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November 30, 2004
BREAK A LEG, PAUL!
And now for something completely different:
Poly has a favorite toy. After many trials, of many, many toys, he has found the thing he loves more than anything. This:
He loves it more than attacking feet (bare and sock clad are equally favored), he loves it more than catnip squid, he loves it more than knocking noisy things around on the floor, he even loves it more than attacking Imogen. And we love the fact that it's really sturdy and he doesn't seem to have done any serious damage to it yet. Despite all his "loving."
This thing is bigger than his head, but he runs all over the house with it in his mouth. This is how much he loves it.
One of the things he loves best about it is the sound. It's got a chip and a speaker in it, and it plays "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Only, because it's a cat, the words are replaced with meows. As in, "Meow Meow Meow meowmeowmeowmeowmeow, Meow meow meow meowmeowmeowmeowmeow." You can imagine how much we love that part too. Especially in the middle of the night.
The advantage to his loving this toy so much, however, is that it's a fantastic distraction. If he's attacking Imogen or getting into something he oughtn't (like attacking feet that are in bed), you just have to trigger the song, and he races hell for leather toward the sound.
I love cats.
Posted by sally at 08:35 PM | Comments (1)
This Wasn't Supposed to Happen
According to the weather guys (NOAA and weather.com), it was supposed to be clear today. The above photo was taken at 9:20am. I don't know if you can tell, but it is snowing in the picture. Not really what I'd call clear. But it's beautiful. And it's still snowing...
Since I'm on a picture kick today, I thought I'd give you some comparison pix for Poly as well.
This was him 3 1/2 months ago:
And this is Poly this morning:
As a bit of a reference, the brown shoe is Dave's (Men's 12). Poly is still sort of kitten-shaped, but definitely not kitten-sized.
Posted by sally at 09:09 AM
November 29, 2004
I Am Typing This from My New Computer!!
It's beautiful. And so lightweight. And it doesn't have the nasty data-mining, popup producing, process-slowing malware that my other machine had on it. Not sure where it came from. Sucks to think it might have come from a legitimate (as in, I paid for it) music download. But that's really the most likely source. Not getting music from that site again, I tell you what.
The screen is much brighter than the old screen. I may need reading sunglasses to work on this computer, rather than my old lady reading glasses. (Of course, reading sunglasses are vastly more hip.)
Once its memory gets wiped, the old computer (for those of you wondering about these things) is being donated here.
Posted by sally at 07:15 PM
November 28, 2004
Long Day O' Jazz
Taking a brief break from typing and reading and writing and studying. I just finished (for good, it's all printed and stapled with bibliography and title page) my Jazz and the Development of the Individual paper. I'm glad I waited. I had some stuff to add after reading Ralph Ellison's essay "Blues People" from his book Shadow and Act.
I love Ralph Ellison, and I wouldn't have discovered him at all if I hadn't taken this class. That's one of the great things about choosing to step outside my own department, I stumble across gems like Ellison. His writing just sings. It's beautiful, beautiful prose.
So that paper is done for good now. As is my process paper for my jury. I'm still deep in research for the Ma Rainey paper, though I have a pretty good outline for it now. There's just one more book I want to dip into before I start writing. (I've already got some good quotes from it, thanks to another book I'm using pretty extensively; I figured I should probably go straight to the source.) So the rest of my day will be a combination of "dipping" into Black Pearls by Daphne Duval Harrison and reading (and reading) my Jazz History notes for the "quiz" we have tomorrow. (I adore how the instructor refers to these hour-long, mind-bending ball-busters as "quizzes.")
Wheee.
Posted by sally at 01:58 PM
November 27, 2004
Dave "Sent" Me Flowers
He ordered 'em online and they arrived today. Very pretty. Two small bunches of roses and a clump of some kind of berry, each in its own separate vase.
The best part, though, was the card. It reads:
Sally my love, 7 years... seems like forever. Love, me.
Talk about two minds with the same thought.
(Dave insists that I credit our friends Katie and Judy with the origins of "seems like forever." We can't remember which set of parents had dinner with the couple who made that comment the night of their 4th anniversary.)
Posted by sally at 02:46 PM
WooHoo! Seven Years! Dave and I Have Been Married for Seven Whole Years!
(Seems like forever.)
Posted by sally at 09:03 AM
November 26, 2004
Why Don't People Write This Well Anymore?
From a paper on the first accurate tornado prediction by Robert C. Miller, Colonel, USAF-Retired
A PLEA FOR UNDERSTANDING
The close knit world of the tornado and severe thunderstorm forecaster often seems somewhat demented to those not knowledgeable in this discipline. This apparent derangement is based on our seemingly ghoulish expressions of joy and satisfaction displayed whenever we verify a tornado forecast. This aberration is not vicious; tornadoes in open fields make us happier than damaging storms and count just as much for or against us. We beg your indulgence, but point out the sad truism that we rise and fall by the blessed verification numbers. There is a fantastic feeling of accomplishment when a tornado forecast is successful. We are really nice people but odd.
I assume it's a combination of things: they don't learn to write in school anymore, and they don't read good literature. I'm convinced that much of my ability to express myself is due to my voracious appetite as a reader, really from the moment I figured out how. I read lots, and as a result had a huge vocabulary and a pretty good sense of spelling, grammar and punctuation (though even now I tend to be a bit too liberal in my use of the comma).
TV doesn't really give you any of that, nor does the internet. Too, too many cranks and igmos out there who think "it's" is possessive and "your" is a contraction of "you are." And those are really just tiny symptoms of a larger problem. That's why I'm so obnoxious with my students over their written work. I think that part of the function of a class in communication is to help students express themselves clearly and correctly in both written and oral forms.
I'm stepping off my soapbox now.
Posted by sally at 03:32 PM
November 24, 2004
I Am a Dork
Here I was, panicking about getting everything done by Monday, and then I realized the following things:
1) Nothing is actually due on Monday. The only thing that happens on Monday is a Jazz History test (and some classes).
2) My Jazz History papers are due Friday, Dec. 3, and one of them is now written and just needs to be proofed on Sunday.
3)My jury process paper is due Monday, Dec. 6, and is already written and printed and ready to be submitted to my committee members on Monday (a week early).
4) My final play draft is due Friday, Dec. 10, a full two weeks from now.
5) I have no claims on my evenings, or on my Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next two weeks, except to grade speeches and speech papers and write/finish the things what need writing/finishing.
6) Of the four things due over the next two weeks, two of them are done and I have lots more time than I thought I did to get the other two finished.
In other words: I'm golden.
Posted by sally at 09:49 PM
And a Big, Old Happy Birthday to DAD
I'll call you this evening.
Posted by sally at 09:33 AM
November 23, 2004
It's Done! (maybe)
I have 8 full pages of text and Dave says it sounds good. I can't decide. I mean, I don't know what else I could include. And the only reason it's 8 full pages instead of 12 is because I insist on space and 1/2 instead of double-spacing (saves paper). I think I may be too close to it. I'm going to put it away for a few days and start work on my other Jazz History paper, the one on Ma Rainey. I hope I can get that one done this week. I haven't started reading the research yet, and I've got all sorts of stuff.
Posted by sally at 03:25 PM
Paper-writing Hell
I'm 4.3 pages into my first 8-10 page paper for Jazz History and it's like pulling teeth. Which sucks. I expected it to be so much easier. I mean, the research went fabulously. I've got all kinds of stuff from all sorts of sources. And it organized itself perfectly. I put together an outline in about 15 minutes (the speed partly due, I think, to the fabulous new pen with which I was writing).
And that's where the ease and fabulousness stopped.
I went to my office at the University to write, because our cleaning lady came yesterday. (For those of you who are horrified to read that last sentence, know that I, good socialist that I am, would never have caved but: 1) the house was completely disgusting thanks to the complete lack of time for anything created by graduate school, 2)I had horrific asthma and 2-3 bouts with pneumonia last winter caused by the aforementioned dirty house and lack of time and 3) she's a very nice woman in her 20's with a cute little girl and her own housekeeping business, so I'm not paying some huge firm that abuses its employees and you never get a clean house anyway.)
But back to my story.
I went to the office to write the paper. And it took 2 hours to write the 4+ pages. Yes, I had to go through all my notes to organize the supporting material to work with the outline. But then it was like thinking through molasses.
Sssssssllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwww wwwwwwwoooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk.
Paradoxically, at the same time as I was having huge amounts of trouble getting the words out, I seemed to be flying through my outline. So that in the slightly more than 4 pages I am already more than 2/3 of the way through my information and arguments. And I thought I was going to have trouble getting it down to 10 pages. So I now need to go back through and see where I can pad things. (Plus, I need to have more of my own thoughts between the great big sections of quoted material.) So the paper I thought I would have done last night is not done. And I still have to research and write the other.
Fortunately, my fabulous friend Paul just told me about an interview with August Wilson. My second paper is on blues singer Ma Rainey, and I really wanted to be able to talk about Wilson in it because he wrote the play "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." And now I'll have a really new and up-to-date source. WooHoo!
Posted by sally at 09:04 AM
November 21, 2004
One Paper down, 2 to Go
I have finished my process paper. The one my committee reads to get an idea of weaknesses they can exploit when they attack me during my jury. Dave will proof it for me, and then I can give it to them and just wait for the Moment of Doom (cue music of portent and warning).
This time, I have signed up to go first. Hopefully that will mean I don't spend the entire 15 minutes sobbing horrifically. Instead of being a conduit for all of the emotions left in that damn chair, I will be leaving them for everyone else to "enjoy."
Now I have to write the two jazz papers and proof my play. Fortunately, the "Jazz and the Development of the Individual" paper is going astoundingly well, research-wise. I thought I was going to have to work really hard to support my thesis, that it might be too out there, but I've found all kinds of proof, almost without trying. So that's good.
I'm going to print out what I have now. (I've been typing useful quotations into Word so that I can just cut and paste them into the paper when I get down to actually writing it.) I may already be ready to start writing. But that's always the trick, isn't it. To know when to stop trying to find more information and to stick with what you have.
I always end up with about 3x as much as I need. I had an assignment last spring that ended up being 90 pages, which was about 3x the required size. When I turned it in, the secretary in the History Department office said, "OOOh. Looks like somebody's finished their dissertation." I didn't correct her, that way lies embarrassment in copious draughts.
Posted by sally at 03:39 PM | Comments (1)
Polyphemos Weighs 9.8 lbs.
God help us all.
Posted by sally at 02:35 PM
November 20, 2004
Happy Birthday to John
Happy Birthday to John.
Happy Birrrrththththtday to Joh-hon.
Happy Birthday to John.
My little brother is 33 today. Yeek!
May it be everything you hope for.
Posted by sally at 04:42 PM
November 19, 2004
Don't You Hate It When You
type a huge blog entry and then somehow push the back button or something so that it all gets erased? And it was brilliant, I tell you, brilliant!
I spent the day hobbling around like an old woman because my sacrum is out of whack. Why it is now, I don't know. I mean, I do know, I messed it up in early October during animal class when I tried to kick Luis in the head. (Yes, I know that 37 year-old women should not behave that way, but he tore my baby out of my teeth and ran away like a person, and tigers don't like it when people don't play by the rules.)
I thought it was mostly fixed (though I haven't been to a chiropractor or anything), so why it's bugging me today, despite two aleeve, I don't know. I've tried everything I can think of yoga and alexander technique-wise. Plus all of the hanging from the bar stuff which usually works in this sort of situation. I've placed a rolled-up towel along my spine to get gravity to help it out, I've tried everything. And still it feels like things are right on the edge of slipping into place with no actual realignment happening.
It's hard to focus when this kind of thing happens. I can't make notes or actually write things when I'm lying on my back on the floor, or on my stomach on 2 pillows. At least I can bend over now. The aleeve has worked that much. But writing the 2 papers and editing my play is all going to be very tricky if this doesn't get fixed soon.
On a completely different topic, I started writing a story last night. I was playing a video game, and these conversations started running through my head, demanding to be written down. So I obliged. It has a sort of "novella" feel to it, too long to be a short story. Sort of the way my play felt very much like a one act right from the beginning, and not like anything longer or shorter.
The playwriting class is actually what helped me see that maybe I could write other fiction. For one thing, I now know for sure that sometimes you just need to write the stuff down and edit it into something presentable later. That waiting for inspiration to strike can mess up your deadlines and leave you with 3 pages of story. That even when you really don't know how your characters are going to get to the emotional places you need them to go, you can indeed write 12 pages of dialogue in two days if you have a first draft due on Friday.
I also now know that I can write characters with distinct voices, which has never really happened for me before. All of my characters in earlier projects tend to end up sounding like me, so it's nice to know I can create individual people who sound like individuals. 
Most important piece of knowledge of all, I think, was the pearl that dropped from Micki's lips in class the first day when she said, "People talk in phrases, not in sentences." It's so true. That should be the first thing you hear in a fiction writing class.
And for those of you who worry that I act my age most of the time, here is reassurance that, no, mostly I still behave like an 8 year-old. It's kabuki makeup. My friend Masako taught me how to do it and then took the picture. I don't think it's a traditional kabuki face, however.
Posted by sally at 06:28 PM
November 18, 2004
May I Direct Your Attention to the Top of Your Screen?
Where you will see the new title to my weblog. This is the one I wanted, I just couldn't figure out how to change it. Turns out it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. (I'm such a technological dwarf.)
Posted by sally at 09:49 AM
Better Now
In so many ways. I've had a chance to sleep, to read fiction that's not required for anything, to have dinner (and even some breakfasts) with my husband, to play with the cats, to have an extended conversation with my mom on the phone. To do all those things I hadn't been able to do for weeks.
I might even be able to do a little cleaning. Thank goodness I let Dave wear me down and hire someone to dust and vacuum and mop and clean the kitchen and bathroom weekly. There is no way I'd be ably to do those things while my life is the way it is.
So now, after a short vacation (as in, I didn't do any studying for 2 days, though I did attend and teach all my classes--we take what we can get), I am feeling more interested in tackling the topic of Jazz and the Development of the Individual, the subject of my Jazz History paper. I actually like Jazz History, and not just because I blew the curve on the last test. The people fascinate me. Such sad lives, such amazing music.
So much has happened since I last posted. I mean, not lots that means anything to people other than me, but they can write about the important stuff in their blogs.
Our (1st) 7th anniversary was Monday. I refer to it that way because November 16, 1997 was the day we were married by a judge, in his living room. The wedding, at which my parents and his wife were the witnesses, was followed by an excellent dinner. We got married by a judge because we weren't sure our wedding ceremony would be legal. Not illicit, just not legally binding. We had the ceremony which made us feel like we were "really" married on Thanksgiving Day 1997. So November 27th will be our (2nd) 7th anniversary. We celebrate both. Why not? Seems to me we should celebrate our marriage whenever possible.
Anyway, Dave gave me a new pen as an anniversary present. It's gorgeous, it writes perfectly, and the design is "tigereye," which is perfect for so many reasons. I gave him a gift certificate to Flax, and he bought a watercolor set, some watercolor paper and a book on watercolors. I love it when a person uses a gift certificate to get something new to try. He's never done watercolor, but always wanted to. Yay!
Posted by sally at 09:27 AM
November 13, 2004
So very, very tired...
I think I've only got 2 more performances in me. This show is kicking my ass. Other cast members are reporting similar exhaustion. None of us is sleeping well, and we don't wake up feeling refreshed. Hopefully that problem will end with the show.
Last night's performance rocked. And we got the most heartfelt standing ovation I think I've ever experienced. The audience leapt to their feet when we took our bow. There was no sense of, "oh, well, everyone else is standing, I guess I will too." It was spontaneous and enthusiastic. I knew it was a strong show, but wow.
And my fellow cast members are great. We all agreed that last night was our best performance yet, and one of the sophomores said, "That means we have to work harder." Yay. She's not planning on coasting just because she knows she can do it, which is a trap many young performers fall into. So hopefully tonight's performance will be equally strong. (Since I suspect we will be adjudicated tonight, that would be a good thing.)
Posted by sally at 01:20 PM | Comments (1)
November 12, 2004
Friday Morning
We had photo call last night for the archives, and I am exhausted. It went well, very fast, really. I was either onstage being photographed or changing into my next costume. But I still didn't get home until almost 11pm, and I couldn't go to bed right away because I had work to do for my first class. And today my first class is at 8:30. urk.
However. That class is Playwriting. And I now have a complete, 33-page first draft. Well, sort of draft 1b, really. I had a first draft (minus the last 7 pages) done 2 weeks ago. So I've made some of the recommended adjustments, and I wrote the last few pages yesterday. Desperation is quite a cure for Writer's Block. And now that they're written, I can make edits and changes, which is a vastly easier thing than writing the little suckers in the first place.
I'm wiped. Like I have been every day for the past 2 weeks. Well, yesterday and Wednesday weren't so bad. It has to be the show that does this to me. The only difference between the last 2 weeks and the time prior when I felt fine was the intensity and pace of the show. That has to be the difference. I just run myself into the ground out there.
I don't think I can do yoga today. Not yoga and a performance tonight. Too, too tired.
Posted by sally at 06:44 AM
November 11, 2004
OUch
So. At the dramatic climax of the play, there's this thing I have to smash with a can (I hesitate to be more clear until the run is over and the suprise can no longer be spoiled). Because of the nature of the smashing (and my superhuman strength), we have to use a new can and get a new thing every night. Which would be fine. Except that I never actually got to smash a thing until Monday night. We were working with a rehearsal thing for 5 weeks, which I had to deliberately miss during the smashing because we needed to be able to use it for the rehearsals.
When you spend 5 weeks not smashing a thing, and then have 2 rehearsals in which you get to actually smash it, what do you suppose happens on opening night when you're running on adrenaline?
Yep. I missed. Because that's what I'd spent 5 weeks practicing. Well. Actually smashing it is vital to the action of the play, so I tried again. And I figured, if my character was going to be so fucked-up that she smashed it twice, I might as well just go for broke. I pounded that thing so hard with the can (4 times) that I bruised a bone in my hand. And I forced the can open. Yep.
It was a can of spinach. Just call me Popeye.
Posted by sally at 08:29 AM
November 10, 2004
Independence...
...opens tonight. Please, God, give me the energy to survive the ride.
Posted by sally at 07:07 AM
November 06, 2004
Don't Mind Me, It's Tech Week
And so, I haven't had time to think or sleep, much less write.
I have also been avoiding posting here because of all the unhappiness resulting from Tuesday's election, not on just the national level (though I'm not surprised that Bush won; the Republican Party has a very clear identity, and the Democrats were running on the platform of being everybody else). But there were some closer to home issues as well. Oregon not only passed the anti-gay marriage ban, they also repealed their land-use laws, which were the only thing keeping the farmland farmland. Now, it will become a series of strip malls and McMansion developments, and rather than working to be sure our cities are good places to live, people will leave when they get unpleasant. So short-sighted and stupid. But then, most developers are.
Okay. I'm done with that. On to things over which I have some say and control.
I don't have Independence rehearsal today, which is good, because I'm so tired I don't think I could do it again for a while. I do have rehearsal for a scene from Pericles, which my friend John is directing for class, but that's Shakespeare.
I adore John. Not only because he's a kind, intelligent and talented man, but because he has a clearer sense than most people around here of what I can do. He said to me yesterday that he wasn't at all worried about my work. "If it were in lesser hands," were his exact words. In discussing the play yesterday, he mentioned that two of the characters get hit by lightning, and we both lamented the fact that there doesn't seem to be a place for that sort of thing in modern drama.
Posted by sally at 09:42 AM
November 02, 2004
Ahem
Sally Eames-Harlan has voted!
I have a sticker on my shirt and a warm glow about my person. And I saw 7 people I knew at the polling place. The guy behind us in line (David and I made a date) said he doesn't know why election day isn't a national holiday. I think it should be. At least the national elections.
I love voting. When I opened that ballot and punched the candidate of my choice in the Presidential race (his name, obviously, if I were going to punch any actual presidential candidate, it would be his opponent), I got such a thrill I almost started jumping up and down and squealing. I don't understand how people can think it's not important. In fact, in at least one of my speech classes, every single American citizen is voting today (if they haven't already). Good for them.
Posted by sally at 09:20 AM
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