It Is Time! (Rafiki Voice Goes Here)

HERMIA IS MINE!!!  OH MY DEAR LORD THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!

THERE'S EVEN GOING TO BE AN ACTUAL SLIDE INTO THE POOL!!! (WHERE HELENA TRIES TO DROWN ME IN THE FIGHT SCENE.)  GAH!!!!  EXCITEMENT!!!

Funeral Weather

I don't want to talk about death, but it's on my mind.  Three people in my directing class have suffered the loss of a loved one in the last five months.  One boyfriend, one mother, one father.  One fire, one heart attack, one fell ill and just died.  All unexpected.  All tragic.  I've thought about what it would be like if I suddenly lost a member of my family and I can barely comprehend how people get on with their lives.

Over break, my little brother's church choir director lost her husband.  This is the story as I understand it.  This man, who had chronic health issues ever since he had come back from Afghanistan several years before, had been in and out of the hospital often due to tiny tiny bits of shrapnel embedded in his body.  His health had been declining when suddenly, he was on the mend and out of the hospital.  He died suddenly soon after.  They had been married for only a few years.  She was trying to get pregnant.  I had met her twice and helped sing in the children's choir on Christmas Eve mass.  We didn't go to the funeral, but expressed our condolences at the wake.  I was amazed that she remembered my name.  Her composure made my lose the grasp on my own.  I could barely mumble out my "words of comfort" and I felt like the hug we shared was one in which she comforted me instead of vice versa.

It was only 5:30 when we left, but already the half-hearted light of day had faded to black.  There were no stars.  The grey and miserable wind from an hour before made me wonder if it would be better for the weather to match your mood or contrast it on funeral days.  In the movies, it's somehow always picturesque.  Raining.  Streaming sunshine.  Or even a peaceful and pristine blanket of snow.  The bleak weather on that particular day felt appropriate from the outside but when I thought of a casket being lowered into the frozen ground and the wind whipping at coats and scarves, forcing people to withdraw into themselves, I just wanted to stop thinking about it.  Very few people actually decide when to die.  I would want the people at my funeral to be comfortable and know that it doesn't matter if I'm comfortable or not because I'm dead.  It's so easy for me to think like that.  But when I'm at someone else's funeral in my head, I just want to rip open the caskets and shake them until they're alive again.  This is a really awkward train of thought so I'm going to stop.

Midsummer auditions are today and tomorrow.  Classes were delayed due to ice.  Designer run through for opera tonight.  Need to memorize Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.  Currently working on an acting resume and reading an Obama's book Dreams from My Father.  Legs are sore from stilts.  Hoping that "stilting" is a word.  Ready to go conquer the world.  Or the day at the very least.  Cheers.

Baby It's Cold Outside

(17 below to be precise.)

I am currently wearing spandex under jeans under athletic pants under a blanket.  I've gained 8 pounds in fabric alone.  Regardless, my muscles are tight and refuse to unwind.  While I originally bundled up for warmth, I thought that perhaps I could somehow fake heat therapy to help my soreness go away.  It's not working.  I've been back in Eau Claire for a little under a week but already I feel like our break never happened.  So to remind myself that yes, I do actually have a life... Here are a few highlights from Christmas:

Christmas Eve Children's Mass:  Singin' in the Choir

Grandma Nelly's old apron. Pre-stained.  Pre-adorable.

Skiing.  Enough Said.

Classic Family Christmas photo.  Missing:
Cousin (in-law)
Brother (in-law)
Sister

Harry Potter Lego Board Game.  Who wouldn't love that?

Pretending like I still remember how to do fancy things on skates

So now I'm back and the opera is in full swing.  I'm currently supposed to be writing an essay for directing.  The soreness I mentioned earlier is from a combination of ballet and DanceWorks practice.  (The stilts have been built and hopefully I get to use them on Monday!)  I'm working 8 hours a week in the costume shop building the dresses for the opera and getting paid for it.  I'm already supposed to be memorizing a ten minute scene for advanced acting.  I really need to memorize and work my Viola (Twelfth Night) monologue for the Midsummer Audition on Tuesday.  Callbacks are Thursday.  Hoping for Helena.  Or Puck.  Or even Hermia.  Heck, I'd even love to play Tatania.  The costumes are Steam Punk and the set includes a swimming pool and a jungle gym.  I just want to be in the show!  So everyone cross your fingers and knock on wood.  Because I know how to handle a rapier and soon I'll know how to walk on stilts.  DO ALL THE THINGS!!!  Challenge accepted.

Midsummer in the Middle of Winter

 

The purpose of this post was to upload pictures of the Midsummer Night's Dream costume renderings I did for my costuming class.  I set it in the 1960s so there was this beautiful contrast between the human and fairy worlds as seen in 60s counter-culture movements.  Sadly I failed to actually take pictures of them before I handed them in and so no pictures for you.  Actually, some were rather frightening and demented looking so it's probably for the best.  Here are some of the pictures I used for inspiration for both the human and fairy worlds:

I love pictures.  I'm just not so great at configuring them here in this space.

I am frustrated with everyone right now.  It's my strongest instinct to get in my car and drive back to Eau Claire, but I have resisted that urge by locking myself in my room and pulling the curtains shut against the sun.  Sad, but necessary to keep from being seen.  I have everything I need here, after all.  A bookshelf full of books.  My laptop.  A bottle of water and an apple.  I even have my ukulele...  Now that sounds like paradise.  One day, maybe I'll greet the new year in style.  I'm going to go finish my book and tune my uke.  Happy New Year, friends.  Cheers.