Here are some pictures of the room we are in the midst of resheetrocking. The first is from the initial home inspection and the second is from when Mike started to tear down a section of the wall. I spent 7 hours yesterday putting a skim coat on this little room. 7 hours is an awfully long time to be skim coating. My body hurt afterward. The funny thing is that the room is quite small. Rumor has it that if you can afford to hire a taper/skimmer, s/he blows through something like this in a couple hours. Perhaps in the future that would be the best thing to do... I'll send an after picture when the room is all done.

Mike and I went into the city this weekend to eat out for his birthday. We ended up eating at Zen Palate in Union Square. When we were waiting for the check, bits of the ceiling (brick) fell onto Mike's head. Thankfully, they were bits and not huge pieces (the ceiling is 30 ft. up). Zen Palate gave us 20% off the meal; personally, I think we should have received a free meal. We moved and waited for our check at the bar. Afterward, we walked to the village and ate dessert. It was a lovely evening, and it was good to eat somewhere other than N. Westchester, where 98% of restaurants are Italian. On Sunday, I watched the film "Oldboy" -- a film by Korean director Chan-wook Park. The images in this film will stay with me forever. I recommend it if you are in the mood for "extremely disturbing." We saw Zodiac the weekend before. I'm really glad we saw that in the theatre because I think it made it more frightening. Thankfully, we are watching the Sopranos in between these disturbing films, so it's not like our "serial killer film" kick of a few years ago, where we both suffered nightmares after renting 3+ movies on serial killers accidentally. More soon...

Where the hell have I been?

The answer is. Nowhere too exciting. Actually I have been in the City quite a bit. I went in on Wednesday to get my haircut, I arrived exactly at the appointment time and they couldn't accomodate me. Now, the best part about that was that they gave me a free $20 product. And you know, I get my haircut for free as a hair model, so that worked out pretty well. Then they also guaranteed Jola and I for the styling class later that afternoon. So we spent a few hours getting our hair FABULOUSLY styled. We got $10 of more free products and then we went out to eat at a delicious and cheap Vietnamese restaurant. We talked insurance and taxes. I could go on and on here about how the tax system totally screws the middle class, but well, you already know how I feel.

Before that Mike and I went to the City to see Matt Glassman's performance at LaMama last weekend. Afterwards, we went to a hip IBM/Google party at an apt on W. 57th street. I drank a good deal of red wine. Then we stayed at the Sheraton Times Square. I was fairly happy with the hotel, even though the temp was set at 80 when we got into the room.

Last Friday I drove up and back to Ithaca to see my friend Anne's performance. And Wednesday I was in the city to see my friend Theresa's version of Antigone. Needless to say, I feel like a socialite. I also feel like I really need to buckle down and get some of the work I'm supposed to be doing DONE.

But to procrastinate just a little longer:
Here is a survey about highschool.
1. Who was your best friend? Are you still friends? Andrew. We are, but he's always travelling all over the U.S. filming stuff for A&E.
2. What sports did you play? I played soccer my freshman year. And if it weren't for the terrible pain I went through with my tight heel cords, I probably would have kept playing. I did ski though, and I miss that. Perhaps I should find a place to teach skiing next winter so I can make no money and ski all the time for free. Yeah, right.
3. What kind of car did you drive? The M.F. A 1986 Lincoln Mercury Colony Park Station Wagon. Parts would fall off and I would put them in the back. I loved it. I still miss it.
4. It's Friday night, where were you? Friday night was NQHS football. I was there, and I was not popular.
5. Were you a party animal? See #4.
6. Were you considered a flirt? Boys? I just couldn't get up the courage to talk to them and tell them I liked them.
7. Ever skip school? Well, my parents used to let me take "mental health days" where I would call in sick and actually just destress at home. My senior year I was involved in so many activities, I think I could have managed to avoid class pretty much all of the time to work on such activities. It's probably a good thing I chose to go. I'm no Max Fischer.
8. Were you a nerd? Uh, yah. See #4.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No, but once I got chewed out over stealing a pizza from the other advanced science class. The teacher for that class brought me to the dean and he yelled at us a little. And then, the next day I was in the Vice Principal's office and the dean started joking about having to "discipline" me over a pizza.
10. Can you sing the fight song? I must have blocked that out.
11. Who was your Favorite teacher? Ms. Palmer.
12. Favorite class? Bio II. I dissected a lot of things and I was part of a strict society known only as "The Table."
13. What was your school's full name? North Quincy High School.
14. School mascot? The Yakoo. It was, is, a native american figure drawn in the likeness of a local (caucasian) dentist.
15. Did you go to Prom? Yes, I did. But proms in Quincy weren't nearly as fancy as they seem to be everywhere else. I did not wear a ball gown.
16. If you could go back and do it over, would you do anything differently? So much it's hard to say where to start. Perhaps it would be better not to do it over at all.
17. What do you remember most about graduation? Feeling relieved and free.
18. Who was your high school sweetheart? I like to think that Justin Timberlake and I have something in common here. And no, my high school sweetheart wasn't Britney...
19. Where were you on senior skip day? WTF?
20. Did you have a job your Senior year? I always had summer jobs. The summer before my senior year I worked at Norwood Marine, where my boss, Mr. Roach referred to me only as "the girl" and threw away his dirty Depends in my wastebasket. My colleague, Jackie, chainsmoked, and I mean she really chainsmoked, across my desk. The summer after my senior year I worked at NYNEX (soon to be Bell Atlantic, soon to be Verizon) as a telemarketer. I have to say, I made a decent amount of money, but gave $2000 of it to my parents to pay for my college. My college was totally worth every second of people saying hateful things to me and hanging up on me.
21. Where did you go most often for lunch? I learned in college that at other schools, students could leave the "campus" during free periods and lunchtime. Not so at NQHS. You were tied so tight to the school that you couldn't even go to McDonald's across the street. And I played by the rules.
22. Have you gained weight since then? Oh my, yes. Those were the good old days when I could eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's every day and still be tiny. Now, I hardly ever by any because it's just too tempting. I am considering picking up a pint of Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. C'mon, it's Stephen Colbert and he's worth it!
23. What did you do after graduation? I don't remember, but the day after the senior prom I went to an amusement park.
24. When did you graduate high school? 1995.
25. Who was your Junior prom date? Andrew Myers. I wore an ugly blue dress. And my braces gleamed like diamonds.
26. Who was your Senior prom date? That would be Andrew Myers again.
27. Are you going to your 10 yr. class reunion? I went! And it was much more enjoyable than I would have thought. Of course, I drank a good deal of wine and told everyone how beautiful they looked as a result. Though, in truth, I think everyone did look more beautiful than they did in high school.
28. Who was your home room teacher? Originally, Mr. Gostanian, the photography teacher. Photography was probably the best thing about NQHS. No, we didn't have lacrosse teams, but we had photography damnit! Then once I was on student council and the principal's advisory committee, I had Mr. Gizzarelli for homeroom.
29. What one word would you use to describe your experience? Blech.
30. Who will repost this after you? No one I know. The only person I know who still regularly blogs posted this first.

Well, I thought since I don't have all that much to blog about, that I would include a picture to take up some space. This picture is of the cast for Uncommon Women (minus one person), the stage manager, and the assistant stage manager (the only man involved).

As for me, I have been reading this week -- about The Oresteia nonetheless. I'm trying to revise an old paper...which is not that easy. I say interesting things in the paper (well, at least they are interesting to me), but I need to find more tangible ways of saying them. I suppose when I get into actual revising (and lengthening -- the thing needs to be about 12 pages longer) I'll be having more fun. The anticipation stage is never that great.

In other news, Mike and I are planning to take the first week-long vacation we've taken since our honeymoon. Well, that's only sort of true. We did take one or two "vacations" previously, but the involved visiting people at Christmas or something. That's not the same as a vacation where two people go away to Europe together. I'm looking forward to it!