February

This is a pretty even game, but I think NC State is playing better than Maryland.

Guess I was not meant to watch last week's episode of SATC. I made a note to watch it the other night but forgot. Then I made a note to watch it at midnight last night and remembered until 11:00. Then I got tired and forgot. Oh well, maybe it's a good thing that I didn't get to see it- who knows? I don't even like the show that much; I don't know why I still want to watch every week. Maybe because I want to see how they're going to end it. As for this week's episode, I won't watch it tonight and tomorrow I have 2 chances to forget to watch (but maybe I'll remember).

I won't be watching the beginning of the Super Bowl this year. Instead, I'll go to Mix with Paula and Harvey and then watch the rest of the game when I get home (and hopefully Harvey will be joining me for some of it). Go Patriots!

Anyone in New York looking for something to do tonight- go see Robyn's show at Danny's. Personally, I'm not going since I have a busy week/weekend ahead and I wanted an extra night at home to take care of some things. But it should be a great show.

Mix was okay, not great. There were 2 other occupied tables besides ours. Who goes out to dinner on Super Bowl Sunday?

Super Bowl: exciting game (especially the 4th quarter, of course, and Tom Brady is amazing), not so exciting commercials (the Subway one was pretty funny though, probably the ones I didn't get to see in the first half were better), fun watching some of it with Harvey, and the Patriots won (15 games in a row- remarkable)!

After the game, I watched Survivor on Andy's suggestion. It wasn't really compelling (maybe because the 1st show is just setting things up?) and I don't really get why it's supposed to be entertaining, but I'll give it another chance or 2 to see where it goes.

I was reading old journal entries last night, and last February I predicted that Maryland would be a six seed in the NCAA tournament and lose in the Sweet Sixteen. And, ladies and gentlemen, what happened in the actual tournament on March 28th? No. six seed Maryland lost to No. seven seed Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen. Can I pick 'em or what?

Launch is playing all my high-rated tunes this morning. Currently am enjoying Tull's Pibroch.

What I didn't get done last night was sleep (not more than a couple hours, anyway). That's okay, I'll sleep tonight (I'd better get enough sleep, since after tonight, who knows when I can get a full night of sleep?).

Classes were okay. The playwriting instructor seems a little slow but shouldn't be too bad. We need to write a scene for Friday, but since I won't be there, I might not work on that until Monday (for Tuesday's class).

I ran a bunch of errands in between classes, including buying a new cell phone. That's right. After 5 years of having the same phone, I bought a new one (but only because the battery was dying and they don't make batteries anymore for my beyond-obsolete phone). I got a good deal too, so that made me even happier about the purchase.

I'm contemplating not colouring my hair anymore. At this point, I'm about 60% sure that I'll stop. Anyone out there want to offer their opinion before tomorrow afternoon (since that's when I'll colour)?

I was having eye issues this morning (a combination of the dry winter and lack of sleep), so I've been wearing my glasses today. Between the poor vision they provide and the blurriness provided by the rain, I couldn't really see much outdoors (can't really see well indoors either- hopefully I can put my contacts back in tomorrow).

I'm about 90% sure I'll use dark brown to colour my hair today so it doesn't look as bad while growing out. But I'm still taking suggestions for another few hours. Although I may also wait until Sunday to do anything.

I had fun setting up my new phone this morning (it's a Samsung VI660). Aside from the tiny navigator buttons (which I shouldn't be using too often now that almost everything's set up), it's fine.

Launch seems to be having another commercial-free day for me. And it's heavy on the new wave which is kind of putting me in a strange mood.

Neil arrives this evening. I have a lot to do before then. Hope I don't get called over to the Four Seasons.

Thursday was a long work day followed by dinner at Trattoria dell' Arte with Maureen, Neil, Jeffrey, Ann, and Matthew (their son).

Friday was a REALLY LONG work day followed by the WORST HONKING SYMPHONY I've ever heard. Seriously, people were honking non-stop all night (and I woke up to their noise the next morning). And since Neil was staying here, he got to experience the traffic I always rant about- I feel vindicated now.

Saturday wasn't too bad. After work, we (Mike, Maureen, Neil, me) went to DJ Reynolds. Glad I thought of that place when trying to figure out where to go. I really wanted to go somewhere laid back and where I could eat something that I actually like (unlike most of the food at the Four Seasons). Then on our way out, I saw a cab about to drive past, so I ran across the street to catch it. The driver told me he liked the way I hailed the cab- never heard that one before.

Neil left this morning. Since he left, I've gone through all my email (and replied to almost all) and thought about what to do for the scene I have to write by Tuesday (I'll probably write it this evening). As for all the reading I have to do, I decided to save starting on that for Wednesday. Aside from taking care of a few little things and writing the scene, I plan on taking today off.

Today, Launch is playing a lot of above average songs that I haven't heard it play before (or hasn't played in a long time).

For playwriting, I decided to edit a scene from something I wrote a few years ago- I just wasn't ready to make more effort than that.

Tomorrow, Robyn and I are going to try to rush "Wicked" (well, she'll try and then will let me know if she gets them). It's been so long since I decided I did want to see this show, that I don't remember why I wanted to see it anymore. If we do get tickets, hopefully it'll have been worth it.

Speaking of classes, we have to write a scene about Martha Stewart's life for playwriting. Thought that was an interesting choice- we voted and had the most votes on that one (narrowly avoided others like Michael Jackson and Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck). I guess I should be happy it's Martha Stewart's assets we're writing about and not Janet Jackson's. We also have to do 5 interviews and read "Fires in the Mirror" by Friday.

Robyn couldn't get tickets for "Wicked", but that worked out for me as I was able to have a conference call this evening instead. I love wearing my business-development/creative-problem-solver hat.

Okay, that was a long enough break. Back to work for me.

Conveniently, my library branch happened to have "Fires in the Mirror" (it doesn't have any of the other selections we're reading though, so I'll have to get up to the Performing Arts Library at some point in the near future).

There is major construction on 58th between 3rd and Lex! Not only the Bloomberg building and that other building going up- there's scaffolding on other areas of the block, crews loading in all kinds of stuff into empty ground floors, heavy equipment on the side of the road... As I was walking under one crew, something heavy dropped somewhere- I half-ran the rest of the way down the block.

And there is no way the Bloomberg Tower is going to be ready by March.

The hair colour faded and my hair is now closer to my natural colour (I think).

There is some highly irritating drilling going on in the apartment next to me. And a high number of emergency vehicles going by on my street. That's okay though; aside from Friday nights, it's been rather quiet recently.

David's coming up this weekend, and we're going to hear Annekei and Julia Darling at Joe's Pub on Monday. No, I've never heard of these artists, but the little I read about them (specifically Annekei) sounded interesting. Although why did I choose to go to this show when I choose not to go to several things I already know I'll like? I guess logic doesn't always come into play when making entertainment decisions. I guess I go with instant reactions instead.

Launch is in a rarely-heard-show-tunes mood today.

And speaking of "reality" shows, I was thinking that maybe sometime in the future, reality tv will be real reality- not the formula people/places/things we see today. Maybe the genre will expand enough to call this current reality style, "old reality".

I'm not getting very far in the research part of my Greek Theatre paper. I'll have to try a different approach tomorrow. I can't deal with it anymore today- I need to move onto something else.

Have I mentioned that my new cell phone works fairly well in my apartment? It hasn't dropped a call yet (not that I've given it much chance) and the reception is usually clear. I should try it outside the building soon since I used to have problems there too.

Tonight is Virtual Valentine's Day Night with Andy :)

There's a 30% chance I'll be going to London at the end of the month. I'll know more in a few days.

After my short break, I'll write the 2 monologues for playwriting.

I did write my monologues though last night. They're short and sweet.

Tonight is Annekei/Julia Darling at Joe's Pub with David (but first, a quick dinner at Dojo).

The new Six Feet Under will be airing in the summer- is it losing popularity?

Yesterday was okay, I guess. I met David down at Dojo and then we headed over to Joe's Pub. The place was practically empty until just before the show started when friends/fans showed up. Both Annekei and Julia Darling were enjoyable enough but neither stood out as anything particularly special. Oh well.

Yesterday, I saw another building that's going up near me. I wonder if an aerial view of the east side looks orange right now because of all the construction netting on all the buildings going up.

I wasn't in much of any kind of mood most of the day (maybe it was too cold and/or I was too tired for moods), but right now I'm kind of cranky. I probably just need some sleep tonight and a good start, if not completion, of my paper tomorrow.

Tons of emergency vehicles going by this evening.

Today was annoying phone call day- had to make some annoying phone calls and I received a few as well.

I spend a lot of my time out in public by myself, so I have a lot of time to eavesdrop on people's conversations. I've noticed in the past few years, that the conversarions I've been hearing have gotten more and more boring and/or irritating. Well, for playwriting, we're supposed to eavesdrop on 2 conversations and recreate the dialogue. Guess I'll be getting irrtated more than usual since I'll have to make a point of listening to all these ridiculous conversations. And then there will be the trick of finding an interesting enough conversation to be able to write dialogue that people won't fall asleep listening to. An example of what I won't be writing (this is something I heard one woman telling another woman while walking home this evening):
"We went to this party on Valentine's Day, and they had all this chocolate for Valentine's Day, and we had these little chocolate things, and we ate all of it..."

And now I should get back to my paper.

Now I'll get back to the paper but probably will wind up finishing the majority of it tomorrow (good thing my to-do list is relatively light tomorrow). And that's okay. I have a direction and that's the most important part. It's easy to get to where you're going if you have a direction. For me, writing a paper is really like navigating DC- I eventually get to my destination but the getting there is always near-impossible.

Not that I have much to say. I've kind of been engulfed in the world of Greek mythology for the past few days.

Launch opened up with Tull's "We Used to Know". It hasn't started up with Tull in ages. Nice surprise.

Sometimes I annoy myself with how much useless stuff (usually music-related) I write about here.

But sometimes I just have to ;)
Launch now followed up with my favourite Loreena McKennitt song ("Marrakesh Night Market"). Despite the fact that it's my favourite, I don't think I've heard it since I was in Morocco. Listening to it now, I can picture being at that busy market square in Marrakesh at night (well, early evening anyway). That was the day I got to hold a monkey! And it's the day I saw a man having his teeth worked on in the middle of the square (Andy, if you're reading this, be happy you'll be going to a more modern dentist). Anyway, I like the song even more now.

And one more piece of useless information: Maryland managed to lose to Georgia Tech tonight.

Okay, one more: George Carlin's "Offensive Language" is very funny!

Yesterday did not go the way it was supposed to, but it wasn't bad. Two nights ago, I had trouble falling asleep. I eventually fell asleep less than 2 hours before I was supposed to get up, and I did get up when the alarm went off, but then I sat on the couch trying to read email, and my eyes hurt too much to keep reading, so I closed my eyes and dozed on and off for a few hours. Then I was disoriented the rest of the day. I decided to skip my first class since we were having someone trying to get a job there teach our class as part of her interview, so I figured it wasn't a bad class to miss. I went to my second class and then was going to run a few errands before heading home, but Todd had left a message about getting together that evening, so I called him back and left a message. While waiting for him to call back, I went to Cafe Mozart to eavesdrop on some conversations. The conversation I heard was boring, and I'd rather not use it for my assignment, but I'm glad I finally went to this place. I'd been wanting to check it out for a while, and it's definitely a place I'd go to again. Then I went to meet Todd but didn't stay too long since other people were coming over, and I didn't feel like hanging out last night with a bunch of people I didn't know. I wound up staying up late again last night but got to sleep in late today.

This afternoon, I went up to Ziggy's to eavesdrop on some more conversations. It's extremely difficult to get every point made in people's conversations, let alone every word, but that's what our instructor wants and I like a challenge, so I gave it a good try (but will still have to fill in both large and small sections). This conversation was boring too, but I heard one heading home on the bus that was slightly interesting. Two people were commenting on the idiot taxi driver in front of us and then recognised that they lived in the same building. They talked about someone else in the building who just died after he had a heart attack and then the woman mentioned that last year someone else died on her floor and they didn't find the person for 2 weeks. I just thought it was interesting that on a Saturday afternoon, 2 people who lived in the same building would be on the same bus together. The odds of that can't be too high.

Then I got home and booked the hotel for Hawaii, now Neil just needs to book the flight and the hotel for Maui, and then all we'll have to do when it gets closer is book the flight in between islands and look into activities. And in the meantime, I'll work on getting all the Hilton stays and points (so our hotel will be free). Still can't believe we're really going.

Tonight feels like a good movie night.

This week went by quickly.

Paula and Harvey have arrived and are having a good time in London. So glad they're taking some real time off on this trip.

Not much else to say today.

Today's been a day of 100 little things- small work projects, Hawaii trip changes, working on (and finishing) my eavesdropping conversations, email, making some customer service calls, domestic stuff...). And I was moving almost at Superman speed- I'm amazed at what I accomplished in a short period of time. I guess that's how productive I can be after a restful weekend. I'm not even aware of the time or how much time has gone by. And my energy level has stayed constant throughout the day.

I need to remember to order from Gristedes again. They gave me a few wrong items and a few were out of stock, but they had most of what I ordered, they got here on time, I got $25 off since it was my first order, and they give you more money off your next few orders.

Launch is in a techno mood today. Maybe it's picking up on my energy ;)

And in keeping with the speed in which I am doing things today, I think I will finish this entry here (not much else to say anyway).

I talked to David about working on the show and learned that the only thing I can do is pre-production stuff. I chose working on set since if I chose costumes and they had to wait around for me to thread a needle, the cast would all be going on naked. From our brief conversation, it sounds like I can just work on building the set during my 3 hour break on Tuesdays and that will take care of my last crew requirement (although maybe not, so I won't get my hopes up). It would be great not to have to deal with rehearsals/shows this semester. Instead, I'll just be doing a lot of screwing ;)

It snowed all day. It was too warm to stick, but I guess the combination of the wet roads and just the fact that snow was falling caused horrible (and extremely noisy) traffic.

Paula and Harvey got to see "Jumpers" in London the other night and said it was one of the most wonderful things they've ever seen. Hopefully it'll be just as good when it comes to Broadway in April.

I'm still in my manic phase, but I'll probably slow down a bit tonight if I can remember to look at the clock to figure out when "night" actually is taking place. I've really been having trouble being aware of time for the past few days (except for the few times I had to be aware).

I think my manic phase is over. I've had a reasonable amount of energy today, but I'm kind of tired now. This is the first time I've been tired in a few days.

Today was busy and went by quickly. Tonight's plans: watching Survivor and writing a scene for playwriting.

The scaffolding on my corner is coming down. It was a little scary walking under it as they were dismantling the slabs, but I'm glad it'll be gone now.

My day: started off irritating but by mid afternoon got 99% better, then I had caffeine and was wired, and now I'm happy and mellow.

Neil asked me tonight when Paula and Harvey are coming home, and I realised I had no idea. I should find that out soon.

Speaking of Neil, I told him that Jay & Sherry are coming up here, and he was just as surprised as I was (if not more so) that they're really coming. Glad they're proving us wrong (just have to hope that Sherry won't drive me completely crazy).

I've thought of a birthday present I'd like. I'd like it if the Terps could win their season-ending game that night against Virginia. Maybe I can even convince Rebecca to watch it with me since it's my birthday (she's done stuff like that on her birthday, so it might fly even though she won't want to watch the game). So, if anyone would care to write any memos to Gary Williams or to whoever is most likely to see that this task of winning is accomplished, it would be much appreciated ;)

Last night I had a date with Andy via cell phone (love those unlimited minutes). "We" hung out in Christiansburg and Blacksburg for 3+ hours- a fun adventure from the comfort of my living room- the next best thing to being there in person.

It wasn't as nice today as I thought it would be, but it certainly was nice enough. It was nice enough to bring a ton of people out. I've never seen this many pedestrians on my street (other than during events). And the elevator stopped 4 times on the way to the lobby and I think stopped the same number of times on my way back up. Too bad this immediate neighbourhood doesn't have more to offer all these people. And it was nice enough to wear a t-shirt and leather jacket. And it was nice enough to put me in a good mood (and a snowball mood- so I made one when I got home- thanks again, Andy).

Today I got caught up on email, made some travel reservations, and took care of a few other little things. I'm hoping to get a start on researching a topic for my theatre history paper, but I'm not sure if I'll actually get myself to do that today or not.

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