From the Library to Home

I returned home from the hardest and most stressful semester yet last week. Remember when I said I loved the library? The smell of the books, the thrill of the hunt trying to find the right book with the right information...well that's still all true. I still love the excitement that comes from finding that book on the shelf, it's just...when last Wednesday rolled around...I was ready to get the hell out of there. While finding reference books to take pictures of drawings and old magazine photos of 30s fashion was fun, I was done with the whole intellectual part of school. Then I spent a total of 13 hours finishing my costuming project, which was again was fun especially while belting out showtunes in the costume shop, I was still ready to go home. I was ready for Christmas. Unfortunetely (but also fortunetely), we had to leave 308 behind and close it's doors for the last time because we all moved out. Ashley is on her way to Ireland to study abroad, and Megan got accepted to be an RA next semester. She's going to be moving into Champlain's Quarry Hill ("The Q" as it will lovingly be called) January 3rd. So this is goodbye to our precious 308 where we have had amazing memories and fantastic times...

The first thing that had to happen when I got home was to decorate. My mom and I spent all last Friday decorating the house. We got the tree inside (a week before Christmas, yikes!) and while it's kind of a Charlie Brown tree, it's still pretty with the white lights and old ornaments. On Saturday I went outside and put lights all over the front of the house. If you ask me, I think we won for best house decoration, if a little late. Then came the baking. We baked peanut butter blossoms with chocolate on top and sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles with M&Ms and gumdrops! If you can't tell I got a little excited about the cookies.

One of my family's biggest Christmas traditions is that we always watch the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase. I think it's my mom's favorite movie. Anyway, every year we try to rent it somewhere because we don't actually own it. So, we tried at the Lyndon State College library (my mom works up there), but alas there was no movie. My mom was pretty dissappointed. So my parents went to one of the antique stores in Lville and found it on VHS. It's pretty weird that VHS tapes are antiques now...just saying. We got to watch the movie. It's a hilarious movie and I think it'll always be a family tradition.

Something else that' happened so far over this break is that, while my boss forgot to schedule me for hours this week (don't get me started), I have free time (at least for this week). So, Eden made a special trip up from Plymouth to see her family and Megan and I. It was so awesome to see her. I miss that girl!

Anyway, it's shaping up to be a beautiful Christmas season. Break out the eggnog, Santa hats, music, and mistletoe and let's rock this Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Toys 2010

Last weekend, my Christmas season truly began. It was Toys weekend. Six weeks of rehearsal, a straight back, tight knees (I was one of the toy soldiers), dancing, singing, and line rehearsals led up to last weekend. Six shows. One weekend. Go.

Each day started at 7:30 for breakfast in the theater, then makeup, then warm-up, then costume. Then the cycle started all over again two more times for two more performances. I have never been so exhausted in my life. I wouldn't have given it up for anything. It was one of the best theater experiences I've ever had in my life. Absolutely some of the most fun I've ever had. The children were adorable because they actually believed we were toys and this was the toyshop. Their faces when they got to see Santa were brilliant. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was Saturday and Sunday at the six o'clock performances when I was so tired I started believing in the toy shop myself. Honestly I don't think I would give up this experience for anything.

Thanks to the cast and crew of Toys for this amazing experience! You guys are truly amazing people and I had so much fun getting to know all of you. An excellent weekend that I'm still recovering from even through finals.

Peace out!

Palm Tree Thanksgiving Part 2

After an evening at Red Lobster eating cheesy biscuits, we made it to Venice Monday night and crashed at my grandparent's condo where we stayed for the week. It was such a fantastic week. Just the fact that we had no responsibilities and no worries while we were there blew my mind. We saw the new Harry Potter movie (of course), we saw Burlesque (a fantastic movie which we both highly suggest), we went to three different beaches, we ate out, we slept, we finished our epic Heroes marathon which has spanned a year, we went swimming in the pool, we danced in the pool, we made cookies, we watched Glee, we chilled with my grandparents, we riced potatoes for Thanksgiving, we ate Thanksgiving, we decorated my grandparents' Christmas tree, we got waited on by a terrible waitress, we ate AMAZING homemade gellato, my grandmother got me a new electric toothbrush, and we saw an amazing performance of Ragtime at the Venice Little Theater.

It was strange to see Christmas decorations everywhere when it was over 80 degrees and sunny...

It was an awesome vacation that was incredibly well deserved. I'm so glad we took it and that we got to spend it with my grandparents. Thank you for a fabulous week! Now we've been back for another full week and I've been on a dead run since our return. Between Toys and school work, I'm pooped! On top of that, it's been snowing all day and now it really looks like Christmas out there.

Peace out!

P.S. The squirrels in Florida are tiny, like rats. Nothing compared to the ones in Btown!

Palm Tree Thanksgiving Part 1

Oh hi! You're still here! I thought maybe you wouldn't want to stick around seeing how I haven't posted in forever but that's just because Megan and I have been on an amazing vacation to Florida. We had so much fun with a week of relaxation free from stress and responsibilities. And we got to have an awesome "palm tree Thanksgiving." To check out some of Megan's pictures from the trip, click here. I'm going to give you a blow-by-blow of our amazing trip. Get ready!

Friday
My mom picked me up from school the Friday of vacation on cloud nine. The cast list for Twelfth Night (UVM's next production) went up minutes before she came to pick me up. I actually got a part! I can't even believe it. Finally after working so hard and auditioning my butt off, I get another role. Most of my friends got roles as well, lead ones. It's going to be so much fun. My mom actually came into the theater to come get me and she got to see the cast list as well. It was a happy moment.

I'm in both of these shows!

Saturday We made it home to Lville the night before and spent the night at home. It felt very good to be home and not having to worry about every little thing at school. Seriously, sometimes it feels like my life is a constant string of worry. But not on vacation! We got to have Thanksgiving with my brother, his wife, and my niece Iris. She is so adorable and she has grown so much! She's only three months old and she's able to roll herself over. The problem is, she can't quite roll herself completely over so she gets pissed off and cries, but it'll come in time. It was nice to spend time with family especially while being able to eat real food. That was a wonder in itself.

Sunday
Finally! The day we had been waiting and planning for for months now. Megan's mom and gram brought us back over to the Btown airport so we could get through security and catch our flight around noonish. Our flight plan would have taken us into JFK airport where we would have had a huge layover and then we would have gotten into to Tampa, FL by eight. Not so much fun seeing how we still had to drive to Orlando. However, we seemed to be having a stroke of luck that day because we were offered a miracle. We were just expecting to check our bags when we walked up to the gate but when the lady asked us if we wanted to switch to a much earlier flight for free, we immediately took it.


This is us...happy.

We got to Tampa incredibly early around four-ish and met up with my grandparents who were waiting at the bottom of the escalator in baggage claim. The drive to Orlando was gorgeous, although I felt a little shell-shocked that we were actually here. It made it even better when my grandmother started blasting the Mamma Mia soundtrack and we belted along with it. I got so excited as we passed signs for Disney World, but I knew the excitement that waited for us. We were going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios. Yeah, jealous yet? All of my dreams were about to come true. We were actually going to go to Hogwarts! First though, we got to spend in the night in a really nice hotel with an amazing pool, we also got to relax and have a nice dinner with my grandparents. Way better than if we had flown in at eight.

We kind of took over the hotel...

Monday
So, I basically couldn't sleep very well that night because I was so excited about Harry Potter. I was the first one out of bed and ready to go but we had a great breakfast buffet and then Megan and I were off to get on the shuttle for Universal which was right across the road from our hotel, unfortunately that was six lanes of traffic. So everyone on their way to the park crammed into the tiny bright neon-yellow shuttle like sardines. Everyone was feeling each other up. It was like a theater green room on that bus. Anyway, we made it but not before the bus driver lied to us and told he would be pack for pick up at 5:30. We had to take a cab home later. But let's not focus on the negative besides the fact that the place was PACKED. I think if you took the whole population of New England and dropped them in Orlando, that would probably be an accurate description of how many people there actually were. There was a huge line to actually get into the Harry Potter section of the park but Megan and I went off and had fun in the rest of the park and then we finally made it to Hogwarts.

Close...

...closer...

...closerer...

The ride inside Hogwarts was so spectacular. It was like a terrifying 360 experience. Wicked cool.

We got butterbeer!

Halfway through our time in Harry Potter World, it started down pouring. The multitude crowd of people suddenly spilt as people ran to take shelter. Megan and I just stood there in the raining, soaking it in as lines dissipated and everything became a little more available. There were still lines to get into the shops though, which was rather annoying.

See? We're soaked!

Overall, it was a fantastic day and The Wizarding

To Be Continued...

Peace out!