Dang, life moves fast...

...when you lose a lot of it having to sleep, driving, etc.

So, I dropped out of Joseph. I think it was reasonably the only thing I could do. They've got their mission, and that's great, but I just don't fit in that company.

I am, however, going to be doing costumes for Angel Street at Concord Players. This is a very cool thing - they are a great group and coming in on a technical job like this is a good chance for them to get to know me. Might make it a tiny bit easier to get cast later. Of course, the main worry here is that it's Victorian costuming, which could be challenging, depending on what they've already got in their costume collection. The good news is that they just did George, so they'll have some Victorian stuff. The bad news is that the newer costumes are all for George, so they might not be in a suitable palette for a psychodrama. (For those who don't know, Angel Street is the play that was adapted into the movie Gaslight.)

( And I had a call-back for <i>Sound of Music</i> at Wakefield Rep. )

So I don't know whether I want to be in this show or not. I suppose if they offer me Elsa, I'll take it, because the audition process shouldn't indicate that rehearsals will be that disorganized - but I think I'll make sure before I commit. I'm definitely not going all the way to Wakefield for Nuns' Chorus. I'm not old enough for Mother Abbess - I hope!

Anyway. Holiday luncheon for the department today, and of course, my Secret Santa gift is being delivered by UPS *today*, when I can't get to it. Eh, she'll get it tomorrow. I got her a card by way of apology/promisory.

What else? Dad's friend is sinking fast, apparently. I hope his plans to get down there Saturday work out and he gets to see her one last time.

Have ordered ROTK from Amazon, as the box set I want was much cheaper there than Wal-mart. Just as well, since I have a love/hate relationship with that store and I'm just as happy to not give the scions of Sam Walton my hard-earned bucks. It's enough that my dough is going to Peter Jackson.

More on office life....

The ladies in this office are very strange. I'm not cut out for a secretarial pool - I wish I could just find an office somewhere. Maybe after the expansion (hah).

So first, there was the incident last Friday when I had to stand up for the vampires (don't ask - it was funny, but weird). Then there's the phone issue. I work for Quality and Safety, but my desk/cube is in the Department of Medicine, because that's where there's space available. In the Department of Medicine, they pick up each other's phones, but they're not actually supposed to pick up mine. But they can't tell whose phone is ringing, so if it rings more than a couple times...they pick it up. Now, in the evening, this means I have to forward to phone mail (because they come in earlier than I do next morning). But during the day, there are times when I don't want to pick up - particularly if it's Susan's line and I know she's expecting a call - or if it's someone I know (like Margaret, our department's AA - it's very confusing), who wouldn't be calling Susan's direct line unless she wanted to bypass me. If I let her go into phonemail (or hope Susan will pick up), then more often than not, someone over here picks up. Narg. Even when I do send *my* extension to phone mail, I can't forward *Susan's* - and that rings at my desk.

Ah, office politics. Ahem. Open space is a premium, I know. Office, office, office.

Here's the fun one: they are also planning their holiday thing. I was invited to the holiday thing (which was very nice of them - it's dinner and a "recycled gift swap") and also invited to participate in their "cookie swap." I replied that this year probably wasn't a good year for baking, because, as etakyma will tell you, our kitchen is really not conducive to cooking - baking especially. But I mentioned that next year, if they don't mind kugel, I'd make some for swapping. Helen (Medicine's sort of senior AA - you know every office/department has one) told me that she didn't think kugel would be appropriate, because it's a pudding, and not a cookie. "The Cookie Swap is only for cookies," I was told. But then she added that if I wanted to bake a big kugel and bring it for the meal, she was sure everyone would love that.

How inside the box. Does anyone else here see the irony in that one?

Anyway. It's going to take a while to tap into the hive-mind, I can tell.