the journal of a fangirly insect

It is the weekend, and that means I have survived another week. Hooray!

I bought this yesterday. I may not be into Phantom right now, but I could not pass this up, especially since it was listed at $79.99 and I snagged it for $24.99 (not including tax). Plus Halloween is my favorite holiday, and one can really not have too many Halloween things.

I woke up this morning, stumbled into the bathroom, and found one of these waiting for me on the bathmat. It looked more scared of me than I was of it, and I quickly squashed him (her?) with a shampoo bottle. To give you some perspective, the spider was about an inch and a half long, including the legs. Eww.

Did I mention how happy I am that it's the weekend? ;) Only seven more weeks to go before finals!

I had two interesting dreams last night.

The first was about Taskmaster, which I guess isn't a surprise since I wrote fic about him before I went to bed. He took his girlfriend, Sandi, to see The Proposal in the theater so he might learn how to express his romantic feelings better (the dude has photographic reflexes, so he almost-instantly learns how to do things by watching others do them). And he was all pissed because Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) was in the movie. XD It was funny.

The second was about Phantom! :O I dreamed that the Phantom tour was coming to Detroit in September (which I believe to be true?) and that Thomas Schulze was the new principal Phantom. That was enough to get me to buy tickets to Detroit...haha. Even though I don't care about the musical much anymore, if I had the chance to see Thomas Schulze live, I'd still take it in a heartbeat. Mmm.

EPIC DO NOT WANT when it comes to going to work today. Bah.

Phantom of the Opera
June 19, 2009
Charlotte, NC

46th time seeing the show! I'm getting old. XD

Cast
Phantom - Tim Martin Gleason
Christine - Kelly Jeanne Grant (alt...ish) [note at the bottom]
Raoul - Sean MacLaughlin
Andre - DC Anderson
Firmin - Michael McCoy (drat, I missed seeing Bruce Winant again by less than two weeks!)
Carlotta - Tonna Miller (I think Kim Stengel is on vacation)
Mme Giry - Nancy Hess
Piangi - John Whitney
Meg - Jessi Ehrlich

Random note: I hate, hate, hate downtown Charlotte. Practically every street I wanted to take was closed and had no marked detour, so I was all turned around and almost late. :P

( stuff below the cut )

And now I am off to find a grocery store so I can make some lunch. XD

NOTE [August 19, 2009]: I originally thought that I had seen Trista Moldovan as Christine, mainly because there was no announcement before the show, no understudy/change of cast slips in the playbill, and no mention on the understudy board (which is the very first thing I check once inside the lobby, as anyone who has seen the show with me knows) telling us that we would not be seeing Trista as Christine that night. I never would have known otherwise if Trista herself had not messaged me (twice within a six hour span, no less) about changing the cast listing error. I apologize for the unintentional mistake, because I had no idea that reviews posted on the intarwebz are such SRS F'IN BZNS.



Also, comments now disabled because the lulz have been had and the macros have been made and the mocking has been fun, but now I think we are all done. Maybe. ;)

I'm leaving Friday morning for Charlotte. I'm a little excited, but mostly not. I think it's the seven hour drive that is making me not want to go. :P Tim, you had so better be worth it. I am still disappointed that I won't be seeing Richard Todd Adams as Phantom. Sigh.

I spent a good hour or so last night adding all of my comic books to this site. Yeah, I know 212 aren't that many, but considering that I had never read a comic book or graphic novel until late February of this year? Not too shabby, if I say so myself. I've picked up a lot of cheap lots on eBay. I could pretty much spend at least a year of my life on this site, because they have all sorts of information that I didn't know I wanted to have until now. Like every single Taskmaster appearance.

One of my new favorite quotes: "I only wish I could be sure that people really do work...but when in doubt, there's always the comforting reassurance that ordnance does." It totally shows how awesome Nathan Summers truly is. XD He could be my GI Jesus any day of the week.

I apparently need to decimate my liver to be able to write nowadays. Hmph.

( livejournal meme )

Also, this avatar is hypnotizing me.

Finally, the more I hear about this Phantom "sequel," the more it screams EPIC FAIL.

I think being forced to deal with the unhelpful and downright rude employees at the Phantom Box Office in the Venetian has sapped me of much of my Phantom love, although I'm not sure how that exactly happened. I've been fighting with them tooth and nail for over a month, trying to find someone who works there who isn't an incompetent jerk (I'm still looking), and it just infuriates me. Today I got a form letter from the assistant manager (some dude named Florante Mark V. Gagarin), who honestly expects me to fly back out to Vegas to see Phantom "free" on the house. Except it isn't "free" because they already have $150+ of my money that they refuse to return (and no one is willing to explain why, even though I was assured by a few different people out there that I WOULD receive it back) and it'd cost me at least double that to fly out there! Oh yes, I'm going to jump at that. *rolls eyes*

I have absolutely no desire to return to Vegas, "free" tickets or not, and my continued dealings with these idiots are only reinforcing my belief that Vegas equals HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM THE FLAMING PITS OF HELL.

Ironically, before all of this happened, I was already planning to return in 2009 to see the production again. Umm, so not happening now. I don't know what I'm going to do instead. Maybe I'll just stay at home. At least I know that I won't treat myself like I'm an idiot because I've seen Phantom multiple times (I can't say the same about the people who work for the Phantom Box Office).

It's sad. I used to really love the Vegas production of Phantom. I recommended it all of the time! And now, just thinking about it makes me want to become ill. [words that I cannot type in a public entry go here] I honestly do not want to see it ever again, and I never thought that I would say that. :(

ETA: I just filed a complaint with the Southern Nevada Better Business Bureau (the Venetian has an F grade, so I am not hopeful that will do anything XD) and a dispute with my credit card. I don't think that either of these will pan out, but just complaining made me a little happier. XD Thanks for the advice, lamath!

The Phantom of the Opera
Las Vegas, Nevada (The Venetian)
December 19, 2008 (7:00pm)

the cast
Phantom - Ian Jon Bourg (u/s)
Christine - Kristi Holden
Raoul - Andrew Ragone
Carlotta - Geena Jeffries Mattox
Firmin - Lawson Skala
Andre - Michael Lackey (u/s)
Madame Giry - Tina Walsh
Piangi - Larry Wayne Morbitt
Meg - Brianne Kelly Morgan

( REVIEW OF DOOM, PACKED WITH LOTS OF SQUEE )

For the record, I spent over two hours writing this, and the show was only ninety minutes long. This makes me crazy, y/y?

tl;dr: BEST SHOW I'VE EVER SEEN. A+++++++++++++

Also, I'm not sure that I can wait the five and a half months before I see the tour in Charlotte. I want another Phantom fix pronto!

I think I've finished my fic for masked_ball. I'm kind of doped up on Nyquil at the moment and my beta is internetless for at least another week so I'm flying rather blind, but I do think that I buckled down and finished it tonight. I will have to read it tomorrow to make sure before submitting it, but if it's not finished, it's surely almost there. *is pleased*

Well, not yet. But I will be in less than 48 hours! :D And I probably won't really have the opportunity to update until at least Sunday. I'm going to try to do a couple of voice posts here and there, but the last time I went to Vegas they didn't work, so I'm not putting much stock in them.

Phantom on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! :D

Backstage tour on Thursday! :D

See you on Sunday. :)

I really don't know what to do with myself, so I guess I'm going to blog more than I usually do! Sorry guys. ;)

I am looking forward to seeing Valkyrie in a couple of weeks...somewhat. I feel like a horrible person saying that, because I love Claus von Stauffenberg (the guy the movie is about), and I just know that there's no way Tom Cruise will live up to the real man. I have a very nerdy historical crush on Claus, which started when I first read about him in my Holocaust History class back in 2001. I vividly remember calling Shay after I read the assignment, and we squeed about him together. XD He tried to blow up Hitler! He gets an A for effort. And now I have a feeling that Tom Cruise is going to totally decimate him on screen, and I'm going to pay money to see it. Fail, bee, fail. Please prove me wrong here, Tom.

I went to the gym today and really busted my butt, so I'm exhausted. The local radio station that they usually blast on the speakers was down, so they were playing another station. I was there two hours, and I heard "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by Beyoncé THREE TIMES. Is this honestly what passes as music nowadays? I mean, really. "Woah oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh" is not a proper chorus. I'm stick with my Meat Loaf and Tom Petty, thanks. I'm really sounding like an old lady... And now it's in my head and I can't get it out of my mind. :\

FOUR DAYS UNTIL PHANTOM. YES YES YES.

I love Erik/Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, but so many people in the fandom ship E/C that it's barely non-canon. I also like Christine/Meg; I never really got any vibes until I watched the 2004 movie. I don't know why, but the femme-slash button was triggered!

I feel guilty for shipping it, but when it comes to Dexter, I totally ship Dexter/Rudy(Brian). Yes, I know that they're blood brothers (at least half-siblings), but there's just so much UST between them! It's like watching a relationship unfold, how Rudy/Brian "courts" Dexter throughout the first season. I was dreadfully disappointed that Rudy/Brian didn't survive the first season (he doesn't die in Darkly Dreaming Dexter), but I can see why the writers had to do away with him. YAY FORBIDDEN INCEST SHIP.

When I was into the Harry Potter series, I thought that Harry and Luna would make a good couple. I still think it's a good ship, but I'm not into the series much anymore.

1) Calamari is really tasty...as long as I don't think about what it's made out of when I'm eating it.

2) It's a very good idea to check your tire pressure regularly, because otherwise you're going to be driving on flat tires and not realize it until you go out to your car one day and say - wow, those tires are flat.

3) I've apparently damaged the ulnar collateral ligament of my right thumb. I'm either going to have to have surgery to correct it or wear one of these hokey looking things for six weeks. Lame. I have to make an appointment with a specialist next week to see what he's going to do about it. If it's surgery, I'm not having it until after I come back from Vegas. I'll wear the brace if I have to during that time, but no surgery until after Vegas!

4) Having health insurance would be really handy right about now...

5) I haven't seen Monj and Anne in person in almost a year. :(

6) I am so excited about the Phantom fic exchange at masked_ball! Submissions are over November 15th, so if you want to submit an idea and haven't already, you'd better hurry up and do it. ;)

If you love Phantom of the Opera fan fiction or art, go join masked_ball! It's a ficathon-type-thing where you can request what you'd like to read, and others may write it for you! You don't have to write or draw to be able to post ideas, so go! Go now! Go now and LEAVE ME REQUEST STUFF before November 15th is over! It will be fun!

Plus, I know some of you could think of some totally amazing crack!fic ideas that would be so much fun to read, or perhaps even write. XD