I'm playing an Egyptian exchange student in Better Off Dead on Saturday night at Intercon K. Can I wear my wedding dress to an undead 80s prom? How should I do my hair?

(I'm also playing a Lost Boy in Never Never Again. I'm thinking pigtails, holey jeans and a zipped black vest over a long sleeved tee, with additional elements added as possible.)

ert is playing a Victorian gentleman with a squid on his head and a merman. If you have a squid that can be turned into a hat, a trident or any other useful costuming piece he could borrow, I'm sure he would appreciate it. He's suffering from a lot of work and baby stress (as am I, but spending one's time as a housespouse is more conducive to making this type of request than attempting to fit both a full time job and coparenting in. Slightly).

I want to be excited for Intercon, and I am, but it is smack in the middle of all our winter travel and we have crossed over into oh-god-how-can-it-be-so-soon, and also I appear to be fighting off a cold. Also I'm resistant to change, and so I have some trepidation about the new hotel (even though yes, we needed more space, and yes, I'm sure it will all turn out fine, I JUST HATE CHANGE).

Date:	2010-11-21 01:28
Subject:	A fabulous song
Security:	Public
Mood:	giggly

If you listen to NPR, unlike that drunk chick at our New Year's Eve party a couple of years back, you need to watch this video. I have watched it several times and I am still giggling. Also humming the chorus.



p.s. My baby is crawling! She likes music better than NPR.

Date:	2009-08-17 21:23
Subject:	Found art
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

This afternoon, ert and I were having a late lunch/early dinner at gio restaurant before going to see The Time-Traveler's Wife, where they put melon and strawberries into the water and serve you deliciously strong ginger beer, when I looked behind ert across the room and saw a happy face smiling out of the water pitcher at me. So I took a picture. When was the last time a water pitcher smiled at you?

Date:	2008-08-10 03:22
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

Married!

Date:	2007-11-23 01:40
Subject:	Belated Thanksgiving post
Security:	Public
Mood:	accomplished

In no particular order:

I am grateful for my friends, and my fiancé, and my city. I am thankful for my job, despite its problems, and the security it gives me so I can offer both help and hospitality where needed. I am thankful for dinner parties and dinners and parties. I am grateful for my family and for my good terms with them, for ert's family and how wonderful they are, and for the family I have been able to choose. I am thankful for my relative health, and for the ability and motivation to get to work via the MBTA, and for the sun lamp that mitigates the seemingly endless nights in winter. I am thankful for what sunlight there is and that I live somewhere it snows.

I am also grateful for my marvellous, wonderful, amazing bed, where I am now going.

Date:	2007-10-14 21:28
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

While browsing Amazon to find a book my brother might like for his birthday, I ended up on the reviews page for the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the one-star reviews say something along the lines of "oh my god these books are atheist! I would not let any child read these books and adults should stay away from them too!" However, I was particularly struck by this one, titled "Children's Book??":

I am an avid reader, and I love fantasy and children's literature, but what is up with everyone loving these books? I was looking forward to reading The Golden Compass, only to be completely disapointed within a few pages of starting it. I found it to be almost disturbing in its weirdness, and I honestly do not know a child, even an older well-read child, that would be able to read these books without confusion and with a genuine interest in finishing the trilogy. I managed to finish the first book, but had no interest in pursuing the trilogy further, and I was honestly left with a bad vibe from having read The Golden Compass. After reading the comments from the author about his purpose for writing the book, I can understand why I do not like it. What happened to writing children's books with the intent to entertain children with harmless, light-heartedness? I will stick with Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia thank you!!!

First of all, she must not know many children--I can think of several who read and loved the trilogy. Admittedly, they were all readers to begin with. Mostly, though, I love the (almost certainly unintended) irony of thinking that C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia with merely "the intent to entertain children with harmless light-heartedness". I can see favoring the Narnia books over His Dark Materials for the direction of indoctrination, though I don't agree that Pullman was trying to turn readers into atheists, but thinkers, but trying to claim that Pullman had ulterior motives and Lewis did not is patently ridiculous in my opinion.

Date:	2007-09-21 17:33
Subject:	Best crossword clue ever
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

When ert's and my parents were in town the weekend before last, my dad alerted me to the Best Crossword Clue Ever. See if you can get it! It took me a few minutes.

5 letters: IJKLMN

( Answer and poll here. Do not click until you have guessed if you care about that sort of thing.Collapse )

I have been reading a lot of books lately, including a new author I discovered named Dawn Cook and a book of totally creepy Roald Dahl short stories lent to me by fanw. I'm in the middle of the latter, but just started another wedding-related book, A Walk Down the Aisle: Notes on a Modern Wedding, which I'm finding fascinating and very, very relevant. It is a relief to know that other people experience the same things you do.

Date:	2007-07-17 17:46
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

Psst. ert and I are now engaged, for those of you who didn't know. I'm happy and excited and I keep forgetting to say fiance instead of boyfriend, and I'm kind of sad that our relationship no longer prompts long explanations.

Date:	2007-06-08 09:39
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	enthralled

ert and I were planning to go out to dinner on Wednesday night, and since the bus I take from work drops me in Harvard Square, we usually default to Harvard for weeknight dates. We were going to go to Z Square, whose upstairs is a not-particularly-special-looking cafe and whose downstairs is a restaurant/bar with just-this-side-of-chic decor and an interesting and tasty menu. I've been with both ert and jingsaw and it was lovely.

Unfortunately, we miscalculated, as Harvard's graduation was on Wednesday. Oops. Everywhere had a forty-five minute wait--except the "fine dining room" of UpStairs On the Square, which we wandered into looking for Grendel's.

It was wonderful. Everthing was delicious and the chocolate souffle cake (plus toffee and ice cream) was just to die for. They brought out these shot glasses of watermelon gazpacho and lemongrass foam, which they're trying out before adding to the menu, and the waiter brought us complimentary glasses of sparkling dessert wine. We were also seated next to each other on a couch against the wall, where we could people-watch all the grads and their parents. In short, if you have some money to burn on a romantically delicious (or deliciously romantic) dinner, please go.

Date:	2007-03-27 23:25
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	not uplifted

So I adore Doctor Who, and ert has gotten me hooked on Firefly, although I was dubious about it at first. (Now I'm desperately trying to stretch the episodes out as long as possible.) We also have been watching BSG, which, while it had a good first season, has been declining in quality since then, in my opinion. But I'm still enough into it to want to know what happens.

The problem is that we get behind, and it's so depressing that I'm almost never in the mood to watch an episode, because I know it's going to be angry and upsetting and sad and it will never be uplifting. But then I recently hit a fairly major spoiler by not being careful enough about what I read online, and it's been months since I watched an episode. I detest spoilers*, but now I am motivated to at least reach the point where this spoiler occurs, whenever that is, and also to finish the season so I can go back and read this blog post's comments. So tonight we watched the one that aired back around January 15 (The Rapture, I think), where they switched it over to Sunday nights at 10 to die, which caused me to search for a scene from another episode on youtube, which caused me to discover Cylon Roombas, which I find absolutely hysterical.

Also an adorable comparison with the old show with some very cute lyrics.

I did not find what I was looking for, but these were satisfactory. I do need a Doctor Who or Firefly icon, though, I think, for posts like this.

* I have, in fact, practically cried upon revelation of a Doctor Who spoiler from Derek. I did not want to know!

Date:	2007-03-16 12:16
Subject:	Salacious wench or hotheaded noble?
Security:	Public
Mood:	tired

Me, I prefer the salacious wench, but only because my Bedford costume is a bit awkward. As originally noted here, Henry V opened last night to a very small audience; you should help increase the audience size for the next five performances. ert, queen_of_wands, and tirinian all came last night and liked it; so will you.

March 15-17 and 22-24 at 8pm, in La Sala de Puerto Rico in the MIT student center. Reserve tickets or pay at the door.

Let me know if you're coming and I'll come out and talk to you afterwards. I'm also always quite happy to discuss the show.

Date:	2007-03-08 11:48
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

For those of you who don't know (most), I am playing Bedford and Nell in the Shakespeare Ensemble's production of Henry V. I wasn't going to audition, and didn't, because I didn't have time, but they wound up short of actors and asked me to come in. Yay for feeling wanted (especially after hannka complimented me at rehearsal last night. Stage presence, me?). I still don't have time, but I'm doing it anyway.

So, come see me, March 15-17 and 22-24 at 8pm, in La Sala de Puerto Rico in the MIT student center. I don't talk much, but it's shaping up to be a lovely production, with a lot of good people and some very pretty costumes. Email ensemble-tickets@mit.edu to make reservations or go to the website.

( Also, I guess I will jump on this wagon too. Apparently I'm all about wagons lately.Collapse )

Date:	2007-02-25 15:48
Subject:	Looking for a scooter
Security:	Public
Mood:	relaxed

I am currently in search of a scooter. Not a motor scooter, just one of those cute little Razor scooters or whatever that were all the rage six or seven years ago.

At the moment, I am driving to work much more often than I would like, because it takes me half an hour to walk to Harvard to catch the bus. Not only is it cold at eight in the morning, but I am notoriously bad at getting up early enough to take the bus instead of drive (leaving at 7:50 vs. 8:25, if I actually want to be on time for work). I don't seem to have nearly as much trouble waking up at 8 regularly as at 7:20 regularly. It's ridiculous, but in the spirit of working within my current limitations while I attempt advances in anti-soporific technology like clocky, it would be nice to have a device that would cut down the time it takes to get to the bus.

Like a bicycle, you say? The disadvantage to a bicycle is that I then have to lock it up and leave it in Harvard all day, and if it rains or snows, the bike is wet, and besides, the thought of biking up Spring Hill at the end of the day is miserable. I'd like to have something I can fold up and take with me on the bus, use again on the other end, and bring inside with me so it doesn't rust.

I'm happy to buy an old one off you or borrow one and try it out for a couple of weeks; they seem to run about fifty bucks new and I'd rather not buy a new one only to discover I won't use it. So if you know anyone with one sitting in their basement, well, point them over here. Thanks!

Date:	2007-02-21 16:41
Subject:	fling me!
Security:	Public
Mood:	flung

Monkey Fling

Date:	2007-02-14 12:06
Subject:	People who park in front of driveways
Security:	Public
Mood:	relieved

This morning I found out that what happens when you call Somerville about a car parked in front of your driveway. About twenty minutes later, a police car shows up, looks up the license plate, and calls the owner of the car before calling a tow truck.

I was still late for work, but at least I didn't have to completely ruin someone else's morning in retaliation.

Date:	2006-08-24 19:02
Subject:	Into the Woods!
Security:	Public
Mood:	frazzled

...but not home before dark. ert and I are embarking upon a journey deep into the Canadian wilderness. I only dare to travel so far from civilization because I have a Real Live Canadian who assures me that he has definitely done this before and it'll be great, even if the last time was back in the time of the dinosaurs. At any rate, we will be out of any sort of contact for several days --- do not expect to be able to contact either of us any time between this Sunday, August 27 and Wednesday, September 6. No, really, I mean it; we are less reachable than the folks going to Burning Man. Also, we will have way more water. And a canoe*.

You can call my cell or email me (at gmail), but after tomorrow morning, I will probably not get the message until I get back.

I'm really excited! And now I need to go finish the dozen things I need to do before I leave.

Also, a poll, to find out what's been going on in lj-land.

Date:	2006-07-10 13:30
Subject:	Lunch in New York Wednesday?
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

Due to circumstances previously unforeseen, I will be in New York (City) for roughly an hour on Wednesday afternoon. If you are in New York City, you could be having lunch with me!

I believe we will be somewhere in downtown Manhattan (is that a misnomer?), but I can ask ert for clarification. He has a business meeting, so we're stopping on the way down to Maryland. Leave comments! Or call me! Or whatever!

Oh, yeah. I'll also be in Maryland. Call me if you want to hang out. We're going to Assateague on Friday. Whee!

Has something important happened? I haven't been reading livejournal! Answers viewable only to me in case it's Top Secret.

Date:	2006-06-21 17:12
Subject:	Sad wrists
Security:	Public
Mood:	resigned

Being out of school with no more papers has improved my wrists less than I thought it would. So I'm taking the next step and dropping livejournal. I will probably check sporadically, but if you want me to know something, you should email me at my livejournal address, which I get because I am a paid user.

This kind of sucks, because there are a lot of you that I only get to keep up with through lj and this is going to significantly cut down on how much of your life I hear about, but hey, there are phones, and email, and even Real Live Letters, and maybe I will be more inspired to do that. Or to copy some other people and send irregular long updates to a mailing list. Anyway, I'm not not reading or responding to your posts because I don't love you. I'm doing it because I do love my wrists, and I want them to survive. And thrive, doo-wah-wah.

Possible life update post in the future, but don't count on it---I'm trying to find a job and create places for my belongings at Equinox.

Date:	2006-05-01 20:20
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	hosed

Three guesses who will be speaking at BC's commencement this year.

Stephen Colbert? I wish.

W? Warmer!

( Go ahead, make a guess before you click...Collapse )

Drowning in work. Four more days, four more days, four more days. I can do it all. I just have to keep telling myself that and not let my wrists die.

Great Big Sea was lovely, but they failed to play Boston and St. John's. Alas.

Date:	2006-04-05 01:02
Subject:	Waiting til 1:02:03...
Security:	Public
Mood:	amused

...just so I can make a post at 01:02:03 04/05/06, since I'm dumb and awake. Oh well. Trench warfare does that, I hear. Still no free time; it's amazing how tooling expands to fill available space. Still keeping my head above water, though.

Date:	2006-03-30 14:05
Subject:	Go outside and play!
Security:	Public
Mood:	jubilant

I biked to school this morning! It was lovely and I only had to walk my bike up a hill a couple of times at the very end (Parson and Foster Sts.). This is my route as specifically as I can get it. Next time I will stay to the paths next to the river instead of the ones by the road, even though the latter are shorter, since the river ones are in much better repair. It's a much prettier route than the one I used to take (down Cambridge St. to Washington St.) and I'm really excited about doing it again. Maybe not tomorrow, though. I haven't biked all winter, and I think fourteen miles in one day will leave me a little sore. Even if I'd *like* to do tomorrow. I guess I can hope. I planned to leave at 10:30 for my noon class and got out the door at about ten of eleven and to class on time, so an hour and a half is a good time to aim for until I get back into it and am averaging a faster speed.

Date:	2006-03-12 11:27
Subject:	Shameless plug
Security:	Public
Mood:	busy

So I went skiing in Banff for several days, and now I am returned to Camberville and gearing up for tech week for King Lear. I'm playing Edmund, the villainous bastard [daughter] of Gloucester, which is really cool, and you should all come and see me if you can, because the show was looking really good even before I left. It's March 16-18 and 23-25, 8pm Thursday through Saturday this weekend and next. Leave a comment here or email ensemble-tickets@mit.edu to reserve tickets.

Come see me! I get to be all villainous and evil and I get swordfights.

( Publicity email sans ascii artCollapse )

Date:	2006-03-07 19:11
Subject:	Yesterday's airport writeup of F!
Security:	Public
Mood:	happy

My regret about Intercon is always that it's so *short*. There's not enough time to LARP and party and sleep and see all the people you want to see, or even three out of four.

Despite coming in already sleepdepped and out of the worst week I've had in a long time, I had a fantastic Intercon. Here's the obligatory character list, with possible spoilers behind the cuts:

Friday night I played in ( Operation Red Door as Tara Day.Collapse )

I managed to get five or six hours of sleep by craftily evading the people who wanted me to go to another party, and woke up the next morning almost on time to play ( Port Hidalgo as pirate crewman Solomon IvesCollapse )

A parasol lent by arachne8x and the perfect dress lent heroically at the last minute by Danielle-whose-lj-name-I-don't-know, and I was off to play ( Mimi Pinnacle in 'Tis No Deceit to Deceive the Deceiver.Collapse )

I didn't have a Saturday night game; I was waitlisted for Lord of the Two Lands, but even that hadn't really caught my interest, and I decided I'd hang out in the con suite and talk to other people without games instead. This was good, because it meant that I ate, and it was even almost a real meal. citabria is amazing; the con suite was really impressive this year. So I hung out and talked to people, including baron_saturday and jingsaw, and then jingsaw and drdt recruited me to play one of the Intercon Z games, ( Choices, as Dr. Benjamin Kraft.Collapse )

I went to the dance party in my piratical satiny pants and a corset, and finally managed to get to bed in time for a mere three and a half hours of sleep, which was perfectly in character for ( Bright Alice in Wonderland 2.0Collapse )

Then running around to say goodbye and I was off, way more tired than I should have been to drive. Dropped people off, got home, took a nap that only made me more tired, went to rehearsal (I'm playing Edmund in King Lear with the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble. Come see me! March 16-18, 23-25.), came home and packed, and now I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a flight to Calgary so I can go skiing with my dad.

See y'all next year!

Date:	2006-02-20 17:20
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

I spent this past weekend in San Francisco with ert at longueur and amberphoenix's handfasting. It was lovely and I spent the whole weekend terribly happy, because as of Thursday night ert and I are engaged to be betrothed, probably sometime in early summer.

This is not engaged to be married; we're going to do a year and a day betrothal and, you know, go on from there. But we'll get to that point eventually.

And of *course* he had to get up and tell a hundred people during a toast. I nearly died. Of asphyxiation when queen_of_wands and lightcastle and the other people I was near smothered me in hugs.

Happy happy happy happy happy.

edit: Extra details at http://ert.livejournal.com/73681.html.

Date:	2006-01-30 01:43
Subject:	Books journal
Security:	Public
Mood:	drained

I've created a second livejournal for the purposes of keeping track of the books I read this year. Go friend livingembers if you're interested. Currently, it has one entry; it will have more when I get around to writing about the rest of the books I've read so far this year, starting January 1st. "I bet it will update more frequently than this."

Term started two weeks ago and I am already way behind, because of the Guild game, which I won, except I lost because laura47 spilled my plots to half of the half of game that was still alive on Saturday night. I knew I shouldn't have trusted her! No matter what my sheet said. Actually, I think she had every right to tell. My character was treating hers like crap because mine was scared and upset about the way hers had reacted to Secrets. I love Guild games, but oh my god tendays are hosing; I have barely seen ert for ten days and have had no time to do reading for school and and and. But the reputation of the Swiss Guard is ruined, I successfully bred an oil-eating bacteria and dumped it on a Saudi Arabian oil field, the stronghold of the Assassins is attacked if not destroyed, and I left game alive. With an almost 50% death rate, that's an accomplishment. The Illuminati were so not an evil group. I don't think you can be an evil spy group if you're not one of the ones trying to destroy the world, kill people, or populate it with clones. Honestly.

Now I play catch-up.

Date:	2005-12-15 16:13
Subject:	A poem for You!
Security:	Public
Mood:	hosed

I could be packing up my stuff,
I could be wrapping Christmas love.
I could be tooling for exams,
I could be online, purging spam.
Instead, I'll put this post on view---
Just leave a note and I'll compliment you!

Reply to this post, and I'll tell you one reason why I like you. Then put this in your own journal, and spread the love.

Date:	2005-12-08 17:55
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	exhausted

Didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, but my final portfolio for poetry is done. Four more "things" to accomplish and the semester will be over.

There might be a snow emergency tomorrow. I have no idea if I am parked on a snow emergency street, and I would have to walk all the way down Spring Hill and under the train tracks to check. Then walk back. I think I will settle for checking whether Ert's car is on the right side, since there *will* be a snow emergency in Somerville tomorrow starting at 6am.

The worst---the very worst thing---that has happened to me today, though, is finding out this. No more Krispy Kreme? I am heartbroken.

Date:	2005-11-10 18:09
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful

Other people were doing it. Mine even ended up looking sort of like me:

( Cute little avatars!Collapse )


I made one with fox ears and a tail that looks like old-school-Janet, too. :)

My mood is remarkably cheerful for how badly my week has been going. (In the degree-audit-says-I'm-not-graduating kind of way.)

Date:	2005-10-25 19:36
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	upset

This is one of those days that is NOT MINE in the way that this pony is NOT MINE.

( NOT MINECollapse )

First of all, I am so hosed. That's actually okay. I mean, in comparision to the rest, it's a breeze.

But then I got into my car this morning and instead of leaking a little, the sunroof has started leaking a lot again. So my jeans were immediately soaked. Ewwww. And of course, in order to seal it, the sealant has to dry for twenty-four hours. When was the last time we had twenty-four hours of no rain? So I have no way to fix this. I went inside and changed my pants, then took ert's car to class, leaving him with my keys to put plastic bags over the seat and park it in the garage next to his workplace as the most wonderful boyfriend ever. It all made me late, but this is also almost okay.

Except that I am freezing and soaked all day, not owning a warm raincoat, or even a raincoat at all. Also, I think there is a hole in one of my sneakers. So I'm wandering around in a hoodie and the inside vest bit of my winter coat. I really need to go get one of my winter coats. Really.

Also, coming in to SIPB, I put my hand on the bottom of my backpack and it came away a little wet and sticky. "Ew," I said. "I think I put my bag down on a wet spot on the ground." But no, in fact, there was a stealth banana in the bottom of my backpack that had squished. A banana which I do not recall putting in there. I mean, I put a banana in my backpack earlier today, but I consumed that this afternoon. But whether I put it there or not, it was there, and required much cleaning, and many of the things in my backpack are ruined.

Like I said, not my day. All I need now is for the set to fall on me.

Date:	2005-10-24 00:44
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	hosed

I blinked and missed the weekend. This is exceedingly unfortunate, since it would have been nice to *have* a weekend after five weekends in a row of traveling (Toronto, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware, and California) and I had plans to Write, and instead spent many hours building a set.

I'm somewhat mollified by the knowledge that it is a set I designed. It's for Macbeth, which is being put on by the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble this weekend and next, Thu-Sat at 8pm. You should come see it. The set's not done enough for me to tell if it's really going to be good and I haven't seen any rehearsals so I don't know if it's going to be good, but it's Shakespeare and I'm running sound. If you tell me when you want to come I can reserve tickets.

Classes are ever more hosing. All this rehearsal doesn't help. I hope I don't fall terribly behind this week; I'll be fine with non-fiction and poetry, I think, although I am required to turn in a revision this week, but I have two playwriting assignments to finish and a logic midterm on Thursday, along with a pset for Tuesday, and I'm sure there's Java reading to do. I rather feel as though I am gripping the edge of a cliff with my fingers and attempting to climb back up.

Just in case anyone was interested. I miss seeing people, but it doesn't look terribly like I'll be able to start again any time soon.