The Yin, and the Yang

OK, so normally I try and keep this blog pretty cheerful and upbeat. But sometimes, a girl's gotta vent. The past few days have been rough, sprinkled with a few good things. Better to get the bad news over with, right? So here goes...

1. I don't know whether I'm in Hades or New York City, but they're both about the same temperature. This fact + no A/C in my apartment = an unhappy me. (95 degrees, folks...)

2. Psycho ex-boyfriend contacted me AGAIN through Myspace. Because clearly, my blocking him on facebook was merely an indication that I wanted him to contact me through a different channel. I made the idiotic mistake of responding, because in church they keep saying not to give up on people and whatnot, and I thought naively that maybe I could help him after he's had this time to cool down, so I advised him I think he really needs some help and if he chose to get it, I would be supportive of that but otherwise to please leave me alone, because I can't just be buddy buddy with someone after they basically call me all the derogatory names for women in existence, with absolutely no justification....which of course just made him angry, again. Le sigh. What-ev, I'll get over it and be fine, and that's the last of it FOR REAL this time, he is blocked everywhere, but I am still just irritated with this one. With the exception of one tiny little blessing: he's not my problem anymore!!! Isn't freedom grand?

3. Unemployment. 'Nuff said. But I will elaborate anyway. Because this is a blog. Okay, so I knew this was probably going to happen and I'm not whining or feeling sorry for myself. But it is so frustrating. I have a college degree with a 3.73 GPA and I can't seem to get a damn hostessing job?! For God's sake people, it's not rocket science. The constant rejection of the job search process is an emotional rollercoaster. Couple that with the inherent rejection involved in acting, and I'm feeling pretty rejected all around. Boo hoo...okay, maybe I am feeling sorry for myself just a little... OH YEAH! And I am a really pissed off American, because I know for a FACT if the economy wasn't so godawful I would have a job by now, and it's godawful thanks to all these greedy A-holes on Wall Street or WHEREVER that totally screwed over EVERYONE because of their selfishness!!! Okay, rant complete.

Now, onto the good things!

1. I found out within the last week that I am going to be an aunt TWICE more by April! A little boy in December and TBD in April...yay! I am so happy to have 2 new additions to our family. Congratulations to Greg and Gloria, and Julie and Jeff! Keep it up, siblings; this way, I won't ever have to have kids of my own! (Just kidding :-)

P.S. Next time, a simple phone call will suit me just fine! Seriously!!!! ;-)

2. I had a GREAT time with Mom and Dad here, who unfortunately had to leave on Friday :-( Not only did they let me sleep in their cool air-conditioned room, but we got to explore the city and had lots of fun! Although I think we wore Mom completely out ;-) My favorite things were the Titanic Exhibit, the Broadway Musical "9 to 5," and the Museum of Natural History. I should probably write a whole blog just devoted to their visit, because we certainly did enough to fill an entire blog! I missed them very much and am grateful we were able to spend that time together.

3. I think I am losing lbs...my size 6 shorts are now a little bit loose on me! Must be all the walking I do when I get lost in the city. Or maybe it's just water weight from sweating in the 95 degree heat!

Three for three, well maybe it isn't so bad after all. Oh wait, I forgot one piece of bad news, I really screwed up checking out too many DVDs at the library and now I owe $17 and they won't let me do pretty much anything til I pay it. Arrrrgh, the one place that was free! Well, besides the Staten Island Ferry!

I do have some more pictures to post so stay tuned for another blog soon. Love you all...xoxo

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

It's over! I have now officially completed the summer program at AADA. Thursday went great, we did our scenes for an audience and I wasn't really nervous. The scene went well, I actually wish we had even more time because I feel like I am just now finally getting what it is really about. Here is a picture from a classroom rehearsal...


Fun! I really miss being in a good PLAY...no singing, just plain ol' acting. I think my favorite play I've ever been in was all the way back when I was 17 doing Ten Little Indians...it was SO much fun and I got such a rush when I was on stage. I think it's that feeling that won't let me go, and it's why I keep coming back.

After our performance, we got to watch some of the other classes do their scenes. Let's just say I think I got really lucky with my teacher, because I know our scenes were really good. Sometimes actors think....that they need to put dramatic pauses in....everywhere. But who talks like that in real life? Hardly anyone.

After that we had a short ceremony where we got a certificate in a cute little starry folder (blech) then we got free fruit and cookies. Here they are handing out certificates. See that guy in the middle? He is the one who auditioned me in Atlanta. Turns out he is the registrar. He remembered me, too!



Thursday I had my job interview too, and it went okay (couldn't tell). But later that night I got called for a phone interview on Monday at a different company! I am so happy things are at least starting to happen. Thursday night, MOM & DAD arrived! Yay...we went out to eat at Tom's Restaurant (delicious) and then went for a moonlit walk in Riverside Park!



Aww, how cute. Friday I had my last day of electives (both went well) then rehearsal. Friday night I went out with my classmates to celebrate and say goodbye as many people are going back home this weekend. We ate a lovely dinner at a Cuban restaurant in Union Square (our teacher even came out) and then went to a pub across the street. I don't usually like pubs lately, but I liked this one. They played great music and had cool old-timey pictures on the wall. You could hear people talk, too!



I just picked the photo I looked best in :-)

Saturday, after catching up on my sleep, I met Mom and Dad at South Ferry station (they had taken the boat over to Staten Island) and we went out to lunch. Had some good pizza, and some terrible service! After that we looked around Trinity Church, St. Paul's Chapel, Wall Street, and did some shopping. I found my new favorite store in SoHo, and got two awesome new dresses!


My fan is on so that's why they are blowing out. After shopping it was time for our 8PM dinner reservation at L'ecole, the French Culinary Institute. We each had a 5 course meal! I got a warm tomato and olive tart, grilled scallops, rib steak and french fries, a "digestive" salad, and mascarpone and strawberry parfait! Talk about yummy...I think I might be spoiled now!

Nothing Gold can Stay

Well, summer school is almost over, and I feel the way I always feel when something great comes to an end. First, I am of course sad. How much I have learned in this class! How much I have grown! How many new and interesting people I have met! I am going to miss my daily routine of getting up, grabbing a quick breakfast, picking up a free newspaper outside, and catching the crowded subway to go to class and see my friends and talk about my favorite subject in the world. But secondly, I am also ready for this chapter to close and for a new one to begin! I can't wait to see what the future holds in store. I'm not always optimistic about the future, so when I am, I try to hang onto the feeling!

Tomorrow we will do the final performances of our scenes. And then "regular" class is over. Friday I will still have electives. In musical theater, we have to perform our song as if we were at an audition. In Career Counseling, we are going to talk about auditioning (I have learned so much great information in this class too)!


Oh yeah, I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW TOMORROW! It's at a nice little French restaurant on the Upper East Side (where the rich people live...yea!)

Thanks to those who encouraged me to stick this out a little longer. I think I am starting to understand the hiring process at restaurants in NYC a little better, and even if I don't get the job tomorrow, I think it will only be a matter of time. Once classes are over I will be able to devote a lot more time to the job search, and my completely open availability will be a huge plus. Of course, I could be totally wrong - I have no idea!


Rehearsals are going OKAY...I am so undecided about it. It's not that I don't like the show. It's a good show. It's just that singing in front of people still makes me almost physically sick with nerves. It's so challenging for me. I can do my audition song pretty well but only after I had a vocal lesson (30 minutes) devoted to it. I don't know if it's a sign to work really hard and overcome this challenge, or to give up on MT and pursue other areas of theatre. I mean if you're not enjoying something and the thought of doing it again makes you want to vomit, shouldn't you just do something else? I could still sing in choirs or something, I do love singing. I just don't want anyone to listen to me! Right now, I just want this show to be over...


In other news, MOM AND DAD are coming tomorrow! I am so excited to see them. I don't think we have any plans except for the restaurants that Dad has picked to eat at. We are also going to try and see a Broadway show. I am trying to talk Dad into seeing HAIR! But if not, that's okay - I would love to see anything.


Well since I have become a "resident" New Yorker, I seem to have quit taking so many photos so I have no new ones to share. However, I will share this recent photo of me looking retarded! Enjoy!

Riverside Park

After church, I went for a stroll around Riverside Park (which is right by my residence) and took a few photos to share. It rained today which provided a much needed cool down of New York City (last week was STEAMING hot), and it was a lovely evening to go for a walk. Oh I also found a great skirt at Goodwill for my nun's costume and it was only $8! I love Goodwill!

This last photo is the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument and is dedicated to, well, the soldiers and sailors who fought for the Union in the Civil War. I had no idea this was here, and just stumbled upon it! It was very beautiful. Now, I crave cheese, so I am signing off.

How could I forget?

About Musical Theatre class! This is one of my Friday "electives" and it may have been the best class of the week. I looove this class and am sooo happy I took it! The teacher is just really good at getting you to feel the song and give it your all. That's the hardest thing to do, but once I let go and really got into it, singing ceased to be nerve-wracking torture and actually became fun! I hope I can keep it up. I also really, really love my song (Mister Snow from "Carousel").

Also, does anyone want/need an iPod? It's an older one (first generation I think). See photo below. It's 4GB and holds roughly 1000 songs. I decided to cash in my Delta Credit Union Visa/Checkcard points for a $100 Best Buy gift card, and I am going to buy a new mp3 player with a built in voice recorder! It's pretty much essential to have one so you can record your music and practice. So let me know if you want the iPod! Free to good home =)

Lazy Sunday

Hello everyone! Well it has truly been a whirlwind week. Classes are winding up and rehearsals for "Clownsville" are plunging forward. I will try to summarize the week without being too boring! Sunday evening I went to church again and it was amazing. They continued to talk about David and in this sermon they discussed anger. Some anger is good, and even biblical, and they called this gospel anger. But of course there is another kind of anger, which makes things worse, and they called it toxic anger. I could post a whole blog about it, but I will just say that I really love this church. It always makes me think and I am learning a lot of new things!

For the final week of classes (next week!), we are only going to have Acting class to prepare for our final scenes. So this last week brought an end to Voice & Speech, Vocal Production, and Movement classes. For Voice & Speech, our final assignment was to read a poem, song, or something with heightened language aloud to the class so she could further correct our speech problems. I chose "The Tiger" by William Blake (one of my favorite poems)! This class isn't the most exciting in all the world, but it is necessary and useful. I'm glad to have this knowledge. For Vocal Production, we sang our song one last time. It was okay...he told me I need to utilize the "power" in my voice. I liked my song, but I really don't think it was a good fit for my voice. But it was a fun class, and I learned a lot. In Movement, we did our final round of Yoga which consisted of 10 Sun Salutations in a row...yikes! Then we did some Movement exercises from something called "Viewpoints." It's immensely interesting to me...it's all about spacing, tempo, spatial relations with other people, etc. We did not talk the whole time, and you'd be surprised how interesting it was to watch. I guess it's like body language or something. So much is going on even without a single word. Our teacher is so passionate about it that she got teary-eyed when talking about it at the end of class - she said it revolutionized her views of acting. In Acting we just continue to rehearse our scenes.

Rehearsals for the musical are going pretty well and we are about halfway done with blocking the show. There is so much silly stuff we have to do, both in warm-ups and in the actual show. I used to feel stupid doing that sort of thing, but not anymore, because it's so different from what I was doing before I came here (working 9-5 in my little gray windowless cubicle...) that it actually feels kind of good! We learned the choreography for one of the songs and it is a pretty good work out. My quads are killing me!!!

I continue to look for a job, but have not had a lot of time to dedicate to it this week. I have decided to stay in NYC through September to see if I can find something. I will keep you posted on that, but please send good luck wishes this way! :-)

This weekend I have been feeling a bit under the weather (mostly of the sore throat variety), so my time has pretty much consisted of eating, sleeping, reading, and laundry (how exciting)! Oh, I also went to the Performing Arts library again yesterday to return a book and I perused a ballet exhibit (Julie, you would have loved it). I am feeling better today though and I am going out in a bit to the thrift store. I play a nun in my scene and need to find a long black skirt or dress. Afterwards I am going to church. Another girl at my residence is going to the same service, too. I did go out Friday night to celebrate a classmate's birthday. Mar, from Spain, turned 25 and she wanted to go to a Sushi restaurant! It was a really nice place on the Upper East Side. Here is a picture of the gang:

Aww, I am going to miss everyone! This Thursday, Mom and Dad are coming in and I can't wait to see them! I will try to post more often this week :-)