Tension headaches

God I hate them. Nothing makes them go away either.

Last night was my first rehearsal for FearFest. Last night was also the COA board meeting. Fortunately Matthew is home this week and was able to go.

Before I start, I must tell you that Tuesday night we received a letter from the board. Taped to our door. The letter stated that we apparently do not understand that we are Not Allowed to have a satellite dish and we have until Thursday night at 9pm to remove it. About a week ago (when they returned the first Dish they stole) they gave me a form to fill out to request permission to install the Dish. I even had to draw a picture of where the Dish would be placed. I guess I did all of that for nothing. They also bandied about the association's lawyer's name, liens on my condo, and threats that I WILL pay the $80 for stealing my Dish OR ELSE.

Whatfuckingever.

Needless to say, Matthew did not accomplish much at last nights meeting. My mother showed up too. She wanted to get nasty with them, but Matthew did his best to keep her quiet and drag her out of the building. But Matthew is right. They have the power. They can pretty much do whatever they want and we are powerless to stop them.

Let's see...I'm curious. Exactly how much extra money are we supposed to be paying.

$100 - the difference in what our contract says the move-in fee is and what the board says it is
$100 - parking fines for moving in
$50 - throwing carpet in the dumpster
$100 - paid to get Matthew's truck out of impound when it was towed
$500 - "special" assessment for repairs to water damaged walls and decks
$80 - fee for the theft of our satellite dish
$25 - late fee (????)
$30 - per month for 1 year that I will have to pay for breaking my contract with Dish Network
$200 - purchase of TiVo system to replace my Dish Network PVR

Grand total of.....$1515. PLUS they are forcing us to pay ANOTHER "special assessment" to build up a reserve. This $500 is due by Oct 31, 2004. But they are nice enough to split it up in 10 payments beginning with the Jan payment. Then..after Oct, our monthly fee will drop from $170 to $155. Somehow that doesn't add up or make much sense to me. But I have a math disability so who knows.

So now let's talk about something fun. FearFest. The official Web site is up.

I don't really understand how all of this is going to work. I thought there would be an "A" and "B" cast as in most shows to accomodate breaks. But nope. It's just us. About 25 people in our house. We have 5 or 6 "swings" who I guess work breaks for people who's parts can be easily replaced. I am a gargoyle. At one point in the house you walk down a hallway filled with scary looking knights. Above the knights on pillars are 6 gargoyle type creatures with scythes. 5 of the gargoyles are fake. I am #6. I get to scare people from above. I am the only "overhead scare" and I am toward the end, so people will be surprised.

The only sort of bad part is GETTING to my spot. There is only about 12 inches between one of the knights and some boards nailed to the wall which serve as my ladder. There is a small swinging door opening on to the tiny platform. The walls come up to about my waist so I can bend down and grab at people. (but no touching allowed!) I am in a pretty safe place - protected from being punched or kicked. (which happens alot) But I suppose somebody tall could reach up and grab me. One of the guys in my house had my position last year. He gave me some good pointers on how to scare people. He also told me that last year he scared some guy who then got pissed and wanted to beat him up. The guy found the ladder and the door and came toward it. The door then "accidentally" found the guy's nose. Oops!

So for right now...all I want is to live in peace. Even though thoughts of revenge keep creeping into my mind.

Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted. Would you capture it? Or just let it slip.....