buttons are not toys

Or perhaps, what is strange is that I remember the goings on quite vividly, even now, hours later.  I dream occasionally, I think.  I remember the contents of those dreams far less frequently.  I remember last nights enough that it actually impacted my morning, in the sense that whatever emotions it brought on, I was still feeling once I awoke.  In fact, it took a bit of time to associate them with my dream rather than with my day to day life, something I am finding both interesting and problematic.

But let’s get down to the nitty gritty.  In my dream, I was embarking on a relationship with someone that I like and was very interested in being with.  The feeling was deemed to be mutual.  As the dream progressed, it turned out that he was with someone else, and we were actually embarking on a secret affair.  My dreaming self was very keen on the relationship, despite this obstacle, which is something my waking self would never entertain.  Indeed, when I awoke, I still felt the excitement and possibility that being in this relationship would bring to my life, and I had to really concentrate on the fact that it had been a dream.  In the grogginess of that first waking, I really thought that he and I were together.  That I had a relationship of that nature to look forward too.

And what’s problematic about that? Well the come down was a bit unpleasant, the realization that I was still the lonely single girl, and not a part of something that was just beginning.  But let’s be honest, I’m an old hat at this single business.  31 years and counting.  No, the issue here stems from the fact that the guy in my dream is my work crush.  So I’ll be seeing him tomorrow.  And every Monday to Friday after that for the foreseeable future, and even now I’m still a bit hung up on the happenings in this dream.  Here’s hoping it fully dissipates by then, otherwise things could get a bit dicy.  

Interestingly enough, I don't actually know whether he’s single, in a relationship or married, but I guess my unconscious self took care of that problem in its own way.  Maybe I will be able to find out for real in the near future, or maybe not.  Maybe the whole point of a work crush is to have that little distraction to look forward to throughout the days, something outside the humdrum norm of the working day.  Everybody should have one, it’s a good laugh.

Well, strictly speaking it was yesterday, but that would spoil my quote.  Which is a line from a Jack’s Mannequin song, I think.

Anywho.

It was a regular summer Saturday.  I got up, dragged my lazy ass to the gym for a fabulous bag box class, then dragged it back home again.  I noted whilst walking that it was a really lovely day out, and those have been thin on the ground of late, so I thought perhaps I should try and make the most of it.  No firm plans, but anything would be better than the Twilight marathon I was contemplating.  (No judging, you know you like it too).  I got my sweaty self home and thought perhaps I could talk my roommates into going to this carnival thing I had heard rumblings about, but none of us really knew what it was.  A little google later and we were a touch more informed, but it turned out that the carnival was only a Sunday Monday thing, so we were a day early.  My roommates then reported that they won tickets to a play, so they were shortly headed into London, and that I was more than welcome to tag along.  I pondered this whilst hitting the showers, and as is want to happen, my shin literally hit the shower after a teeny slip.  (I have a pretty stellar bruise today).

I decided that this seemed like a pretty good offer, so I made myself presentable-ish and we hit the road.  And then the train, because that is really the only way to get to London.  The play we were headed to was the musical Kinky Boots, which is just opening in London and had gotten some great reviews, or so I was told.  As one who is game for pretty much anything theatre-wise, I was mostly just happy to be out of the house.  The musical itself was absolutely delightful, and if you get the chance to go see it I would definitely urge you to go.  It was a highly enjoyable experience.  

Once we left the theatre, we decided to run some errands on our way to procuring dinner.  As it happened, the book store had exactly the two books I needed to buy to complete a series I am about to read, and you know how that almost never happens.  This was especially serendipitous, as my roommates are not ‘go to all the bookstore’ people which is different than some of my other travel companions.  From there, we headed to the Five Guys   for dinner, which is something I hadn’t fully experienced back home (we went in for french fries in Baltimore, but that was it).  The definite novelty for me here is that they serve actual hot dogs.  Now you may be wondering what I’m on about here, but an actual hot dog is a surprisingly difficult thing to come across in England, so I was just delighted at this.  It’s amazing how good a hot dog on a worthless white bun tastes when it’s been a year since you’ve had one.  But I digress.  Dinner was a lovely experience in sort of fast food that still tastes good (Peanut Butter Chocolate milkshake, ‘nuff said!).  While dining we got to chatting about other theatre productions and signs that we had seen that day, including one called Impossible.  

Now as it turns out, Impossible was a magic / illusion show.  My roommate had heard of it but that was the extent of our knowledge, so we thought it might be an idea to enquire about tickets, as the show was closing that evening, and who doesn’t enjoy watching sleight of hand? Especially in real life.  The only thing I had seen like this was a David Copperfield special when I was little.  As it turned out, there were tickets available, so we decided that it would be a lovely way to round out the day, especially since the box office attendant assured that it would ‘wow’ us.  And wow us it did.  As I said, I’ve never seen an actual ‘magic show’ in person, so this was a fairly fantastical experience.  You should try it sometime.

Solar Eclipse day in the UK.

Aka, Courtney has a class of stroppy year nines who want to go outside and see the eclipse and she has no intention of allowing them into a situation where they could be blinded.

Student One: “Oh miss, we’re 14 years old, obviously we’re not going to stare at it and go blind.  Don’t you trust us?”

Me: “Yeah I trust you about as far as I could throw you.”   

Student Two: “But Miss you couldn’t throw me very far . . . oh I get it.”  

Me: “Yeah.”                                        

In typical Courtney and Jess fashion, we heard that James McAvoy was doing a play in London and we booked tickets.  About a week before, I googled the play to see what I could see, as I didn’t see or hear anything about it previous to that, and I was a bit curious about how it was being received, given the McAvoy factor and all.  It struck me as strange that I had heard nothing about it and I wanted to make sure it was still playing.  I scanned an article that provided a cursory overview, indicating that the play centred around the crazy heir of a deceased Earl coming into the Earldom, and left it at that.  

We arrived at the Trafalgar Theatre yesterday, took out seats in the third row and waited.  For what, we weren’t entirely sure, having booked the tickets based solely on the fact that James McAvoy was in it and we like to see plays with famous people.  (Judge all you like, we also like to see plays without famous people.  We really just like to see plays.)  We marvelled at how close to the action we would be, and lamented that we couldn’t sit on the stage, like we had for Martin Freeman’s Richard III.  (Incidentally, the Trafalgar Theatre is a fabulous venue - not too big, nice angle of incline on the seats, good visibility from anywhere and small enough that you really feel part of things.)  Jess mentioned that she had no idea what to expect, and I mentioned that McAvoy’s character was supposed to be crazy, and with that we settled in and waited to be entertained.

We were not disappointed.  The old man with the tutu and his accommodating butler hooked me from the start, and the play itself was fantastic, to say nothing of the famous star.

McAvoy’s performance was astounding.  I was taken aback at how fully he embraced and embodied the character of Jack, even more so given that it was a live performance.  (I think it speaks more to the true caliber of an actor that they can bring a character to life on stage, especially a complex character like this one.)  His eyes gleamed with the barely concealed mania felt by JC as he presented himself as the “God of Love” and with power and disdain when he found himself as “Jack the Ripper”.  He was fully the character at all times, and was able to effortlessly drag you in, hook you so that you couldn’t look away during the trials and triumphs he faced.  And yet there was an effortless grace to his performance, as though it wasn’t a performance at all, but that he simply was that person, in that time, no matter what happened.  He stayed in character but interacted with the audience, ad-libbing (I assume) a couple of tiny slips that are want to happen in theatre: flying grapes, a unicycle gone slightly out of control, the usual. 

Perhaps the only let down of the whole experience was the blackboard outside the stage door later that evening, announcing that Mr. McAvoy would not be signing autographs after the performance.  The thoughtfulness of the bulletin board was appreciated, as it was a bit cold for standing around waiting, but I am left with a lingering question I will attempt to address before the play closes:

My parents, who are mostly empty nesters, have two freezers absolutely full to the top.  Ridiculous.  This morning I had to go down and get chicken out for dinner, so dad asked me to tell him the weights on the two turkeys down there so that he could choose one to cook for Christmas.  As it turned out, there were no weights on the birds, so he had to come down with the scale.  After we determined which turkey would be dinner, he asked me for an inventory of the freezer, all of which was on the floor around me so that I could get to the turkeys.  

...

Me: and you have three bags of fish

Dad: Perch, yes.

Me: you also have a fish in a bag.

Dad: let me see?

Me: (hands him bag I have identified as a fish)

Dad: that's a tongue.

Luggage Guy: So you're going home for Christmas?

Me: Yeah.

LG: And this (indicates suitcase) is full of presents?

Me: (laughing) More or less yeah.

LG: So that's why it's overweight?

Me: No! I was so sure I had it this time.

LG: Don't worry about it.

I so love working in a building full of germy children . . .

A person has been arrested on suspicion of arson following a fire at a Stevenage school.