I went to the dentist yesterday to replace an old filling. She worked on it a while, then said that there was not one, but two fillings in there–a silver one and a tooth-colored one. And that there was a cavity beneath them.
And that, in a nutshell, is why I’ve blown so much money on dental work.
What? I would NEVER cause trouble!
I wrapped Christmas presents the other day and put them into the second bedroom, mostly so I could make sure Pem wouldn’t be around them without supervision. And I was impressed, because it took her a couple of days before she took an active interest in them. (How could she not? All that paper to be chewed!) And it was only just now that I realized her plan–a slight modification of her evil morning plan to wake me up.
Step 1. Do something that will definitely annoy Mommy (e.g., get into bag of presents, play on nightstand).
Step 2. Keep doing this until Mommy takes notice.
Step 3. Once Mommy’s attention has been gained, continue until Mommy stops whatever else she’s doing (sleeping, working on computer) and focuses solely on me.
Step 4. Lure Mommy into petting me, etc.
Step 5. Run into other room.
Step 6. Run back to where Mommy is, repeating all steps as necessary until Mommy realizes that it’s feeding time.
Step 7. If running back and forth doesn’t work, sit on her and meow until food is given.
Now, normally I have no problems with snow. I’m OK driving in it; after all, I got my driver’s license in Montana. In December. Shoveling isn’t a big deal, I think snow is pretty, and there’s something special about wandering around in the quiet that accompanies a snowstorm. But I’m not too pleased with this snowstorm. It conveniently waited until 9:30 on a Friday to start, meaning that it wouldn’t interfere with work. And it totally screwed over my plans for today. My day was full and it was going to be awesome. But no, now I’m stuck at home, doing work. (Which, OK, I really should’ve been doing instead of gallavanting around. And I really should’ve been doing for the past few weeks instead of doing the panto. But whatevs.)
My car tires? Mostly buried. From around 1 this afternoon:
I finally accepted that I wouldn’t be going anywhere and settled in. I thought I’d take a glance outside, so went downstairs and opened the door:
Yeah. The snow was higher than the bottom of the door. I’ve since shoveled a little path to the door, easing my concerns of getting snowed into the building.
And the fun part is, there aren’t any signs of it slowing up! Whee!
I realized something this afternoon. I’ve been going over a few conversations I had this weekend, trying to figure out why they were sticking with me. It’s not like they were about anything particularly deep or personal…and then I realized it’s because they didn’t totally skate on the surface.
I’ve met a lot of people over the past couple of weeks, and everyone’s been very nice and I’ve hit it off with a few people, which is great. (Huzzah! I do have some social skills! I’m not forever doomed to standing around awkwardly, though I do continue to excel at that.) I found myself talking to someone whom I hadn’t talked to much, and what strikes me in retrospect is that the conversations went a bit deeper than what I’m used to when talking to someone I don’t know. Or even, really, people I do know. We didn’t get into anything particularly personal, but instead of just staying on the edges of a topic, we went into it. It wasn’t, “Who’s your favorite president?” but “Why?” “What interests you about that?” “How do you feel about this?” “Why do you think that is?” (Though not at much of an interrogation as it might sound.) Maybe it helped that there was an age gap; maybe he’s just better at making conversation than me. (This wouldn’t take much.)
But it makes me think about how shallow a lot of my conversations can be, even with close friends. Not that I don’t have more in-depth discussions, but it’s rare that a conversation about something not personal made me think–actually challenged me a bit.
Now, don’t get me wrong–I also prize my conversation about Doctor Who and traveling the world. But having a more in-depth conversation…it’s almost like college again, you know? In a good way.
The last time I did anything with theater was spring semester of junior year of college, when my Medieval Drama class put on a production of Noah. I directed and played the Devil. It was awesome. (Also awesome was that as directors, my group also cast the play and made the decision on who would get to play Adam by who would look best in a fig leaf.) (Anyway.) Before that, it hadn’t been since fall semester of sophomore year, when I was in a couple of small pieces done by folks in the directing class. It’s something that I’ve missed and have meant to get back into for ages.
I recently got an email asking whether I could help with a theater group, so I now find myself helping out backstage for a traditional British pantomime of Mother Goose. And even though it was a group of people whom I didn’t know at all, being thrown into rehearsals two days before opening night…it still felt totally right. Depite the 10 years (…holy crap, I’m old) it’s been since I’ve done this, I just felt completely at home standing in the wings. Man, I’ve missed it.
One of the amusing things about panto is that it uses popular songs throughout, and one of the songs is “I’d Do Anything,” from Oliver, which I was in 17 (!!!) years ago. (HOLY GOD. 17 YEARS.) And standing backstage, hearing them sing that song, it completely takes me back. I almost expect to go on and do “Oom Pah Pah” and then have John Casiello try to make me laugh when Bill Sikes threatens us all during “My Name.”
It’s good times, my friends, and I’ve missed it a lot. It’s good to be home.
Yes, I still exist. I’m just very busy. In the meantime, look! When I was in Oregon visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, we went to Astoria (because my dad likes to drive to the coast–about 2 hours away from where they live. Yes, he’s a bit insane that way–but I’m like that, too), and since we were going there, I insisted we visit sites used in filming The Goonies. Without further ado…
Jail the Fratellis escaped from!
Where Mikey and Bran's dad worked
You can visit the Walsh house, but you have to leave your car at the bottom of the hill
Goonies never say die!
The owner of the “Walsh house” actually was taking out the garbage as I was taking pictures of the house and part of me wanted to say something, but I wussed out. On the positive side, my dad wasn’t familiar enough with the movie to require me to do the Truffle Shuffle before taking my picture in front of the house.