Month: April 2004

When I go to sleep, I usually find I have one of two problems.

Sometimes when I lay down for sleep, I’m itching to get out of reality and into my dreams. Yet, my mind tends to work overtime after I hit the pillow. I mean, it literally races a marathon thinking of anything and everything it can. This usually occurs when I’ve not had much to do during the day and I’m awake for hours on end. It’s really annoying.

The other problem is I lay on my side. My arm is extended because I can’t keep it under my body or I’ll lose all the blood and it feels weird. Well, after about a minute of laying there, sometimes faster, I can hear my heart beating. Literally, my ear, or most likely what is the tragus, is shaking the pillow that it touches. As the heart beats, the tragus vibrates to the rhythm of its beating. After unsuccessfully trying to ignore the sound, I have to switch sides and lay on the other side of my body. Not uncommonly, the same exact thing happens and it’s just as loud. So, I am forced to lay either on my front or my back. I usually don’t sleep well laying on my stomach so I’m forced to lye straight on my back. I mean, I would stretch out and everything if I had a queen size bed, but I’m sleeping on a single.

Thus, I really don’t have much mobility when I sleep, the only real way for me to fall asleep is to lay on my back, and I must listen to a constant noise to help me doze into my slumber. Such is my life late at night before I sleep.

A month and a half makes a huge difference sometimes. Since moving here, things have changed from one path to another. What I assumed would work out has not. Certain changes will happen in the near future, but I’m not certain when or where yet. I have some choices to make and hope I can find the right answers.

Saturday marked my first official day of working as a stage technician. There was a cheerleading competition between middle school cheerleaders and my main job was to make sure that the girls exited off the stage correctly instead of going backstage again. It was not a glorious task because I sat around most of the time. I’m not complaining however.

This week they scheduled me full time. I have been working all day every day, waking up before 7am each day and not enjoying it. But I’m getting the required amount of sleep that I need.

Somehow, I was asked to assist the stage manager on the lift. We’re talking the machine/vehicle that can raise you high in the air, up to about 60 feet. Oh yes, not that 60 feet is all that high, but when you’re up there and it’s shaking, it becomes a little nerve wracking. Not everyone had the opportunity to go aboard the lift but I guess it might be a sign of respect since I’m one of the older of the rookie crew. I also think I’m probably the most educated of the rookies with a bachelor’s degree. Oh geez, need I remind myself of this…

In fact, on Tuesday we were up using the power washer rinsing off the helicopter they use for the show. It wasn’t to dirty since it’s out in the open all the time, but it had some bird poop and dust on it. After finishing, I felt the lift going higher and higher. I realized we weren’t going down back to the ground where it was safe and sound. No, he ended up extending it all 60 feet up in the air. I’m not afraid of heights, I enjoy looking around from a view you rarely get to see.

It was just about that time when the assistant (foreman) turned the engine off. Again, I’m not particularly afraid of heights. But we were straight up, dangling, and not on solid ground. The arm of the lift holding us up was shaking side to side from us being up there and the light wind blowing at the time. My hands were starting to get sweaty. My hands usually get sweaty from my presence on a plane landing (I’m always afraid of diving head first into the ground). So I was starting to get nervous.

I was conflicted, however because the view was spectacular. I mean, we’re talking really gorgeous! Here’s the result:

We bought a few tickets to see The Ladykillers the other day and it wasn’t in the nice big theater with the huge screen but it’s also been a few weeks since this movie premiered.

It was somewhat difficult to enjoy the movie for a couple of reasons, one being that it was such a random movie. It seemed to jump in many places at once but kept its flow.

The main reason, however, happened right after we took our seats. When I sit in a theater, I usually enjoy sitting at the very bottom of the stadium seating, right above the rows of chairs on the ground. It’s usually just close enough and far enough to see and hear everything optimally. We, however, sat on the fifth row.

After getting a little comfortable, I put my feet on the head of the seat in front of me. We sat there for a few minutes watching the previews. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then, unpleasantly, I felt something on my leg. I was wearing my button up jumper pants which had the bottom button undone to leave a nice big hole. Luckily, it wasn’t in my pants but on top. As soon as I looked across my leg to see what it was, I quickly noticed a big HUGE Texas-sized COCKROACH! I’m talking, it was the size of 9V battery! Maybe a little bigger. So GROSS!

I immediately swatted at my leg but didn’t move it because the roach fell back down to the floor. When I swatted it, its wings came out as though it was going to try to fly away but it just fell as I remember. This movie which we were about to watch was basically ruined.

We got a cell phone and illuminated to see if we could find the roach anywhere on the floor. You’d think we would move to another location but it didn’t bother any of us enough to move as long as we couldn’t see the roach. The rest of the time we sat there watching, we all kept itching around making sure it wasn’t on our clothes. As paranoid as we were, we continued to watch the movie in its entirety. I didn’t want to leave the movie because I paid so much money!

Obviously, after the movie ended, I went to complain. I didn’t get my money back, but I did receive two free tickets. Will I use them? Not at that theater!!

I am in H-town. I’ve been here since last Wednesday and will probably be here for the rest of the week and maybe even a tad longer. I have no overwhelming reason to get back to LA yet because work hasn’t scheduled me and I am able to make money while I’m here! So I’m taking advantage of all the hours that I can get.

It is nice to see familiar sites and people again so it’s been a nice time. The funny thing, however, is that I’m living on 4 pairs of clothes. Hopefully I can mix and match my clothes so I’m not looking the same everyday.