Shaelynn found some pictures today.

Among them, this was my favorite.





I know I say it often, but I love my sisters.

First week down.

So my first week of school came and went. Between the ten hours of driving for my wonderful commute, it being the last week of the back to school shopping season, and having much harder classes than I anticipated, my first week was a tiring one. I'd often leave the house around 7:30 in the morning, and return somewhere around 9 or 10 at night.

First things first, I worked a lot this week. My one manager told me that since my first week in school happened to coincide with the last week of back to school shopping, when I wasn't at school, I'd be at work. He wasn't kidding. I worked probably about 25 hours this past week (which I know isn't a lot, but it is in a small retailer, and when you have class five days a week).

I had my first college spanish class, ever, in Spanish 212 this week. It was rough. I understood most of what was going on, but decided to talk to the professor, to see if I was maybe in over my head. She asked if I understood most of the lesson, and I said yes. I admitted I had trouble picking up on details of things, but I always understood the overall subject we were discussing (a majority of our class is in spanish, naturally). She was quite frank and told me dropping down to 211 wouldn't help me, as I was placed in the class for grammar help, and 212 is the class I'm going to get that help in. She told me to just work harder at first, and I'd catch myself up. At the end of the first class, I had an essay assigned.

On the plus side, after our second class, when we had to present a classmate to everyone else, giving three interesting details (pretty common for classes, the only thing different was again...all in spanish), a girl stopped me in the hall after class and told me she thinks I speak spanish very well (I'm assuming she was referencing my accent).

Theatre History. Enough said. That class is hard.

Applied Theatre will be a challenge only because of the time commitment. Basically I'll receive an assignment for the semester, but it's an ongoing on, for most shows. It's an easy class, but a time consuming one.

Intro to Directing will be easy, but very restricting. Our professor is really strict about the material we use (which sucks, because being a theatre major, I want to use material I'd actually direct in a stage production, not scenes written for the sake of having a scene). On the plus side, last week my friend Kevin, from work, sent me a text telling me he needed one more class, and he wanted to take a theatre class so he was asking my advice on which one to take. End of story, Kevin is in Intro to Directing with me.

And math. It's math, I have nothing more to say. I'm stuck with the same professor I had last semester for it (I can't stand her), but I'll get through it.

My first week - good. Tiring. I'm glad to be back in school. I haven't had class the last two days for Labor Day (SVSU cancels Mondays and Tuesdays for Labor Day every year and Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays for Thanksgiving every year to take an entire week out of the semester).

Onto the rest of the semester...

I just don't blog.

I'll be honest, I feel as though I have very little to blog these days.

I work pretty much every day, and swim when it's warm. It's about all I'm up to these days.

However, school is just around the corner. That's nice.

I have Math, Spanish, Theatre History, Applied Theatre, and Intro to Directing. I'm determined to pass Math. I have to. I'm so sick of it.

I got my spanish workbook today, and I was pleased to at least recognize a lot of the words in it. I applied to be a tutor on campus for 100 level spanish courses. That'll be nice. I'll be able to set my own hours, and work around school and my other job.

I've been working a lot. That's good. I'm in the middle of working 12 consecutive days. It's about to end, as Back to School season is almost over, and we have a break until Holiday. However we have a ton of new people. This week on our floorset, we have 13 people working. We usually have around five associates doing floorsets.

Sorry this is so disjointed. I'm doing stuff for Through Line (a new campus theatre group at SVSU that I'm treasurer for), talking to Shaelynn, and singing Disney music to her.

Hope you're all well.

More, more, more.

I know all I seem to write about is theatre these days. I'll admit, outside of work, it's about all I do.

Yesterday we had the first round of auditions for All The Great Books - Abridged. Tomorrow is the second round. I only got to read once for the part I want in the show, but I was told by a friend who's auditioning for another part in the show that I read really well and picked up on the dry humor of the show a little better than some others (imagine that).

Other than that, my roommates for fall and I have been apartment hunting. Where I'm living now is only for the summer, until my new roommates are ready to move. It's proving difficult to find a place for four people to live.

I'm just eager to actually have a home again. I haven't really felt like I've had a home since I moved back from Indianapolis, almost a year ago.

Other than that, just working a lot, and being a bit of a hermit.

To clear up confusion...(and a basic update)

The rules again, just as they were originally posted. You all have two days. Good luck.

1. No MEAT or MEAT BY-PRODUCT may be used. This includes the following, but is not limited to: chicken, fish, shell fish, red meat, pork, any broths or stocks made from meat, cooking in the same pan meat has been cooked in without washing it, bacon (yes, that really does count as meat).

2. Animal by-products are okay. They include things like cheese, milk, cream, yogurt, butter, etc... Eggs are okay.

3. Meat substitutes are okay (soy and tofu, though if you've had tofu, you know it's disgusting), and will probably be useful.

4. Your dish needs at least five ingredients (meaning steaming a bowl of broccoli doesn't count).

5. A vegetable tray also doesn't count.

6. Any dish. It's not limited to soups, or anything.

7. No bread bowls.


Basic update time:

I'm working on a show right now called Deathtrap. It's a couple of my friends' senior project, and I'm on the running crew for it (meaning I sit backstage with a headset on and wait to be told to do random things...open and shut a door, get props ready, run on stage and get things off before the next scene). It's a big show with a small cast, and a very small running crew (there are just two of us, one of each side of the stage). It can get stressful, but we have two shows left. The first two nights sold out (last night more than sold out and we ended up having to add chairs during intermission).

I've been working quite a bit, which has been nice. I actually picked up a shift in our Birch Run store yesterday, where is where I'd like to end up eventually, since their associates get a lot more hours regularly than we do in Midland.

I'm Costume Head on another summer show (and another senior project) called Bug. It's the first time I'll be Costume Head, but I'm looking forward to it.

And lastly, I have auditions in a couple weeks for a very funny show called The Great Books - Abridged.

Whaaaaaaaa?

No way, I'm posting a blog!

Okay, we'll start from the last one. The show I was in was called Very Nasty Indeed. The reason I never posted show dates and times was because the show never happened. Due to some working differences between the director and the cast, the show was stopped during production.

The main reason: The entire cast quit on the same day. It started with one of the girls, followed by me (I quit in protest of how the first girl was being treated by the director), followed by the other girl (yeah, only three of us).

Things since have been decent. I moved to Old Town Saginaw, with a couple of my friends, for the summer, until my new roommates are ready to move in July or August.

I was cast in another paying show! It's a children's show my theatre advisor wrote, we're performing it at Temple Theatre this week. Just one show, Saginaw schools. I really don't like children's theatre, but the show's not too bad right now. I don't have a lot of lines, just a lot of changing costumes (I play a caveman, a greek chorus member, an aide to Shakespeare, and a student).

I have my classes for fall:

Math 081
Basic Mathematical Skills
Tuesdays/Thursdays - 1:30 PM to 2:20 PM

Thea 255
Introduction to Directing
Wednesdays/Fridays - 10 AM to 11:20 AM

Thea 280
Theatre History II
Mondays/Wednesdays - 1 PM to 2:20 PM

Thea 299
Applied Theatre
Tuesdays - 4 PM to 4:50 PM

Span 212
Intermediate Spanish II
Mondays/Wednesdays - 5 PM to 6:50 PM

My schedule sucks, a lot. I'll deal. I may end up taking one more class, because it's theatre, one I need, and really easy, so it'd boost my GPA. There's literally no homework for the class, so that's definitely quality.

Speaking of GPA, I'm not going to say what it was and what it is (because it's still not great), but I will say, I have raised my GPA almost a whole percent this semester. That's awesome.

Sorry for posting so late. I hope you're all well.

Almost five years later...

I was walking around campus with my friend Jessie today when I got a text asking me if I'd like to be in a show. I went to where they were rehearsing on campus, and read part of the script, and when the director told me it's a major part, but only in half the show, I agreed.

So in a few weeks, after almost five years of not being on stage at all, I'll be in a show called Very Nasty Indeed at Hancock Theatre downtown.

This is exciting for a few reasons.

1. I'm a theatre major. This isn't a university show, but it is theatre.

2. It is paid. The house takes a certain percentage of ticket sales, and the rest is split among the actors in the show (this is particularly awesome this time, as the show only has four actors in it).

: ]

I'll get show dates and times up here as soon as I can.