I am SO alive.

it's been too long...

Let's see...

1. I took a trip to urgent care today. I've been fighting tonsilitis for a couple weeks now and today I took a turn for the worse. My tonsils were so swollen I was having trouble breathing and swallowing. Oh crap. So, I went down to the urgent care and got the hookup with some steroids and some antibiotics. And now, I feel puffy, but I can breathe... worth it? I think so.

2. I'm moving to DC. Holy mother. I have way too much to do.

3. I just finished my first professional costume design in Dallas. A production called Binge by Thomas Ward, one of my professors at BU. I loved working with people I went to college with again in a professional capacity! It was GREAT!

4. I also just finished helping paint one of the biggest sets I've ever worked on. Word.

5. I'm graduating soon. Crap. But exciting. But nervewracking. But exciting. But scary... You get the idea...

OK... I'm sleepy... thanks for letting me catch you up. :)

I am NOT a musical fan.

OK, OK... that's a lie... well, not a complete lie. I am not a musical fan in the sense that when I hear about a musical my little heart starts beating and I go look up the next city I can find the tour. However, to my dismay, I have really started to like a few musicals... and the problem is they suck me in with ONE song... ugh. Those songwriters. 

OK, here are the musicals: 
Next to Normal
Spring Awakening

Yep, that about does it for that list... 

Here's the deal. I really like the MUSIC! And they both have these great rock kinda songs and they're FUN! AND they tell a story! IN THE SONG! Those songwriters... 

I bet you're curious what the songs are, huh? Next to Normal has this great song called "I'm Alive" and I love it because of how multi-faceted it is. It's sung by the dead son in the show (maybe you should go check out a synopsis here). OK. Much better. Sung by the dead son, but I think we can all sort of relate to it. Really, go look up the lyrics. And listen to it. It's a catchy little thing. 

From Spring Awakening comes a song called "The Bitch of Living" and I love it. Love it. Love it. Go look it up. Listen to it and relate. Because I think we all can... 

Anyway, that's the extent of my musical dorkiness. :) Enjoy. 

Art

I fell in love with art. Again. I remembered why we need it and what it's done and what it's endured (especially those who create it). I love it, because it is that important. Let's take a look at some major things that have happened in the last 100 years:

-Ziegfeld Follies glorified the American girl.
-Irving Berlin wrote music for Ziegfeld... and also wrote: This is the Army. (1942) A look at life in the army. It starred over 300 actual American soldiers. It was later made into a movie. (You should Netflix it :))
- Fanny Brice was made famous.
-Show Boat was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein III and produced by Ziegfeld. It was a book musical.
-Bertolt Brecht made his mark on the theatre.
-The House of Un-American Activities Committee caused major turmoil for famous actors. Many were blacklisted. The community of artists was tested.
-The Group Theatre happened (1931-1940). Founders included Lee Strasburg, Stella Adler and Elia Kazan. It was strongly influenced by the Moscow Art Theatre (Stanislavsky's group).
-Clifford Odets worked with TGT. He wrote Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing and The Golden Boy.
-FDR's Works Progress Administration set up the Federal Theatre Project. It did over 1200 productions of 830 plays between 1935-1939. It employed more than 1000 people. They also produced what became known as Voodoo Macbeth.
-Jo Mielziner was BRILLIANT. He reminds me to search for ways to do things beautifully. He designed for: Death of a Salesman, The King and I, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Gypsy to name just a very very few.
-Boris Aronson and Ming Cho Lee both happened and are WONDERFUL designers.
-Oklahoma!, often referred to as the first American musical, changed the look of the musical show. It was the first fully integrated cast for a book musical.
-Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, Bob Fosse, Hal Prince and Joseph Papp all happened.
-Existentialism and Absurdist theatre took the stage. Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett both came of this.
-The first Othello with a black actor (not a white actor in blackface) was staged (1943-1945) with a record breaking 296 performances. The stars were Paul Robeson and Uta Hagen. Go read about this. I will NOT be able to do it justice and it's a story you should know. It should break your heart and make you love art, too.
-Lorraine Hansberry was the first woman to win a New York Drama Critics Award. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun and was amazing.

Love art. If for no other reason than it speaks to the heart of all people, love art.

My Heart

Have you ever left a place and known that you have to get back to that place? That you left your heart there and nothing will stop you from getting back? That's DC to me... and I left my heart there this weekend. Talk about a weepy flight back... 

and a month later...

Today, I realized it's been a while. I haven't blogged in about a month. Not that I haven't had blog-worthy stuff going on, it's just hasn't been blog-appropriate... you know? Couple of the goings on:

the weather in Texas is fall-like. Every other day or so. This consistency of chill surprises most native Texans. And excites us. I broke out my tights today. :)

Speaking of tights. I had a substitute teacher when I was in 10th grade who was pretty old. He was a funny guy and we were talking about the prime of his youth: The Forties. He was telling us about the stockings they used to wear - the ones with the seams down the back. He thought those should come back in style. I also recently read Death of a Salesman. Hence stockings being on my mind. If you don't get it, go read the play. It'll be good for you.

I learned how to drape patterns yesterday. I also poked my finger with a needle. It hurt.

I'm exhausted. And ready to graduate.

I leave on Thursday night for Washington DC! I'm stoked!!! :)

Now, I must go work on a paper. Maybe I'll blog more soon... maybe...

weird

I'm a senior in college. In my head, this means my classes should be challenging, homework should be mountainous, papers should take over my life, research should be what I eat, breathe and sleep, I should be painting at all hours of the day and I shouldn't have time to write this. This may be what it should mean, but it is not what it is. How sad. Actually, I'm bored. Out of my mind. I'm not being challenged. Even in my classes that I thought I would be, I'm not. I read the newspaper online for one class and read about a play a week for another with a few other pages interspersed. It's really not enough to really keep me busy. Oh, sure I paint and design, but that's not work, I love that. 

in short: I'm bored. I need to focus and work really hard this semester, but there's no motivation. Really. 

Maybe I can get that window painted now...

Just prepare to laugh. Either at or with me.

Here's the rundown of my dating life thus far this year. Because, if you can't laugh at it, life is going to seem a lot longer than you'd like. 


One couldn't handle a social situation to save his life. He told me education wasn't all that important and told me I'm spoiled. Which... I may be, but you don't tell me that. Especially when you're trying to date me and I go to college. A good college. And I'm a senior. Which means I want to be here.


The crying guy. 

The guy who can't figure out the difference in feel, fill and full. He really wants to share his fillings with me... so either he wants to kiss me or tell me he liked me.... the constant guessing got old. 

The guy who had the nerve to tell me women are only good for one thing. This reminded me that Dad always said, "Boys only want one thing." He was serious, but, fortunately, not about all boys. 

The guy who likes to tell me how much he likes me and then asks if it's weird that he feels so much for me. 

The guy who accidentally tells me he loves me all the time. 

The firefighter. Letdown. 

The roughneck who talked a lot while making out. You can't do both. Either conversation or kissing. Not both. Oh and he left a hickey. And by a, I mean five, obviously. Gross. We were over the next day.


Edward Scissorhands. If you don't know that story, maybe I can share sometime. 

The Professor. From another university... I feel the need to qualify that. He was great.


Other. Also, good.



and a few that I won't mention... :)