Funny story...

Remember when I considered doing NaBloPoMo?

That was funny.

I really should update this, more. Not that anyone reads it. But I'd like to get in the habit of writing in it once a week, for myself if nothing else. Oh, this narcissistic age we live in!

Today is my day off, and it is/will be amazing for many reasons. First of all, it started raining right after I woke up this morning. It hasn't rained in AGES, and it was such a nice, peaceful, lazy way to wake up. The theme of laziness continued until I finally got my butt out of the house about an hour ago and I walked to the post office and chatted with my awesome sister on the phone (until it died. sorry.) and went to Whole Foods. I should have gone to Publix, but I'm weak. And now there's a new season of Top Chef, so I'm probably going to spend all of my money on food more than usual. Sigh.

As soon as I finish this, I'm going to run to the beach! I've run over the big bridge that leads to the beach before, but I've never actually run *to* the beach. So that should be exciting. At 6:00 I'm going to go see our Cabaret show again, because I'm desperately in love with the actors and the stage manager, who is my amazing roommate. Then it's off to the beach again with my wonderful friend Patrick, who is leaving us soon to go home to New York and needs to get in some last minute beach time. Then Andy Paterson, who is an actor in our mainstage production and one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life, is throwing a party for the interns tonight.

So...that was an exciting paragraph. I hope it at least made you jealous.

Finally, here are some of my FST BFF's. Enjoy. If you're reading this and you're not in Sarasota right now, chances are, I miss you terribly. So you should call me. Or at least comment on my sweet pictures. Especially because I forgot what a pain in the ass it is to upload pictures onto blogger. Good lord!

My amazing friend Timmy, who's in North Carolina for a couple weeks. We miss him and want him back!


One of my two bosses, Rob Thomas (yes, that's his real name). He is amazing and the sweetest guy ever!


The aforementioned Cabaret actors that I'm in love with, Alison Foster (long lost sister) and Ryan Flanigan. This was taken on one of our bowling nights!



Me with darling Patrick Pizzolorusso. Also known as Patty Pizza.

Emily, my phenomenal roommate, came up with that little nickname. I don't think he likes it.

Emily!!! BFF.


The cool kids.

Interns gotta stick together.

Fosters enjoy chocolate covered strawberries. Thank you, Rob.


Ryan's a sweetheart.


REJECTED!


Halloween! Alison was Your Mom, Ryan was Borat, I was a slutty ballerina (god help me), Timmy was a gay barfly, Emily went as Ryan, who is a Phillies fan to say the least, the lovely blonde is Aimee, who was a desperate housewife, DPotts behind her was a pirate, and Patty Pizza was Aldous Snow. Good times.

I love Emily/Ryan.

Oh, and finally...Yay for President Elect Obama!!! :) Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina did me so proud.

Election jitters

I'm really starting to feel anxiety about the election.

Not necessarily in a bad way!  I think I've had my guard up, partly because I was terrified I wouldn't be able to vote.

The City of Newport News and I have been having some major issues about me getting my absentee ballot.  It was getting seriously down to the wire, and so because I was repressing my deep dark fears about "What if I don't get to vote in the most important election of my life?"I was also slightly emotionally removing myself from the election itself.

But today...FINALLY...at the last possible second...my absentee ballot arrived in the mail.

I promptly cast my vote for Barack as well as the other fine Democrats on the ballot for District 1 of Virginia and overnighted it like it was my job back to good ol' VA.

So now that I've cast my vote and done everything I can and it's out of my hands...

I'm a nervous wreck.

I believe we're going to win.  But I don't want to jinx it.  (I'm very irrationally paranoid that way)  I'm excited, I'm hopeful, and I'm a nervous wreck.

Also, hello!  I have been absolutely HORRIBLE about updating this thing.  However, ironically, the day I finally decide to update again, what do I realize?  It's November...aka NaBloPoMo!

I'm really tempted to set the goal of writing a post for every day of November.  I just think it would be hilarious considering I haven't updated in months.

Let's see if this goes anywhere!

Oh, and one last thing...a very happy birthday to my wonderful brother-in-law Joe and my dear Granddaddy, who would be 93 today.  Wow.

Three weeks in

So tomorrow will mark the 21st day of living in Sarasota...it doesn't feel that long!  I almost titled this entry "two weeks in" before I double checked myself.  Weird.

I like it a lot so far, and I'm adjusting to being away from my wonderful next of Newport News better than I thought I would.  Of course I miss all my darlings and my mentors, and I had a wonderful phone conversation with the beautiful Lauren Angwin yesterday that probably gave me my biggest pang of homesickness for my CNU loves that I've had so far...but as I have gotten in the habit of saying, it's never goodbye, it's just until next time.

I live incredible close to the beach and have taken advantage of that as often as possible.  My fellow interns are very cool, and the actors that I had the privilege of picking up from the airport and welcoming to Sarasota last week are just wonderful.  My supervisors are great, and I look forward to opening the first show and having all the other millions of activities and shows that go on at FST going full throttle...though having lazy weekends like this one are oh so nice.

I watched Platoon yesterday.  It's one of those movies that I know is brilliant and classic that I had just never seen, and thanks to the magic of Netflix I can correct all of my cinematic ignorance with ease.  The last couple months I've been in a very masculine, violent movie mood.  I watched Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers a lot this summer, rewatched Reservoir Dogs with my Billy Harley for the first time since I'd first seen it at an age too young to appreciate its genius.  I also saw Dog Day Afternoon for the first time, thanks to Netflix, last month when I was house sitting at Denise's.

Platoon was absolutely traumatizing.  It was amazing, phenomenal, beautiful, horrific, nightmarish...just...yeah.  If you've seen it, you know.  It's one of those movies that completely affects how you are for the rest of the day.  And I want to watch it again before I mail it back because apparently I'm a masochist.

Next up - Hard Candy!  Let me explain.

I took time out of my ultra macho, violent movie phase to introduce one of my new dear friends, Zakk, to the magic and splendor of Angels in America, which every theatre artist must be familiar with - especially someone born and raised just south of Salt Lake City, which he was.  So we're continuing with our love affair with Patrick Wilson with Hard Candy, a film he's seen but I haven't also featuring the beautiful Ellen Page.

When did this suddenly become a movie blog?  I'm insane.

Big real-life news...my mom, who just celebrated her 57th year on this earth on September 6th, ran in her first 5K race with my big sister yesterday!  She placed 4th in her age group and made an awesome time, AND - the best part - she and my sister were selected as judges to a bloody mary contest that took place right after the race!  And they got to eat tons of free barbecue for a barbecue contest of some kind.  AND my brother-in-law made them dinner last night, which probably makes me the most jealous of all of those things.  It was so cool, and since everyone in my family is pretty financially strapped right now I was so glad that my mom was able to have some kind of celebration for her birthday that we wouldn't really be able to afford to give her.

Hope the few of you who read this are well!

Steamy Sarasota

I'm here in Sarasota! I'm alive! And I'm really, really hot. Luckily, I got to choose the bedroom with its own tiny window unit, but it's a struggling little thing. The real test will come tonight...my ideal sleeping conditions involve a freezing room with me buried under blankets. Needless to say, this will be a bit of an adjustment!

One of my supervisors, Rob Thomas, seems very nice and very cool...I got a tour of the theatre, which reminds me a little bit of Mad Cow if they had some extra buildings. That's a good and charming thing!

I'm at Whole Foods (yay!) using their Internets with one of my three roommates (the other two are due to arrive next week), Kathy from LA. She seems very cool and laid back - a true Californian.

I don't have much else to report...I spent a delightful afternoon unpacking and organizing my life (and wondering why the hell I have so many *clothes*) and putting my pictures up...I was vaguely reminded of my first day of college when I plastered my room with pictures of my high school family. Oh, changes.

Should go so we can grocery shop and then meet two of the other interns who were already here - hope everyone is well!

Fly away, Fay!

I'm sitting here watching my DREAM Project Runway!!! Chris March, my love, is back and they're designing for drag queens. God bless America.

However, I am not enjoying it as much as I might otherwise because I am SO SICK OF SITTING INSIDE WATCHING TV AND READING!!! This dang tropical storm needs to get the hell out of town. I'm thankful that there's no serious damage or flooding for us, but I'm starved for sunshine! Grandma and I are just going stir crazy.

On the bright side (ha), I'm reminded of just how stunningly gorgeous White Oleander is. It's a good book to read for me at this turning point in my life - all about independence and survival! Whoo! Of course, my cushy internship isn't quite the same as a foster girl going from one traumatic and beautiful adventure to the other...but nevermind. Next up - Eat, Pray, Love. I absolutely devoured that book like nobody's business the first time I read it back in March, so I'm going to try to absorb it a little better this time.

In a few short days, I'll be making the drive from Grandma's to Sarasota - which will hopefully be a mere 3 hours. I'm nervous, very excited, and very frightened by the idea that I might not have air conditioning in my bedoom (!). I can't count how many times in my life I have uttered the sentence, "Air conditioning is my favorite invention!" or "I need to be cold to fall asleep." Oh, universe. Always looking for ways to make me grow up and build character. Damn you.

Gotta run. This is going to be the most fabulous runway show in history...

One week

A week from now, I'll be on the road, leaving my beautiful Virginia for who knows how long!

Not much time to write at the moment, as I have to shower, try to straighten up all my junk that's cluttering Denise's gorgeous house, eat some lunch, give her kitty cats some extra love, and then head back to my old apartment for yet more Adventures in Moving! 

Plus I want to watch the Olympics as much as possible.  I'm totally excited about them this year.  I can't yet tell if I'm going to get to watch a lot of them because I'm not working or hardly any of them because I'm moving.  And, y'know, when I'm at my Grandma's next week I'll want to do some swimming and being outside of my own!

I've already said a good amount of goodbyes to some incredibly important people in my life, and I have more lined up for this week, but I'm really doing well.  One of the things I love the most about theatre (and let's face it, technology!) is that there are no real goodbyes.  It's all just until next time.  I love this place, and I've spent half my life in Virginia, but I'm starting to get antsy for what's next.

But for now, I have to get going if I want to be back at Denise's in time to watch swimming this afternoon!  Aaah!

Useless

So I'm sitting here in Steven's office, all alone because E is out with a migraine and he isn't in (hopefully he's laying around in his PJ's doing nothing and relaxing), I'm barely recovered from seeing The Dark Knight last night, and I'm trying desperately to figure out how to be useful. So naturally, I'm revisiting my blog that I have completely abandoned for the last month.

The few of you who read this...hi! I'm not dead. I've just had my life and energy sucked into the vortex that is TRR, and I'm just now starting to come up for air. We closed Of Mice and Men this past Saturday night and opened The Foreigner on Wednesday. It feels like a ghost town without the Mice&Men boys and girl around, which makes me very sad. It was a phenomenal show and an amazing group of people.

The Foreigner has been going so well, though - getting it up was an extreme challenge (damn the night shifts and two day turnarounds!) but the rewards have been great. I'm so glad we have a comedy for our last show of the season - it's so rewarding to hear the amazing audience response.

And I hate to even bring it up, but in less than a month now (holy moly) I'm leaving for Florida. I leave the nest on August 16, spend the night with my sister and Joe, and then spend a week-ish at my Grandma's before trekking to Sarasota, FL. Yikes. I'm excited, but I'm too busy being nervous and sad at leaving my people here to feel excited lately. And too busy being busy as well.

I've been too busy to do any kind of organizing of my life, and now that things are winding down and I have a bit more time, I don't even know where to begin. Whenever I get a few hours here or there I wind up laying down on my living room floor in front of the TV like a zombie. I have lots of rest to catch up on, and lots of energy to conserve to tackle my internship this year.

Holy moly!

Where does the time keep going? How are we already in the double digits of June? HOW IS THAT QUILTERS OPENS THIS TIME NEXT WEEK? It's madness.

At the same time, things sometimes feel agonizingly slow...like waiting for our coverage in the Daily Press on Sunday. We keep wondering where it's going to be and how big it's going to be and we're just crossing our fingers and praying to our gods and waiting for Sunday's paper...and then waiting for the anticipated boom in ticket sales caused by Sunday's paper. It's intense.

And dammit, I want to sit in the audience and watch Quilters! As an audience member I'm going nuts with anticipation. I've seen bits and pieces of the show from sitting in on the occasional rehearsal, and it's going to be awesome. These women are fantastic!!!


So in case you hadn't noticed, my life is pretty much all TRR all the time. Every second of every day. It's intense and wonderful. I love working with Steven and Miss E more than words can possibly express.

Speaking of things that words cannot possibly express...KENDRA COX IS VISITING VIRGINIA IN JULY! I AM SO HAPPY THAT I CAN BARELY TYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only thing this summer is missing (aside from, as I call it, not having any prospects) is the BEACH. I never have time to go to the damn beach and it looks like I don't get any days off until The Foreigner opens. That's how it feels at the moment, anyway. I need me some ocean!

And on a final and semi-unrelated note, I love my mom. She came into town on Sunday and came with me to a mall event that we did for Quilters that was cool - it was so good to have her there supporting me and I loved that she got to hear some of the amazing women sing. We did some shopping and then went to Schooners and she hung out for awhile for a little bit of Mice & Men rehearsal. And Steven talked later about how good it was to see her and how she was so pretty and loves me a lot. It was a very warm & fuzzy day :) My mom's the greatest.

Finally...some pictures of the summer so far :)


My beautiful fat little godson!!! Tobi's wheel is just a leeeeeettle too small for him.


I wish he could be in Of Mice & Men but I don't think Lisa or Jordan would appreciate that.


Tall Tom can pick me up with one arm. He is the strongest man in the world.


We laugh a lot here at TRR - as demonstrated by Locklyn Brooks, our sexy costume designer, Caity Schmidt, our brilliant props princess, and Ferrier, our beast of a technical director.


Ferrier looks like he's crying, which makes me laugh harder.


It was Locklyn's birthday a couple weeks ago and Lisa made a cake! Yay!


The girls saw Sex & the City, and my fellow awesome AD Stacey celebrated with cosmos as beautiful sound designer Jess Ashby looks on.

FRIEEEEEND! I am so in love with Lara Maerz I could die. She is a stage manager extraordinaire.

I'm not dead!

Due to effective peer pressure on the part of Mr. Aaron Page, I'm updating my blog!

It has been an insane, wonderful month and it has FLOWN by!

I was sick at the beginning of the month, which sucked, but after a couple weeks I finally got better - though I think excessive smoke inhalation at the awesome TRR barbecue last night is giving me another cough. Oh well. Totally worth it.

I am having so much fun. So many TRR people are here already, and next week the Of Mice and Men men (and lady) arrive. There's always a party going on at Barclay! Lara Maerz, our stage manager for Quilters and The Foreigner, and Locklyn, our fabulous costume designer, appear to be nesting, and as a result are constantly making us awesome food. They're definitely two of my new favorite people.

Unfortunately I've had to say some goodbye's already...my Jamie and my Michmouse have left to do their own summer stock gigs, and after this weekend I'll have said goodbye to my Peter
and my Lauren. I'm looking forward to playing and making dinner together on Saturday, but I'm definitely not looking forward to the goodbye. But they all need to come see me in Sarasota on their spring break next year, so it's not goodbye forever. And with facebook, you're just a click away from stalking your friends, so it's easy to keep in touch.

And Aaron Page is moving to Chicago!!! He has a blog all about his adventures, and he's the greatest person ever so you should read it.

There's also another blog you should read for a little theatre company called Tidewater Rep. Go to the website. Read the blog. BE A SEASON SUBSCRIBER!! And ignore the fact that I haven't updated the blog yet this week! Aaah!


Gotta go...time to get ready for the production meeting :)

Adventures in Ferg

Oh man alive, this job is an emotional rollercoaster! I am completely in love with every moment of it, though...even the more-than-slightly-frustrating ones! But I think considering this is TRR's first season, we're doing a damn good job trying to pull all the official stuff together so we can get PLAYING!

Speaking of playing...tonight is the directing class's Directing Showcase. I love love love this show. It's something I've gone to every single year since freshman year and it's always so much fun. It's so student driven and there's always so much excitement and love and LOTS of laughter. And to make it even better...Aaron Page will be in town to see it! (And he also started a darling blog!) I can't wait to see him and see the scenes. There are a lot that we did two years ago in my first directing class - including the very first thing I ever directed, Women of Manhattan, scene 4. So it'll be fun to see new actors with familiar characters and the new directors' creations!

Well, that's pretty much all the time I have...this was a fairly useless update, I guess, but considering how stupidly busy I continue to become, I just wanted to update to say that I'm alive!! :)

Theatre girl again

So I've been meaning to write for the last four days, and it's just been entirely too insane to get a moment to do it!

But now I'm kind of back to my standard Monday ritual of the past two and a half months...sleepy and quiet after bedtime yoga, plopped in front of the tv geekily anticipating a new Jon & Kate Plus 8 (best show ever) and drinking a decadent strawberry and chocolate smoothie. Thrilling, thrilling stuff!

Friday was my last day as a temp...possibly ever! Probably not. But you never know, I suppose! This job was absolutely a godsend and a blessing and the best thing I could've asked for. The super early mornings were really tough, but I think it was really good for me (even though it never got any easier!) because now sleeping in until 7:15ish feels like lazy heaven! And I feel up to going for a run in the morning, which is awesome. But yeah - the people I worked with, particularly the ladies, were just wonderful. I hope to see them all at the Yoder this summer!

Friday evening I went straight from work to Zenya Yoga Studio in Port Warwick, a tiny and gorgeous and peaceful yoga studio, where I took a free Hot Yoga class. Oh my lord. I sweated more than I ever have in my whole life, and it felt phenomenal. Most of the poses felt easier because my muscles were so freaking *hot*! And it was so easy to focus because...it was kind of impossible *not* to focus in that environment. And the instructor was great, and I just can't rave about it enough. The second the class was over I bought a 10 class pass, so I plan to sweat my life away every Friday night right up until Of Mice & Men rehearsal kicks in. And my beautiful wonderful Peter wants to try it with me this week! So I'm giving him a crash course in basic yoga poses on Thursday night (and it's possible there will be alcohol involved, so that'll be interesting) and then he'll come with me on Friday. Hopefully hot yoga for a yoga newbie isn't a horrible idea.

Saturday was awesome - I did my standard morning workout (running the Noland and then BodyPump at 10 with badass Lynn) and then drove to Richmond to go to a wine tasting festival with my mommy! It was my first one ever, and it was SO much fun. Even though Lisa was going to be joining us and then couldn't, Mom and I provided plenty of our own silly giggling just-barely-tipsy fun. Good times.

Then in the evening I came back for the first ever CNU student performances in the Yoder Barn! Beautiful little Natalie's senior thesis which was selected scenes from Sweet Charity, and Rabbit Rabbit, a BRILLIANT sketch comedy group comprised of four gorgeous young men, Chris Blake, Johnny O'Malley, Jake Mills, and Andrew Bentley. It was a freaking amazing night. Natalie melted all of our hearts (and I loved that Mich and Lauren got to duet together as trashy hookers with hearts of gold) and Rabbit Rabbit made us pee our pants. And seriously, I'm not just saying this because these boys are my friends and I love them to bits and think they're great, but Rabbit Rabbit is truly *brilliant.* A million times funnier than anything on TV today. And there wasn't a single "inside" TheaterCNU joke - it was all totally universal, original, brilliant humor. I can't believe how talented my friends are. It's overwhelming sometimes!

Then Sunday I spent the day with Carol's beautiful mom and her Jim (both of our moms have Jims. weird!) and her man and little Lisa. We had brunch where I ate at least four pigs' worth of bacon, then headed over to Ferg to see Blast which was great, and then we went to Panera where we switched out Mom and Jim for Pops and M&M (in Lisa's words). So four of Carol's parents in one day! A truly special occasion. It was a poopy day, though, like today. So we all kept talking about how, even though we were having a lovely time, we all kind of just wanted to be in bed doing nothing.


And then this morning, after getting up at the shockingly late hour of 7am to run and shower, I reported for duty as Miss E's temporary fill-in. And also just starting my jobs of Assistant to the Artistic Director and Associate Company Manager full time. It was a bit chaotic at first...and of course there's always an element of chaos that runs throughout the day when you're at Ferguson. So it was great. I saw some of my darlings and it's so wonderful to be around all the professors. They're such great fun.


So, I'm completely ready and excited for the summer. It feels like it's already here, and I am all about it :)

Weird bumper stickers.

Twice now I've gotten behind this one guy when driving home...and I swear to god, I am not making this up - this is what his bumper sticker says:

"I'm driving fast because I have to poop."

Seriously! Where do you GET that???


I was also behind a car that had a George W. Bush sticker from '04 AND the Human Rights Campaign's Equal Sign. Y'know. Equality for gay people. Something W abhors. It made me want to pull them over and figure out just what the hell was going on in that car.

In other non-random and insane news, I have seven more days of work - seven more days of being up before the sun! Next Friday I bid my godsend of a temp job adieu and finally start full time for Steven. It's kind of hard to believe. Theatre hasn't been my full time job since July. Or, let's just say August, since I pretty much just spent that month running to Williamsburg to see What the Butler Saw and then traipsing around New York City seeing theatre. So I don't know if I'm just going to fall back into it like I never left or...well, I don't really know what the alternative to that is.

Speaking of theatre, I saw Great Men of Science finally finally finally this weekend!!! It was so glorious. My babies were incredible, and my little brother makes the best transvestite EVER. I absolutely love that play...one critic described Glen Berger as an American Tom Stoppard, and while I don't think that's a totally accurate comparison - I'd say the American Tom Stoppard who is obsessed with farce and jokes about poop. Then on Saturday night I saw an opera by OperaCNU whose name I cannot remember for the life of me because I'm a terrible person - but I loved it because hearing Jake Mills sing makes my heart happy.

And last night I stayed up past my bedtime to see my darlings Katie, Chris, Mich, and Jake (two of my favorite couples!) in a staged reading by Chris Ross, the King of Staged Readings, of Closer. It was so intense. What a gorgeous play. (And I think the Mike Nichols film totally does it justice. I'm not always the biggest Julia Roberts fan, but she does a fine Anna. Maybe not as fine as Katie Parker. But we can't all be Katie Parker.)


Anyway...some highlights of my lovely weekend.

My wonderful, talented, successful Little, Mr. Billy Harley. With some remnants of his fantastic French crossdressing makeup. He looks good in eyeliner.

Peter and Lauren, BFF.

I love Peter!

See?


Okay. I'm being distracted by America's Next Top Model. Pure class, baby.

The big weekend

So, first of all...I'm totally exhausted and I'd pretty much rather be asleep in bed than doing anything else. But alas, I should write about this weekend and DEFINITELY should go to freaking yoga tonight to help my legs heal (I'm actually not that sore today, but...the memories of yesterday and Saturday! shudder!)...and so I'm not going to go to bed quite yet. Also, pretty Lisa might be coming over later, AND Jon & Kate Plus 8 is new tonight. I'm a nerd.

I left bright & early on Friday and stopped at Panera to have an emotional reunion with their Chocolate Chip Bagel. I used to get one at least once a week until they got cold-heartedly got rid of them, and I'm so happy to have them back. The drive down to Meg's wasn't bad at all. I really don't mind long drives most of the time - I relish the opportunity to sing and pretend I'm Sherie Rene Scott or Idina Menzel. It's pretty embarrassing.

Picked Meg up and we went to Dean & Deluca to say hey to Joe and to get the most amazing sandwiches EVER. We had a great ride down together and it went by fast, I thought. We arrived at our rather fleabag-ish hotel that smelled like generations since the Pilgrims had been smoking in the room at about 5 or so and then we went out to hit the gorgeous, gorgeous town!

We picked up our race numbers and chips and such, and I bought myself the only two things I allowed myself to get (aside from insane amounts of food) on the trip - a cool little belt-y thing that has a stretchy pouch to hold your keys, phone, camera, etc. while you're running and you can't even feel it. Crazy. And I got a really badass Cooper River Bridge Run shirt made out of the stuff that's not cotton that you're supposed to wear when you run. I don't know what it's called. But it wicks sweat. Whatever that means.

Dinner that night (I think the only food I didn't take a picture of) was at Bocci's, Megan's favorite Italian place in the city. We waited about an hour or so for a table, but the weather was just fine and it was well worth the wait. We each had just one glass of wine (shocking) and insanely good meals...I got cheesy shrimp tortellini with procuitto and tomatoes and other yummy goodness that I can't remember, and Megan got a seafood pasta with vegetable marinara. YUM. We actually bonded over politics (it's weird talking to someone in my family about Obama and agreeing with them!) and had a great, great time.

The next morning we both had various alarm mishaps, but thankfully we both woke up naturally at 5:40, the time we had set to get up. Sneaky universe. We kind of puttered nervously around the room eating cornbread and Luna bars and making but not eating cream of wheat and fussing with our race numbers and Granddaddy things.

We walked about 2 miles to the start line, which was really fun because there was this whole mass exodus of runners headed that way and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger until there was this whole ungodly SWARM of people. It was awesome. And it was hilarious - there was a line of, I swear, at least twenty-five port-a-potties and loooong lines in front of every one. It felt kind of absurd for some reason.

They attempted to organize the runners by their category (elite, 40-60 minute, 60 minute, run/walk kind of thing - I don't remember how many categories), which was denoted by the colors on our number thingies, but there were seriously so many people that I physically could not get to my little color group. So when the gun went off the volunteer that was trying to tell me where to go just gave up and said, "Oh, just go on," so I went past the min-chain link fence and joined the freaking MOB in the street. We did a slow, slow, slow shuffle to the start line that actually got me nervous that it would be so crowded that the running part would never really happen. Luckily, it did. Kind of.

The first half of the race was really weird. It was all kind of overwhelming and there was a very bizarre feeling that wasn't exactly adrenaline, but I can't think of what else I would call it. And it was HUMID AS HELL. And I can't even remember the last time I ran in humidity, if ever. I thought I was going to die, even after I took off my paper-thin yellow shirt (with the help of a kindly, and not creepy, old man). So between all that and the steep freaking bridge, I did a lot more walking than I had hoped to. On my long runs I try to run for 15 minutes and then take a walk break, but it was just not happening for me on Saturday. So I was getting kind of frustrated. Plus it was so crowded that sometimes when I did have a good pace going, I had to dodge people all over the place to even maintain it. It was nuts.

The second half was better. Partly because we actually got to go downhill on the bridge, and I started noticing more of the runners in wacky wacky costumes. And I ran the last mile and a quarter/mile and a half, I'm not sure how long it was. But it was really hard and wonderful and kind of emotional. And god bless my iPod for playing the perfect songs. Seriously, right after I told myself that I couldn't walk anymore until I passed the finish line, the Rocky theme song started. How perfect is that?

I found Megan pretty soon after crossing the finish line - and she ran the the whole time! She is such a badass. We found out our times last night - I was 1.14.08 and she was I think 1.07.something.

And as you can see from the pictures below, we ate ourselves into oblivion after that. Though our breakfast (and ice cream, not pictured) was actually burned off by that afternoon - we took a bus back to the starting line...only it dropped us off about 2 miles BEHIND the starting line. So after our 5K and walking around Charleston to get breakfast and the best ice cream in town...we walked FOUR MILES back to our hotel on sore, sore, sore feet and legs. Needless to say, we did some soaking in our disgusting tub and laying on our beds for the next few hours before venturing out for the best Thai food ever. We were also treated to a pretty magnificent thunderstorm...considering they were calling for rain that morning and it turned out to be gorgeous, I think this was the weather just evening itself out.

After our amazing dinner we went next door to Basil's sister restaurant, Chai Lounge. We sat on their covered porch and drank white wine (me) and beer (her) and had a phenomenal creme brulee. Phenomenal. Then we walked it all off to meet her absolutely adorable friend Wendy who was also in town with some of her friends. She was completely lovely, I want to hang out with her all the time.

We were pretty exhausted by about 10 (I was probably pretty exhausted at about 9) and we crashed...though I didn't sleep quite so well, strangely enough. It was probably all the wine. The next morning we woke up, were lazy, and then went to breakfast at Poogan's Porch, where we ate the morning of her wedding. Because I wanted to eat at least one thing that I'd had that wonderful weekend, I had the Sunrise Shrimp & Grits, with blue crab gravy. Again...yum. That's probably the most oft-repeated word in this entry.

We drove home after breakfast, and we were pretty well spent. That first three or so hours back to Charlotte were probably the most exhausting of the drive (except for maybe the last hour on 64 to Newport News), but at the end I got to meet her hilarious new kitty cat Moses. I have another nephew! And he's just as goofy as Lou, in his own unique way. I love those kitties.


And then...home.

It was a pretty unbelievable weekend. I still can't believe we did it. This was something we were casually saying, "What if?" about in our pajamas stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey and foie gras last November, and we actually did it.

In conclusion, I am sore and I love my sister :)

And congrats to beautiful beautiful Gemma on her 10K in Richmond! Woo 10K weekend!

10K with Big Sister = Check

So I can't wait to write an epic novel of how awesome our weekend was (and how INCREDIBLY SORE we are), but...I'm planning on tucking myself into bed in a half an hour after crying through Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (don't judge me).

The epic tale will have to wait till tomorrow, then, and for now...be sated with pictures!


Since my granddaddy and Lisa's papa are both hanging out in heaven right now getting to know each other and becoming best friends, I decided to run for them :)

It's almost time for the 2 mile walk to the start line and we're freaking out!

Meg ran for Granddaddy :)

Lookin' sassy and ready to go with her number

Attempting to look sassy.

We wouldn't really be able to get a proper starting line picture, so we took a picture by the Port-a-Potty. It's funnier.

Finished! And SWEATY!

I'M HUNGRY.

MEGAN'S THIRSTY. (And wishing that was a Bloody Mary)


This was my reward for crossing the finish line. YUM.
They looked like the Rocky stairs, so we took a picture!

Joe used to work there (well, another location) and they were not nice to him. Megan's a loyal wife, what can I say!


Megan loved the Hokie colored snapdragons.

On what turned out to be a FOUR MILE WALK back to our hotel room, we encountered some interesting characters...

Red curry fried duck. Words can't express how glorious this restaurant and their food was. (It's called Basil, if you're ever craving the best Thai food in Charleston or in America)


Next door was their sister restaurant, Chai Lounge, where it was time to switch from red wine to white (or a beer for Meg) and from entrees to dessert

Creme Brulee, to be exact. GUH.


Sunday morning soothe-my-insanely-aching-muscles breakfast: Shrimp & Grits with Blue Crab Gravy, veggies, and sausage. Oh, and two poached eggs. It's like the shrimp & grits they served us the morning of Megan's wedding, but deluxe!


And as we were leaving the gorgeous gorgeous city, tons of church bells were ringing and the sun was right behind this beautiful steeple giving it an amazing light quality, so Megan took a picture of it from my sunroof. Well done!

Three more days...

...until I run a freaking 10K with my big sister in Charleston! Aaah!

I'm so much more excited about this one than I was about the 5K. The 5K was so scary and I was so stressed out about so many other things and the fact that Megan was progressing so much better than I was was intimidating me and ruining my life, but this one...it's scary, but in a completely awesome, wonderful, inspiring way.

Tomorrow is like my Friday at work, which is extremely exciting news. I love my job, but it's hard being chained to a desk for 9 hours. Or 10, depending on how you look at it. And everyone loves a 3 day weekend!

I'm going to sleep in for a half hour on Friday (which is kickass news) so I can get on the road for Charlotte at about 7:15-7:30ish, and then Meg and I are going to ride together to Charleston. It's her favorite city in the world (well, maybe aside from Venice) and it's right up there for me, along with New York and Stratford-upon-Avon (which isn't a city, I guess, but whatever). It's gorgeous and walkable and filled with amazing restaurants that my sister happens to know inside and out.

Tomorrow is going to go by so slowly!



Oh, and before I go...the incredibly super sweet people at the dinner theatre thing I did earlier this year got me a present! They got me the absolute best thing possible at this point in my life...a freaking Barnes & Noble Gift Card!

So I went a little bit nuts this weekend.

Eric Alterman, "Why We're Liberals"
Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: "The Invention of a Human"
Joshua Ferris, "Then We Came to the End"
Nick Hornby, "A Long Way Down"
Stephen King, "Lisey's Story"
Tracy Letts, "August: Osage County"
John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"
Alice Walker, "The Color Purple"


I finished August this morning...guuuuuh. When I saw the show in NYC, it took like an hour for my heart rate to return to normal. It was one of the most intense and memorable and phenomenal theatrical experiences I've ever had. So needless to say, reading it was pretty...all of those things.

I'm about halfway through A Long Way Down. Nick Hornby is absolutely brilliant.


Then We Came to the End is next after that, followed by East of Eden. I can't decide if I want to Netflix the movie before I read the book. My philosophy is usually to see the movie first before I read the book, that way I won't sit through a movie resenting it for not being as good as the book - which of course, is completely impossible. Has anyone seen it? Thoughts?



Ack I'm running 6.2 miles on Saturday and I'm frightened!

Laughing it all away

So, I'm completely hoarse and I nearly had an asthma attack.

How was your Easter?

I just got back from Katie & Anna's (& four other girls...it's a crazy house) place, where they hosted a fabulous and incredibly fun Easter Pot Luck & Egg Hunt. I haven't celebrated Easter since I was probably like 10, so it was incredibly nice and fun and HILARIOUS. I got some prize pictures of the frantic egg hunt before my camera died. Then it was pretty much an Anna Hemphill dance party for an hour or so, where I laughed myself nearly to death. Jamie and Natalie are prize interpretive dancers, and Anna channeled some Justin Sease classics during Don't Stop Believin'. And Billy, Peter, Natalie and I enjoyed creating the Jealous Boyfriend Series.

It was a good end to a loooong weekend...I spent most of it washing windows for Denise and Shawn. Which I know sounds weird. They bought this old, neglected house that they're fixing up themselves so they can sell it again. So these poor windows were in serious, serious trouble. I felt like a bizarre combination of Dolores Claiborne (read the book right now, it's phenomenal) and Cinderella.


And for the few of you who read this...I accepted the internship at Florida Studio! EEE!

It's so weird. Now that the long and frantic job search is pretty much over, you'd think that space on my plate and in my brain would free up...but NO. Like dinner theatre, this ending just means that more TRR/day job/take your pick stuff is perfectly poised to pile onto my endless and wonderful To-Do list. So basically, I'm as busy as ever.


I'm also stupidly tired. It's almost 10:00, and that's approaching my pumpkin-time these days.

However, one final thing, in case Gemma reads this...

I ran for an hour yesterday morning, and I got almost 5 miles/8K in. I was on the Noland trail, which means lots and lots of little hills...so my already-slow pace got even slower, but that's okay! My goal is to survive the 10K without collapsing and dying, so I'm focusing on endurance rather than speed.

Tomorrow I'm doing a relatively short run and then my 'bedtime yoga' at 6:30. Good times.


Hope everyone had a good weekend... :)

Keep rollin on

So, it's way past my bedtime and I must crash, but...


I got a job offer from Florida Studio Theatre yesterday.

It's kind of an amazing feeling. They're a beautiful, beautiful facility and I had the most wonderful conversation with their Production Manager at SETC.

I haven't given them an answer yet because I want to do a follow up at the other places I've applied to cover my bases.


But...it's really awesome. :)

Good night!

Sundown to Sundown

Crazy, crazy day today...up at 5:30, work at 7, working lunch at 12, dinner (thank god) meeting with Steven, Miss Elizabeth, and the beautiful Erin McGrann at 5:30, auditions at 6, home at 10. And then shower so I am not dirty tomorrow.

Whew.

So if anyone's wondering, I'm not going to have a personal life for quite some time. My apologies.

Between TRR, following up with the fabulous theatres I spoke with at SETC and officially sending them paperwork, and yet more TRR (not to mention trying to find time to work out and eat well) things are just nuts. I kept thinking I'd get a breather when the dinner theatre ended, or at least when SETC prep and mad portfolio-making were finished...but alas. We're veering into contract-season for TRR, and Miss Elizabeth and I have a loooooot of work ahead of us to put the contracts & welcome packets together for all the company members.

It's all good, of course...I really like my day job a lot, I totally lucked out. And I'm coping with the 7-5 schedule much better than I thought I would! Though some days are tougher than others. And the overtime is definitely helping to ease my considerable money stresses.

And TRR...anytime I see Steven or Miss Elizabeth it just completely brightens up my life. And I just love doing whatever they need me to do...even on days when I'd rather just come home and be a bump on a log.

I got contacted by a theatre I interviewed with at SETC today (Florida Studio), and I'm pretty sure I'm going to live off of that e-mail for about a month. It's really kind of embarrassing how completely thrilled I am. The guy was *so* so nice though, and we had such a fun conversation. It didn't feel too much like an interview and I felt like we just had a lovely rapport - and he liked my portfolio, which of course means I love him forever. But it was especially amazing because I was LITERALLY just opening up my gmail so I could e-mail the guy I spoke with to thank him for talking to me! Oh, universe.

Speaking of the universe...I just have to say one more time how I adore Denise and Shawn for being our SETC hosts. They're the greatest people ever. Being in a car with them all day is completely fun and wonderful - I love talking music with Shawn and I love watching Denise rock out to her favorite songs while driving. Too lovely.


And now it's way past my bedtime. Something tells me tomorrow morning is going to be a tough.

SETC, the place to be

It has been a completely insane and wonderful and overwhelming day.

Stacey and I travelled 11 hours to Chattanooga with Denise and Shawn. It was a lovely drive and definitely did not feel 11 hours long. They are completely wonderful for taking us, and it was so lovely to get to know Shawn better. And to learn that he has every single disco-funk song known to man on his iPod. And has a cool Bruce Willis story. And Stacey is just such a sweet angel - I'm very glad she's here.

After we got to the hotel at about quarter till 8, we swam in the heated indoor pool! Oh, it was heaven. It was just Stacey and I at first, then some other SETC folk came in, followed by our fellow roommates, Chaffee, Tim, and Danielle. Thank god we're all here - we're staying in this beautiful, very nice hotel, that is made affordable by splitting it into 5! So that's wonderful. Even if poor Tim has to sleep on an air mattress on the scant floor space we could find for it.

I've been pretty sleepy and reserved and ever-so-slightly cranky for a fair portion of the trip so far, I'd say. I think I've just been mentally and physically exhausted and nervous. And I've also been used to, these last few...months, I guess - a pretty fair amount of alone time and quiet time. Which I think happened without me even realizing it! It's weird. I guess because Monica and I are always on such insanely opposite schedules, it often feels like I live alone. With an invisible roommate who always leaves her bathroom light on ;)

So anyway. I hope my SETC roomies aren't bothered by that, but this is a very personal trip for me, and I just feel the need to be very independent and autonomous, and...really, I *am* very independent and autonomous, I have realized. It's really silly, but when my mom and I were talking about the 5K and I was saying how I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to keep up with Megan, she just said, "You have to run your own race." And...I do have to. And I *do*. I've always been the kind of person where...if I want to see a movie, for example, and no one will go with me, I'll go by myself and enjoy my little private field trip.

I don't know. I'm rambling. It's been such an insane day and I feel the need to just pour my brain out through the keyboard. I'm sure no one's read this far into it anyway, so I think I'm fine!


Anyway! SETC!


I was slightly nervous and discouraged this morning - first of all, because it was positively POURING when Stacey and I walked over, so my nice job interview clothes got FREAKING SOAKED...but I dried off and it was fine...so let's not talk about it - anyway... a couple of the presentations I went to this morning were just kind of...I don't know. It was either stuff I already knew, wasn't geared toward me, or information I could've garnered in 5 minutes. Or something that I'd prefer to deal with one-on-one (like the prospect of contributing some writing for Southern Theatre Magazine! how freaking awesome would that be?) rather than in a group setting because I'm weird like that.

So, I was starting to think...eh. I don't know if this is for me.

And then I went to the Job Contact Service - the REAL reason I was at SETC in the first place.

It was so great. It was a HUUUUUGE room with bazillions of tables/stations set up for TONS of different theatres. A lot of them weren't really for me (summer stock, opera, etc) and a lot of them were theatres I'd totally be interested in, but didn't offer anything even in the ballpark of what I'm looking for - which I've gotten used to, at this point. I've accepted the fact that very very very few places offer directing internships of any kind! Though there are a lot of dramaturgical/literary opportunities, which is a second choice I am very excited about. And if at the end of all this madness the only thing available would be more administrative or (god help me I'm so rusty!) stage management (!), I'd be more than happy to do that as well. I just want to work in a wonderful theatre!

It was wonderful to be there because I discovered so many theatres that I hadn't found yet in my own pithy little research (and there are a hell of a lot of regional theatres in Florida! I had no idea). The Actor's Theatre of Louisville, for one, has a phenomenal sounding internship program (and they offer a directing internship!) that would be...oh man. Working there would be like winning the lottery.

One of the most exciting moments of the job contact thing was my interview with the California Theatre Center. I had never heard of them, and they were the first table I hesitantly approached. The young guy sitting at it was so nice, and he's also a young director. He told me the closest thing they'd be able to offer that's suited my interest is stage management - but as a freaking JOB, not an internship! And he talked about how that's how he got his start, and then they started giving him AD jobs, and then eventually some directing jobs. It's in the Silicon Valley and it just sounds like a phenomenal place. So that was nice, and then he scheduled me a time to come back int he afternoon to talk with some of the higher-ups that were going to be there.

It was one of the most professional gratifying experiences EVER.

I have absolutely no clue if anything will happen for me with them, but oh my god. The lady was SO nice, she was really impressed with my resume and portfolio - she complimented my portfolio like 8 thousand times which just made me want to cry because I feel like that thing has been a worry for me forEVER and it's just...gratifying. And it was a completely lovely conversation. I talked about how I feel like my big weakness is in technical theatre and we just had this frank, wonderful discussion about strengths and weaknesses and the opportunity to learn and build up experience...and she also asked me if I acted! She said I'd be a great type for their theatre! That made me smile inside. (And outside.) There was another gentlemen there, but he was a bit more quiet and observant - I mostly talked with the lady. But they were both amazing.

So it would take me 8 thousand years to talk about my whole Job Contact day fun. I still have to write out a total list of who I talked to and just...what's the word Denise always uses? I can't think of it, but...I have to reflect. I think she's say "soak." I'll certainly have to make a list of who I'm going to follow up with! I met a lot of lovely people.


The last thing I'm going to say about it before I move on though...and oh yes, there is plenty more to come in this supersized entry...is less about jobs and more about the absolute absurdity and insanity of life and what a bizarre and small world theatre is.

So, I'm walking along and observing all the different companies that have tables set up, and I see a big ol' setup for Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. And I thought ot myself, "Oh, Garth did Henry VI there last year. Cool." And I keep looking, and I notice that they have a display of 3 severed heads (props...obviously).

And I see that one of them looks awfully familiar.

And then I remember Garth calling me backstage and telling me about how his head is now being handled by whatever character.

I SAW GARTH'S FAKE DISEMBODIED HEAD AT SETC.

How freaking weird is that???

I told him and he told me to take a picture. So get ready for that.

And even funnier, Christopher Owens, the lovely artistic director for VA Shakes, was at a station almost right across from them. So I pointed it out to him and he was thoroughly weirded out ;) And speaking of Christopher and VSF, I also ran into his lovely wife Tamara, who was our Nurse in R&J last year. So that was neat.


So yeah. That's the end of the Job Contact saga.

I got back, and my feet were tired, I was exhausted, my brain was full to bursting with information and sensory overload, and if I were the kind of person to take naps, I would've been out like a light. But alas, I cannot nap. And I'm also working on a little thing called a freaking 10K, and today was supposed to be my Long Run! Yikes!

So I sucked it up, changed my clothes, and went down to the lovely exercise facility here and I did 7.13 kilometers in 57 minutes and 36 seconds. I wanted to die a few times, but Defying Gravity came on when I had just hit 6 kilometers, and I hadn't heard it in ages, and it of course was my singing-with-Carol-in-the-car-at-the-top-of-our-lungs song junior year, and it helped me run the last kilometer without stopping. Hooray for Wicked! So that felt good.

I came back to the room for a superquick shower and to stuff my face with my lunch leftovers and a Luna bar, and then went off to my evening activity - "Theatre Behind Bars: Twelve Angry Men" "Using the play Twelve Angry Men with inmates at Green River Correctional Complex in Central City, KY, to perform a classic drama while studying conflict resolution."

It was one of the most incredible things ever. We didn't actually get to see the play, obviously, but the woman who put the whole theatre-behind-bars program together just talked to us about her experiences these past 7 years working with these inmates and it was just...fascinating, moving, beautiful, frightening, horrible, wonderful...I mean, I can't even find a word sufficient to describe it. "Moving" just doesn't cover it. For a good deal of it I had to exercise overwhelming self control to keep from just weeping the whole time.

I have no idea why the notion of rehabilitation through art - theatre - affects me so much. It takes me back to early early freshman year when I walked into Gaines theatre to see my very first TheaterCNU production, Our Country's Good. That was one of the major defining moments in my life. It turned me into a bona fide TheaterCNU groupie-fangirl, for one thing. What they did with the space, the set, how wonderful the actors were, and how unbelievably POWERFUL the story and the script and the characters were...it overwhelmed me. And it inspired me to do a little bit of research - nothing official and nothing huge - on the practice of having prisoners/inmates/criminals/what have you work on productions as part of rehabilitation or just...general betterment.

It's something I want to do in my life when I'm older and have sixty-five years of life experience, like this amazing amazing lady does. I just can't imagine how rewarding and terrifying the experience is, and she ahd nothing but glowing things to say. She kept saying how she has finally found the absolute love of her life. It was just so beautiful. Something about the power of redemption through art overwhelms me.

And also! One of the inmates - Kevin - was apparently amazing. (Well, according to her, they were all amazing - but she never shied away from telling us the terrible things they did to get there, and she acknowledged that they paid their price and deserved to be there and...if I get on this tangent I'll just ramble on for another 13 paragraphs, so let's just get back to Kevin) He was a Mensa member in high school, committed murder when he was 21, and is now 43, serving two life sentences. Kevin is an artist and she displayed - and even freaking raffled off - some of his work. And the poster he did for the show was gorgeous and insane. I didn't get anything, sadly, but it was awesome nonetheless.

So it was all I could do to keep myself together to talk to her at the end, and thank her, and I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I told her how moved I was, and we talked about Our Country's Good and stuff, and she was just so sweet. I had to hide in the bathroom and just cry for awhile before I could come back to the hotel. Nuts.


And that just about brings me to here. I'm alone in our messy lovely hotel room, listening to some gorgeous and mellow Jeff Buckley - it's been awhile since darling Jeff and I have gotten together. His cover of Dylan's If You See Her Say Hello is gorgeous.

Next up...cleaning and reorganizing my little area, organizing all the little pamphlets and packets I got today, and updating my little job chart in Word. And then passing the eff out.

Last thing...I called and left a voicemail for my lovely little Lisa on the walk back to the hotel, and I just saw that she called me as I was writing this insanely long entry. I'm feeling too introvert-y to talk on the phone right now, but I adore and love her so much and value her wonderful support more than I can possibly express. So I'm going to end on her words...


"Go get 'em, tiger!"
-Lisa Helmi Johanson :)

Good night, all.

Gyaaah!

That's the sound of my nerves exploding.

I just had a preliminary phone interview with The Studio Theatre up in DC. It's wonderful and exciting and scary and nervewracking.

So far, they're the only place that's contacted me back yet - I think I've sent stuff out to about 8 theatres.

I know this is the time of year to wait it out and see, but...the wondering is killing me. Is the Studio going to be the only one interested in me? And even if they are, I won't have a physical interview with them until probably the end of April.


For someone who hates loose ends and not knowing where things stand, this is going to be an exercise in extreme patience.

In other news...I FINALLY FINISHED MY FREAKING PORTFOLIO. I've only been working on the dang thing for a million months.

So the plan tonight - Run, Shower, Eat, Do TRR Jank, Print out 8 million copies of my resumes, Fill out SETC Paperwork, and PACK LIKE A FIEND!

And most importantly, watch the season finale of Project Runway. Go Christian!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend - I'll be livin it up at the Chattanoogan at SETC. The road-trip fun with Denise, Shawn, and Stacey begins at 8am tomorrow. (And I get to sleep until 6:30 am! A whole extra hour, baby)

Crazy busy!

So in my crazy hyper-scheduled day...I don't really have much time for blogging at all! Even though dinner theatre ended on Friday, my plate does not feel any less full. It's funny how that happens.

I'd say I'm about 80% finished with my portfolio...I still have to pick the documents I'm going to showcase from the shows I stage managed, use my ugly horrible South Pacific pictures because for some reason no one has good ones, and print out one or two other supplemental things for R&J and Pericles. It's good to know that it will be FINALLY once and for all finished in time for me to pack it up for SETC this weekend.

It feels like I have been doing my damn portfolio - or a disposable version of it - for 5 months! Good lord. I am so ready to put that thing to bed and start using it to get some freaking work. I'm nervous and excited about SETC, and I'm trying very hard to be patient and not freak out about wanting to hear back for interviews for places I've applied to. (Although I do have a phone interview with The Studio Theatre on Wednesday! ACK! Nervewracking!)

As for my website & electronic portfolio, I was hoping it'd be in more complete shape by this point, but eh. What can you do. It's not like I've been slacking off lately, that's for sure.

Between working a 10 hour day, making sure I keep running/gymming a priority, keeping up with my massive TRR email workload, eating, sleeping, and showering, I'm pretty much a busy bee.

Although - I did have a fun and shockingly social weekend, including reuniting with the amazing Aaron Page and Gemma Smith!

In fact, it's partly due to miss Gemma that I'm blogging right now instead of collapsing into bed with a magazine! We discovered that we're BOTH doing a 10K on the same freaking day! Only she's doing the Monument Ave run in Richmond and I'm doing the Charleston Bridge Run in...Charleston. But it's great, because we're both super nervous - and we both can blog about it! Heh.

So. I ran today!

I did a 5K, but it was not anything like the race. I made sure not to get too winded - which, thanks to my awesome and much-needed new sports bra, didn't really happen. The only major challenge I faced this afternoon/evening on my run was that my calves felt like freaking rocks. I think it might be due to my *amazing* new running shoes that I got on Saturday. I guess they're just adjusting. But I can already tell that the shoes are making an unbelievable difference. They feel more lightweight, they feel better for my shins...yeah, I'm adjusting and breaking them in a bit, but they're actually right for my feet and for the way that I run. So that's very helpful.

Anyway. Tomorrow is BodyPump and Pilates (YES! I have freaking missed Pilates *so* much - I haven't been able to go since January because it conflicted with dinner theatre) and then I'll run again on Wednesday - I'll probably do 5K again.


Let's go do it, Gemma! :)




(P.S. I have pictures to share, but I'm tired. So they'll be posted later!)


Oh, and P.P.S....I have done SO MUCH READING these last couple of weeks, and it's getting to the point where I'm losing track. So here's what I've read:

Books:

-Will in the World
-Choke
-The Complete Book of Running for Women

Plays
-Skylight
-Flesh and Blood
-Burn This
-Long Day's Journey Into Night

...I think that's it so far. Hooray!

It's a hard, cold, tumble of a journey...

The 5K was today!

I didn't run the entire time, which was slightly disappointing, but I'm totally not dwelling on it and though I kind of hoped to, I *totally* didn't expect to - I'm not going to force my body into doing something it's not ready for. Especially when that something would involve my heart totally exploding from exertion!

But my time was 32 minutes and 57 seconds...which is like three minutes under what I thought I was going to do. So hooray!

My sister ran the whole time, because she is far more badass, and did hers in 30.10.

And our wonderful mommy was there to love us and take pictures!

Megan got in yesterday afternoon, and we ran a mile together, went to Trader Joe's to get ingredients for our freaking amazing dinner, and then beautiful Lisa came over and joined us for a fabulous evening of delicious food and lots of laughing and fun. And she made freaking cream of wheat for our breakfast this morning - it was like our childhood plus her chef experience all in one little meal. YUM.

Oh - also, we registered ourselves separately, and obviously don't share the same name anymore now that she's married, but - my number was 1189 and hers was 1198! How awesome is that??

So now I'm just icing my sure-to-be-achy legs now and resting before having dinner-and-the-Oscars with the beautiful Lauren Angwin.

I'm going to be so very tired at work tomorrow!

Pictures of the day to come!

Here comes the sun...

...well, not for another hour actually, but that's what I woke up to early early this morning! One of the CD's my yoga teacher gave me last month is a gentle yoga-esque version of a bunch of Beatles songs. The only bad thing about waking up to it is that it makes me want to drift right back to sleep...

So why am I up before the sun? Well, my latest 'day job' literally covers the span of a day - 7am to 5pm! Yikes! But I'm not complaining - I'm grateful to have it. It'll just be interesting to see how my body and schedule adjust...

Here's what my day looks like today:

7-5 Work
5:30-6:30 Yoga
7-9 Dinner theatre rehearsal
9-? Buy Billy Harley a birthday drink. Unwind. Collapse into a coma at the girls' apartment till 5:50 am tomorrow morning!

The 5K with the big sister is on Sunday, and I'm nervous. I don't think my legs are ready. Sigh.

But - I'm almost finished with Will in the World! It's very exciting. I need to go back and start reading the plays I bought in NYC. I think first up shall be David Hare's Skylight - Denise has been after me to read that for ages.

Okay. Enough silly rambling. Time to eat and stop having a headache...