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.

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! 

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!

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!

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:

Living Under a Rock

You may have noticed my long absence from this blog, but there is a very easy explination -- I've been living under a rock.

I just finished up my last mainstage at Baylor, The Seagull.  This turned out to be one of the most difficult shows I've done, taking away all of my time and energy, and yet it was invaluable and enjoyable.  Happily, family from two different cities were able to come and see it.  During the run of the show I had my birthday, immediately preceded by one of my good friend's birthday.  We ended up at Applebee's two nights in a row, but with great company and free ice cream.  It was a good weekend of celebration with the two birthdays and the show.

The Seagull marked the last of my mainstages at Baylor.  My time has been opened up greatly and I've been recovering and playing as much as possible.  Softball season started the week after the show ended.  Our girls have been doing pretty well, but unfortunately haven't been challenged too much yet.  I've been playing tennis with a friend at least once a week, although we're hoping to make it happen more often.  We're trying out new restaurants and frequenting the dollar theatre (half price tuesdays!), doing our best to fill the time without a mainstage.  So far we've met with pretty good success, possibly because there have been at least eight birthdays to consider, but possibly because we're all so relieved to be out from under the rock.

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.

Frolicking In the Mud

(The sequel to Singing in the Rain)

Also known as Fall Break Pt. 2.  One of the reasons we wanted to revisit Mary Poppins in Houston instead of Dallas is because we had been planning for a month or two to go to a Pumpkin Patch in West.  The long-awaited adventure came after a full week of deluge and five of us made our way to the Pumpkin Patch.  Most anticipated and worthwhile was the corn maze, we split ways early on (my group finding the first dead end) and came to the place where there were three options and three of us.  We decided to each take a path and play Marco Polo to find each other again.  Forget Marco Polo in the pool, the game should only be played in a corn maze.  It was AWESOME.  There were a few other fall activites that we took advantage of -- hayride, rubber duck races, a corn cannon, and a cow train.  

We left for a Dairy Queen dinner then came back after it was dark for a Haunted House which also turned out to be in a cornfield.  Mostly the scariest part of the Haunted House was the mud that we were getting stuck in (Lauren lost one of her shoes for a while) and could no longer see.  We passed an area with a bunch of fake gravestones, at least one of which read "R.I.P."  Cynthia asked what it meant, so we told her 'rest in peace' to which she said, "Oh, I always thought R.I.P. was a really famous dead guy."  The best part; however, was the chainsaw.  Anna had heard it before we went in and was already unhappy about then so when the chainsawer actually passed us, she screamed and ran backward, slipped in the mud, fell over, and pulled Lisa down on top of her.  I'm not sure that's the friend I want around in a dangerous situation.  For a simple family farm, we had a wonderful adventure in my very first pumpkin patch.

The parting of ways at the first crossroads.

Anna had a sausage dog.  As a pig, I find that absolutely scandalous.

The cow train :)

Kaylee

This is an old story, but certainly one worth sharing.  On the first of the month I was dropping off my rent check and right by the door was a gorgeous cat begging for attention.  She had a collar, so I gave her a bit of loving.  She was very unhappy when I had to leave and followed me to the mailbox.  When she followed me back to my apartment what else was I supposed to do, but feed her and love her?

My roommate was home at the time, so we made the mutual desicion to try to find her owner and therefore take her in for a few days so that we would have custody of her if she was claimed.  We bought the stuff she needed to be temporarily adopted, named her Kaylee after the character in Firefly, and made the posters, but when we went to put them up one of the office ladies said that Kaylee had turned up around Easter and had been practically living on her back porch.  The search then turned to a new owner since Christina and I both didn't have a place for her after this year.

Kaylee's a very vocal cat and will let you know when she is unhappy, for example if you come home but don't pay attention to her right away.  Or if you cook and don't share with her.  Or if you leave.  Fortunately, she's a sucker for loving and you can pet her for a while to make her forgive you.  She's odd for a cat in that anytime you want to pet her she will accept it gladly.  Kaylee certainly ruled the household from the moment she came in, although we did not allow her to scratch the furniture.  

Unfortunately, having spent so much time outdoors, she wasn't fond of being cooped up.  We would let her out on the balcony every now and then so that she could be outside and almost a week after she followed me home, she made the jump and we haven't seen her since.  So for five days, Christina and I were the happy owners of spunky and extremely lovable cat named Kaylee.

Photo Hunter: Orange

A few days ago, I went to Chili's with some friends of mine and somewhere along the way, Anna decided to carry Carissa there.  They decided to stop and smell the flowers by one of the dorms and Anna had to drop her in the grass.  It was however a great moment for picture taking that led right into an hour of laughter.  The whole event was just fun and conveniently enough for today, Carissa looks striking in her orange shirt.

Photo Hunter

Week 1.5

10 days into rehearsal; 8 days into class.

First run through of the show? check

First English book read? check

First scene written? check

First all nighter? ain't happened yet, baby!

I will fill in the blanks sometime not tonight or I might have to change my last answer :)

'That Was Wild!'

Do you ever have those days when you're shopping where you want to find the most outrageous things and try them on? I picked up the bug yesterday while I was in Target with my sister-in-law and ended up spending more time embarassing her than helping her. However, I think you will agree that the fabulous pictures I obtained was worth it. And as Shery declared, "That was wild!" I thought this was a fair assessment since most of the items were animal themed.

The hat that started it all. Adorable!

How can you resist when you're looking into those eyes?

Best. Sweater. Ever.

Isn't this the most fabulous purse? From the sleek length, classy coloring, and subtly decorated clasp it is certainly a keeper!

In this picture, the camera tried to protect us from the true color of the lining. Instead of a complimentary blue, it was a perfect purple -- quite an atrocious match. :/

Good Times

Mmhm. Summer was made for me. Normally I would be a little bored and restless by this point - a full week with no scheduled activities, but at the end of this year I am soaking it in as much as possible. I was TIRED. This year was a test of endurance like I've never experienced before. I have had a good mix of activities; some reading, a sound project for a friend, a lot of detailed cleaning, a project for my nephew, and lots of outings. There have been several shared meals of the cleaning-out-the-cupboard variety, three distinct and wonderful games of Scattegories, a fierce and passionate competition in Bop-it Extreme - a game I did not even know I owned until the beginning of this week (I currently hold the high score, 56, that's right.) Several movies have been involved, including the midnight premiere of Angels and Demons (I liked it, but it's the first exposure I've had to the series, books or movies) which freaked me out when my sister, Julie, called the next night and asked if I had seen any good midnight premieres lately. There was also one fantastic night when a group got together and didn't play games or watch a movie, but just talked for several hours.

So, after a year of hard labor I am pleased to report that it does pay off and I do have the ability to take it easy now and then. I am also blessed to have sat in the presence of many different groups of people and felt at ease and seen the comradarie abound even as the dynamics shift. My time in Waco is winding down and I will need to get a job soon, but it is time to move on and into a working atmosphere again. However, I will always be grateful for every moment I have lived in the last week.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

The older I get the harder it is to get out, but I had the opportunity last weekend to go to a softball game from the beginning to the end (ooo...ahhh...) Our girls played a solid game, but in the last few innings, the other team had some good plays and we lost 2-1. Still, it was nice to be in the open air and to spend some time under the bright, yellow thing in the sky. A friend of mine plays catcher for Baylor, and I got some great action shots of her to share.