SHOWTIME! or The Infinite Wisdom of the Powers That Be

The students are back.  Classes start Monday.  Overnight the campus went from seeming like a quiet restful  park, a few people, the squirrels, and me- to a weekend rock festival, crowds, music, parties, and traffic.

Deadlines approach and supposedly I spent the summer preparing.  What I actually did was go to Europe, then Music Circus, and when I got back and because there was nothing that needed immediate attention I was, well, a bit lazy.

Please, taking care of yourself.

No, you were lazy.

Really?  Because I went to the masseuse, the dentist, the farmer’s market, petted the cat, cleaned the house, got a haircut? Took a vacation?

So this week I had a panic attack and went into production mode.

Because:

Costume storage.  Last year we shifted from expecting to find Dracula’s coffin in our dungeon of a space to checking for anacondas in the jungle of clothes.  It was that jam packed with extra racks squeezed into every available space.

 

I usually do some stock reorganizing during the summer but this year it was on hold while the TD built me some extra hanging space above the exsisting fixed racks. Thumbs Up!

Then to clear the floor space of all the extra racks, he put everything from the rolling racks all the way up near the ceiling.  These are the items we need all the time, pants, petticoats, and skirts. Since I don’t want to be that costumer who dies from falling off a ladder under a pile of clothes in a locked room all by herself with no cell phone reception,  I put reorganize stock on the list for the work study kids. Which I need to do with them because I am tired of finding contemporary nighties in the medieval section and, well, ladders.

Only a few other things are happening at that same time.

The department decided to do a opening of the semester show the 1st week of classes.  2 actors, not complicated, but it means I will be in dress rehearsals next week.  Also production meetings, welcome back events, and measurements, shopping, designing for the actual 1st show, and patterns for the 2nd show which is a period piece.

Knowing all this, I got the shop cleaned, organized, and ready to go.  I also dealt with all the costumes that overflowed into another room which is now going to be a design classroom.

BUT there was a glitch.

Of course there was, mercury is in retrograde

A couple of weeks ago, I tripped a breaker.  Only one machine and the iron were on so this should not have happened.  The electrician came, assessed the situation, and decided the shop needed more power.  Surprise!  I only asked for this when we moved into the room 3 years ago. Last week they rewired the costume shop and the laundry room and the adjacent design room.   Like any remodleing project on an older building, they kept uncovering more broken disfunctional things and making a bigger mess and so it went on. Finished except for “just 1 more thing” on Friday.

I am ready to go?  No, but hey, if there was really enough time to get things done, I’d never do anything.

 

 

 

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Digging out

It’s my favorite time on campus.  Only a week to go before finals.  The students are busy but I have some leisure to sit back and watch them fumble frantically thru the last few projects.  Occasionally I lob some encouragement or advice their way.  Of course, the last show will leave me with a mountain of laundry and restocking just when they all run off for the summer.

The costume shop seems to attract more than the usual suspects at the end of the year. Which is very gratifying; I feel very popular.  It’s also noisy and crowded.  The usual topic, besides gossip about the last show, is the possibility of pitching a reality TV show about the shop to the campus television network.

After a month of non stop work, today I did my personal mountain of laundry and dishes.  I get the laundry but I don’t know how the dishes pile up when I am mostly eating on campus.  I think the cats must be having parties in my absence.

I made the mistake yesterday of going to Trader Joe’s when both hungry and tired.  I am not sure what all I bought but the freezer is full.  It was all so exhausting that I slept all afternoon to recover.

There’s still a long to do list of things that took a back seat to the dance concert but I am quite satisfied to cross those few things off.

 

 

 

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Ch ch ch changes

I have taken a life altering step:  I have moved to California.

Why?  The opera was going thru some serious changes, which I knew I could weather, but wasn’t sure I wanted to.  I tired of working really hard when I had work and then finding myself unemployed too much of the year.  I was beginning to feel that I was too old for this.  I was going stale.

I accepted a job running the costume shop for the Theatre and Dance department and Loyola Marymount University.  Year round employment, with benefits.  Something completely new for me.  Turns out I haven’t yet reached my expiration date.

It’s about time you announced this, don’t you think?  Since It happened 6 months ago.

I know, I know, but really I haven’t  had time to write or knit or much of anything.  I got the job in late September.  Finished the show I was working on at the opera.  Stashed my belongings at my son’s house, packed the bare necessities and 2 cats into my car, waved goodbye to Georgia  and, feeling very dazed and confused, arrived in LA in mid October.

The cats were not happy about any of this but more about that later.

I spent my first few months working like crazy because I started in mid semester and had to play catch up with everything.  I stayed with a friend who lived pretty far away from school and when I wasn’t working, I was driving or sleeping.

I had a break in December which I used to look for a apartment but mostly just drove around in circles because I was always getting lost.  I did get a place and after way too much juggling of time, resources, and sanity, moved in January.  Just in time to start the next crazy round of shows.

The department normally does 6 theatre productions and 2 dance concerts.  This is manageable.  However, in 2013-14 they did 10 theatre projects requiring support from the costume shop in addition to the 2 dance concerts. I was dancing as fast as I could and then…

The academic year ended.  There are no shows during the summer and the campus is quiet.  I have some leisure time.  I don’t know what to do without deadlines.  I miss the students and the liveliness they bring to the shop.

So what am I doing now?  Because I can’t seem to stop, I got permission to work 1 show at Music Circus.  I’m in Sacramento.  Working hard.

Just the usual.

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You Want What?

I can’t be here tonight.  I’d like to be but I’m in dress rehearsals.  Then I’m going to sleep.

Tomorrow I get to rinse and repeat.  And the next day.

Then I think I’m going to need a little attitude adjustment therapy.  This show makes my head spin around so much that  I am perpetually dazed and confused.

Problem is,  I can’t decide if I need to call a shrink, a masseuse, or an exorcist.

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Dear Body;

or perhaps I should address this to your internal clock this or who ever it is that’s  responsible for this:

4 am again, really? What’s up with that?  Don’t you realize I have dress rehearsals next week?  I will have a very hard time getting you home safely when I leave  the theatre at 11 pm if you have gotten me up at 4.  If I run the car into a ditch or wander into the wrong lane it will be all your fault.

Enough is enough.  Time to stop this and get back on track.

Why did you post a random picture?

I was hoping it would remind me of the sound of the waves and maybe that would soothe me to sleep.

Try Brahms.

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Anticipation

Can you feel it? Mercury is in Retrograde.

That feeling like a train slowing down, the hydraulic hiss of the brakes, waiting for the inevitable bump that says it’s completely stopped.

I feel like I’m slogging thru jello.

The weather cooled off and then it started getting hot again- going backwards toward summer.

The Pi topper appears to have been knit by 2 different knitters who aren’t speaking to each other.  The part that’s just straight knitting after the increases looks great.  The part at the top of the hat where the increases are seems  very loose like I should have used  a smaller needle.

I’m twiddling my thumbs at work until rehearsals start.  Then it will be full speed ahead and straight on ’til load out.

This morning I was deeply worried about the boxes of personal items I shipped from California that still hadn’t arrived yet.  They are fine, as it turns out, and were waiting in front of the door when I got home.

However, I also had something shipped to the opera.  The label of that box was switched  with a box containing personal items belonging to someone else.  My box has gone to NYC wish I was with it and I don’t know when it will be back.

Bump.  It’s stopped.  It will go direct on Sunday evening.  Meanwhile I’m waiting.

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Happy Labor Day

Workers of America Unite!

This is your day.  So start the charcoal, put some ice in the cooler, take your kids to the beach, the pool, or the

backyard, and raise a glass to celebrate ourselves and all the work that we do

because tomorrow summer will be over.

…and on the 249th day we all rested…

Except me.  I worked today.

Something about that show must go on thing or maybe it’s just because I can’t help myself.

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Living Small(er)

I live in what is basically a small town surrounded by a major metropolitan area.  It’s really the best of both worlds- except for the traffic in between.

One of the advantages is that my local community, because it’s smaller, can get it together in ways that seem to completely bog down our larger neighbors.  Because we are nestled into a larger city, Decatur can also attract enough resources and support to sponsor some really wonderful community events:  an arts festival, a Christmas season bonfire and marshmallow roast, a beer tasting festival, and a beach party where they fill the courthouse square with sand.

This weekend is the Book Fair.  Mostly there are lectures, discussions, and workshops with writers and vendor booths with small publishers and used book sellers.

I wasn’t tempted to purchase anything from the vendor booths- mostly because well, my cash flow needs to stay within it’s narrow channel at the moment but also because I realized a few years ago that I just didn’t have room to keep lots of books.  I go to the library instead.  I also didn’t see any knitting books I needed.

It helps that the library is across the street from my apartment building.  Another plus for my small town.

Well guess what?  The library had a sale out front too.  Proceeds to benefit the Friends of the Library Group.  And, look what I found for $3:

You are wondering perhaps why I don’t already own this?  Because in college I had to purchase paperback editions of the more well known plays for a class and those usually suffice if I need to read a Shakespearean play for work.  If I don’t have the play I need, someone I know usually does.  I have now moved so many times and purged so many times that I’m not sure where those paperbacks ended up.  I only know they are not on the bookshelf and they would take up too much room if they were.  The price was right and look:  It’s compact.

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and now for a brief interlude…

It has become tradition.  Now time honored and obligatory- the annual false alarm at the circus.

I had nothing to do with this one.  Someone was steaming costumes too close to a particle sensor and set it off.  We  think.  There are always a few usual suspects even if they do have alibis.

We had to evacuate.  The noise the alarm makes would drown out a 747.  It doesn’t hurt that there’s a Starbucks across the street.

Of course some people have to treat it like a holiday and get the very obliging firemen to pose for pictures:

For others It’s a real emergency- necessitating the rescue of one’s most important possessions:

In this case a pair of red platform shoes.  What would you save in a fire?

Location:  Waiting on the curb for help to arrive

The Music in my Head: Fire, Bruce Springsteen

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California: Week 1

Yes, this is my actual blog.  In case you were wondering.  It could be virtual I suppose but I don’t really deal with the virtual world much.  Unlike some apparently.  Which must be why the owners of this place in Berkeley thought they had to make it really clear.  “not just another wifi hotspot”

The highlight so far of my first week was a day trip  Berkeley in search of fabric and other supplies which included a lovely lunch in the sunny garden behind La Note on Shattuck Ave.

Berkeley looks a little different than it did when I lived there but many things stay the same after all:

My housing this year has none of the charm of my apartment from last year , nor does it have the swanky amenities of the year before.  It is adequate  but dull.  The internet works- my pictures load faster but web pages are slower than at home.  There are kitchen items but just the bare minimum.  I borrowed a pillow from someone in the shop because the giant king sized ones on my bed are worn out and lumpy.  The most amusing thing about it is that the tiny dishwasher has a sign posted on it that says to conserve water please don’t run the washer unless there are 10 items in it.  I counted 1 plate, 2 cereal bowls, 2 plastic mixing bowls, 2 pots, and a collander.  There are not 10 items that could need washing and if there were they wouldn’t all fit in the washer.

I have the entire weekend off before the madness starts on Monday (1st fitting, 8:50 am).  I’m probably going to sleep the entire time as I caught some horrid coughing, running nose, sore throat thing.  I’m blaming the airlines.

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