A few weeks

It's been a pretty amazing couple of weeks. I made a few awesome costumes - both that can and will be used for multiple occasions throughout this and every year. Awesome. I'm really proud of my work... even though in the middle of the costume making my sewing machine broke and the repair shop said it would cost more to fix than it would to just buy a new machine! So. I bought a new machine. And I complain about it (the buttonholes are automatic; at first I thought that would be amazing, but now I'm not so sure. When the buttonholes didn't work.) but everything's okay, and I seem to have a way to compensate, so that's all wonderful.

Hindsight: should have taken some pictures of the process and posted them.

Anyway, to complete my ensemble, I need me some suspenders and a tie tac. And also I'm probably going to try and make a holster for my steampunk gun. AND I MADE A STEAMPUNK GUN. Wow, stream of consciousness much?

Aaand the real reason I'm writing here is that I need to get back into practice; shows later this month. Also, writing is cool, right?

Love,

Ben

Octoberesque

Because I am a wasteful American, I am typing on my laptop while my other computer sits in the other room. It's strange to have more computers in my household than some people ever have.

Also, I had a little bit to drink tonight, some bad wine here at home, and some wine back at my mom's house. A good end to a pretty terrible day of not finding a place to park and having some awkward interactions with people during the show. It's weird, some days you really understand and like people, and it seems they like you, and other days, it's like everybody's being a dick. Sometimes there are just days of perfect storm assholery.

The good things that have been happening is that the weather has been cooling down, and they've started playing Halloween movies on TV... don't tell Monica, but this really is my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, Monica is sick tonight, so I'm keeping her company at a safe distance. But hey, at least there was scooby doo and horror movies made for kids.

Call Me Madam continues to be fun and successful. It's so much fun to be in a show I believe in and am having a blast with. So fuck yes. And my part gets goofier and goofier, and that's always excellent.

Working on my new computer is pretty awesome. And that it was cheap, awesome, and super duper fast equals even more amazing. I do love me some computing. And later, I'm going to install another partition and have some gaming fun! I am such a geek.

Woo!

Geek!

Holy fuck! My computer came super early! I was going to use today to back up my current computer and set everything up on my external hard drive. I'm still going to do that today, but I can't stop drooling over this new thing. The gaming capabilities... oh man! And also it's just joyful. So joyful.

And the play's going well. I'm actually liking going out with my castmates. I usually hate my castmates!

Got an email from our director; she's a great director, very different from what I've been used to this summer, so that's cool, but for some reason the super attentiveness is getting to me. Anyway, this email was about the receptions after the show, giving a dress code about what all the men should wear.

Yes, okay. Receptions are important. But... maybe just a reminder that we have one?

Anyway, I plan on getting WASTED and throwing up everywhere. But at least I'll be wearing something nice.

Catching up on all the new seasons of shows; glad Danko's dead, and I am so over Sylar. That's it really. The actor is great, but the character is getting super boring for me. Other shows are starting super great. So that's awesome. I like television. I just don't like watching TV.

The awesomer stuff is that Call Me Madam is going really well, and I'm actually having fun with theatre again! It's almost like the past 12 weeks of summer are washing away from me! Yay! Almost.

Throw Money At It

One hundred and fifty dollars later, the power of the arctic blows freely in my car! Turns out, all it needed was a recharge, and the reason my gauge wasn't saying it needed a recharge was because it was still pressurized.... so the moral of the story is to throw money at it. Luckily, I saved about 200 bucks by going to a different place than our regular mechanic, happy about that, but still, I don't have a lot of money.... but hopefully the drag that is saved in gas money will pay for itself. Also comfort has a price.

Also, I'm hungry. Time for a sandwich.

Okay, there's no sandwich fixin's here, so I might have to make a excursion to Trader Joe's for some deliciousness. Or I might just be lazy and eat some pretzels. Hey, it's junk food with no fat. Besides, I took a nice walk today. WHY AM I DEFENDING MYSELF TO A JOURNAL?

Insomnia Makes Me Type

Tomorrow's going to be a day of doing stuff. I need to get the air conditioner in my car fixed, especially since I plan to have it for many years to come, and I've been putting it off for way too long. The stupid thing about the whole situation is that I really don't have a trusted mechanic around here, and checking on yelp, there's no person in the area that pops out. My plan is to go to the guy I usually go to tomorrow (if there's time) and if not, I have an appointment with another place on Tuesday. Yes, boring, I know, but once I have blisteringly cold air coming out of my vents, everyone will want to be riding in my car!

Brigadoon is over and done with. Thank gods. We were rained out of our last performance, so woo hoo to that! And I've been on to complain sometimes about Call Me Madam, but for the most part it's been an incredibly positive experience, especially with my disrespectful experiences I've been having earlier, and of course it's nice to be in a show where they actually utilize me as the triple threat that I am. Booya!

Monica and I went to Sacramento the other day, so that she can talk to her advisor about restarting her thesis and graduating. It was an incredibly positive meeting, and we were able to spend the rest of the day doodling around Sac, which is always fun, especially when we end up at a costume store and find an Awesome Parasol, a Dance Macabre mask, and a Sweet Pocketwatch (working!); it was a great day for everyone. Plus we ate a whole lot. They got some good restaurants there in Sac.

The rest of life is okay. The car is the biggest task of the next couple of days, and I hope it to be done by tomorrow (my theory, it's a wire that needs to be kajiggered back into place). After that, I'm probably going to be a beach exerciser; I want to take advantage of the beauty around me, it seems like for a LONG time I've just been taking for granted the fact I live on the coast. Many people don't ever see the ocean, let alone such a beautiful area as mine... so I need to be grateful.

Now that I'm working on a show where I'm respected (for the most part) and used (for the most part), I'm beginning to love my career again. It's not a perfect place, nothing is, and at this point in my life I'm very sensitive to things like disrespect and taking advantage of your performers, so it's easy to see some mostly innocent requests coming from the production team as criticisms, which puts me on the defensive. But I'll get past that, if they continue to release me early, and I learn my shit, which I will, of course.

This morning I've rediscovered my love of oatmeal, and how it helped me lose so much weight earlier in the year. It fills me up for hours, and all I need as a snack later is some almonds or some other thing that fills me up. That's the key folks, just don't eat a whole lot. Unlike me, who had a huge in and out burger last night, but hey, that's a once in a while treat.

Monica's back from sad times down in LA; her aunt (and general cool person) died late last week, and the whole family went down there to pay their respects and to start figuring out the estate that she left behind. From what I can see, it's pretty awkward, but there's a ton of love in that family... so it ends up being kind of heartwarming in the end, as she talks about some of the good stuff that happened. Some of the bad stuff that happened, however, is pretty terrible, but does seem like normal familial hate in these normal situations.

Late Late show

Candy is getting me through this horrible rehearsal process. This whole thing is just in the ARGH stage, which happens at theatres that I even like, so one can only imagine what it's like at a theatre I have the hatred of a thousand suns. And candy isn't a person, it's candy. Delicious candy from World Market. Gotta love that british candy.

I also worked on my schedule for Call Me Madam, hopefully we'll get shit done in time for me to not feel completely in the dark when it comes to music, dancing, or blocking. Luckily, this part is SUPER small, and that means less time at the theatre! I'm happy for a smaller role... soon I bet I'll be happy for something bigger, but for right now, I'm doing just fine.

When I was watching CSI during the day, there were many commercials for trade schools or nursing schools. At first, I didn't put two and two together, but it eventually dawned on me, and it made me feel a little odd that I was actually considering the Motorcycle Institute at UTI. Yes, that's an actual school. I think I'm just yearning for something, and school is certainly something I can have control over... but maybe I'll focus on something like dance rather than learning how to fix a bike.

Also, my insomnia's back. I'm incredibly tired, but unable to sleep. Sigh.