Dear Diary,

I really like Caprica.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.


Love,
Louise

PS: Sasha Roiz. Just. Yeah.


.............

In other news:

There was an Edwardian Ball which was lovely, and a Tim Burton Wonderland Ball which was a super-rad dance party and then Abney Park rocked everybody's socks off and then there was some more dancing.

I've been biking again. It was rainy and cold for so long that poor Toby was just stuck out on the patio under some towels. It's still rainy and cold, but intermittently, so I've ridden my bike to the farmer's market the past couple of Saturdays, and I also biked to Karla's new place to watch the Super Bowl (and then back home again, slightly tipsy, which was awesome.)

What else, what else.

My sister was in the hospital for sixteen days with a severe case of pancreatitis but she's out now and recovering. I need to see her more. And my niece. I still have their presents from the holidays and birthdays.

My aunt apologized to me. I can't possibly adequately explain the hugeness of this so I'm just going to leave that there.

I started therapy. So that's interesting.

If I lose five more pounds I will allow myself to get my next tattoo.

And in the crazyawesomeyay department? A week or so ago, Christina and I got our tickets to see American Idiot on Broadway (!!!) and just tonight, we booked our flights and our just-in-case-we-find-nowhere-else hostel reservations.

Is it on?

IT IS ON.

I am so stoked. Going to put in my official PTO request at work tomorrow, and then start planning other things to do and see. I want to see the Christopher Walken + Sam Rockwell play, A Behanding In Spokane, and Christina and I both might want to see the revival of West Side Story starring the lovely, nerdy Karen Olivo. Plus there's eight million other things to do, things I already know and love along with places I've never heard of yet that will surely be awesome, and the cathedrals, and Magnolia cupcakes, and just walking around discovering.

I love New York. Those I ♥ NY shirts? They made them for people like me.

ALSO AMERICAN IDIOT ON BROADWAY YAY.

(No Matt Caplan, though, for some strange undisclosed reason that he addressed in a song on his website but we're still all WTF mate?)

Anyhow.

Okay, check it out. Two updates in as many days.

Went up to the city last night. Had a lovely dinner with Arielle at New Delhi on Eddy Street, wherein we drank chai and nommed on naan and chaat and aloo gobi and talked about all manner of interesting things.

Then she went off to sets at the Plough & Stars, and I went to a show at the Bus Stop Gallery. I'd never been there before, and it's a really amazing space. It's all carpets and pillows and couches, and no shoes are allowed, and there are makeshift altars everywhere, with candles and incense and found art, sculptures and collages and dresses tacked to the walls. Also lots of mirrors because it's a studio, not really a performance space. Last night was the first event of its kind there. It feels like a place that is meant to be sacred, maybe sort of blessed by the beauty of the ordinary made extraordinary.

I had trouble being fully in the moment because I was distracted with worry for my sister who is sick and other things, but I had a really great time nonetheless. I had some drinks and some great conversation, made some new friends, and got to hear Tuvan throat singing and hang out with ever-charming folk like nathan_fhtagn and crowgrl13. So. It was of the good.

Though it feels like about five years have passed since the last Edwardian Ball, it has, in fact, only been one, and I'm going to the first night of this year's tonight. It should be a good time. I've got my proper clothes in my backpack, and will be heading up to the Ballroom as soon as I'm done visiting my sister in the hospital.


.....

Yeah, I can't think of anything else to write. (Okay, rock and roll, god bless America?)

It's been raining for three days, there are a lot of things coming up, and I have posted exactly one time this year! Well. Two, now.

Way to get back into the swing of things, yes? I miss being able to write whenever, about everything. It feels like it's all stuck in here with no way to get out, lately, and I think Twitter is partly to blame and also my mood, just the functions of my brain, or the startling lack of functionality thereof. But it's getting better all the time, as The Beatles sang. I'm taking, you know, steps. I think they are in the right direction.

MOON came out on DVD. I love that movie so much. I bought it the day it came out, which I don't usually do, and it was absolutely worth it. Definitely a must-own, for me.

My family is being horrible again, as is their wont, but it's nothing I can't deal with.

I'm reading The Green Mile right now. It's really good. I wish I were curled up in bed reading it right now, and can't wait for my lunch hour when I can fix myself a sandwich, ignore my telephone and read at my desk.

It's been so hard to get out of bed in the mornings this week, with my blankets all warm and a purring Ghani nuzzled into my side, and the thunder and rain outside, and a pile of unread books waiting next to the bed. I live for the sun and the warm and I do not like the winter and the cold, but when I'm all comfy and snuggly inside and it's storming outside, at those times it's worth it.

I spent a lot at the thrift store over the past couple of weeks on books and steampunkable clothes. I'll be at Saver's waiting to meet my dad at Little India down the block, and before I know it I'll have a pile of khaki vest things and military-looking skirts and Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. Luckily it's, you know, a thrift store, so even when I spend A Lot it's really not That Much. And I've been needing new clothes. And books. I never don't need books.

Lots of things coming up, as I mentioned! Going to see nathan_fhtagn and friends tonight at the Bus Stop Gallery in the city, and then here is a list of the other things I can think of:

.......

WOW THIS REALLY IS A LOT OF STUFF ACTUALLY

1/22 - Edwardian World's Fair
1/23 - Edwardian Ball
1/24 - Possibly 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea at the Walt Disney Family Museum
2/5 - Abney Park at the Tim Burton Wonderland Ball
2/6 - Nicole's Birthday Party + PEERS: Le Mardis Gras De Vampires
2/14 - Valentine's Day Party + Pillowfight
2/15 - MC Frontalot
2/26 - Bohemian Carnival
3/6 - PEERS: A Night At The Cabaret
March Nova Albion
April - Wondercon + PEERS: La Legion Fantastique
April - American Idiot premieres on Broadway and we must be there
5/13 - Peter Pan play in San Francisco
May - Kim and Dan's wedding in Tahoe
July - Pan-Kinetic Expo
July - The be-all, the end-all: The San Diego Comic-Con!

.......


It just goes on and gloriously on. See why I need thrift stores? Also why I need to get out of bed in the morning? I do, in fact, have a little collection of fliers for upcoming events, taped up at my desk, and when work gets frustrating or upsetting, I look at them and remind myself why I'm here and not still in bed, reading, with my cat.

Oh! I always forget I have yogurt in the work fridge. I bought a bunch of them on sale and every day I forget, so it's like a surprise gift to myself every day. Or perhaps a little like I'm a goldfish.

Blorp.

2009 is over! Long live 2010.

I have resolutions but I don't feel like posting them all. Writing a proper post here, however, is probably fulfilling one of them.

I spent New Year's Eve at Meadery Don's, being shown weapons, discussing brilliant animated series from the 90s, eating various cheeses, and watching people light things on fire. I ended up spending the night, along with John and Mary, who are a lot of fun. We stayed up until at least 4am, and in the morning were served the most epic of breakfasts by Don and Michelle. Watched Inglourious Basterds (which I think I've finally learned to correctly spell incorrectly), came home, watched the Doctor Who finale with Christina and Melissa, cried my eyes out. We've decided to observe a Victorian mourning period.

Yesterday I went to see the musical Nine with Arielle. It was very striking and very sexy, but I didn't really enjoy any of the songs. Or care about the story. Oh, the costumes though! I would probably rent it on DVD someday just to skip to the pretties.

The first PEERS of the year was great fun. I helped decorate again, and it turned out looking pretty spiffing if I do say so. It was the 12th Night Ball, a.k.a the Dickens Reunion, and so naturally it was packed to the rafters, but I got to Congress with Lincoln and BNP with Remington, and danced with some new people, and when there was no room or inclination for dancing there was excellent conversation.

I'm off the the City in a little bit to meet up with some of the girls and see A Single Man. Another resolution: get out and do more things rather than moping about.

And now, my traditional list of books I read in the past year. It's shorter than in previous years, possibly because I was in school half the time, but in any case this year is already off to a ravenous book-consuming start.


Books I Read In 2006
Books I Read In 2007
Books I Read In 2008

( Books I Read In 2009 )

Oh my ears and whiskers, look at the time! Must shower.

I really need to get back to posting here all the time like I used to!

I've had this thing for nine years and it's the turn of the decade, after all!

Though I will probably not regret letting this year sink into the dim and distant past, uncharacteristically unchronicled!

Hey - it's my birthday tomorrow! Disney Family Museum and Indian food!

High time to pull oneself out of the mire!

Ahem. As you were, LiveJournal.

So. The stage adaptation of American Idiot that previewed in Berkeley this season.

I've seen it twice in Berkeley with Christina (she's seen it three times!) and it is just fucking phenomenal. I really liked it when we sat in the very back, enough to see it again. And then we were front row center last night and I just haven't stopped thinking about it all day. It's frenetic and beautiful and all around you and it pulls you in and it made me cry and it rocks. Oh, does it ever rock. I didn't even realize how great these songs are until I experienced them in this context. It's my favorite new musical since RENT.

And on a related note: Matt Caplan ZOMG!

Seriously, I could just die over how much I adore this thing. I think it's sold out for the rest of its run in Berkeley, which ends the 15th, but it's supposed to hit Broadway early next year and if you can go see it, wherever you are, whenever it comes to you: go. GO.

Due to some sleuthing in regards to a sneaky nephrologist who is always trying to put one over on us here at work (I work in market research), I felt the need to announce that I feel like I'm in an episode of Scooby-Doo.

And my coworker Jenna called out from her office, 'You kind of dress like you're in Scooby-Doo!'

♥

New look for my journal.

Today is one of those rare days where I get to Do Nothing, which usually means I get a lot of little things done because there was no pressure to do anything at all.

We'll see if one of those little things is 'manage to catch up on my NaNoWriMo' - I'm thousands of words behind. But the month is young! But I have Netflix, and reading to do for class, and also laziness.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year.

It's not the best of ideas, since my night class has a pretty heavy workload and it's hard enough as it is for me to write papers on time without any fluffy 50,000-word distractions. But when have I ever been known to go for things that are a good idea, when I could instead do something stupid?

Remember, if you never do anything stupid, you don't give yourself the chance to accidentally do something stupid awesome.

It's really been too long.

Christina, Karla and I had a yard sale this past weekend. It went just fine, but I'm still trying to raise a bit more money for Disneyland, and I have a few things that I didn't want to sell to the general rabble anyway.

If you're interested in any of these things, please e-mail me at louise.ducray@gmail.com. Stuff is in good condition, prices negotiable. :)


.....

$100 - A $200 voucher for Delta airlines
I got this voucher to compensate for my troubles trying to get home from Washington DC in January. Thing is, I really don't know when I am going to use it. If you buy it off me, you get $100 off your next Delta flight, and I get $100 I would not have otherwise had! Everybody wins.

.....

$50 - Corset
From Timeless Trends, steel-boned, blue silk with black lace. It is the style shown here in size 32. Gorgeous, well-made, just a bit too big for me now.

.....

$10 - Serenity Bank Heist Money Pack
The 'Fan Club Edition' distributed by Quantum Mechanix, seen here.

.....

$10 - Star Trek Foam Finger - San Francisco Giants
These were given out at the Star Trek night at the San Francisco Giants earlier this year. They are nifty and exclusive and they look like this.

.....

I should be listing a second batch of stuff later on (posters, mainly) but I wanted to get this posted since Disneyland is this weekend. (Yay!)

And then what happens?

OMFG PAUL BETTANY IS GOING TO BE AT COMIC CON THAT IS ALL

It was a really, really good Independence Day for a variety of unrelated reasons.

Actually, the whole weekend has been nice.

Now I'm going to go for a run, if I can convince my legs they still work after a hike on Friday and the walk to fireworks last night.

This very evening at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco.

Tickets available at the door or online here.

Schedule

6:30 Doors
7:00 Intro
7:15 Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog
8:00 Intermission
8:10 Costume Contest + Prize Drawing
8:30 Serenity!


Come have fun, hang out and support Equality Now!

All of my Doctor Who icons are WAY too subdued for such an event so here is Kaylee to help me announce that

OMFG DAVID TENNANT IS GOING TO BE AT SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON.

The Music Of Battlestar concert was incredible, as in 'not to be believed.' Stunning.

I wrote a rambling gonzo-ish review of the evening in Sue's car on the way back up north, before I lost any of the magic and was back in the world. I promise to post it within the next twenty-four hours without letting my inner editor get the best of me.

In the meantime, there are some beautiful photos and even a few videos up on Bear's blog!