Giant Post Made of Catsup
Been a weird few weeks. I hope the emotional side of my life is evened out now, so I can get back to the weekly schedule of things that were fun before imagined worry and stress made my tummy go s'plody. I've still got TOO MANY THINGS scheduled, but this month the improv dates will start to ebb a bit, and then by mid April I'll be back to one regular improv group. *Maybe* with room for one more, but now I know my limit is two improv projects. Otherwise, *pop* goes the Chrysilla.
Now to play catch up on all the things rolling around in my head during the long dark of Mondayniteatwork:
Wicked Faire!
Um... well, it happened! It was both nice and distracting that I had no booth to tend. On one hand I could go do stuff. On the other, I lost track of the schedule over and over again b/c I wasn't used to being able to go do stuff. Missed show after show, I only caught up with Thain because she's in her room working full time, but at least I finally got to watch her work and she's quite awesome. I saw lots of wonderful friends, but forgot how to invite myself along to things, or gather friends in a place to do things. I'm used to them coming to find me at my booth. Felt so disconnected that I also forgot how to make new friends until the post-con-pre-traffic diner trip. *headdesk*
Furthermore, no hookups for me. Probably due to the disconnect. Izzy remarked that walking through Wicked Faire and not getting hit on was like walking through an active warzone and not noticing the sound of gunfire. Kinda disappointing, but it was still better than the social scene I've been on lately. I looked around and women and men of all shapes and sizes were gettin their lustin & lovin. Not just drunk comedians hitting on skinny barflies. That did restore my faith in humanity and sexuality even though I had no direct relations. Phew.
And not spending hundreds of $$ to vend meant I could buy *other* people's stuff without feeling guilty. I went overboard in that department, because I brought a shopping list but not a budget. Hence, no buy month (possibly two months, its bad nao). One of my roommates almost dropped out at the very last minute, making the room more expensive. Grrr.
Between prizes, gift certificates, and my own cash, here was the total return:
Got the waist cincher of my dreams. I can wear it corset-like, or as an extra wide belt without cinching in all the way. It goes with everything, assuming you're me ;-) I had wanted one from Lusty Leather in black with some carving/painting detail, but they didn't have one on the shelf, and the hardware was less expensive.
Spent too much on honey, even with me and arcane_the_sage going halvesies on their bulk deal. Whups. But I'll eat all of it this time, right? I checked via honey sticks to see if I got the scratchy throat from all of their raw honey flavors, but it seems to just be the almond I got last year. That seems odd, b/c you wouldn't think there would be enough almond in the honey to set me off, especially if I've never noticed being allergic to almonds before. I thought it was the pollen content of raw honey b/c their processed candies from last year didn't make me sick. Nor does regular cheap grocery store honey. *shrugs* At least I'm not allergic to honey, yay.
Got a combo palm/dowsing plus tarot reader from a mated pair of fortune tellers for a flat rate. Yay! They are awesome. Many things came up. Apparently my health may be shaky for the next six months. I didn't want to know about romance. However, I may find a new BFF sometime in the next two years. $$ will be OK. Emotional stability will be OK (actually, not so sure about that now). Not sure where I want to go with magick, b/c mostly I just want the knowledge for knowledge's sake. But that's OK too. [A friend suggested fairy magic for that. No. Just no.] I should really REALLY put some effort into growing my business this year b/c there is lots of potential. Not much potential for growing the tarot bizness, tho. Improv satisfies a need, but not all of them. It feels like they are not *my people* and that may be true, she said I've been "looking for love in all the wrong places." My social home is apparently "hiding in plain sight" [argh]. Very fun reading, and they are the sort to remind the client that free will trumps fortune telling. "We are signposts on the road of life, but you can turn on/off the road or start your own whenever you want." The palm reader said I could use that line if I wanted :-) Yay! And the husband had lots of fun Tibetan shaman tools to look at. Shiny!!
Most people didn't really get my Lady of Shalott Steampunk costume. I think I will make it more droid-like for DragonCon if I have the attention span. But its telling when a friend of yours is in the front row of the audience at the costume contest and not cheering for you. Srsly? Wth. I also decided to go Puss'n'Boots because, as predicted, 80% of female costumes were Little Red. And that's still not enough excuse to leave my vintage red velvet cape at home :-P It all worked out great with the new cincher too. Otherwise I had just basic stuff to wear around. Rennie dresses, a kimono, etc. Also, Dusk the Fuzzygoth had a good time, even despite getting "clowned".
Costumes:
So overall, yay. Not the sensual catharsis I was hoping for, but it helped me get back in synch with who I am, where I'm from, and what I'm into ;-) Now if I could just figure out where I want to go...
Here are my Wicked Fair photos Not so great as other years, but its also easier to take pics of people's costumes as they visit my booth. I hope I have $$ again when the booth fairy starts canvassing for 2012.
Post Wicked I had Monday off, which I would have taken off anyway, so lucky me gets to save a vacation day. I caught up on cooking, and the new grocery store Aldi is a lot cheaper than the old grocery stores. They lack a few odds and ends (full fat yogurt, yogurt sans aspartame, whole chickens) but for the most part I can abandon the local grocery store that sells expensive but rotten fruit. Cooking and laundry followed, but I'm pretty sure I was up a bit late and thus started my work week sleep deprived on Tuesday.
Tuesday I missed improv class, and Wednesday I missed improv practice, because I felt tired and stomach-sick. [Does stomach-sick equate with soul-sick for me? Meh.] But I got my Holy Clothing dresses when I got to work on Tuesday (they were delivered Friday when I had off, F$#ers), so I put on the new red dress and the new waist cincher and went to the Magnet on Thursday. And had an emotional freak out afterwards. There were a couple of drama points bothering me, but very small ones (compared to my gamer past), and I was surrounded by friends at the theater to be sweet and distracting, so I don't know wtf happened in my brainpan. But the disconnect I felt at Wicked Faire was back, and harsher, b/c I was no longer surrounded by my freaky fellows.
On the way home a strange man talked to me on the subway and asked me out for a drink, but I didn't want to be axe-murdered so I declined. And he didn't stalk me home so I call it a win. But that just reminded me that nobody asks me out unless they are a creepy subway person, or seem mentally handicapped, for the last two years. I figured I looked distraught, thus easy pickins. Whups.
Made it to improv practice on Friday, at least, not wanting to leave my Circuit peeps in the lurch when we had a show that same night. The show was OK, not our strongest ever, but still better than 90% of what I've seen in restaurants and some basements.
Went to an NYC SFC tv watching event on Saturday night, b/c I wasn't up for much. Good to see the old peeps, and the new cubs. Yay alma mater.
Sunday, more groceries, laundry, and cooking. Aldi still didn't have whole chickens, so I tried cooking a set of eight chicken thighs, and it seemed to work out well. However, peeling 3+ lbs of *small* sweetpotatoes to steam isn't fun. I can either go to the normal grocery store for larger ones, or go back to roasting them. I also finally figured out how mac and cheese from scratch works. Last time I accidentally burnt the roux, because that tiny saucepan heats up quicker than it lets on. I also left out the minced onion b/c I didn't care. Win!
Well, almost win. I couldn't fall asleep because of what I thought was a weird stomach bug. So I called in sick to work the next day and rescheduled therapy (bad, cuz I REALLY needed it after Thursday) and didn't eat much. Tuesday I didn't feel right yet, so I ate more regularly but still stayed home sick. Missed class again, did my taxes out of sheer boredom, and reorganized one of the kitchen cabinets (for all the honey). But it wasn't my lunchables making me sick, so at least I didn't have to throw out my week's cooking projects.
Missed Wednesday's practice too, AGAIN, b/c of rescheduled therapy, and spent the whole week feeling pretty depressed and disconnected from my life. Therapy helped. Thursday I stayed home from the shows and baked +5 brownies for a friend's b'day party that weekend. Watched Buffy on Netflix (I will probably downgrade to the Netflix online only package). Made it through Friday's practice, and went to see the show, but went right home to collapse afterwards.
Oh, and to prepare for Saturday, b/c the city was shutting off the water in our building to fix the stuff still incomplete after the water outage over the first blizzard. I slept through most of it, but it was annoying that I couldn't do my laundry or cook anything. The mountain of dishes were my fault, tho. Spent the afternoon watching Buffy and eating apples and pb. Omnomnom.
Put on my red dress + waist cincher (plus lazy makeup) again that night, and went to my indie improv friend's b'day at his new apartment. I looked awesome. It took me a little while to get used to being social again, but eventually I figured it out and felt OK. This crowed LOVED the +5 Brownies (unlike the Magnet, indie all the way), and while I was the only non-drinker at a cocktail party everybody was still nice :-) Yay friends!
His new apartment is in the 'improv ghetto' so after I wandered a few blocks uptown to a bar where a Magnet friend was having another b'day gathering. Talked to some of my Magnet friends and gal pals which was very fun. My happy got bumped slightly when two guys bemoaned the lack of interest shown to them by a pair of skinny barflies they'd been working on, despite their being surrounded by great improv ladies (of which I was least awesome by far) all of whom were single. I just don't understand that place sometimes.
Sunday was spent not doing chores and hanging out with shhbabe, getting dinner and gelato, watching Spaced, and finally meeting her kitty Polly. Polly is almost Georgie's twin, except for the voice and the weight (Georgie is like holding a lead brick). She was less purry, but seemed to like teh chin scritches. There was a black cat in my cat-herding dream the other week that looked like Georgie, but I knew it wasn't, so why am I having premonitions about meeting my friends' cats?
Unfortunately, having fun and sloth this weekend meant skipping ALL of my chores. So I have no lunchables prepared, and a laundry deficit. More whups. I may have to bend the no-buy month rules to get some more socks (was running low on those anyway, but it could have otherwise waited until April). Also, I will get to know my nearby Subway sandwich shop better.
Speaking of no-buy month, my regular accounts are really REALLY low. I still have very healthy savings, so this will not be a ramen-eating week (that would take my home burning down + a BoA meltdown), but dipping into savings feels like I've failed. At least this Friday is pay day, but I may make April another no-buy month and see if that helps. This may have shaken my confidence about going to England in 2012, it may have to wait until 2013. I will still aim high and see if I have enough $$ come next January.
Called the Westin about my DragonCon deposit, and it finally went through, so I'm no longer worried about that. It went on my credit card, but I paid it off before the charge went through, so supposedly I never had more than a zero balance. We'll see if that prevents BoA from charging me their lame monthly-average interest.
Today I got my yearly contact lense fitting for $100 :-P My doctor actually recommended the scheme I was already thinking about- I only wear lenses on the weekends, so the 2-week semi disposable lenses last me a lot longer, so a one year supply could last me two years and I could skip the yearly fitting. She also recommended one-day disposables, but they may not have them for astigmatism. Maybe I can put off paying for them until after pay day, tho, they're still pretty expensive.
I like wearing contacts again. For me, not for other people. In that "I'd totally do me!" sort of way.
This is all the more reason not to go to the NY Whole Bead Show next week. Still haven't gone through my supplies, tho. I will be catching up on lots of chores and bizness stuff on Saturday I hopes.
This week I'm going to therapy on Thursday evening, cuz I had the eye appointment Monday morning, but I squared that away in advance this time. Now I wonder if I should change my session to Thursday evenings for a while, so next time it comes up I can start working Tuesday nights, and go see the fun Monday night improv shows. Or eventually do a Level 5 class which always performs on Monday nights.
Back to business as usual. I hope that weird depressive streak is wearing off. Most likely it is a combo of winterness, over-scheduling stress, and sleep dep. Ironically, doing improv is fun, but stressing about the time drain makes my stomach too sick for me to attend. Not this week I hope, I miss flexing those brain muscles. And next week I have three days off, will try to hold out until then.
Also considering running an rpg for some of my improv friends, b/c there are a lot of sadly-not-gaming gamers out there. I think it would also help me feel more secure there, b/c I'm never more secure than when I'm doing something.
<3 Chrysilla
Now to play catch up on all the things rolling around in my head during the long dark of Mondayniteatwork:
Wicked Faire!
Um... well, it happened! It was both nice and distracting that I had no booth to tend. On one hand I could go do stuff. On the other, I lost track of the schedule over and over again b/c I wasn't used to being able to go do stuff. Missed show after show, I only caught up with Thain because she's in her room working full time, but at least I finally got to watch her work and she's quite awesome. I saw lots of wonderful friends, but forgot how to invite myself along to things, or gather friends in a place to do things. I'm used to them coming to find me at my booth. Felt so disconnected that I also forgot how to make new friends until the post-con-pre-traffic diner trip. *headdesk*
Furthermore, no hookups for me. Probably due to the disconnect. Izzy remarked that walking through Wicked Faire and not getting hit on was like walking through an active warzone and not noticing the sound of gunfire. Kinda disappointing, but it was still better than the social scene I've been on lately. I looked around and women and men of all shapes and sizes were gettin their lustin & lovin. Not just drunk comedians hitting on skinny barflies. That did restore my faith in humanity and sexuality even though I had no direct relations. Phew.
And not spending hundreds of $$ to vend meant I could buy *other* people's stuff without feeling guilty. I went overboard in that department, because I brought a shopping list but not a budget. Hence, no buy month (possibly two months, its bad nao). One of my roommates almost dropped out at the very last minute, making the room more expensive. Grrr.
Between prizes, gift certificates, and my own cash, here was the total return:
Got the waist cincher of my dreams. I can wear it corset-like, or as an extra wide belt without cinching in all the way. It goes with everything, assuming you're me ;-) I had wanted one from Lusty Leather in black with some carving/painting detail, but they didn't have one on the shelf, and the hardware was less expensive.
Spent too much on honey, even with me and arcane_the_sage going halvesies on their bulk deal. Whups. But I'll eat all of it this time, right? I checked via honey sticks to see if I got the scratchy throat from all of their raw honey flavors, but it seems to just be the almond I got last year. That seems odd, b/c you wouldn't think there would be enough almond in the honey to set me off, especially if I've never noticed being allergic to almonds before. I thought it was the pollen content of raw honey b/c their processed candies from last year didn't make me sick. Nor does regular cheap grocery store honey. *shrugs* At least I'm not allergic to honey, yay.
Got a combo palm/dowsing plus tarot reader from a mated pair of fortune tellers for a flat rate. Yay! They are awesome. Many things came up. Apparently my health may be shaky for the next six months. I didn't want to know about romance. However, I may find a new BFF sometime in the next two years. $$ will be OK. Emotional stability will be OK (actually, not so sure about that now). Not sure where I want to go with magick, b/c mostly I just want the knowledge for knowledge's sake. But that's OK too. [A friend suggested fairy magic for that. No. Just no.] I should really REALLY put some effort into growing my business this year b/c there is lots of potential. Not much potential for growing the tarot bizness, tho. Improv satisfies a need, but not all of them. It feels like they are not *my people* and that may be true, she said I've been "looking for love in all the wrong places." My social home is apparently "hiding in plain sight" [argh]. Very fun reading, and they are the sort to remind the client that free will trumps fortune telling. "We are signposts on the road of life, but you can turn on/off the road or start your own whenever you want." The palm reader said I could use that line if I wanted :-) Yay! And the husband had lots of fun Tibetan shaman tools to look at. Shiny!!
Most people didn't really get my Lady of Shalott Steampunk costume. I think I will make it more droid-like for DragonCon if I have the attention span. But its telling when a friend of yours is in the front row of the audience at the costume contest and not cheering for you. Srsly? Wth. I also decided to go Puss'n'Boots because, as predicted, 80% of female costumes were Little Red. And that's still not enough excuse to leave my vintage red velvet cape at home :-P It all worked out great with the new cincher too. Otherwise I had just basic stuff to wear around. Rennie dresses, a kimono, etc. Also, Dusk the Fuzzygoth had a good time, even despite getting "clowned".
Costumes:
So overall, yay. Not the sensual catharsis I was hoping for, but it helped me get back in synch with who I am, where I'm from, and what I'm into ;-) Now if I could just figure out where I want to go...
Here are my Wicked Fair photos Not so great as other years, but its also easier to take pics of people's costumes as they visit my booth. I hope I have $$ again when the booth fairy starts canvassing for 2012.
Post Wicked I had Monday off, which I would have taken off anyway, so lucky me gets to save a vacation day. I caught up on cooking, and the new grocery store Aldi is a lot cheaper than the old grocery stores. They lack a few odds and ends (full fat yogurt, yogurt sans aspartame, whole chickens) but for the most part I can abandon the local grocery store that sells expensive but rotten fruit. Cooking and laundry followed, but I'm pretty sure I was up a bit late and thus started my work week sleep deprived on Tuesday.
Tuesday I missed improv class, and Wednesday I missed improv practice, because I felt tired and stomach-sick. [Does stomach-sick equate with soul-sick for me? Meh.] But I got my Holy Clothing dresses when I got to work on Tuesday (they were delivered Friday when I had off, F$#ers), so I put on the new red dress and the new waist cincher and went to the Magnet on Thursday. And had an emotional freak out afterwards. There were a couple of drama points bothering me, but very small ones (compared to my gamer past), and I was surrounded by friends at the theater to be sweet and distracting, so I don't know wtf happened in my brainpan. But the disconnect I felt at Wicked Faire was back, and harsher, b/c I was no longer surrounded by my freaky fellows.
On the way home a strange man talked to me on the subway and asked me out for a drink, but I didn't want to be axe-murdered so I declined. And he didn't stalk me home so I call it a win. But that just reminded me that nobody asks me out unless they are a creepy subway person, or seem mentally handicapped, for the last two years. I figured I looked distraught, thus easy pickins. Whups.
Made it to improv practice on Friday, at least, not wanting to leave my Circuit peeps in the lurch when we had a show that same night. The show was OK, not our strongest ever, but still better than 90% of what I've seen in restaurants and some basements.
Went to an NYC SFC tv watching event on Saturday night, b/c I wasn't up for much. Good to see the old peeps, and the new cubs. Yay alma mater.
Sunday, more groceries, laundry, and cooking. Aldi still didn't have whole chickens, so I tried cooking a set of eight chicken thighs, and it seemed to work out well. However, peeling 3+ lbs of *small* sweetpotatoes to steam isn't fun. I can either go to the normal grocery store for larger ones, or go back to roasting them. I also finally figured out how mac and cheese from scratch works. Last time I accidentally burnt the roux, because that tiny saucepan heats up quicker than it lets on. I also left out the minced onion b/c I didn't care. Win!
Well, almost win. I couldn't fall asleep because of what I thought was a weird stomach bug. So I called in sick to work the next day and rescheduled therapy (bad, cuz I REALLY needed it after Thursday) and didn't eat much. Tuesday I didn't feel right yet, so I ate more regularly but still stayed home sick. Missed class again, did my taxes out of sheer boredom, and reorganized one of the kitchen cabinets (for all the honey). But it wasn't my lunchables making me sick, so at least I didn't have to throw out my week's cooking projects.
Missed Wednesday's practice too, AGAIN, b/c of rescheduled therapy, and spent the whole week feeling pretty depressed and disconnected from my life. Therapy helped. Thursday I stayed home from the shows and baked +5 brownies for a friend's b'day party that weekend. Watched Buffy on Netflix (I will probably downgrade to the Netflix online only package). Made it through Friday's practice, and went to see the show, but went right home to collapse afterwards.
Oh, and to prepare for Saturday, b/c the city was shutting off the water in our building to fix the stuff still incomplete after the water outage over the first blizzard. I slept through most of it, but it was annoying that I couldn't do my laundry or cook anything. The mountain of dishes were my fault, tho. Spent the afternoon watching Buffy and eating apples and pb. Omnomnom.
Put on my red dress + waist cincher (plus lazy makeup) again that night, and went to my indie improv friend's b'day at his new apartment. I looked awesome. It took me a little while to get used to being social again, but eventually I figured it out and felt OK. This crowed LOVED the +5 Brownies (unlike the Magnet, indie all the way), and while I was the only non-drinker at a cocktail party everybody was still nice :-) Yay friends!
His new apartment is in the 'improv ghetto' so after I wandered a few blocks uptown to a bar where a Magnet friend was having another b'day gathering. Talked to some of my Magnet friends and gal pals which was very fun. My happy got bumped slightly when two guys bemoaned the lack of interest shown to them by a pair of skinny barflies they'd been working on, despite their being surrounded by great improv ladies (of which I was least awesome by far) all of whom were single. I just don't understand that place sometimes.
Sunday was spent not doing chores and hanging out with shhbabe, getting dinner and gelato, watching Spaced, and finally meeting her kitty Polly. Polly is almost Georgie's twin, except for the voice and the weight (Georgie is like holding a lead brick). She was less purry, but seemed to like teh chin scritches. There was a black cat in my cat-herding dream the other week that looked like Georgie, but I knew it wasn't, so why am I having premonitions about meeting my friends' cats?
Unfortunately, having fun and sloth this weekend meant skipping ALL of my chores. So I have no lunchables prepared, and a laundry deficit. More whups. I may have to bend the no-buy month rules to get some more socks (was running low on those anyway, but it could have otherwise waited until April). Also, I will get to know my nearby Subway sandwich shop better.
Speaking of no-buy month, my regular accounts are really REALLY low. I still have very healthy savings, so this will not be a ramen-eating week (that would take my home burning down + a BoA meltdown), but dipping into savings feels like I've failed. At least this Friday is pay day, but I may make April another no-buy month and see if that helps. This may have shaken my confidence about going to England in 2012, it may have to wait until 2013. I will still aim high and see if I have enough $$ come next January.
Called the Westin about my DragonCon deposit, and it finally went through, so I'm no longer worried about that. It went on my credit card, but I paid it off before the charge went through, so supposedly I never had more than a zero balance. We'll see if that prevents BoA from charging me their lame monthly-average interest.
Today I got my yearly contact lense fitting for $100 :-P My doctor actually recommended the scheme I was already thinking about- I only wear lenses on the weekends, so the 2-week semi disposable lenses last me a lot longer, so a one year supply could last me two years and I could skip the yearly fitting. She also recommended one-day disposables, but they may not have them for astigmatism. Maybe I can put off paying for them until after pay day, tho, they're still pretty expensive.
I like wearing contacts again. For me, not for other people. In that "I'd totally do me!" sort of way.
This is all the more reason not to go to the NY Whole Bead Show next week. Still haven't gone through my supplies, tho. I will be catching up on lots of chores and bizness stuff on Saturday I hopes.
This week I'm going to therapy on Thursday evening, cuz I had the eye appointment Monday morning, but I squared that away in advance this time. Now I wonder if I should change my session to Thursday evenings for a while, so next time it comes up I can start working Tuesday nights, and go see the fun Monday night improv shows. Or eventually do a Level 5 class which always performs on Monday nights.
Back to business as usual. I hope that weird depressive streak is wearing off. Most likely it is a combo of winterness, over-scheduling stress, and sleep dep. Ironically, doing improv is fun, but stressing about the time drain makes my stomach too sick for me to attend. Not this week I hope, I miss flexing those brain muscles. And next week I have three days off, will try to hold out until then.
Also considering running an rpg for some of my improv friends, b/c there are a lot of sadly-not-gaming gamers out there. I think it would also help me feel more secure there, b/c I'm never more secure than when I'm doing something.
<3 Chrysilla