alright, i did the ugly task, i finished my reunion classbook page (24 before the last-we-really-mean-it-deadline), just because all of you folks did one and so i was afraid i’d feel left out later. seriously, i can’t think of a faster route to a total anxiety attack than trying to put down on paper a 8″x11″ synopsis of the past 5 years of my life. talk about keeping up with the joneses – no marriage prospects on the immediate horizon, no kids, no graduate degrees, no significant savings or investments or much else to account for the past five years. oh, i’ve been working, and working hard. but my path just took a bit more meandering than some. i’m counting on the fact that people who don’t know anything about theatre think that what i do is somehow glamorous. i won’t burst that bubble just yet.

today: a brilliant discovery! when i’m in the theatre i can hijack wireless internet from the apartment complex next door. now i can surf the web when i’m supposed to be paying attention in rehearsal. like right now.

monday this week was the day that chicago bloomed. the trees had been holding their breath for days, a hazy suggestion of color about them, and then monday, poof! chicago re-discovered the color green.

as punishment for us all getting so optimistic and breaking out the flip flops on monday, today it is snowing. we dragged all my window boxes and flower pots indoors last night to keep the peonies from freezing. now our bathroom has become an impromptu hothouse. zeke lurks forlornly in the hallway; there is nothing he loves more than nibbling on forbidden flowers.

so the CTA voted yesterday on how exactly they intend to screw commuters starting in July. it looks like I’m going to get by; they were threatening to stop running the evanston line after 10pm (which would strand me at work an average of 4-5 nights/week, leaving me the unpleasant options of 1) quitting my job, 2) buying a car and moving to a crappier apartment so we could afford said car, or 3) sleeping on the green room couch a lot), but it looks like I’ll just have to wait a longer time for the train at night. well, okay, I’ll deal. but what about all the people who live on one of the 54 bus routes that they’ve canceled? how the fuck are poor people supposed to get to work?

what infuriates me is that the CTA is actively trying to find ways to decrease the number of riders and to encourage people to “seek alternate forms of transportation.” what? public transit IS the alternate form of transportation. you can’t ride a bike when it’s 10 degrees below 0. you can’t walk across an entire city. the city of chicago is now encouraging people to drive their cars? that is fucked up and deeply short-sighted.

this year’s birthday tally started out weak early in the day, but it ended pretty strong:

Ripped a hole in elbow of my favorite shirt: -1
Poured a glass of milk to go with my breakfast, took a big gulp; said milk was sour and tasted of old sneakers: -1
Beautiful, sunny spring day in Chicago: +1
Chelsea made me birthday cupcakes: +1
Birthday haikus: +1
Have to work 10am-midnight on birthday: -1
Ripped the Friday crossword a new one on the train on the way to work: +1
Saturday night dinner at my favorite French crepery, and drinks with friends afterward: +1
The fluted baking pans, canned salmon and recipe for Salmon Loaf my grandmother sent me: +1 (for sheer amusement value)

watch out…i’ll be regifting that can of salmon to one of you when you least expect it…

holy crap, i’m twenty-seven years old.

well, the late-twenties have arrived. now what?

so today my web host company gave me the option to renew or give slithy tove up, and since i renewed, i guess this little experiment hasn’t died quite yet. i flinched the other day when, in conversation with a hip sort of person i wanted to impress, i referred to my blog while telling an unrelated story and this person interrupted me with, “you have a blog?? i don’t think i’ve ever actually met someone with a blog before.” this was not said in a flattering sort of way. my attempt to defend it (“hey, i was keeping a blog before we started calling them blogs”) was admittedly feeble. then again, feeble is also the word for my blog entries of the past year. maybe i’ve become more self-conscious about the work-in-progress me, or more tangled up in it and unable to process coherently and externally. maybe i’ve just become more boring and have less to write about. both are distinct possibilities, but more than anything i think it’s that i started slithy-tove in the BA (before Andy) era of my life, when i was just out of college, living on my own for the first time, navigating the beginnings of adulthood. i amused myself by being witty here. now i share the same thoughts and reactions with andy instead. i need this outlet less. maybe that’s why slithy tove’s been wasting away – because other parts of my life have flourished. not that i feel flourished most days, more like famished. but it’s true, i have a partner, i have a career, i have a home. as i approach the mid-twenties-late-twenties dividing line, i find i am settling.

it’s been a long week.

on tuesday, i fired my propsmaster.

on wednesday, my technical director quit.

on thursday, the city of evanston tried to shut down our theatre due to a wiring code violation. (happily, they did not succeed, and the wiring in question has since been brought up to code.) on the other hand, had they shut down the theatre, then tuesday and wednesday’s mishaps wouldn’t have mattered so much, as we’d all have been out of a job.

on friday, the lights developed a mysterious and hard-to-diagnose christmas-light-like flicker problem, which continued to plague us today (sunday). our ME is so overworked and (i suspect) frustrated that i’m having nightmares that he’ll quit, too.

now i am production manager and propsmaster and technical director for the production that opens on (can’t-come-soon-enough) monday. luckily for me i hired another stage manager to do this show, or i’d be four people right now, which might cause my head to explode.

i did, however build a brillian oxygen tent after i took over propping the show. i also created an evening bag/holster for an actress to hide an IV bag full of water under her arm so that she could make gush water out of her mouth after her drowning in the bathtub scene, and with andy’s help i assembled a gigantic radioactive jenga set.

this job was definitely not listed in the career center files in college.

a foot of snow falls on new york and it’s all NPR can talk about. hello? it snowed 15 inches outside my apartment last night too! i guess lots of snow in chicago isn’t exactly newsworthy, as bad weather is the just punishment for those of us crazy enough to live in a place like the midwest. it’d be like reporting on a mugging in new york, or a smarmy politician in washington, i suppose.

anyway, it did snow 15 inches on friday/saturday. it’s terribly beautiful, if inconvenient. no playing in the snow for me, however, i’ve been trapped inside the apartment with laryngitis all weekend. i’m starting to get a little stir-crazy. i can’t speak above a whisper, which, as it turns out, severely limit’s one’s activities. unable to leave the apartment or talk on the phone, i’ve been alternately cooking and organizing things. andy finally fled the apartment to take refuge at a football-watching party this afternoon, which was probably wise when he saw me drag everything out of the pantry and prepare to sort and reorganize it.

i made a first attempt at making vegetarian chili this weekend. the results were yummy but really more like tomato soup than chili. andy pointed out that the recipe i picked didn’t call for any chilies, which might have been a part of the problem. hmm. anyone have a good recipe to share with me?

shame on you, president bush, for spending all that money on a party, at a time like this. american financial aid to the countries flooded by the tsunami wasn’t even half of what you spent on security alone for the inagruation. your war in iraq is draining our nation’s financial and human reserves daily, and yet you decided to have a big party. you’re already president! shame.

on wednesday night chicago saw a record high of 61 degrees. 48 hours later the temperature had dropped – by 52 degrees. the radiators and old creaky windows in our apartment can’t keep up when the daily highs are in the single digits. we move around the apartment wrapped up like eskimos, polar fleese and wool and goose down strategically layered, showering periodically in order to raise the core body temperature. mostly what i want to know is, who first thought it would be a good idea to build a city HERE? i hate chicago winters. the air is so cold it burns exposed skin, and there’s no skiing or other fun winter sports to make the weather bearable. hrrmph.

on the plus side, i’m all about winter food. tonight i made mushroom risotto (cheers to mari for the recipe), and last night we went to the Duke of Perth, a pub which makes me nostalgic for my oxford days right down to the super-chilled pints of strongbow. in spite of the mexican polka music which can occasionally be heard seeping out of the kitchen, they serve up tasty, steaming pots of vegetable or shepards pie garnished with mashed potatoes – perfect for winter nights. zeke has been putting on his usual winter weight to cope with the cold apartment – perhaps i should follow suit.