I don’t normally like rap very much, but I recently downloaded and very much enjoy The Grey Album. It’s a remix of Jay-Z’s The Black Album, created by someone named DJ Danger Mouse, using samples from The Beatles’ eponymous-but-aptly-nicknamed The White Album. It’s under fire from EMI, but you can still find it on file-sharing networks.

Jay-Z’s lyrics are rather good, and I find that when rap is combined with familiar samples (and mixed well), it makes the music more exciting. Also, instead of the pounding bass beats found in most hip-hop music, the mixed version generally relies on treble beats, which I prefer.

There’s always laundry to do after a big trip.

I think something should be done about that, because nobody likes doing laundry, and it’s sad that you have to come home to extra work just because the clothing you took on the trip needs to be cleaned. Since I just woke up, I only have two ideas for dealing with this:

1. The hotel should offer a free laundry service the day you leave or the day before. That way, everything except the outfit you’re wearing on the plane will already be clean, so you can put off laundry for a while longer instead of having to do it right when you get home.

2. Disposable travel clothes! Especially for visiting warm places like the Caribbean, Hawaii, or Mexico, disposable clothing would have many advantages. It would be thin, lightweight, and easy to pack, and you wouldn’t have to wash it when you came home. You’d just toss it and buy a new set. As an optional added bonus for romantic getaways, it could also be edible.

I think it should be apparent at this point why I’m not actually employed to solve these kinds of problems.

When it rains in Orange, the parking lot at Hart Park becomes a river. The water in the center of the parking lot is about three feet deep and flows at a very swift pace, which I’d estimate at about ten miles per hour.

Last night it poured. So Colin, Kaitlyn, and I decided to build very primitive paper boats. We each used a single piece of paper and no adhesives or fasteners. Then we walked to the park and held a race.

My boat was fastest out of the gate, and it seemed to be the likely winner, but it moored itself just shy of the finish line and was disqualified. Colin’s boat moved at a modest pace right behind, and it was first to cross the finish line. Kaitlyn’s boat moored itself right out of the gate, but eventually it dislodged, continued down the river, and crossed the finish line as well.

We all ended up quite wet, especially the foot parts of us, and the friendly Orange police officer was happy to see us leave.

TJ offered me the position of Stage Manager for Cabaret, which he’s directing at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse. I’m really excited about this. Not only do I get to work with TJ, and not only do I get to finally work on the technical side of a show, but I also get to work on a show that I love but in which there’s currently no role for me.

Tonight is the first rehearsal for Pippin. I’m excited because I really love this show, and both Chelsey and Marchy are going to be in it with me.

I managed to land the one part, Lewis, that I could conceivably play well in the show, so I’m really relieved by that. I mean, I can’t dance well enough to be in the ensemble, so I either had to be a lead or nothing at all. I actually could have been Charles also, because the cast isn’t age-appropriate, but they really needed me as Lewis, and there was another guy who could do Charles almost as well, so he got that.

The important thing is that I love this show, so it’ll be an honor to finally be involved in a production of it.

Have I mentioned how much I hate it when people pick up other people’s phones and read their text messages? My friends have a tendancy to intercept messages I send to other people, and I’ve narrowly escaped getting myself in trouble several times. I just happened, by chance, to not say the wrong thing.

I have this new theory. You know how it always seems like people have crushes on you in waves? They all seem to become interested at the same time, leaving you with a choice?

Well, I don’t think that’s actually what happens. I think that people have crushes at a random pace–someone always likes you, or maybe a few people–not in waves. But then as soon as one person admits their crush, the others admit theirs at the same time. It seems like a wave of crushes, when in fact it’s a wave of confessions.

Beth looked over my paperwork and commented, “I know some of the people on your résumé.”

After a few more moments of perusal, she clarified, “Actually, I know everyone on your résumé.”

“Well, I hope they liked me,” I replied.

Last night we wanted to do something spontaneous, so Danny, Chelsey, Stephie, Vicki, Jontiel, Marchy, and I decided to drive up toward Big Bear, in the rain, at ten o’clock, with the intention of building a snowman.

Apparently it hasn’t snowed there in over a week, though, and when we arrived, we discovered that there was none left on the ground at all. In fact, it was a balmy forty-eight degrees in Deer Lick, where we stopped.

Still, the trip was a lot of fun, and now we’re just more determined to go again.

I’m at work. Across the room, a female coworker is having a long, personal phone conversation about her plans for this evening, her opinions of her friends, and a lot of gossip. Meanwhile, in the cubicles next to me, two guys in my department are making fun of her conversation because we can all hear it, loud and clear. I’m trying really hard not to laugh as they imitate her and she remains oblivious.