Who the heck do I think I am?

Cleaned out the area under the sink and moved the liquor to the pantry closet (I have some Jack Daniels. Who knew?).

Broke down about half the boxes and moved the other half to the back room, either because they're too much of a pain to un-box or they still have packing peanuts / air things in them.

I'll shut my bedroom door in the morning. The counters aren't cleaned off because I have dirty dishes, though I could move those to the stove, I guess. But the drainer is empty and I can move that out of the way, too, which leaves just the butcher block.

The table's still a mess, but that's marginal. I had picked up the front room a little, so that's okay. I'll straighten up the bathroom a tiny bit.

People do this all the time. Breathing.

Wednesday afternoon, our boss canceled our usual Friday morning meeting because we were expecting a huge storm.

Thursday afternoon, the guys in the office basically told everyone not to even bother to come in today.

This morning, Gov. Patrick declared a snow emergency and told everyone in BOSTON not to go to work unless they absolutely had to.

So I stayed home.

I got two loads of laundry done, finished my Yuletide pinch hit, and relaxed a little.


And my deluxe Beedle the Bard arrived. Cool. It's wicked awesome. I don't regret purchasing it at all, even if I rarely get it out (because yeah, it's that cool.)


The snow started between 1:30 and 2 pm and it's mostly over, but there's supposed to still be more tonight, but tomorrow it should be clear to start cleaning out. I haven't decided whether I should go in to work tomorrow or Christmas Day. I'm leaning toward Christmas Day, actually - it'll be quieter and it won't require a lot of shoveling first. (Though maybe landlord will have the driveway plowed?)

I do have to go to the Post Office tomorrow and I should call the Kia dealership about scheduling work on the rear wiper before I go to 12th Night.

Really nothing else much of note.

What's up with y'all?

But I want to know first when I can have my 28 hour days, so that I can get more done?

Okay. So y'know what I just did? I just registered for AZKATRAZ. Yeah, I know, right? I'm running the event and I hadn't registered. But here's the thing: I know I want the full smear - Merlin Circle with the Master's in Potter Administration (even if it's unlikely I'll be able to leave the hotel) and all the bells and whistles. I don't think I'm taking the bus to Comic-Con, but that's only because I don't think I'll be able to leave first-thing Wednesday morning.

But I know that's a lot of money. Especially right now, when I've got a bunch of charges on my cards from all the umpty-million trips I've been taking, and I paid for the groups' San Francisco tour and Alcatraz trips on my credit card (and everyone else paid me cash)... so I'm looking at my bills this month and going 0_o.

But the movie tickets are selling very quickly. Azkatraz has already got just under 200 registrants and it seems like *everyone* who registers is buying the maximum 2 movie tickets they are allowed to buy.

So here's what I did: I registered for a one-day registration, so that I could get my tickets. (Yes, rani23, I got one for you!) That way, later, when my bills are paid up a bit better, I can upgrade to the whole enchilada. The Merlin Circle price doesn't change, so it's not like I'm going to miss a deadline.

Anyone else in the same boat? Use the same strategy! Register NOW for a one-day registration and then upgrade later and pay the difference. It's like an installment plan ... only not.

Actually, it could be an installment plan if you go back in a month and add something else, like another one-day, or the MPA, or whatever, and then the next month go up to the full deal.


So that was one thing.

Also on the Azkatraz front, COSTUMERS! The deadline for submitting fashion show designs is NOVEMBER 15th! That's next Saturday. We need submissions! This is a fabulous idea and it's gonna be a really cool part of the conference, but only if people actually put in their ideas - just like programming, we can't build it if y'all don't contribute! Put on your thinking caps about what wizarding fashion looked like through history and bring your designs to be modeled on the runway at the Prison Break Ball! Contact fashionpageant@hp2009.org with questions or to submit a design.


What's next?

OBAMA, baby. THANK EFFING GOODNESS. I might not have to move to Canada. Not that there's anything wrong with Canada!


I think that's really all there is to say about that.


Work: Still a maniac and have to go in a few minutes to do some of that.


Theatre: Show going much better. Director doesn't need me when she's doing scene work, so yay, not as much rehearsal. Which means I actually had time to go to the grocery store Monday, vote yesterday, and I'll be able to pack tonight and tomorrow so that I'm ready to leave for Cooks and Bards WAY early Friday morning. Have an audition on Wednesday the 12th so PLEASE y'all, if you're at the event, keep me from blowing out my voice. KTHX.


Sidekick: Woe. The trackball died. Have impersonated Heidi to add myself to the account and then dealt with them. Replacement on its way but probably not until early next week. Feh. Miss not being able to check up on things during the commute and while out and about doing worky things.



Supernatural: I'm the lamest of the lame. I've seen up through 4x04, but no, I haven't seen "Monster Movie" and no, I haven't seen Jensen singing, but yes, I know what he sings and yes, I'll get there. I will not be caught up by tomorrow night, either, so I'll have to download 8 and add it to my pile. I will catch up eventually, seriously. On the plus side, I got one of the prompts from my wee_chesters community (I offered prompts to members # 199, 200, and 201) and I'm actually working on that. So writing fic again, yay!


Alternity: Still awesome. I have to restrain myself from posting and instead getting work done and things like that.


Okay. I think that's it.

Okay. I know, it's been a while.

And I know, I'm a bad friend: I haven't been reading journals nearly as much as I should. No Time! Life is made of teh crazy.

Not that there aren't some good things happening, but really? This week has been twice as long and stressful as it should be.

There's some work-related crap, which is probably not of much interest to most of you and I may put in a flocked (for my protection) post later.

There was the site visit for AZKATRAZ, which was utterly fabulous and wonderful and I got to hang out with some amazing HP fans and also got to spend not one, but TWO evenings with the incredible and awesome rani23 whom I miss like whoa and love more than my luggage.

There was the RECOVERING from my first trip to California. I know, right? But the only time I had been planning to go before, there was a hurricane moving up the east coast that grounded my plane, so I had to cancel the trip. So YAY for my first time in CA and OMG, San Francisco is BEAUTIFUL. Except for the panhandlers. They're not so gorgeous.

There's hpalternity, too, which is EATING MY BRAIN because really I don't want to do much other than play, because it's so fun.

Then there's Tribute, which is the show I am stage managing. Now, ordinarily, y'all know, I don't like to stage manage. I really hate the responsibility and the pressure and yeah, I'm good at it, but I'd much RATHER be on stage, doing what I frankly do the bestest in the whole world.

But I agreed because I knew the players were in a tight spot and there really weren't any roles in the show for me, nor really any other shows I wanted to do this fall, plus of course, with all the travel, I knew my chances of getting cast in anything were slim to none.

I mention the travel. I've just completed Five (count'em 5) Weekends In A Row of travel, including TWO road trips to Western New York, a plane to Pittsburgh followed by a road trip down to WV, and two other airline trips: Orlando and SF. And yes, my arms *are* tired.

This means not only that I have a pile of laundry about as big as my bed, but that I had to miss a lot of rehearsals. Well. A handful of rehearsals. With a director who was not really invested in blocking, but more letting the actors mill around on the stage to "find what works" (gods, I HATE that kind of director). And I was *totally* up front about the travel beforehand. We tried to get an assistant stage manager, but she couldn't make all the rehearsals either and pulled out early. The producer was filling in for me on the nights when I couldn't be there.

And then. The director up and quit. This Tuesday morning. Three and a half weeks before opening. And his stated reason for quitting? "The Players do not share my belief in the importance of a stage manager." What. The. Frak? There's been never a word to me about any sort of difficulty. He's completely non-communicative, and IMO wasn't doing a great job, but that's hardly my fault, yo. The moment I read the email I thought, "You a-hole. It's not me. You want to quit for some other reason and you're just using my (hello: PLANNED) absences as an excuse." (Sure enough, I talked with the producer and the president of the group last night and there was, in fact, some other kind of reason.)

Anyway, so yeah - I don't take it personally and I'm not at all hurt or upset by his accusation that I wasn't being a real stage manager. There wasn't anything to manage yet, and besides, he knew I was going to be away and said in production meetings that he was okay with it. I can't help that the production meetings were held on days when I was out of town, either - my conflicts were known *before* the meetings were scheduled. So, yeah - not my fault, dude, and not like I'm sorry to see the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

We now have an amazing director, one of the best directors in this region, which brings me to a whole other level of angst, but that's okay. And in the three days since this director has been gone? Uh, yeah. Already a better show.

But. Something I didn't need among all the other stress.

Oh - And I've recorded two fics for SpellCast Readings this week. One is edited and off to the producer; the other needs to be edited (tonight or tomorrow morning).

Now if I could just find my bills to pay them....


In totally other news: I'm sure you've already seen this, but The NYT Editorial Board Endorsed Obama for President.

(And Yay, Connecticut. But that's old news.)

Hm. I also have to figure out how to get to the polls that Tuesday, between work and rehearsal.

I really didn't do much of anything this weekend.

And I really don't want to be at work, either.

But I've got a metric ton of work to do, plus Azkatraz stuff, plus other stuff. Meh.

I just want to go back to bed.

But.

I survived Pennsic, and I did start on my laundry (with more to do) this weekend.

I even got my hair cut to cut off the damaged, dry ends from using Pennsic water with no filters (as we realized when taking apart the showers!). I think it's cute, but no one has noticed. Not drastic enough, I guess.

I went to auditions last week and sat on casting and we cast the show. We still have to get confirmations from 3 actors, but they should all accept (I hope). Had the production meeting Sunday.

But. No significant cleaning. I did get back to skip=700 or so over the last couple days, so I'm somewhat caught up. Still have reading to do.

And I'm trying to read through the summergen stuff. Speaking of which, got my summergen turned in (I had an extension to last week because of the travel), but it hasn't posted yet.


In other news: Breach the Hull (and not Bad-Ass Faeries) won the Dream Realm Award for excellence in sci-fi / fantasy e-publishing. But BAF got a mention, because it's the same publisher and half of the same editors. So, YAY for Dani and Mike!

Man, I SOOO want to go home.

Feh.

As mentioned, I called my doctor and he prescribed a z-pack for me, which I planned to pick up at CVS on the way home and then *walk* the rest of the way to the grocery store for other supplies, and then home.

But when I got to Park Street, well, it looked like someone had been trying to barbecue on the Red Line. There was a thin haze of smoke everywhere on the lower platform. We started asking, "Why is there smoke?" to which the answer was a fire in Downtown Crossing. All the trains were stopped while the BFD cleared things out.

The smoke got steadily worse, so I went back upstairs to peruse the bus routes to seek alternate transportation. Then the BFD showed up at Park Street and evacuated everyone in the station to the Commons. I was studying the map, again, trying to figure out how to reach a bus that would take me to Watertown or Harvard, when I saw a shuttle. YAY!

Worst shuttle driver EVER. I don't know whether he actually knew how to get to the various stations on the route, but he also didn't particularly care about letting people *OFF* at the other stops, much less picking other people up. He didn't stop at Charles at all. He turned the wrong way into Kendall so that a bunch of people tried to get on thinking we were heading Inbound, when we were going Outbound. Then when the guy from the T told him to go around so he could pick up going the other direction, he missed the turn and apparently decided not to go back. He did let people off at Central, but stopped beyond where the people were waiting to get on, and wouldn't let anyone on. WTF?

Everyone got off at Harvard (because apparently trains were running between there and Alewife), and I got onto the bus platform just in time for a bus. Got off at the CVS as planned, but by that time it was pushing 7:30 PM and I had already decided that I'd pick up grocery-ish items at CVS or not, depending on what they had, and go straight home.

I made it home at 8:00. Twenty minutes to walk from the CVS home. YAY, good workout.

Have taken the first bolus of the z-pack. Bought more Mucinex (one with the nasal decongestant and one with the cough suppressant for overnight - they were BOGO), and cough syrup, more cough drops, and dental floss. Also chocolate, Munchie Mix, Starbursts (yes, etakyma, the strawberry and cherry are mostly for you), and Rolos.

Hey, I never said I was buying *healthy* groceries.

Dinner was the rest of the Brie and crackers. Which is good, because the Brie was well on its way to getting a little overripe.

Oh - and I'm now a "Guard" in Wellesley's EMACT show. This will be fun--and a great introduction to doing a show at the festival!

Danielle's getting technological:




Great Escape - one of my favourite movies - on AMC. Apart from being pan&scan and having odd commercial breaks, it's fairly good mindless entertainment, but I'm thinking of crashing early. Soon as my hair is dry enough to braid.

Ty-ered. Did get out of the house for a bit today. Took HPEF's printer (which has been acting up) to Circuit City because it's still under warranty; was told to contact Lexmark directly. Will do tomorrow. Then I went to Off Broadway Shoes - much like DSW but with slightly different selection - and tried on multiple pairs of shoes, including a really nice brown walking pump and an incredibly comfy Puma trainer. And bought neither - too expensive. Then walked to Marshall's and found a fab pair of Converse All-Star hi-tops for $15 less than the shoe store. Score. I've been needing a new pair - my second pair of fake ones have been falling apart since before I wore them in Steppin' Out and the workout from the show didn't help them any. I may have even tossed them out already.


Oh, and PSA time: As of Sunday, there are fewer than 10 tickets left for the Dessert with Jim Dale at Portus. So if you're waiting to get your ticket, NOW's the time!

Unfortunately, we continue to have server issues with the website, but the LJ Community is running.


Still looking for volunteers as well....

Off to do more Portus work.

Blessed Beltaine to all!

And Happy New Year to SCA folks.

And it's THURSDAY which means NEW SHOW. Whee!

Unfortunately, I have to finish my Big Bang fic (ACK!) and pack for Crown.... Well, I may wind up leaving work extra early and packing for Crown tomorrow.... And actual, y'know, WORK.

The BigBang fic has several sections to go: I have to finish the Big Case section (they're about to find and confront the culprit); I'm almost at the end of the flashback sequence (longhand) and need to type it up; then there's a final concluding section back in modern era where they tie up the loose ends and say goodbye and drive off into the sunset. So, yeah, very close to the finish line, just.... still a long way to go. And the case part is still uphill--I haven't got to the point where it just writes itself.

That was one amazing thing about Trost Und Freude: It really pretty much flowed the whole time I was writing. This one's getting locked up, I think mainly because I'm self-censoring instead of just writing it and fixing it later if it's crap.

It will also go in *completely* unbeta'd - I mean no one else has even seen it, which usually makes me very nervous. But I also know that it's supposed to be a draft, and I've got a month to clean it up. (A month in which I'm traveling three weekends out of five.)

So right now, Beltaine is kicking my ass.

( Cut for spoilers )

Job. My promotion went through! Got signed. Not as high a raise as I was hoping (the med ctr. apparently has a limitation on how high an increase one can get at one time (10%)), but still, it's a sizable jump. And without any prompting whatsoever, Boss D said that he'd apply for another raise for me in 6 months so that I'll get another bump. Way cool!

Many folks on my flist are in the midst of trauma - emotional, physical, job-related, loss, etc. - I may not comment individually, but know that I sympathize and I'm around if you need to unload. And I'm keeping good thoughts out there for all of y'all so that we can collectively get through to some better times.

My own angst is comparatively minor by comparison. I'm still completely at sea about replacing my car. I did a little online looking last night but it did really nothing more than convince me I have GOT to get out to some dealerships and just test drive, see what's on the lot, and such. And I hate doing that alone, but I guess alone is how it's going to have to be.

I was a t00b and realized I bought tickets to Dallas for travel exactly one week later than I need them. Feh. There should be another AirTran fare sale between now and June; I'll try to take advantage to minimize the cost of backing up the tickets by one week, while they're still more than 6 weeks out. OTOH, someone said they just found tix through Delta for even less. So, hm. I wonder if I could get tix that way, and either cancel (for credit) or change flights to something else. Any other events / trips I should plan for in the next 6 months? (ETA: Just looked and the fares went down since Sunday night. W00t! All fixed.)

Also, I'm kinda waiting on both these things because job is in the process of putting through the paperwork to bump me up from an Admin Coord to a Project Manager, which is good, because really that's what I'm doing! And the sooner that gets process, the sooner the pay goes up, which means the above expenses won't be quite as painful (I hope). Ahem. Money gods? Car gods? All y'all other gods who like to play with da Gwen? Please note: I will not be amused if you see this as an opportunity. Thanks.

Went back to AEthelmearc for an event this weekend, which was good - good to see people, good to hang out, good to know I haven't forgotten the lyrics to "Scarlet" - but brought home, as usual, just how hard it is to keep in touch with everyone when I'm not part of the culture as much anymore. Y'all help me feel connected, but man, my muse has certainly left the SCA context for the time being.

Which brings me to: Big Bang. ( And I'll put this behind a cut for non-Supernatural Fanfic readers )