random bits

i temp and end up working in all kinds of offices all around the city. temping and auditioning has allowed me to explore almost every corner of manhattan and parts of brooklyn and queens. i have what i consider an excellent working knowledge of the subway system, although when pressed, i might not always have the right answer right away, but give me a moment to think about it and i know which way to go.

i have about 3 temping outfits. because i end up going to different places every couple of days, i'm able to utilize the same outfit in the same week, with no one being the wiser. when i'm at a job for longer than a week, i have to get creative and mix and match. i have a pair of black wide-leg pinstripe pants that i wear all the time- i do a check every morning and if they don't need to be cleaned, i throw them on with a rotating group of solid colored tops. i have been wearing more brown, i have this pair of brown pinstriped pants, but don't have brown shoes, so i take a risk wear them with stiletto black heels. one of these heels was nibbled on by bonnie, but ken found out in time before any major damage was done. its funny, she's never chewed on anything of ours, except for this one heel. i think she sensed it was my favorite pair.

i wore these heels out last week to a work event for kpr. after socializing with industry folks, we ended up tipsy at a new french place a few blocks from our house. i had fish, i think, and a big crock of french onion soup. at the end of the night, we went to walk home and there was no way i could make in my shoes. so what does my darling husband do? he takes off his own boots, puts them on my feet and we walk home, he in his black dress socks and me in my clumpy new kicks. how sweet is that?!

i refuse to buy a business suit. i had a conversation with my pal m the other day and we both commented that we imagined our bodies would feel foreign in a business suit. some of the jobs i go to require that i dress business conservative, which means a suit- but i throw caution to the wind and dare to go in in slacks and a sweater. that's as about as dressy as i'm going to get.

bonnie has had two 'episodes' since the end of july. one was while we were away on our honeymoon and our dear friend who was dogsitting at our house had to rush her to the er at 4 in the morning. we got a call at our b&b in provence and were really worried. she stabilized and was back to her old self quickly, but she was so nervous while we were gone that she lost two pounds. she only weighed 11 pounds to begin with so when we returned we could see all of her little bones sticking out and it was quite scary. she has gained about a half pound and i've been trying to feed her a little more, but not too much because i don't want her digestive tract to go crazy. i know she'll gain it all back eventually.

she had her second episode the day after we returned from our honeymoon. we were so jetlagged and grumpy and it was really hard to take her to the er again and then sit there in the harsh lights wondering what they were doing to her back there. luckily our next door neighbor works at this hospital, he's a resident and practically lives at the hospital, so he evaluated and treated her and we were able to walk out of there without dealing with accounting. i don't feel bad about that because we've spent so.much.money at this hospital and all he ended up giving her was a dose of benadryl to calm her and then recommended that we take her home where she would be more comfortable. she and i spent the night in the darkened guest room where i bundled her up under the covers and she nestled her head right at my neck and licked my face to make sure that i was still there.

she is really the sweetest little dog, but has obvious separation anxiety which only exacerbates her neurological condition, sending her into a spiral of what we now refer to as 'atypical seizures' where she shakes uncontrollably, which progresses to nervous serious panting, which leads to combative behavior and eventually she cannot see, but is insistent that she be able to walk around and not be held. sometime she looses control of her bladder, sometimes she runs into the wall and it is always scary because we don't know how she is going to get out of it and of course don't want her to be in any pain. the benadryl calms her to a point where she can start to relax and let go of this anxiety that has caused her to have neurological symptoms. she needs to be in a place with as little stimulus as possible (a dark room, under the covers) and she needs reassurance.

it only takes about a day and a half for her to go back to her old self. we visited a new neurologist who put her on a new anti convulsant medication (phenobarbitol!) and i'm a bit afraid for her little liver, since she is still on the prednisone (which makes her hair fall out in patches). we're on a 6 month trial, so we'll see how everything goes. her last neurologist suggested surgery, and this neurologist wants to explore medical options first... her last neurologist is the north american expert in the field, but has moved back to ithaca to teach at cornell. i'm thinking of getting in touch with him and going up there and having him re-evaluate her.

i've been cast in a production of the pl@yboy of the west3rn w0rld by jm syng3. its an irish play from 1907 and i'll be playing a young gossipy townsgirl and not the lead like i wanted- but it is the third largest female role, if that matters at all. i know there are no small parts only small actors, but i thought i was really well suited for the lead female, and kindof had my heart set on it, but i can see why the directors decided to go another way, as well. it is a good opportunity to work on my irish dialect and i like the theatre company i'm working with. the show goes up at the beginning of october, so the rehearsal commitment is minimal.

in november kpr and i are going to new zealand and australia! i'll be there for almost 4 weeks! hooray!