Ravings of a Textual Deviant

Crocheted Peeps!

I’m taking this weekend off from my life, so please don’t worry if you haven’t/don’t hear from me.

This is me supporting the arts in my community…with a little bit of help from Dana.

OP to be Featured at Fringe Friday

Orkestra Projekt will perform a free preview on Friday, March 31 at Fringe Friday in support of the Indy Fringe Festival.  The location of the event is The Athenaeum Building, 402 E. Michigan Street in downtown Indianapolis.  Come early, catch the preview, and stay to support the Indy Fringe Festival. 

Orkestra Projekt presents its next concert series, Out of Mind, on Saturday, April 1 at 8 pm and Sunday, April 2 at 7 pm, at the Old Centrum, located at 12th and Central.  See and hear what happens when Orkestra Projekt combines Jimi Hendrix with Maurice Ravel as the ensemble goes …Out of Mind.

Jammin’ with the Harmonica

Orkestra Projekt will feature local harmonica legend, Mark Carnes in a special piece in our concert.  Let’s just say that it’s yet another surprise and invite the audience to really get it!

The Location!

If you have a difficult time finding The Old Centrum, our venue at the corner of 12th and Central, look for the searchlights emanating from the historic downtown neighborhood, The Old Northside. 

The Speaker of the Mouse banged his gavel in a fruitless attempted to drown out the debate.

“Gentlemice, please,” he shouted, “One at a time.”

The Representarodents settled into their seats, grooming their whiskers ostentatiously. “The Chair recognizes the President of the Feline Audio-Tracking Implementation Subcommittee.”

“Thank you. As this assembly is well aware, the Subcommittee has been unable to meet recently because our motion for funding remains unrecognized.”

“Your motion hasn’t been submitted.”

“Our couriers keep getting eaten. By the cat.”

“A likely story. I move that we open an investigation into these misdelivered motions.”

“Second!”

“All in favor…”

Me (via email): The end of the month is now! Please remember to send me your metrics and update the tracking spreadsheet by the end of business today. Thanks!

Other Employee: Is there something wrong with your calendar? Mine shows that the end of the month is later!

Me: It’s a pre-emptive now, because sometimes people who aren’t you are a day late with their metrics.

Other Employee: If you like, I can start being a day late to promote “team spirit”, or we can continue with our theme of consistent-inconsistency.

One of the many reasons I like my coworkers so very much… 

Me: Hi there! Could you please remove ABC from the XYZ report? Thanks! Also, we’re putting new cover sheets on all the TPS reports before they go out, so if you could remember to do that from now on, that’d be great.

Employee: Hey Li. Whaaaat’s happening? Yeeeaaaaah, I’ve taken ABC off of the TPS report. I found the memo, but why don’t you just go ahead and send me another one just to make sure.

Boss: I’m going to need you both to come in on Saturday.  We’ve been losing some people recently, and we sort of have to play “catch up”. Oh, and I’m gonna need you to come in on Sunday too. Thaaaanks.

Thanks to everyone who’s been so supportive. I’m planning to take a weekend off from my life very soon, which I hope will be the next best thing to two weeks on a beach.

“–in summation, our patented two-way process allows us to spin your gold into straw, thereby keeping it safe from thieves and tax collectors. When you need your gold back, take your straw to our nearest representative, and for a small transaction fee, we spin it back into hard currency.”

“It’s amazing what they’re doing with magic these days, isn’t it?” my assistant piped up. I elbowed him into silence.

Dragons may be ancient and allegedly wise, but they aren’t what you’d call financial wizards. Brightscales was no exception. We used our profits to relocate to another continent, under assumed names.

I was looking back over my recent posts and realized it had been a while since I posted any non-fiction. Part of that has to do with the fact that they’re cracking down on Internet usage at work, but mostly it’s because I’ve had a very difficult couple of weeks and haven’t wanted to whine publicly. So, in a nutshell and with as little kvetching as I can manage, here’s what’s been going on.

At work, I’m trying to smooth out some persistent personality conflicts whilst not causing gross bodily harm to someone who has run through my patience. Outside of work, I have been on a quest to find some skirts and a suit that are appropriate for work. Unfortunately, the Fashion Idiocy Industry has decided that this year, women want knickers, rather than skirts, for “career wear.” So, even if I could find a suit in my size—and I’ve lost track of the number of stores that don’t even carry petitie sizes—it wouldn’t be office-appropriate anyway. I’m terribly frustrated, because while I didn’t expect that losing a lot of weight would magically fix my entire life, I did think it was going to be easier to find clothes that fit, and that’s turned out not to be the case. The cavalry has stepped up, and I can’t thank you enough (you know who you are); at the same time, I can’t help but be annoyed at the prospect of having to go to Chicago to find clothes that fit.

Furthermore, the American Ellipse hasn’t been going well lately, mostly because I haven’t had the mental energy or time to put into it that it deserves. Yesterday, after a chat with a couple of players, we decided it’s probably best to put the game on hold through the summer, and pick it up again after some other things in my life settle down. Those things would include finishing up the majority of my yoga teacher training, planning for Passover, a couple of trips I have planned over the summer, and getting through my impending divorce.

So, yeah, there’s some stress, and I’m starting to feel run down physically. I’m not getting to yoga class as much as I’d like. I recently noticed that my sugar consumption is way up, probably because I’m trying to load calories when I’m not nauseated. And I’ve been nauseated fairly often, lately. I’m well aware of the fact that I can’t possibly afford another dramatic weight drop like last summer; the mere thought of it petrifies me. At the same time, I don’t want to fall back into bad eating habits…like loading up on sugar.

However, I think what bothers me the most is that I’m having trouble enjoying the good things that have happened—and there have been several, both at work and outside of it. My Thing has been very well received, and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from both the people I supervise and my manager. I’m teaching yoga twice a week, and I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on that, too. My players actually talked me out of cancelling the Ellipse outright, which I’d been seriously considering, because they do like the game. And all things considered, Ed and I are getting along remarkably well, and everyone’s been very supportive of both of us. The 100-word story project keeps chugging along, and I’m having a great deal of fun with it. The days are getting longer, and it’s actually been sunny lately. And yet, that’s not what springs to mind first when I think about how my life is going lately. For example, I want to be happily anticipating my grandmother’s 90th-birthday party in July, and my yoga teacher training in Oregon in August, but I’m having trouble seeing past the expense and logistics.

I don’t want to go all Drama Queen here; I’m fairly certain that there isn’t much wrong with me that a couple of weeks on a beach wouldn’t cure. But I cannot begin to tell you how much I don’t want to go back to being the unhealthy, unhappy, cranky person I was when I started this blog three years ago. I hope  that the Reading Public will forgive my online whine-and-cheese party here and my lack of postings lately. I’m trying to work on the good stuff, and I’ll get it out here as soon as I can manage.

It was midterms week, and my stress level was stratospheric. Not the best time to take up a new hobby, but sometimes, you just have to do something—anything—or your head explodes.

By the end of the term, I’d learned to knit socks. Sort of. I had a couple-dozen “practice” socks with no mates. When it came time to pack up my dorm room, I couldn’t bear to throw them out.

Late one night, during finals, I sneaked down to the laundry room, and put a single, misshapen sock in every dryer.

I feel ever so much better now.