Ida and the Youth of Today are in rehearsal, setting blocking in a newly invented style called "Cyrano de Berger-block." A trio of actors sits upstage right with a bulb horn while Ida discusses a note with an actor who has been working a different scene in another room.

Ida: Do you have your script? Great. I want you to add specific gestures here, here and--

Ida overhears something from the actors upstage. It does not seem appropriate.

Ida: --here. They should be as ridiculous and obvious as possible. Keep what you had for--

Ida hears it again. The word she hears is not swearing, but is most definitely not appropriate for general chatter from 10-to-14-year-olds in the middle of rehearsal.

Ida: --what are you guys talking about?

The trio looks at her without a sense of being caught. H. takes the bulb horn and demonstrates.

H: How they test microphones? Syphilis, syphilis, syphilis.

Ida grins. Her SM laughs outright.

Ida: Sibilance.

P: What?

Ida: Sibilance. A hissing sound. Like "sssssssssss."

H: Oh. Sibilance, sibilance, sibilance.

Ida: Syphilis is something elsssssssse.

P: I knew it!

Fin.

In the olden days, when I did everything at once, I had a few regular absent-minded activities. The two most regularly repeated were Putting a Tea Bag in a Mug to Steep and then Never Drinking the Tea and Making Toast and Forgetting I Had Thus Leaving it in the Toaster.

I'm no longer doing everything at once (Yellow Dog may disagree), but I did something today reminiscent of old: I turned on the wrong burner and burned the shit out of our one baking sheet. (Dear Husband, this is the only thing you should find out about via the internet about me today.)

So, y'know. Stupid. And momentarily scary because the fire alarm went off while I was changing N.'s diaper. From the look on her face (and probably because of the look on mine) she recognized it as a Something is Wrong Sound but didn't start crying or anything close. This was unsurprising as she is a very calm kid. I picked her up, nakey baby all, located the problem--glowing red burner under a baking sheet--put her down and dealt with the problem, even remembering to use a potholder. (That might sound pretty obvious, but all bets are off when you want to hurry back to a baby.) I turned on the correct burner and returned to the diaper changing task.

The sound of the kettle whistling made N. smile. Nice big baby grin.

It sounded like a train whistle, so maybe she thinks we're going on vacation...which we are! (How's that for a segue?) On Sunday I purchased plane tickets to fly to San Diego to visit my father and his wife.

I think the point of this post is that I wish I were there right now or that it were sunny here. Let's make that sunny here: there are certain things happening right now that would be better dealt with in good weather. (Even if grey skies plus warmth makes me want to kick it in my track cleats.)

Another old habit being practiced today? Being incomplete in my writing and forgoing editing.

FORGONE!

I think it should be noted that I am using Yellow Dog's computer. I lent my computer to my brother because I knew I wouldn't need it and then I got home from class which was tiring in what I hope will be an interesting way because that's going to be the next post. Anyway, using YD's computer should be noted because it means I had to actually type in the url to logon to MoveableType.

And now, because I was tagged, I will wordily answer (to her pithily answered) the following questions:

I can't believe I've never....
If it were January 2004 I would have said "been to New York."
If it were November 2004 I would have said "been to Canada."
If it were Janaury 2007 I would have said "gotten a passport."
As it is none of those times, I will have to go with "learned to speak another language." I'm all mother tongue and pig latin even though I have taken small doses of Japanese, French, Spanish and American Sign Language. Which I suppose also means that I have much interest in dabbling. I do think I will learn to speak Spanish one of these days...but I don't know if it will be before I learn to play the clarinet (which I can believe I've never learned to play.)

...I did used to be able to fluently write in runes.

...y'know, like, from The Hobbit.

...my seventh grade History teacher started it, but I can't blame him for the fluent part, just the "look at this super nerdy thing to do" part.

Every time I think about... I still cringe
I got nothin' for this one. Some might say it's because I lead such a carefree life. Others might say I just don't care. Me, I'm going with a little of both.

I wish I'd... when I had the chance
I really like my life and my answer may well have made it drastically different, but it's still something I identify as a crossroads: taken the head of the Dance Department up on her offer for me to stick around and get my Masters in Dance. Between the years of 1996-2003 I regularly daydreamed about what my life would be like if I had those years of grad school and that particular degree. Most times I concluded that I'd be doing pretty much the same thing (working in arts education, fringe theatre, raising a ruckus) but in Chicago. This mostly means I'd know entirely different people. I stopped daydreaming about it in 2003 because that's when I went on a three-week cross country camping trip by myself and came away so satisfied that one day after my return I met Yellow Dog and there you go.

I would feel pretty cool if I had a Masters in Dance, though. It'd go pretty well with my fancy Bachelor of Science in Speech.

I've never felt so out of place as when I...
The first thing I thought of was when I went as a guest to the [Wealthy People]'s Alumni Club luncheon at my alma mater (though when a freshman) and sat at a table with a bunch of people who were totally into the annual musical revue that was very much an assical revue. I wore a very flowery dress and drank a lot of water. Oh, another time was during my senior year there when I went to my best friend's birthday party at the home of her very wealthy sorority sister (it was near Mr. T's house!) and all of the other guests were members of the same sorority. I drank a lot of wine. Other than those times, I feel pretty good. I think it has something to do with so many years of having to be just me and happy about it in various classrooms. That or I'm forgetting feeling like that because I'm carefree/don't care. I feel shy or different pretty regularly--especially now that I'm a mother--but it's not the same as out of place.

....is my guiltiest pleasure
You guys...I think it's Ghost Whisperer, made even more guilty because I first read about it on Go Fug Yourself. Hmmm, that's really just the guilt part. I could easily give it up. Something that would be terribly difficult for me to give up--and at this point I remind you that I had no trouble with my three-month-long food allergy testing or anything I had to relinquish during pregnancy--would be...uh...EUREKA!: parentheses and em dashes.

I hope...knows how grateful I am
The outdoors. I hope the outdoors knows how grateful I am for water, sunshine, leaves, and soil. Not quite "earth, wind and fire" but I love nature. See also: thanks, Mom and Dad, for parenting me in a way that resulted in my feeling like myself wherever I am, especially in places where I can see the stars.

In my darkest hours I secretly blame... for my dysfunction
It doesn't have to be very dark for me to blame myself and that won't change no matter how dark it gets.

...changed my life forever
I don't remember who already gave this as her answer, but it's true for me, too: learning to read. Books, faces, in between the lines: my life is richer for it and is constantly changing and expanding.

Because I have two hands (as my daughter is napping all Moby-ed to my chest) I will tag both Yellow Dog and IPJ because the former so aches to be retrospective and the latter came up with such great movie quotes the last time he got memed.