This weekend Mike and I celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday. We took him to the Red Sox v. Yankees game at Fenway on Friday. I've never been to see a Red Sox/Yankees matchup in Fenway before. If you know anything about the game, you must know that it was to say the least ... unbelievably awesome. I was jumping up and down. Everyone in the park was really. It's great when everyone stands for two innings because they're so excited, they just can't sit down. So, the game was a good birthday present for my Dad. Then on Saturday, we surprised him with a surprise party at my Aunt's. He really didn't know it was coming because his birthday is actually next weekend. So a good time was had by all.

When we came back, I took advantage of a beautiful day and worked on my garden. Ay dios, there's a lot of work to do there, but I'm determined to make it gorgeous. Otherwise everything has been the usual...a lot of reading. And now I need to start writing Chapter 2.

Greetings.

I'm out of Cadbury Cream Eggs. And I think that's a good thing. I decided that the thing I gave up for Lent was my healthy diet. Now it's back to limiting the sweets. Don't you think it's better to give things up for an entire year and then splurge on yourself during Lent? I mean, I think Jesus would feel honored. Anyway, I'm headed up to Ithaca today. As usual, I'm going to make a dangerous stop at the outlet stores. But honestly, how can I resist? They are on the way. And when I say on the way, I mean they are really on the way.

In other news, I started a Second Life identity. Her name is Eloise Carter, and I imagine her to be a presidential candidate. Of course, I like my second identities old after my experience with the Sims. And Eloise is the only "older" person I've met thus far in Second Life. She is also the most rotund person I've seen so far, and believe me, Eloise is not overweight. She looks like your average female body. Anyway, I look forward to the time when I see someone older or
fatter than Eloise.

Here's me at a Carolyn's wedding in September. Mike thinks I look like a deer caught in the headlights in this picture. Personally, I like it.

The big news is that I'm going to Athens in May. That's next month! Am I so excited? YES. Will I cry when I see the ruins? Most likely.

It's raining here. And my daffodils (planted in the fall) haven't peeked through yet. I like to pretend that this isn't a problem. Since they're white daffodils, they must bloom later, right? In the meantime, I will have a lot of planting to do this spring. I'm not so big on the tiger lilies planted in front of my house. Don't get me wrong. I like tiger lilies. It's just that the don't work in the area in front of my house -- it's mostly a blue/pink flower area. So I'll move the tiger lilies to a red/orange/pink flower area.

Enough about flowers. Not much else is going on. I've been eating a lot of Cadbury cream eggs. I'm so happy that these things only come out once a year. I've given up on Peeps now that there are versions of Peeps for every holiday. It just doesn't make them as special as they once were.

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!

I know I haven't been blogging regularly for awhile, but now that I've officially returned to dissertation wonderland, I imagine that will change. Yes, I'm now back in Westchester. And as I predicted, I am sick. I got sick right after our "second opening night" or "opening night redo" a week ago. Opening night redo went well. Then sickness. I now have all that dead skin on my nose and upper lip. What is one supposed to do with all that dead skin? And why does it seem like no one else gets the amount of dead skin that I do? Mike thought that I was blowing my nose with sandpaper. Thankfully, I can be a shut in for a little while to clear that up. I am also thankful for the fact that I no longer feel like shit. Yes, I may be coughing and blowing my nose a ton, but the worst feeling is that "ill" I might throw up at any minute but probably won't feeling that accompanies a major cold. That stage is officially over.

I also had a mole removed this week. I've never had a below the surface mole removed before and I found the process quite interesting. It was kind of like going to the dentist. You get numbed up, then the surgeon takes a number of tools to the numb area that you can't feel. The difference was the stitches. There aren't any stitches involved in a cavity.

Zip ee dee do dah.

Happy Valentine's Day (belated) all. Unfortunately, Cornell closed on Valentine's Day because of the 2 feet of snow Ithaca received, and as a result, opening night for Uncommon Women was delayed a day. But the good thing is that last night the show opened! It's good to feel that the show has opened. Mike was supposed to come to opening, but the storm came. Then, he was supposed to come tonight, but had car trouble (with the new car). My parents should be arriving tomorrow, and if Mike figures out a way to get here, so will he. Also, there is a vague possibility that Andrew might show up tomorrow. Plus, I may or may not be giving a talk before a film tomorrow. So it's like everything is up in the air. Whatever happens, tomorrow will prove to be a day of expectation and surprises. Let's hope they are all pleasant one's.

Lisa was right about the whole uploading pictures to blogger thing. They really have made it too easy to resist. This is a picture of Chris and I at Christmas a couple years ago. I bought him some fake mustaches and he was generous enough to share them. Although this wasn't my best fit as far as mustaches go, I do enjoy how the mustaches give us different personalities. Chris looks like about 50% of the men in Tennessee. The only things missing are a UT hat and slackjaw.

I'm procrastinating. I should be working on an article or something, and, in fact, I will later tonight. But for now, I will blog and post. And think about massages. Ohhh...massages. As you may have guessed, I've managed to catch up on Ugly Betty (except for tonight's episode which I will watch as soon as it is available). I did get kind of sick of it, but at the same time I crave it. And this craving will have to stop soon, or I will never get anything done. When I go back to Westchester, I'll have to plan a major gym trip for Thursday night so I can experience both UB and Grey's Anatomy as I change my fat into muscle. Speaking of that, I'm trying to attend more fitness classes while I'm here at Cornell. And the difficult thing is that the one's I want to go to are all during my rehearsal. That's not entirely true, but it does make for a good excuse. Tomorrow I have no excuse, and therefore I'm considering attending two.

Why does ABC put all its shows online? I've become addicted to them. Originally, I was using the excuse that I could watch them to figure out things with Uncommon Women. But now, there is no excuse. The whole season of Ugly Betty is online. To be honest, I don't think the shows are all THAT good. They're not as good as Arrested Development or The Sopranos for instance. And yet, I watch them when I should be busy doing other things. Oh the shame.

Other than watching tv, I've been in rehearsal/meetings, etc. Mike visited this past weekend and we tried to figure out what to do in Ithaca in January when there is no house to work on. Really...it's movies or nothing. So we saw Volver. An excellent Almodovar film - though I liked Habla con Ella and Mala Educacion better. Volver was more on a realistic track -- not as wild as Almodovar can be. Still it was excellent and surprising. I recommend it.

I still really want to see Inland Empire. But it's not playing here and it wasn't playing anywhere near us in the WC. Perhaps it will come to Ithaca soon?

Here I am in Ithaca.


In case you were wondering, yes, it is snowing. But I have to say that it its a lovely snow. There are some good things about being back in Ithaca. First of all, there is Wegman's -- the supermarket. In case you didn't know, Wegman's got 3rd best company to work for this year. And why did it get it? Because Wegman's is a supermarket experience beyond all other supermarket experiences. You don't believe it until you live in Ithaca (or near another Wegman's) and you actually want to go food shopping. It's simply a beautiful supermarket. Plus, at the moment, I don't really feel "cut off." Or at least since I'm not staying here for a super long period of time, I don't feel the dearth of shopping opportunity.

At Cornell, this week is the first week of the Spring term. I arrived last week to begin directing Uncommon Women and Others. So far the experience has been wonderful. I'm really enjoying directing a play with all women. Yes, of course, I enjoy directing men too, but there is something special about directing a Wendy Wasserstein play with this cast and at this time in my life.

Until later...

Hello folks,

I've been busy traveling around. We went to Massachusetts for Christmas, which was nice. And Mike took the rest of the week off, so we actually got to spend some time together, which was even nicer. We spent some of that time drywalling the small bedroom upstairs. I think drywalling is one of those things where you doing know how it has turned out until it's completely done. So I really can't say yet how it's going. What I will say is that we found some newspaper dated 1993 underneath the old drywall -- meaning that they last drywalled in 93. Now for those of you who know anything about drywall, and those of you who don't, you probably have figured out that a good drywalling job lasts A LOT longer than that. Sigh. We actually discovered that the top half of the wall was plaster and the bottom half was drywall. Go figure.

Here's a little meme, if you will, that my friend Anne sent me. I sent it back to her with my answers and later thought, "hey, I'm supposed to be working on my dissertation, but I think I'll post that e-mail on my blog." So here goes.

Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends
1) Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate baby!
2) Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa enjoys wrapping presents. Santa even used to wrap presents for herself from Santa at a young age (though post-believing in Santa age).
3) Colored or white lights on tree/house? White lights only. After all, I'm from New England.
4) Do you hang mistletoe? Some day I will, when I have $40 to spend on a kissing ball.
5) When do you put your decorations up? We bought our first ever Shea-Guillorn Christmas tree Sunday!
6) What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? I eat only dessert at the holidays, so I really don't know how to answer...
7) Favorite holiday memory as a child: We were decorating our tree for the year, and the tree-topping angel my parents had since they were married was getting really delapidated. I think her head fell off. But we couldn't find a new angel anywhere that was nice, and we are pro-angel, anti-star. My Mom worked as a service rep for Verizon (then New England Telephone). She was the person you would call if you had problems with your home phone. So a lot of people called her really when they were furious. This one guy called her, and was angry at her for his phone being out of service. Then she fixed everything for him. He came into the office the following day to bring something to her because she was so nice to him,and to apologize for being mean at first. The people at work joked that he brought her a bomb -- he was that bad. When she opened the gift it was a Christmas angel -- a very beautiful Christmas angel. And the angel has been at the top of their tree ever since.
8) When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? My parents told me in a mall (the South Shore Plaza) because when I was eight, I asked. They thought I already knew. But I didn't. And I cried.
9) Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes! One gift! When I was younger, I would look across the street and smile pleasantly at my friend Siggy's house, knowing that she was opening her presents on Christmas Eve (a German tradition). I never wanted to open mine on Christmas Eve, but it was a nice thought before going to bed.
10) How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? With all kinds of Christmas ornaments. I especially like one's that were gifts from people because they have more meaning.
11) Snow! Love it or dread it? On Christmas I love it!
12) Can you ice skate? I used to be pretty good. Now I'm sure I would be a disaster.
13) Do you remember your favorite gift? My bunny, Black Beauty.
14) What is the most important thing about the holidays for you? Spending time with family.
15) What is your favorite holiday dessert? Assortments of cookies.
16) What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going to my aunt and uncle's for Christmas Eve dinner.
17) What tops your tree? We don't have a treetopper...yet...
18) Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Oh come on. Everyone likes both.
19) What is your favorite Christmas song? Either"God Rest You Merry Gentlemen" by anyone or "BlueChristmas" by Elvis.
20) Candy canes! Yuck or yum? Yum!

A Friday Five for Friday!

Too much of the bickering
1. Last person you told to shut up:
OK, I'm pretty sure that would be Mike, probably when he was teasing me last night.

2. Do you drink wine?
If I could, I would drink wine all the time. I simply find it delectable. Especially in red. But most of the time, I drink water, cranberry juice, orange juice, and tea, because it is so much more affordable.

3. Ever fly on a plane?
Yes. Indeed. Very much so. I flew on one last month -- going to Chicago, city of a bad transit system.

4. Do you yell at your friends?
No.

5. What have you quit?
I've quit eating dessert everyday. I've quit caffeine -- that was probably the biggest challenge, and I quit it cold, because I had to.

6. What things does bicker rhyme with?
Wicker
Sticker
Flicker
Nose-Picker
Ticker
Kicker
Licker
Knicker
Quicker
Snicker
Tricker

There is nothing like a week without travel. And damnit, that will be next week. I'm looking forward to remaining at home, actually working on my dissertation, finishing painting the living room, and maybe actually getting back to walking dogs at the dog shelter. I didn't mention the gym and my attachment to Law & Order SVU while on an orbiter, but that's definitely in the mix too.

This weekend Mike and I began to paint the trim in the living room. Last weekend we painted the walls. I can't tell you how relieved I feel now that the living room is painted. It was absolutely disgusting before -- marks on the walls, gum! on the walls -- just gross. And now, despite the fact that we hate the walls, it's shaping up to actually be something not ugly. With a few tasteful Christmas decorations, it might even have rustic farmhouse charm. We'll see.

I also believe that a trip to Danbury to go to Trader Joe's is in my future. There is just nothing like food shopping at Trader Joe's in Connecticut. The price is unbeatable, and yes, I definitely think it's worth it to travel all that way even though gas prices are expensive. Incidentally, that is one thing I'm definitely enjoying about the Civic. It costs me $25 to fill up the tank, and that's NY prices!!! I feel like I save money every time I travel because the Camry cost between $40 and $50 and had to be filled up more often. Ahhh...the joy of little cars.

Wait while I twist your fate
1. What is your nearest lake or river?
The Croton reservoir -- I'm assuming that counts; it's off the Hudson, and it provides water for New York City.
2. Do you believe in heaven?
Yes. But I don't believe that one conception of heaven is true above all others.
3. What's your lucky number?
nueve
4. Ever know anyone who appeared on a game show?
I feel like I did. But I think I'm making that up. I always wanted to be on Family Feud with my grandma.
5. Charades: good times or lame?
Depends on who you are playing with, and whether or not you are successful at getting people to guess "Karl Rove."

Chicago again??

That is where I'm headed tomorrow. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, both the conferences I attend are in Chicago this year. Why? Probably because it's a good central place for people to get to in the U.S. I certainly don't mind going...it's a lot better than other conference places, but I'd like to separate the going by a year or so at least. Oh well. The next one is in New Orleans. Yippeee! In August! Boooooo!

I'll return this Sunday to NYC, and I'm going to try to stay in the city until Mike's gig at 9p.m. What I will do wandering around the city on a Sunday with my suitcase in tow is beyond me. But I'm sure I'll find something fun. Perhaps I will begin the Christmas shopping. It's got to start sometime...right?

This past weekend I went up to Western MA to Double Edge Theatre to see their new production. I'm really excited about it because a lot of the imagery fits in so nicely with my dissertation topic. Speaking of dissertation topic -- I wrote my first two pages of my dissertation today. You may not realize this, but it is a very big step to go from reading to writing. I didn't realize it until I got into that in between reading and writing period. It's awfully strange. Perhaps the many writings on liminality have actually stemmed from the author's own feeling of in-betweenness when writing.

Finally, I should mention that, as many of you have guessed, I am simply ecstatic about the elections! I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted...so great a weight that I am willing to change the name of this blog. But I have yet to figure out what to change it to. If anybody is actually reading out there, I will take your suggestions now...

I voted!

Guess who is the owner of a brand new Honda Civic LX? That's right. Mike and I purchased the car last weekend, and I've already taken it on its first trip to Ithaca. One would think I would be really excited about this, but I'm only sort of excited. I was a little disappointed that the Camry didn't last 200,000 miles (it was becoming far more expensive to repair it as opposed to buying a new car). So anyway, I'm getting over that disappointment and moving onto new car excitement. It's really fun to drive a car that has a digital speedometer, a radio that works well, and cupholders that hold cups bigger than soda cans. I will also be fun *knock on wood* not to have to pay for repairs for awhile!!!!!!!

In the spirit of owning a new car, I will do a Friday Five about Halloween.

Scary Spice

1. What's your favorite candy:
I'm going to assume that they mean cheap candy here, and not Godiva Chocolate. In that case, I think I would have to go for Kit Kats. There is something just so delectable about eating the chocolate off the sides and then eating them. I also enjoy Milky Ways, 100 Grand, Peppermint Patties and of course, the classic M&M's. Just the other day I was craving my favorite of all -- the Cadbury Cream Egg. But that's not so much a Halloween candy, unfortunately.

2. What's the best scary movie?
The scariest movie is The Ring. Oh, I get chills just thinking about it.

3. Do you like to be alone at home?
Sure. I prefer to be with people most of the time though.

4. Pumpkin pie: eat it or throw it?
EAT.

5. The most distasteful Halloween costume you can think of:
Sorority girls often dress up as things just to look slutty. Some guys in the theater department at Cornell decided to make fun of them by dressing up like a sorority girl dressing up as something slutty. That was pretty funny.