Breaking News, I have seen Pelicans every time I've walked the lake this week.

PELICANS!!!  I wish I had a bigger better camera with zooms because this shot is almost fabulous.

Hello, my name is Stephanie and I have some news.  After a long break from the blog and WW, I am back!  (I feel like this is a bit repetitious but so is life?) Since we last met, I have designed and teched 4 shows, gone to the UK for work and watched tech of another one and watched a bunch of plays. Also, my hair is getting longer and longer.

Once again, I have done a pretty good job of maintaining. (Whoo!) Before I left for the UK I was doing really well at the loosing of a little bit of weight I had gained during some of those techs. When I was in England, I did not do a very good job of tracking. In fact I didn't track at all.  I was looking forward to coming home from England late Saturday night and then waking up on Sunday going to WW then going to my friend's wedding. Then there was a plane crash at SFO and we got diverted to PDX and didn't fly home for another 24 hours. When I finally got home my whole schedule got crazy and then I got nervous about going because I had waited and not tracked for like 2 weeks. (Also, this other thing happened two days after I got home, which I am now working on resolving but is quite stressful for me and I didn't really want to do a whole lot of things for a few days.)  I am working on a post about England but bear with me.  There will be a lot of photos

But I went to WW on Sunday! And I gained 3 lbs. When I got home I decided that I should probably start tracking and do some planning.  I am happy to report so far so good. I made a grid and a list of food to make and eat. I've been sticking to the plan, I've made food for my week of work and I'm hopeful that with my extra weekly points I can survive the three parties this week (one congratulatory and two going away parties). I am even going to try to walk before work since I am working afternoon/nights for two days. (We'll see how it goes.)

I saw this today at a meeting at Pizzaolo.

(Break for a walk.)

After a conversation with a friend, I remembered some of the cool Oakland photos I took of the neighborhood when I first moved here.  I've been feeling that the lake photos that I take are a nice seasonal/sky experiment but very repetitious and I kinda feel like I've covered most of the territory already. Tonight, I was looking for new non bird/sky/lake things to take photos of and I mostly succeeded. Apparently, all I want to do is post photos! Maybe I really should use Instagram more.

Grand Lake bulbs 1.

I really like the clouds.

Grand Lake bulbs 2

I stopped and thought about composition and contrast for a while.

Do what you love?

[I found this post today, it's from 4/29/13.  Not sure where I was going after the last paragraph but perhaps I'll finish it sometime soon. Enjoy!]

This week's post is highly motivated by this article, http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/apr/26/james-rhodes-blog-find-what-you-love .  I read it on facebook yesterday or the day before and it got me to thinking.

I'm the first to admit that having a career in the arts, more specifically theater, is not easy.  It is highly stressful, you have to work really, really hard to get your work done with other people who are tired and stressed  and then you make not very much money.  Every show has it's strengths and weaknesses and challenges and lessons.  Freelancing is hard, I do not have a monetary cushion.  I have a huge list of work related expenses that I have no money to pay for. I need to pay for program updates, a good digital camera to take production photos and I would love to not have to buy groceries on my credit card.

However, theater is amazing and life changing.  It is full of wonderful smart people who are my collaborators and my friends.  I can't really express, nor have found an experience that is comparable to birthing a production. I love my first read of the play. I look for images to convey the way I see the play in my head. Then we have production meetings 6-9 months in advance of the first performance, to critical thinking and dramaturgy, to listening to the first read to the design run.  It is so wonderful and nerve wracking to sit in a first audience and watch and listen to the actors and audience playing with each other, in the world that I helped to create.  I think maybe that is why I love new plays, so much as there is so much more to help with and watch as the playwright has an active voice in the room.   

Since, I freelance and spend most of my time not at the theater or at meetings at home in the office/design studio part of my room. (I also spend time at my various part-time/overhire jobs which are all in theater too.) When I am in the theater, I spend two or three weeks with people then I go back to being alone. I had a pretty big crash after my last opening and I've had a bit more free time to think.