persephone33

Chalk it up to playing three distinctly different characters. I'm feeling a touch schizophrenic.

So. Tonight is preview night. Basically, it's final dress with an audience. Yet, there IS an audience, so it's not like we can go back and call do-over if something goes tragically, horribly wrong. And good lord have mercy, there are just SO MANY THINGS that can go wrong in this show, that I'm forcing myself NOT to think about them, and focus on the really, really great rehearsal we had last night.

The rehearsal we had after we got mid way through Act I and started over.

Yikes.

It was like gasoline on a fire, y'all. The suck explosions just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And bigger.

Yet, the second time around, it was a thing of beauty. So, yes, focusing on the second, beautiful bit and not on the first enormous pile of suckage.

The thing is, this show is FUNNY. Really, really funny. The tech gags are funny. The sound is funny. The actors are hilarious. I'm even mildly amusing at times. This is not one to miss. It's even family friendly. Bring the kids. There are a few very mild profanities, and I do swear in German, but all in all, a good time for everyone. There's action, romance, slapstick humor, a couple of handfuls of different accents, and poking fun at every Alfred Hitchcock film ever made.

But in a completely respectful way. *cough*

So, yes. If you're in the Texas panhandle, come. Call for show times and tickets! (806) 355-9991. You won't be disappointed.

We promise to be an extra 25% funny, just for you.

( And here's a photo of me as a blonde, for your viewing pleasure. )

Though yesterday was a Very Disappointing Day, there were a few things that happened that made me smile. Nay, laugh, even.

There is an empty lot on the highway at I-40 and Soncy that used to be a HUGE field, with cows and everything. Seriously. Thirteen years ago, when I started dating Nolan and he brought me to what I affectionately called "That windy, dry town with no trees and too many farm animals," (or Amarillo, to those unfamiliar with my former feelings about my home), across from The Mall (No, really. Just ONE mall) were hundreds of acres of grazing land for cattle.

I thought it was weird and a little funny. I took a picture.

"Okay, and then when we came out of Dillards - Cows!"

This is not so anymore; restaurants and boutiques and stores and shopping centers have all cropped up, leaving this one tiny corner empty. What does this corner have on it?

Prairie dogs.


( Like, BIG trouble. )

I haven't indulged my crazy side enough lately.


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This rabbit is as big as a three year-old CHILD.

They're taking over the world, one little British girl at a time.

Or maybe this cold medicine is just reeeeeeaaaaly good.

*makes face*

It probably won't be interesting to anyone but me, and possibly tadpole_bac , but I had to write it down.

( Click for the weird jaunt into my subconscious... )

Yeah, wow. There was more. But now it's gone fuzzy. Grah. Normal dreams that didn't wake me up in a panic might be appreciated, dream self. Okay? Thanks.

So much to blog about, so little drive to move my fingers on the keyboard.

I could tell you about the ongoing Orwellian nightmare that is the patch of earth around our house, or give you folks a new chicken recipe that rocks.

I'll start with one, and then see if my attention holds to the other for later.

Let me tell you about last Tuesday.

( Known casually around here as the 'Day of Suck' )

He remembers you.

No, I'm kidding. But I think I seriously just creeped myself out.

Anyhoo, Frank still sits in the back garden mocking me, although he's getting a little overrun with daylilies and roses.

I hope he has allergies, the bastard.

*cough* Long story short for those new to the f-list, I have a creepy statuary owl named Frank (click the tag) in the backyard that stalks me from time to time.

What? Doesn't everyone?

So I get this email yesterday from a friend who lives all the way across town:
***
Subject: An owl

Carrie,

I just wanted to let you know that I have a friend of yours on the porch across the street that just stares at me. I need to take a picture and send it to you. I think it could be your owl's brother. Creepy!!

Maybe I'll see you tomorrow at the pool!

Sunny
***
Dear God in Heaven above, they're BREEDING.

And I checked. It isn't Frank, moonlighting in someone else's yard. I looked and he's still out there.

( And a totally unrelated picture of some freaking cool Texas Panhandle clouds )

Oh, dear heavens.

I'm working on day seven of sleep deprivation. If I've been weird or cranky this week, I'm gonna chalk it up to that. Married girls, do you know what I'm saying? It's really hard for me to go to sleep when hubs isn't there.

Now I realize that he sleeps more deeply that most people in comas, and that he starts a loud snore exactly 12 seconds after he turns out his light and his head hits the pillow (not an exaggeration, I've timed it), but there's something comforting about my big, dumb, blond Texan being in the bed next to me. Mostly, because I know when push comes to shove, that he could totally protect me from all enemies, foreign and domestic. But actually, it's habit. And the way my leg falls over his immediately, when we sleep is like, the BEST thing in the world..

Ahem. All mushiness aside, I've been getting offline about midnight, when no one is writing or I simply can't anymore, and then instead of sleeping, I go wandering around my house. I lay in bed and watch TV, do laundry, watch the lights of the Christmas tree... all manner of ridiculous things to be done in the wee hours of the morning. Last night, the last time I remember looking at the clock was around 1:15. And I thought, 'Oh, okay. Not bad. The boys might sleep til 7(*hysterical cackle*), and that's still decent.

Silly girl.

( Maddening black lab story under here )

For the most part, I am an isolationist.  A lone wolf.  And I'm a little agoraphobic.  People stress me out.  Like really stress me out.   So I use music to de-stress in public.  I have my ipod, and I use it when I'm at Wal-Mart or the grocery store or the pool; I find I'm less homicidal that way.

It is amazing to me how the most annoying voices cut RIGHT through the loudest volume on the ipod, though.

I like to think that I'm normal.  Not normally homicidal.  I usually follow the Judeo-Christian ethic of 'Thou shalt not kill.'  Sometimes, I'm even full of grace for my fellow man.  But then there are days....

Like the days that I spend a short eternity in airports and airplanes listening to inconsiderate people shout into their cell phones, (There's a rant for another day)  intent only on themselves, and the times when the monotone twelve year-old behind be in the airplane says everything that enters his head the moment that he thinks it, while kicking my seat every fifteen seconds...  then the large bucket of grace that the Lord usually gives me for other people begins to run a little low, and it's everything I can do not to turn around and THROTTLE said preteen, while the woman next to him feigns sleep so that she won't have to talk to him. 

Can't say that I blamed her.

But seriously, the Across the Universe soundtrack, and more specifically Jim Sturgess' voice, saved his pudgy little neck.

It was a close call.

Close call.

I'm so glad to be home.

This is the beepingest house I've ever been in.  Everything beeps.  EVERYTHING!

For the first couple of weeks, it really unnerved me, and I would go from room to room, checking things out.  For example.  There's an alarm on the refrigerator, that beeps when someone doesn't close the door.  Both the washer and dryer beep when there's a problem or they've finished their cycle.  The oven timer chimes, and continues to chime once a minute until you turn it off.  The microwave beeps until you press cancel.  The fire alarms are OH MY GOODNESS loud, and the coffeemaker beeps when it finishes brewing its carafe and when the burner goes off.  I'm not even counting all of the boy's toys that make some sort of goshawful noise.  Plus the noise of phones and missed calls on my cell phone and trillian and google chat on a daily basis...

But something is beeping this morning, and I can't figure out where it's coming from.  I don't recognize the beep, and I can't distinguish where it's source is exactly.  It goes off about once an hour;  I feel like I'm going out of my ever-loving mind.  It's as if someone is watching me, nudging their friend going, "Watch this, man.  Watch what she does when I push this button."

*shakes fist at imaginary, invisible men*  I don't think it's funny!

*******

And Aaron was waiting for his toast to pop up, and made an observation.

Aaron.  There's dust on this picture.

Ethan. (Scoffs) Where isn't there dust?

Guess who gave the little darlings dustcloths and told them to remedy the situation?  That's right.  Me.  Mumzilla.  In my defense, this is the Texas panhandle.  I could dust one day and it would look like I hadn't done a thing three days later.  However, that is what you get when you criticize my cleaning prowess.  :D

And if you are making it beep in my house, stop please.  The voices in my head simply can't take it.  ;)

 LJ ate two posts yesterday.  Two LONG ones.  That brasses me off on a level previously only held by people who pull out in front of me in heavy traffic.

Anyway.  I thought Monday sucked out loud.  I can say that now, having perspective, and I know unequivocally and beyond a shadow of a doubt that yes, indeed, Monday did suck.

I got a raging headache from eating things I know that I shoudn't.  NO MORE DEVIATIONS.  NO sugar.  I don't care if people say I'm weird or not.  'Eff 'em and feed 'em fish heads,' my sweetly eloquent husband says.

BIL's father died.  He was a sweet man.  We're going to Denver on Sunday for the funeral.  It's a 16 hour drive round trip, or $1600 in airfare.  We drive.  Be back Tuesday.

And when did I get to the age that I go to more funerals than weddings?  Seriously.  I take it back.  I WANT to buy blenders and sit through wooden readings of 1 Cornthians 13.  Please.  

My week has been consumed with trying to sell this house or making decisions on the other one.  I swear if the flooring lady calls ONE MORE TIME, I will end her.  She's old, too.  I could totally take her.  BAM.  Just a clothesline and an elbow drop, and she's done.  (I'm kidding.  Sorta.  Mostly.)

I made videos of the interior rooms of the old house, more for me and the boys than for anyone else, but if I get ambitious, I might post them.  Gotta keep the stalkers happy.  *waves at the stalkers*

Playwrighting.  Arriving late and leaving early and not contibuting while you're there is not going to get a play written.  (It's a fabulous premise this semester, but I'm not writing it.  Completely fabulous, and could be flipping hysterical...  Still not writing it.  There was some action on Google docs yesterday, so that's encouraging.)

Caliga.  Still adore Caliga.  Still.  Though, Pansy's getting so very tired of being a captive.  I think she's going to make her move soon.  I hope she lives.  She wants to play with the new vampire friend!  And hug on Cormac.  What a sweetheart.  He doesn't even know it, which is, I think, the best part.  Lots of scenes going on right now.  Super fun.  *Huggles the people*

As for Michael, his life is so sweet and perfect that I find myself JEALOUS OF MY OWN FICTIONAL CHARACTER.  

Clearly, I need therapy.  Will I go?  No, for I am too busy freaking out about picking out cabinet pulls for the house.  Somebody shoot me, please.  Or maybe just come to Amarillo and help.  I'll buy you lunch and keep you entertained while you're here.

I was supposed to meet with Steph today.  It snowed three inches last night.  I hate driving on snow. (Celeste, Jessica, Mallory and Vicky can call me a wimp.  I'm not an excellent driver when there's NO white stuff all over.)  It was 65 earlier this week and now it's freezing.  That always makes my body freak out. Pick a temperature, y'all.  Either one.  I'm fine with either.

Gotta get the munchkins up for school.  Darn it.  I have a cute kid story, too.  Maybe later.