Ugh.

This highly part time job has been thrown at me haphazardly by Bruce's brother (a good guy.. somewhat) all the while saying, "If you have a better way of doing this, feel free to do it to make more efficient." So I've been here a week, realizing that this really isn't going to be my place where I stay for any amount of time; it's just too personal. Especially because of my growing dislike for BruBro... I just don't want it to get weird if it turns into a downright stupidity match. Anyway.

Yesterday I did something wrong, not super wrong, but something that would require an item to be sent back for a refund. On top of that, my organization system (the one I had a better idea on doing, mind you) was "wrong" and we needed to have a talk about how things were to be organized in the one shot area. A little about one shots: the crap in this place that there's only ONE of, so when we sell them, it makes room for more crap. That's been my thing for the past week, going through and looking around for one shots.

Some of the one shots I've been putting up don't have specific part numbers, I was just putting what they WERE as part numbers. Mind you, I did these on my SECOND DAY here, and he has the nerve of writing me a note riddled with "we've been through this" and "we've been down this path before." Fuck that shit. I did these listings on my second day here, with no help from him, and if a part number is different (YET MORE DESCRIPTIVE) than it needs to be, then oops, I'll fix it. All I need is: "Hey Ben, I see you've been calling the Gazebo's part number Gazebo1, let's just do something like DOTS - 001, keep it like it's coming from a warehouse." OR WHATEVER.

Damn. This fucking sucks. WHY DOES THIS MAKE ME SO MAD.

Home Again Home Again

It's odd, preparing to sleep in a bed I haven't slept in for a month.. or two. It's odd. It really is. Staying at mom's, because Monica and I's house is spooky (zzz) when it's just one person there.

Things are good; I'm going to start working for Bruce's brother on Friday. Pay's bad, but it's in cash, and fun and delicious. New skills, all that shit. This will come well, especially after I just paid my student loan bill, the last one for a bit before my deferment starts.

Still feel a little weirded out about working for this little money at this time in my life. I need to save up as much as I can get. Sure as hell I wasn't weirded out about getting work. Perhaps that's why I've been... not avoiding this phone call to this company in the city, but just not super eager to get contacted with them. I have dreams and shit that I wish I could accomplish. I have dreams that I don't have to do admin shit for the rest of my life. But... tomorrow I'm going to call, and set up an interview, and see what's going on.

Aaaand, working with Kele tomorrow on music! I don't know how we're going to start, but I printed out somet stuff that I'm thinking of using for auditions. She's the teacher though, so starting at the beginning always works well.

Back again.

I think I've been hung up rehearsing and such to really update, and to be completely honest, it's been more of the same. I've not had much update from the job front, and I continue to apply for at least 10 places a day, more if I'm really on the ball. But for the most part lately, I've been having fun singing "Fantasies Come True" with Monica, and working on Goodnight, Daniel. It's going to be a good show, not a great one, but that's okay, it's a very new piece, and new pieces are hard.... the author is lucky to have a really good guy as a director, who really loves the piece.

Breast of Broadway was last night, and was really really fun. Deb said I was perfect with my delivery, but the most important part is that I had a blast. When it boils down to it, having fun was the goal of the whole evening, and when I stopped being such an ass and dwelling on things, realizing that no matter what we're going to do well, then it turned out better than we could have possibly even imagined. And seeing Monica's face at the end, full of pride and love, was the true prize for me. Plus, free booze was cool.

So, job interview this afternoon with Bruce's brother. Then rehearsal. Then I think I'm going to buy a chair. Short post, but I've always had the problem of writing less than necessary.

Oh right, we went to Vegas last week. Did I forget to mention that?

A Little Bit of Joy

Midsummer has been going very well. Rehearsals rock, and our latest (second) preview was excellently attended by my most wonderful friends. I'm having a blast with everything going on in my life right now, even my job hunt is pretty fun, and progressing very well - at least 10 places applied to a day. Plus, my ukulele work is going pretty well. Just slow. I am such a beginner musician.

I could go into bitching about everything else; there's always shit going on in my life. However, last night something really cute happened. I was in my full Ass Head regalia, and these tiny kids walked by with their dad, not seeing me at first, and then turning their heads with a slight look of surprise which turned into joy. Apparently I look pretty awesome as a giant ass. I waved at them, and they laughed as if it was the best part of their day, which it might have been.

It was a fun day.

Last Full Week

Here we are! My last full week at SWA! How do I feel about this? Pretty good, actually. Still worried about the whole finding a job thing, but for the most part I'm happy that this is ending, and I'm happy that they made the decision for me, rather than I did it myself. Because of that, I can be happily on unemployment for a little bit. Wow, hungry all of a sudden; gonna go grab a snack.

And of course, Elaine is gone even though I have to leave now to get to my *ahem* "Dentist Appointment." Whatever, I'll be late and say I had to run from work. Sucks though, wish I could leave now.

Anyway, I have an audition tonight with Theatreworks, and an audition tomorrow for 42nd Street Moon. I'm staying positive and realistic, and I'm going to give them a show and do my best, even though it might be a waste of time. Well, to be honest, it's never really a waste of time getting my face out there; even if they don't use me, if I keep plugging it they'll remember me more and more. Besides, I can brag about it to Hector.

I guess this is a short blog entry; not feeling too hot today, so I'm going to zone out for a bit and just focus on my job.

Oh, also I saw The Dark Knight last night with Bruce. AMAZING.

We're always meanest to those we're closest to.

Well no shit, it's not like I've stumbled on some secret revelation here, but still, it always makes me angry how we're meanest to those we love. Anyway, she did give some good advice, but I'm simply tired of everything that's going on in my life: midsummer, losing my job, etc. and I think everything caught up to me last night and today, making me Cranky McCrank. And when I'm cranky, you know something's wrong.

I just finished doing an edit of my resume. It's now about a page and a half long, with references it's two pages. I've been doing a lot of reading about resume etiquette, and all of them say that one page is great, two pages is perfectly acceptable as well. So that's pretty cool, and I'm using it. There's just so much of me that I have to offer! Ugh, that made me feel weird saying that; way too cynical for this shit. Anyway, I am actually pretty excited about this edit; it's sort of a combination of the one I have been using and the skills style resume I tooled with earlier. Thus making it longer, but still, in the virtual world, it'll be fine.

Bruce and I are planning on seeing The Dark Knight sometime this weekend, and I couldn't be more excited. YEEAH. Then I will probably be seeing Hellboy 2, which I am equally excited about - super big fan of the comics! Woo hoo spending money I don't have! Let's all celebrate that.

Quiet sobbing.

I think I finished memorizing my lines for Midsummer. Now I just need to run them with friends and in rehearsal. Honestly, it's just about plugging away at them, even when I was feeling shitty about it and thinking that I was making no progress, I still worked hard on what I was doing, finally getting to the point where they were coming naturally. I'm happy that I did. Also, that I worked on them so much earlier than some other people are. I started memorization about a month before rehearsal started, so I had a good chunk of the first act down when we walked in, it's just getting it on its feet now. Fun fun shit. This is going to be a pretty fantastic show, and I don't feel that way about just any show.

Auditions coming up. Sunday is the callback for Rocky Horror - not prepared. Monday is TheatreWorks - pretty prepared, but will go over monologues this weekend. Tuesday is 42nd Street Moon - not prepared, but will go over on Sunday. They, yet again, are holding their callbacks in the day time, not respecting their actors normal work schedules and keeping people longer than they need to be. I'm tired of them wasting my time, but honestly, what can we do? I was called in, so I'm going to go in, that's that. I think I will send in an email asking if there is any other time I can come in, saying my schedule is incredibly busy or something next week, but if I need to, I would go at that point. Just wish it was in a few weeks; after July 31, won't really matter when audition times are.

You know what though? I am going to email them; it doesn't hurt to ask, and I've come out for them enough... maybe they'll be around later that evening for some auditions.

In any case, that's what's going on. You know what else is strange? My lines are coming along, but the hardest ones are the Pyramus and Thisby scenes, and I talked with Snout last night about it, and he said it's because they're poorly written. He's totally right! Normally, Shakespeare's lines are so easy to get into your brain because they make SO much sense when you're really thinking about them, but these, Shakespeare purposefully wrote bad lines for the play within the play, and THAT'S why it's hard to understand. It made a lot of sense when he said that. It was fun to think about, in any case.

Um, nothing much else. I'm going to try and take a shower before rehearsal tonight. Scratch that 'try': I WILL take a shower tonight.

What DID Happen This Weekend?

Honestly, I'm not quite sure. I'm exhausted, but I don't know of anything else really. Let me try and go through what I did... step by step.

Friday was a normal stupid day, as I recall, and rehearsal was that night for some scenes. I hung out with mom and Tim for a bit, eating some popcorn and going to Trader Joe's for some easily eatable lunches this week, and headed up to Novato to get to rehearsal at 7; WRONG TIME. We were supposed to be there at 6, and when I got there, I received a sense of... nothing from the actors. Nobody cared that I was an hour late, partially because there was really no notice of this, and partially because they had just been sitting around for an hour, while Hector was doing Lovers' scenes. That might be my fault, but I don't think it is; I think the rehearsals are scheduled very oddly. That reminds me, I'm going to write the Stage Manager and ask her to send out reminders on where we're going; she's a nice person, bringing cookies, but it would be nice for an email reminder every day. Done. Good.

Saturday was a sleep in day for a bit. I had more rehearsal later in the day, worked my ass off, and was given very specific directions. I understand what Hector is doing, but I'm more of the "don't marry your actions so early" camp. But I'll do whatever he wants and find other things if I want to change things around. Whatever. It's a short run, so we do what we can. Example: going to work on lines at lunch. I'm actually doing pretty good on them, which is semi rare for me. But then again, we don't have much time until we're OH EM GEE STARTING THE SHOW! I'm lucky I'm rocking out these lines so well. Unlike. Others.

Sunday was Bubba's Diner! Woo! Chocolate chip pamcakes. Then I played video games all day, and worked on some lines... and then stormed the cast party at the bowling alley, hanging out with Monica, Bruce, and Jessica. They all seemed happy the show was over, but proud of the production they helped create. Plus there was pizza and cupcakes, and I was able to meet some of the people from the cast; good people all!

Today is back to work. For the past hour, Elaine has been struggling (almost wrote struffling, which doesn't come up as a misspelled word, so I may have to look that up later) with doing the mail. Correction, hour and 30 minutes now. Keep this in mind that the mail has to be done at 11, and she started at 10:30. Granted, it's monday, so a lot of mail, and graned she's new, but honestly folks, I've shown her how to do the mail four times - actually spelling out the word four makes it more important, just so you know - and still she struggles. I have to hand it to her, she doesn't ask me for help more than 10 times, so good for her. She's trying, she's just not very efficient.

Kai said something good about this situation though; if she were not going to be my replacement, would I still be as annoyed with her as I am? And I thought long and hard about it, before finally saying: Yes, I would. She's kind of an idiot.

Hrm. HRM I SAY.

Long fun weekend. Friday was the Marin County Fair, where I ate myself silly and rode some rides and stayed for fireworks. It was profoundly American, especially the end where we were trapped in an inefficiently run parking lot for 2 and a half hours, and everyone's pride in one another and one's country is thrown out the window while they cut you off in the parking lot. But most of the day was great! We hung out with Bruce and Jessica and Mom and Tim and had a blast walking around the fair. Great times. Good fireworks too.

For the most part, Saturday was pretty chill. Monica and I went to see Pericles that evening, and thought it was pretty well done, aside from some not so good actors. It was a combination Deadwood/O, Brother, Where Art Thou world, and the style worked for the piece. And honestly, Pericles needs some help when it comes to the text; it's not a very well written show. Mom was, of course, brilliant, and Tim was, of course, amazing. The rest was good, aside from some other clunkers as stated before. Lotro was played earlier in the day. A good day.

Sunday was full of fights with Kai! Woo! How fun was that. We fought for 2 and a half hours at Gerstle Park, and had a break for lunch, heading over to the Playhouse to bring Monica some delicious foods. We then continued to fight, and then finished the fight! Oh man, it was great. 5 hours total, and I'm still sore from the fight. Next time, knee braces as well. I miss fighting. Afterwords we went and saw Hancock, which was terrific, but nothing to be really excited about. It wasn't like Kung Fu Panda or Wall*E, where I think about it for days after. That's how I can tell if a movie has really affected me.

Monday was The Interview. Or rather it was Flight Canceled/Do I Really Want To Do This? I took out a piece of paper and wrote down the go line and the stay line, and it boiled down to me not really wanting to move to LA right now. I'm loving my life here, and yes, there's some strife and stupidity, but I do love where I am, and this is the time of my life, I should enjoy it before I head on out into the unknown. Besides, I'm getting cast in some terrific roles, so it's not all that bad. I also would like to say that my mom is the best: she picked me up from the airport when I wanted to come home. I love my mum. The rest of the day I should have worked on lines, but didn't, playing Lotro instead. I must work on lines this afternoon while I have the evening off, at lunch as well.

I feel good about my decision. It was one of those decisions that I think I made a while ago, but just pretened to be debating about it for a few days. Yeah. I didn't want to move to LA right now anyway, and that's not just being sour grapes. That's the truth. My life here is good, why should I change it early? I'm going to have fun for now.

Last night was the first rehearsal for Midsummer. Of course I'm worried about lines, that's not the point. I'm really worried that it's going to be a horrible show, even with Hector directing it. I think it was the exact right thing to do to accept this part, but... hm. It's going to be a very much step in the backwards direction if I'm looking for professionalism. Hector, of course, will be very fun to work with, but some of the other actors seemed not too bright. It is just the read through. They'll improve. I hope hope hope. In any case, I'll be great, yes? It's going to be hard. I need to work on these lines. Well, an hour today and some tonight, with a bit of gaming afterwards.

It is a good life.

Eating Pizza and The Money Shot

Last night Monica, Bruce, and I went to California Pizza Kitchen! We were hungry, and it was Bruce's last day ever before Mountain Play (tm) starts and he will be indisposable for months on end. I almost wrote moths on end. It was REALLY fun. We have a fun chemistry, the three of us, and we almost always have a terrific time on our evenings out. And now that I think of it, we go out on our little triplet dates a LOT. Mostly to Aroma, but other places too. It's really fun, this life we lead.

Anyway, that being said, I have leftover pizza this morning that I'm eating for breakfast/lunch. I'm leaving today for the Lou at 1, so I've been grazing all morning on this delicious tostada pizza. I'm trying to make myself pleasantly full all morning so I will have a mild food coma on the plane, and therefore be able to sleep. I think my plan will backfire, however; the flight doesn't leave until 4:10, and in the fashion of people who dont' really fly often, my ride is giving WAY too much time to check in. That's all good, really - better to hurry up and wait than be stuck in an airport. Have I ever said how much I love flying? I really do.

That was sarcasm right there.

It's going to be cool to see the old stomping grounds! I'm excited about bringing Monica to St. Louis, and excited that one of my best friends is getting married. And that the bachelor/ette party is going to be at Dave and Busters! Yay playgrounds for adults! (read: alcohol)

In other news, I'm reading some stupidly awesome simple tutorials about Apple Script, the functions program inside my computer that I have no idea how to use. I have a feeling that if I master this, other computer stuff will open up before me, and who knows, it might get me interested enough to actually look into more computer things and maybe start my other dream of web design/general computer awesomeness. It would be so neat to work on people's websites. I have a feeling my own personal website would be something simplistic on the surface, but the more you click, the more you find hidden underneath. I love those kinds. Yes, I'm a dork. My ideal thing is to bring more theatre online, have videos of performances, super detailed blogging, and awesome websites that people would actually WANT to come and visit, and then (hopefully) visit the shows. Maybe someday I can pull that all together.

So, the Money Shot. Today, I went to use some hand sanitizer. This type is Purell, so it's very chemical-y, and if left around, or in an enclosed space, it solidifies in this space. Anyway, I use this stuff a lot, especially when working on the mail, or packages, or installing shit. Basically any time I have to do ANYTHING; I'm kind of a germophobe. So apparently some residue built up on the "nozzle" section, and when I went to pump a delicious calming Purell into my beckoning hands, it shot up into my face. And that, my friends, is my Money Shot Of The Day.

Obligatory Post About The Weekend

Friday was probably the Worst Day Ever (or at least Worst Day That Week). Since I try and let things fall off my back relatively easily, I can't quite remember what was going on with it, but I did recall that I had a shit ton of shipping to do, as well as some busywork that kept everything stupid busy for a long time. Plus we were moving the office from Scattered and Numerous to Small Storage Space. It was a weird day. The Worst Day really wasn't for me though, apparently Monica had some really shitty times at her job, so we both were kinda ready to not be there; luckily she IS not going to be there anymore. Yay for new jobs! Woot.

Because of shithole day, we went to Iron Springs that evening for a delicious pint or two. Turned into a lot more than that, but we were fine with how that was going. A nice meal as well, and I officially thought that this would be my last meal out in a while (aside from my already scheduled ones). After a light meal of onion strings and quesadillas, we walked down past the Fairfax Theatre and I was reminded of Klunkerz, the film that Monica's dad was in, by a large sign saying... Klunkerz. It was a minor film fest, and it was already sold out. We found the party at Peri's, and walked in to find a pretty awesome folk band playing, and Bob (monica's dad) and Betsy (monica's mom) sitting there watching the show/waiting for the movie to start. We met the cinematographer, a very very LA guy, and the director, a very very cool dude who looks like he does mountain biking. It was fun.

In need of ice cream, we decided to walk to the Scoop, and the cinematographer came with us, just for the hell of it. I thought he was kinda interesting at first; he works with Steve Corwin and does almost all his stuff, as well as working on the Sarah Silverman show, but his bragging about himself got a little old. I don't even remember his name. He did love the ice cream though, and endeared himself to us a little bit with that action.

The movie was sold out, so we couldn't go see it, but we did take a look around Peri's, and there were all these old Klunker posters with all these people Monica knew from her childhood, as well as older looking versions of the same people walking around us. It was kinda cool, until Monica told me that a lot of them were assholes. Meh, happens. Good mountain bikers though! Did you know that Bob won the first official mountain biking race? True story.

After that we met up with Bruce and went to Aroma around 7:30. There we talked for 2 and a half hours. I love my friends. And I love Aroma/bagels with cream cheese and avocado. Yum!

Went home, watched CSI, and slept. It had been a long week.

Saturday was ZOO DAY! We got up and had pancakes and a leisurely morning, then went to my mum's house and met up with Bruce, and then to the ZOO! Yay! What a fun thing the Zoo is. I always have a blast. (Note: SF zoo is still inferior to St. Louis zoo, just like to point that out.) It's hard to write about the zoo, really. I mean, it's neato, especially the gorilla habitat, but after so many times it's just the same thing, so yeah... animals were neat! I got sunburnt. We rode on the natural gas train. That was fun and fast! Bruce got a hard on for the train; I think he's a little gay for trains. What does that even mean?

We made the obvious jokes about the tigers coming out and killing us. A good afternoon. Into the evening, we went to mum's house and had some fun there while I worked briefly on college applications and lots on Portal. They watched WC Fields... not too into that. (ducks so that the chairs won't hit him)

Next day I slept in and Monica had her sister's birthday party to go to. I didn't realize how much it meant to her for me to go (as found out later), but I was happy to sleep in; it seems like a rarity now. I got almost no work done that morning, instead watching LOST and Avatar and started Breaking Bad. I'm glad I was caught up, and am incredibly glad I started Breaking bad. That's a brilliant show.

I had a cranky day with Monica after that - we were both very cranky and hard to communicate with. Must have been something in the air. But we went to the deYoung, and that was very fun! Much more fun now that I think about it in retrospect - that's a really cool museum. We were still cranky though, and that didn't go away until the evening when we realized how stupid being cranky is. I hate being cranky.

More CSI last night, then sleep.

Today's been going by pretty fast, actually. I made it my goal today to try and keep a positive attitude, and so far it's been working to make the day go by faster. I, of course, had other goals too, which haven't been done yet. Like relearning Launce from Two Gentlemen of Verona, and taking a look at those Sunrise at Campobello lines. However, the main thing I need to do tonight is my taxes. I've put those bitches off long enough, and I can do efile for both state and federal, so why am I waiting? Because I'm a lazy bitch, that's why. Once that stupid thing is done looming over my head, I can dive back into learning more lines, because all of a sudden, I'm really engrossed in a lot of different projects that I need to juggle. Which is neat, dont' get me wrong, but I need to know Launce, Marc and Yvan from Art, and something for my Kaiser audition coming up later this month. Which will be either "What Was I Scared of?" by Dr. Seuss, or the only nice monologue from The Pillowman. It'll get done. This is nowhere near the shit I needed to do back in college.

Also, tonight (before taxes), I'm going to do Bollywood dance with Monica, if I can zip all the way to Fairfax in time. I am staying positive and saying yes I will be able to. If this dance class rocks it, then I'll have another thing to help me lose weight! I just need 4 more classes a week and I'll be great...

Good Gravy

Cool day yesterday. Monica and I went to Sacramento for a little adventure - the most adventure I was having was just a good eatin' time! I ate way too much - so much for being the dieting man I once was. Well, I still am, there's just time for cheat days. The day was mostly uneventful other then the magnificent cheap pizza we had in Davis. Sac State was pretty boring, reminding me a lot of Kirksville, and I thought to myself, Do I really want a grad school that reminds me of Kirksville? I mean, shit, I could just go back to Kirksville then.

Anyway. Good times, and we walked around campus - it wasn't really terrible. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Jelly Belly Factory was first! In Vacaville or Fairfield or wherever the fuck we were, we stopped and got ourselves a tour of our favorite candy! Delicious. Boring tour, but I bought 6 pounds of Jelly Belly Bellyflops afterwords, and have been enjoying the irregularness of my candies/bowels.



This was after the tour. And I'm eating them right now.

Sacramento was cute. It was big, and the capitol was pretty. We got to see the Stanford Mansion, and it was a beautiful place! We weren't able to see Monica's old office, but it still was neat to see the job she hated. Wait, that came out wrong.

It was a fun day! Just not very eventful. It made me think more like, why live in California if you're not going to stay near the coast? Sure it's cheaper inland, but it certainly isn't very pretty. Well, okay, the sunset was magnificent, but that was because of the polution. Plus there were tons of chain restaurants! We went to BJ's (heheeh) and had a delicious pizza and a delicious cookie/ice cream dessert called a Pazookie.

Drive back was pretty, and we made it to Midsummer Night's Dream at College of Marin. Um. I don't know what to say about that show... except maybe it was the worst production of that show I've ever seen. And that show is HARD to fuck up. But ya gotta admit, it is a college production... what, there are people from the community in it?! Oh. Well then. They just fucked it up. I dont' know if I'll do a full review.. but I might just want to express myself a little more eloquently on the matter, rather than just vent about how terrible it was. Bruce was great of course. Ariel was fantastic! Um. Costumes were mostly great. The fairies were a little... steriotypical fairies. I mean. You don't need fairy wings. We get that they're fairies. Anyway, the rest was great. Except for the donkey head. Ugly. Seems like they almost got there, but didn't quite hit the jackpot, and instead got the consolation prize of a really friendly audience. I have a feeling my negativity and sighs were overwhelmed by the old fogies who LOOOOVED IT.

Also, there was an orchestra. It was pretty, but too interfering and too long. Mendellsohn's music was beautiful.

Cast party too, but I was tired and have an audition today for Impact Theatre for 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and was called in to the Willows for Sunrise at Cabrillo. Both I'm kinda not excited about. But it's what we do.

So yeah! Ta da. Tired. Don't want to go. And I still need a shave. I'll do that in 10 minutes.

The 40th Post Spectacular

I'm going to Apple tonight at 4ish to try and get things done. My only hope is that a) there isn't a big line and b) it will turn out to be an easy fix. I did print out some forums of people with similar (read: identical) problems to mine, so I hope it's just a "oh, this? get this man a new phone! and a pretzel!"

Everything surrounding this whole phone process is really dumb, including Sprint being assholes. But when have they ever really been nice to me?

In preparation for this catastrophic meeting, I've kept my phone in sleep mode all day, trying ever so often to call it every few hours to see if it's still being stupid. In fact, let me try now. (Long pause, then a busy signal. I've never heard a busy signal so frequently as I have today.) I do hope it's easy... man, I'd hate to have to come back over and over again to then find out that it's something they need to look at overnight or send off or something equally as frustrating. It's a brand new phone. I shouldn't have this problem.

Also, I'm anxious about the fact that I will be going to the site of my brief job last year. I'm banking on the fact that they won't remember me, but you never know. I'm just not going to bring it up; after all, I am bringing them business.

Emailed Bruce, he's coming to the party on Saturday as well as to the Apple Store this evening. Fun times!

Then Golden Compass this evening. I plan on doing a run of my monologues, and if there's a wait, I'll do some of it at the store and in the car. I really need to work on these.