Nonsensical

I am not, in general, a fan of poetry. I don't really get the symbolism. I like to be told outright "this is what I'm saying."

But, I like this poem. Specifically, I like reading it out loud. The rhythm and sounds are lovely! They make me want to make up a crazy little dance, or a slap game, or jump rope routine like we did in elementary school... maybe that's the point of this poem. That's what I get from it anyway...

The Symbolic Poem
by Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese

< > !* ' ' #
^ " ` $$-
!*=@$_
%*< > ~ #4
&[ ]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

When read aloud, it says:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

(A poll conducted among readers of InFocus magazine, where it was originally published, established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters, though some held out resolutely for "norkie".)

A Plea to Drivers

The last couple of months while driving, I've nearly been creamed by other cars at least once a week. It's starting to make me afraid to drive! SUVs, sedans, trucks -- none of them seem to see my little red car. They like to merge into my lane while I'm still in it and they haven't passed me, yet, or pull out of their parking space while I'm driving up behind them. Yesterday it happened while my mom was with me, so I know I'm not just imagining things.

It's a good thing I'm paying attention and have managed to avoid disaster thus far, but I start to wonder: is it me, or is it all them? I generally avoid talking on the phone while driving, but I am not always 100% successful (I am very aware that my driving skills suck when I'm on the phone). Sometimes when I sing I stop noticing exactly where I am, though I try at least to always notice where the other cars are in proximity to me. And if I start to get mad when someone drives like a jerk, it takes a minute to remind myself I've probably done the same thing to someone else.

So, I'm not saying AT ALL that I'm a perfect or even a great driver, but it bothers me how casually people act when operating a 20000 ton vehicle/weapon. Really, you have to pay attention every minute. I keep hearing stories of little kids being run over in the driveway and drunk drivers who hit and kill passengers in other cars but aren't injured themselves. I generally like to drive, but I think I've used my horn more in the last few months than I have in the whole rest of my 13 years of driving, and the recipients still don't acknowledge me! They just keep doing whatever it is they're doing!! My nerves are shot.

Don't even get me started on road rage.

Please people, pay attention**! Even when you're not on your cell phones (though you usually are) you're still doing stupid things! What is the priority here? I'm sorry if you forgot to get into the right lane in time to catch your exit, but it is probably more convenient to just go to the next exit than risk getting in an accident.

If you'll all promise to drive more defensively, I promise to continue to try to improve, too. Driving is a privilege and a responsibility. Please take it seriously.

**Directed to the general public, not any of my friends specifically, unless you've almost run into any little blonde drivers in little red cars lately.

A "Popular" Play

I got to see Wicked last night and it was wonderful! I decided to drive downtown a bit early so I could find a somewhat nearby parking space and grab some dinner before the play. Of course, everyone else had the same idea, so the wait at the Olive Garden was ridiculous. I ended up grabbing some minestrone salad and soup to go and just eating it outside the restaurant. It was such a lovely, warm, breezy day I was grateful to spend a few minutes in it! I ended up not eating the salad which meant I had to walk it back to my car. That's okay; it was another excuse to stay outside as long as possible.

Since I didn't want to have to stop at home between work and the play, I wore my dress and pretty new peep-toe shoes all day. This meant that walking back to the car with my leftovers was a bit torturous as I was starting to get blisters from the new shoes, but it was worth it for the leftovers. Besides, the shoes make me strut a little, and I love feeling all dressed up and classy! I just don't understand why someone would pay $90 for a ticket to a play, and then wear ratty jeans and flip-flops. I guess I'm a bit of a snob. Nice pants and flip-flops maybe, but jeans and a t-shirt? Really? We're not tourists in New York and seeing a show at the end of a long day of travel (though if I have the option I personally like to go back to the hotel and change for the show anyway). If you're not going to dress up for an anticipated event like this, what in the world would you dress up for?


As luck would have it, Elisha and her parents were there, too. Their seats were a couple of rows behind mine, but Elisha came over and chatted with me until the patrons with the tickets next to me showed up. It was nice to have the illusion of sharing the play with someone I know! I hope you enjoyed it, too, Sister!

As soon as the house lights dimmed -- even before the orchestra started -- everyone started cheering. This is a show where I really believe all of the elements -- spectacle, music, and story -- all blend together. No one aspect is more important than any other (as opposed to, say, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, which is another show I love and has gorgeous music and spectacle but is weak on character development). I admit, my eyes teared up every time anyone started singing! The costumes were gorgeous, the dancing was effortless, the stagehands and lighting crew were fantastic -- the whole production was just flawless. Elphaba's voice was powerful and her chemistry with Fiyero palpable -- man, was he handsome! My favorite was Galinda -- she was hysterical! I saw the actress, Katie Rose Clarke, in The Light in the Piazza on Broadway a few years ago and she was great there too. Her antics during the song "Popular" and the scene surrounding it were my favorite part of the show. I want to be like her! I wished I had been able to get tickets for all of my loved ones so they could share the experience. I almost wished I hadn't seen it before so the ending could be a surprise once again -- I am always delighted to see how it all comes together. I am pretty stingy with standing ovations, but I was happy to give one to this touring production of Wicked. Oh, how I love this play!

Now that the experience is over, I'm disappointed that I don't have it to look forward to anymore! The result was totally worth the aggravation I suffered on Halloween. It was a lovely, long six months of anticipation.

I need to plan something else to agonize over and look forward to...

Holy Frap!

I'm on IMDB.com (the Internet Movie Database) !!

Can we say surreal?

The Summer Ahead

The Seussical callback was really fun. I was thrilled when after my dance audition Stephanie M said "I didn't know you could dance like that! I should have given you harder choreography last year!" Normally, my dancing is the part I'm least confident in, but in spite of sort of crashing into a wall I felt really good about it! (They let me try the dance again...far away from any walls...)

I had written down I'd only take one of two parts -- Gertrude or Mayzie. There were a LOT of wonderfully talented women there, so I wasn't surprised when I wasn't cast in either. I am super-excited for Candice (the Cat in the Hat) and Elisha (Pamela Anderson... I mean Mayzie), and Stephanie M's kids! They are going to have a blast working with our adorable Stephanie J and her pro team. How I love them!

Elisha told me about her part Saturday night, and Kate mentioned later that evening that she'd talked to Stephanie J and someone else was Gertrude. I figured that was that, so I was surprised on Sunday when Steph called and asked if I'd be willing to accept a part as a Bird Girl. I asked for a day to think about it. After debating it with myself all day, Steph and I talked about it, and ultimately I decided it doesn't feel right. It was a really hard choice. Thanks Stephanie for being so understanding. I do look forward to doing another show with you in the future, and more than that I think we need to goof off together sometime! We need to plan another Girl's Night in the near future, I think.

There are a few other plays I might audition for, but I admit I'm sort of drawn to the idea of not doing a play this summer. I don't know what else I'd do, because I haven't not done a show in the summer in at least 10 years. It's oddly freeing. Take a dance class? Start relearning to play the violin? Live at the movie theatre? Sign up to be an extra on evenings and weekends? Hang out at the Gateway and write in my journal? Start working on my book or an additional blog? Play with my nephew and nieces? Learn to bake, knit, and quilt? Read a lot? All of the above?

Who knows?

One Ticket

My sister-in-law Lindsey and my dear friend Michelle are both dying to see the musical Wicked. I recieved an email from my bank back in September telling me that I could get advanced tickets on Halloween. So, I talked to my brother Adam, and he agreed to reimburse me for tickets for him and Lindsey if I could get them. Lindsey's birthday is the day after Halloween -- how cool would it be for Adam to surprise her with tickets to a play she so very much wanted to see? I have seen the play twice and absolutely loved it, but since I hadn't mentioned the possibility of tickets to Michelle, I would have been perfectly content to just get two tickets for my brother and sister-in-law and call it a day.

So, I got the code for the advance ticket sales. I was supposed to call the box office or go online at 10am, but the email didn't say whether it was Eastern or Mountain time. I set my alarm for 7:50am and was out of bed and online at home by 8am. When I logged onto the Website, I realized it was ArtTix which doesn't open until 10.

As I mentioned, this was Halloween day. My fellow Doc Team members and I had discussed dressing up for work, and I decided to go for broke and wear my Sleeping Beauty costume. My mother made it for me 10 years ago and it is awesome! It was slightly annoying wearing that poufy petticoat at my desk, but I always feel pretty when I wear it so it was totally worth it.

Unfortunately, ArtTix had no idea just how many people in Salt Lake belong to my bank, and how many of those people and their friends would want tickets to this play. I admit I had no idea either, and had somehow thought that logging in and purchasing 4 tickets would be the work of half an hour. Instead, I spent the next FOUR HOURS getting more and more frustrated by the Website. That thing ran slow and crashed a LOT. It was the most frustrating thing I'd ever been a part of. Any time I FINALLY accessed the page where it said specific seats were available and I had 10 minutes to purchase them before they were released back to the public, I would click the Purchase button... and then the system would take 20 minutes to load, effectively loosing my tickets. And the phone lines were continuously busy.

About 2pm, the site went down for good, and they displayed a notice stating I could go to the Rose Wagner Theatre or Capitol Theatre and buy tickets from the Box Office. What the what?!!! If I'd known that had been an option, I would have been there at 10am. I decided to just call it a personal day, and drove downtown praying I could still get tickets. My manager and teammates were very supportive. But then, can anyone say "no" to Princess Aurora?

Picture this: a red sedan parks on the street on 3rd South and Main. A blonde girl in a blue Sleeping Beauty costume complete with gold-colored necklace, sequined tiara, and freakishly poufy slip steps out and feeds money into the meter. This girl then proceeds to RUN down the street to the Capitol Theatre and get in a surprisingly short line of about 20 people, a couple of whom do double-takes when seeing her out of the corner of their eyes. Her heart sinks as an usher tells her and the others in line that at this point (about 3pm), the only tickets available are either single tickets during the week, or pairs on Sunday. When I reached the ticket booth and asked about availability, I discovered that the ushers had been correct. I left a message for Adam asking if he'd be interested in Sunday tickets, but suspected he wouldn't, so I didn't get them any. (He called back later and confirmed I was right.)

I bought myself a ticket. As stated in the first paragraph, I would have been fine not going, but after all I'd been through, there was NO WAY I was leaving empty-handed. The nice thing about just getting the one ticket was that I got a pretty good seat!

Since I was in costume and I had nothing better to do at three-thirty in the afternoon, I wandered around downtown for a little while after purchasing my ticket. It was pretty fun seeing all the little kids freak out with excitement when they saw me, and the adults smile as if saying "Oh you!" and the teenage boys ride their bikes past and yell "Hey Cinderella!"... well, a princess is a princess. I may have to do it again next Halloween...

The story continues:

Just for fun, earlier this week, I decided to check online to see if any tickets had become available. To my surprise, ArtTix said there were some seats, but I'd have to call in. So, I asked Michelle if, if I could exchange my ticket or get another next to me, she'd be willing to go. She could not say "yes" fast enough. I even found a buyer for my single ticket if I was able to get two.

Of course, when I called, the person on the phone said there were no tickets left. When I helpfully told her to make sure the Website was updated so more stupid people like me didn't call, she became really rude and kept repeating "We are sold out. We are sold out!" Yeah, I got that. But it's confusing and mean to get people's hopes up by saying on the stupid Website there are tickets when there aren't any!

So I got the crappy job to tell Michelle and the other buyer that I couldn't get them tickets. I feel like a terrible friend for getting their hopes up. I should have checked verbally for ticket availability first.

Anyhow, that's why I only have one ticket. I'm a little bummed that I won't get to share the experience with someone. Guess next time I know I can buy my ticket at the box office and save myself a bunch of trouble!

... But in calling the box office I realized how excited I am to go! I'm not indifferent. My ticket is for this coming Tuesday and I cannot wait! It's weird to think I've had it stuck to my fridge for the last 6 months. I usually don't plan that far in advance, and it's now feeling real! I get to see Wicked again in four days! Hooray!