Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

1) I had a nightmare the other day that I forgot to wear shoes to class and I was horribly embarrassed. Some sort of strange variation on the No Pants dream, I guess.

2) I got an email from a large upcoming event in Austin saying they needed to verify some of my information. There were two problems with that: first, I sent them the information last week; and second, they frigging put over 150 email addresses in the “To:” field rather than BCC! Let the replies to all, viruses, and spammy networking commence. Woo.

3) My foot met with the ass end of the dog last night and I think I either broke something small or bruised something large. Note to self: dog asses are bony.

If anyone reads the Living With Melanoma blog linked on the sidebar, I just read the sorry news that the blog’s author, Heather, died this morning. She left behind a husband, four young children, and a bunch of people online and off who cared about her. 🙁

This morning I had an exceedingly odd dream about Angelina Jolie wanting to bum a cigarette from me. As I woke, I felt the dream receding and wished there were some way to capture it without having to pay attention to fine motor skills or actually having to speak, which is something I completely avoid until I’ve brushed my teeth. Doesn’t matter who’s around or if I’m alone, I just hate having to open my mouth. I also gag if I happen to drool on myself when I’m brushing, but that’s another story.

So for some reason, as I’m waking up, I wax poetic and say to myself, “Dreams are the cobwebs that hold my eyelashes shut; when my eyes open, the fragile strands of the dreams are inexorably torn and all that’s left is floating shreds in front of my pupils.”

Being artsy fartsy in the morning is, unfortunately, as nauseating as dribbling on myself. Sheesh.

Tonight, as the kids played upstairs, hubby went down to the office to check on something. I heard a muffled, “Ow, damn it!” but figured that since it wasn’t loud, it wasn’t serious. After a couple of minutes, he called me down. Turns out it was a muffled curse since he had been faceplanted in the carpet – fell down the stairs, injured his ankle. I think it’s probably broken – second time since I’ve known him that he’s slipped down the stairs and hurt an ankle. But he was lying on the floor, obviously in great pain, and couldn’t stop giggling. So hard that he couldn’t even think about trying to stand. And giggled for a good 15 minutes after.

Mr. Manly Man wouldn’t go to the doctor, either. I’ve got to try to roust him to urgent care tomorrow. How the hell am I gonna get him upstairs to bed?

I think that the hotel where the Russian spy was poisoned in London is the same place that I stayed with my grandmother in 1985.

How odd.

I had to stop at the Apple Store today because my power adaptor for my MacBook Pro had an… incident… last night.

*sniff sniff* “Hey, what the hell? Why is my leg so hot?”

Over Thanksgiving, I noticed that the wire on the Magsafe had frayed and gave me a hell of a shock when I touched it. I patched it up with electrical tape and planned to take it in to get fixed after school was out and the holidays were over. Apparently the adaptor got tired of the wait and decided to turn into a soldering iron last night, rendering my laptop unusable after the battery ran out.

I’m also having problems with the finish on the case as well as the finish on the keyboard (much like this guy’s), so I really just needed an overhaul.

Luckily, I had no problems at all with the Genius bar, and all items are covered under warranty, although once the parts for the case and keyboard come in, I’ll have to relinquish my computer for a few days. Guess that means I should clear the porn off.

Kidding. Mostly.

Anyway, I mentioned that school started next week, and the Genius started talking about student discounts, which are these lovely things that I had pretty much forgotten about but very nice to have, so I ended up buying an extended warranty for $110 off. Because honestly, the cost for the three parts they’re replacing is nearly $600, and if I have to get them replaced again, I certainly don’t want to eat it.

But the best part is that I finally sucked it up and bought myself that Coach bag I’ve been lusting after for weeks. So, yay!

Finally more about The Nutcracker!

A few weeks ago, David Wyattsent an email to the Austin Bloggers mailing list offering local bloggers the opportunity to attend a technical rehearsal of Ballet Austin’s The Nutcracker. I had already purchased tickets to one of the performances, but I thought that the kids (okay, okay, and me too) would really like to see backstage at Bass Concert Hall, as well as see an actual rehearsal in action.

I was slightly concerned about taking the magic of the stage show away from the kids and I sat them down to talk about it. My older daughter and I went to the show last year, and after seeing my younger daughter sit still for hours watching the Baryshnikov version on DVD, I decided she was old enough to go this year, too. So I told them both about what they would be seeing, and how it might take the illusion away that the ballet is effortless for the dancers, but they were both still interested in going. Of course.

When we got there, Lance Johnson, the marketing director, showed around the bloggers, giving them a tour of backstage and explaining how the company works. They’re moving into a new home in a short while and apparently have been very lucky with patron donations to fund it. They offer the house to disadvantaged kids on dress rehearsal night, which I thought was really nice. Heck, after seeing the great time the girls had at the rehearsal, I’m considering putting them in the Petite Partners program.

The show, of course, was wonderful. It’s amazing how many people they can pack on the stage at once, between all the adult and kid cast members. And by the way, going to one of the matinees is really, really fun. You have never in your life seen so many little girls all dressed up in their holiday finest. I guarantee.

A big thanks to Ballet Austin, David Wyatt, and Lance Johnson for putting this together. They really won over the kids, and I’m sure we’ll be attending more shows together in the future.

The last grade I’ve been waiting to hear on finally got posted tonight, with literally minutes to spare before the 11:59 p.m. deadline for instructors to turn in grades. Funny enough, the grade I got first was from the final I took last. My Interpersonal Comm final paper got turned in over two weeks ago and it just now got grades posted. Oy.

Anyway, here’s a gloat.