Blog. Blog. Blog.

Oh, dear. I  am so bad at this blogging thing. Surely I'm not fulfilling my end of the bargain but I'm just not sure what it is one writes about in a blog. So while I keep thinking about that, how about some opinions and random thoughts from my latest wanderings to tide you over until I figure out what I should blog about. 

-The Mario Testino exhibit at the MFA in Boston is awesome. Go!

-Jack Dorsey is my current hero. Martha Graham is still my forever hero. 

-I miss going to the library.

-Vote. It's your civic duty. It's your right. And it gains you complainers rights for the next 4 years. Didn't vote. Don't comment.

-Blue or red glaze on pottery is just plain pretty. 

-The Passage- Read it. World War Z- Skip it. 

-If you are waiting for an MBTA bus and a bus with Crystal Transport on the side and nothing on the front shows up, don't get on. It's not your bus. I really want to know when the girls who got on figured out it wasn't the 66. 

-I wonder sometimes whether or not the Mayans are correct. And how many scenes from The Day After Tomorrow may prove to not be science fiction. 

-The soundtrack to my gypsy life is brought to you by Frank Turner.

-Recently I've had to remember to read books that aren't about dystopian societies or mythical/fantastical/supernatural beings. Otherwise I get confused about the conflicting mythos of each author's universe and forget that the real world is nifty too. 

-Fried Oreos are actually REALLY  good. 

TTFN.
Thanks for reading,
Melissa

Grounds for Sculpture

VERMONT!

I owe the world a blog post. It's been too long since my last transmission. 

I thought my next post was going to be a diatribe. But that one's still festering. So how 'bout a list instead.

8 things I love about Vermont:

1. Green Mountain National Forest

2. Butterflies and fireflies

3. It's not hot (most of the time)

4. Glorious thunder and lightning storms

5. Northshire Bookstore

6. The cookies at the Dorset Union Store

7. The Stone House

8. The moon and the stars. Oh, the stars.

3 things I like less about Vermont

1. Engines

2. I'm allergic to something green. 

3. Bugs!

But views like this one make anything less good disappear:

Behind Hildene

Thanks for reading,

Melissa

What's in the water in Boston?

So what is it about Boston that causes me to instantly get overcommitted. I have been in the state for less than a month and already I am working 4 jobs simultaneously! I know me and overcommitment is not something you're shocked by and don't get me wrong I feel incredibly lucky to have work, especially in this economic climate, but really 4??

Many of you don't know this but I work for a local psychologist as an assistant. I have been doing this since before I left Boston and moved to Texas (and ever since, including while I was in TX, though sporadically for those couple years).  I do research mostly and copy editing, but more recently I've been writing, mostly reducing chapters into snippets, but a little from scratch as well. And now we are also working on a new endeavor, so we're researching, drafting ideas and language and looking into making it all possible.  It's interesting and fun and I can work from anywhere, any day, anytime.

I also resigned up with my fabulous temping agency, Randstad, in their Cambridge office. Two days after being reinstated (I hadn't worked for them in long enough that I was inactive in the system), they sent me out on an ushering job for the launch of Lady Gaga's Born Brave campaign. Fun gig, and Memorial Hall's Sanders Theater at Harvard is gorgeous. Now I'm temping again at McLean Hospital for the Business Development Department. I've temped for them in the past. I enjoy it up there, in fact the only things about it I don't like are the location (why can't they be easier to get to!) and 9-5ing it. I was not made for a traditional hours job. I have always been a night owl. Best part though: the job stays at work.

And then there are the two theater gigs I am working on. I am in prep for Troilus and Cressida at Actors' Shakespeare Project. It is shaping up to be a fantastic production. I've never worked with ASP before and they seem like a terrific group. We'll perform at the Modern at Suffolk U which is not only a space I've never worked in, but it's a space I've never seen. It opened while I was in Dallas (and I recently found out: its flexible nature is talked about in comparison to the Wyly...).

The first 3 days of T&C rehearsal are also rehearsals and performance for a reading of Comedy of Sorrows which is a translation of Commedia Al-Ahzaan, a new play by Egyptian playwright Ibrahim El-Husseini. The reading is a part of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Learning's  annual conference Women Making Democracy. It will be a grueling 3 days when I work on the first 3 days of both shows simultaneously! Oh, and I'm also headed to NY on my first T&C day off to perform Comedy of Sorrows at the CUNY Graduate Center's Segel Theater (we've only  just started on the logistics for that one...)


If you add looking for temporary apartments to stay in and job searching for the rest of my theater gigs for the year, it is a wonder I'm avoiding moving to Boston permanently!?! I must be a maniac!

Thanks for reading,
Melissa

click here: Women Making Democracy

Where in the World is Melissa Sandiego?

A Brief History of the United States

In the past 10 months I have been in:
-Dallas, Midland and Odessa, TX
-Tulsa, OK
-Eureka Springs, AR
-Fenton/St. Louis, MO
-Chicago, IL
-Highways of Indiana
-Middle of Nowhere, OH (technical term)
-A whole lot of highway in between all of those places
-King of Prussia, Philadelphia and pretty much the entire length of I-76, PA
-Audubon, Millburn and the Vince Lombardi reststop on the NJ turnpike, NJ
-Sharon, Agawam, Beverly, Peabody, Cambridge, Boston, Marblehead, etc., MA

-Hillsborough, NH

-Woonsocket, RI

-Lexington Park, MD

-Fairfax Station, VA

-Washington, DC

-Highway in Delaware

-Woonsocket, RI

-NYC, Ithaca and Cold Spring, NY
-Studio City and other parts of Los Angeles, CA
-Denver airport, CO
-Chester, CT
Oh, and:
-Madrid and Granada, Spain

In case you were wondering right this second I am in Cambridge, MA.
Thanks for reading,
Melissa

Indiana...

Second Blog Post

So I seem to have a bad case of blog-itis about what on earth to write about for my second posting on my very own blog. Everything I think of seems stupid or trite or inane or why-on-earth-would-anyone-think-that-is-interesting. And then I thought that's it! Eureka! That's what I should write about: Blogging.

I would like to admit that blogging makes sense to me, but alas like Facebook and reality TV I also find it baffling. People think I'm a technophobe, and while it's true I don't always like change (confession: I essentially went from cassette tapes to iTunes, with nary a CD in my collection), it's a bit more complicated than that. I love logic, so the need for something new has to make sense to me. I give in to peer pressure as much as the next gal, but only if it makes sense. 

Point in fact- How I was convinced I should join Facebook (a digression):

I joined Facebook about 9 months ago. Previously anytime someone said, "You should join, you'll really enjoy it," I'd say, "I don't know..." They would respond with, "C'mon it's a good way to find friends you went to high school with/lost track of." That's what Facebook is?? No thanks, not interested. But as soon as someone said to me (as I was getting ready to move for the 10,000th time, and after I'd already said it's not for me), "But then I can keep track of you. Know what you are up to." I had an ah-ha technology moment (especially since I AM notoriously hard to keep track of). Ding. Opening a Facebook account finally made a modicum of sense. Though Facebook itself is still kinda baffling, a sensical usage brought me to it (though admittedly, I am sure I'm not living up to the premise of others being able to keep track of me!). 

Though I never had an ah-ha moment, blogs themselves are somewhat sensical. A mess of strung together sentences on a topic someone may find interesting. That makes sense. What I should write about, why the cultural fascination with blogging, why anyone would read mine, exactly why one chooses to blog, is all a bit harder to wrap my brain around. I'll figure it out eventually (or remain a confused participant for the foreseeable future). 

I do still find most of this new fangled social media stuff mystifying (can someone please explain twitter to me? Like quantum mechanics it seems like it would be fascinating if I just understood what it was...) but it does seem like I found something to write about for my second blog post, now didn't I? 

(disclaimer: modern technology was used in the formation of this entry. It was written using the notes app on my iphone. Fancy and technological, right?)

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

An oldy but goody (photo by Colleen)

My first blog on my Blog

So, I've decided to start a blog. Not sure if it's a good idea or not, but here I am nonetheless. More than one person has told me they'd be interested in hearing my thoughts, travels or tribulations. So here's one of these:

Recent travels:
I am in LA right now visiting with my Bother [sic] and getting my first glimpses of LA. I've been to California but once before- it was for one of my infamous kamikaze wedding trips (I go to a wedding far from where I'm living and the entire trip takes about 24 hours). But that was San Francisco. This is LA.

So far it's been a good trip. My feet hurt from walking- that must be a good sign. I've seen a lot and yet hardly cracked the surface. Highlights so far:

-Ventura Boulevard in Studio City (Barnes and Noble in a converted movie theater- my kind of place!)

-Views of LA at night from Mulholland Drive and Griffith Observatory.

-West Hollywood Public Library and the awesome, awesome murals.

-LACMA (who knew it was a campus not a building- it is ridiculous and AWESOME).

-Urban Lights and Metropolis II by Chris Burton both at LACMA.

-Inside of LA buses and subways.

-The 101 (though I haven't driven yet, maybe I'll get away without).

-La Brea Tar pits (so not what I imagined in my imagination).

-Haywire at a great new theater in NoHo.

-Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Highland Center (and the characters on Hollywood Blvd- the Johnny Depps and Woody from Toy Story were my favorite. The dude with the snakes freaked me out.)

-Jupiter and 4 of its moons.

-A glimpse of the Warner Brothers Watertower.

And so much more. Already. I'm here for another week and a half, so I'll get to see plenty more. This morning its raining so I'm blogging. What will I do this afternoon? We'll see.

Hollywood sign through a tower viewer
at the Highland Center.