Play

My little play was performed on Tuesday night. It was fun to watch, and my husband ditched work early to join me. They did it just as I'd envisioned it, which was pretty satisfying. The writing was clear, apparently.

My friend and colleague, Lauri, had a play performed that night as well, but she didn't come! She was home, ill, barely able to lift her head off her pillow. What a bummer. I liked her play. It was called "Complaint Department." Eric didn't like her play because it reminded him of his life in the before time.

Speaking of play, there are some fun things you can do with tampons. Check out tamponcrafts.com. I didn't look it over thoroughly, so I don't know if it has my favorite tampon plaything: a slide whistle. You just take the applicator, blow across the top like a pop bottle, and slide the skinnier part up and down to play music. I got pretty good, actually. I've always wanted to make a pan flute out of tampon applicators, but I've never been that inspired/bored. This web site, tamponcrafts.com, has some pretty funny stuff and one little thing that grossed me out a bit, but made me laugh, and I like to laugh.

The holidays are in full swing, just pull the string and make something a little different this year.


More paper stories...

I was a bit behind on the paper this issue, and I never actually read the letters to the editor until they got on the page. They were sent to the opinion editor, and she popped them on the server, so the designer dropped them on the page. Eek. One of them was a bit racist, and used some swearing, which I don't allow in the paper. I let it go in – taking out the swearing, though – and I don't like it that it's there. People are entitled to their opinions, of course. I'm entitled to say, in my "professional" judgment, yuck. I don't know if I made the right decision to leave it in. We were pressed for time and just needed to get the stupid paper to the printer. I think the guy who wrote it makes himself look like a total asshole, but I don't want readers to associate his ideas with me or my paper. But why wouldn't they? I printed it. I guess I'll see what responses I get.

My "Interesting" Blog

Russ

Last weekend, my copy editor and I went to a luncheon hosted by the Madison Civics Club. Our fine senator Russ Feingold spoke about Post-9/11 effects. I'm a fan of Russ. He was very much a politician, which irritates, but as politicians go, he's among the best. He also said a lot of interesting and important things about the world and Americans and war. I took notes, of course. Then I stopped being a story whore and just became a celebrity whore and had my picture taken with him. Too bad the hopeless chickie who took our picture didn't know how to use a camera. My boobs are quite grand, but I'd like to see our heads more than my sweet softness.


My Journey into Investigative Journalism

This week I dropped a bomb on the IT department at school. As the editor in chief of the paper, I get access to the higher-ups that an ordinary student wouldn't. When I find a problem, I instill fear in a way that an ordinary student wouldn't.

So I asked to meet with the VP of infrastructure (I was pleased to see a copy of The Importance of Being Earnest on his desk; he's directing the spring play – the Guthrie just couldn't hold him). I whipped out my laptop and showed him the megahole in security that I'd found. He said in a very face-saving way, "Cool!" Then he got on the phone and asked for three more people to join us.

My tape recorder died shortly after I started my little demo, but they weren't saying much. Their jaws were hanging too close to the ground. They asked a lot of questions to me and to each other, then told me that this would be a good story "some time." I assured them it wasn't my intention to embarrass the school or print damaging information that would cause problems for any students. They were much relieved, but over the next few days, reminded me that it would be a bad idea to show everyone how to do what I learned how to do. Nevermind I learned how to do it in about four seconds of trying.

Anyway, I have a phone interview with a VP of the software provider on Monday. It's all going to be in my story, published next week. My advisor was so excited he stopped talking about his buck for about half an hour. Wow.


Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a pleasant Thanksgiving, that you ate lots of pie, laughed with your loved ones, and plotted your shopping excursions. That's what we did. We didn't bust our butts cleaning our house – right? (Sorry, it just wasn't in me.) We had three kinds of pie, not nine, but what can you do? There was way more food than any of us could eat. My mom made a turkey, I made the gravy. I hope it was good; I wouldn't know. I've never made gravy from drippings before since I've never had drippings before. When I ate meat, I did enjoy Yorkshire pudding, which is made from drippings. Mmm. Fat and flour and salt.

So, our shopping consisted of going to Menards. Not very exciting. But we got a few things the kids wanted and a few things we wanted, and then we went home. We don't have any more money right now, so we didn't get too excited about sales.


Sammy the Rat

Our rat Sammy developed a tumor. We had it removed. Mistake. She chewed her stitches out. Gack. So we had her stapled back together, and as she started to chew her staples out, we took her back to the vet. They put an E-collar on her, like they do with dogs. It looked ridiculous and it drove her insane. She couldn't clean herself or eat by herself. We had to hand-feed her, including liquids. That's devotion, I tell ya. She was pretty upset by it all.

Today she got her staples out and her collar off. Except she has developed an infection, so we have to shove these pills down her throat. She does not like having pills shoved down her throat. I hope she recovers from all this. The tumor was easier to live with, and I don't think we'll have rat tumors removed anymore.

Poor Sammy pushed me over the edge last week. With Eric's crap and my crap, the Sammy crap was more than I could deal with, and I let fly a little on my blog. I want everyone to know, we are all doing well. Well, except Sammy, I guess. Thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes my way. I really appreciate the support you've given Eric and me.

Thanks again.

Lifted

I feel better today. Had a cry and a talk with Eric last night. I still have too much to do, but I can start chewing at it today.

Spinning plates

Today I found out that a play I wrote will be performed by the Mercury Players Theatre. They do a round of plays called Short Shorts every month. The plays have to be no longer than one page in length, although some they have done must have had some very small fonts and very wide margins. At one page, it is hard to write a beginning, a middle, and an end, but it is do-able. I think my play is good; I do say so, myself. It's called "Break a Leg."

I am at a point in the semester where I don't care if I ever go back to school. I'd be happy to stay home and bake cookies and watch all the DVDs that people send me from all over the world. I like my job at the paper, but it's really hard to focus on school and the paper and my family. I want to do a good job at all of them. I hate letting things slide and just hoping for the best, but I really have to at this point.

Eric's been going through some crap of his own, and his crap is serious crap. My attention is there right now, not at school, not at the paper. There are times when families just need to be together.