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.

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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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