House Hunting = New Favorite Way to Spend an Evening.

When you stop going to the bar after work, it leaves a big hole in how you wind down from the day at 10pm.

I can spend hours looking at houses online. I always search in the New Orleans area. The only requirements I put in are 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, and a fireplace. After that, the sky's the limit. No financial restraints, because honestly. That would take all the fun out of it. Sometimes I do spend hours doing this. There are some simply amazing houses out there, especially in New Orleans. The old Arts and Crafts cottages that people have loved into glory. The classic Victorians with their huge porches and dormer windows and turrets.

But rich people have very bad taste when it comes to decorating.

There's one house in the French Quarter area that has fake animal skin rugs in every room and the master bedroom's headboard has a tiny deer skull with antlers sticking out it. WHO MADE THIS TRENDY??? It is so tacky and so terrible a thing to do to an amazing old house that it makes me cringe. I take it personally. There's another that is nicely restored except for the pink satin master bedroom. Oh heavens. That is just NOT ok.

And while I think baby grand pianos are a lovely decorating tool, it is just pretentious to have them in your main foyer. Also, I don't play and that just makes it uppity beyond words to have a baby grand.

Owning an old home means you decorate in an old school way. And by that I mean antique, classic. This modern crap does not go well in an old home and when I see stuff like that, it makes me want to rescue the house and beat the owners. "Modernism" is definitely not my fav and it has no place in classic architecture. If you have modern tastes, buy a modern house.

More of the world according to Alex. If more people lived by my rules, we might live in a classier, more tasteful society.

Catching up to Speed...

During my hiatus from blogging, some things happened. Let's just skip August because I can't remember anything special happening, aside from Kate visiting and celebrating Sally and Erin's birthdays. That was super fun, but not blog material. Well, for Sally's birthday we went on a charter boat that cruised the waters around Macau for a few hours. It was a beautiful day and we ended up having a super lovely time with a bunch of our friends. Erin's birthday we spent in Hong Kong with a bit of live jazz and some awesome food.

During August and September, some of us took a lead climbing course in Hong Kong. I am now a certified Lead Climber with all the gear to prove it. It was nice to get out and do something different for a change and rock climbing carries a certain challenge and satisfaction that I don't get out of my job. We had a great group of people participate as well and from all different departments of the theater. I definitely made some friendships that would not have been made otherwise.

In September, we celebrated ONE YEAR of our opening. In other words, our one year anniversary. Sometimes words escape me and I end up writing stupid things like that. We were treated to a visit by The Man himself, who thanked us for making him look good before jetting off to Beijing to sign a contract on his next project. We also were "invited" to watch a presentation of the past, present, and future projects of the company. One of them being in Wuhan, which is mainland China. Whoever does The Man's story boards and marketing presentations is a genius because it almost made me want to work on that project. And then I remembered it's on the mainland. Cross that one off the to do list. Kung Fu Panda the Tour is going to be pretty cool and I would consider working on that for sure. But it only debuts in Shanghai. It doesn't stay there. Bonus. It is also scheduled to tour North America and Europe and there is some AMAZING technology involved, but this is what happens when The Man partners with DreamWorks and there is a lot of money and crazy ideas floating around. We got some decent swag too. A pretty nice all-weather jacket WITH zip-out fleece lining and it's even got the company logo embroidered on the pocket. Fancy stuff.

Our anniversary party was pretty swank too. We celebrated like three or four times, all of which I would love to show you pictures of, unfortunately, they were on my camera that got stolen at the Atlanta Aquarium. Rubbish. They had food and drink stations everywhere. Slip n Slide, giant pool, water slide, hot tub, band, photo station. They fed us shots when we walked in the door and picked up our party hats. It was all downhill from there. But the best part was, we were all together away from work. We get along really well when there's no work involved. Not to mention free food and free drinks. There was an after party as well, but I didn't quite make it out to that. Good beer and the water slide pretty much ended my night. But I am OK with that.

October was quiet except for the dark. Those are never quiet. We were super super busy for two weeks. We planned and strategerized for at least two or three weeks and then everything went to hell in a hand basket. Like anything else would happen. I think I worked overtime every day. That pay check is going to be sweeeeeeeeeet. My bruise collection was pretty impressive by the end of the two weeks. I love the dark, it's the only time I actually feel like I am working. Most of the rest of the time I feel like I'm just "working".

In the meantime, if anyone knows of a super amazing, old, in good condition house with a lovely/sizeable backyard, a working fireplace, and at least one bathtub in New Orleans, holler at your girl. I'm in the market and I want a house with personality in The City of Personality.

Birthdays happen whether you're near or far.

I will continue to attempt - desperately - to make up for my 2.5 month absence through my blogs. I celebrated my birthday five times this year. Once with my mother's side of the family (minus my brother and favorite only aunt), once with my father's parents, once by myself (on my actual birthday with jet lag and sushi and wine), once at my pub here - the OTT - where they let me pour my drinks and run my tab because its "my home too" - yes, they actually say that, and once with some close friends at my favorite restaurant. It made me think back on memorable birthdays.

When I turned 10, LSU played homecoming on my birthday. Dad and I went to the game and Lee Greenwood sang "God Bless the USA" at the halftime show. I thought that was pretty spectacular. My own personal concert for my birthday.

One of my most memorable birthdays was my sixteenth. We played games at my house, had brownies for dessert, and I got a car. Not just any car, my aunt's Mustang Convertible. Cherry red, tan top. That was a great birthday.

On my eighteenth birthday, my friend Lane and I had a picnic. We celebrated together because her birthday is the day before mine. (I forgot her birthday this year because I am a terrible friend. She is one of my closest friends and in the chaos of travelling back from the States on that day, I forgot. Happy birthday Lane, I love you!) It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so we got po-boys, drove to a state park covered in old oak trees, spread out a blanket, played football and frisbee. That was a GREAT birthday.

On my 22nd birthday, it was an LSU game day. We went to the game, my friend Brooke and I almost got into a fight with some guys who were rude and dogging on the Tigers - ON MY BIRTHDAY and in MY STADIUM. And then, because I was having a tough time turning 22 and not really being young anymore, my friends Jennifer, Brooke, Kathleen, and I, along with my brother, went and rolled down the Indian Mounds on LSU's campus. They are a couple huge hills and they were covered in dew because it was the early morning. They were probably covered in more than dew being game day and all, but regardless. Memorable.

Every year on my birthday, my mom would wake me up for school and tell me "Ten years ago today..." "Twelve years ago today..." et al. Now, for old time's sake, I make her tell me the story. "Twenty-six years ago today, I went into labor and they sent me home from the hospital because I wasn't in enough pain yet..." It's a good story, you should hear it sometime. SPOILER ALERT: It ends with me being born.

But it only gets told once a year. On my birthday.

Wow. Neglect.

So, not much has changed... Still in a follow spot chair... But I am hopeful there is an end in sight, we're hiring people and while not fully staffed YET, we are soooooooo close...

BUT. I am a PADI SCUBA diver now. WHAT IS UP. Pretty stoked about that and now I just have to figure out when and where to go get my open water certification, which is two more dives, and then I'm official and can start working towards my advanced certification. Holler. A new, expensive hobby to look forward to.

Also, in an effort to better prepare myself for moving home and to stop hemorrhaging money, I have started paying my smaller purchases and bills in coins. It's so easy to let it all just collect in a corner somewhere, but that is useful money. I'm already going to the ATM heaps less than I used to. That may also have something to do with the fact that I am going home at night instead of to the pub and I have started drinking coffee in the mornings at home instead of buying one on my coffee break at work and bringing lunch from home instead of buying a sandwich from the coffee shop at work and I don't take a taxi to work, I walk or ride the bus. Who knew such small things daily can really add up? I mean, I hear it all the time, so clearly someone knew, but inputting those small changed into your daily life can really make a difference. That being said, when I found myself without bread this morning for toast because mine had molded overnight, paying for my loaf of bread and a chocolate croissant at my corner bakery in 1 MOP coins (17MOP for the purchase) did not seem to be appreciated by the cashier.

My mind has long been conflicted about how long to stay in Macau, but I went home two weeks ago for a friend's wedding. I was able to spend two days with my family and then flew to Atlanta to spend 4 with them for the wedding. What an amazing week it was. It started out less than stellar, but it ended up being an awesome week full of fresh mountain air, real, clean grocery stores, real shopping, therapeutic driving, and an AQUARIUM. My camera got stolen at the aquarium, but I'm trying to move on from the devastation of that moment. Moral: don't leave your camera on the hook in the bathroom, even if only for 10 minutes. Other moral: take pictures off your camera regularly. Really, all this rambling about the fresh air and lost cameras amounts to one thing: I think I'm ready to come home. No dates yet, I still need to do some travelling whilst I remain out here and I want to have at least one spectacular diving/beach vacation before coming home, but I miss home so much it hurts.

I will miss semi-quiet mornings like this one, where I get up early and watch the city wake up with a cup of coffee and breakfast and my chameleon and her breakfast. I mean, the view from 34 floors up is one you will not get in an Arts and Craft cottage in New Orleans. But then I look back out my huge picture window and the smog obscures everything but the immediate view anyway, and the noise pollution kind of ruins the quiet effect.

Since I have not posted since they moved in, the new roommates are working out splendidly and funny enough, we NEVER see each other. Even with four of us in the house, we see each other more at work than at home. You have to love that in a group of roommates. It leaves little room for conflict. Brilliant.

Now, time to complete my morning routine before heading off into the mines again. Well, not to belittle miners because their jobs are much more dangerous than mine, but you know. It feels dangerous to my sanity/mental health... Maybe I need a canary to take to work to warn me of impending threats...