Why do I love thee let me count the ways

1- easily searchable database of patterns
2- big database, seriously try searching another website, it ALL comes up on Ravelry.
3- a database which includes individual patterns from books and can tell you which book.
4- SAVEABLE… everything
find a pattern you love, save it,
start a pattern, save it, save what yarn your using, what hook
5-stop project, and pick it up later– it’s still saved. (I love digital patterns, they never get lost, spilled on, chewed up, or folded just so the next row’s instructions flake off in your bag).
6-sharing
since you can save your patterns, and what you’ve “casted on” or “hooked’ your friends can see what you’re up to with out having to haul all of your projects around at once.

So, If you’re into knitting or crocheting I HIGHLY suggest that you make yourself a clever log in. Add me (stagepaint) as your friend, and get making.

The resolutions are: (in simple explanations)

1) Eat Breakfast.
It may seem stupid to you, but it’s something i generally don’t do. Seriously, and grabbing a pop-tart doesn’t count. Aside from just eating breakfast I’m trying to eat a “good” breakfast, hopefully including 20-30g of protein.

2) Go to the Gym
Classic I know. But rather than just making a resolution to lose weight I choose to make a resoultion I hope that builds life long better habits rather than just a short term kind of thing. It’s also more important to me that i’m doing dance classes or pilates than losing weight (though i really hope it’s a by-product of the action) becase I’ve had problems with migraines from tension headaches. Which I think in part have been a result of not moving enough. As the problems started when our movement classes in the ATP were over. So, in short– go to the gym.

3) Do more things that benefit my Theatrical Career.
I guess i really should have a quanity attached to this… But I guess in some ways just keeping track of the things I do that are beneficial to my career helps to remind me that i’m not totally off track. The list of things that qualify as beneficial to my career is really long, and I’m not going into it.

4) Continue the “great purging” of our apartment
Or the great clean up of our apartment… Must clean apartment so i don’t hate living there. It’s pretty simple.

5) Do/finish some “arty” things for myself.
Crochet, Knit, Scrapbook, finish random projects, make people gifts instead of buy them– generally use up the craft and art suppplies I have sitting around the house.

The other question you may have (yeah, or not) is how am I keeping track of this. Well, it may be juvenile, but I’ve bought myself a calendar (a small weekly date book type) and some stickers… Yes, I am using a “sticker chart”. As I was thinking about how I wanted to go about this at the end of last year, I recalled that as a child I responded quite well to sticker charts. I was possibly obsessed with filling them up with the shiny stars. I even recall some chart where If I got X number of stickers in a time period I got part of this doll accessory kit that was “hidden” on the blue shelves in the basement of my grandparents house. And I also remember many a times being very disappointed if stickers were ever removed from said charts…. Some how it always seemed less exciting when It was a chore chart… I’m not really sure why.

Or you might be wondering WHY am I keeping track at all (or espeicially in this way). Well the thing is, physically tracking progress, and journaling about the experience/progress, is a more reinforced way of changing/ developing habits. And it’s kind of gratifiying to put stickers in a book. Really. Judge me if you want–but maybe you should try it the next time you’re trying to change your habits….

Anyhow. So, a lot has happened in the past, i guess i blogged some time in May, so 7 months?
0) Graduated from the U of U!
1) Went on the first of many epic road trips with Steve.
2) went back to Camp at Indian and Forest Acres as the Art Director at Forest Acres.
3) Had the engagement party in Franconia thrown by Alex’s parents
4) Came home from camp with 3.5 weeks until the wedding.
5) made it to the wedding, no animals or plants were harmed in the process
6) Got married
7) Got a new job: I am now ALSO working in the box office at PTC, and less and less working for the scene shop, but i guess that’s how it goes. Started dramaturgy/literary internship at PTC–writing the study guides for PTC’s shows and helping with some of the dramaturgy, did a lot of work on Find & Sign.
9) Went to Disneyland for New Years 2012
10) Helped with a workshop for PTC’s (hopefully) next new play.
11) Went on honeymoon to Bonaire, dove 13 sites in 6 days.
12) came home–still hate the snow.
13) making good headway on New Years’ Resolutions to a)eat a good breakfast; b) go to the gym, and c) to make an effort to do things that benefit my theatrical career.
14) dressed three shows; Next to Normal, The Tempest, and Annie.
15) Started reading my first Jane Austen novel: Emma
16) Continued to teach my self to knit,
17) Taught my self to crochet.
18) Started work on my first crochet blanket.

I intend to do a proper blog about some of these “big” events as well as some of these menial tasks and small achievements…. however I always feel obligated to just give a “basic” update. And I’ll probably be back dating most of the entries, so if you want to look at them, they’re probably generally in chronological order….

The site: Attic 24

The contents: This is the website of a crocheting mother of three named Lucy, living in Northern England….I found her site while looking at patterns on Ravelry (a website for another wednesday).

I love everything about this woman’s website. Seriously kudos to Lucy! She chooses wonderful colors and posts lots of pictures. The blanket i’m working on now follows her granny- hexagon pattern. It’s simple and easy to follow and it looks great.

Sometimes I wish i had enough time to craft as much as some people on the web do, I would be able to use up my crafting stock, buy new and wonderful things to make AND quite possibly have enough stuff to sell it on etsy.

May 2011: Before there were blogs…

Before there were blogs I wrote in a diary. I’ve got a few hanging out on shelf. But I have to say the most tattered and loved of my half empty diaries was definitely my first. A pink The Babysitter’s Club Diary. It only seems fitting that my chosen entry come from that diary. I picked a great entry that covers a variety of life topics that some how still ring all too true today… however I think it was the near impossible to read silver gel pen that caught my eye.

Monday July 20th 1998 (age: 11)

Me and Grandpa were looking at this copying store for stickers. They didn’t have any but I found this pen. I didn’t have enough. It was $1.99 I only had $1.39. I asked him if he would lend me 70 cents. So he paid for all of it. I told him I would pay him back. He said: “in work, not cash”. Mom said it was nice. I want her to pay me my $5.00 So I can get a gold one.

Later me & mom & marcy & wendy went to this fabric wearhouse. We spent 44$ total. 8$ in patterns and the rest was net and hook & eye tape. We saved 389.00 it would have been over  $400.00 if the store hadn’t been on sale the patterns were 25 cents and 5 cents each. The net and hook & eye tape was 35 cents a yard. We made a deal.

A couple of weeks ago we got 2 pairs of 5$ jeans at different places.

Grandma is about to drive everybody crazy with her breakfast tomorrow at 9.00 and she thinks if they get up at 7:00 she won’t have enough time to get ready. AND she keeps getting mad at Robyn and Steven. Every time Robyn grunts, grandma takes it personally. It just bugs everybody and grandma asked my mom if steven went and played with his friends everyday. Mom told her no, and then mom tried to explain how he feels and she (grandma) said something in the tone of voice like o poor Steve. That just ticked mom off.

Ruth
Ann

There is so little about this entry that has changed. I gladly have in the past asked my grandfather for money, until he passed away a few months ago, and the last thing I asked him for wasn’t 2 bucks for an awesome silver gel pen (probably my first, too). He helped to fund my study abroad trip to London. I cherish every cent he gave me, especially for that trip, because that was an amazing trip, but the time i spent paying it back, “in work not cash” before I left for London was also more than I probably deserved. I got the chance to spend some time with him and my grandma before his dementia took over the most wonderful parts of him and took him from this life.  He was a theatre man, and ultimately he’s to blame for the “wonderful” career path I’ve chosen. Thanks .
Also– I probably got that gold pen from Grandpa, but still want my 5 bucks from Mom…

As for the fabric shopping trip where we saved like 90%– pretty awesome stuff. Only now it’s probably just me and mom, as we don’t do much shopping with Marcy any more, and wendy gets (obnoxiously) bored at almost any store. And now we would be spending that 400-800 dollars. but still saving 90%. As those were the starting of my mom’s fairly successful career in costume making for Clytie Adams School of Ballet. Whom she still lovingly works for, and so do I on many occasions.

Sweet deal on jeans–nothing more to say.

As for my grandma still driving everyone crazy…. that entry could practically be verbatim from a conversation yesterday. except that my grandma would NEVER get up that early.

It’s been a pretty hilarious trip to read back on all my old diaries. I have to say that reading the elementary school and jr. high school diaries was way more pleasant than reading the high school diaries full of angst, annoyance and boys–Seriously, the only decent entry was about 9-11 and I just wasn’t in the mood for that.

What’s lurking in your old diaries? Even if you’re not ready to post that stuffs on the internet, it is most definitely worth taking a read, prepare to waste a few hours.

This months Bloggerstock is about a throwback post.  Digging through past diaries, or journal entries and finding that one entry that stands out to you.  Post it on Bloggertock and give your current perspective.  Me being not hip with the writing in a journal, I never i never did any of that.  If I had a journal entry, it would certainly be lost by now.  Plus i have no scanner.  With this bloggerstock topic, i may have to bend the rules and pick a earlier blog post.  The entry i picked is about the writer strick of 2008.  Amazing it been 3+ years since that happen.

During the 5 months of the Writers Strike, I tried out new shows that I thought I never liked. Plus catching up on older shows. During these months of no new episodes, I had to find new shows to enjoy. It was either that or suffer many many repeats. The shows I come to enjoy are…

Dexter
Arrested Development
Buffy The Vampire Slayer (rewatching the entire series)
Futurama (rewatching the entire series)
Burn Notice
Weeds

Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Amazon.com had the entire series on sale for $100. Down from $160. I thought it was a good deal. So I snatched it up real quick. I was a Buffy fan since FX start airing them on syndication. The writing on this show is fantastic. For a Sci-Fi horror show, it does inject some humor into it with witty dialog. During the strike and currently today, I’m still watching episodes of Buffy. Plus Joss Whedon a god.

Futurama – Again Amazon.com had a bogo sale on Futurama. So I got all 4 volume for about $30 if memory serves me right. An animated show about a delivery crew going on wacky adventures. Sadly short lived when fox canceled them but good news is the Comedy Central is bringing them back.

Dexter – Dexter is the first show that I feel in loved with during the strike. Dexter Morgan a blood analyst for the Miami Police Department is also a serial killer but a different kind of killer. He kills other serial killers. For more info, look for a blog post about Dexter.

Burn Notice – A USA Network about a ex spy Michael Weston getting a burn notice (a fancy term for saying your fired). While trying to find out why he got a burn notice, he helps clients who in deep trouble. Burn Notice is like a cousin to the show Macgyver. Creating things using various parts of other things. This show has Bruce Campbell. Gotta love Bruce Campbell!

Weeds – Another Showtime show about a widow mother selling pot. It mostly a comedy with a tiny bit of darkness I guess. The only thing that doesn’t sit well with me about this show is that the lead character always seem to get out of trouble at the last minute by some miracle or some freaky coincidence. It definitely worth watching. Keven Nealon steals every scene.

Arrested Development – This cancel Fox show I though I never would watch but once again I’m wrong. Now I see why people love this show. It cleverly written. The Bluth Family in financial trouble. There son Michael Bluth tries to keep everyone together. The cast comes together nicely. An excellent show to watch.

Now you know what I have been watching during those 5 months. Looking forward to another writer strike, so I can discover new and interesting television shows. Thank you for reading.
Ahh memories.  I’m still glad that writer strike happened.  Dexter is one of my top 10 favorite shows.  What would I blogged if the writer strike happened today?  Let see umm Supernatural would be the top favorite show I discovered.  Thanks to my friend Donna who keeps pestering me to watch the darn show.  Don’t knock it until you have at least see the first season.  I would still rewatch Futurama.  Come on who wouldn’t.  I should make watching Futurama a tradition to see every year.  Xena Warrior Princess (go ahead and laugh) would be the series i would have a 4 day marathon with.  Who doesn’t love a female chick kicking a little butt.

There you have it.  My current perspective one of my passed blog post.  I really do need another writer strike or actor strike.  I’m getting overloaded with these shows.  So much to see with so little time.  Can you believe that I never watched a single episode of Doctor Who or The Sopranos.  Shocking yes?  Thus is why another writer strike is needed.  Ok ladies and gents, thank you for reading.  Hope you had a good memorial day weekend.  Later peeps.

One piece of advice that our senior acting class was given during a seminar with some visiting professional actors was to set goals and to schedule at least ONE obligation. She said that when she graduated school she was a bit depressed for a while, she didn’t feel like she had anything to do and felt like she was more or less lost. Then she set a ‘schedule’ but registering or committing to going to a dance/yoga class.

One of the biggest things I feel I am still lacking in my theatrical education is being better read in my plays. There are plenty of “classic” things that i don’t know well, and plenty of things I continue to get the impression that I should at least have some memory of. And for that matter, i’m not as well read in literature as I think I should be. That’s why i ‘allowed’ my self to buy a kindle this last semester in the anticipation of downloading the free classic books and reading everything “should have read during high school”. I’m amaze that there are so many classics i wasn’t forced to read as an honors student in high school. It’s almost weird actually.

So, Ultimately i’m trying to set a bunch of goals for my self this summer. I’m not trying to be ridiculous about it. But while i was in London I had a great time and I was busy doing things, reading things, and going to museums and the like all summer. And i don’t regret a minute of it, nor did I feel overwhelmed.

So the goals are thus…
• Read at least two “classic” literature books
• Paint a picture
• Make something for myself on the potters wheel at camp
•

As you can see finishing this list would be an even better place to start. Oh well.

As one of our professors at the U said: congratulations: you’re no longer a student–you’re an ALUMNI! and yes. yes I am.

Graduation wasn’t really anything spectacular, I mean a few of us were busy with helping to set up the SAC Graduation-Luncheon, and then all of the Graduates met over at Kingsbury Hall to line up. We sat in between the Music department and some other annoying group of students, and i say annoying because they really were, they were obnoxious. I really didn’t understand their need to be texting every one while they were sitting there, and proclaiming to the 5 rows on either side of them that they were updating their FACEBOOK STATUSES about graduating. Seriously–no one cares, as a matter of fact the only people who care were probably sitting in the theatre with them.

And it’s not that I cared so much about what our speakers had to say, but it really irks me when people are talking while someone on stage is talking… i don’t care if it’s not interesting, OR if it’s the same crap I that everyone hears… it would be pleasant or I could block it out anyway if you weren’t a terrible audience person. Seriously, I hope someone ruins one of your concerts or art galleries or something. You’d think for fine arts majors more people would have a sense of what appropriate audience behavior should be.

Anyhow –I have to figure out what alex did with all the photos from Graduation and the SAC graduation luncheon, but I’ll upload those later.

Although I really need a break I know it will go way too fast and that it will be done before I really make good use of it. Still, I’m hoping to get the apartment cleaned up again. The reading I need to do for the week we start back really won’t be much of a drag or hassle, as it’s all plays and what not, and will be super easy to do, as I think most of them are short anyway.

I also should be knee deep in working on my senior project, which I will be by Tuesday, I have it compiled and mostly edited, and just waiting on some more feedback on the second version…

The weirdest part of the whole thing is knowing i’m less than a month and a half way from graduating, and a little over two months away from head on a road trip with my brother to work at summer camp in Maine. Somethings go too fast, even more strange still: I’m just a few days off from being 5 mos away from the wedding…

Slow down world, I can’t walk this fast, and I’d like to avoid breaking in to a jog!

Happy that The last days of Judas Iscariot, has closed but feel busy. It doesn’t matter that I now have 4-5 hours of time extra per day. I spend most of that thoroughly doing my homework for once. So I feel like I haven’t gained much back.

Speaking of HW… I decided to buy a kindle this semester (yeah, i know last semester stupid to wait this long, should have gotten it before I went to London– wish I had known that before. lame) I also know that it’s kind of dumb to have done it my last semester of school, but that’s life. The impetuous for buying it this semester was the massive quantity of online or self-printed readings. Don’t get me wrong I’m super glad that we didn’t have to buy another 5 or so books, for each class, BUT I was neededing to print something between 30-70 pages per week. and I just couldn’t bring my self to do it, nor can i manage to read on my computer. 1) i get distracted every time I get a new email message. 2) the second I get the slightest bit bored somehow i manage to click on the web browser with out thinking about it. It’s a muscular reaction. 3) i hate reading on my computer it never seems to be easy, cant’ get comfortable, and 4) it kills my eyes. i usually end up with a migraine.

Truthfully love the Kindle. It’s awesome, really does look like a piece of paper in a plastic frame. And i think I’ve read more and faster because of it. Sounds like BS, but I’ve gotten through more scripts and stuff in the past two weeks than I thought i would. the nice thing is that I can load PDFs or convert them to the appropriate format and stick them on the Kindle. And the other wicked awesome thing is that anything written before 1923 can be found for free, because it’s in the public domain. So, all these classics I plan to read when I graduate this spring and actually have time again are free instead of paying a few bucks to buy a paperback copy. And though i’m very PRO-library use. It’s pretty nice to get stuff like that On-demand. Ok. now that I’ve done my advertising for Amazon…..

But I do feel like I’ve gotten my childhood reading spark back, and I hope it’s not just an infatuation with a new gadget. As a kid I used to read for hours. I was consistently told to finish the chapter and shut of the light. Though I was never really an under the covers reader, tried it a few times cause I saw it on TV, but a) it’s hot under there and b) I just could never get comfortable. I remember that one time we were living in my grandma’s house while we were in the middle of moving and (my bedroom was across the hall from hers) and she’d walk in and turn off the light, which was endlessly irritating– must at least finish the page. That’s when I learned how true ‘out of sight out of mind’ really was, and though i hated sleeping with the door shut– still do, gets way too stuffy– she’d forget I was still up if the door was shut.

As you may have read, we got some new fish to replace the dead/disappeared fish from our tank, All are healthy and happy. Two days ago I came home to find our frogs in the act, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

The other time consuming project I’ve begun is the project of cleaning my apartment, and purging the crap out of it–both literally and figuratively. I’m proud to say I have a growing DI pile and that I keep finding things that I can toss. Thus I will probably be updating about that process and progress just for kicks and giggles. I’m not just cleaning up I’m really trying to simplify, purge and organize as I go. I hate that I’ve accumulated so much stuff.

I guess I feel like there’s more to add but it seems like what else I have to say is a long enough bit of information to be it’s own post, so look for that to come soon. I’m off to tape out a floor for rehearsal.