Sallyacious

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August 31, 2006

Can I Just Say

I love what I do?

I love the teaching, whether acting or comm. I love the "Aha!" moments. So many of those happened in rehearsal this evening. I think some of the actors are really beginning to get ahold of this new way of looking at the text, and I think it's helping.

It was a very relaxed atmosphere tonight, and they accomplished so much. I don't think there's anything better than watching an actor suddenly get smacked between the eyes by a realization and then seeing them jump up and down because they're just so excited at what it all means.

I'm so very, very glad I got some sleep last night (9 hours, as opposed to the 4-5 of the previous 3 nights), because I felt much more in charge and useful than I did at yesterday's rehearsal, when there were a couple of, "Oh. Shit. They've stopped talking. That' means they're done. Now I have to say something. To come up with something more to make this clearer" moments. I was not very good at those last night. But tonight... Ah. Tonight was a vastly different story. So many discoveries. So much really, really good stuff.

I'm so glad I get to be a part of this process.

Posted by sally at 11:48 PM

August 30, 2006

Morning? Again? Already?

How could it be morning again? It was morning when I went to bed.

Full teaching and rehearsal days are taking their inevitable toll. Especially since rehearsal goes to 10:30 and the next day starts at 6:30 and before I can go to bed, I have to write up all the impressions I had of the rehearsal to email them to the director because he's out of town and doesn't want to miss a thing. (I don't mind doing this, mind you, I am happy to oblige and also have a written record of the discoveries made. It's just that last night's took an hour to write, and I type 75 wpm.)

So I get up at 6:30 (or a little after 7 because for the last 2 days I've awakened, put my glasses on and fallen back asleep until Dave's alarm went off), get ready, do some email checking from here, go to school, teach, teach, eat, teach, teach, eat and rehearse. And then it's 1am again and I have to do it all over again the next day.

Have I mentioned that I don't do well on sleep deprivation?

My biggest concern is that because I'm not at my best the students/actors I'm working with aren't getting the kind of attention they deserve.

But oh, Dear Lord, the sunshine. My eyes. They burn. They buuuuuuurrrrrrrrn!

Posted by sally at 08:37 AM | Comments (1)

August 28, 2006

I Got It All Done

To a greater or lesser degree. Some of it was accomplished more artistically and thoroughly than other bits, but I have outlines for the three things I teach/lead today (7 hours of teaching today for me wheee!) and the laundry is done and the living room clean and the lesson plans for tomorrow look really good. Plus, I'm now certified at Reiki Okuden level.

It was a long and exhausting weekend. Yes, I took some time off here and there to do other things, but I must say, I don't feel anywhere close to relaxed and refreshed and full of the energy that will allow me to survive the day today.

Here's hoping I can get another egg salad sandwich for lunch.

Posted by sally at 09:27 AM

August 25, 2006

Things to Do Before Monday

Create a lesson plan for the two acting 105 classes I'm teaching while the instructor is out of town.

Create a lesson plan/agenda for the teaching assistant in-service meeting I'm leading this semester while the head of the program is out of town.

Create a rehearsal/training schedule for the Country Wife rehearsal I'm leading on Monday evening while the director is out of town. (I'm teaching his acting classes for him too. It's not like the entire university faculty is gone.)

Create a lesson plan for my own Comm 101 classes. (Obviously, I'm not going anywhere.) edit - DONE!!

Check the online discussion forums for my Comm 101 classes to be sure everyone's behaving and not confused.

Clean the house. Because our housecleaner did a very good thing for herself and quit the week before classes started. The week I began all-day training for the incoming teaching assistants. So it's been two weeks now of Dave and me running into the house dropping one load of stuff, picking up another load of stuff and leaving again. God, I hope we can find someone else to do the cleaning. I don't think I can do it and maintain the schedule I have right now. (On the other hand, she's got a job with benefits and a steady paycheck now.) - Edit 8-25-06 - the living room and hallway are clean. I'm calling that a partial completion.

Grocery shopping. Edit 8/25/06 - Done!

Laundry - Edit 8/26/06 - Partly done. Dave's covering while I go to the workshop.

Attend the Psychology & Communications Faculty & Staff BBQ tonight. This is a great group of people. They're including me in everything. So warm and friendly. Edit 8/26/06 - This was a tremendously fun event. I like the idea of being faculty. Even if I'm just pretending to be while someone else is away. I enjoy it. I want to be faculty. In a department that seems to be as full of nice people as the Psych Dept. (Quote of the evening from the Chair, in discussing his youth spent working in lockdown with schizophrenics, "Because it turns out running down the street naked wielding a sword is not only crazy, it's illegal.")

Go to my friend Maaike's house to play silly games and laugh a lot.Edit 8/26/06 - This was a HUGE amount of fun. Once Upon a Time is a great game. GREAT game.

Attend the all-day Reiki Okuden level workshop Saturday from 9-5.

Attend a Saturday evening performance of Waning Moon, a one-act play by a friend & colleague of ours, starring, among others, our former housekeeper.

Take pictures of the Arboretum on Sunday.

The thing is, I can do all of these things, but they take time. And I'm not sure there's enough time to get them all done and focus on things like, maybe, beginning to learn my lines for Salesman and sleeping.

Posted by sally at 12:20 PM | Comments (4)

August 24, 2006

What Crazy Dream Have You Always Held Tightly to Your Heart to Brood Over In Secret?

Why haven't you lived it yet?

Posted by sally at 09:42 PM | Comments (1)

August 23, 2006

Miles Walked Since Monday = Roughly Nine

Classes taught/attended since Monday = 8
Students met = 150-ish
Office hours sat through = 4.5
Emails answered/crises averted = lots
Lesson plans generated = 4
Offices moved into = 1
Boxes unpacked = 8 (so far)
Hours of sleep = Nowhere close to enough

Good Lordy, but I am tired.

Posted by sally at 10:42 PM | Comments (5)

Things I Saw on My Walk to Work Today

A border collie racing around like it was on extremely important business.

The highly dessicated remains of a squirrel.

Two women (one with a leash) looking for a border collie. Named Violet.

A young woman searching for the stop for the bus service to Pullman. (She'd just finished a yoga class downtown.) I was completely unable to help her. But we chatted for a bit anyway. She's going to Central and studying art. Jewelry making. Which I think is unbelievably cool.

A cranky woman behind the counter in HR who was snotty about the fact that I was just now updating my expired I-9. (Since I only knew about it yesterday, and didn't have the proper ID with me, I don't think accusing me of unnecessary delays is the appropriate response.)

A harrassed barrista, trying to serve six people at once as she ran everything in the coffee shop.

A lost old dog looking for home. (I'd be happy to give it a home in SHS 209 in the Psych Department, but I'm guessing the University would object. And her owners would probably miss her. She seems like a sweetie.)

A young woman, defiant stride, doing the Walk of Shame down Greek Row.

Two African men speaking some beautiful language full of round, bouncy sounds and wonderful pitch variations. I wanted to stand and eavesdrop, to just soak in the gorgeousness of the sounds, but I was late for my office hours and suspected they might consider it rude, since I didn't know either of them.

Posted by sally at 09:38 AM

August 22, 2006

Would Somebody Please Explain to Me

Why Secret Agent Man, the Hasselhoff version, has been playing in my head since the moment I woke up this morning?

Posted by sally at 09:07 AM

August 21, 2006

Death of a Salesman Performance Dates

For those who need to make travel plans in advance:

October 26-28 & November 2-4 @ 7:30 pm
Sundays, October 29 & November 5 @ 2 pm

(I'm so funny, assuming people would be willing to come here to see me in the show. Though Danny's performance will be well worth the effort, I'm sure.)

Posted by sally at 08:47 AM | Comments (3)

August 20, 2006

Well Sprinkle Me With Brown Sugar and Call Me Breakfast

I'm playing Linda in Death of a Salesman.

Danny Peterson will play Willy. I worked with him a million years ago at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. He's fantastic, and I'm thrilled to be working with him again. And the guy who played my husband in Sight Unseen has been cast as Charlie. For me, all is joy and amazement. Also disbelief, because I really didn't think the role was an option.

We start rehearsals late next month and open in November. You're welcome to attend if you'd like.

Posted by sally at 08:08 PM | Comments (2)

August 19, 2006

Watching Paint Dry

So I'm just sitting here waiting for my toenail polish to dry, and I have to ask,

Does anyone else out there occasionally paint a new, darker color over a lighter one that's getting old just to save time? You know, without removing the old color or conditioning the cuticles or nails?

No? Just me?

They're going to take away my girl credentials now, aren't they?

Posted by sally at 11:48 PM | Comments (3)

Also? I Finished Something!

Finally. I actually completed a project. Which is difficult, since so much of the stuff in my life is ongoing. But. I finally finished the lamps I built for my nephew's room.

Let me clarify. I built the shades. I found the lamps and built the shades. The only original pieces of the lampshades left are the rings from which they hang. I found the design in a book and adapted it to fit the colors (hopefully) and themes of the baby's room.

Only one of the lamps is turned on because I don't remember what I did with the other bulb. This way you get a nice contrast, I think. And a better idea of how they'll look both off and on.

Posted by sally at 07:30 PM | Comments (2)

Well That Was Unexpected

I chose to not attend the general auditions for the theatre department's fall shows. I've had some conflicts in the past that made me wary of poking about in department gigs, and I've chosen to not provoke things by appearing to butt in. I'm not actually in the department anymore, so I feel kind of like I'm intruding when I participate in stuff. I've worked very hard to not encroach on anyone else's territory.

However, I was asked to audition by a friend of mine who's directing one of the shows. She thought I needed to attend generals, so I signed up and selected and rehearsed a piece, and when I discovered that I only needed to go to the callbacks, I crossed my name of the general audition list. (Even though I kind of wanted to audition for the one faculty member who is directing this semester.) As I said, no need to seem like a threat to anybody.

So imagine my surprise when I was informed both by my lovely David and by one of the participating stage managers that I have been called back for two shows. And one of the roles I've been called back for is Linda in Death of a Salesman. It's a role I'd love to play. And one I didn't think I had a shot at. Because I didn't attend the generals.

This has never happened to me before. I've always had to work my butt off to get noticed. I don't know whether it's a result of my frequent requests for hope and wonder to return to my life or simply because I live in a very small, very isolated town and there aren't any actors in the department who are anywhere close to the age those roles require.

Posted by sally at 07:07 PM | Comments (1)

August 18, 2006

Where the Days Go

Back in January, I made two resolutions which I have (astonishingly) stuck with this entire year. One was the Arboretum Project, which I am still faithfully doing, picture taking-wise, if not so much posting-wise. (I'll get on it this weekend, I promise.) The other is what I call my "Have Done" list.

Even back in January I was dealing with feelings of stuckness and uselessness. Despite my crazybusy life. And so I decided one day to write down everything I did. Because I thought a reminder might be helpful, showing me that I had accomplished something that day, even if I hadn't crossed off every item on my "To Do" list.

It started pretty simply. Here's a typical entry from January:

1/7/06 1.75 hours at IJC
5 hours of rehearsal
posted blog entry

1/8/06 began short story: “From the DarkSide”
sorted laundry
raked leaves
removed dead ivy from fence
cleaned up raised garden beds, added manure
weeded three beds
spread manure in back lawn
took pictures in arboretum
Updated blog with arboretum pix

Even in January I was including things like, "Phone call with Karma, Wrote letter to Paul". Because those were things I did. At that point, I needed to see that I had accomplished something, rather than just sitting around on my butt feeling miserable and stupid.

Somewere along the way, however, something changed. I'm not sure when it slipped into diary mode, but it did. I started including comments about certain activities. This is a typical day's entry now:

8/7 Fed cats
Opened windows to “air out” house, but with all the smoke, I’m not sure it was the best choice.
Got 4 bags bark nuggets to line alley fence. Put out bricks to keep bark from spilling into alley (generous with alley size so as not to encroach come grading/oiling time). Of course it wasn’t enough bark. I need probably 5 more bags but will be getting 6. The space is wider than I was thinking, also longer.
Fed Katala
Got 6 more bags bark nuggets. Spread them in the alley bed. Much better
Showered
Got new cell phone. It’s pretty. But plain. Black. Just like everyone else’s. so I went to Michael’s & bought a bunch of self-adhesive rhinestones and also some dragonfly appliqués. It won’t look like everybody else’s when I’m done with it.
Got dinner @ coop. Moussaka. MMMMMMMMM. Also got goldfish crackers. Ate WAY too many.
Read last chapter of Some Tame Gazelle to Dave. Now I have to figure out what to read next.
Entered all contacts into my cell phone.
Wrote 2 blog entries. Published one. Saved the other for tomorrow so I don’t have to write one then.
Fed cats.
Gave reiki treatment to Katala, who just ate it up. It was a lovely snuggle. I can’t remember all the hand positions confidently. I need to reacquaint myself with them.

The thing is, I've never been much of a diarist. I have tons of old notebooks where I started writing and then quit when I decided there wasn't a point to it.

I always felt like I needed an audience. I did morning pages for years, but even those were written with the idea that someday someone was going to read them and get to know me better. (Yes, I know that's not supposed to be the reason we do them, but I'm wired to be an entertainer. And I did vent. I just assumed that my grandchildren would read them after I was dead.) I think it's thanks to this blog and my six loyal readers (okay, maybe 8 loyal readers, my numbers have jumped somewhat lately), that I've written more about my life in the last two years since I started this blog than I ever have before. And that's spilled over into the rest of my days.

So thank you, to those of you who really are reading, and to those imaginary readers I have as well. I've created a space to think, and thanks to my "audience," I feel like it's worthwhile enough to continue. (I know that's a hangup I really ought to deal with at some point, but it's working for me right now, so I'm going to let it.)

The thing is, I'm revealing more and more of myself here and in my other work, and as an artist, that's the best thing I can do.

Posted by sally at 11:44 AM | Comments (4)

August 17, 2006

Here We Go Round Again

And so it begins. That time of year when everything speeds up and I lose huge amounts of weight because I'm sprinting all over campus expecting two small tomatoes and a plum to be a quality lunch. (I still think it should have been, dammit. It's not like I expected coffee to keep me going all day.)

The new GTA's are great. They're good people, caring people. They'll do right by their students, I think, and that's fantastic. I went out for a beer with a couple of them last night, and had a great time. And that was after working monologues.

This is how cool these people are, by the way. I HATE working monologues in front of my peers. It's a place of vulnerability that makes me crazy. I am so insecure when working a monologue that anything someone else says to me makes me cry. Good or bad. I turn into a wet, crying mess. No, I don't know why. I just know it's what happens.

Only last night it didn't. I watched everybody else's pieces, watched how they worked with each other, watched the gentleness and concern they had for egos and insecurities, and then decided I'd be safe. So I did a monologue. And I survived. And they didn't see the wet, crying, messy, insecure Sally. She chose to not show up last night, and that rocked. I cannot tell you how fantastic that was because there are not words. I think that it's at least partly because none of the people in that room had any place in the baggage of the last several years. I have no history with them. And so I can start fresh.

One of the new MFA's from last night is a directing candidate. I like his vision. I like his gentle and sensitive touch with actors. I'm going to ask him to help me work up a different monologue, I think, one I've been wanting to add to my repertoire for a while.

It's nice to think I could be part of a community again.

Posted by sally at 10:36 AM

August 15, 2006

And Time Passed

If you've been following this blog, you know that I've been taking weekly pictures of the University of Idaho Arboretum. And that one of those pictures is taken from roughly the same spot each week, a wide shot of the whole area from the top of the draw.

I recently posted the first 26 pix, from January 8 - July 2. It was cool to see the passage of time.

Today, I found someone who has a similar fascination, but who looks at it in a whole new way. Ahree Lee's film Me is three years' worth of daily photographs of herself. It's less than three minutes long in playback for something like 1,096 days' worth of execution.

Go see it for yourself.

It's awe inspiring.

Posted by sally at 08:30 PM | Comments (2)

And So It Begins

I know I've complained about the whole feast or famine aspect of my life before. I just didn't think it would happen again now. And yet, here we go.

I have two full days of training with the new graduate Teaching Assistants, followed by an afternoon with everybody. Then (I think) I have Friday off. Which is good. Because I have an audition on Saturday. And even though I'm not particularly uptight about this audition, because it's in the early afternoon, my Saturday is pretty much about that audition. Saturday night the callback sheets will go up and on Sunday I'll have callbacks for at least one show (I know this because I've been asked to audition. That doesn't mean I'm going to be cast, it simply means that she'll want to see me at callbacks.)

Trying to fit my photo session at the Arboretum in around all that is going to be interesting, since I could concievably have callbacks for two different productions.

Monday's an easy day, since all my classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it's been over a year since I taught a class from the beginning (spring of 2005) and I'd forgotten all of the prep work that goes into just getting everything set up.

Plus, I've been asked to do some vocal coaching on the first show of the semester, which is cool, because it's basically teaching, and I love that sort of thing, AND Dave's AD for that show, so I'll get to see him occasionally.

Which is nice.

Since we're married and all.

Posted by sally at 07:50 AM

August 11, 2006

This Is Imogen

She's very tired. It's tough, being a cat in our house.

Thank you for putting up with my little tiny freakout yesterday. I'm doing much better today. Dave is home and safe and now you all know why I'm not allowed to watch the news. (Hint: because it makes me hysterical. I do things like sit on the couch and cry because I'm sure I'll never, ever see my husband again.)

I'm in the middle of an outrageous number of things right now, but once they settle, I have a story to share about Sally and the Shredded Bark Mulch.

Posted by sally at 04:42 PM

August 10, 2006

I Don't Usually Do This Kind of Thing...

I could really use whatever sort of energy/thought/prayer you feel like sending my/our way.

David is flying home from New York today.

I'm not coping well.

Posted by sally at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)

August 09, 2006

The Day Ahead

There is a lonely little orange cone sitting at the end of our sidewalk. I know it's there not only because I can see it, but because I put it there around 6:30. Just as soon as I got dressed. It's to tell the guy delivering roughly 5 yards of shredded bark mulch where it goes.

I'm not sure when he'll get here. The woman at the nursery was pretty vague, though she did say she'd put us (me) at the top of the list for deliveries today.

I'm not sure why I'm assuming it's a man who'll make the delivery. One of the reasons I like this nursery is that the staff is mostly female. There are some badass women running the front end loader when you go to purchase bark or compost or topsoil. So one of them could bring our bark.

I keep saying "me" because Dave's not available to help today. I get to spread approximately five yards of shredded bark mulch by myself. After shoveling it into a wheelbarrow and dumping it in the right places, of course.

I hope it's lighter than compost. Though I suppose I could always put less in the wheelbarrow and make more trips. Instead of my standard operating procedure, which is to load the fucker up as much as I can and struggle through the yard with it. And then wonder why I feel like one of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's noodly appendages.

So anyway, there's this little orange cone sitting at the end of our sidewalk, and I got up at 6:30 to put it there. I didn't put it out last night because the weather was stormy and I thought it might blow away, plus I didn't want anyone to steal it. I mean, this cone is cute. It's exactly the sort of thing you want sitting on your desk, acting as a paperweight/pencil holder. So I got up early to make sure the delivery person knows where the bark goes. Every so often, I check out the window to be sure it's still there.

I also check every time I hear a car door slam or any vehicle at all drive past. Including motorcycles. I am way, way to uptight about this whole bark mulch thing.

A sample of my uptightness: I actually woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, though I insisted on staying in bed until my alarm went off, just on principle. I'm so nervous about missing the delivery person that my internal clock apparently decided to be absolutely sure I would be awake.

See, the thing is, I'm not just worried about missing the delivery. I'm also worried because the bark mulch is getting dumped in the street. It's a parking space, so it's not like I'm obstructing traffic, but I need to get it out of the street ASAP. And that's my other worry. I won't get to take a break until it's gone. Well, I'll allow myself to pee. and to drink water, but otherwise, No Breaks.

Oh man. The street sweeper's just gone by, cleaning up all the compost that fell out of the truck and/or wheelbarrow when Dave & I were mulching the beds this weekend. The neighbors are going to be annoyed when I mess everything up again with bark mulch. Though they should appreciate the fact that it's for a good cause. At least they don't have to look at our urban jungle any more.

I'm overthinking all of this, aren't I? I'm worrying way too much about way too many things. (Welcome to my life.) I wish the damn truck would get here so I can quit fretting and start shoveling.

Posted by sally at 07:18 AM

August 08, 2006

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

And I sat on my couch and felt the wind rush through the open windows and listened to the windchimes and the rain on the porch roof.

Posted by sally at 09:01 PM

Tiny Bubbles

Little observations and miracles I've been accumulating over the past week:

1) On Saturday morning I was standing in my backyard next to a flowerbed that once held an ugly vine and two struggling pansy plants. It's now full to bursting with lavender, two climbing roses, a clematis, love-in-a-mist (a bazillion volunteers) and some volunteer feverfew. Also some white daffs, but they're gone now. I was chatting with my mother on the phone. Suddenly, two small things whizzed past my head and I realized they were hummingbirds. One whooshed by less than a foot away. The other stopped and perched for a good minute on one of the lattice rose trellises that replaced the scary vine and chain link fence. I have no idea what my mother was saying at that point. I was consumed with the miracle of a hummingbird perched less than five feet away from me. It was so beautiful. Like a little green jewel. And I've never seen one so still before. Ever. I am so lucky.

2) Two nights ago I went downstairs to feed the cats. Just before I took the first step, a good-sized spider scuttled out to the center of the basement landing, right in the center of a cat triangle. It froze. None of the cats noticed, despite the fact that they were all announcing their extreme hunger. I had to find a pair of shoes to clomp down in and kill it myself. Some predators.

3) Why are the spam comments I receive never for any product I would either want or endorse? Or is that just me?

4) Also on Saturday, some of my Glacier tomatoes finally ripened. I picked them, rinsed them off, cut out the stems and then stuffed one into my mouth whole. Oh. My. God. I'm sure the poor satellite dish installation guy thought I was pleasuring myself in the kitchen based on the sounds I made as I chewed. Is there anything yummier than a fresh tomato?

5) I opened the windows of the house yesterday morning while it was still cool to "air it out." Only, there's a lot of smoke in the air right now from nearby forest fires and, I suspect, some field burning. Though I haven't actually seen any field burns, it's the right time of year. But I have to wonder. In a situation like this, where the air indoors is stale and the air outdoors is smoky, which is worse for an asthmatic?

Posted by sally at 01:29 PM

August 07, 2006

Making Up for the Lost Weekend

Or something like that. Goodness it's been a long time since I last posted. Did you miss me?

Please don't take it personally. I wasn't trying to get rid of you, honest. If I wanted to break up, I'd do it in person, not by blog.

Oh. My. God. Can you imagine that entry?

Dear Diggory,

I don't love you anymore, and I thought it best that you find out at the same time as everyone else on the planet.

Love (you like a friend),

Millicent

I'm sure that someone, somewhere, has done that very thing.

But I wasn't trying to avoid you. Really. My life just took over, as life sometimes does.

For instance. On Friday, my cell phone (which had been randomly turning itself on--when it was already on--and also randomly unlocking the key guard so that my pants were making phone calls while I walked down the street) decided to randomly shut off in the middle of conversations. Since I've owned that phone for years, I qualified for an upgrade discount and now I have brand new phone. Unfortunately, it's in the basic (boring) black, as the pink was on back-back-backorder, per the guy at the phone store.

So today was about getting a new cell phone, among other things. Friday was not, however. Friday was about getting by on as few phone calls as possible and painting a ceramic container for our kitchen utensils. (I promised myself one field trip a week this summer. I've been really terrible about it so far, but I finally took one on Friday.) Friday was also about picking up the 67 thousand pounds of dry cleaning because I only go to the dry cleaner once a year. (At most. Yes, that does mean that my dry cleaned clothes tend to be sniff-tested more than is really acceptable.)

Friday was also the day my dear David got a wild hair and decided that the front jungle landscaping beds were too overgrown to tolerate. Apparently he's tired of being the white trashiest house on the block. So he went to town with the weed whacker while I hand-trimmed around bushes and shrubs I wanted to keep. On Saturday and Sunday, we mulched those beds with 2+ inches of compost, and on Wednesday, a BIG delivery of shredded bark mulch is arriving that I get to spread over the beds all by myself. (Dave's working and they'll be dumping it in the street in front of the house, so I have to get it out of the way ASAP.)

Dave also razed the fire hazard weed bed along the alley (on Saturday). So today, I edged it with used brick and filled it with 20 cubic feet of bark chips. Don't even begin to judge me on this. I edged it so the bark wouldn't scatter all over the alley, wasting my efforts and money. This was not about having a tidy space--well, it was, hence the lack of weeds and the plethora of bark chips, but I'm not the kind of person who edges everything in brick--Never mind. All you would have to do is come visit to see that I am.

But it's only so the lawn mowing guys know where the edges are. Otherwise, they tend to mow down the daffodils.

And to keep in the mulch.

In my defense, I will point out that the bricks don't exactly match. It's a practical and eclectic tidiness. (Practical and eclectic. Like so much of the rest of my life.)

Anyhow, the yard is starting to look pretty good. We suspect the neighbors now all assume that we're getting ready to sell the house. No such luck, people. You're stuck with us for a while longer. At least we no longer have the white trashiest yard. Even our driveway is more or less in order now. (Dave did that a couple of weeks ago. The 5'x3'x3' pile of weeds is gone, as are the broken coffee table and the stacks of styrofoam. ) We still have the metal bedframes stacked against the garage, waiting for the Country Wife set to be built. (We're storing them for the designer.) But the official white trashiest house designation now actually belongs to the white trashiest neighbors.

I would like to take a moment here to announce that the overgrowth in the front yard was entirely my fault, and that Dave is generous and forgiving beyond belief to not only still love me despite the four-foot thistles that were edging the street, but to actually do what was probably the majority of the work on the beds this weekend.

You see, we have a division of labor in the Sallyacious household. Dave does all construction, heavy lifting, carpentry and spider killing. I do the dishes, am usually responsible for the laundry and the changing of the cat litter and am the outdoor maintenance person for items non-house related. But I had done shit-diddley with the yard this year.

Thats not entirely true. I had weeded and then mulched a large portion of the front beds in June. They grew back even more actively than before. So I did some more with the same results. That, combined with the fact that I had grand plans for the beds two years ago, before I blew out my knee, and that I couldn't do any work on them last summer, meant that I really wanted nothing more to do with the front beds. So I did the mature adult thing and ignored them.

Sweet, sweet David understood that I was incapable of action, and offered to help me out on Friday. And then he did. If he hadn't taken the initiative, the weeds would still be the most humiliating feature of the entire city of Moscow. (And that's saying something.)

So Friday was the day the weeds came down, while Saturday and Sunday were the day the beds were mulched. And Saturday was the day the dish network guy came to install the two (because we're so damn north and west of the East Coast, where all satellites focus) satellite dishes. We're so lucky. (Really. We are.) You can't see the dishes from the street or the alley. They're attached to the wall of the garage between the garage and house. They are invisible from the front of the house and also the back. You can only really see them from the porch and the sweet little garden between house and garage.

The downside to this, however, is that the sweet little garden got the shit trampled out of it by the satellite dish installation guy on Saturday. It's not salvageable. It's going to take some major fixin' in the spring, I fear. Since the trampled things were perrennials. Grrrrrr...

So that's a rather rambling account of my weekend. (So sue me. I had a glass of wine with dinner.) Today I did the whole bark/brick thing and got the new cell phone, which was really much more bother than it should have been. However. It's a very nice phone and all of my numbers are entered. My one concern is that it's basic black, just like everybody else's phone. It is, however, far, far too expensive for me to tart it all up with nail polish like I did my first cell phone, which was also exactly like everybody else's phone at the time. So I went to the local craft store and bought a bunch of self-adhesive rhinestones and some dragonfly appliques. It's not going to look like everybody else's phone when I'm done with it...

So. Enough about me. How was your weekend?

Posted by sally at 08:14 PM

August 03, 2006

Lying Fallow

Bear with me if this is impossible to comprehend. I wrote it in a dark corner in the coffee shop, in-between some fantastic conversations. The flow may be a bit odd, and my handwriting isn’t the easiest thing to read even at the best of times. (Even for me.)

I was walking to the local cool coffee shop and wondering why, with all of this time at my disposal, I spend so much of my summer break (or at least, my time off—if I’m doing summer stock I don’t have this problem until the season closes) slumped in a chair or on the couch, reading and/or web surfing?

Yes, I am still doing the Arboretum Project. Yes, I’m doing some writing. I’ve also been updating resumes and sending them all over looking for work for the spring. And right now I’m deep into The Right to Speak by Patsy Rodenburg, who has become my new hero.

But my garden beds need weeding and mulching. I have monologues to memorize and work and a play to get solid on so I can blow any possible competition out of the water should I make callbacks. I also cannot get my butt to the gym.

I’ve taken to walking to the coffee shop:
     1) for exercise,
     2) to get me out of the house, and
     3) to get me off of the internet.
So I just take my book, a notepad, pen, highlighter and page tabs. At least this way I’m getting some reading done. (Also some exercise, thinking and writing, apparently.)

Anyway, I was walking here and wondering why I spend my breaks like a lump. I mean, what is wrong with me?

The answer popped into my head like a memo from God:

Date: 8/3/06*
To: Sallyacious
From: God
Re: Getting off Your Ass

You’re lying fallow.

I stopped at the mouth of my favorite alley (I’ll post pictures here soon) to take the thought in.

But, I thought, I’m not really fallow. I mean, I am doing the Arboretum Project and I am doing some writing, but—

Trees don’t actually die in the winter. They’re still alive.

True. But I don’t go dormant in winter like trees do.

Right. Because winter is your busy time. Your creativity, by virtue of the cycles of the academic year flourishes in the fall, when you leaf out and flower. You nurture fruit all winter and spring, and then everything falls off in May. You go dormant in the summer. (Unless you’re working. Then, you go dormant as soon as you can for as long as you can. Even if it’s only two weeks.)

And really, it makes sense. Because trees don’t actually die in the winter. And dormancy doesn’t mean they’re not doing anything. They’re spending that time extending their root systems and storing up energy for their busy season.

Which is exactly what I’ve been doing this summer. I’ve been rooting. Not in this geographical community, but in the communities I’ve found online. I’ve rediscovered old friendships (sometimes they’ve rediscovered me) and worked to strengthen those. And I’ve found new friends along the way.

Not many of these are local relationships, so they’re not people I can go out for a drink with. But they’re becoming an important part of my support system. They’re becoming part of my roots.

As the school year creeps up, I’m beginning to feel the sap run through my creative body. I checked the Nanowrimo site yesterday for the first time in months. Today, I came up with the name and a hazy general concept for the novel: The Search for Herself. (Write what you know.) I’ve also started the above-mentioned Rodenburg book. So my brain is slowly warming itself up for the semester to come.

There may be something to this dormancy metaphor. And if there is, then what I am doing is may actually be a valid choice, not guilt-inducing slackerdom, which has been my main worry all summer.

*The voice of God is in bold face. Because, duh, it would be

Posted by sally at 10:09 PM | Comments (4)

August 02, 2006

NaNoWriMo Begins in Less Than Three Months!!!

WOOOOOOOOT!

And despite the fact that:

1) I will be teaching four classes and running the Graduate Teaching Assistant in-service workshops for the incoming public speaking TA's,

2) I might be in a show,

and

3) I have, as yet, no plot ideas,

I will be participating again. Because last year it kicked ass.

If you want to prove to yourself you can do something as completely adventurous and insane as writing a 50K novel in 30 days, and meet like-minded and crazy people both in your own city and across the world, NaNoWriMo is for you.

Posted by sally at 08:48 PM | Comments (2)

How Does This Work, Exactly?

I've always maintained that much of science and technology are PFM, and this, I think, is proof.

In checking my stats, I've discovered this odd anomaly. A number of visitors (more every day) are coming to me from a google search that shouldn't bring them anywhere near my site. I kept seeing this url that had nothing to do with me, and it took me a while to figure out the magic formula.

People who do a google image search for lilacs receive, as one of their options, a link to this image. Only, when they click on the picture, they are sent here. I have no idea why. Nothing on that page has anything to do with lilacs. And I'm sure it confuses the visitors who click expecting a pretty picture and instead get a rant about my torn ACL.

While I appreciate the increased site traffic, I'm not sure this is helpful to me in the long run, as I suspect those poor, misdirected souls assume I've somehow hijacked them. It would be like getting on a bus for Topeka and ending up in L.A.

I would just like to state for the record that I have nothing to do with this. I don't even know who these other people are. Although they seem nice enough.

My mad html skillz are limited to cut and paste. And then typing the new message over the old. Oh yes. I can also do italics and bold face. And last week, I figured out how to change colors in Blogger. Whooo. I have no idea how to make something like the above situation happen. Even my technology geek whiz kid husband has no idea how to make something like that happen.

Ergo, it's Pure Fucking Magic.

So for those of you who are visiting via the Appleseed Enterprises lilac photo link on Google Image Search, I'm sorry for your confusion. And welcome. Feel free to look around. You might decide to stay a while. And that's fine too.

Posted by sally at 10:17 AM | Comments (4)

August 01, 2006

The Vagaries of Cats

My friend Terry Bain (I can call you my friend, right? We went to college together and had coffee together within the last year and a half, and comment on each other's blogs, so that makes us friends, right?) is a writer. His book, We Are the Cat is being released this month. Partly in celebration of that fact, but mostly because it's just a coincidence, I offer up the following IM conversation between David and Myself, re: the inconsistencies in feline behavior as observed in the Sallyacious household.

Sally says: I just scratched my back and the Boy freaked out.

David says: well it was a threatening scratch

Sally says: Moments ago, I took my feet off the coffee table and Q leapt up and ran from the room as if I had shrieked and thrown things at her.

Sally says: And yet, when they sharpen their claws on the rug and I yell, no one pays attention.

David says: isn't that innerestin'

Sally says: Obnoxious little monsterheads.

That's right. I can yell at them to stop doing something** and they just look at me. But I take my feet off the coffee table or scratch my back or blink wrong and everybody acts like I'm going to kill them. Much of the time I get cat psychology, but there are some days...

**Side note: I yell because I will never make it across the room in time to physically capture the offender and provide alternatives to the claw sharpening on the expensive rug, not because I'm sittin' on the couch smokin' and watchin' my program and can't be interrupted. By the time I caught the cat, the moment for correction would have passed. So I yell. And they don't listen.

Posted by sally at 12:02 AM | Comments (5)

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