A Plethora of P's
It's been so long since I've posted that I'm gonna try and sum it all up here before I head to Sewanee this weekend. It was the sorta thing where I was waiting 'til I had something interesting to post about - then I had so much all at once that I didn't have time for any of it.
So Murphy, my 14-year-old dog, went in for a check up recently and is now on various kinds of medication for things like high-blood pressure, wonky liver functions, y'know, the sort of stuff that happens when you get old. (Actually, the vet said that for a dog her age she's in really good shape.) So we've been having to give her 6 pills a day, at various different times, some with food, and some without. It's to the point where we had to make a chart to keep 'em all straight. Now, 2 of those pills are an anitbiotic that she'll be off of in a few days, but it's been really difficult. Up until now our medication method of choice has been making a little ball of cheese and putting the pill in it, which she would eat just fine. But that was when it was one pill a day. Now that it's 6 a day, she's gotten suspicious. What we had been doing after she started refusing the cheese was I'd sit down with a couple little vienna sausages and put them on the coffee table just out of Murphy's reach. Once she'd gotten interested in why the food was just sitting there, I'd eat a little bit of one, to tease her and get her wanting one too. Then I'd start breaking off peices and hiding a pill in each one and give them to her. But yesterday, for some reason, that wasn't working so well. Maybe the peices were too big - she'd bite into them and the pill would fall out and we'd end up having to poke at least one of the pills down her throat. So she's now gotten to where she won't eat the saussages either 'cause she associates 'em with getting something poked down her throat : ( Hopefully this 6 pills a day thing won't last long - she goes in for a followup in about 3 weeks and if things have improved we may be cutting back to just 2 or 3 a day.
Pumpkins!:
My mom and I carved pumpkins for Halloween (hopefully I'll be posting pictures of those, along with my pictures from last year, if I can find 'em sometime soon). I was a dork and couldn't think of anything else to carve, so I did the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. I have decided that this is best done on a flat surface, not on a round pumpkin.
Professional Opportunities:
I've had several interviews the past few days - some more promissing or long-term than others. I've interviewed at New York and Company, a clothing store about a mile from where I live. That seemed fairly good, except that they're rather pushy about their company credit card. You're supposed to offer it to customers 3 times before you give up, and I really don't feel comfortable being that pushy.
I also had an interview at one of the library branches. It's kinda a far drive and it would be rotating between 3 different locations, but the pay would be really good, and it would be an actual real job that I know would last longer than the Christmas shopping season.
I haven't heard back from either of those yet, but I should be hearing soon. I have heard from Pier 1 - the last of the 3 I applied for, and have accepted what would be at least a temporary position (with the possibility that it may continue past January if they like me). This I have accepted - it's $7.70 an hour, less than a mile from home, and I start Monday. I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of my paycheck on scented candles : ) I have agreed to this without knowing about any of the others because it's a good relaxed layed back atmosphere with good immediate possibilities, but I can leave in January no problem if things work out that way (more on that to follow shortly).
I'm not sure what I'll say if NY & Co calls me back and offers me the job. I'm hoping more for the library, but I'll likely hear from NY & Co first. Plus I don't like that they're pushier toward their customers there.
But what I'm really hoping for is the Georgia Shakespeare Festival. I went to an audition there yesterday and I think, at least as far as a first major professional audition goes, that it went pretty well. One of the directors was impressed, first that I was in the Atlanta Ballet Nutcracker back "in the good ol' days with Bobby Barnett" (as he put it), and that I went to "the University of the South - that's a good school." I was nervous, but I've actually been more so at smaller, not-as-big-a-deal theatres. Maybe because, in a way, it felt very comfortable and familiar. The campus of Oglethorpe University with it's very unappologetically "look! We do Shakespeare and have castles!" architecture, the audition taking place in a small third-floor rehearsal room with the set taped out on the floor and those corners that never quite get cleaned out, the back stairway that reminded me of both the Tennessee Williams Center and the Fox Theatre back stairways, the yellow poplar trees out back... in fact, I didn't realise I wanted to be there so much until I was there. I want very much to be a part of it now. I wish, in a way, that I'd realised how much I wanted it before the audition rather than during. It probably would have made me more nervous, though, so maybe it's best I didn't. I expect not to hear back from them for a while, which will be difficult. They have 3 possibilities: a group that tours for regional highschools (they'll be doing a 50-minute version of Romeo and Juliet and teaching workshops) - this one starts in January; the summer repertoire (As You Like It, Alls Well That Ends Well, and Merchant of Venice - which is funny 'cause I got through Sewanee without reading any of the 3) which would start rehearsal in May; and the fall show, Antigone, which would start rehearsal in Sept. If I were to be accepted for any one of these, I would be an actual paid actress at a theatre with a really good reputation, rehearsing 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and working with people who know and love what they're doing, rather than people that can't be bothered to show up on time and learn their lines 'cause they're hitting on the waitress at Waffle House. Funny how it takes going somewhere like that, and the statistical probability that you'll not get it to realise how much you miss and want something.
I feel like I had much more that I wanted to write... I can't think now, though.
I'm heading up to homecoming tomorrow, and really looking forward to it. I miss people and it will be good to see everyone again.
I know sometimes it seems I've dropped off the edge of the earth. Sometimes I myself feel that way. I'm horribly behind on email, friends' page, and just keeping up with people. Hopefully I'll see some of you in the next couple days.
So Murphy, my 14-year-old dog, went in for a check up recently and is now on various kinds of medication for things like high-blood pressure, wonky liver functions, y'know, the sort of stuff that happens when you get old. (Actually, the vet said that for a dog her age she's in really good shape.) So we've been having to give her 6 pills a day, at various different times, some with food, and some without. It's to the point where we had to make a chart to keep 'em all straight. Now, 2 of those pills are an anitbiotic that she'll be off of in a few days, but it's been really difficult. Up until now our medication method of choice has been making a little ball of cheese and putting the pill in it, which she would eat just fine. But that was when it was one pill a day. Now that it's 6 a day, she's gotten suspicious. What we had been doing after she started refusing the cheese was I'd sit down with a couple little vienna sausages and put them on the coffee table just out of Murphy's reach. Once she'd gotten interested in why the food was just sitting there, I'd eat a little bit of one, to tease her and get her wanting one too. Then I'd start breaking off peices and hiding a pill in each one and give them to her. But yesterday, for some reason, that wasn't working so well. Maybe the peices were too big - she'd bite into them and the pill would fall out and we'd end up having to poke at least one of the pills down her throat. So she's now gotten to where she won't eat the saussages either 'cause she associates 'em with getting something poked down her throat : ( Hopefully this 6 pills a day thing won't last long - she goes in for a followup in about 3 weeks and if things have improved we may be cutting back to just 2 or 3 a day.
Pumpkins!:
My mom and I carved pumpkins for Halloween (hopefully I'll be posting pictures of those, along with my pictures from last year, if I can find 'em sometime soon). I was a dork and couldn't think of anything else to carve, so I did the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. I have decided that this is best done on a flat surface, not on a round pumpkin.
Professional Opportunities:
I've had several interviews the past few days - some more promissing or long-term than others. I've interviewed at New York and Company, a clothing store about a mile from where I live. That seemed fairly good, except that they're rather pushy about their company credit card. You're supposed to offer it to customers 3 times before you give up, and I really don't feel comfortable being that pushy.
I also had an interview at one of the library branches. It's kinda a far drive and it would be rotating between 3 different locations, but the pay would be really good, and it would be an actual real job that I know would last longer than the Christmas shopping season.
I haven't heard back from either of those yet, but I should be hearing soon. I have heard from Pier 1 - the last of the 3 I applied for, and have accepted what would be at least a temporary position (with the possibility that it may continue past January if they like me). This I have accepted - it's $7.70 an hour, less than a mile from home, and I start Monday. I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of my paycheck on scented candles : ) I have agreed to this without knowing about any of the others because it's a good relaxed layed back atmosphere with good immediate possibilities, but I can leave in January no problem if things work out that way (more on that to follow shortly).
I'm not sure what I'll say if NY & Co calls me back and offers me the job. I'm hoping more for the library, but I'll likely hear from NY & Co first. Plus I don't like that they're pushier toward their customers there.
But what I'm really hoping for is the Georgia Shakespeare Festival. I went to an audition there yesterday and I think, at least as far as a first major professional audition goes, that it went pretty well. One of the directors was impressed, first that I was in the Atlanta Ballet Nutcracker back "in the good ol' days with Bobby Barnett" (as he put it), and that I went to "the University of the South - that's a good school." I was nervous, but I've actually been more so at smaller, not-as-big-a-deal theatres. Maybe because, in a way, it felt very comfortable and familiar. The campus of Oglethorpe University with it's very unappologetically "look! We do Shakespeare and have castles!" architecture, the audition taking place in a small third-floor rehearsal room with the set taped out on the floor and those corners that never quite get cleaned out, the back stairway that reminded me of both the Tennessee Williams Center and the Fox Theatre back stairways, the yellow poplar trees out back... in fact, I didn't realise I wanted to be there so much until I was there. I want very much to be a part of it now. I wish, in a way, that I'd realised how much I wanted it before the audition rather than during. It probably would have made me more nervous, though, so maybe it's best I didn't. I expect not to hear back from them for a while, which will be difficult. They have 3 possibilities: a group that tours for regional highschools (they'll be doing a 50-minute version of Romeo and Juliet and teaching workshops) - this one starts in January; the summer repertoire (As You Like It, Alls Well That Ends Well, and Merchant of Venice - which is funny 'cause I got through Sewanee without reading any of the 3) which would start rehearsal in May; and the fall show, Antigone, which would start rehearsal in Sept. If I were to be accepted for any one of these, I would be an actual paid actress at a theatre with a really good reputation, rehearsing 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and working with people who know and love what they're doing, rather than people that can't be bothered to show up on time and learn their lines 'cause they're hitting on the waitress at Waffle House. Funny how it takes going somewhere like that, and the statistical probability that you'll not get it to realise how much you miss and want something.
I feel like I had much more that I wanted to write... I can't think now, though.
I'm heading up to homecoming tomorrow, and really looking forward to it. I miss people and it will be good to see everyone again.
I know sometimes it seems I've dropped off the edge of the earth. Sometimes I myself feel that way. I'm horribly behind on email, friends' page, and just keeping up with people. Hopefully I'll see some of you in the next couple days.