1. it’s been a monstrous week. like, on an epic scale. mostly, there was the thing of a personal nature that i won’t detail here. those of you who know me might already know the gossip, those who don’t know may ask (and i may or may not answer, depending on my state of exhaustion), but it’s not fodder for the internets. so, with that cryptic introduction, the remaining of the week’s 9:

2. my new roommate moved in. our compatibility was assured when we sorted out the kitchen tools and discovered that between us we have five cheese graters and several other specialized cheese-slicing instruments. secondly, there’s the added perk that she works for LUSH, which means that our fridge is now full of samples of fancy face products that i used to have to cross international borders to acquire in college. yay for roommates who like cheese and smell good.

3. monday marked my one year anniversary at my job. this won’t seem of great significance to many of you, but for us nomadic theatre folks, this is a Long Time. if it weren’t for the fact that my personal life has been a fucking mess for the past six months, i’d say that this makes me seem pretty stable.

4. chicago marathon training has begun! you can follow our progress over at chicagomarathon2007.blogspot.com, or check out the training log for a more detailed play-by-play (probably only interesting to other runner dorks).

5. i’ve decided to join Team in Training and raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as a part of marathon training. heck, if i’m going to work this hard to run a marathon, why not do some good for other folks while i’m doing something that’s (theoretically) good for me, too? Team in Training uses TNT as their acronym, but it must be noted that a more accurate acronym is TIT. tee hee. maybe if it were a fundraiser for breast cancers instead of blood cancers. or maybe marketing is not in my future. but any rate, more donation info will be up soon, please consider sponsoring me. 100% of your donation goes to helping fund research and improve the quality of treatment for people with blood cancers.

6. also, i had my first marathon anxiety dream, 220 days before the actual race. the usual, i was late getting to the start of the race, i couldn’t find my shoes, had my shirt on backwards, etc.

7. the fact that i purchased a trigger lock for the prop gun in a show last month means that i’ve been subscribed to the giant thick “Cabela’s Shooting” catalog. the waste of paper on an anti-gun person like me is horrifying enough, but it did mean that i learned about the existence of these. why is it hilarious and also alarming that hunters need what is essentially portable picnic table to prop up their arms and asses in comfort (padded seats!) while they wait for some unsuspecting deer to happen by. gun too heavy? poor thing. anyone who claims that hunting is a “sport” had better be dousing themselves in deer urine and climbing through the bushes with a bow and arrow. otherwise, i don’t wanna hear it.

8. got time to waste? not like these guys do. who knew there was a whole movement around the building of food animals?

9. bacon-flavored mints. i couldn’t make this up if i tried. in honor of national pork-eating day, or something like that, my boss ordered a case of them. our shared office reeks of fake-bacon smell at the moment. the website reads, “once you taste it, you’ll see that mint and bacon is a match made in china.” thank you, china, for giving us the compass, acupuncture, and then bacon-flavored mints.