gypsygirl

I’ve finally found a place I like to move to. It’s a large house near where I used to go to church that’s going to be available for rent for the next five years (I figure by then, if my plan works, I’ll have finished paying off all my debts and will be able to seriously consider buying). It’s six bedrooms and at least four bathrooms (possibly five, but half of the second floor was off limits when I visited, so I didn’t get to see it); enclosed patio, fenced back yard, new appliances, pets allowed. I’ll be sharing with two people (though the main renter hasn’t found the third person yet), and my rent will actually be a little less than what I’m paying now. My area will be the third floor loft, which is one big open area, which I think is slightly larger than my current apartment. My other choice was half of the second floor (two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms), but the bathroom was maybe a metre wide and three metres long, and I much preferred the brand new bathroom in the loft, as well as the loft itself. We get to move in in August. I’m really excited!

Nunsense was a huge success. We had a lot of hicoughs along the way. Our original Reverend Mother had to drop out because of health problems, and the new one, who came in about two weeks into full rehearsals (not counting the week and a half or so of music rehearsals at the beginning), had an awful time getting all her lines down. And by an awful time, I mean that she was still using cheat sheets during the week of dress rehearsals; and she used the cheat sheet for one particular scene throughout the run of the show (and at least some audience members noticed, because friends of some of the other cast members mentioned it). Still, even though we cringed at her performance throughout the run, the audiences seemed to love the show. We had lots of word-of-mouth sales.

Tommy and Lise (mostly Lise, I think) are directing a Gilbert and Sullivan one-act as the first of the summer fund raisers, and I’d originally agreed to be in the chorus in that. Rehearsals started one of the weeks between shows of Nunsense, and the show goes up at the end of this month, so I know I was nuts to agree, but I did anyway. But I dropped out on Monday because I’ve been getting sick on and off for the past month or so, and I think a lot of it is because I’ve been so tired all the time from Nunsense that my defenses are low. I’m kind of sad, because it would have been fun, but I must admit, it’s nice having my evenings free and being able to read for pleasure, and record for LV, and go to bed at 10 (instead of 11 or 12).

Work’s going to be quiet for the next week or so; interim started this week. No (well, very few) students around after graduation on Saturday.

The Civic’s having it’s first ever (in my tenure there) Volunteer Appreciation Banquet this Saturday. Appropriately, or perhaps ironically, they’re also having their annual “let’s clean out the shop” day that morning. Planning on going to both. I hope we get lots done, because it’s a mess back there.

I spent some time last night playing with the veil and wimple from my costume, trying to get the “habit humour” scene down. I’m doing alright with Pocahontas, Heidi, Pippi and Attila, because, well, they’re simple, and even if they weren’t, the actress does these on the dvd. Katherine Hepburn is a problem, not because I don’t know what I’m doing, but because the veil’s too long, and the little tail that’s supposed to kind of stick up droops down to my chin. Easy to fix, fortunately; just a bit of cutting and hemming. My biggest problem is Princess Leia, because she doesn’t do that one on the dvd (she does Twisted Sister instead), and I have no idea how to get the coils to stay (or maybe I’m just supposed to hold them??). I also need to alter the wimple so that it doesn’t move around on my head, because that just ruins the picture. I’m thinking of replacing the strips of ribbon that tie at the back with elastic, but I have to make sure it’s ok with the director first.

I’ve kind of been going into LV withdrawal lately because I just haven’t had time to record. I can only manage a chapter or two a week right now. I did manage to finish The Elusive Pimpernel and Anne of Avonlea before the new show started. I’ve got two new projects going now, Angelina by Manuel Delgado (in Spanish) and Mr Hogarth’s Will by Catherine Helen Spence. I’d never heard of either of these before I came across them while browsing gutenberg, but the title’s sounded interesting. I was most interested in Angelina because it’s by a Mexican author.

We had auditions for Nunsense the past two nights. I tried out for the part of Robert Anne. I know I gave a good, solid audition on Monday, but there were a lot of really good, solid actresses there both nights, and honestly, I’m a bit worried. She said last night that if they were able to come to a decision last night, they would make casting calls today. Otherwise, they’d be having call backs tonight and making the casting calls tomorrow, so I may have to wait until tomorrow to hear. I’m not usually this nervous, but I really want this part.

EDIT: I got the part! If I weren’t at work, I’d be jumping up and down.

So, I ordered Unbreakable from Netflix, and when it came, the disc was broken. I had a giggle over the irony in that.

Tomorrow’s Evita at the Hippodrome, part of the season ticket package MB and I bought. I hope it’s a good production. Evita was my favourite musical growing up, I think, because it was the first professional production I saw (the second was Fiddler on the Roof, and I fell asleep during it. Don’t judge me! It was the tail end of a long day of school field trips and I was tired!). Next weekend BU and MCC both have productions going up, Bye Bye Birdie and Anything Goes respectively. We already have tickets to Bye Bye Birdie, and she also wants to go to Anything Goes. I don’t really know much about either of those two shows (although I’m familiar with some of the songs), but I think it’ll be fun. The weekend after that is the Producers, also part of the season ticket package at the Hippodrome. And then the following week are auditions for Nunsense at the WCT. Phew!

A UNICEF anti-war commercial done by the Belgian branch of the organization:

Is it wrong that part of me thinks this is funny?

So we were in a meeting of the Library Website committee, and as we were getting near the end of the allotted time, we were starting to get a little silly. Someone asked a perfectly legitimate question about whether the people who keep the web pages up to date have a title, and someone else tried to come up with the most convoluted title for “I update the web pages”. I can’t remember what it was, exactly, but then my officemate, who’s also on this committee, tried to see if he could come up with an acronym for the title. He came up with Electronic Data Input Technician Of Record, or EDITOR. Someone else quickly came up with Acronymical Master & Electronic Savant, for his surname, Ames.

One of the other girls on the committee was trying to get one for her first name and came up with E-Learning Librarian (which is her job title) and then needed help on the last two letters - Ames came up with Extra Nice (so, Ellen). I started working on my surname and got as far as Super Awesome before the meeting was dismissed. When I mentioned this to my officemate, he very quickly came up with Super Awesome, Very Acerbic Girl Extraordinaire. Now he’s supposed to be working on one for our friend across the hall, but she doesn’t know yet because she’s not on that committee.

So, not much new going on. I had fun at that workshop in Austin. Our meeting room was a computer lab, so there was plenty of hands-on time. We were at UT, and the Bullock Texas State History Museum was right across the street, so I went there one night. Other than that, I didn’t get out much. I asked Darryl when I got back what we actually use XSLT for here, and he could only think of one example off the top of his head, and that project’s done (though it may need tweaking at some point). So, though I was glad to learn the stuff, I don’t know when I’ll get to use it.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is just over a week away from opening (a week from tomorrow’s our preview performance) and it’s coming along nicely. Yesterday was the first night the actors weren’t allowed to call for lines (except for Big Mama, who only started about a week ago, due to an injury to the original Big Mama) and they did pretty well… except they were concentrating so hard on lines that they tended to lose energy. Tennessee Williams is a depressing enough playwright when the energy is up, so last night’s run-through just dragged in places.

I got a bunch of recording done this weekend. I had the time on Sunday, and I was in the right mood, so I just went for it. I got all my collaborative chapters done (a couple of the Arabian Nights [in French] and a few chapters from Kilmeny of the Orchard [which the BC asked me if I’d be willing to do]), and a monologue for the latest Shakespeare Collection, plus several chapters from my solos. I may get some more done tomorrow morning. I’m taking half a day off from work to get new tires for my car, so I may have some time before they open to get some chapters done. That’s one thing about doing shows, my evenings are pretty much gone. I have time between work and rehearsal to get a bite to eat or take a little nap (not both), but that’s about it. So I usually only get to record on the weekends.

Well, I survived the week in CA, but I was glad I was only there for a week. The place was hectic. Ten people and two dogs, and then the last couple of days, one additional person. Two people had colds when I arrived, and by the time I left, they’d traded them with two others - myself and my mother. So, I was glad I’d asked for the rest of last week off. It gave me time to get better before having to come back to work. With so many of us sick, it was interesting to see how each of us reacted to the same virus - one had really bad chest congestion; another had horrible post-nasal drip and cough; mine was all in the sinuses; mum’s had just started when I left, so I don’t know what hers was like.

I got a great new lap quilt from mum for Christmas. I’d told her how cold it gets in my office, so she made me one that folds up into a pillow to keep at work. I’d been a bit worried about the gift I got for Andy - a physics kit (like a chemistry set but with gears and wires and things), but apparently his parents found him playing with it when they went to bed Christmas Eve (an hour or so after he’d said he was going to sleep).

MB and Sherry and I got to have a couple of SKVE meetings while Sherry was here for her holiday. We went to see P.S. I Love You one day and met for coffee another day. I’m not a great fan of Hillary Swank, but I enjoyed the movie ok. Sherry hadn’t heard anything about it before going, so she was disappointed that Gerard Butler dies; but then relieved that he comes back in flash-backs and hallucinations. She just likes to look at him. I made them each a short scarf with a slit in one end that you can tuck the other end into. MB opened hers while Sherry and I were waiting for our coffees, and we watched her trying to figure it out. She kept looking at the length of it, then opening the slit, then folding it back up. When she heard us giggling at her she asked me what it was, “It’s too short to be a scarf, and it has this opening thing only on one end…” Once she figured it out, she liked it. Sherry, having spent some time in a colder climate now, knew exactly what it was and how to use it.

I’m off to my first programming conference this week. It’s a three day conference on XSLT. It’s the first conference I’ve gone to for Baylor. I need to do a bit of research on Austin (which is where it’s going to be), so I can visit stuff after hours.

I’ve started a new project on LibriVox to work on in conjunction with The Elusive Pimpernel. I started Anne of Avonlea last night. I had a sudden craving for some more Anne. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to get done on these two projects this coming month (while Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is in rehearsals), but I’ll always have weekends.

The Man Who Came to Dinner has finished. I got lots of compliments on my character, and lots of “it took me a second to realize that was you when you came on stage” type comments. During the course of MWCtD my friend Tredessa applied for and got the directorship of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which is the next show coming up. I hadn’t been particularly interested in auditioning for that show (I find Tennessee Williams terribly depressing), but I enjoy working with T, so I checked to see if they had a stage manager for it yet. They didn’t, so I signed up for the job. We’ve had auditions, but rehearsals don’t really get started until the New Year, so there’ll be a bit of a break. As much as I enjoy doing stuff at the Civic, it’s nice to know that, for this gig, I actually do get paid a small stipend (yay, crew!).

I’m heading off to CA on Friday to spend Christmas with mum and Paul’s family. I just learned that Alondra’s sister and her two sons will also be there during that time. That is going to be one crowded house. I think I may be asking to go to work with mum more often than I would otherwise have done. I know she wants me to play Santa to all her friends one day at least.

I’ve been knitting frantically for the past few of weeks to finish Christmas presents. I’ve made a purse for my sister-in-law. I finished the actual knitting a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that I got around to sewing up the seams and putting in the lining (which I think I made a little too big, but by the time I figured it out, I was so far into it that I couldn’t bear the thought of starting over (again - the first try was too small)). My other project was a scarf for mum’s friend Natalie, which I also finished last weekend. I took both patterns from my “knitting pattern a day ” calendar. I’ve been pulling out the patterns I like and storing them in one of my notebooks. I was pleased to be able to use a couple of them. I’d post pictures of them, only I haven’t been able to find my camera for several weeks now.

I’ve finished both the projects I was working on for LibriVox. I finished Pride and Prejudice over Thanksgiving weekend, and Novelas Cortas the following week. Now I’m working on another of the Scarlet Pimpernel books, The Elusive Pimpernel. At this rate, I may end up doing all of them (that are on gutenberg, anyway). I got the new MCC continuing ed schedule in the mail last week, and I saw that one of the seminars they’re offering is about doing voice over work. I’m seriously considering signing up for it.

I went to see August Rush and Enchanted around Thanksgiving. I really liked them both. I’ve gotten to the point where I usually just wait for a movie to come out on dvd before watching it, but there are a few that intrigue me enough that I’m willing to shell out five bucks for a matinee.