In English, it's pronounced "Mecca". In Swedish, it's pronounced "Ikea"

We are weary travelers who have trekked many a mile to reach this holy place. This place, like a shining beacon through the mist of the northwest marine layer, has guided us to our salvation.

That's right. Today, we go to Ikea. 

I have waited many months for this shopping trip. I have been living out of a medium sized Home Depot cardboard box since the beginning of March and I am extatic to finally be able to unpack my clothes. I miss my yoga pants. I miss my comfortable sweatshirt that I forgot not to tape into a box. I miss my tank top with a picture of President Teddy Roosevelt standing with a cat in a cowboy hat. While petty, these things bring me happiness. 

So here we are, about to enter the wonderful world of reasonably priced yet reliable furniture. My salvation awaits. Updates to follow. 

In case of emergency, your wits may be used as a flotation devise

I am not a fan of change. I never have been. Like many, change for me means floundering like a small minnow that someone caught by mistake and is about to throw back into the river, but they want to light their cigarette first. It is those agonizing minutes, days, weeks, and possibly months of re-acclimating myself to an environment that I had to take months getting used to navigating in the first place.

This is what is happening at work right now. I was hired at my place of employment in late October of last year, and about a week later my boss and his entire family left to go home to India for 3 months. This meant that it would just be me, my manager, and the two other women who were also working here. We got into a rhythm. We had a schedule that never changed, except for when one of us needed a day off for something, and we changed shifts with someone. So I got comfortable and confident in what I was doing.

Almost a week ago, my boss and his family came back, and my little happy working world was toppled over like a cup of tea improperly placed in front of a keyboard. My manager is now no longer working here, and the order and understanding has been upset. I now have people questioning whether I know how to do anything even though I have been functioning just fine while they have been on the other side of the world. There is no schedule and I have been calling everyday to check and see if I work. I think I am going crazy.

This simply reaffirms that I need to move. My boyfriend and I are planning on moving to Seattle, but we were hoping to wait until one of us had a job. Now, my current "job" is forcing our hand and making us jump into the deep end, totally unprepared in my opinion.

So let's just say I hope we don't drown.

Have a Duck's Back

   As my equine trainer says, you have to have a duck's back. Not in the sense that you have duck friend named Raúl and he just got into a fight with a passing tuna and he sadly ends up in the hospital and you go and defend his honor. But the idea that you need to let things roll off your back, like a duck's. The duck has evolved in a way that allows things like water to just roll off their feathers, so it does not weigh them down and allows them to swim more efficiently and gracefully (sometimes. let's be real, some ducks need some help. Just visit Lithia Park sometime.).

   Anyway, today is a rare day where that philosophy is actually working. Things are good today. The following are reasons why I am having a duck kind of day:

- The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl. Who would not feel great when their team who has struggled endlessly forever is going to the big show for the second time in franchise history? This is great.

- I met a very nice barista named Sam at the local Starbucks by the SOU campus. He was a fantastic conversationalist, and I had a vary pleasant 5 minute conversation with him that made me smile. This is a good state of mind to be in when you are on your way to work. It makes you loath it less. This is great.

- This was the first time in awhile that I have gone to the grocery store and not only did not bite my nails at the checkout, concerned for when the bill finally stops climbing, but I could pay for food comfortably and not worry about not being able to pay for a single thing for the rest of the week. It is a good thing when going to the grocery store is not scary, but a fun thing. This is great.

- I was able to pay my bills without the same concerns as listed above. This is great.

- The sun has been out for the past few days, and it has been absolutely beautiful. It is not too warm, not too cold, and the sun makes me smile. This is great.

- While driving to work, I passed a happy man and his wife who were walking on the sidewalk, pushing a stroller with their two children in it. They were smiling and laughing, and I noticed that the man was wearing his yamaka and I could see the tzitzit from his Tallit (Jewish prayer shawl worn under the clothing). It just made me smile, and for unknown reasons I was all the sudden filled with pride. I am proud of my heritage and of my people, and I love the fact that (for the most part) we are a peace loving people who are thankful for everything that we have been given. I am thankful for my family and my friends, and thankful that I am at peace as a person. While I have not recently attended temple, I do feel very close to G-d and I am so very happy.


   So today is a good day. They do not happen everyday, and they sometimes do not last all day, but when good days come along, we need to savor them. The world today has it's problems, big and small, and we hear about them all everyday. So when we have good things happen, we have to try that much harder to hold on to them. So give someone a hug today. Call your mom. Offer someone a warm drink who might not be able to afford it. Smile.

Because remember, you have to have a duck's back :)

My Adventure Book (in the making)

   Happy New Year everyone! This year was so crazy and wonderful. We welcomed two new family members into our little house, our kitties Wesley and Riker. I graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Southern Oregon University. I got to work at OSF, the company that was the whole reason I chose to come to Ashland for school in the first place. I moved on to work at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and I lived in Cedar City Utah for 2 months. I visited Las Vegas for the first time, saw my first official Cirque de Soleil show, and fell in love with the Vegas Strip. And Adam and I celebrated our first Christmas with just the two of us in Ashland.

   Even though 2013 was pretty great, 2014 didn't exactly start off how I'd like. I wasn't able to spend the holidays with my family, and I found out that I did not get the job that I was hoping for at OSF. But enough of the negative! It is a new year and a new adventure, so Adam and I are planning a move to Seattle Washington! Now that there really isn't anything for us in Ashland Oregon (after we both have graduated and neither of us is working at OSF) we are departing from the place that we have called home for the past 4-5 years, and we are venturing north to the Emerald City, aka: Hawk Nation!!! GO SEAHAWKS!

   I cannot wait to be close to my family again and returning to that place I has been my home since I was a baby. The last time I lived in Seattle I was 10 years old, and I cannot wait to explore the city as an adult. So look out Washington, we are coming for ya!

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year, and everyone remember to party hard!!!

For the want of a piece of heat tape

Anyone who survived 5th, 7th, and high school science classes would understand the basics of heat and the reactions that ensue when high levels of heat come in contact with a small piece of thin metal. Readers Digest version: it gets center of the sun hot. Sadly, when time is of the essence and you have to move quickly, this fact must be overlooked in the interest of time managment. This is a fact that has put me in a spot of personal trouble quite a few times in the past weeks.

This is where gobos come into the picture. Taking a gobo out of a light that has been on and off for the past 3 hours can be painful if the gobo has not had time to cool down. And in a rotating rep theatre, it almost never gets that time before someone has to pull it out to replace it with something else for the next show. 

As of recently, the gobos has started falling out of their holders because the tape that is used to hold them in place has finally started curling due to heat and needs to be replaced. Problem 1) I can never find heat tape to fix the problem, and 2) the gobos are always too hot to the touch. The result is as such: me, jumping around like a small child who only steps on the black tiles in a grocery store, holding a piece of metal with my shirt as far away from my body as physically possible without taking my shirt off, then throwing the gobo to the ground and cursing everything I hate in this world. There are people who have been in theatre 50+ years who have patterns burnt into their fingertips and palms from handlng gobos that are too hot. I hope not to join that club in short order. 

And all of this could be solved with a simple piece of heat tape...

Standby Confetti Canons...

Confetti. It instills a fear that is unknown to those not in the arts. Confetti requires a mindset more commonly seen in zen masters. It gets everywhere, is unyielding to sweep up, and burns like a rag shoved in an alcohol bottle. So when I hear the phrase "we'd like to run the end of the song and the moment with the confetti canon", I did a double take.

The last time I worked with a confetti cannon, the cue got called too early, no one was paying attention and it went off 6 feet away into a technician's face. Due to this, the phrase "confetti cannon" causes a pavlovian like reaction in my frontal lobe. However, when done right, confetti can be a nice touch.

I am currently working on a production of "The Marvelous Wonderettes" at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which is a show that needs confetti, I do admit. It did look quite lovely, and I am looking forward to opening the show this weekend!

and I hope that it is not a mistake...