I'm alive

I promise. And I know, I need to be shot for not updating in months and months. And, of course, I don't have oodles of time to write now, but I thought I'd tell you what is coming in the next little while:

My sewing hobby resurrected
I'm in a play!
Halloween
The Passenger
and The Annual Pre-Thanksgiving day Feast

Most of them with pictures, which as you all know is why it is so hard to post. I really was going to update my blog this weekend, but Johnny was out of town with the laptop and the computer wouldn't turn on. All it would do was beep and me and flash on the screen that there wasn't a signal. So I'd turn it off and turn it on again, and that's all it would do.

So I tried people, I really did!

Bag Tag

Mostly this is just a good excuse to clean out my purse. My chiropractor will be happy that I'm getting rid of the extra stuff. So here it is in it's pre-clean glory:

I never thought that I'd be a big purse kind a girl, I have a lot of little purses, but I bought this one for my trip to Europe and I can just fit so much stuff in it, see:



Let's break it down by pocket.
Side pocket: chap stick (generic brand), key card for work, 4 bobby pins.
Front right pocket: 3 hair clips, 2 ponytail holders, 1 crochet hook, and a random tag from some shoe or something.
Other side pocket: keychain screwdriver, key to office, receipt for my co-worker's car problem (supposed to show that to my dad), 8 bobby pins.
Inside pocket (closest to camera): 5 playbills and tickets, 2 leftover passes from Johnny's last show, 1/4 sheet of blank paper, 2 map quest maps, one with notes from Stake Primary Meeting on it, last year's work Christmas quiz (2) and answer sheet (1), 2 audition monologues, 2 walmart picture packages with headshots, 2 empty gift card holders (used the gift cards a few weeks ago), the map to the outlet moll in Park City, legal pad with notes, Primary book, Stake Primary President numbers, yard scrap, Relief Society handouts, newspaper article about the differences between jam and its associates, letter from my missionary friend, 2 notebooks (my dream journal and a random one), 1 bobby pin, my current book (Prisoner of Trebekistan, very good, highly recommend it), random papers and notes, 3 pay check stubs, and 10 receipts.
Inside zipper pocket: stamps, coupons, shopping list, 2 addresses, and random notes
Other Inside pocket: sunglasses, gum wrapper, knee-high nylons that wouldn't stay up one day, cell phone, 3 packs of gum, small playdough, thumb drive, pen, 2 gift certificates to Costa Vida, business card, tickets, note, 2 parking hanging passes, small green blank piece of card stock, bottom of a lid of a drink (no idea how that got there, honestly), 3 drug bottles (fine, if you must know, Ibuprofen, Pamprin, and Loratadine), directions, old post-it notes, wallet, old but yummy candy, and 15 receipts.

Memories

Fine, I'll play

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments

At the risk of ranting commentators

So, I was perusing through the archives of A Dress a Day, and I came across this post in March of 2007.

http://www.dressaday.com/2007/03/i-missed-blogging-against-sexism.html

obviously, I couldn't add a comment, because it's well over a year old, but I thought about it all weekend and I do have something to say on the subject. I agree with Erin that although if anyone said this to me (I like it when women wear dresses), I would react with a (hopefully) gracious "Thank you" as if they were just giving me a complement, which is probably what they intended to do. But, if you think about it, they aren't really complementing YOU at all, since *my* appearance or dress or decision to wear a dress, isn't ever really mentioned in the phrase "I like it when women wear dresses". In fact, if you were to say "I really like it when people drink coffee" to someone holding a coffee cup, they would probably think "Okay, great. Why are you telling me?" So you see, it's not even a complementarily structured sentence, more like a personal opinion.

I agree with some of the commenters on dressaday, who say that it is sometimes difficult for men to say a well-meaning complement without the recipient feeling like they are being hit on. However, masking a complement in a blanket statement really makes it not a complement any more. "Nice dress" might be the way to go instead. Simple, you can say it while passing a person, which makes it not so much of a pick up line, also very much a complement.

That very obvious problem with this supposed complement aside, I do think there is something sexist in the comment. And although it may be unintentional, that doesn't make it any less wrong. I'll draw the analogy to racism for a moment, if I could (of course I can, this is my blog).

If a well intentioned person said about a Black man's success, "I'm so glad he was able to overcome his natural lazy tendencies", does their genuine happiness for the Black man make the statement less racist? No, of course not. And the well meaning person who said it may have no idea that what they just said was a racist statement. Does that make it any less racist? No, of course not. The person didn't mean to imply that Black people are inferior to white people or that segregation was a good idea. They were simply trying to give a complement. Does that make it any less racist? No.

The point, of course, being that it doesn't matter if you consciously understand all the implications behind a statement like "I like it when women wear dresses". It is still sexist. Does that mean if you say that to me, I will launch into a feminist rant that will last twenty minutes and leave you never wanting to talk to women again? No, of course not. But awareness is a huge part of the solution. Ignorance is not an excuse for anyone to be sexist (or racist for that matter). With some things it's important to keep up with the times. So if you know someone who makes statements like "I like women who wear dresses" or "I'm so glad that person was able to overcome their obvious racial defects", it is probably a good idea to gently say to them that the statement they just made was sexist, or racist. And then explain why. Well-intentioned folks will probably be willing to rethink or re-evaluate their paradigm so as not to give offense to others when they are just trying to be well-intentioned.

Update

Not so much on me, really, but on some things in my life. I looked in my archives and I didn't post about my new year's resolution to not be stupid anymore (I know, I know, the flogging will continue until blogging becomes a higher priority), but I wanted to let you know about the progress of this resolution. It is not going well. I would like to say that my overall stupidness has gone down, and that stupidity has been cropping up in my life (work, specifically) less often, which, though debatable, seems true to me. However, that could be because I don't remember much about the last three months, mistakes made by me in the hullaballoo could have been attributed to someone else, or that stress, paranoia and busyness have some how cut down on the stupid factor. But I learned today that the goal for me to not be stupid was most likely laughable in the first place, which is what people are probably already doing behind my back.

Why? Well, today I was getting ready to make copies of a series of bonds. They are printed on special green paper that costs a ridiculous amount of money and once they are printed, they pretty much represent the amount of the bond, which is over a million dollars in some cases. Anyway, once they are printed and signed, they are sacred. We make a copy of the bonds on regular paper before we deliver them and then stamp the copy with a stamp that says "specimen", then make copies of the stamped copy. I have done this process at least 20 times, probably more. Then today, I was asked to make a copy of a series bond, which just breaks the total amount of money into yearly bonds and basically means more green paper and more signing and more work. So I start stamping "specimen" on the amount and the signatures, only to have my boss ask what on earth I was doing. Why? because I was stamping the green papers. So bad. So stupid. Luckily, it wasn't unfixable. Because there were lots of signature pages, I could copy one from another bond onto the green paper to replace it, print off another copy of the front page, and have the bank representative sign another copy of his signature page. So, no real damage done, luckily for me, but I did feel (and look, I'm sure) really stupid. Why can't I just give it up?!! Why?!!

And the other update, this sign was finally changed in February as I learned driving to my play on a Saturday morning. However, it has not been changed since then, and it's another lame one. In case you were wondering.

Stress!!

So the last few weeks have been like this:

because we have been more short-staffed than usual the past month and a half. One of our assistants was fired, and then when we finally hire a new one, one of our paralegals quits and then the new assistant decides to take a job elsewhere.

So we've been walking around like this:

And it means I haven't had to time for the little, yet important things like updating my blog, getting over my cold, cleaning my house, relaxing, you know, the little things.

But I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just a little crazy right now.

Got to go, work calls . . .

Don't I have the best costumes?

Yes it's true, the best thing (maybe the only good thing) about Lina Lamont is her fabulous taste in clothes. And thanks to a costumer who has done this show several times, I got wear some amazing costumes. I started out the show in this one:
(This is me about to get a pie in my face, oh so many funny stage stories came out of that scene. One night she missed most of my face, but got my feather pretty good. It was still wet when I got there the next night for the show. Good thing I hate whipped cream.)



but with the fur in this picture:












This is what I wore for all of the 'film' sequences. Those hips are ginormous. In fact, though I know pitching in changing scenery and drops is an essential part of community theater, I couldn't really help for most of the show because I was either frantically changing my costume, or in these ridiculous hips. My job in the hips was to not knock anything over back stage. So I got to be my own prop and set piece during scene changes.









This one is my second favorite costume. I loved the way it hung on me and how it felt, but sadly, I only got to wear it for like half a scene. This is the scene with my vocal coach, Miss Dinsmore.








This is me incognito. The sun glasses rocked, but I couldn't see anything when the lights went out. I almost ran into various drops and set pieces or people every night before I got smart and took them off. I guess the blond hair started affecting me.












Then comes act II, where I discovered my voice-over was being done by my arch-enemy. You can't really see it in this picture, but the coat was pretty much the coolest thing ever. The arms of the coat aren't really distinguished from the main body of the coat until about the wrists. That made flailing my arms about really fun.












This is what is underneath the fabulous coat. I changed into a robe, so I was only wearing it alone for like 30 seconds, in which time my DH snapped this picture. However, it was pretty disturbing one night after the show when this old guy (like 70's) told me my 'form-fitting pink dress' was his favorite of my costumes. It took me a minute to realize he meant this, then I was really weirded out.












Then I got a scene all to myself that isn't in the movie that had a solo, yes, a Lina song. It was fabulous, though, to be honest, not my favorite song in the whole show. Strangely, for some cast members, it was. (Come on people, better than "Good Morning"?)



Oh, and I'm not really that blond, it was a wig.












This is the "people? people? I ain't people!" scene. The (sadly indistinguishable in this picture) hat I am wearing, was by far the coolest hat I have ever had the privilege of wearing. It made this last minute costume change addition (dress rehearsal, I believe) totally worth it.












And then, my favorite costume of them all. This green one. It weighs like 10 lbs. It was really heavy, but it had the most delightful swish and flounce. It really made one feel like a diva. I think it was the fringe . . .


(This is of course, me mouthing the song in front of the curtain while Kathy voices for me off-stage. Or as I liked to call this scene, the rise and fall of Lina Lamont.)








And lastly, the cast. They were so much fun to work with. This is with all our "Singin'" garb on from the finale.









So, I definitely had the best costumes, don't you agree?