Long weekend

Although I will work through part of it. It will be a moving weekend too as we move Luke Daigle in and move Jon and Sara to new digs. Plus Chris and I will have a Chris and Heather day on Monday.

Also, my lovely friend Holly got me free tickets to Cymbeline next week at the Chicago Shakespeare Festival. Hopefully it will be better then the other show that I saw there.

Work has been ridiculous this week! Today I got emails pertaining to how rude and unprofessional I am and how diligent and professional I am. Crazy person, super crazy person is the one who emailed me (well, really the CFO and then she emailed my boss and I) about me being rude, but really she is rude. I was trying to help her, and I was trying to keep her out of my hunt by asking her to sit in reception while I checked on things, but she refused to sit down and instead she followed me around and hovered outside my office and just kept coming into it. Ugh, it was infuriating, and I could find no one to help me out because it all happened before 8:45 in the morning. No one else was in here yet.

The other one was a problem I solved that was created by an idiot who used to work here but left last month. He took a check from a woman, but then never bothered to tell accounting that there was a check buried in the middle of some paperwork. So we were harassing her about non-payment. I felt terrible. So, I figured things out, fixed it, apologized, let her believe the other guy basically got fired for fucking things up (totally not true, but totally something you would read into my email if you were pissed), blamed the idiot, and reassured her we had replaced him with far more competent people (again, not so much true, his replacement also kind of a tool).

Awesome. I love work and stupid people. Mostly I love stupid people. [pause] Psych.

Everything Changes

Like roommates and homes. New roommate, not staying roommate. She is basically back in California for good. New apartment search is underway.

Other people seem to be pissed at me for no reason. Other people might feel differently. Mostly, I just want a nice, cheap apartment to magically appear for October, plus people to move all my stuff for free. House elves could do that, they don't have to be people.

I saw the Sound of Music last night in Grant Park under the stars. It was way fun, and Sara and Chris came with. Actually Sara Jo was totally responsible for the really awesome patch of blanket real estate we got. It ruled. Plus we booed at Nazis and cheered for nuns and got squeamish every time there was kissing and romance (and we booed for Baroness Schrader). I recommend outdoor film fests--there was a ton of people there!! I could hardly believe it when I left our seat to go pee in the middle of the boring Maria back to the abbey part. Next year everyone should come with me.

Heather Simpson

This is my headshot as a Simpson. Thank you Burger King.

I made it through

I have been watching season three of House on DVD, and I was really scared about watching the Tritter arc. It just made me so angry when it was happening. So ANGRY!!!! A whole disc and part of two others with it being every episode? Frightening, but I finished it. Now I am just on regular schmegular episodes, episodes I have never seen. Awesome! Finally some reward.

Woo Hooo Storm!

We had a biggun last night/yesterday! You may have seen it on TV. Lots of people are without power, and my work is kind of one of them. I say kind of because we have just enough power for ComEd not to worry about fixing us, but not enough power for screen print production to work and barely enough power to do anything in embroidery, also there is no air conditioning. Yeah, it is awesome here. Not really.

Ummmm, but at least I am at work. Also someone is buying us doughnuts. That's good right?

No takers

No one wanted to join my cult. Sally even pointed out that it wasn't really my preaching that drove them to God. All that is true. I guess that puts a damper on my cult.

I am totally sick. I was a little sick on Monday, Tuesday was crappy at regular work, so I called off second work. Then I only went in for a few hours on Monday, and I did not go in today. This evening I am feeling quite a bit better--which means my sinuses only feel about a quarter full of crap instead of brimming over with junk. Also my eyes are hardly watering, and I don't feel off balance with all the shit in my ears.

I have been watching House season 3 on DVD and the BBC documentary Jekyll and AMC's series Mad Men, so it isn't like I am not doing anything. I also did some dishes, and I may still do some laundry and clean my room again. It seems I am always cleaning my room. I don't know how I make such a mess of it so much of the time.

Chris Plummer lives here now, and I love him even if I must cancel our meetings due to illness, well and due to the fact that we are in the middle of a crazy ass thrunderstorm that has knocked some power out--not mine, obviously or this blogging thing would be very hard.

Patterns

I have been finding them in things that had formerly seemed not at all my fault, nothing to do with ME, I just stumbled into them. Well, turns out if I stretch the window I am looking at out just a little bit, there is more of a pattern then I thought. I seem to like brashness that is really not much more then a thin veneer over "I don't know what the heck I am doing, but grasping at any straw that comes my way might be a good way to sum this up."

Why would I seek this out, is my new question. Do I like feeling smugly superior in a, "Yes I may be a mess but not quite as big a mess as this guy I am standing next to," sort of way? Do I have a hero complex heretofore unoticed by myself? I don't necessarily think I am one to look for or latch onto the easy answers (at least not at this stage in my life), but yet I end up with (or chasing after) guys who do. In fact, in my dating history (or would-be dating history) I am a little hard pressed to find someone who doesn't fall squarely in this category (except maybe one boyfriend way back in undergrad who I dated for like 5 minutes).

Sometimes the answers they find freak me the fuck out--see all things related to the great sad heap I became after Jesus boy dumped me for aforementioned Jesus. That was all kinds of smarting from serious betrayal--or at least that is how I felt, seriously betrayed, like he was all sneaky in falling for fundamentalist Christianity.

I have been contemplating this pattern for a few days now and the possible implications it has for me, and I have come up with a whole lot (I am really good at overanalyzing things like this), but nothing I have come up with has been very illuminating or satisfying. It just leads me to more thinking and mulling.

Horoscope widget

On my igoogle homepage, I have a widget for my horoscope. I put it one there because I thought it would be fun and funny and a nice silly way to greet the morning at work. Now I am not so sure, because this Rick Levine guy is following me. He must be, plus he is probably listening to my thoughts because it has been creepy right on lately! I mean, I guess it could all be vague enough to be read into, but it also seems to be focusing on topics or situations that are at the forefront of my mind right now. It is kind of freaking me out.

Thank you for all the lovely feedback on my headshots (comments on Wranglers notwithstanding, yeah Lauren I am looking at you). I actually will probably use the two that you all like the most as my main two shots.

Hopefully I will blog more next week when I won't have worked over 40 hours by the time I got to bed on Wednesday night (and I haven't even seen "My Boys" yet!

Headshots have arrived

It is bizarrely strange to look at headshots of yourself in large groups. I find it especially odd since I never really feel like they look all that much like me. Now I don't mean that I think they look way different or anything. I very much recognize close similarities to myself, but they never look quite like I think that I look. It is more like looking at photos of much older family members when they were young or even a cousin or a sister who just shares a striking resemblance.

They turned out great though. Tons of good ones to pick from which is great. There aren't too many serious faces because well my face just looks weird when I am being serious. It does. I look like I am faking--not at all what you want in a headshot. If you are on My Space, I have them posted in my photos, please have a look (I know that some of you already have) weigh in, etc. I will post a few of the top, top ones here for feedback too, and if you have a flikr account, they will be there, and I can invite you to be my friend and family so that you can look at them.

Here we go:










The second one is my favorite. :) Tell me what you think.

Oh, also, I really feel like I do not remotely look my age. I kind of knew that, but looking at some of these photos, it is astounding I have ever been able to buy drinks without getting carded! It is ridiculous how young I look. I may look older in some of my senior photos--which were taken ELEVEN years ago, right before my senior year.

Headshots

I got some taken last week by Krysta--while she was in Chicago visiting. They are in the mail to me as we speak (as is the complete series of "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared" because I caved and bought them--ooh, also Simpsons Road Rage Jon!!!!). I am excited! I can't wait to see the CD of them. Although this means I probably should get some use out of them which means I need to dust off the old resume and memorize some audition pieces and maybe put myself out there like Jon and Sara and Anna.

I actually feel okay with the idea whereas fairly recently, I might have cried at the thought of it. Plus, I need to reawaken the old acting/theatre muscles somehow if we are going to start a company.

TV in my room

No cable in my room, just TV. But it has a DVD player and a VCR, and I watched a movie from my bed last night, until way too late. I was just going to watch part of the movie, but no the whole movie made me watch it, and it was only mediocre at best ("Miss Potter"). It seems I should avoid having cable in my room as that will be worse--being able to watch movies there might be bad enough. Although it might help me catch up on my Netflix.

Tonight is dinner and a movie night with my boss and my roomie (who also works with me). Plus new roomie comes back from California. We are going to a pretty fabulous restaurant where I love the food, and then to see the "Becoming Jane" movie (becuase it is official Heather watches British writers biopics night--what's next "Sylvia"?). I am excited. The movie has gotten good reviews as a light but thoroughly entertaining bit of fluffy cinema, and I am so down with that.

Also, I programmed a universal remote all by myself last night. I was pretty impressed by that feat. Usually those stupid things defeat me.

Clean room

Kind of. I mean, I dug through all sorts of stuff and pitched a bunch of trashy clothes, and got stuff together for doing laundry. And then I didn't do laundry, and then I haven't finished putting all the stuff on my bed away. It is all clothes. They just need to be hung back up in the closet or folded and put in drawers.

I also need to get the right cables to connect all of our electronics.

Ambi-typterous

I noticed the other day at work that I can use a calculator just as quickly with my non-dominant hand as with my dominant one. My calculator sits to the left of me (well the physical one I use, I also usually have one open on my computer), and I noticed that at some point I stopped reaching across with my right hand to use it and started just using my left to operate it. This means I am using my mouse with my right hand and being all kinds of efficient office girl.

Who knew? I can barely make my left hand function most of the time. It is like the Boo Radley of my hands, but it sneaks out to save the day just when you least expect it.

(Although, now that I think of it, I could always switch hit back in my middle school slow pitch softball days.)

Tired

But fortunately, only one night of work this week. There will be some cleaning (someday I swear). Today there wasn't because Lifetime movies made from Nora Roberts books were calling my name. I am whupped. I need to pay some bills and get me to bed.

Someday I will be back to being mildly interesting. Someday. Sigh.

Augh!

My room could be classified as a national disaster area right now. It is totally a mess, and I really need to clean it up. I need to trash some stuff in it. I need to Stacey and Clintonize my wardrobe (because quite frankly a lot of it needs to be cruelly pruned--there is no reason to where clothes that you know make you look bad, and yet skipping laundry makes that seem like a good plan). Plus, that will let me know what I need to hit the american apparel and dickies websites for (yea for work perks).

I also need to find a way to hook up my television in it, and maybe even attach some cable to it (the television). DVD and cable in my very own room! Maybe Renee and I should look into what it would cost to get DVR, maybe I could have some DVR in my room? We probably have to have the cable guy come out and fix the cable right now anyway (the cable sucks and barely gives us a good picture). I bought a TV since we were losing old roommate (second hand from my boss), and then new roommate has a much bigger TV.

Hmmm. . .

Apparently I got fun

This seems to be a sort of consensus among my friends. Once upon a time I was way less fun, but I seem to have remedied that. Anna Schlegs has called it coming into my own. Yolanda says that I always seemed to be a little prissy and conservative when I was at the U of I. Sabrina thought I had been body snatched by boring aliens.

I am still not entirely sure what Anna means, but it turns out that living far from my family and my little small town formative years allowed me to relax a little. Also that small-town upbringing meant I couldn't have escaped without a little bit of priss and a thin residue of conservative values (they end up rubbing off on you just where you least expect it, and they stick like a stubborn grease stain, with even their shadow lingering long after the dirt is gone). But I don't feel all that different now. I don't think I act any differently or live my life in such a drastically different manner.

Maybe Yolanda and Anna are just seeing new sides of myself, or maybe I am more changed than I realize? Maybe I have entered a new phase in my life and this new phase has brought with it a little bit of a new woman? Maybe the new girl will win the lotto?

Back at work, sigh

So, here I am back in Chicago. Anna and I went out for dinner last night, and I filled her in on all that happened away. Drama at the wedding, gossip gleaned from the wedding, drama that happened here while I was gone to the wedding. Basically people I know are pretty ridiculous, and it turns out I may have to include myself in that number.

Johnny B and I rehashed the HP7 on the phone, and I heard from he and SJ how the honeymoon was. I remembered that Courtney reads this blog (or has in the past), and it turns out she is a little intrigued by the me and David-ness that has been written about here.

Speaking of the me and David-ness, we have gotten into two long and borderline heated discussions about both politics and religion (one each) in the less than a week since I last saw him in person. Heated because we don't really agree on anything in those veins. He's a Republican, and I am a dyed-in-the-wool idealist of a Democrat. I admire people of faith but really feel it hasn't worked for me in a long, long time, and I am easily turned off by the partisanship of most religions (and the I'm right, you're wrong mentality it engenders). He has been attending Christ Church in Moscow. I only discovered that last night. Yeah, Christ Church (Sally you read that right, it is who you think)--their pastor has come under fire from many, many people and groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center. I am not a fan of their views. Yeah, so that was quite a shock. Churches are one thing, but I didn't imagine that people I knew would attend that church of all churches (and my own prejudice rears its head).

Now I am beginning to question what it is I find attractive in the kind of guys who initially seem like me, but are strongly persuaded by right-wing Christian Fundamentalist Evenagelicals? Really, what the heck? This is not the first time for me--many of you know the story of the ex-boyfriend who came to be known as Jesus Boy. It is kind of freaking me out. I am probably beginning to blow it all out of proportion. But it was shocking to me.

Quick catch up

So, I am at my parents house where it turns out I spent very little of my vacation.

When flying out of O'Hare, I got just delayed enough to miss my connecting flight. That meant, I wasn't going to get to Portland until almost 9pm, my hometown until after midnight, and the earliest I would get to Moscow (and David) would be two or three in the morning (to get up and leave by 7). So, I convinced David to come down to my parents house and we would leave from there.

Yup, David came to my parents house. Yup, that was a little odd. He was asleep in the guest room when I got there. My mother told him, "Thanks for taking my daughter," when we left. Awesome. Seeing him was actually really great. The trip to Twin Falls took 1million years, but it was great being in the car with him.

The wedding was outstanding. I saw a million people I had missed, and got at least that many hugs from people I loved. The bride did a kegstand in her gown, and the bride and groom went bar hopping with us all afterwards.

I drove back to almost home with Yolanda, and we had a great time catching up. It sucked having to say goodbye to David--knowing how very close he really was. So, after spending Monday at home (finishing Harry Potter 6, not yet starting on 7), I rented a car on Tuesday to go visit Moscow, auspiciously to see friends although only my parents were kidded by that pretty far-fetched lie. I spent one day with David, that turned into two, and I got to see a few other people too (like Sally, and Maggie in Sally's husband's play).

I just got home from that. Tonight I have a fancy little party to attend, and my grandparents are coming up to be sure to see me, and to take me back to Portland on their way home.

More later, probably once I am back in Chicago.

Thanks

Blog Slacker

Right here. That's me. I know, I know, but I have been busy with two works and people in town and getting ready for new roommate and long trip and a jillion other lame excuses. Plus, it won't probably get better while on my trip because my parents have dial-up, and who knows when I will have time on the weekends of the trip.

Also, all my carefully laid plans for the trip went terribly astray--which seems to be what my plans have been doing lately, maybe I should come up with plans I don't really want to happen and see what I get instead, at this point, they can't be worse. Yo was going to drive me from Portland to wedding, and I was just going to get to her house Friday night. Then she couldn't leave until way later then I wanted to (we'd get there just before the wedding, and I was hoping for a little more time to get dolled up at least--I mean, you saw the dress). So I was going to fall back onto plan B.

Plan B meant my dad coming to get me in Portland (totally fine) and driving my sister's car. Not fine. My sister's car got a flat tire in it that needs replaced (as really do all of her tires--something she planned to do in the fall), but it got the flat while my mom drove the car back from the airport in Seattle where she had put my sis on a plane to a Carolina (I don't remember which one). So, my sister isn't around to get it fixed. This made my mother vaguely hysterical--which is often her reaction to planning things. Obviously my sister can't make the tires get fixed from Whatever-lina (yeah, like she wasn't going to get my dad to go with her to do it because she was the real necessary one there?). So the car is out.

David Hathaway generously offered to drive me to the wedding if I could get to Moscow before Saturday morning early when he was leaving, but if my family was balking at picking me up from Portland, how much more would they balk at getting me to Moscow? I put the plan into the mix anyway.

Then my mom wanted me to change my flight. Too expensive. Thought about renting a freaking car for myself--that I would return to Pasco--but it was kind of out of budget. Then my mom was going to buy me a round trip flight from Portland to Pasco Friday night (a really worthy plan, it would've worked had any left after I landed in Portland). Then things spun out of control!

Since the Portland-Pasco round trip didn't work, my mom thought she would buy me a flight to Boise. Her plan was fly into Boise late Friday night, and I would stay with cousins I barely know. Somehow someone (maybe Hath) would pick me up in Boise and get me to Twin Falls. Then I would fly back to Portland on Sunday and from Portland to Pasco Monday morning, flying back to Portland on Thursday. Does your brain hurt? Do you realize how much of my vacation I would spend in and out of airports?

At this point, I kind of put my foot down, and tried to bring some reason back to my mother. With two flights, it was no longer more cost effective then driving. This is the first time I have seen most of my family in a year, and I would rather spend it with them--even in a car driving in circles--then with strangers at airports and on planes. Dad can drive to Portland and back. Dad or Dan can get me to Moscow. Yes, the Pasco-Portland round trip would've been a great idea were it possible. But it isn't.

My mother still wanted to sort things out. Then I called her back several hours later. She had calmed down, thought rationally about some things, and decided on this plan. My dad will get me in Portland at 6:30pm on Friday. Once home, my brother and some friends will be roped into driving me to Moscow that night (because he would be way more likely to like a late night drive then a get up at the ass crack of dawn drive). I will be delivered to David Hathaway's house around midnight-ish. The next morning Hathaway and I will drive to the wedding together.

Phew! Yes it was as mellow dramatic and complicated as all that. My mom talks just as fast as I do.

So, Sally it looks like I will get to Moscow, but for a few brief hours that will hopefully include some sleep since it will feel like two in the morning to me.

And the Shoes

Memorial Day and Tom visit 1 030, originally uploaded by fire4hairlady.

Yeah, the shoes. They are really Anna's, but she might have to fight me to get them back. No one tell her.

But seriously, how killer will I look in this--especially while carrying a little leather clutch?