Thou Shalt Not Be Boxed: August 2006 Archives

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August 22, 2006

Witnesseth

I just got to witness Ordinarywhirled live and in person have her hate for Isringhausen solidified in a walk off 2 run homer by the Mets just now.

Cameron, however, is cheering. We're both just noting that it's one more loss in favor of a stress free wedding weekend.

I know, we're traitors.

Posted by nikl at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2006

Friday Night Thoughts

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Social change. Does anyone else ever feel like it's all for naught? That no matter how inspired and focused and open all the thinking and adaptive people are that there will always be some people who believe it's divine to blow up buildings with people in them? Or people who watch and cheer as others are lynched? Or that the best way to get free money is to have more babies?

I'm not so much discouraged as just feeling that at some level some people aren't even worth including in the change. But are any humans not "worth" it? And can change happen without them?

Posted by nikl at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

We're Siamese Twins

Did the writers of Windfall purposely name Peter and Nina's children Daisy and Violet?

And why did it take me all season to notice?

Posted by nikl at 08:18 PM | Comments (3)

Hitchfest!

Finally made it back to St. Louis from LaGuardia. In.Sanity. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate, and especially Kathi and Jen for planning it all down and super thanks for Kathi and Jim for being such great hosts!!!

Photos Here

Posted by nikl at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)

Abort! Abort!

Scheduled on the 8:25am flight out of LGA. Leave Brooklyn at 6:30am. The line for baggage check is serious, and people are wandering around as though they've never been to the airport before. But hey, maybe they haven't.

We board the plane on time at 8:05am, and proceed to sit on the runway until 9am. We are finally cleared for take-off, and right as we reach the point where we would lift off, we start slowing down. Something in the cockpit has indicated that we should not take off.

At 9:25am, we're back at the terminal. After an additional 35 minutes, they announce that the diagnostic on the engine came back not good, and the flight is cancelled. They announce that we can re-route at the check in counter at the top of the ramp. Riiiight.

We stand in the re-route line only as long as it takes me to call AA on the phone and re-route that way. We confirm on the 2:20pm flight.

At about noon, we attempt electronic check in. Denied. We get in the mongo check-in line at 11:50. At about 12:50, we get to the counter, get our boarding passes, and head to the gate - again. Since we're lucky to even be on the plane, we're not completely upset that we don't have seats together. We only take off a half hour late, and by 4pm, finally. Back in the Lou.

Posted by nikl at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2006

Marc Shaiman, Genius

This afternoon we saw Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. Response from a friend in the biz when I told him we were going: "For free, I hope."

Needless to say, my expectations were nil. Perhaps that's why I was so pleasantly surprised.

Martin himself was just ok. I can definitely see the critics saying that ironically, it's the ensemble that makes this one man show go. But for me, the real star was Marc Shaiman.

I first became a fan of Marc Shaiman when he was Bette Midler's musical arranger and accompanist. I then started keeping an ear out far any arrangements for which he was reponsible and continued to be impressed. Then he did South Park and it was clear that this man was not only crazy talented, but hilarious and smart as hell and to boot.

The many layers are what made the show a hit for me. People who love one man shows by movie stars got just that, plus a surprise celebrity cameo. Folks who just simply love Martin Short got to see all of his signature characters - some for extended periods. Musical theatre regulars got to see and hear many a reference. The musical theatre nerd, thanks to Marc Shaiman, was perhaps the most rewarded audience member of all. Many a musical salute graced the stage, and all very subtly delivered in the context of the show. Example: after Martin meets his wife in an off-broadway production of Brother de Jesus which ends in an orgy scene under a giant tie-died sheet and the cast in line drawn body suits, she next appears on stage in a wedding dress singing a quick paced patter song called "Married to Marty." The whole thing was funny, but for those who got all of the musical references, it was brilliant.

And then there was the completely random and wonderful side splitting wrongness level of humor which included an asian baby adopted by a gay male couple, and the song lyrics reminding the white people to refrain from clapping on the 1 and the 3.

I,m not sure what the critics will have to say about the show when it opens Thursday night, but the word of mouth will be strong. As long as the marketing firm can keep up and the producers stay focused (*cough* all shook up *end-cough*), it should do more than a little ok.

Side note: The whole musical within a musical sash musical theatre makes fun of itself thing is now officially a genre. Let me jus remind ourselves of a little musical called Joe!, which if opened now would be called a copycat, but truly in 1996 would have been the fist of its kind. I still think there's room for it...

Posted by nikl at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2006

quote of the day

no hamhocks in bed.

Posted by nikl at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)

Airport Madness Indeed

Flying to NYC this morning. We get to the airport early based on all the drama. We pull into long term parking at 8:50 AM for our 11 AM flight. 15 minutes later, we are at our gate.

Yes, that's right, shuttle, check in, security AND the walk to our gate took only 15 minutes. I am pretty sure that that's an all time airport record. They didn't even check to see if I was lying about having no liquids.

Oh, and I am typing this from my new pocket pc. Even though it runs windows, I LOVE IT.

And the horse it rode in on.

Posted by nikl at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

ZZZZZ

Why am I still so tired. The 4am tiling just caught up with me yesterday, and my legs are still so sore that I can barely WALK.

That is all.

Posted by nikl at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)

August 07, 2006

Both of the men in my life have lessons for me

My legs are on strike.

In the most current phase of the kitchen remodel, this weekend we installed the kitchen tile. (I added photos to the end of the kitchen madness photo album.)

Friday night after work, Cameron and I took our individual cars way out to Manchester to pick up our tile which had finally come in. Antique white 16"x16". Love it. We put approximately 500 lbs of tile each in our cars, and make our way back to Belleville, praying our cars don't realize that we're treating them like pick-up trucks.

Saturday morning we get up and head to Home Depot, where dreams are made. Sorry, I mean, where people are convinced that home improvement projects are as easy as, say, oh, snapping your fingers. We know we need that mortar like stuff, and we know we need grout. Based on our room size of about 500 sq ft, the helpful flooring assosiate does some quick calculations and tells us we need 10 50 lbs bags of the mortar mix stuff and 4 bags of the 25 lbs grout stuff. And we have to choose from like, 50 grout colors. ??????

So we again load up my car like a two penny ho.

Sat night, Cameron prepares the floor and I go to Concert for Cancer and hear Open Arms. Journey. (Ask me to tell this story, which the more I (re-)tell the more I am convinced that I'm thinking it's a lot more funny than it actually is.)

Sunday morning, Nichol comes over to school us in the way of the tile. Jorie comes over to help. At 9am, we start prepping, and Nichol and I head to HOME DEPOT where we load up my car with a wet saw and a few more things. We debated about doing everything but what needed cuts and renting the wet saw a separate day, or waiting until noon and seeing where we were progress-wise before renting the wet saw, but somehow we land on bucking such logic to the wind and just going for it.

We get back, conduct an experiment to deduce that the room is indeed square, and start from the south and east sides of the room. We FLY. We are cool. We like the tile. We love separators. Nichol starts us off, and soon Jorie and I are laying tile and Cameron and Nichol are ruling the wet saw. We get both walls complete, they master the cut around the A/C vent, and then we get to the second row on the east wall going north.

Pesky tile. Doesn't seem straight. In, out, up, down, tilted, nudged. Finally we settle and move on.

Then we get to the 3rd row. Same point in the process, it gets tricky. We end up having to cut a tile to get it to fit. But we think this will get us on track, we'll be fine moving forward if we can just get past this spot...

After the fourth row, we realize that no. Contrary to popular belief, the kitchen, my friends, is not square. We debate. We discuss. (at this point our expert, Nichol, has headed home to her own home improvement fun.) And ultimately we decide that the only thing to do is, yes, pull up everything but the south wall and start over.

It's at this point that the first lesson hits home. My father led by example: "If you can hire a professional, do." Not that my dad is lazy - he's a busy man with a job that has him up early and home around dinner time and he spends all day giving his energy to people. So when he came home he spent the rest with us, and any home/yard sort of stuff he hired out. We were never allowed to cut the grass because surely "a rock could pop up and hit us in the eye." So there were just always certain things you left to professionals. It was worth the investment to save you from injury/use your time in another way. Additionally, as my mother loves to add, there are people with specialties off of which they make a living - we should support them in their endeavors whenever possible! I live this philosphy whenever I can afford it.

Jorie helps us remove our work so far (at this point it's 4pm. We spent a good 2.5 hours alone on the trouble spots), and has to head home as well. Cameron finishes scraping the floor and I take the tiles out to the yard and wash off the mortar (after a call to Nichol she verified the necessity of this step to make sure that everything came out even in the end). And then we start again.

By the time I leave for KMOX, it's clear this approach is going to work. I had planned to go home after the show, but change my plans to come back and help finish. The wet saw rental was $60 for the day, and it was due back at 10am. We were finishing, dammit.

At 4am, Cameron made the last cut. A very complicated cut actually, which with his depleted 4am brain power took him quite some time to figure out. (and ps, we only used 3 of the 10 bags of the mortar.)

We cleaned up everything in a daze and got ready for bed. As we fell asleep, I found myself feeling a huge sense of accomplishment, partnership and love. I NEVER would have embarked on something like that were it not for having Cameron in my life, and despite all the insanity of the project, and the fact that it took 19 dizzying and sometimes very frustrating hours, we did it together, with the help of our friends. We found ways not to take out the ins and outs on each other. Working together came naturally. We made a good team.

And so the second lesson: Sometimes it feels damn good to do something on your own, with your hands. Especially together with the hands of those you love. And while you may not realize it in the moment, tests like that are the building blocks of relationships that last a lifetime.

Cue music, and goodnight.

Sudden cut in music as though someone took the needle off of a recond and voice over: But don't think this changes my philosophy about professionals and my duty to support them in their careers.

Re-enter music.

Posted by nikl at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)