Tattoos

As some of you know and some of you are just-now finding out, I am planning on getting a tattoo next month. This post is intended as explanation and conversation starter.

Backstory: I’ve always been interested in tattoos and started to seriously consider getting one early in college. I dallied about for a while, unsure of the image I would get. About three years ago I decided on the Celtic Cross knot. I have pondered it long and hard since then and finally feel that I am ready and certain that I want it permanently marked on my body. The specific design was done by my friend Sarah several months ago. This is the image.


I will be getting it on my right shoulder blade.

The obvious questions are: why are you getting a tattoo? And why are you getting this particular design?

Why a tattoo? Here are my thoughts. Tattoos are a way of decorating the body. Similar to other fashion choices such as piercings and nail polish, they enhance the beauty of the body. Because of their permanent nature, however, they are also symbolic and usually have a meaning specific to the person that chooses the tattoo. They can be a way of commemorating an event or expressing a thought or belief that the person sees as deeply meaningful to them. Artistically, they allow a person to treat themselves as art, their body as their canvas. A combination of taste and creativity lets them make themselves as interesting and beautiful as they can be.

I love the fact that tattoos are an expression of the individual, something unique to them. I think they can be beautiful (I think mine will be).

There definitely has been and to some extent perhaps still is a social stigma associated with tattoos. I do not see it as being significant enough to discourage me from getting mine. In my field I won’t suffer any sort of negative reaction; most of my friends and colleagues have more visible decorations than I ever plan to. If my life ends up somewhere else, the size and placement is discreet enough that no one will know I have it unless I want them to.

As to why I’ve chosen my design: I first discovered the Celtic Cross when I bought my necklace at the salt mine outside of Salzburg. I wore it every day for years, until the string started to wear out. The knot is a symbol of infinity: no beginning or end. Irish Christians used it as a symbol for the Trinity: the three points of the triangle representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the infinite nature representing the unity and infinity of God.

I love the idea of being marked with a representation of the Trinity, in a way reflecting my commitment to God, a commitment more permanent than my tattoo will ever be. The infinity of the knot sort of points to eternity and reminds me that I serve an infinite God and my soul will live forever. The Irish tradition reminds me that I come from Irish stock (as well as other stuff). The extra swirls added by Sarah complete the design aesthetically in a beautiful way and remind me of my friendship with her.

All of these reasons are long-lasting enough to make me comfortable with permanently marking this on my shoulder. I’m not going to outgrow my commitment to the Trinity, my eternity, or my heritage. The timing, me getting it next month, will commemorate my first year in New York. I will get it with Meg when she visits, which will also be a good bonding time for us.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. The reason I’m letting you all know about this before I get it done is because I expect that you may not be comfortable with the idea. I want to give you a chance to let me know any thoughts or concerns you may have. I really do want to hear from you--I can't promise to change my mind as a result of your comments, but I promise to seriously listen to and consider anything you have to say. I know this is a bit of a new thing for the family to handle, so please, anything you have to say, say it now.

It’s Sunday night. I have worked, churched, eaten, dishwashed. I now sit, with a crystal glass of whiskey chilled by frozen rocks beside me, and will pontificate to you all on the recent happenings in my life: physical, mental, emotional, and otherwise.

The previous sentence was primarily composed to fulfill my deep-felt need to use the word “pontificate”. Now I’ve used it twice.

It’s been an interesting week of contrasts; I could lamely refer to it as a tale of two concerts. But I won’t. Wednesday night I joined some girls from my small group at a Phil Wickham concert in Chelsea. But who is Phil Wickham, you may ask? I certainly was asking, never having heard of him. Turns out he’s a Christian solo musician/guitarist/vocalist type. The concert was at this old German Lutheran church a couple blocks from my job. It was packed out with youth groups and young professionals around my age. My favorite part of the evening was the contrast between the cathedral-style architecture of the building (lots of carved wood, columns, arches, etc) and the hipster-style concert complete with projection screens, colored lights, microphones, and young people. It was a funny juxtaposition. Musically, however, it was just average. OK music, but I didn’t really know any of the songs. Lots of talk about the sun and the moon and nature, apparently Wickham is very inspired by the creation. I actually felt out of place. There was lots of “Let’s give Jesus a hand” applause and such. Maybe I’m old and cynical now, but it was a little too youth-groupey and forced emotion-al for me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed going, but I don’t know if I would again.

Thursday I brought 2 pans of blondies to work for my coworkers. I bring desserts every couple weeks to help boost morale at the end of the week and to give me an excuse to bake. To date, everything I’ve brought has always disappeared by the end of the day, usually before. So this week I decided to test my coworkers’ eating abilities and brought around 70 blondies. I laid down a challenge that they couldn’t eat them all; they pshawed and said they would have no problem. We set a time limit, and they failed. We extended the deadline and still they failed. Despite a couple of them almost eating themselves sick, at the end of the day there were still 6 blondies left. Theoretically, I’m supposed to never bake them anything again as a punishment, but that will never last. It would be more a punishment to me than it would be to them. But the bet was a good way to keep a fun atmosphere in the shop for the whole day.

Thursday night my ex-coworker Justin was performing with his band in Brooklyn. David from the shop, his girlfriend Hannah, and I were all planning on going. We got off work at 6 and the show didn’t start until 10, so I decided to hang with them before we headed down. David and I headed to a bar for beers after work, expecting to meet up with Hannah and her dad, who was visiting, there, but after we’d gotten our drinks we found out that Hannah and her dad were eating dinner at this fancy Spanish restaurant down the block. So we headed over there. And I ended up eating escargot, vegetable paella, and red wine with my friend, his girlfriend, and her dad. Paid for by her dad. It was a little weird and awkward, but I decided not to focus on that and enjoyed it.

After dinner we said goodbye to Hannah’s dad and the three of us headed down to Brooklyn for the show. We got there as the band was setting up, ordered beers, and said hey to Justin. He had this huge mountain man-beard the whole time he worked at the shop but had recently shaved it; I hardly recognized him. The set list was only like 7 or 8 songs; we stood up front the whole time, right next to Justin. He was bass guitarist and was very good. I really enjoyed the music, it was very strongly emotional and flowed well; I have no idea what the songs were about, but I liked them.

I got to talk with Hannah a good bit during the show, which was fun. At one point David yelled to me that he had just poured his beer accidentally down someone’s back. He walked Hannah back to the subway during the changeover to the next band; while they were gone a guy came over to me and said “I really loved that last band; they had great octaves.” I smilingly agreed and then cracked up after he left.

The contrast with the Phil Wickham concert couldn’t have been stronger. Instead of a cathedral, we were in a tiny hole-in-the-wall Brooklyn bar. Instead of a couple hundred youth group Christians, the audience was about a hundred 20-somethings Brooklynites in their trademark long hair and thrift-store clothes. But I felt much more at home with the Brooklyn kids. Maybe it was just that I enjoyed the music more. But the atmosphere was less forced and fake. I dunno.

I stayed through most of the set of the next band. Got to talk to Justin for a couple minutes, but he was pretty busy chatting and networking. Just after midnight I said goodbye to him and David and headed back on my long trek home. Made it back to the apartment around 1:15am. Fell straight asleep only to unaccountably wake up at 5am, wide awake and feeling tons of adrenaline pulsing through me. I read until I felt tired again, but woke up on the hour every hour until it was time to go to work. So ended up with only about 4 hours sleep for the night. Definitely felt it the next day, but whatever. It was worth it.

Friday was a good work day. Came home and fell asleep at 930; then worked all day on Saturday. After work I headed over to the Metropolitan to look at Alex’s set and talk about the sort of work he wants me to do. Ended up staying there for almost 2 hours talking and helping with some cleanup stuff. I think I’ll be working my weekends the next few weeks, but I’m really excited about the project. We’re turning the entire theatre into a deserted tenement building circa 1930. Lots of peeling wallpaper and plaster. I’m gonna do some samples on Tuesday to figure out methods; it should be fun.

This week has chugged by very well. Had dinner with my small group girls and then with Stephanie, both were fun. Lots of work, I did an extra day yesterday because we are behind and I didn’t have plans. But the work has generally been fun: good conversations and/or jokes with coworkers, good clients, general enjoyment of work.

I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the whole week, due to a double desire not to cook and to save money. Finally sick of them and out of food, I went shopping last night and made a big batch of picadillo with black beans, yellow rice, and fried plantains. I also made a big batch of granola (goodbye, breakfast burritos, for the foreseeable future…), tons of blondies for my coworkers to eat tomorrow, and a loaf of beer bread. I’d been planning on trying to make it for a while, and was surprised by how easy it was. It’s quite good, but I may try a different, courser flour next time because the general purpose white flour makes it taste a little cake-like. I plan to make some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches later this week.

Looks like I’ll be doing some overhire theatre work over the next couple weeks. Alex from the Metropolitan is directing a show and designing the set for it, and has asked me to come in and do the painterly/finishing work. Apparently we’re turning the entire theatre into a tenement building apartment…should be really interesting and fun.

I had an Alexander Technique lesson this morning, a Christmas gift from Moody. It was quite enjoyable, though the teacher reminded me of my old voice teacher Mrs. Kingston quite a lot. I hope to go back for monthly lessons to continue my study of Alexander. This afternoon I got to talk to Laura and Mommy on the phone; it was lovely to hear from both of them.

Had a good quiet time this afternoon. I’ve been running around a lot the last few months and haven’t had many chances to pause and recenter and refocus. Today was a much needed time of all of that. It’s amazing how everything in life make so much more sense after you talk to God about it.

I’m going to a concert tonight with my small group featuring Phil Wickham. Never heard of him, but they are all excited so I hope it will be good. Tomorrow I’m going to Brooklyn after work to see my ex-coworker Justin’s band perform. Hopefully that will be good, too.

My general mood right now is in need of rejuvenation. Could just be the end of a long day of cooking and apartment cleaning (said apartment, I am proud to announce, is now spotless). But I’m tired and lack inspiration. I think it’s one of those things that only time can fix. Need to do some resting and recharging, but not get lazy. Tough balance there, sometimes.

Random tidbits to keep this post from ending on a downer note: my new nickname at work is “Ladyfingers”. Which I find amusing and mildly annoying at the same time because I DON’T have ladyfingers; I’m pretty strong, especially for a girl. Also, Andy, my boss, has synesthesia that associates people’s names with a particular food. Apparently I am orange caviar. Take that as you will.

Aaaaaand… we’re back!

My apologies for the long silence. This will be a short summary post, because I think that too much has happened in the last 2 months for me to go into detail on here. I hope to post more regularly for the foreseeable future. We will see how it goes…the best laid plans of mice and men and all that…

So what has been going on… let’s see. My life was consumed by my 2 shows in February. I was designing The Great Divide at the Metropolitan Playhouse and a new play called Messed Up Here Tonight at an apartment on the Upper East Side. I really enjoyed them both; they presented very different challenges and stretched me in different ways. They teched in the same week at the end of the month, so I was a little insane trying to get them both ready to open. I also got deathly ill for 2 weeks right in the middle of everything, but somehow we made it through. Great Divide was definitely much more involved and time consuming: it had a good sized set and I was extremely involved in the building and painting of it; I spent many many hours at the theatre. But I was very pleased with and proud of the results, and loved collaborating with the other members of the production team. See Facebook for photos of the finished product.

I don’t have any more shows lined up at the moment, and that is fairly intentional. I was spent by the time everything opened in March, and need a break for a bit. I want to take some time to work on a “paper project” design: doing the design of a large show from start to finish, complete with the sketches, drafting packet, model, paint elevations, and everything. The off-off Bway work I do here is too small-scale to generate a full design package; they simply don’t pay me enough to do all that. But I need to have something that demonstrates my current skill level, both for assisting-gig purposes and for grad school applications. Not to mention that it will be fun. So that’s the plan. First step is to pick my script…still working on that one.

The day that The Great Divide opened I started to receive my Spring Break visitors. James came up for several days and we had a lovely time. She was followed by a couple girls from WM, Remus, and then Christy. I really enjoyed everyone’s visits, more than I can say. It was great to spend time with my people, see new shows that I don’t see on my own (I managed Billy Elliot, Memphis, and Wonderland, all on Broadway in the course of 3 weeks), and hang out experiencing the city.

After my visitors left, I made a whirlwind visit home on my last weekend to see everyone and do my taxes. It was lovely to spend time with Mommy and Daddy, Remus, Melanie, and Tuffy, but was definitely far too short a trip. Need to go again soon.

Church and small group have been good, when I’ve been able to make it. I had to skip a lot in February because of my crazy schedule. My small group just finished a study of Captivating, which I enjoyed very much. Next I think we’re hearing everyone’s testimonies, which should be cool. We’re spending more time together outside group too, which is really good.

I haven’t had much time for culture outside of theatre, recently, but did manage to read through The Fountainhead, finally finishing it this week. It was good but took forever; I didn’t like it quite as much as Atlas Shrugged. Now I’m reading a book about the Greenwich Village from 1910-1960 called The Republic of Dreams. It is my first effort at learning some New York history and I’m enjoying it.

Work has been good, I still adore my job. Today was my 5 month anniversary of starting there; the time has really flown. I still really enjoy my coworkers and really enjoy the work. I’ve had a couple really cool clients recently too, which has been exciting.

So yeah, life it good. I cannot wait for the weather to warm up and the leaves to come out: Spring and Summer cannot get here soon enough. I’m still so blessed and happy to be where I am, doing what I’m doing with the people I’m doing it with. I can’t imagine life being much better than it currently is.