Acting!

Ahh! I did the scene today and I was great! Katrina said that it was the est we've ever done! Before the scene, I was getting real nervous, but when I got up there, I did it and it was good. I didn't feel nervous at all. And a lot of people laughed. And that's a good thing because it's a funny play. Everyone was giving us very nice compliments: high fives from Nathan, "greats" from Millie and Devon, and Jared said that he's looking forward to acting with us in the next scene. Nathan and Jared are going to be the Spaniards Manolo and Jesus. (You don't pronounce the "j.") After we were done with our scene, we had about 5 minutes to get to dinner before it closed. It makes me happy that so many of the people stayed to watch our scene when dinner was so close to closing. All in all, I'm very very pleased with how it went. My only regret is that I wish that I hadn't been so nervous because everything went fine, and I also wish that the cup hadn't really broken, even though it was supposed to break. (I threw it.) The Odd Couple is a very funny play, from what I've seen, and I am also looking forward to acting with Nathan and Jared. Yay for acting!!

A-Town!

Well, first of all, here's a song that I like. It's in Arabic and it's probably some kind of actually, I don't have the slightest clue what it says. And I don't think I want to know, but I just like how it sounds. (You have to get past the first part.) And I'm sure that it's just confusing or annoying to some (like my dad) but I like it. And the next one's in Russian. That one you also have to get past the first part. The second one sounds like warm-up music... So, there's a taste of my eclectic music preference. And that's not all! But other matters arise...
http://profile.imeem.com/qnoKmq/music/JygYQ2Gf/ga3_ga3_ya_zoubida/
http://disco.imeem.com/music/w_ameIMk/russia_privjet_club_mix/

Anyways, I was in Georgia last night!!!! For, like, 15 minutes. And I loved every second of it! I've been uncannily homesick lately. And I don't know how to properly describe it, but I kept thinking about home and missing things. Well, Millie, Devon, Molly, Andrew and I were in Collegedale, TN for an orchestra concerto and we were only 15 minutes from Andrew's house so we went over for ice cream and popcorn. Well, Molly and I pretty much could not stop thinking about home. (She's also from Georgia, Marietta.) Andrew says, well, we're only about 15 minutes from the Georgia state line, so we went to Georgia! Andrew brought a spade and a Wal-Mart bag and I now proudly have a plastic cup full of Georgian soil on my shelf. Beautiful. I think a lot of things added to think outrageous homesickness. Valentine's Day, I called my family, talked to Mom, Taylor, and I also called Justin, Christian, and Wendy. And I talked to Peter (shout out to Peter!) last night for a good while. Thankfully, I'll be able to go home next next week! I'm very happy and I haven't been so ready to go home in a long time!

Well, homework is piling up. Today's super-busy. But I got to have a wonderful lunch with Jessi, my RA. How dearly I love her. Ciao to you all. Stay cool in Georgia, my Georgia homeys, and all you others out there, too, wherever you are. And I'll keep listening to my world music and trudging along in the swamp known as tarea... that's Spanish for the dreaded word that I loathe to speak, or even type. The maidens shriek at its mentioning, the lads quiver in fear. Panic spreads to the soul of all who hear the name. That looming menace that causes us to recoil to the safety of our bedrooms. Alas, no one is safe, even in the comfort of his bed. There it lies on the table beside the pillow, ready to devour one's very life-blood. Oi, Homework! Will no one destroy you, oh terrifying and cutthroat monster?

Valentine's Banquet, Take 2

Well, it was a blast! I didn't really fret about what I was going to wear and I decided how to do my hair the day of, and I decided the jewelry the second of. Unfortunately, many of my friends had it worse because they were planning the whole thing. But it turned out very nice. By the way, I wore my sparkly dark blue dress that I wore to junior banquet, my hair was stick straight, and I wore no jewelry. I had about 5 minutes after I got ready before Andrew was to escort me to the OSL building, so I got out my violin and played it for the first time in two weeks in the stair well and it sounded beautiful. Andrew gave me white carnations and he also made a corsage for me with a white carnation. Very thoughtful. The other group we were going with (Millie and Devon escorted my David Gehring), well, the girls were having to rush and were not ready yet so we hung out for bit there. Then we all walked down together. It was warm enough to not have to wear a coat to the OSL building. There was a line worse that pasta night when we got there, but it was quite alright. The girls had saves us all seats near the front and that was good. Sarah Urie and Aaron Henningson sat next us. The food was magnificent as was the company. And the entertainment! This guy did high scale magic tricks with doves and bunnies and fire and escapes. Most excellent. And there was a chocolate fountain. (The theme, by the way was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... the old one.) Afterward the banquet, everyone was milling around getting pictures. Our hall, Huston Third, went over to Charlie Bucket's little bad for pictures. Well, it broke with so many people on it. After this, we changed into normal clothes and went to Andrew's house where we played Scategories (Millie and I totally dominated. Jousting is NOT a bad habit, and Robert Redford's ruby red road racing Roles Royce...) We also made a big chocolate chip cookie and watched Shrek. Andrew's cat was cool, he reminds me of a dog, so I liked him. And that's about it!

The following pictures was taken just as the bed broke:



The next picture contains some snippets of how fun the night was: (top left is me with Andrew)

An Incredibly Long Account of an Incredibly Amazing Day!

Yesterday, Wednesday, February the 7th, 2007 was a wonderful day that I hope I will not soon forget. The first sign that it was going to be a great today was that my 10:00 class, Contemporary Math was canceled. So I skipped 11:00 chapel (we're allowed 8 skips) and took a two and half hour nap! I had finished my English homework the day before, so I didn't have to rush to finish it before 2:00. Then, the weather was so balmy, I didn't have to wear a coat for the first time since Christmas break. I walked the way to English class in a t-shirt. In English class, it was a peer-feedback day for our paraphrase paper. I was very confident that it was one of my better papers, and it was only a draft. Josh judged my paper and his praise confirmed my suspicions. I had "hit the nail on the head." And I had a good time marking on the paper I was reading. I just like peer-feedback days. My group is cool.

Another happy thing was that I knew that I only had one thing of homework to do and then I'd be done for the week! (Of course, I didn't do it til late at night, but not really because I was procrastinating, but because I was busy.) Anyways, the next thing on the list was Repertoire at 4:00. So I could relax until then. But, I heard Liesl talking about a group playing Nerds in the cafe1 and I joined them. Even with a splint on my left wrist, I had fun, and I got progressively better at the game. I haven't played Nerds in years. Kind of unfortunately, though, I hadn't been watching the time. When someone said, "Oh, it's 3:59", I told them that I had to run, which I literally did. I was running out of the OSL building and I saw Bryan was running to Rudd, too. Angela was ahead of us. We rushed to Rudd and I got to the door first. There was someone coming outside, but I didn't see him through the glass until I was ready to open the door. I just about hit him in full force. Luckily, I didn't, but it was pretty funny. So we went into repertoire and I sat with Joe. It was a good repertoire. Philip Kohler blows my mind with his musical genius and outrageous memory. He amazing. And Daniel Tomyn sang. And others performed: Molly, the brass ensemble, Jennilee, and I forget.

After repertoire, I was to go downstairs to where people were going to be auditioning for parts in the scenes from plays that the directing class would be putting on. Calista had talked me into auditioning with her. I consented, but only because she was going to do it. I'm so glad that I did! But I felt sooo stupid. I've never acted before, except in church and those small school plays. Here's what happened to me at the audition:
First I had to fill out a form in which I said that I had no experience and how tall I am, what my eye color is and my shoe size. :P I hated that I could only put "No experience... you don't really want me, I don't even know why I'm here." Or something like that. (Not exactly like that, you know.) Anyways, we had group auditions. When my group went up, we told our names, our year in college, and something embarrassing about ourselves. I sad that I sprained my wrist by running into a door. Pretty embarrassing if you say it right. Then, we were told to find a line in a magazine and then one of the directors would tell us how to read it. I was told to read my line as a ditsy blond. Immediately after I finished, I wanted to re-do it. After we all did this, we were given a setting and we were all different characters. We were at a dinner party. Carolyn was a snooty British lady, Jess was an old lady who'd lost her glasses, Rachel, I forget, and I was a hot dog seller who was deathly afraid of dogs. It was kind of awkward, I didn't really know how to act like a hot dog seller, and it was hard to interact with everyone. I don't think anyone in our group had acted before. But, here's a part of the improv that I remember: Jess (the old lady) had come to sit beside me, and I asked her if she had real teeth so that she would be able to eat a hot dog. She just squinted at me and leaned in closer to my face so she could see me better. After a few seconds I said, "I'll take that as a no." The people watching laughed, so I took that as a good thing. Anyways, after all the groups had their auditions, they turned on music that we were supposed to move to in any way we wanted. This was extremely awkward. I don't even want to describe it, so here's what happened after that: The actors were split up with the directors. I went with Cameron to Wesley, the director guy. Wesley had Cameron and I stand apart about 2-3 feet without moving and just stare at each other. Then, we were supposed to try to figure out the answer to them. I think we were supposed to think of the question we were supposed to be answering in our heads. Then, Wesley whispered in Cam's ear so I couldn't hear to look as if I was going to pounce on him. Then, Wesley whispered to me to look as I were to pounce on Cam. Yeah, that was fun. Then, we were to act as husband and wife in the morning, but Cam could only use two-word sentences, and I could only use 3-word sentences. Here's the gist of our limited conversation:
Cam: "Good morning"
Me: "How you sleep?"
Cam: "Good, you?"
Me: "Me as well."
C: "Breakfast please"
Me: "In a minute"
C: "Pancakes sausage?"
Me: "No, just fruit"
C: "Where's Johnny?"
Me: "To school already."
It was hard, but that was a lot of fun, too. Then, Wes wanted us to start getting into our characters that he wanted us to be for his play, so he positioned Cameron with his shoulders all the way up, his left hand ponderously over his chin, and his right hand up in a fist. He positioned me also with my shoulders all the way up, and I was told to be as stiff as I could possibly be, feet all the way together. Then, Cameron and I were told that we were going on our first date and we really liked each other, and we were to act like we were positioned. This was a lot of fun, too. There was one time in this improv where Cam asked, "Do you like Italian?" I told him, "Well, Mexican's more my thing." He replied, "Then Ole!" He's quite the funny guy and great at improvisation. Then, we were to still act how we were positioned and Cam was a very concerned psychiatrist and I was the one being interrogated. I was sitting on the bench, acting very nervous and ill-at-ease. He immediately began to question about my splint. "Let me look at, really, I just want to help. I'm a professional." But I kept inching away from him and telling him no. That went on for only a minute or two. Then, one of the other directors needed Cameron. No one needed me, so Wesley kept me and got Rob, too. I was to be his dog. (this actually the part that Wesley wants to cast me as, a dog named Lucky.) So Rob rambled about his terrible interview and I reacted as I thought an adoring dog would. (This totally took me back to Puerto Rico days when I played dags with Sarah at almost every chance. Ah me!) Rob talked on and on about the interview and he talked about the lady who was interviewing him. At this point, Wesley stopped him and told me to be the interviewer lady. This I did, and that was fun. I was very cold and condescending. Then, I was to be Rob's wife after he had come home from the interview. This part's kinda funny, because we were sitting on the bench and Wesley said, "Take his hand." I was like what? Awkward as it was, I stiffly took his hand, but it was only awkward at first. I continued to be his concerned and trying-to-be-encouraging wife. Unfortunately, Wes told Rob to get angry, stand and then become enraged. That was all with Wesley. Emily White called me over and told me that she was thinking about casting me as Cookie in her scenes from Rumors. So I read Cookie's part with most of the other actors who knew what they were doing. And, most of them had all seen the play before, so I was at quite a disadvantage. But I tried and it was fun. That was the last thing.
So, even though I felt extremely stupid and out of place at the beginning, by the end, I was getting a feel for the rest of the actors, the directors, and just the whole thing in general. I'm really glad that I went. And, it was still nice outside by the time we were done so I still didn't need a coat.

I got in the dinner line and talked to Tim for a while. For dinner, I made bow tie pasta in white sauce with mushrooms and tomatoes. It was yummy. Afterwards, I read Fine Arts and then Spanish to Kirsten while she played with my hair. That was nice. I tried to work on my accents while reading, ha, what a nerd! Then Erin, Elisabeth and I did our spring training. We've been able to do all of the exercises in our room, which is great. Then I did Linguistics homework, got a shower, and went to sleep! Sloane and later Allison reminded me that we didn't have our 8:30 class tomorrow, unless we wanted to retake our ear training test, which I didn't, so I got to sleep in an extra hour! All in all, I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful day! And, if you've read all of this, I want to thank you. I do write these blogs because I want people to know how I'm doing, and I want you to know just how happy I am right now. Well, that's it. And, I hope that I'll have enough time for this acting stuff... I like it.

Wrist, yet again

Well, thankfully, my wrist is only sprained. I'm wearing a splint right now. And thankfully, typing is possible. The docotr was extermely nice and called me kiddo and sweetey. Just a kind gentelman that instantly puts you at ease. My wrist doesn't hurt much anymore, so it's ok. I'll be wearing the splint for a week, and that means no violin or piano or even guitar. Dwight said, "Then there's no real loss." That made me really sad. But yeah, I was going to play for the women's retreat but now I can't. I can't imagine not being able to make music. I think I'll burst into songs quite a few times this week. Speaking of, I've been dabbling into music of the world. Bjork's Joda is great, as is Sigur Rs' Saeglopur. And I really like Arabic music. If there's any other style I want to listen to, college is the place to find it. And Loreena McKennitt!
I'm pretty much falling apart physically. Last night, y foot cramped up terribly. Have youever had that? I know that Wendy McConnell and I have both had the feeling in the right side of out right ring finger at the last joint. I think Michal Holby's had it in her neck before, and Christian in his neck of head, or somewhere. But it just feels like a huge knife going into you. That's how my foot felt, but worse. If I let my foot lie still, it would curl up and hurt like nothing else. It would make me cry out. I knew that the pain was coming because I felt a little of it. I put pressure on it to stop it, but I knew that it would never go away until I endured it. I tried to get it over with but I could not. I let it go in increments. It is terrible torture. I went to Jessi who helped me by massaging my foot and praying for it. It lasted a long time. But when it's gone, it's gone. At least for a long time. The last time that happened, it was during Fall Break, I think. It's the worse thing ever and nothing I do causes it, I'm almost positive, because it happens so randomly. It kinda hurts like smashing your hand into a steadfast door. But one day I'll have a perfect body! :)

My wrist

Well, yesterday after dinner, Lauren and I were racing to the door and I had my hands ready to open it. My hands were facing out, as you would normally open a door, but I hit my left hand straight on. I heard a crack and my wrist hurt so bad. I can't remember anything hurting that bad ever before. The pain was also shooting up the onder side of my fore-arn to my elbow. I held my wrist and I didn't want to let go to look at it because it was so painful. I was telling Lauren that it hurt and then I was telling her that I was serious. I just stood outside the door for a while, holding my wrist and seeing if I could move it around. It really felt like I'd broken it or something. When I saw that I could move my hand up and down a little, we went on to the dorm. All the while, I was moving my wrist around to see if I could get it back in working order. By the time we got to my room, it was feeling a lot better, but I was still unsure about it. So I found a wrap and got my b-ball gal friend to wrap it up because I couldn't find a trainer. I later found a soccer guy who actually knew what he was doing ot wrap my wrist. (ooh, and I iced before this, too.) Then, I did find a trainer and I asked her abou it. She said I should go to a doctor if it still hurts. The soonest I'll be able to go is Monday. She advised me to have it a bt looser, so later I got Chris, who's an eagle scout to do that for me. It still hurts, and especially when I move my hand down and up. It's really awkward trying to do things with one hand (even typing). So, if it still hurts on Monday, or maybe even Sunday evening, I'll have it checked out. But, I didn't cry.

Presidential weekend

Yesterday, all the presidential people came, but we didn't end up hosting somebody, I think there was a mix up, because the girl was supposed to go with someone else. But I got to meet quite a few extremely cool people. This guy Thomas has played violin for 10 years, but he's auditioning with his guitar. And! He's been to Russia three times! When he told me that I about flipped. We talked about that and about how I really want to go back and he said, well, you can try to come with us in July, but that's about it. Then he played my violinv with other people jamming in the cafe for about an hour. He's really good. Earlier, I had been playing with John Moore on the mandolin and two different presidential kids at different times on the guitar. Then I met this other girl, Adrianne who's got a great voice. I hope that they all come here.

SNOW!

Yesterday, when Erin and I woke up, Erin looked out the window like she always does and she gasped. I went to the window and was totally surprised to see snow covering everything! I got my camera and took pictures. (I will put these pictures up later today.) I was glad that I had woken up early because I had some time to enjoy the snow on my way to class. I made a snow angel outside of Latimer. In Music Theory, I sat by the window and stared outside it. I was enchanted by the snow all morning. I was in a little snow'ball fight, but I was class during the "big one." Some people made four snowmen and set them on the retaining wall in front of Latimer. (For CLF, a guy came who had actually lived like the story of Hotel Rwuanda. He told us his testimony, a little about what he had to live through, and then he talked to us about what the church, thebody of Christ should be like. It was very interesting and he had a thick accent that was cool to listen to.)

The snow just made the whole day happy. I think all of the county schools got out, and a lot of colleges did, too. I'm kinda glad that we had class, though, because if there weren't any classes, I probably would have slept all day instead of going out and enjoying the snow.

I would also like to mention how last Saturday, Ashley and I baked chocolate cookies to give to boys. Not really certain boys, just boys in general. The following guys were on the list: Sam Kirchman, Matt Crutchfield, Nate Madden, Mark Baker, Jason Poarch, Bryan Rudolph, Andrew Sweeney, Chris Utley, Dwight Sell, and others got cookies, too. Seth Thomas got a cookie and exclaimed, "You are angels." I think they were a hit. We used all brown sugar instead of half brown and half white, because that's supposed to make them softer. And it worked. Ashley and I had a fun time making them while talking in accents, and it was just a good day.