There are so many things to say about my first Wrockstock experience (a wizard rock music festival, for those who don't know) that I could probably write for about twelve hours before covering them all, but alas, the Muggle world makes other demands of my time. Therefore, I now present a condensed list of awesome events that took place in Potosi, Missouri, last weekend.
*I had just gotten my suitcase off the Knight Bus when I offhandedly said to my sister, "Hm, I wonder if my HP-Ohio friends are already here." I walked around the bus, and there were Jenny, Philip, Kim, and Megan, unloading their car. I couldn't have found them sooner if I'd used a Summoning Charm! We all ate dinner together, along with Vago and some other HP-OH people, and we had a blast! We were off in a rather dark corner of the dining room, so Philip suggested we get candelabras, and then someone added fine linens, and then we decided we were the Slug Club! :)
*The Parselmouths, the first band of the weekend, decided to have a slumber party at their show! They wore footie pajamas, taught us all a song they learned this summer at Pureblood Camp ("I am the Heir of Slytherin, you all bow down to me..."), and finished things off with a mass pillow fight.
*The Remus Lupins' entire set was amazing! Extra-fantastic highlights included what Alex said was the first live playing of "Young Sirius Black's Flying Motorcycle" (though there's some debate in the comments of my video of it on YouTube about whether or not it was actually the first time), the EPIC cover of The Whomping Willows' "Draco and Harry," and the onstage dance party during "Looking for Trouble," which featured Boba Fett and a stuffed animal pug that was apparently much loved by Luke Conard.
*During Madam Pince and the Librarians' set in the Wampum Willow, Ariel used the word "antiquarian" in a rap about good grammar. This is an example of why wizard rock pwns all other music.
*I had won a backstage pass, but there was a little mix-up and I didn't get it at registration on Friday, so Abby told me to come find her before Saturday's afternoon show. I wandered over to the Room of Wrockquirement around 1:00, where Josh and Joe of Marked As His Equal directed me to Abby's cabin. Jarrod Perkins was sitting on the porch of his cabin across the way, and when Abby asked if I was under or over 21, I said I am 21, and Jarrod started yelling, "No she's not, she's 19!!" In hindsight, I should have retorted with something about Fred and George being unable to fool the Age Line in GoF. Oh well. After a little more teasing, Jarrod came out and gave me a hug. :)
*I went back to the Room of Wrockquirement to watch the sound checks, and I met Laramie and Emily, the other lovely ladies who had won backstage passes. Marked As His Equal did their check last, because they were playing first, and when they were finished Mark and Mandy started having a debate about what Mandy ought to wear for the show. Mark looked at Laramie, Emily, and me and said, "Will you guys please come help my wife figure out what to wear?" So we went behind the stage and Mandy showed us her options and we helped her make a decision. We hung out and just talked with the band until the show started, which was really fun because they are hilarious! Josh was, like, shaking with nerves and excitement! They also give fantastic hugs.
*RiddleTM always amazes me with their versatility! Their songs are so beautiful and so deep, and I bawled my eyes out during "For Jo." (I wasn't alone in that!) Then the crowd began shouting "Beans! Beans! Beans!" and they came back out onstage to play it as an encore. Georgia said we made her life by all chanting that together.
*After the evening sound check and before they opened the RoW doors, it was really cold in there! Emily, Laramie, Georgia, Victoria, a WS staff member named Sarah, and I all wound up standing in a circle and doing jumping jacks to keep warm!
*The Saturday night sets were incredible! MC Kreacher was amazing, there was so much energy in the room when MoM came out with "Snape vs. Snape" that I thought the room might explode from the pressure of the awesome, and Diagon Alley's "Ode to Jarrod"....enough said.
*Bryce Cone of Neville's Diary on alto sax - HOLY COW. He's a wizard rocker and a high school band director. That's almost too much cool to be allowed in one person.
*Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls, whose music I absolutely love, were playing their last set. When Christian sang "End of an Era" and the other musicians took off their instruments and left the stage, I was so close to crying again. Also, that set was kind of the epitome of what I love about the wrock community and the way they support and collaborate with each other. At one point I think there were six bands represented on the stage - seven if you count Alex playing Steph's guitar.
*I ran into Mandy and Mark again in the merch room and happened to mention that I didn't want to read Henry V on the plane the next day. Mandy proceeded to summarize the entire play in about 15 seconds and then gave me two free buttons because I was a backstage pass winner. :)
*Brian Malfoy started singing "Your Family Is Poor" with the obvious intention of "provoking" Jarrod. Jarrod stood at the side of the stage, making threatening and obscene gestures, until he'd "had enough" and invaded the stage. They stood at the same mic, screaming their own versions of the song into each other's faces. And then...
*...MATT MAGGIACOMO, LAUREN FAIRWEATHER, AND JFF SHOWED UP!!!!! Biggest surprise ever!! I'm not sure I'd ever heard so much screaming in one place before. The coolest part was being able to see the reactions of the other wrockers at the edges of the stage and all the laughing and hugging that took place.
*Jarrod's entire set was insane, from his dramatic entrance to him periodically splashing the crowd with water to "Brotherly Love," one of the dirtiest and most fabulous songs in all of wrock!!
*Tonks and the Aurors. Holy cow! Steph worked so hard the entire weekend to keep everything running smoothly, and I couldn't think of anyone more deserving of the final set. She wrocked so hard that she broke strings on two different guitars, and Remus Lupin held his character hilariously as he helped his "wife" switch her guitar strap, which was being difficult. "We Are Magic" was truly magical, and then we called Steph and the others back for two encores, and they had only practiced one but you never would have known it.
*When they finally turned the lights off to signify that there would be no more encores, everyone turned to their friends and started hugging, beginning the process of farewells, and then suddenly all of the wrockers ran onto the stage, jumping up and down and singing "The Weapon" at the top of their lungs. We all joined in, jumping, dancing, singing, shouting, hugging, some people crying, and it was the perfect culmination of a truly amazing weekend.
*I managed to catch Alex after the show and I got to tell him how much his music means to me, which is seriously a lot, especially after it helped me survive some pretty heavy homesickness when I was studying in Ecuador last fall. I asked if I could hug him, and he said sure, but he made me put down the stuff I was carrying so we could do it properly. Then we gave each other an enormous hug. :D
*In the morning we had a pretty small, sleepy group on the 8 AM Knight Bus back to the airport. We were reliving some of our favorite moments of Wrockstock on the shuttle bus to the east terminal, and a guy on the bus said we sounded as if we were talking in code! We laughed and explained a bit about wizard rock. On the way through security, a TSA guy stopped and asked me what nargles are (I was wearing my "I believe in nargles" shirt), and he laughed when I told him and said he at least knew who Dobby was. Before we went our separate ways to the flight gates, our little Knight Bus crew shared a big group hug in the middle of the airport. :)
Wrockstockers, thank you! You amaze me and I hope we can all do this over again next year! The weapon we have is, indeed, love. <3
Friday, November 12, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Triple Rainbow Awesome!!!!!11!!!1
It's Friday afternoon, so it must be time for Madeline to write a blog post. I'm not going home this weekend (for once, it seems), so I actually have a big chunk of time to do things.
School continues to just be school: fairly interesting and super stressful. I'm now working on my second Collaborative project. This one has been more interesting to think about than the previous one, even though I don't really like the play, because it's a comedy so it has more dimension than a farce. The play is The House of Blue Leaves, and it's about a bunch of people who think their lives are completely falling apart and they're all pursuing these really unrealistic fantasies: "If only [such and such] would happen, my life would be perfect!" My team has decided to use reality TV for our concept, because of course reality shows (at least in the Real World/Survivor/Big Brother sense) are completely unrealistic, and I think a lot of people watch them to feel better about their own lives. It's a schadenfreude thing, almost. Because of our concept, we have to move the time period of the show from 1965 to 1995, so it's been kind of fun updating the dialogue. For example, any reference to Jackie Kennedy is changed to Madonna, and one character's "transistors" are now hearing aids. I'm doing scenic design for this show, which is definitely not my forte, but at least I'll have costume design for the final show of the semester. I'm going to try to incorporate reality TV into the set design by having boom mics and TV cameras visible in the scene.
Have you ever been in a library with only one other person? It's awesome! (Sorry for the random topic change.) I was in the library from 11:30 to midnight last night with my friend Annika, doing Collaborative research (we're in the same group this time), and no one else was in there!! So we got to talk to each other from across the room and be really goofy and it was so much fun! It felt like we were being really rebellious or something.
The reason we were in the library so late was that last night Annika and I drove to Cuyahoga Falls, about 45 minutes away, to see the Triple Rainbow Awesome Tour!!! 3RA, as it's been dubbed on Twitter, was the fall tour for ALL CAPS, Alex Carpenter, Skyway Flyer, and Mike Lombardo, all of whom (except maybe Alex?) are DFTBA Records artists. Annika and I hung around at the end of the concert and waited for all the high schoolers and their parents to leave, and then we got to really talk to everyone!! While we were waiting, we met another girl who goes to B-W! Her name is Jessica, she lives in the dorm across the street from mine, and she knows another Nerdfighter on campus, so now there are at least four of us!! I got the chance to ask Alex and Kristina if I could use a couple of their wizard rock songs in a school project, and Alex convinced Annika to get a Twitter account. I bought a poster, which everyone signed, and everyone also signed Annika's DFTBA shirt. We also got to watch Hayley, Mike's girlfriend, film her entire 5 Awesome Girls video, and then Annika asked Mike about learning to play one of his songs, and Hayley and Mike took us upstairs to use the piano in the sanctuary to show Annika the chords! (The show was in the cafe at Hayley's church.) It was really a completely fantastic night, and definitely the most fun I've had since the HP-Ohio Crystal Ball in January.
I recorded the last part of "Don't Unplug Me" by ALL CAPS, so I'll put that below. Now I'm going to go back to rocking out to my new Skyway Flyer album and wondering why there are two pairs of sunglasses on my desk and to whom the extraneous pair belongs. My life is unpredictable, if nothing else...
School continues to just be school: fairly interesting and super stressful. I'm now working on my second Collaborative project. This one has been more interesting to think about than the previous one, even though I don't really like the play, because it's a comedy so it has more dimension than a farce. The play is The House of Blue Leaves, and it's about a bunch of people who think their lives are completely falling apart and they're all pursuing these really unrealistic fantasies: "If only [such and such] would happen, my life would be perfect!" My team has decided to use reality TV for our concept, because of course reality shows (at least in the Real World/Survivor/Big Brother sense) are completely unrealistic, and I think a lot of people watch them to feel better about their own lives. It's a schadenfreude thing, almost. Because of our concept, we have to move the time period of the show from 1965 to 1995, so it's been kind of fun updating the dialogue. For example, any reference to Jackie Kennedy is changed to Madonna, and one character's "transistors" are now hearing aids. I'm doing scenic design for this show, which is definitely not my forte, but at least I'll have costume design for the final show of the semester. I'm going to try to incorporate reality TV into the set design by having boom mics and TV cameras visible in the scene.
Have you ever been in a library with only one other person? It's awesome! (Sorry for the random topic change.) I was in the library from 11:30 to midnight last night with my friend Annika, doing Collaborative research (we're in the same group this time), and no one else was in there!! So we got to talk to each other from across the room and be really goofy and it was so much fun! It felt like we were being really rebellious or something.
The reason we were in the library so late was that last night Annika and I drove to Cuyahoga Falls, about 45 minutes away, to see the Triple Rainbow Awesome Tour!!! 3RA, as it's been dubbed on Twitter, was the fall tour for ALL CAPS, Alex Carpenter, Skyway Flyer, and Mike Lombardo, all of whom (except maybe Alex?) are DFTBA Records artists. Annika and I hung around at the end of the concert and waited for all the high schoolers and their parents to leave, and then we got to really talk to everyone!! While we were waiting, we met another girl who goes to B-W! Her name is Jessica, she lives in the dorm across the street from mine, and she knows another Nerdfighter on campus, so now there are at least four of us!! I got the chance to ask Alex and Kristina if I could use a couple of their wizard rock songs in a school project, and Alex convinced Annika to get a Twitter account. I bought a poster, which everyone signed, and everyone also signed Annika's DFTBA shirt. We also got to watch Hayley, Mike's girlfriend, film her entire 5 Awesome Girls video, and then Annika asked Mike about learning to play one of his songs, and Hayley and Mike took us upstairs to use the piano in the sanctuary to show Annika the chords! (The show was in the cafe at Hayley's church.) It was really a completely fantastic night, and definitely the most fun I've had since the HP-Ohio Crystal Ball in January.
I recorded the last part of "Don't Unplug Me" by ALL CAPS, so I'll put that below. Now I'm going to go back to rocking out to my new Skyway Flyer album and wondering why there are two pairs of sunglasses on my desk and to whom the extraneous pair belongs. My life is unpredictable, if nothing else...
Friday, September 24, 2010
Drowning in the Ocean of College
Finally, at the end of the fifth week of school, here is my post about how school is going this semester. That's a pretty good indication of how school is going. In short, I feel like I'm drowning. As soon as I finally feel I've got a bit of a handle on things and I can get my head up to take a breath, the current of senior year pulls me back under and I just wind up with a burning mouthful of salt water. I've carved out about two hours on Friday afternoons (aka, right now) to just give myself a break and do whatever I want, but I spend the whole time feeling guilty that I'm not doing schoolwork.
A brief rundown of my classes this semester:
Collaborative Studies in Theatre - This is affectionately known as the class from hell in the Theatre Department, mostly because of the amount of work it requires. Over the semester, we have three projects on three shows, and we work with different people for each one. Currently, I'm the "director" for a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and I have to work with my "scenic designer" and my "costume designer" to choose a spine (the main action of the show) and a concept (we're doing Cirque du Soleil) and then do all the research that our "job" requires...so I'm researching Forum (its history, significant productions, its authors, dramatic criticism), directing musicals and farces, Ancient Rome (with particular emphasis on slavery and women), social history of the 1960s (when Forum was written), and anything about Cirque du Soleil that I can get my hands on. Then I have to use my "scenic designer's" sketches and outline the blocking for the entire show. Everything has to support our spine and concept and the playwrights' intentions. For someone who hates group projects, this class is a joy.
Tap III - I love this class, it's just exhausting!! My tap technique has really suffered over the last couple of years, so I'm getting the chance to go back and review some basics. It's taught by the new dance teacher, Greg, who is completely wonderful. I sweat buckets every time!
Seminario español - This is a really interesting class so far. The focus is on immigration and everything that that entails: the decision to leave home, the journey itself, adjusting to a new world, cultural and subcultural identity... We get a very interesting perspective on it because the professor, my adviser, grew up in Puerto Rico and came to the U.S. for grad school in the early '80s. The class is very small and I'm friends with everyone in it.
Dance in America - One of my least favorite classes ever. It's like dance history for non-dancers, and I'm in it because I missed the Dance History class required for my minor while I was in Ecuador. The teacher is odd and super-pretentious and tries so hard to be politically correct that he often comes off as racist. At least he'll admit he's a snob about what constitutes "good dance," though. It's super boring and the teacher picks on my friend Loee and me all the time because he knows we're dancers.
Ballet IV - Another class that kicks my butt every single time, but I'm loving it! It's also a return to basics for me, in a way, and the teacher is really wonderful about making corrections, explaining things, and answering questions. I'm now regretting most of my high school years, when I put way less effort into my ballet classes than I should have.
Dance Production and Performance - This is another class taught by Greg, the new dance teacher. It's a lecture class, but he gets sidetracked all the time into awesome stories of the years he danced with the Rockettes or various national tours he's been on. We have one project for the semester that keeps building and building on itself. Each person has to act as the producer for a show (a dance concert, a recital, a musical, whatever they've chosen) and plan the entire budget and logistics. It's really interesting so far, although it's a bit frustrating because I usually don't have time to call places like hotels and rental companies during business hours.
In addition to all that, I'm working in the scene shop in the theater four hours each week for Backstage Experience credit. I get to do everything from putting together spiral staircases to taking seams out of curtains to painting sets to bringing lights down from the catwalks. It's fun some days, but it's also exhausting and usually dirty, sweaty work.
I also have my senior Honors thesis, which I haven't really started on because I'm feeling kind of lost about it. My project is essentially developing a business plan for a small dance company, because my sister and I have a dream of starting our own company someday and neither of us knows anything about business. And that's the issue with me getting started: I don't know anything about business. And because the thesis is not something that's due immediately, I never seem to find time to work on it, so I feel like it's constantly looming over me. It's just so frustrating. I joke about wanting to drop out of school all the time, but there are days when I really wish I could.
To end this post on a happy note, something fantabulous happened on Wednesday. I was packing up my things after Collaborative and I heard one of my classmates, Annika, whom I don't know very well, talking to someone else about a book called Looking for Alaska. I freaked out and asked her if she'd read any of John Green's other books, and she said no, but then she said something about being a Nerdfighter, and I shouted, "You're a Nerdfighter?!?" and then she said, "YOU'RE a Nerdfighter?!?" and it was completely fantastic. Everyone was staring at us like we were nuts, and we just kept babbling on about John and Hank and YouTube and pizza and LeakyCon and everything. That was most definitely the highlight of my week!!
A brief rundown of my classes this semester:
Collaborative Studies in Theatre - This is affectionately known as the class from hell in the Theatre Department, mostly because of the amount of work it requires. Over the semester, we have three projects on three shows, and we work with different people for each one. Currently, I'm the "director" for a production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and I have to work with my "scenic designer" and my "costume designer" to choose a spine (the main action of the show) and a concept (we're doing Cirque du Soleil) and then do all the research that our "job" requires...so I'm researching Forum (its history, significant productions, its authors, dramatic criticism), directing musicals and farces, Ancient Rome (with particular emphasis on slavery and women), social history of the 1960s (when Forum was written), and anything about Cirque du Soleil that I can get my hands on. Then I have to use my "scenic designer's" sketches and outline the blocking for the entire show. Everything has to support our spine and concept and the playwrights' intentions. For someone who hates group projects, this class is a joy.
Tap III - I love this class, it's just exhausting!! My tap technique has really suffered over the last couple of years, so I'm getting the chance to go back and review some basics. It's taught by the new dance teacher, Greg, who is completely wonderful. I sweat buckets every time!
Seminario español - This is a really interesting class so far. The focus is on immigration and everything that that entails: the decision to leave home, the journey itself, adjusting to a new world, cultural and subcultural identity... We get a very interesting perspective on it because the professor, my adviser, grew up in Puerto Rico and came to the U.S. for grad school in the early '80s. The class is very small and I'm friends with everyone in it.
Dance in America - One of my least favorite classes ever. It's like dance history for non-dancers, and I'm in it because I missed the Dance History class required for my minor while I was in Ecuador. The teacher is odd and super-pretentious and tries so hard to be politically correct that he often comes off as racist. At least he'll admit he's a snob about what constitutes "good dance," though. It's super boring and the teacher picks on my friend Loee and me all the time because he knows we're dancers.
Ballet IV - Another class that kicks my butt every single time, but I'm loving it! It's also a return to basics for me, in a way, and the teacher is really wonderful about making corrections, explaining things, and answering questions. I'm now regretting most of my high school years, when I put way less effort into my ballet classes than I should have.
Dance Production and Performance - This is another class taught by Greg, the new dance teacher. It's a lecture class, but he gets sidetracked all the time into awesome stories of the years he danced with the Rockettes or various national tours he's been on. We have one project for the semester that keeps building and building on itself. Each person has to act as the producer for a show (a dance concert, a recital, a musical, whatever they've chosen) and plan the entire budget and logistics. It's really interesting so far, although it's a bit frustrating because I usually don't have time to call places like hotels and rental companies during business hours.
In addition to all that, I'm working in the scene shop in the theater four hours each week for Backstage Experience credit. I get to do everything from putting together spiral staircases to taking seams out of curtains to painting sets to bringing lights down from the catwalks. It's fun some days, but it's also exhausting and usually dirty, sweaty work.
I also have my senior Honors thesis, which I haven't really started on because I'm feeling kind of lost about it. My project is essentially developing a business plan for a small dance company, because my sister and I have a dream of starting our own company someday and neither of us knows anything about business. And that's the issue with me getting started: I don't know anything about business. And because the thesis is not something that's due immediately, I never seem to find time to work on it, so I feel like it's constantly looming over me. It's just so frustrating. I joke about wanting to drop out of school all the time, but there are days when I really wish I could.
To end this post on a happy note, something fantabulous happened on Wednesday. I was packing up my things after Collaborative and I heard one of my classmates, Annika, whom I don't know very well, talking to someone else about a book called Looking for Alaska. I freaked out and asked her if she'd read any of John Green's other books, and she said no, but then she said something about being a Nerdfighter, and I shouted, "You're a Nerdfighter?!?" and then she said, "YOU'RE a Nerdfighter?!?" and it was completely fantastic. Everyone was staring at us like we were nuts, and we just kept babbling on about John and Hank and YouTube and pizza and LeakyCon and everything. That was most definitely the highlight of my week!!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Labor Day baseball!
I love Labor Day, because I'm lucky enough to go to a college that still takes the day as a holiday, so it's like a Monday that's not really a Monday. This year I stayed at school for Saturday and Sunday and then drove to Pittsburgh on Monday morning for an afternoon Braves-Pirates game.
It's only about two-and-a-half hours to Pittsburgh from school, and I was a little nervous because it was my first time driving out of state by myself, but I was fine until I got into the city. This was my third time going to Pittsburgh, and the previous two times my dad got totally confused on the way out because of construction and closed streets and other nonsense. This time, I got lost on the way into the city. Apparently they've just re-numbered all of the exits to coincide with miles on the actual road, rather than distance from the city limits, as they used to be. My GPS, Lucille, was telling me to take exit 7A, and there was neither a "7" nor an "A" to be seen on any of the signs. So I just drove around for a while, totally lost, crossing the river to the wrong side and winding up in residential areas, while poor Lucille worked really hard to get me back on track. The problem with Pittsburgh is that there are so many places where you have to make a turn from the far right lane and then half a mile later you have to make a turn from the far left lane and it's just not possible!
I survived, thank God, and finally made it to the stadium. I allowed myself almost an hour of extra driving time, so I still had a while to wait in the parking lot for my family.
My dad, my sister, my grandma, and my aunt drove up from Central Ohio and picked up my cousin Matt at his fraternity house. (He goes to Carnegie Mellon University.) We had all had to laugh, because my dad, my sister, and I all had on our Braves hats (of course), Grandma was wearing her Tigers hat (because she's from Michigan and we took her to a game in Detroit last summer), Matt was wearing a Giants shirt (because he's from the San Francisco area), and Aunt Kathy forgot her Braves hat so she bought a Pirates one to keep the sun out of her eyes. It was too bad my sister hadn't worn her Cubs shirt, since they're her other favorite team!
PNC Park is really a beautiful stadium, and we had fantastic seats (between 3rd base and home, about fifteen rows back). The weather was perfect, probably the best baseball weather I've ever experienced. It was a good game, but the final score was a disappointing 3-1 for the Pirates. They're already eliminated, and we totally should have beat them! There were at least two occasions where the Braves had the bases loaded and were unable to get a run in. Our up-and-down offense has been the biggest issue this year, and we're really going to need to pick it up if we're going to make the playoffs, let alone win the division. The Phillies scare the crap out of me, and as of today they've taken the division lead by a half game.
Matt and I spent the whole game talking about every aspect of baseball, from the "battle royale" that's coming with this postseason, to great bloopers that we've seen in person or on video, to reminiscing about games we've been to together. He told me about the NLCS game where the Giants clinched the pennant in 2002, which he attended. SO COOL! We watched the right field scoreboard for other games obsessively, glorying in the Phillies' loss to the Marlins. (Matt also wants the Phillies to crash and burn, because the Giants are in second place in the Wild Card race.) Unfortunately, the Phils and Marlins had a double-header that day, and the second game didn't turn out to our liking.
Matt, my sister, and I also had a blast gauging the trajectories of the balls flying into the crowd. I'd never seen so many fouls into the stands before! Early in the game, a ball landed about five rows in front of us, and two guys dove for it. One came up with the ball, and he shook hands with the other guy and gave him back his hat, which had been knocked off. Then the guy who got the ball noticed the other man had three little girls with him, and he gave the ball to the girls! Our whole section applauded his generosity, and the dad bought the nice guy a beer when a vendor came around. Maybe two innings later, a ball went way up into the first deck, right above us. I was watching my left side to see if it would come back down, and it came down on my right side and bounced away! Matt was like, "BALL!", but I didn't see it before it was gone. It went forward, though, about five rows, and wound up with the guy who had given up the first ball!! That's karma for you. It was an awesome thing to see!
I'll write again soon and talk about how school is going. I desperately needed to write about something happy, today, though, so you got this instead. (That should give you an idea of how school is going.)
It's only about two-and-a-half hours to Pittsburgh from school, and I was a little nervous because it was my first time driving out of state by myself, but I was fine until I got into the city. This was my third time going to Pittsburgh, and the previous two times my dad got totally confused on the way out because of construction and closed streets and other nonsense. This time, I got lost on the way into the city. Apparently they've just re-numbered all of the exits to coincide with miles on the actual road, rather than distance from the city limits, as they used to be. My GPS, Lucille, was telling me to take exit 7A, and there was neither a "7" nor an "A" to be seen on any of the signs. So I just drove around for a while, totally lost, crossing the river to the wrong side and winding up in residential areas, while poor Lucille worked really hard to get me back on track. The problem with Pittsburgh is that there are so many places where you have to make a turn from the far right lane and then half a mile later you have to make a turn from the far left lane and it's just not possible!
I survived, thank God, and finally made it to the stadium. I allowed myself almost an hour of extra driving time, so I still had a while to wait in the parking lot for my family.
My dad, my sister, my grandma, and my aunt drove up from Central Ohio and picked up my cousin Matt at his fraternity house. (He goes to Carnegie Mellon University.) We had all had to laugh, because my dad, my sister, and I all had on our Braves hats (of course), Grandma was wearing her Tigers hat (because she's from Michigan and we took her to a game in Detroit last summer), Matt was wearing a Giants shirt (because he's from the San Francisco area), and Aunt Kathy forgot her Braves hat so she bought a Pirates one to keep the sun out of her eyes. It was too bad my sister hadn't worn her Cubs shirt, since they're her other favorite team!
PNC Park is really a beautiful stadium, and we had fantastic seats (between 3rd base and home, about fifteen rows back). The weather was perfect, probably the best baseball weather I've ever experienced. It was a good game, but the final score was a disappointing 3-1 for the Pirates. They're already eliminated, and we totally should have beat them! There were at least two occasions where the Braves had the bases loaded and were unable to get a run in. Our up-and-down offense has been the biggest issue this year, and we're really going to need to pick it up if we're going to make the playoffs, let alone win the division. The Phillies scare the crap out of me, and as of today they've taken the division lead by a half game.
Matt and I spent the whole game talking about every aspect of baseball, from the "battle royale" that's coming with this postseason, to great bloopers that we've seen in person or on video, to reminiscing about games we've been to together. He told me about the NLCS game where the Giants clinched the pennant in 2002, which he attended. SO COOL! We watched the right field scoreboard for other games obsessively, glorying in the Phillies' loss to the Marlins. (Matt also wants the Phillies to crash and burn, because the Giants are in second place in the Wild Card race.) Unfortunately, the Phils and Marlins had a double-header that day, and the second game didn't turn out to our liking.
Matt, my sister, and I also had a blast gauging the trajectories of the balls flying into the crowd. I'd never seen so many fouls into the stands before! Early in the game, a ball landed about five rows in front of us, and two guys dove for it. One came up with the ball, and he shook hands with the other guy and gave him back his hat, which had been knocked off. Then the guy who got the ball noticed the other man had three little girls with him, and he gave the ball to the girls! Our whole section applauded his generosity, and the dad bought the nice guy a beer when a vendor came around. Maybe two innings later, a ball went way up into the first deck, right above us. I was watching my left side to see if it would come back down, and it came down on my right side and bounced away! Matt was like, "BALL!", but I didn't see it before it was gone. It went forward, though, about five rows, and wound up with the guy who had given up the first ball!! That's karma for you. It was an awesome thing to see!
I'll write again soon and talk about how school is going. I desperately needed to write about something happy, today, though, so you got this instead. (That should give you an idea of how school is going.)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Esther
Early this morning, a beautiful soul went home to be with Jesus. Esther Earl, a sixteen-year-old from Boston who was fighting thyroid cancer, passed away, surrounded by her family. I never met her, and I first heard of her only a few months ago, but her strong spirit, love of life, and commitment to awesome touched me deeply.
Esther was a Nerdfighter and a Harry Potter fan of the highest caliber. She truly cared about people and she had a passion for decreasing worldsuck. Though I'm sure she was often frustrated and in pain, her tweets and her videos were always upbeat and never self-pitying. She faced her illness with strength and grace (Grace was her middle name), and she reached out to other people and vigorously supported great causes, such as the work of the Harry Potter Alliance. Her Make-A-Wish Foundation request was for a gathering of close friends and her favorite author, John Green. John told Esther that for her birthday, which was about three weeks ago today, he would ask Nerdfighteria to make videos about any subject of her choice, and her choice was love and family.
I've celebrated many fantastic events with the Nerdfighter and Harry Potter communities over the past year and a half, but this is the first time I have mourned with them. From the moment I woke up, my Twitter feed has been full of messages in her memory and prayers and wishes for her family and friends. Two beautiful songs have already been posted to YouTube about Esther, and I'm sure more will follow. People have been saying "R.I.A." for "Rest in awesome," and they've been reminding each other of Albus Dumbledore's wise words about life and death. We are all saddened to say goodbye to Esther, but we will continue to honor this brave girl who inspired so many people to make the world a better place.
Heaven holds just a little bit more awesome today than it did yesterday. Rest in peace, Esther.
Esther was a Nerdfighter and a Harry Potter fan of the highest caliber. She truly cared about people and she had a passion for decreasing worldsuck. Though I'm sure she was often frustrated and in pain, her tweets and her videos were always upbeat and never self-pitying. She faced her illness with strength and grace (Grace was her middle name), and she reached out to other people and vigorously supported great causes, such as the work of the Harry Potter Alliance. Her Make-A-Wish Foundation request was for a gathering of close friends and her favorite author, John Green. John told Esther that for her birthday, which was about three weeks ago today, he would ask Nerdfighteria to make videos about any subject of her choice, and her choice was love and family.
I've celebrated many fantastic events with the Nerdfighter and Harry Potter communities over the past year and a half, but this is the first time I have mourned with them. From the moment I woke up, my Twitter feed has been full of messages in her memory and prayers and wishes for her family and friends. Two beautiful songs have already been posted to YouTube about Esther, and I'm sure more will follow. People have been saying "R.I.A." for "Rest in awesome," and they've been reminding each other of Albus Dumbledore's wise words about life and death. We are all saddened to say goodbye to Esther, but we will continue to honor this brave girl who inspired so many people to make the world a better place.
Heaven holds just a little bit more awesome today than it did yesterday. Rest in peace, Esther.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Playing summer catch-up
Hello, faithful blog readers! (I'm pretty sure there are two of you.) I have been quite remiss in my blogging duties lately, so I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on with me lately...which isn't really that much, now that I think about it.
This is the first summer that I've had a real job. I'm working at the local middle school doing a day camp-type program. Some days I hate it, and other days it makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. I like my two co-workers, and a few of the kids are sweet, but I really hate the middle school age group, and I really can't deal with all of the disorganization and lack of people explaining things to me in advance. I keep being told, "Well, you know we're in a new room this summer and we're all busy and sometimes you've gotta just roll with the punches".....but come on, it's well over halfway through the program. I shouldn't still be searching through haphazard piles to find the folder for the old attendance sheets. It pays well, and I occasionally get to see my good friends who work at one of the elementary school sites, but my hours keep getting cut because we don't have enough money to pay two staff people when we have seven or fewer kids. At this point I'm just trying to grit my teeth and get through it, but August is going to be killer: a trip to King's Island and an overnight lock-in at the school. To be perfectly honest, I was grateful when I woke up this morning and threw up multiple times, because it meant I didn't have to go in to work.
This summer hasn't been all bad, though. I've gotten to see two wizard rock shows with my sister and our friend Maddy. We saw the Parselmouths, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Lauren from the Moaning Myrtles and The Whomping Willows (who together make up Armoured Bearcub), and ALL CAPS play in Akron, where I got to meet Kristina and Hayley of YouTube's Five Awesome Girls. Barely a week later, we drove down to the world's largest YMCA in southern Ohio to see Skyway Flyer, Tonks and the Aurors, the Remus Lupins, and Witherwings, who happens to be my friend Mandala. In addition to Mandala, I got to see several other wonderful friends from the HP-Ohio group, whom I hadn't seen since the Crystal Ball in January. In other Potter-related news, I'm all registered for LeakyCon 2011!! Maddy is registered too, since I'll be her chaperone, and my sister will register soon. Now we're just trying to figure out the rooming situation so we can book a hotel room!!
The best and most exciting thing that's happened lately is the Wilson family reunion that took place this past weekend!! It only happens every other year, so it's always a true joy to get together and catch up with everyone. We had about 40 people this year who came in from across the country. It was my branch's turn to plan it this year, and since central Ohio hasn't really changed much in the past eight years, we went to a state park lodge down in Hocking Hills. There was a nice swimming pool, a beautiful lake, hiking trails, basketball courts, and more. We had a campfire one evening and made s'mores, and we all sat around and talked for hours (and rearranged the furniture in the lobby multiple times!). I had so much fun catching up with all of my cousins. I talked all about B-W with my second cousin Anna, who was up there in June for a music theatre workshop, and I know I'll be seeing her in November when she comes up to audition for the MT program. Other events included analyzing "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly"; obsessing over Major League Baseball trades and making postseason predictions; having fun with physics on a see-saw with my sister; measuring the precise distances between horseshoes (and making up the rules for "cornshoes"); singing Beatles songs with my honestly brilliant two-and-a-half-year-old cousin; looking at scrapbooks of family photos that go back to the 1800s; and hearing the story of how my aunt and uncle met. I am truly blessed to have such an incredible family!!
This is the first summer that I've had a real job. I'm working at the local middle school doing a day camp-type program. Some days I hate it, and other days it makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. I like my two co-workers, and a few of the kids are sweet, but I really hate the middle school age group, and I really can't deal with all of the disorganization and lack of people explaining things to me in advance. I keep being told, "Well, you know we're in a new room this summer and we're all busy and sometimes you've gotta just roll with the punches".....but come on, it's well over halfway through the program. I shouldn't still be searching through haphazard piles to find the folder for the old attendance sheets. It pays well, and I occasionally get to see my good friends who work at one of the elementary school sites, but my hours keep getting cut because we don't have enough money to pay two staff people when we have seven or fewer kids. At this point I'm just trying to grit my teeth and get through it, but August is going to be killer: a trip to King's Island and an overnight lock-in at the school. To be perfectly honest, I was grateful when I woke up this morning and threw up multiple times, because it meant I didn't have to go in to work.
This summer hasn't been all bad, though. I've gotten to see two wizard rock shows with my sister and our friend Maddy. We saw the Parselmouths, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Lauren from the Moaning Myrtles and The Whomping Willows (who together make up Armoured Bearcub), and ALL CAPS play in Akron, where I got to meet Kristina and Hayley of YouTube's Five Awesome Girls. Barely a week later, we drove down to the world's largest YMCA in southern Ohio to see Skyway Flyer, Tonks and the Aurors, the Remus Lupins, and Witherwings, who happens to be my friend Mandala. In addition to Mandala, I got to see several other wonderful friends from the HP-Ohio group, whom I hadn't seen since the Crystal Ball in January. In other Potter-related news, I'm all registered for LeakyCon 2011!! Maddy is registered too, since I'll be her chaperone, and my sister will register soon. Now we're just trying to figure out the rooming situation so we can book a hotel room!!
The best and most exciting thing that's happened lately is the Wilson family reunion that took place this past weekend!! It only happens every other year, so it's always a true joy to get together and catch up with everyone. We had about 40 people this year who came in from across the country. It was my branch's turn to plan it this year, and since central Ohio hasn't really changed much in the past eight years, we went to a state park lodge down in Hocking Hills. There was a nice swimming pool, a beautiful lake, hiking trails, basketball courts, and more. We had a campfire one evening and made s'mores, and we all sat around and talked for hours (and rearranged the furniture in the lobby multiple times!). I had so much fun catching up with all of my cousins. I talked all about B-W with my second cousin Anna, who was up there in June for a music theatre workshop, and I know I'll be seeing her in November when she comes up to audition for the MT program. Other events included analyzing "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly"; obsessing over Major League Baseball trades and making postseason predictions; having fun with physics on a see-saw with my sister; measuring the precise distances between horseshoes (and making up the rules for "cornshoes"); singing Beatles songs with my honestly brilliant two-and-a-half-year-old cousin; looking at scrapbooks of family photos that go back to the 1800s; and hearing the story of how my aunt and uncle met. I am truly blessed to have such an incredible family!!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Beautiful Montreat!
First off, I'd like to ask anyone reading this to send up a prayer for my friend Clay. He had some serious surgery yesterday, and he's in a LOT of pain and will have a long road to recovery. He had to have two ceramic rods inserted into his back, and he had to go all the way to St. Louis to have it done because there isn't a doctor in Ohio who can/will do it. Prayers and good thoughts are greatly appreciated!!
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.
I'm coming to you live from Montreat, North Carolina, this week! It's a beautiful little town up in the Black Mountains, and its main claim to fame is a Presbyterian college and conference center, which the Presbyterian Association of Musicians is using this week for their annual worship and music conference. This is my ninth year here, and let me tell you, it is glorious to be back!! My days are spent in choir rehearsals, handbell rehearsals, and a liturgical dance class. In my free time, I get to hang out with friends and family. We climbed Lookout Mountain on Monday, which is only a one-kilometer trail, but it sure kicked my butt. It's a beautiful view from the top, though, and we could see our amazing house. The house where we've stayed for the past seven years holds twenty-two people, but we only have eighteen this year. It's nice to have my dad here, since he hasn't come in a very long time.
The coolest thing that has happened so far was this morning's worship service. The sermon was incredible and exactly what our church members at home need to hear during our current transition period. I got to perform the Lord's Prayer with part of the liturgical dance class, and a big yellow butterfly flew in one of the open windows and was flying around -- definitely the Holy Spirit at work.
Well, I'd better go now...My friend Maddy is waiting to steal songs off my iTunes. That's another great thing about this week...
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.
I'm coming to you live from Montreat, North Carolina, this week! It's a beautiful little town up in the Black Mountains, and its main claim to fame is a Presbyterian college and conference center, which the Presbyterian Association of Musicians is using this week for their annual worship and music conference. This is my ninth year here, and let me tell you, it is glorious to be back!! My days are spent in choir rehearsals, handbell rehearsals, and a liturgical dance class. In my free time, I get to hang out with friends and family. We climbed Lookout Mountain on Monday, which is only a one-kilometer trail, but it sure kicked my butt. It's a beautiful view from the top, though, and we could see our amazing house. The house where we've stayed for the past seven years holds twenty-two people, but we only have eighteen this year. It's nice to have my dad here, since he hasn't come in a very long time.
The coolest thing that has happened so far was this morning's worship service. The sermon was incredible and exactly what our church members at home need to hear during our current transition period. I got to perform the Lord's Prayer with part of the liturgical dance class, and a big yellow butterfly flew in one of the open windows and was flying around -- definitely the Holy Spirit at work.
Well, I'd better go now...My friend Maddy is waiting to steal songs off my iTunes. That's another great thing about this week...
Sunday, June 6, 2010
The magic is real!
I've written here before about my frustrations with people who don't understand the hype Harry Potter, but I'm going to write about it again.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the newest portion of Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, is now up and running, and it will have its grand opening on June 18th. Tonight NBC aired a half-hour special about the making of the theme park, and of course my whole family watched. Even though I'd seen most of the footage and heard most of the information before, I still cried. When I watched the videos (here, here, here, and here) that the PotterCast trio posted after their visit last week, I cried. I understand why some people think my fellow fans and I are ridiculous, but we don't appreciate being treated like we're immature or insane.
Imagine that somewhere in your imagination exists a universe that is the most beautiful, incredible, elaborate, thought-provoking, magical place that anyone has ever known. You've gone there to mourn, to celebrate, and to simply find refuge from the frustrations and fears of everyday life. You know every detail of this place -- top to bottom, left to right, inside and out. It represents most of the major turning points in your life, and it symbolizes the greatest good you've ever known and a triumph over the darkest evil. Beyond all of this, the most glorious part is that your best friends know this place too. It exists in their imaginations, and together you have explored it, analyzed it, excavated it and created new dimensions. You've wept, celebrated, and taken refuge...together.
Then imagine that one day, someone invents a way for that place to become REAL. You can go with your friends and physically explore it together -- see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, feel it, live it. It is the greatest fantasy of your life, your life-long dream and deepest desire come true.
This is what the Wizarding World of Harry Potter means to me. I won't make it there this summer, but I'll be there 401 days from now. I'll drink butterbeer and eat cauldron cakes, fly on hippogriffs, send owls, breathe in the steam of the Hogwarts Express, and have a conversation with a portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw. I'll probably cry when I walk under the stone arch and enter the village of Hogsmeade, but I know I won't be the only one. I'll be there with my sister and friends who have become my family, and we will all, finally, be at home.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the newest portion of Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, is now up and running, and it will have its grand opening on June 18th. Tonight NBC aired a half-hour special about the making of the theme park, and of course my whole family watched. Even though I'd seen most of the footage and heard most of the information before, I still cried. When I watched the videos (here, here, here, and here) that the PotterCast trio posted after their visit last week, I cried. I understand why some people think my fellow fans and I are ridiculous, but we don't appreciate being treated like we're immature or insane.
Imagine that somewhere in your imagination exists a universe that is the most beautiful, incredible, elaborate, thought-provoking, magical place that anyone has ever known. You've gone there to mourn, to celebrate, and to simply find refuge from the frustrations and fears of everyday life. You know every detail of this place -- top to bottom, left to right, inside and out. It represents most of the major turning points in your life, and it symbolizes the greatest good you've ever known and a triumph over the darkest evil. Beyond all of this, the most glorious part is that your best friends know this place too. It exists in their imaginations, and together you have explored it, analyzed it, excavated it and created new dimensions. You've wept, celebrated, and taken refuge...together.
Then imagine that one day, someone invents a way for that place to become REAL. You can go with your friends and physically explore it together -- see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, feel it, live it. It is the greatest fantasy of your life, your life-long dream and deepest desire come true.
This is what the Wizarding World of Harry Potter means to me. I won't make it there this summer, but I'll be there 401 days from now. I'll drink butterbeer and eat cauldron cakes, fly on hippogriffs, send owls, breathe in the steam of the Hogwarts Express, and have a conversation with a portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw. I'll probably cry when I walk under the stone arch and enter the village of Hogsmeade, but I know I won't be the only one. I'll be there with my sister and friends who have become my family, and we will all, finally, be at home.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sigma Delta Pi, Ecuador reunion, and Diva Night
Today is the second-to-last Monday in April, which means it's the second-to-last Monday of classes for the semester. That is completely ridiculous and impossible. Two weeks of classes, a week of exams, and I'll be a senior in college, and one who is planning to go to grad school just to avoid the real world for a little bit longer but has yet to decide what to actually study in grad school. My mother almost had me convinced to get a master's in creative writing, but then on Saturday she said she thinks I should go for a master's in publishing or editing or something, which is also intriguing, but I have no idea whether or not any grad school would even accept me into such a program when the only English class I've taken as an undergrad was Latin American lit as part of the Seminar in Ecuador. I hate decisions.
And now I'll apologize, because I feel like I complain about my lack of time and my abundance of work every single time I blog. It's kind of on my mind all the time, though.
...Moving on...
This afternoon I was inducted into Sigma Delta Pi, the National Hispanic Studies Honorary, and I'm pretty proud of that. Several of my friends were also inducted. We were all kind of surprised at extreme formality of the ceremony, which began with all of us lining up in the hall and waiting for one of the professors to give a secret knock on the door to another professor on the other side before we were allowed into the classroom. I was waiting for someone to start chanting In Omnia Paratus or something (Gilmore Girls reference FTW!). The whole ceremony was in Spanish, of course, and at a couple of points we had to repeat a few lines after Dr. Cambria. She's hard to understand some times because she's very old and speaks with the traditional lisp of central Spain, so sometimes I had no idea what she had just said so I just tried to repeat it phonetically, but then once I was saying it I found I understood the words that were coming out of my mouth! That was rather odd.
On Saturday night I had the opportunity to reunite with almost everyone else who went to Ecuador at a fiesta at my friends Katy, Caitlyn, and Emily's house. We were only missing four students, and Professor Martin and Dr. Melampy, the trip leaders were there too, along with Nancy, Dr. Melampy's wife, and her friend, Suki, who joined us for the Amazon/Intag portion of the trip. We had a blast!! We had SO much food, Ecuadorian and American, and we looked at pictures from the trip, played lots of reggaetón music, and made a Facebook video for Antonia, who's currently back in Cuenca taking classes at the University of Azuay. We're all very jealous of her!!
As I promised previously, here's a little bit about Diva Night, the fabulous fundraiser for the Arts House that I went to a few weeks ago. The musical acts were not nearly as good as last year's (so I'm told; I couldn't go last year), but everyone looked totally glam in their get-ups, whether they were male or female for the evening. The winner was the one true standout, a girl from my acting class who sang a song from The Gospel According to Tammy Faye Baker, an original and as yet unproduced musical written by one of her friends. My friend Carolyn sang "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three" from A Chorus Line and did a fantastic job considering she learned the song in about three hours. My roommate, Jamie, and I decided that dressing up as boys was no fun, so we just went the obnoxiously-sparkly-pop-star route thanks to some old dance costumes of mine and my sister's. We did help Pat and R.J. with their outfits, and we all looked ridiculous and fabulous, if I do say so myself:
And now I'll apologize, because I feel like I complain about my lack of time and my abundance of work every single time I blog. It's kind of on my mind all the time, though.
...Moving on...
This afternoon I was inducted into Sigma Delta Pi, the National Hispanic Studies Honorary, and I'm pretty proud of that. Several of my friends were also inducted. We were all kind of surprised at extreme formality of the ceremony, which began with all of us lining up in the hall and waiting for one of the professors to give a secret knock on the door to another professor on the other side before we were allowed into the classroom. I was waiting for someone to start chanting In Omnia Paratus or something (Gilmore Girls reference FTW!). The whole ceremony was in Spanish, of course, and at a couple of points we had to repeat a few lines after Dr. Cambria. She's hard to understand some times because she's very old and speaks with the traditional lisp of central Spain, so sometimes I had no idea what she had just said so I just tried to repeat it phonetically, but then once I was saying it I found I understood the words that were coming out of my mouth! That was rather odd.
On Saturday night I had the opportunity to reunite with almost everyone else who went to Ecuador at a fiesta at my friends Katy, Caitlyn, and Emily's house. We were only missing four students, and Professor Martin and Dr. Melampy, the trip leaders were there too, along with Nancy, Dr. Melampy's wife, and her friend, Suki, who joined us for the Amazon/Intag portion of the trip. We had a blast!! We had SO much food, Ecuadorian and American, and we looked at pictures from the trip, played lots of reggaetón music, and made a Facebook video for Antonia, who's currently back in Cuenca taking classes at the University of Azuay. We're all very jealous of her!!
As I promised previously, here's a little bit about Diva Night, the fabulous fundraiser for the Arts House that I went to a few weeks ago. The musical acts were not nearly as good as last year's (so I'm told; I couldn't go last year), but everyone looked totally glam in their get-ups, whether they were male or female for the evening. The winner was the one true standout, a girl from my acting class who sang a song from The Gospel According to Tammy Faye Baker, an original and as yet unproduced musical written by one of her friends. My friend Carolyn sang "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three" from A Chorus Line and did a fantastic job considering she learned the song in about three hours. My roommate, Jamie, and I decided that dressing up as boys was no fun, so we just went the obnoxiously-sparkly-pop-star route thanks to some old dance costumes of mine and my sister's. We did help Pat and R.J. with their outfits, and we all looked ridiculous and fabulous, if I do say so myself:
Friday, April 9, 2010
How is it April already??
I don't understand how we got to this point. I thought it was February last week. Not fair! I have entirely too much to do in the next 4 weeks before school is out.
But nobody really wants to hear me whining. Instead, here's a bit of a review of what's been going on in my life lately.
School has been keeping me super-busy -- more busy than usual, in fact -- and it's kind of a problem that I've come to that point in the year where all my motivation just goes out the window. The nice weather lately hasn't helped much. We had sun and temperatures in the 70s and low 80s from last Friday through two days ago, although now it's down to the low 40s and rainy. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the low 60s again, though...welcome to Ohio, folks. Anyways, on top of trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to combine dance and creative writing into a thesis project for next year, I've had sooooooooo many papers to write! I made the conscious decision to really enjoy my Easter break (yes, we get a week of spring break and then we get a 4-day weekend when Easter rolls around!), so I did no homework while I was home. Therefore, I spent all of Tuesday researching and writing a six-page rough draft for Spanish and spent Wednesday finishing my soundtrack practicum for my film class and yesterday writing the paper to accompany the practicum. Yay college.
I did have a very nice Easter break, though. The highlights were church on Sunday and the start of baseball season. I can't express how glad I am that we're back to watching baseball!! And my Braves started their season off with a bang by beating the Cubs 16-5!! :D Don't get me wrong, I love my Cubbies, but the Braves always have been and always will be my number one. The other good part about Easter break was getting to spend a lot of time with my family, especially my poor sister who had surgery on her ankle on Thursday. She's handling both the pain and the frustration really well, and I'm very proud of her. She won't be able to dance normally for 4-6 months. She'll be in a soft cast for another week till the swelling goes down, then a hard cast for a month, and hopefully she'll get her walking boot the day before prom in May.
I'm looking forward to a fun weekend, starting tonight with a low-key party at the Arts House and then going to the Arts House's second annual Diva Night tomorrow. (Diva Night is basically an excuse for everyone to dress up in crazy-fabulous outfits or in drag and enjoy an awesome cabaret show. I'm sure it will give me a lot to write about!) In between, I'm hoping to get some thesis research done, catch up on the Glee episodes I missed while I was in Ecuador, and finish another chapter of the story I'm writing for my friend Emily about Neville Longbottom.
Enjoy your weekend!
But nobody really wants to hear me whining. Instead, here's a bit of a review of what's been going on in my life lately.
School has been keeping me super-busy -- more busy than usual, in fact -- and it's kind of a problem that I've come to that point in the year where all my motivation just goes out the window. The nice weather lately hasn't helped much. We had sun and temperatures in the 70s and low 80s from last Friday through two days ago, although now it's down to the low 40s and rainy. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the low 60s again, though...welcome to Ohio, folks. Anyways, on top of trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to combine dance and creative writing into a thesis project for next year, I've had sooooooooo many papers to write! I made the conscious decision to really enjoy my Easter break (yes, we get a week of spring break and then we get a 4-day weekend when Easter rolls around!), so I did no homework while I was home. Therefore, I spent all of Tuesday researching and writing a six-page rough draft for Spanish and spent Wednesday finishing my soundtrack practicum for my film class and yesterday writing the paper to accompany the practicum. Yay college.
I did have a very nice Easter break, though. The highlights were church on Sunday and the start of baseball season. I can't express how glad I am that we're back to watching baseball!! And my Braves started their season off with a bang by beating the Cubs 16-5!! :D Don't get me wrong, I love my Cubbies, but the Braves always have been and always will be my number one. The other good part about Easter break was getting to spend a lot of time with my family, especially my poor sister who had surgery on her ankle on Thursday. She's handling both the pain and the frustration really well, and I'm very proud of her. She won't be able to dance normally for 4-6 months. She'll be in a soft cast for another week till the swelling goes down, then a hard cast for a month, and hopefully she'll get her walking boot the day before prom in May.
I'm looking forward to a fun weekend, starting tonight with a low-key party at the Arts House and then going to the Arts House's second annual Diva Night tomorrow. (Diva Night is basically an excuse for everyone to dress up in crazy-fabulous outfits or in drag and enjoy an awesome cabaret show. I'm sure it will give me a lot to write about!) In between, I'm hoping to get some thesis research done, catch up on the Glee episodes I missed while I was in Ecuador, and finish another chapter of the story I'm writing for my friend Emily about Neville Longbottom.
Enjoy your weekend!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
A short rant, but then I promise there's good stuff
Angry, angry, angry. News flash: I am not a child. I don't drink. I don't really understand the rules of football and basketball even after seven years of watching games. I don't always get the mature (read: vulgar) jokes right away. And I literally could not care less about March Madness. None of those things, however, in any way make me five years old. I am an adult. I don't need to be protected from stupid things people say. I don't need you to cover my ears when someone makes a dirty joke, even if I'm going to find it completely disgusting and unfunny. And guess what...I don't need to be informed that boys - particularly boys I know very, very well - get angry when their sports teams lose. I am tired of being treated like a baby.
Okay, moving on. I just had to get that out there.
Last week I was home for spring break, and it was the week of the musical at my high school, so the entire household revolved around the show. The production was Thoroughly Modern Millie, and what a fabulous show it was!! I got to see it several times, because I got permission to watch rehearsals for research for my project for my Dance in the Musical Theatre class, and it just got better and better and better. My sister was in the show, playing the role of Alice, one of Millie's friends, and also serving as an Ensemble member, Dance Captain, set and logo designer, and the understudy for Millie. My parents and I got to see her perform as Millie at one rehearsal, and I was so proud! Everyone else in the cast, crew, and orchestra made me proud too! I have a number of friends who were involved, including one of my best friends, Emily, who played the actual role of Millie, and she gave the performance of her life so far, which is definitely saying something! I think it might be the best show our school has done since we've been in the district, and that's even more impressive when you know that 90% of that success came from the kids and 8.5% of it came from the awesome parent volunteers, the orchestra director, and the choreographer. Suffice it to say the director is less than the ideal candidate for the job (since I don't need to get into another angry rant).
Other highlights of spring break were shopping with my mom, watching LOST with my friend Helen who was home for her break, and seeing Alice in Wonderland (the 3-D is totally not worth the extra cost!) and having other random adventures with my friend Carie who was also on break. But mostly, it was a week about Millie.
Alicia as Millie
Emily as Millie and Alicia in the brown wig and pink top directly to the left
Okay, moving on. I just had to get that out there.
Last week I was home for spring break, and it was the week of the musical at my high school, so the entire household revolved around the show. The production was Thoroughly Modern Millie, and what a fabulous show it was!! I got to see it several times, because I got permission to watch rehearsals for research for my project for my Dance in the Musical Theatre class, and it just got better and better and better. My sister was in the show, playing the role of Alice, one of Millie's friends, and also serving as an Ensemble member, Dance Captain, set and logo designer, and the understudy for Millie. My parents and I got to see her perform as Millie at one rehearsal, and I was so proud! Everyone else in the cast, crew, and orchestra made me proud too! I have a number of friends who were involved, including one of my best friends, Emily, who played the actual role of Millie, and she gave the performance of her life so far, which is definitely saying something! I think it might be the best show our school has done since we've been in the district, and that's even more impressive when you know that 90% of that success came from the kids and 8.5% of it came from the awesome parent volunteers, the orchestra director, and the choreographer. Suffice it to say the director is less than the ideal candidate for the job (since I don't need to get into another angry rant).
Other highlights of spring break were shopping with my mom, watching LOST with my friend Helen who was home for her break, and seeing Alice in Wonderland (the 3-D is totally not worth the extra cost!) and having other random adventures with my friend Carie who was also on break. But mostly, it was a week about Millie.
Alicia as Millie
Emily as Millie and Alicia in the brown wig and pink top directly to the left
Thursday, February 18, 2010
My best friends' wedding
I went to a wedding on Saturday. Two of my best friends from high school married each other. I cannot begin to express how weird that is for me.
Don't get me wrong; it was a beautiful wedding. I've known Tawni and Nate for years and I am so happy for them. I just feel really, really old! I also can't even fathom getting married at this point in my life. For that to happen, of course, I would first need to find a boy that was interested in me, something that seems unlikely, but that minor detail aside, I couldn't ever see myself getting married before about 25 anyways.
All of this has been so hard for me to process. For one, I'm barely used to the idea of Tawni and Nate being engaged. They dated for over a year in high school, but they broke up early in senior year and things were a bit awkward for a while. By the time we graduated everything was peachy keen, but they were just friends. They got back together last January, and they were engaged by Valentine's Day. I'm not sure I even knew they were dating again before Facebook told me they were engaged! They love each other so much, though, and I know God is guiding their lives, and I know they're going to be very happy together.
The other day in my Music in Film class we watched the opening sequence of The Sound of Music, and I was suddenly struck by a deluge of memories. Tawni and I became friends during our freshman year of high school, thanks largely to marching band and Spanish class, but one thing that really cemented our friendship was our school's production of The Sound of Music. We were both cast as nuns, so we spent a lot of time learning music together and then a lot of time playing cards and tossing a tennis ball around and generally goofing off when we weren't on stage. That all feels like it was only a year ago, two at most, but no...that was FIVE years ago! I've spent so many treasured times with Tawni in the last five-plus years, but I just can't figure out where any of that time went.
I've only known Nate since our junior year of high school, when he transferred from the local Christian school, but I have so many memories with him as well, mostly from our Drama Club adventures. At the wedding, when Nate stepped out in a white tux, I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I remembered our junior prom...Tawni's dress was white, so Nate was the only boy in our group wearing a white tux, and I can still hear Tawni's mom exclaiming, "Nate, you shine like a little angel!"
I don't like growing up. To be honest, I've never really liked it, but I suppose it's inevitable. There's not much else I can do, except reiterate how much I love Tawni and Nate and wait to see where God takes all of us next...
Tawni and me, The Sound of Music, 2004
Tawni and Nate, junior prom, 2006
Nate and me, graduation, 2007
Me, Tawni, Nate, and my sister Alicia, February 13, 2010
Don't get me wrong; it was a beautiful wedding. I've known Tawni and Nate for years and I am so happy for them. I just feel really, really old! I also can't even fathom getting married at this point in my life. For that to happen, of course, I would first need to find a boy that was interested in me, something that seems unlikely, but that minor detail aside, I couldn't ever see myself getting married before about 25 anyways.
All of this has been so hard for me to process. For one, I'm barely used to the idea of Tawni and Nate being engaged. They dated for over a year in high school, but they broke up early in senior year and things were a bit awkward for a while. By the time we graduated everything was peachy keen, but they were just friends. They got back together last January, and they were engaged by Valentine's Day. I'm not sure I even knew they were dating again before Facebook told me they were engaged! They love each other so much, though, and I know God is guiding their lives, and I know they're going to be very happy together.
The other day in my Music in Film class we watched the opening sequence of The Sound of Music, and I was suddenly struck by a deluge of memories. Tawni and I became friends during our freshman year of high school, thanks largely to marching band and Spanish class, but one thing that really cemented our friendship was our school's production of The Sound of Music. We were both cast as nuns, so we spent a lot of time learning music together and then a lot of time playing cards and tossing a tennis ball around and generally goofing off when we weren't on stage. That all feels like it was only a year ago, two at most, but no...that was FIVE years ago! I've spent so many treasured times with Tawni in the last five-plus years, but I just can't figure out where any of that time went.
I've only known Nate since our junior year of high school, when he transferred from the local Christian school, but I have so many memories with him as well, mostly from our Drama Club adventures. At the wedding, when Nate stepped out in a white tux, I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I remembered our junior prom...Tawni's dress was white, so Nate was the only boy in our group wearing a white tux, and I can still hear Tawni's mom exclaiming, "Nate, you shine like a little angel!"
I don't like growing up. To be honest, I've never really liked it, but I suppose it's inevitable. There's not much else I can do, except reiterate how much I love Tawni and Nate and wait to see where God takes all of us next...
Tawni and me, The Sound of Music, 2004
Tawni and Nate, junior prom, 2006
Nate and me, graduation, 2007
Me, Tawni, Nate, and my sister Alicia, February 13, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
I have awesome friends.
As always, I'm just full of things to talk about. My life is kind of ridiculous, but also ridiculously amazing.
I'll start off with the Crystal Ball last Saturday. I don't think I've had so much fun since LeakyCon. I cannot overstate how much I love the folks from hp-ohio. Save for my friend Jordan, whom I've know since eighth grade, I had never met anyone in the group more than once before last weekend, but I feel like I've known them all for years. I got to the beautiful castle grounds about 3 PM, and I went down to the event center to help finish up the decorating. Everything was blue and white and silver and gold, so beautiful and full of magic. Jenny, who was in charge of the ball this year, did such a fabulous job of planning everything. We had lots of fun going through the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, and I won the third task by finding where Scabbers was hidden, so I got to keep him! He's adorable, not a filthy, backstabbing traitor. Jenny and Philip taught everyone to waltz, which was a lot of fun. The food was just heavenly, and we danced the night away to a great mix of current pop, pieces from the movie soundtracks, wizard rock, and standard awesomeness like "Jump, Jive, and Wail" and "Thriller." After the ball was over we all went down to the pool house. The pool was supposed to be heated but it was actually freezing, so as many people as possible crowded into the hot tub and the sauna. I didn't have my swimsuit, so I just sat at the edge and dangled my feet in the hot tub. We finally went to bed around 3:30 in the morning. I was exhausted, but it was totally worth it. I can't wait to be able to see all the hp-ohio folks again!! If the weather cooperates, I'll be seeing some of them on Tuesday!
My second occasion to revel in my friends' awesomeness this week came on Tuesday, a very important day in human history. The final season of LOST premiered on television, and as always, I watched it with one of my best friends, Helen. She goes to Marietta College, which is a few hours away, so we always sit on AIM during the show and call each other at the commercial breaks. Helen was totally on fire this week! She called so many things before they happened and she came up with several extremely interesting theories. I'm not even going to go into a LOST discussion here because I'd wind up writing for hours, but I'll just say that this season is going to be every bit as insane and mind-blowing as we all anticipated. If you're looking for some good LOST discussion, you should check out this made-of-awesome blog.
My final instance of awesomeness this week was last night/early this morning. It was decided that a party was in order, so party we did. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I can't overstate how much I appreciate my friends making accommodations for me as far as alcohol is concerned. I hate alcohol. I've had sips of wine, of a mojito, and of margarita before, and even though they might have had other good flavors in them, I couldn't get over the taste of the alcohol. I can't even imagine drinking beer because it smells so awful to me. And even if I liked alcoholic things, I wouldn't be drinking at a party anyways because I'm only twenty. Call me a square, but I'm not a fan of breaking the law. Anyways, my friends made sure there was plenty of Dr. Pepper on hand for me, and they taught me to play beer pong with cups full of Dr. Pepper mixed in with the cups of beer, even though that kind of messes with the rules because I couldn't help drink the other team's leftovers when we lost. I surprised myself and everyone else by being more than halfway decent at the game, and I don't really think being sober gave me much of an advantage. I may be laying off the Dr. Pepper for a while, though, because between two rounds of beer pong and a game of kings, I drank well over a liter.
Yeah, my life is kind of ridiculous. Even so, I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)
I'll start off with the Crystal Ball last Saturday. I don't think I've had so much fun since LeakyCon. I cannot overstate how much I love the folks from hp-ohio. Save for my friend Jordan, whom I've know since eighth grade, I had never met anyone in the group more than once before last weekend, but I feel like I've known them all for years. I got to the beautiful castle grounds about 3 PM, and I went down to the event center to help finish up the decorating. Everything was blue and white and silver and gold, so beautiful and full of magic. Jenny, who was in charge of the ball this year, did such a fabulous job of planning everything. We had lots of fun going through the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, and I won the third task by finding where Scabbers was hidden, so I got to keep him! He's adorable, not a filthy, backstabbing traitor. Jenny and Philip taught everyone to waltz, which was a lot of fun. The food was just heavenly, and we danced the night away to a great mix of current pop, pieces from the movie soundtracks, wizard rock, and standard awesomeness like "Jump, Jive, and Wail" and "Thriller." After the ball was over we all went down to the pool house. The pool was supposed to be heated but it was actually freezing, so as many people as possible crowded into the hot tub and the sauna. I didn't have my swimsuit, so I just sat at the edge and dangled my feet in the hot tub. We finally went to bed around 3:30 in the morning. I was exhausted, but it was totally worth it. I can't wait to be able to see all the hp-ohio folks again!! If the weather cooperates, I'll be seeing some of them on Tuesday!
My second occasion to revel in my friends' awesomeness this week came on Tuesday, a very important day in human history. The final season of LOST premiered on television, and as always, I watched it with one of my best friends, Helen. She goes to Marietta College, which is a few hours away, so we always sit on AIM during the show and call each other at the commercial breaks. Helen was totally on fire this week! She called so many things before they happened and she came up with several extremely interesting theories. I'm not even going to go into a LOST discussion here because I'd wind up writing for hours, but I'll just say that this season is going to be every bit as insane and mind-blowing as we all anticipated. If you're looking for some good LOST discussion, you should check out this made-of-awesome blog.
My final instance of awesomeness this week was last night/early this morning. It was decided that a party was in order, so party we did. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I can't overstate how much I appreciate my friends making accommodations for me as far as alcohol is concerned. I hate alcohol. I've had sips of wine, of a mojito, and of margarita before, and even though they might have had other good flavors in them, I couldn't get over the taste of the alcohol. I can't even imagine drinking beer because it smells so awful to me. And even if I liked alcoholic things, I wouldn't be drinking at a party anyways because I'm only twenty. Call me a square, but I'm not a fan of breaking the law. Anyways, my friends made sure there was plenty of Dr. Pepper on hand for me, and they taught me to play beer pong with cups full of Dr. Pepper mixed in with the cups of beer, even though that kind of messes with the rules because I couldn't help drink the other team's leftovers when we lost. I surprised myself and everyone else by being more than halfway decent at the game, and I don't really think being sober gave me much of an advantage. I may be laying off the Dr. Pepper for a while, though, because between two rounds of beer pong and a game of kings, I drank well over a liter.
Yeah, my life is kind of ridiculous. Even so, I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)
Friday, January 29, 2010
Ice Skating and Awesomeness
[Insert standard complaints about Ohio winters here], because that's all anyone seems to be doing these days, and I sure wouldn't want to shake up the status quo. School is fine so far; nothing too terribly stressful has happened yet. As always, my friends and I are having lots of random adventures. R.J. has successfully converted Jamie, Pat, and me into fans of his favorite TV show, Leverage, so that has become a default part of our Wednesday nights. We've also somehow turned into semi-regular ice skaters.
Two weekends ago, we went ice skating on Saturday night with R.J.'s younger sister. She figure skated for many years, and R.J. played hockey when he was younger, so they're both pretty good. Jamie's a decent skater for someone who doesn't practice very often, and I thought I would be okay because, though I had only been skating two or three times and the last was when I was twelve, I used to be pretty good once I got the hang of it. I think Pat was really not excited to go, but he took one for the team. Once we actually got out on the ice, he managed to do pretty well. I did not. Ice skating was about a hundred times harder and scarier than it was when I was twelve!! The others deemed my skates weren't tied tightly enough, and it got a little easier after I re-laced them, but it was just really painful to my ankles and stressful. I fell five times, I think, and I didn't have very much fun.
Now don't think that was meant to be a sob story, because it continues. Every Thursday night the college sponsors a Mid-Night Madness (MNM) event from 11 PM to 1 AM, and this week it was ice skating. Jamie, Pat, and R.J. went ice skating again last weekend while I was at home, so they were all very excited to go with MNM. I was not. I kept saying I didn't want to be really sore for the ball I'm going to tomorrow (more on that in a bit), because last time my ankles and calves were on fire for about five days, but I also just didn't want to be so stressed out and scared again. The boys kept trying to change my mind, pointing out that I wouldn't get better if I didn't practice and it might not be so painful the second time around, and so I finally decided to go (at about 10:45 PM). And guess what...I had a lot of fun!! I didn't fall at all, and I managed to survive two collisions (other people running into me) in the space of ten seconds. I had the skates with snapping closures like ski boots rather than laces, and they were a lot more comfortable and supportive. I'm hardly sore at all, too. I don't often admit the boys are right about something, but they were right about this.
So ice skating was pretty awesome, but that pales in comparison to the most awesome thing that occurred recently. Last Saturday fan communities for LOST, Firefly, True Blood, The Wire, and Heroes joined the Harry Potter fan community raise money for Partners in Health, one of the organizations that is doing major relief work in Haiti. The event, Helping Haiti Heal, kicked off with a webcast that lasted for nearly six hours and featured MuggleCast and PotterCast, Hank Green, several wizard rockers, author Lev Grossman, the Harry Potter Alliance, and several celebrities, including Matt Lewis and Evanna Lynch from the Harry Potter movies. They managed to raise over $36,000 on Saturday alone!! I have never been so proud to be a member of the Harry Potter community!! Donations are being taken through tomorrow. If you donate at least $5, you can win fabulous prizes, including autographed memorabilia from Ghostbusters, a replica lightsaber, custom-made Harry Potter scarves and blankets, Nerdfighter and wizard rock CDs, and many, many autographed books, including a rare first edition of Looking for Alaska and an entire set of the Harry Potter books (donated by J.K. Rowling herself!). If you're interested in contributing, check out this link.
I'll wrap this up now by gushing about how excited I am for tomorrow night, when I'm going to hp-ohio's Crystal Ball to dance the night away in an incredible castle with friends both old and new, and how excited I am for Tuesday night, when the final season of LOST begins!!
Chipotle trips this year: 2
Two weekends ago, we went ice skating on Saturday night with R.J.'s younger sister. She figure skated for many years, and R.J. played hockey when he was younger, so they're both pretty good. Jamie's a decent skater for someone who doesn't practice very often, and I thought I would be okay because, though I had only been skating two or three times and the last was when I was twelve, I used to be pretty good once I got the hang of it. I think Pat was really not excited to go, but he took one for the team. Once we actually got out on the ice, he managed to do pretty well. I did not. Ice skating was about a hundred times harder and scarier than it was when I was twelve!! The others deemed my skates weren't tied tightly enough, and it got a little easier after I re-laced them, but it was just really painful to my ankles and stressful. I fell five times, I think, and I didn't have very much fun.
Now don't think that was meant to be a sob story, because it continues. Every Thursday night the college sponsors a Mid-Night Madness (MNM) event from 11 PM to 1 AM, and this week it was ice skating. Jamie, Pat, and R.J. went ice skating again last weekend while I was at home, so they were all very excited to go with MNM. I was not. I kept saying I didn't want to be really sore for the ball I'm going to tomorrow (more on that in a bit), because last time my ankles and calves were on fire for about five days, but I also just didn't want to be so stressed out and scared again. The boys kept trying to change my mind, pointing out that I wouldn't get better if I didn't practice and it might not be so painful the second time around, and so I finally decided to go (at about 10:45 PM). And guess what...I had a lot of fun!! I didn't fall at all, and I managed to survive two collisions (other people running into me) in the space of ten seconds. I had the skates with snapping closures like ski boots rather than laces, and they were a lot more comfortable and supportive. I'm hardly sore at all, too. I don't often admit the boys are right about something, but they were right about this.
So ice skating was pretty awesome, but that pales in comparison to the most awesome thing that occurred recently. Last Saturday fan communities for LOST, Firefly, True Blood, The Wire, and Heroes joined the Harry Potter fan community raise money for Partners in Health, one of the organizations that is doing major relief work in Haiti. The event, Helping Haiti Heal, kicked off with a webcast that lasted for nearly six hours and featured MuggleCast and PotterCast, Hank Green, several wizard rockers, author Lev Grossman, the Harry Potter Alliance, and several celebrities, including Matt Lewis and Evanna Lynch from the Harry Potter movies. They managed to raise over $36,000 on Saturday alone!! I have never been so proud to be a member of the Harry Potter community!! Donations are being taken through tomorrow. If you donate at least $5, you can win fabulous prizes, including autographed memorabilia from Ghostbusters, a replica lightsaber, custom-made Harry Potter scarves and blankets, Nerdfighter and wizard rock CDs, and many, many autographed books, including a rare first edition of Looking for Alaska and an entire set of the Harry Potter books (donated by J.K. Rowling herself!). If you're interested in contributing, check out this link.
I'll wrap this up now by gushing about how excited I am for tomorrow night, when I'm going to hp-ohio's Crystal Ball to dance the night away in an incredible castle with friends both old and new, and how excited I am for Tuesday night, when the final season of LOST begins!!
Chipotle trips this year: 2
Friday, January 15, 2010
Longest. First. Week. EVER.
Holy cow, thank God it's Friday!! As you might have guessed from the title of this post, this has been the longest first week of school of my life. College is weird because you kind of have two first weeks of school (at least if you're on semesters), but the first week in January is usually a little easier than the first week in August because most of your stuff is still at school and some of your extracurricular things are just carrying over from a month ago. I, however, had to move everything back into my dorm room on Sunday night, except for things that kind of belong to both me and my roommate Jamie, like the phone and the clothes drying rack and our mascot, a little animatronic dragon named Bernice. I got most of my things organized that night, but there are still a few little things like getting out my dishes that I'm procrastinating about.
Monday was an okay day; it was just long. I had three classes: Stagecraft, Spanish-American Civilization, and Dance in the Musical Theatre. Stagecraft is already a lot of fun, because the teacher is hilarious and I've already heard a lot of crazy stories about him because he's my friends' boss in the scene shop. Spanish-American Civ should be good because it's with the Spanish prof who's slightly less crazy, and my friend Lauren and I sit around and talk about how much we miss Ecuador before class and whenever we have downtime. Dance in the MT looks like it will be a very interesting class and I think I'm going to learn a lot. Most of the class is made up of Musical Theatre majors who are very loud and always talking, but I have four wonderful fellow Dance minors in there too. Monday night was full of adventures, like going to Shannon's house to get her puppy and bring him back to the Green Room, going to Giant Eagle to feed my friend R.J.'s chocolate milk obsession, and then making a Taco Bell run at 10:30 because Pat had just gotten back from his welding class in Cleveland and hadn't had dinner yet. Like I said, a loooooong day.
Tuesday was a nightmare. I somehow I woke up with an eyelash already in my eye, which was very painful. I went and suffered through First Aid and Safety Education at 8 A.M., but the eye was getting worse and worse and I eventually had to go to the Health Center. They poked around in my eye and finally determined that I hand managed to scratch my cornea. By this time I was barely able to make it back to my dorm. I couldn't open my eyes for more than a few seconds because blinking was so painful, so there was no way I could have gone to my afternoon classes. I literally sat or laid on my bed in the dark for almost eight solid hours before giving up and going to bed around 8 P.M.
Fortunately the eye got much better over night, and I was perfectly able to go to class (same schedule as Monday). Stress was relieved with Chipotle and various shenanigans at the Arts House, including watching the season premiere of Leverage, which is R.J.'s favorite TV show. I like it a lot, but it will have to go by the wayside when LOST comes back on in two weeks!!
Yesterday I finally got to go to my Tuesday/Thursday afternoon classes, Music in Film and Acting. The former is inherently awesome. Music and movies. Enough said. The latter is also going to be awesome, because I have some highly entertaining classmates and the professor is hilarious. We played a game in which two people had to crawl around on the floor with their eyes closed in search of a rolled-up magazine. When one of them found the magazine, he or she had to then try to find the other person and hit them with it while the rest of the class stood around and laughed.
Today has been fine, although Jamie and I are currently in charge of coming up with a Plan B for tonight's entertainment. We were going to go to the St. Ed's/St. Ignatius basketball game (Pat and R.J. went to high school at St. Ed's and St. Ignatius is their MAJOR rival), but it's apparently sold out. So who knows what mischief we'll get up to...
Chipotle trips this year: 2
(I stole this idea from Hayley G. Hoover, who has been counting her yearly burritos for a long time, but imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? And I'm counting "Chipotle trips" because I don't always get a burrito. I love Chipotle, but it's kind of a luxury for a poor college student who spends too much money on other essentials like books and CDs.)
Monday was an okay day; it was just long. I had three classes: Stagecraft, Spanish-American Civilization, and Dance in the Musical Theatre. Stagecraft is already a lot of fun, because the teacher is hilarious and I've already heard a lot of crazy stories about him because he's my friends' boss in the scene shop. Spanish-American Civ should be good because it's with the Spanish prof who's slightly less crazy, and my friend Lauren and I sit around and talk about how much we miss Ecuador before class and whenever we have downtime. Dance in the MT looks like it will be a very interesting class and I think I'm going to learn a lot. Most of the class is made up of Musical Theatre majors who are very loud and always talking, but I have four wonderful fellow Dance minors in there too. Monday night was full of adventures, like going to Shannon's house to get her puppy and bring him back to the Green Room, going to Giant Eagle to feed my friend R.J.'s chocolate milk obsession, and then making a Taco Bell run at 10:30 because Pat had just gotten back from his welding class in Cleveland and hadn't had dinner yet. Like I said, a loooooong day.
Tuesday was a nightmare. I somehow I woke up with an eyelash already in my eye, which was very painful. I went and suffered through First Aid and Safety Education at 8 A.M., but the eye was getting worse and worse and I eventually had to go to the Health Center. They poked around in my eye and finally determined that I hand managed to scratch my cornea. By this time I was barely able to make it back to my dorm. I couldn't open my eyes for more than a few seconds because blinking was so painful, so there was no way I could have gone to my afternoon classes. I literally sat or laid on my bed in the dark for almost eight solid hours before giving up and going to bed around 8 P.M.
Fortunately the eye got much better over night, and I was perfectly able to go to class (same schedule as Monday). Stress was relieved with Chipotle and various shenanigans at the Arts House, including watching the season premiere of Leverage, which is R.J.'s favorite TV show. I like it a lot, but it will have to go by the wayside when LOST comes back on in two weeks!!
Yesterday I finally got to go to my Tuesday/Thursday afternoon classes, Music in Film and Acting. The former is inherently awesome. Music and movies. Enough said. The latter is also going to be awesome, because I have some highly entertaining classmates and the professor is hilarious. We played a game in which two people had to crawl around on the floor with their eyes closed in search of a rolled-up magazine. When one of them found the magazine, he or she had to then try to find the other person and hit them with it while the rest of the class stood around and laughed.
Today has been fine, although Jamie and I are currently in charge of coming up with a Plan B for tonight's entertainment. We were going to go to the St. Ed's/St. Ignatius basketball game (Pat and R.J. went to high school at St. Ed's and St. Ignatius is their MAJOR rival), but it's apparently sold out. So who knows what mischief we'll get up to...
Chipotle trips this year: 2
(I stole this idea from Hayley G. Hoover, who has been counting her yearly burritos for a long time, but imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? And I'm counting "Chipotle trips" because I don't always get a burrito. I love Chipotle, but it's kind of a luxury for a poor college student who spends too much money on other essentials like books and CDs.)
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
2009 in review & looking forward to 2010, all on no sleep
It's quarter to eight in the morning and I am still on winter break, yet I am awake and typing. "Why is that?" you may be wondering. Well, it's because I woke up at 2:30 PM yesterday and haven't slept since. Every time I'm home for an extended period of time, my sleep schedule gets weirder and weirder, even though every time I'm home I promise myself I won't let that happen. So I stayed up all night and am going to try to stay up all day until I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.
What an auspicious way to start the new year. Or something like that.
I'm sure you've noticed, as I have, that lately everyone and their brother has been ranking the events of 2009 and giving excessive commentary about said events. 2009 was a very strange year in a lot of ways, and it definitely had some low points, but it was also a really great year for me. Therefore, I now present Madeline's Top Five Events of 2009.
5. Dance Concert 2009, my school's annual student dance showcase in February. A week prior to the show, I would never have imagined this event would make my list of top events. To make a long story short, the piece I was choreographing was very unfairly pulled from the concert nine days before it opened because one of my dancers felt that we weren't going to be ready in time, and rather than bringing her concerns to me, she went straight to the director, and rather than discussing the situation with me, the director just decided to pull it. I was devastated. While that part of Dance Concert is still a rather sore subject, it turned out well in the end, because I was offered the opportunity to assistant stage manage the show as a kind of consolation. I had never held a crew position before, and I wound up having a blast and making some really great friends, which leads me to...
4. As You Like It, which was the spring Shakespeare show. One of my roommates was the stage manager, and because I had had so much fun crewing Dance Concert and I had those new friends who encouraged me, I took my roomie's suggestion to crew AYLI. I wound up being the light board operator, and I again had a total blast. I got to push buttons, have fun conversations on headset, and get to know a lot of people better and make even more new friends.
3. Montreat Worship & Music Conference, which is hosted every year by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and is always one of the best events of the year. This was the best year out of the eight that I've attended, however, because the guest artists were members of Friends of the Groom, a Christian theater company based in Cincinnati. My church has performed about a dozen of their musicals and we've had the privilege of working with them at two retreats in years past. They brought so much to the Montreat experience this year, and I had the opportunity to take part in one of their pieces during a worship service. Also, I got the opportunity to go down a few days prior to the conference and spend some time with some good friends whom I rarely get to see.
2. Living in Ecuador for ten weeks with an incredible host family and amazing friends. I don't even know how to begin summarizing this in a few sentences, so see my last three months' worth of blogs for the big picture.
And finally, the most important event of 2009...
1. LeakyCon, the most life-changing four days I've ever experienced. In short, close to a thousand Harry Potter fans gathered in Boston to celebrate life, love, and our favorite books through music, art, writing, drama, discussion, and activism. That doesn't begin to cover it, however, so if you've never heard of LeakyCon, please check out this previous post.
Other awesome things that happened during 2009 included my discovery of the VlogBrothers on YouTube and my subsequent conversion to a citizen of Nerdfighteria, finally getting my driver's license (don't mock me, please), and finally, on the very last day of the year, attending my first hp-ohio event. hp-ohio is a group for adult Harry Potter fans who live in Ohio (or at least have a general association with someone who is somehow connected to Ohio), and I now have even more new friends whom I'm hoping to get to know much better in the near future.
So that was just a little bit of my 2009. The first few days of 2010 have been pretty great, because my friends Jamie, Pat, and R.J. came down on New Year's Day and I had a lot of fun showing off awesome things that central Ohio has to offer, like COSI and Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. This week is going to be extremely busy as I get ready to go back to school, but it should be an interesting semester. I'm very much looking forward to January 30, on which I am attending hp-ohio's annual Crystal Ball.
I usually suck at keeping my New Year's resolutions, so I'm going to refer to them as "goals" in an attempt to obscure the actual significance from myself. Therefore, my goals for the new year are:
1. To eat healthier, both in terms of what I eat and when I eat, and to actually take advantage of B-W's really great rec center that I pay for whether I use it or not.
2. To read 52 books this year. I know there will be some weeks in which I won't have any time to read aside from schoolwork, but I'm shooting for an average of a book per week.
3. To save money for LeakyCon 2011! I already have half of the minimum amount I'll probably need, which is a great thing, although I did just drop $160 for a ticket and hotel room for the Crystal Ball...but some sacrifices simply must be made.
4. Blog more often! Self-explanatory.
I'm going to go eat some breakfast now. Happy 2010 to you all!!
What an auspicious way to start the new year. Or something like that.
I'm sure you've noticed, as I have, that lately everyone and their brother has been ranking the events of 2009 and giving excessive commentary about said events. 2009 was a very strange year in a lot of ways, and it definitely had some low points, but it was also a really great year for me. Therefore, I now present Madeline's Top Five Events of 2009.
5. Dance Concert 2009, my school's annual student dance showcase in February. A week prior to the show, I would never have imagined this event would make my list of top events. To make a long story short, the piece I was choreographing was very unfairly pulled from the concert nine days before it opened because one of my dancers felt that we weren't going to be ready in time, and rather than bringing her concerns to me, she went straight to the director, and rather than discussing the situation with me, the director just decided to pull it. I was devastated. While that part of Dance Concert is still a rather sore subject, it turned out well in the end, because I was offered the opportunity to assistant stage manage the show as a kind of consolation. I had never held a crew position before, and I wound up having a blast and making some really great friends, which leads me to...
4. As You Like It, which was the spring Shakespeare show. One of my roommates was the stage manager, and because I had had so much fun crewing Dance Concert and I had those new friends who encouraged me, I took my roomie's suggestion to crew AYLI. I wound up being the light board operator, and I again had a total blast. I got to push buttons, have fun conversations on headset, and get to know a lot of people better and make even more new friends.
3. Montreat Worship & Music Conference, which is hosted every year by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and is always one of the best events of the year. This was the best year out of the eight that I've attended, however, because the guest artists were members of Friends of the Groom, a Christian theater company based in Cincinnati. My church has performed about a dozen of their musicals and we've had the privilege of working with them at two retreats in years past. They brought so much to the Montreat experience this year, and I had the opportunity to take part in one of their pieces during a worship service. Also, I got the opportunity to go down a few days prior to the conference and spend some time with some good friends whom I rarely get to see.
2. Living in Ecuador for ten weeks with an incredible host family and amazing friends. I don't even know how to begin summarizing this in a few sentences, so see my last three months' worth of blogs for the big picture.
And finally, the most important event of 2009...
1. LeakyCon, the most life-changing four days I've ever experienced. In short, close to a thousand Harry Potter fans gathered in Boston to celebrate life, love, and our favorite books through music, art, writing, drama, discussion, and activism. That doesn't begin to cover it, however, so if you've never heard of LeakyCon, please check out this previous post.
Other awesome things that happened during 2009 included my discovery of the VlogBrothers on YouTube and my subsequent conversion to a citizen of Nerdfighteria, finally getting my driver's license (don't mock me, please), and finally, on the very last day of the year, attending my first hp-ohio event. hp-ohio is a group for adult Harry Potter fans who live in Ohio (or at least have a general association with someone who is somehow connected to Ohio), and I now have even more new friends whom I'm hoping to get to know much better in the near future.
So that was just a little bit of my 2009. The first few days of 2010 have been pretty great, because my friends Jamie, Pat, and R.J. came down on New Year's Day and I had a lot of fun showing off awesome things that central Ohio has to offer, like COSI and Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. This week is going to be extremely busy as I get ready to go back to school, but it should be an interesting semester. I'm very much looking forward to January 30, on which I am attending hp-ohio's annual Crystal Ball.
I usually suck at keeping my New Year's resolutions, so I'm going to refer to them as "goals" in an attempt to obscure the actual significance from myself. Therefore, my goals for the new year are:
1. To eat healthier, both in terms of what I eat and when I eat, and to actually take advantage of B-W's really great rec center that I pay for whether I use it or not.
2. To read 52 books this year. I know there will be some weeks in which I won't have any time to read aside from schoolwork, but I'm shooting for an average of a book per week.
3. To save money for LeakyCon 2011! I already have half of the minimum amount I'll probably need, which is a great thing, although I did just drop $160 for a ticket and hotel room for the Crystal Ball...but some sacrifices simply must be made.
4. Blog more often! Self-explanatory.
I'm going to go eat some breakfast now. Happy 2010 to you all!!
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