Today, I:

* went to the Harvard Book Store warehouse sale, and left with a sack of books. Not that I really need more books, but, c'mon, you *always* need more books, and at least a few of them may end up as gifts

* went to the Bazaar Bizarre, ran into a number of friends, stocked up on my beloved Bunny Butt Apothecary Masala Chai lip balm and indulged in a jar of the same scent body butter, ogled some of the lovely letterpress works, and picked up cards for all the other nifty crafts I want to buy some day when I have money

* had dinner at Ethan and Mia's house, where he delivered on my promised birthday present of a kosher lamb dinner. Mmmm, roast lamb. Not to mention delicious potatoes with thyme from his garden, a spinach and cherry tomato dish that was good enough to give up some lamb stomach-space for, and homemade almond macaroons for dessert. <Les>Macaroons!</Les> And Mia even packed up some leftovers for me. Mmmmm, lamb leftovers. And then we played with his Wii sport -- my arms are going to hurt from the boxing tomorrow -- before he kindly drove me home.

Books, shopping, design, meat, friends -- yep, think I about covered them all. Except maybe sleep. Pardon me while I go do that. :)

Friday afternoon I took the ferry to Salem, where bkdelong was kind enough to provide his wonderful hospitality for shabbos so I could walk to ayelle and zendzian's fabulous wedding. Saturday we did the quickie tour of Salem, which is a really cool town -- I'd love to go back and spend some more time there soon! And I'm sure you've heard by now how great the wedding was. Very much *them*, which always makes for the best weddings, and we all had a lovely time.

Got back late Saturday night, finished packing and reading email, and then got up early Sunday morning to catch my flight to Atlantic City, where I spent three days with my parents and my sister and her husband and 3 kids. Sadly my brother couldn't make it, but he spent shabbos in Philly along with everyone else, so at least my mom got to see all of her kids in the same weekend, if not the same time.

We spent a lot of time on the beach taking advantage of the free chaises and umbrella the hotel offers, checked out the hotel's two pools (one of which was very much a swinging singles scene until we arrived with 5 kids in tow -- my aunt came up for the day with my cousin's two kids, as well), walking the Boardwalk (I got my required fudge, and we found the one remaining arcade to teach the kids to play Ski-ball).

There had been a storm system a few weeks ago that tore up the local mussel beds, so the beaches were covered inches deep near the water line with piles of tiny mussel shells, which was interesting although a little weird to walk through and rather smelly. But once I got out past the breakers into the gentle rolling swells, the bottom was clear, and the water felt heavenly. I took my younger niece out there on my back for a while, and we enjoyed jumping the waves together, and then I took her back in, went back, and spent some time floating alone on my back, feeling the hot sun on my face and the cool water on my body, letting the waves gently rock me, trying to store up the sensations to get through the winter.

I had a flight back at 5:20pm yesterday, and we were on the plane and about to take off when word came in of fog in Boston, so we all had to get off the plane and wait around until 8pm when we got a clear window and made a run for it. Luckily, bex77 had already planned to pick me up to whisk me to my first Never After rehearsal (which I totally missed, of course) but she was kind enough to pick me up at the new time and drop my exhausted carcass and luggage home so I didn't have to brave the rain and the subway. And now I'm slogging through way too much email, LJ, and unpacking. But at least I'm tan :)

Had a very nice weekend. Friday I made it over to gdaniels for a bit and got to see a lot of people I don't see nearly often enough. Sadly, I couldn't stay long, since I had to get down to the river to join tremontstshul. Some of the gang had gotten there early and staked out a nice big area, and even put up a fabulous shade tent. Shabbat services outside were lovely, if a little hard to hear over the loudspeaker which chose then to start announcing things. And the ever-fabulous chanaleh had done a Butcherie run, so I even had a smoked turkey sandwich for my shabbos dinner. Mmmmm.

The fireworks were particularly breath-taking this year, I thought, with some exciting new colors and patterns that I haven't seen before. I do love fireworks. Afterwards I walked back to Central with awhyzip and brass_rat, then pushed my way into the T and only had to let one over-packed train go by before I managed to squeeze on.

Saturday night I had the pleasure of a short visit with Katy Guimond, as well as i_leonardo and Mason and Jenn and Phillipe.

Sunday I finally made it over to see the exhibit miss_chance co-curated at the Nave, combined with a long-overdue visit with the artist herself, before I had to run to the T@F work day. Opening night is three weeks from Thursday, eep! bismuthobsidian brought up mudslides for some reason, and after that I was really craving one, so she, snoopymel, clarity_dog and I went to Rudy's to get some, and to get me some food before I totally melted down. (clarity_dog went for the oh-so-pink pricky pear margarita instead of the mudslide, but it was still a totally girly drink, so that's ok.)

Sadly, after that I went home and fell sound asleep and missed the chance to celebrate zendzian's birthday -- oops. Happy birthday, Nick! Luckily, woke up in time for a Matterhorn rehearsal at my house at 8, which went really well. We're working our asses off on this thing, I really hope it shows.

Not a darn thing planned for today, hallelujah. I may run out to the library to get some new reading matter. I may try to check out the McCrehan pool near Alewife, if I get hot enough. Or I may stay in bed and watch TV and movies all day.

And awhyzip and I have a beach day to plan for tomorrow, yay! Beach beach beach. I want desperately to be floating in the ocean, bobbing along with the waves, or lying on the hot sand basking in the sun. Unless there's another thunderstorm. Sigh.

I managed to have just about the perfect mix of work and free time last week -- I ended up getting some last-minute work at an ad agency right in Davis Square Tuesday afternoon through Thursday. Conveniently, on Wednesday when the weather was so lovely, they ran out of work for me around 2pm so I got to spend the afternoon wandering around Harvard Square. It's amazing what an effect the sun and warmth have on my mood, but I'm really enjoying feeling happy and, well, sunny, again, as the weather warms up.

Thursday we had our first full-cast rehearsal for SomerVaudeVille, T@F's one-night-only Vaudeville show at Johnny D's on May 28. My hula dance was very well received, and the singing with Heisenberg's Mezzos went well. I was very impressed by some of the other acts, and can't wait to see the full show!

Yesterday we had our first Heisenberg's Mezzos rehearsal with our accompanist, and that was productive. And then last night I went to see Laurie Anderson along with kjc007, heliopsis, muffyjo, hahathor and her beau. A subset of us had a lovely dinner at Martsa, and then they headed off on the T while I waited for shabbos to end. I ended up walking to Harvard Square and catching a cab there at 7:48pm, as soon as shabbos ended, and amazingly actually arrived in time for the 8pm curtain! The show was enjoyable -- not quite as mind-blowing as I tend to expect of her, but some moments that definitely stuck with me. Afterwards we somehow lost hahathor and Ed, but managed to acquire lordfeepness and bismuthobsidian, and we went to Finale for dessert. I had the Valrhona Manjari chocolate mousse, my favorite kind of chocolate, and a lovely glass of madeira that complemented it very well.

Today I enjoyed a lazy morning in bed watching Due South on DVD, then it was off to the church for our cue-to-cue. It was such a treat to have it in the daytime, when we were not all tired and cranky, and it went as smoothly as could reasonably be expected, I believe. Plus we had the fun of dpolicar standing in for one of our actors who was out of town -- always great to be in a show with him, if only for one day! It was so much fun to see the difference the lights and music make. I can't wait until the first dress rehearsal tomorrow to add costumes and makeup (and a small audience!) to the mix. We open Friday night, and I hear a rumor we're looking to see out, so reserve your tickets now!

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I had a blast at the tremontstshul 80s dance Saturday night, as I always do. I was impressed by some of the creative 80s outfits people came up with, and very happy with how mine came out. gedalia took photos, I hope to be able to post some eventually.

Had a nice brunch this morning with bismuthobsidian and snoopymel, and it happened that we left Johnny D's about 10 minutes before a showing of Juno at the Somerville Theater, so I finally went to see that, and totally loved it. It was just so sweet and human and flawed and lovable. Took me a little while to get into it, but once I did, I was totally hooked. I just reserved Diablo's book on her experience as a stripper at the library, I'll be really curious to read it now.

Every now and then some piece of fiction will suck me in in such a way that I internalize bits of it. As a kid, I was reading the fairy tale about the seven swan princes, when my sister came to call me to dinner. She couldn't understand why I wouldn't respond, but in some part of my brain, I was utterly convinced that if I spoke, my brothers would be doomed to life as swans forever. After coming out of Brokeback Mountain, I connected so much with Heath Ledger's character that I also had trouble speaking, needed to clear my throat before words would come out. And after Juno? Well, I caught myself waddling down the street, feeling a giant belly in front of me. Weird, but the sign of a really good movie for me.

Had a lovely weekend. Friday I made the trek into Brookline to get some kosher meat. Despite the 95-degree heat, it was well worth the trip. I had an amazing corned beef and tongue sandwich for lunch that left me moaning gently. Picked up a bunch of stuff at the Butcherie, and made it home. Later that evening I took a bunch of the meat over to buckydt's, dropped it off, and went to services at tremontstshul where I got to congratulate chanaleh on her engagement in person and squee over her lovely ring. Returned to buckydt's where he had prepared for us a delicious stir-fry for dinner, along with a yummy salad (ok, so maybe yellow peppers aren't actually poison -- who knew?) and some brown rice that I actually liked. I don't know how he does it. I suspect it's all part of his eeeevil plot to take over the universe. But as long as he keeps me that well fed, I'm not sure I care.

Saturday I had the utter joy of having brunch with the fabulous quilla, who I have not seen in waaaayyyyy too long, along with lillibet and jason237 and muffyjo and lillibet's friend Rhonda. quilla was as fabulous as ever and looked amazing. We manage to keep in touch over IM and LJ now and then, but it's just not the same as seeing her in person. Hopefully it won't be this long before the next visit.

That evening jason237 was kind enough to pick me up and bring me over to their house for dinner so I could have the pleasure of seeing Barbara Ex, visiting from China. Hadn't seen her since her wedding in London a few years back, so it was great to get to catch up with her and hear about living in a very foreign country. And I finally got to try lillibet's amazing tilapia with balsamic butter sauce. Yum!

Yesterday I went canoing with the tremontstshul 20s and 30s crowd. We left at 3:30pm, much more civilized than in previous years. We ended up with over 30 people, and as many as 5 in some canoes. At one point ablock instigated a flotilla, in which we got six canoes paddling together side by side, linked closely mostly by those of us in the middle throwing a leg across the canoe next door. Very silly, lots of fun. We were out for a little under two hours, and then about 14 of us went on to Ta'am China II in Newton for kosher Chinese dinner. I stuffed myself on fried peking ravs, teriyaki beef sticks, scallion pancakes, General Gau's chicken, curry beef, orange beef, and other assorted meaty goodness.

And tonight I've got my audition for Twelve Angry Jurors. I'm looking forward to it, I always enjoy T@F auditions. See some of you there!