random side notes - chapter twenty

welcome to my hiatus! errr, i mean, back from another hiatus. i don't even remember where i was last month. there was cleaning, and a show, and some random thrift store shopping. other than that, i've managed to remain quite boring. in a good way.

drama at work! we are now operating with as little labor cost as possible. sure, sometimes we get lucky and actually have five or six people there at once! mostly it's down to just a few of us at a time. angry customers out front and threats from higher up make it a ridiculous place to be, but i do like the people i work with there. the job itself is okay. i'm learning to just make a face of "quoi?" at the absurd demands and laugh when someone starts yelling at me for no real reason. while i may sometimes have the tendency to blow things up, i'm not actually kidding this time. real yelling - one customer even threw things with an overhanded flourish. my hours are up and down, but i remain calm. an exit plan is ultimately in place for the future.

the show went pretty well, with the exception of having to cancel on night during the snow... which was all gone from the streets by call time anyway. grrrr. oh well, whaddaya gonna do, right? i received much adulation (mostly for being able to memorize quickly and think on my feet) and even a few gifts of adoration. overall i was pleased with how things turned out, though it's always easier to nitpick myself for the things i could've done better. at least i got many compliments on my makeup skills!

here comes a moment of shame: i'm enthralled with a show on the style channel. ever seen "clean house" and wonder what kind of crap you need to get out of your home? i have. many times lately. believe me, liz, there's more stuff where the chicken plates came from! anyone need an oversized white board? tivo got so confused about my compulsive need to see how messy other people are that he's started picking out more bizarre things for me on the same channel. perhaps i should keep my bad taste in television shows down to a lower roar.

"local only lent" has some unexpected side effects.
1. linsey is about to beat me to a pulp to induce me into a target shopping trip. she's laid down a mandate that WE ARE GOING there on sunday for a binge.
2. shopping has become a more thoughtful act for me. see, when you have to consider every place where you shop or eat over the course of several weeks, you start to consider how much shopping you should really be doing.
3. derek has expressed an absolute hatred of thrifting, garage sales, and all secondhand shopping. he likes secondhand goods, but can't stand the digging.
4. every (larger) place i used to shop seems to be having really terrific clearance sales that all end before easter. oh well. guess i didn't need another pair of socks. bonnie seems to be my new sock dealer anyway. AND she's buying local from her area!
5. i'm more likely to look for different/cheaper/free things for entertainment. this seems to be like some crazy change taking over my whole lifestyle. by making my consumer world smaller, the rest of my world has gotten bigger. let's see if i can still hack it without having to be at rehearsal every night.
6. i'm addicted to braum's.

my reward after lent was supposed to be a new pogo camera. unfortunately, the release of them has been put off until june. sigh... should i celebrate with some shoes instead? promise i'll only buy them on sale, truly! i gave my theatre donations before derek lost his job, but i could stand a little more do-gooding. maybe i'll make donations for all those birthdays coming up in the next few weeks. that is, after i've done some major shopping to see if there's anything else out there to get for them.

dizzy is doing quite well. she runs to the kitchen each night and happily swallows the heart pills derek gives her in exchange for a follow-up of treats and overindulgent praise. if only she'd been so gracious with me, i wouldn't have had to wear multiple band aids on my hands that first day. (and i can give anything a pill, or so i thought) she is so totally derek's little princess. some evenings she just sits on his lap and gazes at him with utter cute-face. "i love you, derek. to all the rest of you - he's mine!" great. now will you listen to him and stop pooping on the bathroom floor right next to the box?!?

polenta lasagna rocks! it's way squishier than pasta lasagna.

i'm so proud of mary for saying no to me. that's not an easy task, especially when i really know how to sweeten the pot. maybe i should send her parents a thank you card for going on vacation at such a perfect time. it may have been the final straw that made her decision, and it's been paying off for her ever since. jenny was awesome in the part, you know, so i got like a twofer bonus out of the deal. now i'm just jealous about some of mary's recent excursions, as i've never been on any kind of skates that didn't involve my head hitting a very hard surface with a resounding crack.

speaking of my head, i've now been on the meds since last fall. it would be safe to say that the results are shockingly good. shocking, as in i can't believe i'm still on them. good, as in the shame of it has worn off and been replaced by relief. if you tell people you're on medication, they're never really sure whether or not to think you're just kidding. once they realize you're serious AND you think it's hilarious? they tell you what they've taken before! it's like a preemptive strike on making yourself feel like a fucking freak. in honor of the waning lent it should be called de-stigmata. look, jesus - no holes!

odd things i've done this month:
lost ten pounds while eating absolutely everything
been on television and not sounded like a dufus, i think
received a portrait of me as a superhero
more sidney poitier impressions
rode in a cool girl-powered rickshaw in exchange for a two dollar bill, a bag of popcorn, and a raspberry fruit rollup