Ryan Performs in Places: Little Voice

If I wanted to, I could stand and breathe in the sunny air, letting it fill my lungs with the cool ripple of the sheer water's surface. I could open my body to the space and sing so loud it would fill the whole bay with notes and words and soul so it would fill the whole bay all the way to the mountains in the distance and reverberate to the heavens. But for now I'm a tiny voice sitting on the rocks, waiting for an opportunity.

Peace out!

What the Hull?

It was dinnertime yet the streets of this off-season beach resort town were near to deserted. Megan and I could hear the sound of heavy waves crashing on the beach as the moon pulled in the high tide. We marched down the sidewalk hand in hand with a mission for a wonderful dinner. It was Megan's birthday and being the horribly broke boyfriend I am, I hadn't bought her a present. The only things I had to give was myself and my love, so I decided the least I could do was take her out to a birthday dinner. So there we were, walking in the dark streets to a very nice-looking pizzeria on the corner which appeared to be open for sit-down, eatin' business. After ordering a meatball pizza, we sit down to see two employees behind the counter making our pizza right then and there. It was amazing, but at the same time we couldn't help notice how quiet this place was...how absolutely devoid of ample human life...

A DAY AND A HALF EARLIER...

Early Tuesday morning Megan, her mom, her grandmother, and I left Lyndonville on a Spring Break birthday road trip to Boston. Our first stop was the University of New Hampshire where we hopped onto the back of the metaphorical undergraduate admissions tour truck even though Megan is applying for the graduate program there. It was a great tour of the campus, and while the crazy biddies and the redneck bro who kept shoving his father during the tour were very entertaining, Megan really enjoyed the campus and the programs offered there. AND they have a Dunkin Donuts on their campus! Sold.

The next stop on our trip was Portsmouth, NH where we checked in to our hotel and explored.

The next morning, it was time to get classy because we were heading to the city. Boston, to be exact, and while I never thought Boston is my city (I <3 NY), I actually found it to be quite beautiful.

We parked the car in the parking garage of a massively swanky hotel at Boston Harbor then went directly to the New England Aquarium where Megan touched a stingray, we made friends with a giant sea turtle, and we watched a group of seals being trained.

After a visit to a Boston Panera Bread (it's delicious everywhere), a walk around the city looking at beautiful buildings and people in business suits, and a semi-stressful drive to get out of the city, we made our way to the beach town of Hull, MA.

The first thing that struck me in Hull were the abandoned carnival fronts that were like ghostly images of childhood wonderlands of summers long past. There were signs for ice cream and fried dough, games and rides. In the back there was a run-down carousel that still held on to its magic even in the desolate emptiness that hung in the salty sea air. Some things we observed about Hull:

• Almost everything was abandoned - beach houses, storefronts, and restaurants. The only thing that didn't seem to be abandoned was our beach resort which was odd because this town was in such an off-season. It was obvious that this place made all its money in the summer.
• A supermarket that had full-floor red carpeting. Weird.
• They had a musical theatre group that was going to perform Curtains in an auditorium that was named after the director...?
• Roads went nowhere, especially not a lighthouse Megan and I were trying to find.
• The internet in the hotel was super slow, almost as though the town didn't want us to have any connection to the outside world
• A pizzeria that was empty at dinnertime.

Which brings us back to Megan's awesome, totally romantic, totally classy birthday dinner. We were sitting there waiting for our pizza and observing the sketchy shit out of this town when the cashier brings a closed pizza box to our table where we have taken our jackets off and asks us if we want plates and napkins...sure... We sat there for a good five minutes trying to figure out whether we should awkwardly eat the pizza there or take it back to the hotel. We decided to take it back to the hotel where we had a pool, a fireplace in our room, and an awesome balcony. So there.

It really was a beautiful place and we had a super fun trip, and the pizza was really good too. Happy birthday, Megan! <3

Peace out!

Now There's A Stratagem for You

This is the story of my physical ailments. I know what you're thinking: why have you not posted in so long just to come back talking about your stupid and boring physical ailments? YOU MAKE NO SENSE. And the truth is: I really don't make any sense. So...there. My only excuse is that things have been very busy. A couple of weekends ago we opened our spring show at UVM: The Beaux' Stratagem.

We had an amazing run and fantastic audiences. At our closing performance there wasn't a dry eye in the cast. Seriously it was an amazing show to be a part of with an excellent cast. Anyway, that opening weekend my jaw started to kill me from the tension I held in it during the play making my awkward bad guy face. It was quite a problem and a nuisance, but it definitely didn't distract from the awesome weekend with Velvet! That's right, after two years we finally got to hang out with Velvet again! She traversed her way up to rural Vermont from the big city on Long Island and spent my "birthday" weekend with us. It as the perfect reunion and despite a couple of tiffs (what family doesn't have a few fights?) we had a great time all together again. 

As you can see, we had fun. And as you can see, another physical---I'm just going to call it an ailment---on my face. That bloody beard. I grew it for Beaux' and it definitely worked with my wonderfully cutthroat character Hounslow, but when the beard was on my face in the public eye during real life I was not having it. So Sunday evening as soon as the show was out, I went to Spinner was immediately shaved the whole thing off. It was an intense shave session.

BEFORE

AFTER!!!

It's been a great past two weeks full of dancing pirates, our sassy black friend, and beards performing a disappearing act. Congratulations to the sensational cast and crew of Beaux' for our awesome show, and I promise to blog more often. Again.

Peace out!

Show photos by Andy Duback

Rosie's Turn

Thank you Ms. Midler for that splendid opening number. I thought this song would be appropriate because I'm taking this time to celebrate one of Megan and my bestest friends in the whole world. This afternoon we rushed to Barre, middle of VT to help Rosie finish moving out of her apartment she was being kicked out of by her so-called "Scumlord." She was planning on moving in a couple weeks to a trailer on the property of her cousin's farm she has begun working at. It's a beautiful farm, minus the manure but that's only because I'm a different breed of Vermonter, and her new place is awesome. Save for a finnicky shower head and some fixer-upper and cleaning, she'll be able to have that place looking great. I just wanted to take this time to tell Rosie how proud I am of her, both me and Megan. Here are some pictures from today at the farm:

And now, I leave you with pictures from the Champlain College Snowball last night at the Burlington Hilton. It's the one night when us college kids get to break out formal clothes, and because it's at Champlain and I don't know most of the people there, I feel the need to break loose and be absolutely crazy...not that that's much of a problem anywhere else. It just seems right at this kind of event where there are free meatballs, a giant cheese platter, and a chocolate fountain.

We found Jess!

Weren't we beautiful? And yes, that's a bowtie. Bowties are cool.

Peace out!