elanya

Today, fishmalk (whose dreamdidth name I am now using properly, whoops!) asked me to write a drabble set on my ride to work. I was slightly confused initially, thinking he wanted me to write a *drabble set* *during* my ride to work. But no - a drabble about my ride in.

I don't usually bus in on Wednesdays, but it is a weird time of year, and today I did, and also took a much earlier bus. While he wasn't necessarily intending for it to be specifically about today - today is what you get.

( Bitch Face Fail )


And of course, I still have open slots! (On DW|On LJ) Tomorrow, kennesaw asked me a pretty heavy question, which is funny, because I'll probably be high off my gourd on pain meds :V

So, the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts brought the New York Neo-Futurists to Texas A&M.

The neo-futurists are a theater group originally conceived in Chicago, and the TMLMTBGB production started there something like 20 years ago. They don't do 'acting' they way you might think of in a typical play - everything in the theater is real, the people are real, the audience is real, and you are all there together sharing an experience. I mean, this is true in general, but they make it explicit, and make it part of the performance.

The show is actually made up of 30 different plays, and they only go for an hour - there is a big darkroom clock on the wall, and they start the show, they set it to 60 minutes. And when it stops, the show is over.

The audience (who are all renamed for the experience - you show up and are greeted by Neos with microphones wearing big ear protection who loudly ask your name, don't hear it, and then write you a whimsical name tag - I was Baby Alligator) are given a menu of plays, and shout the number of the one they want to hear when the performers call the end of the last play (code word: Curtain!). The plays are all short and very fun! Well, some of them are more sad or poignant, but most are pretty funny. I am very good at shouting quickly. But really, we got to see all of them, because they'd come so far to put on the show for us. They'd named someone Damocles, and they let her decide, after the timer ran (with three and a half plays to go) if they would keep going and how much time to put back on the clock. I've kept my menu, anyway - some of the plays they did are on the website.

So... I am familiar with them in reference to Night Vale, because as far as I can tell the NYNFs are what all the main players have in common. Jeffrey Cranor and Cecil Baldwin are both currently members, as is Meg ....her last name starts with B but I can't find is... who is, as I like to think of it the Voice of Commonplace Books. I was curious about the NYNFs, in any case, because of this connection, and figured that by association it was bound to be a pretty cool show. And then Jeffrey Cranor was actually here tonight, wooh! I thought it would be cool to see his performance and writing in a different context, and was pleased (perhaps slightly relieved?) that I still enjoyed it immensely. It it a very different project, but definitely worth it.

I also got to talk to him (eee) after the show and managed to do so, I think, without being overwhelming or super awkward! I talked to one of the other Neos too (Cara), but peeps were waiting on me so I didn't get to meet them all, alas. But hey - maybe they will come back? I would 100% recommend that anyone who has a chance check out the show, anyway! It is always different...

Mostly ups, I have to admit.

Like... My dad is visiting! I haven't seen him since like... Christmas 2011 or 2010? So that's pretty cool. We haven't been doing a whole lot - he came to see me, not to See All the Things, though we have seen some of the things (like Red II, and I took him to the galleries today, and found out the hard way that Cushing is closed on the weekends (no GRRM exhibit, alas!). And tonight we feasted on Sodalaks! Really, dad being here means that I have eaten lots of tasty things I haven't had the ways or means to get to in a while.

Also, I graduated! I am officially a doctor of Anthropology now, though I do not at all feel qualified at the moment. I haven't cracked a book of any kind in months and I doubt I could carry on an intelligent conversation on anything related to my field -_- I need to get on that.
The people I'm dogsitting for will be home tomorrow. That's not really a good or a bad thing, just a Thing. It will be nice not to have to split my time between houses anymore, but I will miss the animals, and they have some things here that I don't have at home.

And the big low - one of those things is a working fridge. Cleaning out the freezer today was really really gross, and sad making. And gross. it smelled foul, and there was a lot of...leaky...things...in bags. Also stuff that my old roommate kept for her animals. Ugh. But a new one will hopefully be sorted out pretty quick, at least. what will really suck is having to restock all my fridge and freezer things from scratch :/ At least I didn't *really* lose that much though.

Anyway! I'm a doctor! I have my diploma and it is framed and everything! I got hooded on stage and hugged by my department head!

...The Night Vale fangirl in me likes to point out that I am now *officially* a Hooded Figure. Whether or not I am mysterious... who can say >.>

( picture! )

I passed! Yaaaay! And I got an adorable art commission, and some gorgeous handspun yarn and a pirate snake, and chocolate covered strawberries :D

Now I am drinking cider and then I am going to catch up on sleep. Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement :D

Defending tomorrow! Last minute room change! No one I know can come, wheee! Or at least if they can they haven't told me about it ;p

It will be fine. I feel ready. I am going to bake muffins tonight, and I am geeting a lift in the morning from my chair and his wife (this is at least partly because they want my dog ;p). I will get coffee made and get the room set up. There will be snacks, but not too many because I really don't think there will be that many people there. I have practiced the crap out of my powerpoint and gotten some further excellent advice on how to improve it. One (well, at least one) of my committee members was only reading Chapter II this afternoon when I talked to him. I have no idea what will happen after the presentation is over and my throngs of supporters are booted out. Wheee!

Is next week! /o\

I put it on the grad list and on FB, soI may as well put it here too:

I would like to welcome everyone interested to attend the public segment of my dissertation defense next Wednesday, May 29th, in Glasscock 300 at 9:00 AM! The topic of the talk will be "Harbour Island: The Comparative Archaeology of a Maritime Community."

Thank you!


...I'm just starting to feel a little stressed about it now. I'd feel better if I had my presentation more together, but I am procrastinating pretty hard on it. But I have all weekend, right? D: I do have it started.... Why is it so hard to sort out the history bits?

I feel like I have had a pretty anti-social weekend, but on reflection this isn't actually true. I talked to my sister and bro-in-law and various nephews (well, okay, talked *at* in their cases) over skype, and I still spent most of my time chatting in various media, and I even had one of my Sunday online games, so really I shouldn't complain even though I haven't talked to a real live person since I left the gym with tethys123 on Friday.

Mondays are kind of extra bleh, because half the people I have to chat with online (yes yes, I IM at work, very naughty) have Mondays off and sleep in because they are jerks. This week, my boss is in and I'm still the only one in the office. She's out all week so this is likely to be the case until she gets back next Tuesday. Of course as I was writing that someone else came in, but he is in an office way far away from mine, so that hardly counts ;p I think one of our student workers is back today too! (eta: actually apparently he has called in jet-lagged) Anyway, it's quiet and I don't really have anything better to do (well, anything pressing) so I thought I may as well slap up a general life update. Since I hardly ever seem to post at all anymore, hrm...

( blah blah blah life crap )

I think that's about the sum of it, for the few curious out there, anyway. And it is still an otherwise super quiet Monday...

I don't have to go to work this morning - I'm not scheduled for Fridays. But.... I'm going anyway!

Today the three finalists in the school's Sculpture Competition, to create a suspended piece to hand outside the hallway of the new gallery entrance, are presenting their ideas to the jury. They'll get voted on, and once everything goes through the various approval channels (yay bureaucracy -_-) they'll be announced to the public. Since I'm gallery staff, I'm allowed to sit in on the presentations - there will even be snacks ^-^ I'm really excited to see what the three have come up with - two individuals and one group. If you're curious, their names are here on the gallery website and you can google them. I don't have time to give you links, alas!

After they're over, I'm going to head over to Northgate and grab lunch (burger craving @_@) and pick up a package (My dad overnighted me some chicken bones, hee!) at Fed Ex. And then to the gym with Megan for swimming!

So... yes, I'm partly posting this so anyone I normally chat with in the morning won't be wondering where I am, since I'm unlikely to be online again until around 2:30 my time, or later :3

But also I'm excited!

In other news, I am making dissertation progress slowly but steadily. I am almost through with this big ridiculous huge lit review/theory chapter, which is the going to be the hardest part. I really want it out of my hair soon, so I can go back to flitting between other things that still need doing. Like more data analysis ;_;

I have a ton of drabbles to write though, to give me writing breaks, so things are generally looking pretty good around here :)

I have not been doing as well as I'd intended at keeping up with this, but that's par for the course. I have laundry unfolded (some still in the dryer) that I washed almost a week ago. I don't even have a good excuse for it really. I've been keeping busy, but not with anything essential. Enh.

I need to take a bunch of pictures off my camera, from my visit home, still, and then from the recent SHA conference I attended last week in Baltimore. It was great! Going home was great, and the conference was also great. However math stupidity led to me shorting myself six hours from work, so, uh, oops? Someday I'll get it right - some day, I'll learn to count to forty :V The good news there is that it's been so quiet that if I'd had to spend six more hours finding myself things to do I may have shot myself out of boredom :p Luckily, things have been picking up recently, and I'm sure we'll be going full steam soon enough as we get closer to the move-back date. Speaking of, I need remember to bring in crappy clothes for working in/cleaning the vault. And my sneakers.

I have so many things to say, but so little energy/time to say them! I'll try a short list. Hmm.

-I haven't been doing any real fiction writing since Yuletide ended. I have written lots of creative fictional things, but nothing narrative. I think I needed the break, but I do want to get back to it. I need to budget my time better.

-I have been "finishing" a paper for publication for about two weeks now. I had issues with my references. I chose to fix them using the time consuming solution, but this has proven to been the wrong one. Now I need to go unfix all my fixing, whoops. And fix different things. I should have been done with all this ages ago, but I'm not. Why? I need to budget my time better.

-I spend yesterday hanging out with tethys123 for the first time in forever. We went out for food and worked on crafting things. I can taste the end of Innsmouth - it tastes salty, like my tears. I'm sure I could finish it in a few hours, if I could find them, or make myself give them over to knitting. I could do this.... if I could budget my time better.

- I have joined a new bi-weekly D&D game. I have spent way too much time on my character history and writing up stuff for the setting. Its been fun, but I need to budget my time better.

-The conference was great for kicking my ass in to gear on my dissertation, but it doens't seem to have taken. I haven't revisited it at all yet, because I've been making up time at work, or working on that paper or writing you don't want to know how many pages of game stuff, or knitting, or generally faffing about in the internet. I need to budget my time better.

I'm sure there was more, but you're probably getting an idea of the running theme. I'm not sue what the best solution will be. I work better at school, but I have a hard time getting there when the buses aren't running regularly. I need to keep my house clean, and feed myself. I have to take care of the animals. I'm sure I can fit more useful things in to my day, but I don't know how to make myself try to do it. Maybe once the buses are running on a more convenient schedule it will help, and once I'm no longer putting in full days at work and have more time on campus. We'll see.

Right now what I really need to do, though, is go to bed. Tomorrow is technically a holiday, but I sill have a ton of stuff to do.