Ab work

Been working seriously on my abs again. Trying to do it as by the book as I can this time around, so I actually see results. They're actually looking not half bad at the moment, but there's still a ways to go, and I don't want to make the same mistakes I did last time I seriously attempted to do this. Because I never really saw exactly the results I wanted, it was suggested that I probably wasn't eating enough to build the proper muscle. I'm going to have to watch out for that again; my first instinct in these matters is to eat less. On top of that I've had a bad couple of days with a stress stomach ache, which means I haven't been eating much. Honestly a couple of days of it aren't so bad; it sleeked up some of the puffiness that was pissing me off, maybe gave a bit of a head start getting rid of some stored calories, but it isn't good for it to go on long or my metabolism will just go into starvation mode and I won't burn off anything, much less develop muscle.

In the interest of tracking my progress, I am taking a picture of myself so I can compare where I started to how I go.

Suddenly down

I just got my Macbeth script. I have two lines and maybe three scenes. I don't know why it should, as I've played this role before and knew it was tiny, but I am suddenly kind of depressed. I guess I feel like this was the only confirmed thing I had going on, and it's like nothing. For everything else I'm stuck waiting for people to respond to my e-mails, and in the meantime I don't know what to do. There's this modeling thing, which was cool with the people saying they're interested and they'll give me the details when I sent in my information, but I sent in it and they haven't gotten back to me yet. It's only been a day, but the thing is for this coming weekend, so I can't help but feel down about it. Nothing else has even gotten to that point, leaving me pretty much adrift and useless.

Bah, gravy.

After numerous tries in recent meals I have prepared, I am forced to conclude that I cannot make gravy. I just... don't ever seem to really pull it together. The pan is too hot, the roux won't come together, I don't let it simmer the proper amount of time-- always something like that. I like to blame it on the fact that I usually have to use Smart Balance instead of real butter, but that's not the whole story. It must be genetic. My mother, who can make, like, lobster bisque and osso bucco and other crazy hard stuff like that, can't make gravy either. It's probably because being made of carbs and fat and sugar it's just something that we healthy-eating nuts have such a mental block against that we can't work with it. ;-)

Too sad for a goth club

*Sigh* There's XMortis tonight, and at least one fun person I know is going, but I'm missing Jared kind of keenly right now and the idea of going without hm just kind of kills the mood for me. Haven't spoken to him since Tuesday, and he won't be back until Sunday yet.

Heh. It occurs to me I'm too sad to go to a goth club. :-)

Been kind of stressed out lately, between missing Jared, looking for a job, and the various other unpleasantries in my life. I am resolved to try and be more mellow about it today; yesterday I was kind of a grouch about everything. It was relieved in large part by a very nice dinner with witticaster*, who ate pork chops with me-- I never had to really make an endeavor to hang out with her when she lived with me, but now that she's not just the next bedroom over, I am resolved to actually PLAN to see now and again. Then I went to the first full session with the new group on Kindness's game, and it was a lot of fun. I'm still trying to find Arien as a character, but I'm enjoying the process very much. Good group, good DM.

Need to be less of a grouch. Today I'll try to do that.

Quite possibly my all-time favorite OOTS quote:

"Hey, look, I just regenerated a finger. Guess which one."

I don't know what made me think of this just now, but it always makes me smile. :-)

Admissions office job

I recently applied to a position in the Brandeis admissions office, and I'm really crossing my fingers about it. I actually managed to steel myself to call about it today, though all they said was that they're recieved my application and that they're still in the review process. Wish I knew what, if anything, I could do beyond that to get some attention and improve my chances, but all I can think of is to call again in a week or so. My fairly pressing need for some kind of job at this point has led me to apply for lots of stuff that I could stand but don't care about all that much, but this is one I actually think I might like-- not least the fact that I'd be working on campus, near to home and near to important people.

New chain

Yesterday the chain on my anniversary necklace broke. I was upset, but I comforted myself by saying that maybe now was an opportunity to make it shorter, which I'd come to believe would make it appear to better advantage. So today I took it in to the jeweler who repaired the broken pin in Jared's watch. He took one look at the chain and told me it was completely shot, the links stressed and compromised to the point where it was no wonder that it broke. He said that the chain was probably about eighteen inches when I first got it, but a year and a half's worth of near-constant wear had stretched it to what was to me an astounding twenty-one inches. I was kind of horrified; I couldn't get over thinking, what if it hadn't broken at home in my room, but rather somewhere where I could have been in danger of losing the pendant? I'm not really the kind of person who gets attached to physical things, but this necklace was a gift from Jared and it's probably more precious to me than anything else I own. The jeweler said he could repair it pretty easily but that it was so stressed it would probably break again. So I ended up buying a new chain, a heavier-gauge one, very pretty and of fourteen carat instead of ten carat white gold, that I actually like better, not to mention the fact that it's not as long or as easily tangled. I probably shouldn't have spent the money, but I love this necklace so much and I wear it almost constantly that it really is worth it to me to have on a truly nice chain so I can continue to wear it. Jared is out of the country so I haven't told him yet, but we once talked about putting it on a different chain because of its length and its fragility, so he probably won't be surprised.

No Jared for a week

Got a slow start on the day today, which I'm never pleased about, but with some care I think I can make sure I get done all the things I wanted to anyway.

I have discovered a recipe Rachael Ray calls "Chicken and Biscuit" that has become my standby lunch lately. It's kind of like a chicken pot pie you make on the stovetop, with a biscuit on top of it instead of a crust. Tasty, satisfying, and easy to make. Also, it gives me an excuse to use my lovely little ramekins. :-)

I am expecting a call from Jared soon. Today his family is going on their yearly trip to a town in Canada called Stratford for the Shakespeare festival. I'm really excited for him to get to see Shakespeare plays, but unfortunately for the time he's gone we won't be able to call each other. *Sigh* I shall be quite lonely without him. Ah, well, it's only for a week, I guess.

Time to plan and make lists and schedules. These things help me run my life.

Alice goes Midwest?

So I finally screwed up the courage to call the lady in Chicago who is evidently the person to talk to about running larps for that local gaming community. She heard from David Cave and Marc Blumberg, two great players from the second run of Alice at Intercon H, that it's a pretty half-decent game, and there might be a way for Jared and I to bring it out there to run. I'm expecting a call from her later this evening, and I'll hear about scheduling possibilities. I plan on just gathering data for now and then reporting it back to Jared.

It's really flattering to know that people enjoyed my game enough to want me to COME SOMEWHERE specifically to run it.

Alice image

Edited the Alice photo and made a kind of mockup of a title card or cover page:



I like the diffused, glowing effect. Not crazy about the picture, though. Like the hair, but there's something about the nose.