So, yeah... it's been a while. A lot has happened and I could probably write a decent-size entry about it. Instead, I'm going to sleep. Here's some life expectancy quiz results to tide you over.

Somewhere out there, Randall Munroe just sat up in a cold sweat...

Either I had some very strange dreams last night, or sometime in the early morning one of my neighbors got dragged kicking and screaming into an ambulance. At first, I thought I'd left the TV on, then remembered that I don't have cable and I've not set up rabbit ears (actually, rabbit ears probably don't work anymore what with digital broadcast, I guess...). And I didn't have the TV on last night, but it also randomishly turns on and changes channels (I suspect that one of my neighbors has a remote on the same frequency). Anyhow, once I realized it wasn't the TV and it wasn't the tape player (I'm in a habit of using self-made self-hypnosis scripts to help me relax and drift into sleep. I had one time where the tape I was using wasn't completely cleaned and I wound up with political commentary followed by a baby crying some minutes after the script had completed. That was weird to wake up to), I noticed that there were flashing lights through my curtain. I discreetly drew back the curtain (there's been a police action or two in the complex and I didn't want to get shot by mistake [yes, I know, paranoid and all]) and saw a police car pulled up beside, an EMT pulling a gurney out of the back of the ambulance, and some people standing by. The background noise was angry (female, I think) yelling and moaning, appropriate for a psychotic episode or maybe just bad alcohol poisoning (I've heard people sound like that when they're in that "puke up your guts over and over again and swear you'll never drink again" phase), and a fair amount of banging as if someone were running into walls and furniture. I considered stepping out and asking what I could do to help, but then decided that things were beyond my ken, closed the window, restarted my tape, and went back to sleep. In the morning, there was no sign that any of it had happened. Maybe I'll run into my neighbor and I can ask after it. *shrug*

In other news, I think I'm getting better at Capoeira once more. I still need to keep moving — I still have a tendency to plant myself and kick, then hold position to show the point — but I'm reacting a bit better to the incoming techniques. Midsummer rehearsals continue apace as well. The iambs are kicking my butt, but I've got a good chunk of the show memorized, I've got a handle on the character (or at least who I see him to be), and I'm slowly getting the music out of my voice (apparently, I have a bad habit of intoning rather than speaking). It proceeds well.

I woke up this morning with three very important things gleaned from my dreams. I forgot all but one in the 30 seconds it took for me to sit up and get to my computer to note the three things down. And now, I'm wondering how to apologize to someone for a response I sent to a message I can't find any record of having received. {shakes head} I could say that I'm sorry, Kate, for being confused in my dream as to who you were and only realizing later in the dream, would it do any good? Would you ever see it?

It was a really weird set of dreams. I was back on my college campus (not entirely certain if it was Dayton or CMU) and a number of different things happened including me running into a girl who I'd met at orientation and had in another life (alternate pants leg in time?) very clumsily asked out. She changed features too, going from kind of short and plump with long blonde hair to short and skinny with short red hair. The facial shape changed too. In my waking hours, I don't remember who either is, although I have my suspicions. Oh, and at one point, I remember being in a kitchen and another point drinking some kind of a protein drink which might have been based on peanut brittle except that the bottles kept multiplying. Either that or I was drinking old stale bottles of it. It's all so disjointed now.

Another oddity, I woke up a few minutes before my alarm again, totally awake, but convincing myself it was too early and going back to bed. I like the fact that I'm waking up on time. Now I need to actually get up at that time.

Saw Watchmen for the second time tonight. It was just as awesome as the first time, and it was nice watching it a second time after having read up on trivia and easter eggs. I was free to watch the edges of the movie for the subtle bits now that I knew how the main action went. Funny thing, the girl I went to see it with, it was her second time too. :-p Neither of us were aware that the other had already seen the movie, but we both had fun at it. Other thing I did recently was that I was reading a few of the World of Darkness books and I realized partway through that I was finding myself wanting to build a character which transcended the flaws in the game. It wasn't so much a matter of munchkining as it is that I'm an optimistic sort who wants to believe that anything is possible, that all can overcome, that there is no such thing as a helpless situation. *wry grin* And, as much as I enjoy playing the villain on stage, I don't like the idea of playing one in an RPG. So yeah, World of Darkness, for all that I find the system interesting, may not be my cup of tea.

I really should be sleeping... I'll make a last comment. Tried out Zumba, being offered at the fitness center at work. It was... alright, but not nearly as stressful as they made it out to be. I barely broke a sweat and my heart rate stayed rather low throughout. Which is really odd, because usually even mild exercise leaves me red-faced and panting (must look into that someday...). Heh, maybe my body is built to be an efficient dance exerciser. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

You know, I really need to start having a consistent posting schedule, something to force me to publish or perish. *sigh* Well, writing now, at least. It's been an interesting few weeks. Two Saturdays ago, I watched the production of Romeo and Juliet by The Barnstormers. It was... interesting. They played it up as a comedy, not only in the extant sex jokes (and believe me... there are a lot of those in Romeo and Juliet) but also portraying the relationship of Romeo and Juliet as less a matter of two people in destined love, determined to fight fate and family for true love and more a matter of two emotional teenagers who like what they see in each other and firmly desire to get their rocks off. It was a very interesting presentation, although the fact that we were primed for giggles at the time of the death scene at the end kind of punctured the drama there. Our own closing weekends of Measure for Measure went well although the last night had far too many errors made during the production and there was an undercurrent of tension among a few members of the cast that makes me think that there may have been some rifts kept barely hidden under the surface. *shrug* Well, omelets and eggs, right? The cast party afterwards was fun, as always. I made diet herb chicken wings and they turned out well, although I think cooking them in a slow cooker left the meat a little too soft and tender (not to mention the bones... lemon juice and hours of soaking and heating left them at a consistently where it was very easy to bite off more than you wanted to chew or swallow). We had some absolutely stimulating conversation about Star Wars, ranging from our opinions on Lucas's directing and dialogue skills to the sociopolitical structures of the universe and whether groups like the Jedi, the Sith, the Republic, or the Empire could truly be seen as good or bad in the context of the movie. We even managed to get the oft-reclusive Kate, our host's daughter, into some of the conversation, which made me happy, because I always feel like we drive her off to her room with our raucous partying and no one should feel left out in their own house.

In other news, I locked myself out of my house Tuesday night. I'd had my keys out at work, because I was reading one of the documents on my USB stick during my lunch break, and I accidentally left the keys behind when I left work (my car keys are entirely separate due to an unfortunate incident a few years ago involving car keys getting locked into a trunk and needing my landlord to open my apartment door so I could get the spare keys). A few hours later, after having tutored two girls in the ways of D&D (no, I did not put on my robe and wizard hat), I came to realize my lack of keys. I called down to security at work and they told me that I was in luck, that my area was still open (we not only have keycard security, like most places, but individual areas have openers and closers authorized to lock up and open the place), so I rushed on down there. And the area was well and truly locked up. Well, the security people tried, but they didn't have the right codes to let me in. So, I slept on a chair in the lobby and started work really early the next day. Unfortunately, that was not the most comfortable way to sleep... Other than that, the week's been pretty alright. I had belly dance on Wednesday. I saw Watchmen on Thursday (the movie is comic book porn... even without the sex scenes. It's truly amazing, although I have no idea how well people who haven't read the books will understand what's going on). Did karaoke last night at the Greenville Inn (and found out that the cook knew I'd posted a review of the place online) with Stephanie. Today, I watched Wedding Crashers. Meant to watch The Notebook (the other movie I have on loan) but I plan to hit a karaoke place tonight and it was running too late. Eh, tomorrow, maybe after D&D. I'll be missing the first readthrough of Midsummer Night's Dream, but I had told the director that my Sunday afternoons aren't free (my group wasn't happy about me being gone these past few months and I'm bringing two new people in, so I can't just skip this one). ^_^ I'm Oberon, which I'm very happy about. Really looking forward to this show.

So... life in general. It's alright. I could use a girl. I could use a bit more direction in my life. But overall, I can't complain overmuch. Not, of course, that many would listen if I did.

^_^ Turns out they did publish a picture of me. Doubt it will bring any contracts rolling in, but it's nice to show up in such things.

So, a couple of things. I had a good audition for Midsummer Night's Dream. Any of you in the Camden / Philadelphia area who are interested, there are still spots available. Just contact Colin Wolfe to set up a time and place. I know that one of the areas Colin is concerned about is covering miscellaneous fairies and nobles, so this is a good opportunity for those of you who want to stick your toe in the water with a small role. Unfortunately, these additional auditions mean I'll be even longer hearing back from them on casting. I went roller skating at the Millennium Skate World in Camden and had an odd experience. An hour into the session, I suddenly realized I was the only white person in the building. I continued to be the only white person in the building throughout the night. ^_^ It kind of reflects Camden demographics and no one commented, but it was odd to be a minority for a little while. I had a fun time skating. I'm getting better at backwards skating although I still use the hip-swivel method which limits my speed and wears me out eventually. But, I had fun. That's what counts. I may have to start doing this more often.

Oh, and when I went out to Ash Wednesday services during my lunch hour, I got photographed and mini-interviewed by a lady with the Camden Courier Post. We'll see if anything comes of it.As for myself, I'm going with a fairly standard Lenten devotion. I'm giving up alcohol for Lent and I will cut out the computer and video games. I feel like the latter will give me more free time to exercise, read, and bone up on my computer skills. I'm considering looking at adding a few volunteer hours a week as well, but I'll have to figure out how to juggle them with my hobbies and my job. I will be giving blood tomorrow, which is a boon of sorts, but it's also something I do outside of Lent. Ditto with the daily rosaries. Well, maybe I'll be inspired, right?

Unequivocolly Unusual
Unusually Unusual

^_^ The first is a Harry Potter fanfic. The second is a country song by Lonestar. The song's been running through my head all day on account of me having a cover version on my work machine. They both kind of speak out to something in my past, a particular girl. Funny, how the memories come up years later. For those who don't click through on links, the first follows sort of a Harry Potter/Luna Lovegood pairing (not romantic... more along the lines of good friends) in which Luna's inspired inanity drives Harry absolutely up the wall, but also keeps him sane despite the pressures of Hogwarts and Voldemort. The second is a song about a guy meeting a girl who's completely off the wall, complete with contradictory statements. "She said 'Hello, my name is Amy. Call me Caroline for short. I just moved three doors down so I wouldn't be the girl next door'". There's something wonderful about having someone who doesn't force the world to make sense. It can be frustrating too, those times when you really need to be grounded in reality, but they won't play along, but overall, I feel like it's a good thing.

Today is my off-Friday for work (we work nine days every two weeks in nine hour shifts, every other Friday off) and I've frittered it away. I meant to go to the gym — that's why I'm at work right now although I never clocked in — but I just never quite got around to it and now it's late enough that I'm going to catch a shower in the fitness center and then head off for the Measure for Measure performance tonight. It's been a slow kind of day, but enjoyable so far.

So, I just turned down a part in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I was offered the role of the Butler and, after considering it for a day, I called the director and declined. Why, you might ask? Well, I also auditioned for Midsummer Night's Dream with Collingswood Shakespeare and it's a show I'm more interested in. *wrinkles nose* Originally, there were two auditions for Midsummer and my concern was that they'd offer me a part before I could audition for Joseph. Well, they decided to add another audition at the last minute (probably didn't get the turnout they wanted) and HP&P is pretty firm about giving limited windows to accept their roles. So, I declined, explaining my reasons, all the while wondering whether I was making the right choice. I tried to contact the Midsummer director to find out whether I was even in consideration for a part, but he never got back to me. So... I weighed it all in my head and decided that I was best off taking a chance. If I don't get into Midsummer, I can probably still snag an ensemble part in Joseph, or I could answer any one of the number of other auditions in my environs.

So... other than that, not much going on. *shrug* I'm much preferring the beginner Capoeira classes. The shorter length is more suited to my lower stamina, I'm learning a good bit about the basics that I missed, and best of all, I don't feel like I'm slowing down the people around me. Also met a girl who'd been doing Capoeira for as long as me, but was also shaky on basics, so I don't feel quite so bad about it. So, yeah, good times. Got a brushup rehearsal for Measure for Measure tomorrow and performances Friday through Sunday. I feel good about it.