Slacker

Hey! I've been a major slacker since...well...a while ago. My fancy phone has been the primary culprit considering I spend significantly less time on the Internet when I'm at home. I really only blog from home, and now there are days when I don't open my laptop at all. Enough of my making excuses, but I really do aspire (fun word!) to write in here more frequently. I enjoy it. It looks like I better download a Blogger app. Yep, I just said that.

So, I'm going to say random bullets about my cruise:
-The population was mainly comprised of senior citizens (love it!) and rednecks (amused by it!).
-It doesn't get much better than watching toothless karaoke.
-I held an alligator!
-Spinning out in a boat is an incredibly exhilarating feeling.
-Cottage cheese is good.
-Tanning on a beach and seeing snow in a 36-hour period isn't normal.
-Consider getting a second opinion when asking someone the time; the bus will leave without you.
-Hold onto your balloon hat when you go to the top of the boat, even when docked.
-Kayaking through mangroves is like something out of a movie.
-Cruises re-program how often you think you need to eat.

All in all, I had a blast on the cruise! I have one observation that I noticed on the last cruise, and then reconfirmed this cruise: Time seems like it's passing slowly for the first day or two -- like, you really think you have all the time in the world -- and then it just speeds up and you feel like it all happened in the blink of an eye. I need to go on a 4352342-day cruise next time.

This week was a pretty stressful one since it was mass email week AND I was already backlogged. I survived it, but it definitely wasn't easy. I performed on Thursday night, so that was fun. I played Conducted Rap, Sounds Like A Song, Foreign-Dubbed Soap Opera, Sit Stand Lean Oscar, Dating Game, and Musical Styles. It was a pretty big crowd for a Thursday night, so that was cool. Yippee!

Oh man! Guess what! One of my friends (MV) gave me a baseball "To Drew" from John Smoltz! I literally couldn't believe it. I am sooooo ready for the season to begin.

Well, I've been taking it easy this weekend. I was so delirious by yesterday evening that I was barely functioning. I seriously reached into the oven without a mitt on my hand. That's not a metaphor; that's the truth. Thankfully I caught myself before I grabbed the tray, but I think that speaks for itself. I'm hoping next week will be slightly more relaxed, but you never know!

It's time to read a little bit and sleep for another 10 or 12 hours. I started to feel like I could be getting sick, but I'm thinking it was just the stress from the workweek.

Happy weekend, all!

P.S. I won a trophy and medal on the cruise -- gotta keep representin' for the Dotson household. There was some kind of brain teaser trivia and I pretty much dominated. I guess that makes me a total nerd, but I have a trophy and medal to prove it.

When I grow up...

I wanna be famous.

That's not me saying I want to be famous, but rather it's a tribute to dancing to Just Dance 2 on the Wii. My roommate and I have only played the game together twice, but we are getting better and better each time. There's a tribal dance that it's safe to say we DOMINATED.

I can't exactly remember the last time I wrote, but today was the fourth day of work being canceled due to the snow. Tomorrow work will resume, but not until noon. That being said, I likely won't go into the office unless the ice behind my car miraculously melts. I know that this weekend is supposed to bring warmer temps, so hopefully my car will be mobile sometime on Saturday! I've never experienced anything to this extent in my lifetime in Atlanta! We'll get some snow about once a year, but it never stays cold enough for all school districts to be canceled for an entire week. It's been frustrating at times, but kinda fun, too.

Today I ventured out for the first time since Sunday -- made a journey to Publix. Aside from almost busting it on the way to the car, the expedition was pretty painless. Then, though, on the way home, I guess someone had gotten in an accident because it took probably 30 minutes to go 1/8 of a mile. I looooooove traffic.

Well, I'll stop rambling and get to sleep. As you can probably tell, the apprentice show was canceled tonight. BUMMER! It would have been quite the battle trying to get down there, but this cabin fever would have made for something interesting!

I hope everyone is safe and warm.

GO FALCONS! if I don't write before Saturday night's playoff game.

Stir, stir, stir it up

Oh man... I am LOSING IT! Well, the snow thing worked out and tomorrow will be day three of work being canceled. It's kind of funny that I'm feeling so restless because I'm usually not like this. I think the difference here is that I know that I truly can't leave the house -- or that I can and it would be dangerous. Plus, the work is still there, so that doesn't make it any easier. I don't know if we'll go back to work on Thursday or what because this stuff isn't expected to thaw until Friday or later. BLAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

I'm trying to force myself to go to sleep at a decent time even though I don't have to work tomorrow. It's chapter newsletter week at work so, when work does resume, I'm going to have so much to do. I think that's why it's been hard for me to relax and enjoy these snow days. Usually I'd be having a party!

What else? I'm trying not to let myself get discouraged about my book, but I haven't worked on it much lately. I just haven't been inspired. I don't know if it's that last week was particularly stressful and this week is just so up-in-the-air or what... Maybe there isn't a reason; maybe I just needed a break.

Well, I guess I'm going to try to get to sleep. I hope everyone is staying warm and safe. This is definitely the most snow I've ever seen. In my life, probably. SMILE!

Whether the weather is cold...

Greetings! It's Sunday! Normally I would be bummed because it would mean the weekend is coming to a close, but, if things go according to plan, it's going to be snowy and icy and we won't have to go to work tomorrow.

It has been a theatre-filled weekend. Yesterday I worked the box office for the kids' show. I performed last night and it was fun. I played Conducted Rap, Sounds Like a Song/Rap, Foreign-Dubbing (as a dubber), Sit Stand Lean Oscar, Buzzer Courtroom (Barbara as the bailiff), and Musical Styles. It was sold out!

Friday night I went out with some work friends (KQ and SS) and we stayed out entirely too late. I had a lot of fun, though. I messed up my sleeping routine, so that's another reason I'm voting for snow.

What else? I'm going to an apprentice celebration tonight. It should be fun!

How low can you go?

First things first, let me say that my right Shift key is driving me crazy. It has been acting NUTTY for quite a while now. I mean, I have to backspace more than ever before. It's almost like the key's timing is off, so I will try to capitalize a letter and, even though I hit the key at the proper time, it's like it doesn't register until later. Then, randomly, I will capitalize a word and the next four letters will be capitalized. I honestly am not sure what to do about this silly laptop - it's like I'll be waiting for the words I typed to show up sometimes. I took the Shift key off and put it back on last night, which was quite the challenge. Anyway, if any computer gurus are reading this and have any advice, send it on over. I think it might be about time to get a new computer.

I really need to be asleep right now. Perhaps I shouldn't have had caffeine tonight when I was at the theatre. I hadn't thought a lot about that until now, but I bet that's the culprit for why I haven't conked out yet. This is WAY past my bedtime.

Well, I worked at the graduation show tonight, which was nice because I got one of my volunteer shifts for the month out of the way. Plus, the show was fun and I planned to go anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone. Thursday, I will do my second volunteer shift of the month, meaning I'll literally only have one shift left for the entire month! That's pretty exciting because it means there will be three weekends without any shifts this month. I'm most excited about that because it's really time to hunker down on my book. I know I've been blabbering about it for so long, but I'm feeling pretty ready to accomplish things.

Today I accomplished a lot and it felt good. Within an eight-minute period, I got a lot done. I made a dentist appointment that I've put off for more than eight months. I also ordered refills for two of my medications. I sent a few emails to follow-up on some things (prompted by a friend's checking in to get updates, so thank you!), which resulted in working to schedule my pre-screen appointment for the PTC124 drug study I excitedly mentioned at the end of January. I mean, let me just say that in that short amount of time, I moved mountains. It's so nice not to have some of those things looming overhead anymore.

There are tons of other things I want to say, probably because I am hopped up on caffeine. Anyway, it snowed again today (this is so atypical), so I was really hoping for some kind of cancellation tomorrow. It's not looking very probable since there wasn't much water on the roads tonight, but I can still hope. The schools in my county are delayed, so that should make for an easier start to my commute regardless.

Well, I'm gonna try to go to sleep because a little wave of tired-eye just came over me...

Coldlanta

Let me say that it definitely snowed in Atlanta today. If I knew how to get a picture from my phone to the Internet, I would show you the snow right now. However, I guess I'd need Internet on my phone to do that. WHATEVER! It looks like over three inches at this point. I'm just happy the weather people were right for once.

Today I worked from home. It's funny that the only two 'weathery' days this winter have been when I was telecommuting, but oh well... Work closed at 3:00 p.m. today, so that was a pleasant break from Friday's typical activities. I got brunch during lunchtime at J. Christopher's... Mmm, Spinach and Bacon Skillet.

Note: It's Tuesday now, but I'm going to post this anyway.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

So, it's supposed to snow in Atlanta again tomorrow, like it did about a month ago. It's funny because I really dislike the cold, but I like precipitation. I would like it to be in the 80s every day, but if it's not, I tend to like precipitation. I have always been a fan of rain, and snow isn't bad, either. It sounds like the possibility of snow is pretty promising, so we'll see how it goes. The good news is that it shouldn't hang around for long, so we can hopefully avoid the icy mess that came along with last month's snow.

I've had the best week I've had in quite some time, for no real reason. Things calmed down enough to not be on-edge at work, so that obviously has an extremely positive influence on me. Plus, I've just had a nice week. Wednesday I worked from home and then, instead of rehearsing, we went out to a bar, so that was nice. Tonight I went to the show and had fun laughing there, too. It was nice to catch a bit of a break this week since it feels like I haven't gotten that in a while. I got to take it easy and I needed that.

Right now I'm just kind of surprised at where my memory has gone. I was just reading an AJC article online and it referenced my high school media center. WHOA. Okay, so this story just took a drastic turn. Really, though, the article referenced the media center and I have been wondering for about 10 minutes now where that even was in the school. I was totally blanking, partially because I was so surprised it wasn't coming to mind easily. Somehow, though, just then when I typed 'WHOA,' I could picture it. I just remembered. Everyone can breathe now.

Speaking of breathing, I don't sound too hot today. It might be a combination of the bar shenanigans, some smoky air, yelling to hear people last night, the crazy weather, etc. Either way, though, I sound a little junky. I found myself short-of-breath some today. Hopefully it's just some kind of fluke. Over the last several weeks, I have been sneezing a ton. Fact-sharing time is over now.

I think I'll go to sleep. I'm going out to an early lunch tomorrow.

And then you're on your very first date

So, are there ever song lyrics that you sing wrong every single time? You know that they're wrong, but you can't seem to stop singing what you once accidentally thought they were... Well, that's how I am with a line in Taylor Swift's song "Fifteen." It's the lyric that says, "And then you're on your very first date and he's got a car." For some reason, every time I say "and he's got a gun." It makes the song better, really. "And then you're on your very first date and he's got a gun." Oooh, what happens next?

Well, what a week it was... and I can't believe a new one is starting.

On Tuesday I went to work and then came home and watched Georgia Tech lose and disappoint me. I mean, they just didn't seem to have considered the fact that the other team had almost six weeks to prepare for their offense. Anyway, it was pretty upsetting, but oh well. I had a good time watching it, mainly because I ate some jalapeno poppers.

Wednesday I had improv, but we had a work call rather than rehearsing. So, I carried some stuff around that ended up irritating my first rib. It was also absolutely freezing outside, so that didn't help my cause. I was glad to get home relatively early, though, because I wanted a good night's sleep for my first apprentice show on Thursday.

I woke up Thursday super-excited about my show. However, as the day progressed and the talk of wintry weather increased, I began to worry that my show might get canceled. Well, I didn't have to worry too long because it was indeed called off. So, I came home from work and my roommate and I went to get ice cream at the grocery store as it was beginning to snow. It ended up snowing a decent amount and freezing over, so that makes everyone in Atlanta lose their minds.

Friday work was canceled due to the snow, so that was a nice perk. I pretty much had a lazy day until it was time to go work at the theatre. Claire and I met for El Toro before my shift. Then, we went to the shoe store and I got some cute plaid boots. I was surprised at the size of the crowd at the theatre on Friday considering the slick mess outside.

Last night, I went to a going away party for a friend that's moving to Israel for an intensive Arabic study. It was a lot of fun and I'm going to miss her, but I admire her so much for following her passion. We ended up staying out until almost 3:00 a.m. PARTAY! A server told me I looked like Lo from The Hills. I have also been told I look like Kristen and Lauren from The Hills, so I'm confused.

Finally, today - I had about 300 pictures taken of me, so that was fun. One of my friends from work enjoys photography and I just so happen to need a headshot for improv, so I stood out smiling in the freezing cold. It was pretty fun!

I'm hoping to spend the remainder of my day working on my book, but I wanted to update my blog before I got started on that. Or else I would use it as a reason not to be focused. I can't wait to enjoy the lazy rest of my day!

Good night, Monday

I am tired right now, but I figured I'd write in my delirium.

Improv was a lot of fun tonight. I actually felt 'on' for the first time in what seems like forever, although it doesn't help that I had a break with the holidays and what not. It's probably a good thing I'm feeling 'on' this week because I'm in the show on Thursday night. My first show as an apprentice....Woohoo! It's giving me something to look forward to in this week back to reality. I hope some people can come see my debut!

Tomorrow night I get to watch Georgia Tech play in the Orange Bowl from the comfort of my own home. I hope they win. I really want to wear my Georgia Tech hoodie to work tomorrow, but I don't know if I will since it's Tuesday, which means it's staff meeting day. If it weren't Tuesday, there's a 100 percent chance I would wear it, but it's the one day of the week that everyone sees me. Sooooo, perhaps I'll have to put it on at the end of the workday. Frankly I think people in behind-the-scenes positions (like myself) should be able to wear absolutely anything to work as long as it isn't vulgar. Wearing sweats to work would boost my morale.

Today I had Willy's, which was a good first lunch hour of 2010. Tomorrow I'm supposed to meet a friend who's in town for lunch. She's not in town for lunch, but I mean, I'm supposed to meet her for lunch. I hope it works out, even if we eat at an odd hour for the sake of coordinating our schedules.

I did the elliptical today at work. While I exercised, I read several pages of my book (the one written be me) and made notes on them for organizational purposes. I am reworking the silly out of that thing because the revelation I recently had changes so much about it...including the title. Am I being vague? Are you intrigued? Are you going to read it when it comes out?

It's definitely time to sleep. While it seems to be all that folks can talk about right now, it is extremely cold outside. It truly doesn't get much colder than this in Atlanta. Rumors are that it might snow on Thursday, but I'll believe it when I see it. I've never been a big snow person, but if it's going to be this cold, I prefer it yield some kind of result that couldn't happen otherwise. It makes shivering feel more worthwhile.