Late-Night Recap

It's late and I need to be up early tomorrow morning for a 10am training session (gonna learn how to teach kidlets about yoga and stress management! yay!), but today was awesome and I want to write it all down really quick.

1) Theater for Youth class went really well. I managed to stay awake and functional for the class, which doesn't always happen 9am on a Friday. We had to bring in adaptations of stories/poems/etc. I wrote up a script adaptation of a poem I've discovered and it was well received! Got ideas for edits, and I'm really excited to fix it up and make it work even better. I forget sometimes how much I enjoy writing, especially writing creatively. Paper-writing doesn't count!

2) Lunch with a friend, which was very fun. I gave her a present and she loved it! See, she's in the play Anna Karenina this semester. I have a book called "Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float," which gives Facebook-style synopsis's of classic literature, and one of the books in there is Anna Karenina. So I photocopied those pages and gave them over. She loved it. It was awesome.

3) Watched a bit of an improv show. Haven't watched those since freshman year! They were very funny. And it was amazing to see the changes in the group since freshman year. I mean, obviously, it's been three years. But it was fun. And then I decided to enjoy a watermelon-flavored Popsicle, which I haven't had since teaching Theatre in the Park the summer before last. But it was so warm and sunny! Popsicle was an excellent choice.

4) Took a nap and went to the gym. Not the most exciting, but refreshing and healthy.

5) Got student rush tickets to see Noises Off at A Noise Within, a classical theatre company in Glendale. The show was hilarious! I've tried to read the play before but it didn't make sense to me. Seeing it was a totally different experience: it's a farce, so it was very physical and ridiculous. I sometimes have a hard time watching farces--I actually get mentally exhausted from laughing! But I didn't have an issue with Noises Off. And the second act was absolutely brilliant. It's stunning how much of a story you can tell without dialogue.

Noises Off, just so you know, is a show-within-a-show. The first act is the show's last dress rehearsal before opening, act two is backstage at one of the performances, and act three is the actual performance of the show late in its run. It was hilarious to see the "actors" and watch the performance process crumble. And for act two, they completely turned the set around so it really looked as though it was backstage! It was incredibly cool. I had a lot of fun. And only $20, which is always a plus.

6) A Noise Within is in the Glendale Americana, which seems to be a huge outdoor mall, much like The Grove--outdoors, spacious, great selections of stores and really beautiful. They have a Barnes and Noble! I love bookstores! I didn't stop by though--it was getting too late. I did, however, buy a couple of cupcakes from Crumbs! So yummy....

7) I ate the cupcakes when I got home and popped in an old Netflix DVD. It's taken me two months, but I finally got around to watching The Time Traveler's Wife! I loved it. Ironic, because I didn't much care for the book, but now I really want to read it again. I thought it told the story beautifully, it was sweet and romantic, and was absolutely captivating. Sometimes I have a short attention span with movies, but this movie flew right by. I definitely recommend it!

Mini-Update

Bad News:
Katherine was not cast in any shows at USC this semester. Well, technically she's still waiting on one, but the assumption is that she isn't in that one either.

Good News:
Not-being-cast has kicked her butt into gear for the next step! In one night, she re-subscribed to Backstage.com (AKA the mecca for finding theatre auditions!), found three auditions to try to attend, ordered headshots, sent emails inquiring on how to audition for a musical group, sent emails asking for audition feedback, AND baked cookies!

The cookies don't have anything to do with anything. Except for the fact that they're yummy. And chocolate. Which always makes things better!

Happy New Year!

Hello blogosphere! Long time no see! I've been rather busy this past month: winter break provided a seriously needed chance to rest and recoup from the insanity of last semester. I went into the fall semester wanting to busy and constantly distracted. Well, clearly I got what I wished for! Having work to do all day every day was great, but I was ready for a break. Now classes have begun, and I'm feeling refreshed and ready to squeeze in as much learning as possible before my life as a college student ends! Because, come May 13, 2011, I will officially be a college graduate! So crazy!

But in the meantime, I've got a lot of work to do. Classwork, obviously, but research, networking, and getting myself ready for the next big step. It's intimidating but I'm keeping optimistic. That's the only way to go!

I've never been one for New Year's resolutions--if there are changes that need to be made, I just make them whenever. But for this year, I've made a number of goals. Not traditional resolutions, exactly, but changes I want to make to live a more fulfilling life:

1) Value my time more and use it better. I'm tired of wasting my time on pointless activities (IE: excessive amounts of time on the computer!) or participating in organizations that don't value my time as much as I do (IE: many of the performance-related activities I've been part of). Time is money. I want to use it more productively, give myself the opportunity to get more sleep, and end each day feeling accomplished. It's only been a week since I've been at school, but so far I've kept it up fairly well. We shall see if this continues as the semester progresses.
2) Write more. For example, blog posts. I am a decent writer, but I shall certainly lose all writing skills if I don't write at all! Of course, blog-writing is far and away a different type of writing than analytical or article-writing, but it's something. So (hopefully) expect more posts on a regular basis, and a larger variety of posts: anything from mini-editorials to reviews to short stories! (I shall try to post a couple of times a week, but I make no promises. Yes, Mom, that one's for you ;).)
3) Don't sweat the small stuff. I do a decent job at that, but there are certain aspects of life that drive me crazy--and it shouldn't! So I'm attempting to not let it bug me as much, and be more assertive when it does.
4) Have more confidence! This is a big one, especially for anyone in the acting field. I'm tired of walking into class/party/etc feeling weak and stupid. It is something I worked a lot on last semester, and I've improved a lot over the last six months, but there's always room to grow. So my new mantra that I'm trying out is "Act the way you want to feel. Eventually, you'll start feeling it for real." Good mantra, right? Plus it rhymes! Always a plus! :) So we shall see how that goes.
5) ...and then a bunch of other little goals, like go to dance classes, watch more movies, etc. Not worth listing out now.

So what kinds of resolutions do you have for the new year? What kinds of goals do you have to make 2011 great?