No News Makes for Boring Headlines - Sorry

No news is usually because there's way too much going on to actually have time to talk about it, even though it's not particularly newsworthy. Maybe I should take classes on tabloid journalism, so that I'd always have something to write about here. Anyway, in this case, no news is because:

- Changeover week at the theatre. Old show out, new show in - usual schedule: 10 days. This changeover: 4 days (because my boss refuses to work Thanksgiving). We did a great job with prep beforehand though (IMHYAO), so no-one's tried to staple anyone else to the hydraulic lift. Yet.

- Thanksgiving! Yay! (except see above). We're borrowing a tradition from my friend Sara's family and doing "pie all day" - after Sunday's Music and the Spoken Word, though, I suggested we do a "Pay It Forward Pie Day" (because I am extraordinarily dorky and I also really liked the broadcast). Every time you have a piece of pie on Thursday (and you can have one whenever you'd like) you either: 1) write down something nice you'll do for someone else that day and put it in a jar, or 2) go find something nice to do for someone else and then write it down and put it in the jar. Apple pie for breakfast - Mom and I are ready to go.

- My sister and her family are coming for the holiday - they'll be staying in the basement with me, which means that most of the last few days have been spent digging through the mountain of storage boxes that filled the Big Room (this is it's actual name) and sorting and re-packing fewer boxes to go in the storage room (also it's actual name; not to be confused with the Food Storage Room - apparently, we're a very literal group). It's... kind of amazing, really - furniture arranged, kitchen area cleaned, carpet vacuumed... it even looks like someplace I'd want to live. (If it wasn't in my parents basement, that is.) I'm excited to see the kids (for the .03 minutes I'll have to spare thanks to Item #1) and my sis and Mom and I are dragging Dad and the b-i-l to New Moon Friday morning. (Truth be told, the guys are not all that reluctant. HA.) Most people are a little surprised and even alarmed that I haven't seen the movie yet - it opened THURSDAY AT MIDNIGHT, after all.

- The plan was to have all my family Christmas presents ready by Thanksgiving, since I've got my sister's family. That... didn't QUITE work, but hopefully the things I'll take care of later will be light and mail-able.

- I'm judging the Reflections Contest entries for the local elementary (my old school! I still totally know the song!) in Film/Video, and Music. I remember writing a song for a Reflections contest, and singing it into a TAPE RECORDER, and moving on the next round and singing it for actual people, and thinking I was pretty cool. Who knows, maybe I was.

Wow, I feel old.

- And.... Still determined to give up fiction come January (decided to use December to re-read favorites and get caught up on books I'd had "back ordered"; the family wants to start another weight-loss contest, which is great, except that the prize has been suggested as a family vacation and some are leaning towards a year-long competition with a vacay in January 2011 so that people have time to save up... and I fully expect to be in England, so - no good. I definitely need to lose the weight, though. I started eating chocolate again after a few weeks away, and it MESSED with my digestive system - evidently, I should only be eating very expensive chocolate, which does not make my tummy nearly as unhappy. I broke tonight (after vacuuming a few miles of carpet in the Big Room) and had ice cream for the first time in over a month, but only because it was Schwann's Chocolate Chip, purchased at my instigation and in honor of the holiday. These days, an ice cream sighting like that in our freezer is as rare as spotting a single, upwardly mobile, aesthetically pleasing man over the age of 30 in the Salt Lake valley - and twice as satisfying. (Zing!) After Thanksgiving and Changeover are over I'm getting things back in order and getting back into my jeans. And finding another/additional job. And getting back to work on my book project. And sorting out my filing cabinet. And getting into grad school, with grants and scholarships to pay for it.

I've got to get up for work in about 5 hours, so I'm off - tomorrow I'll finish Marley's chains and politely turn down a print bid and probably paint stuff and OD on Glee songs, since those are pretty much all I've got on my Ipod right now.

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I ganked this quote from a friend's blog - I'm working on both. (I'm not saying this post is in any way indicative of either, but I'm trying!)

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

— Benjamin Franklin