December

     Wow. So I guess I fell off the radar there entirely. No post for over a month. Sorry 'bout that.  Things have been crazy here. Shows closing. Preproduction for new shows. New day job. Holidays. Traveling.

So, recap:

1. New job.
    Nothing too exciting. Receptionist for a real estate office. The major thing I have learned is that I find real estate to be incredibly boring. I see how it can be exciting for someone else (particularly the person doing the selling,) but not for me.  But it's a day job. I go in, do my time, then go home and forget about it. Not what I want to do for the rest of my life, but a decent way to pick up a paycheck while having plenty of time and brain power for other things.

2. Holidays.
   Christmas was nice. We went to The Boy™'s parents' house for the weekend.  I was sick, but it didn't prevent me from relaxing and having a good time.
    We're spending New Year's Eve with friends. I'm looking forward to that, too.

3. Traveling.
    First, there was the aforementioned trip to Downeast Maine. After New Year's, we're going to NY to my sister's. It's Dad's 60th next week, and the whole fam damily is coming to celebrate. I'm also looking forward to that. Haven't seen Parents, Sister or Nephews since June. And haven't seen my brothers or their families in two years.  It'll be a good time.

4. Shows.
   A tiny bit of a break right now.  Detritus starts rehearsal at the end of the month, then I'm pretty much booked through August.  This is not a complaint.

5. Derby.
   Still going great! We've added Tuesday practices and are now practicing three times a week.  I went up north a few weeks ago and had a great scrimmage with a couple of other teams.  We're planning another bout this winter, hopefully at home.  I'm looking forward to the Great Derby Social at the end of the month and the Triple D weekend in June.

   That's my life n a nutshell right now.  I'm home recovering from strep throat (aka Pixie Plague, as the entire derby team has had it.)  I'm hoping it's gone before we leave for Sister's.


    If I'm not back before the weekend, Happy New Year to you, Dear Readers.  May your 2012 be fantastic.

Laundry Soap

A few months ago, I experimented in making my own laundry soap. I've been using it for a couple of months and decided I really like it.  I finally ran out of the batch I made, so while making a new batch, I documented the process for you.

You will need: 

* 1/2 cup Washing soda (not the same thing as baking soda)

* 1/2 cup Borax

* 1 bar of Ivory soap (or 1/3 bar of Fels Naptha)

* essential oil (optional)

* container that can hold at least 1.5 gallons (I use one with a spout for easy pouring)

* grater, pot, spoon and stove (not pictured)

Step one: Grate the soap

Step two: put soap flakes in pot with 6 cups of water and heat until soap dissolves

(Before the soap dissolves, it kind of looks like thick potato flakes.)

Step three: add 1/2 cup washing soda

and 1/2 cup Borax

and stir until it's dissolved and remove from heat.

Step 4: pour 4 cups of hot water into your container

Step 5: Add soap mixture and stir.

Step 6: Add one gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir (note: one gallon is 16 cups.) If you choose to add essential oil, now is the time to do it.

Step 7: Let soap sit for 24 hours to gel up.  Use 1/2 cup per load.

A couple of things to know:

* The soap sort of a watery gel. I keep it in the basement (where my laundry facilities are) and found that it had a tendency to harden.  A good shake of the container before trying to pour the soap loosened things up a bit.

* This soap doesn't suds up, so don't get worried when it doesn't. You can still use your usual pretreater or bleach if you feel like you need to.

Fake Steak

For the last show, we needed three steak dinners every show.  There's now way our poor little theatre company could afford three steaks for eight performances, so I made fake steaks to go along with the real food.  Here's a little step-by-step explination of my process in case you ever need to make fake steak (or for the next time I need to make it, so I remember how I did it.)

Ingredients: floral foam, white glue (of the Elmer's variety), paint

Step one: cut the foam to the desired shape and coat with glue; let dry

Step two: base coat with red paint; let dry

Step three: dry brush with brown paint; let dry

Step four: add grill lines with dark brown and highlight with cream; let dry

I didn't get a good picture of it onstage, but believe me when I tell you that on a plate with potatoes and green beans under stage lights, it looks close enough to real steak that the audience will believe it.

Snowtober

Freak October Nor'easter dumped about 4 inches of snow on us Saturday night.  We lost power for fifteen hours.  We're luckier than some other people in the area. There are still many people in New Hampshire without power.

This early in the year, there are still leaves out.  A lot of trees lost limbs. One of the trees in the side yard dropped a limb right on my poor little truck.  It tore a big hole through the cover. 

I'm hoping this isn't a preview of the winter to come.

Off the Needles

Now that Orson's Shadow has closed, I have a tiny bit of extra free time to get some more knitting done.  Here's what's recently come off the needles:

The pattern is the Ruby Tuesday Cardigan found here (warning: the site is not in English.)  I like the way it turned out, though the buttons pull a little weird when they're all buttoned. I don't know what that's all about. If I do this again, I'll make the sleeves a little longer.  They seemed long enough when I tried it on while I was knitting it, but after I blocked it and put it on finished, they end about two inches above my wrists.  They're both the same, thankfully, so it looks like I did it that way on purpose.

I got some nice, handspun yarn from the local farmer's market with the intention of making a scarf out of it.  However, when I got it home and started knitting with it, I found the weight was too inconsistant for me. So I just made a simple shawl out of it for my Mother-in-Law for her birthday. 

I used a shawl I had knit a few years ago in a show recently. My bestest, Wina, loved it so much I decided to make her a shawl for Christmas. I'm rather pleased with the way it turned out.

This is the first of a pair of socks for The Boy™ for Christmas.  It isn't any particular pattern, just a basic toe-up construction with a floating rib pattern along the leg.  The yarn is from Knit Picks; the colorway is called Pirate King. So I'm calling this pattern Floating Pirate.

There was some discussion on twitter regarding what differentiates floating pirates from witches. To which I responded: pirates weigh more than ducks.

And if that made you chuckle, you are my friend. 

Helmet Head

This post is soon to be featured over at the Poison Pixies Website. It's probably a little didactic and more information than the average readers of my blog care for, but I'm sharing it with you anyway. 

Your helmet is a vital part of your derby ensemble.  Sure, it’s handy for keeping your sweaty hair out of your face, and it’s a great canvas for decorating with your own personal flair, but it is also an important article for keeping you safe and healthy.  Initially and most obviously, it protects you from the nasty: skull fractures.  No one wants to fall and crack their head open on the rink.  However, you can do serious injury without your head ever making contact with the ground.
Imagine your head is like a bowl of jello.  The bowl is your skull; the jello is your brain.  When you give the bowl a little shake, the jello inside moves. The harder you shake, the more the jello moves, rather independent of the bowl itself.  The same thing happens in your head.  When you move and then stop suddenly, your brain moves within your skull.  The faster you move and the more sudden you stop, the more your brain moves.  As you may imagine, your brain isn’t meant to move that much inside your skull.   This movement can cause what is called acceleration-deceleration injury - pretty much how it sounds: your brain accelerations and then decelerates suddenly.  
These traumatic brain injuries can bring with them a variety of outcomes.  The worst case scenarios: cracking your head open and bleeding out, rupture a blood vessel within the brain, getting a hematoma, causing pressure in the brain, etc.  All of these things will ultimately kill you.
There are also less serious outcomes from these injuries. Less serious in that you don’t die; they’re still pretty bad.  These outcomes can range from deafness, blindess and aphasia (an impairment of language ability,) to cognitive, social, behavioral or emotional disabilities.
The more mild forms of brains injuries are known as concussions.  Most concussions are fairly mild.  You get into trouble if you don’t let yourself heal properly afterward, or if you get multiple concussions.  Post concussion syndrome can include headaches, anxiety, memory loss, sleep problems and irritability.  Symptoms of post concussion syndrome can take weeks, months or even years to resolve. Every time you have a brain injury, you’re more susceptible to having another brain injury.  The more times you have a concussion, the easier it is for the brain to concuss.  You can’t say x number of concussions are okay, but x plus 1 are bad. It depends on the frequency and severity of previous concussions.  The effects of multiple concussions can include difficulty concentrating, headaches, aphasia, memory loss and personality changes.

So now that you know all the nasty things that can happen to you if you don’t wear a helmet, what do you do? Why, wear a helmet, of course!  You want to choose one that fits correctly.  The wonderful people at your local skate shop can help you with this.  Something to keep in mind: not all helmets are created equal. You need to get a skate helmet, not a bike helmet.  The foam inside a bike helmet is intended to gradually decelerate the head.  It assumes you are going at high speeds and have had a major crash (with a car, for example.)  While you may feel like you’ve been hit by a car when that other blocker slams into you, it is by no means a similar collision. Also, bike helmets are only meant to work once: after you’ve had an accident where you hit your head (and your helmet saved you from injury,) you need to get rid of the helmet and get a new one.  Skate helmets, with the hard plastic shell, are designed to displace the force of impact, rather than decelerate.  The skate helmet assumes slower speeds and less car crashes. Also a skate helmet can be worn again after a collision because, unlike a bike helmet, the foam doesn't collapse.
Long story short(er), wearing a helmet isn’t important just because WFTDA and your team captain tells you to.  It can literally save your life so you can skate again another day. So go on out, find one you like, spruce it up with some stickers, paint and flair and wear your helmet with derby pride.

Unfounded Fears

Things started slowing down once Orson's Shadow opened.  The insane succession of shows I had at the end of the summer was over, and I was working on one show with nothing else on the horizon. 

I'll be honest. I began to panic.

Logically, I knew it was a lot to expect that I would just fall into my old ways once we returned to NH. Life here had moved on in the five years we'd been away. I couldn't expect every director I ever worked with to be pining away for their favorite stage manager to return. A small part of me hoped they had, but the realist in me knew it wouldn't be so.

I was a little disappointed, irrationally, when I found that the show I most wanted to do out of this season already had a stage manager. 

So I started to prepare myself that I would be theatre-less for the rest of the season and I would have to start looking for something else.

But that changed quite suddenly. 

A friend of a friend, a woman I knew socially but have never worked with before, found herself without a stage manager three weeks into rehearsal for her show.  She sent me an email asking if I could step in.

Of course!

We were discussing her final show of the season, and my desire to be a part of it.  She already has a stage manager, but would love it if I could come in and be her run crew.

Of course!

Last night at rehearsal, she turned to me and asked "what are you doing in March?" Um. Nothing?  She has another show opening at the end of March that she'd like me to stage manage.

Of course!

All that concern about not having any gigs for the rest of the year is gone. It really is almost like I never left.  And I'm really happy that we're back. 

** The shows, by the way, are Elephant Hunt, Detritus, and Wit.  Go to the Players' Ring website  for more information. 

A Derby Post

Though I've been missing a lot of practices lately, due to rehearsals, shows and Weather, I've been getting together with one of the girls on the team - Tootsie - to practice outside on our own.  At first we were just sort of lapping around the parking lot, but lately we've been working on actual skills.

Yesterday, I felt like I was starting to make some progress.

Tootsie and I have been working on a couple of things: running on toe-stops, jumps, cross-overs in anti-derby direction (clockwise) and balance.  I'm now able to take three good, long running strides before dropping to my wheels to skate, which is a huge improvement from a few weeks ago. 

This week, we decided to do two person blocking drills.  One of us would skate down the length of the parking lot and try to block the other from getting around, using the lines of the parking spaces to stand in as the track boundaries.  

I'm focusing on two things. First is moving my whole body, utilizing the footwork we've been working on so much in practice, rather than sticking one foot out and pushing myself from side to side (which is what I usually do.)  The one foot out method, while giving me the illusion of stability, puts me at risk for a penalty. 

The other is a little more difficult to describe.  When you're skating down in derby stance (sort of a squat,) looking over your shoulder at an opponent, and you see her move out of your line of sight to the other side, it wastes time for you to look over that shoulder and then move.  There's no where else she could have gone, the track isn't that big.  You want to move first and then look.  I've working on this in drill after drill with both the Pixies and the SCARs, and still haven't been able to do it effectively.  I saw it put into practice the weekend before last when I watched the WFTDA Eastern Regionals and suddenly it clicked.  I managed to do it a couple of times yesterday, practicing with Tootsie. 

Today I start rehearsal for another show. The rehearsal schedule is such that I'm going to miss Thursday practices until November.  I'm going to look up some more two person drills that I can work on with Tootsie so I won't be so far behind the team when I get back to regular practices. 

New Apartment

We've been here for almost two months now and are still enjoying the new place.  We're more or less moved in, aside from a few odds and ends that are mostly waiting for new bookshelves.

I'm in the midst of repainting the downstairs bathroom (yes, we have two!) and will be posting about that when it's done.  I'm pleased with the way it's turning out so far. 

First, the photos:

The living room, with a shot of the kitchen beyond.  I like the wood floors and trim throughout the apartment. The living room conveniently matches our furniture and accessories, so we plan to leave that as it is.   Not seen from this view is two windows facing the side yard.  They're not particularly exciting.

Kitchen.  I adore this kitchen.  The cabinets are huge - tall and deep - and there's tons of counter space.  I can actually cook a meal and not feel like I'm tripping over myself the whole time. 

The walls are a light grey color. Again, I don't have a problem with this, and have no plans to repaint.

Upstairs bathroom. For the most part, I like this bathroom.  The only drawback is there is no bathtub.  Most of the time, I don't mind, but after derby practice, I like a good hot bath.  I know I'm really going to miss it come winter, but I'm sure I'll get over it.

The study is the one room that still is in quite a disarray.  Partly because we haven't quite found the best way to share the space and partly because we need at least one more bookshelf.  Previously, all The Boy™'s work-related books and files were in his office at Penn State.  He doesn't really have his own office at the new job, so they've all come back home again.  Archiving is not one of The Boy™'s best skills, so those books and files are sitting in boxes until he figures out a way to store them.  I'm trying to be patient about it.

The Bedroom I like. We just got the new platform bed (having given away the boxspring before we moved. It's a long story.)  There's not quite enough closet space (not shown) but we have a new dresser coming in a few weeks.  

My conundrum for the bedroom: the walls (in case you can't tell from the photo) have already been painted a plum color by the previous tenants.  I don't have a problem with the color, but I'm nto sure it matches the quilt (which my grandmother and cousin Suzie made for me; it's not really an option - we will be having the quilt on the bed.)   Here's a close-up of the quilt:

The plum sort of matches, but I'm not sure it matches enough. Not shown is a sort of forest green trim on the bottom.  The wood of all the furniture is cherry - brown with a hint of red. 

What do you think, Dear Readers?  Leave it plum, or repaint?

Relearning Things

    Today is final dress rehearsal for Spirits Willing.  I am assistant director/stage manager on this show.  Thus far, the rehearsal process has been wonderful.  Working with a great group of people, including two of my best friends.  The script is funny (though could have used a few more edits.)  The process very relaxed.
    Now that we're in to tech week, though, things are starting to get a little hairy.  Not bad, by any stretch of the imagination.  I'm just re-learning some lessons that I learned a long time ago.  I thought people had changed in the five years I'd been away.  Turns out they really haven't.
   I'm not going to get into details.  One of my new goals for myself is to stop gossiping and saying bad things about people.  I'm just going to say here that I have learned sometimes people don't change. Not really.  By all means, give them the change to; give them the benefit of the doubt.

   But don't be surprised when they show you they're the same person deep down inside.

New-New Apartment

     Finally, all our belongings are in the same place! (Well, aside from a few heirlooms and childhood things still with The Boy™'s parents' house.  And poor Louie the Turtle at my parents' house. We'll be getting those sometime this year.) A huge shout-out to Nic and Ron who helped us lug the heaviest of our furniture (couch and my desk) out of storage and into the new apartment. 

     The New-New Apartment is wonderful.  I'll be getting pictures up as soon as we've finished unpacking and get things settled.  Right now, I'm enjoying that there is space to move around, places for both of us to sit and QUIET at night. No white trash neighbors arguing on the front lawn until the wee hours of the morning.  For those of you who are wondering, Jersey is much happier here than he was at the Old-New Apartment.  The fish, of course, could care less.

   So: pictures as soon as I can.  I know I'm not the most regular blogger in the world.  Less so in the future as Spirits Willing goes into tech and performance and Orson's Shadow begins rehearsals.  But I'll try to update as often as I can.

Think Cool Thoughts

Most of the country is in the midst of a heatwave right now. Here in New England, the temperature has been hovering close to 100° (with the heat index over 100°.)  It was 88° when I woke up at 2:00 this morning.

So, I'm doing everything I can think of to keep cool: cold showers, damp compresses, fans, time at the beach.  I plan to spend today at the library, coffee shop and possibly the mall just to stay in buildings with air conditioning. Unfortunately, our apartment doesn't have AC.

The poor kitty looks like he's going to melt.

I'm leaving this picture here, to remind us of the dark days of winter, when it's cold and icy and miserable.  I took this from our balcony at our apartment in PA.   I half expect Mr. Tumnus to come walking out of the trees at any moment.

Moments

I hit the wall. It knocks me down.  I curse, get to my feet, and skate to the wall again.  Again I find myself on the floor.  And again. And again.

Finally, I make it through. Past the wall. Through the pack.

And then I hear those words:

"Lead Jammer!"

Holy shit. That's me?!

Random

"You know something?"

"I know a lot of things. I'm in advertising."

"You know it's hot?"

"I wouldn't have known that if he hadn't told me."

(12 Angry Men)

Settling In

We're finally here, in the new apartment. Attempting to settle in.

For now.

I had to admit this, because I was so excited about this place on the way here, but the new apartment kind of sucks.  The rooms are small, the stairwells are narrow, we can't get all our furniture INTO the apartment and the neighborhood is sketchy. 

The guy across the street regularly screams at his wife in the front yard into the wee hours of the morning.  Someone keeps leaving bags of garbage on the curb in front of our apartment (which the City does not pick up because they are not in the City garbage bags.)  I suspect the woman downstairs, who has been served her eviction papers and no longer gives a shit.

We are treated to the off-key songs and cat calls of the drunk college kids on the way home from the bars at night.  I thought I left all that behind.

Needless to say, we're not that happy.  However, our landlord is nicely letting us out of our rent starting in August, assuming they can find a new rentor. She seems pretty confidant that she can.

It's not a horrible apartment. It's just not for us. I would have loved it as a 20 year old undergrad. That seems like eons ago, though, and I no longer have the tolerance for this kind of crap. 

So we're apartment hunting again. It'll be easier this time because we're actually here. We can go look at the place and the neighborhood and make sure we like it and we can fit our sofa into the living room and our bed into the bedroom.  It's the little things, you know?

Otherwise, things are going well. The Boy™ starts work on the first.  I'm busy visiting friends and getting to know the area again. I'll start rehearsals next week.  

It's really, really good to be back.

Project Update

Quick blog to share what's recently come off my needles.

I knit these legwarmers for Derby, although in this heat I won't be need them for a while.

The pattern is The Purl Bee's Tube Sock Legwarmers.  They're knit with Knitpicks' Swish Worsted yarn in white and peapod green.  I think they look pretty keen with my skates.

(Bruises on my knees to be ignored.)

On the needles now is yet another pair of socks.  This time it's Riff Socks from Knitty Deep Fall 2010 with Knitpicks' Comfy Fingering in Semolina. (I'm on a Knitpicks kick right now, can you tell.)  I'll put up pictures of those when I'm done.

In the meantime, life is hectic with packing and getting ready to move.  I'll probably disappear for a bit again while this whole process continues.  Once we're settled, I'll be back with pictures of the new place.

One Bite at a Time

I realize it's been over a month since I posted last.  It's been a busy month for me. Between the start of the season, the show, work, and getting ready to move, life has been pretty crazy around here.

It's still pretty crazy, but now that the show has ended, it's slightly LESS crazy.  Thank goodness.

This week is my last week at work.  I'm taking the following week off to prepare for the Big Move.  

 

I'm happy and excited to be moving. Or rather to have moved.  The actual act of moving is filling me with considerable amounts of stress.  I hate moving, and moving across three states just makes the whole ordeal even worse.  

I'm trying to just take it slow and not let it overwhelm me.  Like that old joke: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. 

Busy Busy

There's been a lag in updates again. Limer and I aren't doing a good job at this post a day thing.

My life has been taken over by Epic Proportions.

(That's not me being melodramatic, that's the name of my next show.)

It's fun, though. And funny. The cast is great; the director is entertaining. I'm having a good time.  It's a bittersweet way to end my time here in Pennsyltucky.  

I'll leave you with Epic inspiration. 

A Lesson

     There is a woman I work with. We'll call her Tabatha; not because her name is Tabatha, but because I think she looks like a Tabatha. This woman, Tabatha, is the Treasurer of the Board of Directors. Now, to give her the benefit, next to the President, the Treasurer does more work than anyone else on the Board. So  much so, that it ought to be a paid position rather than the volunteer position that it is. 

    Tabatha has been quoted as saying her job is to find the thing that is wrong and fix it. Regardless of whether or not there is  something that is actually wrong or it is her job to fix it.  This results in her minding a lot of other people's businesses and getting on a lot of people's nerves.

     This morning in the shower, I found a way to sum up her problem exactly: she doesn't know the line between the squeaky wheel and the boy who cried wolf.

   There is the old saying of how the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  Tabatha sees herself as the squeaky wheel - always pointing out the things that are wrong (or the things she perceives as being wrong) and demanding a solution.  

   Unfortunately, the rest of us are so tired of her constantly harping on things, we just ignore everything she says, be they valid points or not.  So no matter what imagined or actual problem arises that she feels the need to point out, we push it aside, assuming it's just another itch Tabatha has to scratch.

   Let this be a lesson to you, Dear Readers. Yes, the squeaky wheel does get the grease. But the wheel that constantly squeaks eventually gets replaced.

Passing

Rest in peace, Sarah Jane Smith.

To Gloria With Love

I've blogged about this show a couple of times.  It's the dance show I stage managed for Brio Dance Company last weekend.

I was backstage for the show, so I didn't get many pictures, but here are the few that I got.  Most of them are the gobos on the back cyc, because I'm a tech geek.  But they're pretty.

This was the cyc look for the opening scene. It took place in a small farmhouse in Italy. 

 

This was the gobo for the "Roaring 20s" in NYC.  If you look at the top of the picture, you can see the shadows of the lighting instruments on second electric.

This one is probably my favorite.  I don't remember exactly where it was used, but I like the stained glass look of it.

This was the final scene.  Merlee and Andy slow danced to 'Moonlight Serenade' in front of this.

Andy and Julia swing dancing.

Andy and Rebecca: USA enters WWII.

 

Lane and Jon: The Boys Come Home From War.

Merlee and Tracy: Welcoming Home the Troops.

Things I Don't Understand

The Cat will refuse to drink out of his water dish because there is a tiniest speck of dust in it.

Yet, he will drink the muddy water out of the plant pots on the balcony without hesitation.

For The Locals

If you're in the area this Sunday, head on over to the State Theatre and check out Brio Dance Company's spring show: To Gloria With Love.

 

“To Gloria with Love” is a montage of the years that cover the booming 1920s, the Great Depression, World War II, and the enduring heart of the American people that emerged out of one of the most tragic times in our history. It's a story based on my late grandfather's legacy, the story of a young Italian man whose family came over to America by way of Ellis Island and made their home here. His is one story among millions who not only lived through some of the most turbulent years that America and our world has endured but who have also fought for justice, hope, and freedom...the freedom that we now enjoy. It's a story that I hope will touch the hearts of those who have lived it and will change the hearts of those who haven't. For my grandfather and for many, many others, “To Gloria with Love” is an American treasure.”
-Lane Grosser, Founder and Artistic Director

(Yes, this is a plug for myself as well. I am stage managing.)  

Refashioned Shirt

*** Warning: Craft Post Ahead***

We got shirts for Derby. One blue, one black with the team name on the front and our derby names and numbers on the back (I am Ginan Toxxic, number 20.)

There was a mistake with my shirt. I only got black and it was ordered as an extra large instead of a medium (we won't say anything about certain people doing shirt orders while they're drunk.)

Tomorrow is "dress practice" because Scoop from State College Magazine will be there.  We're supposed to were our shirts. My shirt was pretty unwearable as it was.

So I spent part of my afternoon refashioning it into something cute, punky and wearable.

Start with the shirt:

Turn it inside out and cut off the sleeves, sides and bottom:

Then, using a whipstitch, sew up the sides.

Next, cut off the collar and the tops of the sleeves:

Then, make some drawstrings out of the scraps of the bottom and sides of the shirt.  Poke some holes (carefully using a very sharp knife) along the tops of the sleeves and the collar.  Turn the shirt rightside in and, using a safety pin as a needle, lace the drawstrings through the sleeves to close them together and along the collar (using whipstitch again) to make a decorative trim.

(Complete shirt, back)

(Complete shirt, front.)

Wear and enjoy!