Before my mid-morning nap (as opposed to my late afternoon nap) I usually check out blogs of friends and family. So, I'm being amused by the links Char posted, I scroll to the bottom of one article and find this story.

Also, my babe found a way to sneak an adorable love-email around his office's IT security net and made me go all gushy. I love being in love.

That is all.

There is a god. This collaboration is proof. I have spoken previously of my love for composer/lyricist Adam Guettel. Now, he's gonna work with William Goldman to make Princess Bride: The Musical! This makes me so insanely happy its not even funny. Granted, I probably won't be able to see it for a long long time. But still, I'll be able to buy the soundtrack when it comes out. And that's usually far more satisfying to the director in me because then I can direct it myself in my little brain.

In other drama news, my second favorite Playwright, Harold Pinter, just won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Rock on Pinter! Anyone wanna see pictures of my production of Pinter's The Dumbwaiter you can check out this site.

My god, I feel perky and awake this morning, and its barely 8:00am. What is wrong with me? It just probably means I'll crash hard for my midday nap at about 11am.

Oh, and thanks to NPR, I can wish Paul Simon a happy 64th birthday!

I had a dream last night. In this dream, I was on a bus coming back from a war zone with a bunch of soldiers. I sorta befriended this one black soldier. I myself hadn't been in the war. Then, as only happens in dreams, I knew that this evil doctor I worked for had given all the soldiers a mild case of chicken pox that was highly contagious and would spread to their families the moment they got home. I also knew that he planned on giving the actual antidote/healing medicine to the white people, and more virulent deadly versions of the disease to the black people but pretend it was medicine. I rushed to the ward. I was immune for some reason. The evil doctor was Dustin Hoffman in bad khaki shorts and a hawaiian shirt. We both entered at the same time. I found my black soldier friend, his wife was already dead, but his little girl (about two years old) had just gotten sick from the initial disease and hadn't been given medicine yet. The doctor was hovering, so I had to hug my friend, and while hugging him whisper, "do NOT use the medicine. It'll kill you." He believed me. Just then, the doctor showed up, dropped off the "medicine" and wondered why I was there. "Just saying hello to an old friend." I totally looked guilty though. I was able to tell one other person on my way out to not take the medicine, and to spread the word. The doctor caught up with me. He asked what I was so guilty about. I reluctantly showed him the candy I had stashed in my purse. He tsk tsked, shook his head, smiled, and sent me on my way. At that point, I woke up feeling like I'd saved the entire world. It's nice to wake up feeling like a do-gooder.

What a day, what a day. All good in the end though.

I started my day by going to Curves. My favorite desk lady wasn't there so it wasn't as much fun as it is normally. Then, I came back to the apartment to find a gianormous stack of boxes waiting for me at the mailbox bank. After three trips to get it all into the elevator, and three trips to get it into the hallway, and three trips to get it all into the apartment, I got to open everything! yay!

Then, I'm preparing a bunch of things to mail out, started a load of laundry, showered and ready to walk to the post office. I figure the walk to the post office, wait in line, and walk back will take at least an hour, so I decide to wait until laundry needs to be changed. Get the second load of laundry ready, gather my mail, my purse, and head downstairs. Making sure, because I'm leaving the building to lock the apartment door. The moment the door closes, I realize my keys are sitting in the pocket of the green sweatshirt I put on to go to Curves this morning. Uh oh. I head downstairs, change laundry, and putz about for a bit hoping to run into the building maintenance guy. (who I usually see every single time I enter or exit the building) No sign of him. At this point my bladder is talking to me and I know I better find a bathroom.

About two blocks away, I stop in at my favorite coffee joint and perform my duty as a pregnant lady to use every public bathroom in my path. I continue on to the post office, where the line is incredibly long. It takes me 40 minutes just to get the stuff mailed out. Crazy. Walking back, I stop back in at my favorite bathroom/cafe. Then I head back to the apartment. I wait outside the front door until I see movement inside, I act like I'm searching for my keys in my purse, the guy coming out holds the door open for me. I'm in the building! yay!

I change laundry, fold the stuff that was in the dryer, and start the other load drying. Making me extra glad I put extra quarters in my pocket. (See, I was very prepared for this outing, cept for the keys) Then, I just sit in the lobby and wait. I wait and wait. My bladder begining once again to talk to me when I hear the elevator moving. I'm hoping and praying its Ibrahim, the maintenance guy, the elvator door opens and a young blonde kid comes out. Oy. BUT! he's followed by Ibrahim rolling a mop and bucket. yay! Ibrahim chuckles when I ask if he can let me into my apartment. We jaunt upstairs, he lets me in, I thank him, not too profusely because the urge to pee is quite pressing. And then I call Nilesh.

Nilesh sounds panicked at first, he thinks I've lost my keys. I reassure him that not only are my keys not lost, but I'm not even locked out anymore. Hee. Now, I've posted my adventures here, I can return downstairs to grab the folded laundry, come back up here and iron a couple shirts and pairs of pants. (Tracy, ironing? What? Yes, I iron his clothes because I have time and he doesn't. who'd've ever thunk it?)

Then, I get to make dinner, which will consist of the odd vegetables I have in the fridge (carrots, yellow squash, broccoli) and possibly some spaghetti noodles. mmmmm. Maybe I'll go to the grocery store before Nilesh gets home as well. But this time, I'll remember my keys. Promise.

Addendum: Crazy People

First crazy guy of day - Coffee Shop Germaphobe

I've seen this old white guy twice in my cafe. He is short, tiny, and dressed like a British man of the 19th century. Lots of tweed. He carries around his own utensils in plastic (ala Jack Nicholson's character in As Good as It Gets)but he gets the house coffee, in the house coffee mugs. I've been skeptical of these mugs myself. He then goes to the accountrements counter and proceeds to use two thousand napkins to move the sugars, milks, and stir sticks to where he likes them. And then he uses another two thousand napkins to handle the sugar, milk and stir sticks to make his coffee the way he likes it. A handful of napkins go in his pocket and he uses those to move the chair he chooses to sit on away from the table, to sit on, to cover the table with napkins, and then to handle the coffee cup. A new napkin for each sip. Once he's settled, heaven forbid anyone sit at a table more than two tables close to his because then he has to redo the whole ritual of napkin covering at another table with fewer people nearby.


Second crazy guy of the Day: Ibrahim, the maintenance man

I caught him smoking a cigarette in the elevator. And then again, coming back from shopping, with another cigarette while vacuuming my hallway. Maybe no crazy by your standards, but I find it amusing that he palms the cigarette and grins cheesily. This is a man who before today I've never seen crack a smile before. And, as previously mentioned, I see him a lot. Maybe the smile is because of the lock out earlier, or because he's covering his indoor smoking habit. Either way, he gets a crazy mark for the day in my book even though he saved my bladder earlier.


Third crazy guy of the Day: Invisible Sex Partner guy buying Grapes

This guy was interesting. He was in line behind me at the grocery store. At first, I thought he was talking to this guy in line with us, the the other guy in line changed lines. That's when the crazy old black man (who was NOT, I repeat NOT on some invisible cell phone) started getting into an argument with his invisible sex partner. He kept saying, "nah, nah, nah... I'm not saying you shouldn't be having the sex. but you gots ta tell me first." pause as he listens to response "Oh hell no you didn't. I could get some crazy funk from that shit." The whole time this very explicit conversation with his Invisible sex partner continued, he was fondling his green grapes.


Fourth crazy guy of the Day: Man who shoots bus stop glass

Walking out of the grocery store, I have barely half a block to my apartment. I hear this crazy noise, and glass shattering. The people on the sidewalk in front of me freeze. People across the street freeze. One guy continues moving, and he's waving a gun around in his hand. Yelling at the empty bus stop. He then turns and starts asking if anyone else wants their "ass blown to smithereens." I just stay still. Hoping that if I don't move he won't see me. It worked. He crosses the street. Now, he's in front of my apartment building. He waves the gun once more, turns around and starts walking quickly down the street. His sky blue athletic pants being held up by the same hand holding the gun. His other hand holding his sky blue bandana onto his head because its very windy. He gets another fifty feet before everyone starts moving again. And then we all just continue. As if someone had pushed pause, waited a minute, and hit play once more.


Today, I feel like I'm really living in a city.

Well, its been almost two weeks now since I lost my precious, adorably, fabulous digital camera on my trip to Richmond. I've been so sad to not be able to take pictures that I haven't posted. (good excuse, eh?) And this week was a week when I so wanted to take pictures of Chicago. The begining of the week was so warm, it felt like the middle of summer still. Then, yesterday, a cold wind began to blow, and I swear, leaves started changing to yellow all around me. Buildings are having their landscape crews pulling out the fading summer flowers and replacing them with amazingly beautiful fall bushes with red and yellow blooms/leaves. And the wind. I love this wind. Ask me how I feel about it when I'm carrying groceries, a baby, and a bag home from the grocery store in february and I'll probably have different feelings, but right now... it is exhilerating, refreshing, and just plain nifty-keen.

Nilesh and I are super excited because we got our first person signed up beneath us in our fabulous business. For those of you who don't know, we are Independant Business Owners and I'm loving this. Not only is it a way for me to feel productive and useful, but I'm also meeting tons of awesome people and actually making friends. Granted, most of them have names that it takes me a week to learn to pronounce, but they are super sweet, very cool people. And they make kick-ass food. As to the business, we're working hard, going out every day to contact new people and I'm going to get trained as a skin care analyst. woo woo! The best thing about the stuff we sell though, is that its all top quality, biodegradable, hypoallergenic, what have you... AND it has stopped him from wanting to buy things at the evil that is Walmart. (for the most part.)

As to theater, I was thinking the other day how I don't miss it at all. I wondered, what the hell is happening to me? Theater is my love, my passion, my life. Then, I realized that I just spent the last year doing theater 24/7 as grunt girl. That ended just a few months back. Of course I'm not craving it right now. Once I figured that out (in a lovely moment standing, all windblown on the El platform waiting to go get my blood tested) I realized that my love will return and I'm still the same person I always have been. Just now, I also clean floors and tubs and get very proud of how sparkly my bare apartment gets. So, never fear, this business I'm getting into won't replace theater, it'll just make it possible for Nilesh to retire early, be a stay-at-home-dad, and allow me the freedom to go to grad school, travel and direct to my little hearts content, when I want to... which sounds awfully nice.

There's a little old man I've seen around the neighborhood since we moved here. He walks so slowly, with his cane, sometimes it takes him 3 stop lights to cross 2 lanes of traffic. He rides the bus and takes the train. He takes these little tiny shuffling steps. I was on the train with him last week, and because he was sitting, and not taking his characteristic tiny steps, I didn't know it was him. Then, five stops before mine, he gets up and starts walking the 5 feet to the door of the train. Everyone seems to think he wants off at this stop. They hold the door, he waves them to let it close. Next station, he's not there yet, they hold the door again, he waves them to let it close. Finally, he arrives at the door JUST as the train arrives at our station. Made me almost proud of him, how well he had timed his travel to the door to get out at the right stop. That's all I know about him. I've helped him a couple times as he was crossing the street. He feels like a fragile bird. So light and delicate, but he keeps on moving. I wonder where he goes, why he makes such herculean efforts to travel when it seems to take so much effort.

Anyway, thought I'd share that little odd bit that is my life. Now, I'm gonna mail out catalogs and samples. Let me know if you want any fun little samples and I'll be happy to get them to ya... I've got skin care stuff, shaving, some perfume samples, laundry tablets and of course, yummy food stuffs. the price is that I then get to call and ask how you liked things, and if you want to buy them from me. mwuahahahahah!

After that, I'm makin' spaghetti with turkey burger and kale. mmmmmm. Side dish of carrots and yellow squash with a little brown sugar on 'em.