irksome commercials

ok. . . i complain about commercials a lot. . . like that tooth brush, or toothpaste commercial in the airport, where the girl sneaks away to brush up in an attempt to catch the eye of some hottie. in the middle of brushing her teeth it appears that there is a shower across her face. this is not how i brush my teeth, in fact, i'm usually trying to contain all cleaning within my mouth. instead of spraying water all over my face, i simply slurp some water up from my hand and swish it around, then spit it out. or that new 'quiet car' commercial, with the car under the waterfall. the woman inside cannot hear the water. . the car is just that silent! but then, we have her appearing in a shower, mimicking the car. . .i guess? ok. . . we get it, girls in showers sells, but at least be trying to push soap, or shampoo!

oh, but onto the actual commercials the freak me out. what's with the talking baby commercials. the annoying CGI mouthed kid with the sandwiches and the 52 year old scotch and cigarettes voice. lame. call me crazy, but i'm not enticed for any one of their sandwiches. then there's the talking sonogram. i think, perhaps, this was found unpopular overall, because i haven't seen it in normal circulation. i don't remember for sure which fast food company this disturbing display of advertising is working for, but a verbalizing fetus doesn't make me hungry. as he complains about the spicy food and tugs on the umbilical cord, i twinge and think, 'pile on the peppers mama!'

note to advertisers, steer clear of the talking babies, especially when dealing with food.

oh joyous morning

the musical buffy is on right now. . . . how excellent! . . . "it's getting eerie, what's this cheery singing all about?"

from maid of honor to best man

earlier this week i got some terrific news. dan (closest friend from highschool) is getting married. since he mentioned the possibility of him and mike getting married about a year ago i have had fantasies of being his best man. something about it seems so fun to me. granted, they have very little planned, and i asked whether or not he had a best man. he said no, so i jumped up and yelled (on the phone) 'ooh, ooh, can i be your best man?!' he seemed fine with it, and he even said the thought had crossed his mind, but he wasn't sure if i'd be able to make it out for the ceremony. . .. you bet i am now! do you think it would be too weird for me to get one of those cheesy 'best man' t-shirts to wear around? on top of it all, he became an uncle for the second time.

it seems, so far, like both these weddings are going to be not quite traditional. . . i think there will be a dress in the future. definitely for the maid of honor one, and i'm not sure about the best man one. . . . to be totally honest, it could all go in any direction, but i thought i might try a dress. . . eh. . . we'll see.

anyway, another good thing i just found out about saturdays. . . gilmore girls saturday. back to tv.

adding salt, iodine, lemon juice, and maybe even some tabasco to a wound

i got my phone service back at 4:22pm. the movie i wanted to see started at 4:30. there was no time to get ready, leave, and call everyone to get there in time. DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM! so now, i make plans for 7:30 movie. . .which will run later than i like. . . . i still have th cooking and laundry to do in the evening, my bedtime will be later, but i did sleep in today. . . . perhaps it will balance.

however, there will need to be a significant shift in my current mood to balance out this frustration. maybe seeing a ton of terrible violence this evening will be just what the doctor ordered. i can sit there and imagine everyone in pain with a small Sprint logo on the chest of the shirt. there better be a LOT of blood. i have little doubt that my expectations will not be met. muhahahahahaha!

something different

i went out for drinks with my friends/ coworker katy on friday. by the end of the evening i had accepted a new position in my life. . . that as maid of honor for her wedding. it should be an interesting new endeavor for me. i'm already imagining me trying to plan a bridal shower during our busy season. . . .mmmmm. i figure something will work out. and she's looking to have a really fun and simple kind of occasion. honestly, probably the hardest thing for me will be finding and wearing a dress that i actually like. . .

oh, she is also rather unknowing about all the silly goings on of weddings, and it's been a while since i've been a part of a traditional wedding, so if anyone has pointers, i'm willing to listen. jen's wedding last summer was the closest i have since childhood. .. . so i was reminded of silly table games, oh, and lame dj's. . . . but what about all those funky traditions? not that i think katy will do too many of them, but it's good to have a list to pick and choose from i suppose.

other than that, mmm.. . .. i had a headache so bad last night that my head today actually feels bruised and tender to the touch. . .. yippee. i honestly don't even know if it had anything to do with all this sinus/ allergy crap. which, i am TOTALLY sick of. perhaps someone should look into creating hepa filters for our nostrils. . . .

oh, and a whole new frustration with sprint this morning. . . mmmmm, spring and sprint are only one letter off? what DOES that mean? yep, they shut off my service again, and i am now waiting for it to be turned back on. i was told two days ago that it wouldn't be turned off because i was significantly, yes, she said SIGNIFICANTLY under my spending limit. turns out both she and another operator were wrong, so my service is off right now, just as i'm wanting to make my sundays family calls, and calls to people about seeing sin city in under an HOUR! GODDAMMIT! so i've spent a decent amount of time talking to sprint servive people, about how i don't like to punch my atm numbers into my phone, because shortly after doing that last time, the numbers were stolen. . . . . i can't make the same payment with a service representative, because their system won't recognize PO Box addresses. . . . and when i went to do the payment by check, my WONDERFUL service faded. . . so i went to do the check again over the phone, but you can not attempt a phone check payment more that once every 2 weeks. . . . so i said, 'hey, i can go to a radio shack to do this right?' so, that was on my list for things to do this afternoon. . . .HA! too late erika, what WAS i thinking? so i made the payment exactly how i was trying to avoid doing it, so now you can all wish me luck and hope that some hacker out there wasn't paying attention. . . .

hey look. . . i'm bitching. my cramps were REALLY bad this morning too. . . . but they've subsided. . . . my hair is still pretty cute, and boy would i love to call some friends to have them meet me for a movie. . . . . but NO!

i did get out and saw the aspen santa fe ballet yesterday. we were given a chance to collect some comp tickets on it, but i didn't know anyone else who would want to go. low and behold, as i walked in, there were three other opera employees. . . the show was decent. . . there was one FANTASTIC piece choreographed by the choreographer from MOMIX (a really great modern dance group). the whole piece was two people, in complete silver body suits, on skis. the skis were weighted so they could lean all crazy like and not fall over. they undulated all over and the music was wonderfully suited. . . . real techno-y. the way they moved it looked some some form of extreme stretching and bending, i thought that as a dancer the piece probably felt great on the body, all expect for that pressure put on their lower legs to keep them from falling out of the ski shoes. . . ahhh. . . i loves the gimmicky dance stuff!

ok . . . now i must find ways of distracting myself while i wait for restored phone service. hope y'all have a nice day. maybe, just maybe, i'll get a chance to call you soon.

nostalgic bitching

well, there was some small frustrations at work yesterday, and i had the urge to totally bitch about it. . . but then i realized that even in comparison to the rest of my life. .. . it wasn't worth bitching about. ahh, the days of hanging out with my friends after work and bitching for a couple of hours in order to purge it all from my system, they don't quite exist as they used to. the summer will bring a few more things to really bitch about, but until then, i still have this need to gripe for a bit. . . perhaps it's my menstrual cycle. . . so, to make myself feel better, i've decided to bitch about something that deserves it. . . from my days at grad school.

it was my last year at grad school. i was asked to hold a seminar on soldering. . . yeah, i'm pretty good at it, not all the detailed electronic type soldering but just simple electrical type soldering. like i didn't have enough to do in that last semester. . . finish my thesis, teach two classes, take four classes, design most of a dance concert and watch over two other designers for the same concert, watch over the lights for a second dance concert. . .and well, i'm sure there was a lot more going on.

so it was later in the semester, and i decided to really put this thing together. i had to make sure on a place and time to hold it and make sure we wouldn't be in the way. in the middle of this process, my advisor (you know, the person i should be looking up to for an example of how to be in the professional world) came to yell at me about if i was going to include her in this whole process. (she liked to yell, A LOT. . . perhaps i'll spend some more time explaining all that when i feel the need) so i explained that i wanted to secure a handful of times and places to choose from before i solidified it, and that way i would have choices for the students in order to get the largest turn out. after going to my class and figuring out when the kids who were interested could show up, i let my advisor know. she then complained that that time was no good for her students. . . so i gave her a choice of the other times i could hold a special seminar for her students. i then had two seminars planned.

my students came over a weekend. we spent the afternoon soldering different wires together, and making complete circuits and testing them. it was great, the kids had a lot of fun. so, i then had my second seminar for my advisor's students. now. . . . guess how many of them showed up, after having to set it up for a completely different day that fit her students' schedules. . . ONE, that's right, ONE! this particular kid already had dabbled in soldering, and all he needed was an idea of different techniques to use to perfect what he was doing. his hands shook quite a bit, and i taught him a few ways to hold everything steady. . . it was productive, but i had this one fabulous moment within the whole thing. . .

i'm not so sure this is really bitching. . . well, i guess you can judge for yourself.

our school's technical director walked through with another student. (the technical director liked to give me a hard time, and not in the fun, playful way. you see, when my advisor is having problems with a student, the technical director and several other staff and professors liked to follow) so, the student that was with him had wanted to be in the seminar. he walked by several times with a pouty look on his face. i apologized that he couldn't work with us and tried to jokingly rib with the technical director about letting him out of his work to let him learn soldering. the tech director then came over and said, 'well, i don't know if would feel comfortable teaching soldering if i were you. are you teaching them about sublimation?'

to which i replied, with a half cocked head, 'you mean the process by which some materials when heated go directly from solid to gaseous state?' (thank god i was paying attention during some of my science classes in highschool!)

he says, 'no, sub-lim-ation.'

and the kid who was soldering with me, a rather smart one, says. . . 'yeah, that actually means when a material goes from solid to gas bypassing the liquid state, like dry ice.'

the tech director stood there and stared at me for a bit, 'well, you know like when things suck up the solder as they are heated.'

me: 'well, i wasn't using scientific terms for it. . . . but if i had to, i guess i would describe it as capillary action. . . kind of.' and we went back to our lesson. god. . . what a dick.

mmm. . . maybe i should write a grad day memoirs. . . i should've written it while it was happening, as my mom always said. . . alas, i guess only the most prominent moments will stick out when i get a chance. later for that. . . .

spikey buggers

so, i made two trips into albuquerque this week for work. . . and the weather was slightly stormy. . . little bits of rain, little bits of snow, but a lot of wind. while tootling along and listening to America, the Audiobook! . . . i hit something like twelve or fifteen of them. spiney, scurrying little critters. damn tumbleweeds! they were everywhere, some of them really small, and some of them rather large and flush with whatever sort of dry branch material that makes them up. they were fun to watch exploding into splinters under the wheels of cars in front of me. . . but i also hit a good number of them myself.

make way for cute hair!

so, i had been spending a lot of time thinking about dreading my hair. i thought i wanted longer hair, but i was really getting sick of how it looked. so heavy and not much interesting about it. . . dreaded hair would have a texture and a certain amount of fullness, not matter what i did in the morning.

then andria visited, and i found myself kind of jealous of her well done do. it dried all nice and curly. . . .

so, i thought i little more to myself. if i'm willing to spend the cash for the product i liked to dread it. . . . why not spend the cash on a last try hair cut? plus. . . . dreading takes a long time to do, and then even longer to take care of it. . . months of primping. . . . not exactly my cup of tea.

so, i took my mom's advice and found myself at the aveda salon in town. i do like their product, if i must use product. . . . at the very least i must TAME THE FRIZZ! so, miss charlotte at the salon suggested an 'a line bob'? if that's what i remember it being called. i figured the length would have to go, but i voiced concern of being able to pull it back, and wanting it to be easy to manage. . . all that good stuff.

she did fill it with more product then i care for, as most salons do. . . .but i've walked it around town, and relaxed a bit. . . brushed it out. . . . i only need to try it after a shower on my own. . .. but i think i really like it . . . hehe. . . .

side

side
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

i believe in the world of the well coiffed, this is called an A cut bob. . . or something like that. it's REALLY short in the back, and totally curly. i was a little worried at first, but i think i'm totally loving it now. . . which is what spawned this small fashion photo shoot. . . at my diningroom window, with the refrigerator in the back. . . .enjoy!

superiority

superiority
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

give me unflappable superiority. . . you don't care about the camera. . . . you don't care! right. . .. work it!

inquisitive

inquisitive
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

show me inquisitive! what's that over your shoulder? is that something crawling on the wall? what's going on over there? now. . . hold it . . .hold it. . . .

shy

shy
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

i want to see shy!. . . shy like a little school girl.. . . SHY!

coy

coy
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

alright. . . now, give me coy. . . well done!

andria's visit

well. . . luckily i had gotten over the flu just in time for andria to make her stop by on her way back home to dallas from utah. i was a little nervous to test my stomach's capabilities of digesting food .. . but after several days of only water, tea, and orange juice. . . it was starving. . . and particularly craving good new mexican food. it was a little out of the way, but i drove her up to espanola for jo-ann's diner food. it's a totally cute and inexpensive meal. . . but oh so good! and my usual place to take new people, the oasis, was oddly closed for several days. . . . she'll have to wait till next time to experience the womb room.

she was a little surprised by the amount of snow that we had. she had passed through only a week earlier, when it was all beautiful and spring-like. then we got walloped by a snow storm. . .and there was plenty left to slosh through, which we did as we walked through the sculpture garden at shidoni. we didn't get to see them actually pour bronze, but the garden and funky furniture display was still quite fun. and why go through tesuque without a stop at the market for some of the best desserts around. and this time they actually had the good desserts made .. . . unlike the disappointing visit with trevor. i got my flan!. . . .though with my stomach, it took me three days to slowly eat and digest it. mmmmmm. . . flan.. . . . . and she left with some green chile cheese bread to take back with her.

we also stayed a bit at the awakening museum, she accompanied me to my acupuncture appointment, and we even took in a show- sam shepard's fool for love. . . the whole day we chatted and caught up on what each of us knew about the goings on of our barter friends. we even tried to call miss rachel, but i think it was a little late back on east coast time.

i'll make a quick segue here to my next post. i was rather jealous of her well done do. . . and how wonderfully it dried, all curls and little frizz. . . . you'll have to check out the next post to see where that led. . . . hehe

anyway. . . it was a great time, and i hope we get the chance to make it happen a little more often. i'll have to try and share this all with the barter crew. . see, it's nice to stay in touch. check out the pics below. . . . .

andria2

andria2
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

far be it for me to venture out to a new place or museum. . . besides, the Awakening Museum is so cool. how often do you get a chance to be COMPLETELY enveloped by color. andria really enjoyed it as well.

andria1

andria1
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

in left over snow from earilier in the week we checked out Shidoni. . . the bronze foundry. just a week earlier she had stopped by on her way to utah, and the weather had been beautiful and spring-like. then we got blasted with snow. as we did again this weekend.

andria3

andria3
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

andria was up for a visit last week. . . luckily i was just over the flu. . . and enough to enjoy some decent new mexican food with her!

a honking couple of days

first off, this past weekend was a blast. quite a schooling for myself, and i was totally whooped by the end. i already see that if i were to continue to do some of the hiring conferences, i need to either shorten my talk, or the interviewer's talk. . . each interview was supposed to last 20 minutes, but i tended to run over an average of 5 to 7 minutes. by the last 4 interviews, i was running a complete hour behind! but people still waited. . . .

i met a couple of really great kids, i'm totally psyched to work with them this summer, and well, there was a good share of complete duds. oh well.

there was a decent number of kent kids there that i was able to catch up with. pictures to come really soon.

well, coming back to santa fe, i was really tired, but i had a full week ahead of me. while my repetitive nose honking heralds in the start of allergy season, i've found myself couch ridden, drinking lots of hot tea, and this weird onion ginger honey concoction which is supposed to make me sweat. i was freezing earlier. not so much anymore.

i've been in constant contact with my bosses, working on which kids we want to hire, emailing, reference calling, a couple extra phone interviews. . . . all with a drippy nose and totally congested head . . . whoo hoo. . .

then there was wednesday and thursday, or was it tuesday and wednesday. . . i honestly don't remember for sure. . . the first night andria smith- (ahh barter days)- showed up later in the evening. she was on her way from dallas to utah for some production meetings. she makes the trek each summer but usually doesn't have time to stop by. this time though she crashed over for the night and we stayed up WAY past my bedtime talking and catching up. i was kind of sleepy the next morning, but it was totally worth it. she's planning on stopping by for a little longer on the way back to dallas. hmm. . . perhaps a touristy trek to come. . . .

so, the next morning, i was to head off to the airport to pick up a college friend who was coming to the opera for an interview. on my way to pick up amy mark, andria and i had a little breakfast. . .. what else? a breakfast burrito from santa fe baking company. i ended up being a little late to the airport, but amy seemed fine with it. we played, 'where's so and so and what are they up to' the entire day. .. or at least while she wasn't interviewing. she seems to be doing really well, and i hadn't realized how much i missed a bunch of these people. . . and hearing about how people were. a complete whirlwind for me, and people from two different eras of my life, not to mention the catch up played with the kent kids. . . . so THREE! three different times of my life. i was amazed at my ability to keep it all straight, and i was pulled names out of no where. . . . maybe this congestion thing is good for something, works as a sort of gelatinous goo that help move my synapses. . . . or not.

mmmm. . . NUMB3RS is on. . . . gotta go.

gisbe arrival

gisbe arrival
Originally uploaded by ekissam.

i got my gisbe (great international secret blog exchange) package just monday. though i think it probably arrived while i was away at the SETC convention, it made for a wonderful welcome surprise for me!

thank you lise! a cutie kangaroo plushie, glow stars-excellent, fun and different tasty treats, and someone did their homework and got me an aquarius month to month book. i LOVE it. . . THANKYOU!

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.