a grin-ectomy may be necessary

i am less than 12 hours away from getting on a plane and flying to north carolina for the SETC conference. i'm totally psyched, so much so that i'm worried about it being a let down- must balance out a bit. besides, i've had all the anxiety nightmares i think i can take. but other than that, there have been some interesting bits that i've forgotten to mention. .


----i got an anniversary card back in january, marking my first complete year of being a full time employee here at the opera. you know, i am impressed by the details that i see here that i've never seen anywhere else. . .

----i got a birthday card from the opera, yes, kinda of generic, but again, a detail that i've not seen elsewhere.

----on a more inane note, i got a letter and a check from the bank that i mentioned a few entries back. the bank that i closed the account with. after i transferred most of the account, there was a 5 dollar balance left over that the bank was reluctant to give up, 'can i ask, ma'am? why would you want to close this account? is there any way i can persuade you to stay with us?' this is probably the 12th time i heard this bit, and the 20th time i explained the whole, 'how could you send my new debit card to the wrong address and make me wait a month and a half for one to come to the correct address, no, it is unacceptable' almost as if this old bank wanted to take one more chance to prove their irresponsibility, i get the envelope and turn it to open the flap to find that the flap hasn't been sealed. . .. at all. my five dollar check could have skipped town on that envelope, but someone, it made it to me. unbelievable. . .

----a day ago i was walking around and ran into another department head who had what looked like my mail in his hand. i was caught off guard, i thought it was an alumni magazine. there was a costume sketch from a show i worked on directly on the cover. he asked me, 'erika, isn't this you?' there, in print was my name. yes, but why did he have this magazine? why? because it's a trade journal linked to USITT.. . this 'brotherhood or club of technicians' to which i have never belonged. but one of my teachers wrote up a large article about a couple of shows of which i was the lighting designer, so there are a couple of pictures and my name, TWICE as the designer. (and of course there is part of me that is wondering how painful it was to HAVE to include my name hehe, 'damn, she did do all that work, guess we have to give her credit.' muhahahahahahahahaha)

(oh, and all morning, after the magazine circulated- though i still haven't read it- i was teasingly called, 'famous erika')

now, i still have some work to do, and some genius level tetris to perform in my suitcase. . . so, other than the fact that i get to go through all this with my period--- will i ever get to fly without it? arg! ---- i need to get going. later.