it's starting

as predicted, in fact, and with impressive accuracy: right at noon. what's now a playground of flakes will develop into a 24-hour three-ring circus. already the mere prospect of the blizzard has halted some of my plans for the weekend, as a dear college friend will no longer be making the trek north. i hope everything else goes as scheduled because a fun, diverting weekend would very much be in order.

i worked two 10-hour days at work this week. this is an adjustment for me. one day i got to depressed about midway through that i didn't know how on earth i would make it to the evening. it was hard to hide, too: one of my favorite voice-over actors, heading to the booth in the care of the boy who now runs auditions, paused by my new desk to tell me my face was scary.

i miss running auditions, that's part of it. in my new capacity, i still get to run some auditions -- the celebrity ones. so this past week i've been privileged to meet stanley tucci, aidan quinn, and oliver platt not as a fan but as someone who also works in This Business. there are downsides. i get close proximity and a certain amount of trust; i get to see stars wear sweatpants. i get small talk. but because they're celebrities, i can't *run* the auditions the same way i could with the scale actors.

and, certainly, the majority of my day does not take place within the booth, my little sound-proof, sealed off corner of the office. god bless it. the boy who took over running the booth is a good kid and he understands my separation anxiety (actually he's not a kid at all, he's older than i am, but i feel like i must be older because i trained him in the arts of boothmanship). at least there's that.

my point is that a weekend would be good. i won't even mind the snow, really, as long as it's not too much of a disruption. it snowed a few nights ago in a careless, whirling fashion. that came at the end of my depression day and for some reason instead of trudging home in the dark cold, i found myself elated. my russian princess coat kept me so sealed from the weather i barely felt it: i could concentrate instead on how wild and beautiful it looked and how completely it hushed the city it fell on.