Thursday rain

Source: pinterestschunt223.blogspot.com via Anisha on Pinterest

I'm supposed to take my siblings to a school picnic today, but judging from this morning's drizzle, I kind of doubt that's still going to happen.

It makes me miss England, though. Which, in an odd way, makes me miss all the places I want to go, but haven't been yet. Here are a few of them.

Source: kevinandamanda.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Cinque Terre, Italy

many hats

Source: vixenvintage.blogspot.com via Simone on Pinterest

Although I like to identify as a theatre professional now (does it count as professional if you have yet to be paid?), I still find myself doing a lot of things that have nothing to do with theatre, for the sake of a paycheck.

Now, for example. I'm a composition tutor Monday - Thursday mornings, and I work in catering on the weekends. Neither of these qualifies as a full-time job (the tutoring gig is only for a few weeks), but they bring in reliable money utilizing my non-theatre skills, and so I'm happy to have them.

I suspect I will have these kinds of jobs, off and on, for most of my life.

Monday Monday

For those of you who are off work, sleeping in, barbequing and otherwise celebrating today – Happy Memorial Day! I enjoy a good barbeque is much as the next person (and probably more than some), but it’s always a bit weird to me to try and celebrate this holiday in a thoughtful manner. On the one hand – a day off work (for some people) and time to sleep in! Yay! On the other hand … it is about remembering our dead. (And if you’re one of the many Americans who is still a bit hazy about which dead those are, don’t be ashamed; educate yourself.) And that doesn’t seem like a cause for celebration so much as for a wake. Or maybe a vigil. Still, this is how we do it. We don’t have anyone in my immediate extended family to remember today, but I know a lot of people do, and our thanks can never be enough.

For the rest of the world – Happy Monday. Here's a roundup of some of the cool things I found on the internet this weekend!

I'd just keep moving, if I were you. this is an unapologetically fangirly post about Gray's Anatomy.

I kind of love this show, guys.

I started watching it about halfway through my senior year of college (wow...I can say that....in the past tense. WOW), when I realized that the oddly homesick-like feeling I was having had much more to do with my withdrawal from medical dramas (mostly House and ER, plus the occasional Nip/Tuck or Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman rerun) than with wanting to go home and sleep in my own bed, or any silly sentimental thing like that.

I still remember being about eight (or maybe as young as five or six) and watching ER at my grandparents' house, mouth hanging open, fingers splayed across my smeary glasses because I was so conflicted about whether to gawk at or hide from the images of horribly injured people lying on tables with all their insides showing.
Now, despite their tendencies to spoil and bewilder me, I have terribly responsible grandparents, and I still don't understand why they let me watch this very adult stuff. Maybe they didn't notice? Or thought I was too young to understand? Not that it matters now. I was, and am, most definitely hooked.

[This is somewhat ironic, given my (so low as to be nearly nonexistent) gore tolerance in various other contexts. Last week I saw Cabin in the Woods with some friends, and while I will grant you that it was a very smart, very meta, very Chris-Hemsworth-aka-Thor-is-in-it movie (all bona fide ingredients for success, in my opinion), I definitely missed large parts of the second half due to having my face buried in my boyfriend's collarbone. Rotting zombies? Sharp pointy things getting stabbed through people? Scary pain-saws? Flesh-eating of any kind? Not gonna happen. I get upset when I'm playing Portal 2 and my animated character gets shot and leaves bloodstains on the wall. This should tell you all you need to know.]

Anyway, I digress. What I really wanted to tell you is that my leading motivation for becoming a better person is now so that I can be more like my favorite characters from Grey's Anatomy.

a lame apology + a video that is the opposite of lame

Hey, guys.

Well, first thing's first - as you've all no doubt noticed, my follow-through could use some work. Like, a lot. Last Wednesday I sat down to write the promised blog post, and my brain froze up like a deer in headlights (and the fact that I hadn't actually done any work that day probably didn't help). You ever get that thing, you know, that really really lame thing, where you're so scared of screwing up that you don't try in the first place?

Yep. That's pretty much my M.O. Am working on it. But it still crops up from time to time. I'm sorry about that, and I'll try to do better moving forward.

ANYway, on to much cooler things, yes?

good ideas come to those who walk

It is true; I keep forgetting it but it's true. Whenever I am out on a walk, it's as if my brain, realizing that I am now preoccupied, seizes its chance to take whatever challenges or questions I've been mulling over and excitedly rips them to bits, making way for a perfectly simple and elegant solution that I really should have seen all along.

This is, of course, as opposed to my brain's usual behavior while I'm sitting at my desk trying to get to work, which is something along the lines of "Oh, wait, what? Did you want something? Mmmm, coffee. MOAR COFFEE. Oh look, a gif of a chicken falling over!" Etc. 

In a related story, I once had some friends who would go for walks - like, serious middle-of-the-day, let's-hike-on-and-on-for-miles-type-walks - all the freaking time. And sometimes I'd go along for solidarity's sake, but the whole time I'd be thinking, "What is the matter with you people? Where are we even going? Why do you all make me feel so fat? WHY IS THERE NO COFFEE?"

Well. Now I get it. And I'm seeing someone about the whole coffee thing, since that's clearly an issue...

graduation

Source: Uploaded by user via Sierra on Pinterest

The big day is finally here.