Adventures in Sleep Deprivation

[rikibeth]

Or, why I won't be catching up on my friendslist, most likely.


Thursday: Serenity, this time in costume]

Right. So, we'd scored not four but EIGHT tickets to this round of screenings, on the theory that some of our friends might be left short and we could come through. Except just about everyone had them. So two went to ghilledhu and darthsatyr, because ghilledhu would have been coming up anyway to get to Boston for the Star Fantasy game, and they absolutely needed to be introduced to the 'verse, and two went to a Fairfield-area Browncoat named Amanda, which helped us recoup our outlay, and at the last minute we had a singleton because Christy's back was spasming AGAIN, and we'd already helped mhaille find one elsewhere so she didn't need it, so we put out calls to grey_and_purple and my former co-worker Shauna, and Shauna called us back first, so it was hers. Because it just wouldn't have done to have empty seats at the screeiing on JOSS'S BIRTHDAY, after all. grey_and_purple, next round, your ticket is on us. Copy me, shadowflyer?

So. We'd already decided that we were going to try to go in costume for this screening. Not many people did last time, but the few who did looked nice, and it was just too tempting. I was all set as Inara, because atalantapendrag sent me a sari she didn't want any more, and I had a black choli blouse for under it, and sandals, so all I really needed was eye makeup, but although shadowflyer had gorgeous jodphurs already (WWI Swiss Army ones), he needed a brown coat and a claret shirt, so a stop at the thrift store was in order. While we were there I scanned the sundresses, and found one that looked suitable and the right sort of size for ghilledhu, who also wears the same size shoes as I do, so I bought it, hoping I could convince her to dress up as River, since tikvah had scheduling conflicts that made it easier for her to do an Inara (River would have required a lot more work on the hair). melovechocolate was good to go as Wash with the Hawaiian shirt she'd borrowed from pixel, but she'd been trying to find toy dinosaurs, and no luck at CVS or the dollar store, so since we had a miscellaneous shopping list anyway (swim cap, heating pad, kitty litter... you know, miscellaneous) we decided we'd check at Target. Score! One T. Rex and one... um... it's kind of like a stegosaurus, but with a single webbed dorsal fin like a swordfish's? Anyway. Toy dinosaurs. And dye to improve the brown of the coat. And eye shadow for me.

Did I mention that we did this little shopping blitz right after I got home from work? When, by rights, I ought to have slept? And I didn't sleep once we got home, either. No, it was time for Grooming Rituals -- Inara has perfectly shaped eyebrows, after all, and while her hair is plain black, I'd decided that since my black dye job from the end of April was starting to fade and show lighter roots, it was a really good time to bleach out a few more streaks to take the red. And then once that was done I needed to figure out how to get into the sari -- luckily I had a Folkwear pattern (for the underblouse) that included instructions, and shadowflyer helped me. Wow, confusing. Also, next time I'm reversing the directions, so the drape will go over my RIGHT arm, because I'm left-handed and it was really inconvenient. Once I was dressed, it was time for us to pick up ghilledhu and darthsatyr at the bus station and head to the theater.

ghilledhu was a very good sport. I am not sure if it was the fact that I'd found a dress with daisies and butterflies that qualified it as part of the ongoing Daisy Conspiracy (a running Star Fantasy joke, would take too long to explain) or whether it was melovechocolate's clever crumpled-paper Ice Comet (Ice Planet? The problematic food) that convinced her, but she changed into the dress and my prized stompy boots (the Double-H jump boots, not the 20-eye Docs) and held the prop and delivered the line with some panache. I told her "Say it as if you were Delirium" and she nailed it.

There was a costume line-up before the film started, sketchily organized by the local Browncoats, and it was pretty entertaining -- shadowflyer got off a good line about "Mal" being Latin for "bad-ass," and although there were lots of Washes (Hawaiian shirts are easy), melovechocolate, as the Littlest Wash, complete with dinosaurs!, got the biggest round of applause. Sometimes it's good to be nine.

I confess that I let myself snooze through the middle of the movie. This is in no way a reflection of its quality. It is an excellent movie. But I'd seen it once already, and I know I'm going to see it again, and I also knew I had to go to work pretty much right when the movie let out. And I did. Went home to change although I'd packed a bag, because I had just enough time, and it meant I didn't have to drag yards of sari fabric on the bathroom floor at work, and I could wash off my eye makeup.

Work went smoothly. I think. I don't remember too well. I went to the bank, deposited my paycheck, and got home in one piece, which is what mattered. Have I mentioned before just how much I enjoy being paid weekly instead of biweekly? It just makes everything so much easier. shadowflyer had gone out to Mo's with ghilledhu and darthsatyr and when I called they brought me back my favorite breakfast, with the corned beef hash and the eggs and the homefries and the rye toast, and I ate it sitting up in bed and then I put my earplugs in and drew the curtains and ZONK, until around five in the afternoon.



Friday: Exiles play Meriden, and a long late drive

So darthsatyr took the bus home, and lordavon came down 91 to collect ghilledhu and head out to the Star Fantasy game, and we ate our dinner and headed out to the Meriden AOH hall, where they were having some sort of interclub gathering and dinner, and the Exiles were the entertainment. We detoured near my work first, to get gas at the cheap little Ravi convenience store place that's not only consistently several cents cheaper than most of the major stations, but also always keeps its windshield cleaner and paper towels stocked, and to stop by the Webster box office so I could pick up the Reel Big Fish tickets. I am so psyched about getting to see them. Then we were nice and close to 91 south anyway, which was convenient.

Calley's dad had described the AOH hall as a "bar," so Calley had made some interesting clothing choices -- jeans, high-heeled black sandals, a belt with three rows of pyramid studs, and a My Chemical Romance camouflage shirt. When she realized that it was a sedate dinner full of old people, she felt a little strange. I offered her my spare black tank top in case she wanted something not QUITE so teenager, but she decided no. I also couldn't resist telling her that we had punted My Chemical Romance at the Bamboozle in favor of Flogging Molly and Bouncing Souls on the outdoor stages, and also on the advice of jldecker who'd seen them open for Green Day and who had said that they sucked a lot and she couldn't understand anything they said beyond "fucking" and "Jacksonville," but Calley seems to like them, so we agreed I'll give her a copy of the new Alkaline Trio album and she'll give me some of her My Chemical Romance and I'll see if maybe they just suck live, although I have my doubts. Calley is a lot more receptive to the idea of going thrifting with me for stage clothes now. It amuses me that she ALSO has a Tainted Love lip balm.

John (her dad) has some Control Issues about the soundboard. I mostly think he doesn't like that I turn his guitar down in the mix because HE IS NOT LEAD. So anyway the board was set up on stage, no phones, and we were going to do an aircheck tape but we didn't bring the right plug adapter for the tape deck, so I didn't actually MIX for them, but I took extensive notes and actually got John to correct the mix during the show somewhat, so it wasn't a total loss. Ideally they ought to have someone mixing on the fly because they REALLY need to adjust the vocal levels depending on who's got lead and who's got harmony on any song, but it was tolerable. For the most part, Calley played and sang very well, shadowflyer was in good voice, the new kick mike for the bodhran is miles better than the old crappy condenser, and the audience was very receptive and bought CDs, so it was a win. The gig ran until midnight, and melovechocolate was getting awfully whiny by the end of it, but there was really nothing for it. shadowflyer held out driving until about 495, and then had to push it to the Natick rest stop so I could take over -- I had dozed in the car until then, and it was near my wake-up-for-work time, so with a coffee in me I was good for the rest of the way. jetshade and the boys were sitting out on the stoop when we arrived, and I gave her my extra Serenity keychain, and talandra was still working on some game files, and so we got to sleep around 3 AM. Despite the large coffee, I fell asleep pretty rapidly. This didn't really surprise me.



Saturday: Star Fantasy, The Black Road, and thence to work

Important safety note: the Venetian blinds in talandra's office are NOT light-blocking. The sun woke us up at 7 AM. shadowflyer started the coffee, and we had showers, and then we went out to pick up Christy's car from the mechanic, where it had been since LAST month's gaming run, getting a new engine put in, and various other tweaky repairs that they found while working on the engine. Something about a sensor switch in the cooling system. Anyway, the coolant light used to go on when there was no actual problem with the coolant, and now it doesn't, so that's good. We got back, and had breakfast, and there was some gaming which mostly didn't involve Tetsuko except for one brief news alert from Macer, but that was okay. talandra hadn't really worked me into the key bits of the plot for the weekend, because with my work schedule it wasn't clear whether I'd be able to show up at all, which meant I wasn't disrupting the game to take a few hours in the afternoon and go out to Marlboro to drop in on The Black Road and visit people who I'd only ever met online.

There was a MINOR problem with this plan... somehow or other, the A/C in Christy's car has become buggered. We hope it's only out of refrigerant, rather than the compressor being blown. However, what it meant for me was that I drove from Malden to Marlboro with the windows open, barely able to BREATHE at first, it was so hot. I stopped and fortified myself with a lemonade Coolatta, which helped. Getting to listen to WFNX on the way ALSO helped. Why can't Hartford have a station like that? I have GOT to get the sound card on this machine working again so I can listen to their streaming feed.

Getting to meet mtfierce in person, after all these years, was delightful. She very kindly treated me to dinner, we showed off kid pictures, she introduced me around to other players, I got to meet olofd and say hi to follybard and tristam again and say "yeah, you look familiar" to tryslora and finally meet princejvstin and, surprise, kadath, who I'd just discovered through ginmar's journal, was there, and we had a GRAND old time talking! Then after dinner I headed back to talandra's for the game. Arrived just in time for THEIR dinner break, so I decided to be smart and take a nap. This would have worked better if people didn't keep waking me up to tell me the food was ready, but I got a bit of a nap anyway. Then when gaming resumed I realized there would be some delay before we got to the bit where Tetsuko was needed, and so I changed into my work clothes so I could be ready to leave when I had to.

I got maybe fifteen or twenty minutes of focused gaming... but wow, what a fifteen minutes. It is now clear to me why Macer doesn't take pity on Tetsuko and just BREAK their mindlink... they're too damn USEFUL when they sync up. His tech knowledge and her microtelekinesis make insane things possible. Of course, the insane thing that was required this time was also pretty damned ruthless -- it involved sending young people she'd loved since they were toddlers into serious danger -- and while Macer was supporting her with his emotional-transcedence gift for the duration, the knowledge of the task plus the sheer amount of power she had routing through her -- and not her own direct connection to the Force, either, because they had to work under black-box to keep the antagonists from noticing the effort, so a different Master Jedi (who is, for most purposes these days, Tetsuko's direct boss) was linking through an indirect source and feeding her Force energy -- anyway, given all the stresses, she wound up nearly catatonic, curled fetal, and quietly sobbing when the task was accomplished. Macer was very sweet and took care of her with life energy channel and healing and sleep, but that was where I left off to make the drive home. I didn't find out until the next evening, when shadowflyer got home, that the effort had been a terrific success. I am also extremely curious to see what happens next session, because even if Macer really was Clueless Boy about how Tetsuko felt about him until now (painfully obsessive, apparently unrequited love, while maintaining an official position of Good Pals and co-parents), their link was SO wide open during the task that he had no way of staying unaware. Tetsuko was so deeply focused on what she had to do that she didn't have any attention to spare to look at how he felt about her, so... I have a drained, catatonic Jedi in my head until I get another session in.

The drive home... well, no A/C was still pretty sucky, WFNX held until Charlton, where I got another coffee and was amused by the gaggle of young things on their way home from the Get Up Kids concert in Worcester. The coffee held me nicely through to work, and I got through most of my shift with no disasters, although I had to leave somewhat before eight hours were over because I was about to pass out. I got everything done that I really needed to.



Sunday: Home again

Then I went home and put in my earplugs and SLEPT. Woke up around 4:30, got on the computer, hung out, made sure to get a few more hours of sleep until I had to be at work again, and now I'm home with two days off ahead of me.


So, as you can see, I had a Big Damn Weekend, and if you posted anything I really ought to see, comment here and let me know, OK?

Comments

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

You're not used to the driving distances around here, are you? From MY house, it takes about the same length of time to drive to New Haven as it does to Northampton. Just opposite directions.

But yeah. Next Tuesday or next Wednesday, either one, although on a Wednesday I would have to leave the club early so as to be back for work by 2 AM.

Remind me, I have to put a spare uniform back in my locker! Makes out-dancing-then-to-work a lot easier.