Friday, November 30, 2001

New Party Developments

I'm trying to focus not on the crumminess of the past two days, and focus on the fun. Like this theoretical party.

I talked to the people at the office and they said that New Year's really was not that busy. They don't even have any jobs scheduled. I thought that there would be tons of orders, but no. So I might not even get to work if I wanted to. So that helps with a decision.

I have yet to talk to the roommate...but she's always up for a party.
11/30/2001 02:49:00 PM link | talk

A Rainy Night in Evanston

I was at the theatre until 2 am. I drove home in the rain. I worked on the rehearsal schedule until 4:30 am. I got no work done that I had planned to do today.

I am sleepy now.
11/30/2001 04:50:00 AM link | talk

Thursday, November 29, 2001
A Holiday Survey for Micky

I see you all are shaping up with the site visits. That's what I like to see.

I called the office today. I'm scheduled for six shifts in the next week and a half. It's about time. I've been sitting here waiting for my director to figure out our rehearsal schedule for weeks now. It's not her fault. She's been trying to cast the show for a really long time. So we can't really make schedules until we know who's available when.

Luckily, there are far more daytime shifts than I thought there would be. It may be a merry Christmas after all.

And now...the survey, related to work talk, which is the reason for the preamble above...Should I work on New Year's Eve? Or should I have a party?

Take a look at the history. I can't recall ever having a really great New Years. Last year had the makings, but I didn't buy tickets to the bar early enough, so I missed out on the New Years fun with Stetzler and Stetzler. (It's never a good holiday when there is no Dad.) So I went for low-key, and hung out with some friends and went to bed at like 12:30. Not bad...just not great. The years before have involved working and missing a party, smoky bar fun interrupted by friend drama, coming late to a party after work and then encountering friend drama.

Let's review the facts. New Years has often been thwarted by being late, and ensuing friend drama.

However...this year, my friends seem to be fairly undramatic. So I don't think there would be drama, and if I were having the party, I wouldn't be late now would I? Also...I wanted to have a Christmas party, but I don't think that will happen due to the supreme amounts of rehearsal I'll be having. So then there could be New Years.

On the other hand. I get $25 an hour to work New Years. And probably a tip, because it would probably be a house party. Money is always nice.

Now let's review house party facts. I'd probably be the only one from the office working. And my last house party job was not good. At all. So it might be a little depressing to ring in the new year with a bunch of strangers. Who may or may not be nice. Perhaps the money isn't worth it.

Click the comment link and let me know what you think.
11/29/2001 01:51:00 PM link | talk

Wednesday, November 28, 2001
FanMail

I just wrote a fan e-mail to Sarah Michelle Gellar. I'm such a dork.
11/28/2001 12:17:00 AM link | talk

Tuesday, November 27, 2001
No Spending: Day 2

Yeah. Day 2 has gone just as well as Day 1 did. I need to not leave the house.

Yesterday when I took Jenny to Office Depot, I was looking at lamps, and decided that I needed one for my new desk, since this room is so dark, and since I tend to do most of my work after it gets dark.

On a related note, geez it got cold today.

The reason I know this is because I went out to lunch with Heather today. I have plenty of food here, but did that stop me? No. So there's another 20 bucks dropped.

And with that not leaving the house thing...even that won't help, because I have to order 5 CD's from Columbia House before Feb. 5, or I get in trouble for not fulfilling my membership agreement. So I've been doing shopping online. It's far too easy to spend money. I need to buy some plane tickets too. That's just what my credit card needs, you know?

I missed most of Trading Spaces today, and of course one room had newly refinished hardwood floors, and that's just what I've been wanting to do in my living room, but didn't know how. Luckily Mom tapes it every day.

That's all...I'm going to see if I can get some work done before Buffy starts at 7.

In an unrelated note, Jared got voted off the PHS team this week. For this week's immunity challenge, we're counting how many people I actually see from each team. It's going to be tough, because I have a couple of parties to go to for each team. Yay.
11/27/2001 04:25:00 PM link | talk

Monday, November 26, 2001
Confessions

Good news. The car works again. Jeremy came over and gave it a jump start, then I drove downtown and back to be sure that it was charged.

I was about to say, "and I went the whole day without buying anything." But that's not true. I had dinner at Potbelly with Ryan and Heather, then we went to Act One Bookstore, and I bought the play, Closer, and a book with listings of monologues. Like over 2000 of them. Then I bought some milk. At the store, not at Act One.

Did I need any of this? Well, I needed the milk, but that's about it. Someday, it'd be nice to be able to afford to buy things whenever I want, but the spending is getting a little out of control. It's almost the end of the month. So I'm decree-ing (that's a fun word) that I won't buy anythign that I don't need this week. That gives me allowance for milk and whatnot, but I'm not going to even walk into Target "just to buy a CD".

I need to reread Confessions of a Shopaholic to remind myself of the consequences of overspending. Except it's not here. And just this morning, I was complaining about my books, because I've now read all of them twice. Ish. But no new books until Buffy next week. That's the rule.

Ok...I take that back. I've already let one Waldenbooks gift certificate expire. The other expires Nov. 30. We can't have that.

Darn it. I can't even go a week without shopping.
11/26/2001 09:51:00 AM link | talk

Sunday, November 25, 2001
Karma Overload

I knew too much good had happened this weekend. After all the Trading Spaces fun, not only is today's episode a rerun, but my car won't start.

That's right boys and girls. At the moment, I am that guy that I hate. That guy who depends on public transportation. Luckily I can still get around, but that's not the point. The theatre is not close, and not an easy train ride. Besides, I want my car to work.

I didn't have to drive it at all while my parents were here, so maybe it just sat too long without being used. It is the longest that it's been undriven since I've moved here. And it's cold and rainy out, which makes me so not want to go out and raise the hood.

I'll keep you updated.
11/25/2001 11:14:00 AM link | talk

Friday, November 23, 2001
Non-Harsh

My computer is now sitting on my new desk. In my newly renovated office. Without the phone cord going across the kitchen. With no extension cords going across the office floor. That's because we've been very handy today.

Dad added an extension to the one outlet in the back room, and added big long power strip attached to the wall. We put it under the window which is where the new desk (from Best Buy) that we built goes. Where the new phone line (which we rewired in the box downstairs...don't tell Ameritech) is.

We added a light under the kitchen cabinets over the sink, so you can see what you're washing. And bought frames for the kitchen posters.

And got the window between my bedroom and the office open, so the air can flow between them, making the office warmer and my bedroom cooler. And bought curtains for both rooms.

And bought a Christmas tree and all sorts of lights and ornaments.

And had lots of good food.

Yeah. It's been a pretty good Thanksgiving.
11/23/2001 10:57:00 PM link | talk

Wednesday, November 21, 2001
Harsh.

My new computer is sitting around me in lots of boxes. We went to Ikea tonight to find a desk for it. And we did. Then we went downstairs to pick it up.

They were all out. No big deal. I'll just order it and it will be delivered in three weeks.

Except my desk is not available at this time.

Why the hell not?! What kind of company would just run out of things in their catalogue? Hello!?

I'm thinking that maybe this desk isn't meant to be. There have been other things that I've really wanted and it hasn't worked out. I have such good chi in the rest of the house, that maybe the chi was leading me away from this desk. Maybe it has bad chi. I should be thankful that they're out of the desk. It is called "jerker" after all.

Except I'm going to the website to see if I can get it there...
11/21/2001 11:21:00 PM link | talk

SnorLand

The comment link works again, thanks to those crazy Brits at SnorLand. Ignore how he says if you post more than once he'll strangle you until you turn green. He won't really. He's in England. What can he do to you from there?

The parents are coming up in a few hours. I haven't done anything. Could be a bad thing...we'll see.
11/21/2001 11:03:00 AM link | talk

Survivor: Chicago

PHS lost immunity this week because they sucked about calling and visiting. Even e-mailing. But it's OK because Todd was the one voted off, and I haven't actually talked to him more than once in about five years. I just happen to know that he lives close by. So I don't think he'll be offended.

So there you go, Jen...the tribes are tied...although I haven't heard from you in a couple of days... ;)
11/21/2001 01:56:00 AM link | talk

I'm Cool

So I was away from my house for about five hours. I came home while I was on the phone with the lovely Amy Stetzler. As we were talking, I was pacing around. I happened to pace near the answering machine and glanced over.

The number "11" was blinking back at me.

11! I'm the coolest! There were only two hangups (presumably from people getting my cell number at the end of the message) and one person who called back to finish the message she started, but got cut off before finishing. Rock!

Speaking of rocks...(this isn't really a transition, but I couldn't think of anything else...) Trading Spaces was hardcore yesterday. They had these freakshow designers changing around rooms that really weren't that bad to begin with. I knew it was going to be messy when one of the women told her designer that painting the stone fireplace bright yellow was "a really bad idea." Yes. It was. But still...maybe a little tact on national TV would be a good thing.

But tact couldn't save these places. At the end of the episode, each designer put on a little costume to represent the themes for their room. The old dude that I can't stand put on a little cowboy outfit that was far too small for him to represent the western...thing is the only word that comes to mind...that he designed. The owners weren't mad per se, but they pretty much just stood there going, "uh..."

The other house was a different story. This weird lesbian-ish designer who I've never seen was wearing a purple caftan thing, with a little black hat, which might have been stolen from an organ grinder's monkey. I don't know if she was dressing up as a clown, but to coin a phrase that I think I got from Friends and that Amy said I must put on the site...this room looked like an eyesore from the House of Crap.

As the owner so eloquently put it, they made his living room look like the set of the dating game...Beetlejuice could live here!" Ha. Do you think Trading Spaces will pay for them to fix all the tackiness that was put in their rooms? Even they had to know that these rooms looked heinous.

Today's episode was really good, but I have nothing to say about it after yesterdays episode.
11/21/2001 01:53:00 AM link | talk

Monday, November 19, 2001
An Empty Box

You know what I hate a lot? When I put my contacts in backwards. I feel very aware that there are little pieces of plastic in my eyes, and I sit there, uncomfortable for a number of hours, before I actually go into the bathroom to flip them around. And as soon as I do, I think "Ah...that's so much better..."

But does that make me do it any sooner the next time? No.

So today, both of them were in backwards. Or inside-out if you'd rather. I think it's because they were the last contacts in the box, so I'm now officially halfway out of contacts, and they wanted me to see the specialness of the occasion.

Or else, I was just kind of out of it when I put them in this morning.
11/19/2001 12:59:00 PM link | talk

Saturday, November 17, 2001
Micky's Box O' Snacks

This scares me that the last two posts have both been about food...hrm.

Anyway..my refrigerator is literally full of leftovers from my jobs at Northwestern. I still have cookies and brownies from last weeks game. Today I got a dozen muffins, another big plate of brownies, and a huge metal tin of cooked bratwurst.

Then I went to the theatre and spent six hours there, so all this food sat in my car. Keep in mind that it is cold. Not below freezing, but still cold. I'm not totally sure that I should eat the bratwurst. It was already cooked, so there's no danger of salmonella or anything. Brownies and muffins I know are fine. But I'm not eating the bratwurst until someone tells me it's OK. I have a lot. I can even freeze some. I'll give you one. Or two.
11/17/2001 11:02:00 PM link | talk

Thursday, November 15, 2001
Popsicles

I just saw an ad for The Heist. The ads are like "Hackman is amazing!" and "More twists than a bag of pretzels!"

So what do I say out loud to the TV? Not "Oh that should be good." or "I love David Mamet."

No. I say "I like pretzels."

And I've eaten three popsicles today.
11/15/2001 10:36:00 PM link | talk

Survivor

If you read the post I just deleted, sorry for the lameness...I didn't realize that I had important things to do. Like make my survivor picks. Priorities, Micky...

Anyway...everyone is pretty sure that Lindsey will be voted off this week. There's supposed to be an intense tribal council too. I'm hoping that she'll go crazy and scream and stuff, a la Susan from Survivor I, except with more foaming at the mouth and gnashing of teeth. That'd be fun.

I'm only slightly sad that Silas was voted off, because he was a member of my surviiival.com team. I feel a slight loss, but he really was a jerk last week and totally deserved it. My new team member is Kelly, not because I think she'll make it, but because I don't like the ideas of Frank, Theresa, or Tom making it, and I don't think MamaKim or Clarence will make it. So that kind of left me stuck with Kelly. She doesn't do much. And if she gets voted off, I probably won't be too sad since she wasn't on my original team anyway.

I've also picked Boran to win both challenges, and predicted that someone (probably Tom) making a blond joke, and Samburu attempting to build a roof over their camp, a la Boran.

Just had a thought. What if the scandal is with Kelly? What if Tom and Lex turn on her? That could be emotional too. Hrm.
11/15/2001 11:31:00 AM link | talk

Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Stupid Bike Riders

Miss Shauny has summed up everything that I've ever felt about people who ride their bikes on the road in a nice little blog entry. Go check it out.
11/14/2001 11:35:00 AM link | talk

Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Shopping

I went to Target today. I spent a lot of money. I won't say how much. But here's what I got:

2 colored spatulas (red and yellow!)
A Brita filter
TV Guide
A Stainless Steel spoon rest
A 3 pack of Hanes undershirts
Milk
Cran-Grape juice
2 yellow pot holders
A corkscrew
A drain cover for the kitchen sink
A basket for silverware to dry in
A tablecloth (which I'm returning because it looks bad)
A floor lamp
A 3-way lightbulb
A writing tablet
A 4 pack of wine glasses

and the coup de grace, a bathroom shelf organizer thingy, meant for being over the toilet, to put in my kitchen over the table so my phone and answering machine don't have to sit on the table monopolizing all my table space.

Everything but the bathroom shelves and the tablecloth were under $10.

And that's not counting the Jewel CD and the Dave Matthews double CD I got on sale at Circuit City.

Add all that to Buffy night, and we have a pretty good day.
11/13/2001 10:06:00 PM link | talk

Monday, November 12, 2001
Survivor Chicago: Week One

Jenny won't be happy about this...but the PHS tribe won immunity this week. Seeing Ethan in the grocery store and getting a birthday party invite from Frank put them over the top. In a random vote, Heather was voted off the island.

Poor Heather. I think that her parting words would have been, "Why are you playing this stupid game? You need to get a life."

So true.

11/12/2001 04:03:00 PM link | talk

Friday, November 09, 2001
Worthless

I have done nothing at all worthwhile today. I've been sitting here in my pajamas all day long. I just went outside (at like 8:30) to get the mail and the paper. The paper that came thing morning.

Lame.

Luckily, I have the game tomorrow, so I can go to bed in an hour and end this stupid stupid day.
11/09/2001 08:44:00 PM link | talk

Stupid Computers

In a fit of mad feng shui-ing, I rearranged the office. Although it has much better chi (and will have even better chi when I find the motivation to actually clean the stacks of paper) it has not fixed my computer from being totally sucky.

I thought that today I would clean off my harddrive and put all the old files onto a zip disk. This happy thought was before I spent four hours trying to install my zip drive which should already have been installed, since I've used it on this computer before. But it looks like it's not happening, which makes me very angry.

It's hard to purge your soul when other things don't cooperate.
11/09/2001 05:38:00 PM link | talk

Thursday, November 08, 2001
Huh

Well, I certainly didn't see that one coming.
11/08/2001 11:28:00 PM link | talk

The Survivor Twist

I could totally have called the Linda ousting (thank god, I couldn't stand her...now if only Brandon would go...) last week, if I'd had my tape in time. I've learned two things in the past week: never work on Thursday, and never work on Tuesday. The importance of my TV schedule is just too much to handle. All this will change when I go into rehearsal in a couple of weeks, but oh well.

Anyway...I've spent two hours (when I should be doing work) looking at the Survivor message boards. Last week's previews said that something would happen to shake up alliances in the first 15 minutes. While I do resent the obvious ploy to get us to not watch Friends (which is totally killing Survivor in the ratings and which I am taping, thank you very much) i'm pretty excited. There are three scenarios presented on the boards:

1) early merge
2) a 2 player swap
3) three tribes

The consensus is that the 2 player swap seems most likely. I think it's funny that Mark Burnett is allowed to change the rules whenever he wants to. It's in their contracts. Ha.

All this speculation has totally thrown off my intuitive voting powers. I chose Boran to win both challenges and Lindsay to go for no good reason. If there's a merger, or player swap or tribe split, then none of the answers that anyone gives will work, because the questions are only set for the current situation. And it's not like I'm going to win since I'm in 3850th place. Oh well.
11/08/2001 01:35:00 PM link | talk

Wednesday, November 07, 2001
Buffy Bitterness

No, don't worry, I'm not actually bitter at Buffy herself. But I am bitter at everyone who did NOT tell me that the Buffy Musical would be 10 minutes longer than a regular episode, and I'm bitter at Megan at Carol's because she gave me the shift to work at ADA, and I'm bitter at myself for A) saying that I would work on a Tuesday when I NEVER work and B) not setting the VCR until 8:30 just to be safe. So I missed the last 10 minutes of the show.

I'm also bitter at the cable company for having such poor service that there were several blackouts in the middle of the show. Short ones, but still blackouts that would have prevented this from being an episode I wanted to watch again and again had I actually gotten the last part.

And I'm bitter at the guy who sent me the rude e-mail, the "wanker" from England (his word not mine) in the Buffy chatroom that was less than helpful in my Buffy needs, and the so-called "friend" who signed off Instant Messenger without so much as a goodbye.

Good news. I just got off the phone with Megan. She got the whole thing and is making a copy of the tape for me. So she is forgiven for making me work. But that doesn't excuse all the other rudeness that was sent my way yesterday. I've been sending out good vibes. Shouldn't my karma be more pleasant? Maybe I'm being punished for spending $71 at the grocery store, and not eating a single healthy thing in the past two days. Except for the celery at the reception I worked. Celery should cancel out all unhealthy food.

On a completely unrelated note, I forgot to add Sara T. and Christine to the Drake tribe. Oh well. They wouldn't have lasted long on an island or in the outback anyway. Their loss.
11/07/2001 12:17:00 PM link | talk

Monday, November 05, 2001
Survivor: Chicago

I don't know if it's just Chicago, or if it works this way in every city, but I have run into more people here than I ever tought possible. When I moved here, I thought I knew 6 people from Drake, and 1 person from high school. Then after I randomly ran into Ethan from PHS in the grocery store today, I decided to actually count how many people are here now.

From PHS: Sarah S., Bill, Ethan, Todd, Maria, Kyle, Jared, Frank
From Drake: Jen, Scott, Mike, Heather, Ryan, Tim, Whitney, Jeremy

They could totally play Survivor Chicago. There's enough players in each tribe. That'd be fun. I'm starting a fictional survivor game that probably only I will be interested in. But you'll have to play along, because that's what you get when you read someone's blog, and he doesn't have a day job. So whichever group I have more contact with each week wins immunity. Then I'll vote people off by drawing names from a hat. Fun. If I run into a new person, I'll give extra points to that team. It'll all work out. Trust me.

Wow. I have a lot of time on my hands.
11/05/2001 03:58:00 PM link | talk

Sunday, November 04, 2001
Productivity

I had to wake up at 9:00 today for a phone call. Which was not so good, considering that I got home from a crummy job at 1:00 am. Sure...it's around 8 hours of sleep, but it was the most uncomfortable sleep I've had in a long time. The point is, that I wasn't all that keen on the idea of going back to bed after the call was over. So I went and watched TV.

I watched the Survivor from two weeks ago, because my tape came late in the mail. My mom was bitter that the young alliance in the Samburu tribe voted out Carl because he has lots of money. I can agree with that, but all the stuff he was saying about Generation X was really uncalled for. I remember how Tina said that all they did on so many days of the Outback was sit around. It's not all about working. I know that they don't all work the whole time. The old alliance did a lot of sitting around talking while they were "getting water".

We can blame this on "Real World" editing. Taking pieces of action and speech and putting them out of order to make a story. It works...we keep watching, but it doesn't show the real thing. You can tell how determined the younger people are. Just as determined as the older people. If I were there, I know I'd enjoy sleeping in a bit too.

I'm not even going to complain about how much I hate Linda, since I know she got voted off last week. I can't wait to see that tape.

After Survivor, I turned off the VCR and that Sandra Bullock-Dennis Leary movie was on HBO. I think it's called Two If By Sea. I also think it tanked in the box office. But I liked it. It all goes back to my gift for enjoying the worst of movies. (I won't bring up Simply Irresistable again, Amy.) I can see where critics wouldn't like it, but I thought it was nice.

It's only 12:30 and I'm already feeling unproductive. Harsh.
11/04/2001 12:48:00 PM link | talk

Saturday, November 03, 2001
No Title

There's something about putting on the same tuxedo, every day, for four days in a row, that seems to suck the inspiration out of me. It sucks, because I look in catalogues or pass by stores or see commercials or TV shows or magazines (basically anything where someone is NOT dressed in a tux) and I wish that I could wear those cool clothes too.

Not that I have the money to buy cool clothes, but still, I'd like the option. That was the one upside to having a regular office job: I had to wear something new every day. It was like that in high school too. Less in college, because how many of us just went to class in flannel pants and fleece sweatshirt? Yeah. All of us. Except when we had a scene going up, and then we dressed in our most presentable and professional outfits, but still retained our regular theatre major style.

I don't know if those words go together. Let's just say there was a lot of black worn on those days.

I'm not saying that I want a real job. I have it pretty good with the whole working out of home deal. I just want to do something that doesn't require me to wear the same thing every day. Even when I was doing the show, I had to wear black or dark colors all the time. That really doesn't allow me to wear my yellow shirt. And I like my yellow shirt.

I have to go change now. My tux awaits. Sigh.
11/03/2001 04:02:00 PM link | talk (1)