Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Disasterpiece

When you know you're not as young as you...

a.  thought you were
b.  hope you are
c.  wish you were
d.  would give something valuable to still be

e.  any and all of the above

I am in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA HELL.  The components of which are:

a.  aforementioned child in the production
b.  "                "  napoleonesque director
c.  ill advised offer to "help" (which, in my mind, was just sort of a general "oh, sure, I can lend a hand" but has turned into the inevitable sewing on evenings and weekends)

The update looks like this:

First production is this Thursday, followed by 5 more performances this weekend.

We have yet to run through even the first Act completely.  I have not seen Act 2 at all.  

The notes of things we "NEED" that we took on the first half of Act 1 was 6-7 pages.

The performance I did see last night was not without it's moments of hilarity and actorial brilliance but was, truth be told, one big hot mess.

The tears to lack of sleep ratio has reached its apex.

It would make more sense to spoof this production and turn it into Zombie Phantom at this point, so we could just forego the makeup and hours of finishing touches to costumery that are going to be required altogether.

Upside....I met some lovely, creative, and incredibly type-A women this month.  My kinda gals.

Downside....I have absolutely no faith in the future of mankind if it rests on the shoulders of today's teenagers.  (With the notable exception of my own, of course, who is a brave and awe inspiring genius!)

We are doomed.  All of us.  Doomed.   

Monday, April 25, 2011

Email Etiquette

I hadn't ever run into this little issue before, which, I suppose, falls under "Emailer Beware" which we all should practice more often anyway. 

I get an email from someone I don't know, but the subject is about an event that I'm familiar with, and something I have and would again volunteer for.

He's sending out the announcement about this year's event and asking me to log on to a survey to answer questions about my availability.  All fine.  I'm happy to take his survey... I use surveys sometimes to plan meetings, because it's easier than getting a massive email train going about when people can and cannot meet.

In any event, I shoot him back a quick email saying "super, thanks, can't wait, blah blah blah".  I contemplate including my particulars, but decide not to....i'll just fill out his survey later.

I hit SEND.

Two nanoseconds later, I get my own response.  Back to me.

I realize, suddenly, that his email address is not actually a "personal" email address, but rather a pseudo address that is masking as a list serve. 

Listserves are fine, I follow a bunch of these professionally.  But, because you KNOW (up front) that they are list serves, you KNOW better than to reply to the sender address because you KNOW that your response will then go to EVERYONE on the list serve.

Right?  Tracking with me?

So, no harm done, I don't care if the whole group (and I have no idea who is in the group, or how many) knows that I'm happy he's gotten back to me and that I'm excited about the event.  No worries.  But, it does give me a moment's pause that I didn't know it was a listserve up front.  I think about emailing back to say "hey, could you just let everyone know this is a list serve address so that no one sends anything stupid?!?!"  But I don't.

So, what happens not 5 minutes later?

Yup, some poor unsuspecting soul sends HIM an email with lots of detail about what she did last year, what she wants to do this year, how she's old, but she's enthusiastic, and she liked doing this task but not that one and she's happy to do whatever is needed, but just a heads up (in confidence, to HIM), she absolutely positively REFUSES TO WORK WITH MR. XXX this year, or EVER AGAIN.

I felt a collective cringe and shudder across the ether. 

The next email I receive is from HIM again, politiely alerting us (all 120) that, OH, by the way, this is actually a list serve and that if you want to email him personally, please use this alternate address.  

Shame on you, Mr. listerserve man. 

Friday, April 22, 2011

Heaven help me

I had a tutorial this morning with our Director of Emerging Technology, on some new(ish) programs that she thought I might find useful.  Of course, since it's her JOB, she's tooling around in all kinds of cool things I've never even heard of. 

She turned me on to Evernote http://www.evernote.com/

SUPER DUPER COOL!  I got so excited about the promise of the hyper organization that it might bring to my life that I actually got a little verklempt!

Her:  "Oh my GOD, are you crying????"
Me:  "Yes, dammit, I'm crying, I am SO HAPPY, but also, i'm SO TIRED that everything is making me cry, so it's partially that i'm just so happy about this and partially because I haven't had a decent nights sleep in days and i'm just a basket case, i'm SO SORRY but I think you just saved my life!"

Then SHE starts crying

Me:  "Oh my GOD, are YOU crying now???"

Her:  "Yes, because I was having such a sucky day, and I didn't want to come in to work, because I am SO TIRED because my toddler is sick, but now I'm SO HAPPY that I made YOU happy and you totally just made my day."

So there we are, in the conference room, booohoooing because we are just one big hot mess of tired crazy.

Thank GOD it is Friday people!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Today

To Do


6:30 a.m.
Make sure everyone eats something other than just bacon or coffee for breakfast before school (that’s about all we have in the house)

8:00 a.m.
Try to get to work w/in 30 minutes of my anticipated start time

8:30 a.m.
Work 9 hours in a 7 hour day and hope no one notices

6:30 p.m.
Try to get home to mow b/f the thunder and lightning starts

7:00 p.m.
Prepare some nutritious dinner for son out of coffee and bacon

8:00 p.m.
Spend quality time with son (while doing a few loads of laundry)

9:00 p.m.
Go to school to work on drama production

9:30 p.m.
Sew fringe on bustles and glue tapestry fabric to shoes

11:30 p.m.
Bring home carpool of drama kids

12:00 p.m.
Lie in bed and wonder what else I might have done with my life

Here comes Peter Cottontail....


I have theatre on the brain at the moment...more on this later.

Easter Scene opens with beautifully frocked children scampering about in a closely mown field, collecting eggs and depositing them in their intricately decorated baskets.....

Easter has never been a huge holiday for me.  I don't remember a huge fuss being made about it as a kid....though I do remember some yummy brunches at the country club my grandparents belonged to.

When my guys were little we dyed the eggs, hid the eggs, had baskets, etc.  I remember procuring a few cute easter ensembles for my daughter, though I was never into the whole ruffle, lace and patent leather shoe thing.  I think all her Easter outfits were Lilly Pulitzer-esque with hot pink zebras and lime green crocodiles or some other very un-eastery animal print.  But, those days are over, and just in case I wasn't really really sure about that, this conversation with my son this morning put it all into crystal clear perspective.

Me:   So!  We don't really have any big plans for Easter this year.

Him:  Uh huh

Me:  I guess we could do SOMETHING though, if you want?

Him:  Uhhhhh  (there are a LOT of "uhs" and "uh huhs" in the teenage vernacular...btw....as if they've somehow completely lost the ability to communicate at all.  In a way, teenagers are like little drunkards.  You wake them up in the morning, they look like they've been on a 4 day bender and then they stagger around the rest of the day, inebriated, I suppose, on their toxic hormonal cocktails.....good GRIEF!)

but I digress...

Him:  Uhhhhh

Me:  Would you like me to hide some eggs for you?

Him:  Sure.  If they're filled with money.

Easter scene closes with the bunny getting run over by a teenage driver speeding through my neighborhood.

Sigh.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Public Service Announcement

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm



This message brought to you (and me) by my busy little life.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Favorite things

I was in Marshalls a while back, and saw a bunch of these adorable ramekins.  "Cocottes" they are called.

In spite of being drawn to the irresistible array of colors (TURQUOISE!  LIME!) I walked away.

Later that day, I found the mini-cocotte cookbook in a shi-shi cooking store and realized it was A SIGN!

So, I bought TWO cookbooks and trotted back to Marshalls and picked up a slew of the cocottes, promptly mailing a set to my sister for her birthday.

The cookbook has the most lovely recipes and pics.....pear bread pudding, chicken pot pies, molten chocolate cakes, all in miniature.  Like the baby pygmy goats a friend of mine just brought home, everything in this book is just too cute for words.

I haven't made anything yet, but I will, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

In hindsight, I realize though, that I should have purchased a set of 8.....in order to make both a main dish AND a dessert in the same meal.  Wonder if there are any left.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm 


Monday, April 11, 2011

For those in need of a little perspective....

I watched a compelling documentary this weekend:

http://www.godgrewtiredofus.com/

I knew it would be hard to watch, and it was, though not in an overly heavy handed way, I sat through it with my 14 year old and it was not inappropriate for him....I wouldn't show it to younger kids, I don't think, just because the imagery of starving children, while brief, is explicit.

I remember hearing about the conflict in the Sudan and about the "Lost Boys" but I definitely wasn't aware of all the details, or the fact that a number of them were given homes and employment here in the United States. 

It is both a heartbreaking and uplifting story, narrated by Nicole Kidman, (whose voice I could listen to reading the contents of a cereal box and still think it fascinating) that I would recommend. 

Sh*t My Daughter Says No.2

Dear Pepperidge Farms,

In regards to your Ancient Grains bread, I do not happen to be an Egyptian time traveller in need of a taste of home.  Therefore, this entire marketing strategy is lost on me.

Try again,