next_to_normal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
next_to_normal) wrote2012-08-07 02:27 pm
next_to_normal) wrote2012-08-07 02:27 pm
Entry tags:
What I really did on my summer vacation
Haha, well, I guess it's obvious that my new power cord arrived in the mail, and I clearly have priorities (POST AVENGERS ICONS!). Gotta have something to dull the pain of going back to work after a week-long vacation (more of a staycation, really, since much of it was spent at the pool).
My mom and I went to a fundraiser for the cat shelter, their annual Theater Night. I mean. Cats + Theater (except not Cats because what even, Andrew Lloyd Webber?). These are a few of my favorite things! Anyway, there was a raffle and a silent auction, and I won a cute little purse, a scarf, and a back massage, after complaining about how I never win anything, haha.
The show was Sweeney Todd, which... I love Sondheim and all, but this is just not my show. I find the music difficult to engage with. I think it's that it's not a very sing-along friendly musical, from a technical perspective, which usually means it's not a score that I want to listen to over and over. I'm all for clever wordplay and complex melodies, but it's so densely so that it's almost inaccessible. It's like it's almost too Sondheimy? Is that even possible? I don't know. I'm actually reading Sondheim's Finishing the Hat, and I'll be curious when I get to the Sweeney Todd section what he has to say about writing it.
We did end up going to Annapolis for an overnight excursion. Annapolis is nice and very quaint, but I really think we'd have been bored if we stayed any longer, haha. We tried to find a beach on our way back, but we took a wrong turn somewhere and eventually just gave up. The pool is nicer anyway.
The highlight of my week, though, was actually after my mom left. The theater near my house did its annual Open House, where they have lots of free concerts and you can get half-price tickets for the upcoming season. I primarily wanted to see Heidi Blickenstaff from [title of show] and Now. Here. This. and apparently I didn't post about it, but my theater buddy Christi and I also saw her at the Kennedy Center in a Kander & Ebb thing.We're not obsessed, I swear, lol. She's incredibly talented and I want to be her when I grow up (in the AU version of my life where I can sing). She is my Broadway girl-crush, basically.
I couldn't find anyone to go with me so - victory over social anxiety! - I went by myself. And OMG I am so glad I did, because I would cry if I'd missed out on it. Heidi was awesome, as usual, and I actually talked to her afterward and she's just the sweetest person ever. (Christi and I so wanted to stay after Now. Here. This. and meet the cast, but we were too chicken. Mainly because we were afraid we'd see Heidi and turn into speechless weirdos. In reality, I was about one step above that, lol.)
Hmmm, what else? Oh, the reason my mom didn't stay for the Open House thing was because she had to go home so that she and my dad could take my grandmother to pick out an apartment in the senior community she FINALLY agreed to move to! If you haven't been following my family drama, my grandmother is kind of crazy (and I do not mean that facetiously) and has refused to move out of her house, even though she absolutely cannot keep living there. She can't even get up and down the stairs anymore, let alone taking care of the place. A while back, there was a gas leak and she didn't notice, and if it hadn't been for a concerned neighbor who smelled gas and got someone out to fix it, she'd have blown herself (and possibly the whole block) to kingdom come.
She has given all sorts of senseless reasons for not moving - I think my favorite is that she's afraid of hallways and elevators, and it was pretty hard not to laugh when she - at age 86 - indignantly told us that she didn't want to live "with all those old people." (My dad: "What do you think you are, Ma?") This has resulted in my dad refusing to speak to her multiple times and several phone calls that ended rather abruptly (My mom: "I'm not sure who hung up on who this time..."), but apparently her doctor finally made her see reason about the stairs, and she caved.
Granted, there is still the epic job of cleaning out her house (she's a hoarder), but it'll actually be easier if she's not living there, because otherwise she'd start twitching whenever we tried to throw anything away. But hopefully, in a few months, I will get her car - which she shouldn't be driving anyway - so that's a major bonus. I don't think I mentioned before that my car is sort of on its last legs? The A/C, which used to be temperamental, now has ceased to work completely, and even if I could afford to fix it, it's not worth putting more money into the car. The A/C went out in spectacular fashion and fried a bunch of other things - there was a while where the gas gauge didn't work and I had no headlights (that was fun), but my dad fixed that, so the thing is drivable, albeit sweltering hot in this weather. Oh, and it's still leaking wiper fluid.
So that's what's going on with me. What's new with you?
My mom and I went to a fundraiser for the cat shelter, their annual Theater Night. I mean. Cats + Theater (except not Cats because what even, Andrew Lloyd Webber?). These are a few of my favorite things! Anyway, there was a raffle and a silent auction, and I won a cute little purse, a scarf, and a back massage, after complaining about how I never win anything, haha.
The show was Sweeney Todd, which... I love Sondheim and all, but this is just not my show. I find the music difficult to engage with. I think it's that it's not a very sing-along friendly musical, from a technical perspective, which usually means it's not a score that I want to listen to over and over. I'm all for clever wordplay and complex melodies, but it's so densely so that it's almost inaccessible. It's like it's almost too Sondheimy? Is that even possible? I don't know. I'm actually reading Sondheim's Finishing the Hat, and I'll be curious when I get to the Sweeney Todd section what he has to say about writing it.
We did end up going to Annapolis for an overnight excursion. Annapolis is nice and very quaint, but I really think we'd have been bored if we stayed any longer, haha. We tried to find a beach on our way back, but we took a wrong turn somewhere and eventually just gave up. The pool is nicer anyway.
The highlight of my week, though, was actually after my mom left. The theater near my house did its annual Open House, where they have lots of free concerts and you can get half-price tickets for the upcoming season. I primarily wanted to see Heidi Blickenstaff from [title of show] and Now. Here. This. and apparently I didn't post about it, but my theater buddy Christi and I also saw her at the Kennedy Center in a Kander & Ebb thing.
I couldn't find anyone to go with me so - victory over social anxiety! - I went by myself. And OMG I am so glad I did, because I would cry if I'd missed out on it. Heidi was awesome, as usual, and I actually talked to her afterward and she's just the sweetest person ever. (Christi and I so wanted to stay after Now. Here. This. and meet the cast, but we were too chicken. Mainly because we were afraid we'd see Heidi and turn into speechless weirdos. In reality, I was about one step above that, lol.)
Hmmm, what else? Oh, the reason my mom didn't stay for the Open House thing was because she had to go home so that she and my dad could take my grandmother to pick out an apartment in the senior community she FINALLY agreed to move to! If you haven't been following my family drama, my grandmother is kind of crazy (and I do not mean that facetiously) and has refused to move out of her house, even though she absolutely cannot keep living there. She can't even get up and down the stairs anymore, let alone taking care of the place. A while back, there was a gas leak and she didn't notice, and if it hadn't been for a concerned neighbor who smelled gas and got someone out to fix it, she'd have blown herself (and possibly the whole block) to kingdom come.
She has given all sorts of senseless reasons for not moving - I think my favorite is that she's afraid of hallways and elevators, and it was pretty hard not to laugh when she - at age 86 - indignantly told us that she didn't want to live "with all those old people." (My dad: "What do you think you are, Ma?") This has resulted in my dad refusing to speak to her multiple times and several phone calls that ended rather abruptly (My mom: "I'm not sure who hung up on who this time..."), but apparently her doctor finally made her see reason about the stairs, and she caved.
Granted, there is still the epic job of cleaning out her house (she's a hoarder), but it'll actually be easier if she's not living there, because otherwise she'd start twitching whenever we tried to throw anything away. But hopefully, in a few months, I will get her car - which she shouldn't be driving anyway - so that's a major bonus. I don't think I mentioned before that my car is sort of on its last legs? The A/C, which used to be temperamental, now has ceased to work completely, and even if I could afford to fix it, it's not worth putting more money into the car. The A/C went out in spectacular fashion and fried a bunch of other things - there was a while where the gas gauge didn't work and I had no headlights (that was fun), but my dad fixed that, so the thing is drivable, albeit sweltering hot in this weather. Oh, and it's still leaking wiper fluid.
So that's what's going on with me. What's new with you?