life has been hectic
lordy, where did i leave off?
wednesday was a normal work day, altho i may have been a bit moodier than usual. rehearsal was amazing, which is always worrisome. you want to have a miserable dress, it means a great opening.
after rehearsal i went to meet rene and his friends at 2 kolegolas, which is a well advertised bar in an incredibly difficult to find area. it's INSIDE the drive in movie theatre park north of chaoyang. i wanna go to a drive in movie.
either way, when i got there, one of his friends was a girl names carol. turns out i spent an evening drinking with carol and some of her friends this time last year. i'm sure i wrote a post about it - i went out with inga's visiting norwegian friends, and started having beer chugging contests with random americans and singaporeans. it was one of the 3 sunday's i sang at lush.
and she remembered me, which was just really strange and cool and flattering.
and she's dating one of the two really good guitarists who used to perform together at lush (the ones inga thought were cute).
it was a nifty night, and rene paid for my drinks and the cab to his place, and then spent the night NOT letting me obsess over my play. he made spaghetti for dinner with this tastey garlic/oliveoil/pesto sauce. he's so domestic!
thursday was a miserable day. i slept in and snuggled with meatball, but couldn't sleep too late because i had work and had to do things like shower before that happened. i don't LIKE waking up before 9am, but i do enjoy having more time to relax in the mornings, and get ready for work.
the day was simply disgusting. it was as dark as dusk all day, like a big wet grey blanket was hanging over the city. the class wasn't THAT bad, and i had time to sit around in lush, after work, fretting over how the play would go.
rich did his best to take care of us, but lush really wasn't the ideal venue. sooooooo much noise, and frankly these college age kids don't knwo what to do with theater.
my renda friends came (inga, kuka, lily, nieshanta, sarah, and anna) which made me VERY happy, and inga bought the first presale ticket for the show. god i love her :)
rene brought me a huge beautiful bouquet of white lilies which simply made me GIDDY. i think i have only ever gotten one other bouquet of flowers for a show, altho i can't remember which one it was right now.
the show wasn't that great. it was dissapointing that my friends all saw such a half ass show. but i just hope they'll come to the final performance and see us at the top of our game.
hung our with folks for awhile, chatted with some new kids. then rene and i went and got lemon cream puffs and a REAL chocolate mousse cake (oh, it was SOOOOO goooooooooood. chocolate is not real in china. nothing is. finding real chocolate mousse is rare and exciting). we walked back to his place, cutting thru the forestry school because it's kinda pretty at night, and actually spent the next 2 or 3 hours talking, which was strange and enjoyable for both of us.
turns out he is also a leo, so i don't know why we get along. also turns out he's 29 going on 30. i know i'm an agist, i've never been in denial about that. finding out he was 3 years older than i assumed took me aback a bit, but really, what matter does it make now?
i couldn't find my celly thursday night. i figured sean had it because we use it during the show. i was afraid of oversleeping, so i didn't get nearly as much snuggle time with meatball as either of us would have liked (meatball is rene's cat. rene leaves for work at 7am, i do not wake up then. instead i sleep for another 3 hours letting his cat be my surrogate snuggle buddy)
i took the bus home, so i had to leave my flowers at rene's. booooo. i like the smell of lilies!
i was supposed to meet my student mr. hou at 3pm, but i couldn't verify the class because i didn't have my celly. so i just went. he wasn't there. so instead i went to sean's school to grab my phone. upon getting there he tells me he didn't have it, and i realize this means it has been left in a couch cushion at lush. jesus god.
sean, being the angel he is, runs up to lush to get it for me, because i had class from 6-9.
classes were good, sean came to renda and returned my phone. i love him dearly for this.
afterwards inga sarah and i went to a punk rock show at 13club. i am not sure who the first band was but the were a chinese skapunkrock band who i REALLY enjoyed. joyside played, and they were meh. then the norwegian band jef played which was interesting. they have a very diverse sound, going from modest mouse to hardcore punk. it was a good night, full of beer, pool, popcorn and my girls.
saturday i didn't have rehearsal. or class. or a meeting. or a need to run to one office or another, or get a visa, or do ANYTHING. so i didn't. i watched half of season 2 of desperate houswives. it was great. i don't think i could have been happier if i'd tried.
i showered and shaved (warm weather! skirts! shaving!) and went with inga and sarah to schillers to meet jeremy and michal. good times were had. i think i had 2 liters of long island iced tea. and pizza. mmmmm, pizza. we got there at 7:30. around 9 scoobie and emily joined us, and around 10 alex popped in. we drank till 11/midnightish, then went to nanjie, because neither alex nor sarah had been.
there was a VERY pretty boy with long dark curly hair and preeeeeeety eyes, and i was more than drunk enough to have the balls to approach him, but sarah was being charmingly distracting so i lost my focus. things between sarah and i are strange because we both agree we like each other as friends and in a physical way, but i'm just terrified to take that anywhere. it's been awhile since i've indulged in that, and i think she expects alot more than i'd be able to provide....sooo....yeah.
also, what with rene keeping me all sassified, i don't feel a huge need to branch out to other lovers.
it's confusing. we spent a large part of the evening discussing how confusing it was.
i was drunk off my ass, and feel asleep almost upon contact with my bed (which it's a wonder i made it to).
also, inga DIDN'T go home with jeremie, despite sarah and i both telling her she should. girl has more willpower than me, i'll say that much.
today i woke up at 10:30 so i could meet inga and sarah for a mcd's brunch. we ate far too much food that is VERRRRRRRRRRRY bad for us, and it was great. nothign cures a hangover like fries and a shake. i rushed on over to my lesson with julia which was pretty good, if not a little lackluster.
then down to andingmen to putz around until we were to meet for the walkthru.
while wandering, i found a shrine to the song dynasty warrior poet Wen TianXiang. he was the original warrior-poet-patriot. it was really kinda cool, because i was just walking down this little side raod and all the sudden i found myself in a building that was used as a live in prison fr a song dynasty general 800 years ago, looking at his caligraphy and examining his shrine to buddah.
it was all kinda surreal.
also, there was a HUGE white lilac tree int he front courtyard and it smelled soooooooooo good. i love lilacs.
i then continued to wander the hutong, and found a really authentic open air market. i was tempted to buy the fresh mussels and oysters just because it was SO novel for me to see fresh mussles and oysters in the middle of this giant street market.
GOD, DO I LOVE CHINA!
got to salud early. the owner was AMAZING, so helpful, letting us do whatever we wanted to the space to fit our show. hte space REALLY has potential for doing other forms of amatuer theatre and performances in the future. i hope the owner takes advantage of what he has.
i had an egg and cheese toasty for lunch, which i love. i also had a vodka orange, which i think made a difference in my stress level.
despite some minor tension between matt and i because i was feeling a little stubbrn today, things went smoothly. the show was fatastic. just great. i was really happy with where alot of things went today. the tbj and cityweekend reviewers were on hand for this show, which made me happy. and fran came, and she gave me reeeses peanutbutter cups from back home! squeee!!!
i love that girl.
but, yeah, tonite just went wonderfully. eriko and matt were interviewed for the 91.5 cri-english radio station here in beijing, which is nice free publicity. we met a few people who can help us with the final show, and sold a few more presale tickets. it makes me happy :). plus a very friendly audience member bought us all a round of drinks, which also makes me happy.
now i'm home and exhausted. work tomorrow, and i really don't want to go. i'm starting to feel a bit worn by the play. i'm trying to find a balance between giving us all some time off, and losing our focus with the show. i need to start plannign the next step. because we've only gt one more promo left.
i could really use a hot shower and long massage right now.
my final thought is this: i miss ym friends. not just my china friends, because i've been getting a bit more face time with them. i miss dom. i miss my hometown girls. i miss my obies. i miss rena and william. i miss jo and the girls terribly. i miss schmitty (i think it's been over a week since we've talked more than hello's and goodbyes). i miss jenjen. i'm at that weird point where everything is going SO well here that i have enough time to think about everything else. there's always a sacrifice. i'm glad i have enough motivation to bring me back home this may. i just hope the same opportunities will be around when i come back to beijing. or at least similar ones.
wednesday was a normal work day, altho i may have been a bit moodier than usual. rehearsal was amazing, which is always worrisome. you want to have a miserable dress, it means a great opening.
after rehearsal i went to meet rene and his friends at 2 kolegolas, which is a well advertised bar in an incredibly difficult to find area. it's INSIDE the drive in movie theatre park north of chaoyang. i wanna go to a drive in movie.
either way, when i got there, one of his friends was a girl names carol. turns out i spent an evening drinking with carol and some of her friends this time last year. i'm sure i wrote a post about it - i went out with inga's visiting norwegian friends, and started having beer chugging contests with random americans and singaporeans. it was one of the 3 sunday's i sang at lush.
and she remembered me, which was just really strange and cool and flattering.
and she's dating one of the two really good guitarists who used to perform together at lush (the ones inga thought were cute).
it was a nifty night, and rene paid for my drinks and the cab to his place, and then spent the night NOT letting me obsess over my play. he made spaghetti for dinner with this tastey garlic/oliveoil/pesto sauce. he's so domestic!
thursday was a miserable day. i slept in and snuggled with meatball, but couldn't sleep too late because i had work and had to do things like shower before that happened. i don't LIKE waking up before 9am, but i do enjoy having more time to relax in the mornings, and get ready for work.
the day was simply disgusting. it was as dark as dusk all day, like a big wet grey blanket was hanging over the city. the class wasn't THAT bad, and i had time to sit around in lush, after work, fretting over how the play would go.
rich did his best to take care of us, but lush really wasn't the ideal venue. sooooooo much noise, and frankly these college age kids don't knwo what to do with theater.
my renda friends came (inga, kuka, lily, nieshanta, sarah, and anna) which made me VERY happy, and inga bought the first presale ticket for the show. god i love her :)
rene brought me a huge beautiful bouquet of white lilies which simply made me GIDDY. i think i have only ever gotten one other bouquet of flowers for a show, altho i can't remember which one it was right now.
the show wasn't that great. it was dissapointing that my friends all saw such a half ass show. but i just hope they'll come to the final performance and see us at the top of our game.
hung our with folks for awhile, chatted with some new kids. then rene and i went and got lemon cream puffs and a REAL chocolate mousse cake (oh, it was SOOOOO goooooooooood. chocolate is not real in china. nothing is. finding real chocolate mousse is rare and exciting). we walked back to his place, cutting thru the forestry school because it's kinda pretty at night, and actually spent the next 2 or 3 hours talking, which was strange and enjoyable for both of us.
turns out he is also a leo, so i don't know why we get along. also turns out he's 29 going on 30. i know i'm an agist, i've never been in denial about that. finding out he was 3 years older than i assumed took me aback a bit, but really, what matter does it make now?
i couldn't find my celly thursday night. i figured sean had it because we use it during the show. i was afraid of oversleeping, so i didn't get nearly as much snuggle time with meatball as either of us would have liked (meatball is rene's cat. rene leaves for work at 7am, i do not wake up then. instead i sleep for another 3 hours letting his cat be my surrogate snuggle buddy)
i took the bus home, so i had to leave my flowers at rene's. booooo. i like the smell of lilies!
i was supposed to meet my student mr. hou at 3pm, but i couldn't verify the class because i didn't have my celly. so i just went. he wasn't there. so instead i went to sean's school to grab my phone. upon getting there he tells me he didn't have it, and i realize this means it has been left in a couch cushion at lush. jesus god.
sean, being the angel he is, runs up to lush to get it for me, because i had class from 6-9.
classes were good, sean came to renda and returned my phone. i love him dearly for this.
afterwards inga sarah and i went to a punk rock show at 13club. i am not sure who the first band was but the were a chinese skapunkrock band who i REALLY enjoyed. joyside played, and they were meh. then the norwegian band jef played which was interesting. they have a very diverse sound, going from modest mouse to hardcore punk. it was a good night, full of beer, pool, popcorn and my girls.
saturday i didn't have rehearsal. or class. or a meeting. or a need to run to one office or another, or get a visa, or do ANYTHING. so i didn't. i watched half of season 2 of desperate houswives. it was great. i don't think i could have been happier if i'd tried.
i showered and shaved (warm weather! skirts! shaving!) and went with inga and sarah to schillers to meet jeremy and michal. good times were had. i think i had 2 liters of long island iced tea. and pizza. mmmmm, pizza. we got there at 7:30. around 9 scoobie and emily joined us, and around 10 alex popped in. we drank till 11/midnightish, then went to nanjie, because neither alex nor sarah had been.
there was a VERY pretty boy with long dark curly hair and preeeeeeety eyes, and i was more than drunk enough to have the balls to approach him, but sarah was being charmingly distracting so i lost my focus. things between sarah and i are strange because we both agree we like each other as friends and in a physical way, but i'm just terrified to take that anywhere. it's been awhile since i've indulged in that, and i think she expects alot more than i'd be able to provide....sooo....yeah.
also, what with rene keeping me all sassified, i don't feel a huge need to branch out to other lovers.
it's confusing. we spent a large part of the evening discussing how confusing it was.
i was drunk off my ass, and feel asleep almost upon contact with my bed (which it's a wonder i made it to).
also, inga DIDN'T go home with jeremie, despite sarah and i both telling her she should. girl has more willpower than me, i'll say that much.
today i woke up at 10:30 so i could meet inga and sarah for a mcd's brunch. we ate far too much food that is VERRRRRRRRRRRY bad for us, and it was great. nothign cures a hangover like fries and a shake. i rushed on over to my lesson with julia which was pretty good, if not a little lackluster.
then down to andingmen to putz around until we were to meet for the walkthru.
while wandering, i found a shrine to the song dynasty warrior poet Wen TianXiang. he was the original warrior-poet-patriot. it was really kinda cool, because i was just walking down this little side raod and all the sudden i found myself in a building that was used as a live in prison fr a song dynasty general 800 years ago, looking at his caligraphy and examining his shrine to buddah.
it was all kinda surreal.
also, there was a HUGE white lilac tree int he front courtyard and it smelled soooooooooo good. i love lilacs.
i then continued to wander the hutong, and found a really authentic open air market. i was tempted to buy the fresh mussels and oysters just because it was SO novel for me to see fresh mussles and oysters in the middle of this giant street market.
GOD, DO I LOVE CHINA!
got to salud early. the owner was AMAZING, so helpful, letting us do whatever we wanted to the space to fit our show. hte space REALLY has potential for doing other forms of amatuer theatre and performances in the future. i hope the owner takes advantage of what he has.
i had an egg and cheese toasty for lunch, which i love. i also had a vodka orange, which i think made a difference in my stress level.
despite some minor tension between matt and i because i was feeling a little stubbrn today, things went smoothly. the show was fatastic. just great. i was really happy with where alot of things went today. the tbj and cityweekend reviewers were on hand for this show, which made me happy. and fran came, and she gave me reeeses peanutbutter cups from back home! squeee!!!
i love that girl.
but, yeah, tonite just went wonderfully. eriko and matt were interviewed for the 91.5 cri-english radio station here in beijing, which is nice free publicity. we met a few people who can help us with the final show, and sold a few more presale tickets. it makes me happy :). plus a very friendly audience member bought us all a round of drinks, which also makes me happy.
now i'm home and exhausted. work tomorrow, and i really don't want to go. i'm starting to feel a bit worn by the play. i'm trying to find a balance between giving us all some time off, and losing our focus with the show. i need to start plannign the next step. because we've only gt one more promo left.
i could really use a hot shower and long massage right now.
my final thought is this: i miss ym friends. not just my china friends, because i've been getting a bit more face time with them. i miss dom. i miss my hometown girls. i miss my obies. i miss rena and william. i miss jo and the girls terribly. i miss schmitty (i think it's been over a week since we've talked more than hello's and goodbyes). i miss jenjen. i'm at that weird point where everything is going SO well here that i have enough time to think about everything else. there's always a sacrifice. i'm glad i have enough motivation to bring me back home this may. i just hope the same opportunities will be around when i come back to beijing. or at least similar ones.