Thursday, January 27, 2011

My Greatest Days

My greatest days aren't marked with expensive treats, wild adventures, or mass quantities of people. Nope, my best memories are often the every day moments that stick with you. Spent with people I love. Today was just your average day but it was incredible. Dance class, lunch. Danielle and I napped while Kathleen was at a theater meeting. Then we just hung out. By this point in our lives, we are delirious and ridiculous nearly all day long which makes any moment with us fairly entertaining. We planned weddings. We laughed a lot. We fell over a few times. Watched some funny youtube videos. And we just had a really good time. We also attended the Jan Term show tonight, Snow White, which was INCREDIBLE. Absolutely loved it! I'm so glad I didn't work on it because I really appreciated the magic moments and the extremely witty dialogue. Mel's Diner afterwards with the 4 of us, as always. Watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off when I got back to my room and am FINALLY seeing the light at the end of the tunnel it terms of finishing the production book!

These happy days are yours and mine xoxo

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Make You Feel My Love

Tonight's blog is dedicated to my daddy.

I went back to watch the dvd of Thoroughly Modern Millie last night. This was my senior show and although I didn't love it at the time, watching the dvd definitely brings back the best moments. They film our closing night which for the spring show means they capture some beautiful Father-Daughter Weekend memories. Watching us sing to our dads and then to see them sing to us still brings tears to my eyes.

You can see how proud my dad is when he is up on that stage, singing with the rest of the dads. He has always believed in me. No matter where I am in my life, he's my constant support. I've gotten my best life advice from him. Every morning on the way to school I used to get lectures. But they weren't boring or threatening; they were full of wisdom and advice that I still hold close to my heart. We may not always agree but we are always respectful. He's my best friend and I'm proud to be his little girl.

He and my mom didn't want children. But once he really understand the closeness between my mom and her dad, he wanted that too. He's taught me so much about life. He didn't have the most inspiring childhood but what he's done with his life after that is remarkable to me. Leaving home at a young age to move across the country, from Georgia to California. Had a few jobs before landing as a carpenter, building beautiful houses. This is where he got most of the skills that, to me, make him my daddy. He changed careers when I was a baby and decided to go into the mortgage business, a huge risk since he had virtually no experience. But he built us a beautiful life.

In my mind, he can do wrong. He can build, fix, imagine, and create anything. He's the one who took me shopping and did my hair. He knows what I will like before I even realize it. He's wise and kind and congenial. We are so similar yet never admit it.

He's always here for me. He always pushes me to go above and beyond my wildest dreams. He gives me confidence. And I know this will never change.

Thank you for being the best dad in the entire world. I'm proud to be your girl.

Reminiscing

Tonight is dedicated to Catalina. Here is a list of my greatest memories at one of the greatest places on earth

-Seeing my first show. Something's Afoot. One of the best pieces of theatre I've ever witnessed. Those girls were and still are my heros.
-Visiting for the first time. I wanted to do what all the other girls in my class were doing and go to Notre Dame but my parents insisted I visit Catalina. From that first day, I knew that was where I belonged. My tour guide had been in the show (the butler) and that also happened to be the day the cast for Alice in Wonderland was posted and the first day of winter uniforms. Went to Mrs. delaLata's sophomore english class and was reacquainted with her. I had grown up with her daughter Camila but hadn't seen either of them in years.
-Getting my acceptance letter, standing in my kitchen. Literally, it exploded with glitter.
-Seeing Bye Bye Birdie. Changed my life. Inspired me to do theatre. I will always hold that show in my heart.
-First day of classes. Scared to death to even enter study hall. I only knew two people from middle school. But seeing my desk covered with notes from my senior big sisters made me feel so much better.
-Signing up for tech
-Doing tech every day. Worshipping the ground the techies walked on
-Good News, my first show. Scene shifts, hanging out backstage, the scene shift when I was onstage in the light for like 30 seconds was the BIGGEST deal. Thinking the seniors were the best people in the entire world
-Meeting Anna :) I officially met her when I was working on geometry homework in the theatre and she stopped to introduce herself. While wearing her padded body suit because she was the lead in the show, a football star
-My first Shakespeare Festival
-Tech slowly taking over my life and loving every single minute of it
-Assembly every day. First rows, freshman. Then juniors. Then sophomores. Then seniors. When it was cheering time, the freshman cheered with the juniors and sophomores with the seniors. The juniors got a new cheer every year while the seniors kept theirs every year. No one knew when the cheer was going to happen until the seniors got up on their desks.
-Ring sister cheer.
-Birthday announcements. So much awkwardness and so much love
-Hanging out on the front lawn during free periods
-Checking email in the library as many times a day as possible
-Meeting new people in classes
-Sleeping over in the dorms and discovering that amazing life
-RING WEEK. Can't say enough about that.
-My ring week and ring dinner. As a junior, it felt incredible. As a senior, I was incredibly sick. But I was there!
-Prize Days
-Class Night Dinners
-Crying at class night, knowing how much everyone meant to me
-Singing songs we wrote at class night to our class, to the seniors, to our ring sisters
-Visiting teachers in their offices at every possible moment
-Oder snack once you reached junior year
-Being terrified of Mr. Oder as an underclassmen and loving him with all your heart by the time you got him as a teacher
-Ms. Guido being an incredible mentor
-Chemistry, Marine Bio, and Biology with Martha and Maria.
-Inside jokes with people mentioned above
-Meeting my 6 incredible sophomores and spending all my time with them
-Father-Daughter weekends. Dinner off campus in a group on Friday. Dinner on campus on Saturday in study hall. Standing in the receiving line to greet Sister Claire and Dr. Murphy, rushing through dinner because we had the show that night. My mom coming to all of them because she loved it so much. Singing the song Barney wrote to our dads. And senior year, putting up my display for my daddy and having our pictures in the slideshow. Dads singing to us and giving us our roses as seniors.
-The happiness that surrounded Shakespeare festival. By some good fortune, it was always sunny that day. I always felt important because I knew how to run the tech.
-Playing a song for Anna in the recital hall before she graduated
-My birthday announcements. Especially when Anna went up my sophomore year
-Anna's 18th Birthday. This is a quote I said that we still live by "No matter how far apart we are, I will always be your little sister". This has played out so many times over the years.
-Closing night of Once Upon a Mattress, saying goodbye to Anna's class whom I felt a special bond with. When Caitlin Harris said her famous quote about the Catalina theatre
-Going to the PAC for events. Front section, seniors. Behind them, freshmen. In the right section, juniors. In the left hand section, sophomores.
-Candelight Mass. So beautiful.
-Circle before every show
-Senior speeches. We cried so hard when the seniors left but when it was our time, we were okay. It was through this that I discovered it is much harder to be left than to be the one leaving
-Going to Ashland Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival two years in a row with the amazing Hunt family
-California State Thespian Festival Sophomore year
-Cake auctions/spirit day. Shortened classes, junior-senior kickball (or football) game. Cheers done by the freshman and sophomore classes. The senior-junior rivalry. Amazing cakes. THE RING CAKE. And how my class accidentally bought it our sophomore year
-Jodie Blanco. Possibly the worst speaker in history.
-The Yale Spizzwinks coming to sing my sophomore year
-Babies born every year
-Senior rafting trip
-Thinking the upperclassmen were the greatest people on earth. And for the most part, that is true
-Making crepes for National French Week
-Playing cards in study hall on the stage
-Working the Ecco/Accent concerts. What talented actors and singers we had...
-Stage Managing my first show. And keep going after that
-Mentoring younger tech students
-Hanging out on senior deck
-Driving to school by myself
-Having breakfast on campus every morning
-The amazing food
-First lunch and second lunch. And 5th free was the most amazing experience ever
-7th period free and being able to leave early if you could
-Desk assemblies. Picture 260 girls carring old fashioned hinge topped desks out of a large room and lining them in hallways and classrooms
-All the hugs
-Finding my place
-All the friendships I made
-Yearbook dinner. Running up the dorms to sign yearbooks
-The wonderful feeling once finals are over. Waiting in anticipation when it seemed like EVERY row but yours was being excused
-Graduations. The tears and the joy and the pride. How much we had accomplished...it is remarkable

Monday, January 24, 2011

Last Week of Jan Term?

Well that certainly flew by. Suddenly we are in our final week of Jan Term. I'm as stressed as ever but I get to go home on Friday for 4.5 days :)

I wrote a screenplay yesterday. Yep, the same one I'd been complaining and stressing about since the first day of class. And somehow, it turned out pretty well.

We (by we I mean Linda and me) have decided that Yale is The school for me. It's a scary idea, knowing how difficult it's going to be to get in and it won't be a piece of cake if I go there. It will be far from home. It will mean embarking on a brand new, totally terrifying adventure. But if that's where I'm meant to go, then that's what will happen. I just have to trust that it will be okay. And that it will be the first step to achieving my goal. And I have friends on the east coast. Fiona's even in Connecticut, less than an hour away.

So I may be stressed and overwhelmed now. But if I want to win this stage management competition and get into the top theatre grad school in the country...I gotta suck it up and get through it.


:)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Well that was fun

My night should have been much more productive than it was. All I will say is a party at my suite got crazy and I literally went to the theatre to get ready for bed. My bathroom is uninhabitable at the moment.

Performing Arts Scholarship Auditions in the morning, working 9:00-4:00, then off to the church until 8:00. Long day.

Not in a great mood. Suddenly I am extremely overwhelmed with how much has to be completed in the next week. Jan Term flew by. I have a 5 page paper due Tuesday, 10 page screenplay due Friday (which was just explained today. i do not have a concrete concept yet nor much of an idea how to write it since we didn't discuss screenplay writing methods in class at all), along with the regular class readings. On top of that I am continuing to perfect my production book which is taking at least 2-3 hours a night and dealing with both Angels and SERA rehearsals. Plus work. Needless to say, I'm just a bit stressed.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I'm Disgruntled

*Dedicated to Anna Hunt, who needs to really read this and listen to what I am saying :D
xoxoxox


The problem with society (or, to be more specific, youth culture) is that adolescents are so focused on creating an image for themselves that they can't recognize their actual beauty. Being in middle school is hard. Being 11 is even harder. Not only are you suddenly facing a new school system with 6+ classes and teachers, you are desperately trying to figure out who you are as a person and the only way you know how is to compare yourself to others. Not to mention that whole puberty thing. Because everyone develops at different rates (yours truly developed very early. and it basically ruined my life. ok that's an exaggeration but it was difficult relating to my peers), friendships tend to change and attitudes start to make their appearances. Suddenly being "cool" is the new thing. Everyone wants to appear grown up and mature and act like they have a handle on their lives when really, they are just as scared as the next person. Although it's not easy being the kid looking in on what appears to be a flawless life, these "popular" kids have just as many anxieties as the rest. They just hide it behind their clothes, their makeup, their friendships, their relationships, their accessories. Even so, it's hard to be the kid who feels like she doesn't fit in with her peers simply because they are developing at different rates. You feel isolated and sometimes even ostracized, especially if close friends are changing and you simply don't fit with them anymore. It's nothing that either of you did on purpose, it's just part of life. Even so it can be heartbreaking.
I was that kid in middle school, not gonna lie. When I was 11, everything was against me. Glasses, braces, acne, zero fashion sense, out of control hair, and to top it off, I carried around about 4-5 bags everyday because I couldn't combine anything. I looked like a walking nightmare. I was also at a new school in a new school district where most of the kids had been in school together since elementary school. I felt like "the new kid" the whole time I was there. I desperately wanted a boy to like me, to look nice, to have a solid group of friends. I did find solace in my best friend, Gaby, who I met in 7th grade and I was in the concert band. But I envied the popular girls who had perfect hair and clothes, didn't seem to have any flaws, and naturally knew how to interact with boys. I wanted that more than I could admit. But middle school is a time for discovery. I found out a lot about myself. It took me until years later to realize that
1. Those weren't the kinds of boys I should be hanging around with anyway
2. I was a nicer person than most of those girls
3. I was trying to find my passion in life while they were content to find the perfect outfit and flirt with our classmates
4. It wasn't that I was less mature than my classmates, I just didn't have any interest in acting young. I was what can be classified as an "old soul". I wanted to be an adult. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself with the boys, I wanted a relationship. And I didn't want to spend my time on frivolous activities, I wanted to find a career.
And since when does having a boyfriend deem you mature? In my opinion, some of the most obnoxious, immature people I've met are those who make themselves crazy over a relationship.

My point is, middle school does not last forever. High school is when the big changes came. I learned how to conduct myself with elegance and poise, I made great, lasting friendships, I found clothing and hair styles that better suited me, and I discovered that being cool had nothing to do with who I am as a person. It wasn't a complete turn around; I wasn't "cool" in high school either but I was respected and I loved what I did. I loved having a responsibility to the theatre, I loved the people I met and their influence on me, I loved the experiences I gained. Middle school was a great learning experience and I'm actually glad I had the experience I did because I'm able to relate to young girls who don't feel like they fit in when actually, they are destined for something bigger. 3 years will eventually fly by and high school will be the best thing that ever hit you compared to those years.

And I can tell you...it's worth the wait :)

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Bedtime?

It is 11:36. I have spent my time since 8 pm unpacking, cleaning, and writing a paper on the decalogue. It is not finished. However I am about to tackle the Thou Shalt Not Murder commandment and I'm going to need sleep before I take on that adventure.

Home was wonderful. I truly loved it. Now I'm back for two more weeks (TWO WEEKS. WHERE IS JAN TERM GOING???), home again, back up here for Angels remount, competition, and spring semester.

Yikes. Time does fly.


Also. Any grad school input would be excellent! I'm applying to UCI, UCSD, Cal Arts, Columbia, and Yale for an MFA in Stage Management. I'm excited, scared, overwhelmed, and...AHHHHHH. Yep that about covers it.