1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

i would like to lose weight, update my portfolio, go home, save some $$ and give up soda.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.

andy, kelly, gretchen, amy, celia

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

drink beer again, play an instrument (violin, cello or drums), sew on a sewing machine, autocad, and dance like a real person.

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

i'd pay off my student loans, set up my mom for retirement, set up my sister, buy the theater i work for, and travel.

5. List five things you do that help you relax.

listen to music, pet my kitty, play scrabble on the computer at work, watch dvds, and drive around the countryside.

given the choice, i would really rather not be a grownup anymore. my wise, and sage, 29 year old advice to you is to stay in school for as long as you can. if necessary, switch majors often, study things you are not particularly interested in, and get incompletes as often as possible without attracting suspicion. this is the key to happiness.

well, i put a new alternator in my car yesterday. now all my radio stations stay where i put them. tomorrow we have actrons onstage for christmas carol.. i think we'll be ready but it will require a certain amount of "dedication" (read: lack of sleep) on the shop staff's part... ewww...

praise sweet jesus for flannel sheets.

last night i finally saw the matrix for the first time. that's a pretty cool movie. i've seen the fx copied in so many other movies but i gotta say that they're cooler in that movie than in any of the copycats.

we also moved nikki into her new apt last night. i want a new apartment. one that i can paint. i like the one i live in now, but i really wish i could paint. damn!

ballyhoo strikes tonight and xmas carol loads in starting tomorrow. this afternoon i'm going in to paint the scrooge bed before strike so i can be slightly less behind.

right now i'm listening to a bootleg of radiohead doing "cinnamon girl". rock out!

Numenorean


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla


i'm tragic???

my score was a 95... and when i saw the answers for the ones i'd missed, you can bet i was smackin my head and singing the stupid song.

back on track it seems.. productive meetings and mulled cider fix everything.

trying hard to go to rufus wainwright at the vic on dec. 6th. he is a god, in case you weren't enlightened.
also scoping plane tix for xmas trip home.... can't wait!!

update on the bday - christa sent me a mobile of little tin frogs, very cool :). my mom sent me a check for $29, in addition to the laundry quarters and shopping we did while she was here.

also, the new strokes record is good. get one. and the new rufus wainwright is divine.

halloween was exciting. there were costumes and liquor involved. there are pictures.

yup.

blah blah fucking blah blah blah.

i'm just a person.

"go stymie, it's your birthday!"

why yes. yes it is.

"not a holiday."

i beg to differ. in both the 7th and the 39th circles of hell it certainly is a holiday.. of the patron saint religious kind.

"who's your daddy?"

wayne. wayne's my daddy.


today is my 29th birthday. jessie's gotten me an elvis cd - 2nd to none.. it's chock, seam-splitting full of rokken tunes. most recently, a can of rain-x wipes for my hottie car windshield. i like to rain-x, it helps me see better while i'm careening willy nilly through the streets of rockford. in addition, a surprise birthday cake at our production meeting!

update: i have learned that the last installment of my birthday present will happen over drinks at octane, the bar next door, after photo call... i am on the edge of every seat.

update: the last installment was the board game "cranium". if you haven't played this game, shame on you. *scoldy finger shake* what a good birthday had i.

also, bob (who does our graphics stuff) just gave me a copy of the new rufus wainwright cd. it is fuckin' phenomenal.

tonight i plan to party like it's my birthday... possibly even sip bacardi like it's my birthday. woot!

this is really funny.
Richard & Kitty's World of Sex Euphemisms! (STARMA.COM)

later that same day...

finally made it home. typin on my own personal keyboard in my own personal living room. my cat is next to me, on the floor, in a catnip induced coma. this could be the first time i've actually seen a genuine case of "lolling about".

i just finished watching the west wing. i'm not sure if it was the writing or the direction or what have you, but this episode just didn't sit well with me.
leo mcgarry is being an asshole! or is that just me?

in other news, tomorrow is my birthday! part of me feels like i should be all contemplative and insightful, dispensing some newly imparted wisdom. part of me wants to go get drunk at the gay bar. who's to say, really?

again with the late at work. this time it's because i am helpless to resist access to high speed internet. "hm, stay late at work with the high speed or go home to play 9 games of solitaire while one page loads on my crappy dial up?" tough call.

so here i sit at work. at 7:15 central standard time. i am not drafting; i should be, that's the reason i'm still at work instead of home in my comfy couch with my comfy cat. instead, i'm sitting here in my office that smells like someone else's lunch.

my mom was in this weekend from home. we had a grand time. the plan had been to spend the weekend in chicago, seeing the sights and livin it up country mouse style. it turns out, though, that i was in such a pathetic state when she arrived that we spent the entire weekend at my house in rockford doing my laundry and buying groceries. i haven't had a chance to spend "quality time" at home in so long that i had no meal stuff in the house, just side dishes. we did 8 loads of laundry and there is still a tiny mountain in my closet.

saturday night we spent in a hotel in rosemont, close to o'hare so i wouldn't have to get up early and drive her in. we watched cable, since i'm too poor to afford it myself, and ordered pirates of the carribbean on pay per view. we were the cat's meow, lest you doubt.

now it's back to the grind; can't say i'm too excited, but am certainly in better shape to handle the crap i know is headed down the pike. this weekend is the first i don't have somewhere else to be... i have no earthly idea what to do.

my birthday is thursday, we started celebrating last night though. just to get a jump on things so we're totally ready for the actual day. jessie took me out to dinner at jmk nippons, the bestest and mostest coolest place in town. we saw kill bill later that evening. that is an interesting movie - really a movie of moments if anything - so much gratutious blood that by the end of the movie it looked more like streamers or confetti cannons than gushing blood. as always with the qt movies though, there was some really great music.. i have to dig up that soundtrack. i have to say my favorite characters were lucy liu and her totally unhinged body guard chick. too bad ass. i almost couldn't handle it.

and now i must draft. damn.

i got an email from my sister that says she can't read my blog, only the shout out link shows up on her computer.. does anybody else know about that?

my mom comes to visit tomorrow, and i couldn't be more excited!! i pick her up at 5 at o'hare.. we're gonna spend tomorrow and friday here and head into the city on saturday. i spent this evening cleaning in anticipation.

jessie and i watched the italian job tonight also.. i have to say it was a good movie. i really liked it. i also liked the soundtrack, i'd like to pick that up when if it comes out.
it reminded me of both oceans eleven and the bourne identity, two other movies i like. maybe i'll get them someday when i have $$.

on another note entirely, what should i be for halloween? i don't think i dressed last year.. the year before that alan and i went in military garb as "don't ask" and "don't tell". that was a good time. i have no plans for this year, and no ideas for a costume if i decide to go out.

you know what's good? rufus wainwright. you should check him out if you've not heard his stuff before. i really dig him... i listen to him in the same mood as aimee mann and michael penn, if that makes any sense.


i'm so not in bed right now.

You are StrongBad. You hate everyone, especially
HomeStar. Your e-mails and prank calls are
hilarious. You're my favorite character. You
try to be evil, but sorry, being shirtless with
boxing gloves just isn't scary. Don't worry
what everone else thinks because hey, they are
all "crap for brains".


What HomeStarRunner Character are you? (pictures)
brought to you by Quizilla

what the fuck.

well, this weekend was eventful. i was in a wedding. there will be pictures online somewhere, but they haven't published them yet so be patient. i was a bridesmaid, replete in heels and poofy hair. the two who were married are friends of mine from grad school.. i was there when she first decided she liked him and was unsure whether she should ask him out. i would love to say i was the one who said "of course you should ask him, sieze the moment, live for today, you only live once, what's the worst that could happen, grow a pair. i wasn't the one though, i just said something like "um, i don't know".

anyhow, the wedding was great. except for the two ladybugs that flew down the back of my dress less than thirty seconds after the cermony began. the ceremony only lasted 15 minutes. karen cried during the vows, which they wrote themselves, and the boys slapped a plastic ball and chain on mike's leg before they walked down the aisle at the end. i met lots of mike's friends that i'd only heard about up until then. i got to see other friends that i haven't talked to in a while and i got to feel all grownup and responsible when i held the bag for the dollar dance at the reception. incidentally, i spent the entirety of the reception in my stocking feet 'cause my borrowed heels were hateful. dan was kind enough to go get my sneakers from the car, though, so i wore those for the last half hour or so. there was dancing, and a fish-shaped groom's cake made out of pumpkin fudge with a transparent glaze of green frosting and gigantic red lips. oh, and a pumpkin candy eyeball.

on the way back jessie and i took the long way home. we stopped at a winery, wenona, on the side of the road, and a pumpkin patch stand in that i think was in peru. it was a wonderful day. the sun was out, it was unseasonably warm, and we played the farm animal game all the way home. i think i won, but am not sure. when we finally got home to rockford, we ended up at the park, where we hiked around and took pictures of autumn leaves, which we ended up throwing at each other as we ran willy nilly down the trail.. i love "willy nilly", it's my new thing.

now it's back to the grind, and house cleaning in preparation for the arrival of my mother, who's flying in on thursday. i am totally psyched.

ah swiffer, how i missed thee.....

dennis "the Kooch" kucinich 4 PREZ

i found this mildly amusing.