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Today I am spending my entire morning and a sweet chunk of the early afternoon, before I run off to dramatically influence young minds and teach them how to dance like Seuss’ Whos and Horton the Elephant at job #4 and get trained to work holiday junction at job #1, in a Starbucks across the street from the place I’m paying a crap-ton of money to replace a leaking axel, install new front brakes and roaters, do a transmission flush, brake fluid flush, coolant flush, power steering flush, and install and align four new tires. Like I said, crap-ton of money. If you didn’t know already, I have a huge love affair with my Buick. The Buck is always worth it, despite the fact that we have approximately zero-and-a-half dollars with which to repair it. Ted’s truck is also acting up and with the onset of cold weather has apparently decided that starting is negotiable, so we are going to be sharing one vehicle (2 people, 5 jobs on all opposite ends of the city, insane theatre schedules that last until all hours of the night – what could possibly go wrong?) until we can afford to repair his truck in about 8.3 years. So since we’ll be relying solely on the Buick (or “the Buck” as he has been fondly nicknamed) for the next several months and since winter is so quickly approaching, this $1,700 car repair was a necessary evil. Hence why I am cooped up in a Starbucks for six hours. I will be treating myself to the ever-loving holy grail of burritos at Chipotle for lunch. I feel it is deserved after a full day of anxiously waiting around to spend a crap-ton of money and then working for another five hours after that.

What else have we been up to besides emptying our pockets, you ask?

Saturday night was the “bring your wife” Knights of Columbus dinner at Uno’s Chicago Grill. Ted is a first degree knight, but Ted works about 80 hours a week and, clearly, hasn’t had much time with which to get involved with the knights here in Cincinnati. Our friend Nick is also a knight so Nick and Linda invited us to “bring your wife” night so we could meet some other knights and enjoy some human interaction for a change (socialization – what a novel concept!). So Ted took me out to dinner, which was a great unexpected surprise! We ate delicious gourmet pizza and desserts, enjoyed conversation with a lot of other nice, funny couples and, three hours later, left after having ourselves a grand old time. We should socialize more often.

On Sunday night both CCM and ETC had the good sense to close Coram Boy and Ghost-Writeron the same day, so Ted and I had simultaneous double strike nights at our respective theatres from 3:30 p.m. until ?? (strikes are usually scheduled until midnight). So we carpooled to work, struck sets and lights, and ripped apart lumber like wild banchees. Remember, we both paid a university thousands upon thousands of dollars to teach us how to do this and to give us that coveted degree in theatre. Life is funny, isn’t it?

For Halloween Monday I was the life of the party – waking up at 6 a.m. to get my oil changed, learning what was wrong with the Buck and just how broke this was going to make us, running errands, cleaning, laundry, cooking – you know, typical party animal shenanigans that accompany a young adult’s day off. We, sadly, had no trick-or-treaters, although we now live in an apartment so I guess I didn’t really expect any. Instead of entertaining the young’uns at our door we snacked on tasty candy, Halloween orange creme stuffed Oreos, popcorn, and apple cider while watching Rocky Horror and Hocus Pocus – two outrageously appropriate Halloween flicks. I also decided that I shall be a gargoyle for Halloween next year and I will go out and find trick-or-treaters to force candy upon if they do not come to us on their own accord. Overall, we enjoyed a really nice, relaxing Halloween Eve together at home, just us and our cavities.

Yesterday we worked. I taught a choreographed dance-off to “Thriller” to 20 kids playing zombies and monkeys at an elementary school, worked on zombie and dog costumes for said children, built a garden scene with burlap, silk plants and a wire-cutter at the theatre, and went to the first rehearsal of this world premiere production of Snow White. Just another day, but I’m thankful that these tasks make up my day rather than accounting or insurance sales (both of which I would be terrible at, btw) and that somebody actually pays me to do these fun, if not somewhat crazy, things. And it is pretty rad to be involved with so many world premieres, regional premieres, new works, living playwrights, and edgy shows.

Even after the Great Butternut Squash Soup Fail of 2011, I’ve been trying to really cash in on fall recipes as much as I can. For Halloween I made grilled and seasoned pork chops with homemade applesauce, mashed potatoes and green beans. Last night I made grilled turkey breast, cheddar and granny smith apple quesadillas served with corn and beans. I’ve done homemade applesauce twice now and it’s so good that I can’t stand not having a batch in the fridge. On the dock for the next few weeks are salmon burgers, beef stew, homemade pumpkin ravioli with apple cider broth, roasted vegetables and goat cheese, another crockpot of chili, French onion soup, and a some other dishes with pumpkins, apples, sweet potatoes, and more. I’m striving to take advantage of fresh, local, seasonal produce in my cooking as much as possible and to get creative with my dishes – much to Ted’s total horror. Ted’s never been all that adventurous of a dude when it comes to trying creative foods, so The Great Butternut Squash Soup Fail of 2011 kind of pushed him over the edge and has permanently scarred him. I was a twinge offended by his reaction to the spoonful I force-fed until I actually tried to the soup for myself. It’s scarred me as well, because I have an acorn squash at home waiting to be used and I can’t bring myself to try anything festive with it for fear of round 2 of utter squash failure.

Anyone want to post their favorite festive fall recipe in the comments below…or send me a check for $1,700. Your call. If you’ve read this far, A) Congratulations on being such a trooper and B) I’m expecting either a recipe or a check.

For all these reasons, can you see why we both could use a legitimate day off, not a dinky half day, but a real day off to traipse through a corn maze at a farm, carve a pumpkin, watch some football, jump in the leaves, go shopping, see a movie and hang out with other human beings for cocktails and appetizers? Yep. I can smell it now. But I think we’ll have to wait until Thanksgiving for that one.

P.S. Don’t forget – check or recipe! I’ve got a tracker on this thing and I’m not afraid to hunt you down.