bluecastle | Entries tagged with journal

Dear Taco Bell, Thank you for the sign which proclaims "we wash and sterilize our hands" staring me right in the face as I wait for my food. One question -- shouldn't you be doing that without any need for signage announcing it?

Dear NCIS, I know it is the responsibility of hit shows to spawn new shows... but you cannot construct a pilot out of some UST, some pretty tech, and some actors with a facility for a russian accent. Also, we already know Ziva is mysterious. Making her even more mysterious? Fail. The Tony and Tim show however, continues to be a hoot. Do they both have something they'd like to tell us?

Dear Cupid, Here's a Valentine. You continue to be cute and charming.

Dear Lewis Carroll, you do not make sense. You make it hard for this poor liddle dormouse to learn her lines. And there are only fifteen of them. You're a bad, bad man, even if you give me an excuse for wearing those fetching green gloves of mine that match that waistcoat from the company's costume storage...

Dear Universe, Could you please provide us with a white gown, circa 1860, (with accompanying underthings) for a size four petite actress potraying Emily Dickinson. One which you will not mind if it gets a few ink splatters on it from all the stupid letter writing she has to do throughout the course of the show. That eight pound fruitcake is going to be enough of a challenge. I'm just saying. Please.

V. tired as Bridget Jones might say. Was up until the wee wee hours as I simply could NOT put down "Busman's Honeymoon." My love for all things Wimsey is cemented...

Then up for a midmorning rehearsal and then several hours of mucky work clearing out my garage so my Dad can go and get next winter's supply of pellets for the pellet stove. Poor stove is chock full of the last bag of pellets waiting for the last fire of the season. But since it was about 80 degrees out today, it'll have to wait for the next cool evening.

Brought home my vest and frock coat for next week's peripatetic Alice. They need de-wrinkled.

And so, off to "pile down" (as my Mother would say) and spend the night getting caught up on TV watching.

Friday at last. Deep fried fish, and sneakers worthy of a dormouse. Weariness and wondering. Crisp white tshirts and fuzzy hair ties. Long. Lonely. Laden. Looney. Lazy. Lit from within.

Lilacs and lie downs to come...

Current Mood: contemplative

I am getting nothing done today. The highlight was signing up for a two-day Reference Services retreat ('cause the boss didn't want to/couldn't attend) and finding out it comes with three free meals.

add to that a somewhat useless taskforce meeting and some ramen noodles, and it's just a bang up boring as hell day. With rugrats.

It's "Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work" Day. So people's kids are everywhere...

If I had the energy I'd get all wanky about why it went from "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" and became all PC and inclusive and junque.

Anyway... off to watch a film on industrial food production. Whee.

Current Mood: blathery

The oddly good day continues to be just that.

Things I WILL be doing tonight:

Meeting a friend at the Chinese buffet for dinner.

Going to the first off-book rehearsal for the Emily Dickinson show. I have a feeling _I_ will have the black cake recipe memorized in the near future.

ETA: Apparently I will be running rehearsal. The director just called to me say she has a migraine and can I work with the actress in her stead? Not that big a deal with a one woman show, alright, but always a bit awkward. I forsee some issues as we blocked this bit like weeks/months ago, and haven't returned to it since the original blocking was set. But we'll work our way through it and see how far our leading lady got in memorizing her lines!!

Coming home and relaxing after a long week with a cocktail and some British drama from Netflix.

Things I will NOT be doing tonight:

Attending yet ANOTHER middle school production of Annie. Truly, it feels like the ONLY show middle schools in my area do. And I am SO over it. (Actually, were it not for my rehearsal I probably would have gone with my friend who is going for filial reasons).

Laundry or dishes, both of which I need to do desperately, but that's what the weekend is for...

Am postponing working on today's lesson for the on-line crafting/scrapbooking class I am taking. Painting and stamping are too much fun to rush through, so I have blocked out some time tomorrow afternoon to play with mark making.

Current Mood: chipper

So here in my "real" workworld ... it seems most of my co-workers decided not to show up today. At least last friday when there was no one here I could blame it on the holiday weekend. But what's up today?

We've got students coming in and out like crazy, so it's not like campus as a whole has cleared out.

And to top if all off, in a sort of reverse the polarities alternate universe version of my life, I actually got to work not just one time, but a little bit early. Huh. That almost never happens. I live in a state of low level depression most of the time, so days when I actually don't mind getting out of bed are rare enough to be remarked upon.

It's a topsy turvy world out there. But at least I'm wearing a cute skirt...

Current Mood: weird

When I opened my mailbox yesterday I found an envelope from the courthouse. It seems the Judge took the time to write each of us jurors a little note thanking us for our service. Handwritten on nice embossed 'From the Judge's Chambers' stationary.

I guess it never hurts to be kind to your constituency...

And it was kind. Fourteen handwritten notes. (Or fourteen versions of the same note.)

Anyway, it was a much nicer thing to receive than the usual junk mail!

Current Mood: moody
Current Location: back at my desk

Just sent off my annual yearly RL work self-evaluation.

They're always a pain in the ass ... but usually at least a bit worthwhile as our yearly raises are based on our merit. And of course you wouldn't expect anything less than staggering bureacracy from a large University.

But since the economy's in the tank, they've already told us there will be no raises this year ... making our yearly "what we think about ourselves" essay just that much more pointless.

Perhaps it wouldn't be pointless if I had a boss who gave a krappe and actually used these evaluations as a way to help us improve our skillz and all that twaddle. But I have a useless boss, which is generally a good thing, but occasionally not.

But I've done my bit ... now there's the endless round of my boss taking the evals to his boss, and then back to us for our approval of what they had to say, and then back to the human resources folks... and round and round we merrily go.

Higher Education... killing trees since 1855.

Current Mood: blah

It’s weird when you find your entertainment worlds intersecting in odd ways…

It started last night when I was watching the latest Leverage on TNT … an episode directed by Jonathan Frakes and staring both Brent Spiner and Armin Shimmerman. Go ST:TNG alums!! [although I’ve been an Armin Shimmerman fan since Beauty and the Beast…]

Then I got to poking around on YouTube and found the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special which I hadn’t yet seen.

Then being in the mood for more Leverage, I poked around on the internet and found some episode excerpts… one of which was a scene where Timothy Hutton’s character is going through fake id’s as he’s on his way to catch a plane. He flips through a series of them saying … “I’ve got a Tom Baker, a Peter Davison, and a Sylvester McCoy…”

When his female partner comes up with an id for a “Sarah Jane Baker” … they’re off to the ticket counter. And I am nearly rolling on the floor laughing my … well, you know...

And then, being on some kind of episodic TV binge, I find an episode of Bones online that I hadn’t seen (not hard, just really starting to get into that series) where Booth and Bones are in London … and who should be playing the copper from Scotland Yard but Indira Varma … who, among other things, has been on two of my big TV obsessions … Torchwood and Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

So yeah, I watch way too much TV… but it ends up being like some great live action connect the dots page!!!

Whee… off to drink some more coffee and come down off my big time TV high…

Current Mood: crazy

OK, so obligatory work luncheons just suck. Well, at least around here they do. Twenty awkard people standing around a buffet table set out in a loading bay holding paper plates and not talking to one another. But if you don't show up, you hear about it later...

... so tonight I will be making deviled eggs and digging out some vaugely appropriate attire for a Super Bowl lunch party while I practice feigning interest in anything football related.

The things I have to do to make like I fit in at a place I don't fit in at.

Oh. But they DO like my deviled eggs. Small favors, right?

Me... I'd much rather tune into this:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/puppy-bowl/puppy-bowl.html

Current Mood: discontent

Hooray! Technology is my friend again.

My dead computer has returned from HP heaven and is in happy working order. I even bought a new rack to put the hard drive on, so it's in happy organized working order...

I upgraded my crappy pay-as-you-go cell phone to a newer (and much tinier) model. I'm kinda crushing on it. I've never been the person permanetly attached to their cell phone, but maybe I can learn to carry it around with me all the time...

Bought a new watch with some of my birthday money...

So {today at least} everything is ticking along just fine. Let's hope I didn't jinx everything with this post!!

Current Mood: listless

So I have been invited to a birthday party. (YAY! An actual social event!!) One of my theater pal's parents are throwing her a 25th birthday party. The catch is that you must come dressed as your favorite work of art. We are encouraged to interpret that as we will.

But HOW am I supposed to pick????

Now where the hell did I put that thinking cap...???? *goes off muttering* ...

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: bogged down with work...

Dude, (and I never use the word Dude) what is up with this day? Slipped and fell on some ice in the parking lot this morning on the way in to work. Being yelled at to work faster by someone who actually doesn't really know what I do (but thinks she does). Trying to get two days work done in one day as it is, as I will be out of the office tomorrow at some training. Found mold in the coffee maker...

This is about the third week in a row where everything just crumbles around me.

Can I crawl under some covers somewhere and come out when this crappy-ness is over???

Current Mood: irritated

Hooray! After a three day plumbing saga, my pipes are clear and I can return home for more than just packing a bag for a night spent bunking in my parents basement.

I discovered the water backing up in my basement midday Sunday. We called the plumbers Monday morning. They worked on it for most of yesterday afternoon without much success. They reportedly stood around scratching their heads a lot. Today they came back with the borough and a high pressure hose nozzle do-hickey. That took care of the worst of it. They came back after another job to take care of the last clogged pipe, and now I should be able to run water in my house!!!

My cat hates me for leaving him alone for the better part of three days, and the strange men tromping in and out no doubt freaked him right out. Much tail flicking last night when I went home to feed the cat and the stove, and pack for my second night at Casa de Parentalis.

As I have a hacking cough, I haven't been sleeping much anyway... but now at least I don't have to worry about keeping other people up all night listening to hack-hack-hack...

So as long as I can make it home through the threatened snow/sleet/freezing rain that is impending, I will be having a little welcome home celebration tonight!!

Current Mood: thankful

So... my car is pee-ing and my cat is not.

Also, this is not true. Just a lovely overstatement that seemed too good to waste.

My car developed a leak over the weekend, and is now in the garage being fixed. One new water pump. Check. One new serpentine belt. Check. Oil changed. Check. Cash, Check, or Charge? (It's times like this when you need that plastic card in your wallet.) Charge!

eta: new $70 dollar gasket. check. sigh.

The cat is also on the mend (hopefully). He tends to get urinary irritations from time to time. He is still pee-ing so have not added to his trauma by flinging him into the crate and hauling him off to the vet (he really really hates that). Mostly a steady diet of wet food and a lot of cleaning up after he pees in odd corners seems to put him right. Plus, w/o the damn car, I coudn't take him to the vet anyway.

So much holiday stress caused by not being able to do things when I wanted to do them. And a pissed off cat.

Happy Holidays to me.

Current Mood: grumpy
Current Location: holding a bologna sandwich

OK, so it’s not like I didn’t already see myself as an obsessive person. The phrase “addictive personality” might have been invented to describe me. So far anyway I have dodged any of those obsessions that leads to jail time… but addicted to food, occasionally to people, to tv shows… not exactly positive but not particularly life threatening either.

Well I got the evidence tonight that this is far more hardwired into myself than I had imagined. I’m going through all kinds of crap that I’ve been hanging on for way too long –- either from procrastination (another of my stellar personality traits) -- or in tonight’s case stuff that had gotten stuck in a box in the corner of the garage and was left forgotten and abandoned.

( ingredients to follow... )

Current Music: Forever Plaid

Hooray!! Just found out space opened up on a bus trip a work collegue is sponsoring to New York City next month. So the BFF and I are off to marvel at the big city like the country mice we are. (Albeit urbane thinking country mice, it must be said...)

Not sure what we'll get up to. Sightsee the holiday festivities. Christmas shop. Maybe take in a show.

It's enough to just wander and explore. Makes for a long day with six hours on a bus at either end of it. Plus those 5 a.m. departure times just do me in. I am NOT a morning person!

But life is somehow better when there's the occasional trip to New York City to liven things up!!

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: holding a cup of coffee

Current Mood: jubilant
Current Location: glued to the TV

I am not normally a morning person but had an appliance delivery scheduled around 7 a.m. so I was up early and had time to get to the polls before I went to work. One of the poll workers told me they'd had as many people there already around 7:45 a.m. as they normally have by noon.

At work I had to go into the center of the campus, and there were signs everywhere instructing the students where their pollings stations were, and the local politicos (probably the campus democrats from what I could tell) had set up "free rides to the polls" spots. There was a very long line wrapped around three sides of the block where one of the student polling place was set up.

Interest is high, and the world waits with bated breath.

Keeping my fingers crossed we elect the uniter... not the ankle biter.

ETA: My parents voted at their polling place about two hours after I did (numbers 174 and 175) and said they had never seen numbers that high before in their ward.

We're rockin' this vote.

ETA (4:31 p.m. EST): local precincts report some delays as people keep walking off with the pens used to fill out the ballots. they've had to nip out to the shops and buy a gazillion more.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: wearing my "I voted" sticker

I feel like such a hypocrite. Every year during town-wide trick-or-treating I make sure that I am not home so I do not have to deal with small children ringing my doorbell.

This is sort of a family tradition. My mother was a teacher before she retired, and as a teacher it really doesn't pay to let the little bastards know where you live. So trick-or-treat night is a good excuse to go out to dinner and then wander the mall.

And somehow this tradition has somehow stuck with me.

And its sort of a shame. I like the holiday well enough (well, it scared the crap out of me when I was small, but I'm mostly over that now). I am a theater person. I love getting dressed up and being someone else. This is an activity I heartily approve of. I would wear quirky vintage stuff all the time if a) vintage stuff came in my size, and b) if I hadn't been brought up by parents who thought conformity was a BIG GOOD THING.

Also, let's face it... now that I no longer have a drag queen in my life {RIP Syb.}, Halloween is just that much less exciting. :)

{Although, this I know... if there's a drag heaven... they're having a hell of a party right now}

Happily though, I did get to do some Halloween-ing this year. I was asked to help judge costumes for the town Halloween Parade last weekend, and the judges were encouraged to dress up. So... out came the Little Red Riding Hood outfit. Hooray!! Was nice to see all the little (and big) kids and their proud parents and all the good things about Halloween.

And I did help out my friend tonight and supplied the flag pin for the lapel of his politician's suit jacket.

So Happy Halloween all... however you celebrate the day. Or even if you don't.

Current Mood: cynical
Current Location: wishing for a bowl of candy

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bluecastle

January 2015

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My Blue Castle

wherein I dream my dreams wrapped in a brown study.

Entries tagged with journal

this and that

running on...

Today is...

Bleck

to continue...

fried-day

Bonus points

Egad the paperwork! Please 'scuse the venting...

... in which I am indiscriminant in my viewing choices...

go team?

they like me...

HELP! How do I pick a favorite??

Smack Down

Plumbing the Depths

Ho Ho HELP

Between the meatloaf and the muffins lie mousses/puddings

Manhattan bound!

The 21st Century is When Everything Changes...

Voter #59

Costumes