Snow

It snowed this morning. I was so excited. I stepped out of class and saw the beautiful, tiny flakes falling from the sky. Megan texted me, "It's snowing!" and I felt like dancing. Snow is one of the most gorgeous natural wonders in this world. The absolute purity of it and how it seems to transform everything into a cake with icing on it astounds me.

That picture is from last winter. I can't wait for everything to look like that again. It's a great season, really, winter. There's Christmas and New Years and my birthday and everyone is so cheerful. It's a time for everyone to take the time to recognize how much everyone means to them as they proceed into another section of their life. It's just as transforming as that snow on the trees.

I hope you jump for joy as the snow falls wherever you are. Just curl up in the warmth of your home with some hot chocolate and good music and watch the snow gather outside. It's a good start to the winter.

Peace out!

Did You Have a Good Thanksgiving?

I'm back in burly world! Back to the land of internet, TV, homelessness (as Megan just pointed out to me), noise, and class. Oh boy. The good news is I drove here so that was fun. I didn't kill anybody either. Joe was pretty scared, but I think after awhile he relaxed. The thing about my driving is I'm not really defensive, I just play it safe. That sort of sounds like a metaphor for my life. Kind of funny when you think about it.

Seriously...how was your Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty low-key. I actually cooked the dinner this Thanksgiving. My mom had to go in for surgery on Tuesday, the same day I came home so she wasn't able to. She fine now, by the way, and she seems to be healing pretty well. I just get nervous.

I was pretty proud of how well I was able to get everything together. My dad and I worked on Wednesday to prepare everything to be cooked on Thanksgiving day. I peeled the potatoes, baked a pumpkin pie, and cooked the stuffing. My dad washed the dishes. I guess he didn't really want to get his hands dirty.

Thanksgiving was a day where I got to pull out my inner Julia Child and rock out the home cooked meal thing. It was good too. Everything came together perfectly. The turkey was juicy, the potatoes creamy, the pumpkin pie spicy yet sweet, the squash yummy, and the gravy full of fat. Yep, the perfect Thanksgiving. Megan and I were also able to pull off our plan of bringing Velvet Thanksgiving. We weren't able to bring her to Lyndonville because Megan's gram didn't want us pulling off two trips to Burlington but we brought her a whole bunch of yummy Turkey Day food.

A good day. A good vacation. Now we're back.

Peace out!

Happy Thanksgiving

I danced the Single Ladies dance in my theater professor's living room Sunday night at our cast party. Our show finished its run this weekend which means the end of the rehearsals, the tech rehearsals, the dress rehearsals, and the last minute rehearsal calls (did I mention rehearsal?). Wow...what am I going to do with my time? Go to rehearsal! After Thanksgiving break (I leave tonight!), Music Makers is rehearsing for its concert, a concert I am to be a part of. Exciting things are in the works for the end of the semester and I can't wait to get involved!

This break is going to absolutely fantastic though. I can't wait to go home, see my kittens, and eat REAL FOOD! Also, sleeping in everyday is going to be amazing!

The only qualms I have with the whole thing are the facts that at my house there is no TV because my dad refuses to put our antenna back up on the newly finished roof and there is no internet because my mom refuses to have it. I can't win. So for five days there will be no status updates, no tweets, and no blog posts....sad....but I hope we can all take this time to spend with our family and friends. It's Thanksgiving, let's be thankful.

Plus...Megan's bringing Velvet back to Lyndonville to have Thanksgiving with us because Velvet doesn't have the means to get home for this break. So we decided (well, mostly Megan decided) that we're going to give Velvet a good (home-country!) Thanksgiving. I think Velvet deserves that.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Peace out!

This Really Happened

One of the funniest experiences happened to me today. My roommate Joe and I were walking down the sidewalk in the central campus of UVM today. We were talking about the name of the main character in Assassin's Creed 2, the awesome new video game Joe just got and has been playing religiously (for lack of a better word). His name is Eccio, and I thought it sounded a lot like the word Accio, the summoning spell from Harry Potter (SEE BLOG ENTRY: I'm A Nerd).

So then Joe and I began naming off random Harry Potter spells. I believe I won with Avada Kedavra, the killing charm. This then reminded me of the end of the seventh and final Harry Potter book. Here is the account of what happened:

SPOILER ALERT!

ME: I don't know, I think the end of the seventh book was kind of anti-climatic when Harry killed Voldemort. I mean, it was just, "Avada Kedavra, Expelliarmus!" Dead.
JOE: Yeah...
RANDOM GUY BEHIND US: What!? Harry kills Voldemort?!?!
ME: Umm...yeah...
RANDOM GUY BEHIND US: Watch where you fucking say shit like that!
ME: Okay...

Yeah, so neither of us could believe that that just happened to us. I mean, read a book. I think the guy was just messing with us, but still...It was hilarious anyway. One of the best moments ever.

Also what happened today...I registered for classes! That was very stressful and I have been basically forced to take 17 credits this semester because the only class I could only take was the spanish class which is a four credit class on top of the 4 credit theater lab I got (YAY!). But I guess I can handle it all. I am going to keep checking in and see if anything else opens, because it's kind of ridiculous. I have to replace it with something because otherwise I'm not going to have enough credits, but as of now, nothing is open. Awesome.

Peace out!

Dobra Tea

Okay, I'm going to put it im simple terms: if you are physically able to, go to Dobra Tea. This place rocks! Tonight, Megan and I decided we wanted to go on a sibling date, and I was paying because I owe Megan a lot for all the times I mooched off her in high school. Now that I'm rolling in bank, it's my turn to treat her. So I decided to take her to Dobra Tea. I had heard a lot about this place from tons of people, and I had seen the outside and heard lingering Buddhist awesome soothing music coming from the front door, but now I wanted us to experience the awesome ourselves.

We entered the Dobra Tea with high hopes. I mean, how can you go wrong with awesome loose-leaf tea and Buddhist asian atmosphere? You can't. So, we were seated in the back on this platform with pillows and a small low-sitting table in the middle with a solitary candle providing a beautiful aura (yeah, I'm getting fancy now). We ordered a Chinese green tea (I can't pronounce/remember the name), a Jerusalem pita (basically middle eastern fried dough but with a pita), and Czech honeybread (really good!). It was a delicious and enlightening experience.

And now onto something BIG...registration is tomorrow. I'm scared and nervous. It's so hard for a freshman to get into ANYTHING so this should be interesting especially because all of the classes I want are filling up. I have already had to come up with like four backups because all of these classes are being filled. It's ridiculous. I have learned a couple of things from some helpful theater kids though:

1) The system may crash halfway through registration (why are
there no freshmen?)

2) I need a backup for my backups for my backups (great...)

So it's pretty scary. Wish me luck!

Peace out!

Nightmare

I had a nightmare last night. It was about the end of the semester and I was going home for Christmas break. I had to go back there. Back to the sweaty, greasy, shitfilled hell of despair and torment that was my workplace. McDonald's. Yes, I work at McDonald's. It's a job, OK? Don't judge me!

Anyway, in my nightmare I went to the back and told my boss that I was available for all of Christmas break (Which is what I'm planning on doing at this time in the real world, not the dream world), and that was when my boss nodded his head and wrote on a piece of paper my hours for the next day (Mind you, he didn't speak this whole time, it was very weird. The only time he did say something was when he said hi to me. Weird.) and I saw them: 6:30 am-9:30 pm. I woke up in a cold sweat. I'm not kidding, this really happened last night.

Needless to say, it was one of the scariest moments of my life. I like the fact that working gives me my own money to spend and save, and it has helped me to build a pretty solid account, one that I'm proud of. I like my newfound financial freedom, even though I've found that I'm pretty stingy. I don't like where I work. At all. Not only is it usually 105 degrees in the grill where I work, but I also have to watch out because one of the drug dealers that works there might just shank me to steal my cell phone and sell it for cocaine. It's a scary workplace and I don't think I was built for it. But alas, here I am.

Christmas break is going to be pretty crappy with all of this, but it's nothing I can't handle. And I'll have the next semester to look forward to. Summer is going to be awesome, however because not only am I going to be working and making money, but I'm also going to be a leading role in a musical over the summer. This theater company that I have worked with before in Derby, VT wants to cast me as the lead. SCORE! I'm pretty excited to actually give my boss availabilities for once. I have a life! I won't be a slave to the man!

Hells yeah!

Peace out!

Jake's Weekend

This was an interesting weekend. So many things happened that I think I may have to delve into my planner to remember all the exact details so I can relay them to you, the blogsphere. For starters, Jake came over Friday afternoon. As I said before, Jake and I have been friends for a long time. It all started when Jake saved me from a bully (at least that's how we think the story goes). Jake and I live about two houses away from each other in the wonderful world of Lyndonville, and we have basically stayed together our whole lives. We rock. Basically. In high school, we made these movies called The Woods Conspiracy. They rock too.So anyway, between my three performances this weekend my roommate Joe and I hung out with Jake. A lot of that hanging out was centered around food. We went to Al's French Fries, went to Ben and Jerry's, ordered pizza, ate at the dining hall, etc. We had a really good time. It was awesome to have Jake here seeing how it's been FOREVER since we had seen each other. Also, a highlight of this weekend was POOL. The game, not the water fun place. We all basically kicked ass at pool at weekend. It was epic.

Now I come to today and my Godspell audition. I didn't get in. I didn't even get a callback. I thought I'd at least get a callback. Oh well. In an effort to try and make myself feel better about the matter, here are the reasons why this could be a good thing:

1. I can take the musical theater class! This is a very good thing. I am happy about this.

2. I can still be involved with tech crew by taking the scenery design class and building the set.

3. I can go to music makers!!!

4. I can make plans and not have to worry about rehearsals

5. There's always GLEE and next semester...LOST!

So all's well that ends well!

Peace out!

Anticipation

Anticipation is one of those emotions that makes you giddy and want to jump around like a little school girl. It also can be damaging, but we won't go there. What I want to talk about is the good kind of anticipation: the anticipation of a vistor, the anticipation of performing, and the anticipation of work (although that one isn't really as good).

This afternoon, my best friend Jake is coming over to hang out this weekend. Jake and I go way back. I think it was second grade we met and we've been friends ever since. Jake is awesome and I can't wait to see him because it's been a pretty long time since the last time we saw each other. He goes to Castleton State College and he is a technical theater major (lighting design, pretty awesome, why are we all not involved in theater?). I just hope we find some stuff to do, but it's going to be hard seeing how much I have to do this weekend with performances and such.

How about those performances? With opening night last night, we are beginning a ten performance run (I'm pretty sure it's ten, haven't done an official count) for two weekends. I'm stoked. It's so much fun performing in this theater because it's a black box, not what I'm attuned to. Also this Sunday are auditions to be in the musical Godspell. I'm really nervous because I have to sing and this theater hasn't really heard me sing yet. It's nerve racking. But I am going to sing "Purpose" from Avenue Q so that makes it worthwhile.

Along with the performances, and Jake coming over I also have to deal with all this work coming at me before Thanksgiving break. I have a test, a project due, a paper to write...yeah. It's okay, though, I got this!

The biggest anticipation I think I have right now is for Thanksgiving break. I can't wait to go home and eat FOOD! Real food, not the crap they serve here.

Well, right now I'm anticipating my laundry to be coming out of the dryer. Better go handle that.

Peace out!

I'm a Nerd

So I think it's official and everyone knows: I'm a nerd. It's totally true. I can quote Star Wars, I can spell Lando Calrissian, I know the titles to almost every episode of Lost, I wear glasses, I dress like a prep, and my hair is just...weird. But the thing I want to know is why every theater teacher/director I've ever known wants to highlight the fact that I am a nerd.

Jesse Culp: I got beat up on stage as a chorus member.

Erin Galligan: Where do I start? Henry in The Rememberer, Charlie Brown (!), Horton the Elephant, and John Jr. in The American Crisis. Erin did give me a chance, though. She cast me as Aaron McKinney, the murderer in The Laramie Project. She also cast me as Stephen Mead Johnson, the nerdy Unitarian Minister...

Sara Romero: Little Shop of Horrors, Seymour Krelborn. Need I say more?

Bess O'Brien: Danny, a nerdy freshman who is harassed into suicide. That was the best role I've ever played though, so that's okay. It was also the most powerful and the most connected I've ever felt to a character.

Finally, here I am in college and my professor (and director of the play I'm involved with) gave me my final scene for class yesterday. The play is entitled The Nerd. Guess who I am? You guessed it! THE NERD!

It's not like I'm not grateful for all the roles I've received or that it's not fun to play (and overplay) a nerd, but I would just like to do something else. I would like to be someone else. Playing Aaron McKinney in The Laramie Project showed me that I can be anyone and I can do anything on stage. It showed me how much I've grown as an actor and how much I can still mature. I would like that again.

Once again, maybe sometime soon!!!

Peace out!

P.S. Yes, those pictures are from high school!

Theater

The theater is an awkward place. It always has been, and it always will be. It is a place of immense artistic, intrinsic, and emotional value but it's also a place of awkward chats and sexual references. It is also the place where relationships can start, end, build, and be destroyed. It's where magic can happen or disaster can strike. The theater can strengthen and it can humble.

My theater (well, my high school theater) was my home for the past four years of my life. Now I'm facing wicked withdrawal and separation anxiety. I'm not saying that this theater here at UVM isn't awesome, because it is. I just...I'm not...I don't know what I'm trying to say. I think it's just because I'm not totally submersed in it yet. I need to do more. Right now, I feel very stagnant.

This theater has many promising qualities. There are many opportunities to get into productions here, and I found out yesterday that a theater major puts in more credit hours than a medical student here. That's kind of ridiculous but awesome at the same time. I have so much theater to look forward. But that's the point. Look forward. I want to do it now!

Maybe someday soon...

Peace out!

Tech Rehearsal...So Tired

I woke up at 8 am today. I was at 308 Feeley House. Now, I have been having this crazy week like I have told you before and the sleep I have received has been slim (about 5 hours a night). This combined with my overly complicated workload and constant rehearsals of which I am only needed for about 5 minutes creates a big, steaming broth of crap. Yay!

I guess that's what comes with college. But not only is all this overload of work coming down upon all of us and the time crunch of horribleness (I'm damn sure that's not a word), but the drama going down around 308 is thick. I mean, you could cut it with a knife. This whole week has been filled with fights and drunken stupors, and people running away, and tired zombie walks and dorm skipping and running down sidewalks and just...

Yeah, so that's what's going down around here. I'm trying not to be involved but I don't know how well that's working out. We're all a big family all of us at 308 and the surrounding area (of Vermont). We all have to be coherent, and these things happen. I love all of you guys! Peace! I don't know how well that's going to work...

On a lighter note...my family came over last night, and I got to go to a cast party. I ended up dancing the entire Single Ladies dance for them. They enjoyed that.

Until next time,

Peace out!

Youtube

I absolutely love Youtube. That is my statement for the day because it's completely true. Last night at rehearsal, we had an enormous break (what's new?) between having to actually do stuff. I don't know, maybe this is because I'm only in the play for 5 minutes, but whatever. A few of us got to watch some awesome Youtube videos, including the preview for next week's new episode of Glee where Kurt and Rachel are going to sing "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. Takes my breath away...



Here are some of the videos we watched:

Now, you're going to wanna laugh, but don't just listen...


This one's hilarious!


Totally reminds me of my cats!


Then I found this one on my own:


So I pretty much love Youtube! It's been pretty busy lately. The play is next week and I have a project due and I have two tests on Friday so if I don't post in awhile don't worry. Tomorrow I'm going to get my haircut for the play. I'll show you how it looks!

Peace out!

Spooky Time (Part 2)

Halloween=spectacular. Not only was this the first Halloween Megan & I had ever spent together in the seven or so years we've known each other, but I had a wicked awesome costume and I got to spend my first Halloween here in Burlington. So, overall, this Halloween was epic.

I was Sweeney Todd, Megan was Mrs. Lovett, Ashley was a fallen angel, Velvet was a bat, and Joe was a vampire (with very natural looking fangs). After Megan and Ashley returned from Lyndonville (LI won the game!), Joe and I walked over and got our costumes on then we went out. We decided not to trick-or-treat because nobody would give college students candy. So then we went to Church Street and the surrounding downtown area. Between dodging random drunk people who wanted their fucking pirate cups and sketchy people with their weird Halloween costumes, we were able to get some awesome pictures.

Then we went to see if we could find this theater party I was invited to. We walked all the way to Winooski to find it, and it was pretty much impossible. Epic fail. But we checked out Winooski and realized how beautiful it was. On the way walking back to Megan's dorm, we encountered some more weird people including a drunk Waldo who only wanted to be referred to as "Baldo" because he was a balling Waldo. Velvet thought that was interesting.

Then today I went to the musical theater workshop here at school where I got to meet the casting director of the Broadway musical Billy Elliot, the musical I got to see in January with my dad. You can only imagine how excited I was to sing in front of her and have her tell me that my singing was beautiful. One of the best things in my life.


What a great Halloween!

Peace out!