playing on my MP3 player!
That or an image hovering over my head like the Arby's hat in their commercials.
***EDIT NB: I just had an image of the jukebox scroll that itunes currently uses hovering over my head displaying the cd cover of whatever song i'm listening to :)***
It would make me look less of a dork (well somewhat less anyway) when I'm rocking out to music that no-one else can hear :)

I can kind of picture what i would be wearing when i listen to the rockier/punkier stuff on the playlist, and also the dancey/pop type stuff, but I'm drawing a blank on the Musicals, the Ella Fitzgerald/Dean Martin/big band stuff, the odd country songs...
Of course then there's the christmas songs to factor in at this time of year, but now I think about it I'm pretty sure some sort of 'elf' outfit would work (not at all inappropriate ;)).


Last night I dreamt I got my 2nd tattoo.
It was the zodiac symbol for Leo and was about 1.5" in diameter. AND IT WAS ON MY FACE!?! for some reason i got it on the lower portion of my left cheek, down towards the jawline. I kept thinking "what the fuck?! it's a TATTOO! It's not a sticker, it's not makeup, it's bloody permanent! why did I get it on my face and why so fucking big?!"
As I woke up i was thinking that as a tattoo it was pretty but it would have worked just as well the size of my thumbnail (my ugly bitten down thumbnails are not very big) and maybe just behind my left ear would be more appropriate and subtle.
When I told Roland about my dream he said that was the first time he's ever heard me curse :) ha ha.

so LAST week I did this:






faux marquetry (textured) for Little Women at the Marriott Theatre.

THIS week I have been doing this:






faux rugs (also textured) in each corner of the stage floor.

I LOVE MY JOB! I get to make pretty stuff :)

Things i am thankful for.
in no particular order...
more a stream of consciousness...

Let's start with Work (always happy to be employed, especially at something i enjoy!), Maine State Music Theatre, Ravenswood, Maine, Chicago,
Lewis, Love, my family, Old friends (overseas and interstate), New friends in chicago,
my condo, the #82 bus, the Brown Line,
JoAnn Fabric and Crafts, Dick Blick art supplies, Target, Home Depot, IKEA, My new bed!!
Good TV (Heroes, House, Bones, Frasier, Dr who), Netflix, Bit torrent,
my new dentist, my teeth, my health in general (although someinsurance would be nice so i could get me a doctore to check the actual state of my general health), my new work out video (yeah i'm gonna dance myself to fitness!), my new bike,
my 5th wonderful summer in maine, hiking with scott,
the internet, my macBook, my cellphone,
good food (Katarina's, Kuma Corner, Violet Hour, Frontier, potbelly's, etc etc etc !), good drinks (buckaroo's, root beer, vanilla chai),
bunnies on my way to work... Wow, how cyclical but here we are back at Work! :)

Life is good... not perfect, but that's fine for now.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS INCLUDED IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SEASON 3!!!

How does this show do this to me?
I just watched the last 3 episodes of season 3 of Doctor Who and am a wreck!!

Last night night I dreamt about the Doctor. I dreamt that his TARDIS had been stolen from him and was being stripped and sold for parts by these aliens. The Doctor was lost and confused. He didn't remember who he was or where he was. The only thing he knew was that the blue box was his. I asked him he was going to get his Molly from the TARDIS, he asked me what his Molly was and i said i didn't know what it was but he'd gone on about it so much i figured it was important.
I had the realisation that there was nothing i could do for the doctor and it was breaking my heart.
I woke up trying to figure out how to help him and just wanting to hold him and keep him safe.

And so. We come to this evening. Even as i started watching a sense of foreboding and sadness wrapped around me. I knew what was going to happen in these 3 episodes. I knew that the old guy would be the Master, that captain Jack woud return and that Martha (brilliant Martha) would leave the Doctor as the season closed.
The thing is I really enjoyed Martha. I liked the whole Doctor and Rose storyline but Martha added a whole new flavour to the show. And the Doctor changed, became more vunerable and at the same time more ruthless and hard.

I am always drained at the end of a season of this show. I Love the Doctor. And I love the guy they had as the Master. Perfect choice. He is as hypnotic and charming as the Character is supposed to be and I wanted to like him as much as I love the Doctor so it's painful when he's a psycho who is intent on destroying the human race and the Doctor. It broke my heart to see my Doctor have his heart broken by his own kind, the last of his kind.

this is too cute.
i saw it a few weeks ago and now its everywhere but i still love it:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/879238/kitty_wake_up/

At 8:30 this morning WLIT went All Christmas. All Christmas all the time until new years.
it's already getting old...but it *is* getting me in the mood for the turkey dinner this evening :) yum

I just realised this weekend how out of shape I am. UGH! I've noticed that i've put on a few pounds recently which is bad enough the other night i had to run 2 blocks to the bus and it was not as easy as it should have been.
I live a fairly active life. I don't have a desk job, I am constantly moving at work, and have to lift some heavy stuff sometimes (although if its too heavy i'm not gonna kill myself, but i can pull my weight around the shop). I walk 2 miles most days if i get the bus to work and depending on the weather (and any injuries) I ride my new bike.
I'm ACTIVE!...

I DON'T go dancing as often as I used to or as much as i'd like to... :(

Sad to admit but I can't touch my toes! I spent most of the day standing in weird stretching out positions while I sanded. I'm sure everyone thought i was odd but thats nothing new.
Happily I think Merl has offered to convert my UK workout DVD to Region 1 so I can work out in my living room a couple of times a week (maybe when the boy is out gaming or something).
It's my early new years resolution: get some flexibility going on and lose those few pounds! woo! yeah! go team!!

My Parents arrived in town last night for a visit to chicago. I've booked them into a hotel for most of ther stay but last night they slept at my place. while giving them the 'grand tour' of the condo i showed them the washer/dryer in it's little closet.
"wow. well, you're a real person now darling" said mum.
?!
I've always been Real... haven't I? Now I'm just a Real Grown-Up.
...
maybe. maybe I'm still just pretending.

Dear Diary,
It's coming up to 9:30pm on the 8th of october and I am able to sit out on the balcony in my shorts and tank top. It's 70F!
... and tomorrow will no doubt shift to much lower temps, windier weather...
ah well.

I don't have to work on sunday! AND I don't have to work tomorrow either!! woo hoo! 2 whole days off in a row. That makes me happy.
*I get to go to the bank and deposit every paycheck i've got since i got back to chicago! $$$$!
*I get to go to the post office and mail my end-of-season cards to my paint girls that have been sitting in my room for a month.
*I get to stay up late and go out partying if i so desire (or i can just stay in with a movie and good drink).
*I get to sleep later than 6am! Woo!
*I get to go for a leisurely bike ride if the weathers nice.
*I get to maybe go to Corn Fest on sunday- if the boy and i can get a ride down there...
*I get to... well, basically I get to have a real weekend! and do all the piddly chores that I've been wanting to to do but couldn't because things are closed when i get home from work. Hooray!


I am having bittersweet feelings about "Cyrano". We've been loading it into the trucks since yesterday and some of the guys have to go back tomorrow to finish loading everything we finished painting today but it's done. finally. finished and done and out the door on time. It looks great. I'm very proud of our work.
http://www.michiganopera.org/contruction/index.html
But I'm also sad to see it go. I really loved my tree.
It feels like the end of the summer again but at least I don't have to say goodbye to so many people again. some people are being let go until the work picks up again but they'll be back soon I expect. Happily I am being kept on during the quiet time and actually I qualified for the studio's 401k plan!
woo hoo retirement plans :)
and woo hoo 2 day weekends!

so this working overtime for months kinda sucks but i know we've all been there so i won't bitch too much. Generally i love my job and generally i think i go on about that enough that you should all know it ;)

This week however we had a visit from The Designer for 'Cyrano'.... eek.
I thought i had it sorted because frankly my tree rocks! have i shown you pics yet? well take a gander at this my lovelies:



The designer thought 'it's not curvy enough... it's supposed to be the seductive, i love you tree not the scarey i'm coming to kill you tree'. humpf.
Lindsey and i busted our butts cranking it out and now we have to 'tweak it' oh well.

Also Taylor and I spent some good time working on one of the drops.
we got it to this stage:



but the designer says 'oh no! this doesn't look anything like the rendering.'
so we had to to this to it:


and today Merl and I had to do this and try and get it closer to the rendering:




I feel kinda bad about it all. grr on the designer.
at least he liked this and this:

but that was my week.

i hate feeling so crapped out on a friday night.
I want to go out and have fun and be social with people but stupid suck ass overtime at work is draining me of any actual physical social energy.
I hear tell of people who have crazy busy workloads and *still* manage to be social but i have no idea how they do it. they must be either hopped up on some drugs/caffeine/magic stuff or they just don't care about being a crabby ill tempered bitch all the next day- because thats me if i don't get my sleep... believe me.

the $$$ is super handy tho' so i won't bitch too much about the overtime. it just sucks that its friday night and i just got home and all i have the energy for is a shower, some food, and a couple of episodes of 'smallville' before getting ready for another day at the mill- i mean shop.

on the plus side, THIS is what i did at work this week:
i took this gleaming steel structure


wrapped it in foam and muslin...


and gooped it up good and proper...

TADA!! as if by magic, a tree!!

next week i'll be painting it and making it look super cool...

I just had a really nice farewell dinner for David before he moves east to Boston.
Last week at ravenswoods open house he invited lewis and me to join him and some friends for dinner at Hot Chocolate (1747 Damen Ave). I believe his words were "you two are the only people I actually like here" (high fives to me and the boy for being cool).
Lewis had to work tonight so i went along by myself and was very pleased and even more touched to find that it was quite the select group of friends. Davids girlfriend Kat had flown back from boston to help pack up the last of their stuff and drive out there with him, then there was Shannon and Rueben (who'd come out to The Violet Hour the other week) and that was it. I'm happy I finally got to meet Kat. she wasn't at all how i imagined her to be, far less intimidating. I think she's very good for david.

I will miss him around the shop. he reminds me so much of scott (except taller, and straight) and it was comforting to have a 'pseudo scott' close at hand for bitter, snarky comments and caustic wit. plus, he's introduced me to some damn fine eateries in chicago.

and next week Lisa heads east too. bah.

today was a 5 bunny day.
i normally get to see a bunch of squirrels and 1 or 2 rabbits along a 10 minute stretch of my journey to work but today was a 5 bunny day! woo hoo!
i don't know, but it makes the start to my day just a little better seeing their fuzzy little butts hopping about.

and on with the rest of life:
it's unbearably hot in the shop right now. all of the available fans we have seem to be anywhere but where i'm working. the good thing about this extreme summer weather is that i'm getting more of a tan on my 20 minute walks to the bus stop after work than all summer in maine.
Cyrano is HUGE.
I knew that.
I know that but i keep forgetting exactly how much stuff we still have to do in the next 4 weeks.
one word: eek.
another 2 words: over time.
but at least the over time means cha-ching!!
At the moment i'm kind of the top person on cyrano i think. everyone else in paints (who're full time) are working on other projects, Kim and Taylor have only just returned this week, and lindsey's been on Cyrano longer than me but she's straight out of school and has little theatre experience, so i've decided to kind of take on the position of leading the projects for the next few days. try and keep us on track and stuff.
I just want to get started on my tree!!!

Who loves travelling? ME! hands up! me me me!
At least i used to.
I guess i still do, at least Seeing The World is always an adventure i'm up for but the flying part of that is getting less and less enjoyable/fun/exciting/relaxing by the day.

So yesterday was departure day from beautiful Maine :(
Friday and Saturday were filled with:
*cleaning the shop
*cleaning the house (including: cleaning out the fridge and cupboards of any foods we could donate to the interns staying until the end of season, recycling, putting a million bags of trash out blah blah blah)
*showering
*laundry
*packing and repacking and repacking until everything could be squeezed tetrus stylee into my luggage
*buying end of season gifts for my crew
*getting end of season gifts in return (and then trying to pack them!)
*Seeing Hairspray
*Photocall for Hairspray
*Last drinks at Joshua's

After all that I got home at 1:30am and scott and i were creeping around the house until gone 3am exchanging gifts and packing. We had to be super quiet so we didn't wake Lisa's dad who was asleep in the sun room. It felt like christmas with all our creeping and whispering and giggling. I loved it :)

So yes then on sunday morning we were up at 7am so that scott could drop me at the bus stop where i caught the bus to boston fo my flight. I made the mistake of listening to the playlist of the mix cd i'd made my crew, the soundtrack to our summer as it were. *Bawled* my eyes out for the entire bus ride. and i mean my face was WET. everytime i wiped a tear from one eye another fell out of the other eye. It's been a good summer... I don't quite want to say goodbye to it yet.

When i got to the airport i had the joy of having airport security find my missing husky folding blade that i lost weeks ago! On the one hand i'm super happy that i got my knife back- i half thought the carps had filched it (those sneaky carps)- it has sentimental value as well as being a nifty blade.
One the other hand WHY did security have to find it in my hand luggage?!? ugh. at least they didn't conviscate it and i just had to mail it back to myself for an extortionate fee. blah.

The flight was kind of boring and a little chilly.
BUT then i landed in Chicago, right on time (amazing!) and got met by my super cool boy ::huge grin::
I LOVE my new place. It'll be even better when i have more than just 2 suitcases worth of stuff in it :)
but he's done a grand job settling in as much as possible and I'm writing this out on our balcony, listening to the sounds of birds and cats and squirrels and kids playing below and the brown line train rolling in...
ahh, sigh...
tomorrow its back to the grind.

I found my phone! yay! sooooooo relieved. I actually screamed with joy when i saw it nestling in a pile of gold mylar this evening.
I had almost resigned myself to having to buy a new phone after work but no (!) I get to charge up the old boy.
yay.
::smiles::
::sighs with relief::

today is friday and that means family food day for the paint shop.
we're allowed to invited 'extended family' (like laurens boyfriend, or scott) but usually it's just our painty selves.

today we tried a brand new joint in town called Frontier, which claims to be a cafe + cinema + gallery.

It's in Fort Andross on the riverfront where there are alot of little boutique-y places, offices, the great Bangkok Garden Thai restaurant and a tonne of storage units.
But the coolest thing about Frontier is that it's actually on the site of the theatre's old scene shop.
my first year with MSMT was their first year in the new building but previously the scene shop, rehearsal hall, costume dept and admin were scattered around the old fort.
It was nice to see the development and renewal of the fort, rather than letting it go to ruin.

But anyway, the SANDWICH!
Their BLT came with pepperjack cheese and jalepeno aoli. I'm not the biggest jalepeno fan but I do loves me a BLT and I was very impressed. I might consider trying it at home sometime. It didn't hurt that the bread was home baked crusty panini style yumminess, or that the 'plate' it was served on was a nice wooden bread board, or that the view was lovely.... or that the waiter was super cute (and all of 17 yrs old).
All in all a delightful lunch.

They also had a piece of art on display that was made up of a bunch of wooden planks from the original scene shop floor. I thought that was pretty cool.

breathe a sigh of relief and collapse onto comfy couch.
we got the condo.
headache and nausea fade into fuzzyheadedness and mild hunger- oh yeah, thats right. haven't eatten very much today. the anxiety of the day supressed my appetite until now.

we got it!
::grin::