Things I did on my vacation (last week):

Played frisbee in Ojai on Easter Sunday with various excellent friends (one of whom did not show up like a complete douchebag even though we never see him and he had 2 weeks notice). Then went and got homemade ice cream before going back home for Easter dinner.

Cleaned out my gradparents storage shed. Ended up with some of my grandma's china and silver, an awesome pendulum clock, and a pencil drawing of my mom when she was 10.

Hung out with various members of the extended family, some of whom I hadn't seen for six or so years.

Hung out a lot with Cj's family, lovely as always.

Went to Disneyland and got silhouette portraits done, pictures will come when I am not insane, whenever that might be. Forgot how "without resolution" end of the Snow White's Adventure ride is.

Went out with both current and future sisters and got bridesmaid dresses. Also bought possibly the shortest skirt I have ever owned. (picstocome)

Worked on the quilt a bit before I remembered everything I had to do.

Hung out on a boat with the parents of the Lovely Miss Allison Whom I Hung Out With Much In High School, and ate a ton of her Mom's scrumptious apple crisp.

Finished my grant application. Oh yeah, I'm doing one of those. Won't know whether or not I get it until July 21st. I'm applying for it in the event that I don't get in to CalArts (see below), as it will allow me to work at a company without them having to pay me out of their own pocket.

Drove back to Ojai to visit with Cj's grandpa.

Drove home, then checked the mail.

Got waitlisted at CalArts.

They'll let me know somewhere around June 1st if a spot opens up. Yyyeeearrrrgh.

SO,

Drove over the hill to drop off my portion of the grant application, then drove back and got a sad, sick little Cj some dinner, nyquil, and orange juice.

By the way, Cj got a tattoo. And it's really cool.



p.s. I've retired my old icon of cate for one much more suitable.

This is the lovely fruit tart that theoni brought over for me last night to celebrate my successful driving test. I had a piece but gave Cj the kiwi that was on top, then said goodnight to Joe and Leah. About 5 minutes later the roof of my mouth went numb and bumpy, and I started to break out in hives. FUN! Another fruit off the list.

Anyway, in (almost) reverse chronological order, the rest of my weekend -

Earlier on Saturday I hung out at the pool with Cj and maetenshi for about 3 hours, at one point drawing a fake tattoo of Isis onto my friend Christie's back with a sharpie. It turned out really nice, but as I still don't know how to get pictures off of my phone you'll have to wait until I see her again for a picture.

Then I went and saw a show on campus that was using one of my short plays (The Hammer Man or Hammerman, I posted it earlier) as its closing piece, and I have to tell you it was so well directed I got shivers. The whole concept was like a traveling gypsy circus type thing, with a whole lot of fake blood and severed arms and such. And despite being super low-budget, all the elements worked together really well. But honestly the best part [for me] was watching my piece and having the random dog that one of the audience members brought growl at the villain in it, who was carrying a giant red hammer. That dog is genius. Now I have to write a dog into my piece - or at least some growling noises.

On Friday I met with my director for the Tempest, then went and saw a production of the Tempest that was happening at my school (which was excellent - they used acapella in lieu of live music). Afterwards one of the other fifth years (with a big entourage of people following him) grabbed me and said, "Hey, you're coming with us." I just kind of went, "Uhh... Okay!" We went to his car and he explained that we were going to a spa to sit in a jacuzzi and sauna room. So for about an hour on friday I randomly ended up wrapped in a towel sipping tea in a jacuzzi tub.

Then I taught my last two sections (in a row) and showed up at the review section the other TAs and I were supposed to teach, and I was pretty much on my own. One of the other TAs came a bit late, and the other one didn't show up at all (his parents were in town). It was one of the more terrifying experiences in my life, facing a whole room full of students expecting me to tell them everything that was on the test, and having to tell them that they needed to help each other study while I mediated, and not get all the answers from me.

Then I had my final rehearsal/showing for the ballet piece I worked on this quarter. It turned out spectacular, and the professor had almost only good things to say which is always fantastic. One of the dancers from Delizie is a photo student, so he came and took movement and portrait-style shots of the piece. Hopefully by next week I'll have those photos, ones of Hammerman, video of the show I directed in Fall, video of the ballet piece in Ballet Rep, video of Delizie, and a shirt with the logo I designed for the student plays festival. Whew.

Today I have to finish grading, then tomorrow at 8 am I proctor a final, rehearse all day, then have the final showing for my Directing Studio scene at 7 at night. NUTS! But that's just about it for this year.

I called the tattoo parlor today and told them I was having second thoughts and that I wanted to wait. I was tossing and turning last night all full of axiety about it, and when I finally decided that I would hold off and find an artist who was really excited about doing it all my anxiety just melted away and I could fall asleep.

It's nice that your body has these mechanisms to tell you when you've made the right decision.

Anyway, thanks for all the good advice from everyone... it really helped.

I went into the tattoo parlor tonight to have the artist take a look at the picture I made up (the one I posted here earlier) and he asked me how big I wanted it. I said, "Not too much bigger than it is on the page there." He asked if he could make a copy and I said sure, so he went back to the copy machine. What he came back with was seriously like, 500 times bigger than I wanted. The tattoos would have taken up my whole back. I said I really wasn't comfortable with how big they were and he and the apprentice started trying to convince me that "bigger was better" and that if I wanted to work on sleeves later I would want them bigger. I said that I didn't want them that big and that I really wasn't planning on getting sleeves at all. Anyway, the guy said he would work on the design overnight and to come back the next day, and we left it at that. I like the work this artist did on my friend Nicole, and he's always been super excited about the things she brings him, so it was weird that he immediately started trying to change my mind about this tattoo that I've obviously thought of a lot. I explained the significance of it to him and everything. I think the weirdest part of it was when Nicole (who came with me) said, "Well, she's really a more delicate person than that" and the artist said, "Well, those aren't delicate tattoos she has there." Just didn't make sense.

Anyway, I'm going to go back tomorrow and see what he comes up with, but if we don't see eye to eye on this I'm just going to have to wait a little longer to get my tattoos, I guess. I'd rather wait and have them done the way I want them than make an artist do something that he doesn't want to do.

... I'm gonna get this damn tattoo. At least it'll be something to remember them by.



This is what I came up with - it may be boring, but it's what feels right to me. Under the cut is a little test I did for placement - I'm still not sure, though. I'd like to be able to cover them up, but the upper shoulders is what feels the best.

Eh.

( Under this cut is a gigantic picture of my naked back. Hope it's sexy. )