To My Favorite DC Girl

We miss you Mey! SMC isn't the same without you. We love you so much and are so proud of you. Your California friends will always keep you in our hearts.

Week...4?

I think it's the 4th week of school. I always lose track around this point.

First day of fall! Cannot wait for the upcoming holidays. And I can't wait until september is finally over. I much prefer October. And November. And December.

Rehearsals are awesome. We're starting to block. And I'm so excited for Michael to continue building the set. This show should be fairly magical :)

Psych test Thursday. Yikes. There's so much material, I feel like I'm studying for a final. Looking forward to THAT being over.

Two Music in Performance events this weekend plus work on Sunday so my weekend will be nice a busy. Which is good I think because I desperately need distractions to keep me from fixating on the fact that Anna is leaving in less than 4 weeks and me freaking out isn't going to change the inevitable.

Time to Say Goodbye

This weekend has seemed like a dream. It was so surreal.

Anna and I have been planning for 2 weeks to surprise our campers (boarders at Catalina) as one last goodbye before she leaves for the peace corps. She flew in on Friday to San Jose and one of our other campers who lives in SF, Claire, and I drove down to pick her up. We then drove down to Monterey to stay at my house and we were joined by 4 other counselors. We spent Friday night making smores, taking thousands of pictures and videos, and plotting for the next morning. Anna and Meg stayed in the guest room while Brenna, Ivanna, Claire, and I stayed in my room. Ivanna fell asleep pretty quickly but Claire, Brenna, and I stayed up talking for awhile which I think Claire really enjoyed. We were able to hear about the tough transition high school has been for her and give her some of our advice to help her through it. It was a really nice bonding moment.

7 am came REALLY fast. Although we were dead tired, we piled into our cars and drove to Catalina, still dead quiet as it was 8 am by the time we reached campus. We first knocked on the door of our favorite/most incredible teacher who was also the assistant director of camp. Saw her amazing kids, filled her in on more of the details of our plan, and then we headed over to Thompson dorm. I had Anna's camera and I took the video of them sneaking over to the dorm. I guided them down the hallway to Katie and Caroline's room and captured their very shocked and amazed reactions as 7 of us piled into their room. We were greeted with similar reactions by the other rooms. Lots of hugging, laughing, and well screaming. We quickly became very unpopular with the other freshmen who did not know us and did not appreciate the noise at 8 am. We went down to the dining hall with the girls and it was just like camp all over again. Singing Edelwiess (in a round) at the top of our lungs, playing the clapping game that has become camp tradition, and general happiness and merriment. We eventually ended up at the dance studio and had the biggest most epic dance party of our lives. I absolutely loved it. The tears starting flowing when we eventually had to leave-they nearly didn't let Anna leave. But we got back into our cars and Anna, Claire, and I drove up to SF. Ivanna and Brenna would join us soon. We drove to Orinda, BARTed into the city (anna's first experience-very exciting) and took the cable car to Claire's completely adorable flat. She lives right across from a wonderful park and next to the magnificent Grace Cathedral. We spent awhile walking around, playing in the park, taking pictures by the chapel...so much fun. We eventually were met by Ivanna and Brenna and had dinner. We walked across almost the entire city the end of the day and were completely exhausted but completely content with life. Anna returned to SMC with me where she met my suitemates as well as Liam and Danielle. I gave her a campus tour, showing her everything that was important to me at school. Eventually it was time to take her back to the airport and although I was sad, I was distracted and happy enough that it wasn't a sad goodbye. More of a "I love you see you in 2 years" kind of goodbye.

The tears didn't start until about an hour ago. Suddenly I am completely overwhelmed by the fact that I won't see her for over 2 years and there is a possibility of her getting killed. She's going to Niger, the poorest country in the world and also a center of violence at times. This realization is starting to settle in and I am so scared I can hardly express it. I've never been so fearful for someone's life before nor had so little control over the situation. Our only communication will be letters. If something happens to her...well...I'm not going to be the first to know about it. And it's scary knowing she will be alone and scared at times and that there is a possibility of her getting hurt or worse, killed, and I won't know about it. I'm saying a million prayers and hoping that Anna has both the time of her life and comes back happy, healthy, and rejuvenated. I must be brave.

Dear God...please bring her back safely. She has to come back. We love her too much.

Exciting Moments

Liam's dad came to speak at rehearsal last night about his experience of the AIDS crisis when he and his wife were students at UCLA and volunteered their time to take care of AIDS patient. What a remarkable night. I don't think any of us lost interest in the hour he spent talking to us. It was a really powerful speech that left an impact.

I have an extremely exciting weekend coming up but in case people that this affects read my blog, I cannot go into detail until it's over. All I can say is...it's going to make some girls extraordinarily happy.

Btw. GRE? AHHHHH. Gotta start thinking about that. Thought I was past those freaking standardized tests and suddenly I was reminded that in order to get into my dream school...I really have to do well. Damn.

Redefining Words

Tonight's rehearsal really had an impact on me. As we had finally finished reading the entire play (a 6 hour feat), discussions and analyzations were finally in full swing. And as we were discussing specific elements of the characters, one cast member brought up the idea of "coming out" out of the context of being gay. She referenced coming out with a certain political affiliation or religious beliefs and suddenly, the play was directly relevant to my life. Reid asked the group what the political demographic of the theatre community tended to lean towards and nearly everyone automatically said liberal or democrat. He then mentioned that some people in the group might be Republican...which alarmed several cast members. And that really resonated with me. I'd never really thought that I was "hiding" the fact that I'm conservative...I just opt to not bring it up with general company because I'm not knowledgeable nor willing enough to debate my ideologies with some of the most passionate people on the planet who will make attempts to shoot me down. But now I think of it in a whole different context. And although I will still not vocalize my political views (I honestly hate discussing politics as it tends to pull my closest people apart), it's giving me something to think about.

Angels. Literal and Figurative.

It is officially week 3 of school at St. Mary's. My classes are still going well. Can I just state for the record that I truly love being a theatre major? I recently sat down and re-planned out my class schedule from now until I graduate. Not such a scary thing when you're a freshman but when you're suddenly down to 3.5 semesters left...it's a bit nervewracking. Suddenly I feel like I'm back in high school, trying to figure out where I'm applying to college. I already know where I'm applying to grad school and I know where I want to go. And when I'm ready to tell people I will. But it's extremely overwhelming trying to figure out how I'm going to visit, when I'm going to visit, what conventions I should attend, should I attend ACTF this year, am I willing to miss school to attend these, do I have the money, etc etc etc. However I do not have time to dwell on this because my heart currently belongs to a beautiful production of Angels in America. I'm like one of those moms who thinks her kid is the best thing in the world. Obviously she's biased as she produced this kid. But whatever. This production of Angels is going to be incredible and I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise. The joy I have being surrounded by some of my closest friends and being able to share this experience with them is indescribable. They are fully committed to their roles and it's actually heartwrenching to watch some of the scenes--and that's just the table reading. I have no doubt that once we get this production up on its feet it will tear our hearts out and make us even closer as a company. The amount of love, care, and respect we have for each other is incredible and I couldn't ask for anything more.

School Updates

I am officially back at school and settling into my regular routine. Back at school for less than a week and I'm settling into my typical routine. Classes, rehearsal, work, repeat. I am loving my classes. Auditions for Angels in America were today and callbacks are tomorrow and Saturday. Rehearsals start on Tuesday. I started my new job and the little girl is very sweet. It's been 90-100 degrees since Monday so I am definitely getting my fill of warm weather. My absolute favorite part of the day is dusk when it is wonderfully warm and I feel the most content. 3 day weekend coming up--can't wait!

Love to the Catalina girls--congrats on surviving your first week and I am proud of you for your auditions and try outs!