Ever since the Silver Fox and I visited Phoenicia and had some rosewater baklava made with kadaife instead of phyllo, I've wanted to make some of my own. I decided to do it today, but I neglected to thaw the kadaife. I left it in the fridge so it'll be ready by tomorrow. In the meantime, the rosewater and almonds are sitting on the counter, tantalizing me. I settled for a sickly piece of store bought chocolate cake instead.
Later, I did my exercises before picking up the Silver Fox for work. I was working my deltoids when I pinched my right index finger between two weights. Ouch. I concluded my upper body workout at that point and focused on my legs and abs until the Silver Fox called me, at which point I got ready to pick him up. I crashed and banged through the upstairs of my house (I closed the door to my room to prevent the stares from my dad), rushed from the house, and promptly got stuck in traffic. It took fully fifteen minutes longer than usual to arrive. Luckily, I had planned on arriving early, hence I was on time. We drove to work, where I entangled myself in a debacle involving a five-dollar bill and a lost snack machine. First, I couldn't locate the snack machine, then I couldn't decide what to eat, and then I found that it wouldn't accept fives anyway. Fuck it. I got a snack courtesy of the Silver Fox's lunch box instead.
As of this writing, I am sitting backstage at Wicked and listening to Galinda rush through "Popular." Damn it. That's such a funny bit, but the orchestra rushed through it, her delivery was terrible, and she killed it. Oh well. There are abundant YouTube videos for better viewings of the number.
The Silver Fox's son's birthday is on Saturday, so I made cupcakes for him today. I couldn't decide whether to make plain, chocolate, or filbert ones, so I made all three. I made half a dozen each full-sized cupcakes, and with the remaining batter, I made mini cupcakes to take to work next week. Naturally, I spilled cupcake batter all over the counter and floor, and I blew powdered sugar everywhere while I made the icing. The results were worthy, though.
February 3—There's a reason for rules like that.
I picked up the Silver Fox from work this afternoon and took him to his ex-wife's, where we picked up his son and took him to dinner. Sadly, his son wasn't feeling well, so dinner for him was chicken noodle soup. At least the Silver Fox and I had worthy Thundercloud sandwiches. I brought the cupcakes with me and made a terrible mess of the icing when I transferred them from one container to another. I also had a quart of milk with me for us to drink with said cupcakes. Naturally, I dribbled milk all over the table and bench. Luckily, we were sitting outside and therefore didn't get in trouble for my egregious violation of the "no outside food or drinks" rule. I guess I'm the reason for rules like that. Whatever. We dropped off the Silver Fox's son, and then I took the Silver Fox back to work. We met up again later, where I spilled tea on the kitchen counter.
February 8—Icing on the Cupcake
This morning, I dropped off the Silver Fox at work before heading to the Erwin Center for my own job. The Silver Fox thoughtfully packed a lunch for me, which I thoughtlessly left on his kitchen counter. Oh well; the Erwin Center provided food for us.
I was on audio, which was a mostly harmless and laid back gig, and yet I managed to cut myself twice while coiling cable. My left thumb had the deeper cut but didn't bleed; my left middle finger had a small nick and bled all over the place. I had no bandages and made do with a paper towel and electrical tape, which was the preferable solution anyway since bandages always slip off during work. Of course my paper towel solution slipped up as well, but whatever.
I brought all my mini cupcakes to work and left them on the table in the office with small containers of icing next to them. Not many people went for the icing, and I kept having to gripe at people to put icing on their cupcakes. I don't think it's a real cupcake without icing.
February 10—It's never going to heal.
I napped most of the afternoon and then went to the Erwin Center tonight to load out the show from the other morning. During the course of the evening, the cut on my middle finger burst open and bled onto my pant leg. *sigh*
After work, I went home and showered before heading over to the Silver Fox's. We attempted to play Scrabble, but we both started passing out about four moves in, so we set it aside after knocking tiles all over the place.
February 11—I guess Lebanon has a lot of onions in it.
After I dropped off the Silver Fox at work this morning, I went to the bank to deal with what I perceived as an error on their part: I made a deposit about a month ago which never showed up in my account, and I wanted it dealt with. Naturally, it transpired that I had accidentally deposited it into my savings account rather than checking. Oops. Anyway, I made two deposits (into the correct account) while I was there, and I spent some of that money at Half Price Books immediately afterward. I bought several international cookbooks (Indian, Japanese, German, North African, Irish, and Lebanese). The Lebanese cookbook was for the Silver Fox's benefit: He speaks highly of Lebanese cuisine, and I wanted to bring him dinner, so I put together a menu out of that cookbook and then visited the grocery store. I made stewed meat with okra, spring vegetable soup, and baklava. It was a huge fucking mess involving nearly-burnt meat, nearly-burnt onions, onion bits and phyllo bits all over the floor, but the results were worthy. Granted, my house now reeks of onions, but as I said, the results were worthy.
February 12—Candle in the Dirt
I dropped off the Silver Fox at work this morning and then bought some small speakers to go with my laptop. The Silver Fox recommended a local discount electronics store to me, but they were closed when I got there. That, plus the fact that I had my slippers on instead of high heels since heels were the only shoes I had with me, and I didn't feel like wearing heels into the store. So I went home, put sneakers on, and went to Best Buy for some speakers. I decided to test them when I got home before doing chores and taking a nap, but I abandoned the chores when it began snowing outside. The snow only last about five minutes, and it melted as soon as it hit the ground, but whatever; it snowed. I oooed and ahhed at it for a while, forgot to test my new speakers, left my clean laundry in baskets instead of folding it up, and then I rounded off my productive morning by pigging out on baklava and making cupcakes. Finally, I packed a bunch of stuff to take with me tonight since the Silver Fox and I are staying in a hotel tomorrow rather than drive all the way home. Like a few weeks ago, it's a brief respite from his roommates.
Anyway, I woke up later and went to work. I parked in the garage close to the venue and grabbed my backpack out of the back seat. I didn't notice the backpack wasn't closed, and the scented candle I'd brought with me to burn in the motel room fell out, hit the concrete, and smashed. I swore, located a trash can, and gingerly picked up the broken glass and discarded it before heading to work.
I was on props, which was easy enough at the load out. We spent a lot of time standing around, and then we got cut at four-thirty a.m. instead of six-thirty as we'd expected. At this point, this story merges with tomorrow's.
February 13—Pre-Valentine's Day Valentine's Day
The Silver Fox and I crashed until early afternoon, at which point we went to breakfast. During the course of the meal, we both scattered bits of paper from napkin rings, napkins, and straw wrappers all over our booth and the floor. No matter.
Back in our hotel room, we napped until it was time to go to dinner. We were headed to a posh place, so the Silver Fox decided to iron his shirt. I thought there was little point in doing so since he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the names of many local bands, including the unfortunate "Babydick," but whatever. I watched as he fought to set up the ironing board, forced the shirt over the edge of it, all the while grumbling about the crappiness of the ironing board. Apparently the ironing board had a vindictive streak, for it immediately collapsed. The Silver Fox decided at that point that he was done ironing. He forced the contraption back into its spot and struggled to force the iron in place. I was relieved that my own dress had been hanging in a garment bag in the closet and thusly didn't need ironing.
We arrived at Carmelo's and parked. I immediately stepped in a puddle, getting mud on my pretty pink shoe. Oh well. I was careful not to trip and faceplant on the steps. I also did not drag or snag my wrap or drop my purse. I kept my elbows off the table, used the right fork, did not gulp the wine, and only ricocheted appetizer off the plate once. I don't think anybody noticed. Regrettably, the waiter did notice me eyeing the curiously-wrapped lemon half for my fish and had to explain what it was. At least that was laughed off. Actually, it was quite cool; the wrapping around the lemon meant no lemon seeds could get into my fish. The fish was exquisite. Pricey, but exquisite.
The Silver Fox and I wrapped up dinner without disaster and left. Back at the hotel, I set up my laptop with the new speakers in a precarious arrangement on top of the luggage rack. I tangled the speakers around each other and the laptop before dropping the whole thing on the floor, at which point the Silver Fox suggested I rearrange things on top of the dresser and set up the laptop over there. We watched Casablanca and then passed out. All in all, it was quite a successful pre-Valentine's Day Valentine's Day.
February 14—The Laming of the Shrew
The Silver Fox and I checked out of our hotel this morning, which involved several trips to the car as I failed to pack everything as neatly into my suitcase as I did before leaving the house on Sunday. That means it will be a pain in the ass to unpack, and I will probably not unpack everything immediately, properly, or efficiently at all. Whatever. We staggered out of the hotel, fought traffic, and missed two turns, but I still managed to drop off the Silver Fox early. Then I drove to a nearby coffee shop, where I am currently sitting and waiting for the Silver Fox to get off work. I may give up and leave early, though, since I don't think I can stand sitting here much longer. I am sitting across from three middle-aged shrews who are gossiping and bitching about everything they can think of. They kept shooting me dirty looks earlier when I was pigging out on fries as they discussed their fat-free choices. I ignored them and played Family Guy videos to block them out. I had dashed out to the car earlier to grab my headphones after a different patron started humming along with the terrible country music playing. I tried to ignore that, but when he stood up and his shoes screeched across the floor, I knew it was time to give in and get the headphones. I'm glad I did. The women across from me, though I blocked them out first with Family Guy and then with AC/DC (That band is good for something), have such bitter faces that I don't even want to look up. They made some getting-ready-to-leave motions just now and I got my hopes up, but they're still sitting there. Bitches. They're talking about their "studios" and art making fun of the other patrons' fashion choices. This from women who all look like their wardrobes came straight from WalMart. Incidentally, the artwork they're admiring is fucking ugly. It looks like kids' artwork. I would like to observe, as I wanted to to somebody at work the other night, that paying $750 for a painting doesn't make it a good one. I told my friend Chris that, and he said if he thought he could make that kind of money off of a bad painting, he'd just slop paint onto the canvas. I pointed out that that idea had apparently already been taken. Damn.
. . . Now the bitchy women are leaving, and I'm not moving my feet so the most obnoxious one can pass. As a result, she tripped. Good.
—Later. The last of my cup of tea went cold, and all the honey settled to the bottom of it. I hate that. I was also quite sleepy, so I bought a mocha latte (no fat free bullshit) and of course tripped when I went to sit down again. Then I had to get back up to grab the mocha, which I was somewhat pleased to note had slopped over the side before I ever touched it.
The Silver Fox and I stayed in a cheap hotel again tonight. I brought my laptop and thermos with me. I set down my things and poured a mug of tea for myself, which I immediately spilled all over the bedspread. I grabbed a paper napkin I'd brought with me and tossed it onto the rapidly spreading and sinking puddle. The napkin sopped up approximately one-one thousandth of the spilled tea. The Silver Fox grabbed a towel, but that also proved ineffectual. Luckily, there were two beds in the room, so we swapped sheets. I made a point not to pour so much tea out of the thermos next time. The incident reminded me of how I used to make chocolate milk for my half brother, and my mom would tell me not to make so much, and I'd ask why since I knew he'd drink it, and she said you should never make more than you were willing to clean up when it spilled. I see that I, as the firstborn, prepared her for later children. (Having said that, my clumsiness comes from my dad's side of the family, but whatever.)
The Silver Fox was still staying in a hotel tonight, so I went over with my laptop and a couple of movies. I tried to set up my laptop and speakers on the desk against the wall, but of course the cord wouldn't reach the outlet, from which I'd had to unplug both the lamp and the TV to plug in the speakers and laptop. I located a different outlet and rearranged the furniture so I could put the laptop on a small table, and then I went to re-plug in the TV and lamp. I tried to turn on the lamp, failed to figure out the crappy switch, and shrieked when I was greeted with a bright blue flash. The Silver Fox, who'd had his back to me, asked what I'd done. Actually, I think he asked what happened, but I understood it correctly. He tried not to roll his eyes, walked over, pressed the switch, and the lamp clicked on. I stared blankly for a second and decided to move on.
February 27—No, there's not really a method to my madness. It's just madness.
As you may recall, my dad spent the summer before last replacing the windows in our house. He never properly finished the project, which is incredibly annoying: I have no windowsills nor curtains on my windows. I griped about it, and he got as far as a little patching around the windows before leaving it a mess again. This meant he'd pulled my Kurzweil away from the wall in my computer room so he could work on the windows, but he just left it rather than put it back. He told me not to replace it since he was going to finish the windows. After a few weeks of inching around the Kurzweil and fighting for desk space in my already-overcrowded room, I reasoned that he was not going to finish the windows any time soon, so I decided to put everything back this evening.
I moved the Kurzweil back first, during which process I nearly collapsed its stand three times. I spent several minutes positioning it exactly so that the closet door wouldn't hit it when opened, and then I set about rearranging stacks of books and knitting materials. I put books back in the closet without too much fuss and then filed away knitting accessories in an ammo box. During that process, the glass vase which holds all my knitting needles fell off the shelf and crashed to the floor, ricocheting off every surface along the way. Miraculously, the glass did not break, but there were needles everywhere. I blinked at the mess for a second and then gingerly leaned over and closed and locked the door before any awkward questions got asked. In the end, my computer room was back to normal, so it was worth the crisis.
I worked a load in at the Cedar Park Center today. I was on electrics, so of course I tripped over truss all day. Naturally, the steward snapped a picture of me clambering gracefully (ahem) up off the floor after I wiped out and left a bruise on my right shin. (Incidentally, when typing this up, I typed that as "right shit," nearly didn't catch it, cracked up laughing, and ruined the song the Silver Fox was listening to.)
I sat on my bedroom floor this morning while I phoned the Silver Fox. My cats heard me talking, logically assumed I was talking to them, and walked into my room. True to the graceful nature of cats, Bolie tripped on my phone charger. Later, I let Freefall out and watched as he shot across the yard and up a tree and almost fell out. Cats do indeed mold themselves to suit your personality.
In keeping with my personality, I later spilled soup in the car. I was headed to the Silver Fox's and put two small plastic containers of soup in a bag to take with me. Naturally, one was overfilled, and when I arrived, I found deep red broth staining my floor mat. Said floor mat has already had lasagna, tea, etc., spilled on it, so it didn't worry me much. I went into the house, and the Silver Fox put away the soup after cleaning it up.
Later, we sat on his bed, him at his computer playing YouTube videos and me at my laptop working on this very page. I looked up to see the Silver Fox watching me.
"I love that look on your face when you get all intense and concentrate on something," he said. "It's all glowy and beautiful."
"Actually, I was just describing how I nearly shorted myself out on the hotel lamp."
"Well, I still love the look, no matter what asinine bullshit it is."
Ah yes, this one's a keeper.
