Touristing

Today I was finally a tourist. I have spent over six months in the L.A. area, but I had not been to any of the sights. But this week a group of Baylor friends are in town for their Spring Break so I traveled with them to Hollywood. I have to admit, I found it dirty and with very few attractions, but I had a great time with the ladies and now I can say I have been. After Hollywood, Anna and I met up with some other Baylor girls in Santa Monica. We walked along the promenade and down the pier. I imagine it can get pretty crowded during the day, but it's certainly a place to revisit, a very comfortable place to walk with plenty to keep your attention.

Tuesday night I fly to Charlotte, NC for USITT. Hopefully it will be another good conference and a good vacation. I leave you with pictures from today:

Crazy hats cannot be ignored!

He's just super awesome.

Chia pet fountains in Santa Monica.

'Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!'

Christmas

Home again from a three week tour of Texas -- without a car. As most of my readers participated in the trip, this post will be less a description of events and more a list of thank yous.

Thank you for...

...opening your homes and cars to me.
...driving far out of your way, twice.
...going back to Target for a jacket.
...teaching David cribbage while I was there.
...sharing the pilot of Bones.
...Season 2 of Fringe.
...pastistio.
...your generosity....Lego Star Wars.
...hugs.
...getting me into the zoo.
...a post-season sweet potato casserole.
...Pride and Prejudice....Disney Princess card games
...teaching me to aim and making me use the .38.
...Chick fil A milkshakes.
...big Christmas surprises.
...the flights....reading the book first.
...sharing French fries at Five Guys.

Thank you for being a great big loving family!

Thank you for a Christmas worth waiting for!

Let Me Entertain You

Hello.  I know it's been forever since I updated, so I want to check in.  This last weekend I was blessed with a visit from my mother as she was making her way to Texas.  She was able to see one of my shows for the first time since early sophomore year and I was able to entertain my second guest in my new place.  

My explorations of this place have been pitifully few (hence the lack of posts), but we achieved a fair amount of Christmas shopping, spent some time dressing up my place for Christmas, went on a few outings, and wandered through a few antique shops in downtown Pomona to find a surprising number of treasures.  One of the best features of California is that you can visit the beach and the mountains on the same day if you wish.  We decided to break it into two days and went to the mountains first.  We drove for a while enjoying the scenery and jumping out at various scenic outlooks.  The sun was shining and the weather was perfectly not-cold and not-hot.  I've been looking at these mountains every day since I moved here, so it was a wonderful thing to go into them.  The next day, we planned to go to the beach.  Unbeknown to us, winter arrived over night.  We went down the water, took a couple photographs, and ran back to the car.  But, we still got to wander along the coast and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of beach towns.

It was a short visit, but really great to show off this wonderful city and the amazing job that I get to do out here.  And the good news is, I'll get to see her along with the rest of the family ten days from now.  Who could ask for anything more?

Mountains!  A very new experience.

My Christmas decorations.  This is how I get away with not having a tree.

New Haircut...

...success!  Taking pictures of the actual haircut...

...somewhat less successful.

Intermission

I haven't done many shows with intermissions and I certainly haven't been on stage for a relatively relaxed intermission for a long time.  For this show, I was given a costume (a store bought, somewhat plastic costume) and tasked with all the on stage scene shifts.  Also, the audience comes so close to the edge of the stage that they can - and sometimes the trashy people do - prop their feet on the stage.  When it comes to audiences, the interesting things happy at intermission.

The theatre offers assisted listening devices to the hard of hearing, but you are supposed to remove and turn off your hearing aid when you use them.  Well, one night a lady sitting in the center of the front row neglected to turn off her hearing aid so during the entire first act there was a constant beeping.  It drove the actors crazy, but the house manager couldn't get to her until intermission.  During the scene change I went much slower than usual so that I could listen in.  The conversation went something like this:

 
House Manager: Hello, ma'am.  When you take your hearing aid out during the show, could you please turn it off? 
Patron: It was turned off.
House Manager: It was beeping during the show.
Patron removes hearing aid and messes with it.  It beeps.
Patron: It's off now.
It beeps.
House Manager: It's beeping right now.
It beeps twice.
Patron: No, it's turned off.
It beeps.
House Manager: There it is.  It's beeping.
It beeps twice.
Patron: Well, I don't hear anything!

Um.  May I point out that you wear a hearing aid for a reason?
(Fortunately, it was somehow turned off for Act 2.)

By far the worst for me was last night.  Some man was very interested in the set and took intermission as an opportunity to get right up close and try to show off for his friend (for a second I thought he had actually come on stage, but fortunately he held back from doing that.  The stage's personal bubble was definitely invaded though.)  All of a sudden, he's exclaiming and laughing about something that doesn't belong.  Then he mentions that it is moving.  Horrified, I look over and sure enough it is a cockroach of all things.  Well.  I can't very well leave it there, but I hate them extraordinarily.  I normally spray them with flying bug spray and vacuum them away.  Stamping and picking up is not to be considered.  Well.  I took my time and went through my routine (working in the other room first).  Meanwhile, the man has his cell phone out and is taking pictures of the cockroach (um?).  When it was no longer avoidable, I walked to the edge of the stage and gave a solid stamp.  Much as I did not enjoy my costume, I was grateful for the solid, hard soled shoes I had available for the killing.  I then collected about four paper towels and wrapped them up inside a hand towel that I could take on stage and carried the gross thing off.  Bleagh.  The joys of intermission.

Photo Hunter: Minature

I haven't done a photo hunter post (or any other post for that matter) in a while, so I thought this would be a good time to start it up again.  This picture is from a time my friend and I went to Whataburger.  She ordered a small fry and a small milkshake and this is what she was given.  I think Whataburger is a restaurant that has a skewed perspective of what it should mean to be miniature.

Photo Hunter

Cali

Hello! I am writing from the top of week three in Califonia. Impression so far: awesome.

I love the area, I like what I've seen of the theatre, I'm enjoying the show.
I haven't been to the beach yet, but I like knowing that it's not too far.
I have a busy schedule, but I like knowing that I have good friends nearby.

(I even got to see some yesterday.)
I live far away from work, but I haven't hit bad traffic.

(I like my highway commute very much.)

I caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign as I was going to my friend's house yesterday.
I am having frozen yogurt with a girl I met at USITT who has the same internship tomorrow.

Everyday is a bit of an adventure, trying to learn my way around this new place.
Everyday is a bit of a routine, which is comforting but doesn't give a lot of writing material.
At any rate, living here comes pretty naturally.

I am certainly looking forward to exploring more!