Has anyone else seen the iPhone commercial that bills the iPhone as a necessity for being in the wilderness? It's all, hey, there's a compass app so you can see what direction you're going on your hike, and an app that identifies the birds you'll see, and one that tells you how to avoid poison ivy! Really? REALLY?? If you need to bring your iPhone to go on a hike, YOU'RE DOIN' IT WRONG.

Current Mood: annoyed

At the request of Lisa, I am returning to the Livejournal. Let's see if I can maybe keep up with it now that it's summer break. Like last time I showed up here briefly, I'm not even going to attempt to catch up on everything.

It's been a pretty fantastic week. Monday I baked during the day for the first time since I moved to this city (normally my baking is midnight-ish, which is lovely too but makes my roommates think I'm manic) and also did a little cooking and a lot of laundry, all of which I was thrilled to have time for. So nice to get out of my food ruts a bit - I tend to always make the same (usually portable) things, so that I don't even really have to take the time to think about what I'm making. Tuesday Sarah and I went to a show featuring Red Molly along with two artists I'd never heard of, Kelleigh MacKenzie and Beaucoup Blue, and lots of foot-tapping groovy bluesy bluegrassy music was heard. Also crepes were eaten. Yesterday, valjean615 and rockradar and I went to see Peter Mulvey, and...damn. I know I have seen him before. It's been a while, so maybe I just don't remember this clearly, but I think something about this show was just astronomically better than anything else ever. Dunno if was me or something external. But I felt - and, Seth confirmed, I also looked - as joyous as if I had just been proposed to (and said yes). That is how uncontrollably I was smiling and laughing (out of happiness, in the complete absence of anything funny). The awesomeness of last night is rivaled only by a camping/contra trip a couple weeks ago that involved traveling with my beloved road trip buddies, setting up camp on a flat spot just off the AT by a lovely stream, dancing to Wild Asparagus and George Marshall, making tea out of creek water boiled on the campfire I built successfully, and singing rounds and 3-part harmonies in the woods. Yeah. Two events that will probably make the top-10 list of best moments of my life, within two weeks of each other. Then today, I drove a friend to IKEA to pick up furnishings for her new apartment and earned the best transportation karma ever (perfect parking spots whenever I needed one all day, and every train I took arriving as soon as I stepped onto the subway platform); ate some delicious cookies (and brainstormed new baking experiments!) with Seth on the steps of his theater, where I was ushering; and went swing dancing, where I danced with some astoundingly good partners and didn't make a complete fool of myself (despite falling full-out on the floor at one point - witnesses insist this happens to everyone).

It's shaping up to be a great summer. I have a job as an Assistant Stage Manager that will sill allow me to go to some of Falcon Ridge, I'm going to take my mom's guitar on long-term loan and work on learning to play it, go to museums I get into for free but never have time for, read for fun... Mmm. Awesome. I must be doing something right to get the privilege of living this life.

Current Mood: happy

[I realize I have not updated in ages. I am not even going to attempt a summing up of the past couple months. I am just going to pick up as if I was never gone, and then probably disappear again into the whirlwind of this semester.]

The other day, I made the claim to my roommate that I don't do anything I'm ashamed of, only things I'm embarrassed by. And then I realized that a) that's shockingly true and b) I have been embarrassed a lot recently. Possibly more than usual. Here is a non-comprehensive list of some of the causes of said embarrassment:
-Yesterday it was about 50 degrees outside, warmest day in quite a while. All the ice and snow were completely melted, no more slippery sidewalks. So, naturally, while rushing to cross a street on the way to rehearsal, I WIPED OUT in the middle of the road and skinned my right palm and left knee (through my jeans). Yup.
-I have ranted to at least 5 people about my annoyance with the most recent plot development on Gossip Girl.
-I acted like I knew more than I did about a particular contemporary American playwright in my contemporary American playwrights class and I'm pretty sure the professor, if not the whole class, saw right through it.
-My parents had to bail me out because I didn't deposit my roommate's rent check in time for my own rent check to clear when I sent it in. (This is the one that verges most closely on shame, because I fucking hate that shit. I almost cried after I hung up the phone with my dad. Even though I knew it would be repaid in a matter of 3 days.)
-I wasted time on the internet when I should be doing homework, then stay up until 3 am reading Freud and not absorbing any of it. And wake up again at 7 to read some more. And suck down gallon-sized mugs of tea, not as much for the caffeine as for the activity and the need to pee, which keeps me awake.
-I wait until my classmates express their opinions about shows we've seen before I share my own, which often coincidentally sound similar to theirs.... Funny.

Now before I get back to the books, one piece of happy news:
Falcon Ridge ticket purchased! \/\/00t! I have no idea what I am doing this summer, which means I have no idea if I'll actually be able to go, but if not I'm sure I will find someone else who wants a ticket. :)

OK, two pieces of happy news:
Dance Flurry this weekend! I now have a place to sleep AND people to ride in my car! I am glad I did not let not having such plans settled deter me from deciding I was going to the event. :D

Current Mood: cheerful

Amazing how much less I post when I'm not procrastinating...

I've been done with first semester for over a week. Haven't gotten any of the papers back, of course, but I did get some very nice feedback from my directing professor on my final scene (which I ended up having to act in due to a failure of communication between me and one of my actresses) and I feel pretty confident about the rest of the work I turned in. Actually one of the papers was maybe the worst thing I've ever written. But it was enthusiastic, which has been all that matters in that particular class. So, Becca: 1. Grad school: 0.

The past week turned out to be much shorter than expected, and I did not do nearly all the things I meant to do. But I did get together with the non-school friends I've been neglecting while school was crazy, and saw a few shows, and cleaned my apartment, and attended a few Columbia friends' holiday parties. Oh, and I FINALLY put up a curtain in my window and hung a mirror on my closet door. And even did most of my Christmas shopping.

Tonight is a Hannukah party at the apartment of one of my fellow dramaturgs. There's a competition for latke toppings - prizes awarded for best sweet, best savory, and most original. I did a twist on the classic applesauce: a medium-spicy apple-mango salsa. I think I overdid it a bit on the sugar I put in to encourage juiciness, but other than that I'm quite proud of the result. There's a nice delay before the jalapeño hits so you get to taste everything else and then the heat creeps up on you. Also I got to work on my knife skills - I wasn't dedicated enough for a true brunoise but I did produce a remarkably consistent little dice. Not sure which of the 3 categories I'm competing in, because it's not all that original and it's half-sweet half-savory, but for once I'm not feeling especially competitive, so whatevs.

Then tomorrow morning I brave the weather and traffic to head upstate. Went to get my car today and drove it down into the city so that I can leave as early as possible so that I can not be rushing and stressed about the inevitable slowdowns, and the parking karma I've been due finally kicked in: there were two empty spots on my block when I got here. I actually took the one farther from my door and parked at the end of the block because of the snow banks left by the plow - I figured given the already challenging circumstances I might as well take the spot with TONS of room in front of it for adjustment, especially since it was still a very short walk to the door. Babe's all-wheel drive did admirably. So, thank you, gods of parking spots. I much appreciate it.

Now, perhaps I should actually clean my bedroom, as I have been planning to do all week.

Current Mood: accomplished

The end-of-semester craze is starting to feel pretty manageable. Handed in the massive casebook yesterday. Not nearly the quality of work I would've like to produce, and I spent the whole class thinking of things I wished I'd remembered to say, but hey, done is done. Sunday night I slept 2.5 hours, Monday maybe 3.5-4 (which felt like a lot because it was WAY more than I expected!) and made it through Monday and Tuesday with NO caffeine except for the chocolate in some chocolate chip cookies. Got back from classes at 5:30-ish yesterday evening, got into bed, and slept until 7 am. It was awesome. This morning I even had time to do a little writing for the last session of playwriting class, for the first time in, um, a long time.

I had finally come up with a quasi-concept for my directing scene, and then on the bus this afternoon on the way to the Indian consulate to pick up my brother's and my visas (yup, something else I accomplished!) I was struck by a genuine inspiration while listening to the ladies across the aisle from me chat in Spanish. So I'm going to do this scene that's kind of a mash-up of Ibsen's A Doll House and the movie Maria Full of Grace. I have e-mailed two actresses to see if they'll do it and I have a back-up plan if not. Pretty psyched to have that be coming together. I have to finish compiling the script, but no biggie.

So now the next week is just putting together that scene, rehearsing for an hour or two, writing one 10-page paper and one 5-page paper, reading the play written by a playwright I'm working with and meeting with her to discuss it. The only classes I have next week are on Thursday, by which time all that needs to be done anyway. This is feeling superbly manageable, as long as I don't procrastinate like a fiend. I'm hoping I've learned my lesson on that.

Current Mood: optimistic

At most of the contra dances I've been to, women have outnumbered men. I greatly prefer dancing with another woman than sitting out a dance, so it's never been too unusual for me to have a female partner. But I always thought of those dances as throw-aways - if there was some particularly awesome figure it might be fun, but I was resigned to the prospect of no really good swings (if I was leading, that is - maybe some good neighbor swings if I was dancing the girl's part) and just settling for being out on the floor.

Then I went to my first dance weekend this spring, and for the first time I had some really awesome dances with female partners. One where we switched roles each time through the dance, which was a fantastic and fun challenge, and two with really strong female leaders who were just plain great to dance with. It was this epiphany like, hey, women can actually lead each other and this is still really dancing. Seems silly in retrospect.

So I've continued practicing my leading skills (thanks especially to gender-role-free dancing) and trying to spread awareness of the potential for awesomeness in girl-on-girl contra. Tonight at the closing dance of the Thanksgiving Dance Weekend, I danced with other women 2 or 3 times, and all of them were really good - one was a little awkward at first while she was figuring out if she could trust me to lead her, but eventually she warmed up to it and at the end she told me I was possibly the best partner she'd ever danced with! Hell yeah. That's me. Opening eyes since 1983.

Now back to work. And laundry. And packing. Oh my!

Current Mood: cheerful

This evening after class I hopped on the MetroNorth out to Westchester to pick up my car Babe so's I can leave for my parents' for Thanksgiving as soon as I'm done with school tomorrow. Had a nice little dinner with the great-aunt and was ready to leave her house about 8:30, home by 9, do some work on this huge project, etc.

But my battery was dead. And neither I nor my great-aunt have jumper cables, so call AAA we did. They showed up around 9:40, jumped the car right up, and off I went. Back in my neighborhood by 10:10, searched for a parking spot for about 40 minutes. Finally parked on fucking Dyckman St., which is 3 subway stops away from my building. Got back home from that and...there was someone pulling out of a spot across the street from my door. Fucking A.

These, plus the insurance bill that recently arrived and is due 12/24, are the straws on the camel's back. I haven't used my car since Labor Day and, apparently when I do use it, it's a huge-ass hassle. I'm going to be living in NYC for at least 2.5 more years. There is no sense paying a total of thousands of dollars for insurance for this still relatively inconvenient transportation option. So I will either be selling the car before the insurance is up or leaving it uninsured in my parents' driveway for the next 2.5 years. Because this shit don't make no sense.

I am really sad about saying goodbye to Babe, disappointed that I'm not going to see him grow up to 200,000 miles...I'll miss my trusty buddy but, let's face it, I barely see him anyway and he'll be happier with someone who lets him out of the garage more than once every 2 months.

It's been a good and well-rounded weekend, but...oof.

I believe I already mentioned here the play I went to on Friday. Then yesterday I spent the whole day working on my Casebook, except for when I was making/eating/cleaning up lunch (I hadn't really done anything that counts as "cooking" in FOREVER, so I felt I deserved to take a little time for that), and I started actually writing some of the sections, so I feel a little better about it. Still going to take a lot to get it done though. Happy Thanksgiving to me.

Anyway. Last night I made the time for contra dancing, and was very glad that I did so. Weirdly, I was unusually popular as a partner - people kept asking me to dance very quickly after each previous song ended, which meant that I didn't get to dance with a few of my semi-regular partners. But it was a good dance nonetheless. Against my better judgment I also went out with folks to the diner afterwards, and then somehow once I got home I ended up being awake until 4. Bad choice. Because...

This morning I was working a set strike at Columbia. I got about 4.5 hours of sleep before getting up to report there at 10, and then I mostly struck lights and coiled cable but also did other miscellaneous tasks, usually involving lifting, until 8pm, with one half-hour break. I'm not used to being on my feet that long and some of the things I had to lift were awkwardly shaped and such, so I am in a bit of physically tired pain now. But I still had fun. The TD, Tom, is clearly one of those tech guys who usually doesn't trust girls to do anything, but even though this was only the second time I'd worked with him, he really shows me a lot of respect and doesn't give me a lot of the crappy menial muscle-less tasks he doles out to other girls. Though there were a couple of times he didn't accept my help on rigging stuff with out-of-weight pipes. I can do that shit. But whatever. He'll learn. And as icing on the cake of fun tech work, I'm getting PAID for it this time! Woot.

[ETA: Oh, yeah, and I brought my own wrench again today, and on the SECOND light I was striking, the C-clamp was REALLY tight and the bolt was a little stripped, and while I was struggling with it my wrench BROKE. a) I don't know my own strength! and b) but that wrench had sentimental value! Oh well.]

Now, shower and bed, because I'm working some more tomorrow: 10am - 10pm. Yipes.

Current Mood: tired

I'm in one of those stressy periods where I ricochet rapidly between "OK, this isn't that much work, it's totally manageable" and "OMG HOW AM I POSSIBLY GOING TO EVER FINISH ALL THIS?!?!" Tasks to be accomplished before the end of the semester (December 11) include:

-Researching and compiling actor packets for Freshwater, a play going up in January at the company where I'm interning - finished yesterday! (Pending approval)
-Miscellaneous reading assignments.
-Working with a playwright on a new play she has written.
-2 final papers, one of 5 pages and one of 8-10.
-Final directing scene, which I must write/find/whatever, cast, and rehearse outside of class.
-Dramaturgical casebook - this is the BIG one, and it's due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It basically involves becoming a complete expert on a play of my choosing: researching the social/historical context, the playwright's biography and other work, prior productions, criticism, reviews, etc. AND presenting a pretty thorough proposal for a hypothetical new production of it - production aesthetic, casting recommendations, choices of director and designers, etc. I've seen an example of a completed project. It was a 2-inch 3-ring binder FULL of stuff. Also, I picked a German play, so lots of my research is involving German reviews and criticism. I haven't really used German in about 4 years. Bit of a lapse in judgment, there.

Other commitments include:
-Working a strike/load-in at one of Columbia's theatres for 10 hours tomorrow and 12 on Monday.
-Classes (obviously).
-Going home for Thanksgiving.
-Contra dancing tonight and at the Rochester Thanksgiving Dance Weekend (technically, of course, these could be sacrificed, but then I would be a much less happy person).
-Seeing miscellaneous plays like, last night, 36-24-36, a cheerful little piece about eating disorders.

I shouldn't write entries like this because all of a sudden I've been pushed back into the how-will-I-ever-finish-this mode. Oops.

Current Mood: busy

On the subway coming home from contra dancing tonight, I got into a rather lengthy discussion about educational inequity and abstinence-only education with an astoundingly mature, articulate, and rational home-schooled 16-year-old. It was really amazing. The kid is almost 10 years younger than I am but we talked as if we were peers about some of the most complex issues I can think of. When I go on my education-related rants I'm always afraid I'll bore people, and that was magnified a bit in this case, but he had a lot to say on the subject himself and was at least good at pretending to be interested in my perspective.

It was cool, of course, but on the other hand it makes me think how sad it is that the New York public schools were deprived of a kid like that. I'm not sure I'm ready to go into my personal dilemma about whether to educate my own (future hypothetical) children in public schools. Well I guess I am, briefly. Basically I think one of the reasons low-performing schools don't get better is that people who can and who care and who know good education when they see it send their children other places, which reduces accountability and the percentage of kids likely to be consciously excited about learning. On the other hand, I completely understand why parents would not want to sacrifice or risk their own kids' education in an effort to change that, and I'm not sure I will, either.

Anyway. Lots of food for thought was devoured on the long 1 train ride home.

P.S. This was a fellow contra dancer. I didn't just start ranting at some random 16-year-old stranger on the subway at 1 AM.

Current Mood: impressed