It's increasingly difficult to find the time to blog... sometimes I really feel like my entire day is spent feeding people and cleaning up after them. If it wasn't for the iPod touch I would never be online at all.
At the end of 2009, I found myself with a pile of frequent flyer miles that expire in March but saddled with so many blackout dates that it would be impossible to use them. Fortunately, I can use them on hotel rooms, so we opted to snag a gorgeous room at the Intercontinental down on the Boston waterfront for New Year's Eve.
Five day weekends are a glorious thing.
Christmas: I had a lovely time visiting with my family. And because it rained on Christmas Day, 99.9% of the snow was gone by the time I came home. That was an awesome Christmas gift :o)
Work: More of the same. At least we have an organization chart now. Hopefully priorities will be established shortly and I'll have some idea of what else I'll be working on.
Home: I went through the papers and boxes in the office and threw out five full black bags plus set aside a full shred box. All the stuff in the hallway was taken to Goodwill. So I'm ending off the year with less stuff than I started with. Always a good thing.
Hobbies: Haven't made much progress on either the crafting or reading. I probably should start turning off the computer earlier. And sad to say flute seems to be the first thing pushed aside. Which will make my next flute lesson very pathetic.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year!
1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Taught at Mass College of Art and at Boston University, published a cookbook for our family and friends (through blurb.com), began studying Italian in earnest, saw Moby in concert. 2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Didn't do so hot this year but plan on making 2010 be rather kickass. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No immediate relatives but several friends! 4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandfather passed away in September. 5. What countries did you visit? Hmmm. I didn't leave the country this year, not even to go to Canada. 6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A trip to Europe under my belt and a downpayment on a house. 7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Not sure if specific dates will be etched into my brain, but I'll remember how I felt when I got the news that Romeo had kidney disease, and when my grandfather died. Oh, also the inauguration of Obama was a historic event that was incredible to be able to see, even if only on television. And the week that my long-lost friend (17 years lost!) Leanna came to visit! 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Teaching, and receiving agent interest on my unfinished book (I need to get it done and follow through!!). 9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting further on the novel than I would have liked. Not doing anything about my health goals. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A few colds (including the massive eye and nose dripping head cold I have right now), otherwise mostly was healthy. 11. What was the best thing you bought? Tickets to Italy for spring 2010!!! YAY 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Joe for putting up with me for a ninth straight year! 13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Let's just say that they know who they are. 14. Where did most of your money go? Probably eating out too often. Fixing appliances that seemed to always break. We did better this year, being able to save for Italy, pay down some debt and should have a good start on a down payment on a house for next year. 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Visiting Italy! 16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Negramaro, Il Distrazione 17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? Happier, fatter, richer. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Worked on my novel. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? sleeping in instead of going to the gym. 20. How did you spend Christmas? We went to the "Pitt" as we affectionately call Pittsfield, MA. where Joe's parents live. Was happy, peaceful and full of good wine, food and excellent company. 21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I fall more in love with Joe every year. Sappy but true. 22. What was your favorite TV program? True Blood, Legend of the Seeker, Sanctuary 23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Glenn Beck is higher on the list. 24. What was the best book you read? Just one? Oh my. I really loved La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language by Dianne Hales. I bought several copies for friends this Christmas. 25. What was your greatest musical discovery? Polly Scattergood and St. Vincent 26. What did you want and get? Tickets to Italy! A Canon Powershot and a Flip Cam 27. What did you want and not get? Zelda for the Wii. A raise (company froze them, just as so many other companies have). A magic fat-disappearing wand. 28. What was your favorite film of this year? Star Trek 29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 38. Nothing terribly memorable. Went to Clio and ate at the bar. 30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? My job could have been less painless personality-wise, I suppose. Also, I still haven't mastered the ability to care less about what people think of me. 31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Back to my roots (blonde!). But otherwise, as bold and distinctive as always. 32. What kept you sane? Joe! 33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? David Tennant 34. What political issue stirred you the most? There are oh too many. 35. Who did you miss? I ended a long dying friendship this year and that makes me immeasurably sad. 36. Who was the best new person you met? My friends in my most recent Italian class. 37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. I'm always learning. I need to get better at applying. 38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. (popular Italian song, Ma il cielo e' sempre più blu) Chi sogna i milioni, chi gioca d’azzardo chi gioca coi fili, chi ha fatto l’indiano chi fa il contadino, chi spazza i cortili chi ruba, chi lotta, chi ha fatto la spia na na na na na na na na na Ma il cielo è sempre più blu uh uh, uh uh, ma il cielo è sempre più blu uh uh, uh uh, uh uh…
Let me know if you do the year end meme!
The only good thing about the snow storm is I had no plans to leave the house today. But with my luck, it won't be sufficiently melted by Monday morning and I'll slip and slide to work . . .
Not enough time for a long post, but SkyWalker had to talk at morning program this morning at school. The video for those of you logged in and in my neighborhood:
What's your favorite thing about the holidays? Least favorite?
I love Christmas shopping for other people, thinking about what people like and don't like and the smug feeling of knowing something they don't!
On the other hand I hate Christmas shopping, as it's always packed stores full of people milling about not sure what to buy and just generally getting in my way.
Maybe it's because I'm so stupidly organised but I always have a rough idea/list of what I'm getting people before I leave the house, always have a plan of what shops I need to go to, and exactly how much things are going to cost.
This is probably why I got all my Christmas shopping done on one day, because I'd already been thinking about it for over a week.
And to that note, I must go do some wrapping.
Seeing as the last time I tried to write up a in-depth blog about Karaoke Circus my computer ate it, this will be a brief summary instead. With thanks to Paul Bailey for the pictures (and lots of wine)
As usual the band consisted of Martin on Keyboard and Accordion, Danielle on Bass, and 2 other people whos names escape me on Guitar & Drums. In addition to this, there was a 10 piece orchestra complete with brass and woodwind section, which added a whole new level of awesomeness.
My highlights of the night, were very much:
Two of Pappys Fun Club (Now simply known as Pappys) sang Merry Christmas Everybody whilst dressed up as a Chef and a turkey (note the Tin Foil doesn't stick to people that well, doubly as he decided jumping up and down like a loon was a good idea, leaving not much but the contents of his boxers jiggling up and down. I wish I could say this was the least I'd seen them in *blind*
Tony Gardner and Ben Miller in a very funny version of Little Drummer Boy (complete with the origonal opening skit where David Bowie basically turns up at Bing Crosbys house and busks a gig, if you want to compare, theres a shaky video of Ben and Tony here and Bing and David over here
Chris Addison and Jessica Formally-known-as-stevenson Hynes singing Fairytale of new york was also brill, both very good singers, even if Chris went a little bit mushy by saying "I've always wanted to sing this".
So, for the last seagull rep show of the year, John decided to turn to an old favourite of his (and always a school favourite) Macbeth, starring Abi Titmuss as Lady Maccas no less.
This time, I was going to be involved with it from the start, so I hoped I'd have a bit more free range on my creativity and get a chance to talk to some of the cast.
This started out alright, got some help from a new techy and thought all the shows at the Seagull were actually going well.
But then as usual, we had to take it on tour where everyone gets more stressed because the layouts different, everyone gets more arsey with me because the lights are different (because contrary to popular belief, no two theatres are that similar) and the new techy decided to take charge. Thus rendering my "Head of tech" status totally pointless. Again.
This coupled with some fantastic arguments at home, and a bit of a falling out with a couple of cast members, has made me feel like total shit. So I hope they weren't surprised when I basically told them where they could stick their show, missing the last 3 of dates.
I'm not totally heartless, I made sure there was someone to cover me, as I'm not trying to take it out on my boss, just everyone else there annoyed me so much, there's no way I could stay.
Anyway, other than that, it was a good show. Original text with modern dress (and fight scenes, bloody loud guns they got going on there) Some very blood thirsty moments, some down right creepy moments, couple in with a few funny moments, just so you don't leave feeling too depressed. Oh and a cracking soundtrack.
Overall I hope this was a bit of a fund raising mission for the Seagull, so hopefully we can get some more shiny stuff to make the place even better
God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash
Naughty Girl - Beyonce
One from the Dropkick Murphys
Two Tribes - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Sabotage - Beatsie Boys
Just realised I've never posted a proper blog about my tattoos, how very remiss of me.
But seeing as I have just had a new one, now seems a good time as any to recap.
This was my first one, which I got done...years ago (This is why I should make more of a note of things, I have ZERO memory) partially as a birthday present and partially for the wonderful charity who's symbol this is (If you don't know about the amazing work Amnesty International do, get your backside over to their website now and support them)
This was done at Skin Graphics in my home town of Lowestoft. By an artist named Jayson, you can check out some of there other stuff here
My next one was done in August of 2008 whilst I was on my trip to Edinburgh, as I kinda thought I'd start collecting them whilst on my travels to make them mean just that little bit more.
In case you didn't know this is the symbol for "Libra" which although I don't go in for all the crap behind astrology, tis still a neat symbol.
This one was done in a joint called love hate tattoos who have a website hidden away here (turns out I only just missed seeing the LA Ink guys by a month)
My newest one less than a week old, was added by East Point Tattoos (Also in Lowestoft, who knew such a small place could hold this much art work)
They, unfortunately don't have a website yet, although I'd love to help them out there, be a receptionist, make a website.
This is a design nicked from here, which I saw ages ago and fell in love with, great artist, you should check out his stuff in absence of an EP webpage.
