commas and ampersands

My prop master was laughing at me tonight when we were going down our list of things to do for the show, and my list was something like this: proof the program, send the program to be printed, follow up on ticketing for group sales, prep the box office reports for each day, write the pre-show speech, get the opening night gifts from the management team, get a haircut, get my eyebrows done, get a manicure, make sure I have 9 dressy, professional outfits ready.

Yeah. My to-do list before the show opens includes all my personal grooming and beauty stuff, since, as the producer, I'm at the show every night and I'm the face of the production to the audience. I'm the one who has to look good when it's all happening, and if I don't look pulled together, it impacts the show's presentation. Especially since we've invited a number of VIPs and bigwigs in the industry. Who knows how many will show up, but regardless of who's there, I'm the first point of contact. (Well, technically, the box office staff is, but I'm the first one that's specific to the show.)

Unfortunately, I can't expense my manicure to the show. Dang.

Generally, I'm quite a good packer. I can Tetris things together so that they fit in the car (or trailer, or suitcase)--a skill I inherited from my father. I can pack light and travel with no checked luggage. I can find a way to organize my cupboards so that everything fits.

At Christmas, though, that all seems to go out the window. For any other trip of the year, I only take a carry-on suitcase. That's sufficient for a weekend, absolutely, or for a week or even two, depending on the time of year. Summer, yes. Winter, no. (Sweaters are too bulky.) When we went to Europe, I did almost two months out of the carry-on suitcase. But this time of year... ah, sigh. My packing skills take a turn for the worse.

I check two bags (granted, one of them is the carry-on size suitcase, so maybe I'm not as far gone as some, who would check two large suitcases) and have two carry-ons--my laptop bag/briefcase and my backpack. That gives me a fair amount of space to work with, and it's the one trip where I have to get a baggage cart at the airport, because just dragging it all down to the front door to meet the cab is a feat.

Granted, presents take up quite a bit of room. This year, I had the advantage of an extra trip two weeks ago, so I took up a bunch of gifts then, still only using the carry-on. If I wasn't taking them, I could have almost packed in a backpack, since three days doesn't require much in the way of clothes. There's a large tote bag sitting in Colin's closest with half the family's presents in it.

Still, there were a few that were too big for the small suitcase, and a few that I've purchased or had shipped since then, so that's a bit of space.

The biggest thing, though, is that I have to pack for everything. Casual, dressy, semi-formal, and this year, I'm working, so I'm adding business casual to that. Of course, I'm not under the illusion that I have to pack enough clothes for four weeks. I'll do laundry several times while I'm there--and, in fact, I'll likely do laundry just before I come back so that I can unpack directly into the dresser instead of into the washing machine.

When I packed for Europe, a) it was summer, and clothes were a lot lighter, but more significantly, b) I packed 2 skirts, 1 pair of capris, 1 pair of pants, 1 sweatshirt, 1 long-sleeved shirt, 1 pair of pyjamas, and a bunch of t-shirts, which roll up nice and tiny. Oh, and one dress. When traveling around, mostly in casual scenarios, that's very feasible. I was sick of those clothes by the end of the two months, but they were sufficient.

For four weeks in Calgary, though, that's not nearly enough. And then, of course, I fall into the "but I don't know exactly what I'll want to wear!" trap. Do I need three pairs of heels (I think I'm taking... 7, maybe? pairs of shoes total)? Well, I'll probably wear them all at some point. In fact, I'm quite sure I will, because I'm thinking of specific outfits for specific occasions. However, I could probably get away with one pair and plan the outfits around that. (But that's not nearly as much fun!)

All this to say, I'm almost finished packing. I haven't packed my carry-on bags at all, but those will be fairly easy (as long as I don't forget anything like, say, my keys to Colin's house or my passport). I'll do one last load of laundry on Monday, just so that I'm not leaving any dirty clothes sitting in my hamper for a month, and there are a few last things I'll toss in then, but mostly, it's finished.

One concert down; two to go. Tomorrow, the choir sings in both morning services and then has both matinee and evening performances. Long day, but we get a couple of hours in between church and our call time. I live about 25 minutes from church, so there's not really any point in coming home for an hour and then going back, but I'll probably take a book (and laptop) and go sit in Starbucks in between.

Monday, last-minute packing and cleaning, a meeting at school, and more Christmas cards to write (there are a few more that need to be mailed before I leave the country, and I'd like to have the Canadian ones written so I can mail them in time to get to people before Christmas Day), but that's about it. And then... Tuesday, my flight leaves at 7:30 AM, so it'll be a ridiculously early morning, but that sets the stage for a good afternoon nap.

I have much to do this evening, and instead, I'm watching the Emmys red carpet coverage and wishing I was taking a nap instead.

So, let's see. This afternoon's plan? I'm planning to get a first draft of the narration for Colin's cantata written, since I've got a pretty solid idea of where it's going now. This should give him enough time to give me edit requests and tweak it all, and still have time to properly rehearse and integrate the narration into the program.

(Also, we got our cantata music yesterday, and I'm kind of disappointed. It's a weak-ish program, in my opinion--I like the Foothills Lutheran program better, although I may be kind of biased, and I wish I was singing in that one instead. So, I need to work on it and remind myself that I'm still involved in it, even though I'm not singing in it.)

I want to get around to burning DVDs of seasons 2-4 of Everwood. It's not crucial or critical, but it's something I want to get around to.

I also have to run to Target at some point this evening, but that'll be a pretty quick trip.

I think I'm going to order a workbook compatible with RCM's Grade 3 Harmony. I never did finish all my history and harmony, and even though I'm not looking to actually get my grade 10 certificate, since by this point, I'd need to retake my practical exam, which would be at least 2 years of work, in addition to doing the grade 3, 4, and 5 history, harmony, counterpoint, and analysis. That's a lot of work and a lot of exams, but I want to brush up on my theory. Even though I don't have a piano and I'm not really working on any pieces (although if I'm going to really work on my theory, I really do need to at least have a keyboard), I still want to keep my skills much sharper than they've been lately. Because, you know, I have so much extra time on my hands

Now I'm looking at keyboards on craigslist, and I just found an 88-key, weighted, almost-new keyboard for $225, which is a great price, but which we still can't really afford. Boo. It's not as nice as what we'll want someday, and it's not a real piano, which we'll also want someday, but for now, it'd be perfect for me to have something at home. Right now, I need a keyboard, rather than a piano, because of the whole apartment-living (and space, and cost of piano movers and tuners) thing. For the moment, a digital piano that's as real as possible is what I need. Eventually, we'll need to get a better one so that Colin has the tools to record soundtracks and so on, and we'll definitely want to have a real piano, as well, but right now, this would be so perfect, and I wish I could get away with not paying this month's tuition payment so I had the money for a keyboard instead. ;)

And, of course, there's always reading to be done. Nothing due for tomorrow, thankfully, but hopefully I'm going to have dinner with Jenny tomorrow evening, so I don't want to leave too much to do afterward.

So how about that end of semester stuff?

Well, my two biggest papers are finished, and most of my classes are done, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. No, okay--it means something, but it doesn't mean that everything is finished.

Still to do:

• Two more Bach classes, two more Bach assignments, and one more quiz. I'm kind of over this class. I really don't like having music school classes, which go right to the end of the semester when all the theatre school stuff finished this past week. Oh well... the one assignment is mostly an in-class discussion (that will happen on Monday, I believe), and the other is a 2-3 page paper that I've been sitting on and not doing since spring break. He doesn't set an absolute due date, so I haven't finished it. I guess the end of the semester is an absolute due date, though, hey?


• Two more voice classes, the last of which is our final song presentation. I have to finish memorizing my second song, and I should probably get together with the accompanist to go through both of my songs before the final, which is a week from Wednesday (that's officially my last class--two days before the official end of the semester).


• Portfolio review (a week from Monday), when all the D&P students put out their portfolios and we invite hundreds of industry professionals to come by and hopefully hire students. It's mostly about the graduating students (obviously), but everyone has a portfolio, so there's exposure all around. That's the big one, and it comes in two parts:
  
  1. I'm on the organizing committee, so for the next week, I'm soliciting food donations, putting together displays, getting signs printed, and making sure the whole thing looks good and is well-put-together...
  
  
  2. ... and I have to put my own portfolio together. Right now, I'm working on the online version--which is about halfway done, and I need to figure out what else I'm going to put on it, compile the information, scan any physical documents, and upload and sort it all--but I also have to figure out what the physical version will look like. I'll probably just have a binder of stuff out, since I won't be at my table for most of the day anyway--I'll be at the welcome table and doing organizer-ly things, but I still need to have my own station set up. I'll just have my business cards and a sign directing people to the welcome table if they want to talk to me.


• Other random school-related things, like a few last bits of Seagull paperwork, contacting the director and production team for Borkman the show I'll be producing next year, all-school cleanup, end-of-the-year BBQs and get-togethers (which aren't so much as "stuff to do" as "stuff to make sure is on the calendar") and so on.


• Work--both Starbucks and Passion Play.
  
  At Bux, I'm only working about three shifts a week right now, which is perfectly fine with me. At this point, I'm not worried about getting enough hours for benefits, and I'm not really worried at all about how many hours I'm working in terms of paychecks. I mean, yes, it's always nice to have more, but I don't really want to be over-committed. So--it's perfectly okay with me to only work a few shifts a week right now. I need to finish figuring out my transfer, though. It's insane--for a transfer so that I can work one shift a week in Calgary, keep my discount and free coffee, and not lose my pay status when I move back down here, I've got at least 5 higher-ups involved. Crazy! Anyway, I need to follow up with the district Partner Resource Manager on Monday and see where we're at with that, and whether I need to start calling around to Calgary stores to find one to transfer to.
  
  Passion Play rehearsals start May 14. I won't be there, but all the Equity paperwork needs to be finished by then. There's other stuff that I'm working on, too, of course, but it doesn't have quite the same immediacy as the Equity stuff. Still, it's always at the forefront of what I'm working on in any given day.


• Choir concert on May 18, for which I still have to finish memorizing about 10 songs. Most of them are partially memorized, but I need to make sure I can be off-book.


• Moving and packing-ish stuff. Mostly, that'll be deciding what to take with me, packing that, and deciding how much of my stuff to keep out while I'm subletting. For instance, I'm absolutely not packing all my books--my bookshelves will stay as they are--but I'll probably put the clothes that I'm not taking with me into boxes and pack them away, so that Erin can have the closet without worrying about my stuff. I'm not taking all my pictures off the walls (she'll just have to spend the summer with Colin and me smiling down on her), but I'll put away the free-standing ones. Little things like that. I'm also hoping to have the car basically packed by the time Colin comes, since he'll be in town for a grand total of 24 hours before we leave again, and most of that time is already booked--but the car-packing shouldn't be too big a deal, since I'm not taking everything I own.


• Cleaning--again, that's the last week. Once things are packed and put away and in the car, I'm going to clean quite thoroughly. I know Mariah's planning to bomb the apartment and do a thorough deep-clean of the kitchen and living room in the few days between when I leave and Erin gets here, so I'm going to make sure that the non-deep-clean stuff is done before I go.


• Pretend to be a travel agent. I've booked Colin's flight down here, but I need to go to AAA and get some road maps and travel guides, and start to think about routes. We probably won't plan all that in advance (except for going to visit arbitrarium and Mr. Arby on the first day, if you're still free for dinner on May 19), but it'll be good to know what sort of hostel/campground options are available in the places we may stop.


• Speaking of campgrounds, it looks like I'm tent shopping in the next 2 weeks, too. We're planning to do a fair bit of camping during the summer while I'm in Drum and he's in Calgary--on the weekends when he comes out to Drum, we're planning to camp--so we thought, "Hey, since we're camping--and thus have to buy a tent--anyway, why don't we get the tent earlier and then we can camp on our road trip, instead of paying for hostels/hotels." I'm going to do some shopping around, both online and in stores, and then when Colin gets here, we'll probably buy one before we leave. Keep in mind, we have about 5 free hours on Sunday afternoon in which to buy said tent, which is why the research beforehand is important.

I think that's it. Heh. It looks like a lot, and in some ways it is a lot, but in other ways, it's not like I'm writing major finals or doing massive projects for school. A lot of this is just outlining the stuff that needs to happen anyway.

The nicest thing is having a definite end date. Except for Passion Play, all of this is over in two weeks, and in 2 weeks, I get to go to that in-between land of vacation before the rest of the summer happens.

Of course, now I'm awake and feel like I should be productive. Bah. That's what I get for feeling crappy and sleeping all afternoon. I'll work on something until my laundry's done, and hopefully be tired enough to go to sleep. One more good sleep should knock this cold off, I hope. Right now, it's mostly manifesting itself as a throbbing, consistent headache and a really, really dry nose. I need a humidifier, I think. My nose is so dry that it's painful to breathe.

Anyway. Tomorrow's a holiday. Yay! I work a 4-hour shift, and then I don't work again until Saturday. Kind of nice to not be juggling work and tech for the week. I could have worked a couple of random, bizarre shifts in there, but I'm totally okay with the fact that I'm not working. Hopefully the next 3 weeks will be like that--it'll make it so much less stressful.

Really, the momentum builds from here, and we go straight through tech to opening (10 days to preview, 11 to opening) and then right through the run to Colin's visit (18 days!). It still feels kind of far away, but I keep forgetting that we have another week and a half of tech before we open. It feels like a long tech to me; I'm used to shows with Fire Exit, where we load in on Sunday and open on Wednesday, and the entire tech process is condensed into this really short time period. It's quite the luxury to have 9 days of tech, including dress rehearsals.

Tomorrow, I'm having dinner with Colin's best friend Adam, his wife Angela, and their two boys. They're in SoCal this week, and we found time to get together, which is exciting. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm really glad they caught me on a day when I'm not sitting in the theatre all night.

I need to do so many mundane things like go grocery shopping, clean my bathroom, buy laundry detergent and toothpaste, finish stripping and refinishing the coffee table... some of them will get done during tech. Others (like the coffee table) won't. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, starting on that last weekend when I knew I wasn't going to be around or available much. I think I might just have to clean up the dust and put it back for a while, so it's not sitting in the middle of the apartment. It'll be half-finished for a while, but I'll get to it eventually.

It must be tech week; I'm eating crap. I'm seriously craving some vegetables and fruit right now. Something fresh. Or even frozen and steamed. Just... something green and/or leafy and/or juicy. I didn't eat anything today except for a few handfuls of peanut M&M's and some fries. (Wait--I had a bowl of cereal. That counts as healthy, right?) Partly, that's due to absolutely nothing being appetizing because of my cold, but still--that's not healthy. Again, see: need to go grocery shopping. Good grief. It's times like this that I feel like my "I'm a grown-up" card should be revoked.

Randomness.

Today was going to be my errands day, and tomorrow was going to be house-cleaning and packing, but the people just below us had to call the plumbers about a leak, which needs to be fixed from my apartment, so I've had to be home all day so the plumbers can get in and out. So I've been doing laundry and starting to pack. Fortunately, they were only working in Mariah's bathroom (and didn't have to turn off the water), so I can still be doing laundry and cleaning my own bathroom.

I think they're finished now, though, so I can head out and do some errands, which is good, because I really should have the Christmas shopping finished before I try to do most of the packing.

On that topic, I really need a bigger suitcase. I only have a carry-on sized one, and Mariah loaned me her carry-on, but I'm taking so many presents back that I don't think I'll be able to fit my clothes for three weeks into the leftover space. I think I need to look for a bigger, cheap suitcase. I'd love to invest in a decent piece of luggage, but that's not in the budget right now, so I'll have to see what I can find.

Also on the suitcase topic... I found a card from Colin in an outside pocket that I rarely use. I think he must have put it in there when I was in Calgary for Thanksgiving. Either that, or it's been in there since I moved down here, which is entirely possible, given that the pocket also contained a sports bra that I thought I'd lost last spring. (I don't remember when I packed it! Maybe one of the weeks that I spent a significant amount of time at Kat's house?)

***

Yesterday at the Christmas concert, most of the women wore slippers whenever we weren't onstage. Just one of those random things that's apparently a tradition with this choir (I didn't take my slippers on Saturday night, but I had them yesterday). We were on our feet in heels for so long that during sound checks and our break, it was nice to just run around the church in slippers (with our formal concert wear. Nice!).

***

Plans for Christmas week are in the process of being solidified. So far, here's what my time in Calgary looks like:

Dec 19 - fly in, hang with Colin for the evening.
Dec 20 - Nothing yet
Dec 21 - Breakfast with Janna, and then something at Colin's office (their big work party was a couple of weeks ago, but this is something smaller at the office in the afternoon [which he's not sure if I'm invited/expected to be at], and then the evening at his boss' house [which I will be at]).
Dec 22 - Heritage Park with Kat and the kids, and then, in the evening, our gift exchange/Christmas with Kat, Aaron, and the kids.
Dec 23 - Church (probably x2) in the morning, and then a matinee of Oliver Twist at ATP.
Dec 24 - The day may be free (maybe), and then Christmas Eve with Colin's family in the evening.
Dec 25 - Stockings, breakfast, and presents with my family; stockings and presents with his family; dinner with his dad's side of the extended family.
Dec 26 - Family dinner with my dad's side of the family, and then a Christmas party at his aunt and uncle's house in the evening (depending on when we leave my family's dinner).

After that, it kind of calms down a bit, but there's still one more family dinner in there, as well as a conference that we're going to over the first weekend in January. I'm so looking forward to all of it, but it'll be nice to have the week when Colin's back at work and things settle down a little. That's my time to (hopefully) have lunch/coffee with the people that we don't need to hang out with together.

***

I need to finish writing Christmas cards and get them mailed sometime tomorrow. I'm about 2/3 of the way done--even the Canadian cards. I haven't separated them out, simply because my Excel list is alphabetical, so I've just been going down the list that way. I guess it's as good a way as any to get it done, hey?

***

By now, I'm just procrastinating. I'm off to shower and get a bit of shopping (hopefully the last bit of shopping) done before work, and then tomorrow really can be all about the packing and cleaning and organizing.

One paper left. Sigh. It's a good feeling. I had my last class of the semester today, my last production meeting yesterday, and I finished my Foundations project tonight, so all I have left to write is my Cultural Policy paper, which is due Friday morning, and then that's it.

Of course, once that's done, I have to start cleaning up the mess that the last couple of weeks have turned my life into. My apartment desperately needs to be cleaned, my room is a mess (which, for me, means a few stacks of paper and a pile of clean clothes on the chair, but it's still driving me nuts), I need to do laundry, I still have two--no, wait; three--Christmas presents left to buy, I need to bake Christmas cookies before Sunday morning, I have to pack for three weeks away, and I have to hole-punch and file all the handouts from this semester that have been tucked into various binders and notebooks, rather than where they need to be.

I need to make a timeline over the break of my producer duties for The Seagull, since we only have 6 weeks before we open once we get back from break, so I'll need to get some work done on that, and I'd like to be as on top of things as I possibly can as soon as we get back. I'll need to be in touch with my Production Manager and a few of the designers over the break, but mostly, I just want to be ready to go when we get back.

Well, maybe this paper won't take as long as I'd thought it might. Once I actually sat down and started working, it's been going pretty quickly--I've got 7 (of 8-10) pages written, and I just spent a couple of hours after class. I had to take a break, get lunch, and I'm on my way to a meeting now, but really, all I have to do tonight is clean up some of my paper a little bit and write a conclusion. There are paragraphs that are still kind of rough, but the content is there; I just need to make sure it sounds like I know what I'm talking about. Funny; they actually want my writing to sound like I've already got a degree. Fancy that. I can't just BS my way through the paper?

(Only half of it.)

I do hate this keyboard, though. I'm working on one of the library computers, and the keyboard is very stiff, which is throwing off my typing rhythm.

I'm glad I'll finish it quickly tonight, though. I need to do some grocery shopping, clean the apartment, do laundry, and do a little bit of other reading, all of which I wasn't planning to do tonight, because I was thinking that I'd be writing my paper for 10 hours straight. I still may not get all of it done, but I'll at least get some of it, I think. And I'll even be home to watch Ugly Betty.

Anyway. Two more meetings, and then I'm on my way home. Hopefully they won't take more than an hour (combined), and I can be home by 5:30--or, at the very least, at the grocery store by 5:30 and home by 6 or 6:15.

Well, I can check the most important thing off my to-do list: Find a place to live. Yay!

The apartment that I've been waiting to hear about for a few days is for sure a go, so that's a huge relief. I found the place through craigslist, and Mariah and I have been emailing all week, just kind of feeling out whether we'd be good roommates. A couple of days ago, I got an email saying that she really wanted to give me the room, but the only thing holding her back was the fact that her current roommate hasn't found a place for Sept 1 yet, so if she didn't find one, the room wouldn't be available until Oct 1.

Last night, she called me, saying that she really wanted to make sure I got the place, even if her roommate didn't find a place right away. She didn't want to find someone else, she wanted to be able to give me a definite answer, and we both think we'd live together well, so she suggested that if her roommate doesn't find a place until October, I can pay a reduced rent and sleep in the living room for the first month. I'm fine with that. I like the sound of her apartment (and the pictures I've seen), she seems like she'll be a good roommate, and I really, really don't want to start the apartment search all over again.

So, it's a 2-bed, 2-bath place in Van Nuys, which is about 30-40 minutes from school, with a good-sized bedroom, lots of closet space, and a washer and dryer in the apartment.

I'm okay with the commute (it's no longer than it takes to drive to work now--in fact, if it's less than an hour, it's shorter), and I'm hoping that it'll open up some more options for work, since I can get an off-campus work-study job, and being closer to LA would be a benefit there, if I want to teach classes or work in a theatre company's office or something like that. Plus, it's a bit less suburban than the area that the school's in, which I like, too.

Besides that, I got a few more things checked off the list yesterday... I got a little more work done in the trailer, cleaned up the stuff that's going to be given away or thrown away, and discovered that not only was my social security card in my parents' safety deposit box, but so were both birth certificates, which I thought I'd lost. Duh. I'm not quite sure when they ended up back there (I could have sworn I still had them!), but at least they're not gone. I'm thinking that we need to get a safety deposit box of our own, just to safeguard against stupid moments like that. ;)

So it's getting there. The big details are taken care of now; it's more the smaller things, and if they don't all get done right now, it's not the end of the world. Some of them can wait a little while. Things like buying a car and finding a house? Those can't wait.

There are a few more things that I realized I have to add to the to-do list, like fixing my coffee table (which is also a storage chest), which had a few too many heavy boxes of books piled onto it while in the storage trailer. It just came apart at the joints, so it should be easy to fix, but that means taking everything out of it, fixing it, and then repacking it.

Things are getting done. And if Colin manages to leave work before 9 tonight, we'll go to a free drive-in double feature.