Cantankerous

OK, so I've gotten to be pretty hard core in my 30s. Now, most of you know that I've always been pretty easy-going, often a pushover, occasionally just a downright pansy. In the past when people have gotten on my nerves or even insulted me, I would just roll over and complain to others. No longer! Badass Adam is here!!

So recently, this unpleasant person that I work with went behind my back and did something unacceptable and unprofessional involving students on my wardrobe crew. Now, if she had been rude to me, I probably would have let it blow over, but DO. NOT. FUCK. WITH. MY. WARDROBE. CREW. So with the feedback and advice of two of my colleagues who have known how this person is (this is apparently a pattern in her behavior), suggested that I write an e-mail and tell her what's what. I did. She whined to the department chair, and wrote back saying I was nasty to accuse her of inappropriate behavior, and so one of my colleagues wrote her and reamed her to back me up. Point is, the students I was defending were willing to dismiss it, because everyone knows this person is horrible and people just let it go. I however, pursued it and made it clear that this kind of behavior is NOT ACCEPTABLE just because everyone else has let it go. So now this person has been told quite clearly that no one supports her but they damn sure got my back. It's nice to have the experience of finally standing up to someone and having an entire group of people who've only known me a few months rally around me in support.

Meanwhile, an old friend recently got in touch with me. He immediately put all the focus of the conversation into getting him hooked up with someone he used to be interested in that I was still in touch with. Well, then he sent her some e-mails that were so forward that she got really freaked out, all the time, calling me like 20 times over the weekend. Needless to say, that kinda freaked me out too, especially since many reading this know how much I hate the phone to begin with. Anyway, instead of just letting it go, I told him to fuck off and not contact either of us again. Harsh? Yes. But I'm sorry, I just don't have time for people and their freaky shit anymore. I could have told him that she was not interested and continued to be a little weirded out every time I talked to him, but I just don't care about putting up with weird shit anymore. I've got plenty of friends who don't get pissed off and call incessantly for hours when I can't answer the phone.

Moral of the story? Yes, I'll still put up with a lot of shit, but DO NOT fuck with my friends or my students. Because Pansy-Ass Adam has been replaced by a 30-year-old, terminally single, badass mother-fucker, who will not put up with it. Welcome to the new Adam.

A good day

Just so I can never be accused of using this blog primarily as a form of whining and moaning, I just wanted to say that I had a really good day today. Now, I love my job, but I don't ordinarily feel that competent. Being a teacher is very demanding, and the expectations the students have of me to be smarter than they are is occasionally unreasonable. I'm often not much smarter than they are, I just have a little more experience. Anyway, the thing was, today I really felt like a teacher. I had a very good class this morning, really connecting with the students and even though I went completely off my lesson plan, I think they really got a lot out of it and learned some things. I also gave a talk to the juniors and seniors about graduate school, and really felt like I had a good effect. That's all. I just wanted to say that I really felt good about today. Hope everyone else had a good day, too.

Marriage is Great Juno's Crown

So, something on yahoo news caught my attention a few minutes ago. Many of you know my great love of Shakespeare. Many of you also share my great love of another foreign authors, who are nearly as amazing in their use of wit, literary timing and poetic genius. I refer of course to the Barenaked Ladies. Well, the marriage of two of my greatest poetic loves has finally arrived. The Barenaked Ladies are composing original music for Shakespeare's "As You Like It" to be performed at this years Stratford Shakespeare Festival. I assure you I will be attending. Feel free to read the news story below:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=89&e=2&u=/playbill/20050119/en_playbill/90670

Other things that are making me happy right now...
I crack up everytime I see Geico's suite of "Caveman" commercials. Brilliant. Also, I save over 55% by switching to Geico. The two things are unrelated. I switched my insurance before these commercials aired.
I watched Comedy Central's new game show Distraction this afternoon. As a game show, most of it is just "enh", but the thing that really made me happy... after they narrow it down to the last contestant who wins a brand-new car, that contestant has to answer five questions. For every question he/she gets wrong, the three people who lost get to damage the car. The one I saw tonight, they got to poor paint all over the roof and bash in the windshield with a sledge hammer, all while the "winner" watches his brand new car be destroyed. Now THAT is funny.

That's all for me right now. Later

New York blue

OK, for those of you down in the south, you may now laugh at me for being a Yankee. When I went to work this morning, the temperature was in the single digits. It was SO FREAKIN' COLD! Yes, I walked into the building today and thought blissfully about my friends in Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma, and thought about how it must be really nice there. I know, I know... all of you in those places are thinking "But it was freezing here!! We were in the 40s!!

To that, I say: Pussies! The temperature here right now is 0 degrees, with a wind chill of -14. So, don't complain about 40s. I would LOVE 40s. So, laugh it up, fuzzballs. I'm cold.

However, before you start laughing and thinking that I'm stupid for living here... just remember that NY, unlike Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma... is a blue state. Right now the blue refers to the color of my skin, but you know what I mean.

Coffee and Tea

I just want to say how much I absolutely LOVE coffee. I've actually been up late at night and had the thought: "Ooh, if I go to bed now, I'll wake up sooner and I'll be able to have coffee!" Weird, I know, but it's just so damn good!

If any of you ever see a flavor called Rainforest Crunch... try it! I think it's the best flavor of coffee I've ever tasted. I don't know exactly what the flavor is, but it's pretty amazing.

On a related note, I don't know how many of you are familiar with my story of the perfect iced tea, but I'll recount the details. At a Greek restaurant in downtown Indianapolis, I had the greatest iced tea of all time. It was so good, I asked them what brand it was. They said it was a brand called China Mist, and I haven't been able to find it since. Apparently, it's only available for restaurants, so I haven't had it since. If anyone ever happens to find out anything more about it, please let me know how I can get some. I swear, I never thought that I would become excited about a brand of tea, but I can't even begin to explain how amazingly crisp and smooth it was. Well, that's my story. There ya go.

Eastern Artist's Block

I can't write! I can't draw. I can't seem to do anything creative. I don't have time to do anything creative when school's in session, because it's a little too busy--which I'll go into in a minute--and now that I'm on break, all I can do is watch TV and play Morrowind. Everytime I open up the word processor or pick up a pen and pencil, all that comes out is nothing worth reading or looking at.

Why is it that any time I have time to draw or write I can't seem to do anything? Whenever I'm too busy to be creative, I have all these great ideas. I mean, images of amazing things to draw fly through my head, and I have such incredible story ideas... and then... I get nothing.

OK, so about work... I thought that I would be working and I would have all these opportunities to do great renderings and build exciting costumes that were original and interesting, and maybe even write a few articles about all the things about theatre and costumes that excite me. I know that was a little overly idealistic, but I thought that maybe at least 20-30% of my time would be spend doing the things that I love most about design. I was wrong. 99% of my time is spent dealing with paperwork and guiding my students through the process of just barely getting by. My budgets are crap, my time constraints are ridiculous. I don't get any time to do the parts I like best.

Don't get me wrong, I still love my job, and it's nice to wake up and be excited about going to work, but more and more I feel like there's so much of this that I don't want to deal with. I want to deal with theory. I've never been a big follow-through guy, but come on. I don't even get to deal with the theory at all. It's just nothing but follow-through. I'm just getting frustrated. I'm sure I'll enjoy it again once I start back, but I hope the summer isn't just like this winter break has been.

Up all night

So, it's seven in the morning. This is when I went to bed the night before. I slept from 7am to 3pm the night before, and from 3am to 6am this last night. It's driving me up the fucking wall! In addition to my chronic insomnia (and I think I have a slight phobia or at least aversion to the idea of bedtime), I have a rat that gets into my kitchen at night.

Now, I love all creatures, but I'm ready for this rat to die. I'm adding rats to my list. It's my list of creatures that may be killed on sight when in my personal space. Some of them, like in the case of ants, are killable simply because there are so damn many of them that it doesn't matter. Others, like mosquitos, deserve to die for simply existing. Now, I know about ecosystems and I don't want any kind of mosquito genocide. They can live all they want as long as it's in rainforests and jungles where I don't go. But if I can catch them, I kill them. So now the list includes:

mosquitos
ants
flies
rats

All other animals, I would prefer they be left alone to do their thing. There's no real reason to kill most creatures. Even spiders. I know a lot of people that think all spiders should die, but spiders like to eat two of the four creatures on my list, so in my book, that makes them okay. Spiders will die under special circumstances, however. If they are in my bed or on my person, they die. Any other location in the house, I try to just put them outside. The other animals on the list though... they are open game.

So please, next time you see a rat, kill it quickly and say "That's for aggravating Adam's chronic insomnia, bitch!"

Oh, and Jay, I think I told you my one Snoop Dogg joke, but just in case:

Q: What does Snoop Dogg use to get his whites so bright?
A: Blee-yatch!

... now I told you that so I could tell you another one:

Q: Why did Snoop Dogg need an umbrella?
A: For drizzle, yo!

Fat

So, I was recently spending my evening in an unusual way: I was playing on the computer while the cable was on in the background. OK, so this is how I spend every night since I had wireless set up in my apartment. Anyway, it was on SHOtime, and I was not paying real attention, when suddenly I hear one of my favorite songs, one that is QUITE obscure, coming fromt the TV. For those of you unfamiliar with the Violent Femmes' "Fat," you are really missing out.

Of course, who is really reading this, other than Jay and Patrick. Nevertheless, Jay, Patrick, if you don't know "Fat," you've got to go download it now. It's one of the best songs ever.

Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is because I don't understand why straight men don't find fat women attractive more often. The connection is because the song is on a commercial for Kirstie Alley's new show "Fat Actress." Well, Kirstie is freakin' gorgeous! She looks absolutely beautiful and I love that she's owning her fatness. I've also been watching HBO's Carnivale, which is an amazing show, by the way. (The whole first season is currently on HBO On Demand, and you should check it out if you can.) Point is, one of the main characters is the Cooch dancer Rita Sue, who is a big woman and also beautiful.

So I'm seeing more and more big, beautiful women on TV, and I think it's great. Maybe we're finally moving away from this idea that women should have the body of a 12-year-old boy to be attractive.