My Insanely Good Day

Today was a seriously fantastic day. And now I shall tell you about it!

It started off by my getting to sleep in because of my canceled writing class. Now, this sounds exciting until you realize that usually class starts at 9:30... and I had a scheduled writing conference with my teacher at 10am. So I got an extra half an hour of sleep, which is good, but it wasn't much. And considering I stayed up significantly late last night to write my rough draft for her... Well, it just wasn't that much sleep. But I did end up feeling pretty well rested regardless, so that just made the whole day better!

The writing conference went really well. All the things I was worried about--having an opinion, the voice of the writing, etc--she thought were pretty good. And the things she suggested that I work on all seem reasonable and doable. Then she told me that she liked my diagnostic paper, which I wrote the night before the second day of class at midnight. I thought it was no good--and the group that read my paper didn't seem to like it either--but she still liked it! And some of the groups that read it (we split the class into groups of three, each reading three random papers at a time and comparing them within that set of three) thought it was the best of three papers, which I totally didn't expect. When I read my paper amongst the group of three, I thought it was definitely 2nd place. So that made me happy.

After the conference I had about half an hour before my next class, so I went to Trojan Grounds and got a chocolate croissant for breakfast. Trogro, as it's called, has excellent chocolate croissants. And I got to read today's issue of the Daily Trojan, which I don't get to do very often.

After breakfast I went to my Chinese class, where I got my test back. I got a 97%! Now, I'm pretty bad at Chinese. When I can remember what I'm saying I'm not bad, but for the most part it doesn't come easily to me. Luckily I'm in a large class of half native Chinese speakers and half total Chinese-newbies, like me. And that means I'm not the worst Chinese student in the class. It's refreshing!!! And I got a 97%, which was higher than some of the native speakers' grades. Not that I'm comparing or anything. But ha ha!! Hooray!!!!

My next class was Performance for Camera, which ended up being a lot of fun. We've been working on auditioning techniques to make the audition less tense and more relaxed, and how to deal with stupid questions like "Tell me about yourself" (aka most annoying question ever! Though technically that's not a question. It's more of a statement. A demand, per se). So we sat with the camera taping us and answered silly questions with whatever images popped into our heads. It was surprisingly fun, and I found myself giggling a lot. It went a lot better than the last two times on-camera in class. I wasn't as awkward and I felt a lot more relaxed. It was fun! So that definitely was a fun class.

The next exciting thing from today was my audition for The Alcestaid. It's a School of Theatre play, and the director had already cast the characters but was looking for a few (re:three) singers to act as a chorus and sing and make the sound effects of the show. So it was more a singing audition than anything else. He didn't even know exactly what they'd be singing... but it'd happen eventually.

Oh. Did I mention that this director is Jason Robert Brown?

If you don't know who that is... then look him up. He's a big-wig in musical theatre world.

So last time I auditioned for him, I felt awkward and uncomfortable and insanely nervous. I mean, this is JRB for heavens sake!! AHHHHH!!! But today I decided to play the auditioning game a bit differently. I cracked little jokes, said what was on my mind, and tried not to obsess about the fact that I was auditioning for such a famous person. I didn't even get dressed up. The only thing I changed for this audition was my shoes: I wore my awesome boots. They're comfy but give me a couple of inches. Perfection.

I sang "Someone to Watch Over Me," which went pretty well. It's a soprano song but doesn't go extremely high--no more than a D, and I can sing much higher than that. So he had me try it a half step higher. No problemo. I'm only re-singing the final ending, so I decide to be a little risky and change the ending a bit. Instead of jumping down an octave, as the music is written, I go up an extra note. Which in hindsight doesn't seem that dramatic, but it felt exciting at the time. And hey, what better time to show off high notes than an audition? His comment was that now I was really singing, yay! I left feeling happy and satisfied.

And then a little dumb, because I accidentally left my sheet music in the room. But the accompanist brought it out to me, so no biggie.

I'm done by 7:30, and this is the earliest I've been home all week! This week has been super crazy, what with KP auditions/rehearsal and Anything Goes rehearsals... I actually have time to sit on the couch and watch TV.

After 2 hours of mindless television I check my email. And I get this:

Congratulations! You have been cast as The Chorus in the Alcestaid.

WOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots of happy bouncing and squealing immediately followed suit.

I'm doing a show directed by JRB. My first School of Theatre show. Picked to be one of four girls in this musical ensemble, doing a cappella harmonies like nobody's business, in an all-female cast with other girls that I really like.

This.
Is.
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only problem is that there is no way I can do this and Anything Goes. So I'm calling the guy tomorrow. But in the end, I think it's worth it, because this is just way too exciting an opportunity to pass up!!

And that, my friends, ends my insanely good day.