Silver Linings

Been awhile since my last post. Lots of pros and cons over the past few weeks.

PROS

- I got a nice bonus at work. Very unexpected, but perfectly timed.

- Visited Minneapolis for a quick research trip, to ride the new Timberland Twister at the Mall of America. Also had dinner with jcubmn, brianmn, plaghs, and texasbearcub, and had a nice few hours of catching up with jcubmn while listening to music and driving around in his car.

- I've started up with the chorus again, going to be performing in the spring show on April 1-3 with Lily Tomlin as our co-star. She'll be performing ALL of her classic characters (Ernestine, Edith Ann, Trudy, etc .) in full costume -- something she RARELY does anymore. Tickets went on sale today and will easily sell out, so if you're in LA and want to come see the show, you can get information and tickets from the GMCLA website (or give me money and I can buy them for you at any Monday rehearsal). I'm also trying out for a solo/puppet number in the show, so cross your fingers. :)

- I found stuffed plush Peeps rabbits at the toy store a few weeks ago, and predictably bought them as a present for fidgetcub. He proceeded to hide them in various places inside my luggage during my last business trip, where I would find them every few days. The diabolical critters creepily gazed out at Sea World from my hotel room for hours (determinedly trying to telepathically communicate with the dolphins, we surmised), and tried to scurry off with my iPod. When my luggage went missing upon my return to LAX, we thought they might have snuck out while in baggage handling, swapped the luggage tags, and were enjoying a latte under the Eiffel Tower (complete with berets, accordion music, and cigarettes -- sorry, no photo, but perhaps this calls for an ongoing Peep photo blog).

- Went to an interesting conference for work last week. Also got to catch up with some Orlando friends.

- Work is remaining challenging and somewhat fun, even if it's also chaotic and somewhat unorganized. I try to make lemonade.


CONS

- Even bonus checks get taxes taken out. It ended up being about half of the original amount. Not so big anymore.

- Minneapolis was freakin' cold and snowy. Went for a drive with jcubmn, and because of all the snow and traffic it took nearly three hours to get from the Mall of America area to his house, which evidently normally takes about thirty minutes.

- My improv class/troupe has, for all intents and purposes, disbanded. The theater couldn't support another class because there wasn't enough paying students signing up, so they dropped us to focus on their two advanced classes. What's worse is, they didn't really *tell* us, I just found out in a casual email when I asked when our classes were going to start up again. Evidently we're welcome to pay-for-play with the advanced classes, which I look forward to doing -- but the way the whole thing was (non-)handled has left a slightly sour taste in my mouth. At least this opens up more time for me to do the chorus again, so maybe this is a Pro.

- Lots and lots and LOTS of business travel lately, which is driving me nuts and is leaving me no time for anything else (including reading LJ, which I'm woefully behind on). And as the opening dates of my projects loom closer (April/May), it's only going to get worse.

- Jason's car threw a rod on the way up to our New Year's party, so a very expensive engine replacement (on a car we still owe money on) has been looming for about a month now. As if that weren't bad enough, my car has a strange rattle in the engine that the mechanic is predicting is a blown rod bearing, which will eventually lead to -- wait for it -- a thrown rod and an unavoidable, expensive engine overhaul (or replacement). And the car is a lease, with two years of payments left. And the drivetrain warranty expired last October.