Macbeth // haircut // karaoke
Friday night, Cate and I were gonna meet at the Qdoba by the Agganis Arena before going to Macbeth. I walked from HBS to where the 66 meets the B Line, and figured I'd just walk along Comm. Ave., except my sense of direction is not great in that area, so I walked in the wrong direction and then hopped a B Line at Allston St. The parallel street thing that Comm. Ave.'s got going on is weird and awkward.
The Qdoba was crazy busy. We saw after we left that there was a hockey game that night.
The show was at Studio 102 at BU's College of Fine Arts. I had thought I would have been to all the theatre venues in the city by now, but clearly I was wrong as I had discounted college venues. This particular room had like no ventilation, so we were very glad to spend the intermission outside in the cold air. (I'd been taking off as much of my clothing as I felt I could get away with sitting in a public venue.)
I say it's my (second) favorite play, but I become less and less sure about that. Everything happens so quickly, for one. And Lady Macbeth's all badass up until Duncan's murder and shortly thereafter she and Macbeth have a total role reversal, which I don't entirely understand. And Macbeth goes seriously crazy (hello Banquo's ghost scene). He spends like five seconds considering the possibility that the kingship will come to him without any effort on his part like Cawdor did, and completely dismisses the Banquo prophecy until after he gains the kingship. A lot of this is understandable on reflection, but watching it happen in front of me I had difficulty finding it believable.
It was an all-female cast, which neither added (except that girls are prettier than boys, on the whole /shallow) nor detracted for me, which I'm really okay with. The animalistic costumes for the witches in the scene where Macbeth goes to look for them were visually v. interesting, though I'm undecided as to whether I find them problematic. At the "all my pretties" bit, I teared up.
There's a Cold Stone Creamery next to the Qdoba now.
I wanted something light-ish, but all the stuff that looked potential had mix-ins I wasn't in the mood for. I felt like it would be lame to go to a ColdStone and just get a single flavor, so I got a Birthday Cake Remix. The server asked me if I wanted it in a coconut-dipped waffle bowl and I said sure. Turns out he waffle bowl is coated in chocolate and then coconut, so it's wicked rich plus hard to eat 'cause the waffle part is curved and it's coated in hard thick chocolate. Eating it, I realized I think I've had their cake batter ice cream before and yeah, not a huge fan. Sigh.
Cate got an After Dinner Mint and decided that yeah, she should have just gotten the straight-up chocolate peppermint ice cream since the mix-ins (chocolate shavings, marshmallows) didn't really add anything. (We both got samples of the chocolate peppermint ice cream, though, and it is tasty.)
The cashier asked the girl behind us if she was a student. (Apparently we don't look like we could be students? Though possibly that girl was wearing some sort of college paraphernalia, which we definitely weren't.) When we left we noticed the sign outside that we hadn't registered when we came in that said you get 10% off with a student ID. Sigh.
***
I'd been getting 6 hours of sleep the past couple nights. Saturday I slept for nearly 12 hours. It was AWESOME.
I got my hair cut at Salon Femia again. Yay walk-ins. I ended up getting the same woman I had last time; I should have asked her name since it totally escaped me from last time. I actually enjoy that they don't chat with you while they're doing your hair. I'm not sure it's the best business practice for them to chat with each other and not so much the clients, but it works for me. I'm not opposed to small talk in those settings per se, but I never have the right answers for small talk -- I dislike the hot weather, love the cold weather and not just in a cozy bundled-up kind of way, don't really follow sports, rarely have exciting vacation plans, etc.
I'm not sure my hair looks any prettier, but it's easier to manage, which is worth a fair amount. (And Trevanna complimented me on it on Sunday, so that's yay.)
***
Michelle's living in Leominster at present, so she had her 30th birthday party ("karaoke, beer, and fun") at The Tiki in Westford.
Jess took initiative about getting directions and arranging carpooling. Bless her.
Michelle had said something about it being an hour drive, but it took us 40 minutes, so we arrived right at 8pm (the approximate start time we were given), beating Michelle and her sister.
I was deciding what to wear for the day and remembered that I was going to Michelle's party so I didn't need to wear anything classy. Looking for a different black shirt and remembering queenmother49, I opted for my "Everyone loves a cunning linguist" t-shirt. Practically the first thing Michelle said to me upon greeting me was love the shirt.
Eric and Trelawney bought her a bag of Doritos ("orange salty guilt," as she affectionately refers to it). That was arguably the best gift of the night. I fail 'cause it didn't even occur to me until she got her first gift that duh birthday party perhaps I should have gotten a gift or a card. I just so rarely do obligatory gift-giving dates. (And she didn't even say anything, I just felt sort of lame.)
I was in the mood for a side of fries or something, but the place serves Chinese food so my options were kind of limited. I couldn't remember whether Spring Rolls or Egg Rolls were more likely to be vegetarian and just ordered a side of Spring Rolls. The dominant taste was fried, and I couldn't tell whether I tasted meat in it or not. The last bite I saw shrimp. Sigh. I was then mildly worried that I would get sick, which thankfully didn't happen. Having gotten used to drink prices at real Boston restaurants (or, god forbid, clubs), I was really pleased to find that drinks were $5 (and beer $3.50). Not that I ever drink a whole lot -- though I did buy the birthday girl two drinks.
I'd never been to karaoke before, and I was so grateful that neither Michelle nor anyone else pressured us to participate. 'Cause hi, I don't sing. I had more fun watching/listening to other people's performances than I had expected, though.
Someone did a a country song called "Big Deal," which I wouldn't have guessed was LeAnn Rimes. The woman singing it had a country appropriate voice, just not a LeAnn Rimes voice.
Someone else did "Goodbye Earl" (Dixie Chicks), which song I was surprised Mike didn't know -- yes, I know it's a girlie song and he doesn't listen to country, pop crossover or not. Meredith was surprised I didn't know "Under the Boardwalk." Someone did "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" -- which I didn't even know was a song until that night. There was a lot of Frank Sinatra, which I wans't really into. A couple guys actually came into the audience with the mic, which was cool. Someone did "I Am... I Said" by Neil Diamond, which again I'd never heard before, but I liked it.
Michelle's sister Nicole and their friend Denise signed up for a karaoke together, and the DJ called "Nicole and Dennis." When we have him grief for it, he said he wished he had a projector so he could put up the slips of paper and see if we could do a better job than him of deciphering them.
Michelle did "Trouble" (which Google tells me is by Pink), "Holdin' Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler), and "Crucify" (Tori Amos).
Mike did Billy Joel: "Keeping the Faith." Again, new to me, but I liked it.
Trelawney did "Head Over Feet" (Alanis Morissette) 'cause she and Eric are just that sappy.
Eric did "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (They Might Be Giants) which I thought was fabulous, since he and Trelawney went to Turkey on their honeymoon.
Someone did eve 6 "Inside Out," and I was like: I love that song ... I could maybe even sing that song. Though I'm not sure if it crosses the line from energetic to angry too much for me to really feel like singing it.
We stayed until closing (12:30) and driving home was a bit more difficult than driving there, but we made it, and I learned a bit more about driving in the Harvard etc. area (Jess was driving me and Jenny, who lives near the Washington Street stop on the B Line).
The Qdoba was crazy busy. We saw after we left that there was a hockey game that night.
The show was at Studio 102 at BU's College of Fine Arts. I had thought I would have been to all the theatre venues in the city by now, but clearly I was wrong as I had discounted college venues. This particular room had like no ventilation, so we were very glad to spend the intermission outside in the cold air. (I'd been taking off as much of my clothing as I felt I could get away with sitting in a public venue.)
I say it's my (second) favorite play, but I become less and less sure about that. Everything happens so quickly, for one. And Lady Macbeth's all badass up until Duncan's murder and shortly thereafter she and Macbeth have a total role reversal, which I don't entirely understand. And Macbeth goes seriously crazy (hello Banquo's ghost scene). He spends like five seconds considering the possibility that the kingship will come to him without any effort on his part like Cawdor did, and completely dismisses the Banquo prophecy until after he gains the kingship. A lot of this is understandable on reflection, but watching it happen in front of me I had difficulty finding it believable.
It was an all-female cast, which neither added (except that girls are prettier than boys, on the whole /shallow) nor detracted for me, which I'm really okay with. The animalistic costumes for the witches in the scene where Macbeth goes to look for them were visually v. interesting, though I'm undecided as to whether I find them problematic. At the "all my pretties" bit, I teared up.
There's a Cold Stone Creamery next to the Qdoba now.
I wanted something light-ish, but all the stuff that looked potential had mix-ins I wasn't in the mood for. I felt like it would be lame to go to a ColdStone and just get a single flavor, so I got a Birthday Cake Remix. The server asked me if I wanted it in a coconut-dipped waffle bowl and I said sure. Turns out he waffle bowl is coated in chocolate and then coconut, so it's wicked rich plus hard to eat 'cause the waffle part is curved and it's coated in hard thick chocolate. Eating it, I realized I think I've had their cake batter ice cream before and yeah, not a huge fan. Sigh.
Cate got an After Dinner Mint and decided that yeah, she should have just gotten the straight-up chocolate peppermint ice cream since the mix-ins (chocolate shavings, marshmallows) didn't really add anything. (We both got samples of the chocolate peppermint ice cream, though, and it is tasty.)
The cashier asked the girl behind us if she was a student. (Apparently we don't look like we could be students? Though possibly that girl was wearing some sort of college paraphernalia, which we definitely weren't.) When we left we noticed the sign outside that we hadn't registered when we came in that said you get 10% off with a student ID. Sigh.
***
I'd been getting 6 hours of sleep the past couple nights. Saturday I slept for nearly 12 hours. It was AWESOME.
I got my hair cut at Salon Femia again. Yay walk-ins. I ended up getting the same woman I had last time; I should have asked her name since it totally escaped me from last time. I actually enjoy that they don't chat with you while they're doing your hair. I'm not sure it's the best business practice for them to chat with each other and not so much the clients, but it works for me. I'm not opposed to small talk in those settings per se, but I never have the right answers for small talk -- I dislike the hot weather, love the cold weather and not just in a cozy bundled-up kind of way, don't really follow sports, rarely have exciting vacation plans, etc.
I'm not sure my hair looks any prettier, but it's easier to manage, which is worth a fair amount. (And Trevanna complimented me on it on Sunday, so that's yay.)
***
Michelle's living in Leominster at present, so she had her 30th birthday party ("karaoke, beer, and fun") at The Tiki in Westford.
Jess took initiative about getting directions and arranging carpooling. Bless her.
Michelle had said something about it being an hour drive, but it took us 40 minutes, so we arrived right at 8pm (the approximate start time we were given), beating Michelle and her sister.
I was deciding what to wear for the day and remembered that I was going to Michelle's party so I didn't need to wear anything classy. Looking for a different black shirt and remembering queenmother49, I opted for my "Everyone loves a cunning linguist" t-shirt. Practically the first thing Michelle said to me upon greeting me was love the shirt.
Eric and Trelawney bought her a bag of Doritos ("orange salty guilt," as she affectionately refers to it). That was arguably the best gift of the night. I fail 'cause it didn't even occur to me until she got her first gift that duh birthday party perhaps I should have gotten a gift or a card. I just so rarely do obligatory gift-giving dates. (And she didn't even say anything, I just felt sort of lame.)
I was in the mood for a side of fries or something, but the place serves Chinese food so my options were kind of limited. I couldn't remember whether Spring Rolls or Egg Rolls were more likely to be vegetarian and just ordered a side of Spring Rolls. The dominant taste was fried, and I couldn't tell whether I tasted meat in it or not. The last bite I saw shrimp. Sigh. I was then mildly worried that I would get sick, which thankfully didn't happen. Having gotten used to drink prices at real Boston restaurants (or, god forbid, clubs), I was really pleased to find that drinks were $5 (and beer $3.50). Not that I ever drink a whole lot -- though I did buy the birthday girl two drinks.
I'd never been to karaoke before, and I was so grateful that neither Michelle nor anyone else pressured us to participate. 'Cause hi, I don't sing. I had more fun watching/listening to other people's performances than I had expected, though.
Someone did a a country song called "Big Deal," which I wouldn't have guessed was LeAnn Rimes. The woman singing it had a country appropriate voice, just not a LeAnn Rimes voice.
Someone else did "Goodbye Earl" (Dixie Chicks), which song I was surprised Mike didn't know -- yes, I know it's a girlie song and he doesn't listen to country, pop crossover or not. Meredith was surprised I didn't know "Under the Boardwalk." Someone did "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" -- which I didn't even know was a song until that night. There was a lot of Frank Sinatra, which I wans't really into. A couple guys actually came into the audience with the mic, which was cool. Someone did "I Am... I Said" by Neil Diamond, which again I'd never heard before, but I liked it.
Michelle's sister Nicole and their friend Denise signed up for a karaoke together, and the DJ called "Nicole and Dennis." When we have him grief for it, he said he wished he had a projector so he could put up the slips of paper and see if we could do a better job than him of deciphering them.
Michelle did "Trouble" (which Google tells me is by Pink), "Holdin' Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler), and "Crucify" (Tori Amos).
Mike did Billy Joel: "Keeping the Faith." Again, new to me, but I liked it.
Trelawney did "Head Over Feet" (Alanis Morissette) 'cause she and Eric are just that sappy.
Eric did "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (They Might Be Giants) which I thought was fabulous, since he and Trelawney went to Turkey on their honeymoon.
Someone did eve 6 "Inside Out," and I was like: I love that song ... I could maybe even sing that song. Though I'm not sure if it crosses the line from energetic to angry too much for me to really feel like singing it.
We stayed until closing (12:30) and driving home was a bit more difficult than driving there, but we made it, and I learned a bit more about driving in the Harvard etc. area (Jess was driving me and Jenny, who lives near the Washington Street stop on the B Line).