Vinyl Savants

To anyone that knows him, it’s clear that Eric collects Transformers. We’re talking an amazing collection that numbers in the thousands. I have been known, in my time, to have a few random action figures – usually (ok, always) the female of the series. (April O’Neil, Leia, Tila, Princess Peach, etc, etc, etc..)

So it should come as no surprise that we’ve started a wee collection of vinyl toys…

This, our pride and joy, is apparently Black Daruma, one of the rarest characters in the (we think now discontinued) Cannibal Funfair series.

This, my first vinyl, is Cloak – also of the Cannibal Funfair series.

Our other collectibles so far – Cactus Pups (now available in Borders, apparently), KidRobot, and Rolling Stock (the three animals in train cars.)

Well, if you’re into vinyl, one of the biggest names you’ll hear is Dunny. (See previous blog about rotofugi.) This very evening was the release of the 2009 Dunny series, and so we joined other vinyl-heads at rotofugi to celebrate and to get our hands on the new guys. These little guys, like many vinyls, come blindboxed so you don’t know until you open the box and the bag inside which character you’re getting.

Eric and I… got the exact same dudes. (See below) But it’s fine, because he’s adorable.

 

I also took a shot on a Dunny series 5, and got the above toy, which delighted me. As he is pink, and I like pink.

Eric initiated us into a whole new series – Heroes and Heartbreakers – with this little darling. Please note: the wheels on the skates DO move.

And, I have a brand new project – a do it yourself Munny. I’m not going to touch him until I have a really solid idea what I want to turn him into, but think of the possibilities…

It’s silly, but it’s fun. Everyone needs a hobby, right?

Wisdom teeth – in closing

FYI – Not dry sockets, after all. Merely a case of hyper-tenderness due to the extreme trauma of taking out the upper right tooth, which from all accounts was something like coal mining. Sheesh.

But, I’m glad it’s almost over. My swelling has gone way down and I’m only blessed with a bit of nasty yellow bruising. Holler. Two more days of Amoxicillian and I’m home free.

Wisdom teeth – I quit.

I quit.

I have a dry socket.

Which causes even MORE complications.

A. I cannot take another second of PTO this year – even though dry socket treatment is a gauze pad stuffed in the wound for 48 hours. Um. I’m a receptionist. CRAP.

B. I have to somehow figure out how to be at both a dentist appointment AND at the airport to pick up Aleisha at the same time tomorrow.

God, I just quit.

Wisdom Teeth – aftermath

In later years, when asked to look back on the whole “having your wisdom teeth taken out” thing, I think what I will most recall is the drooling. They don’t tell you how much drooling you will do. But you do. Quite a bit.

At 4pm on Friday, I walked into Armitage Oral Surgery in Chicago and had my wisdom teeth taken out.

I was super-nervous, having never undergone any form of surgery or anesthesia or anything of the kind.  I’ve never even broken a bone or had a cavity. The most intense medical experiences of my life have been mono and having my two baby canine teeth pulled in 2nd grade to make way for the adult ones. Traumatic, yes? But it was a local anesthesia and I vividly remember it, even all these years later.

Eric went with me, as my responsible adult. (Thats love, I tell ya.)

In the weeks leading up to this, I had heard all kinds of stories from people/friends about their personal experiences. Eric was back to work the next day. My Mom was out for an entire week. My friend Cheryl went to the mall the next day. Brent’s mom had to carry him to the car. Bob passed out by the pool. But, the thing these stories all contain is that anesthesia rocks. And it does. Oh, does it ever.

At 4pm, Dr. Katabi’s assistant (I wish I remembered her name) took me into the room, sat me in a chair, put a blood pressure monitor on me, and a moment later Dr. Katabi came in the room, stuck a needle in my hand and – Apparently an hour later on the nose – I awoke, and the procedure was done.

Seriously, I remember nothing.

After the assistant gave us some instructions, we were loaded in a cab and hauled home, where I proceeded to cry a little bit (I think from all the built up anxiety) and then, high on pain meds, lay on the couch for the next 3 days.

In fact, today is Monday, and I’ve taken the day off work to continue laying on the couch – after waking up at 5am with the feeling that someone hit me in the side of the face with a hammer.

To summarize – my top left tooth was already out of the gum, both bottom teeth were impacted, and the top right tooth was so impacted it was almost in the sinus.  So, in order to get the top right tooth out, my mouth had to be pulled really wide, so at present the right corner of my mouth is cut up. I look a little like the Joker, but hey – it’s an earned battle scar. (You can’t really see it in the pic below, but you can see the swelling. I’m not vain enough to think this isn’t worth documenting.)

At present, I am feeling fine though I’m swollen and the top right tooth area is still aching.

I spent the weekend on the couch and in bed, accompanied by two adorable and loyal lap cats and tended to by Eric, who makes fantastic cheesey mashed potatoes and has served up all the cream of wheat and Panera cheese soup I desired. He’s a keeper, this one. I watched all kinds of TV and movies (If you haven’t seen “Fanboys,” you probably should.) and slept on and off the whole time in between icing my face. 

I can’t say enough about how great the staff at Armitage Oral Surgery was.  I was referred to them by my dentists office, and would pay it forward to anyone needing a professional, friendly staff and a super clean, modern office.

If you’ll excuse me, my Hydrocodone and I have a date.

Wisdom teeth – Today’s the day!

Well, it’s 1:37 Central time, and at 4:00 today I will be getting my wisdom teeth removed.

I’m armed with tomato soup, cream of wheat, and pudding.

And two prescriptions – a pain med and an anti-biotic.

So, as I anticipate a few days of drooly swelliness, I’ll see you on the flip side.

Happy Weekend!

Wisdom Teeth – It begins

On Friday afternoon, all four of my wisdom teeth are coming out.

It should have happened over a year ago, but I’m a dental-phobe and, let’s be honest, what sounds less fun than having oral surgery, you know?

I’m actually sort of getting excited, if you can believe it? While they’re not a source of constant pain and annoyance, every couple months they drive me insane for a few days – so it’ll be nice to get them done once and for all.

All four of the little buggers, gone!

(The teeth above are not my teeth, btw. I found them on google. Because you can find anything on google.)

Miss the Mountains

“I miss the Mountains/I miss the dizzy heights/All the manic, magic days and dark, depressing nights.”

In the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical Next to Normal, a bi-polar housewife on meds laments the loss of the ups and downs and craziness of her earlier, unmedicated life in the song “I miss the Mountains.”

I’m taking a serious break from theatre.

In fact, I’m gonna go as far as calling it my retirement.

And, I don’t think – despite all the heights and magic of the past 20-some years of my life – I’m going to miss it.

I started in theatre at the age of 5 on a whim and dove head-first into non-stop theatre when I was in the 6th grade. There really hasn’t been a break since, save for one year where I was immensely discouraged after 3 productions with an asshole director – who was also a drunk, and cast himself in leads, and tried to seduce his leading ladies, and just put a terrible taste in my mouth for the art form. I’ve always worked really super hard at theatre – rehearsals, classes, reading about it, reading news about it, listening to cast albums, seeing shows, etc.. it goes on and on. Theatre was life. Life became theatre. It wasn’t uncommon for me to be working on 2 or 3 shows at a time.

Some of the best times of my life were onstage or backstage. I’ll never forget shows like Into the Woods, Radium Girls, 4.48 Psychosis, The Fantasticks, and The Mikado. Some of the best friends I have come from theatre – Bob, Brent, Dan, Mal, Betsy, heck without theatre I wouldn’t even have Eric.

I’ve seen amazing things and been part of amazing things, and I’m grateful for all that.

Really.

I moved to Chicago five years ago and started POC and things grew and grew and then - around a year ago, the joy went away. The joy theatre used to give me no longer outweighed the incredible amounts of hard work that went into it anymore.  I dreaded opening my inbox because something else was going wrong/needed me to deal with it. The endless rehearsal and commuting to rehearsal, not seeing friends who weren’t in shows with me, the fickleness of a great deal of theatre people, the selfishness of a whole different chunk, the flakiness of people and having to pick up their pieces, and the pure, slogging, hard work participating in theatre has become don’t make it that worthwhile anymore.

And, its being consistently proven, each time I think I’m wrong – Something else happens to make me more frustrated. (Just yesterday, in fact, it happened again, in fact.)

It’s even to the point where I don’t really enjoy seeing theatre anymore. Most of the time, since I know someone in the show, it feels like an obligation, and the rest of the time I’m just.. not there. (There have been recent exceptions – I thoroughly enjoyed the national tour of “Spring Awakening” and Hubris Productions “Bent.”)

Simply, it doesn’t make me happy anymore.

Frankly, it makes me unhappy.  And super angry, too.

I hope I’m wrong about all this.

Maybe someday I’ll emerge like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, inspired again and ready to make some art. If another “Radium Girls” rolls around, I can’t say I’ll turn it down, but it would need to be something incredibly special to outweigh the huge amounts of work I’m smart enough to know go along with production – as an actor or as a director.

Or maybe I won’t emerge.

Maybe it ends here.

Regardless, it’s been a hell of a ride.

I’ve just reached the end of it.

[In the interest of disclosure, I will be serving as Artistic Director of Rascal Children's Theater for the 2009/2010 season. It's a purely administrative position, and involves only people I enjoy working with, so I think it'll be okay. My experiences with Rascal have only been positive. At the end of the season, next May, I will pass the position along to someone else. Done and Done.]

Bottled up.

I feel really bottled up lately – like there’s a million emotions ready to explode, like I’m some shaken diet coke 2-liter someone’s getting ready to twist the top off of.

In addition to work (which I don’t even want to talk about anymore), I just feel overwhelmed by a million things.

Grad school.

Paying for grad school.

The iminent wisdom teeth removal thats happending, and how to pay for that.

Diet and exercise, or my complete inability to motivate myself to do either.

Money.

Work (which, though I’m glossing over it, is a HUGE part of all this. I just don’t have the skills to try and find something better at this point.) 

I don’t want to do anything or go anywhere, so I’d much rather retreat to the apartment and hide.

My former oasis, Theatre, is not inspiring anymore. It’s officially reached the point of being a chore. I just don’t care. Being a part of it, seeing it, it all just sounds like work. I’ve seen a bunch of shows over the past few weeks and though none of them have been awful, they all wound up as things I had to do rather than things I wanted to do. It’s not special anymore. It’s an obligation.

["Nervous-Boy" is the perfect show right now, as performances are only on Mondays, I love the script, and the cast are hilarious people I don't mind spending 2 hours with. I don't know if I could handle a full run of any show right now.]

I think – in all seriousness – this is my quarterlife crisis.

Granted, I’m 27 – but I’ve always been a late bloomer.

Having a down day.

Jamie

what do you hope is true?

(Blatantly stolen from White Hot Truth: what do you hope is true?)

I hope it’s true that:

+King Arthur will rise again when England needs him most.

+The recession has changed American’s views on excess and consumerism – and that we can leave behind some of our artificial pleasure from attaining material things and replace them with things like friendship, communication, and laughter.

+This new planned revival of “A Little Night Music” will make it to Broadway. (Since the last few attempts have faltered…and vanished.)

+I’d be a good teacher.

+”Everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end.”

Mavis and Tom in Chicago recap!

My Mom and Tom came to Chicago last weekend – for no real reason other than to play in the big city (and to attend the Ravenswood Run, the first time they’ve ever seen me run – I really think that most people from “back home” don’t believe I actually run.) It was a lovely visit, despite Chicago’s apparent new mantra of “Let’s rain ALL THE TIME!”

First, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. I had never been there, and was totally impressed with the sheer size and scope of it. The U-505 exhibit was absolutely grand, as was the model city of Chicago. Mom and Tom, of course, found solace in the Farm exhibit. Just like home.

Next, we made our way to the Lincoln Park Zoo to check out the natives.

Bright and early Sunday morning, they accompanied Bob, Eric, and I to the Ravenswood run, which was actually a brief reprieve from rain.

 

We all ran really good times – and then went to Golden Nugget for some post-race breakfast mayhem (waffles, etc) where it of course rained again.

All in all, it was a great weekend and I’m really glad they came.  Apparently my parents cannot come to Chicago in nice weather though. Its always either raining, snowing, or ten million oppressive degrees. Ah well, one of these days we’ll get it right.