MOOP!

SamSam is visiting, and I'm quite chuffed about it!

They have been very obliging as I drag them hither and yon and have us spend very little time at home cozily reading books (although we are getting a bit of that now, as I write my words and they start in on the sixth murderbot, which is my favourite so I'm excited for them to read that one). Hopefully though, yes we will get a bit of time to ourselves as well as going out and about in the world.

Last night I collected them from South Station, which involved making Bad Gambles with the red line shuttle bullshit, alas. We did eventually manage to be in the same place at the same time, and then we got some basic dinner and walked from SoSta to Advent for Friday night handling practice.

It was a good -and crowded!- practice! JohnB got put in charge of the advanced beginners¹ so SamSam and 'liska and Rebecca were off doing some dodging and places and the like. I was working with Jackie, who's been ringing about four months now and just never managed to cross paths with me, and Greg was with JdC, who was visiting for the second time.

I felt quite jolly about it all, like I could mostly say useful things to a very novice ringer, and help her improve her form etc. Afterwards, the four of us headed back to Somerville did a somewhat meandery route to Park Street so that we could Not Be On The Hell Shuttles In The Rain, Thanks.

There was quite a lot of rain --I think Friday legitimately had actual inches worth, and today was just very damp everywhere, which is good because Boston has gotten no other rain in two months or something. Glad for the flowers, sad for a weekend when I'm doing a lot of travel into Boston and the red line is fucked.

Today was regular bells --Sam and I did not manage to get ourselves together in order to walk with the group walking from Davis to Old North, which is just as well because we've done plenty of other walking today. Regular bells was already a pretty big practice --I think we totaled 12-- and extremely startling to walk in on, since Josh had gathered about fifteen church members from the brass polishing event and invited them to see the tower and watch us raise some bells. Luckily (or maybe un?) they all wanted to return to brass polishing after, and so I did not have to suddenly adjust how to run practice for fifteen brand new ringers.

Running practice was...fine. Sam mostly knitted. I enjoyed ringing some Double Beryl that otherwise fell apart, and deeply did not enjoy a touch of Cambridge Major that i had thought was going to be a plain course and then had thought was going to be not starting wtih two singles, and basically I spent the whole time pretty fucked up about it (both internally and externally, sigh). I managed to not actually get into fights, although I was snappy a few times and I managed to not actually dissociate more than necessary even though there was a whole lot of depersonalization happening to try and keep myself together through the back half of practice. I think most people got what they needed, at least, which is my goal.

Lunch was very damp and windy, and I spent some time assessing my friends based on vibes as to whether or not they know how to use lockpicks and/or are any good at it. I made some correct guesses, and apparently flattered the hell out of Hannah by being all "yeah, you probably don't know how, but if you ever picked it up, I expect you'd be amazingly good".

It is fun to flatter your friends by giving random vibe-based assessments of how they'd do at absurd skills! It is also fun to gossip about your friends by being extremely excitable by how good they are at sport.

Sam and I went home --just green line, which was nice and easy-- and did get a wee bit of layabout time. Part of that was me reading them Holes --they've never read it, and by god, I am learning a number of my people have never read this book I legitimately think is one of the best written books ever-- and part of that was them napping and me playing Balatro, so all of it was good.

Then this evening we went out to see ASSASSINS at MIT. Yes, this is the same run as I saw eight days ago with Tuesday and Seramay. How many regrets? Zero regrets, baby! Guiteau was still glorious, the Fromme/Moore chemistry was still super fun, and Booth was still enjoyable weird-edge-of-predatory-gay especially to Czolgosz. I think Sam legitimately enjoyed the show, and I know they enjoyed watching something I love with me, which is very sweet.

Unlike when we watch Sailor Moon musicals², we could not pause Assassins for question-and-answer time, so instead I infodumped on our entire walk home from MIT to Harvard (because, say it with me, red line shuttles are bullshit). Quite a bit about the Pie Shop, and when we got home, I managed to guess correctly which sketchbook would have the most cringe and showed them a bunch of drawings, including Guiteau fucking a staircase³. On the one hand, being a horrible nineteen year old fan with no chill was, well, probably kinda annoying and definitely somewhat over the top. On the other hand, I do miss having a regular excuse to draw a lot. My current sketchbook is much more barren.

We got home and had leftover ravioli that Ezri and Rey had made, and some ice cream, and now we're aforementioned curled up with me doing words and them reading. Our favourite⁴ SecUnit has found a body!

Taaa

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Accidentally typo'd as "Begingers", which I kinda like as a horrible portmanteau for beginning ringers.

2: This is a thing SamSam very much loves and so has been showing me, which I object to zero because it's really fun to watch people you love enjoy things they love

3: This makes sense if you know all the lyrics of his ballad really well. (no it doesn't)

4: Well okay, actually my favourite is Three, but I need to euphemize somehow because I am a human who does not have permission to call the SecUnit narrator by the private name they use and don't share with humans.

I didn't really do any of those things except see Assassins, but seeing Assassins was *extremely* good! It was my first time seeing it with an equity level cast, and wow, the performance was just gorgeous! I want to see it a dozen more times, and cast my attention to a different actor every time to see how they are handling their background role.

The absolute standout was Zangara, who was played by an opera-trained baritone who brought a richness to his ballad I've never really heard before. Too easy for that particular role to be played solely comic, with the accent and the goofiness of the stomach, but I loved hearing that deeper tone. Squeaky was a close second, with an actress who was *mostly* the perfect sixties drifty hippie without a thought in her strung-out head, until suddenly she says something deeply and totally horrifying, usually with a beatific smile and a "Charlie told me!".

Both the proprietor and Booth had devilish tendancies, the one subtle in the background, the other raging and stalking around in the fore. Booth played his role like an evil vizier, and my absolute hats off to the costumer for dressing the man so incredibly fine. Silk brocade trousers? Like, be still my heart. I loved watching Booth and Czologosz exchange background looks every time they had to sing with Guiteau, who absolutely ate the stage every second he was on it as he should.

Speaking of Czolgosz, he managed to fully sell himself as an entirely sympathetic character. Like, I'm a little unhinged and feel fonder than I should for most of these fuckasses, but oh. _oh_. Working man and that says a lot in a world where billionaires fuck up the lives of the rest of us and never even notice what they're doing wrong.

As a staging note, there were no guns onstage until the grand finale --everyone just crooked their hand into the position of holding a gun, and mimed that out. It made it all feel more solid and real to give Oswald his rifle, and then the sense of connection coming through and giving the rest of them life in the final song --he has become real, and so the rest of them can be as well.

Few surprises, but it didn't need them: it was just stunningly performed, well-sung, and in a space small enough to feel utterly intimate. I loved it, and almost want to go again this weekend.

Everybody's got the right to their dreams, after all.

~Sor
MOOP!

It's towel day! I have celebrated not in the slightest, but several times today my brain has acknowledged it.

I'm in NYC! It sure is Noo Yawk.

I have a cold! Or possibly my sinuses have freaked out due to being in several new biomes that they are not as familiar with as Boston (such as "bus for four hours" and "Times Square for any length of time at all". It's not the most fun thing in the world and has left me feeling pretty foggy.

Mi madre sung at Carnagie!! This was TOTALLY COOL! Her hair is currently striped pink, so it was very easy to spot her, even from up in the nosebleed seats. They did five songs, and it was all so very lovely to listen to! One of the songs was adapted from a Dessa song, so I'll have to look up the original of that. And they closed with "How can I Keep from Singing" which is sweet and a lovely way to end such a thing.

I am full of dessert! After the show, mom and Dad and Barb and I went to a little restaurant for dessert where I managed to scam Barb into letting me eat half her butterscotch pudding, in addition to me eating most of my lemon mousse. I am a verruh happy Kat right now.

I am at Maia's house! Currently I am flopped on the couch writing some words. Soon I will be asleep.

It's a good weekend, even if I have not yet finished all my grading. Tomorrow: Brunch with the fam, and then oh yeah we've got matinee tickets to go see HADESTOWN so that'll be excellent.

~Sor
MOOP!

And you find out you don't have to be happy at all¹
To be happy you're alive

...holy fucking shit, have I mentioned yet how repeatedly Next to Normal gets it absolutely one hundred percent right?

Next to Normal repeatedly gets it absolutely one hundred percent right.

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Amusingly, this alone has made me legitimately happier than anything else in the past two days.

I spent the weekend in New York City with thorog and his girl, Rose. Insert appropriate They Might Be Giants song here.

We...basically had a sinfully good time of things. Saturday, we arrived and went to Surreal Estate, which is the house/commune muzikmaker21 and roughly fifty other hippies live in. We got the grand tour, and learned far too many names --I think I picked up that prettyboy is Quin(t?), and I met an adorably charming girl called Meg, an aussie named Hannah, and a different adorably charming girl called Emma, who was totally flattered when I accidentally called her Meg. We also went and got really good pizza from the sustainable pizza place across the street from Surreal Estate, where Nathen works.

Eventually, we wandered off to Times Square, where we stood in an abysmally long TKTS line¹ and spent much time debating what show to try and see². We were this close to going and seeing ROCK OF AGES³, but there was not seats together, so we decided we'd rather sit in the same place, and see Avenue Q.

After TKTS, we hit up Toys R Us, where we acquired a Brenton/gyrik_22⁴, and bunches of candy. We did not acquire a dinosaur, because it wouldn't fit in my purse, or a stick pony, even though I was tempted. Also, LEGO PIRATES ARE HAPPENING AGAIN! Just so you all know.

Dinner wound up being at a bar a couple blocks up from Times Square (Daltons? I think Daltons) which was good food, very nice to Rose and her pepper-allergy, and did not try to card us when we walked in, which would've resulted in me being kicked out⁵. So they get points! From there to AveQ, which was fairly enjoyable, and pretty much targeted exactly at the four of us --the girl halfway through her undergrad, the girl in the middle of her graduate degree, the boy just out of college and trying to make a living in the big city, and the boy trying to get a doctorate. Musicals written for twenty-somethings are fun!

Wandered for a while in search of ice cream, settled for Jamba Juice at the Port Authority, at least in part because they had bathrooms. Headed back to Surreal Estate, where we learned that drunk hippies really really like delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies⁶. Tho and Rose did their own thing for a bit, and I went out on one of the roofs with Nathen and Meg to chill. Oh, and in case I haven't made it clear enough yet, Surreal Estate is very *very* awesome. I may go ahead and take my ten day trial period sometime, were I a New York kind of girl. ((They give you ten days before they figure you've moved in, and should therefore pay rent or teach dancing or give backrubs or something. They are a very chill commune.))

We slept. [I am debating this sentence, someone remind me to ask Tho if I can post it.] Sunday morning we woke up, got dressed, and danced salsa and swing in the common room. Eventually, we managed to wander out for bagels, which were delicious, and thrift storing, which was really quite fun --Nathen managed to find a tie that said "viagra" on it repeatedly, and I got a gorgeous summery dress --doubly good, since it was a billion degrees out, and I had previously been wearing black jeans.

We left Surreal Estate and headed to The Strand, where we again met up with Brenton. I'm not entirely sure what happened between 1:30 and 4, but I think it involved a lot of books, and possibly Forbidden Planet. From there, we walked many many blocks to a tiny little macaroon shop Tho had found out about using the power of the INTERNET! and then a pasta shop for dinner, and a quick look around Macys while waiting for the bus home.

Ended out the trip by sitting on the sidewalk in a light rain, chatting and snuggling. Long, overly hot, ride home with some absolutely smashing conversation, and then to bed, to bed.

...or in my case, to Vera, in order to chat with people and make sure none of you has exploded while I was gone.

And that was my weekend! Origins in three days! Aiee, I've got to pack >.<

~Sor
MOOP!

1: Dear mom, you lied, it's not under the Marriot Marquee anymore. It is in fact, smack in the middle of Times Square
2: NTS: Write "Phantom of Chicago Q...OF AGES!"
3: \m/
4: Okay, yeah, there's a reason I couldn't remember your screenname, Dragon. It is a complicated name, that I'm not totally positive I can pronounce.
5: Not that we ordered any boozahol anyways. But they do sometimes card at the door, and being as I was the only under-21 in the group, it would've been annoying as all hell.
6: Brenton made 'em for us because he's a gentleman or somesuch. They were fekken' delicious, and did not last very long at all.

( Random quiz-question-thing...I'm bored, and flirting can only take up so much of my time )

Woo.

My life hasn't been very eventful lately. But hey, tomorrows a half day! And Friday's off, and me and Aly are going to (hopefully) harass Flinx!

I need to clean out my 1KBWC deck...

~Sor
MOOP!

Open iTunes/iPod to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrasing it is.

How many songs: 2162

Sort by song title
First Song: "'snake' Plissken" Escape from New York
Last Song: Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah {from Song of the South} One of the Disney CD's

Sort by time
Longest Song: Act One of the Phantom of the Opera. (54:08) Longest single song song is You Don't Love Me Anymore/Bite me (Weird Al)(14:09) Longest completely single song is Not While I'm Around from Sweeny Todd (13:25), or, disregarding musicals, Albuquerque, by Weird Al (11:23)
Shortest song: "I Heard You Were Dead! " Escape from New York again (0:08 seconds)

Sort by artist
First Artist: "Take on Me" -a-Ha
Last Artist: Last ARTIST is "Christmas Hockey News" by The Zamboni's. Last song when sorting by artist is "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" which doesn't have one.

Sort by album
First Album: "...Baby One More Time" by that Spears chick, from the "...Baby One More Time" album
Last Album: Same with Artist, last REAL song with an album is "Sandstorm", from the album "Yury Techno", last SONG is "Techno Remix" (of the phantom of the opera)

Top Three Most Played Songs
1) "Journey of the Sorcerer" (The Hitchhikers movie soundtrack) 258 times
2) "A Hazy Shade of Winter" (Remixed by The Bangles) 177 times
3) "Good Riddence" (Green Day) 167 times
4) "Birdhouse in your Soul (They Might Be Giants) 167 times
(Tie between three and four...shocking!)

First song that comes up on Shuffle
Well, I've been playing the entire thing on shuffle for like four days now...currently, it's "Transformation" from Jekyll and Hyde (*tackleglomps Hyde!!*
H: Hey now, let's not be starting THAT again...)

Search
Uhhhh...search? What? Where? How do I do that.
*notices the little search box in the corner of her itunes for the first time EVER!
Holy shit! When'd I get that?!
"sex", how many songs come up? 19 (Mostly because of the album "Never mind the Sex pistols, here's Bongo's Bass and Bob!")
"death", how many songs come up? 5
"love", how many songs come up? 58...and as I was still on playcount, the first to pop up was "Marvin I love you" Rock!
"you", how many songs come up? 132...Exactly the same as Beth-izzle! Rock!!

That was fun.

And me and that search button are going to have a LOT of fun together.
"What's this playlist Kat?"
"Songs that have a q somewhere in their info" (104...lots of P.D.Q.Bach)

~Sor
MOOP!