commas and ampersands

A whole bunch of Christmas music for jennywren and anyone else who wants to take it... :)

Trans-Siberian Orchestra:

Appalachian Snowfall
O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night
Wish Liszt (Toy Shop Madness)
Silent Night
Wizards in Winter
Nutcracker Suite
Midnight Christmas Eve
Siberian Sleighride
Jingle Bells
Christmas Canon in D
Who-Ville Medley
O Christmas Tree
Deck the Halls

Sarah McLachlan:

The First Noel/Mary Mary
Song for a Winter's Night
I'll Be Home For Christmas
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Christmastime Is Here

City on a Hill:

It's Christmastime

Josh Groban:

Angels We Have Heard On High
The First Noel
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Silent Night
The Christmas Song

Jars of Clay:

Little Drummer Boy
Wonderful Christmastime

Troy Andrews (Studio 60's Christmas episode last year):
O Holy Night

So, what did murphy987 do?

Well, at the time of posting, nothing. We just wanted to see what you all thought she'd do (and beauty_awake wins for most creative guess).

And, in no particular order, here's a list of what she actually did do during the past two days:

• Made me lose my faith in the Canadian government
  
• Warned us that she was going to spray a bottle of seltzer water all over herself, and then sprayed it all over her shirt, jeans, and the bathroom sink
  
• Spilled the seltzer water all over the bed
  
• Tripped and almost fell, but stuck the landing
  
• Sat on my head
  
• Made warden96's head explode
  
• Did nothing that involved jello
  
• Offered to be my pack horse in getting Christmas presents across the border
  
• Programmed my boyfriend's cell phone number into her phone

(And really, I'm sure she can come up with a list of embarrassing and/or amusing things that I did this weekend, too.)

There was much laughing, quality time with a post-feminist Cinderella and the Justice League, too much junk food, nitpicking the grammar in the sidewalk, and squeeing loudly in public places--and photographic evidence of most of the above, which is all on her camera. So you have to wait for her weekend wrap-up to see them.

Yay. Fun times. :)

So... guess what murphy987 did when we were hanging out today.






No, really. Guess.

Okay. Let's attempt to do a recap of the past week and a half. I've got the afternoon, the forums are relatively slow, and hopefully I can finish this (as long as I go chronologically, so I don't forget anything!) by the time I leave work at 4:30. Let's see how it goes. Hee.

( Saturday: It's warm here! )

( Sunday: Meeting the TWoPpers! )

( Monday: GG-Palooza, day one )

( Tuesday: CalArts Interview, day one )

( Tuesday: GG-Palooza, day two )

( Wednesday: GG-palooza, day three )

( Wednesday: CalArts interview, day two )

( Thursday: CalArts interview, day three )

( Thursday: Going home )

And pictures are forthcoming. They're still on my camera, and since my computer is dead, I'll upload them when I get a chance.

Home. It's cold.

Actually, not quite "home," but close enough. I'm at Kat and Aaron's place (watching their new TV... oooh... aaaaahhhh) tonight, since it's just easier.

I'll catch up online at some point. This weekend, though... Here are the next few days:

Tomorrow, I've got to meet with Heather, pick up boxes from Colin, pack my stuff, and then I get to hang out with pink_hammer! Saturday morning, we've got a production team meeting, and then I'm moving (yeah, again), and then I'm sure Pink, murphy987, and I will do something in the evening. Sunday, I'll go to the early church service, and then head out to Banff with Pink and Murphy. At some point, I'll do my very best to update a) my GG and VM thoughts (because I actually have thoughts to talk about), b) my pictures and discussion of the gg-palooza, and c) the interview and days at CalArts.

It's going to be a busy weekend, and hopefully (hopefully!) I'll be flying to New York in a few weeks, too. I won't know about that until I find out if I got an interview, but I should know about that in the next week (or, hopefully, less). Ah, so challenging to my always-plan-ahead tendencies. Oh well. Sometimes, you've just gotta go with it.

And sometimes, you've just gotta go to sleep. I'm in that strange place in between over-tired and over-energized. The coffee on the plane at close to midnight probably isn't helping, but... oh well. I had some great set-related ideas, so it must have been good for something.

Ack. More later. G'night.

Oy.

Tour yesterday; interview today; Ellen tomorrow; interview and flying home on Thursday.

What a week. It's good; I'm just a little overwhelmed at the moment. I spent all day at CalArts, and there's a lot of information to take in--everything from the layout of the school (which I got the tiniest part of) to the classes offered to the meetings and classes that I sat in on to the people I met.

I'm back tomorrow evening to sit in on a rehearsal, and then I'll have a few more classes on Thursday and have another interview with the program head. We talked a bit today, and I think it's cool that I'll kind of get to bookend the tour with my "official admissions interview."

Oh, my brain hurts. In a mostly good way. I'll have more to say later; right now, I've got to get back to the hotel for the GG-palooza!!

I'm here!

I'm tired.

I've been up since 4 this morning.

Still, I'm here. I've been driving in LA today, and nothing disastrous has happened to me yet! :)

Oh, adinarj will appreciate this. Either that, or she'll deny ever knowing me, since I'm such a bad fan. A couple of weeks ago, Colin and I went to see Dreamgirls, and the whole time, I kept thinking that the actor who played C.C. looked so familiar, but I couldn't place him. It came to me the next day--it was Keith Robinson, who played Nathan on American Dreams. I laughed at my bad fan-ness, and brushed it off.

Last night, Colin and I went to see We Are Marshall. Again, there was one particular actor that I just could not place, but he was so familiar that I knew I'd seen him before, more than just in passing. The credits start rolling, and... it's Arlen Escarpeta, who was Sam on American Dreams.

How did I not place either of them?! It's not like I've only seen them once or twice on my TV--like someone that I could place somewhere, but not sure where. I've watched 2 1/2 seasons of AD, and I know the characters quite well, and I just don't know how I could have missed it--twice!

I tried to explain why it was so funny to Colin, and he just didn't get it. He just kind of looked at me funny. Heh.

Anyway, there will be more coherence, pictures, and stories as the week progresses, but for right now, I'm here. :o)

How GGMM are you? Your Result: GGMMBOD   You know enough about the GGMM to serve on its Board of Directors, you should feel proud because knowing all this about the GGMM is quite a waste of time!
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(Oh, and I took this before I went into the GGMM to catch up on the evening, so there was no cheating here!)

TWoP is down?  So now how I am I supposed to distract myself from applications?

At least I've moved from the bed to my desk.  As comfy as my bed is, and as much as I enjoy it, it's time to sit in a real chair, after being in bed for the past three days.  I'm feeling lots better, though, so I'll be back to work tomorrow.  I might have been able to swing it today, but with the show opening in 2 weeks, I didn't want to risk going back earlier than I should have and pushing myself too hard.  I really can't afford to get sick until after Dec 17 now.

And I really need to take a shower.  Kinda gross after being in bed for 3 days.

Apparently, I can only keep up with a few things at a time. Studying today, sure. Cleaning the house? Yeah. Responding to emails? Ha. Posting? Fat chance. But here I go, trying to catch up on everything I haven't talked about for the past few days.

First of all, murphy987 and I went out for coffee on Saturday, and she's posted the picture!  And wow--we both look really good!  That's actually a decent picture of me, and in glasses, too!  Impressive.

So much fun, though.  She said that it seemed like we've known each other forever, and it's true--we talked for hours, and it would have been a lot longer, if we didn't both have places to be in the evening.  Next time, we'll have to make sure we've got all afternoon to hang out.

Yesterday, family Thanksgiving dinner.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I've really grown to appreciate my family a lot more as I've gotten older.  I really look forward to the big family meals--it's the only time I get to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and even though we see each other about 3 times a year now, which is a lot more than some families, I used to see them on an almost-weekly basis when I was a kid, so it's nice to get the chance to see them when we do get together.

Today, studying, cleaning, and I'm still in my pyjamas at almost 8 p.m.  But it was a productive pyjama day (although I did sleep in).  Getting up for work tomorrow, after a 3-day weekend, is going to be awful.  Not looking forward to the 6 a.m. alarm clock.

And, because I don't have enough to do already, I just ordered prints of a whole bunch of pictures from New York, since they were all on my computer, but I didn't actually get prints of any of them.  Which means that I'm going to have to put them in albums, at least, and make sure they're labeled.  Yeah, because I need more to sit on my desk waiting to be done.  But I want some of them to frame, so I figured I'd just get all of them at once, and get that done with, so now I can start fresh and order pictures as I go when I upload them from my camera.

Two days until the exam.  Yikes!

I'm so tired.

I think that part of it is that life is getting back into that busy schedule that the school year brings, and, ironically enough, my year in New York was a year of rest, schedule-wise.  I didn't have evening commitments; I had a lot more of that kind of downtime.

So, I think that the "problem" (which isn't really a problem; I just need to balance my life a bit better) has two parts.  One, I'm out of practice in keeping a schedule like this.  These days, I leave the house at 7:15, and often don't get home until 10:15--and that's what my life was like in college, but it's a bit different, since I'm at work for 8 hours, and then rehearsal for 4, and the rest is driving/coffee shop/in between time.  At least, though, I'm at a desk--I'd rather be doing that, where my jobs are a little more varied, than working behind a counter for 8 hours, where it's all the same thing, no variations at all.

But the other part is that last year, when I didn't have as much going on in my "scheduled" life, I got way more involved online--on TWoP, GGMM, reading and writing fanfic, being involved in the GG fandom, in particular.  Now, I'm still just as involved with all that, but I've added all the old things back into the mix.

Or maybe it's just that it's the first week of, well, everything.  Rehearsals and work, most notably.  And it's been a strange, emotional, adrenaline-filled week that's just left me drained.  And it's only Wednesday.  But give me a good night's sleep and a relaxed evening, and I'll be set.  Good to go.  Not so tired.

But these have been a few days when I've appreciated the GGMM more than ever; when I really understand how much we lean on each other.  I keep saying it, but I love the kinds of friendships there, and I love the fact that I go to them with those kinds of issues, because...

It's hard to explain.  The thing with the GGMM is that it's collective and individual, all at the same time.  It's individual in the sense that, of course, we're talking to individual people, and we're each sitting at a computer, talking to each other.  It's collective in the sense that someone will almost always be there, no matter when a crisis hits, and even if they're not, everyone will see it and have the chance to weigh in on the discussion later on.  It's a weird kind of phenomenon that's different from hanging out with friends in person.  Not better, not worse.  It fills a different need within the context of needing people, you know?

Of course you do.  You wouldn't be here if you didn't.  I'm just reiterating what others have said so much better than I have, but it's that sense of realizing an old truth again for the first time and feeling the need to share.

If anyone ever, ever dares to say that online friendships aren't real, and the relationships that come from them aren't as important as "real life" relationships, I dare them to look at this morning and tell me that it didn't matter.

That was real.

So when the forums are down, it's as much work to stay updated with lj entries as it is to keep up with the forums!

The boxes are subsiding--at least, the full ones.  My roommates' empty boxes are all still in the house, because neither of them has a vehicle to take it out to the recycling depot, so guess what we're using the truck for before I give it back!  I'll take pictures at some point, too, because there are a lot of boxes.  A lot.

My sister's shower is tonight, so I'm relaxing in the lull before I have to run to Superstore and get the punch fixings, and then head to the church to decorate and get it set up.  The day isn't going too badly in terms of time and being rushed, though, so that's nice.  The thing I think I'm looking forward to most is the fact that I get to see all the (female) family friends all in one go.

I'm really good about hijacking my family's celebrations.  When I moved to New York, we threw my dad a 50th birthday party a few days before I left, so it kind of doubled as a good-bye party for me.  And now, the shower is 4 days after I got back, so it's a good way to see people that I wouldn't see all in one place.

So, I emailed my BIL-to-be with some questions for a Newlyweds Game kind of thing, and he just sent the answers back to me... and some of them are really random.  For instance:  "What Christmas present do you most wish Esther [my sister] would give you?"  His answer?  "Give me rather than get for me?  Hmmm... one of my fantasies."

Such a boy.

In other news, my niece has pooped on me twice and spit up on me twice.  She's making up for the fact that I missed the first month of her life.  And man, that girl can fart.  For someone so tiny, there's a lot of gas in there!  I'm sure you all needed to know that.

My nephew is playing strange, which makes me sad--I don't think he totally remembers me, either; plus, his world just got turned upside down with the addition of a new baby.

And you know, I just realized that this blog was supposed to be more of a TV/movies/media blog, but I haven't written about anything even remotely related to that for quite a while.  Blame it on the fact that I haven't watched TV in a few weeks.

Oh!  I did set up my TV and VCR, and hit play on the video that's been sitting in the VCR for the past year (because it was packed in storage), and the first thing on the tape was W Network's rerun of Say Goodnight, Gracie, from last summer's syndicated reruns.  That amused me.

Boo.  G2M2 is down, and I'm actually online now.  I feel like I've been missing out on all the good conversations, and I just pop in and out for a few minutes at a time, which is no fun.  I'm missing out on actually hanging out with people and being a part of the community.  Right now, too, it a place that I really want to be in, because it's one sense of stability--one group of people who isn't at all affected by my move.  Except that, right now, they are, because I'm not hanging out there.  But I want the stability of those people, and the fact that there's no emotional ramifications of me moving.

I'm going to try and finish unpacking tonight.  Wish me luck--I'll need it!--but at least I don't have to get up early tomorrow, so I can spend the night unpacking if I need to.

Here we go--here's a slightly better picture of jeeperstseepers and me than the one she posted last night--this was one of the ones that the slightly competent Starbucks employee took of us.  :o)



(That's me on the left, and TAPhD on the right)

Well, it's been the Great GGMM (G2M2) Meet Day, and I just finished coffee with jeeperstseepers a couple of hours ago.  So much fun--even though we forgot to do voice posts while we were hanging out!





And I know that there are positives to going back to Calgary, and there are a lot of things that I'm going to get to do, and people that I'll get to see, that aren't in New York, but try telling that to my heart when it's aching from saying goodbye.  I'll guarantee that it's not going to listen--right now, it's far more focused on the "I'm losing" than the "I'm gaining."