Let Me Entertain You

Hello.  I know it's been forever since I updated, so I want to check in.  This last weekend I was blessed with a visit from my mother as she was making her way to Texas.  She was able to see one of my shows for the first time since early sophomore year and I was able to entertain my second guest in my new place.  

My explorations of this place have been pitifully few (hence the lack of posts), but we achieved a fair amount of Christmas shopping, spent some time dressing up my place for Christmas, went on a few outings, and wandered through a few antique shops in downtown Pomona to find a surprising number of treasures.  One of the best features of California is that you can visit the beach and the mountains on the same day if you wish.  We decided to break it into two days and went to the mountains first.  We drove for a while enjoying the scenery and jumping out at various scenic outlooks.  The sun was shining and the weather was perfectly not-cold and not-hot.  I've been looking at these mountains every day since I moved here, so it was a wonderful thing to go into them.  The next day, we planned to go to the beach.  Unbeknown to us, winter arrived over night.  We went down the water, took a couple photographs, and ran back to the car.  But, we still got to wander along the coast and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of beach towns.

It was a short visit, but really great to show off this wonderful city and the amazing job that I get to do out here.  And the good news is, I'll get to see her along with the rest of the family ten days from now.  Who could ask for anything more?

Mountains!  A very new experience.

My Christmas decorations.  This is how I get away with not having a tree.

New Haircut...

...success!  Taking pictures of the actual haircut...

...somewhat less successful.

Intermission

I haven't done many shows with intermissions and I certainly haven't been on stage for a relatively relaxed intermission for a long time.  For this show, I was given a costume (a store bought, somewhat plastic costume) and tasked with all the on stage scene shifts.  Also, the audience comes so close to the edge of the stage that they can - and sometimes the trashy people do - prop their feet on the stage.  When it comes to audiences, the interesting things happy at intermission.

The theatre offers assisted listening devices to the hard of hearing, but you are supposed to remove and turn off your hearing aid when you use them.  Well, one night a lady sitting in the center of the front row neglected to turn off her hearing aid so during the entire first act there was a constant beeping.  It drove the actors crazy, but the house manager couldn't get to her until intermission.  During the scene change I went much slower than usual so that I could listen in.  The conversation went something like this:

 
House Manager: Hello, ma'am.  When you take your hearing aid out during the show, could you please turn it off? 
Patron: It was turned off.
House Manager: It was beeping during the show.
Patron removes hearing aid and messes with it.  It beeps.
Patron: It's off now.
It beeps.
House Manager: It's beeping right now.
It beeps twice.
Patron: No, it's turned off.
It beeps.
House Manager: There it is.  It's beeping.
It beeps twice.
Patron: Well, I don't hear anything!

Um.  May I point out that you wear a hearing aid for a reason?
(Fortunately, it was somehow turned off for Act 2.)

By far the worst for me was last night.  Some man was very interested in the set and took intermission as an opportunity to get right up close and try to show off for his friend (for a second I thought he had actually come on stage, but fortunately he held back from doing that.  The stage's personal bubble was definitely invaded though.)  All of a sudden, he's exclaiming and laughing about something that doesn't belong.  Then he mentions that it is moving.  Horrified, I look over and sure enough it is a cockroach of all things.  Well.  I can't very well leave it there, but I hate them extraordinarily.  I normally spray them with flying bug spray and vacuum them away.  Stamping and picking up is not to be considered.  Well.  I took my time and went through my routine (working in the other room first).  Meanwhile, the man has his cell phone out and is taking pictures of the cockroach (um?).  When it was no longer avoidable, I walked to the edge of the stage and gave a solid stamp.  Much as I did not enjoy my costume, I was grateful for the solid, hard soled shoes I had available for the killing.  I then collected about four paper towels and wrapped them up inside a hand towel that I could take on stage and carried the gross thing off.  Bleagh.  The joys of intermission.

Photo Hunter: Minature

I haven't done a photo hunter post (or any other post for that matter) in a while, so I thought this would be a good time to start it up again.  This picture is from a time my friend and I went to Whataburger.  She ordered a small fry and a small milkshake and this is what she was given.  I think Whataburger is a restaurant that has a skewed perspective of what it should mean to be miniature.

Photo Hunter

Cali

Hello! I am writing from the top of week three in Califonia. Impression so far: awesome.

I love the area, I like what I've seen of the theatre, I'm enjoying the show.
I haven't been to the beach yet, but I like knowing that it's not too far.
I have a busy schedule, but I like knowing that I have good friends nearby.

(I even got to see some yesterday.)
I live far away from work, but I haven't hit bad traffic.

(I like my highway commute very much.)

I caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign as I was going to my friend's house yesterday.
I am having frozen yogurt with a girl I met at USITT who has the same internship tomorrow.

Everyday is a bit of an adventure, trying to learn my way around this new place.
Everyday is a bit of a routine, which is comforting but doesn't give a lot of writing material.
At any rate, living here comes pretty naturally.

I am certainly looking forward to exploring more!

Opening/Closing

This has been...quite a summer.  It's been a whirlwind eleven weeks of activity and information, a lot to process.  We just celebrated opening night for my first professional show which was coincidentally, my last show to run the backstage.  Fortunately, with previews I've had a pretty good run working backstage with an audience.  With a cast of four, it was a rather tight knit, laid back group which made the process very enjoyable indeed.  The Equity stage manager I was working for was very easy-going and had a wonderful style (in contrast to some of my earlier experiences for the summer.  On Monday, I move on.  While I am sad that I won't get to finish the run of the show, I am super excited about going on to the next place.

This is my first truly cross country trip, and essentially I am going across two sides of the United States.  I get to see many, many friends and family members as my trek will take me through Washington D.C., Atlanta, Pensecola, Houston, Waco, Austin, Tuscon, and finally, Los Angeles!  It'll be a great blitz of people seeing broken up by long stretches of road.  Or rather, long days of travel interspersed with precious visits.

I. cannot. wait.

check it out!

Picnik Time

Earlier this summer I discovered a great photo editing website (picnik.com) and was thrilled to find that they let you do collages as well.  The free membership lets you do a lot of awesome things (although the for-pay membership lets you do even more awesome things).  I was playing around with the collages and ended up making one for each of the nieces and nephews.  So here are the children, from oldest to youngest.

A Phenomonon

I call it "Leaving the Theatre While There Is Light In the Sky"

This is the most extraordinary of phenomenons and perhaps only possible during the summer.  Yes, the end of yesterday's rehearsal occurred BEFORE the sun had completely slipped below the horizon.  Spectacular.

The reason this was remotely possible is that I have started my third and final show with New Jersey Shakes.  My other two shows went well considering the small amount of support they are given.  I'm still glad I had a chance to work on those two shows, but it is much simpler now that I'm on a mainstage.  My days are shorter, my cast is smaller (only four actors), and it's amazing to see how quickly notes are addressed -- with notable exceptions of course.  A stage manager's schedule is never truly predictable.  Things come up at the last minute which require us to stay later than planned and finishing our day before the sun finishes it's day is still a remarkable event, but there's a pattern to the daily chores that I've picked up pretty well.  Busy days and long hours, but it's a relief to finally have a straightforward schedule.  And the occasional sunset.

Independence Day

You know those times in life where you just have to do something simply because it's available?  Yesterday, when I finished rehearsal at 6:00 instead of 10:00, it was clear that I needed to go to the fireworks display in Manhattan.  I called up a college friend (Shelly) who is summering in NYC and (as I hoped and suspected) she was meeting a group of people on the roof of an apartment building to watch the show.  I took my first American train ride, Shelly met me at the station, and we got there in perfect time to savor some watermelon and enjoy the fireworks.  As it turned out, we only saw about half the show, specifically the top half, since there were several taller buildings in front of us, but we didn't mind -- it was a beautiful night and we beat the crowds being further out.

It was a simple trip, but great to catch up with Shelly and get away from campus for a bit.  I hope yesterday was a holiday for everyone!

 

Could've Licked the Liberty Bell

Last Saturday, I found myself with an entire day off and took advantage of the time to go to Philadelphia.  I was able to spend a casual day in the Independence Hall area, visiting the Hall and nearby buildings along with the Liberty Bell.  After I saw the stuff downtown, I went to the Edgar Allan Poe house just to see what it was.  There wasn't much there in terms of artifacts, but the house was well-preserved.  It was very pretty, but also a great place to tell ghost stories and the people that worked there were extremely welcoming and friendly.  I very much enjoyed my day and the fact that I'm close enough to do this sort of thing.  Now if only Boston were a bit closer...

Picture time!

Title quote is from an episode of 'How I Met Your Mother'

Independence Hall

Revisting an pose from when I didn't have to reach down to hold the handle

Edgar Allan Poe cellar.  Creepy.

   

Jersey: Weeks 1 and 2

Okay.  I have now been at the Shakespeare Theatre for two weeks.  The first week there was not a whole lot going on for me.  I spent a lot of time waiting for essentially nothing.  The second week was extremely busy.  We're rehearsing from 10-10 every day with lunch and dinner.  The good news is, we staged the entire show and put the whole show together after one week of rehearsals.  The bad news is, there's not much time to work on show stuff (much less anything else) outside of rehearsal.

My second show starts rehearsing this week.  The girl who is stage managing this one will be my assistant for the next one and it's all the same actors (different directors).  There are days we'll be rehearsing for both plays in the same day.  Eventually, the actors will be taking both the shows to various places around New Jersey (there's a third stage management intern that will be traveling with them; I'm not going to do any traveling).  It'll be interesting to see how it all works out, but I'd say we've made good progress so far!

The atmosphere up here is wonderful, although I've been told that Madison is not like the rest of New Jersey.  Whatever the case, I'm enjoying this little borough.  Here are some of the things I have run into up here.

Passed these folks on the way to the post office.  You know, no big deal.

This is my first picture of a chipmunk next to my successful picture of a chipmunk.

I met this guy on my dinner break one night.  He was in our kitchen.

 

Goof Up

Too funny not to share...

I received an email today, boldly proclaiming that my pictures from graduation were ready and I could order a professional shot of me with my diploma in front of various fake backgrounds.  The thumbnails in the email looked odd, so I went to the site and quickly realized what the problem was: it's not me.  The girl in the photos is actually the girl who graduated directly before me.

So.  If anyone wants pictures of the music major that went before me, I can hook you up ;) 

Happy Birthday!

A few days late, but happy birthday Michael!  Hope it was a blast!

Jersey

Just a note to say I finally made it to Madison and into my dorm room.  I was lucky somehow and ended up in a two-person room without a roommate.  The furniture has been completely rearranged to my liking and I've happily taken over every possible corner and drawer.  It's gorgeous here and quaint; I've already lost count of how many deer I've seen on campus.  I'm too tired to say any more, but I'm happy to be (mostly) settled in.

California Dreamin'

Late in April, I interviewed with South Coast Repertory in California. I was told that they would get back to me within the next week. Well, three weeks later I hadn't heard a thing and just assumed the worst -- I didn't get the job.

This Tuesday, I received a phone call offering me a position.

So. About two weeks after I finish up in New Jersey, I start rehearsals in California. Between September and mid-June I will be assistant stage managing three shows, but they are giving me my own show as well. I am extremely excited and extremely blessed to be a part of this company. I'm afraid that California may take quite a bit of getting used to, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. And hey, my first year out of school and I have some job in theatre. That's better than a lot can say.

Currently, I am making my way to New Jersey -- only a day and a half away from moving in. I'll spend the summer with Shakespeare then make my way to the other side of the country for some more good theatre work. This is the start of Chanis: Coast-to-Coast!

Graduating and Getting Gone

Alright.  An update on this week.

Friday: Most of the family came in for graduation weekend.  I had the opportunity to go out with some of my professors and other seniors for a couple hours while family was occupied, then went to dinner with them.  It started out a bit hectic, but was a nice evening overall.

Saturday: Graduation in the morning which wasn't as tedious as I had expected.  After all the dreading a morning ceremony, I became grateful to get it over with and carry on with my day.  The whole clan went to a steakhouse along the river for lunch.  Good company and a cozy restaurant (good to choose something off the beaten path) and some "green water" for the nephews to play along after the meal.  We even found a duck to feed.  Afterwards, we crammed into my overcrowded living room for a while, then most of the family took off.  My mom stayed and we did a little bit of shopping, a little bit of packing.

Sunday: Church, pack, pack, eat, pack

Monday: Early in the morning my mom and a couple of guy friends helped move me into storage in College Station.  Zach and Stephen are a great team and very friendly movers.  In fact, they were thanking me for giving them something to do.  Freebirds for lunch (yes!) then back to Waco.  Dinner and a movie with a friend, just because we had nothing better to do.

Tuesday & Wednesday: A little bit of erranding, a little bit of packing, quite a bit of the Mentalist.  Also, I got a job. (more on that later)

Thursday: The end of the errands.  Also, I fixed my own cruise control.  That's right.  Who needs big corporate dealerships?  Chevrolet Service Man was clearly not interested in fixing my car and made me order my own part (this may be normal for Chevrolet, but the guy was still rude).  Ordering was simple enough, but I didn't want to go back to the other guy.  When I picked up the part this morning, I saw that it was just a clip in, no fancy wiring involved.  Naturally, I went to the theatre, got a second opinion from the shop foreman and a screwdriver, then I popped out the old switch and installed the new one.  I have a working cruise control, didn't have to pay for labor, and now know to be skeptical of Chevrolet.  All in all, a pretty successful day so far.

Tomorrow is rehearsal dinner, Saturday the wedding, and Sunday I leave town for good.  Busy, busy, but good to be running again!

Master of the Mind

It's been a busy week (go figure), but back to the list!

A few weeks before our sophomore year Victoria Romberg (my freshmen roommate) and I discovered our mutual love of the game "Mastermind."  We played for a while on the gimpy facebook app, but it was nothing compared to the real thing.  Time after time we said that we should get together and play, but guess what, it didn't happen until last Tuesday.  It was a great way to do something fun and reminisce (or, to use a word I'm inventing, "nostalge") before parting ways.  We used the board's scoring system and played to 71, the perfect length for a set of games although 71 is the most random number.  On the way out the door, Victoria discovered my pirate gun (you actually shoot pirates out of the gun) which provided a great deal of entertainment.  We haven't seen each other much since we lived together, so I was grateful we could share the awesomeness that is Mastermind and nostalge a bit.

[scribbles and snapshots]

Hello.  I have started a new blog called [scribbles and snapshots] which is just what as the title suggests.  For this effort, I brought in some friends to help contribute since as you know, the more the merrier!  Check it out and enjoy!

Dam Picnic

My friend Lindsay has made several trips to the Waco Dam over the years and I was always curious to see it.  Once again, we have been planning to do this for a while and finally made it happen this week.  We decided to make a picnic out of it and bring along Anna and Victoria.  We enjoyed our sandwiches and fruit and brownies and the time spent sitting on the wall, watching the waves, and withstanding the wind.  It's a pretty place and I'm glad I finally went, especially with such good people.

Ironically, we had just settled in with our food spread out and ready to dig in when a work truck appeared on the road.  We had to pull everything aside to let them pass.  Oops!

Suspension Bridge Photo Shoot

The suspension bridge is a pretty popular place to go to when there's nothing better to do.  It's picturesque and fun to climb on.  My freshmen year, I saw pictures that a friend took at the suspension bridge before a formal.  It's been in the back of my mind since then to follow her lead.  I finally put an event together and five of us went out on Monday.  The shoot was an absolute success: fun to participate in and fun to see the results.  Most of my pictures are of the four seniors that were there.  Here are some of the best ones:

Sense and Sensibility

I LOVE the movie Sense and Sensibility.  I love it because I am Elinor Dashwood.  Not 'I like her' or 'I could be compared with her' or 'I sympathize with her.'  None of that.  I AM her.  So when my Pride and Prejudice loving ASM (hereafter, Bailey) informed me that she had never seen Sense and Sensibility, I immediately made plans to rectify the situation.  It was one of those things that we talked about all semester and finally made happen the day before she left town.  And as things happen, what started out as a one-on-one encounter turned into a much bigger event.

We sort of gathered up people one at time and ended up with six of us for dinner.  I (actually) cooked chicken and rice for everyone and was fortunate enough to make the right amount for everyone to have as much as they wanted without leftovers.  My dining room table was crowded around for a real meal, the way dining tables are supposed to be used.  It was another great night of girl time.

The two junior girls left after dinner, so I watched the movie with the freshmen triplets (Bailey, Hannah, and Claire) and it was the first time for all of them to see it.  I am pleased to report that they all enjoyed it :)  

The next day, they all moved back home for the summer, so I am especially glad that I had one more night with my precious freshmen girls.  A little bit of home cooking, a little bit of Elinor Dashwood, and a lot of Bailey, Hannah, and Claire makes for a wonderful evening!

I somehow missed taking pictures of this event, so here we are at different times...

Bailey and Claire, my shining stars, at banquet.

Hannah on our super sneaky stealing boxes from WalMart mission.

 

Chick Fil A Milkshakes At Closing Time

My sophomore year, I was an ASM for Picasso at the Lapin Agile and my counterpart ASM was Danielle.  We discovered that we shared a mutual love of Chick-Fil-A milkshakes so on the very, extremely rare occasion that we got out of rehearsal super early, Danielle and I would rush across town for milkshakes.  We usually walked in at about 9:55 and ordered in time for them to close at 10:00.  This tradition continued for the past two years whenever our crazy schedules opened up for a brief window.  

At senior wills, there are usually one or two people that say something like "we got pancakes every Thursday, so find someone else and take them to get pancakes every Thursday and think of me."  I was always skeptical if this actually worked, but Danielle suggested that I will her Chick-Fil-A Milkshakes at closing time, so I did.  We decided that for my last time to participate in the tradition, we'd bring the newbie.  Danielle chose for her companion a now sophomore named Claire and the three of us went last Wednesday (Bailey stowed away, but we like her too so it didn't matter).  

We had a great time laughing and celebrating the close of the year over cookies and cream perfection.  More than a good night with good friends, it was fun to see a bit of a legacy.  Danielle is a precious friend to me and I've so loved having her around these past three years.  Claire is also one of my favorite people so I was excited to be "replaced" by her and not someone else.  It was a blast to spend an evening with these girls and to see how this kind of camaraderie will continue.  

A side note, we actually went rather early (about 8:00) and they started closing down just our section while we were still there (about 9:00).  We avoided the 9:55 rush, but we still did not miss the closing time experience :)

Here's Danielle with the new me (r-l):

Bucket List

A couple weeks ago I made a "bucket list" of things I want to do before leaving Waco.  I thought I would share my list, then share what happens as I fulfill something.  I've done a few of these already, so there'll be several posts tonight.  Here's the list:

*Go to the marina

*Go to the dam with Lindsay

*Take pictures at the suspension bridge

*Watch Sense and Sensibility with Bailey

*Explore the ruined school

*Run through the fountain at the science building

*Take pictures with Judge Baylor

*Get Chick-Fil-A milkshakes with Danielle

*Play Mastermind with Victoria

*Take pictures with the four sophomore year roommates

Stay tuned! 

Yep.

Yep.  Those are shingles.

Yep.  That is a second-story window.

Yep.  That is a duck on the top of my friend's apartment building.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Catching Up

What's happened since Earth Day?  Let's see if I remember...

Between Diadeloso and my only class on Fridays being canceled due to the professor being out of town, I took my four-day-weekend and ran with it to Austin.  I spent some lazy days with the brother and sister-in-law and got in a good lunch with a high school friend.

After my lazy weekend, I hit the ground running on the last week.  The time of reckoning came for those last papers and quizzes, as well as gathering information for my contract, doing all the heavy work for my workshop sound design, and getting ready for banquet/senior wills.  I ran in circles for the better part of the week without slowing, but finally got all the big stuff taken care of.

Monday was banquet, which went rather swimmingly.  After banquet, we have a couple of unofficial ceremonies, the most extensive of which is senior wills.  All the seniors have the chance to recognize the underclassmen they are close to by giving them special things within the department, honoring inside jokes, and being sentimental.  It was incredibly surreal to be up there giving the best parts of my life away to my friends, but it was fun also honor them.  

Tuesday was the sound design.  It went pretty well, except that I made the CD when I was still asleep, so one of the effects was off.  I'm glad I can put that on my resumé, but I'm also glad that I can take it off my list.  Now to making a few new memories with my friends, graduating, and getting to New Jersey!

The senior "triplets" at banquet

Treehugging on Earth Day

Actually, the first holiday of the week was Dia del Ernie on Wednesday.  Dia del Ernie is the day we celebrate one of our theatre staff members by wearing plaid (his standard uniform) and having a cookout, a highlight of every spring.  Here are a couple of shots from that day:

See?  Plaid and food.  
Here's a full group shot (Ernie's the one with the impressive white beard):

Thursday was Diadeloso ("Day of the Bear") which is a school wide holiday for the sole purpose of canceling a day of Tuesday/Thursday classes.  This year it happened to fall on Earth Day.  Dia is a prime time for tech rehearsals which means we've been teching instead of playing on that holiday every other year.  Seniors don't work on the last show, so we were able to celebrate our first Dia since coming to Baylor.  We went to the festivities around 11:00am, before most of the booths were even up and running.  Lame.  So we quickly moved onto our picnic lunch that we shared with one of our professors and her daughter.  Lunch was a raucus good time that was followed by a good bit of tree climbing.  There is an area of Baylor that has several very climbable trees (with convienent handholds), so we took one over.  We had one of the best afternoons of our time at college without participating in a single Dia event!  The rest I will tell with pictures:

Statistics

8 class periods
1 paper
2 quizzes
2  finals
1 brunch

This is all that remains of my college career.  Bizarre, ain't it?

Tomorrow is Diadeloso (Day of the Bear) which is a random Thursday holiday since we never get those and Friday my only class is canceled (also, no workshop) so I finished classes for the week at 1pm today.  This means a long weekend (second Easter break?) in good old Austin.  Two more weeks of classes, then away I go!  Can't believe the time is running out!

Start Spreading the News...

I'm leaving in May
I'm gonna be a part of it
New Jersey Shakes!

This is my clever little jingle to say that I finally have a place to go this summer!  I have taken a stage management internship with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.  I will be assisting professional stage managers on professional shows which will be a tremendous opportunity to learn more about stage managing, help sort out what it's like in the professional domain, and meet lots of people who are working in the industry.  Currently this is a summer position, but there is an opportunity to continue during the year if I'm available and they want me.  I'm looking at a couple other full-year internships, but don't have anything definite lined up.  Splendidly enough, this is the company I interviewed with at USITT.

Thanks for all the prayers!  I am so grateful that I've been given this opportunity!

Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City

Fortunately this song only passed through my head a few times as I spent four days in the heart of Kansas City.  The occasion was USITT, a conference for theatre nerds to gather.  The conference was AWESOME.

It consisted of several sessions on various related topics.  Some of the sessions had their dull points, but many of them were useful in one way or another.  I picked up a lot of useful tricks for the future, filled in a few more puzzle pieces of how professional theatres work, and received a lot of confirmation that my education at Baylor is a solid, empowering one.  

USITT also includes an exposition floor with booths selling all manner of new technology and several rows of schools and theatres.  I found it fascinating to see what's being made for theatres and was pleased to see that there are more companies than I realized making products specifically for theatrical events.  I also had the chance to interview with a theatre in the middle of the conference just because I was there.

In the evenings we were able to see a bit of the city.  A couple of our professors were also at the conference and we joined them for dinner a couple of nights, including one meal in a revolving restaurant above a hotel.

Overall, I am pleased to report that the trip was very fun and empowering.  I'm keeping it in mind for next year...

Testing one of the flying machines

The four of us and the city

 

On the road...

Just an update from a Crowne Plaza from Kansas City, MO.  I have spent the day driving up here with three pals (a rather successful trip in spite of the territory we were passing through) and we're now planning out our next three days at USITT (probably standing for United States Institute of Theatre Technology).  Looking forward to a couple days with good friends and many, many theatre related discussions/sessions.  Woohoo!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Alex!  Hope it's full of fun!

White Precipitation

Okay, so last semester it "snowed" which resulted in this:

See it?  It's kind of on the edge and fallen between the petals.  Can you make it out?  

On February 11, I woke up to the sound of rain once again.  I was not happy, but bundled up and went on through my day.  It was a day of great rejoicing despite the rain; it was Anna's birthday, photo call was behind me, and so was my first mythology test.  It was also the first time that I was able to sit down and eat a meal with someone else.  For dinner, I ended up at McAlister's with a friend and  as we sat in the restaurant, we noticed the rain getting whiter and heavier until we could confidently say that it snowed.  The result was something more like this:

This picture was taken early in the snow, but is already more impressive than what we had experienced before.  By the time we had finished the show and I was headed out for Anna's birthday, my car had a healthy covering of snow on it.  I brushed off the back window and couldn't resist what I had in my hands.  I made this snowman who stayed with me all the way from the theatre to Applebee's: 

About two weeks later we had our third and most legitimate snow.  Class was canceled starting two hours after I was done for the day, but we made it feel like a holiday anyway.  The result of this last snow was something like this:

I love the Narnia feel of this lampost and how it shows the very strong directionality of the snow.  I was the first to walk across this field, the snow deep enough to sink my feet into.  An hour or so after I walked by here, this field was flooded with people and an army of dirty snowmen were raised from the ground.  The theatre freshmen (plus Andrew S.) posted themselves outside the building to pelt anyone who passed with snowballs.  I might have been more surprised when they got me if they hadn't yelled, "Ready?  Go!" right before they hit me.  We convinced Mike to join us in the fight, but the counterattack didn't go as well as planned.  Oh well.  Next time though, we need to inform them that the cameraman is immune: