awhyzip

Tuesday or Wednesday, I came home and did nothing. Ahhh.

Monday out to dinner and learned a new Tibetan restaurant: Martsa’s on Elm. I recommend it. It's in Davis Square... on Elm street.

Forewent Thursday's Mikado in favor of lower-key home-based Buffy watching. Knew I could make Saturday's matinee, so all was well. We ordered pizza with riccota & eggplants. I forget which pizza place -- I think it was the across the road, that made the noteworthy garlic pizza -- only this pizza had soggy too-thin crust (drooping problem) whereas that one was so crisp as to border on painful. So it must not have been there. I want to remember because I learned that I don't like their breaded eggplant. It was strongly spiced with spices I didn't like.

Friday, I had more time at home than usual because of the storm. I used it all up doing the shovelling (as chronicalled in previous post) and one or two minor household chores. I look forward to doing some more. But when?

At work I accidentally ordered more lunch (Japanese) even though I'd intended to just eat left over pizza. Not complaining, though. I had tasty WARM edamame -- picked up by a Minnesotan(?) coworker who wanted to prove to the New Englanders that this little 4-inches-and-hour accumulation is nothing to the mighty Midwestern winter.



That evening, I visited Bnai Or (Jewish Renewal) in Watertown. I'd been there the previous Shabbat for a bat mitzvah, and heard that this week was a Shabbaton with Rabbi Shefa Gold. This enticed me.

I enjoyed the service she led. She spoke alot (which I neither liked nor disliked strongly, but it did make the evening feel like a live concert rather than a prayer meeting). Lots of chanting, which I liked alot. That's actually why I went there -- because there were chants old and new to me included in the bat mitzvah service, and the congregation clearly was used to doing them. I wanted that.

And I got it. There was very little of the traditional prayers; nearly everything was replaced by a Song-of-Songs-based chant analogue. She also led a mingling movement for one chant. That was the only explicit movement activity (other than standing for the Amidah), but people who felt like it did get up and move or dance every so often, including a couple who danced a happy tango to the Lecha Dodi.

Also, Matt Goldfield turned up there unexpectedly (and curly-haired Ilana). Perhaps I should give up trying to invite him to events he'd like, and just rotate thru all of Boston's synagagues :-) This week Emunah of Lexington is showing Israeli movie...



Saturday I slept in from shul (neatly avoiding the question of whether to go to the second half of the shabbaton or whether to Tremont Street). Got over to MIT for the Mikado matinee at 2. Joelll caught me coming in, and prevented me from paying. The ticket seller (name not to be mentioned, but a familiar face) had just blandly asked me my name (to check against reservation list) without batting an eye of recognition or "hi", which was a little disappointing (but whatever), and I was unfolding my ready $12, when Joelll's voice rings out, "Don't let her pay."

I thought he was telling M not to let me in: you know, playin' a game; that's fun, stick out your tongue and keep on anyway.
"...Don't let A pay. She's on light crew." He had secured a comp ticket for me (which I hadn't hoop-jumped to sign up for). Aww. Special fuzzies all around :-)



So, the show itself? It was fun enough. Weighed it throughout against Mira's summer production at Brown. I missed her version's leaping, manic, (and audible) Pooh-Bah. The Kadisha here had amazing eyebrows and facial expressions. I admired the set frequently, and it never failed to please.

Then I stayed around for strike. Got to fly in the scaffold twice, and no ground-crew interminable boredom. (Thank god.) JWeiss even got me taking down hung lights ("instruments"). I hadn't in years. Thank you, JWeiss.

The only negative was failing to communicate with my work-friend Carolina. I was planning to take her to a Chocolate Party, but neither of us made it at all. I didn't have a handle on my schedule vis a vis strike and left too much of the coordinating too late. This is the same failure as last time we had plans for a weekend :-(

That, and I whacked a power-cord into some metal at one point, making an unpleasantly very loud clang, and Joelll to call me Tiger (as in "easy, Tiger"). No harm done though, I think.

Final note: I met Maddy's housemates Deena and Jeewan.

I have to start plotting out time-slots over Christmas Weekend. I'm going home (for Abba's birthday), so I'll be in Northampton.

Was very pleased with the Tu BiShevat Seder that S. & I ran tonight. I enjoyed it. The company was pleasant, and with-it. The food was delicious. The evening moved along smoothly.
Glad also to lead an event for *peers* -- it's not the same with little kids; it's not as good.

She and I should do it again some time!

(I'll observe that I also enjoyed "leading" the Arisia open filk-sing before the people who could really lead it arrived. Same skill-set. (Will write it up if I can turn the re-telling into a story/anecdote rather than just some self ego-stroking.))

saw the penguins. this is worth a later write-up. next day spend seeing attractions of Adelaide city: another botanical park, and national wine center, and zoo, and restarants on G--- street. Actually, didn't go to zoo, as it closed early. in botanic park, a ranger tried to get me to unsuspectingly eat hot peppers. will write up this story later, is a good grin. catch-phrase "it's your own decision." Adelaide botanic garden has a "Museuem of Economic Botany", so of course I dragged A. thru it. And the "Economic Garden", which in any other park, would have been called an herb garden. silly adelaide, unfortunate e-met boy. Surprised to run into Maia the Israeli physiotheraphy student from shul the night before.

Been gorgeous weather. Today it rained huge hailstones. OK, you could say it hailed hailstones. They were the size of small marbles. Many were perfect spheres. it was very impressive. some where white and some where clear with white centers.

If you want postcards from me, post me your mailing address, especially if you live in Hawaii or Texas. unfortunately, I can't get at gmail from here, and my address book doesn't have the addresses I thought it did. alumni account works.
And if you are not in Hawaii or Texas, but rather Sydney, and will be free Jan 10 evening, come have dinner with me. (not that i expect any hits in the readership of this lj, but hey can't hurt.)

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens yesterday Thurs. Walked alot, had picnic, then tired afternoon. Day before that Wed, dinner at next door (Deb) and tried to see Loebethal? lights. They turned out to be over. Also went shopping in town for second batch of groceries, and op-shop hat, and Andrew's Centerlink stuff in Mt Barker. Did micro-walk before the barbie. Was going to cut hair after shower, but didn't. Today was to be penguins, but those shall be for New Years Day, now. When will we visit the farm? Weather not bad.

Remember when I had the flat tire? Remember how I thought that the only place around here I could get it replaced was Natick? Remember the dark bold-face text of doom on that place?

On Thursday I learned that 1) tires can sometimes be plugged rather than replaced and 2) this puncture was too large to be plugged. On Friday I learned, 1) Dedham is a reasonable distance away -- plus the pre-existing knowledge that 1) Dedham is not Natick and 2) there is a Town Fair Tire in Dedham. Ergo, a plan: Friday during lunch, I would drive to Dedham and replace my flat tire at last.

So, lunch time rolls around, and I'm not hungry so I put it off. Then I am in a meeting where much new work is added to my "plate". And this is good, but scary, but good. We found & fixed a pretty big bug right at the end of the week, and version 1.1 is ready at the same time. The developers had to deal with the fact that our source-control system doesn't like to develop two versions at once (deal with that and with and their actual work, of course). I don't like that the tool makes their life harder! I want to defend them from it, but of course, what can I do about that? Nothing; it's not anywhere near my job. And I've got my own tool that makes my life harder: our bug-tracking system. I swear the thing just ATE one of my bugs!

It's an annoying system. It's online, which is nice, but it uses an annoying frameset and every so often will reload the whole thing inside one frame (doubling up the menus) or will navigate to only one frame (leaving you trapped in that one function). My main beef is that its search functions are no where near powerful enough. Also it annoys me that when I make custom "reports" (in order to get around the weak search), it only lets me filter on some-but-not-all of the fields -- and of course those fields include two of the approx six that I am most often interested in. ANYWAAY, I was going to mention how at this meeting, just before they told me that both versions are ready for testing NOW, they also said that I should start working on some of the demos that we show to people.

I was a little happy to get to work on the demos, because I always like doing new things!

But then, as there was more and more for me to do in a tiny time-frame, I started to get worried. P. looks out for me, now that she is -- oh i forget the whole title -- manager, but I do tend to think I can do a lot more than I really can.

So I'll skip the story about how the tracker ate my bug, which someone important subsequently experienced and I was unable to demonstrate that it was known. I was secretly embarrassed. This was above-mentioned last-minute necessary fix. I'd previously not thought it was so serious, which also embarrasses me.

But enough on that; I was talking about tires. Just wanted to explain to you why it was not until 3:30 that I went out to run for the tire. Meaning it was already 3:30 when I discovered flat tire number two!
Yes, that's right: this time on the opposite corner.
"AUGH!", I cried, with a good dose of bitter humor, "This is NOT a weekly event!"

Went to Brandeis last night for the show. Well the start of it anyway. Cheers to Susan for her very funny reworking of the Little Mermaid's "Part of that World"; it lived up to the hints you'd been dropping. :-) And super-kudos to Ian "Now that I'm a Woman". I heart Ian!!!! Jess & I ran out shortly after Time Warp, to wash the blue dye out of my hair. Sadly, I realized why I had so much left over of this jar -- the blue is much lighter shade than I like. Oh well, there will be time to re-dye it this afternoon! I'm heading in to Cambridge to catch the Red Sox on their Duck Boats, can pick up blue on the way back.

I will feel my friend Lisa's presence with me. She came back from Texas (to visit family) just in time for the win, but her ride to Boston (for visiting me overnight) backed out on her yesterday. Lisa is the biggest Red Sox fan I know, and that the confluence of events could have put her in place for this (plans for coming to Boston Friday were made when the Sox were still playing Yankees) just was astoundingly great. Astounding is the right term for all of this. The Red Sox have won the World Series, in my lifetime! "Soon, soon, and in our days..."

I'm in New York!
I missed Scribner's show -- just barely. >:-( This teaches me an important lesson: Next time I plan to take the Chinatown bus, buy the tickets on the dang internet the day before. I got to the departure place before the 9:30 bus left, but wasn't allowed to get on one until 11. I arrived NYC at 3pm (for 2:45 show 3 subway stops away), so even the 10 bus would have been enough.
BethAnn and I joined the cast party at some bar after the show, and then had dinner with a bunch of Scribner's Jersey friends. That was great!
I meet Neha (Nehan?) for the first time, and really liked her. So did BethAnn. I also especially enjoyed talking with Gina.
(Neha had the funniest quote of the evening: "He [Dan] has his faults, too! His hair grows too fast.")

Dan sounds happy with this show. I'm hoping to catch the Sunday night performance, if I can work out getting back to work in time.

Anyway, I am I general happy. Very busy (on an Awhyzip scale). I'm still staying too late at work too often, but I'm usually managing to get a decent amount of socialization in. You can help me leave work on time by calling and reserving my evenings!
(I really miss my lost telephone numbers. If I haven't called you in a while, it may be because I lost your number when I had to replace my phone. My cell number's still the same, so call in now :-))

I got myself at promotion at the Hebrew School I work at. I'm excited to start that, but I simultaneously dread the start of school when it will start eating all my weekends again. The first day is not far enough off!

In other news, my house is getting ready for a shake-up, as one of our members moves out for a job he just got. Congratulations to Mike!
(This is in addition to Amy moving in.) Unfortunately, we may have to shuffle our guest room out of existence.

My family reunion was OK, but not as effective as I'd hoped. Andy's wedding, on the other hand, was excellent. I may stick in a backdated entry with more detail.

For now, for me, it is time for bed.

Passed the new release candidate on after a week of frustrating testing. Just couldn't seems to get my head straight about what I needed to do. Not unrelated to the fact that I'd just torn up my old plan. =) And on top of that, I got in late on several days, which I had not been meaning to do.
On the positive side, the other tester (at partner company) has been bumped from our project. Yes, I said "positive". This is good because now that I *know* she's not working on the project (rather than just *suspecting* that she's giving us minimal time), I no longer have to be concerned about comprehensibilty of my test plan and can tear it up. It was structurally not worth editing. (I saved only the summary page.)

But that's not what I am here to talk about -- I am here to talk about what happened AFTER work on Friday and was nice.

At quarter of 5 we decided it was ready, and my co-worker says "go home!" I'm so used to getting in late, that it hadn't even crossed my mind that getting in at 9ish means the day *ends* earlier. Cool!
Services don't start until 7, so what was I to do with myself? So, I wrapped up the files, gave myself a chance to clean up my desks (this was happy), and swang out of there before 6. I always feel cheery when I leave work, because I'm going off to a no-homework evening, but this was especially nice :-)

I headed first to E. Ch., to park and drop off my contribution to the potluck, then took a walk down to Central Square. Beautiful. I stared at the houses and churches. I rang the bell of a friend (who wasn't in). I stopped by a sidewalk sale and found an amazingly perfect gauzy shawl/overshirt thing they were calling a poncho. I admired the cuteness of my hair in the dressing-room mirror -- humidity has brought our its curl. I returned along the brick sidewalk, and didn't worry about the time. (Unlike hungry friends, services are OK if you join while they are in progress.)

Friday services at E. Ch. were as musical and warm as I remember, and being away for several weeks made it even sweeter to see the now-familiar faces. There was satisfying shmoozing, enough time to be with several sets of community-members.

That evening was the public Cambridge Dance Party. doxasticpirate was there, and it sounded like a giant Pinball machine!

This year I volunteered for a big part in my cast's semesterly show. After happily deluding myself that the performance was a while off, it's kicked in that the show is now! This Friday, at midnight. We've been rehearsing 4 times a week for the past several weeks. This week the director wanted to up it to every weekday, but there's a great concert coming to Brandeis so she had to cancel dress rehearsal tonight.

I think the show is going to be pretty good. Some of our cast members are taking things very seriously. And we are even going to have trained Trannies to lead the callbacks and dances. Myself, I have been trying to render a good and accurate version of my part but I just haven't had time to learn it well. (Would you believe those professors -- still giving midterms!) My last parts were so much less blocking-intensive!

Yesterday, Claire and I went in to Harvard Square to shop for costume stuff. That was a balagan. Tuesdays are the only day that I have a long daytime break: from 1:30 to 5. We left at 2, after lunch. It turned out that that was not enough time to drive into the Square, buy stockings, a wig, and a corset/top, and get back. Traffic! I got into such traffic =O. Probably should have known better, but I am used to only driving on Sundays or on the occasional evening. If we hadn't had to also hit some downtown Waltham stops, too, I would have just taken the buses. It's been nice and all to have a car again, but I am not totally convinced that it's worth it.

For example, I had a little crash just after getting back home. I was lost in Chicopee and drove thru a stop sign that I didn't notice. Some guy in a minivan (who did have the right of way) pulled in as I was entering the intersection, and drove right into the front corner of my car. I turned away of course when I saw him advancing at me, but not severely enough. To be honest, I was just thinking the whole time "this guy is NOT really running into me -- I must be imagining it" and I didn't want to overreact. I still get scared when driving by parked cars that I am about to snap their side-view mirrors off by being too close. You would think, real cars don't drive into you at low speeds in wide-open intersections --- it's only fast cars, with slow reaction speeds, or drunks, that are the dangerous ones, after all. Red-light runners, not slow things that already halted at a stop sign. But no. Banged right into me.

Cops were there and they took our stories, including my admission that I hadn't even realized the stop sign was there. I'll never do that again! I mean, if I'm not sure I did something or not, I'll never admit it again. Honest-eyewitness-self, bye bye.

I avoided a ticket, because the officer said he appreciated my honesty, but having my insurance go up because I couldn't dispute anything was way more expensive. I tried at one point calling the other guy up after he decided to press a claim thru the insurance, and he was a real bastard to me. Seemed nice enough at the scene although he yelled at me just a little. But when I called him up and explained that if I could, I'd rather he let me cover the repairs personally than via insurance, this is what he started demanding from me: not just the cost of his repairs which was amazingly high considering that his minivan had only cracked its bumper, but he began to ask if I would cover the rental of this other car so he can drive while his is in the shop. What a prick! What presumption! Unless I would cover both, he was going to put it thru the insurance company. That's bastardly, because I can bet you that his company wasn't about to cover him for a replacement vehicle. So I told him go suck eggs.
Actually, I just told him "No way," managing a moderately polite tone of voice, and then went back to dealing with his insurance agent. The Arbella agent was the nicest person that I dealt with in all of this. I wish my insurance agency (Amica) was as nice to talk to. They are hard-asses who scare me, and I claim that they once threatened to break my kneecaps. That is a slight exaggeration, but it gets the mood across.

There are more for-examples I could give about times when I felt like having a car was too much trouble, but I shall skip them. Despite my occasional misgivings, my car is lovely and very handy.

Rocky costume: I now have my entire basic costume for the show, and it is fairly impressive. I felt well and truly embarrassed to be seen in it, so I wandered around the dorm a bit searching for a full-length mirror. I have invited a handful of friends from home and elsewhere to the show, and it seems like a number will be coming. One friend will be in his own production of Rocky the same weekend and can't make it. I am quite amused by the coincidence. I'm anticipating the show and I think I'll have fun.

I'm also looking forward (with anticipation) to the Dar Williams/Ben Folds concert tonight -- I have a sweetsweet ticket, baby!