The Many Adventures of a Thede

I'm back from vacation in California! Getting back from vacation just makes me want to go on vacation, you know? It's never enough. I had a great time on our first family vacation in I don't know how long. Laguna Beach is paradise. Seriously. I don't know how anyone could actually live there. If you did, your expectations on life would be unrealistically high. It's just too perfect. But I love it. We spent every day on the beach, in the water, taking walks through town. Adam and I took a couple trips into LA to see Harry Potter and go to Universal Studios. But other than that, it was enough to just sit on the beach.

Vacation highlights:

Our beach hotel

Trip to Universal with Adam

Eating gelato to celebrate my birthday

I had a very busy birthday weekend. On Friday afternoon I went to see The Dark Knight and thought it was very good but also quite disturbing. But, please, go see it because Heath Ledger is amazing.

Friday night I had a couple hours of rehearsal for Happy Hour, and then it was time to celebrate my birthday! I spent the evening with a few friends at Soldier McGee and at midnight, we rang in my birthday with a few too many shots of Jack Daniels.

Saturday, the actual day of my birthday, was a very long day of tech for Happy Hour. But we were done at about 6pm and then I met up with Marylin. We watched the first episode of the new Project Runway season! I loved the first challenge: make a garment out of items at the grocery store. This was my favorite:

Materials: Table cloth, kale, cherry tomatoes

But this was the winner, which I also liked:

Materials: Vacuum bags, coffee filters, bleach, paint

Anyway, after Project Runway, we went to Gabriela's Mexican Restaurant for my birthday dinner where I got the best enchiladas con queso I've had in my life. And the watermelon margarita wasn't bad either. That evening I opened my gifts from Marylin, which included a book about the making of Prince Caspian, A book of card games, a philosophy gift set, and a Family Guy bookmark. I also got flowers from my friend Nikki, a nice camosol from Mom, the iPhone Missing Manual from Dad, a movie gift card from my friend Erik, another gift card from my grandparents, and a stuffed puppy dog from Eduardo (who works at Soldier McGee and is a little in love me...but who wouldn't be?). I got a lot more gifts this year than I normally do, but I have a lot more close friends in New York! And that's really the gift that means to most to me :-)

Sunday was another long day of rehearsal followed by opening night of Happy Hour! The show went great. Afterwards we all went out to the bar at the New Yorker hotel, right around the corner from the theatre, for the opening night party.

So, needless to say, I'm still recuperating. Not only was it a busy weekend for work, it was a weekend to party hard, and it was the biggest heat wave we've had this summer. So, I think I'm just going to lay in front of my fan for a while, relax, and try to keep cool!

Lately I've been trying to improve my living space. This is difficult when you have no money, but I'm trying to make it work. The other day I mentioned to my neighbor Marylin that I wanted to rearrange my room, but I didn't know how because I just don't have enough space to work with. But Marylin was determined to make it work, so we spent the entire afternoon moving things around and cleaning. We made the following improvements:

We moved my fridge out of this corner. It used to be where that little stove is. This freed up a lot of floor space. I also put down those lovely mats. I have a wood floor, but it is pretty ugly, splintery, and paint spattered. So, I found these mats at Duane Reade a couple weeks ago for $3. I think you're supposed to take them to the beach. But I use them to cover my ugly floor.

Please excuse my dirty dishes. I'm gonna take care of those right after I write this post! Anyway, this is the new home of my fridge and microwave. It's kinda nice having it there. It makes a little counter space next to the sink. Also, the fan is new. I found it on the street and it's in perfect condition! (I also snagged a paper shreder and a beach chair. People throw away great stuff!) Anyway, it is currently cooling my room as I have no air conditioner.

I actually hung the memo board a few weeks ago. The shelf has been there since I moved in, but it used to have some of my lesser used food products on it. Now it has become a decorative shelf and looks much nicer! (I bet some my blog readers can find themselves in this picture).

This is my "pantry" if you will. I have kept food on this shelf for quite a while, but Marylin gave me the spice rack. The stuff in there is mostly stuff that used to be on that now-decorative shelf in the previous picture. It makes way more sense to have it in this little spice rack!

Ok, so there you have it. My affordable little room improvements. I'm still hoping to find some kind of little love seat or futon to squeeze in here somewhere. But I'll settle for this for now.

On an unrelated note, my birthday is coming up on July 19! I'm excited because I'm actually going to try to have a party this year. We're getting together at Soldier McGee's on Friday, July 18. I can't have the party on the night of my birthday because of rehearsal, but I'm just as happy to have it on the 18th. We'll be able to ring in the later half of my 20's at midnight! If you happen to be in New York, please come by!

It's officially July and that means it's the best month ever! Only 18 days until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!!!! I can't believe it's so close. I can't believe it's going to be the last time I ever get to read a Harry Potter book not knowing how it will end. I can't believe I'm finally going to turn to that last page and read the word that JK Rowling has always said would be the last, "scar."

And before the book comes out, I want to go on record with just a couple of my theories. They may be wrong, but at least I'll have them in print.

There are theories abounding over this image, the cover of the US edition. Where are they? What are they doing? Well I have one idea. You may remember from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that Sirius Black dies when he is pushed through a mysterious veiled archway. Harry can hear whispers beyond this veil, which seem to be the voices of the dead. Well, I believe that in this picture, Harry and Voldemort are on the other side of the veil. All the archways behind them represent veiled archways that are in many locations all over the world that all lead to this one place. The shadowy figures in the background are people who have crossed through the veil, never to return, including Sirius. But I believe Harry and Voldemort have figured out some way to cross through the veil, but are able to return to the land of the living.

I also have an idea as to why neither of them have wands. At the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry and Voldemort attempt to duel, but they can't because they have brother wands...their wands each have a Phoenix feather core, given from the the same Phoenix. JK Rowling has said that wandless magic will play an important role in the final book, and believe that's why, and that's why we see Harry and Voldemort without wands on the cover.

Ok, so now I have my theories in print and later I'll either look back and be impressed with my prediction skills, or laugh at how very wrong I was.

I'm excited about my plans for the eve of the big July 21st release. Scholastic, which has it's headquarters in SoHo, is holding a Harry Potter street fair starting at 5pm. I plan on stopping by there for a little while. Then, I'm going to be heading to the Union Square Barnes and Noble where Jim Dale, the reader of the audio books, will be reading excepts from the first six books starting at 10:30pm and counting down to midnight, when I will FINALLY have the book in hand.

There are other reasons to be happy it's July besides the final Harry Potter book. Bo gets home from Montana on July 5th. The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie comes out July 11th, which I already have my tickets to see in IMAX! My friend Christine is coming to visit in the midst of all the Harry Potter hype. And my friend Sarah might be coming too. My birthday is July 19th! Whoa, too much excitement. My system might go into shock after a very boring June.