It’s 5pm on a Friday. I’m young and single. All I want to do right now is go home and go to bed.

So, last year I signed up for NaBloPoMo because I hoped it would help me get into the habit of posting more often. It worked, to a point, except that for all of 2007 I’ve been doing a 365 on flickr and that’s sort of killed my posting here. So, let’s try again, shall we?

Every time I write the date today (which, as a legal secretary I do a lot because I take a *lot* of messages) I am reminded that it’s Misha’s birthday. It’s funny because I probably haven’t seen him in at least 5 years. We were in a show together, during which he hooked up with my best friend, but I used to see him around Ren Faire and Dickens Fair for several years after. I think I only remember his birthday because it’s a month to the day after hers. But it reminds me of a really mean joke we played on him once.
It was October of 1995. Val and I were doing tech for Pippin at Palo Alto Players, and house-sitting for friends of my family in the Pescadero hills. They had this great house on top of a hill, no neighbors within earshot… it was fabulous fun for the two of us when we stayed there. Somehow, after the show on Saturday night, we ended up visiting friends in South San Francisco and kidnapping our friend Misha for the night. Misha and Val were, well… they never dated, but they were FWB on and off for several months. It was his birthday, and she wanted to, er, help him celebrate. So he came back to the house with us.
We had a matinee of Pippin the next day, in Palo Alto, and had to deliver Misha to his home in San Francisco before the show, so we had to leave the house pretty early. We were supposed to be at the theater at 1, for a 2pm show, and there was easily 2 hours of driving required to get us there. Misha didn’t want to wake up, and resisted our every attempt, so we devised a bit of an evil wake up call. Not water, not letting the dog jump on him, not smacking him in the face with a broom- no, we came up with an evil that only musical theatre buffs would come up with.
You see, these friends of my family had a rockin’ stereo system, and we, being the musical theater nerds we were, (well, are,) had a Phantom of the Opera CD. Raise your hands if you know where this is going.
We cued up the CD to a very certain spot, turned the volume to 11, and then ran outside onto the porch and activated the CD player via remote control. A blood curdling scream ripped through the house and the surrounding redwoods.
From our vantage point on the porch, we could see into the bedroom well enough to see Misha fairly well levitate a good three feet off the bed, land on his feet and come tearing out of the bedroom searching for the source of the scream, assuming of course that it was Val screaming. Finally he noticed the pounding organ music coming from the stereo and just stood there looking baffled. Once he figured out what we had done, he was none too happy, but at least he was up.
We all got ready and piled into the car. The map below shows the driving Val had to do that morning. (Yes, we were crazy.) We didn’t leave the house til after 11 though. We got Misha dropped off in the city at the time we were supposed to be at the theater in Palo Alto. Val got a speeding ticket within sight of the exit we needed to take to get there. We tore into the theater toward the dressing rooms at 1:48. People were freaking out trying to figure out how they were going to do the show with only one spot operator and no one on the flyrail. Oops.

**UPDATE**
I am very, very sad to say that Aodin R. Hurd was stillborn at 4:02 a.m. on October 7, 2007. He weighed 9.6 ounces, and to all present, he was perfect. Please keep his parents and family members in your thoughts and prayers.
I recently made a new bloggy friend- Heather, of Yummy Sushi Pajamas. She’s not in my sidebar links yet because I suck, but I’ve been reading her for a few months now. On Monday, her regular readers and her Flickr friends were treated to a sight no one ever wants to see, and with her permission I’m reposting this (click to enlarge):

Please keep her and her husband, as well as their family, in your thoughts and prayers.

Day 271: Farewell Dennis

I got Dennis when I was 8 years old, named him after my best friend (at the time)’s dad. He was once fluffy and plump, but I slept with/on him for long enough that he went a bit squashy. He got put into storage in high school and various vermin (ew!) have ruined him. This was taken just moments before he and everything else in that box got chucked in a dumpster. I was oddly sad, because while I’ve barely thought of him in a long time, he was my trusty friend for years. (my sister got one in pink overalls, and she still has it, just as plump and fluffy as the Christmas we got them)

Yesterday I was sitting in the den attempting to read my book for book club tonight (I say attempting because the author’s prosaic style has been hard for me), when there was a knock at the door. I was taken aback by two things- first, it was the *back* door, but last night was neither the first nor last time it’ll be mistaken for the front door, second, it wasn’t a normal knock, it was “shave and a haircut”.
I figured it had to be someone i knew/who knew the house, but had no idea who. I opened the door to find sort of a scungy guy I’d never seen before. At first I figured he must be selling something, but he didn’t have anything in his hands, and he smelled like he’d been drinking. Finally I spoke, and the conversation went like this:
Me: Can I help you?
Guy: Uh, yeah. I’m Doug, I’m a good friend of Chris’. Is he here?
Me: I don’t think so. He left a couple of hours ago and I haven’t seen him come back.
Doug: Oh, okay. Well, he has my bike, and so I was hoping I could get that back. He’s been keeping it for me for a few months.
Me: Um, well, unfortunately I don’t know anything about that, so I can’t really help you.
Doug: Well, I can tell you what it looks like. It’s silver, and it has tires. It’s specialized.
Me: Well, there are bikes in our garage, but I don’t feel comfortable just giving it to you without talking to Chris. Do you have his cell number? Can you call him?
Doug: Yeah, well, he’s being a punk, he’s not answering my calls.
Me: ………
So Doug takes a moment to call Chris and leave him a voicemail. Now, I’m generally a fan of a well placed F-bomb. I think there are certain situations where it is simply the most appropriate word to convey a sentiment. However, I do not approve of it’s use as filler in a sentence, where every other word is “fuck” or “fuckin'” because you can’t think of anything else to say. Doug falls into the second category, and the last sentence of his voicemail to Chris was this sterling gem: “Like fuckin’, you know, fuckin’, whatever whatever whatever, so fuckin’ call her.” Then he hangs up the phone and turns his attention back to me:
Doug: So now can I have my bike back?
Me: Um, no. I didn’t talk to him.
Doug: I just want my fuckin’ bike back!
Me: Okay, but hopefully you can understand my position. I’ve never seen you before. I don’t know you from any other random person on the street. I’m not going to be responsible for handing something over to you that is not mine to give.
Doug: Well, is it my fault that he’s like, fuckin’ holding it hostage?
Me: I can’t speak to that. I told you that I’m not going to help you out until I’ve talked to Chris. And you can watch your mouth. There is no reason for you to be swearing at me.
Doug: Well, whatever like, if you’ve got little kids around or whatever, otherwise I can say whatever the fuck I want”
Me: Then I can close this door and refuse to have anything more to do with you.
Doug: Yeah you can. Okay, have a nice night.
And with that he turned and walked back down the driveway.
Really, I couldn’t have cared less about the swearing, because he wasn’t angry at me or swearing at me, he just had a really limited vocabulary, and aside from that annoying me, playing “bait the drunk person” can be fun. And I told Chris that between his boss and Doug, he needed to introduce me to some of his “normal” friends.

These questions are from Brad. He likes to give me at least one really hard question, but it’s good. Makes me think.
1. You’re at a party and a company president mentions that they need someone just like you at their very lucrative and stable company. They want to DOUBLE your current salary. The only drawback is that there is a lot of travel involved in the job. It’s very interesting work, but you’d be gone from home 4 days per week. Do you take the job?
Absolutely. Given that I’ve got nothing tying me down right now, I would love to have a job that included travel- I don’t see that as a drawback at all.
2. A photographer notices you at a restaurant and gives you her card. She is compiling a book of women of all shapes and sizes, and wants you to be part of it. It is a nude book, and not pornography. She is paying $1500 for one photoshoot. Would you go? If not, is there an amount of money that would change your mind?
I’d tell her I needed to think about it, but I’d probably do it. It’d take a lot of talking me into it by my friends, but I’d do it. I have no problem with nudity for the sake of art. There would, however, be stipulations as to exactly how the images would be allowed to be used.
3. You’re walking along the pier and notice something is wrong. You hear shouts from a kid about his pets and look over the side of the pier to see a cat and a dog, both struggling in the water. What do you do? Do you jump in and save one, or call for help? If you jump in, which would you save (it can be only one, sorry)?
Assuming no malevolence on the part of the child caused the animals to be in the water, I’d yell for help, and also jump in. I would not conciously choose which one I would save. I’d save whichever one I go to first, and hope that both myself and the kid yelling for help got someone else to jump in and save the other one.
4. It’s 4:00am and you’re heading home from a friend’s house. You come to a red light and there isn’t anyone in sight. You’re very tired. Do you run it?
Nope.
5. What’s next in evolution on this planet? There were dinosaurs here once, but they didn’t impact the Earth like man. What will happen to us in thousands or hundreds of thousands of years?
Well, this question is sort of hard given my religious beliefs, but based on some basic science I can give you my thoughts on it (but I think that they may come off as a bit “sci-fi nerd”). As you pointed out, humans have had much more impact on this planet than any other species. We force our environment to adapt to us, rather than adapting to our environment. So I think there are a few paths that could be followed- either we’re going to “destroy” this planet and kill ourselves in the process, “destroy” it and find somewhere else to live- space stations, other planets, what have you- or we’re going to learn how to lessen our impact on the world around us. I think in any case, whether we’re gone, or we’re here and have learned to quit killing everything to suit our own purposes- which is why I used “destroy” in quotes- I think that in the much larger, millenia-spanning evolutionary sense, life is resilient. Any plants and animals that haven’t been driven to extinction will flourish again, and I think that Earth has the definite potential to go back to a state similar to what it was before humans forced ourselves upon it.

I love the interview meme because it actually gives me something to post about? Wanna play? Leave me 5 questions in the comments and I’ll answer them and respond with 5 questions of my own.
These are from Caryn:
Apparently she didn’t like my first attempt, so she gave me follow up questions.
1) What is one misconception people have about you?
When I’m in a group of people I don’t know all that well I tend to get really shy and closed off, or stick close to the people I do know well, and it tends to make people think that I’m stand-offish or snobby.
2) What is something you wish you could/would do more often? What is holding you back?
Travel/visit far away friends. Holding me back would be lack of time/finances.
2a) which friends in particular are you missing? where are they? what would you like to do while you’re with them?
It’s not even so much that I “miss” my friends, because I think we all do a good job of keeping in communication with each other, hanging out via IM and the like, but it’s not the same as being in the same place as them. So, specific who/where/what would be:
Erica in Merced with whom I’d watch movies and scrapbook or embroider, chatting all the while
Heather in Jackson- I’d chat with her and her husband, play with her kids and snuggle her infant son. Maybe play a game of Jeopardy! on the computer.
I don’t even have to fly to go see those two (yet- Heather is moving to Alabama soon), but visiting them takes a free weekend that I rarely have)
Caryn in Austin, we’d hang out at her house, eat at Chuy’s, and shop.
Brad in Kansas City, we’d go for walks, do stuff outside, watch Hockey and chat. A LOT.
Nicole and Richard in Toronto, hang out, go do touristy stuff. I’m hoping to visit them in early Spring and take in a Maple Leafs game and go to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Tara in Seattle, we’d shop, walk around, be weirdos, and go to Archie McPhee and take a ferry to Port Townsend to go to that store she found there.
Joseph in San Diego, we’d see a play, eat Fish and Chips, walk around the Marina, maybe go to Coronado. And we’d act like idiots and laugh a lot.
3) List five things that always, always cheer you up.
3a) what is it about each of those things that cheers you up?
Itty bitty babies- This should be a given. Who is not cheered up by an itty bitty baby?
Flowers- Again, who isn’t cheered up by flowers? Flowers are awesome.
Joe Duffy- He’s just an all around nice guy, always fun to be around, and for some reason, always so happy to see me. If he’s in the middle of something when he sees me, like a conversation or something, he’ll hold his arm out to the side to get me to come get a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
A Boston accent- honestly, I just find them to be really hot for some reason, and so hearing one puts me in a good mood
Weddings– again, duh.
4) Describe your dream vacation (ie. money/time off work/etc is not an issue).
Wow, umm… this keeps changing, but…. It’d be long, maybe a month… I’d start with a week in New York (and since money is no object I’d fly a few friends to NY with me), a week in Greece, then ten days or so traveling around the rest of Europe by train, spending a day in Paris here, a day in Berlin there… then spend the last few days at an all inclusive resort in Mexico relaxing before going back to work. I’d also definitely have to be traveling with at least one friend.
4a)what would you do in each of those places? why did you choose those destinations?
They’re just places I’ve always wanted to go. In New York I’d see shows and go shopping. There’s a pickle store I’ve heard about that I want to go to that makes their own pickles- several different types. Greece is beautiful, I want to see the old medieval town and the monastery of Agios Markos in Rhodes, and I want to see Santorini. The train around Europe thing just seems like it’d be cool, and then all-inclusive in Mexico because it’s beautiful, it’s warm, and it’s completely relaxing, which would be the perfect way to unwind from several weeks of running around different places being touristy.
5) What are three things you would like to learn?
5a)why do you want to learn those things? what draws you to those?
Doulaism/midwifery- I love babies, and I’m good at helping people, I’m good at being calm in a situation, and I just think that there is nothing more special than helping someone bring a baby into the world.
Garment construction- Being in SCA, it’d be nice to be able to make new clothes whenever I wanted.
Hockey (playing)- I love watching hockey, and a fair number of my friends here play now, so, it’d just be fun.

For those keeping score, the cat is still not quite right. He does seem to be improving slowly though, which is a great relief to me- and most likely to him as well. He’s still living in my bathroom (which is larger than most) because I don’t trust him yet not to pee on stuff he shouldn’t. The dilemma I’m faced with with that is that he’s returning to his snuggly, sociable, purring self, rather than the sulky “mama don’t touch me” hider that he’s been since bringing him home from the ICU, and I want to encourage that, but I don’t really want him on my bed. So, we compromised.
I gathered pillows and one of Julie’s blankets, set my laptop up on a low stool, and sat on the (carpeted) floor of the bathroom watching online episodes of The Class, while snuggling the cat. It wasn’t ideal, but it was pretty damned awesome.

So, the damn cat is still sick, and I think he just might kill me. I feel bad calling him “the damn cat” but dude. I miss my cat. My cat purrs when I pet him, sleeps in my bed at night, and makes me smile. Right now he’s sulky because he doesn’t feel well, and I have to keep him locked in the bathroom because he can’t control where and when he pees. He seemed like he was doing better yesterday so I let him out of the bathroom to sleep with me, which resulted in my quilt, sheets and pajamas getting thrown in the washing machine at 1:30 in the morning. My featherbed needs to be professionally cleaned.
Any guesses as to where we went today? If you guessed “the vet” you win! What do you win you ask? Yeah, that’d be a hearty pat on the back given the vet and cleaning bills I’m racking up over here. He’s got a fever and they suspect a UTI. They wanted to put him on Metacam and I said no. The vet even admitted that it is a risky and potentially dangerous drug, but it has the best chance of making him better. Instead he’s back on a medication he just finished, and a separate pain medication.
I’m feeling a little bit guilty for refusing to give him the Metacam, because the two times I gave it to him it really did seem to help him, and so far what we did today hasn’t stopped him from peeing on the floor. I’m just so frustrated with this entire situation. It kills me that I can’t make him better.