Colorado Springs

This is the smallest bar in the world. It's literally as big as it looks in this picture. I think maybe 6 people can fit in there comfortably.

Colorado Springs keeps getting bigger and bigger, but seems smaller and smaller everytime I come home. I think it's the small town attitude that makes it feel that way, and the way everything tends to look the same... Even the new developments -- track housing on repeat... People dress the same too, like they always have and like each other. And, anything "out of the ordinary" stands out and is pointed out. I've stopped trying to fit in here. Actually, I've never been good at trying to fit in here...

The mountains are always peaceful and beautiful.

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Brunch, hackers, theater, and goodbyes...

What a freaking long day...

It started off great. Brunch with our good friend Roland at a nice French bistro. The weather was nice, food was great, and Roland is always good company.

Next, we're driving home and Josh goes to login to email from his phone to find that his password isn't working. Yup - HACKED. His paypal was hacked a few days ago as well. We spent the afternoon talking to customer service reps, changing passwords, and trying to not freak out... It's scary to think about how much information lives in your email.

We were able to recover his email in just a few hours luckily, just in time to hightail it over to the city for a show. We had tickets to the Exit tonight with Steph.

As soon as the show ended, we headed off to a well deserved dinner in the Mission. Then we took Stephanie home and said goodbye. Steph leaves for Montreal on Monday... :(

I'm exhausted.

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Avatar

Haha -- we kept trying to take pictures of us smiling, but they all looked cheesy... :D

Stephanie's only here for a few more days, so we're trying to get in as much fun in as possible before she heads to Montreal.

Tonight we went to see Avatar in 3d. It followed the epic movie formula closely...but, I have to say, it did it quite well. The result was a very satisfying, visually spectacular film.

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Opening night, again.

We opened tonight and close again tomorrow night. A quick return to the stage.

I still love this little show and all of its little parts.

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Back in rehearsals

We're bringing the Halloween show we did in October (about the little girl who turns into a warewolf) back to the stage for two more shows in December. We'll be playing in a small theater in Union Square this time.

This pic was taken by Scott while he was terrorizing me.

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Thanksgiving

I moved to California just before Thanksgiving in the year 2000.

After years of the same suburban Thanksgiving on repeat, full of family, friends and feast, it was a very different experience for me to head from my house in the ghetto to another house in the ghetto to celebrate my first Oakland Thanksgiving with a guy my roommate barely knew. We drove through vacant dusty streets with...was it macaroni Matt made to contribute to the dinner?

We actually had a big Thanksgiving feast that day...and then sat around listening to each other tell stories and play the guitar while everyone got high (besides me). When the hosts locked themselves in the bathroom for about an hour, in what appeared to be an effort to resolve an argument, we decided to leave.

The Thanksgivings between then and now have varied greatly, from a lonely diner meal, to a drive up the coast, to Josh and I trying to make our own dinner, to finding ourselves with a wonderful group of friends...

This Thanksgiving was spent with part of Josh's family in Temple City, CA. Turkey, tostada salad, Chinese rice, shrimp, squid, mashed potatoes, and a giant squash like vegetable from the neighbor's yard made up our feast. It was an incredibly random assortment of goodness.

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November

Geez -- and I thought October was rough... !

The last two weeks at work have been BRUTAL. Luckily, I've been having tons of fun with Josh and friends outside of work to balance out the madness. Well, luckily THAT, AND that my work is big on drinking on the clock, so ... lots of late afternoon drinking to get me through the day... When your boss just starts handing you glasses of wine saying that you deserve it, it's gotta be bad. I've been desparately waiting for Friday since Monday night...

Today, I celebrated Friday with Brian, Teresa, and Josh. We had an excellent dinner at Brian and Teresa's beautiful new flat, then headed out to Beach Blanket Babylon (always a good show), and now we're at home trying to unwind.

Tomorrow, I sleep in as long as I can...

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More or Less

At work this year, we're doing an electronic Christmas card for our clients, families, friends... Our assignment is to take a self portrait, with words or pictures, saying what we'd like to do more or less of in 2010 to make it great. This is mine.

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Jason Alexander

I don't know what this picture is of...

Rick Reynold's Love, God, Sex (and other stuff I don't have) DIRECTED by Jason Alexander... That's what I get for skimming my emails, I thought this show was starring Jason Alexander. He was in the crowd tonight, though!

On the surface, this show was a 90 minute personals ad for a middle aged man looking to get some. :) On a deeper level, it was a glimpse at humanity and what we're all capable of, where we connect, and the humor that is available to us if we choose it.

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American Idiot

This show had one of the most incredible sets I've ever seen. Wallpapered to the ceiling with newspaper, drawings, black and white photos, and old TV sets -- it transported me into the Bay Area underground rock scene instantly. The set was reminiscent of Oakland warehouses I frequented not too long ago (but longer than I wish) to watch The Mass, Lower Forty Eight, Greenlight the Bombers...

Once I got over the set, I was faced with an hour and a half of Green Day.

Now, I like Green Day, but I'm also familiar with why the Bay Area rock scene has sort of rejected Green Day, and the first half of this show felt very... :/ Yeah. Luckily, the second half managed to transcend the "limits", and I found myself quite moved and a bit nostalgic by the end...and I can honestly say that I loved this show.

I was in the wonderful company of Roland and Josh tonight. :)

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tings dey happen

Great show tonight at the Marines Memorial Theater with Steph. A show featuring a white man portraying a slew of characters from Nigeria to comment on the oil industry and how it branches much farther than the Middle East.

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Tommy!

So, I'm unpacking some boxes at the apartment about a week ago and decide to drink wine to lessen the pain. It works. Unpacking becomes less painful... so, I keep drinking wine. Then I get on the phone with my friend Holly from New York. She has some stories to tell, so I listen and continue to drink wine. We talk for maybe an hour and a half and by about 1 in the morning, I'm pretty drunk... I go to bed and wake up to a hangover and the Bay Bridge closure. Yay! My usual 30 minute commute is lost to an hour and a half journey into the city via car, ferry, and Muni.

What does this have to do with Tommy, you ask?

I arrive at work, frantic, with about 15 minutes to solve all of the problems of the morning before a SalesForce guy shows up for a set up and training session. He arrives early. I can't get things done fast enough. I'm desperate for coffee and am not in a good state of mind to be trained. As I sit with my coffee and my lingering hangover, he talks faster than I can keep up with, but manages to mention he's in the middle of opening a show in the city. It's the only thing he says to me that really sticks. Theater? YES.

As the training continues, our mutual passion for theater slips through the cracks of formality until we just go to lunch and gush about how much we love theater. This ends in me getting 2 comp tickets to the show he's produced -- Tommy. It was AMAZING!! The music! The acting! The production quality! The story! The story? The lighting! The set!

The lovely Gabriella joined me for the performance, and I randomly ran into Joan for the second night in a row!

Ah, life. :)

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The Alley

I learned tonight that The Alley opened in the 30s and was eventually bought by a waitress who worked there, and it's stayed "in the family" ever since.

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Full moon

My last day of commuting by ferry.
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Hate Breeders!

My friend Andy is in a great Misfits cover band. This was their 2nd last show ever. :)

I'm missing a picture of Gabriella and Morgan here, but managed to get Maureen and Dave, Andy and Kellie, and Adam and Abby.

Josh's costume was a panda hat and a belt with a handmade knife. Everyone loved him!! Ha! It was so funny!!

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Costume contest at MOMA

guy in the wind

meatball kid

living dead girls

cereal killer - ha!

group shot of some sexy nazi lady, a guy who was the stereotype of himself, lady luck / house of cards, cereal killer.

========================

My friend Jeremy performed tonight with the living dead girls. I had a great picture of him, but my phone deleted it... I need a phone with a couple gigs of memory and at least 8 megapixels.

The costume contest was so fun!

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Smores on a bike!

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Empty bridge...

Walking down the embarcadero to the ferry...

I would do this every day if it wasn't so expensive. Well, that, and if I didn't have so much stuff going on after work that generally is made easier and (again, strangely) less expensive by car. It does feel nice to have to slow down, though, and let someone else drive. ...and I love being on the water...

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Closing day

Tommy and Rey before our closing show.

What a journey through independent theatre... 5 shows in a very small, very hot (temperature wise) space just south of South Van Ness.

I already miss this cast.

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Romance in the detour...

The show closes tomorrow, my brother has gone home (oh yeah, he came for a visit!), and we're not too far from feeling settled into our new place. (Well, we're not too close either on that last one, but it will come.)

So many friends have come to see the show. I guess that's what I get for inviting people. ...but, it's been nice to share the journey with friends and family this time. And, what is art if you can't share it, right?

I'm exhausted. I've lost weight. I'm might be getting sick and I feel like my face is about to break out -- but I've rediscovered how much I love my papasan chair...which makes it all strangely worth it somehow... :)

I've met some wonderful people, dealt with interesting challenges, and had a few victories along the way. ...and, as always, have loved every minute of this ridiculous process...

"...and 21 wins the game of accents down a road that comes to an end because the options are clear, although unfair...so, what am I supposed to do with you in your purple underwear...?"

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Glass, Concrete, and Stone...

I'm breaking the rules and writing from the computer instead of my phone because I had written this post, and then the Blackberry deleted it... ah, technology. It'll be much faster to recap via computer keyboard than phone.

We went to our new apartment today to check it out and plan a bit for our move... which is happening tomorrow (today)... and found that the maintenance requests we had made upon signing the lease were not done, the kitchen and bathrooms hadn't been cleaned, and the walls were full of scuff marks... *sigh*

Meanwhile, back at the place we are moving from, I've been sifting through 7 and a half years of...well, life. It's amazing how much can happen in that amount of time... and how much you accumulate that you feel you have to let go of because it doesn't seem to make sense to take it with you...

Josh has been amazing about packing and move planning, and general saving me from my emotional self. My hero... :)

I write this on my last night here... so as my farewell, let me say that I'll miss the view of the pink house the backyards and the palm trees, the laughter of the woman next door, Laverne - our apartment manager (70y.o...? 80y.o.?) who glides as she walks and clips hedges like no other, the hum of the freeway, and the redwoods outside the front door...

"...it's just a house, not a home."

*deep breath*

I have about 45 minutes before rehearsal, so i'm sitting at the bar at Tokyo a go go waiting for some handrolls and drinking tea. I'm feeling a bit anxious as this is our last dress rehearsal and we're not even dressing for it, AND it's not actually at the theater but at a school, I think. ...but, whatever. It's a locally written and produced low/no budget kids show about old school monsters and new school randomness. It'll be fine. ...I think.

...the lighting in here is weird, but I kind of like all of the circles...

We got the keys to our new apartment today, adding to my lack of a feeling of control, as the furniture slowly begins to disappear from the apartment i've lived in for the last 7 and a half years. We're giving it away in the hopes of getting "grown up" furniture in our new place, which is an all together foreign concept for me. Rather than collecting things that seem functional, I'll be choosing comfort -- and design. Part of me is looking forward to feeling more established, and the other part hates that I even care.

I have stress right now that seems to bubble up inside of me and just sit there. ...because of a simple silly play and moving into a new apartment? Because of what feels like a strangely huge life shift that I didn't realize I was making (going from mine and yours to ours) and a show i've actually invited people to (yikes!).

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The pier

I'm a slave to time.

How do I get a job working on a boat? Where time is kept by sunrise and sunset... A little sailboat would be perfect...

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Rehearsal

I love this little show and all of its little parts.

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The wedding

Maureen and Dave's wedding was simple and beautiful with perfect touches of elegance. A hot and steamy (literally!) romantic party in wine country. A beautiful couple and a beautiful day... :)

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Superbride!

Bachelor and bachelorette parties are funny things -- generally full of debachery of the worst kind with very little respect for the real purpose of the occasion at hand... Shouldn't it be a celebration of what's to come? A show of encouragement and support? ...rather than some kind of last hurrah? If you must have one last night of conquest, why get married...?

This party was the best kind of bachelorette party. Although I was responsible for a lot of the organizing and planning, I have to say, I was just following the bride's lead of what she wanted -- and she wanted a fun weekend out with the girls. A condo in the woods, hot tub, nice dinner out, some live music (or, the intention of live music, anyway...they close down early in the woods :) ), a bit of beach and a bit of hiking, and a ton of great girl time. In my opinion, this is a Superbride of the best kind!!

Congratulations to this amazing bride!!

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Arctic Monkeys

Wow, the Fox Theater is GORGEOUS!

Tonight was Arctic Monkey's with Brian and Teresa. Great company and great concert!! I totally get why people give up their hearing to see an amazing show. :)

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Dragonboats!

Here's a link to what i've been up to this summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwTQxZJKqms

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Labor day weekend

Lance and Caia got married this weekend in Iowa! Josh and I made the trek out to join them on their special day. It was loads of fun, and I found myself enjoying the cornfields and the countrysides quite a bit.

We came back to the Bay on Sunday to give ourselves one day to relax. We ended up riding all over Oakland on our bikes -- down and around the lake, then through west Oakland and out to the Bay. We rode up the Bay trial to Berkeley and then headed back home through town. Here are some pics we took along the way. Actually, the first one is of Josh and me sitting at the airport in Nebraska.
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Apparently you can take pictures in MOMA...

...or, you can't but everyone does it anyway. ?

We saw the Richard Avedon exhibit today. He has a way of capturing so much about a person in his photographs. Incredible detail and emotion. Such a wonderful exhibit.

Now, we're sitting down at Maritime eating clam chowder and watching the kids play in the Bay. It's a perfect summer afternoon.

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Sebastopol and Angie Pants

I'm so tired and so behind in posting...

Tonight, Josh and I made the jaunt up north to see the one and only Angie Pants, whom I adore. SO MUCH FUN - love that girl!

I can't wait for the weekend.

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Camping!!

When I was growing up we would camp in the mountains throughout the summer. Lots of hiking, 4-wheeling, motor cross bikes...we watched a lot of sunsets and did a lot of star gazing. At night, we'd sit by the campfire singing and telling stories, and we'd play in the woods doing our best to scare each other to half to death. I'll never forget the ax murderer or bigfoot (stories for another time).

We headed up to Auburn last weekend with Adam, Abby, and friends for camping and rafting and had the most amazing time!

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