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!

 

Happy Birthday!

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

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:

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):

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:

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!

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:

Happy Birthday!

Happy (belated) birthday, Julie!  I promise I didn't forget!  Hope it was beautiful.

By the way... the picture is one I found for Hannah's Prayer, since I know that you're really involved with them and I think it is a good representation of your heart.  Love you!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, David!  Hope it was wondrous!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Mom!  Hope it was wonderful (and the jet lag leaves quickly).

Happy New Year!

It's a new year yall.  Hope there's a great start and a strong finish.  To 2010!

Skunked!

In the game of cribbage a 'skunk' is when you get two corners ahead of your opponent.  In our family, we have a small figurine of a skunk that is kept in the possession of whoever was skunked last.  This skunk is mainly kept between me and my mom by this point, but my sister and I play a lot now, so two years ago my sister printed out and framed a picture of a skunk to pass between us.  I had seen and commented on the skunk at every visit, but had no idea what it was really for until a few nights ago when she skunked me for the first time in two years.

I made a vow not to leave with the picture and last night, my vow was fulfilled.  I had died one point away from turning the corner and I killed her in exactly the same fashion.  The skunk has been returned to it's rightful place on top of the piano and all is as it should be.  Of course, my sister will be out for revenge and of course, anything can happen, but for the time being, the skunk is hers.

The final board:

The skunk back where it belongs:

If you want to see what my sister had to say when she won look here.  As for me, the tables have been turned.  That is all.

 

End of Semester 7

Hello.  Well, it seems that the longer I'm in school, the longer the days get, so I haven't been able to organize my thoughts in a while.  The end of my next-to-last-semester hit like a whirlwind, but there were some great times too.

In five days, I went to four Christmas parties, participated in strike, pulled an all nighter, and had a read-thru for The Seagull.

The Seagull is the next show I'm stage managing and will be my last at Baylor.  We just had the one rehearsal before the break then will hit it hard when we come back so that we'll be ready to open February 9.  The all-nighter was the result of my final sound project and happened (unfortunately) right before our theatre banquet.  

The banquet itself was pretty lame, but the company was good as always.

We stopped by my apartment to lounge for a bit before the after-banquet festivities began.  Anna went paparazzi for a while, then we tried taking pictures together.  We failed several times and ended with this one; not the most elegant, but somewhat picturesque and a pretty good

representation of our friendship :)

Not long after banquet the finals hit, which for me meant two days of essays and projects right on top of each other, then three days off before my last and favorite final.  This was my favorite test for two reasons.  1) I did the math and discovered that I needed a 35 on the test in order to make and A in the class and an 85 to make a 100 for the semester.  Let's just say I didn't lose any sleep over it.  2) The last question on the test was this:

One of Mr. Farris' [our professor's] favorite composers is...
A) Haydn

What more can you ask for?  So with that excruciating test out of the way, I spent the rest of the week cleaning, lounging, hanging out, shopping, and all around spending some rare quality time with the roommate until this past Saturday.  But that's a whole different story.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Alana!  Hope it was colorful!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Shery! Hope it was beautiful.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Rachel!  I hope it's a blast!  (figuratively, as well as literally...break a leg!)

A New Den for the Salazars

First day in the new home (please forgive the backlighting):

Miguel found for himself a nice place to lounge...and roar.

In such a crazy day, David kept finding things to hug.  As he told me, Guanabana was his "secondary huggie" and Coke Bear was his "firstendary huggie"

"I'm not even tired!"

Alex found a quarter and wanted to play with it, so he asked for "Heads or Iowas"

We went to Texas Roadhouse for Andres' birthday and, no, we didn't make him sit on the saddle and have it yelled out to the restaurant that he was turning 25.  What we did have was Rachel drawing on a box.  You decide for yourself which is more entertaining, but I think we know where the boys stand.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Andres!  Keep celebrating until you get a cake...or Marble Slab!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Michael! Hope it's a great celebration.

Happy Birthday!

Whew! Sunday slid right by. Still, happy birthday, Alex! Have fun being five.