Sleep No More tonight

Tonight I am going with the crowd to see Sleep No More. Kindness and I will be going there together, and I'll be very interested to hear what he thinks of it. Jared went a few weeks ago and highly reccomended it, so I thought I'd go and see it myself. I like the notion of wandering around in a space watching lots of dynamic scenes, and I like the idea that the audience members all wear masks. I kind of like the anonymity of it, so I never feel self-conscious looking into something or following someone. Jared also suggested that I dress up; he said he did and thought it was more fun that way. I just might do that, though I worry about the weather. I wonder if it'll be cold or warm inside the venue. Maybe I'll just wear a nice coat, so whatever I go with under it I'll still look nice and be comfortable.

Dinner for GURPS players

Feeling much better today. The lack of sliding on the road on the way to work this morning helped. Last night Jared and I were going to cook, but he also wanted to talk to his fellows involved in Matt's four-color supers game about his character, so we decided we'd have the GM and the other players over for dinner. I was in the mood to make a lot, so I did the Rachael Ray apricot and cippolini braised chicken, my mom's complicated wild rice dish, steamed broccoli, and a yellow cake, graciously frosted by Matt. Other than the cake being a bit dry-- I had one fewer egg than I needed, and I think I left it in the oven a bit long --it came out very nicely. The wild rice is pretty much the only rice dish my family makes (we're not really rice eaters) and I like it's because it's complex and sophisticated, but I'm always afraid that all the different flavors make it tough to gauge whether it will suit someone's tastes or not. There's mint, orange, scallion, toasted pecan, golden raisin-- I think it all goes very well together, giving it a nice fresh taste, but there's no accounting for what people like. Jared, for example, tends to be hot and cold on it, depending on how it goes with what it's being served with. Fortunately it went over pretty well last night, and I will have the leftovers for lunch today.

Talk over dinner ran very hard to GURPS in general and this game in particular, as it was designed to, which meant I didn't have much to add. But actually I was pleased by that; it was pleasant to let the conversation of my guests wash over me while I made myself comfortable and enjoyed my food and let my mind wander. For some reason I didn't have it in me to be terribly engaging or engaged, so just being present without having to be anything in particular was nice. I enjoyed the company, and being able to kind of be alone while in it. I know Jared definately was happy to spend the evening with friends and get to talk out what he was thinking for his character. And I like to think Bernie, after being trapped in his last for two or three days straight, appreciated the dinner and the chance to hang out with friends.

Hate the snow

I am a ball of nerves right now thanks to the snow I just drove to work in. I was so nervous about being late today due to having to dig my car out that I woke up ridiculously early AGAIN, then tried to go back to sleep, only to have the slightly-earlier-than-normal alarm I set not go off. So I rushed out to unbury Constantine, which fortunately wasn't too difficult since the snow was still fluffy, and drove over terrifyingly slippery roads that sometimes I would slide over even when I braked. I really hope it quits by the time I'm supposed to go home, but it's still coming down like crazy and doesn't seem to be turning into rain like the weather report said it would. :-( I'm kind of afraid to drive in it again.

I really just want to go home, curl up under a blanket, and not come out until the snow stops. I want to eat that lovely brined and pan-fried pork chop in the fridge, and a cup of hot apple cider to go with it. This being out in the snow stuff is for chumps.

ETA: I just realized I got snow in my purse. Now all my stuff is wet-- thank God my phone wasn't in there --and the outside of the bag has a huge watermark. Oh, God, I hope the leather isn't ruined. I'm so pissed.

Sleeping like a baby, literally

Not sleeping that well the last week or so. Well, not exactly. I've been getting enough sleep, I suppose, but my schedule is getting skewed earlier and earlier these days and it's not meshing well with anyone else's in my life. I get up early to get to work during the week, but this weekend I had to get up even earlier to take Jared to the LSAT and to have breakfast with my parents before they left to go back to Allentown. And today I was woken up an hour even before that to move my car and couldn't go back to sleep. It's made it so I've started crashing at ten or even nine o'clock at night, like a little kid while all my night-owl friends are still doing things. Jared in particular doesn't usually get done with everything he has to do in a day until late, so when I fall alseep that early it's a chunk out of the quality time we can spend together. And God knows I hate crashing while there are stills guests in the house; it's embarrassing and turns me into a bad host. Sleeping in isn't an option so much, at least not until next weekend, but maybe I can take a nap during the day and try to push myself to stay up a little later. Don't know if I can manage that today, I don't really have the time for a nap, but I'll try it on Tuesday. I feel bad bitching about my sleep, though, since I'm technically getting enough, just not the right hours. But then I think of Bernie being in a sleep deprivation study right now, being allowed only to get four hours a night, and I feel guilty.

Comfort in domesticity

It never ceases to amaze me how much the accomplishment of domestic tasks soothe and comfort me. The slight edginess of indeterminate origin I found myself suffused with as soon as I got home today was relieved when I knew that a good dinner was in the oven, my room was straightened up, and a load of laundry was in the washer. Knowing that those things would soon be done relaxed me immensely, if only because they would bring about the state in which I am most content-- clean, pleasant, and comfortable.

Casey in The Pillowman

My parents were in town for Casey's play last night. Jared and I got in the car and drove into the city to meet my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend at Legal Seafood. We had an excellent dinner there, both in food and in company. I ordered an excellent swordfish dish in a mushroom-Marsala demi-glace, and a lovely crab cake for an appetizer-- I've been really craving crab lately. Jared also saw the Legal Seafood Cookbook in the window and asked if I'd like it for Christmas. :-) Excellent idea, my dear.

Then we walked through the snow and the cold to the Emerson theater where we'd be seeing Casey's play. They were putting on The Pillowman, a show I've heard of only because I knew Frances was in it last summer. It was very well-performed by the actors, my brother in particular; in fact, it had been so long since I'd see him onstage that I'd forgotten how good he was. The tech wasn't great and it was way too long, but overall it was an enjoyable, if strange and not totally transparent, play. I'd kind of like to ask Frances about some of the things that her character did, because I'm not sure I understood it all. At any rate, I was very proud of Casey's work.

Eggs!

Yesterday, I successfully made scrambled eggs!

...

I know what you're thinking-- you've been putting all this work into learning how to cook for the last year and a half, and you're all happy about making scrambled eggs? Well, smarty, I'll have you know I never made scrambled eggs before. I've never made any egg dish before; I never learned. I know that's usually the first thing people learn to do because it's so easy, but I just never did. I don't usually eat breakfast except when I'm home in Allentown, in which case my dad handles everything. So I had no press to try my hand at them.

But yesterday Jared wanted eggs before his LSAT, so I nervously attempted it. They came out great, and I am stupidly proud of myself.

Day of the readthrough

Yesterday was a busy, productive, and very positive day. Went to work and actually had enough stuff to keep me occupied for pretty much the entire time I was there. At quitting time I ran out of there and raced home to meet Bernie, with whom I was going to the Burlington mall. He wanted to restock his teas from Teavana, I wanted to finally get my hair cut. I think the last time I had it done was July, and I was really starting to look rough. It came out nicely, I think, though the stylist I got this time didn't style it with product like the last one did. As usual, no one noticed, but I'm just pleased that it looks good.

After I came out of the chair we raced back to Brandeis to pick up Steph. Bernie dropped us off at my house, where we found Frances sitting on the front step. A lovely surprise, certainly. We invited her to come to the grocery store with us, and she helped us prepare the dinner we planned for the cast. The main course I decided on was chicken chasseur, a Rachel Ray interpretation of a classic French dish with chicken in mushrooms, tomatoes, shallots, and white wine, browned on the stove then braised in the oven for forty-five minutes. I was momentarily thrown by the fact that I didn't seem to have any white wine left, so I took a chance and combined white wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar to sweeten it a little, and used that instead. I was relieved upon tasting it that it worked, with minimal change to the intended flavor of the dish. Green beans served as the accompanying vegetable, though I don't think I made quite enough for eleven people. Steph indeed made her delicious strawberry-filled empanadas for dessert, and Bernie brewed a pot of tea from his new Teavana haul. The cast seemed to very much enjoy it, though it turned out Charlotte was a vegetarian. Ah, well. Almost perfect, but not quite. If truth be told, I was kind of hoping to impress them with my multitalentedness. She acts, she directs, she writes, and she cooks too? Yowza! ;-) I know, I know, I'm pathetic.

After dinner came the readthrough. I had packaged the scripts beautifully in textured white envelopes and labled each one with the actor's name. I had this fantasy of, like, tracking each one of them down in a newsboy cap and handing them over, saying "This was messengered for you from the studio, miss." But I didn't really have time and it would have been too hard to figure out where everybody was without spoiling the effect. So I settled for passing them out at the readthrough, which was almost as satisfying.

The readthrough itself was amazing. It was so cool to hear the actors I'd chosen speak the material for the first time. They did a wonderful job, sometimes even managing to capture what I'd heard in my head, and I'm so excited to work with them all. I was extremely gratified by their understanding and appreciation of the script, and the way they all meshed together so well. I loved Kindness's instinctive grasp of his character, and so many of his line readings were spot-on. Jared, of course and as always, was wonderful, and even though I didn't even know him when I wrote this play, he unbelievably well embodies his part. He's such a fantastic actor. God, everyone was fantastic, and I could gush about them all day. Also, I think this gave me an idea of what stuff we'd need to work on as well, which will be helpful for my planning.

So I believe we are off to a strong start. I assigned them to memorize their lines over the break, and plan on doing my blocking over the next several weeks. I feel very good about this, and I am incredibly pleased that yesterday went so well.

Animal-baby

One of my coworkers apparently brought his baby to work and I overheard him discussing it in such a manner as at first I thought he was talking about having recently adopted a small animal rather than having had a new child.

I do like the happy-baby sounds, though. :-)

Fantasycraft character

Jared and I were discussing character generation last night, as he is trying to come up with a character for lightgamer*'s forthcoming four color superhero GURPS game. That lead me to give more thought to the character I'm building for captainecchi*'s Fantasycraft game.

I'm not great at figuring out what sort of build I want to play in tabletop games, mostly because in general rules systems are not interesting to me and most of that stuff is mechanically decided. So I just kind of grabbed a pre-gen off the table at random, a whatever-the-Fantastycraft-version-of-halfling-is "social assassin." While I can make excellent characters within a game I have completely designed, I have a hard time coming up with interesting personas in other people's scenarios because I have no idea what would fit in with the story and the world. (Thus my preference for pre-gens, not just built but characterized.)

So it took me a long time to figure out who I was going to be. For the first fifteen minutes or so, I just kind of responded generically to any in-game stimulus, kind of embarrassed that I didn't really have a character yet. Then suddenly it hit me-- I would have no filter. I liked the idea of a stealthy-social character that said whatever popped into her head, believing steadfastly in the idea that the best lies are the ones that have as much truth as possible in them. I named her Ophelia, partially because after playing so much Brutal Legend recently it was the only name I could think of, but I actually think the irony of it works. As it happened, Ophelia actually turned out to be really fun and funny to play. When it was clear that she was getting on the nerves of other party members, I dropped out of character for a moment and checked to make sure she wasn't annoying the players-- an indelicate, somewhat difficult personality like that can make it harder on other party members to get things done, and I wanted to make sure nobody felt like I was mucking up what they were trying to do. Fortunately, they seemed to be amused rather than annoyed.

So I think some version of this Ophelia is what I'm going to go with. I'm not sure what I want to do with her build, but some variant on the stealthy assassin character interests me. I like the idea of a blabbermouth assassin. :-) Of course, with her tendency to say whatever she's thinking at the moment, the "social" aspect of the character may not work as well as perhaps designed.