It has become my responsibility to inform you all of xjestx's long-time bulldog companion, Kingrock Zoey's recent passing. She had been ailing the past few months and Jest was taking the best care of her. Sadly, there is no cure for age, and on Saturday morning, Jest had to take Zoey to the vet's to have her put down. I found out about this late last night, and I know that Jest is too sad to announce this herself right now.

I first met Zoey in 2006, after damned_colonial suggested I check out this cool girl named xjestx who was also living in Halifax and liked Tall Ships. Zoey soon came to grow on me, as only a stubborn, obnoxious, muscly and not-at-all-cuddly 59 pounds of bulldog could. Jest had acquired her as a past-her-prime breeding Mom, and was instantly struck by her adorableness and potential for complaining. (Connie Willis, the author of To Say Nothing Of The Dog, should take some of the blame.)

And eventually, as things transpired, I soon moved into the spare room. And Zoey moved onto all my things.

We went on all sorts of adventures, and I am happy to say that I think she spent her last six years with Jest in much more happiness and comfort than she spent the first six years without her. And I think the year and a half I spent with the two of them was absolutely fabulous.

I couldn't do post like this without showing some of the great (and ridiculous) photos I have taken of Zoey over the years, and so here is the obligatory pupspam:

( ...Kingrock Zoey... )

And in a way, there will always be a part of Zoey around.... she shed so many hairs that I am still finding them now, after two years of living away from her!

So give your love to xjestx and think of Zoey a little bit every time you see a bulldog. She was wonderful and I loved her a lot.

Tags: pupspam

Dude, Yuletide for me this year is going to be NUTS. I offered really random things and I hadn't heard of/kept up to date on most of everything else listed.

*snickers*

PLEASE YULETIDE WRITER, BRING ME ADDERLY FOR XMAS!!!!

When we get our assignments I will totally write a real "Dear Yuletide" letter but right now I have to go and die. Emergency coat making has knocked the wind out of me.

Ugh you guys I am being crushed alive by boredom and seasonal sadness. What do I have to do to get out of this???

surferjupiter will find this funny, I know. Craaaazy director insanity.

Last week, the TD and I discussed one of our actors getting a hair trim. He has a wild, curly white boy 'fro and it was at the length where it fell into his eyes. We decided, in emails to the director, that we were going to equest a trim, not an all-out cut, and that the director was going to ask him (nicely) to do it.

How silly I was to think that was over with. This is what showed up in my inbox this morning (edited for content and to protect the innocent)....

Last week, you were asked by the designer to do a very specific trim on your hair. This adjustment falls well within society’s definition of reasonable and normally presentable. There are plenty of places within walking distance that you can simply enter and have this done. It is not a styling.

Apparently, you have not done so. I have been given the distinct impression that apparently you have been resistant to these reasonable requests in the past.

You will do so by 6pm today, and e-mail me that you have done so. You will present me with the receipt at 6pm, and you will be repaid. The trim will conform to the guidelines I have been sent.

If I do not get the e-mail by 6pm that this has been done by a professional and that you have a receipt, don’t bother coming to rehearsal tonight. I intend to replace you. If you arrive and in MY judgement the trim is not sufficient, you will immediately leave the theatre, and I will have you replaced. There will be no appeal. You know NOW, in advance, formally, of the consequences.

I can say a great deal more. Suffice to say that I have far more important things to do than to have to deal with this kind of thing.

WHAT THE HELL.

This is not a request, this is an all-out call to WAR. For one thing, the request to cut hair did NOT come from me, but through me to the director (who neglected, it seems, to pass that request along) but also this is not a 'reasonable request.'

(In the actor's defense, who I like a lot better than the crazy director man, the last time he refused to cut his hair he was under contract by DISNEY for a sitcom. Cutting it would have meant he broke his contract or whatever. In the land of me, official paying contracts with real companies are better than verbal threats from crazy men that you are paying to teach you "acting.")

Tomorrow, the car goes in for repairs from The Worst Day In Recent Memory... I get a replacement rental through insurance but I need to do work this week, and so I am not getting it until thursday, when I go up to Acadia. Also, I can't get it tomorrow because the insurance guy called me on friday but I couldn't talk and then he never called me back. FAIL. I am hoping he will call tomorrow, while I am being productive.

I called my Mom last night to wish her a Happy Housiversary... my Mom and Dad (and little me) moved into the house they currently live in 30 years ago on Halloween. It's a pretty cool anniversary, and the story they tell about trying to move a fridge up the stairs while kids in costume kept coming by expecting candy is hilarious....

I am one step closer to achieving room zen... I have a very small closet and not a lot of usable wall space, so I've been struggling with getting everything in a working, usable order for MONTHS now. I moved my dresser into the closet today and put away a lot of my summer stuff... that should free up some space in there... now I just have to take down and store the wall of ties, and I can start putting up all those picture frames I've sprayed black. I am also aiming to get the living room cleaned up within the next couple of weeks... though really, after I am done at Acadia my time is pretty much my own.

Anyone in Halifax want a custom dress or something for Xmas/New Years? I am not an official business yet - it is still in the works, and I am still working my little ass off on EVERYTHING, but I am hoping to offer some retro-style eveing dresses, custom made to your specifics, for the holiday season this year. I better get a flyer made up this week and SOON. Argh.

Anyone have Photoshop for mac?

Also talked to my first wife xjextx about my bulldog-in-law (Zoey), who is aiing and not eating solid foods anymore, which is very sad news. Zoey had a couple of strokes in the summer which limited her facial expressions to those of anger and annoyance (very dissimilar to her regular expressions of loving anger and amused annoyance) and which also limited her mobility. She's recently taken to peeing in the house to show her love and appreciation and I know Jest could use the love, so please pass on your warm thoughts in this difficult time.

I am really looking forward to this holiday season because Imight get a Jest, I have a Mills and an Olive and an ian, and my parents are coming to visit!! That is much more excitement than I usually have. To add to that, i am also throwing a 1960's Mad Men flavoured xmas party early in December and inviting a bunch of random people. So my energy is going into thinking about that, and planning for that piece by piece.

That, and trying to get through my friggin' life. I am owed two cheques right now and tomorrow I have to sign one over to my landlord to pay rent, and then what's left over just goes to overdraft. I swear, my life.

I do feel bad baout not spending more time posting here, but it's so hard to think up coherent things to say when it's past midnight and you have to be up early the next morning.... I've been trying, I really have.... but things are just irritating.

Love you all.

Halloween means I am too tired to dress up, and I have to call the cops on the drunken teenagers vomiting and pissing in my backyard. So, par for the course, really.

Argh I feel like my life is complete fail right now.

I scavenged a couple of frames from ym 'art' supplies and got a few more at Value Village tonight, so the wall of ties will come down, and the wall of 'random frames with or without stuff in them' will go up. I might be putting more airplanes on the wall to go with the one near my bed.

Now, if only I could tackle the storage problem.

Ok, let's do this. Found my camera. Here's some photos of my pad:

( ...four pictures and a diagram... )

I would love to paint or tack something ENORMOUS on the wall where the ties are, except I'm not allowed to paint (thanks, landlord) and I'd be worried about overwhelming my tiny room.

I am now thinking about adding more picture frames, painted black, maybe with or without stuff in them. Might be interesting. You notice the one I hung the airplane in, and the big one over my bed with the scarf stapled in (it's Paris). That's pretty decoraty, huh, bitches?

Argh, am I ever having PROBLEMS with the layout of my room. Pretty much, it's a squarish 'u' shape, longer than it is wide, with an entryway at the back and a closet taking up the inside part of the 'u'. There are no shelves in the closet (or weren't, until I put a bokshelf in there and took out the lower bar) and the door and bed placement pretty much relegate my futon and desk to sharing the same wall.

A wall which is about 10 feet to the ceiling, and is extremely beige. I don't have anything to go on it, or know what to do with it to make it 'decorative.' I strung up some twine and hung all my neckties on it but it's lousy and makes my bedroom look like a thrift shop (more so than it usually does).

Can any decorative-minded person help me out here?

....

And apparently my camera is either missing or at work, so I can't help you out with illustrations right now. Frig.

Have been poking through Design*Sponge tonight and I found this and thought of damned_colonial.

Produce To The People.

How cool is that? There's a plum tree down the street from my house that my friend G has harvested from, and I meant to this year but I think someone else got to it first. One week there was fruit, the next? Nope.

I tried to watch Glee again last night. I got halfway through episode 2 before I turned it off and GOD HELP ME started watching the first episode of Merlin. Which I already like a hundred times better.

Why do I hate Glee so much? Every single character is unlikable or overly neurotic to the point of irritation. Except the football guy, who is just pretty looking.

Oh EYELINER!!!!

Does anyone know if you can get teensy replicas of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square*?? I just set up an adorable 'tiny replica' wall decoration shelf and I have an Eiffel Tower and a Statue of Liberty and it feels like I sham since I haven't been either of those places (but know people who live there) and I want something from London but I ridiculously didn't get anything when I was there last year.

Weird, huh? can anyone help me out?!

* or any "British" landmark? I only say Nelson because he's my historical boyfriend....

Today has been more fail in one package than I can deal with right now.

1. Got another parking ticket.
2. while parking in a lot, got a 3 foot scrape down the side of the (BRAND NEW) car from the bumper of an SUV. My fault, of course. They are pursuing insurance fixing it.
3. On the way back, dropped off ticket at office to contest it, and discovered that the parking sticker covers everything EXCEPT where I was parking. Which they didn't tell me the first two times I went in.
4. check engine light came on, now have to take car into service tomorrow morning.

I declared today a lose, made meat pie and roast yams, had Ian over for dinner and read 60's cookbooks while watching Mad Men.

And now I am going to bed. There's only an hour and a bit left of today.... surely there can't be more fail...

..... **waits for cartoon piano to fall on head**....

Despite my continued emphasis on getting costume paperwork for the Acadia show (what remains to buy/find/borrow/build) by Monday AT THE LATEST it is now tuesday morning and I have nothing.

Actually, it is late tuesday morning because I got to sleep in a little bit.

Which is still bullshit.

So I am going to do nothing show-related today except maybe a little fabric-buying tonight at the Fville 50% off sale tonight with !Mills.

Dear Director Guy,

Hey, what do you want your actors to wear under their robes along with their South Seas islander regalia? I can do tank tops or tshirts or somesuch, so give me an idea of what you were thinking of. Skirts? Board shorts? Hawaaian shirts?

Love,
Your Designer.

Dear Designer,

Hey! It's very important that we have those robes - we talked about it from day one. Their regalia has to be taken on and off very quickly so you need to figure that out. I believe that all theatre is a collaborative effort and that you can read my mind instead of me making decisions.

Love,
Director.

Dear Director,

Was it just me or did you just completely ignore my question? Clearly you were not thinking about anything when you answered me.

No thanks at all,
Designer.

Designer,

Warlock hemisphere gurgle twat bucket flump monkey butt.

Creatively yours,
Director.

Me:

*HEADDESK*

I'm making up some fake condolences cards for a short film a friend is working on. This is the first one.

( ...my condolences... )

Experimenting with 'dry' brushes in layers to look like wet media.... add some oldey timey looking stamp patterns and a crap-photoshopped flowerpot and there you have it.

Sorry you are dead, love your auto mechanic.

One of the concepts is a dentist's office sending an upside-down 'smiley' face with teeth in it. That also sounds hilarious. My Mom suggested the mechanic's one could be a pair of feet sticking out from underneath a vehicle.... I am going to try that one next.

And by next I mean tomorrow night because now it's my bedtime.

Things went better (although, longer) than I expected today. Lots of in-car shots, which meant I was pretty much unnecessary for the entire day. Because really, in a car, shot from the shoulder up? Not much to do with costume continuity. But I stood around anyways (outside, because it's 0 DEGREES OUT) and did what I could to not be in the way.

Our makeup person, however, seriously? did touch-ups for like 15 minutes when given the chance. I'd like to personally blame her for everyone going overtime tonight, but I don't think I can as it got dark at 6:30 and that's no-one's fault.

Anyway I'm going to shower and watch some Mad Men and try to ignore the TERRIBLE guitar noises coming from the Commons. It's a street-level art/installation night until midnight tonight so it will be COMPLETELY SUCKY. Fuck you, Nocturne.

I think I am about to enter radio silence. Shooting tomorrow - 7am call - until dark (about 6:30) but I am thinking I won't be home until after 8 at least.

I'll keep Twittering about it, most likely, but we'll see. I might have a lot of work to do.

I had a pretty productive day at Acadia with my little wardrobe monkeys.... nothing had been done since the last time I was there, of course, but after a session with the head of wardrobe I managed to straighten her out on what needed to get done, and by when, and what costumes we were aiming to put on the actors. The crew is doing another big pull tomorrow and then hopefully I will have a buy/find list to work from this week after the shoot.

The shoot: sat-sun-mon in Halifax. Consider me unavailable, I am the only wardrobe person, it's locations and there may be weather. I am not actually looking forward to this as much as I should be, but it's money and it's experience and it's contacts. (It's also 14+ hour days, but I sort of do those anyway... it just happens to be three of them in a row.)

Although, I do feel an edge of panic coming on and I'm not sure what's starting it. I'm going to head to bed now so hopefully I will stall it in whatever tracks it's attempting to start in. Ugh.

Yeah, and despite having a decent day, I do sort of feel like nothing I ever do makes any kind of a difference anywhere. I am working in a mold-ridden basement in the second-rate theatre department on a university in ass nowhere. Yeah.

I've been shopping quite a bit for the film this weekend... the first two characters were easy (old man, old woman, grandparents, Salvation Army and VV no problems) but the third, a hip young woman, was a little harder. Mostly because the director couldn't tell me what she wanted, but also mostly because I didn't get to the Dartmouth VV until today. I also got a very nice wool topcoat from Old Navy that is BRIGHT RED and quite trendy-looking, so that helps immensely. We are filming this weekend and the big concern is, of course, the weather and who will be standing around in it. I hope I know what I'm doing.

And as always I am having money troubles, so if anyone wants any sewing done for them, I am your girl. I don't charge too much and I am quite good at it. ;P

I also get to start work on the first story challenge of the year, the Man from UNCLE "Down the chimney' secret santa thing. I have an awesome prompt and something I am going to have to think about for some time before I can actually start work on... should be fun.

Tomorrow I'm off to Acadia again (and Friday) so who knows if I'll remember to update. Hopefully.

Ugh.

p.s. AND VAMPIRES.

I have decided that the new way to make my life better is by trying to figure out how to add "AND VAMPIRES!" to the end of every scenario.

So I'm taking my car to get snow tires. And I talk to my guy at the mechanic's desk. And then I get my tires and he helps me load them in my car. And one of the employees is a vampire.

I'm walking with a friend along the waterfront and looking at the cruise ships that are docked. Only one of them is a vampire cruise ship and they are there for the nightlife.

Think of it. CSI: Vampires.

It almost makes walking the dog in the rain with holes in your rubber boots worth it. Because somewhere, there's a vampire.

... I don't even particularly like vampires, they are just cooler than zombies and better-shaven than werewolves.

EDIT: In fact, it should be a new fortune cookie game.
"You will meet new and interesting people.... AND VAMPIRES."

I'm starting to watch Glee (because perpet_fic told me to) but I don't get it yet. It's not like any high school I've ever seen outside of fiction and, being Canadian, not like any high school I could ever believe exists. Plus the fact that the only reasonably interesting and conflicted characters are the OCD teacher and the quarterback-cum-backstreet boy...

I'm going to watch a couple more episodes but it better get way better way soon. Because in the high school *I* went to, the really annoying drama queen girl succeeded and now has a recording career and lives in Paris, and the male lead went to the Stratford Festival to do Shakespeare with William Hutt.

... that's pretty high standards for a goddamn high school.

I have just discovered Blurb.com which offers a computer-based photo book printing service. I am going NUTS with all my photos, trying to put them in some kind of order. I thought about doing this last year, when I was going to print grandparents and parents a set of photos from London/Stratford/Wales only now I am calling it "Adventure Photographs: Photos of everywhere I've been."

needless to say, it's at 60 pages and counting. I had over 400 photos in the folder I wanted to use, so that's not helping any. I'm going to put them together, work on the text a little, and then sit on it for a bit. Have to figure out what the best cost-versus-size is, because I don't want to do a skimpy little thing, but a five-pound book of photos might be a bit much.

SO MUCH FUN.