CAN'T FRIGGIN WAIT!!!

I am so overwhelmed right now with how tired I am from the past two days, the amount of cleaning left in the old place, the amount of stuff still left here that needs to go to the new place, the amount of work I have to do for AGIA, and all of the little things left--changing our electricity over, fixing the hole in the wall that the mover made yesterday, etc--that when my parents called to say hello and talk about the earthquake, I had to get off the phone quickly or I would have started to cry.

Earthquake

OK, I'm a little shaken right now. The adrenaline is still pumping through my heart. I was working and my monitors started to shake. At first I thougth it's the neighbors outside b/c when all of the kids run up and down the stairs, sometimes it shakes me up in my room. But then there was this deep sound--no way to explain it b/c I'd never heard it before--and I realized that was the sound the earth was making. Dogs are still going crazy.

I tried to remember all of my childhood drills. Get in a doorway. So I move to the one in my room. But then I remembered I needed to be as low as possible--like in a basement. So I head downstairs. This makes no sense to me. If the apartment comes crashing down, I will be crushed, so I go back upstairs. Then it hits me: that was for a tornado, not an earthquake. I never had earthquake drills in OH. By this point it's over, thank God. According to zha it was a 5.8.

This is my third earthquake since living out here, and definitely the biggest. I think the scariest thing about an earthquake is that you don't know how long it will last. Will there be aftershocks? How big does it have to be to do damage? Lots of questions. My first thoughts were, I don't have renters insurance and if my monitors break I'm going to have to pay for them. So, I sort of wanted to stay up and hold them to make sure they wouldn't knock hard against each other or topple over. Then I realized how pissed my parents would be if I died trying to save the life of my monitors.

It doesn't matter, though. It was a short rumble and it's all over now. I can hear sirens from fire trucks. I hope no one's hurt. Faith's at the park right now. I wonder if they felt it? Man, how scary would that be to be riding a roller coaster during an earthquake?!! I like action and thrills, but that might give me a heart attack.

Back to work.

I've spent the past two days moving from one apartment to another across the courtyard of our complex. I love the new place. I'm looking forward to adding the dynamic of not only another roommate, but a guy. I am sore all over from hiking up and down 6 flights of stairs.

Last night, Faith and I got massages at 9. My guy was from Lebanon, so sometimes it was hard to understand him, and I had to ask him to repeat himself. He would tell me what he was massaging next in a question. He would say, "Clavicle?" As in, "I massage your clavicle next, you cool with that?" I would just say yes and not really pay attention to what he was doing. It was the deepest deep tissue massage I've ever received, so I was trying to breathe through all the pain. (It was much needed, since I'd been so physical lately) Anyway at one point he says, "Roots?" And I just say yes, thinking he was massaging my legs, as that was where he was heading. All of the sudden, he was hiking my underpants up into my crack and working on my ass cheeks. Oh, GLUTES! Awesome. I would have normally said no thank you and just work on my calves and feet, since they were in the most pain, but his hands were already kneading away at my bum. Note to self: pay more attention next time, lest a stranger get to 3rd base without your knowledge.

Improptu move

So, Faith and I signed our papers yesterday and have until the end of the month to move. Except that the end of the month is Thursday and she's working double shifts until then. We sort of realized that we need to move, uh, today. I'm skipping class and rehearsal. Doug our neighbor and new favorite person on the planet is coming over tonight to help with some stuff, but we're hiring day laborers tomorrow for the big things.

It's hot. I'm sweaty. We're taking a dinner break and I'm going to see her show and let my knees relax. But then it's back to the move.

I hate moving. I never want to move again. Oh, wait, there's next year.

Mr. Gin, let's be friends.

Randy Pausch died today. It has affected me deeply.

Last night's clothes.

Last night's make up.

Flip flops today instead of heels. No jewelry. Hey, at least I brushed my hair.

Stefanie is getting a second-rate me tonight. Happy birthday girlie! I am a skanky friend.

Started the week with 3 days of fever. Ended it with killer cramps.

Well played, Week. Well played indeed.

Gaede sent an email last week about Stef's bday party on Wed. I planned my entire day around this. I made sure to get up early so I could work out (my first serious work out in months, consisting of nearly two hours of lifting and spinning) and get my full 8 hours of claims processing in. I was finally done by 8:30. The gathering was at 9. I hopped in the shower and got ready. I did my hair, put on make up, wore jewelry...the whole nine. I wrote down directions for the bar. Everything was ready to go. The door was open. Then, for some reason, I checked my email one more time. Chris mentioned last week that it would *probably* be Wednesday, but it *might* be Thursday. I checked the email. Ohdeargod it's Thursday.

Oh Hell No.

I did not just spend an hour getting ready for something that is not happening for another 24 hours. So, I place calls to people in my neighborhood (there's a great bar near my house). I'm not letting this makeup go to waste. No dice. I expand my radius and call Lisa (of Lisa and Clif), knowing that she has to work tomorrow morning, but also knowing that she lives within walking distance of a bar. I don't have her number, so I call Clif. She happens to answer and immediately tells me to hold on, that she'll get him. No! I'm calling for you! She agrees to get drinks.

Two rum and cokes (Jack and cokes for her), a gin and tonic (some light beer), and a split serving of s'mores later, we leave Cale, our adorable server. It was fun to hang out with a girl for the evening! Clif said Lisa hardly ever goes out without him (just never has the opportunity), so she was happy to be my partner in crime tonight.

However, now it is 2 in the morning and I need to be up at 5 to get my hours in before rehearsal, a show, and a birthday party (shakes fist at email). Needless to say, tomorrow is busy. This might sound crazy, but I think I'm going to go process 20 claims right now!

oh man. i don't know what's up with me this week, but i can't stop stuffing my face. i seriously have put on 5 pounds. in a week!

Seriously?

I went to Ralph's to pick up milk this morning. An older gentleman and his wife were cutting across the parking lot through the spaces--not along any sort of lane. Then he cuts into my lane and slams on his breaks. We were no where close to colliding, but he stared me down like I almost hit him. Dude, even if we did wreck, it would totally be your fault. You were going the WRONG WAY down my lane after ILLEGALLY cutting across a parking lot. Don't stare me down, assmunch. He continued glaring as they drove by. So I stared back and laughed.

I swear--the nerve of LA drivers. I need to go back and watch Steve Martin's LA Story now that I'm living out here.

Austin on the brain

Chris Trew from Coldtowne has been coaching my Latchkey Kids rehearsals the past two weeks. He helped us find a format and play more with each other. It's been really great to have him around! When I took him home last Thursday, we had a good talk about Austin. I've told other people this, but I don't think I've expressed it to anyone in CT proper: I believe they are going to be the next UCB.

They will be celebrating their 2nd year as a theater in September (or maybe October), and have already churned out 4 teams from their conservatory. 3 of which applied for and got into the Del Close Marathon. They are battin' a thousand. It was exciting to talk with Chris about the CT schedule and things they will be doing. It's such a talented, dedicated group of people, and I am really looking forward to getting involved in anyway I can.

Then Friday night (after spending a few hours on the set of Scrubs to visit Deonte, one of the Latchkey Kids) I went over to The Boys Place (the 3 guys who live across from us). Doug was watching the Cubs game with his friend, Nick, who hates baseball. I went over to see the Cubbies lose to Houston. I forget how it came up, but I think Nick mentioned Austin. I mentioned my move next year, and it turns out he used to live there, then moved to LA, and is now moving back to Austin in January. He got really excited talking about all of the things to do, and he promised to be a good tour guide. I made him promise to see a CT show. We decided to be friends, but not until 2009.

When Andrew got home from work, the three boys came with me to Ben's birthday party. I don't know the boys very well yet, and I wasn't sure whether or not they would have a good time, but they did. We danced for a few hours. My hair was dripping with sweat. I got to talk to Paul Scheer-of Scheer/McBrayer! Also there was Casey Wilson from SNL. We had a great time, but my old lady knees paid for it the next day. My throat was feeling weird, and I had to sing at 9:30 Saturday morning. When I got back from rehearsal, I took naps on and off. By the show that night, my throat was pretty painful, but I sung my heart out anyway. Sunday I had a fever develop during class, so I skipped Step'N'Repeat rehearsal and was in bed before 9. It was a restless night, and today I'm not feeling much better. More rest is on the docket today.

Highlight of today: Taking Tami to airport! She was visiting Chris this weekend--working, not socializing--and I wasn't going to get a chance to say hello. But turns out she needed a ride to the airport, and I was happy to be the chauffeur!

Seriously.

I am never working out at night again.

Ever.

I learned two very important lessons today.

Lesson the first:
Do not go to LA Fitness in the evening. I wanted to lift before the 6:45 spinning class. I spent those 30 minutes circling like a shark for a parking space. It was insanely busy. I hate busy.

Lesson the second:
Do not work out in the late evening unless you want to be up all night. I have been starting work at 6 am every day this week because I had so much to do during the day and I needed to get my hours in. I've been in bed before 10. Today I was tired at 5 and was considering taking a nap and hitting the gym later. I didn't. Now I am wide awake. Fantastic.

I am renting Seinfeld on Netflix. Man, that show is so good! I am officially a fan.

I have a pretty strong stomach. I spend most of the day reading operative reports and accident details for some not-so-fun injuries. Most of them fascinate me. Knee injury details make my stomach turn sometimes. But teeth injuries are the worst. I get squeamish every time I have to doc notes regarding a split tooth with the pulp exposed or, child fell, hit chin on floor, banged top and bottom teeth together breaking them.

Today seems to be filled with only dental injuries. Give me a break, folks. I can only stand so much!

Someone shoot me.

I hate myspace surveys. I often read them when my friends post them, and i enjoy them, but i never post them myself. Today Mack Duncan put one up. He hates them as well, but decided to do one. So I did the same one in his honor. Then my browser crashed right as I hit post. So, the last 30 minutes of insightful, snarky, life-changing words I wrote are now out there in the ether. Clearly, I was not meant to post that survey. And I will never do one again as long as I live. Unless I am captured by a foreign government and that is their form of torture. I'm not big on the pain. Inflicting it = fine. Have it inflicted upon my person = opposite of fine.

Oh, and one of the questions was, "What's the most ironic thing that's happened to you recently." My original answer was, "I had to think about this too long and got bored, so, nothing." But this. This is the most ironic thing that's happened to me recently.

Then I got a couple of phone calls and somehow an hour has escaped. That's 10 claims I could have processed. That's $40. I think this is a sign that I should just pack it in for the night and watch Seinfeld which came in from Netflix and then some Alias, which I broke out this morning as I was avoiding work and the gym.

A potential awesome roommate is coming over tomorrow to check out our apartment. Cross your fingers he likes it and wants to sign! Big reveal of who it is once we have the place. Don't want to jinx it, which I just did by even mentioning it. Ah, Ashley, whenever will you learn?

Today I was a worthless human being.

Last night I went out to a benefit show for the iO bar staff, who obviously don't have jobs at the moment. I got all dolled up just because, and I was only out for a few hours. I remember thinking it was too bad I'm not going someplace else. As I was unlocking my door at midnight, Matt and the boys across the way yelled for me to come over. Hooray! So I fixed a gin and tonic (heavy on the gin-my new favorite drink) and went over. They were watching The Brother's Solomon. Jason Pardo was in it for a brief few seconds and had a line!!! Matt was the only one who knew who that was, but it was very exciting for the both of us. After the movie, I came back here to grab Cranium and The Joe Schmoe Show for Andrew, who is in love with Kristen Wiig. Faith came over for a bit to play, but left in the middle. She didn't have that great of a night and wasn't feeling social. Doug and I tromped Matt and Andrew, as it should be. I didn't go to sleep til 7.

This is where I become worthless. Today I was going to get 8 hours of work in. I did 1. My weekend is packed, and I wanted to get 12 in by Monday, but I don't think that's going to be physically possible. I slept on and off today, and talked on the phone quite a bit.

Then it got fun. I waxed Faith's pits, as I do once a week or so, and zha was over. I suggested I wax his chest. He agreed! That was an amazing sight. It's funny b/c now he talks about wanting to work out since he's hairless to show off his chest and not have man-boobs. But it was a pretty painful experience. For both of us. It's hard to intentionally inflict pain on someone you love. I clearly will never hit my children. Phew. Waxing is not fun. And that much surface area, especially for his first time, was pretty bad. He's a little swollen and very red at the moment. The tenderness will last another 24 hours. But it looks great, if I do say so myself.

So, now I'm off to bed once more today. Hopefully I'll get 4 hours of work in between rehearsal and tomorrow night's show. Oh boy.

My camera died. It's been having problems taking pictures lately, but this weekend when my parents were visiting and we went to Griffith Park Observatory and I took photos of the Hollywood sign and surrounding area, none of the photos were coming out. It was just black. That made me sick. My Nikon D-80 was an $800 Christmas gift to myself (with the help of family checks). So, I took it into a camera store in the mall. I figured they could send it away to Nikon or whatever. But the girl said it was a problem with the lens, not the camera. We tried a new lens and there was no problem. But then I got home and tried a new lens and there is still a problem. Eff. I love this camera, and I don't want it to be broken. Between rehearsals for 3 different teams, class, a show, and work, I have no time until next week to do anything about it. But it's all I can think about.

Magic Fairy, come fix my camera. Please?

My parents are here!

Lindsay and Chris get in tomorrow!

I'm really happy to see my family!

Game Night

Faith wanted to do a game night, so we had people over. A few years ago my mom got me Worst Case Scenario instead of Buffy Season 7. I'm still bitter. But we turned it into a super fun and educational drinking game. Matt from iO used to live in this complex, and he still has friends here. They came over after WCS was dying down and we ended up playing Celebrity. In case you are unfamiliars, you put several celebrity names in a hat and draw them out one by one. The first round you can use whatever you want to describe them. The second round you only get 3 words. The third round is charades-esque. It ended up being much more fun than the last time I played, which was 12 years ago with a bunch of musical theater majors. I had no idea who any of the Broadway stars were. Anyway, I'm crazy-competitive, so I took the game seriously. We were down by 12 to begin, but we made a major comeback to take the win in the end! And I didn't even need to slash anyone's tires.

The game got heated, and there was much loudness at 3 in the morning. I have no idea how the cops were not called. It reminded me of my party back on Pompton Court in OH. We were crazy loud for a long time, but when the cops showed up, everything had died down. The music was off, two people were playing chess, three were playing with my Mensa games, and two were taping dead body outlines in my kitchen. The cops walked into the lamest party they'd ever been called to break up. We laughed.

Several times last night I dipped my feet in the pool. Faith didn't want to even put her toe in, but by the end of the night, she had gotten in completely - clothes and all. She became my new hero. Stayed up until 6; got two hours of sleep. Took Ben to the middle of nowhere to get his new car. Have been cleaning and laundry-ing all day. No work. I'm a lazy bum. Will probably get in the shower soon. Parents come in tonight at 10:30. Oh, LAX, how I loathe thee. But, as armpit-like as I feel at the moment, the night was super fun. And for the first time in my whole not-living-with-my-parents life, I know some neighbors. I always made a point to never get to know other apartment dwellers (see 2001 entries for crazy stories about those I never met but could hear through the ceiling). But these guys were great. I'll allow it.

Pictures are up on flickr if you care to have a gander. FYI, I didn't take any of the pictures of Andrew, the blond guy. That was all Nathanial's doing (the dark curly haired guy).

Some random person I don't know complimented my rack in one of my headshots on flickr. Gross. If you are my friend, then fine: all access (see: Semi-Awesomatics rehearsal last night). But if I don't know you, don't be a douche.

Hazel is better...hooray!!! I was her first client to schedule. I see her Wednesday for my first hair cut since the beginning of March. Can't wait! (and also glad she's healed.)