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Wednesday, 31 December 2008 (the closing of the year) 5:07am I don't have to set the (external) alarm anymore. My body knows to wake up around five. 2:46pm Worked with Raphaela for an hour last night, for the first time since the Friday before xmas. We'd originally had an appointment for Monday of last week, but she had to cancel due to illness, which was just as well since I was going to drive to Fresno that night anyway. And she didn't get in until Monday of this week, so I figured I wouldn't see her until this Friday, but she had Tuesday afternoon available, so I leapt at that. Because, you know, if I go more than a week and a half without seeing her, then everything I've worked for these past five months (five months!) will be undone. Yep. I'm having dinner with Bunny tonight at Nirvana in the Castro, and then we're going to Ask Dr. Hal, my first time at the new location. I reckon my chances of getting a midnight kiss to be about forty percent. Dare to dream! sometime after midnight Of course, a forty percent chance of Win means a sixty percent chance of Fail. | ||
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 (borrowing time) 12:31pm While on a shopping trip to Target last night (looking for a a new, non-pneumonia spewing vacuum and a dishrack which won't double as a mold farm), I ran into Rimma. We continued our shopping trip together, including a jaunt into Hot Topic, where I discovered that while their XL skirts fit me now, they're still waaaay too short. Alas. Rimma suggested that we go get my ears pierced, and I while I considered it, I decided not to. The thing is, I still don't want my ears pierced. I probably should, and would no doubt help people with the whole "figuring out my gender thing" which is so mysterious otherwise, but meh. It's just not something I want to deal with right now. My body has enough holes as it is. From there, we had dinner at Nippon Sushi in Pacifica, the first time I've been since I stopped doing the animal products thing. I'm sure a few slipped in, especially in whatever they used in the tempura inexplicably included in the vegetables don. That, combined with the tempura sauce, made me realize how low my tolerance has gotten for sugary/fatty things. Well, tolerance isn't the right word, exactly. Mostly, they just taste weird and unpleasant to me now. Which is a good thing, I think. Rimma is moving to New York next week, so getting to hang out with her was perfect. She's been wanting to move to New York, and she's been making be promise to visit her there for at least as long. Which I intend to. It's rather pathetic that I've never been before. Vash and I had intended to do so, and early in our relationship we'd planned on getting inappropriate with each other on the Staten Island Ferry, but like so many things, it wasn't to be. | ||
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Monday, 29 December 2008 (one more drifter in the snow) 9:11am Last night was one of our lowest turnouts for Bad Movie Night all year long, a mere four paying customers. Turns out nobody really gives a damn about The Perfect Holiday. It was okay, though. The people who did show up were new and had a good time, and Bunny came and sat next to me because she was in a bad mood and needed to be cheered up. That was nice. | ||
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Sunday, 28 December 2008 (this is how it goes) 5:30pm Tyrol didn't do his spin class yesterday afternoon, something I'm glad I noticed on the chalkboard when I went to the gym that morning. Gave me a bit more time to work on the apartment in the afternoon. Ever done that thing where you think you've emptied the vacuum, then when you try to start it up again, it billows dust all over your apartment like it's Oklahoma in 1936? Fun! I made it halfway to the gym this morning before I realized that I'd left my preferred towel at home, and all the way there before I realized I'd left my regular glasses at home. A rather ignominious start to the day, but it's gotten better. Last night at Valencia Whole Foods, I ran into a girl I've talked to a couple times at the gym. She came up to me, actually, and she's usually started the conversations at the gym as well. I've always thought she's rather cute, falling into that Vash/Ripley archetype I seem so fond of. We chatted awkwardly, me veering dangerously into Annie Hall territory as I often will in these situations. I finally worked up the courage—because I'm only thirty-five and half, so I have to work up my courage for such things—to ask her if she'd like to get coffee sometime. She said she would, because of course she's going to say that out of politeness, and I gave her my email address, continuing to babble like a schmuck. I didn't get her contact info, so the ball's in her court now. | ||
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 (pavlov's bell) 8:44am Vacation's over. Back on the wheel. 9:02am Holding steady at 186. Go me. 11:35am While I'm very happy to have missed the whole office secret santa holiday party shindig this week, I'm even happier about what my anonymous gifter gave me, no doubt having working from my Amazon wishlist: a phaser. Most awesomest xmas present ever. 7:41pm I brought my phaser to the final night of Star Wars at The Dark Room, and people keep telling me that it's the wrong show. Feh, says I. Phasers are never inappropriate. 11:52pm Even though her husband was in the play (and her being married at all makes her unavailable), Leni still gets me melty. I'm just glad she likes me as a friend, and that we get to be friends at all. It doesn't always work that way. | ||
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Friday, 26 December 2008 (lost in space) 1:59pm About to drive home on this beautiful, post-storm day. I think it'll be nice. 5:31pm Home now. Thre drive took three hours and fifteen minutes, a hundred and ninety-five miles from my mom's door to my own. Perdita slept most of the time, because she's awesome. | ||
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Thursday, 25 December 2008 (old and used) 11:07am See, it's like this: last year on xmas morning, after having promised to spend the day with me, Vash went away. That hurt, a lot, and was symptomatic of the fact that were in the final days of our relationship. (you used to hold my hand when the plane took off) I'm not seeing anyone right now so of course there was no chance of that being repeated, but I didn't want to be alone on xmas morning again, intentionally or otherwise. And I'm not. 7:23pm Slight christmas night temptation, a potential for future misdeed. Revisiting a past one, anyway. Considered, strongly, and decided not to. I'm just not ready to steal back to the dark end of that particular street, is all. | ||
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Wednesday, 24 December 2008 (trying to divine you) 10:56pm Hung out with Barefoot this afternoon, and went to an unexpected Italian dinner with Jonco, my mom and her boyfriend. Afterward, Jonco and I drove down Huntington Blvd., and went to Livingstone's. Had my first Bloody Mary in months, which, along with the pasta I had for dinner—vegetarian, at least, but heavier than I normally eat—confused my body. It's just not used to such things these days. My mother agreed with me wholeheartedly when I commented on the pagan nature of the decorated tree in her house, and she said that as far as she's concerned she's celebrating Solstice, not xmas. It's times like this that I'm damned proud to be her daughter. A better xmas so far than the last few, to be sure. And, I just now stumbled across Sister Dana Van Iquity's review of SNOWMISER in the December 18, 2008 issue of the San Francisco Bay Times. I'm only mentioned once, which is reasonable since I'm not the star of the show, but it's a good mention: The premise is this: imagine Walken (Sean Owens doing a flawless CW imitation in voice and mannerisms) preparing to publish his biography and doing a magazine piece for a hack writer (the punkish Sherilyn Connelly with a wry Rosalind Russell wit), retelling his memories of having voiced small parts in the Rankin/Bass holiday cartoons...I'm going to take the liberty of concluding that Dana's specifcally referencing Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, which is one of the fastest, sharpest comedies ever made. Thanks, Sister! sometime after midnight I don't know where she is tonight, who she's with or what she's doing, but I hope she's safe and happy. It's all I ever wanted for her. | ||
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Tuesday, 23 December 2008 (winter collage) 5:11pm The thrift stores in downtown Fresno rock. Always have, probably always will. Astrid and I used to go thrifting at the downtown stores in the early nineties when we both still lived here, and it's remained a regular part of the pilgrimmage. (I'm not sure exactly when it was, but I seem to recall Vash and I going with Shandon sometime in the last few years.) I've generally had best luck at the the Disabled American Veterans Thrift Store at Van Ness and Mono, and today was no different. Left with three skirts (two of which are plaid, and one of those is pleated), a nice black blouse, a dress, and Spalding Gray's Life Interrupted and Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor for under thirty bucks. Yay for good timing. It also helps that, unlike thrift stores in San Francisco, the ones in Fresno don't get picked clean by hipster scum until I come to town. Haven't gotten much work done today—I need to make a bunch of edits to the Dark Room's site, not to mention the Femmethology contributor's Q&A as well as a blurb for "In the Shadow of the Valley" which the editors can use in tranny-oriented promotion, I need to convert "The Last Snowstorm of the Year" and my AIRspace piece into PDFs and put them on my essays page, the writer's colony application deadlines are going to be here before I know it, my diary entry about that one weekend in November is only half-finished, and wasn't I writing a book?—but, hey, I'm on vacation. | ||
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Monday, 22 December 2008 (sweet ghost of light) 2:41pm Puzzling Evidence has posted a video of the big SNOWMISER finale on Saturday, minus the curtain call. On the one hand it's kinda lacking context, since it's the moment of the big third-act plot twist and the point at which my performance switches gears, and on the other hand it hardly matters because it's a surreal show no matter where you start watching. This particular dialogue between Sean and I is the one part of the we never properly scripted. I think it was a little better on Friday's show, but this one's pretty good, too, and I'm stupidly proud of myself for reconjugating "not normal" into "abnormal" two seconds after Sean said it. Grammar is fun. All I'll say for my singing is that I'm in the correct key and I hit my cues, which is remarkable in and of itself since the pianist was completely unpredictable by this point. I wish I hadn't forgotten to wear my scarf, though. Even I think I'm wearing too much black. 10:22pm Woman driving, cat sleeping. | ||
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Sunday, 21 December 2008 (exhalation) 5:34pm Though our timing was a little off because the pianist evidently thought he was playing a different show, the final night of SNOWMISER was great. Full house, terrific response. When you're putting a show together you never know how people are going to react, particularly one as surreal as ours. But the audience loved it. Go us. Since there were a lot of kids in the audience for Star Wars, not to mention certain older people who frown on blue material, it was decided not to show the trailer for SNOWMISER before Star Wars. Instead, with about three minutes of prep time, I went onstage and pimped the show as best as I could. Dunno if I convinced anyone to stick around see our show, but it was worth a shot. And, speaking of such things (sorta), I only now discovered that Puzzling Evidence posted a video of me reading on the final night of Working for the Weakened back in September. Ye gods, I look fat. Still, though, I was getting a lot of love from the audience. 11:33pm Their house is tricked out with xmas lights and a tree and such, which means they're staying in town, which makes me all the happier that I'm leaving town tomorrow night. | ||
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