Days Like These

My alarm buzzed in its glaring tone at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Weary, I rolled over and smacked my hand over the snooze. As the measly bits of early morning sunlight drifted through the room, I knew I had to get up if I was ever going to get everything done in this crazy, messed up day I had planned for myself.

And what a day it was...

My first task for the day was to take down some signs for a conference that had checked in the night before and use them to make my own signs for the hockey camp I had checking in this weekend. That went pretty well seeing how there was no one on the road that early in the morning, and it was hilarious to blast bad rap music while throwing signs out on the sidewalk. Then I had to grab door signs, candy, and cards to do room checks for the hockey camp. That got a little creepy seeing how the dorm complex was completely empty and every room in that place looks like a mental institution. I half expected Samara's ghost to be standing in the corner eyeballing me.

After an hour and a half of hanging signs and tossing maple candies into rooms, I ran over to Living/Learning to check the Puerto Ricans out that had been staying there since I started in May. For some reason, it took them a whole hour to drag their multitude of luggage over to the main desk so they could give me their keys. They were totally nice enough, but they propped the door to the main desk area open which set off this huge alarm. It blared throughout the entire hall, and I'm just running around being like, "GIVE ME YO KEYS! GIVE ME YO KEYS!" After about fifteen minutes, a member of the UVM Police stopped by for a little visit and I had to explain that there were a bunch of scientific Puerto Ricans checking out.

After that ordeal, I ran to make a quick lunch before working at the front desk until four. Then I had to run over with all of my check-in gear, including a stack of parking passes, to get ready to check in some of the hockey camp counselors. The check-in was supposed to happen outside, so I grabbed a small, round table for upstairs in the common room. Unfortunately, I didn't factor in my complete lack of strength as I attempted to hoist the puny, surprisingly heavy, table down the stairs. Then I rolled the monstrosity out the door and onto the lawn. I put everything, including the parking passes, down onto the table and went to go get a chair.

While I was gone, there must have been a monstrous gust of wind because the parking passes were blown everywhere. I spent ten minutes having a makeshift Easter egg hunt with the parking passes. I had just grabbed the last one when my client for the hockey camp drove into the parking lot.

Then I had to carry the table back upstairs...

At least Megan and I made the most fabulous nachos ever that night.

Peace out!

Do I Look Drunk? and Other Silly Stories

Hello hello! It's been quite awhile since I last posted, but there's been so much going on and so much left to do before the end of the semester. This whole week has been a blur on constant activity, running around, and not getting things done. Unfortunately, I'm sick on top of all that and with Stop Kiss auditions at UVM and Hairspray auditions with Lyric Theatre at the Flynn coming up in the next week (yes, I'm auditioning for two plays at once!), things are a little tense. I just wanted to give you an update on everything that's been going on this past week. Ready...set...go!

For all of you Vermonters out there, last Tuesday was Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's. This of course being the best holiday of the Spring, I was prepared for this. Ben and Jerry's is truly the only ice cream I really love, unfortunately it's terribly expensive so if I can get it for free, you bet I'm going to exploit that frozen sugary gold mine. Earlier in the day, the RTT gang headed to the Davis Center Ben and Jerry's for free cones after lunch (which we ate in line), then when Megan got out of work she came up to UVM and we got more cones.

The line was huge.

Our costume shop supervisor at RTT Alan (He's awesome. Just sayin'.) suggested we just take the truck.

Daffodils! Spring! Yay!

Then we headed downtown to raid the main Ben and Jerry's store! The line went all the way down the block to the Rite Aid. It was pretty intense.

Yay! More cones! Three total for the day, not a bad turn out for Free Cone Day.

Later that week was the opening of RTT's Spring Festival of Plays, or the senior's final projects, to put it frankly. I ran the light board (Yeah, that's right. I got technical. It was pretty crazy and I was insanely nervous. It was a great experience and it's awesome to have that on my resume, but it only confirmed that tech is not my thing. I didn't do so well on the taking orders and procedure bit. The show was awesome though.) for two performances, ushering for another, and working in the box office for the rest. It was a busy weekend, to say the least.

On Saturday I ran the light board for the matinee performance and ushered that night, so I went to grab dinner with Alice (Have I introduced Alice to the blog yet? One of my BFFs at RTT. SO MANY ACRONYMS!!!) who was also ushering. While we were waiting for the bus to go back to the theatre, this random drunk guy runs up to us.

"Okay, you three (there were three of us at the bus stop) as a collective whole, do I look or sound drunk!?"

Right from the get go this is not going to turn out well because the guy is quite obviously drunk.

"'Cuz I just got kicked out of Springfest (concert thing at UVM) because they thought I was pushin' people. I'm just a tall guy and when you stand like this (he proceeded to make some sort of weird pose with his hands behind his head and his crotch thrusted out) they think you're pushin' people when all you're tryin' to do is brace yourself!"

He then told us his ingenious plan to sneak back into Springfest even though the police specifically told him they were going to arrest him if he tried to come back. He was going to disguise himself. Of course I couldn't understand him a lot of the time because he was slurring his words. Fun times at UVM...

Needless to say, the one acts were fantastic and the Vermont Pub and Brewery party which Megan came to was a lot of fun. Even though I slowly got sick during that weekend, I managed to survive as did everyone involved. This cold that seeped into my throat, chest, voice, and sinuses was slowly wreaking havoc on my strength for the Catamount Singers concert which was approaching on Monday. That whole day I spent on vocal rest except for doing a skit in Theatre History and rehearsal for that night. It was brutal, but it did wonders to keep up my vocal agility for the concert. However, within the last hour before the concert was a stressful load of stress. I ran downtown to run some errands (including buying a dozen eggs for my lighting project on "Born This Way" which was amazing by the way), ate dinner, had a group meeting, realized that the black shirt I needed for the concert was left at The Q, ran to my dorm to grab all my other clothes, ran to The Q to get ready, and then Megan drove me to the concert. I was a hot mess that evening, but the concert went off without a hitch! It was a beautiful culmination to all the work we had been putting in all semester. Congrats Cat Singers!

Flashforward to Wednesday when the UPlayers threw their awesome 4/20 Bake Sale. It was projected to be successful because all those stoners need their munchies right? Some of our awesome slogans were: 

"YOU GOT THE MUNCHIES WE GOT THE CURE!"

"BAKED GOODS FOR THE BAKED! (or not baked...whatever you prefer...)"

and my personal favorite:

"GET YOUR BAKE ON!"

It was a wildly successful bake sale. We even raffled off a giant cupcake filled with pudding and a strawberry cake even though they both went to our costuming professor...

Sam trying to stuff our crappy Student Government providing tent into its bag. Thanks for the crappy tent SGA!

As you can see, it's been a pretty busy week here in Burly World. Hopefully this cold will pass me by soon as I go home for Easter weekend. Everyone have a lovely Easter!

Peace out!

Cross Country Skiing

I've been a bad blogger. And I promise, I'm trying to reform. I'll work extra hard to make sure not another two weeks goes by without a blog post. It's very hard when you don't have Internet at your house and you have to hole yourself in the student lounge at Lyndon State College frantically trying to catch up on everything that would have been done had I been at school with regular Internet. Parents *cough cough*. Anywho, enough with that...I hope everyone had a joyous and merry Christmas and a very very happy New Year. We had a very small Christmas but it was nice. On Christmas Eve my parents, Megan, and I went to church at my old childhood church and sang carols. My parents and I had a very relaxing Christmas day and on New Years I got to see my brother, his wife, and Iris again. Then Megan and I went on a night drive to Rosie's house (another one of our friends who lives in Barre, we love her to pieces) and to the First Night in Montpelier which we had no idea existed. It was basically a giant block party and they lit giant crate paper Japanese lanterns which flew into the sky. There had to have been hundreds of them. It was beautiful. We tried looking for Erin while we were there, but to no avail. Oh yeah, then Megan and I went to the Cumby's (the same one we almost got robbed in) and made friends with these two po-po's (police officers for those of you who don't know street lingo homie) who were getting coffee. Then we got this hypershock coffee with 50% more caffeine in it. Intense.

Unfortunetely, this break has been somewhat stressful. I've been thinking about a ton of future and money and plays and such... Because I didn't get any hours at McDick's (I'm not going to spit out the whole corporate name for you again), which I know is because of this crappy economy but still...I've started thinking about finding a new job. Meanwhile, I also auditioned (and got called back for) Hairspray though Chase's company Act Three Theatricals being performed at the Haskell Opera House this summer. I want to be in the show so bad, but if I need a new job with wonky hours (I'm looking into working at LSC because it's so close by and there may be awesome job opportunities), then I can't do the show. It's all very dramatic and stressful (but hey, that's my life, right?).

Because of everything being so stressful, I've been thinking about those times during the winter when all I felt was calm and peace. It goes back to my freshman year of high school when I was on LI's cross country ski team. Yes, I know what you're going to say, "OMG, Ryan did sports!?" Yeah, it's crazy. I did it for a PE credit, okay? High school sucks. Anyway, sometimes we would go to Burke Mountain, or my personal favorite, to the Wildflower Inn on the Kingdom Trails to practice and ski. Of course I always fell behind everyone because I have zero strength and physical endurance so I was always alone on the course. I would be so slow that it would get start to get dark and I would still be making my way along the trail trying to reach the end. And when I would get lost, that would be even better. The thing is, it was magical. I would be so cold that after awhile I wouldn't even feel the pain in my legs and thighs or the sting of snow as it slapped my face. Dusk would settle and the sun would cast a massive glow over the entire mountain. The snow looked like cream as a glided over it. The trees were tall and imposing, and yet they glistened with the ice that trickled from their branches. It was a moment of peace. I didn't even care that I was always the last one to the bus and I came in last place for every race I competed in. I was enjoying the beauty of where I was.

Peace out!