tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71942916998800693442024-03-13T23:08:59.700-04:00Better Off CrazyAlisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-29749057223741752472013-06-18T00:00:00.000-04:002013-06-18T00:00:34.657-04:00Regressing in the Best Possible WayWell, it's been a while, hasn't it? This whole grad school thing has kept me just the tiniest bit busy. Who knew?! But after finishing my master's thesis in May (my family spent all of graduation weekend calling me "master" and finding themselves HILARIOUS), I get the whole month of June "off" before a long Engineers Without Borders trip and then the beginning of the PhD. <br /><br />I say "off" because mostly it just means I'm not getting paid for any of the work I'm doing, most of which has to do with EWB. But I have claimed some time for myself - time to go hiking in the Texas summer heat (though it's only June, it will get worse), time to enjoy visiting friends and family, time for multiple failed baking experiments (baking with no sugar or sugar substitute is really not a recipe for success), time to read The Internet... it's really quite lovely, actually, and I may never be able to work quite as hard again now that I've remembered what it's like to have TIME. <br /><br />Today in my reading of The Internet I encountered one of my favorite bloggers documenting her younger daughter's lead-up to turning 4 (<a href="http://dooce.com/2013/06/17/newsletter-marlo-turns-four/">http://dooce.com/2013/06/17/newsletter-marlo-turns-four/</a>). Reading about this crazy little person, this "expression of eternal joy," made me think of me at around that age. There are photos of me about which I've said "I'm so happy I almost look angry," and "I'm so full of joy I'm about to explode." I can remember being that age or a little older and just being filled with bliss. I miss that age, and I'm trying to recapture as much of that feeling as I can. <br /><br />I guess the best part is that, especially this month with time to spend on myself, I AM recapturing it, just a little. I went tubing on the Comal River with a good friend this weekend, and by the time we were halfway down the first "tube chute" (a waterslide built into the river), I was laughing one of those belly-guffaws you couldn't stop if you tried. It was absolutely wonderful. I hope that as I dive back into grad school research I can keep finding moments when I can be gloriously 4 again. Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-54475285347431018582012-04-09T18:12:00.000-04:002012-04-09T18:13:47.658-04:00Miracles Don't Seem So Far-Fetched AnymoreTwo years ago I had just dropped out of Vanderbilt. Technically I had taken a medical leave of absence, but I knew I wasn't going back. I'd moved my stuff into my parents' house (mostly their garage), and I think by April I was already talking to Rutgers about transferring there.<br /><br />Two years ago, I could barely walk to the end of the block and back again; I could barely stand at the stove long enough to make a simple meal. I was in too much pain.<br /><br />Two days ago, I walked about two miles, grocery shopped for forty-five minutes, lifted weights at the gym, and then came home and spent two hours in the kitchen washing, chopping, cooking, assembling.<br /><br />I don't really celebrate Easter anymore, but this weekend I was definitely celebrating the possibility of miracles.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-64145771851080337752011-09-07T18:00:00.002-04:002011-09-07T18:04:03.145-04:00Modern Communications (Cell Phone Service)I bought a network extender. I bought it on Amazon for less than 1/3 the (outrageous) price Verizon was asking for the same thing. After some ridiculousness with the delivery process, it arrived. I plugged in all the appropriate cables; all the appropriate lights lit up. It didn't help.<br /><br />So I got online and search the support database, like the well behaved customer I am. I found nothing remotely useful. So I did the unthinkable: called technical support.<br /><br />Well, about 40 minutes into this "adventure", I've had my call dropped once, got hung up on once, had my call accidentally rerouted while on hold once, so I've had to start over 3 times. What I've managed to find out is that I need to have a phone number for the extender registered with Verizon - which the guy who first wanted to sell me one did not tell me - and to get that I have to talk to the network extender department. But either the phone gods hate me or the network extender department doesn't actually exist because I have yet to reach them.<br /><br />45 minutes.<br /><br />Where's the nearest AT&T office?Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-23080542623597136782011-05-19T12:12:00.001-04:002011-05-19T12:15:06.231-04:00An Open Letter (10)CAST! LISTEN UP! [ed. note: This is the accepted way of opening an address to a student cast.]<br /><br />Thank you. I had no idea what to expect from my week in halfway-to-nowhere Minnesota, and you all have absolutely knocked my socks off. Over the last three days you've proven yourselves smart, talented, energetic, and - perhaps most inspiring to me - endlessly eager to learn. You've drunk in our endless notes on theater, music, and performance; you've asked intelligent questions; you've SOUGHT OUT extra information and help. And you have displayed incredible generosity toward your fellow performers. As far as I can tell, not one of you is complacent or conceited, and that is to be applauded. (But don't let the applause make you complacent or conceited.)<br /><br />Keep working hard - I hope you've seen this week just how much you can accomplish when you do. Keep questioning your teachers and directors - don't take what we say at face value, ask about what doesn't make sense, and ask when you want to know more. Keep giving so generously to the people you work with - whether they're fellow artists in a collaboration or office mates at a 9-5 job, giving your energy and trust to the people you're working with can have radical results. Keep looking for the fun, the sense of play - you'll spend far too much time in your life on what seems like drudgery, so whenever you can find some joy in what you're doing, embrace it and make the most of it. And keep learning - no matter how old you are or how much experience you have, there is ALWAYS more to learn; understanding that will help you to always move forward, never be complacent or conceited. It will also keep your eyes open for hidden learning experiences that are all too easy to miss, and are like gifts if you can receive them.<br /><br />But enough cheese! You guys have TOTALLY ROCKED this week!! I'm so proud of you, and I hope you're proud of yourselves. Thank you. You guys are rock stars.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-47412108463597635422011-05-16T16:28:00.000-04:002011-05-16T16:29:24.773-04:00An Open Letter (9)To the Woman with the Crazy Sob Story,<br /><br />Look, lady, I'm sure you're in a fix. Maybe your stepmother really did die this morning, and you really did just pick up your 3 and 11 year old siblings from a police precinct and they're now sitting in that gray Corrolla right there (that I can't see). Maybe you really do just need some help getting back to Irvington. Or out of Brooklyn. There have been moments when all I've wanted, myself, is to get out of Brookyln.<br /><br />But if you want to be taken seriously, perhaps you should reconsider the plan of attack that goes: 1. wander up to random stanger on a Brooklyn street who is held captive because her car is wide open as boxes are being loaded out of it, 2. declare that you have an emergency situation, 3. plead for the chance to Google.<br /><br />Let me say that again: "it's an emergency - do you have a way to Google?"<br /><br />When you want a stranger to hand you cash on the street, just ask for it. Don't try to pretend that really all you want to do is use Google to look up you-don't-know-what (as you said yourself) and then rapidly launch into explaining how you have just enough gas to get your car to the gas station and you just need some help getting home to Irvington with your 3 and 11 year old siblings who are sitting right there in that invisible Corrolla.<br /><br />Really. Try again, please. And if you could leave me out of it next time, that would be even better.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-40274085467285921622011-04-19T14:08:00.001-04:002011-04-19T14:08:31.430-04:00FYI (1A)Correction: I retract my statement about sewer gas. It might be lovely. Apparently I don't know after all.<br /><br />In other news, if someone asks you if you want to know what it smells like when a creature (or several creatures) dies in your bathroom wall and begins to rot, the correct answer is "no."Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-87676787509801594262011-04-18T19:24:00.000-04:002011-04-18T19:25:45.853-04:00FYI (1)If anyone ever asks you if you want to know what sewer gas smells like, the correct answer is "no." Just in case you weren't sure.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-73306850223623626342011-04-14T13:41:00.001-04:002011-04-14T13:42:23.150-04:00Ignorance is anything but bliss.“I started to see that they were not just political targets, they were real people who just… wanted to get married. It started to feel like a petty issue.”<br /><br />Amazing. How many people in this country are still stuck in the first half of this position - not yet having realized that people ARE people and "not just political targets" - simply because they've never carried on a conversation with an individual on the other side of the debate? How many people would, if they had a few simple conversations with real human beings, change their minds about what they themselves have the right to deny their fellow humans?<br /><br />The quote above came from a news story, one that I read by way of Yahoo: http://tinyurl.com/6hxtytw. There's nothing surprising about the idea that a young man - only 25 years old - formed strong opinions based on limited knowledge. What's kind of exciting is that even though he didn't go looking for experience that might challenge his opinions, when he stumbled upon that experience he thought about it enough to let it change his views.<br /><br />How much could we change our nation if we could reduce the collective level of ignorance by 10%? Or even 1%? And how do you measure the collective level of ignorance in the first place, you ask? I don't know. But you get my point.<br /><br />Sorry - I just can't seem to muster any snark on this issue. This fairly minor incident - a single anti-gay marriage activist changing his mind - has actually kind of blown my mind, because the REAL problem is so unbelievably obvious.<br /><br />Check out the article; I think it's kind of an astounding study in human ignorance, and the capacity to learn.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-67521140456697995332011-02-04T18:36:00.000-05:002011-02-04T18:37:22.955-05:00An Open Letter (8)Dear Aetna,<br /><br />I clearly shouldn't have believed you when you said I didn't have to pay you any more money until March. But of course I didn't realize my foolishness until, on the last day of January, my pharmacy said you wouldn't pay for anything. You had your money by Tuesday. But could the pharmacy get any money out of you Wednesday? You're joking, right? Thursday? Still no dice.<br /><br />Friday a young woman on your payroll - who was actually quite pleasant - confirmed that you had indeed received my money and you were indeed prepared to pay out on my behalf. And yet a few hours later the pharmacy still was unable to get you to fork over. Even after the very nice pharmacist (a rarity these days, but that's another rant) called you and confirmed that yes, you had my money, and you acknowledged willingness to pay for my medical treatments. But not to the pharmacy. Because apparently while every other computer system on the entire planet (with the possible exception of Egypt, currently) can transfer information between machines in seconds or minutes, yours take more than 72 hours to get data from one place to another.<br /><br />So well done, Aetna: you've managed to find the only computers on the planet that are actually slower than the Pony Express. And if I'm lucky I'll get my prescription in three more days, because God forbid anyone in medical insurance work on the weekend. Oh wait... that would imply that they work at all.<br /><br />Die and rot in hell.<br />Yours trulyAlisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-6918331536544688802011-02-02T11:19:00.001-05:002011-02-02T11:20:52.076-05:00Sometimes I Hate WinterOK, ice storms make the trees look pretty. But everything else about them pretty much sucks. They cause damage, they make people fall and hurt themselves, and they get you up early in the morning just so you can spend that many extra hours stressing out about the appointments you can't get to. And wondering how it is that other people got out of their driveways so easily. And wishing you lived someplace where ice is known only as what clinks in your glass. Or that you at least had chains on your tires. Or maybe one of those ridiculous driveways with heating elements built into it so you could just switch in on when you woke up and by the time you had gotten dressed and eaten breakfast you'd have nothing but a little slush to clear away.<br /><br />And really all I want to do - all I have wanted to do for about three days - is make hot, buttered popcorn and watch Beauty and the Beast on VHS. Yes, really.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-38671058686190563182011-01-13T11:26:00.001-05:002011-01-13T11:27:53.789-05:00The Trouble with Vacation...The problem with having nice long vacations is that you fall too completely into the vacation rhythm. You have time to fully adjust your schedule.<br /><br />During a short break you're constantly catching up: getting your teeth cleaned because you can finally spare the time, vacuuming the carpets that only get vacuumed during breaks, tying up loose ends from the frantic last two weeks before the vacation, and then turning right around and getting ready to go back.<br /><br />On the other hand, on a long break you have time between the catching up and the getting ready to actually fall into a routine: having a leisurely breakfast, going to the gym, reading in the evenings, cooking nice dinners. By the time you have to start getting ready to go back, you have a whole new schedule that gets interrupted.<br /><br />I think the solution is obvious: make all breaks longer and more frequent, so that the work-time schedule is the anomaly, coming in brief spates, and the relaxed schedule is the norm. It also would reduce or eliminate the catching up period at the beginning of each break if breaks were frequent enough, so they wouldn't need to all be 3-4 weeks long for full effect. I think perhaps a week off each month would do the trick.<br /><br />Feel free to suggest this to your employers and educational institutions...Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-40408853962920902442010-12-11T18:34:00.000-05:002010-12-11T18:35:47.013-05:00Secret Agent ManToday I likened myself to Clark Kent, and it's funny to me that it's taken me so long to think that. Not that my alter ego is Superman - far from it. Don't worry, I have no delusions of grandeur. But I do sometimes feel like I'm leading a double life. Mild mannered (or loud and sarcastic) engineering student by day, theater grad/rock star by night. Except that my nights are more often spent doing homework and going to bed early. Maybe baking cookies.<br /><br />And yet, no matter how boring my life may sometimes seem to me, whenever someone else finds out what I've been doing for the last ten years it suddenly sounds like the most exciting life a girl from Jersey could ask for. And I guess some of it *has* been exciting. Like that time I worked for a real rockstar (he had a hit song on the radio!), or the time I acted on a tour for eight months, or the time I played in a bar upstairs from a strip club and some of the guys who meant to go downstairs got confused and came upstairs and decided the band and I were better than the strip show so they stayed. Hard to say which was better, that time or the time we got stuck in traffic, took 9 hours to get from Boston to NYC and missed our set time, but my friend who was working at MTV at the time flashed her work ID and demanded that I play. That one was pretty good, too.<br /><br />I guess I do have some good stories from it all. And the fun of seeing each new friend find out that *secretly* I've done all this other stuff. And that I'm not 22.<br /><br />My engineering friends found this out today. They said I should write a blog about them - so here it is, guys! (Except they're not guys, they're girls, because girls can be engineers too, dammit.) But now I need to stop blogging and get back to finishing that paper we have due Monday. Good luck with your studying, ladies.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-47339145034820530712010-11-08T12:01:00.000-05:002010-11-08T12:02:11.280-05:00An Open Letter (7)Dear NY/NJ Metropolitan Area,<br /><br />I love you, you know I do. I grew up here - I've spent the majority of my life here. I love the way the leaves change color in the fall, I love the chaos and crowds of The City (and that anyone from here know that The City is the *only* city). I love that I can find gluten free vegan pizza AND gluten free vegan cupckaes within a few blocks of each other, and that the best *normal* pizza I've ever had is just a mile from my parents' suburban house (in their little Italian town).<br /><br />But we need to talk about this weather. Today I left the house wearing long johns under my jeans and a wool sweater and a down vest between my shirt and my knee-length, heavy down coat. Need I mention the hat and mittens? And yet I was cold. The wind, the maybe-sort-of-freezing rain, the complete lack of sun - they stole all my warmth, and a little piece of my soul.<br /><br />And so, NY/NJ, I'm giving you fair warning: I'm afraid I won't be able to continue this way. Everyone says the globe is warming, and maybe you can take advantage of that and turn "winter" into "two weeks of fluffy, snowglobe snow in January flanked on both sides by months of warm sunshine with temperatures no lower than 50*." Wouldn't you like that just as much as I would? Imagine all the happy children who could play outdoors in November and February without worrying about losing toes!<br /><br />If you can't manage that, though - that one minor concession - I just might have to leave. Because I value both my warmth and my soul and am not prepared to surrender them to your weather.<br /><br />I'll miss you.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-7976776460304718272010-11-07T19:16:00.000-05:002010-11-07T19:17:43.182-05:00Metal HeadOne of the reasons I'm currently writing a musical is because my friends have always teased me that my songwriting seems well suited for the stage. "Andrew Lloyd Webber has left the building" may or may not have been uttered during the recording of my last album. That's the kind of music I write.<br /><br />So am I the only one who finds it ironic that, now that I am *actually* writing a stage musical, I am for the first time writing - for that same stage musical - a heavy metal song?<br /><br />I have to go now - I'm listening to heavymetalradio.com's stream and I can't string words together while this is happening in my ears.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-38000888666487489222010-10-13T12:57:00.001-04:002010-10-13T12:59:49.023-04:00These People will be Building Skyscrapers...and then the instructor said "you guys have heard of oxygen, right?"<br /><br />To a room full of college-senior civil engineering students.<br /><br />"You remember electrons? Atoms have electrons?"<br /><br />And then I cried.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-8187848359867833462010-10-07T12:05:00.008-04:002010-10-07T12:14:35.133-04:00L.A. Pictures.......aaaaand then life happened. But if you've ever had vertigo then you'll believe I had a good excuse for not getting these up before now. Anyway, here they are, the snaps from L.A. Nothing terribly thrilling, but proof that I was really there:<br /><br />- The gluten free, dairy free bakery!<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM2U6FhoB02SkZOmsnIpL8iN0eKVgOHm6PWcleuP5NdH-RdT59D7Bqz5wwl0I8as-lFEEBcmf_JF1CTcmnIBS4yplakOSkVnkbvhd_VtQmKtGLp0WJiWoTVw9HGi7Kn9-2G92l3pD_Y9L/s1600/IMG_2889.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM2U6FhoB02SkZOmsnIpL8iN0eKVgOHm6PWcleuP5NdH-RdT59D7Bqz5wwl0I8as-lFEEBcmf_JF1CTcmnIBS4yplakOSkVnkbvhd_VtQmKtGLp0WJiWoTVw9HGi7Kn9-2G92l3pD_Y9L/s320/IMG_2889.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525336446723997970" border="0" /></a><br />- The Hollywood sign as seen from my friend's neighborhood. (It's in there, I swear - on the hillside.)<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZZaMslSVZh-AJWtLuMjq6M9AJ6W6rmUgNE0mEXXUNTGBwJMEN2iV2GY17PCtn_SG3eTZVTKg9wLG_KfiWcGq8IrAox4ivalom1NacY7uXwk5p5gV3rUfQetQiaVIZiFmW1v6eLwHbzJA/s1600/IMG_2891.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZZaMslSVZh-AJWtLuMjq6M9AJ6W6rmUgNE0mEXXUNTGBwJMEN2iV2GY17PCtn_SG3eTZVTKg9wLG_KfiWcGq8IrAox4ivalom1NacY7uXwk5p5gV3rUfQetQiaVIZiFmW1v6eLwHbzJA/s320/IMG_2891.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525337004117376738" border="0" /></a><br /><br />- At a stoplight on Rodeo Drive (I couldn't resist).<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvoo65BfMOD7BGoTzc_BCgKG5n3lWaQvtiCq8n97vWljtXP15VCJz36HERBJlv2WP6Nei6-nXrhdsWKKcJXOUQj1Lqug0Ww2Rs1tVV1O-SP0OhIDUAsDeCJJuIYKDiQlmzMUcSWMwuzs9U/s1600/IMG_2893.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvoo65BfMOD7BGoTzc_BCgKG5n3lWaQvtiCq8n97vWljtXP15VCJz36HERBJlv2WP6Nei6-nXrhdsWKKcJXOUQj1Lqug0Ww2Rs1tVV1O-SP0OhIDUAsDeCJJuIYKDiQlmzMUcSWMwuzs9U/s320/IMG_2893.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525337375662823762" border="0" /></a><br /><br />- Much to my mother's chagrin, this was the only photographic evidence I produced that I myself was actually in L.A. Sorry, Mom.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJOQiud53seI3jLv1Ywi6-iB4u3gqZY51JuuxYW4Og1Zg-ssjxtilggehv3URu0XJIBAl3Wtdc-7BNJ-7pvSs9R0jpqz_0TCd__iPDhYtVDejZYv0Mkn90J4sRwxSwr3y1zRXzWWifrnp5/s1600/IMG_2899.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJOQiud53seI3jLv1Ywi6-iB4u3gqZY51JuuxYW4Og1Zg-ssjxtilggehv3URu0XJIBAl3Wtdc-7BNJ-7pvSs9R0jpqz_0TCd__iPDhYtVDejZYv0Mkn90J4sRwxSwr3y1zRXzWWifrnp5/s320/IMG_2899.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525338011550959394" border="0" /></a>Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-56918791908230311232010-09-30T18:08:00.001-04:002010-09-30T18:09:41.916-04:00La la land, part twoWell, I thought I was beginning to recover but then I must've caught the cold my mother is just getting over. So much for my plan of writing the trip up once I felt better. But here it is - the riveting conclusion of my 48-hours-in-Los-Angeles saga!<br /><br />Saturday morning found me a mighty unhappy camper, partly from time zone-induced confusion but mostly from being some unidentified variety of ill and the lack of sleep resulting therefrom. There, alas, went my glorious plan of stopping on the way to the reading to get a *gluten free dairy free* breakfast burrito. (Yes, Virginia, there is a GFDF breakfast burrito, but apparently only in L.A., and apparently not for me. *sigh*) Instead I stopped at a Trader Joe's that I happened to drive past on Santa Monica Boulevard and that turned out to be perhaps the only TJ's in existence with neither gluten free pretzels nor gluten free bread. Alas again! Rice cakes for me.<br /><br />I managed to find my way to Beverly Hills High School - oh yes, 90210 - and bumbled my way to the auditorium. People began to convene, chairs and music stands were arranged, a group of 60th-reunion BHHS alums stopped by to say hello... we were definitely underway.<br /><br />Here's the important bit: Everyone was super nice, everyone worked really hard, and all in all the day was great. It was so exciting to hear the music played by fantastic musicians and sung by a bunch of talented singers! I managed to not cry the first time the chorus came out with "It's fooouuur A.M. agaaaaiiiinnnn" in harmony, but it was close. I've always been that way when I first hear something I wrote realized by people aside from myself. It's like "ohmygod, that sounds so good!" and "wait, I had something to do with making that happen?" and "YES! THAT'S IT!" all wrapped up together with a load of je ne sais quois. In rehearsals, in the studio... I will never cease to love that moment.<br /><br />As if that wasn't awesome enough, everyone said really nice things about the songs. I write songs that I want to hear, but my hope and my goal is that other people will want to hear them too. And if my songs excite them or move them or make them feel anything at all - JACKPOT! The feedback from both the singers and our small audience made me feel great about the songs I've written. Of course I've got my work cut out for me going forward. There will be lots of rewriting and new writing to do. I'm excited to do it. ...once I get over this cold.<br /><br />The rest of the trip involved Vietnamese food at a restaurant called - wait for it - 9021Pho, another quiet evening at my friend's apartment, and a lot of flying eastward. I was in L.A. for almost exactly 48 hours - just enough time to feel the heat, see the palm trees, take hardly any photos, not sightsee at all, and read through one (1) brand new musical. I wonder when I'll get back there. I wonder what I'll do when I do. I don't think I've really formed an opinion of L.A. yet, though I can see why people feel so strongly about it in either direction.<br /><br />Now, I was going to post photos here but apparently my camera doesn't want to play nice with Ubuntu, so it'll be another day or two while I get that figured out. Sorry. Since my father is a master of all things computer, it shouldn't take too long to sort it out.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-5269865784919826212010-09-27T20:21:00.001-04:002010-09-27T20:23:34.222-04:00La la land, part one(written Friday, September 24)<br /><br />And here I am in L.A. The flights were mercifully uneventful, except for the fact that I almost froze to death from Newark to Charlotte. I remedied this by putting my pajama pants on under my jeans for the remainder of the trip, and I succeeded in arriving in California sans hypothermia.<br /><br />The first thing I did upon leaving the airport - after the ridiculously long rental car process - was to visit a gluten free AND dairy free bakery. I actually considered buying a whole pile of stuff and fed-exing it back to New Jersey, but that seemed excessive. So I contented myself with buying some bialys (to heat and eat here, once I'm in a place with heating capabilities) and a bread mix (to make at home). My friend who lives here should hope that I don't like either one, because she is in danger of being asked to become my supplier. (The shop ships but only in the Southern California region. DAMMIT!)<br /><br />After acquiring my goodies I discovered that I had left my camera in the shop, having taken it out of my bag to snap a photo (coming in the next post). Mild panic ensued, but since this was all of about three minutes after I'd left the place I pulled a U-turn and found the camera sitting exactly where I'd set it on the counter. Travel disaster averted.<br /><br />The rest thus far has been a LOT of traffic (really annoying, but not actually stressful to drive in because no one is aggressive or in a hurry like they are on the East Coast), too-hot sunshine, and some tasty iced coffee while I kill some time and try to recover from trans-continental travel. And heat. Didn't L.A. get the memo about that equinox thing?<br /><br />Tonight will be fun, and then tomorrow will be mostly business... sandwiched between fun. Well, sandwiched between a GF-DF breakfast burrito (hell yeah!) on one side and fun on the other.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-37383743584854081442010-09-22T19:03:00.000-04:002010-09-22T19:04:50.081-04:00September 22ndIn the midst of the chaos that is life, I am pausing today to celebrate the autumnal equinox. In the coming days the world will fill with gorgeous color and indescribable light. Yes, I get a little cheesy when it comes to my favorite season, but how could I not? Fall is crunchy leaves, slimy pumpkin insides, snuggly sweaters against crisp air, hot tea, everything made with cinnamon, and steaming soup. It's early twilights and chilly nights that make it easy to believe in witches. And it's the coming of my two favorite holidays, all about baking and eating and spending time with family.<br /><br />The one thing I don't necessarily enjoy about fall is people's propensity to wear orange - dull, ugly, Halloween orange. Now I do happen to think that orange is a beautiful color...when found on leaves, and squash (and the top of my head if I may say so, but that part I can't help). But most people really should not wear orange, and definitely not with black. Unless, of course, said person is specifically trying to look like a jack-o-lantern (in which case rotundity helps).<br /><br />Oh, there's also the fact that fall is followed by winter. I hate January, and I hate February more. I think the guys who made the modern Western calendar HAD to make February only 28 days because otherwise no one would survive it.<br /><br />If only autumn could stretch straight through until spring. A light snowfall might be okay, but the kind you get in mid-December that makes you excited to remember childhood sledding, not the kind that fills up the whole world with dirty slush and leaves you with cold wet feet all day.<br /><br />But we get three whole months before winter arrives. Until then, we get to revel in the fall. I'm going to go home and get out all my sweaters and just be happy.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-72667605877136099102010-09-06T17:03:00.002-04:002010-09-06T17:07:29.537-04:00An Open Letter (6)Dear lady in front of me at the theater,<br /><br />I can see that you're of another generation. For that I will forgive you your ugly shirt with the weird embroidered cutouts. But have you, as the years have passed, lost your sense of smell?<br /><br />I appreciate that public perfume-wearing doesn't (yet?) fall into the same category as public smoking. I get that scents have not (yet?) been shown to cause cancer, even second-hand. However, for some of us, sitting behind someone like you for two hours is beyond unpleasant - it is actually, physically painful. Did you forget that you'd be around other people besides just your husband on that evening? Or that you and those other people would be seated in very close quarters without the option of moving around for approximately 120 minutes?<br /><br />And in the end, even if you were aware of all those things and still decided to flaunt your perfume in all our noses, couldn't you at least have spent more than five dollars on the bottle?Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-9036600184111863782010-09-04T16:01:00.001-04:002010-09-04T16:02:35.383-04:00Whole-ly Over It.I used to love shopping at Whole Foods - it was like a magical land of organic foods, products I had never seen in an ordinary grocery store, things I'd never even heard of! When the first one opened within driving distance of where I lived at the time, a friend and I went just to wander around and were so enthralled that we didn't even heard the announcements that the store was closing. An employee had to come up to us and tell us to leave.<br /><br />Then I started not eating certain ingredients that are basically essential to every packaged food in your typical grocery store (i.e. gluten), and I got excited about Whole Foods all over again: there were multiple gluten free products, and they were marked as such on the shelves! I didn't have to spend hours reading labels to weed out things that would make me feel terrible - I could just go to the gluten-free section! Amazing!<br /><br />But I just got back from Whole Foods, and instead of "wow" it was all about "I know it was weird that 'snack' bars were here and some of the 'energy' bars were over there and some were somewhere else but it's far more confusing now that they've all been moved to be near the cosmetics," and "since there's a shelf full of the white bread variety and zero of the whole grain variety, as there has been the last few times I've been here, why haven't they changed their ordering yet?" "There's a sale tag by that gluten free item! ...which is in the wrong place, and it's something else that's on sale." And on and on.<br /><br />I guess I should just add to my fantasy list:<br />"Someday I'll find a food store that carries real food - including some gluten free convenience items - at reasonable prices, organized in a way that makes sense to anyone other than the one guy who set it up."Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-87716482785810912572010-09-02T21:02:00.001-04:002011-05-19T12:19:45.308-04:00DisappointmentWhen you have a shitty day, with people cutting you off and spewing unrelated information at you instead of listening to and answering your question, and everything taking ten times as long as it needs to, and air conditioning so cold you leave the building with a sore throat, and through it all it's nearly a hundred degrees outside, and on the drive home behind the asshole who insists on going 10 mph below the speed limit you decide that even if you can't have a slice of pizza or a submarine sandwich or really anything that you'd like to have for dinner when you eventually get home, as long as you can have a little chocolate cake you'll be okay, and then you get home and mix up your Betty Crocker GF chocolate cake mix and wait for it to bake and wait longer for it to cool and it has exactly zero flavor - that's disappointment.Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-56799657282656082532010-08-31T21:23:00.001-04:002010-08-31T21:23:32.642-04:00Tabs!I love Mozilla's tabs. I love the ability to group things, to see my recent history laid out to the left and my immediate future to the right, the ability to drop and drag and create a categorical progression instead of a timeline. I also love being able to open a new window: a clean slate, a new group, a total tangent that doesn't have to destory what it leaves behind because I can always minimize the new window and be back at home.<br /><br />I feel, somehow, that this must relate to my childhood Christmas wishes for desk sets complete with scissors, stapler, and paperclips with designated places for said items to live in the color-coordinated carousel...Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-76000073304658027892010-08-17T22:57:00.001-04:002010-08-17T22:57:24.794-04:00My Fantasies.1. That someday I will have a computer that actually does the things I want it to do. This does not include unreasonable expectations, like dusting my house. This does include things like turning on and remaining on when I attempt to run a program.<br /><br />2. That someday I'll sleep more than four hours without waking up.<br /><br />3. That someday all of the people I work with will be competent and considerate and able to communicate with other humans.<br /><br />4. That someday I'll live in an apartment with free laundry in the building AND a functioning dishwasher in the kitchen.<br /><br />5. That someday I won't have to check my bank account balance before deciding whether or not to go out for dinner.<br /><br />6. That someday I'll regain the ability to stream Netflix. *sigh*Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7194291699880069344.post-33649596245200976912010-08-16T12:04:00.000-04:002010-08-16T12:05:03.074-04:00Laundry DayEveryone's done it - put off laundry until you have literally one pair of clean underwear left. Lucky for me, I only have to go as far as the basement to do said laundry. Unlucky for me, my final remaining pair of underwear was, today, a pair of hip-hugger boy shorts that cover approximately one third of my ass.<br /><br />Do people really wear these by choice? Underwear that comes halfway up their ass? I keep thinking they're falling down and need to be pulled up, but no - that's just all there is. I really ought to throw them away. But then what will I wear on laundry day?Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693727465701276145noreply@blogger.com0