Today is my birthday. (Well, technically it was yesterday. It ended 50 short minutes ago.) For the longest time, I believed that birthdays were supposed to be the best day of the year. A holiday that's all about YOU. Everything's supposed to go perfectly, you get everything you want, and you fall asleep feeling older, smarter, and happier.
Clearly, over the last 22(!) years, I've learned some things. Mainly, not to have such insanely high expectations. I figured it'd be essentially a normal day, with some fun stuff thrown in (seeing Billy Elliot in San Francisco! And bringing some ice cream in for lunch :D). I hoped a few people might see me in the hall and wish me a happy birthday, but didn't expect a cake or anything like that. It's not that I had low expectations--that implies that I assumed the worst. Instead, I tried to have no expectations at all.
As a result, I ended up having a really pleasant day! Not fantastic, but not terrible either. Work was good, as normal, and I got to leave early because we ran out of things to do. I was pleasantly surprised to get oodles of Happy Birthdays on Facebook--80 people! It's a silly thing, Facebook-Happy-Birthdays, but it made me happy nonetheless. Had a surprisingly delicious dinner with the family: pad see ew from a food court Thai place! If you're going to eat a cheap, quick meal, head downstairs in the San Francisco Westfield Shopping Center. Lots of interesting, non-traditional options. Even had some yummy chocolate chip cookies from Mrs. Fields, which might be one of my favorite cookie-shops ever. And then Billy Elliot in San Francisco, which was a lot of fun. Darker than I expected--not as happy and joyful as my favorite Broadway musicals, but enjoyable all the same. And a few presents too: lots of pretty new clothes to wear! Which is good, because I've got to do some laundry soon.
But now, I give a few online presents to YOU, dear e-readers. First, a blog post that I wrote for my internship at Cal Shakes. I'm interning in their Professional Immersion Program--it's an awesome, intensive internship, far more engrossing than ones I've done before. I'm there everyday and get to experience many of the different aspects of running theatre. I'm working as an Education Management intern, so I'm focused on the educational programs in particular. But enough of that here, go read the actual blog post online:
Dancing Doors and Gossiping Trees at Two Week Summer Shakespeare Conservatory
Next, a few videos to enjoy. They're from my final performances in my musical theatre workshop class. It was the end of my 4th semester with the professor, and the seniors were instructed to create an "audition showcase." It was comprised of 4 songs, each about a minute long, perfected for upcoming auditions. I've yet to use any of these in auditions, but I imagine I will soon. The first video is the full showcase, the second is an extended version of one of the numbers.
Enjoy.
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